With the cauldron being empty, the magic circle had become completely visible. I could finally do some tests on it…
The first thing I did was to give the magic circle a bit of a rough rub. I assumed it would react in the same way as the teleportation circle reacted.
And It did actually which I was very surprised to see, even though I was expecting it.
The magic circle from the cauldron glowed with crimson light, similar to how the teleportation circle did before. However, after a while, nothing happened. The glow lasted for a brief second before the cauldron returned to the way it naturally was.
'Is it working?' I looked at the cauldron with prying eyes and began to touch every part of it. I was feeling around to find a hot spot, trying to figure out if the magic circle did heat the cauldron after I had given it a rub.
After a while, I muttered, "It did not."
Although I wasn't able to find what I was looking for, I did get a little clue. The drawing; everything that had the color red, had a slight warmth to it.
"So it worked, but also didn't?" I murmured as I tried to figure out how the cauldron and its magical trait functions.
I did not want to give up, so I started stroking the magic circle again. This time because of the small clue I had gotten, I continued to stroke as if wanting to erase the magic circle from the cauldron. My hand was starting to get hot, and it wasn't due to friction.
"As expected, the magic circle creates a source of heat." I was so elated I didn't realize soon enough that my hand was searing from the increasing heat.
"Ouch!" as soon as it dawned upon me, I quickly moved my hand away from the hot and glowing magic circle, as I felt the pain on my hand.
"No no no!" I was distraught, and couldn't help screaming out in panic as the circle stopped glowing again. It happened the moment I stopped stroking it! This made me feel devastated. I couldn't figure it out! I had seared my hand, for nothing!
My scream ended up disturbing the silence and everyone woke up as a result... Perhaps I had been too loud, because most of them had their eyes wide open already. The way they opened their eyes was a complete contrast to the way the guy I woke up had opened his eyes!
"Uh-uhm! I guess you all are awake now. Well then… good morning…"
I didn't feel the need to apologize for the disturbance I'd caused. Considering they had likely slept for more than eight hours. That's why, I decided to take the action of bringing the day to a start.
Already having told my good mornings in an awkward way, I figured next I'd say a sentence that marks the start of the day.
"I've already readied a meal for each one of us, come, take one. Unfortunately, this time the food is not warm like yesterday. I tried to find a way to heat it, but as you can see if you look at my hand, I failed..." I calmly stated.
"Leader! Your hand is like mine back then, when I tried to eat before everyone and you showed up! Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?" the teenager who I had given the extra bowls of soup earlier asked hurriedly.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I replied, waving my hand a little to show that the burn on my hand wasn't much of a problem.
"Leader, it's okay. You don't have to go so far. I think the cauldron is dangerous. We shouldn't mess with it too much, just like you said we shouldn't mess with the bad guys!" One of the girls outed her concern. Her hair was golden brown and she had eyes as green as emeralds. I sighed after hearing the words of the girl and told her, "Maybe you're right."
I had already given up on researching the cauldron because I didn't want to continue wasting my time on it with how annoying and difficult it was. Also, now that everyone was awake, it was time for me to ready up the training program that I would have each one of them go through. I could not afford to spend my time on the cauldron while I waited for them to finish their meal. Getting ready to train them was obviously more important.
It didn't take long for everyone to finish eating the cold soup. There wasn't much to the soup to begin with, anyway… Because of this, I didn't have much time to fully prepare for their training. However, I was prepared enough and had everything well planned to the point that it should be enough to make do for the day.
"Alright, everyone. You, stand there. You, and you…"
I gave instructions and had everyone stand next to each other, and slowly started making categories for their specific body types. Since they were going to be my loyal soldiers, which I hoped they would be, I figured I should have the elements of team play, roles, and formations.
Getting a good grasp of their physical capabilities and potential was a necessity! This is why I would observe them first before finally starting their training. To observe better, I needed to have them do a few simple warm-up exercises, which is what I let them do after making up specific categories for them.
As for the categories, I came up with three- power, speed, and endurance!
The first simple exercise I let them do is a light jog around the spacious center area. After observing for a minute, I told them to increase their speed.
While observing those that were running around me, I decided which category suits whom the best, "Sutow… Speed, definitely. Brolee… Maybe power, I should have him lift some weights later. His movements look powerful, but his speed is slow. Maybe he got heavy bones, which is why his endurance seems so so."
Devising a plan for each of them, I carefully considered how to proceed with each individual.