“But I really hate what happens when Damian drinks it.” Emily said filled with worry, but still handed Valthar the water infused with light element mana.
“Okay…” Valthar placed the bottle on the floor. “What happens when he drinks it?”
What followed that question was a vivid description of Damian puking his guts out while shivering like a pitiful dog under a rainstorm.
To Valthar the shivering made sense, as light mana and darkness mana clashed inside his body a ton of pain was expected, but vomiting? That was really weird.
Mana is not exactly physical so once ingested the water and the light mana would separate as mana would be processed by the spirit while the water would continue through the body.
But for Damian to vomit out the concoction meant his body itself was rejecting the mana infused water.
‘Understanding this anomaly could give me an answer, but to test it directly could just kill him…’
Valthar’s eyes jumped from the potion bottle to the unconscious man.
‘Still this is one of the few leads I got to understand his situation and he is going to die soon if I don’t do anything.’
Even now Damian’s veins shone brightly with purple blood, like a knight infusing itself with an element before diving in battle.
‘Blood that shines purple… darkness element mana infused in his veins… what if instead of giving him the light water I take out a bit of blood and do a test with that instead?’
It was an idea…
One that would be much more conclusive if Valthar still had good mana veins and was able to sense mana, but then again, when lost in a foreign land any direction is better than none.
With more confidence than he truly had, Valthar explained his intention to Emily and asked for a knife.
From under the bed Emily pulled out a box filled with dozens of different knives and metal instruments.
Valthar raised an eyebrow at the box but decided not to ask about it, Emily on the other hand made sure to explain herself even without that.
“These are Damian’s beast skinning knives, but they are clean… I always clean them when Damian comes back from his journeys.”
Valthar picked a small pointy knife from the box, then carefully he opened the potion bottle with the light infused water.
Gently Valthar took Damian’s hand and tried pricking one of his fingers with the knife, to his surprise though the knife was very sharp Damian’s skin simply didn’t break until he put quite a bit of force into it.
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‘Sking though enough to resist sharp blades, some knight training method? Better ask Emi about it, that type of training can change the body in many different ways.’
“Did Damian do any knight breathing method?” Valthar asked, but before he could get an answer the small wound grew in size and blood suddenly started pouring fast out of Damian’s finger.
With wide eyes Valthar brought the finger to the bottle's mouth and in moments purple glowing blood started to fill the concoction.
‘Oh fuck, I forgot his blood pressure so high despite the slow pulse.’
Soon the bottle filled to the brim, then light infused water plus purple blood overflowed out of the container and onto the floor.
Through his life sense Valthar felt Damian’s life force waver as the blood pressure in his body slowed, before his eyes the necrosis on Damian’s finger started to spread up his hand.
Valthar’s heart skipped a beat as Damian’s heart slowed even more than before, not a moment later Valthar poured out all the life force his energy ring had generated in the last few days onto Damian’s hand.
The wound closed almost instantly, with some life force even spreading throughout Damian’s body and the necrosis receding slightly.
For the next few minutes Valthar kept his full attention on Damian, even ignoring Emily’s worried questions by his side.
Though he stabilized fast after the sudden injection of life force, Valthar dared not lose focus since just one more stupid mistake could cost the man’s life.
Be it good or bad Damian’s blood flow sped back up after those few minutes and more surprisingly the necrosis at his fingers and toes could be seen slowly receding into non-existence.
‘Okay, looks like life force can at least stabilize him somewhat.’ Valthar let out a sigh of relief.
“He is stable, so at least for now, everything is okay.” Valthar said outloud, half to calm Emi and the other to calm himself.
After catching his breath Valthar turned his eyes to the potion bottle, he expected to see a new mixture with little to no darkness element, with a bright white glow and some red mist.
Basically he expected that since the bottle contained more light infused water than the purple blood, when the two mixed up the darkness element would be neutralized.
Such a result would be normal and the entire basis of how ingesting light element potions would cure the mist poison.
However, what he saw in the bottle only confirmed his worry.
In there he saw the two liquids stay divided, one white and the other purple.
Both opposites in elemental mana that should neutralize each other and yet the liquids did not react even a little bit.
‘Is his blood rejecting the light element even outside his body?’ Valthar’s confusion deepened, as a few new guesses sprouted in his mind.
“Emily, are light infused potions how other patients with mist poison are treated? And if so, does it normally work?”
Emily nodded quietly as her worried eyes stared at Damian.
‘So the mist doesn’t cause one to reject the light element normaly… so what is different between others and Damian?’
A sneaking suspicion rose within Valthar.
“What is Damian’s elemental affinity?” Valthar asked only to see a lost look on Emily’s face.
“I… I don’t know.” She mumbled.
‘Oh yeah, commoners normally don’t really have a way to test elemental affinities.’ Valthar nodded, holding back a sigh.
If Valthar’s guess was right Damian had an elemental affinity that rejected the light element.
Maybe an affinity to shadow mana… or maybe an affinity to the darkness element itself.
