Unconscious

"Are you two even human?" Heluo's white wolf tail stood straight up, showing just how astonished she was. They'd only been adventurers for a day, and this was their first time exchanging Magic Stones. Yet the two of them had already made it to the Dungeon's fourth floor and killed four elite monsters—the famous Guard Bees, the kind most novice adventurers couldn't run away from fast enough. The two of them had taken down four together. That was practically unheard of among rookie adventurers.

"Mm, thanks," Zhang Ruofeng replied weakly. Heluo could tell he was in terrible shape. His face was haggard, and his body kept trembling. It was hard to imagine that Zhang Ruofeng, who had come back from his first Dungeon trip covered in blood, could be so feeble. Xin Mu beside him no longer seemed like the icy beauty who had astonished Heluo, either. Her face was full of anxiety and worry, making Heluo frown slightly.

"What's wrong?" Heluo asked. Zhang Ruofeng merely adjusted his bracer and shook his head a little. "Nothing. I'm just feeling unwell. I'll go see a Potion Master."

"You even know a Potion Master?" Heluo was surprised. The name Potion Master was famous throughout Orario, both for the skill and eccentricity associated with it. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. Your two Familias' Main Gods seem to have a pretty good relationship."

"Mm, thanks for your concern." Zhang Ruofeng waved a hand, picked up the few thousand Faris he'd exchanged, and set off with Xin Mu toward Perman's shop. On the way, Xin Mu tried several times to support the unsteady Zhang Ruofeng, but he stopped her each time. Plenty of people on the street seemed to be looking at him, apparently assuming he was drunk. He certainly looked the part.

"Perman, are you there?" Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu hurried without stopping to the potion shop run by the Evan Familia. The moment Zhang Ruofeng stepped inside, he nearly collapsed onto the floor.

"I'm here!" Hearing the commotion, Perman had already come out from behind the counter. As the head of her Familia, she should have been fighting on the front lines of the Dungeon. But she had too many enemies, so she could only stay aboveground, researching potions and tending the shop. As soon as she approached Zhang Ruofeng, she could tell he was in terrible shape.

"How did you... run out of magic?" Perman asked in surprise. "And your body's beyond its limits, too. How did you end up this badly?" People who ran out of magic usually passed out or fell into a coma. That hadn't happened to Zhang Ruofeng. Instead, he'd stayed conscious, but his exhausted mind was making his body deteriorate faster. It was like someone who'd been burned: if they didn't pull their hand away, the burn would only get worse. Zhang Ruofeng was in that state now, and his mind already seemed hazy.

"Perman, you have to help Ruofeng!" Xin Mu cried, grabbing Perman's hand.

"Heh-heh..." Perman briefly wore the lecherous grin of a dirty old man. Then she realized this wasn't the time for jokes and cleared her throat. She took out a bottle of white potion and poured it over Zhang Ruofeng's head. He instinctively resisted and tried to dodge, but Perman saw the unconscious movement and firmly held his head in place. The white liquid ran down his body and was quickly absorbed.

"Don't worry. I just poured a potion on him to restore his magic. It makes you drowsy, which is just what he needs right now." Seeing Xin Mu's anxious expression, Perman hurried to explain. Zhang Ruofeng was acting entirely on instinct now; his conscious mind had probably shut down the moment he stepped through the door. Making it all the way to Perman's shop before collapsing was both the absolute limit of his endurance and a sign of how much he trusted her.

"It's all right. We'll carry him back in a while and let him sleep it off. With his Boiling Dragon Blood, he should be fine. But you should know that running out of magic can cause intense depression and dejection, and overexerting his body means he'll inevitably get seriously ill. This kind of sickness, brought on by mental exhaustion and physical overexertion, can't be cured with potions. Treating it with potions would also cause severe side effects, so he'll just have to recover on his own." Perman tried to reassure the anxious Xin Mu. She looked at Zhang Ruofeng, who was shirtless and leaning against a chair on the floor, completely asleep, and shook her head. "He's the first person I've ever seen stay conscious after running out of magic and pushing his body past its limits. Most people would've dropped dead. Just how strong is this guy's endurance?"

"All right." Perman comforted Xin Mu and sat her on the sofa. Then she lifted Zhang Ruofeng with one arm and laid him on the simple wooden bed she usually used for injured people. Turning around, she rushed at Xin Mu, burrowed into her arms, and rubbed against her. But when Xin Mu didn't react, Perman looked up and saw Xin Mu staring at Zhang Ruofeng with a flushed, conflicted expression. She immediately lost interest, sat properly beside Xin Mu, and asked, "What happened, exactly?"

Xin Mu had no choice but to recount everything she'd seen that day. She was still angry when she got to the adventurer who had nearly gotten her and Zhang Ruofeng killed twice. Even though he'd eventually run back and used magic to save them both, without him, she and Zhang Ruofeng never would have dared provoke four elite Guard Bees. That was how the battle had happened.

"Oh? You actually got Star-shaped Fruit. Those are delicious." Perman was surprised to hear that Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu had killed four elite monsters. She also marveled at their good luck in getting seven Star-shaped Fruit, then rubbed her face against Xin Mu's chest again with a wicked grin. "I could only kill a Guard Bee by myself when I was on the verge of leveling up. I can't believe you two ran into them so early. You were really lucky to survive." Xin Mu thought back over the day. She hadn't even been able to deal with an Earth Bee, while Zhang Ruofeng had paid a terrible price just to take down the first Guard Bee. Without his absurdly powerful recovery, the wounds to both his shoulders in that first clash would have left him half-crippled.

Then Xin Mu said that she and Zhang Ruofeng had finally relaxed, only for her head to suddenly spin. She passed out, and Perman realized that Xin Mu had run out of magic, too.

"You managed to make it out even after all that. You were lucky," Perman sighed, thinking of her own past adventures.