When I woke up the next day to find I was alone in bed, I get up and get ready before leaving the cabin.
When I left the hut I saw Érica training her fire magic with a fireball floating in front of her, I didn't want to disturb her concentration so I left her to her training.
As I look around I notice Ibuki practicing the moves I taught her yesterday.
Apart from the two, I see neither Kira nor Diana around, the two of them have already gone out to investigate.
I'll train Ibuki again until the afternoon and then I'll ask Érica to tell me the order of the books for me to read.
----------
Later I interrupted Ibuki's training and told her to rest, I took some water from the bucket that one of the girls must have picked up earlier today and brought it to her.
"Take the rest of the afternoon to rest." (I)
"Ibuki can still train more, master." (Ibuki)
"Resting is part of her training, it's no use straining her body." (I)
"The most effective training is not the one you spend all your time training in, but the one where you manage to balance training and rest." (I)
"That's why you will rest." (I)
"All right." (Ibuki)
Ibuki reluctantly agreed to rest, but thankfully she's obedient.
After making Ibuki rest I go to Érica, one of the reasons I chose now to rest was that I saw her interrupting her training, I want to take this moment to talk to her about the order I have to read these magic books.
"Hi Érica." (I)
"His master, sorry I didn't speak to the master before, I was so focused on my training that I lost track of time." (Érica)
"Don't worry about it, how's your training going?" (I)
"I managed to fix the problems with the magic I used in the bat cave, now I can use it at full strength before I run out of mana." (Érica)
"It took me the last few days doing this, now I'm going to start learning a new medium level fire magic." (Érica)
"You should choose one that activates quickly and requires less mana." (I)
"I thought the same thing, that's why I chose a spell that causes an explosion in a target area that is up to twenty meters near me, the name of this spell is "Magic Explosion", I will concentrate on learning it from now on." (Érica)
"That's good, but don't get overwhelmed, remember to rest." (I)
"I came to talk to you because I want to know if you managed to look at the books Diana and Kira brought?" (I)
"I've seen the books and organized them in the boxes, then I put everything in order in the storage room inside the cabin." (Érica)
"Did you manage to make a list of the magic books I have to read?" (I)
"With so many things happening I forgot, I'm sorry master." (Érica)
"I told you not to apologize for every single thing, it's okay." (I)
"I'll have a list made tomorrow to give to the master." (Érica)
"I'll be waiting." (I)
"Just for a reference, the master can tell me what magical abilities the master has." (Érica)
"Do you have a pen and paper there?" (I)
"Yes, I do, here it is." (Érica)
"thank you" (I)
I take Érica's paper and pen, use her book as a backup and start writing down my magic skills and her levels for her then pass the paper to her.
"Hmmm..." (Érica)
"I'll have the list ready for the master tomorrow by noon, master." (Érica)
"Thanks again for your help." (I)
While I was talking to Érica, Diana and Kira came back, we all went into the cabin to talk, once again they didn't find anything.
After we all talked for a few hours, some went to sleep and others went to the first watch.
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Three days later.
It's been a few days and I started training yesterday Ibuki in Fist of Chaos, Érica is still training her magic and I've already read three books about magic.
Two books on the basic theory of magic and one that talks about magic circles, according to Érica from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I can start practical magic training.
This afternoon Diana and Kira came back with smiles, seeing it cheered me up a little, if they're smiling they might finally have some clue about the Undead.
They come straight to me running, as soon as they entered, I interrupted my reading to talk to them.
"From the excitement of both of you, I believe you must have finally found some clues to the Undead." (I)
"Exactly that, master." (Diana)
"It took a long time, but we finally found some clues, master." (Kira)
"Then let's all go inside, we'll talk inside the cabin." (I)
Everyone stopped what we were doing and walked in, I got three mugs of water, one for Kira, one for Diana, and one for Ibuki who was training, we all sat in a circle before I started the conversation.
"So what did you find out?" (I)
"Master, we have already discarded two-thirds of the forest, which is the deepest part of the forest where we are currently." (Kira)
"It didn't matter where we went, we couldn't find any clues about the Undead." (Diana)
"So when we finished checking the deepest part of the forest we moved closer to Valen's town." (Diana)
"It was at this point that Diana began to smell faint traces of the Undead odor." (Kira)
"We confirm the area they appear to be in the zone closest to the city and the roads leading to the city." (Kira)
"This is weird." (I)
"They managed to find out something else." (I)
"After I discovered the area where the Undead appear, Kira searched for tracks in several places and found that most of them come from the same direction." (Diana)
"If you guys could figure out so much so quickly, then the people of Valen town would have figured it out too." (I)
"The chances of them discovering the same as we are very small, master." (Kira)
"Why?" (I)
"For many factors, for example, Diana comes from a race known to have the best sense of smell and that sense became twice as strong when she became a servant of the master, others could not follow the scent of the Undead as Diana." (Kira)
"Another reason is that only I could follow their cues since I awakened my spiritual energy and already contracted with a Spirit I became sensitive to negative energies." (Kira)
"The Undead emanate miasma which is concentrated negative energy, that and all my experience tracking others to the Assassin Guild gave me the tools I needed to track down the few clues we got." (Kira)
"Without having two people with the same specialties Diana and I have it would be impossible for the adventurers of the city of Valen to discover what we've discovered." (Kira)
"So now we have a dilemma." (I)
"What dilemma, master?" (Érica)
"Whether or not we should give this information to the city of Valen?" (I)
"It's still early, master." (Diana)
"We can leave to talk to them after we find the place where the Undead came from." (Diana)
Hmmm...
"Try to locate it tomorrow, but you don't need to take any chances." (I)
"Do you still have the holy water, Diana?" (I)
"Yes master, since we're avoiding combat I haven't used the ones I got from Mari yet." (Diana)
"Take them all with you tomorrow and keep an eye on your surroundings." (I)
"I think it's weird that the Undead are just heading towards town." (I)
"Actually, master" (Diana)
"This is quite normal, the undead are sensitive to vital energy, they are attracted like a wolf is attracted to a piece of meat." (Diana)
"And the city has thousands of people gathered, it generates a lot of vital energy concentrated in one place." (Kira)
"It makes the city feel like a big feast to the Undead, so they go straight there, but they'll still attack anyone with life energy who gets close to them." (Kira)
"Like adventurers in the forest to fulfill quests and traders traveling along the road near the forest?" (I)
"Exactly that, master." (Kira)
"(What should I do now?)" (I)
hmmm
"You two will continue to investigate, if you find anything suspicious or the number of Undead is higher than expected, I want you to return immediately." (I)
"If we keep investigating during the day we'll be fine, the undead are weak when exposed to the sun, so they only attack at night." (Diana)
"From what we've seen, the place they're coming from shouldn't be far from the city, we should get more information tomorrow." (Kira)
"I count on you." (I)
We continued talking for a while longer, then I made them go to sleep while Érica, Ibuki, and I went outside to get the first watch.
Érica took advantage of the watch time to check on Ibuki's progress by making her read a book to her, while I was starting to read a book on woodworking to pass the time.
After hours of standing guard our shift is over, I once again like every night carry Ibuki in my arms to bed after she's fallen asleep on watch.
Érica went to wake the girls up and I went to bed too, for the past few days we've been using blankets and pillows that Diana and Kira brought from town at my request.
In the first days after they came back, with so much going on I forgot about it and so did they, I even forgot about the pots and other kitchen things I asked for, but we are already using everything I asked for.
Being able to cook the meat with some herbs and forest fruits that Diana and Kira found during their investigation made the food much tastier.