After a long night of practice, the sudden sound of Belial moving put him on edge and motivated him to show the fruits of his training by producing a throwing knife.
"Whoa, whoa whoa. Sorry, I just woke up." Jonah felt a little bad, it was only a reflex, that because he'd been practicing making them and imagining scenarios.
"No worries, just not used to people waking up without prompting." Jonah said as he nodded to the tent, before gesturing for Belial to join him.
When he sat down a few feet from where Jonah and Lucas were, the disturbance awakened Lucas. "Show some civility please. What's going on?"
"Belial woke up, so I thought I should make sure he wasn't afflicted with any slow acting poisons." Jonah answered with, what was to Lucas, an all too transparent excuse to use his new skill.
Unfortunately for Belial, Lucas had heard of it, but never seen it in action and was quite anxious to.
"Okay, thanks, I'll take you up on that." Belial smiled in a way that did nothing at all to make them feel bad for using him as a test dummy.
During his nocturnal practice, Jonah had realised that the key to mana was much the same, in fact it was mana trying to do what Jonah asked of his spiritual energy that was interfering.
All he needed to do was visualise an outcome that was befitting the name of the skill he was trying to use, he also then got distracted thinking about why Kayla was able to use MP more intuitively, but could only imagine it was her age.
He visualised a white serpent, one that bit to introduce its cleansing and purifying venom and poured his MP into that image.
Jonah didn't have any point of reference for size, the smallest snake he had seen was so long ago that he couldn't visualise it well and obviously the snakes from the dungeon would be too large, in the end the smallest he could picture it was an articulated python.
As the image solidified and mana poured into it, a small iridescent circle appeared on the ground between them.
"Woah! Okay, this is..." As the head of serpent appeared, that was as white and untouched as the room they arrived in to make their characters, Belial's face dropped and he let out a bloodcurdling shriek. "...No, no, no, no, no! Hey, Jonah, I thought we were good!"
"Relax, he's a doctor. One little nibble and he'll purify and detoxify you." Lucas had an evil grin on his face as the snake kept emerging and began cooling around Belial to stop his flailing.
"Easy now, got to make sure you're healthy, Jonah can't lie, remember? You can trust what he said." Lucas laughed as Belial continued his attempts to avoid treatment but stopped when the white snake bit him instead.
"Looks like you got poisoned, Lucas..." Jonah laughed, suddenly joined by Belial until Belial got bitten too. "...Looks like you both did."
Jonah started laughing as the snake returned to him and the commotion of his laughter and their complaints lured the girls from their tent to ask what was happening.
When they saw the snake slithering up Jonah's leg, Orcette tried diving back into the tent with Kayla, who ducked to avoid her seeing how tame it appeared and made her way over to Jonah.
"He's super cute..." She reached out a hand to tickle its chin, but it bit her before she made contact and whilst the men had lost their composure at that point, she simply continued as though nothing had happened. "...Awe, sorry little guy, did I scare you?"
At that point Jonah just looked at the other two with disappointment and let the shame sink in. "No, you didn't scare him, his venom cures illnesses and poisons. Now, do you want to take him to look over Orcette?"
"Sure, she won't hate me as much." With that, it used her arm as a bridge and wrapped around her loosely, then she skipped back towards the tent whilst ignoring the curses Orcette was hurling from her refuge.
Whilst that was happening the others started preparing breakfast and when it finally came time to sit and eat, Lucas and Kayla sat side-by-side as the others glared at them.
Luckily by the time they were done, they had been forgiven and started heading back to the guild.
They weren't entirely sure whether it was because of levels because they had no way to know since Belial didn't have an ID, but they all had to hold back to avoid leaving him behind.
Even still they made it back to the fifth ring before the dawn sun had fully left the horizon, the moment they had, Belial's demeanor shifted. "Hey, thank you all for getting me out of that dungeon, even if it was only a chance. Usual etiquette?"
"Yeah, I was about to say the same thing, privacy settings to max. We'll say goodbye here, want to go check the new house out. Did you need Orcette's ID to register the dangerous skill?"
"If you could all hand them over please, I'll get the details on your dungeon loot another time girls and if Lottie is at reception I'll send her over."
"Sure thing, if Kayla decides to leave we'll bring her over, but honestly I neither expect it nor wish it." The sudden formality in Jonah's speech made Lucas and Belial laugh after hearing him speak casually.
"Getting back into character, are you?" Despite the fact his amusement was genuine, there was also the unmistakable undertone of pity.
"I think it's best for an Angel to act as expected, when those who have the respect of the people fail to meet expectations, the people can become restless and trouble can ensue." They all studied him for different reasons at that moment.
Kayla was just impressed by his ability to slip into character as an Angel so quickly.
Orcette was the same, but also trying to figure him out. Thanks to the life she had lived before, she had never had a crush or fallen in love, but something about Jonah intrigued her to the point that she wanted to stay with him and she wondered if that might be the same.
Lucas was still trying to gauge him with certainty on at least one aspect of his character. He could tell Jonah was smart, cautious and generally a good person. That assessment clashed with the naivety, impulsiveness and rigidness he had observed however.
In short, Jonah was an enigma and would either prove an ally he'd be thankful for one day, or an enemy he'd come to regret letting grow into a genuine threat on what would most likely be the day he died.
In the end though, the only thing he was certain of, was that treating him like a danger or an enemy would certainly prove a self-fulfilling prophecy. Afterall, that was exactly what he had overheard happening between him and Belial and so he patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, Jonah, do me a favour and don't kill me..."
Whilst all that was happening, the only thing Belial was thinking was 'Why do I get the feeling the last boss changed the moment Jonah put the damn gear on? I can't read the guy at all, he acts like he's been here for years longer than anyone else. Orcette's dangerous too and I can tell she thinks letting me live is a mistake, but why is she going along with him, do they know each other outside of the game?'
As he finished the thought, Lucas patted Jonah on the shoulder and trailed off, then they handed over their ID's and headed off at their own speed. Then Lucas put them in the pouch Kayla had returned at breakfast and put a fist on Belial's chest.
"Be up front with me and I'll protect you, but whatever you do, don't pick any fights with Jonah without witnesses." The words surprised him, he had thought they were close.
"Look, for what it's worth I have absolutely no intention or desire to pick a fight with him, but we both just know it is inevitable as things stand." Lucas evaluated the words and could sense no dishonesty to the best of his abilities.
"Explain."
"Okay, but just let me speak without thinking I'm insane, it might even help Jonah one day too..." Belial went on to tell the whole story from his own perspective, with the benefit of also delving into his real world identity.
"Okay and you didn't tell Jonah your real name because of this "gamer etiquette"..." Lucas cursed and kicked the dirt at his feet. "...Don't tell another living soul what you just told me, I can see why Jonah didn't, the wrong person would have killed him and hell I might have if not for his race."
"So, you believe me?"
"I believe you believe it, in the end I honestly only care about the fact there is going to be a war between you foreigners that might end our world. You do know that common sense dictates we take Jonah's side, right?"
"I do. I ain't a liar though, Mum always said lies only get you into trouble."
Lucas burst into laughter. "Your mother sounds like a fine woman, I'm sure she's proud."
"I'm sure she's bawling her eyes out, probably praying over me and hoping that someone comes up with a way to get us out." Belial's eyes turned glassy at the thought of his mum crying over him.
"Fine, I'm a man of my word and I'll watch over you for a while and see you wherever you choose to head. I suggest you stay out of the way of any others like yourself though, not all who accept this world will be as willing to let you live in peace today and risk fighting you tomorrow."
"You seem to be pretty happy considering."
"Are you kidding!? The Angel was my biggest concern and he's on my side. I couldn't be happier today and tomorrow is future Me's problem. Still though, what kind of world is yours that those three would give it up so readily?"
With that, the pair both started heading towards the city proper, fully expecting to avoid further contact with the others. Fate however had other plans and as they arrived at the east gate of the fourth ring, they found Kieran giving them all a stern lecture on running full speed towards the gates.
Lucas couldn't help but erupt into further laughter, along with Belial and they walked past them and somehow managed to beat them into the city despite the hefty lead they had.