Both Mrazivý and Marcus took a full inventory of the food they had together and planned out what they were going to eat.
Luckily between the two of them they came up with the idea to rehydrate some of the dried rations in a stew that tasted much better and was more fulfilling than just eating the rations as is.
"Ah, that was not bad, considering all we have are these dried rations, it was a good idea to boil off the water flowing through the room so we could get some salt." Mrazivý said after eating far more than Marcus who had no reason to eat other than to keep up appearances.
"Yeah, well if you had not kept complaining about how awful the rations were I never would have thought of the idea."
"Okay I admit, I was whining a bit too much, but can you blame me, even while delving into the dungeon I am used to eating better food, but I understand that sometimes you have to deal with what you have. Though if you were stuck down here with some of my sisters, they would have said that you would be executed for trying to get them to eat this food."
She then started laughing while Marcus held his neck and thanked his lucky stars that Mrazivý was not like her sisters since he did not want the trouble of having a princess' ire.
Once they had finished eating fatigue started to set in and the two of them gradually went to their respective beds and fell asleep.
Waking up the next morning Marcus found that Mrazivý had already left the tent and when he walked out, he saw her practicing with her sword repeating multiple swings.
When she noticed him, she stopped swinging and said, "Did you want to practice with me a little, there really is not much else to do down here and you do not want your skills to get rusty."
Figuring he had nothing better to do Marcus brought out his scythe, but when he looked at it, he noticed that some cracks had begun forming on the blade.
Seeing that he had stopped and was starting at his weapon Mrazivý came over and saw the cracks as well.
"Looks, like you overcharged your weapon, I have had this happen before, if you send to much mana into a weapon it can start to crack and in the worst case even shatter. The damage does not seem to be irreversible, but you should be careful until you get it fixed."
Thanking her for the advice, Marcus knew that his current weapon had gone just about as far as it could and that he needed to procure a new scythe once he got out of the dungeon.
The two of them then separated and took a battle stance ready to spare. Unfortunately, Marcus was overwhelmed unable to keep up and lost ever round of sparing.
This was not only because of his lowered stats but also a difference in experience. While Marcus did have a high skill level for wielding the scythe, he had only truly been using it for a little over a month.
After Marcus had fought to exhaustion Mrazivý said while breathing heavily, "Your skill with the scythe is impressive but it is like you are relying on talent alone. You fall for every feint I throw at you, and you seem to have almost no experience fighting against people. Swinging your scythe around with expert precision may work well against most monsters, but against people with years of experience honing their weapon of choice you are going to find yourself in lacking."
Realizing the wisdom in her words Marcus understood that although he did have high level skills, he did not have to work hard for them like most people. All he had to do was dump some skill points in and his levels would go up, so he had never really practiced with his scythe, and he really was just all talent.
With that realization Marcus asked Mrazivý if she could help train him how to fight against people, and that was how Marcus' hellish week of training began.
With nothing better to do the two of them spent the majority of their time training, and Marcus was able to jump leaps and bounds in his understanding of how to fight with his scythe.
And when they were not training, they would recant some of the highlights of their adventures though Marcus had to be carful not to tell any of the stories he had already told to her as Irene.
…
One day when they were taking a break form training Marcus was looking over the egg he had received from the treasure chest, and kept wondering what he needed to do to add it to his companion system.
Eventually Marcus decided to ask Mrazivý if she knew anything, and he felt like a total idiot after she told him what to do.
"Wait are you telling me you have not been giving that egg some of your mana, pretty much everyone at your level knows what to do with a magic beast egg. Normally it would be the parents of the magical beast that give it mana, but when a person gets ahold of one, they need to do it instead. This will help to deepen your bond when it hatches and make it less likely to fight back when you but a seal on it."
Admonishing himself Marcus thought, 'Why did I never try to send any mana into the egg, I even tired sitting on it like a bird, but it never occurred to me to give it some of my mana.'
"Yeah, I really do not know anything about raising a magical beast could you also tell me what this seal is about."
"Sure, there are actually two types of seals used in this kingdom, the seal of domination and the mutual seal. Most people use the seal of domination since magical beasts are not usually keen on working with humans. This seal allows for complete control of the magical beast and if the holder dies so does the beast. However, if the person subjugating the magical beast is too weak when they try to form the seal it can kill them. However, if a person is able to make a strong bond with a beast, they can make a mutual seal where the two parties work and can grow together and even share some of their powers. So, since you got an egg, I would try for the mutual seal since unless it is an incredibly powerful creature it will not fight back since it is still an egg."
After getting all the information she knew about magical beasts and how to use them, Marcus felt ready to give the egg some of his mana.
Circulating his mana into the egg Marcus suddenly felt as if vacuum had attached to him as all of his mana was drained at an alarming rate.
After just a few seconds Marcus was completely wiped out of all of his mana and collapsed on the floor exhausted.
Mrazivý then started snickering at Marcus' sorry state before saying, "Looks like it was hungry, I guess this is what happens if you go a couple days without feeding it."
…
Marcus continued his routine of training with Mrazivý and feeding the egg his mana whenever he had the chance for the next few days until finally a week had passed, and his stats were back to their full power.