The adventurers Symon had spent the last week travelling with seemed so competent that it was easy to forget they were barely a few years into adulthood by Earth standards. In fact, he'd learned that in the culture of their people, they weren't even considered full adults yet. Going out into the world and bringing back a trophy — in this case, the core and head of the razor stalker — marked their transition to adulthood. They already referred to Symon and each other as "blooded warriors", but technically they were still children, at least until they actually delivered the trophies to their elders and performed the relevant ceremony.
As usual, Symon was at the head of the marching order, using his magic to kill the grass and clear a path to walk on. But this time, they had a new target in mind. Instead of heading due North to make it to the coastline — only a day or two of travel away by now — they instead took a short detour after Safiya spotted a large pond. They weren't dying of thirst, but they'd been rationing their water and were all looking forward to the opportunity to bathe.
When Symon was in the desert proper and had first spotted the grass sea that he had now almost completed his journey through, he'd initially thought it developed into a forest or jungle. He'd be forgiven for thinking this, considering how tall and thick the grass grew, but it wasn't the case. The only plant life he saw was the same bamboo-like vegetation; no trees had been allowed to grow here. He assumed they'd all been choked of sunlight. Safiya had wanted to put her new eye to use by scouting around, but the fact that the grass grew taller than even Atabek made that plan difficult.
Her solution was simple; she had climbed up Atabek like a monkey and stood on his shoulders. Her balance was strong enough that she could maintain this position even when the giant man was walking, giving her the unobstructed vantage point that allowed her to spot the water in the first place. They looked pretty funny in Symon's mind, like some kind of acrobatic circus act, but he couldn't deny had worked well.
After half an hour of travel, they reached the body of water. It was roughly a dozen metres across, with a small stream flowing out of it that headed Northwards. The water was surprisingly clear, something Symon got a very up-close view of as he almost fell right into it. The wall of grass had stopped suddenly, immediately being replaced water without the gradual transition that he would have expected.
Symon quickly cleared part of the shoreline, his draining speed no longer slowed down by having a full vessel as he'd yet to refill it after restoring Safiya's eye. The others fanned out around him, weapons at the ready as they searched for threats. Even Symon could recognise that the only source of water he'd seen since waking up in the desert would be a popular watering hole for various monsters.
Luckily, their caution proved unnecessary. No dangerous creatures were present, neither around the water nor in it. He half expected some type of giant monster to come charging out of the water, but it was both shallow and clear enough that they could see the bottom. A few fish were swimming around in there, but they seemed normal to Symon. Keelgrave turned out to recognise them from his seafaring days, informing him that they were harmless and also quite tasty.
He didn't need to tell the others this, as they were already spreading out around the pond and staring hungrily at the fish. Their travel rations had been decent at best, and last night's stew made from the snake meat hadn't quite hit the spot. As usual, Atabek's breads had been the highlight of the meal, but even they could only elevate things so far.
As everyone else slowly spread out, he considered how they could catch the fish. Aslan's spear would have been their best bet, but it had been snapped in battle some time ago. He still carried around the two halves, but Symon wasn't sure how well it would work like that.
Taking a step closer to the water, he was distracted by his own reflection, all thoughts about fish vanishing from his mind. It was the first chance he'd had to get such a good look at himself since arriving here.
He had mixed feelings about the young man he saw staring back at him. His dark brown hair was overly long, which might have looked nice if it had been styled. Instead, it was slicked back by sweat and small clumps of what must have been dried blood, although he wasn't sure if it was his. His eyes were the same brown colour he'd always had, but he felt that there was a certain intensity there that he hadn't had the last time he'd looked in a mirror. He didn't know how to describe how they had changed, but they looked more... focused.
The rest of his face was smooth, with no acne or blemishes on his skin. He hadn't had anything too bad, but his healing must have cleared up his skin completely. Plenty of dirt was smudged over his face, but the skin itself seemed perfect.
Eyes trailing down his body, he grimaced at what he saw. His fighting style tended to consist of outlasting a monster as it scratched and bit him half to death, which really did a number on his wardrobe. His original paramedic uniform was long since destroyed, alongside the replacement clothes the adventurers had given to him. He'd taken off the second white robe that they'd given to him — it had a few rips in it, but the real problem was how much blood had been soaked into it. His magic took away many of the consequences of being hurt, but it did nothing for his clothing.
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He needed a method of avoiding injury in the first place. It would make his vitality last longer for one, but he also didn't enjoy being getting savaged in every fight. His Pain Resistance tried, but it could only do so much. Maybe a shield would be nice, or perhaps some nice thick armour. Even just learning to dodge better would be helpful.
Compared to his clothes, the body underneath was in much better condition. He was of course completely healthy, not a single scratch or scar on him. He was grateful he could heal his own scars at least, even if he was still unsure why it didn't work on the others. He was a pasty white colour, but at least his vitality kept him getting sunburned. He shuddered slightly as he remembered the lobster-red colour his skin had become when he was stuck with an empty vessel in the desert proper. At least the adventurers hadn't seen him like that.
His only concern was that, well, he was still skinny. His Strength wasn't particularly high, so he wasn't expecting to look like Atabek, but he'd still been hoping for something to visibly change. He certainly felt stronger — he could swing his metal pipe club around noticeably easier than when he'd first acquired it — but if his body had grown since coming here it was too slight to notice. This wasn't the first time he'd noticed the lack of a physical change, but it had resurfaced in his mind after Safiya's crushing hug. He'd bounced some ideas as to why this was the case off Keelgrave, but the spirit hadn't been very helpful.
His Strength wasn't far off from being a full 1.00, which meant he was approaching the strongest a normal person would be able to get without the Ledger's help. He had no easy way to test this, but he trusted what the Ledger said — he could certainly do a lot more pushups than he used to be able to do. But the reason he still looked much the same as he did before coming here? His best theory was that the Ledger was changing him, it was simply taking its time. No one really knew how the Ledger worked, at least according to Keelgrave, but it was a fair assumption that mana was involved in some capacity. He had a vessel instead of a mana core like everyone else, so it wasn't a large leap in logic for him to guess that his lack of mana could be harming the process.
"How would you even know that? I thought you were a pirate?" Symon asked. Keelgrave seemed to know a little bit about a lot of different things, which he supposed made sense when he considered how many adventures the old ghost must have been on.
Keelgrave replied with a smug tone.
Symon wasn't sure why'd he be expected to know that, considering he hadn't even known potions were a thing until this conversation. And while he wasn't a plant, he still chose to believe the process worked for him too. He was just assuming that the Ledger used mana to work its magic, but it made sense that something was powering it. Similarly, he imagined that the first few days in the desert without food had harmed his potential gains. Even since meeting the adventurers, he hadn't been eating a whole lot, especially when you considered how active he'd been. Could it really be something so simple?
His musings were interrupted by a splash in the water. Glancing up, he discovered that the Dumosans had a simple yet surprisingly effective technique for catching the fish. The pond was only up to his chest at the deepest point, so Safiya simply waded in and... picked up a fish with her bare hands.
He'd seen how fast she could move already, but he'd been largely focused on not being stabbed by a giant mantis monster at the time. Now, without anything distracting him, he could really appreciate it. The moment a fish got in range — admittedly, her arms weren't very long — she would snatch them right out of the water, deliver a quick stab with one of her daggers, and then toss it to the shore near Atabek. The whole process took less than a second, meaning she'd caught a full meal for them in a matter of moments.
Keelgrave must have been paying attention to her too.
"Dammit Keelgrave, what was that for? I've been good about my training!" Symon responded. He didn't need more reminders about how weak he was.
"What could I even do?" Symon asked, exasperated. "I've got no more time left in the day for training."
"Care to enlighten me?"
Symon rolled his eyes. "And? How am I going to do that?"