But for a Slime

Gwenvair smiled, nodding, before running back into the room. Kilniara ran in after her, a shadow of her previous exuberance but her happiness something that retunred some relief to Joe.

“Let me help. I can do it as well!” Kilniara called after Gwenvair.

Joe watched both of them running into the room and smiled, turning back to look at his display before frowning again, grimacing with some anger. Only eighteen point six percent? Really? This… Joe sighed and took a look at the mana constructs power levels and found all of them still well above seventy percent as he eyeballed it, while all the points also seemed to be above seventy percent. That gave some relief to Joe as he realized that his constructs would be well supplied with mana for almost the entirety of the procedure, only running dry in the late ninety percent, if his guesstimate was correct. And that’s even with my system mana… ooh…

Joe glanced back at his system mana even as he thought of it, noticing it full again and quickly syphoned his mana back into the constructs. They refilled, but again, still less than he put in and Joe’s concern that the mana would run out for the constructs just prior to completing diagnoses worried him a bit.

Time went on, and Joe quickly grew bored, although the excited cries from the other room when Kilniara and Gwenvair went in and began lowering the monsterization of the various girls lifted his heart and he returned with renewed effort to make sure the scanning completed successfully. Time continued on with Joe pumping his system mana into the constructs as his system mana refilled, and after about forty minutes, he pumped in the last of his system mana but the mana constructs ran out of their originally supplied mana only about ten minutes later. His mana points, which were still well above fifty percent, took over the load and began to drop precipitously. Still five percent left. Joe began to grow a bit worried, when another two percent passed and his mana points began dropping out, over half of them emptying out and disengaging, then floating up back around him. Huh… they look almost sluggish…

After another few moments, with the last of his points failing, the drain upon him grew overwhelming, and he grunted, struggling to maintain the mana flow to the power hungry constructs. The small break after the latest refill allowed him to get his system mana back up a bit, but his system mana began falling precipitously. Ninety eight… come on… ninety eight! Fight… Joe collapsed forward from the box he was on, bending over his knees, place his elbows on his knees as crushing exhaustion struck him. The collapse forward dropped him from the box and onto his knees on the floor as he plunged his hands to the ground as well. He remained there, grunting in pain as he felt the mana ripped from his body faster than he’d ever let it leave him. Ninety eight… yes! Yes! Ninety nine! Just… one more… ninety nine… ninety nine…

Joe felt his vision narrowing as the mana from his system status faltered, emptied completely. With that, only his Presence was left bringing in mana besides his personal mana which was ripping from his core at prodigious rates. Can’t… need more… His thoughts clawed at solutions and he immediately sought to expand his Presence circumference. He pushed hard, glancing upward to see the mana surrounding the two of them actually shrinking. Not… good… can’t… He shoved the Presence sphere out further, pushing hard to expand its area of influence. It expanded rapidly, at first, and its expansion quickly alleviated some of the pain, allowing him to focus once more. Putting a bit more effort into expansion came easier, and soon he had his presence out to about double its previous radius, allowing him to breathe a bit easier. That did not take away the pain and exhaustion that was piling up, but did give him some leeway to focus. He glanced back up at the completion percentage and smiled to see ninety nine point four something percent. Just a bit more… just a bit more…

Joe’s eyes became laser focused on the final two digits after the decimal as it steadily climbed, about a single digit every second or two, and his focus only grew narrower, more intense, and more pain riddled. His breathing had long turned ragged, then turned to huffing pants, and now were full on grunts of pain as he breathed deep then released his breath in long drawn out groans of pain before quickly snorting in a breath only to return to a long wheeze of a groan.

When he was about thirty seconds from completion, the doors to the inner room broke open with a clash, but Joe did not notice at all, his eyes only seeing the digits as he used their progress as a way to encourage his continued efforts. Soon, he felt two hands rubbing his back and the worried cries of his companions.

As if from a nebulous dream an infinite distance away, he heard his name called, “Joe? Joe! Are you ok? Joe!?”

Joe tried to grunt out his reply, but nothing intelligible really came out, “Fraaaiiinneee!”

Joe returned his focus to the countdown. Eighteen… seventeen… sixteen… fifteen… fourteen… thirteen… come on!!!... ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… almost… almost!!! two… one… The mana cut off was abrupt, and the strength he had in his core to fight through the pain seemed to vanish almost immediately with the pain’s loss, and he collapsed to the ground with heaving pants interspersed with grunts of relief. His stomach felt like it had been slammed repeatedly by a bull in full charge and his stomach fluttered with relieved stress, causing his breath to come in wheezing trembles of rapid fire sighs.

He struggled to roll over on his back, and felt the hands of three or four people help him onto his back. Gwenvair and Kilniara knelt beside him while Garnedell was down by his feet, arranging them. Zilnek stood, his back to him and weapon drawn while facing all the others in the room. Joe couldn’t help but smile at that before breathing a few more times before standing, Gwenvair and Kilniara both helping him up and offering him their shoulder’s to lean on. Joe accepted them but focused on Zilnek, dropping a hand to his shoulder.

“Hey… hey man… relax. We’re all good. Don’t worry.”

Zilnek turned to face him with that, and the utter fear and pale white face caused Joe’s humor to quickly fade as he glanced around the room rapidly. We’re… OK, right? But even as he did so, he saw two of the priests and one of the guards rapidly control their face. While Joe didn’t really notice anything to read them, their rapid change to neutral looks had him a bit concerned and he decided that pretending he was a bit better off than he was might be a good idea.

“I’m OK, Zilnek. I am.”

The utter relief that came over him had Joe smiling, and he decided to stand on his own, pushing Gwenvair and Kilniara away cautiously.

“I’m good. Don’t worry,” Joe added, turning to the two girls with a smile.

When he turned, he realized Garnedell was behind him, also standing ready to protect him. Garnedell seemed much less concerned, although there was still a bit of fear visible in the crinkled corners of his eyes. Joe looked up, staring over at everyone carefully before turning back to look at the woman. She also lay crouched on the ground, panting, and Joe reached forward, pulling her up into a stand.

“I’m sorry. I … did I hurt you?”

The woman quickly shook her head, “No. I… I am fine, eccentric.”

Joe nodded, “Good. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Joe felt the conversation ended a bit abruptly, so turned away to his latest blue box, “Right… let’s see what this curse is!”

One of the priests scoffed in the background, and Joe glanced over to see the rude priest looking away, while one of the newer priests looked on with dramatic disdain. Joe rolled his eyes and focused on his blue box.

Diagnosis: Diagnosis complete. Young. Female. Base. Healthy. Monsterizing: 1%. Cursed. Curse unknown: Insufficient time. Complete curse data incomplete. Curse of magic, healing, family birth, and sex.

Huh… OK… Those all make sense… that… I wonder then…

“Who are the gods or goddesses of magic, healing, family birth, and sex?”

The priests all seemed to jump at this, with Kukurnal seeming ecstatic while the other priests were skeptical, ranging from reserved to openly scornful.

The one that was openly scornful spoke with quite some derision, “You claim these are the domains of the curse?”

Joe looked at the priest, “Seems like it.”

“Are you certain you wish to claim this?”

Joe seemed to pause at that, cocking his head a bit, “And if I do?”

“Your good life as an eccentric will end quite quickly as a charlatan.”

Joe laughed at that and shook his head, “I’m no doctor, nor claimed to be one. If I am wrong, I can only rail against the system, but I did my best.”

“And you will be a charlatan.”

Joe shook his head, “If it is the chance I must take to heal these girls, I care not. Besides, my good life was never based on this. I’m well proven in other… ways. This only proves I am a poor healer… and researcher, possibly. Anyway… I could care less about that. Gwenvair, could you ask for a monk from these four… well… whichever gods or goddesses are from these four… things?”

Gwenvair stared at Joe before coming forward, whispering softly, “Are you certain? We can… do this… in a more private… setting.”

Joe smiled, “I’m fine. Truly. Even if I am wrong.”

Gwenvair looked into his eyes for a few more moments before smiling honestly and nodding, replying intimately, “I will do as you say, Joe.”

Joe smiled, “Thank you. I think I need to rest… a little.”

Gwenvair chuckled and turned to the guards, calling out to them, “Call for a priest of Angrboda, Idunn, Freya, and Eros. Quickly!”

The room grew busy as guards scampered to and from the room, the priests pressing back against the wall to get out of the way, but refusing to leave. Joe could care less, and quickly lost interest in everything, and settled in a corner of the room, Kilniara cuddling into his side and he found himself drifting in the comfort of her arms even as his thoughts grew misty in exhaustion. The room quieted once more, then grew busy again with new arrivals, but Joe barely noticed, simply lounging in the corner.

Things continued like this, and mana stirred, a moment that drew Joe’s interest for a bit but then his exhaustion came again and he ignored it. The mana stirred another several times before Joe finally found himself with enough energy to return to awareness to see what was going on. Joe found four new people in the room, three priestesses and a priest. They stood crowded around the girl and mana began to stir, crossing over the girl before fading away and washing to nothingness. Joe watched this until the ceremony completed and he turned to Gwenvair.

“Any luck?”

Gwenvair turned back to Joe, “What?”

“Did it work?”

Gwenvair shook her head with a bit of embarrassment, “Nothing yet, Joe. They are… failing.”

Joe stood, coming forward. As he came upon the newly arrived priests, the one that had mocked him before called out to him.

“It seems your mystique has fallen, laid bare before the lie.”

Joe looked at him and smiled, shaking his head, “I find it amazing that you care more about my downfall than you do about the poor lives of these girls? Is your revenge or pride more important than another’s life? Such a pitiful way to live.”