Chapter 38 - Vitality Potion

The first thing the little kitten noticed when she awoke once more, was that she was feeling surprisingly healthy, despite the consequences that burning out one's aura should bring. The little kitten's hazy eyes closed as she used her Subconscious Eye to survey her Inner Haven.

To her shock, she found that her Inner Haven was producing aura at a steady rate, as if she had never exhausted it just moments ago.

'What happened?' The little kitten couldn't help but ask this question to herself as her feline eyes opened in shock. 'W-Was it the freak?'

"You're really asking for a beating, puny cat!" The sudden words of a familiar voice shocked the little kitten at its presence and she turned to find the red furred, translucent Guardian Spirit sitting upon its usual hovering device. Its head rested in its hands as its narrowed eyes studied the little kitten for a few seconds before a dark grin appeared on the Guardian Spirit's face, seemingly pleased with the kitten's shocked reaction.

'Freak, what happened?... Did I fail?' The little kitten asked apprehensively. Her mind was in chaos as she asked this question through her thoughts, fearing that she had already failed to pass this trial and lost the chance to learn about that which she has been wondering about ever since she had arrived in this new world.

"Kekeke, you really want to know?" The Guardian Spirit teased with a mocking grin.

'Freak!' The little kitten hissed, not amused.

"Kekeke, okay okay. I'll tell you, so stop your whining." The Guardian Spirit laughed irritatingly, but the little kitten just looked on with cold eyes, turning his smile wry. "Alright, you... Passed!"

"I-I did?!" The little kitten exclaimed happily, her eyes gleaming in excitement. 'How though? My mind goes blank just as I was going to fight against the last of those rabbit beast's. I remember hearing it scream... So I must have hit it! But I also remember feeling a great weight hit me just as I lost consciousness!...'

"That sounds about right." The Guardian Spirit nodded its head as it went into thought before speaking up once more. "Your final 'Celestial Claw' spell managed to kill the final Horned Cloud Rabbit just as it was about to reach you. Unfortunately, its dead body continued on its trajectory and smashed into you, knocking you out for good. If I were too stretch the rules, I could call the match a draw... But in the end, it was the Horned Cloud Rabbit who fell first, so I'll give you the win this time!"

'Heh... To have only won in the last few seconds... How pitiful...' The little kitten sighed.

"Do you realise what you need to learn for next time?" The Guardian Spirit inquired with a grin. The funny thing about this Guardian Spirit was that even his good-natured grins were irritating and the little kitten fought back the feeling to strike him for no reason with all her strength every time she saw it.

'Hmm.' The little kitten nodded seriously in reply without hesitation. 'I need to learn how to conserve my aura better so that I don't exhaust myself out too early in the battle, especially in battles that are going to be drawn out like group battles.'

"Correct!" The Guardian Spirit smirked and said in reply. "In that last battle, your control over your aura was truly weak, wasting much more aura than needed to keep your three spells afloat for much longer. Instead of those around ten minutes that you achieved in that match, you could probably conserve your aura enough for probably fifteen minutes, or maybe even more."

'I see now!' The little kitten nodded enthusiastically. She would definitely spend time to find a way to improve her ability to control her aura in a much more efficient way. It was at this point that the little kitten also remembered something else that she found strange. 'Oh yeah. Freak, how have I already recovered? Shouldn't my aura be exhausted?'

"Oh, that? That's simple, I used one of these babies!" The Guardian Spirit flipped his right hand upwards with a flick, and suddenly upon his open palm a peculiar bottle now stood. This bottle wasn't that tall, only around ten centimetres. The bottle was fully made of glass and was elongated at the bottom, curving inwards as it reached the glass bottles lid. Inside the bottle, a light coloured violet liquid wobbled with the Guardian Spirit's slight movements.

'Whoa, what's that?' The little kitten asked instinctively before she seemed to come to an understanding. 'Is that one of those Magical Potions?'

"Indeed!" The Guardian Spirit responded while flipping the potion bottle into the air. As the bottle fell from the air, the Guardian Spirit's right hand waved passed it, covering the bottle from the kitten's view for the smallest of moments. Yet in that small moment, when less than a second had passed, that bottle had vanished from her sight.

The little kitten's mouth twitched in an irritated manner at the over-exaggerated display of removing the bottle as the Guardian Spirit moved on, seemingly not bothered by the kitten's sullen expression. "I fed you a strong Dull Rank Vitality potion. Vitality potions are one of the most basic of potions a Medicinal Magician can make and will aid in a person's restoration of both their aura and body. Because it aids in both fields, it is usually weaker than getting either an Aura Recovery Potion or a Body Recovery Potion. But they are also cheaper and my potions are quite strong, so they did well to heal you up enough at your... weak level."

'Why punctuate that last part!' The little kitten hissed, but the Guardian Spirit simply laughed her anger off as it suddenly turned to face down the long corridor ahead of them. The little kitten looked to where it turned to look, but could see nothing and turned her gaze back to look at the Guardian Spirit oddly.

The Guardian Spirit didn't bother with her inquisitive gaze and simply stated. "Head along this corridor and you will naturally know when the second step of your trial has begun!"

With no further words, the Guardian Spirit vanished from the little kitten's view in a hasty fashion.

The little kitten sat there dully for a moment before shaking her fur. With a low exhale, the little kitten finally took soft steps forward.

After several minutes, while the little kitten was absorbed in her disgust of the ever growing repertoire of paintings on the corridor walls of the Guardian Spirit, a change in the horizon caught her attention.

She was at the end of the corridor!

And... There was nothing except a wall with a few more paintings.

'Is this it?' The kitten asked sullenly as she walked up to the far wall.

Just as she was a few steps from the wall and was studying it intently, the little kitten suddenly felt the floor beneath her rumble with a small quake. And then to her shock, the floor opened up due to the power of some grand contraption.

"Meeeeeoow!!" The sound of a cat's long yell echoed throughout the corridor and downwards into the horizon of the tunnel beneath the trap door as the little kitten fell straight downwards at full velocity.

'You damned freak!!' The little kitten exclaimed hatefully in her mind.

The irritating sound of a loud laughter that rang out with the sound of "Kekeke!" could be heard as the little kitten saw the trap door above her close up and her view was succumbed by the darkness of the seemingly endless tunnel...