----------------------------------------

Now that I felt less tense, I felt like I could reason better.

Zeph told me he had some safety measures in case he was attacked, but I wasn’t sure if they would work on a twisted neck. He seemed pretty done with life after that, and if by some miracle he was still alive there was no way I could do anything, so the best thing I could do was move on and forget about it.

It was not the first time I saw someone I knew die, and we weren’t even too close. It was mostly a partnership in times of need, and he clarified in the beginning that I could retreat if the opponents were too strong, so it’s not like I had any obligation to go rescue him or take revenge.

The only other thing about which I may have had to worry was if that guy came back for me, but it felt like I was just being paranoid — he was there for Zeph, and that was it. He probably attacked me just to prevent me from making a fuss, and even if I wanted to run away and hide, I didn’t give myself much of a chance to escape if he really wanted to find me, so it was useless to worry about it.

The only other thing that was bothering me was that the assassin almost killed me, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t go and settle the score, so I had to let it go.

If one day in the future I met him again, I could think about it then.

Good, worries and residual feelings settled. Let’s move on, I thought, leaving the whole thing behind.

Now I needed to plan how to live from now on. I thought I would have had a few more months to think about it, but it’s not like I didn’t have options.

The first thing that came to mind was that there was no need to move to another city at the moment.

Since Zeph was dead, there was no reason to continue to travel until Caldris. As he said, aside from a few things, this city was better, and while I wanted to travel there was no need to hurry, so It was fine to settle here for now.

Moreover, there was Markus’ offer to consider.

I should have asked Zeph’s opinion while I could. Having someone to talk to was good. Unfortunately, Freya wasn’t a good conversation partner. I hope her tongue will loosen a bit with time.

Still, there was nothing I could find fault with about what he said, and I didn’t think there was anything to lose by trying.

Well, I’ll go tell him I’ll accept tomorrow, after the morning training with Freya, I thought as I looked at her sleeping figure.

The issue here was that there would be days when I couldn’t follow her. I had to think about how to manage that.

Wait… I had a sudden realization. Now that I think about it, there’s no reason for her not to get the same training I do.

She was starting from nothing, but so was I. Aside from fighting, there wasn’t much I could teach her, and there was no need to wait until I learned if she could just learn alongside me. There would probably be an increase in price, but I didn’t think it would be that much more expensive.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

I’ll have to ask Markus about the prices too tomorrow, I thought, making a mental note.

I could also ask him for an economical inn to stay in while we stayed in the city. There was no need to splurge too much now that we didn’t need to maintain a facade.

Wonderful, I thought after I planned what to do. I felt better now that I knew what to do, so I prepared for some mana training to tire myself out before trying to get some sleep.

I had made excellent progress until now, and I was ready to use mana during combat, though not constantly. Some more practice was still needed to make me feel completely at ease with it, but it was already good enough to use as a trump card. I was sure that just this would be a massive boost to my combat ability.

To get a good feel for how much I improved, though, I had to find some sparring partners, but that could wait for later.

The next two objectives I had were moving my limbs using only mana and improving my sensitivity and control over small amounts of it.

For the first objective, I planned to do it by just repetition as usual, while for the second, I would try to get there with meditation — nothing else came to mind other than that.

I was really looking forward to it, since if I could improve those two areas, my survivability would greatly increase. One of the greatest risks for me during a fight was taking a wound that would impair my mobility, since I didn’t have any way to attack from a distance or defend from long-range Skills, so having the ability to move my body even when physically impossible could be the difference between life and death for me.

And if I could control the mana in my blood or just keep the cut parts connected, then I would be nearly unstoppable… against those I already have a chance to defeat.

If I crossed someone who was too strong, he could just crush my head and be done with it.

Fortunately, though, there shouldn’t be too many of those, at least in this kingdom, so my only concern should be to improve how many I can fight against at the same time for now.

Only it wasn’t so easy to achieve.

Damn, it’s still so hard, I thought as I let my arm fall down.

While I improved fairly easily while assisting my movements with mana, using it alone still proved a challenge.

After that, I meditated for a while before going to bed, but that too didn’t show much improvement.

It’s going to take years at this rate, I thought as I undressed. I wasn’t too disappointed about it, though. I still hoped to improve faster, but compared to when I was before my evolution, I was still seeing progress, so I wasn’t discouraged — sooner or later I would get there.

After that, I went under my covers and drifted off to sleep.

Name: Silvester

Age: 23

Race: Human

Level: 17/50

Attributes

Mana consumption: Mana can be converted into energy for the body.

Regeneration: Surplus energy can be used for regeneration.

The growth of my level is stalling, I thought when my Status Screen popped up. The numbers went up slower and slower as time passed.

I can resume my physical training too now that I don’t have to be on guard against attacks. Maybe I’ll see it rising again, I thought as I dismissed the screen.

I wasn’t sure if that was really the case, but I could only try and see. I still had the manacles since I kept them in my backpack instead of giving them back to Zeph, so I had some heavy training in mind.

Done with my thought for the night, I drifted off to sleep.

It had been a long night.

----------------------------------------