"Hm. But you should be careful from now on, okay." Belen, who was angry until now, suddenly calmed down and nodded. At the same time, her heart rate quickened, and her cheeks turned rosy.
She was feeling ecstatic being embraced by him as apart from the moment having sex with her, Max had never shown this type of affection and tenderness toward her.
Out of reflex, she extended her hands around his waist and was about to hug him. However, the next moment, she hesitated and eventually put her hands down. Although he treated her like his woman, she was aware of her status, which was only an enslaved person.
Max noticed this and quickly realized that she had misgivings about her status. He then grabbed her hands, put them around him, and hugged her soft body even more tightly.
He could see that she had started to love him just like Rima and Leticia. So, how could he let her feel this way? He even thought of dissolving her vow of slavery, but on second thought, he didn't.
Belen's body trembled lightly, and her eyes flickered with a happy expression.
"I'm also here." Leticia also joined them and hugged him. Embracing beauties with each hand, Max's vanity was satisfied. As he smelt the fragrance of their hair and felt their bodies' warmth, his lower regions became hot.
"Cough! Let's go. I want to see Rima." Max coughed and moved away from the two ladies. He knew if he continued hugging them for a few more seconds, he wouldn't be able to control himself. However, his body was riddled with injuries, and he was in no condition to do the 'hard exercises' in bed.
The two ladies reluctantly nodded and supported him to walk Rima's room.
Rima was lying on the bed with a peaceful expression on her face. The state of her body had returned to normal and was no longer corpse-like.
Seeing her sleeping soundly, Max was relieved and then asked, "Do you know how much time she needs before waking up?"
"The vitality pill's effects had subsided yesterday night. She should be waking up within two or three days at most, although I'm not sure." Belen answered uncertainly.
"Okay." Max nodded and then said, "I'm going back to my room to heal and meditate. You guys also rest. Once she wakes up, we will depart." By the dark circles under their eyes, Max understood that both of them hadn't gotten a good sleep because they had to look after him and Rima.
"Mm!" Both ladies nodded. After that, Max returned to his room and checked his body. All of his external injuries had healed completely. As for the injuries to his organs and veins, they had healed around 70%.
'Hm? There's still some medicinal energy left undigested." He noticed he hadn't digested all the energy of the medicine Belen and Leticia fed him when he was unconscious.
'This should be enough to heal the leftover injuries.' He thought and started to actively digest the remnant medicinal power inside him and heal his injuries using his Mana.
"Argh...!" Suddenly he let out a low grunt because the moment he tried to use his Mana, he felt as if his Mana core was about to collapse.
"This? Why is it like this?" His expression turned grim when he noticed the current state of his Mana core. It was devoid of Mana and had some faint cracks all over it.
Just as he tried to remember what could be the cause of this situation, the system's disappointed voice sounded.
[This is the result of the host's recklessness. Just as that Belen girl said, the host could have dealt with the situation more easily and avoided the Mana core from injury if the host hadn't lost control over his emotions.]
Hearing this, Max felt that he was indeed a bit too emotional back then. However, he didn't regret it and was sure that if he could go back in time, he would've reacted the same way as before. After all, how was he supposed to keep calm when his woman was being tortured in front of his eyes and was on the verge of dying?
"I understand your point." Max nodded as he wasn't in the mood to explain himself and asked, "Tell me, why isn't there even a shred of Mana in my core? Although I was unconscious and the Mana recovery speed must have been very low, and these cracks must have leaked some of it too, even then, there should be some left in the core, right?"
[Host is right. There should have been. However, because the host was unconscious and incapable of making any decision, the system had to stop the Mana from entering the core to ensure that the damage to the host's core didn't proliferate and the host's body didn't explode because of the leakage of Mana from the damaged core.] The system explained why his Mana core was devoid of Mana.
After he heard what the system said, Max couldn't help but feel chills running down his spine. He didn't doubt the system's words as he knew that if Mana entered his core, his damaged and weakened core wouldn't have been able to endure its pressure, especially the pressure from three-star level Mana.
"Thank you for that." Max thanked the system and then asked, "How should I proceed now? Should I recover my Mana and use it to repair and heal the damage to the core like I did when strengthening it, or do I need to do something else?"
Given the current state of his core, he didn't want to do something which might worsen the injuries of his Mana core since they were many times more difficult to heal than other kinds of injuries.
After a moment of silence, the system replied, [Host is advised to buy the foundation healing pill from the system's shop. It can heal the Mana core without any complications, and it would be many times faster and safer.]
"Buy again? You know I'm broke right now and already have a huge debt because of that grade four vitality pill." Max had a bitter smile on the corner of his lips.
The system went silent for a moment once again and then said, [There is a way that host can repay that debt and earn many times more to unlock the stuff from the system shop. I wonder if the host is willing?]
