Chef in the Apocalypse

The second solution and probably most dangerous, was to convert his mana into Life Mana while it was still inside of his body in hopes that it would repair the damages to his meridians on its own.

The issue with this method, was that he had never heard of anyone trying something like this, let alone succeeding. Mages were not immune from their own spells, like in most games.

Therefore, the thought of converting ones mana to an element within their own body was testament to suicide. This was the case for all elemental mages apart from the cleric which could produce Life Mana.

Jayce had never had any personal interactions with any Cleric’s in his past life, therefore he could not ask them if it was possible. Of course he had Lianna in this life, but there was no way he would ask her to risk her life in order see if it was safe or not.

So he was left with a tough choice to make. Both were plausible in theory, yet both carried their own risks.

He pondered deeply for a few moments, weighing up the pros and the cons for each idea. Jayce had experienced coming close to mana poisoning before, and he knew how painful and debilitating that feeling was. Therefore he was already leaning towards the second option.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Jayce inwardly asked himself when he had turned into a pioneer. Finding a comfortable spot against another tree, he focused his mind inwardly, trying to ignore the throbbing sensation coming from his arm.

He would need to find an entry point into the meridians in which to start converting the mana into Life Mana. For this purpose, he decided on his forearm, placing his left hand on it and wincing in pain.

Jayce stabbed the Bloodfang Dagger into the ground in front of him in case of the worst case scenario. Should things get out of hand, he would not hesitate to throw away his right arm in favor of keeping his life.

If his remaining mana decides to make the conversion to Life Mana, it could possibly spell his death if he did not react in time.

Gritting his teeth in concentration, Jayce focused his mind on the broken meridians in his forearm, trying to remember the sensation he had felt when he created the dispel skill.

The mana began to stir within his arm frantically, reacting to his will. The sudden movements of the mana threw them against his swollen and broken meridians, sending waves of excruciating pain into his mind.

Yet he did not stop, choosing to persist in the midst of the pain. His persistence soon began to pay off as one by one, the mana particles were beginning to turn into Life Mana.

The conversion rate started slowly, yet it began to increase in pace, threatening to overwhelm him. He quickly retracted his hand and intently watched the Life Mana’s next moves carefully.

What would happen in the next few moments would determine whether he got to keep his right arm or not. Jayce’s left hand grasped the Bloodfang dagger tightly, ready to strike when needed.

The newly converted Life Mana did not seem to be in a hurry. As if they had a consciousness of their own, they stuck together, seemingly checking out their immediate environment with curiosity.

Jayce resisted the urge to move them with his will, worried that his interference would have the opposite effect. The conversion of the mana was predicated on giving it life and awareness, he was worried that taking away its free will would undo the conversion.

All he could do now was patiently wait for the mana to do its own thing. Considering it was surrounded on all sides by torn flesh, it should not be that difficult to understand what the next steps should be.

Or so Jayce was yelling in his mind. ’Just freaking heal me already you bastards!’ The pain in his arm was at an all time high, causing him to consider cutting the damn thing off regardless of if it could be saved or not.

Thankfully, the Life Mana began to stir, having had enough of freeloading it seemed. Almost like they were a bunch of dogs, they began to inspect the general area as if they were sniffing around.

Upon reaching one of the large tears in his meridians, a bunch of them jumped into the affected tissue, causing a soft green glow and warmness to spread throughout his arm.

Jayce almost let out an audible sigh of relief as the pain began to subside in his arm. Yet in the next moment, a bone deep itch assaulted him, one that he knew he would never be able to scratch.

The sensation was almost as bad as the pain he was feeling earlier, yet all he could do was persist. After what felt like a few hours, but was only a few minutes, he finally fell onto his back in relief.

He no longer felt any pain, yet his body was wracked with exhaustion and despite eating only an hour ago, he was starving. Yet it made sense, Life Mana merely sped up one’s own rate of recovery at the expense of energy.

It was lucky that he had such a hearty breakfast, otherwise he could have been reduced to skin and bones from the energy required to heal his meridians.

Jayce wiped the sweat off his face with his newly healed arm out of habit. Yet as he was wiping it, he felt an oily and grainy substance rub against his forehead.

Before he could think about what it could be, a foul smell assaulted his nostrils, causing him to gag and begin to cough.

"Cough! What the f*ck?" He quickly looked at his arm and noticed the same black oily substance that had appeared when he earned the skill Mana Circulation. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He dragged his coughing and retching body over to the river and dived straight in, scrubbing his body furiously. "How the hell is my body so impure that every little thing causes this filth to come to the surface?"

Jayce continued to curse, never stopping his scrubbing.