Ed didn't do much else that night. He only talked a bit with Shel who would now teach him ax fighting techniques. They even agreed on a rough schedule for Ed to follow. He went back to Vorgarag's cottage after that as the atmosphere felt a bit awkward, Ed didn't seem to be a very sociable person...
He opened the door into the cottage and heaved out a large sigh after closing and entering. It was time for him to get some rest but he was somewhat unwilling. Sleeping felt like a waste of time for him as he didn't know for how long he could afford to loiter around. In the first place, his status as a dungeon champion seemed to offer many perks. He didn't need nearly as much sleep as others and his energy was much more plentiful.
As a matter of fact, the issue of gathering food never even entered his head until he met Vorgarag. He had completely forgotten about eating! It sounded really ridiculous but his time as an undead life form was in no way short.
'The inconveniences of being dead I suppose...' Ed could still savor the delicious boar meat. He couldn't even remember what food tasted like so it tasted additionally great even though it lacked any sort of spices and was simply roasted.
He shook away the useless thoughts and decided to increase his amount of mana. He really hated the thought of lounging around to gather mana for hours. Ed remembered one time in which he tried to meditate in his past life, it didn't take him very long to grab his phone.
'Technology...' Things would be much more convenient if he had technology.
'Ah, whatever!' Ed then sat on his bed while trying his best to get comfortable. He then covered his entire body with his pitiful amount of mana quickly bringing it to exhaustion. And then... he waited.
There was nothing he could do. Recovering mana that hasn't been influenced by any elements is very hard, what were the odds of the mana to not be influenced by nature whatsoever after traveling the world after all. If he had a mana core like before he could simply try to convert the mana back into its element-less state.
'We are in it for the long haul...' Ed thought as he sat back and relaxed.
Morning came and Ed had spent the entirety of the past night gathering mana. His mana pool was at least four times larger than before. The results were average, especially when compared to his previous results as a skeleton. Now that he could see things from another perspective he realized that everything had its pros and cons.
He was still on sitting on the bed when he heard a knock on the door, by that alone he knew that the visitor was not Vorgarag. It was most likely Shel, they did agree to get some of the basics down this morning.
'I am surprised she came so quickly though' Given that Ed technically stayed up all night he naturally had a good grasp of how early in the morning it currently was.
Ed stood up and walked towards the cottage door, he opened the dingy door and was met by the combat suited Shel.
'Wait... now that I think about it nobody ever changes clothes here...' Maybe it was because he remembered more of his human memories but those types of things really started to stand out to him a lot more than before.
"Are you ready to learn?" The first thing Shel asked after seeing Ed was his readiness. The small conversation she had with him yesterday allowed her to understand him quite a bit more. He was the strictly business type. Or at least that was the impression she got from him.
"Of course" Ed confidently replied. Although gathering mana wasn't sleeping it could still allow a person to gain back some energy. He also felt much more refreshed, the feeling of having more mana course through one's body was invigorating.
"Follow me then" Shel motioned to him and began to walk away. Ed naturally, followed after her.
They eventually reached an open spot inside of the settlement walls. The morning sunlight illuminated the rough dirt. The grass was sparse indicating that this was a high traffic location. It must be some sort of designated training location. Oddly enough there weren't any other orcs there.
'They must still be tired from all of their partying' The other orcs' nighttime activities would have made it very hard for him to fall asleep even if he had wanted to last night.
Proving Ed's thoughts correct, some weapons were laying against a flimsy wall. Shel jogged towards them and grabbed a battle ax, she grabbed it by the shaft and carefully tossed it to Ed who caught it simply.
"Alright, now that you have a weapon it is time I tell you how to hold it" Shel was quite surprised to find out that Ed didn't know how to fight, he was a full-grown orc after all. She couldn't help but wonder where he came from. But in typical orc fashion, she pushed the thought aside and focused on training him.
Shel grabbed a similar battle ax and began to instruct Ed on how to properly handle it. She first did the motions before explaining it.
"First the hand placement, you must put your dominant hand on the middle of the shaft and the other one at the bottom. That is the first requirement to complete a basic swing." Shel seemed to be well versed in ax fighting and in teaching as she had no problem putting her actions into words.
"You then take a simple step forward while putting your body into your swing, like this" The ax's head cut through the air after she swung it following the basics.
Ed then imitated her motion and did a similarly fierce strike. His strength was much greater than Shel yet he could barely replicate her move, it became evident to him that he has been wasting most of his strength in all of his battles.
"not bad, it was just as good as mine." Shel nodded while thinking so. She was well aware that Ed was stronger than her but he still managed to follow the instructions to near perfection after a couple of examples. No matter how basic the move it was still worthy of praise especially when one is used to dealing with orcs.
Ed didn't agree or disagree with Shel's words but instead tried it over and over again. It seemed like Shel was about to suggest doing just that but she closed her mouth before any words could come out, Ed had already taken the initiative after all.
Shel supervised Ed for the next couple of hours. She corrected him a couple of times here and there but for the most part, Ed had gotten the hang of it. Ed performed the move seamlessly a couple more times before finally coming to a stop.
"Is that it?" Ed asked Shel.
"What? You want more? Did you even have anything to eat today?" Shel was a bit perplexed by his question, did he plan on learning everything in one day or something? He needed to take breaks every now and then.
"No." Ed scratched the top of his head while acknowledging that it was indeed a bit weird to not take breaks or eat anything and to instead train. As a matter of fact, some of the younger orcs who came later to train were giving him odd looks.
"Let's go eat something then" Shel who received Ed's acknowledgment began to walk away, Ed put down his weapon and ran after her.
***
It was a new day for Arbor town, the people were going about their business as usual. That included the Freedom Union's Arbor town branch. Inside of Samuel's office was Khal, the man temporarily appointed to take over as branch leader due to Samuel's previous failure. He had a smile on his face as he scoured his new office.
"Hahaha! This brat sure knows how to maintain an office! Miller! Come look at this!" Khal was enthusiastically pointing towards a bottle of aged wine on display.
"Sir, would you please get back to business. Samuel placed large importance on this matter." Miller ignored Khal's childish antics and instead reminded him to do his work.
"ha... fine" Khal let out a sigh and sat down on the office chair. He spun on it a couple of times before receiving an ugly stare from Miller. He put his hands up in defeat after receiving that look.
"I really don't see what the problem is, just send some adventurers to take care of it." Khal scratched the side of his face while looking at a couple of papers on the desk.
Khal was still very much unwilling to help. His position had been obtained with the help of his brother Duke Lansworth so he didn't really know what to do. He was used to fooling around all the time. This made it evident that the Union didn't really care much for Arbor town.
"Sir, please keep in mind that boss monsters can respawn as early as two weeks. It is crucial that you use your connections to gather many B-class and A-class adventurers, they have to set out before the grace period ends." Miller was appointed by the Duke to keep his brother in check and to make sure he didn't disgrace him.
Still, Khal's behavior allowed him to get many connections with adventurers. In their eyes, he was different from other stuck up nobles allowing them to really connect with him.
"Alright...." Khal said defeatedly.
