38 Getting Back Into Shape
"Your face tells me that you don't believe it. Well, overusing your mana pool can make you braindead in the worst cases. You're lucky to have recovered after 2 weeks!" Baxtor said.
Axel nodded and tried getting up. He felt a cold wave of internal frost course through his entire body. There was almost no presence of natural heat, and it was as if he was not alive in the first place.
"Why do I feel so cold?" Axel asked.
"Ah, that's what I was going to explain. Since mana originates from a different meridians inside your body aside from your blood veins, the after effects of mana deprivation is often the absence of heat within your body." Baxtor preached on.
This fact was frazzling for Axel. He had never thought to be able to experience such normal things as having one's mana points hit rock bottom in uncomfortable state. Walking out of the room, he felt like he was made out of ice.
"Let's go take a nice stroll around the main plaza! It'll help you recover a bit from your backlash too." Baxtor suggested. Moving slowly, they both exited Simon's clothing store.
...
It was early afternoon with clear skies when they both stepped into the main plaza. It was bustling with business, and countless adventurers were at the request board ready to take a job. Baxtor, seeing that Axel hadn't eaten in about 2 weeks, went up to Glenis' food stalls and asked,
"How much for this large piece of meat?"
"450 gold." Glenis said.
"Can you do it for 400 gold?" Baxtor smiled as he tried to bargain.
"425 gold, that's the lowest I can go." Glenis replied.
Passing 425 gold to Glenis, Baxtor received a huge hunk of meat the size of his upper body.
"Azel, gobble this down! You need to recover some of your energy!" Baxtor said as he passed the meat to Axel.
In a matter of minutes, Axel managed to finish the meat, and was burping endlessly. He did not realize he had been so famished, and consumed the meat a bit too quickly.
"I want to check out the request board. Just want to see what kind of requests we can take on after I get a bit better." Axel said.
"Sure thing, let's go!" Baxtor replied.
Upon walking over to the request board, Axel saw a familiar figure. The blonde and proud guild attendant Eavan who had a bright face and clean shirt and pants looked nothing like the ruthless reporter that caused Axel's true Status Window to be exposed out in the open. Axel had no idea of the immense changes to his body at the time, and Eavan's Appraisal skill had really caught him off guard.
On the board, there were a lot of gathering requests left, as most of the hunting requests had been already taken by the bulk of the adventurers present. In one corner, there was an easy gathering request that required no combat skills and was right outside the vicinity of Dunbarton.
"Gather 12 apples from the apple trees South of Dunbarton. Reward: 100 gold."
"You mind if I do this request?" Axel asked.
"Why not? It'll be a good exercise for you without having to fight." Baxtor nodded.
"I'm going to look at my current level with the front desk before departing." Axel said.
Moving to where Eavan was stationed, Baxtor asked,
"Can you take a look at my friend's status window? He's just recovered from a large fight and wants to get a clear picture of things."
"Please wait a moment." Eavan said.
As the Elemental Orb was brought out, Axel then put his hand over it. A dark green glow shined, indicating he was still a 6 star Iron ranked adventurer. Next was the Appraisal. Eaven squinted and soon a status window popped up in the air.
{Name: Azel, Race: Human, Age: 17 years old, Title: The Immortal}
{HP: 75, MP: 15, SP: 61}
{STR: 44, INT: 12, DEX: 22, WILL: 39, LUK: 13}
{Skills: 'Counterattack Rank F', 'Smash Rank F'}
With a cautious look, Eavan said, "Looks like all the stats are normal. Do you have anything else today to inquire about?"
"Nope, thanks for the check ups." Axel replied.
As they left the plaza towards the South Dunbarton Gate, Baxtor asked in a whispering voice,
"The Immortal? Azel, are you a descendant of a Goddess?"
"What....I have nothing to do with the Goddess?" Axel replied in confusion.
"Well, usually people with those kinds of titles have disappeared all of sudden a long time ago. Agh...You're going to be in trouble again!"
"Why's that?" Axel asked.
"Did you see the attendant lady's look? She's going to report your Status Window to the Church! Those fanatics are going to be all over you once you get back to town." Baxtor exclaimed.
"....well it's not the first time anyways....." Axel mumbled to himself.
"What did you say again?" Baxtor asked.
"Nothing, we'll deal with it when we get back. It's not like they can capture me for no reason haha...." Axel said.
"I knew that your identity wasn't simple when I saw you in Sen Mag Prairies...." Baxtor sighed as he put his hand on his shaking head.
"......."
...
Axel and Baxtor had made their way to the outskirts of South Dunbarton. In the pathway leading to the portal of Gairech Hills, two apple trees stood in the middle of the road as if someone had planted them there intentionally.
With a strong punch, Axel hit one of the apple trees and repeated a combo of punches and kicks a dozen times before one apple fell down from the tree. He repeated this for an entire afternoon until he had gathered 12 apples.
"Well we can head back now." Axel said.
"Looks like you made some enough gold for some dinner at least!" Baxtor chuckled.
On the way back, the sun was setting under the horizon, and the clouds seem to blend into the orange glow of the sun. Then all of a sudden, a shriek could be heard ahead,
"Kkkkkyyyyaaaa!!!!!!!!!"
A light crispy voice ripped in the air, and Axel and Baxtor rushed up to see what was happening. When they got closer, they saw that a girl in her teens was sitting on the floor with her wooden basket of herbs splattered all over the ground. Her eyes seemed to be shaking, struck with fear with the devilish figure in front of her. Next thing Axel heard said was,
"I'll ask for the last time.....hand over all your gold.....so we can have a good time......."
