Coming out of the cave half a day later, it was still nighttime but the sun would rise soon. Looking towards the Tarantula cave I considered seeing Teacher Lee, but since I had yet to learn to use my wind magic to lift myself I was afraid of being stuck in that labyrinth again. Shivering at the thought, I looked towards the forest.
Elizabeth’s map had mentioned the forest had level 20 or higher monsters in it. Perhaps I could go in and train for a day or two, possibly get a level over the nobles. The only concern is how many monsters there are, fighting in a forest may be difficult too.
Giving up this idea, I decided to do some training on my spells. Checking my Status and Spells, Lunar Blessing, Barrier and my Lightning Magic were still all incomplete according to the System. I knew why as well. Lunar Blessing didn’t cover all my muscles, nor of those I used it on. When I first used this spell it was on a whim and I only covered my arms and legs. Barrier was similar, but I don’t know how to complete it.
Lightning magic was something I came to gain an understanding during the trial in the Temple of the Blood God. Being struck by said lightning several hundred times would do that after all. The most I could do was blast an arc of lightning out however that wasn’t enough. My understanding of this magic was minimal, I felt like even though I had learned how to use it I wasn’t compatible with it.
Deciding to focus on Lunar and Wind magic instead, I walked with the group in silence as we made our way back towards our home. After a few hours of walking back in silence, we reach the top of the plateau as the sun starts setting. Heading to a different spot, I find a quiet spot away from everyone as the sun finally sets and the stars and moon come out strongly.
Sitting down, I focus on trying to complete my Lunar Blessing first. I felt that if I could learn this completely it would be of great aid to us in Crater. Guiding mana and lunar energy throughout my body, I cast Lunar Blessing and got a feeling for what parts of my body it was affecting.
Feeling energy spread, it covered about thirty percent of my muscles, my forearms, legs and waist. The other parts of my body were not receiving this energy, and trying to slowly spread the lunar energy to the entire body was proving fruitless. I felt like I was hitting a thin barrier whenever I tried to spread it to other parts.
Over the course of a few hours I only met with failure. I had tried various methods, like trying to spread the energy from the spots I wasn’t able to cover, but that led to nothing happening. Stopping for the time being due to my mana hitting the halfway point I get up and stretch. I felt like I wasn’t understanding something, like I had hit a bottleneck in my understanding of Lunar energy and magic.
Slapping my cheeks, I consider how to complete Lunar Barrier. Yet another spell that was incomplete, it required me to stay still to constantly provide mana and guide Lunar energy to keep the barrier up. The cost for just setting it up is huge.
Casting the barrier, I try releasing it right away. The barrier formed then started vanishing very quickly. It stayed up for at least five seconds, which is not enough. While it could block an attack, the amount of mana needed meant I could do it once during a fight.
Getting a bit frustrated, I started to see my shortcomings with magic. Deciding to leave magic aside for now, until I can find a way to gain knowledge on how it all worked, I started practising the style that Teacher Lee taught me, Dancing Fox Wind Style.
I had gotten accustomed to using this style, using wind magic to wrap each body part is second nature to me now. While going through the motions of training, I started to realise a shortcoming while fighting. I didn’t have any decisive killing blows. While I could kick up the wind around my hand and turn it into sharp blades of wind, it was far from being a killing blow for all enemies.
While brainstorming some ideas on what kind of move I could create, I kept training.
***
Five days have passed since we got back from trying to negotiate with the nobles of Crater. Having trained for two of those five days I felt more confident. I haven’t made progress in my magic, but my physical strength felt stronger, even though none of my stats had changed.
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Elizabeth has been learning Summoning Magic, a reward she had obtained in the trials. We had spoken earlier today and she had shared with me the details of her trial. We had massacred the city of Crater in that trial, and she had assisted us with doing so. While she wanted to avoid such an outcome, I knew from hearing those details she would follow us.
Showcasing the Summoning magic she’d learnt so far, she needed to use magic circles, which she’d managed to draw onto pieces of paper. Currently the only ones she’d manage to summon included a ball of soft light, its purpose was to brighten in a dark room. The other one was a fire orb, everytime it pulsed it would warm everything within five metres.
While not useful for combat, Elizabeth said that the orbs were spirits, and she could summon dozens at a time, as long as she could sustain the mana cost. They had proven useful so far to replace torches as well as provide warmth as it was starting to get colder. Other than that she’d been trying to replicate my lightning magic but so far was unable to understand it.
Gray meanwhile had slowly become used to using Shadow magic. While he felt his progress was slow, he learned a spell called Shadow Sneak. Using this spell, he could manifest shadows around himself, being able to hide completely in any shadow. With his small stature this made him a very fearful surprise for enemies.
Sparring with him was difficult, even after my training of relying on smell he was able to somehow bypass that completely, and about six or seven out of ten times he was able to strike me. Of course we weren’t using weapons, only the flat sides of our palms, but judging from his strikes I’d have been killed several times.
His practice with the daggers he had received in the trials was going very well, which was surprising since he had previously been using a big two handed hammer. When I asked him what happened to that hammer, he blushed before quickly muttering that he had left it behind in the room after the trials thanks to being engrossed in his daggers, earning a giggle from me.
Olivia hadn’t changed much, other than the type of magic she used going from Healing to Dawnlight magic. Confiding in me, she admitted she had yet to figure out the difference between the two, she only knew that Dawnlight magic invoked faster for her than Healing magic did. After learning that she was low on arrows, with only about eight left, I asked if there was anything we could do to get more for her. She informed me she’d needed certain materials which were just simply not available.
Wondering about this, I knew Crater had forced some Hybrids to constantly make arrows at some point and thought about asking Gray to steal some for her. However after thinking about it, I had no idea where they stored those arrows, and asking around I found no one did. It would be too risky to try and search as the nobles would be on guard too. Leaving it aside, I worked with Olivia for a few hours as she practised using Elizabeth’s old sword.
Finding she was rather…clumsy with the sword, Olivia decided to just act as a rearguard support instead. Thinking that we might be able to claim some arrows when we raid Crater, I kept it in mind to try for her.
Sally meanwhile had improved her Blood Barrier. She could now surround herself with a barrier, the larger she made it the thinner and weaker it was. She had been focusing on turning the barriers into disk shaped shields, using it in a similar manner to when she had the wooden shield. With her sword she was able to fight in front once again.
The biggest downside to her Blood Magic was that it used her own blood. The blood she drank could replenish her own, drinking in the middle of combat was extremely difficult. Her Blood Eruption ability required a large amount of her own blood, and was considered a curse. Describing it in detail to me, it caused her target's blood to roil up, before erupting outwards. Remembering what happened to The Crimson King, I hoped that I wouldn’t be hit by a similar spell.
Sally had otherwise been spending a lot of time with Chloe, someone she’d been paired up with since she was pulled out of the cages we were locked in after birth. Happy for her being able to find Chloe once more, I use some of my spare time to help out around the camp.
The Hybrids have adapted fairly quickly, and while we hadn’t been able to help any of them level yet, they have become proficient in handling tasks such as setting up campfires, skinning monsters and using the fur from the monsters to make blankets or thick clothing to deal with the cold.
Using some of the knowledge from the cooking book I’d read, I was becoming more proficient in making the meat better. While I wanted to cook more, we didn’t have the ingredients needed. The seeds have been planted and sowed into a small plot of land, it was only a matter of time until they bore fruit…and vegetables.
Alice had been spending more time going around and being fed by everyone. I was worried at first that she’d overeat, but she was completely fine. I had no idea where all of that food went, but she seemed to always have room for food.
Pup was very energetic, especially with so many people around now and enjoyed playing with everyone he could. His favourite partner to play with was absolutely Alice. Seeing the two of them play together made me smile whenever I saw them.
The days seemed to pass in peace, even though we knew a storm was coming, we took this time to relax, train and mentally prepare ourselves. And just like that, the day before the next full moon arrived.