After walking for ten minutes, Leo felt he had recovered a decent amount from his fight with the snake. It was time for him to start picking up the pace toward the lake. He started jogging toward the lake to be quicker since he would still need body strengthening to get to the cave quickly.
He would also have to account for the fact that he was only going toward the general direction of the lake, but he might be off by a little bit. He would have to start paying attention for the sound of the waterfall while jogging so that he would change his course in the right direction.
After 10 minutes of jogging, he heard the sound of the waterfall. The familiar sound of the water crashing on the rocks guided him. Since he was near the lake, he stopped jogging to calm his body. He needed to take a minute to catch his breath before diving into the lake.
After catching his breath, he dove into the lake and started swimming toward the waterfall. He stayed alert for the crocodile but didn't see anything throughout the swim. He finally reached the waterfall and went through it to enter the cave behind it.
Unlike before, the cave was only 7 feet deep. It could fit three people comfortably though. He went forward to the end of the cave and sat down, slowly catching his breath. With just two minutes left for the spell to end, he was about to undo the spell himself when he realized something was off.
There was a shadow looming behind the waterfall. He knew immediately what it was before it got any closer. It was the crocodile. He immediately dove away from his current spot while grabbing the knife that he had set down a second ago.
A crocodile lunged through the waterfall and dove into the spot where he was sitting at. This time, there wasn't any barrier that helped him. It completely missed him and sat still on the ground. Without giving it any time to move, he immediately jumped onto the back of the crocodile and stabbed its head.
With repeated use throughout the day, the knife just chipped when it hit the scales of the crocodile's head, leaving a scratch. The knife still dug in slightly, breaking some of the scales, but the wound barely did any damage. The crocodile shook him off its back.
He only had a minute left before the spell would wear off. The crocodile moved back a little when its attack failed. But before it could get away, he jumped onto the wall to leap onto the crocodile's back again.
This time, the crocodile dodged. It then tried to snap Leo in half with its jaws. He narrowly dodged it by diving away. Mid-dive, he rotated mid-air and used the nearby wall to propel himself into the crocodile.
He grabbed the neck of the crocodile the minute he got near its back to make sure he didn't jump too far. He then stabbed his knife with all his strength into the same spot where he had previously tried to stab it. This time, the knife dug into the skull, cutting into its brain. The crocodile struggled for a second before laying limp on the floor.
Leo immediately collapsed on the floor. He had gone through too much action and adrenaline. he needed to rest. But he also had to get back safely. The spell had worn off seconds after he killed the crocodile. He just lay on the floor to rest.
While he was resting, he needed to look out for any threats. So after a few minutes, he pushed his body onto the stone wall and used it as a backrest. He put himself the furthest away from the lake and patiently waited. He was waiting for the time before he could reuse the spell again whittled away.
The reason he had to wait to reuse the spell again was that his mind was slowly recovering. Even though he had a ton of magic in his mind that would come back after being used, it took a toll on his mind to actually perform the magic. He would have to exert and control the magic to do what he wanted it to. The only way to decrease the cooldown would be to build his mind like a muscle.
As he learned magic and gathered more magic, he would eventually make a star. By forcing his mind to hold that magic, and using the magic to build his mind as well, he was essentially making his mind stronger.
Leo slowly regained his stamina while his mind was recovering. He knew that he couldn't actually try and find another herb at this time. Because he was very low on stamina, he would have to go back very quickly after he recovered. He was very suspicious about how strong the crocodile was. It was as strong as the snake. To avoid any danger, he decided that he would leave immediately.
After roughly an hour and a half passed, he stood up. Now that he was completely recovered, he cast another Body-Strengthening Spell on himself. He then peered out of the lake without immediately leaving the vicinity cave. He chose to take a proper look at the lake. This confirmed one of his guesses.
On the lake was a lily pad, on top of which was a red lily with water dripping out its petals. It was emitting a shine, so he suspected that it was a valuable herb. Because the crocodile was so strong, he guessed that it had definitely started getting closer to a magical beast. But that would mean that it would need to eat magical herbs.
That's why he thought there could be a magical herb nearby. Maybe that was why it was always so violent whenever it saw Leo - it might have thought that he was trying to steal the herb. But now that it was right in front of him, he was going to do that anyway.