Chapter 44: Friend

As Jarina shuddered in fear for a moment, something ridiculous happened.

No, it wasn't really happening or an event, but a feeling.

While she was on the floor cowering at the sight of the monster in front of her, Jarina was feeling reassured.

"Ah..."

She couldn't even begin to imagine or fathom what was happening to her.

No, she could only think that she was a weirdo who had a thing for situations like these.

After all, she felt weak and in fear due to Desire, yet she was also feeling good and relieved at the same time.

However, what was even weirder was that she didn't know why she was feeling like that.

This fact confused her, and while she was confused, Desire fell down on the bed while covered in his blood.

It was then that Jarina could finally get a grip on herself and stood up to ran up to Desire.

"D-Desire!" Her voice full of worry, she touched Desire's chest to see if his heart was still beating.

Even if Desire scared her for a moment, that doesn't mean Desire was a different person.

It was just an event that happened, and that didn't really change Jarina's view on Desire.

After all, it was just the power of a person. And that person was someone who was a friend...special to Jarina.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Jarina's fingers felt the vibration and the beating of Desire's heart, and immediately, a relieved look was placed on her face.

"Phew." She breathed a sigh of relief.

However, she soon moved as Desire was in a critical condition.

His blood was still flowing out of his body, but Jarina could feel that Desire was 'asleep.'

Meaning, Desire was able to finish the process of Cleansing.

Either way, Jarina only has one thing to do here, and that is to help Desire.

However, she didn't really have the means to help him as she was from a world of monsters.

In that case...

"Kuhrada!" Jarina shouted the magic to unlock the door, and she immediately ran to her room, which was just near.

She shouted, "Kuhrada!" one more time to open the door.

She then went to the drawer and pulled out something. It had the head of a lion, and it was roaring; it was the badge of the Lion Clan.

Jarina then used some mana to transfer to the badge and shouted out.

"Papa! Help Desire!" Her voice was breaking, her emotions out of control.

Her eyes were wet, and her cheeks were red.

And her voice was heard by her father, who was on the line.

"I'm on the way!"

****

Lionel immediately rushed towards his home when he heard his daughter's voice.

It was clear that she wasn't in the right mind, and this fact made Lionel flustered a bit too.

After all, her daughter was always cool in almost every situation; just what could have happened to Desire for her to tear up like that?

Either way, Lionel would know the moment he enters his house.

And he was right.

As he entered the house, he rushed to where they were doing the Cleansing process.

And when he got there, his eyes widened to the brim.

Desire...or rather, a body of blood was sleeping. However, it was clear to Lionel that Desire's condition was quite bad.

"Papa!" Jarina's voice entered his ears when she saw her father come in through the door, and she immediately rushed to him.

"I-I don't know what to do!"

It was then that Lionel grabbed both Jarina's shoulders and spoke to her grimly.

"Get the water stored in the medicine room!"

"W-water? What water?"

"You'll know once you get there!"

Lionel then released his hands and let Jarina do her thing. This was a situation when the time was important.

Their actions would either help or kill Desire. Well, it wasn't really them, but the guilt they would feel if ever Desire's death comes to pass would make them feel that way.

Lionel then walked towards Desire, who was sleeping. His face was contorted to the degree Lionel couldn't tell if this was the same boy with him yesterday.

"Bastard, what the fuck did you do!" His voice was grim, but his mouth was smiling. His fangs were revealed.

He then gave some mana to close the wounds and injuries that were the cause of the blood flowing out of Desire.

He used another magic to clean the body of Desire and the blood that dried up.

"What a monster..." Lionel let out a weird phrase before placing his hand on Desire's forehead.

'Hmmm. His life isn't in danger, but...his mana circuits are messed up.' Lionel thought as he looked inside Desire.

Mana circuits.

The mana circuit is basically the pathway of the mana inside your body. These are crucial in a magician, a swordsman, and everybody else.

These are also the reason why a clean Core is better. Even without the risk of becoming a cripple with a dirty Core, the clean Core is something every person wants to have.

After cleaning the Core with a Magic Core, these pathways will become a bit wider and longer, making the mana flow faster and better.

If it can be expanded as much as possible, the mana can become like a wave.

The freer the mana can travel in one's mana circuits, the better the outcome of one's magic.

There are also parts like mana veins, but Desire's mana veins seem to be fine when Lionel checked it.

Of course, he didn't forget to keep sending mana to Desire's outer body.

Even though he looks fine now, Desire's body was basically one that could be called trash.

However, despite that, Lionel's smile never left him even once while checking and seeing Desire's state.

"What the hell did you do when you were cleaning your Core?!"

Lionel's voice was powerful and passionate that it seems he wanted to know what exactly Desire did.

After all, his disciple just became stronger all of a sudden without him teaching anything.

Well, he wasn't really strong to the point of being unbelievable, but Desire just straight up reached another level.

It was then.

As Lionel continued moving his consciousness inside Desire's body to find any anomaly, he found the reason why he felt Desire reached a new realm.

He spoke with shock evident in his voice. "Pure Blue Core!"

In differentiating a Core's grade, there are different ten main levels and two small levels.

The two small levels are called Light and Pure, while the ten main levels are ranked as such:

Weakest to strongest...

Red Core

Blue Core

Yellow Core

Green Core

Orange Core

Black Core

These first six are called the Ordinary, while the next four are called the Core Wonders.

Human Core

Sky Core

Heaven Core

God Core

These are the grades of the Cores, which is also the reason why Lionel was shocked to see that Desire was able to reach Blue Core in such a short amount of time.

When Lionel first met Desire, he knew that his Core was just a dirty one, below the Red Core.

It wasn't even worth mentioning.

However, after the Cleansing, Desire basically jumped from Red Core to Blue Core.

Normally, a Cleansing only increases a single realm or a single level. If a person has their Core upgraded, it was already enough for them to shout in joy.

In this case, Desire was out of the norm by jumping two realms and two levels.

"Fucking crazy bastard...kuhahahaha!" Lionel laughed when he took a peek at Desire's Core once again.

No matter what he did, it was still Pure Blue Core.

Either way, this was still a happy event as the issue of Desire's mana circuits being messed could be solved by the medicines stored in his house.

"Papa!" A voice resounded out in Lionel's back and he lifted his hand as he took a look at his daughter who was carrying a large bucket of water.

It was quite weird seeing a delicate and fine young lady carry a large bucket of water, but Lionel didn't pay it any mind.

"Good! Dip Desire in there!" Lionel shouted as he pulled the large bucket of water with his magic.

Jarina also carried Desire and threw his whole body inside the large bucket of water.

It was then.

The still water that wasn't disturbed because of Lionel's fine handling was burning and making some sizzling sound as if it were under fire.

Smoke was coming out of the water...Desire's body as he continued being in there.

Seeing this, Jarina asked her father.

"W-what's wrong with him?"

"Hmm? Ah, he destroyed his Mana Circuits, but that water is the Blessings of Tear. It should be more than enough."

"Phew."

Although Jarina didn't know what the Blessings of Tear were, she was relieved to see that Desire would be fine.

It was then. As the father and daughter watched the boiling water, Lionel suddenly spoke.

"Anyway, I never knew you liked him. To think that my daughter would like someone..."

He meant to tease her daughter, who basically cried while asking him for help, but...

"Ah, I do like him, but it's not what you think. It's just...he's my friend."

Jarina said rather bashfully as she fiddled with her fingers in front of her stomach.

"Right...he's my friend."