After a hearty breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs and blue milk the group made their way east.
"So, what is the myth about the hot springs?" Hikari asked.
"To summarize, these hotsprings are said to help preserve beauty, enhance it to some degree and potentially increase longevity, however no one has made it to the hotsprings, or so they say." Serena explains.
"Sounds like the fountain of youth, just not quite as effictive." Iskandor mentions.
"I can only assume based on the name as that must be a legend from Earth, but you may have a point." Lar agrees.
"On another note, Lar, what you claimed I spoke in my sleep was Dovahzhul... On Earth it's a fictional language from a game... Is it this worlds draconic or something?" Iskandor asks.
"Yeah, most if not all with even a hint of dragon blood learn it with ease, same goes with elves and elven, dwarves and dwarvish, demons/devils and infernal, and so on. As far as I'm aware there isn't a language for beast-kin however. Perhaps it's because theres too many?" Lar explains.
As they continue the small talk they travel on, foraging berries as they come across them. Nabbing a few careless rabbits to garuntee they have enough rations and grabbing some firewood they come across to make setting up camp that much quicker.
As the moon starts to rise on the first night since they departed the pitter patter of rain is heard close by. "We should find shelter, I don't want to risk it with just the tent." Iskandor suggests.
"You can never be too careful... Based on the terrain I'm guessing there's a cave up there." Hikari says pointing a little north of their initial path.
"I'll scout ahead to make sure it's safe." Iskandor says, running to where Hikari guessed a cave would be. As he is on his way he quickly hops between a few branches to avoid some of the rougher terrain and spots a cave as predicted. Iskandor hops down and stealthily enters the cave, he notes that the cave is fairly large and appears to have been recently been the home of a bear. As Iskandor is about to turn around he hears a guttural roar.
"Well... Let's make this quick..." He sighs and draws a dagger. The bear charges towards Iskandor's back, thinking him an easy target. Contrary to the bears expectations he jumped at the last second to roll across it's back and plunge the dagger deep into it's back and make a bloody gash across it's entire back.
"And it looks like I found dinner." Iskandor grins smugly as he charges up a fireball and shoots the open wound as to cause minimal damage to the remaining pelt and cook some of the meat. Iskandor gives a whistle to signal "all clear" and carves up the bear and cooks what hasn't already been cooked.
As the remaining trio arrive they smell the cooked bear and quickly set up camp and eat.
"So I search the cave and see it's empty right? As I'm about to head out this bear attacks out of nowhere so I split it's hide after a well timed jump and roast it alive!" Iskandor narrates the short battle.
"So it's your 1, 2 combo?" Serena jokes.
"You could say that, open their defences with a well timed counter and a quick finisher following a one liner." Iskandor replies.
"A cheap trick and a cheesy one liner..." Lar mutters.
"That could be the name of my autobiography." Iskandor jokes in response.
"Six or so more days now, if we keep this pace we may make it in 5 more." Hikari says.
"Rain looks like it will last till midnight or so, it's about 8 now and we should head out around 6... We should sleep in an hour at the latest." Iskandor orders softly.
The others agree to the order and they relax for the hour, or in the case of Iskandor, experiment with magic to learn time of the inner machinations of the mystic arts.
Iskandor pulls out a notebook and writes down his various theories, conclusions and even some mathematical formula in an attempt to understand. Some of his many notes include:
"Matter can not be created nor destroyed, same goes for energy which can only change form."
"There appears to be a variety of ways to cast magic, but all methods have 3 stages. Preperation, casting, and payoff. The different methods seem to have different practical uses..."
"Following a 3 dimensional mana template seems to be the quickest once you are familiar with the specific pathways, however it requires slightly more mana and is different for each spell, even if some parts are consistent between other spells."
"Visualization seems to be the best for cost effectiveness, it seems to be a quarter second slower than the prior method, however this method can be difficult without scientific knowledge. It seems more effective if you understand how and why things work."
"Magic circles cost the most and take the longest time, however it is easy to make new spells with this method due to the modular design, it can provide a delayed payoff or multiply the spells strength."
"Under the assumption I am at the peak of magery 1, it appears that I would have about 250 MP considering 1 MP is approximately 1000 joules..."
"5 MP appears to create a flame the size of a small campfire while 1 MP creates a match sized flame... Perhaps MP works on an exponential increase rather than an additive increase?"
"Magic appears to be not adhere to Earthly laws of physics. I can maneuver shadows, I can create a shadow without anything to cast it and I can move shadows in such a way I indirectly create light... This requires more testing but it also seems I can connect the space between two shadows... Also requires more testing..."
After the diligent testing of Iskandor everyone manages to go to sleep and they all look forward to the hotsprings at the end of their journey.