***
It had been exactly three weeks since Beatrice's death and Marcus had already recovered to maximum strength. His survivor skills that his father had taught him were being put to good use as Marcus sat in front of a campfire in the middle of the night in a meditative pose.
As he sat down in meditation, the dark night of the forest was there to keep him company, along with the lone campfire he now sat in front of. Beside said fire were various fish bones and remnants of fruits and herbs he must have gathered to eat alongside his meal of seafood.
The night air was cool and refreshing and thus allowed Marcus to peacefully meditate with only the occasional crackling of the fire and various insects within the forest to act as a sonorous melody for his ears. The shadows from the fire also seemed to dance to the tune of the forest's unique melody which added to the overall peaceful and quite ambiance.
Along with his now more-favorable circumstances came a new attire for the lone nomad. Marcus had long since discarded his old and dingy attire that he acquired from Ebonscale, and wore slightly more presentable clothing, which he obtained from other nearby settlements he'd visited.
Marcus now wore a long-sleeved dark-grey hooded-robe that covered his shoulders and arms and reached down to his upper thigh. The robe had an open front which revealed a black linen tunic and a grey silk belt to match the robe. Along with this, he wore a pair of grey wool trousers and black shoes to finish his look. Though the clothes were more geared towards a peasant's attire, they suited Marcus just fine compared to his previous garbs that he'd scavenged in Ebonscale.
He also looked a lot healthier than before due to his more accommodating circumstances that allowed him to be well fed and rested. Now that he wasn't being tortured or fighting for his life, he could focus on what mattered most to him right now, his training.
As to not interrupt the calming silence of the forest, Marcus 'spoke' to his master through his thoughts.
"Master, its been three weeks now, and I've already long since recovered. The meditations have also helped with my recovery up to this point, and I believe its time we tried training again."
For a while there was only silence within Marcus's head as his master had not yet responded.
It should be known that throughout these past three weeks, Marcus and his master had established a more firm connection and were now able to communicate without Marcus needing to vocalize his thoughts aloud and seem like a madman to those who saw him seemingly talking to himself.
He'd previously run into incidents where others caught him doing such a thing, and this made it harder to enter local settlements for obvious reasons. It was bad enough that some recognized he was an omen; he didn't need people thinking he was crazy as well.
After a few minutes had passed a voice responded to Marcus's question.
"Hmm... It does seem that you've fully recovered and grown accustomed to life as an omen. I suppose now would be the best time to start while there are fewer wandering eyes."
Previously Marcus and Nekros had tried to begin his training within the first week of him venturing off, but they had run into some... complications.
Nearly every settlement Marcus visited had quite a few mages within them and more often than not consisted of at least a dozen advanced ranked mages. The mages within said towns varied in the types of elements they wielded as well. From fire to water and earth to wind, they had nearly every element there was. One town even had a lightning mage, which were pretty rare. This was all to say that said settlements were fairly confident in the strength they possessed to defend themselves.
Now an obvious problem arose when a boy with black hair and black eyes suddenly started lurking around their peaceful towns. Some people from certain towns gave Marcus nasty glares and spit curses at him, some upcharged him on various game he brought in to sell, and some down right forced him out of their towns completely through forceful means. Surprisingly, these were amongst a small minority and could be considered relatively peaceful overall.
However, for the more aggressive settlements Marcus encountered, which encompassed the majority. The people of said towns didn't care whether or not Marcus was near their town or not. If they spotted him, they'd outright try to hunt, kill or enslave Marcus. Some would do it for fun, others out of hate, and some did it just to earn a quick profit for 'omen-extermination.' Yes, there were even quests and rewards given out to kill or hunt people like Marcus.
One could already start to understand why it was so difficult to maneuver around such an environment, let alone train in it. Some hunted and chased him all night and granted Marcus no rest or reprieve at times, and it took Marcus running for miles to escape his pursuers.
He of course tried avoiding towns after nearly dying a handful of times, since he no longer needed much from them after he received clothes earlier on. However, in the direction he was headed, it grew harder and harder to avoid said settlements.
Nekros, his master, had instructed him to head deeper inland into human territory. Marcus learned from his master that he'd previously been located on the southeast side of the human continent of Aqora and needed to head northwest to reach his destination of the human kingdom, Uceris.
At first, Marcus couldn't understand for the life of him why it was his master hadn't just trained him while they were out on the outskirts of human civilization, but his question was quickly answered as he traveled throughout the numerous forests along the outskirts. The farther one ventured from the center of the continent, the more dangerous the beast and monsters that roamed around were.