Bleeding Angel

Chapter 6

Something rushes through my body and I feel my face heat up. Though quickly I gently push away Kaigara, "Hehe- you're welcome! ..." I awkwardly scratch the back of my neck, "I should probably get some rest huh... Heh.. heh..."

Kaigara nods understandingly, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Rest well, Winston. We'll prepare everything for your journey." He pats me on the shoulder before turning to Elara, who hands him a small bundle of supplies. "I'll see you in the morning," he says with a reassuring nod, then leaves the room.

I nod, watching them go, feeling a mix of nerves and determination. I turn away from the doorway and slap both sides of my face. Afterward, I cover my flushed face with my palms. "Pfft! Remember Winston! You. Have. A. Wife.", I let go of my face and fell back into the bed with a large sigh.

"Now I should probably actually check these...", I say as I hold the cuff in front of my face.

The cuff's glow reflects across my face as I can clearly see the notification from before. Now, however, I notice an "X" at the corner.

"I can probably infer what 'Magic resistance' means, but, what is this 'Mana'?", I ask knowing I wasn't going to get an answer without doing anything.

I tap the "X" with my other hand and as I do the notification closes. However, a notification I remember is right behind the one that I closed. It read, "Subject has been fed. Subject is no longer hungry."

"Ugh," I groan, "I'm going to have to close all of these aren't I?" I sigh before doing just that. Tapping "X" until I couldn't see anymore. Well, I did pause at one with the AA serum but I chose to quickly close it after a moment.

At what I'm just going to call the "home screen" are all the icons that I saw before, plus some.

I recognize the health and status indicators. I also recognize the locked ones and one that simply says "subject notes". However, now there's also a new icon that resembles a stylized drop of liquid, labeled "Mana."

Curious, I tap on it. A small window pops up, displaying a numeric value alongside a pixel art bottle. Though, that's on the left side, on the right side is a description. It reads, "Whenever Mana is used against or around Subject, AA serum will make Subject's body vulnerable so the body can absorb Mana. Mana will be stored here. Mana is used to perform magic."

"So this is mana..." I mutter to myself, trying to make sense of it.

It seems I only have twenty-three out of a hundred of this mana. Also, it doesn't say much else about it so I just decide to close and return to navigate through the cuff's interface. Suddenly, I noticed another icon labeled "Effects."

Intrigued, I tap on it and find a list of abilities, some of which are grayed out. Though some are not. I immediately recognized these. I begin to read each one of the Effects and its corresponding description.

Effect: Adrenaline Boost
-- Default Effect

Effect: Immunity to the negative effects of "WAMUCH BAR" and similar substances.
-- High success after Subject consumed strange substance.

Effect: Regeneration, level one
-- Subject's body has sustained minimum required damage.

Effect: Magic Resistance, level one.
-- AA serum morphed in response to unknown magic detected.

Effect: Mana, level one, twenty-three out of a hundred.
-- AA serum morphed in response to unknown magic detected.

Each effect has an activate button on the right side of it. "I wonder...", I mutter to myself, "If some are level one, doesn't that suggest they can level up?"