[Estimated Lifespan: 22 hours, 18 minutes.]
Alicia came back into the room with a glass bottle in her hand. The golden liquid inside sloshed around as she closed the door and headed towards her Young Master.
"Young Master Rian..." she said with a doubtful look in her eyes. "How did you know that she would have it?"
Ambrosia, created from the purest spring water, refined using the blood of a Basilisk, a draught of chamomile, and a thousand-year old honey.
Just a single drop was said to soothe the body and provide mild healing effects. But that wasn’t what made it so valuable.
Ambrosia was a symbol of prestige. Noble houses kept bottles of the stuff specifically to serve kings, royalty, and the most distinguished of guests.
Which was precisely why Rian knew his greedy stepmother—the Duke’s first wife—would have kept some for herself.
"Because I know what kind of person she is."
Rian reached for the vial, only for Alicia to pull it away. His hand grasped at empty air, causing him to almost fall over.
"...Alicia?"
"Before you drink this," she said, staring at the bottle, "Perhaps you should explain why I just broke into the First Lady’s private chambers and stole one of the most valuable things in this estate."
’Looks like our maid has agency of her own too, doesn’t she?’
Rian simply sighed. "You know for certain that I can’t get to where I want to go with my current condition as-is."
Alicia frowned but didn’t say much else.
"Trust me," he continued. "Even if she knows it went missing, she can’t reasonably prove that anyone has it. And just the act of looking for it reveals that she had been hoarding it in the first place."
’Though, I doubt Father would be unaware of the fact...’
The logic had convinced Alicia enough to finally give up. As soon as she opened the cap, a rich and sweet aroma filled the room almost immediately. Placing a straw into the bottle, she held it close so that Rian could drink it easily.
"Young Master...take your time."
Just the first sip was almost enough to drive Rian insane. Silky smooth, rich, and absurdly sweet. So much so that he was forced to drink slowly or his already weak heart would go into overdrive.
Though the taste wasn’t what interested Rian. It was the healing properties of the drink, one that showed its effects almost immediately.
〔The following STATUS EFFECTS will be removed.〕
[Body Fatigue Lv. 1]
[Chronic Headaches Lv. 1]
[Weak Bones Lv. 1]
Rian’s eyes widened as he felt some sort of energy coursing from his stomach to the rest of his body.
The dull ache that had been pounding at his skull ceased to exist, like it had never been there in the first place. His trembling limbs stopped, and for the first time since waking up in this body, breathing didn’t feel like a chore anymore.
’Holy shit...the effects are god-like. How come the original Rian hadn’t thought to steal this before?’
’Maybe he thought he couldn’t deal with the consequences? Or maybe he simply thought that it wouldn’t be enough to save him regardless? Which...it wouldn’t have.’
Rian brought the straw down from his mouth, shifting uneasily before trying to stand up on his feet.
’Well, it’s true what they say. The last thing you want to give to a person who had already accepted their fate...is hope.’
He stumbled immediately as he tried, causing Alicia to flinch and move to his side to support him, throwing a hand over his shoulder.
"Young Master...!"
Perhaps it was because his head was no longer pounding hard enough to split open, but Rian suddenly became painfully aware of something he’d failed to notice before.
Alicia was...really attractive.
Her perpetually distant expression and messy white hair made her look like an airhead most of the time, but pressed this close to her, there were certain other features that were significantly harder to ignore.
Especially when his face was—
Rian pushed himself away, clearing his throat. "Ahem...I can stand fine on my own. Just...haven’t done so in a while. Lost my balance, that’s all."
Alicia looked at his legs, which were still slightly trembling, before sighing. "If you say so, Young Master..."
***
[Estimated Lifespan: 20 hours, 12 minutes]
Rian decided to take some time to try and get used to this new, energized body. Well, energized to his standards.
For now, he could at least walk properly. Rian also decided to practice a few basic skills he had forgotten: grabbing things, bending down, doing a few jumps, and slight jogging—all skills he would undoubtedly need for the journey to come.
But the thing that he needed the most...was a way to defend himself if Alicia ever got preoccupied by something else.
And for that reason, he was currently holding a basic spellbook in his hand, trying to learn the magic being taught on the pages.
〈Fundamentals of First-Circle Magic〉
’Alright. Let’s see how much of a genius you really are.’
After reading the first few pages, Rian suddenly realized that what others thought was "basic", was just like breathing to him.
Apparently, it was supposed to take at least a few months to only begin learning how to feel mana. And a year or two later, that same person can finally create their First Circle.
’But I already have a Circle...and this feeling of something brushing against me constantly as well as something running inside my body—’
Rian slowly raised a hand, feeling the energy run towards it.
’Is that...mana?’
He read the passage one more time. "Close your eyes. Empty your mind. Search for the foreign sensation beyond your five senses—"
’Foreign sensation? It’s fucking everywhere?!’
Regardless, Rian had decided he was well past the starting line and flipped the book to its middle sections to learn some actual spells.
"To cast a spell, one must imagine the function and input of said spell," Rian read aloud. "In modern magic, thanks to the late King Arnold, this process has been simplified to two or more components, usually: a prefix and a suffix."
’That’s awfully convenient.’
He scanned through the examples below, trying to choose a spell that he could cast indoors. Any of the offensive spells were a no-go, so Rian chose an appropriate spell for the occasion.
Slowly raising a palm out, he felt the energy gathering toward it like ants drawn to sugar. "Alright, function of a spell and its input..."
Ars—to manifest.
Lux—light.
All he had to do was imagine the two together.
〈Ars Lux.〉
[Ars Lux Lv. 1 has been added to Known Spells]
Suddenly, a brilliant white orb about the size of a baseball appeared above his hand. A grin was about to form on his face when the blue panel in his vision changed once more.
[Estimated Lifespan: 19 hours, 58 minutes]
’Really...? Just casting that basic spell took 7 minutes away from my lifespan?!’
Though Rian wasn’t the only one surprised. Alicia, who had been quietly observing the entire process, had her mouth hanging slightly open.
"Young Master...how did you...?"
"How did I what?"
She coughed softly into her hand, regaining her composure. "Usually, [Ars Lux] is only supposed to produce a small light, around the size of a marble."
"...Oh."
"That’s why most mages use the [Magia] prefix instead of [Ars] when they require a stronger, more usable source of light," she continued. "But even then, it would only reach about this size."
She formed a small circle with her fingers, roughly the size of a doorknob.
Rian was shocked. The only thing he could do was fall back onto his bed and throw a hand over his forehead, which was now slightly warm.
’Ha...I didn’t expect to be given a Bleeding Mage build...Well, that makes my next target even more suitable.’
The "Bleeding Mage" build was a relatively uncommon but powerful build in normal MMORPG games, sacrificing their HP pool in order to produce stronger spells.
But of course, that runs into the problem of "Wouldn’t they eventually bleed out and die?"
Only amateurs ran into that sort of problem. Because anyone with even a speck of experience knows that a "Bleeding Mage" was never complete without a way to siphon HP back to themselves—a lifeline.
And luckily...
Rian had one right next to him...the Seed of Abundance.
So, with newfound determination, Rian kicked off from his bed and walked over to Alicia. Putting the spellbook into his bag among other things, he turned to face his maid once more.
"Everything’s ready and there’s no time to waste," he said with conviction.
"Let’s go get my lifeline."
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