"Come on, Freya! Adresin! You can run faster than that!" I yell at my two companions who are running through the forest.
This is the <
I honestly had a lot of expectations since everyone around me is hyping it up to be super dangerous. But turns out, it's basically just the field areas in Garden of Days. From my observations within the past few days, New York is within the [Forest Biome] since I'm seeing the same fantasy-like flora all over the place. At this point in time, we've travelled quite a ways away from the city so I decided that it's safe to hang around this area for a bit.
*ROAAAR*
Oh yeah. As we travelled, I noticed that there were no monsters. But I had a thought: if the flora is the same, so is the fauna. And sure enough, we encountered a monster when we went deeper into the forest. Meet the [Speedy Snapper], a level 45 mob from the game. I found this bad boy just minding its own business and now, this 20-foot tall lizard creature is training Adresin and Grace by chasing them with its 80km/hour speed. And of course, I'm riding on its head like a pro.
"Sir, why are you doing this?!" Adresin protests between labored breaths as he barely dodges a snap of the lizard's fangs. "This monster's too powerful for us!"
Meanwhile, Freya, or should I say Grace, calmly traverses through the trees with excellent agility. The acting suit that Jack gave transformed her into a human brunette. She hasn't said much ever since we got here and I'm worried. When I told Michael about Jack and Merideth's proposal, he agreed immediately and with one flick of a pen, she became my daughter, Freya Demain. I actually never imagined myself having a kid and now I have a teenage one. Talk about skipping steps.
"I'm doing this since you two are too weak!" I reply. "If you wanna hang around me, you better be able to hold your own. Especially you Adresin! If you keep almost passing out whenever I unleash a bit of my magic, you won't live long."
I glance and see Grace snicker slightly at Adresin. I guess he sees it too since he stops complaining and focuses on running.
A few hours later, the lizard tires itself out and collapses.
"Good job buddy," I say as I pat it on its tired snout.
Meanwhile, Adresin pukes on the nearby tree as Grace heaves her lungs out.
"Come on, quit dilly dallying," I say while dragging the lizard by its horns. "Sun's setting so we need to prepare camp soon."
"Y-oof. Yes, Sir," Adresin replies.
It doesn't take much time before we find a nice spot by the river. One of the perks of having an organization called the <
"Go sit in the river while I prepare this lizard," I command.
They both look at me quizzically but does what I said anyway. Their body jump as their feet hit the cold water but as soon as they got used to it, they're sitting cross-legged without any issue.
*Sizzle*
Yes! I haven't lost my touch! The lizard meat smells good. One of the hobbies that I ended up having after being stuck in the game was cooking. It came out when I got bored of eating NPC food over and over again. I was so thankful Garden of Days allowed players to learn any [Life Skills] despite their class. Without new food, I honestly don't know if I would've kept my sanity.
Adresin and Grace's noses twitch as the sweet smell hits them. But too bad for them, I still have one thing to teach them before they could eat.
"Focus," I say as I plunge into the icy waters myself.
"Uncle Richard, would you mind telling us why we're freezing our asses off?" Grace finally speaks.
"Asses? That's not a word a lady should be saying right?" I retort. "Also, shouldn't you be calling me 'dad' even though it's just us?"
This time, it's Adresin's turn to snicker. Honestly, these two. Without me looking, it seems that they've developed some sort of rivalry.
"Since we've reached an area of the forest where high-level monsters roam around, I believe it's time to teach you something," I say as I sit behind them.
Michael said that unlike Garden of Days, the [System] doesn't exist in this new world. Which means, getting stronger through killing monsters doesn't exist. Everything you gain, might it be magic or physical strength, comes from effort or items. I kinda understand this since even though I have my own [System], the concept of levels also doesn't apply to me. I'm sure glad I have this [Gamer] ability.
I lay my hands on their backs and concentrate. Even though it's a bummer that they can't level up, it does open up the possibility for them to learn skills from all sorts of classes. I'm getting shivers just thinking about their potential.
"Focus on the feeling as I inject some of my mana into you," I start my instructions. "This will hurt like a bitch but once you master the flow of mana that I'll show you, you'll easily be ten times stronger."
They nod obediently.
Slowly, slowly. These two trust me completely so don't fuck it up. As I continue my focus, I could feel mana flow from me to them. Like the water that flows around us, my mana circulates throughout their bodies.
"Ack!" Adresin coughs in pain.
"That's your [Mana Veins] being opened for the first time," I reassure him. "Don't be scared. Just continue focusing and stable your breathing."
Adresin does what I say and he eventually manages to control his pain. I then glance at Grace. She's a tough girl this one. She must be in so much pain but she doesn't even let out a peep.
As I continue the mana circulation, the water around them turns black and flows downstream. Good! Their bodies are starting to purge the toxins inside it.
The process continues for nearly an hour and eventually, they've understood how to circulate the mana by themselves.
"Phew!" I sigh as I collapse on the water. "Holding back was deadass tiring!"
The two stretch as if trying out their bodies for the first time. Then, they look at me with disbelief.
"Just where did you come from, Sir Rorschach?" Adresin asks.
"Not in this fucking water," I reply. "Go sit down and I'll tell you the story while we eat the lizard meat."