An Adventure With an Immortal Mosquito

Chapter 54: Aphrodisiac²

(This is quite possibly the most 'how did I think of that' chapter name I have ever concocted in my entire life. Coffee is not my work drink, a liter of soda is.)

'Calm.'

This is the first thought that runs through Ichor's mind as he slowly wakes up within the space of [Entrapment Tablet], which seems to be a small crater that is just big enough for him to comfortably lie down in the center with a relatively comfortable posture.

'Smell like blood.'

This is the second and last thought he has before he realizes that the area around him is just covered in blood, deep enough to cover his feet. Moreover, the blood around him is glimmering green all around him, like there are glowing microbes in the water he's in.

"Where the heck did all these glowing things come from?!"

Jolting awake by the situation he's in, Ichor gets up to his feet so fast that he looks like he got sprung into the air by something. It's interesting to note that Ichor had used just his back to push himself up without moving the rest of his body, a feat that he normally can't do without overclocking his body first. And that for all of the blood he's been marinated in for who knows how long, none of it seems to be stuck on him or his clothes at all.

But none of that is Ichor's priority right now, as his focus is now on his right wrist which seems to constantly dripping out blood that is also glimmering green for some reason.

"What is this?"

Taking off his jacket that had already fixed itself back to normal due to the enchantment on it and pulling up his shirt's sleeve, Ichor can now see that there is a spot where the blood seems to just seep out from his skin, along with a few lines of mana spreading out from it like a bunch of circuits.

Oddly enough, Ichor somehow feels like he understands the processes that are happening in real-time.

'My blood is absorbing the mana inside my body before expelling itself out and falling into the sea of blood here, dumping the mana away in the process. The reason why this is happening on my right wrist is due to my body being familiar with letting blood out of there... Huh, that's cool.'

Checking his body for any more visible mana veins, Ichor finds that most of them are already gone, with only a few remaining being sparsely connected to these veins, which are also slowly expelling out the mana of their own.

"There are a lot less visible mana veins than back during that fight... And Life affinity is also green too. I guess it's just a recovery process now then."

Ichor thinks for a moment before he tries to control his mana to see if he can speed up the process by pushing the mana out of his body. It works, surprisingly enough, as the mana comes out with his blood like how it is on his wrist. This process is fast enough that he can see the vein dimming rapidly in front of his eyes.

While this certainly looks like a quick way of dealing with his problem, he eventually has to stop the process halfway due to the mana somehow overstimulating his nerves around its exit points, making them so sensitive that his arm is shaking due to the stimulation he gets from the stagnated air around him, which worsens the stimulus even more.

'Damnit, cutting off pain doesn't work on these since it's just nerves going haywire. My self-control is good enough not to spasm like a fish out of the water and send me straight to heaven, but I'm not sure how long I can hold it in either.'

But at that moment, he can suddenly feel a part of his mind that feels like it's his and not at the same time starting to move and 'deduce' the answer for what's going on right now. The process itself might have gone unnoticed if not for the fact that the calm and orderly flow of information is sticking out like a sore thumb from the chaotic, chained mess that is his mind right now.