As James continued to make his spears, Dana spent the next half hour focusing on her mana regeneration. With her rapid regeneration feature, but lower intelligence, her mana regenerated at 1.4 points per second. When she focused with the use of her mana sight, and soft but broad uses of mana force, she began to increase it. It was actually easier to pull in more mana than it had been to imagine the spell. Dana just pictured the spiralling man in her body to go faster, until it was like a vortex, sucking in more mana from the air.

Understanding of mana has unlocked a skill:

Mana vortex ©:

By releasing control of your mana core, the flow of mana pulls in more around it. Relinquishing control of the flow of mana may cause damage to the body.

Cost: 1hp per 3mp

This was a useful but seemingly dangerous skill, as it leeched off her health, and could do more damage the faster she wanted to regenerate. But for this situation, it was useful. It would only take 7 or 8 health to regenerate her 39 mana. Less if she was patient enough to wait a few minutes.

So Dana activated mana vortex and felt her chest, the centre of her chest, grow very hot. She noticed the mana bar creeping up and getting faster, but the heat in her chest grew, and she felt like she was on fire. The mana vortex was too fast and too strong. She couldn't control it enough to limit the pain, so she deactivated the skill. 5hp had been lost, but 13 mana had been gained. Dana sighed as her chest cooled, and put a hand to her heart, only to be blocked by her huge boobs. This was the first time she regretted making them so big, and she guessed it wouldn't be the last, but at least the system had changed her clothes so that she was getting ample support. This day would have just been so much worse if she had to go braless.

Still, there was a definite heat radiating from them, and Dana promised herself that she would learn how to use mana vortex properly, so she wouldn't do any more damage to her body. Since there was nothing else to do, Dana just watched James work. He had already almost finished his fourth spear, it looked better than the other three already, and had a longer blade. Using the angle grinder again, James put an edge to the sides of the longer point he had made, so this spear could be used to slash as well as stab.

Dana checked her mana, and deciding she had enough to extend the hole, she walked back over to it, kicking off her other shoe, and raising her leg. She was just about to activate mana body infusion before she realised that she didn't need to have it active all the time, just when it was about to connect. This would make her mana go much further, and make the spell much more effective.

The timing of her first kick was off, activating it after her foot had got the floor

and wasting 6 of her mana before she managed to shrug off the pain in her heel and deactivate it. Close to giving up, Dana looked over at James with shame burning on her cheeks. He hadn't noticed, but Dana wasn't sure what his reaction would have been. He was too busy making his spears. But this was good. The sight of James working without distraction helped her focus on her mission again. She hadn't wasted much mana, and mistakes were necessary to improve anyway.

This time, Dana gave herself more time with her spell activated and nailed the landing. Almost. Though her foot went through the floor, and she deactivated the mana infusion time, she felt no resistance as she kept falling forwards. The force of her "mana stomp" had left a hole big enough for her leg to go through, only stopping when she ran out of the leg.

Dana gasped in pain. Her leg was scratched, and she had landed in a way that sent an impact through her core, and other more sensitive places.

Almost lying on her front, with her hands holding her up, one leg in the floor, and the other splayed behind her, Dana felt her cheeks redden. The physical pain wasn't bad, and she would regenerate the 2hp she had lost within minutes, but the emotional pain was definitely there. There was no way that James would not have noticed that. She looked up at James' concerned face as he ran over to her.

"Are you okay?"

James was obviously worried. If Dana fell down the hole, he had no idea what would happen.

"Haa... yeah, I'm ok."

Dana was embarrassed at the attention James was giving her. In the dangerous situations, they kept finding themselves in, James' presence made her feel safe.

He took her hands, supporting her, and lifted her up, out of the hole.

They were close like this, and once she was upright again, James placed a hand on the small of her back, pulling her against him. James tried to remind himself that this wasn't the time or place Again, but then realised maybe it was. They were safe in this room, and no-one was watching. Maybe this is exactly where the two of them could take 10 minutes to unwind.

Just as James was bringing his other hand closer to Dana's perfect butt, and ducking his head to meet hers, a loud knocking exploded from the door.

"JAMES! ANNIE!"

There was a pause.

"DANA! You guys in There!?"

James' arms went limp, and he hung his head.

"Shit"

He muttered under his breath. Callum's timing could not be worse. Stepping back from a visibly disappointed Dana, and more than a little disappointed himself, James sighed before moving towards the door with the intention of removing the barricade, and promptly tripping in the new hole Dana had made, landing heavily on his arm.

"Ugh."

A small grunt escaped James as he lost 3 health, and earned what he suspected was a sprained wrist.

"Shit, are you ok?"

Dana swore, and crouched next to him, more concerned than she needed to be.

James rolled onto his back and started laughing. This was certainly a strange way to end his week, but the last 5 minutes had proven he was still more than a little helpless in this new world. He didn't like it, but couldn't help to see the hypocrisy in how he viewed the system and found it inexplicably funny.

Dana was glad James wasn't hurt and giggled a little too. James had just portrayed one of his few flaws in an exaggerated manner.

"Guys! Hurry up, there's something out here, and we're hardly in fighting condition!"

This revelation from the slightly muffled voice of Callum caused the two of them to become serious in a matter of seconds. James jumped up before Dana could offer him her hand, and ran to the barricades. Dana had done a good job of leaning the benches towards the door, so it would be near impossible for someone to force their way in. Yet James tore away the tables, ignoring the pain in his wrist, and opening the door.

Callum stood there in the doorway, bloodied and weaponless. Dom stood behind him, dead on his feet with May on his back. She appeared unconscious.

James had no idea how this had happened but was glad they had managed to rejoin the group.

Ushering them into the room and closing the door, before remaking the barricade and taking a closer look at the group, James noticed some changes. May had a thick belt of white cloth with dozens of small pockets all filled with corked boiling tubes. She also had a cooler bag on her back that had clinked as Dom carried her in. Dom himself was bleeding from a bite mark on his left calf. And James hoped it was not a Komodo lizard that had bitten him there. It was too late to clean the wound. But how had things gone so badly for them between the lab and here?

Callum had a similar idea, and he and James spoke at the same time.

"What the fuck happened to you guys?"