The next day, I woke up and once again checked if I could move. It once again hurt, but it was bearable this time. While my mana did grow chaotic, it was something that was manageable. I doubt that I would be able to do extreme movements, but simple ones would definitely be fine, and if I could do simple ones, then I would be able to train myself. That should help my recovery, and will also give me something else to do. Staying still is extremely boring. I hope I never have to go through that experience again.
While thinking of that, I began to slowly start my exercises. I tried to do my usual set, but soon realized that it would take too much time. After all, I wasn't able to do extreme movements unless I wanted to hurt myself. As such, I lowered the amount that I would do, so that I wouldn't take a lot of time. I finished my exercise, and then walked out of my room to go get some food. When I walked out though, I immediately ran into Astra and Ana. They seemed to be coming to my room to eat with me.
"Are you okay to move around?" Ana asks after the initial shock.
"It hurts to do extreme movements, but simple ones are fine," I immediately replied.
"If that's the case, then shouldn't you stay in bed?" Astra asks. "Wouldn't that be more beneficial to your recovery?"
"It's boring to just stay around in one place," I say. "Besides, the problem is an imablace with my body and mana. As such, training my body will help me, so moving around is definitely more beneficial than staying still."
"If you say so," Ana said skeptically.
"I'm fine," I say confidently, "so let's go eat."
With that, I walk past them and head to the kitchen. Since they were coming to my room, they had already made breakfast, and were carrying it to my room. I had to wait for them at the dining room table, but it wasn't a long wait. They soon arrived and placed the food before me. Today would be Astra's second day of making food, which meant that my turn was tomorrow. Since I could move, I would be able to make food, but I would definitely be slow. That means I would have to wake up earlier than usual. It isn't really that big of a problem though. While I was thinking of this, I was also eating the food before me. It was good, and I was able to quickly finish it. I waited until everyone had finished eating. Astra took the dishes and went to wash them. It didn't take long as she didn't have to go to the underground river. Instead she used the water jet spell.
"So anything we need to talk about today," Astra asked once she returned.
"I was going to ask how your progress was going," I said.
"Oh, it's going fine," Ana said.
"We might still need your help though," Astra humbly said after.
"That's fine," I reply. "I'll mostly be in my room, exercising. I may also be doing some more metal training, but either way you'll be fine to come and ask for help. Not sure how much of a help I will be though."
"It's fine, even if you don't help us," Ana said. "You'll be a big help either way."
"So that's our plans for the day?" I asked.
"Pretty much it," Astra said.
"Okay," I replied slowly before remembering something. "How is our food situation?"
"We should be fine to last the winter," Astra said. "Your day to cook is tomorrow, so you can check it out then if you don't believe us."
With that, I finally left and headed to my room with peace of mind. If they said that we had enough to survive the winter, then I would believe them. Once in my room, I began to exercise. I also trained my multitasking skill by trying to think about the problems on my list. I would have also tried to increase my use of multiple elements through the mana links, but decided against that. I reasoned that I should be training my body instead of my mana usage. As such, I focused more on the exercises. I had to take it slow, because extreme movements would hurt.
After a little bit though, I could speed up the pace. Of course, I didn't do so immediately. I felt that it would be too hasty to do so immediately, so I just continued with the normal training. Once in a while I would bump up the difficulty, but only when I felt that I wouldn't get any gains from the current difficulty. Because of that, the difficulty didn't really increase often.
It also seems like everytime I increased the difficulty, Astra and Ana would come in and ask questions. Of course I would definitely try to answer their questions as best as I could. This time, they actually asked some questions that made more sense to me. I could sometimes answer then. However, it felt like they were asking questions, not to help themselves, but just to ask. I would still try to answer their questions to the best of my abilities.
While I was training, my stomach started rumbling, signifying it was time for lunch. I left my room and went to the dining room table. I sat down, but couldn't see Astra in the kitchen. She most likely was focused on her spells, and didn't realize it was time for lunch. I decided to be patient, and wait for them to come out. In the meantime, I trained my multitasking skills. I felt that I was on the verge of change, and may soon be able to split my mind six ways. I would probably focus on my multitasking skill for the rest of the day. Once I had decided that, I saw Astra and Ana come out of the room. When Astra saw me, she seemed apologetic.
Seeing her like that I decided to say, "I'm fine."
She smiled at me when I said that, before immediately heading into the kitchen. I decided to follow her inside, so I could help. I wanted to speed up the cooking process, and also thought that doing precise movements would be helpful to my recovery. Astra seemed surprised to see me inside the kitchen.
"I want to help," I said in reply to her inquisitive gaze, "so tell me what I can help you with."
"Thank you," she says humbly. "I'll want you to fill the pot with water. I'll get the vegetables, and I'll want you to cut up some of them."
"Okay," I replied, before chanting the water jet spell. "O spell of water flow from my hands as a jet to fill my container."
Once the spell was chanted, I directed it to the pot. It took some time, but the pot was slowly filling up with water. Once it was at the halfway point, Astra came back from the storage area, her arms filled with food. She first washed the vegetables within the water that I had just generated. I threw out the water after she was done washing, and refilled the pot. After I had finished that, I began to cut the vegetables that she had left for me to do.
"O spell of wind, form from my hands a sharp dagger that follows my movements to dismember my enemies."
I chanted my dismantling dagger, but when I did so, my mana started growing chaotic. I felt that I would be able to use this spell, but I wouldn't be able to use another spell for the day. Even though the imabance is with my body, it seems like it also affects my spells. I'm not sure why I was able to use two spells though. Maybe it is because I have slightly recovered. Well, it's not like I will need any more spells for the rest of the day, so I should be fine.
After thinking of that, I fully threw myself into my cutting work. However, I was slow in doing it, as I still am not capable of extreme movements. That must be the main reason why Astra gave me less vegetables to cut. Soon enough, I finished cutting my portion of the vegetables, and dispersed my dismantling dagger. With that, I wouldn't be able to use any spells for a while. I'm not sure how long it will take, but hopefully it will only be for a day.
"Astra, I'm done," I yell out once my dagger has been dispersed. "Is there anything else you want me to help with?"
"No, I should be fine with the rest," she comfortably calls out. "You can just go wait for me to finish with Ana. Don't forget that tomorrow is your day to cook food though, so you better wake up early."
"You could have told me this at dinner instead," I sigh exaggeratedly, "but thanks for the reminder."
"I just want to be sure that my food will be ready for me in the morning," Astra jokes.
"I'll wake up early so I have more time to cook," I reply. "You won't have to worry about not having food to eat in the morning."
I leave after saying that. I am pretty sure that Astra said something as I felt, but I am sure it was just more jokes, so I didn't pay attention to it. Instead I went to the dining room where Ana was.
"You done?" she asks when she sees me walking from the kitchen.
"Yep," I reply. "I didn't really help much though. I only created some water and cut up some vegetables."
"She still must have been happy to have your help," Ana said. "I am sure of it."
"Well, should I help you out next time you are in the kitchen?" I ask jokingly.
"Sure," she replies. "If you help me out, then I won't have to try as hard."
"Forget I said anything," I replied before she could finish.
"You sure changed your tune fast," Ana commented.
"Your food is the best," I reply seriously. "If you put in less effort, then I'm sure it will no longer taste the best."
"I am sure that isn't the case," Astra said.
"Even if it isn't, I don't want to find out," I replied seriously.
With that, the conversation kind of died out. I don't think she had anything much she wanted to talk about, and neither did I. So, we just waited until Astra finished making the food. It took quite a bit of time. I'm assuming that she was making a soup, otherwise it wouldn't be taking this long. However, I am wondering why she chose to make a soup, which takes a long time to make. Sure the cooking process is easy, but she was already late to lunch, so she should have made something that wouldn't take much time.
In the end, I stowed my dissatisfaction and just waited. My stomach would occasionally grumble, but other than that, both of us waited in silence. Then, Astra came in with a steaming pot, as well as some bowls and spoons. She first served everyone a bowl, and sat down to eat with all of us. Once the bowl was before me, I began to eat. Since I was hungry, I ate quickly, and the food tasted better. Well better than what I was used to getting from Astra. I soon finished eating, and quickly got a second bowl. I ate it very quickly and went onto a third bowl. I finally felt satisfied after eating the third bowl, however, I could eat more if I wanted to.
"That was good," I said upon finishing the third bowl. They had only eaten two bowls, so we finished at practically the same time. Once we finished, Astra took the dishes and went to wash them. Since I couldn't use any spells, I didn't follow her, so she would have to go to the underground river. Because of this, we had to wait some time before she came back.
"So, do we have anything to talk about?" I asked once we had all gathered.
"Just wanted to know how your recovery is coming along?" Ana asked.
"I'll be fine," I say. "I don't know how much longer I'll need, but it definitely won't take long. How about you guys? How are your spells coming along?"
"We have the ideas down," Astra starts.
"But we can't seem to finish it," Ana finishes.
"Well, I'll try to be as much help as I can be," I reply. "I'll just continue my mental training, so don't hesitate to come ask me."
"Don't worry, we won't," Astra states confidently.
"So is that all we have to talk about?" I ask, seeing our conversation coming to a pause.
"Yeah I guess so," Ana replies, "at least I don't have anything else to talk about."
"I don't have anything either," Astra says, and then they begin to leave the kitchen.
"Wait, I just remembered something," I say as they exit the kitchen.
"What is it?" Ana pokes her head back in and asks.
"I just wanted to know which spells of mine you can't use?" I ask. "I want to see which spells can't be made chantless. That way, I might be able to figure out how to make chantless spells. Even if I do figure this out, it will be practically useless to me, but you guys should benefit greatly from this. It might even help you guys create spells."
"Oh, if it will help then sure," Ana replies. "Okay the spells I can't use are the detection spell, reinforcement spell, and pretty much all combination spells. I'm pretty sure it is the same thing for Astra."
"What do you mean when you say combination spells?" I ask as I don't understand what she is saying.
"Oh, um, how would I explain this?" Ana asks, and ponders over it before answering. "It is the spell that combines two elements, like your fire tornado, or healing spell."
"Oh, okay. Wait, I did have a healing spell didn't I?" I said as I had completely forgotten that I had created it. I hadn't used it often though, and there were many other things for me to worry about. Anyways, I'll try it out tomorrow and see if it can help my recovery in any way.
"Does this mean you haven't been using your healing spell to aid in your recovery," Ana says, anger evident in her tone.
"Sorry," was the only thing I could mumble under her gaze. After staring at me for what felt like an eternity, she finally looked away.
"I'll start using it," I said once her gaze was turned away from me.
"You better," she said in the same ice-chilling tone.
Once she left, I breathed a sigh of relief. Both of them can be really scary when they are angry. Even though I am stronger than them, I still can't handle it when they are angry. It also doesn't really help it when they are angry for my sake. That just makes me feel even worse. I waited for a little bit, because I didn't want to run into Astra or Ana. After the wait ended, I went back into my room. Luckily, they weren't in the hallway so I was able to enter without meeting them. Once in my room, I immediately began to focus on my multitasking training.
I would have also trained my use of one element through the mana links, but my mana would go chaotic when I tried to use a spell. It seriously made me wonder how I was able to train so much yesterday. I could only think that using my mana for training was different in some way, but as for how, I don't know. In the end, I decided to not think about it since I wouldn't really get an answer either way. I should instead focus on the thoughts that could lead me to an answer, mainly the things on my list.
The problem though was that my list only had 3 things on it. I would still need 3 more things to occupy my mind with. In the end, I decided to think of new spells and ways to improve spells I had already created. I couldn't think of another thing to do, so I just decided to switch my thoughts between the 5 topics my mind was already focused on. I felt that I should focus on things I wanted to improve, rather than things that might not help me at all. I decided that I should switch topics around every 10 minutes, but since I wasn't accurately keeping track of time, I didn't really care. At around the 6th switch, Astra and Ana came into my room to ask questions. They had to move me to catch my attention.
"Did you use the healing spell?" Ana asked me once I acknowledged their presence.
"I'll do it tomorrow," I said. "I can't use many spells since my mana is chaotic. I'm hoping it will settle down tomorrow."
"Okay," Ana replied.
"So any progress, or did you guys only come to check on me?" I asked.
"Mostly came to check up on you," Astra replied seriously, before going on to ask questions. I once again tried to answer them to the best of my abilities. I feel like I was more of a help, but not by much. Either way, they left nodding their heads in satisfaction, so I can only assume they got something good out of it. Once they left, I continued with what I was doing. They didn't come back, and soon my stomach rumbled signifying lunch. I went out, and Astra had already prepared food for us to eat. It seemed she made it early so as to make up for her mistake during lunch. She had reheated the leftover soup and also made some sandwiches. Once we were all there, I began to eat with relish.
"Good night," I said to both of them once I had eaten my fill.
"Good night," they replied to me in unison.