The next morning, I walked outside to see my tiger eagerly awaiting me. My charm must be fairly strong if I was able to do this without some of the more aggressive Monster Tamer skills. I got on his back, and we started heading for the first place on the Map I had indicated. I lost a bit of sleep last night, but I had mapped out a course for us to follow. I also made sure to keep track of the day as well. You could never be too careful.

The next anomaly on my Map grew sharper as I grew closer. It was at this point I was able to realize that it appeared to be some kind of abandoned fort. Since this dungeon was battlefield themed, I supposed it made sense for there to be forts on the battlefield. As I approached it, I moved off to a hidden area and tried to get as close as I could.

In the past, I might have sent one of the girls to do reconnaissance. Even Celeste could fly pretty close without being seen. Being able to change your size at will was pretty useful. However, I didn’t have those abilities. All I had was my status and my wits.

“Is this a challenge?” I muttered to myself.

I began to see movement on the walls. Looking a little longer, I began to see soldiers. However, these weren’t normal soldiers. These were skeletons and undead. I felt a bit of excitement at first. After all, a White Mage was at his strongest against these creatures. If I had to fight anything on my own, these would be the easiest.

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However, my hand went up to my neck. I couldn’t cast anything on them. The binding that Lord Aberis had put on me kept me from being able to cast anything externally. I could still use skills internally. One example was that I could cast lLght, which emitted a shroud of light around me that seemingly only went one way, affecting my party and not aiding my enemies in seeing any better. While I could cast that ability, an orb which allowed me to create an external light source seen by everyone could not be cast at all.

In that respect, I was pretty sure I could cast Heal on myself, but if I needed to cast it on someone else, such as an enemy, I didn’t have the ability. It was the same for any aggressive spells. I wondered why this was the case, but I think it had to do with the restriction of mana. I did have a theory that using a skill powered by external mana, like God Eye, could go around this block since I wasn’t providing all of the mana myself, but I only had limited resources and I didn’t want to waste it unless I needed it.

While I was thinking about what I could and could not do about the fort, the front gate began to open. A lone man on a skeletal horse came trotting out. I wasn’t that knowledgeable about army ranks, but he seemed to be pretty high ranking. He started to head out into the forest beyond. At that moment, a thought came to me, and I cautiously mounted the tiger and began to stalk him.