In the beginning, the path looked a little disorderly. But when you look at it from a top-down view, Zephyr could see a pattern emerging.

He didn't know if the others noticed it. Zephyr tried to close his eyes and imagine the path in his mind.

Unfortunately for him, his sense of sight was connected to the dog. The dog was excitedly running around, watching everything and everyone nearby. Even when his body closed its eyes, whatever the dog viewed streamed into his mind.

'Well, I can't blame it for being excited. Not every day does it get a chance to play like this.'

Zephyr sighed, trying his best to ignore the sense of sight. But the spell was overloading his brain, drastically reducing his ability to concentrate.

Zephyr suddenly sniffled, sensing something run down his nose. He used his hand to grab it.

A sticky, viscous fluid touched his hand.

There was no way for him to make the dog turn around and look at his hand. Still, he could feel the liquid gently rolling down his palm.

It felt smooth, slimy, and viscous.

'Do I have a cold?' He wondered before he sensed an overwhelming rusty smell assault his nose.

No… not his nose. The nose of the dog.

The dog that was happily wagging its tail and running around paused, turning to look at him.

Elenor and the rest stopped walking, lifting their heads to look at Zephyr, who was floating above them.

Immediately, Zephyr noticed the problem.

"Oh!" He exclaimed in indifference.

He lifted his hand to touch his face again, trying to wipe away the liquid. However, the snot mixed with blood spread over his face, making it worse.

"You are bleeding!" Elenor pulled down Zephyr from the sky. "Release the spell," she said, worried.

"Release it."

Although a beat later, Aurelia also asked Zephyr to release the spell.

Both of them were worried seeing his face half-covered in blood and snot.

A steady stream of snot mixed with blood was flowing out, its viscosity thinning every time it came.

"Don't worry about it. I don't feel any pain," Zephyr mumbled, watching himself in the third person.

"Shut up and do what you are told. Or do you want a beating?" Aurelia's expression twisted from concern to anger. She raised her hand, ready to smack Zephyr on the head.

Zephyr winced, covering his head, stumbling back as Elenor placed him on the ground.

Fortunately, Elenor didn't release the float spell she cast on Zephyr. He stumbled a few steps and regained his balance.

"There are no healers around. And even as it is, damage from magic is hard to heal. If you don't want to die, stop what you are doing right now," Aurelia shouted.

Zephyr realized the problem and quickly released the spell. Immediately, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion clutched his body. Simultaneously, a piercing pain drilled into his brain.

Zephyr closed his eyes, grasping his knuckles until they turned white, and crouched.

The pain was terrible. It was as if he was feeling all the pain that he should have felt in the thirty or so minutes of using the Sensory Resonance Spell in an instant.

Clutching his head, he buried it between his legs. Concerned, Aurelia and Elenor stepped forward quickly.

They walked over and crouched next to him.

"Are you okay?" Elenor asked, tense.

She was the one who provided the spell. She knew of its side effects.

Pulling on his hair, Zephyr wheezed. Then he spat out some blood-covered phlegm while sitting on the bare ground.

"I am fine," he muttered, opening his eyes slowly.

Turning to either side of his body, he looked at the young woman and smiled.

"Feels a lot better than losing an arm," he chuckled.

The dog suddenly rushed forward. It whined for a second before rubbing its head against him, licking his face.

"Hey! I am not dead. You can't eat me yet," Zephyr complained, pushing its head to the side.

Seeing color return to his face, Elenor and Aurelia breathed a sigh of relief.

As he said, he was not dead. If not dead, he could be fixed with the appropriate magic.

They took a deep breath, looking at each other.

"How is your injury?"

Aurelia tapped Zephyr on the head.

"Fine. A slight headache. I can't feel anything else," Zephyr replied, sitting up properly.

The exhaustion was still pulling his body back, asking him to lie down on the ground. But Zephyr was not the kind to follow his body's whims. He shook off the feeling and sat upright.

Aurelia saw this and pushed Zephyr onto the ground, making him lie down properly.

"Let me examine you," she said, pressing her hand against his head.

Soon after, a warm current of mana flowed out of her hand, flowing into Zephyr's body, scanning it from the outside. Zephyr could clearly feel it seep into his tissues without a problem, even though it was entirely different from his own. Aurelia was controlling it, preventing the mana from injuring him.

'I think I can absorb the mana if I want,' Zephyr realized pretty soon.

The mana was practically free for his taking. Aurelia was sending pure mana, reducing her dominion over it to prevent it from reacting with his body. It was basically a small stream of ownerless mana.

With Zephyr's trait, absorbing it wouldn't have been difficult.

However, Zephyr didn't do it. There was no need to absorb it. He had plenty of mana since he had kept the mana-gathering spell active the entire time.

While Zephyr was immersed in his thoughts, Aurelia lifted her hand and smacked him right on the chest.

"Dumbass. Did you want to die?" she said solemnly.

"Cough! Why?" Zephyr sat up.

Aurelia pushed him down before he could sit properly.

"Stay there. Don't move."

She used her other hand to take out a small vial stored inside a pouch hanging from her waist.

The bag would have been usually covered by her robes. But Zephyr, who was lying on the ground, could clearly see it as she took out the vial. And it was not the only thing he could see.

'Big… I mean small… I mean waist… no, small vial. That's it,' he mumbled, turning his head away.

Aurelia didn't notice the change in his expression. She popped the cap, tightened the cap over the glass vial, grabbed Zephyr's face, and threw the red liquid into his mouth with a hint of heroic aura.

Zephyr widened his eyes in panic. Then relief washed over him as he felt the sweet potion slide down his throat.

There wasn't much of it. And yet, it rejuvenated his mind and body.

"What was that?" he asked, gulping down the slightly sweet and savory liquid.

"A blood-clot dissipation potion mixed with a medium healing potion," Aurelia replied, giving him a stare.

The kind of stare that said he was in big trouble.

Zephyr tried to avoid her eyes, looking to the side.

Stare.

Then he noticed Elenor giving him the same stare from that side.

Moss was the only one who didn't look at him that way.

"What were you doing with the mana?" Aurelia asked. "Did you narrowly focus it all on your head or something?"

"How did you know?" Zephyr tried to sit up as he replied.

Aurelia pushed him down again with her left hand as she clenched her right palm into a fist.

"Do you want to die?" She raised the fist above his head, visibly shaking in anger.

Elenor quickly stepped in, holding her back.

"Not really… But what is the problem?"

"What is the problem?" She widened her eyes. "You don't know what the problem is?" Aurelia tried her best to contain her anger.

She looked like a pressure cooker that was about to explode. Then she channeled all her anger and concern into words, letting them explode outwards.

"What do you think you are? A mage or a knight? Don't you know that channeling mana through a small area damages the flesh? What made you think you could do what knights do after training for a decade? Don't you have any common sense? How stupid can you be? And why the hell did you even try to do that? I saw the spell matrix. Nowhere in it did they say to constrain and limit the mana flow to a small area. Are you crazy? Did they not teach you about it? How did you even become a mage in the first place? Do you want to die?" A barrage of words came, finally returning to her initial question of whether he wanted to die.

Zephyr stared at her, speechless.

For certain, he didn't want to die. Life was fun. Being a mage was risky, but fun. There was a new world to explore. There were many things to do. It was all fun.

If he forgot for a moment that a hidden boss wanted to turn him into a chimera or that he lost an arm, everything else was fun.

Why would Zephyr want to die when he was having so much fun?

So, the simple answer was… of course, he didn't want to die.

Then why did he channel mana through a small area?

Because it increased mana usage efficiency by keeping the mana flow tight. This allowed him to maintain a constant connection with the medium while gathering mana from the surroundings. It was supposed to be a win-win kind of situation.

And truth be told, he didn't know the negative side effects of using mana like that.

After all, neither the old Zephyr nor the current one was a proper mage. They were not taught magic. They learned it through textbooks and anecdotes. There were obvious knowledge gaps in their techniques.

"I am not stupid. Just a bad mage…" Zephyr mumbled.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.