Ascending Pride

Re-establishing negotiations

Ashton spent the day napping while the golems happily continued to dismantle the dragon corpse, the meat had been frozen, the intestines cleaned then placed in a box that would keep them fresh, and the tendons were separated and being cleaned. Dragon tendon would be an excellent material for bows or the likes.

While his body as Ashton had not actually suffered the injury, the pain had been rather consistent. Luckily having a golem that's sole purpose to absorb mana he was able to recover quicker than planned, even when he'd been considering the dragon blood. Ashton lay in bed passively absorbing the refined mana, while he had been close to 70% healed when he left Palmer town, then almost 80% after breaking into the fifth tier, the sheer concentration of mana he'd used had collapsed two of his channels and had him backtracking for the first time. He figured he was about 75-78 healed, so not too bad, but still discouraging. The night before he had forcibly corrected the new breaks which had left him exhausted and sore.

Ashton was slowly forcing his mana circulation back on track, but the old wounds had already healed crooked. So like a bone, he had to break the circulation, realign this channels, then let them heal. The fresh breaks were sharp stabs rather than dull throbs. Ashton took another deep breath, before forcing two smaller older crooked channels to break. Sweat was pouring down his face and back as Ashton couldn't even curl up from the pain.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only half an hour Ashton's body was able to relax as the golems sent mana to help smooth out and coat his channels.

Before he would manage about one break a month or so, that was his mana could passively chisel at the crooked parts and the breaks were much easier to manage.

Now that Ashton was in the capital... he was debating forcing a full heal. It would leave him temporarily defenseless outside of his golems, but then he could skip the six tier and enter the seventh again.

A month or so of weakness, or a slow steady healing... Ashton took a deep breath, there had been over two hundred damaged channels when he'd first started. He had less than forty left. If he flooded his channels with mana like he'd done to reach the fifth tier, the ascension forcibly aligned his mana channels but the two hours had felt almost as bad as his initial stabbing. While it had later healed 17 of the least egregious crooked channels... the pain was almost not worth it.

Of course, he couldn't make the golems until he reached the fifth tier, so now he was in a better position to protect himself.

"Ash, you're just delaying the inevitable. Better to get it done once and for all. Once it's over... it's over. Procrastination only leaves more openings," Ashton muttered to himself. He really should use the mana from the dragon to force a breakthrough. Ashton rolled just enough to get out of his own pool of sweat.

During the tribute banquet, he swore he would force himself to endure. If the Ember arrived... "if, if is good."

After 6 consecutive breaks he was a little better than when he'd started his battle, in a few hours he'd be almost 82% healed. Ashton didn't bother to get up, he flopped onto his front then passed out.

Ashton woke up to something poking his cheek. He opened one eye to see a golem the size of his hand poking him again while holding some bread. Ashton struggled to force himself up. The sweat had dried, he accepted the bread, "Thanks Tou." Ashton murmured taking a bite. Ashton didn't bother calling for a maid, so his golems changed the bedding and started a near boiling bath to sooth his aches.

Court would be starting in about an hour, so he endured the water as he slowly ate bread, cheese, and some fruits his golems had acquired. All too soon there was a knock on his door and the golems sank into the floor.