'Okay… first thing I need to do is heal this broken mess of a body,' Leo thought, his jaw clenched tight as he wiggled weakly on the straw-lined floor, each twitch shooting sparks of pain up and down his spine.
He couldn't sit up. Couldn't roll over. Could barely breathe without it feeling like a knife was stabbing through his ribs.
But that didn't stop him from trying.
He twisted his torso half an inch at a time, letting out small, controlled exhales as he moved— slow enough to avoid drawing attention, but just fast enough to keep himself from blacking out again.
'Come on… come on… it should still be there.'
His chest burned. His back screamed. But his fingers eventually brushed against something solid, something familiar.
The cold, unassuming shape of his spatial ring, still tucked beneath the fabric of his robes, right over his heart.
'Good… it's still here! Thank the stars.'
He didn't allow himself a smile.
Not yet.
Because finding it was one thing.
Getting it out?
That was the real battle.
His arms barely worked. His muscles were shot. And his fingers were so numb they felt like they belonged to someone else.
But he had to move them.
Even if it took him an hour. Even if it made him pass out. He had to move them.
Hence, with a long, shaky inhale, Leo began guiding his right hand across his chest, using his chin and shoulder to pin the ring against his skin so it wouldn't slip away.
It was crude.
It was slow.
And it hurt like hell.
But inch by inch, he dragged the edge of the robe aside— until finally, with the tips of two trembling fingers, he managed to hook the band and slide it outward, just barely enough to reach his palm.
'Got you…'
He gripped it.
Weakly, sloppily, but he gripped it.
His breath hitched as he closed his fingers around the ring, pressing it into his palm with the little strength he had left.
Now he just had to activate it.
For which he needed to channel some of his mana into the ring.
'Shit… Mana….' Leo realized, as he felt his heart drop.
Ever since he blacked out, he no longer had a mana stone in hand, which meant that he had been absorbing this world's tainted mana for only god knows how long?
'Are my mana circuits turning hard? Has the corrupted mana already started to taint my mind?' Leo wondered, as he quickly carried out an introspection of his mana circuits.
However, what he found out was nothing like what he expected.
He expected to see his mana circuits being clogged up by taint…
Expected to see the early signs of contamination— darkened nodes, stiffened flow, sluggish movement, or worse, the telltale tremble of corruption beginning to chew at his consciousness from the inside out.
But what he found instead—
Was the exact opposite.
The mana flowing through his circuits wasn't just clean.
It was pristine.
It was clear, vibrant and strong.
Easily twice as strong as anything he was used to.
'Wait… what?'
Leo blinked twice, running the scan again, making sure he wasn't imagining things, but the results didn't change.
There was no sign of hardening in his mana circuits.
No trace of mental fog clouding his mind.
No thickness or grainy texture in the flow of mana through his body that usually came from drawing in corrupted ambient energy.
Instead, the mana coursing through his body was smooth, nourishing, refined.
It moved through him like chilled water over a sunburn— healing, not harming. Energizing, not exhausting.
'Wait, wait, wait… what the hell is going on?'
This wasn't supposed to be possible.
Every book he read about absorbing ambient mana suggested that one should start deteriorating after prolonged exposure.
His thoughts should've started slipping. His nerves should've started fraying. His circuits should've started hardening from the inside out, turning rigid one by one under the weight of corrupted mana.
But none of that was happening.
'What the actual hell is—'
Then it hit him.
This was all due to the mana heart!
That mysterious organ he had developed during his last awakening shot, the one thing that not even Major Hen could tell him much about.
'No way… could it be because of the mana heart?' Leo wondered, as he tracked the flow of mana more carefully now, following the path of absorption from the ambient air around him.
And there it was.
Clear as day.
The foreign mana was being pulled into his body, slow and steady… but it wasn't heading straight into his circuits.
It was moving through the center of his chest.
Right through the mana heart.
Which was glowing faintly— pulsing with gentle waves— as it took in the tainted energy and broke it down.
He observed in awe.
Watched as the dark flecks dissolved.
Watched as the impurities vanished.
Watched as the thick, heavy mana thinned and lightened until only a purified stream of clear energy was left— one that the mana heart then passed along into the rest of his body like a patient hand serving filtered water.
'Holy… shit.'
He wasn't being harmed by this world's mana.
He was immune to it.
Or rather— his mana heart was doing the work of a full purification array… on autopilot… twenty-four-seven.
He didn't need high grade mana stones.
Didn't need a purification array to be set up around him.
Didn't even need to suppress the urge to absorb this world's ambient mana.
Because his own damn body was doing the work for him.
'I… I might actually be the only one who can live here…. If this world's mana doesn't corrupt me, then I might be in a paradise'
The realization hit him like a silent explosion.
If any other warrior had fallen here, they'd have gone mad sooner or later from the tainted mana exposure.
Their minds would've rotted.
Their meridians would've turned to stone.
But not him.
Because of a stroke of unexplainable fortune… Leo might be the only living person capable of surviving in the time-stilled world without going insane.
And that presented him with a unique opportunity to grow stronger while time in the outside world flowed very slowly.
'Okay…. No need to get ahead of myself, firstly I still need to heal myself and get out of this nest.
As there's no point in me having the mana heart, if I'm just going to become a baby meal,' Leo reminded himself, as he poured a handful of mana into his spatial ring and brought out the highest grade healing potion, and bone regeneration potion he had stored inside.
*PLUP*
He uncorked the blue healing potion bottle using his teeth before drinking its contents like a thirsty beast, as he drank without pause, finishing the bottle's contents in a single go.
Warmth immediately began to flood his body, spreading like molten silk through his veins, as it dulled the sharpest aches first, before numbing the deeper tears, as his pulse slowly steadied.
His breathing eased after a few breaths, no longer uneven and painful, while the biting chill that had settled in his bones finally began to retreat.
The pain naturally did not vanish, not completely at least, but it dulled just enough to remind him that he was no longer on the brink of death.
That although he was broken, he was slowly recovering and that the worst was now behind him.