Chapter 5: Saved?

Waking up in the basement was always the worst part about that came along with my decision to move all my stuff in there. With the only one, small window being directed towards the western side, there was close to no sunlight that could grant me some energy to live the next day.

After finally pushing the sheets away and properly standing up, I quickly scanned my looks in the huge mirror that covered the entire wing of the wardrobe. Even though my face looked a bit better than the day before, it was still full of the marks left on it by firsts and shoes of the school bullies.

"I need some coffee…"

Just by recalling the memory of all the work that I did before finally allowing myself to go to sleep made me feel my exhaustion even more vividly. With the physical reward for fulfilling the mission materialising within a huge chest that stood directly under the shelf located below the window - the only piece of furniture that was created in this place by the system rather by a human hand - I spent nearly half the night at working in the backyard garden to properly plant it.

But in the end, despite how tired I was, I could at least be proud of what I did. After all, with how little changed in my mom's composition after she drank the brew I prepared for her with those herbs that I received from the king of my third conquered world, I at least hoped that by planting this system-granted herb right beside the wall of my mom's resting place, I could make it suck all the magic that was harming her away.

Tic, tic, TAK!

The noisy screaming of the alarm barely fazed me. With how little anyone cared about the school nowadays, I had doubts that any of the teachers bothered to wake up for their first classes. For me, this alarm was just a way for a nostalgia trip to the times when its sound wasn't an annoyance, but the announcement of a new bright day that I could use to its maximum.

"Coffee…"

With one thought in my mind, I threw some clothes on my garb before opening the doors to my basement and climbing the stairs up to the proper area of the house. A few steps later and I was already setting the electric kettle up while pouring two small spoons worth of coffee into my preferred cup.

"We are slowly running out of it…"

Taking a look into the huge package that was slowly starting show its bottom, I shook my head with yet another attack of depression sneaking through my defences. With how passionate my mom was about growing our own coffee in the greenhouse that was now turned into her resting place, we never had to bother buying the shit that supermarkets sold under the name of coffee. Her constant efforts always paid off with the insanely rich blend of fried, dark-brown grains that were far more potent than anything one could get his hands on in a classing shop.

Trink!

The ringing of the kettle announcing that the water was now ready brought my mind back from the abyss of depression. Reaching for its handle, I moved the small container above the cup and…

"Kris?"

It was as if the time suddenly froze.

Obviously, the magic capable of doing something like altering one of the very basic aspects of the universe, even if existed, then it still was way beyond the reach of even the strongest cultivator on the entire earth. No, this moment when my blood seemed to stop flowing, my heart to stop beating and my muscles to stop responding was nothing more but how I perceived this moment. This moment when for the first time since three months ago when my mother lost her last bit of energy, I could hear my name spoken in her relatively lively tone.

Crack!

Unable to hold the weight of the kettle in my petrified fingers, this kitchen utensil slipped out of my grasp, shattering into myriad pieces while splashing my legs with steaming hot water. Yet it didn't matter.

Turning around on my feet, I stared at the figure that appeared in the doorway. Still weak and using her hands to support the efforts of her legs to keep her upright, yet there was no denying it. My mother was somehow standing completely on her own and staring at me with her eyes turning wider and wider with each passing moment!

"Krist! Oh sweet lord, what happened to your face?!"

No, this couldn't be a dream. It was impossible for my brain to trick my consciousness so realistically. It was just like her to ignore her own situation, instantly worrying about others instead of herself.

"Mom…"

With this desperate shout finally escaping from my mouth, I made a step forward, only to see the frail body of my mother suddenly cave in, with her knees seemingly giving up.

"Mom!"

Jumping forward, I managed to catch the energyless body of the woman that brought me to this world and cared for me my entire life, in my arms.

"I'm okay, sweetie… It's just that… the further I go from my bed, the weaker I feel…"

Whispering those words with a weak voice, this damned woman who couldn't pay any fucking attention to her own state raised her hand up, caressing the remaining bruises that marked my face.

"Dear, what happened to you…?"

Feeling her frail fingers tracing the marks on my face, I felt a powerful force grasping me by my heart and squeezing all the juices out of it.

"What the hell is going on?"

Before long, the commotion raised by me dropping the kettle and my mom falling brought my father to the kitchen. Initially angry, once his eyes laid on the relatively lively face of his wife…

"DEAR!"

It was just a single instant. In one moment, he was standing in the kitchen's doorway with his face twisted by anger and annoyance, and the next moment he was already caressing my mom's face with tears already flowing down from his face.

"We need to get her back to her bed… Or even better, to the garden."

Not letting this moment of insane joy and relief get to my head, I somehow managed to force my muscles back into order, lifting the frail body of my mother without even a shred of effort. While I would love this ability of mine to be a result of not only my training but also my cultivation, I was sadly perfectly aware that it was most likely caused by how actually light my mother has become over the span of her illness.

"Gil… What happened to Kris' face?"

Once again reinforcing the mental image that she always had of caring for others way more than for herself, rather than rejoicing in her sudden health improvement, my mother could only care about those few light bruises that remained on my face after a good night of sleep.

"Kris' face…? Wait, what the heck?"

Only once his wife forced him to, my father managed to notice that something was wrong with me. Right on time, given how he failed to realise it when he saw me yesterday, back when my relatively high cultivation had yet to help my body fix the most drastic parts of my injuries.

"Let's drop this. We need to get you to the garden, mom."

Not bothering to deal with their rambling, I simply kicked the kitchen doors out of my way, accidentally adding a bit too much strength in this random attack. In effect, instead of kicking them open, I literally kicked them away. Yet, instead of allowing the sight of the huge piece of wood turning into a thicker part of the corridor's wall, I followed the route that appeared in my mind, quickly moving outside.

With how the weather was already turning colder, moving through the open area seemed like a bad idea for someone as sickly as my mother, yet I couldn't care less. No matter what I heard about her state from the local doctors, I already realised what was really afflicting her. And a bit of cold along with some wetness from the air wouldn't influence how she was affected by the world's mana even by the slightest.

"Kris… What's so special about the garden? I think… I think it would be better…"

At first, my mom's words were still weak, indicating that she had to force herself to speak, yet the closer I got to the actual garden in our backyard and the greenhouse right behind it, her voice turned stronger and stronger, turning her slight lapses in wording from being caused by the health to being caused by an actual surprise!

"Kris, what's going on?"

This time, it was my father to notice that in this extremely uncommon and unexpected situation, I seemed to be the only one knowing what was going on.

"Not now."

Rather than coming up with some kind of excuse, I pushed the topic for later. After letting my mom sit on one of the chairs within the glass building of the greenhouse, I jumped outside only to bring up the plant that was gifted to me by the system in a pot and place it right beside the two of my parents. At this point, I couldn't help but notice that what used to be just a single, slightly wooden stem was already flourishing with four different petals growing out of it!

"Okay. I think you guys deserve a bit of explanation. Father, do you remember the herbs that I brought for mom yesterday?"