After a few hours, Luz woke up. It took time for him to realize that his body was connected with some instruments and tubes, and he immediately pulled on them.

Jodoc, seeing that Luz was awake, immediately screeched: "Hey, you better let me pull them out. You certainly will destroy some of them. They cost a lot."

"Alright then, you do it," sighed Luz, who didn't care at all since all he wanted to do was leave the water tank.

Jodoc immediately closed the machines with his beak before pulling the rods and tubes out of his back. Blood oozed out of the puncture sites.

The parrot told Luz not to worry about the puncture sites before hurriedly saying, "Give me a minute. I'll call Simon."

"That guy has been sleeping enough. He better take care of you now," Jodoc commented before flying onto Luz's shoulder.

There he began screeching Simon's name loudly across the room.

Surprisingly Simon reacted to Jodoc screeches, even if it was only by throwing a shoe at Jodoc.

"Good morning, and let me continue sleeping. I'm so tired," the two heard Simon say with a yawn.

"If you keep this up, Luz will head to Master Brian. Let's see how much you have to pay to see Luz again," screeched the parrot out of anger before flying towards Simon.

"Damn, you're right," Simon muttered to himself as he jumped out of bed immediately.

"Luz, I'll reward you if you stay here for another hour. Please," begged an alerted Simon walking to them.

He still was in his pajamas, and the bags under his eyes were definitely showing how little sleep he had.

'Not very professional' was the only thought that went through Luz's head as he looked at Master Simon before sighing: "Fine by me."

He slowly stretched his body despite the sharp pain he felt all over it.

"Follow me, please. Time to take another look at your mana core," Simon said excitedly.

'Nah, hell no. I'm not going to sit on that execution chair again.'

"I'd rather die before giving you another chance to fry my brain again," Luz stated as he shook his head.

"Oh, come on. I even reduced the energy output. You'll now be getting only a third of the initial mana output," Simon assured Luz.

Sighing, Luz gave in as he sat down on the chair. The straps were tightened again, and a couple of thin measuring rods went a centimeter into his back.

'If that continues, my back will soon become swiss cheese.'

"One, two, three and go," Simon counted down as he pulled down a lever sending external mana through Luz's body.

Meanwhile, the five parasites in Luz's mana core sensed the mana current coming at them. They released a pulse permitting the remaining parasites to use their maximum mana absorption rate.

A mana current shot through Luz's body, but only slightly straining his mana capillaries. This time, Luz didn't faint during the process and just gritted his teeth.

"Strange. How did we lose 20% of the mana? Jodoc, we have to call the crappy company later. They gave us faulty equipment," Simon cursed as he undid all of the straps that were still holding Luz back.

Blood oozed slightly through Luz's back at the exit points of the dipsticks.

"Interesting," Simon muttered to himself as he presented two pictures of Luz's mana core to him.

"The left one was your mana core four days ago, and the right picture is your current mana core," Simon stated.

"Hmm, I can merely see fewer cracks on the right picture, and why are there some small black dots in my mana core? Strange," Luz pointed out.

"Well, the cracks haven't disappeared completely yet. They just got narrower, which is a good sign," Simon told him before continuing with, "the rehabilitation of your mana core should take a few weeks. The influence of mana should be minimized, but nevertheless, the usage of mana should not have a negative influence on your mana core."

Luz only sighed out of relief.

'At least there is some positive news.'

"As for the black dots, it looks like some organisms have taken up residency in your mana core. Interesting..." Simon told Luz as he pointed at the black dots before assuring the boy, "These organisms are still small, so don't worry about them doing anything."

'HOW DID THEY GET IN HIS MANA CORE?? But they'll probably die soon since biological matter can't be transported into his mana core,' Simon thought. 'Shit, if Brian finds out about this, he's going to kill me.' went through Simon's head.

"Luz, how have you been feeling since you woke up? Any problems whatsoever," Simon asked.

"Hmm, I'm just hungrier. My whole body hurts. Sometimes I feel strong impulses shooting through my body, and I feel as if the parasites are telling me they are hungry," Luz told the two.

"Oh, that's perfectly normal. Your body probably hurts because mana with a higher grade of purity flows through your body for some unknown reason, which probably restructured your muscles." Simon stated with a smile before continuing with, "By the way, the hunger is completely normal, so don't worry about it."

Even the parrot looked puzzled at Simon's statement.

Telepathically, Jodoc told him: 'We are dead, and definitely so. If Brian finds out that we gave Luz a mutated parasite, you and I'll face something worse than death. Hopefully, this mutant parasite collective is of a low intelligence level. Did you find any parasites in Luz's synapses during the examination?'

'No, I haven't found any there yet.' Master Simon replied to him.

'Thank goodness. Let's offer some magic lessons and materials to Luz and tell Master Brian that we found talent in Luz, which is why we want to give him private lessons,' Jodoc advised Master Simon.

Master Simon only nodded before stating telepathically: 'We need to minimize the contact between Luz and Brian as much as possible. Only with that is the chance of Master Brian finding out about the funny stuff going on in Luz's body as low as possible.'

They both came to a silent agreement.

***********************************************************************************************

In another place deep in a dark forest, a starving boy with black hair and deep circles under his eyes wandered to a grave while two skeletons followed him at his side. The loud screams of monsters echoed through the forest.

'Shit, I hope this is a grave of a former strong warrior. I need a strong minion. Otherwise, I'll be eaten sooner or later,' Az thought as he ran desperately to an old tomb.

He took deep breaths before muttering: "[Awake]," and not even a few seconds later, the ground shook slightly, and a deep voice resounded, echoing through the forest.

"Which ignorant fool dares to wake me up?!" the unknown entity stated from the grave as a hand out of bones emerged from the ground.

The sheer pressure released from the grave forced Az onto his knees, and out of desperation, Az ordered his two skeletons to position themselves in front of him. But unfortunately, even they were forced onto the ground.

A figure slowly emerged from the old tomb, and the only thing Az could see in the fog were two red eyes and the sound of skulls getting crushed.

His two minions were already dead, and Az shrieked out of desperation as he tried to get as far as possible away from the grave.

However, a hand grabbed Az's leg and raised him. "Arrgh…Please, I beg you…" whimpered the terrified child.

A pale skeleton whose body was covered with cracks and dirt examined with his glowing red eyes the child he held with one of his hands.

The entity sighed and probably thought: 'Did someone really wake me up just so I could babysit him?'

"So you are the person who summoned me from the grave. Wait a minute… How come a young kid ended up deep in the woods?" he muttered as he gently placed the child onto the ground.

"How can you talk?" Az stuttered in horror as he tried to escape.

The skeleton, on the other hand, merely pressed his leg on Az's clothes to hinder his escape.

"Child, you've disturbed the resting place of the wrong person. If you were an adult, I would have made you a head shorter for such an action. Unfortunately, I have a heart for children," the skeleton sighed before sitting down.

Az, still being scared, whispered silently: "I'm sorry" before continuing pleading, "I need all the help I can possibly get to survive here."

"I'll help you survive in this forest, but only if you follow my words. By the way, call me Ogron," heaved the skeleton.

"My name is Az, and I will gladly follow every word of you, Master Ogron," nodded Az.

"Don't call me Master. I don't want to be called like such by a child who dares to disturb the peace of someone resting," Ogron told Az while shaking his head.

"Ok, master Ogron," Az replied with a smile.

"Be careful, child. Didn't your parents teach you to respect elders?" Ogron grumbled.

"Ogron, do you actually know where we can find the northern conifer forest?" Az asked as they walked through the dark forest.

"No. I don't remember any coniferous forest, and which year is it actually?" asked Ogron.

"It's the year 23,505," replied Az.

"I must have been asleep for a thousand years. Let's see what has become of my descendants and of the different kingdoms. I am curious if they still exist," mumbled Ogron.

"Ogron, what rank were you before you died?" Az asked, looking up at the two-meter giant skeleton.

"Talking to you about mage levels which you don't know is pointless. Just remember I used to be a strong and feared man," he stated with a puffed chest.

"When I was young, every girl wished to become my husband but now…I'm just an old skeleton who is a mere skeleton.…," Ogron answered with a sight.

Thus Az and Ogron walked through the forest in search of food.