"Carlos!"
The other four ran at him as soon as he fell to the ground. Heloisa checked his pulse and breathing, then sighed in relief.
"He's okay. Just… sleeping, I guess."
"Maybe manipulating the magical energy made him faint? I mean, what the hell was that? He just conjured that energy out of nowhere…"
Henrique shook his head, then sat on the floor. Marina and the others followed his example.
"This challenge was something. We had a puzzle, then had to use the reward of the puzzle to defeat a powerful enemy… I mean, Carlos had to literally learn how to use magic on the spot. I feel like that fox wasn't supposed to be defeated with machetes and knives."
"I think you're right, Marina. And if we had found the book by chance, it would have been useless. I think that the only reason Carlos was able to learn how to cast that magic was that 'Soul Expansion' we received earlier."
"That's so cool! Carlos was so awesome! I have no idea what he chanted there, but when I saw that ball of energy or whatever… Pow! One hit, one kill!"
Marina ignored Ravi's comment and continued talking to Heloisa instead.
"Yes. It feels like that fox was there just to test Carlos' ability. I mean, the moment he started chanting, it stopped attacking us and offered itself. Then those words at the end…"
Henrique was observing Carlos, then looked around them and noticed something amiss.
"Guys… the butterflies disappeared."
"Huh? Whoa, that's true."
Marina looked around as well, and then the others. The butterflies had, in fact, disappeared, and also the circular areas without vegetation. She walked around checking all the places, and all had been covered by plants, disappearing completely.
"I was about to ask how those plants could grow underground, but then I noticed… there's light. Maybe this magical light is enough to allow them to do photosynthesis? Anyway, the patches without plants disappeared."
"What do you mean disappeared?"
"Exactly that, Ravi. They are all covered with already grown plants. I don't know if it happened during the fight now or if when we woke up from that nap, they had already left. I wonder how long we slept."
Henrique pointed to Carlos with his chin.
"Carlos will know. He's keeping tabs on the time with his notebook."
"Shouldn't he wake up soon? We just did a pause to rest and eat, then slept because of the Soul Expansion thing. I don't want to just lie here waiting for Sleeping Beauty to wake up."
Heloisa was getting a bit anxious and wanted to go back home as soon as possible.
Just at this moment, Carlos stirred, then sat up.
"Uh… good morning, guys."
"Carlos! Are you feeling well? Is anything hurting?"
"Oh, hi, Helo. No, I'm well. Everything is okay, and there's no pain. My head is just a bit dizzy, and I'm feeling a bit weak. But, other than that, I'm alright. Did I sleep too much?"
"No, it was just fifteen minutes at most. You gave us all a scare, fainting like that!"
"Heh. I'm sorry, Ma. I think I might have run out of mana. Well, at least in light novels, the effect of using up your mana is fainting, right?"
"We are not in a light novel, Carlos."
Henrique was shaking his head, trying to think rationally about it all. But Heloisa rushed in to Carlos' defense.
"I mean, it's credible. He just used magic for the first time. He literally cast a fucking spell, an actual, real spell, and then fainted right after. It sounds like a logical conclusion to blame it on mana running dry, with the data we have."
"I must add that I started feeling that weak the moment I cast the spell. I resisted for some seconds before fainting. So I don't have doubts about it being an effect of casting the spell. But it might not be directly caused by using up my mana reserves."
"But that's a problem, then. We need to determine exactly what the cause is and remedy it. Otherwise, it can be too risky. To have you fainting in the middle of combat won't be great."
Henrique accepted the argument but voiced his concerns anyway. Yet, Ravi was even more excited than before.
"Hey, remember when we played the second edition of that RPG? The HP of the wizard was just 1d4, and he could only conjure one spell per day.
Remember that Carlos' character would spend all combat waiting for the moment to use his attack spell and then flee because any hit from the enemy would kill him? It was so funny each ti… Ouch! Why did you flick my head, Henrique?"
"Because it was funny only because it was a game situation. We're dealing with real life and death here."
"Oh… I'm sorry, Carlos."
"It's okay… but yeah, I got some flashbacks from that campaign. I'll have to hold on and use the spell only at the right moment, and then have Heloisa look over me as I stay down. But hey, I'm slowly recovering. I'm feeling way better now."
Marina remembered something she wanted to ask Carlos and asked him.
"Hm… Carlos. How long did we sleep earlier? Did you check the time?"
"Oh… I forgot to check! Let me just see… We arrived at the first cave at 11 am and returned to it at 1 pm. It's now 5 pm. That means we stayed for three hours in this cave."
"Three hours? So we must have slept for what? Two and a half hours? Isn't that egregious?"
She was annoyed at the time spent sleeping and kept muttering.
"What if some beast entered this place? We could've been killed in our sleep! Damn, we're so lucky that nothing actually happened…"
"Speaking of which, soon it will be evening. We got out from home at 6 am and have been walking up the mountain for five hours when we got here. Despite that afternoon nap, we had two difficult battles. We should think about setting up camp soon."
"Heloisa is right. We've been high on adrenaline since we were transported here, but soon the weariness will affect our thinking, and our bodies will fail us. We should start thinking about how to spend the night."
The two girls raised a valid concern, and soon everyone was talking at the same time again.
"Wait, wait, wait, everyone. Please wait for the other to finish before you speak. Carlos, do the honors."
"Thanks, Helo. What I wanted to say is that, while I'm feeling better, I wouldn't be able to cast another spell if we enter into combat again. I'm still not fully recovered."
"Henrique."
"Thanks. Well, I agree. And now, with what Carlos said, I agree even more. My body is all sore, and I already feel the weight of the day's activities."
"Marina."
"Oh, okay. Yeah, what Carlos said is worrying. Though I'm super excited after seeing Carlos cast a fucking spell, and I want to keep exploring and find more stuff, I know it's not the time.
I want to propose that we retreat to the cave where we found the rat nest. It's the furthest away from the unexplored areas, and it also has only one entrance. It would be the easiest one to guard and to defend."
"Ravi."
"I vote with the majority."
Those laughs were exactly what they were needing at this moment to ease the tension. After they calmed down, Heloisa talked again.
"It's decided, then. Let's go back to the rat cave and set up camp and rest."