I was still wondering about how to clean myself while I made my way back home. At the same time, I was looking out for anything that could serve as dinner for Cellestra. Having two brains to process all this information at the same time proved invaluable.

I couldn’t imagine living without it anymore. It made me realize just how… limited I’d been in my previous life. What an odd thought.

I came to the conclusion that I might be able to wash myself with my water spell. I experimented a bit with it to see how I could influence the spell’s effects. I knew already that I could change the amount of water and its temperature at will. Up next, I was trying to figure out if and how much pressure I could put behind the stream that was ejected from my body.

It took me a while to notice, but I found that I was actually having fun experimenting like this. At the cost of more mana, I could change a few aspects of the spell. I wasn’t able to turn it into something that could be used in combat, but the utility this offered for day-to-day life was unmatched. I even found that I could summon multiple, smaller streams of water from my hand and apply a bit of pressure behind them. This way, I could turn my hand into a literal shower head.

Showerheads…

I had heard of them. I had not actually seen any of them. I believed it was some kind of metal container with smaller holes through which water was pushed from a larger basin placed somewhere up high. Of course, anything like this could only be afforded by the nobility.

And I held it in the palm of my hand right now, literally.

I smiled at the thought.

I wonder if Cellestra has ever heard of anything like this. It’s quite the change from a large tub of cold water.

I was getting ahead of myself there. I was still building up this friendship we had. I didn’t think acting as a shower was a good idea…yet.

Several smaller forest critters had shown up in my thermal vision, but I’d ignored them as they were animals that one wouldn’t think of as ‘dinner’. Out of all of those, skunks were probably the least appetizing.

I didn’t bother to stray too far from the path either. If I got home before finding anything, I would try to search the surrounding area there. Otherwise, there was always fish.

It took a long time before I found anything of interest. When I did finally spot a rabbit, I was almost home already. At least it would be a fresh kill.

I sneaked as close as I could to the creature, before firing off a line of silk at it. The poor creature had no way of escaping something that was fired at it with such speed. It became ensnared, and its struggles only worsened its chances for survival. I killed it off with my lightning arc. I only had to channel the spell for two seconds to kill it, so I don’t think it suffered much.

I entered the clearing with Cellestra’s house moments later. The day was coming at an end as the sky had turned red a while ago. I noticed the two wolf pelts that Cellestra had cured not so long ago were laying in the grass again, skin side up. It made me wonder what her plans for those were.

The door was open and Cellestra stepped out seconds later.

“Welcome back. I see your hunt was successful. How was the dungeon?”

“Decent,” I said. “I managed to get an upgrade for one of my existing skills.”

“Oh,” Cellestra replied, intrigue in her eyes. “Which one is that?”

“My jaws and teeth skill. It was actually the very first one I acquired when I arrived in this world.”

“Yeah. It was about the first thing that made me realize that something was very much off with you.”

I grinned. “Didn’t have much of a choice but to take it. I had no idea how spiders ate, and when I asked my blessing, I received a reply, but it didn’t tell me how to replicate that…”

“What was the first thing you actually ate?” Cellestra asked.

I handed her the rabbit and answered her question with the most serious expression I could muster. “Spider.”

“Uhh…” Came her response.

“You have no idea how many of my supposed brothers and sisters I killed to grow stronger through this blessing. I was starving at the time so I ate the first thing I could get my hands… pedipalps on.”

“You truly had a rough start, didn’t you?” Cellestra’s expression seemed to be one that I hadn’t seen much of in my life: compassion.

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“I don’t know if that’s the correct way to put it. I mean, those spiders don’t have something like this blessing, and I don’t know if they are as aware of things as I am. For someone like me with my previous memories and sapience, I guess you could say it was rough.”

I sighed and turned my head to the sky. “Thankfully, that’s behind me now.” I then looked back at the elf. “How are your preparations going, by the way? I see you’ve pulled out those two pelts again. I assume they have something to do with it?”

Cellestra nodded. “I’m going to take those two with me to use as cover at night. They will be far more resistant to cold, and even rain, than my bed cover. The reason I’ve laid them out in the grass like that, is because I applied some more ointment to them to keep them soft and durable.”

“Makes sense. What other things will you be taking with you?” I asked.

“I can’t carry too much with me, and since you have great healing spells, most of my specialty items are useless. It does mean I can leave those at home, though. I’ll be taking a bag with me for food and the like, those two pelts, and that’s pretty much it. I’ll also take Rose’s diary with me. It’s pretty much the only item with value for me.”

I saw the elf’s eyes look at the ground as she spoke about her old mentor. It was easy to see that she had meant a great deal to Cellestra.

“I’ll also take a few of my tools with me. Just in case I need to make certain potions. Alternatively, I could try to gather rare ingredients if we come across any and sell them without processing, but potions have a much higher value.”

I considered her words, especially the part about selling things.

“Will we have much trouble selling things in Edhil, you think? I mean, I still have those items. The thing I’m worried about is our… appearance.”

“I mean,” Cellestra started, then sighed briefly. “Yes. Our appearance is odd, but Edhil’s temple is located outside of the city. Getting there would be especially painful if that wasn’t the case. Once we arrive at the temple, it will be made very clear that Elysa wishes to communicate with you. Once the priests have observed that, no matter what you look like, they won’t try to do anything funny. I’m hoping we can sell those items right then and there.”

“You mean… sell them to the priests?”

Cellestra nodded. “Items that are held by chosen of the goddess are about the easiest things there are to sell. No matter what they are, you’ll get rid of them in a heartbeat.”

“What a weird world,” I concluded. I’d never heard of anything like this.

“Heh,” Cellestra chuckled. “It certainly is useful, given our circumstances. I can’t linger around the city for long, though, or my curse will take hold in the area. A day at most is what I usually consider to be safe.”

“How does the speaking to the goddess thing work anyway? Elysa said something about a ritual being required, but you’re saying that somehow people will notice that she wishes to talk to me?”

Cellestra smiled. “It’s the fires.”

Her words confused me, but she soon continued and elaborated.

“There are braziers in front of temples, lit with magical fire. Normally, the fires burn with the colors that you’d expect, like orange and red. When someone approaches that has the privilege of being allowed to speak to the god or goddess bound to the temple, the fires change to blue.”

“That certainly makes things easier,” I said before sighing out of relief. “So all we need to do is get close to the temple and that’s that.”

Cellestra nodded. “Exactly. As I said, Edhil is kind of an exception with the location of their temple. Other cities usually have them inside city walls. Close to a city entrance, but inside walls nonetheless. It might be hard to reach a temple after departing Edhil, so that’s something we need to keep in mind.”

“Sounds like we may have to plow our way through guards somewhere down the line…” I said, foreseeing what this meant if I ever wanted to speak to Elysa again.

“Perhaps?” Cellestra answered with a question. “As long as you’re fast, that could be a way of doing it. When the braziers change colors, no one will even try to harm you. It would be best not to spill any blood on the way there, though.”

I nodded.

“Now if you don’t mind, I’ll prepare this rabbit. It’s going to get dark soon, and I’d like to have dinner prepared before that.”

“No problem,” I said. “I’ll see you soon enough.”

Cellestra smiled warmly as she took my catch back inside. In the meantime, I figured I might just take a warm shower…