"huh," AeroAero thought as he watched his teammates train their energy. He could see it revolving around them and being absorbed into their bodies. It wasn't a sight he'd seen before. It was kind of beautiful. He watched them a while longer before turning back to his own training; he forced on the extra orbs of power he had floating behind him.

The first thing he did was add additional bandages for his spiritual wound, which he felt had healed a slight bit.' it infuriating how little progress with it has been made,' but I'm doing fine.' he wasn't staying up at night some times because of the pain it caused him.

His body could move, so he was going to keep going.

Focusing, he slowly separated the orbs until their number increased to a fist-sized ball around him. From there, he changed them one but one until they became small staff. "up!" he whispered, commanding their staff to rise until they floated above him. Dragging his toes against the ground, he drew a line before calling down the staff.

Bring them closer until they were hugging his body, "Relax, reshape." the staff relaxed their forms, merging together until he hugged his skin. Then he moved, throwing out a punch at his top speed," great," resetting his stance, he tried again. Getting the same result, the energy lagged behind.

His body moved faster than his energy. Currently, this wasn't probable if you didn't count his battles with the beast. But those were more with his physical form; even if he only used the energy in the form of some kind of weapon, it lagged behind his other movements. It was kind of annoying; the most direct solution was slowing his body to match the energy. 'but I'd rather my energy can keep up with my body.' so training.

Combating against and unimaged energy, he tried to get his relaxed to work with both the energy and his body. It was slow going, but so was the collection of heaven and earth energy. Which meant he had time to practice this or just rest.

"ah, finally!" the inna called out, aero jumping like a started beast from his nap." as sorry," she quickly apologized, seeing the grumble and sleepy look on his face. "it one," Aero replied, turning over so his face wasn't pressed against his arm caprice and tried to get back to sleep was Inna got up and stretched.

'I can already feel a change,' it was small, like a drop, but it sat in her body. Her heavenly and rath energy leaked into her body,' I don't know what it's doing, but its mind, it going to help me. With that, I can help my world.' she looked over to where Areo was sleeping, dozing in the shade.

'going to need more than this little drop, man. I hope there is more use for this than combat. Cause that would be so lame.' She finished stretching, sat back down, and returned to her meditation.

The other came out of their mediation at varying rates after achieving success by stepping through the door into energy growth. Aero eventually came out of his nap and vied into the water for more training. He was joined by Galia, who simply wanted to get her blood flowing again.

They ended up sparing Aero being pushed on the defending for a good part of the fight. Their carapaces clicked against each other as they fought. Trading blows until Gailia surprised him, warping her foot around his ankle and pulling it from him.

Rocking, he prevented himself from falling completely over, looking up he saw her fist hoving inches from his face." you've changed," Aero stated with a smile." you wouldn't have pulled that trick when we first met, nor would you have come that close to striking me!"

"ah, sorry," she reflectively answered." Aero's smiled amped a bit." why would I be upset?" Aero said, and again she apologized cause Aero would not be upset that he treated him like the warrior he was. Even better, it was something she no longer had to consciously do.

Frankly, it was kind of funny how different her life has become and how different the world has become. In fact, after more flower spraying, a letter was brought to the camp, saying," Oh, we got to tip her well."

After tipping the delivery girl well, Aero opened the letter. The parchment was filled with flowery and delicate script, which he had come to associate with the leader of his home country. Reading through it, he felt it was a report about the movements of science and what they've done with the knowledge he left them.

"so I guess they doing well?" he pointed the question to the helper, who answered in a rather non-committal way. "still trying to stay hands off as you can, aren't you?" the answer was silent, but Aero didn't say anything, instead reading over the details.

They had figured out they had made a telescope to view the stars, the moon, and closet planets. But more importantly, there were notes about chemistry, biology, and physics.

Things that would get him into space, things that would put them on more even ground with the wider universe. Details weren't too sparse in the three-page letter.

"well, at least things are moving on that front; at the same time, it's good; the scientist isn't only interested in weapons." rolling up the parchment, he put it away before going about the day. Later, during the second meal, he asked about the team finances. "we're not doing bad, but the conversion rate is kind of annoying." Tzilia commented," Why did you ask?"

"I was wondering how necessary it would be to earn some money from a hunt," Aero replied, turning over his drink. Draining the rest of it, "Why would we need to hunt?"

"I'm bored," Aero plainly stated." I'm going to look into a hunt. Mostly to take a break from training and help my savings; this training trip is looking to be pretty pricey."

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"Oh, that's definitely not a bad idea." earning more money wasn't a bad idea; it would allow them to stretch their legs. " I think we could add another reason to this trip," she reminded them how a shift in elementals would help their cultivation. "oh, that is definitely something to consider." this continent had more wetlands than their home. So it would be great for their water-aligned teammate; there were also a few decent underground locations, such as mine. They talked about it, and the next day, the team went into town to check out their options. After a flower of looking, they found something to do. "All right, what a purple spine... leochimp? Am I reading this right?" tzilla looked over her teammate's shoulder." yeah, it's Leochimp." she replied." lior thanked her before looking at the sketch below it.

"This thing looks fierce." lior commented, passing the paper to her team so they could look over it as well. Most of them agreed, but no one of them was partially scared. Confident in their own combat ability, that didn't stop them from asking around about the beast after they finished their drinks.

"so it's poisonous as well as fierce!" lior commented, only worried about how much the anti-venom would cost or how long it would put them out of combat. Personally, she was going to do her best and more to avoid the poison; she didn't like getting poisoned. More so than normal, very bad experiences, and too many on top of that.

She has been poised, on average, at least twice a year since becoming a hunter. It wasn't from a lack of evasion ability; she just ran into so many poisonous & venomous creatures that some of them had to land a hit. The only good part of this event was a growing resistance to poisons.

"Well, according to this information, the thing is about two days away, but when I asked around the roads, I got very few answers."

"like they couldn't agree on the best route or something wrong?"

"Both, actually," the group winced. "Alright, what's wrong with the road?" The answer to that was simple, it was a flooding session. Heavy caused the many wetlands of the country to spill over, turning a lot of the soul into very wet mud. It was astroid damned difficulty to get a cart though that if they weren't specialized, and even then!

The flooding left a lot of good things on the topsoil for the crops, so not many people were traveling more, focusing on cultivating plants and such. The roads around the town were more maintained. But the further out, the worse they would get.

It took a while to work out a good route and secure transport. "I should not have been there for those conversations," Aero grumbled before the bar, very tempted to order something strong. But that would probably be counterproductive.

"I knew they would have a problem with you going on a hunt, but that." Inna paused, trying to collect the correct words, but none seemed right." that wasn't protective," she finally said," that was like trying to keep them in a cage!" her fist banged against the wood bar.

"Honestly, it's kind of the same to me, just worse than usual. They think they're doing the right and good thing. While only succeeding in being...well, let go of the cage things." Aero replied before stepping away from the bar. Before his temptation to drink got too much. He would go running instead.

A lap and an almost near fight later, that lady did not need to call out to him, concerned about why he was running. The only reason he would run was because he was in danger or something. The fact it took him 5 petals to get it through her head!

Aero's mood did not improve until he left to head back to camp; the fact he spent most of the time walking was probably a bad sign that each of his legs was not matching the boiling emotions.

The pain in his spiritual wound, however," mm. what's going on?" he tried to focus on making energy bandages or energy threads. But the pain was a bit too much at the moment; all he could do was breathe. Making sure he kept breathing in measured motions until the wound calmed down and the young lord was able to treat it.

"Seriously, what was that," he moved to the lake to duck his head under the cool water. It took a moment before the helper answered him,' Your emotions reached the threshold that caused your spirit to shake. Which aggravated the wound.' ducking his head back under the water, Aero unleashed a storm of swear and cruses the lake could have boiled.

"feeling better," Galia warily asked. "if I said yes, the zalts and zaltess would strike me down as a liar." Aero had to admit that answer was a bit dramatic, but he didn't care right now. he was tired, bone early, tired of people thinking they knew what was better for him without even letting him speak.

It looked at the calming water of the lake; he wondered if it was dramatic or worrying that he was considering sticking his head under it and not resurfacing. But after a moment, his pride and his spite rose. 'they will not break me down!' with new energy, he stood up and returned to his training. His energy would move as fast as his body.

"I don't know if he's feeling better," Gailia had to admit, watching Aero perform an increasing amount of kicks. His feet barely landed on the ground before he was moving to the next one. The height was impressive, but the fact he got back up each time he fell. But at the same time, it was worrying; he was in pain, but he was choosing to ignore it.

Aero didn't stop until he was lying on the ground panting, lungs hurting, muscles pulsing from exertion. But Aero had felt some improvement. His energy was keeping up a bit better. "I just have to keep it up until I get it done," and then he'd be swinging the energy just as fast as he's swinging his hands.

Sam didn't know what benefits this would directly have beyond satisfying the demands of his pride. zalts, there might not be any, but he wants this. His skill in energy control is high.

resting, he joined his team for the final meal of the day, followed by them preparing for their trip and going to sleep. "wait, did we get here before it started raining?" Aero looked over, then paused as he also considered this. There hadn't been rain since they'd arrived, "but I did notice that the lake had risen in the past few weeks, so the storms probably didn't come too close to the area. "

"Not to mention how soft the ground has been, but it is also wet. But we're on a lake edge, and I thought it was just that." to make her point, Tzilia pocked the soil with her foot. It was rather wet; mud more or less constantly caked their feet and shoes. Which meant washing them before bed or not bringing them into their cart where they slept.

Aero had followed Idit's example and set out a wet towel by his cart at the start of the night so that when he climbed into it, he could whip his feet clean and not drag mud into it.

"Well, it's something to pay more attention to; just a few more days before our trip can commence. Everyone make sure to rest up so we're at our best." she gave Aero a look, who was unfazed, already understanding he had pushed it. It's not like he'd be all that sore in the mourning.

The group talked for a few more petals before they started preparing for bed; Aero meditated, forming more energy changes for the best and a fresh set of energy bandages for himself. "by the bloody zalts," Aero groaned rolling over, his wound was still throbbing pretty badly, but there wasn't much he could do about it right now. His only choice was to bear with it and try and sleep.

Still, it took some time and didn't feel like a very deep sleep, but he drifted off the same.