Chapter Eight: The Butterfly Effect Emerges, A True Man Measured in Seconds

Allen scrambled away for several kilometers before finally stopping to look back.

At that very moment, Roxy turned her head to look back as well.

The two locked eyes for a fleeting second before simultaneously turning away to continue their respective journeys.

The terrain was uneven. Allen had just descended a slope, the incline of which had blocked their lines of sight from one another. To be precise, had that slope not been there, Allen would likely still be running.

"Phew... that was close... Is this what a god’s invitation feels like?" he muttered. "Honestly, seeing Roxy made me want to agree to her request immediately. After years of traveling through the Asura Kingdom alone, even as she strives to become a Water Saint-level magician, she likely harbors a subconscious desire for a like-minded adventurer companion after witnessing my skills."

Whether it was helping her apprentice search the world for kin after the Displacement Incident, or the way she feigned indifference only to break down in tears upon learning of her parents' attitude, everything proved that Roxy was, at her core, someone who deeply valued intimacy. It was only because she had been discriminated against from the Millis Continent to the Central Continent due to her hair color and petite stature that she had learned to feign coldness as a means of self-preservation.

Roxy could arguably be considered the heroine with the most tragic background and experiences.

Allen sighed.

"The butterfly effect is beginning to show... but the system quests must still be pushed forward. Besides, the pseudo-precognition cannot be discarded... Sorry, Roxy... just wait a little longer; it is not yet time."

As he spoke, Allen slowly drew his blade. The moment the tip left the scabbard, he released the hilt, letting the blade spin around his wrist like a dancing butterfly. When he caught the handle again, he held it in a reverse grip, the blade shimmering with a cold light as he held it before him. The tip hovered exactly one centimeter above the skin of his inner left forearm.

Allen looked down at the blade, arched an eyebrow, and licked his lips.

He thrust it down.

The blade sank into his skin without resistance, and blood slowly seeped along the edge. Leaving the blade in the wound, he frowned and whispered, "Healing Magic Rune, activate."

The moment the words left his lips, he felt his mana surge like a stream toward the nascent core of the Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura within his abdomen. It climbed the tree-shaped magic rune, causing the tree to emit a hazy green glow. Following his mana, the light instantly surged into his arm, coating it in a green aura.

The wound began to heal; the damaged skin wrapped around the blade tip, and the bleeding stopped.

Allen stared intently at the wound, counted to nine in his head, and quickly withdrew the blade. Visibly, the wound sealed shut instantly, leaving no time for blood to spill.

"Healing Magic Rune, deactivate."

Allen lightly brushed his blade tip against the hairs where the wound had been. Only a faint white line remained. As he blinked, the white mark flaked away like dead skin, and the skin beneath appeared as if it were brand new.

He smiled with satisfaction.

"The effect duration matches the flow of mana in the body—not bad, it’s fast. I can keep it active during combat, essentially acting as a non-incantation healing spell. Tsk, what a conscientious system."

The healing efficacy was no different from an intermediate healing spell. However, the mana consumption for a ten-second activation was...

Allen sensed his internal mana levels, and his expression darkened instantly.

"...About one-tenth. This... this is far too much. My internal circulation of Battle Aura already requires a fixed mana drain that keeps me at a constant one-fifth consumption. With my max mana at only four-fifths capacity... damn it, this ten-second healing spell will take me nearly one hundred days to recover."

Allen’s mana consumption was identical to Orsted’s, and his recovery rate was 1000:1. In other words, the mana a normal person could recover in a single night’s sleep would take him a thousand nights. That was precisely why the system dubbed this growth path the "Path of the Swordsman"—it fundamentally ruled out the possibility of Allen throwing out the occasional water cannon between sword strikes.

The other path, the "Path of the Magician," was essentially a copy of Rudeus Greyrat’s growth trajectory: unable to cloak the body in Battle Aura, it required following the path of a melee mage and piloting a Magic Armor.

It was worth noting that the system used characters already present in *Mushoku Tensei* as templates; the Swordsman path was taken from Orsted, while the Magician path was taken from Laplace. It was foreseeable that by reaching the end of either path, one could become a perfect replica of those individuals. Of course, this would take a very, very long time, and without breaking the limits of one's lifespan, it was likely impossible to achieve.

Allen had previously analyzed the task templates and concluded that it might be related to the smartphone embedded in his brain before he transmigrated. At the time of his death, his phone had only contained the novel *Mushoku Tensei*. If he had stored more novels, perhaps he could have brought in character templates from other fictional worlds.

It was a pity, but he had to face reality. After all, it was only a hypothesis; even if he had stored other novels, there was no guarantee more templates would have been available.

If the system didn't harvest novel information but instead randomly extracted all entertainment files from the phone, he might have ended up with some truly bizarre template, which would have been a disaster. After all, nobody would want the Makoto Itou template. The progression of getting one's head cut off by Sekai Saionji during the teenage dating phase and being carried around on a boat would be truly absurd.

Allen exhaled and "looked" toward the nascent Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura in his abdomen. He lowered the blade tip and cut into his skin again.

"I hope the buff from the Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura that reduces mana consumption can stack with this healing buff. If it doesn't, I'll deactivate the rune immediately."

Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura nascent core and Healing Magic Rune—activated simultaneously.

With high-quality Battle Aura enveloping him, Allen pushed his five senses into overload, truly and realistically feeling the changes occurring within his body.

A strange scene unfolded: the magic rune began to pulse slowly, like a heart. Streams of mana within Allen’s body were inhaled by it like liquid and then exhaled into his limbs and bones.

He felt no extra drain on his Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura. It was possible that because the magic rune was located on the nascent core itself, it could directly siphon mana through that medium, enjoying the buff of reduced mana consumption without additionally depleting the Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura.

The rate of mana depletion was noticeably slower.

After counting to nine, he withdrew the blade. This time it was a bit difficult, as the Battle Aura had caused his muscles to grip the blade tip tightly.

Watching the wound heal rapidly, Allen immediately stopped the healing rune. He kept the Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura core active, as the mana drain this time was lower, and he needed the aura’s enhancement to "see" clearly.

There was no difference in the time it took to take effect; the Dragon Saint’s Battle Aura provided no additional boost to the healing rune, nor did it increase the healing efficacy.

The mana consumed in 10 seconds was 1/50th of his total capacity—meaning one day’s worth of mana recovery could fuel 0.5 seconds of healing. Using it occasionally was fine; it was essentially self-sufficient.

But if he were in continuous combat... his Battle Aura required a constant drain of one-fifth of his mana for internal circulation. Under extreme conditions, he could squeeze out the remaining four-fifths to maintain 400 seconds of continuous combat. Dividing that by 60 to convert to minutes...

6.666666...

...6 minutes.