A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 186 After eating the pizza, Quinn destroyed the cake and performed the Arcane Ritual.

This was perhaps the worst injury Quinn had ever suffered since coming into this world.

After being teleported out of the room, a locked door blocked his way.

But it's unclear what the person who built this house was thinking. The door, which could isolate Lin from the mana storm when she was eating and could be described as a top-tier arcane artifact, had a lock on the handle that was just a simple spring lock.

Perhaps it was to take care of Lynn, who was not used to human life more than ten years ago, but Quinn, as a thief, was no match for this lock and opened it without much effort.

Although there was no offensive arcane magic in the room, the concentration and scale of mana in the air were in no way inferior to the bombardment of the Eye of Grindelwald. Even though he had anticipated the consequences before unlocking the lock, the slight aftershock that leaked out the moment the lock core popped open almost killed Quinn.

He collapsed at the doorway, forcing himself to maintain his Demon King's Eyes despite the extreme pain in his brain. Only after confirming through the door that Lin had absorbed all the Mana Storm inside did he open the door and go in.

It was like an innocent kitten swallowing a whale and the entire ocean behind it.

The kitten lay on the ground, its little face occasionally furrowing from the cold. He had never seen such a vivid and painful expression on Lin's face before. He felt he should do something. With so much bleeding from her injuries, she would probably be more useful than a blanket. He didn't know any fire magic.

After picking Lin up, he unwrapped the cake and lit the candles.

The little girl didn't remain unconscious for long. Quinn spoke to her in his arms, telling Lin that they would go to the Arcane Festival together that night, before passing out.

When I opened my eyes again, I was already in my dormitory.

The golden light of the immortal totem array hanging on the wall made Quinn realize that he was dead. Fortunately, the forest was also part of the academy's territory, and the immortal totem could save him from any death that occurred within this space.

His internal organs were shattered by the leaking mana, and he didn't know how many bones were broken. Luckily, he was holding her from behind, otherwise her miserable state would have been seen.

Despite being so badly injured, he was still able to go into the room and talk to Lin for a while. He's a legendary survivor.

Graham, the Branson family's bodyguard, survived despite having a large hole in his chest, though he remained unconscious for a full week. It seems that his physical strength, enhanced by the dual traits from Sekiro, is probably no less than that of the eight warriors in the Warrior Rank.

After checking his resurrected body, he found it intact, without any discomfort or abnormality. Even his personal belongings were still there, except for the immortal totem that was in his inner pocket, which had disappeared.

Impressed by the wonder of arcane magic, Quinn checked again with his mental power, and the extraordinary properties remained stable.

Even Ankuya has no way of knowing the principle behind the Undying Totem; this is probably one of the academy's greatest secrets.

He dialed the office phone on the table and told the person on the other end that the Minion Immortal Totem had been used up. The other person seemed used to this kind of thing. When he heard that Quinn was a teacher, he didn't even ask why. Soon a new totem floated out of the fireplace. The golden little man had emerald eyes and was extremely beautiful.

About five minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Quinn said, "Come in," and saw Lynn holding a cake.

Perhaps she ran a little too fast, the cream on the cake collapsed and some of it smeared on her hands, but the little girl didn't care at all and stared straight at him.

Lynn was still wearing the pale yellow dress Quinn had chosen for her, but there was no blood on the dress, nor was there any cake. It seemed that after "dying" in the academy, no body or traces were left behind, which should be the parts needed for resurrection.

Compared to her white stockings and school uniform, Lin's bare feet, revealing her calves, made her seem more innocent. Holding the cake, she looked like the girl next door celebrating Quinn's birthday.

"Didn't I tell you to finish eating before you come?"

".sorry."

She gently bit her lower lip, her tone still indifferent, but even to others, Lin's apology and helplessness were palpable.

For better or worse, these are human emotions, even more vivid than when expressing apology to a classmate, so Quinn couldn't help but laugh: "Why apologize?"

"."

She stood motionless at the door, clutching the cake, for a long time before finally whispering, "Lin Rangkui."

"Heh, come in and have some cake, the cream's almost melted."

The little girl was about to express herself in a complete sentence when Quinn interrupted her, so they returned to their usual way of getting along, sharing food on the soft, large sofa.

The cake that Amamiya Yu sent was delicious, even comparable to the desserts at the Tire Restaurant that Quinn had eaten on Earth. It seems that no matter what world or cuisine you are in, as long as you can afford enough money, you can enjoy delicious food.

Except for Hangzhou.

Just as we were finishing the cake, his voice came from the side: "Well, it's like wanting to eat pizza. You can say whatever you like, dislike, what happened, or even if it's just a boring day."

"."

Lin Xiao still had a mouthful of snow-white cream in her mouth. Hearing this, she was a little flustered. She looked up at Quinn but found that Quinn was not looking at her.

"I'm available to listen to you whenever I have time. Hmm, if you had told me sooner, I wouldn't have been blown up by Mana. It's not my fault, I just wanted to do it this way."

"why?"

Lynn asked Quinn why he was doing something that hurt him and was meaningless.

"Because you said you were cold."

"..." She held the cream in her mouth for a long time, sitting there watching him. The man fiddled with his fork, slowly cutting the cake on the plate into the shape of poop, as focused as a master sculpting a masterpiece, so childish it was unbelievable.

Finally, she gave a soft "oh" and then started eating the cake.

I can't quite make out what I felt when I heard that answer. The tone was so matter-of-fact. Can "because you're cold" be a reason to risk your life? Even with an immortal totem, being affected by it would still hurt a lot.

But his embrace, the blood flowing onto my body, the heartbeat so close to mine—all of it was warm. It was a warmth different from the temperature or the mana injected into my body. Even now, my cold body seems to retain his warmth, no longer numb. The cake in my mouth, the clothes I wear, and the world before my eyes all become vivid because of it.

A strange impulse suddenly welled up in Lin's heart. She put down the cake she hadn't finished eating, moved her body a little to the left, and then a little more, until she could reach his hand. Then, Lin's little hand gently reached out to him.

Suddenly, the lazy hairstyle cake that was being sculpted collapsed. Quinn looked at her curiously while feeling regret. Her gaze was fixed on her hands, her fair little hands resting on her big hands, feeling them, like a firefly searching for light in the darkness, or like light searching for a firefly.

"Quinn."

"What happened all of a sudden?"

"warm."

As if by illusion, Quinn suddenly widened his eyes. Although Lynn still had the same expressionless face when she said those words, her eyes were no longer empty and cold white. A different color suddenly appeared in her crystal clear eyes.

It was a glimmer of light that even the most discerning thief among the superhumans would find extremely difficult to see, yet it was a genuine, captivating gaze that Leonardo da Vinci called the window to the soul. A sliver of dark light adorned the vast expanse of white eyes like a bright star. At this moment, Lin no longer appeared as a cold, perfect porcelain doll, but as a young girl filled with longing and joy.

It's like a beautiful porcelain doll has had its last piece of a puzzle completed. Even a god would be moved if he were to look up at her with such eyes.

Quinn's heart skipped a beat, and he pulled his hand away, pretending to be calm as he looked around. The little girl then went back to eating her cake.

After eating a twelve-inch pizza, Lin also ate most of a four-inch cream cake, but her lower abdomen under her dress remained flat, as if there was a black hole hidden in her stomach.

"Aren't you full from eating so much?"

Lin usually loves to eat junk food, but she is usually moderate. If she eats too much, she will save the food for the next day. But today, she didn't stop eating a single bite.

"Magic, digestion," Lin said, touching her stomach.

"Digesting food requires magic?"

"Ah."

Quinn suddenly realized why the academy was keeping an eye on Lynn and not letting her eat ordinary food.

"It's converted from magic mana, right? Can't it be absorbed from the environment?"

In the atmosphere of Temüran, Mana is everywhere—this is the first sentence of the first chapter of the textbook on basic arcane theory. This energy, believed to originate from the stars, permeates every part of Temüran, even in secluded secret realms, dungeons, academies, and even the spirit world; wherever the stars surround it, Mana will exist.

The principle of arcane magic is to use a small amount of mana, converted from mental energy, to mobilize a massive amount of mana from the outside world to form magical spells. The higher the rank of the arcane magic, the more complex the mana leverage and control patterns involved. The only one that breaks this principle is magic—magic is composed of pure mental energy and does not require the participation of external mana.

The only place in the world where mana doesn't exist is the Abyss, which is why arcane magic is almost impossible to cast there. Some skilled arcane sorcerers can store small amounts of mana, refined from their own essence, in their souls, but this is ultimately limited and, due to the limitations of the human soul, cannot sustain many arcane spells.

Colleen is different; she was sent by the academy to rescue people from the abyss, and it's likely that all the arcane magic she uses is powered by her own reserves.

Lin's lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't say anything. Her expressionless face didn't look at Quinn, a reaction that showed she was in a difficult situation.

"You can't tell me about the method for absorbing mana?"

Quinn could probably guess what was going on, otherwise he wouldn't have used those glass bottles to "eat".

However, it is somewhat strange that even humans can absorb mana from the environment, while Lin, as the supreme creation of the elves, the progenitors of magic, cannot do so.

“Harry, you can’t say it.” She lowered her head, her voice much softer: “Body, arcane, mana. Secret.”

"Heh," Quinn didn't care. Anyway, he probably already knew everything because of the time rewind. Even if he didn't, he wasn't the kind of person who had to dig deep into everything or had an extremely strong desire for control. "Since it's a secret, then we definitely can't let anyone else know."

"."

Lynn's eyelashes trembled slightly. After a long silence with her head down, her voice came: "Quinn... do you want to know?"

I won't ask.

"Lin can tell you."

"Didn't you even ask me why I apologized?"

He gently patted the little girl's head; it wasn't cold at all, and felt wonderful to the touch.

"It's okay. No matter what you are or what you become in the future, I'll still make you pizza."

(End of this chapter)