After setting up the camp, I left Akira to prepare dinner and watch over Raftalia, and went into the forest to gather firewood.
The forest wasn't far — about a ten-minute brisk walk.
Not to waste time, I switched to the Small Book Grimoire. It has a very interesting skill that might help me learn spells faster. At least, that's what I hope.
Small Book Grimoire 0/10 D
Equipment bonus: Magic Attack +3 (not mastered)
Equipment bonus: Speed Reading
Mastery: 0
Learning a single spell in six hours is already incredibly fast. But these are low-level spells, and I only learned this one at the lowest level of understanding. What will happen when I get to higher-level spells?
Don't forget that to increase your understanding of any spell, you have to reread its page countless times, revealing its true power.
I didn't venture deep into the forest. There were enough dry branches near the edge, but things weren't so simple. While gathering deadwood, I got tired of fending off red demonic orbs. Not that it was difficult — like their kin, they died from a single hit. I didn't notice much difference. The difference was elsewhere. These creatures seemed to line up in a queue, attacking me about once every minute. I'd compare them to mosquitoes — their bites aren't strong, but damn, are they annoying!
After the red orbs, it was the White Bigra's turn — mushroom-like monsters. They used the same tactic, appearing with the same frequency. But at least they gave experience — twelve points each. And the grimoire I got from absorbing a White Bigra's Hat was useful:
White Bigra Grimoire 0/5 E
Equipment bonus: Magic Attack +2 (not mastered)
Equipment bonus: Plant Recognition 1
Mastery: 0
Apparently, I jinxed myself, because after that their spawn rate increased to every ten to fifteen seconds.
They annoyed me so much that when I saw a dry tree about thirty centimeters thick had fallen, I grabbed it and ran away.
Dragging the tree a bit away from the forest edge, I cut off branches and chopped it into two-meter pieces, then threw them into my inventory. Of course, I first tried to shove the whole tree in — well, worth a shot, right? But with the two-meter logs, no problem.
I've gotten so used to using the Inventory these days that I watched with some indifference as the huge logs disappeared into thin air.
Back at camp, a stew with meat and vegetables was waiting for me. And Akira, since Raftalia was already snoring in the tent. But after walking through the forest, I got hungry. So first, stew.
After a couple of spoonfuls, I realized Akira didn't know how to cook!
It was oversalted, slightly burnt, and overcooked — hardly resembling stew. On the other hand, you need to know how to cook over a fire, so she'll learn with time. Or I'll teach her, if there's time. I know how to cook and I love it. And I love a tasty meal.
While I ate, Akira tortured herself with the local alphabet under the light of an oil lamp.
"Go to sleep, I'll keep watch first."
"You go first," the girl looked up from her book. "You haven't slept for over a day."
"And still another four hours, I won't sleep peacefully anyway," I explained, pointing at the grimoire hanging at my hip. "Once I master this grimoire, I'll switch to another."
Seeing that the girl looked sad, I decided to distract her and took from the Inventory the monster parts we'd collected — a mushroom cap and red orb skin — so she could unlock new shields.
"Akira, Raftalia and I will level up tomorrow all day long. Do you have any plans?"
"Well, I'll have to stay at camp anyway," she said half-questioningly, and when I nodded, she continued, "Do you have any ideas? You wouldn't ask otherwise."
"Yes, I have an idea for a little training session for you."
"What kind of training?" Her eyes lit with interest.
"You'll see tomorrow, if I manage to pull it off."
"Okay, tomorrow it is! yawn Then I'm going to sleep. Good night!"
"Yeah, good night. I'll wake you in about four or five hours."
"How will you know when four or five hours have passed?" the Shield Hero asked, stopping short of the tent.
"I've already visited the Dragon Era Hourglass and synchronized," I explained. "My countdown is in Status, until the wave begins."
"Got it," she said in a strange tone and crawled into the tent.
After unloading some firewood near the fire, I tossed a couple of big branches in and sat back against the fire on a wooden stool.
Unfortunately, I couldn't learn new spells or deepen my understanding of 'Lightning Arrow' until the current grimoire was mastered.
So I simply enjoyed the sounds of nature and the rustling of leaves in the wind.
Shuuu-shuuuh
Sometimes it's good to just sit and enjoy the moment without thinking…
Shuuu-shuuuh
Well... I'll definitely do that… next time. Probably…
Opening Status, I glanced at the displayed window:
Pluton Vorontsov
Specialty: Grimoire Hero
Level 6
Experience: 1358 (1600)
Equipment: Small Book Grimoire (Legendary Weapon), Reinforced Medium Stormtrooper Armor
Skills: List
Magic: List
Professions: Empty
Inventory: List
Attributes:
HP: 120
MP: 260
Magic Attack: 69
Defense: 6
Agility: 28
Endurance: 28
Skill Tree
Help
Wait, where did the extra three points in Agility and Endurance come from? I double-checked all mastered grimoires — none had those stats, so they must have increased from leveling up. Checked and recounted all bonuses again.
Makes sense — one magic attack point per level, one point each in endurance and agility every two levels, and presumably one defense point every fifth or sixth level. Although with those numbers, defense is still hopeless.
Shursh-shursh
Closing Status, I went over to a yellow orb trying to crawl into the camp and quietly stomped on it with my boot.
Poof
Wiping slime off my boot on the grass, I returned to my seat, still deep in thought.
The reason was Akira's stats, which she'd written down at my request. Taking the sheet, I looked it over again:
HP: 50
MP: 10
Attack: 5
Defense: 57
Agility: 20
Endurance: 30
Basically, it made sense. High defense and endurance — the stats matched. But she had no magic attack at all, just like I had no physical attack. And here's the question — is my physical strength represented as magic attack? I doubt it. Most likely it's not shown because it's not a core stat. Or maybe there's another reason? Do other heroes have both? I need to catch one of those degenerates and ask. They should be good for something, right?
After four hours had passed, just as I expected, the grimoire flashed, marking its mastery. Since I still had an hour left before I needed to wake Akira, I decided to learn an interesting spell from the magic of Light.
I would call it: "To hell with those night shifts."
But those who wrote the grimoire lacked my magnificent sense of humor, so they gave it a boring name — "Mirage."
It consumes a lot of magical energy — two hundred mana by default. But it allows you to conceal a small area for six hours, making it uninteresting to monsters and people by bending the light...
After another hour, I closed the grimoire and went to wake Akira, trying to do it without waking up Raphtalia.
Oh, my brain is melting somehow. Akira was right; staying awake for a whole day is not the wisest idea. Especially since I still haven't gotten used to my new body.
Until I figure out how to conquer the world, I need to sleep! Otherwise, later I'll wonder why I even need it and who I can sell this crap to!
I had bought the biggest tent available, so I easily slipped inside and shook the Shield Hero by the leg to wake her.
After she crawled out and fully woke up, I got inside the tent, lay down on my side with my back to Raphtalia, and instantly fell asleep.
***
I was woken by some panting and squeaking nearby.
Opening my eyes, I met Raphtalia's pink gaze.
She was panting because she was trying to get out from under my arm.
"Sleep, it's still early!" I said and pulled my arm away. I opened the status screen and looked at the clock.
I had overslept four hours out of the five allotted.
"Good morning, master. I… need this…"
"Ah, well, if you need it, let's get going then," Raphtalia immediately dashed out of the tent and went behind the bushes where our latrine was.
Getting out of the tent and stretching, I first thought I probably wasn't fully awake yet.
The Shield Hero was sitting on the same stool near the fire, with a hopelessly gloomy expression on her face.
Her arms and legs were being nibbled by about six yellow spheres, and the most agile orange one was biting her head.
"Just try to laugh, and I'll get offended," she warned me right away. I barely held back a roaring Homeric laugh — until I noticed tear tracks at the corners of her eyes. Somehow I lost the desire to laugh. Realizing I wasn't going to mock her, she said gloomily:
"Thank you!"
Raphtalia was still sleepy, and after returning from the latrine, she didn't immediately get what was going on.
"Oh, does it not hurt, Lady Akira?" the girl asked anxiously.
"No," the Shield Hero forced a smile.
Approaching her, I killed all the spheres clinging to her.
"Is there a reason you didn't kill them yourself?" I asked delicately.
"Yeah. I'm tired. These were the second wave. It's hard to do that with my attack, and quietly too."
"Go take a nap for an hour while I make breakfast."
She nodded wearily and silently crawled into the tent.
When I see her like this, I start to regret not buying the egg with Firo from the slaver back then.
By now, she would probably have become an adult filorial. Only Firo isn't an ordinary filorial! And I have no doubt that the one to hatch from the egg chosen by Akira would be her.
I understand logically that we probably wouldn't be able to feed her. I remember that moment in the novel clearly — she ate an enormous amount of monster meat and still remained hungry. The spheres definitely won't suffice! There's nothing to eat there, and as for my ability to fight stronger monsters using only fists and feet, I still have some doubts.
Of course, I can fight... I practiced Jiu-Jitsu for five years... but that was so long ago it's almost a lie. And it's not suitable for fighting those who have claws, fangs, and who knows what other attacks — acid, fire, or something like that — breath or something similar.
After washing up in the creek and scrubbing the camping pot with sand, I started cooking.
Quickly cooking a full pot of pilaf to last the whole day, and frying a ham on the fire, I called everyone to eat. There wasn't enough time or mood for anything more elaborate.
"This is…" Akira looked at me with surprise after a spoonful of pilaf. "Very tasty! You never said you could cook like this."
"You never asked…" I shrugged, serving myself a portion and cutting a massive piece off the ham. "And you forget we've known each other less than a week. Sometimes I feel like we've spent years together. In these few days, you and Raphtalia have become closer to me than most of my acquaintances and relatives from my world."
Akira tried to hide a slight smile caused by my words. I wasn't trying to cheer her up — I really meant it.
"It really is tasty, Master Pluto," Raphtalia confirmed, and I just smiled and stroked her hair.
"I'm glad you liked it. Enjoy your meal."
Only after tasting my own cooking did I realize it really was good! Not my best pilaf — without lamb it's impossible to make it perfect, and we hadn't bought any. But I think it's in the top five.
And nature, fresh air, also adds to the appetite.
After finishing and washing the dishes in the creek, I packed half the pilaf to take with us and hid it in the Inventory while it was still hot. Everything there is kept in stasis — I checked that first.
While the girls did their morning exercises, I dug a small hole in the meadow a couple hundred meters from the camp, where I buried one of the logs almost halfway.
Scratching my head, I took Raphtalia's old dress from the Inventory — the one she had outgrown — and put it on the log. I'm not an idiot! Or rather, not in this case... It's needed for authenticity and to check the training results.
Nodding, satisfied with the construction, I found the nearest sphere and, with gentle kicks so it wouldn't die prematurely, led it to the structure. Then I put a piece of meat on top of the post. The sphere stopped paying attention to me as soon as it smelled the blood, jumped on the post, and started crunching the meat.
Satisfied that my idea worked, I decided to cheer up a bit.
Going a little further into the meadow, I started chanting the spell "Lightning Arrows," targeting a group of spheres in the distance.
Watching such power flow from my hand, my mood soared to the skies. Every time I use a spell, my inner child — yes, the very one that, after arriving in this world, bit the adult me to death with its teeth — screams with delight! This is magic! And to see it live, and especially to be its source myself... I hope I never get used to this feeling.
Returning to the camp, I led the girls to where the post was buried.
"...What is that?" Akira pointed to the post, looking at me with a mixture of mockery and confusion.
"Remember I mentioned training yesterday?" The Shield Hero nodded and wiped the skeptical look off her face. "It's pretty simple. You need to put a piece of raw meat here. I left a small supply next to the tent in a sealed container. By putting a piece of meat here, the post becomes the priority target for the spheres. The training is to prevent them from harming the post. Don't let them bite you, try to parry and counterattack. Want to try?"
"Well, okay," Akira replied, more interested, and went off to catch a sphere.
When she returned, she waited for me to put the meat on top of the post and then threw the sphere away from herself. Unlike me, when the sphere immediately switched to the post after smelling blood, this one hesitated but still chose the meat.
When it almost reached the target, Akira stood in front of it, and after another jump, caught it in midair and pushed it away. The sphere jumped a bit sideways and tried again to reach the post and the treat on it. This time Akira didn't push it away but just put up her shield in the sphere's jumping trajectory. It hit the shield, flew back a meter, and rushed to the target again.
After watching her training for a couple of minutes and making sure she enjoyed this pastime, I smiled.
"You keep training, Raphtalia and I will go," I told the engrossed girl and took Raphtalia's hand.
"Yeah, good luck!" Akira replied without even looking our way.
Going deeper into the meadow, we started our training. We could've gone to the forest by now. There are monsters too, and they give a lot more experience... but they're not dangerous to me. I don't want Raphtalia to get hurt because of my overconfidence. If I were alone, I'd have been wandering deep in the forest a long time ago.