"Mother!" Adimia burst into the orphanage, the door swinging shut with a thud. Madella turned from the sink, her hands still glistening with dishwater, and greeted him with a warm smile. It quickly softened into puzzlement as her gaze fell upon the two small, lumpy sacks clutched in Adimia and Bacha’s hands.

  With a shared, proud glance, they opened the bags. The muted clink of silver coins filled the quiet room - 122 of them, gleaming dully in the light.

  "How did you get this?" Madella asked, her voice a gentle probe.

  "A merchant called Mongey needed help with his cart," Adimia recited, the lie Paley and Bacha had crafted feeling strange on his tongue. "He paid us to help him."

  Bacha followed suit, her voice brighter. "I sold him my herbs, too! He said they were really good."

  Madella looked at them, her eyes holding a deep, trusting pride. "I'm so proud of you both." She quickly dried her hands on her apron, the rough fabric whispering against her skin, then held their warm cheeks in her palms. They were glad she asked no more. "You should treat yourselves with this. You haven't had chocolate in a while, have you?"

  "No, mother," Adimia insisted, his voice firm with a selflessness that touched her heart. "We want to help you with this money. And everyone else."

  "You're too sweet. Both of you." Her smile was a quiet blessing. "Alright. How about on our next grocery run, we all go shopping for uniforms together?"

  "Yay!" Both children hopped to her, wrapping her in a tight hug. She searched the space behind them with her eyes.

  "So this early in the morning... were you gathering herbs alone, Bacha?"

  "Uh, Paley was with me. He kept me safe." That, at least, was truth. Recalling the intense battle against the Weynsoo still sent a flutter of fear through her stomach.

  "Where is he? I should thank him for going with you."

  Paley had excused himself, telling Bacha and Adimia to continue ahead. Now, deep in the forest, he was on his knees, one hand pressed into the cool, damp earth. His breath came in ragged gasps, his mind a storm of chaos. His heart hammered, a frantic bird against his ribs, and his whole body burned with a dry, internal fire. He gasped, desperate for air to soothe the agony, and tumbled across the ground, crashing into trees and bushes as he clutched his chest. The pain wasn't just in his heart; every organ felt on the verge of rupture.

  "What... is happening..." He tried to marshal his thoughts, but his brain had been hijacked by pure agony. Was this death? The pain had begun halfway home, a subtle thrum he’d hidden from the children. He had come here to this secluded place so they wouldn't have to watch him die, a final act of protection for his new family.

  "I-I need to do something." He tried to cast a diagnostic Healing Magic, but his mana was gone. No - it was negative. The familiar inner well was empty, replaced by the invasive sensation of outside mana forcing its way into every pore, stretching them wide in a desperate, torturous attempt to be filled. He knew he'd overdone it. But had he known the cost of such impatience, he would never have challenged the Weynsoo just to see Madella's joy a day sooner. He was a fool, suspended now between life and death.

  He recalled Aneros' story. This was precisely how Aneros died. After using not just all of his magic, but ten times his maximum mana.

  Paley lay flat on his back. The canopy allowed thin streams of the approaching noon sun to warm his face. He remembered the warm voice from the mana zone. "C-Can you... save... me?" he asked the empty air. But no one came.

  Warmth did. Madella's warmth. He had no idea how long had passed, but the pain subsided. She held back tears as she carried him into the cottage, her voice a soothing murmur as she tried to nurse him from his daze. It didn't hurt anymore, but a profound, bone-deep exhaustion had taken its place.

  "Mana debt." Teerom's voice echoed through the haze. "Aneros suffered many. His companion, Calina, was always the one that healed him. But I don't know what kind of magic or spell she used."

  Mana debt? It sounded exactly right. Adimia and Bacha must have told them everything. That was why Madella had been crying - because she knew Paley had risked his life for 122 silver coins.

  He closed his eyes.

  His first thought upon waking was: 'Good. That's good. I'm alive'. The second was when he saw Madella's face at the foot of his bed, half-buried in her hand, her eyes shadowed with worry. "I'm so glad." He thought it was an internal thought, but he'd voiced it aloud.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The first thing Madella did was embrace him, her arms enveloping him in a warmth that felt like a sanctuary. "I care for you, Paley." She held him close. "You're strong, Paley. You're kind, Paley. But don't let that kindness lead you into danger. Because we all care about you."

  One by one, the orphans gathered, drawn by Madella's voice - they'd all been waiting with bated breath.

  "Damn you, Paley! What were you thinking fighting a monster on your own!?" Teerom demanded.

  "Don't do that again," Jurie reprimanded, her voice tight.

  "I thought you were going to die!" Bacha jumped onto him, staining his neck and shirt with her tears.

  "Why did you lie to us!? If you needed help, you should've said!" Adimia slapped him on the back of the head, a stinging rebuke born of fear.

  "Take me next time! I'm making a sword, I can help!" Reben suggested, but Madella shut him down: "No one's hunting any monsters anytime soon."

  Rauba watched quietly, but her expression was one of clear relief. She admired him; he had taken down a Tier 2 monster.

  "Paley!" Amasha climbed onto the bed, "Show me how you beat it! I wanna see!" he bubbled, practically vibrating with excitement.

  "Not anytime soon, Amasha," Paley said, smiling.

  He took the rest of the day to rest. Madella and the others left to purchase school uniforms, leaving Teerom behind.

  "You're a real idiot, you know that?" Teerom said, his voice now less stern, "And you're amazing. I was on edge about having another person for mother to take care of. We were already struggling - another mouth to feed felt like too much." He quickly held up a hand. "This isn't to pressure you, by the way. But you've inspired me..." A shy smile touched his lips. "You guys are all going to school soon. I think... It's time for me to chase my dream."

  "You want to be an architect?" Paley asked.

  "And a builder." Teerom grinned.

  They talked more, Paley savoring the cozy conversation as he rested. His mana slowly returned, but something significant was different. Once he felt he'd reached his previous maximum, the mana continued to build.

  "Teerom... Did Aneros get stronger after every battle?"

  "Yeah, but you're not going to fight a bigger monster. It's a miracle you survived." He leaned in to whisper, "To be honest, I'm really stoked that you took a monster down. So if you want to be considerate of mother's feelings, go for Tiers of monsters that are your league." Teerom crossed his arms, delivering his lecture.

  "My league." Paley's mana continued to build. How much had it grown? He couldn't focus as Teerom began to rant about Aneros, the floodgates of his admiration now wide open.

  I'll never go that far again, Paley thought, recalling the desperation of the battle and the ensuing agony. Food replenishes my mana, but there's a second limit on how much I can use. The trigger is using more than my maximum. How much more did I use? If I had to guess... 2 times. How much has it grown? He sat in the forest, allowing his mind to drift before focusing in the silence. He felt his mana and compared it to yesterday. 'If I had 10 coins worth of mana before, I have 20 now. It doubled.' He understood the brutal trade-off. 'That was too painful. I'm not doing that just to double my mana.'

  He stood. "So let's do an experiment. If I get close to the bottom of my max mana, do I grow? Or do I have to push the limits?" He summoned a flame, feeling his mana drain at a rate of about 1 coin per minute.

  He turned to a tree and coated his body in Strength Magic. It burned about 1 coin per minute, too, as he punched the trunk. He was impatient. "What if I pour a lot of mana into it?" He knew a fireball could be too dangerous, so he stuck with Strength Magic.

  He tensed his muscles, straining to channel mana faster. It was hard. There was something he was missing. It wasn't a body thing. It was a mind one.

  Rauba said that.

  "It's not a body thing. It's a mind one." He'd been so focused, he thought the words were his own.

  He turned. "Rauba, what're you doing here?"

  "I want to practice with you."

  "Uh, sure. What did you mean by mind thing?"

  She explained: "You're tensing your body. You look like you're trying to poop. Thinking about my breathing works for me. I imagine the mana going out harder and faster."

  Paley turned toward the battered tree. He closed his eyes, focused on his breathing, and envisioned his mana channeling into the spell faster. 5 coins.

  His fist did not break; it carved. The tree split in half from the impact, the trunk blowing away and crashing to the ground. Rauba shielded herself from the debris, but a fine dust settled on her clothes. He didn't notice. She didn't mind. He was almost high on the feeling of control. 13 coins.

  He tried to run but instead flew. His legs pushed off the ground so hard he leaped six meters high and rocketed forward thirty meters in one go. By the end, he was completely out of mana. "This is it. This is the feeling." He recalled that point of no return. To use any more would be to invite the debt again.

  Rauba clapped, a quiet, reserved sound, but her eyes shone with genuine admiration.

  Then, she gave it a shot. She produced a flame and poured her mana into it. It was disappointing when it only grew to the size of her fist before launching forward like a wet sock, igniting a patch of grass. They both ran over and stomped it out, the scent of scorched earth filling the air.

  "It's hard to practice Fire Magic, huh?" Paley smiled.

  "Yeah. Everything burns," she sighed, a little frustrated.

  "Good thing I'm here then. Let's practice when I get some mana back. I'll put out your fires," he offered.

  "You'd do that for me?" She looked up at him, her eyes wide with a gratefulness that made his heart pang.

  They spent the rest of the day together, with occasional visits from the other orphans. Rauba would practice, set something ablaze, Paley would douse it, they would rest, and repeat. At the day's end, Paley checked his mana. It was still recovering.

  The next morning, he saw what he wanted: an increase in his maximum capacity. By half a coin. It surprised him how small the gain was, but he quickly did the math to comfort himself.

  'Half a coin a day. I went down to zero five times. So using all your mana once increases your total by 1/10. If I do this every day, I can increase my mana by 5 per week. I used 20 coins yesterday which ended in that terrible experience,' He shuddered. 'Never again.'