Slowly, Eiro opened his eyes up again and stood up from the tree-stump before slowly stretching as he pushed his hand into his pocket and looked at the seed in the bottle, finding that it once more hadn't changed in the slightest.
There was a bit of an improvement a couple of occasions, but it's been nothing for a few weeks now, and the Imp simply wasn't able to properly connect with this thing no matter what he tried.
As he made his way over the log in front of him bringing him to the shore of this river, he smelled the air and looked into the distance toward the hut which smoke was rising from. But that always happened when Rudy was making that stew... It tasted really good and always gave Eiro a cozy feeling, but the process of cooking it took all day, and one of the steps produced a quite horrid smell and a massive amount of smoke.
Even Jura had to leave while Rudy was making it, considering how strong his senses were. Eiro still wasn't told whether this naturally happened because he was blind and that just increased the amount he could focus on his other sensory organs, or if this was because of his card, which Jura still hadn't revealed to him no matter how much he asked.
But right at this very moment, that wasn't necessarily Eiro's focus. Instead, he had to make sure he didn't make too much noise, something that was incredibly annoying even on the way here. All this annoying 'snow' was just way too loud.
The first time it snowed a few weeks ago, the Imp really wasn't very happy about it, because it made it harder to hunt the few animals that were actually still running around. There were already a lot less things to hide behind, so that made it extra annoying.
That's why he was glad he bought the book about traps he in town a while ago, because this way he didn't have to stay on lookout all the time. It still meant that there was a lot more 'broth' based food like soup lately just because there wasn't any more food, but it made the process of hunting a lot easier.
What also made them easier were these thick clothes and boots that Jura made Eiro buy for himself and the children, otherwise he would have frozen to death a dozen times over already. The Imp was a little annoyed that he still had to run around with this scratched up, barely usable wooden hand, but he figured it was better than none at all, so Eiro didn't really want to complain about that after all that Jura did for him already.
Another thing that was quite convenient these past few weeks was the amount that Eiro could practice his Water Magic! He got it to Apprentice Grade just last week, joining his Air Magic Skill! Although, the Imp still didn't manage to 'refine' his mana like Jura kept telling him to.
The old man said it would help him get his Fire Magic that he innately was supposed to have, but the Imp just didn't understand how he was supposed to do it.
After Eiro read about a method to test elemental affinity in a book, he immediately tested it on himself an the children! While Jura was able to 'smell' or 'hear' this kind of thing somehow, he was only able to do so once the magic had 'awakened' into a skill or something like that.
Either way, the Imp himself had his highest affinity in Water, as they already knew, then came Wind. Those two were the only ones strong enough to have automatically awakened into skills. Then came Fire, which was already quite close to awakening into a skill, and the Imp also had a bit of a minor affinity for the Shadow Element! It was barely noticable though, so the Imp didn't have much hope of getting 'Shadow Magic' at any point.
There was also a thing about 'Talent' for a certain type of Magic, and it seemed like the Imp didn't show any particular talent into any direction, meaning he was open to going anywhere with his magic, albeit slower than some others.
As Leon and the Demon's little Priestess were too young to be tested, he tried it on the other children next.
Arc had a strong Affinity for the Fire element with hopes of awakening into an advanced version later, although the Imp wasn't able to test for that advanced version just yet, as well as a Talent for Physical Combat.
Sammy's Affinity layout was similar to Arc's, just that instead of having the Fire Element, she had the Wind Element, but also a talent for combat, although a different kind to Arc, and high hopes of awakening into an advanced version of this element.
As for Rudy, he had minor Affinities for the Earth and Fire elements, both of them with a non-combat related supportive Talent. Then at last, Clementine had affinities for the Water and Light elements, with a very strong Talent toward Healing magic.
Jura already expressed his interest in teaching Clementine about magic later, but that wasn't a good idea for now, considering how young she was. Her body first had to get accustomed to mana properly before she was able to use it in any shape or form, after all.
Thinking about how proud he was for the talents the children were showing, Eiro slowly made his way over toward the traps he set up along his 'Return route'. So that he could cover the largest area he could, he chose to basically travel through the forest in a circular path, with the destination always being the river to meditate before he returned home.
He actually ended up making use of the sap that the Imp so unknowingly ate when he first arrived in this place to attract animals to the traps more easily. It worked pretty well in the summer when the smell of it was being carried through the air, but now that it was winter, it always just froze. It still worked as a pretty good 'lure' for animals making their way through the forest to search for food, so Eiro shouldn't complain, but he was in a slightly nervous mood over nothing having fallen for his traps on the 'Leaving Route'.
But to his luck, a rabbit seemed to have fallen for this trap, and a pretty big one at that!
As Eiro approached the white creature that was nearly blending in with the snow and his breath turned into mist in the cold air, he noticed something else, however. It wasn't a regular rabbit, but a monster! It had a small horn in the center of its forehead, and the Imp remembered this kind to be especially delicious, so this was a great catch!
Quite swiftly, the Imp went behind the tree he attached the simple trap to and pulled on the rope, immediately pulling the rabbit upside down to make it hang there like that. And then, Eiro took out his Dagger and quickly pushed his mana into the Magic Stone in its handle to heat it up to melt a little bit of the snow underneath the rabbit.
Then while momentarily holding the dagger with his right hand, the Imp ran his left hand over the spots of the snow that were now soaked in water. While the Imp's Magic was at Apprentice Rank by now, it was still a lot easier to manipulate things that were either part of his body or directly touching his body, so like this Eiro was able to quite easily form this water into the shape of a bowl before it froze into strong ice before the Imp quickly took his dagger back onto his left hand and held the Horned Rabbit's with his wooden right hand.
Usually, as the horn of this breed of Horned Rabbit was covered in razor-sharp small needles, you wouldn't be able to do it just like this without immensely damaging yourself. But because Eiro didn't feel any pain in that hand, in the end that just made it easier for him to grab onto the rabbit without it slipping away while the Imp cut its throat.
Eiro kept holding it while it was trembling and shaking its body around wildly so that it wouldn't fling any blood around, and soon enough the thick red liquid started dripping down onto the horn and into the bowl of ice.
The reason why the Imp did all of this was quite simple. For one, like this he had a good way of preserving the blood, which he and Rudy found to be an actually quite amazing ingredient to add into some dishes, until he got home, he was able to safely kill the rabbit right here without any worries about what might happen on his way home, and the horn absorbed a little bit of the blood as it dripped down and crystalized inside the smaller nooks or crannies.
Over the past few months, Eiro has actually been collecting these kinds of small trinkets from beasts or monsters he killed as long as he thought they were interesting enough. Jura said they might turn out to be useful to Eiro later on as well, so he didn't see a reason not to gather them.
And so, once the first onslaught of blood was gone, the Imp cut the rabbit loose and then attached the rope still around its legs to the stick he had on his back as he picked up the blood-filled ice bowl, still holding it under the rabbit while carrying it with his right hand and holding the stick for balance with his left hand.
For now, this Rabbit should be enough for everyone to eat a bit of, considering how big it was, and Eiro figured he should make his way over toward the hut again. He still checked the traps on the rest of the way back, of course, but they were all empty so he just continued on. There really wasn't much to gather at the moment either, so there was no reason to stay there any longer.
While the freshly frozen snow cracked underneath the Imp's feet, he stepped up the hill and tried to use the same path that he has been using every single day especially since it started to freeze like this. It was actually around the back of the hill when seen from the path that he used to take. It was a bit steeper here, but in return there were things like natural 'steps' in the form of coarse rocks and such. And because there was a little bit of an overhang there as well, the snow wasn't just as steep here and it froze a lot less, meaning that Eiro didn't have to worry about slipping without any free hands to catch his fall.
He remembered that on one of the first days that it snowed like this he tried walking up the regular path and tripped, before sliding down the whole path down to the foot of the hill again. It was rather annoying, especially because he nearly froze to death afterward because snow and ice got under his clothes.
First things first, Eiro stepped into one of the new parts that were built onto the side of the house. The top of this hill was actually pretty large and flat, so there was a fair amount of space for animals and other smaller houses, so once when Eiro came back from town with a few cows, there suddenly was a small barn there. And another time, there was a small shed that the Imp was allowed to use practically alone to properly butcher some animals or to keep his books and 'Trophies'.
It was pretty cold in there, but at the very least it was dry, that's all that the Imp really cared about. He dropped one of his books into water once before he finished it, so there were still about a dozen pages of 'Farm Animals for Dummies' he didn't read yet. It was a shame, but there weren't much important things he missed... That's what Eiro hoped, at least.
For now, the Imp had to get inside the shed and hang the rabbit there to let it bleed into a regular bucket and pour the blood he had so far into a bucket or something as well.
Then after Eiro properly cleaned the little bit of blood that did end up on his clothes off, he stepped up to the door to the house and hit his boots together to get rid of the majority of the snow stuck to it, then opened the door and stepped out of the boots directly into the house before placing the boots down next to the door on a towel so that the floor wouldn't get wet, before Sammy came running up to him before the Demon even had the chance to take off his cloak and jacket.
"Eiro! Hurry, hurry, Avalin's been babbling all day! You haven't heard her do that before, right?" She exclaimed, and Eiro raised his brows surprised. He knew that they were pretty excited when the little priestess and Leon started to crawl, but he wasn't aware that this was also such a big deal. It was true he wasn't there to witness it yet, although he didn't try to stay just for that anyway.
But since even Jura seemed quite interested, he just followed along and took a look. And then, the very moment, that Eiro looked at the rainbow-eyed little Avalin, the young toddler herself started giggling happily and extended her hands toward the Imp, quickly grasping his index finger.
"Daa...da!"