Allen fled in a panic for several kilometers before stopping to look back.
Just then, Roxy turned to look back as well.
Their eyes 'met' for an instant before both turned and continued on their respective paths.
The road wasn't flat.
Allen had just descended a slope, and the rise in the middle had blocked their view of each other.
To be precise, if it weren't for that slope, Allen would still be running.
Phew... that was close. So that's an invitation from a goddess? To be honest, seeing Roxy made me want to agree immediately. Roxy has traveled alone through the Asura Kingdom for so many years. Even though she's now striving to become a Water Saint Magician, after seeing my skills, her subconscious probably wants a like-minded adventuring partner.
Whether it was helping her student, whom she hadn't seen in years, search for his family after the Teleport Incident, or the way she tried to act cold when she met her parents again, only to break down in tears when she learned their true feelings—it all proves that Roxy is fundamentally a person who values close relationships. It's just that years of discrimination, from the Millis Continent to the Central Continent, because of her hair color and short stature...
...have led her to always feign indifference to protect herself.
Roxy could be said to be the heroine with the most tragic background and experiences.
Allen sighed.
The butterfly effect is starting to show... but the system quest must go on. Besides, I can't lose my pseudo-future sight. Sorry, Roxy... just wait a little longer. It's not time yet.
As he spoke, Allen slowly drew his sword. The moment the tip left the scabbard, the hilt left his hand. The blade spun a full circle around his wrist, like a fluttering butterfly.
When Allen grasped the hilt again, he was holding it in a reverse grip, the cold gleam of the blade held horizontally before him.
The tip of the sword hovered exactly one centimeter above the skin on the inside of his left arm.
Allen looked down at the blade's tip, raised an eyebrow, and licked his lips.
He pushed it down.
The blade entered his skin without resistance. Blood slowly seeped out along the flat of the blade.
Without pulling the sword from the wound, Allen frowned and muttered.
"Healing Magic Sigil, activate."
The moment he spoke, he felt his mana flow like water towards the Dragon Saint Touki nucleus in his abdomen, 'climbing' up the tree-shaped sigil. The tree emitted a hazy green light. Then, his body's mana seemed to be dyed, coated in a green glow that instantly rushed to his arm.
The wound healed, the broken skin closing around the blade's tip. The bleeding stopped.
Allen stared intently at the wound, counted to nine, and quickly withdrew the blade.
Visibly, the wound immediately sealed itself, before any more blood could flow out.
"Healing Magic Sigil, deactivate."
Allen lightly touched the fine hairs around the wound with the tip of his sword. There was only a faint white line. In the blink of an eye, the white line turned to dead skin and was blown away by the wind, revealing new skin underneath.
He smiled with satisfaction.
The activation time is the same as the time it takes for mana to flow through the body. Not bad, very fast. It can be kept active during combat, which is like having a no-incantation healing spell running. Tsk, what a considerate system.
The healing effect was identical to an Intermediate Healing spell.
The mana consumption... activating it for 10 seconds consumed...
Allen assessed his mana status, and his face instantly turned grim.
About 1/10th. That's way too much... My Touki's internal circulation already requires a constant 1/5th of my mana... so I'm only at 4/5ths of my full mana capacity right now... Damn it, the mana consumed by this 10-second healing spell will take me almost a hundred days to recover.
Allen's mana consumption was equivalent to Orsted's, with a recovery rate of 1000:1.
In other words, the amount of mana a normal person could recover with one good night's sleep would take him a thousand nights. This was why the system called this growth path the "Path of the Sword," as it basically eliminated any possibility of Allen casually tossing out a Water Cannon in the middle of a sword fight.
The other path, the Path of the Magician, was essentially a copy of Rudeus's growth trajectory, where the body couldn't be enveloped in Touki, forcing one down the path of a close-combat mage using a Magic Armor.
It was worth noting that the system's templates were all copied from existing characters in Mushoku Tensei. The Path of the Sword was taken from Orsted, and the Path of the Magician was from Laplace. It was foreseeable that by following either path to its end, one could become a perfect copy of these individuals.
Of course, this would take a very, very long time. Without breaking the limits of one's lifespan, it was likely impossible.
Allen had previously analyzed the quest templates and concluded that they were likely related to the phone that had been embedded in his forehead before he died. At the time of his death, Mushoku Tensei was the only novel stored on his phone. If he had stored more novels, he might have been able to bring in character templates from other fictional worlds.
It was a pity, but he had to face reality. It was just a theory, after all. Even if he had stored other novels, there was no guarantee he would have had more character templates to choose from.
What if the system didn't collect information from novels but randomly selected from all the entertainment files on the phone? He could have ended up with some weird template.
After all, no one wanted the Makoto Itou template, right? Reaching the Youthful Tutor period only to have Eris cut off his head and carry it on a boat out to sea... that would be a truly ridiculous development.
Allen sighed and 'looked' at the Dragon Saint Touki nucleus inside him. He moved the tip of his sword down and cut into his skin again.
I hope the mana reduction buff from the Dragon Saint Touki can stack with this healing buff. If it can't, I'll deactivate the sigil immediately.
He activated the Dragon Saint Touki nucleus and the Healing Magic Sigil simultaneously.
Enveloped in high-quality Touki, Allen pushed his five senses into overdrive again to feel the changes happening inside his body in real-time.
Then, a strange thing happened. The sigil began to beat slowly, like a heart. It sucked in his body's mana like a liquid and then expelled it into his limbs.
He didn't feel any extra consumption of his Dragon Saint Touki. Perhaps because the sigil was on the nucleus itself, it could directly draw mana through the nucleus as a medium, benefiting from the mana reduction buff without consuming extra Touki.
The rate of mana consumption was noticeably slower.
Again, after nine seconds, he pulled out the blade. It was a bit more difficult this time because the Touki had caused the muscles around the wound to tighten around the blade's tip.
Watching the wound heal rapidly, Allen immediately deactivated the Healing Magic Sigil. He kept the Dragon Saint Touki active, as the mana consumption was lower this time, and he needed its enhancement to 'see' clearly.
There was no difference in activation time. The Dragon Saint Touki didn't provide any extra boost to the Healing Magic Sigil, and consequently, there was no increase in healing effectiveness.
The mana consumed in 10 seconds was 1/50th of his full mana. This meant that one day's mana recovery could sustain it for 0.5 seconds. If he used the healing spell once, he could recover the consumed mana in a few days. Used on a per-instance basis, it was manageable and basically self-sufficient.
If I keep it on continuously during a fight... My Touki constantly requires 1/5th of my mana for internal circulation. In an extreme situation, I could squeeze the remaining 4/5ths to sustain a continuous battle for 400 seconds. Divided by 60 to convert to minutes...
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