The first thing that Alnea normally did after waking up—he was still trying to replace his sleep with meditation, but had yet to have a complete success, often falling asleep in his meditations— was to wake up Cecilia, and switch places with Yuri, letting her take some of her deserved rest. Once he was completely awake though, with all of his daily chores taken care of, he would stretch out a little, and begin training his sword, and his Martial Styles. More specifically, transitioning between Martial Styles.
Somehow, his affinity with Aspects had translated into his affinity with the Martial Styles, allowing him to easily master all the Lowest, and Low Grade Martial Styles that his master had left him. Even among the Intermediate Grade Martial Styles, he had master quite a few of them. Transitioning between them though, remained as tough as ever.
He had gotten better with time, and could form a chain of up to twenty different Martial Styles, but compared to the number of Martial Styles he had mastered, his ability of switching in between them was still a little lacking, greatly limiting his utilisation of Martial Styles, and consequently, his fighting prowess as a Warrior. Even the three Fortune Springs that he had experienced in the past two months had not provided any help in his transitions of Martial Styles.
Still, his progress on the path of Warriors was much greater than his progress on the path of Arcanists. At the very least, the number of Aspects that he could command had kept increasing with each passing week. Taming an Aspect once a week had almost become a routine for him. It had been only around three months since he had become a Wanderer, yet he had already tamed thirteen Aspects, each with their own specialities.
In comparison, he comprehended just five Mysteries, and made only about seven Arcanas, with the best of them being only of the Intermediate Grade. And even that grading was possible only because the Mysteries related to Gravity were a bit more domineering amongst the Initial Stage Mysteries, giving his Arcana an edge over other Arcanas.
However, such Mysteries were naturally more difficult to control as well. If not for the fact that the Mystery he had comprehended was related to his Roots, making it easier for him to control, and interpret it according to his wishes, then he would not even have been able to translate the Mystery into an Arcana, let alone raise the Arcana to the Intermediate Grade.
Only the progress of his Spirit Power over the past few months had left him a little satisfied of himself. In just three months, he had managed to increase his Spirit Power to five thousand units, the limit of the Initial Stage of the False Rank, taking a month less than either of his friends. Even if Cecilia had finally broken through to the Intermediate Stage a few days ago, he would soon be able to catch up to her. Catching up to Yuri should not take too long either. A few years…
Or maybe a little longer. After all, just like him, Yuri also had special Roots. And just as how he had benefited tremendously from the three Fortune Springs—the boulders in territory of the Dark Wind Wolf, the ice pond in the territory of Winged Ice Snake, and the burrows of the Fire Clawed Moles— so had Yuri.
Of course, Cecilia had also experienced those three Fortune Springs, and just like them, she was also training with a Divine Grade Arcana. In the end though, her Roots were a little weaker than theirs. As such, it was only natural for her training speed to be slower than theirs. She was still training at a ridiculously fast speed that had probably broken all records for Rianra, but not as fast as either he, or Yuri were training.
And as both, he and Yuri and expected, her slow growth had begun bugging Cecilia once again. In the past two months, as his Spirit Power had gradually caught up to hers, he had noticed her behaving a little strangely with him. She did not make any mistakes while acting as a team, but when back at the camp, she would often go into a daze whenever she heard of his progress.
Just going into a daze, of course, was not a problem. His growth was indeed a little hard for most people to accept, after all. But when his Spirit Power had finally caught up with hers, reaching the Tenth Level of the Initial Stage around half a month ago, she had begun to panic a little. In her desperation, she had even considered Forging her Spirit in order increase her training speed. He had of course, refused her. Forging Spirits was not easy. Especially when one had no prior experience. And with the state she was in, she was bound to make some mistake.
He could understand what she was thinking, but could not find any ways to do away with her worries. What could he say? That he would not abandon her no matter how great the difference between their strength became? She was not even afraid of him abandoning her in the first place. She just did not wish to become a burden. And she wished to fight by his side. If the gap between their strength became too large…
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Fortunately, Yuri was able to calm her down. Still, Cecilia had remained a little fidgety over the past few days. It was only when they had found the Fortune Spring in the burrows of the Fire Clawed Moles a few days, which had allowed her to break through to the Intermediate Stage, that she had been able to truly calm down, and return to her usual self.
However, it was not just Cecilia who had benefited from that Fortune Springs. Reaching the limits of the Initial Stage within just three months of breaking through to the False Rank, even if he did not wish to show it, Alnea was still not able to hide the pride from his face. Especially since he had not improved in just Spirit Power, but had made a complete, and all round improvement, including his battle prowess.
Whether it was as an Arcanist, or as a Warrior, both Cecilia, and Alnea were able to handle intermediate phase Oren Beasts by themselves. And when they joined forces, and worked as a team, they could even fight against four Oren Beasts at the same time. Or so they had learned when they had stumbled across a pack of Green Wind Wolves.
What the Green Wind Wolves were doing in Night Canyons, no one knew. Not even Yuri. When they had met the wolves though, they did not have much time to think. Normally, if they met any dangerous situation, their agreed upon tactics was to let Yuri hold back the Oren Beasts, while he would run back to the cave with Cecilia. But no matter what they had agreed upon, they could not let Yuri face four Oren Beasts at the same time.
Besides, they were already strong enough to deal with intermediate phase Oren Beasts by themselves, so they reckoned that they should be able to deal with four Green Wind Wolves if they joined forces. Thankfully, their guess proved right. Yuri did not even have to step in herself. All she did was to use a few Glyphs to contain the beasts, and they handled the rest by themselves. They did suffer a few injuries in the process, but at least they were able to test their limits, and prove to themselves that they were not just novice Wanderers anymore.
As for the injuries that they had suffered, one of the seven Arcanas that Alnea had created was a Healing Arcana. Something that had surprised him, just as much as it surprised the girls. Not that he could create a Healing Arcana, but that he encountered a Mystery form the lineage of Life, and that he was able to comprehend it on his first try. It was probably because of his Art of Spirit Rebirth. Unfortunately, he did not encounter any Mysteries from the lineages of Creation, or Destruction. Whatever benefits that the Art had, it was probably very limited.
Still, the Healing Arcana, ‘Green Touch’, had greatly increased his versatility as an Arcanist, and had also comprehensively boosted up their team’s strength. They did not have to be too afraid of injuries anymore. Maybe, his progress as an Arcanist was not as bad as he had thought it was. After all, he had created seven Arcanas in just three months. And that too, when he was focussing more on his Martial Styles, and the way of swords.
His skewed observations were probably because of his conviction, and his Oaths. Still, even with all the bias, he could see that his progress on the path of Arcanists was much better than his progress on the path of Scholars. Rather, he had not even taken his first step as a Scholar. And neither had Cecilia. Choosing their lineage, and what Glyphs they should engrave on their Spirit was too big of a decision to be taken hastily, and without consultation from his master. Thus, they had left that decision for the future, and continued with their training in the other two paths, all the while honing their fighting skills.
Consequently, the number of meals that they were having had increased a little, but with how rapidly their Spirit Power, and their bodies were growing, they needed all that energy anyways. Alnea could swear that he had grown over a couple of inches in just the last three months alone. The girls too had grown along with him though, so he still remained as the shortest member in the team, but he was sure that he would soon be able to surpass them in height. And that was not just his delusions.
While all the food that he ate went either towards increasing his Spirit Power, or his height, the food that the girls ate also had to contribute to the growth of their chests. Even Yuri’s chest had started filling out a little. Such a waste… Or maybe not. Their bulging chests had a strange attraction to them, often drawing his eyes towards them. Especially when they were fighting. The— Fortunately, the Serenity of his Heart was able to resist against the temptation of the mesmerising view.
In any cases, with more areas for the bodies of the girls to grow, it was a matter of when, and not if he would surpass the girls in height. He was just waiting for the day he would become the tallest in the team, before he would start teasing them about it. Not about their chest. That strangely seemed like a taboo subject. But they always shared everything with each other… Should he ask Yuri about it?
“What are you thinking about?” Yuri asked Alnea through the rings, as she saw his attention drift away from the discussion they were having.
“…Nothing.”
“Pay attention. I am talking about something serious here.”
“…I am paying attention. I am always paying attention to you. And I have listened to every single word that you have said.”
“…Stop fooling around,” Yuri said, fighting off the slight blush on her cheeks, before glancing towards Cecilia to continue where she had left off.
“As I was saying, both Alnea, and I am stuck at the bottleneck of our respective Stages, while you have reached the Intermediate Stage. And though your promotion is not complete, I think that your strength is enough… that the strength of our team is enough.”
“…Enough for what?”
“To fight against advanced phase Oren Beasts.”