Chapter 79: The Mad Healer Breaks Through

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: The Mad Healer Breaks Through

Seraphina woke up to a plain white ceiling, clean walls, and the quiet hum of hospital machines.

For a couple of seconds she just stared up at the lights. Then everything came rushing back: the dark elf, the brutal brawl, and Felix collapsing on the concrete.

Her eyes snapped open. "Felix."

She sat straight up, ignoring the sudden ache in her sore muscles, and swung her legs out of bed.

Clink.

She stopped and looked down at her hands. A heavy metal band was locked around her right wrist. Another one held her left.

The warm look on her face vanished, instantly turning cold.

She walked over to the door and touched the wall panel. The heavy sliding door slid back to reveal an armed guard, who jumped in surprise and stood up straight.

"Miss Seraphina—"

"Where is Felix?" she asked.

The guard grabbed the radio on his shoulder right away. "Patient in ward three is up. Seraphina Veyr is asking about Felix Valerius."

Her eyes narrowed. That wasn’t an answer. She took a step into the hallway anyway.

"You have to stay in your room," the guard said, blocking the way.

"Where is Felix?"

"The doctors have already been told you’re awake." She stared hard at him until he nervously swallowed. He knew her record, and he knew what happened the last time people tried to keep her away from Felix. He was not going to push his luck.

A moment later, footsteps came from down the hall. Another guard was walking a second patient over. It was Liora. Her pink hair was messy, she looked scared, and she had the same metal bands locked around both of her wrists.

The second Liora saw Seraphina, she froze in place.

Seraphina looked at her. Liora looked down at the floor immediately. Neither of them spoke for a second. Then, at the exact same time, both blurted out:

""Where is Felix?""

Both girls froze, staring at each other. Liora’s eyes went wide. Seraphina’s eyes narrowed into slits.

"I... I wasn’t trying to copy you," Liora squeaked, looking down in a hurry.

The guard cleared his throat, feeling the awkward tension. "Both of you need to go back to your cells."

Neither moved an inch.

"Felix," Seraphina repeated, her voice dead flat.

The guard gave up and sighed. "He’s alive. His vitals are stable, but his core went crazy right after the fight ended."

Liora clenched her hands. "Is he hurt?"

"He took some nasty hits and ran out of mana, but that’s not the big problem. His core is forcing an immediate breakthrough."

Seraphina blinked. "A breakthrough?"

"Yes. That’s why they rushed him down to the Deep Mana Facility. The room is heavily reinforced with magic runes to absorb the shockwaves."

"He’s reaching S-rank," Seraphina said, completely certain of it.

"Most likely, yes."

Quiet fell over the hallway. Liora stared at the floor tiles. Seraphina stared down the empty hall. Both of them wanted to see him right that second, but the cold metal clicking on their wrists reminded them where they were. They were still criminals. Still locked up.

"You’ll get word once it’s over," the guard told them.

Seraphina turned back toward her cell first. Liora followed right behind her, slipping into her own room on the way. Both glanced back once before the heavy steel doors slid shut and locked.

---

Far beneath the prison, Felix could barely keep his balance. He leaned against the hallway wall with one hand, panting hard.

Every few seconds, his chest thumped.

Thump

Thick green mist leaked right out of his skin. It felt heavy, thick, and pressurized, already feeling like real S-rank power.

He looked down at his shaking palm. "So this is what it feels like."

His chest gave another hard thump, and he chuckled under his breath, pushing forward until a massive metal door came into view.

DEEP MANA FACILITY — AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

He pressed his hand against the scanner. The door beeped and slowly rolled open into a massive, empty room. There were no windows, just thick, gray walls covered in carved blue runes built to soak up runaway energy.

He walked to the middle of the room, pulled off his jacket, and sat cross-legged on the cold floor. He shut his eyes, slowed his breathing, and placed an open palm over his heart.

"My core," he whispered. He could feel it humming, right on the edge of the next level.

"Let’s do this."

He let the power loose.

BOOOOOOM!

A pillar of bright green energy exploded out of him, lighting up the whole chamber. The thick walls shook as the blue runes on the floor lit up to drink in the mana flood.

The core inside his chest began to spin like a small, glowing green star: faster, faster, and faster.

The air grew so thick with power that it bent the light in the room, making his hair stand up and snapping his clothes in a wild wind.

Felix stayed calm through it all. His high-tier healing skill was already guiding the energy from the inside. His mana veins never fought the wild surge; they just stretched and adapted to it naturally.

Ten minutes passed. Thirty. An hour. Slowly, the spinning star slowed down until it gently settled back in his chest.

Felix opened his eyes, breathing hard, and smiled. "Now for the real work."

His mana circuits flared to life all at once.

The new, thick current rushed through his entire body. It rebuilt his muscles fiber by fiber, making them twice as dense. It soaked into his bones: cracking them, reshaping them, and hardening them like steel.

It rebuilt his inner organs: heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, so they could handle the massive output of an S-rank body.

His blood ran thicker. His skin got tougher. Even his brain adapted to process combat information much faster.

For almost anyone else, this was pure agony.

Jumping from B-rank to A-rank took hours of painful cramps: Liora had spent a whole night sweating through hers.

Moving from A-rank to S-rank was way worse; even veteran fighters like Aria had to drink heavy pain potions and still spent half a day groaning in bed.

People had even died during high-tier breakthroughs because the crazy pain knocked them out, leaving their bodies to tear themselves apart without control.

Felix didn’t scream. He didn’t even suffer.

He wielded an advantage exclusive to the world’s healers: his healing mana was running side-by-side with the damage.

The second a muscle fiber tore, it was glued back together. The moment a bone cracked, green light welded it back stronger before his brain could even feel the pain. His healing wasn’t fighting the changes; it was helping them.

Instead of pain, it felt like an incredible rush of power: stronger muscles, harder bones, tougher organs, and wider channels that could move a mountain of energy.

Ten hours of rebuilding passed by like ten minutes of pure satisfaction.

Finally, the room went dead silent.

Felix opened his eyes, looking down at his arms. He was covered from head to toe in a nasty layer of sticky, dark grime that his skin had pushed out during the process.

"...Disgusting," he muttered, shaking his head.

He stood up. His legs felt so light it was like gravity had been cut in half.

He walked into the attached bathroom, turned on the cold water, and let the shower wash away all the dirt. A few minutes later, wearing clean sweatpants and a simple shirt, he stood in front of the mirror.

He raised an arm and flexed. The muscle tightened under his skin like solid rock. "Wow."

He pushed his mana through his body. It moved like water: fast, smooth, and taking almost no effort at all. He made a tight fist, and the air around his knuckles snapped with a loud pop.

"I could fight that giant mud swamp boss again," he chuckled, remembering how hard his squad had to hit that beast. "I could probably take its hits right to the face now." He laughed quietly.

"This is crazy."

He held out his right hand, and green mana instantly gathered into his signature blade. It was solid, steady, and sharp, and maintaining it barely drained his energy at all.

He made the blade vanish, then formed a tiny green needle between two fingers and flicked it at the wall.

WHOOSH—THUMP.

The needle punched a clean hole right through the reinforced stone.

Felix raised an eyebrow. "Vesper’s trick. Still not as sneaky as hers, though."

Her metal magic made needles almost completely invisible, which made her deadly at sneaking up on people.

In an open, head-on fight, Felix knew he would win with his raw speed, hitting power, and healing. But if a master assassin like Vesper caught him off guard in the dark, she could still be dangerous.

He covered his body in a thin layer of glowing green mana and smiled. "Though good luck piercing this now."

At S-rank, his personal defense shield had leveled up completely. "Easily ten times stronger than before." He flicked another needle at his arm, and it bounced harmlessly off his skin, cracking the wall behind him instead.

"Yeah, that’s plenty."

Next, he closed his eyes to test his healing power.

In the past, healing himself took real focus. If a monster broke his ribs in a fight, he had to stop and push mana straight into the bone to fix it.

That meant taking his eyes off the battle, which made it hard to fight and protect his team at the same time.

Now, he felt something totally new.

A quiet loop of healing energy was circulating through his veins on its own, like an automatic shield.

He opened his eyes, grinning. "Automatic healing."

If an enemy cut his side in combat now, the skin would start stitching back together before the blood even dripped to the floor. A cracked bone would snap back instantly. A deep wound would close on its own without him having to stop and manage it.

He didn’t have to pause to heal anymore. He could just stay on the frontline and keep swinging.

He took a slow breath and pushed his healing power outward.

Five meters. Ten. Twenty. It kept spreading until it reached thirty meters, filling the entire room with a soft, peaceful green light.

His calming field had tripled in size, and the soothing effect was much stronger now. It couldn’t make enemies like him but hostile monsters would hesitate for a split second, aggressive fighters would feel their anger drop, and panicked allies would calm down in seconds.

"Thirty meters," Felix murmured, dropping his hands. "That covers an entire raid squad easily."

He focused again and split the light: one, two, three, four separate streams of green energy floated in the air like glowing ribbons.

His eyes widened. "Four people at the exact same time."

Before this, treating two badly hurt teammates at once gave him a massive headache. Now, he could stand in the middle of a messy battle and pump steady healing into four frontliners without breaking a sweat.

Then he remembered older, bloody missions: torn limbs, crushed organs, and the three expensive high-tier potions he had to drink just to have enough raw energy to regrow lost body parts.

That problem was completely gone. His massive S-rank core had plenty of energy to regrow an arm, fix a broken leg, or repair a punctured lung entirely on its own. No potions needed.

Felix slowly closed his hands into tight fists, looking down at his palms.

"This changes everything."

For the first time in his life, his body could finally keep up with his true power.

Up in the medical wing, hours passed in total quiet.

---

Seraphina sat on the edge of her cot, her hands resting calmly in her lap. Liora sat curled up on her bed, hugging a soft pillow to her chest.

Neither girl had said a word since being sent back. Both were just waiting. They didn’t know how long an S-rank breakthrough took, but both knew one thing for sure:

The man coming out of that room would not be the same man who walked in.

He had entered the rift as an A-rank healer who could hit like an S-rank fighter. Now, he was walking out as a true S-rank powerhouse.

Seraphina looked at the heavy steel door of her room, her cold look melting into a gentle smile.

"Come back soon, Felix," she whispered.

Liora rested her chin on her pillow, her voice barely a breath. "Felix..."

Their stubborn, independent healer had just become the most dangerous frontline combat medic on the entire continent.

---