Returning along the same path, the fog in the Mist Forest seemed thicker than when they had entered, like a thick, damp, cold blanket trying to seal off everyone’s senses completely.
Ailiya still walked quietly at the back of the group, carrying the heavy bag of blue fluorite ore in one hand.
For her current physique and strength stats, this weight didn’t even require activating any buff skills.
Her gaze passed over Brenda’s broad back ahead and fell on Leo walking in the middle.
This kid… was acting very unusual now.
In the past, when a close call like this was over, he would have already started waving his arms and boasting to Balke and the others about how brave he had been down there, or complaining that the broken mine had dirtied his expensive robe.
But now, Leo was unusually silent. He kept his head down, moving his legs mechanically.
Balke had tried to approach him a few times to chat about some rookie anecdotes to lighten the mood, but Leo only responded with vague “mm” and “ah” sounds, his eyes always shifting.
‘Still not snapped out of that self-illusion from earlier?’ Ailiya evaluated coldly in her mind.
Before long, the rumbling sound of flowing water came from ahead. The group returned to the banks of the White Water River.
The earth walls that Leo had previously solidified with magic, lacking continuous mana support, had long since crumbled under the torrent of grayish-white water, leaving only a few clumps of mud submerged at the bottom.
The thick logs they had temporarily laid across were also long gone, washed away without a trace.
Balke stopped and pointed at the churning river, laughing boisterously. “Hey, Young Master, it’s your turn. Do that move again. We’re old hands at this now—we’ll just walk straight across. When we get back to town, I’ll treat you to the strongest ale at the Wind Moon Tavern!”
Leo stared at the rolling water, his face stiff.
He gripped his short wand tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain. He looked away from everyone’s gaze, his voice low as a mosquito’s buzz. “Um… Uncle Balke, I… I overexerted my mana too much down there, and I still haven’t recovered. I can’t cast an earth wall.”
“Huh?”
Everyone was stunned.
Sailin was the first to shout, his face full of disbelief.
“No way, Young Master? It’s been at least two hours since we walked out of the mine. Even if you haven’t reached the second order, normal meditation recovery should be enough to cast one earth wall spell, right?”
“I really don’t have any left.” Leo gritted his teeth and retorted. “Not a single drop. I… I over-pushed my mana too hard down there. Everyone’s constitution is different.”
Sailin shook his head helplessly, pulled a potion containing a light blue liquid from his waist pouch, and handed it over.
“Fine, fine. This primary mana recovery potion is on me. Drink it quickly and get to work. My old back doesn’t want to take the long way around.”
Leo looked at the potion, his eyes struggling for a moment. He didn’t reach out to take it.
“I’m not drinking it.”
“Hey! Why are you being so stubborn, kid?” Balke was also puzzled. “Drinking the potion will restore your mana in ten minutes. What’s there to refuse? Are you afraid I poisoned it?”
“I… I just think relying too heavily on potions in the wild is bad for training. I want to recover slowly through my own willpower.” Leo stiffened his neck, finding an excuse that sounded righteous but was actually extremely flimsy.
“Pfft—hahaha!”
Misi couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
He leaned against a tree trunk, slapping his thigh while teasing, “Come on, Young Master! Don’t tell me you’re afraid those armored crocodiles from earlier will jump out and bite your ass again, so you’re deliberately making excuses not to cross the river?”
“Who’s scared! I—I’m just…”
“Got it, got it.” Sailin took back the potion, a lewd grin on his face. “Young Master wants us bodyguards to work harder. We understand—you’re the employer, after all.”
“I really have no mana!” Leo stomped his feet in frustration, but couldn’t find any solid evidence to prove he wasn’t just slacking off.
Ailiya stood quietly at a distance. She keenly sensed that Leo’s emotions didn’t seem fake.
Her ice-blue eyes narrowed slightly, and an invisible wave instantly covered Leo.
With that kid’s current perception, he couldn’t detect it.
Under the vision of the appraisal skill, Leo’s current mana value was indeed a pitiful “5/120.” Such a slow recovery rate would be considered slow even for a Level 1 monster.
Seeing that number, Ailiya’s heart sank slightly.
Logically, after two hours of natural walking and meditation, a normal mage’s mana should have recovered to at least one-third.
This condition of Leo’s clearly indicated some kind of congenital talent defect, or perhaps a very subtle and irreversible damage to his bodily functions, causing his body to be like a leaking sieve.
Because her appraisal skill wasn’t high enough yet, and her knowledge wasn’t comprehensive enough, Ailiya couldn’t identify the deeper cause for now.
Seeing that Leo’s eyes were getting red with anxiety, Balke finally dropped the joke. He glanced at the surging White Water River, then at the slippery rocks on both banks.
“Alright, stop teasing the kid. Since the Young Master’s mana is drained, let’s not force it. Though this kid really is a bit weak.” Balke waved his hand grandly, pointing downstream.
“This White Water River is swift, but about twenty kilometers downstream there’s a gravel beach where the current is gentler. A few old tree roots have been lying across there for years, enough to cross. It’s a longer way, but better than wasting time here.”
“Let’s move. We need to find a flat place to camp before dark.”
“Off we go, taking the long way.” Misi whistled, glancing teasingly at Leo, then turned to lead the way.
Leo lowered his head and silently followed behind Balke.
He looked up at Ailiya walking beside him and found her still wearing that expressionless look, as if the whole farce earlier was just air to her.
Leo bit his lip.
This feeling of being looked down on, being ignored, was even harder for him to bear than being mocked by Balke and the others.
The team set off again, heading downstream.
Along the way, because they had strayed from the regular route, they encountered more trouble than when they had come.
Occasionally, a slime or two would jump out of the roadside bushes.
To test Leo again, Balke and the others deliberately opened up the encirclement, intending to let Leo show off his skills.
As a result, Leo performed terribly.
Facing a slime slowly rolling toward him, he didn’t cast a single spell. Instead, he just dodged around like a startled rabbit, swinging his wand haphazardly as if shooing flies.
At first, Sailin was still making sarcastic remarks from the side: “Young Master, the slime just wants to give you a kiss—why are you being shy?”
But as Leo was once again chased and rolled on the ground by a horned rabbit, and still didn’t use a single bit of mana, the members of the Wind and Moon Squad gradually sensed something wrong.
This didn’t look like laziness. It looked more like genuine… inability to fight back.
Balke and Brenda exchanged glances, their expressions turning serious.
They tacitly tightened their formation, no longer giving Leo any chance to face a monster alone, and shielded him tightly in the core area.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
About an hour later, they finally passed through a dense locust forest and arrived at the downstream gravel beach.
The river here was indeed much wider. The water crashed against the dense gravel, producing crisp sounds and stirring up white foam.
The few old tree roots that had originally spanned the river were indeed still there.
But when everyone saw the scene on the gravel beach, they all held their breath. Balke immediately gripped his greatsword.
On the old tree roots serving as a bridge hung a few tattered blood-stained cloths.
In the shallow water at the center of the gravel beach, several monster carcasses lay scattered in disarray.
And on the edge of the forested shallows on the opposite bank, pairs of eyes glowing with a faint green light stared fixedly through the thick white mist.