Alexia

Astrid quickly appears out of the shadows at the same time as Alara walks up to me and answers, “The Crown Prince tried reclaiming his gear along with all of his allies but was told that he couldn’t. And while he accepted that and tried to leave, his allies didn’t.”

Oh. That would explain why he’s still alive and the others aren’t.

“The guy’s allies tried attacking us to get their equipment using their skills, and I’m sure you can see where that led,” Astrid finishes, making me nod my head.

Yeah. They were soundly defeated and killed so that they won’t become a problem in the future.

The prince was spared though since he listened and didn’t attack.

Wouldn’t be surprised if some bias was also at hand there with the princess, but that’s once again not my problem.

I look around the base a bit again before shrugging and focusing on Astrid as I begin to explain what I’ve learned so far about energy. And at the same time, Alara takes her leave to go back to carrying corpses to the edge of the island. For the second time today.

After I finish explaining things to Astrid, she glances at the last person delivering a corpse, seeing them drop it straight off the edge of the island before the people return to what they were doing before. Except the new people from the princess’s group and Rob, who start gathering around Alara as she begins explaining everything that has happened since the battle.

“You going to hunt?” I ask Astrid while glancing at her. And she quickly nods her head without saying anything. “Make sure you don’t do anything reckless.”

She nods again.

And she is reverting back to her stoic self amongst others again.

“You don’t need to catch up with me, ya know?” I tell her, knowing exactly what she’s thinking right now.

She just flinches slightly and says, “I will. Don’t worry about that. I’ll catch up with you. Or at least close the distance a bit.”

Well, I doubt that’ll happen, but it could be possible. After all, I’m at the level cap of Tier 1 right now. So she will be closing the distance a bit. At least, before she’s going to have to clear the requirements to reach Tier 2 herself. Then I’ll be widening the gap even more, if it doesn’t already start widening after I reach Tier 2.

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“Don’t push yourself too hard,” I warn her, but she just nods her head in response, making me sigh. Then I suddenly smile and ask, “By the way, would you mind helping me out a bit with a skill?”

She turns to look at me with her eyes narrowed.

“It won’t be dangerous for you, and it should help you train your skills too,” I tell her while raising my hands up in a placating gesture. One that clearly doesn’t work as she asks, “What is it?” with more than a little caution in her tone.

I glance at the others who are all busy working before looking at her and answering, “Well, could you attack me with your shadow magic so I can get my Quantum Adaptation skill adapted to shadow magic a bit?” Her eyes narrow further. “And could you do it for at least an hour or two?”

At this point she’s glaring at me.

I scratch the back of my neck as she glares. But to my surprise, she eventually just lets out a sigh and says, “Fine.”

“Thank you!” I exclaim while moving up and giving her a short hug, then moving back again and asking, “Is now a good time?”

She nods, so we both begin heading back to my clearing where she summons her shadow dagger.

“Should be rather easy to train it with that thing,” I tell her, indicating the dagger with my hand. And she responds by moving quickly to cut my arm with it.

While I could’ve easily dodged it thanks to our large gap in strength, I don’t, simply letting it hit me instead. Since that’s what we’re here for, even if she did that to get out her irritation. Likely knowing it’s not gonna do all that much to me with her only being around level 40.

And it really doesn’t, as when I raise my arm to look, all I find is a very small cut coated in shadows that seem to be trying to eat my arm. Not very thick shadows, and what shadows there are don’t last for too long either. Not before the wound begins to close itself with my soul.

So I raise my head and tell her, “Again please.”

She grimaces at how little damage she did, seemingly not expecting it to do that little, before she rushes in again.

Then the cycle repeats for a while with her repeatedly attacking me and me just standing there letting her train my shadow magic adaptation. And at some point about an hour or two later, I find myself getting the Shadow Resistance skill. One I’m planning on ignoring even after I find a Safe Zone.

Eventually her attacks do so little damage that it’s not really training it much. To the point of no change at all even after several more attacks on my skills list in the skill’s progress to the next level.

So we end it there with her sweating from repeatedly attacking me and me sitting here unbothered.

“By the way, do you know of any Safe Zones on this island?” I ask after a short period of silence.

Astrid looks up at me for a second before straightening up again and answering, “Yes, I do. I’ll take you tomorrow.”

I nod my head. “Much appreciated.”

Now then. I have poison adaptation and shadow adaptation…

I turn to look at the base again.

Let’s see what other adaptations I can squeeze out of the other members of this group.

Fire at the very least, I know that. And I think ice too?

Should be helpful.