"What the fuck!" Sophie screams at me, already getting on her feet and holding her broken nose, blood flowing down her fingers. "You asshole!"

"Great to hear that from you, mind blender bitch," I hiss and try to stand up, only to be sent back on my ass and having to deal with my mana and strengthening my body instead of what probably Sophie did up until now.

"Mind blender? Are you dumb?" Mana flares up around her and a second later a short burst of electricity hits her, causing her to twitch like she's hit by a taser. Only then do I notice Tess sitting in the corner of the room, carefully watching us.

"Don't do this Sophie," she says to the brunette and then turns to me, "Hello Nathaniel, long time no see."

"Hey," finally some friendly face, but not having the energy to talk more, I put it all into keeping myself alive. Huh, maybe Sophie was doing something useful. Can she continue?

I look at her angry eyes and broken nose and the first thing I want to do is to hit her again and then ask her to help out a bit more. Should I risk it and ask?

"Sophie, can you help Nathaniel again?" Tess says instead of me.

"After he punched me straight in my face? Goddamn Tess, he broke my nose," her voice is slightly muffled as she says so, "And how the hell is he even moving in such a state? He should be long dead and yet he had enough energy to boost his movement with mana and punch me!"

"Nathaniel is in a very... bad state, I believe he wouldn't do that normally, right Nathaniel?"

"I would."

"..." Tess pauses, "You are not helping much. Can you [Focus]?"

"I am the entire time."

Tess only shakes her head and turns to Sophie, "You owe him, Soph, he did keep your sister alive, you know that, so stop complaining and help him too. Lily will heal your nose."

That finally makes Sophie stop and with one hand still holding her nose, she steps closer, carefully, as if expecting me to hit her again. And she is right, it's totally something I would like to do now.

"Goddamn, Tess, do you see him now? He wants to punch me again."

"He won't, but if he tries to I'll zap him," Tess says shortly and turns to me, her eyes serious, "Because it would be all for his own good."

Her words hang in the air and I just sigh and lean back, closing my eyes and feeling Sophie's hand touch me again.

I boost my Reinforcement and [Focus] and start examining my body, looking for some sort of mental fuckery she could do to me, but there is nothing, not a single whiff of her mana near my brain or anywhere close.

Instead, I feel her infuse me with her mana and that mana goes near my wounds and muscles, keeping them strengthened and closed. It's not healing them, but it's helping me to endure and making the wounds smaller by stretching them, making them easier to heal.

She also uses what I guess is her [Manipulation] to calm down my mana. She can do that only after I allow her to do so, which I reluctantly do, yet still carefully watch her.

"Isabella is safe and Biscuit too, together with people from Hard difficulty. They met Lily and Kim and they are together in a hideout," Tess starts, "Isabella told everything to Lily and Lily let us know through the community, so you don't have to worry."

The young blonde continues to observe me and Sophie and I realize that even though it seems like she trusts Sophie, she is still keeping a watch on her.

"My brother, Hadwin, and Maya are fine, but we still don't know where exactly they are," another voice sounds.

Only then do I realize there is a fourth person in the room, Aaron, I recognize him from his brother by the slightly different mana signature.

"I see, but you should be careful. The bigger the group, the stronger monsters track it," I say shortly and close my eyes.

"Nathaniel?" Tess says and I open my eyes looking straight at her, "I'm glad you are fine." A tiny smile appears on her face and I nod.

"It's good to have you near again," I answer back.

"We will get you to Lily after the night ends, so please go and sleep, I'll take care of everything, okay?" she continues.

Goddamn Tess, are you maybe an angel? Are you trying to make me fall in love with you? How are you so cool?

Yet, even while not fully trusting Sophie, I decide to trust Tess and let my mind wander.

POV Tess Hansen

I watch as he quickly dozes off and then finally let the worry appear on my face again.

"How is he, Sophie?" I ask.

"The hell if I know," she holds her still bleeding nose and with her other hand she is touching him and keeping him alive, "From what I see he should be long dead, Tess. Damn it, I don't even understand how he could move his mana to boost himself even in such a state. And so quickly!"

"Maybe he really wanted to punch you," Aaron says, trying to alleviate some dense atmosphere but quickly shuts up after Sophie looks at him.

"Tess, he... he did experiment with his own body, he even modified it. I can feel it now, he created new pathways and even changed the trajectory of some existing ones and there is this weird thing around his heart," she cuts off, probably examining him a bit more while infusing his body with her mana and manipulating his mana to stop it from hurting him further.

"It's been only a bit over three months and he is already doing stuff that could be comparable to heart surgery, that's just not normal, he will kill himself like this," Sophie adds.

"That sounds like the Nathaniel I know," when I say that Sophie looks at me, her face still confused, "Your and my definition of normal and effort are different from his."

Even though I said that I can't help but worry after looking at his sleeping body. He is so thin and lost so much weight. He is pale and the wounds all over his body look terrible and are still nothing in comparison to his internal ones.

Yet even in this state, his eyes were wild and lively as he punched Sophie.

"Soph," I start a bit softer this time, "make sure to keep him alive until we meet with Lily, okay? You owe him," I remind her one more time.

The brunette just turns to me, annoyance on her face, "I will, Tess so stay quiet so I can focus, okay?" She then takes her hand off her face, revealing a broken nose, and wipes her bloodied hand into what remains of Nathaniel's shirt, a tiny smirk flashing before she gets back to work, droplets of sweat appearing on her forehead soon after from the strain it puts on her.

"Any news in the community?" I ask as I turn to Aaron and he just shakes his head.

"Only Lily wanted to rush here even though the storm is outside," he says.

"I always said it, that girl is stupid!" the voice that says that is Nathaniel's, and all of us turn to him with shock.

"Nat, why are you not sleeping?" even I'm surprised by a hint of annoyance in my voice.

"I wanted to check if mind blender missy won't try something right after I fall asleep!" he then turns to Sophie that still keeps her hand on him, "and I did not experiment on myself. It's all precisely calculated magical surgery! I did a lot of testing!"

"Tess, can you zap him?" Sophie asks.

In the end, I didn't get zapped and fell asleep even without Tess's help. One part of me wants to get angry at her but the other one totally understands her and realizes that she would totally do that - for my own good.

And what the heck is this piece of iron that permanently hovers near her? It's of a similar shape to a javelin and knowing a bit about her skills I can easily imagine how much damage it can deal.

She is currently scouting outside with Aaron and I'm left behind inside the hideout. Well, I'm not alone.

"So you didn't find the mana stone I left behind?" I ask one more time.

"How the hell do you expect us to find a mana signature so small? You are lucky you left the hideout for a bit and I sensed your mind," the one to answer is Sophie and I just stare at her for a bit.

I'm prejudiced so that's why every word she says somehow pisses me off?

"Huh, you want to punch me again, don't you? I can see it in your eyes," she quickly adds.

"Yes, I want to." I agree easily.

She smiles at me, her hand still touching my shoulder and helping me to strengthen my body with the help of her [Mana Infusion], "You helped my sister so I'll let it pass, I'll even forget about the punch. As I said before, I owe you a lot. But," her eyes become sharp as she looks at me, "do not push it."

I see, so even she changed a little bit within the tutorial.

"Sophie," I decide to be direct, "let's not act dumb, okay? I'm sure at this point you do realize that you did mess up a thing or two with my memories on the first floor," an emotion appears on her face for the tiniest split of a second, something I identify as regret, "it will be me who will decide how much you owe me." My voice sounds sharp even to myself.

I make sure she is looking into my eyes and wait. I allow her to push a bit of her mana into my body and she uses it in what I guess is a similar way Isabella's skill that feels the intentions of other people works. I let her feel all my emotions.

She then doesn't say anything and the silence once again fills out the room.

But even that is good enough as an answer for me.