Leo woke up and went to practice the breathing technique for a couple of hours before breakfast. He and David ate breakfast every day and chatted about different stuff. The same happened in the evening. Most of the day Leo was training in one way or another. The breathing technique get you charged by the world energy and because of that the need for food become not significant during the day. Still food was needed to operate. Only at a level of a high mage and higher the food loses it significance. He waited for David but he did not come. After some time he tried to call for him but got no answer at all. He became alert because this has never happened before. He entered David's room and froze in place. He understood that he was in deep shit right now. David was dead. Leo stood for a while in a daze before composing himself and starting to act. He was no kid. He had lived a hard life and knew what death represented. He thought that he had more time to be safe and protected but he was wrong. Firstly he took all of David's artifacts to himself including his spatial rings and staff.
He was not sure about their use but it was not the right time and place to figure it out. He infused himself with the earth element to strengthen his body. Even with the infusion of the the magic element it took him some time and a lot of effort to transport the body to a place outside the hut to bury him. He used the earth element to ingulf his master in the soil. Then he prayed for some time for the well being of the man that kept him safe. He lived in the communist country that had not recognized any religion but he, his family and many other people were Christian in the USSR. It was punishable by law if there would be traces of the religion found in any apartment or other place that can connect someone with believing in a god in the USSR. Still he followed the Christian ritual that he knew after he buried David, using the earth element. After that he sat to evaluate his situation and see what he can do to survive. He knew that he was too small and weak to go look at the big world. He needed time to learn the new skills that David gave him. He needed to become self sufficient in this environment. He checked the spatial ring to see its contents. It was a 10 square meter ring that contained two more rings that were 3 and 5 square meter respectably. Also their was a dear in the ring, a few swords, a bow with arrows, a shield, few books and many magic crystals. Leo remembered that his master told him only use the magic crystals after he got to a level of fifth ring at least. He was not sure to what level those magic crystals can elevate his strength but he trusted his master. He was relieved that their was a deer inside. It will not rot and it was a supply of food for some time. He had time to think how he could hunt and provide for himself. He was almost 7 years old now but it did not help him in any way. His magic was to weak and was concentrated on defense and not offence. With only the skill of stone skin he had zero chance of catching anything right now. He could use earth manipulation to try and catch something from afar but he was not sure if this was going to work. After he cut a part of the deer with a knife and roasted it for breakfast and ate some barriers he found in the forest he was ready to think about what he should do next. He could not continue with this regime of training or he would starve to death sooner or later. He had not even a thought to go to the city on the other side of the danger zone. He decided to try and hunt with a bow and arrows he had in the spatial ring. He got the bow and arrows out and tried to use them but found a problem. The bow was too big. After holding it for a short time Leo was very surprised. The bow with the arrows adjusted themselves to his body parameters. He understood that this was a magic weapon of some sort. Leo was very satisfied and started training shooting a bow. He had a little experience from his previous life. Also he wanted to believe to all the stories about elves being naturally good with bows. He trained in shooting at a tree for a few days and got decent results. The reason why he could train for a very long time every day was the earth manipulation he used on himself. He strengthened his hand with stone skin to not inflict damage to his hand while training. It made him tired because of mana exhaustion from time to time but he could regenerate his mana and continue with the training pretty quickly after using the breathing technique. Few days passed. Leo was starting feeling the hang of it. He was training most of the day because his life was on the line. He was hitting not moving target from 10 meters pretty consistently and he was generally satisfied. He felt that he could start trying to hunt wild animals or the weakest magical beasts like horned rabbit that were even weaker then a goblin. The training with the bow slowed his progress with his magic. He understood that his time will come to show his capabilities. He felt that this was part of the training too. The dear was about to end in a two or three days so he had to act. It was time to hunt.