Chapter 21: Mana's Awakening
The next morning, Adam opened his eyes with difficulty.
With a pained growl, he gazed around, realising he was back in Alina's living room.
After a moment to recover his bearings and adapt to the painful sensation assaulting his entire body, he remembered the system's last notification.
'Did I unlock mana? Was the prerequisite to achieve that to reach one in intelligence?' He thought, meticulously focusing on his spectral body to feel if anything changed.
After ten seconds, he felt a thin energy travelling through his entire body, trying to reach and condense in his heart.
With a curious yet excited glint in his eyes, he tried to manipulate the energy to form a small ball in his hand. However, after five minutes of effort, he gave up, as the energy stayed unresponsive to his attempt.
'I need to learn more about mana before hoping to control it.' Adam thought, frowning and wondering where to find information about mana in this village.
He also thought about the implications of having mana. He could wield mystical powers like Rachelle as long as he mastered that energy.
Excited but also a bit afraid of how these new powers would influence him in the future, images of magical feats and unknown rituals danced in his consciousness, blending with a newfound sense of empowerment as the line between the supernatural and the mundane blurred. He was standing at the crossroads of two worlds and only needed knowledge to take a step forward.
As he mulled, the baby woke up crying in panic, his eyes searching left and right for his absent mother.
With a gaze full of concern, he said, "He can't wake up and spend hours in an empty house every day, or he'll end up traumatised. Not that I really care. I'm just worried about my body."
As he approached the cradle, the crying baby immediately calmed down, and a happy smile blossomed on his face at the sight of his playing partner.
"Since when are we close enough for you to smile at me as if I were your best friend?" He said sternly before his gaze softened. Then, he played with the baby, waiting for Alina to bring them to the apothecary.
*******
Alina entered the house with a mix of confusion and concern painting her features as she froze for a moment, absorbing the peculiar sight before her as the room echoed with the hearty laughter of her baby.
She rubbed her eyes, wondering if her tired mind was playing tricks on her after yesterday's terrifying night. Yet, she still saw her baby flying in the room like a bird.
She took a minute to calm down and opened her mouth with fear.
"Hum... Sir ghost? We can meet the apothecary after I feed my son." She said hesitatingly, wondering if the ghost was genuinely good. After all, he seemed to care for her baby and always carried him gently.
His attention attracted by her voice, he gazed at her in shock and froze, feeling embarrassed to be seen playing. Then, he coughed, remembering she couldn't see him anyway, and gently placed the baby back into his cradle before moving to the door to wait.
After ten minutes, the trio finally left the house, heading to the apothecary's shop, their eyes filled with excitement for different reasons.
******
As Alina entered the empty shop, she gazed at the old apothecary, who relaxedly rested behind his counter, wondering how he could be so calm. Then, she walked towards him, coughing softly to attract his attention.
When the man saw Alina carrying her baby enter his shop, his relaxed expression shifted to one of seriousness, tinged with a point of fear.
He had lived for seventy-two years and considered himself knowledgeable, yet it was the first time he had such close dealings with magic and mysterious beings.
Even worse, this specific one seemed especially cunning and hard to handle, even threatening to curse his scarce descendants for seven generations. How ruthless was that? It scared him so much yesterday that he almost didn't sleep last night.
"Welcome..." He said, his lips twitching in apprehension.
"Elder, we brought the ghost's essence! Did you gather the other ingredients?" Alina asked, her voice filled with excitement as she took a glowing orb out of a piece of tissue under the stunned gaze of the apothecary.
"Incredible! It's the first time I see ghost essence outside of books!" He said, inspecting the orb with burning eyes as Adam's face turned somber.
"I have a bad feeling," He said, pointing the baby's finger at the cauldron in the back of the shop, startling the two adults.
They looked at the baby, perplexed about what the ghost hinted at.
Exasperated not to be understood and angry by the apothecary, Adam took the baby in his arms, went to the cauldron, and dipped his finger in the ashes under it.
Then he came back and wrote on the counter with gritted teeth.
"You old coot! How will you brew the potion if it's the first time you see ghost essence? Doesn't it mean you never brewed it before?"
His face paling after being exposed by the sharp ghost, the apothecary blurted out. "Ahem. As mentioned yesterday, the ingredients are exceedingly valuable, Especially the ghost essence. It's true I have never brewed the potion before, but we can try."
"Sure, we can try. I can also curse your descendants for fourteen generations if we fail!" Adam wrote angrily, before smirking at the apothecary's livid face.
'You like to play with words. Look how I will as well,' He thought, looking at the man's old face become uglier with each word he read.
"If you help me, we have more than an 80% chance of success in brewing the potion. Please appease yourself, sir ghost." The man answered, cold sweat covering his face as his old hands trembled and his stomach churned.
Why did it double from seven to fourteen?
Calming after taking his petty revenge, Adam wrote, "Explain all the steps to brew the potion in detail."
They only had one ghost essence and couldn't fail. His soul was hanging by a thin thread, and wouldn't be able to find another ghost shortly.
"You only need to infuse mana in the concoction at certain key moments. I'll handle the materials and heat." The apothecary revealed stressfully.
"We have a problem..."
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