"My body… It hurts," groaned Gab loud before standing up. By now, the blood pool dried up, and no drop of blood remained in there.

"So, tell me what you tried to accomplish," commented a cold voice standing in front of him.

Her gaze felt as if daggers pierced slowly into him and her voice sent shivers down his spine.

"Well, I've consumed everything, hehehe," he replied with a wry grin as he scratched the back of his head.

Enota sighed loudly, showing him how tired she was by now. The fight and the marching without any stops took a toll on her.

"Gab… I know that you clearly tried to absorb more than your body could handle, so tell me how you achieved that," Enota demanded while shaking her head.

Seeing how the latter demanded an answer and didn't let him change the subject, Gab gave in and told her his method.

"Well, you know I didn't think that the blood cores ability would end at that point. If I reached the limit by now, then that blood core is worthless. That's why I thought there must be a way for it to process that amount of blood," admitted Gab with a grin.

Enota couldn't believe him. On the one hand, it made kind of sense. There is no way that treasures gained in the tower would be forced so quickly to its limit. But nobody who was in the right state of mind would try something so stupid.

"So you just absorbed more blood… right?" asked Enota, who was still unsure.

Gab nodded with a bright smile before he began cursing how his body was hurting him.

"So you just were reckless and got lucky," commented Enota before taking a yawn, which she couldn't hold back.

'Cute,' thought Gab at the sight of it, but mere seconds later, he also had to yawn.

"Well, it seems like someone is tired. But unfortunally for you, it's now my time to take a nap while you guard a princess. So give your best, since we don't want that something happens to the princess.~"

"Fine, by me," yawned Gab loudly as he slowly stood up.

Enota merely nodded before taking out a bed from her backpack.

'How much can she carry inside that backpack???!' wondered Gab as he stared at the bed in amazement.

'That's definitely the biggest bed I've ever seen.'

The latter felt his stare and shuddered before telling him: "stop starring at it."

Enota immediately jumped on the bed with her dirty clothes, and a bubble formed around the bed that immediately got invisible after a second.

"That's awesome," commented Gab, who stared at the marvel of the bed, before sighing: "I shouldn't try to understand the mechanics behind it. I'm too stupid for it."

But to his surprise, Gab heard Enota's voice the last time before she fell asleep.

"Gab, don't do such stupid things again. You could have popped like a balloon," yawned Enota, and her voice grew quieter with each word.

"Cute," commented Gab to himself before narrowing his eyes and taking down his chest plate. He wanted to let the chest piece fall down to the ground but decided against it since he didn't know if the princess could hear it.

Fresh air blew against Gab before he slowly took off his dirty linen shirt.

'That feels refreshing, but from where comes the air? Maybe that could lead us to the exit. Anyway, there must be something on my chest or so because it itches.'

After taking off his shirt, he saw a small light blue crystal peeking slightly out of his chest. It was the same color as the goblins' blood. The crystal was around the size of one's fingernail and glowed slightly in the dark.

"Well… It looks funny, I guess," muttered Gab as he pressed his finger against the small crystal from where all the itching came. At that moment, he wanted to do nothing more than to rip it out so that the itchiness would stop.

"No… You can't do that," muttered Gab to himself to remind himself that it definitely would be the wrong idea.

「"Fun fact:

Horseshoe crabs use hemocyanin to carry oxygen through their blood. Hemocyanin is a fancy way to call blood cells that have copper ions on which oxygen gets bound. We, humans, use hemoglobin. That's just a protein inside our red blood cells and is responsible for the transportation of oxygen. But, instead of copper, hemoglobin uses iron to bind oxygen.

Many horseshoe crabs get harvested every year because of their blue blood. It's pretty valuable and often get's used as…"

"Narrator... "

"Yeah?"

"Did the author give you the right to tell such boring stuff? If the reader wants to know, that they might as well look it up for themselves!"

"But…"

"No buts. Do your job, or you'll be replaced by someone else who is a more competent narrator."

"Anyway, blue blood is used to detect remnants of toxins secreted by bacterias that can be fatal to humans."

"Stop!"

"…"

"With that, We'll be moving on. Sorry for that, but the author somehow has to fill the chapter and had a stupid idea. I promise that something like that won't happen again."」

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

「Back to reality」

"I don't even know if it even is useful," sighed Gab as he rubbed the crystal.

But after touching it for a few minutes, Gab lost interest in it and decided to focus on magic.

"Time to find out how this magic bullshit works. I always wanted to be a mage commanding magic at my will while people tremble in fear in front of me. It seems kinda strong," muttered Gab as he closed his eyes for a moment, and some memories containing the information he desired came up.

「Magic is a power struggle between yourself and nature. The stronger the mage, the weaker nature's hold on your mana.」

「Before one can or even should practice spells or elements, one must first get some basic control of their mana. The reason for that is quite simple. Magic used by beginners doesn't differentiate between foe and allies.」

「In order to get familiar with mana, do these exercises」

「…」