Deal
She approached me and, to the astonishment of many of her comrades, extended her hand to me with the palm facing upwards.
"This is how your people greet each other, am I correct"?
I greet her by grabbing her forearm and releasing it.
"Good to see you," I said, preparing to leave.
"You aren't curious about why we are here"? Mislin asked while the seven Sylphs around her glared daggers at me.
"Not my business, don't care either way."
"Is that some way to treat someone after they spared your life?" she said, pouting.
"And how do you know I didn't spare you?" I respond, receiving a glare cold enough to chill the atmosphere from the surrounding people.
"Insolence!" Griped the man before taking a step toward me, but before he could take any action, an iron string rose from the ground, stopping in front of his eyes.
It was charged with enough mana to cut right through him if the wielder willed it so.
Everyone's head turned simultaneously to look at Isla, everyone but me.
"We'll be taking our leave now." I begin strolling backward slowly.
"I'm sure we can find a way to cooperate. We both have information that can benefit each other"."
"Outa Mislin!" the Sylph closest to her shouted.
I didn't know what she meant and didn't want to find out.
"No thanks," I said, keeping the same pace. Isla walked backward and did not let go of the wire.
"You are getting dangerously close to the pure man," said Mislin.
That made me stop and look at her, half tempted to break into her mind and see what she knew.
"I would be careful if I where you… mana is pure, we are not".
She said, 'We' as though we were the same race. Turning her head, she darted off with the rest of her group.
All that was left of them was the damage done to the terrain from our fight and her cryptic words.
We left immediately and wordlessly returned to our hideout at the bottom of the lake, but not before taking the long route and losing any potential intruders. When we got back, it was well into the night.
"How does she know you"? Isla asked me.
"I met her at the lake near our area when we were at the farm," I said, going straight into meditation. She clicked her tongue before sitting down.
I knew what Mislin meant and had long since pondered a solution.
That insistent craving has been haunting me. It feels like it has always been there, making it hard for me to concentrate.
I felt something else when I was condensing my mana core recently.
Whenever I was done, I was fatigued and, at times, had a sense of break, as if I had run without knowing what this was: My body was overworked p, processing energy, a year, and even my braveness sometimes.
But I had an idea of how to deal with it.
I modify the generator, only allowing a set amount of water into the rotor at a time.
I then designed an intricate cage of silver and copper so that the current ran in between the gaps in the center.
It looked like a cage with metal needles pointing inwards.
I stop and meditate again, mentally preparing myself for what I will do.
Going over my reasoning and my plan once more.
My body cannot support the energy, and although this young body is growing, it has its limits.
To break past these limits, I needed to damage and repair my body until it adapted appropriately.
But getting beaten was as long and tedious as it was painful.
In this world, tomorrow isn't promised, maybe not even today.
I send my mana through the rod connecting the volute and generator, then release the water into the rotor blades.
I covered the hole where the water came in at two percent of the diameter.
I see a faint electrical current passing between the copper wires, all compiled in a sphere around me.
I started to breathe and meditate inside the golden pentagram, which isn't active at the moment.
I take one breath before I get hit in the pelvis by a charge that burns my skin.
I feel my muscles convulse.
This continued until I could not take it, my body being burned every other second.
Sometimes, the lull between each jolt lasts much longer as the current passes around me, which, in my opinion, was much worse.
I couldn't last in the field for over a minute at a time; it was too painful.
"Why are you hurting yourself?" Isla's worry seeped out of her.
I explained my hypothesis and what was happening to me in the electrical field.
"It's not the voltage that kills you it's the current, as long as I don't get hit multiple times in a row I should be okay" I tell her as she looks at me like I was crazy.
This continued for the next two weeks until the beast tide was over.
During that time, Isla helped me out immensely by beating me black and blue.
I sparred with her and told her she could use mana to reinforce her body.
I had both legs and an arm nearly broken and severe bleeding from my head. I had been knocked so hard by a roundhouse kick that my head hit the granite floor, and I passed out.
Even though we hunted and smoked all that meat, I still ate nonstop. We almost ran out multiple times.
We gathered all the pelts and headed back after the beast tide was over.
I even brought some leather to sell.
We have so much that moving it all would take five trips.
Bund was accustomed to seeing me and my cart but was surprised at the different pelts we collected.
"You hunted a water Beam!" He exclaimed as he lifted the pelt of a furry alligator I had found wandering too close to our territory.
After emptying my cart, I asked him, "Do you need more time to get the crystals?"
"No, you are here at a good time. Everyone is hunting the leftover beasts from the tide that didn't migrate or kill each other. He guided us upstairs, and I filled my duffle with mana stones.
"Can I ask you for a favor?" he suddenly asked.
"No," I reply with a deadpan face, pulling out a chuckle from the drunken man.
"I say favor, but I am willing to pay," he relented with an exasperated sigh.
"What is it?" I asked him, stiffening at the door.
"The Livet House has been challenging other families and establishments, that wouldn't be an issue except that they are winning, and overwhelmingly so."
"And you want me to fight," finishing his sentence for him.
"Yes," he looked me in the eye with no qualms about asking a prepubescent child to fight to the death.
"And why me?" I ask. "Because they enlisted the help of a Mage." He replied as if expecting that answer.
Silence filled the room, I am half tempted to walk out the door.
"I can't kill a mage." It's not that I can't do it, but Mages have connections, and I can't risk retaliation for a few mana crystals.
"You can; I know about you, although I don't know if you have condensed your core yet. It doesn't matter because their representative has not".
"I can't risk the attention," I replied, stepping away.
"He failed to make it in the mage association. He is one of the sons I told you about. With him back the Livet House will make things difficult for everyone".
'Like a big fish landing in a pond,' I thought.
"You won't face any retaliation, and this family will be taken care of soon, but we can't let them do damage before we take steps to mitigate the fallout.".
He starts to give me the whole picture.
"If we do it at the wrong time, they could kill every single Olim in their compound; they have family members in the guards and guild."
"When you say take care of them, what do you mean"?
"Banishment from the village, along with the seizure of property for all of their kin. Those who don't comply will be executed" he said resolutely.
"What about the mage that hasn't returned yet ? The other one? You said they had two".
"A risk we are willing to take."
Although I felt terrible for those enslaved people, this wasn't my fight.
"And why don't you just kill him?" my glare piercing.
"The moment I kill him is the moment they start their riot; the damage that ensues would wreak much havoc and set us back a decade, and I can't be in two places at once."
"How much"? I ask after giving it some thought.
"I can offer you one thousand mana stones."
"Twelve thousand," I reply quickly.
"The most we have on hand from the mines is six-thousand" He replied with an ugly grimace.
Without a moment's hesitation, I reply, "Deal".