Chapter 49: The painful march through the desert

He couldn't remember when he fell asleep, but the shock he had when waking up nearly made his heart jump from his chest. Nora sat next to him, coiled up and her eyes staring into his face, it seems she watched over him the entire time.

Ethan managed to sit properly and let his pounding heart calm down, his eyes closed as he only focused on breathing evenly. With a sigh he opened his eyes and looked at Nora, she was back to her normal size which was still pretty big compared to her after hatching.

Thanks Nora was keeping me safe, I really needed a break after all…this. Did anything happen? He looked around, the hole from his ability was gone, the mages looked like before, the blood now dried into a darker shade.

She shook her head. Nothing, after you laid down and fell asleep I waited here. The magic that increased my size finally vanished and left me pretty exhausted so I rested next to you and kept watch. You slept a few hours and that was all really.

He nodded and gently touched her scales, noticing the holes that got left by the necrotic magic of the Wight King. His gaze wandered over the field again, there was nothing living here anymore, nothing and no one to protect. Ethan stood up and grunted, stumbling a few steps before falling to his knees. His arms and legs trembled, the pain from using too much magic still there.

“It seems I need to rest a while longer before I’m back to full huh?” he whispered and his hands grabbed the staff that laid next to him, using it to push himself back to his feet. Walking bent over and trembling like an old man with Parkinson's he started to walk.

****

His mind was full with thoughts and memories, one big mess that would have consumed him, if not for the pain that clouded his emotions. Nora followed him on the ground, his body too weak to carry her.

Eyes wandered over the horizon, in the distance he could see mountains, turning that way he stumbled his way through the desert. His breath was erratic and sweat poured down his forehead.

“I can’t believe we won, but the price we paid was too much. Kra’kulgar was an uptight guy but he helped us out so much…” He looked over to one of the dead behemoth lizards, it wasn’t his but seeing that majestic beast ripped apart made him swallow.

“We were weak, I complained so much about being overleveled, how the system spoon-fed me experience and now I didn’t even manage to save one soldier. I just hope the civilians can managed without soldiers to protect them but with necromancer g-”

Ethan looked down at Nora, his eyes wide open. “We didn’t kill James, he…he is still alive right?”

I believe so, yes, after he walked back to the enemy camp but I didn’t see him again. Maybe he’s already on his way to the fourth circle and we missed him. But Ethan, you couldn’t fight him even if you wanted, not in your current condition.

With a sigh Ethan nodded, Nora was right, with his fucked up mana channels he was no more than a cripple. He hoped they would become stronger through this but only time could tell.

****

Nora at his side he walked through the desert, his health points had regenerated a bit but he was still rather low, during his hobbling walk over and down the dunes they encountered enemies only twice. One was some kind of desert scorpion which Nora killed rather easily, it was only half her size and the venom too weak to harm her.

The second time was to Ethan’s shock, another mimic. This time it looked like simple sand colored rock, around the size of Ethan’s torso. It opened like a chest, the rock split horizontally. But instead of a wet fleshy inside it looked more like mummified flesh, the teeth crooked and broken.

Nora tried to dispatch it but couldn’t move fast enough and was always biting on stone, before her teeth broke off Ethan suggested to just walk away, the mimic didn't move very well over the sand so they just left it there.

It was kind of fun to see the mimic slides over the sand only to fall on its back and wiggling small tentacles on the underside that it used to move. Ethan could have used magic but for such a goofy enemy he didn’t want to risk damaging his body further.

****

When night fell over the land they stopped next to a rock formation, Ethan had nightmares and woke up multiple times each time making it harder to fall asleep again until he just gave up and continued moving.

During the second day the trembling finally stopped and his gait improved, walking with a limp he could cope with but not stumbling all the time was the real improvement.

The second day was otherwise boring, Ethan and Nora didn’t talk, there was nothing to be said as they could feel each other's emotions pretty well at his point, so it was another day in silence. But it wasn’t uncomfortable, they supported each other with simple thoughts, a nudge here, a warm gesture there. She took some off his pain and it made his torture a bit easier.

On the third day he collapsed, while his health was slowly increasing the burned up mana channels were too much, he became feverish and sweat was drenching his robe. With no mana to use he couldn’t even cool himself down with his aura and while he didn't need food or water due to the system, he wanted to drink an entire lake to quench his thirst and get rid of the dryness in his throat.

Nora I can’t keep going like this, even with my health almost full, my mana channels are burned up. We’re alone and I’m not a healer and even if I was, I don’t think I could restore myself. Sometimes I wonder if the tutorial not only doesn’t help but wants us to suffer with the lack of information.

Ethan laid there for a while before Nora finally spoke up, her voice quiet, barely a whisper as she made a suggestion. Something he didn’t think about.

You could try to ask Ouroboros? I mean he’s your patron so a simple question should be alright.

Nodding along to her words as he thought about and tried to reach out to his patron, he couldn’t feel a connection to the serpent god and after a while…nothing happened.

“Well, shit. I think we’re on our own this time, no divine intervention. Let’s keep going, the fourth circle is close and we don’t have time to waste.” Groaning he rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, he had to continue, the fourth circle was only a day's travel away.

****

He could see the mountains clearly now, black, jagged rocks, massive monoliths with their peaks covered in snow, below them a lush green forest. The closer he got the more he could make out, what he thought was a forest was actually a dense jungle. A green wall without a gap in sight.

Ethan smiled a bit, a new place for him to conquer, now he just needed to get better. While he made good progress in terms of distance his body also healed. The burning in his arms became less and his gait returned to almost normal again. His staff was still keeping him on his feet but he didn’t need the white knuckled grip like before to just stand around.

When the evening drew closer he almost reached the edge of the forest but he decided to camp a few more days on some flat rock outside. The nights were cold but being an ice wizard he could manage easily.

****

The next few days were boring but also very productive. While he couldn't sling spells around and kill monsters he instead focused on his ritualism skill, drawing runes and comparing them to the ones he saw the other mages use.

Every time he thought about them he sighed and his hand began to shake, the right one, the one he used to cast that spell. He would honor them but not now, not in the tutorial. He needed to survive, after all he promised to keep their legacy alive, show that the sacrifice they made was not in vain.

After a week of sleeping, learning and talking with Nora, Ethan stood up and cast a simple spell. His body didn’t scream in pain but after he stopped feeding the snow globe on his palm mana he felt that his arm was a bit numb, otherwise he seemed fine. As long as he didn’t overdo it.

Looking at Nora, who was already climbing up his staff, he smiled and set out on his next adventure, it was finally time to approach the last circle of the tutoria