"What should I do?" Line asked.
"For now, follow us and cast your healing magic whenever necessary. And while you do that, instead of passively focusing on gathering Mind... I'll call it Mana instead of Mind if you don't mind."
"I don't mind."
Sona nodded and continued, "Instead of passively focusing on gathering Mana, you should detect its movements inside your body. How it enters, how it circulates, how it exits your body, and form your magic. Once you're able to do that, we'll think of the next step to actually control your Mana. What's important for now is for you to know Mana's properties."
Line nodded seriously and answered, "I got it." All this while, her magic training consist of only gathering the right amount of Mind for the chant of her magic and any modification is done through changing the incantation and the amount of Mind she's gathering. So focusing on the Mind itself and how it behaves is a new perspective for her.
It's understandable that Line wouldn't try controlling the Mind directly as it's already a common knowledge that doing that would only result to Ignis Fatuus, or Mind going out of control and hurting the caster. On the contrary, there is some success in modifying the incantation itself in terms of changing the magic.
The group, which is now the quartet, moved to search for more monsters and by the end of the day, they hunted more than 50 War Shadows and more than 30 Frog Shooters, most of which came from a monsters house.
It's already late in the afternoon when they decided to stop. The first three could still continue but they really pity Line who's already on the verge of Mind Down for a few hours now but still intending to continue. They underestimated her tenacity, but this is more good news than a bad one.
They rested for a few minutes before ascending and going to the Guild counter to trade in their magic stones and drop items.
They netted around 90,000 valis from their today's hunt which also shocked the Guild staff but didn't question it. He just recorded the unusual amount of War Shadow and Frog Shooter magic stones they gathered and moved on to the next Adventurer.
Once they got out of the Tower of Babel, Sona passed a pouch, containing 40,000 Valis, to Line, "Here, take it."
"No!" Line immediately refused, "I didn't do much aside from healing. And you're even teaching me something amazing, so I couldn't receive any of that. In fact, it should be who's giving something back to you after all you've done for me."
"Take it. It's an investment." Sona insisted.
"Investment?"
"Purchase all the magic potions you can with those 40,000 Valis and use them to practice."
"But..."
"No buts. If you can improve, it won't just help yourself but for us too who's expecting your healing as we're going to get hurt more in the future if we want to practice our other techniques. And besides, it's only 40,000 Valis and I'd rather give it to you rather than our family's Kisuke to invest to his always redline shop."
"Shop?"
"And on top of that, that guy seems to be very fond of setting up his shop in the most desolated place he can find," Aika added.
Line wanted to ask more as she got curious at such an eccentric businessman, but someone called out to her, "...Line?"
Coming for them is a golden-haired beauty, "Ais-san! Good evening. Did you just got out of the Dungeon?" Line greeted the newcomer.
Ais nodded at her and looked curiously at her companions.
Seeing her gaze, Line immediately introduced them, "Ah, this is Sona Sitri-san, Aika Kiryuu-san, and Shirone Toujou-san from the Hestia Familia. They're helping me with something and formed a temporary party with them."
Ais nodded at the three who are introduced and Sona immediately greeted her, "Good evening, Wallenstein-san. I'm sorry for the ruckus that our Kisuke caused last night."
Ais shook her head and replied, "It's fine... It's Bete's fault."
This exchange confused Line, "Eh? You two know each other? And last night? I heard Bete-san incurred a million Valis of debt in Hostess of Fertility..."
Hearing this, Sona, Aika, and Koneko immediately looked away.
Not minding the trio, Ais explained, "Bete lose a bet to their captain and they asked Mia-san to cook nonstop in Bete's expense." She then pointed towards the group, "They ate a few hundred thousand Valis worth of food."
Line could only look at the group in utter shock. If not for their way to use magic which they revealed earlier, Line would question the validity of Ais' claims even if she knew that Ais doesn't know how to lie.
"Ehem... It's free food. No need to hold back if it came from someone rude." Sona feigns a cough and justified their reason, "Anyway, it's late. See you tomorrow, Line-san." Sona decided to escape. Even though she knew that they're on the right side, her face isn't as thick as Kisuke.
But before they could leave, "Uhmm... Wait." Ais stopped them.
"Hmm? What is it, Wallenstein-san?"
Hesitating for a moment, Ais finally asked, "...Could I perhaps buy one of those pepper sprays?"
"...For what?"
"...For convenience... It's a very useful thing." Ais replied with a very serious expression.
"I see... A countermeasure against perverts..." Sona guessed.
And Ais nodded in agreement.
"Kisuke will probably set up his shop within a few days in the eastern part of Orario near the abandoned church. He should sell you a few of those. But be prepared as instead of money, he might ask a favor instead. Think carefully before you accept his offer." Sona warned the Sword Princess.
However, Ais didn't think much of it and just nodded.
"Well then, goodbye."
"Thank you for today and see you tomorrow."
The trio then separated from Line and Ais. Since both of them are going home too, they walked together towards the Twilight Manor, Loki Familia's home.
"You partied with them? Why?" Ais suddenly asked while they're walking.
Line understood what Ais really wanted to ask, "Why not with other Loki Familia members? We only met each other today and got along well... And it seems fun being with them, despite how unconventional they act."
It's unknown whether Ais understood her or not and they went home silently after that.
Back at the underground Hestia Familia base, Sona, Aika, and Koneko immediately noticed some changes from the Japanese Mansion which is a chimney. At the farthest side of the Mansion, a chimney is sticking out from one of the rooms. When they approached it, the room has been modified to match as those from the western living room from their previous world. This room emphasizes the fireplace of the room, but despite that, it seems that Kisuke was able to integrate it without destroying the atmosphere and look of the Japanese mansion.
In the room, they saw Hestia sitting on the sofa while eating some snacks and they greeted her, "Good evening, Hestia-sama. We're back."
Hestia turned to the trio, "Ah, Sona-kun, Aika-kun, Koneko-kun~! Welcome home~."