A day passed peacefully, and nothing of note happened that was worthy of note. His millipedes continued to spread out and look for treasures he could grab, but came up empty by the end of the first day.
The only exciting thing that happened was that Leon finally finished reading the earth magic journal, and had almost finished with the last elemental magic journal he had, the wind magic journal.
Leon felt a wave of warmth wash through him, and he stilled. That feeling had been coming along more often lately. At first, it happened only once every couple of hours, but now it happened as frequently as every fifteen minutes.
‘Leon, how long was I out?’ Nedra’s voice snapped Leon out of his thoughts. He quickly summoned her and explained.
“About a day. We are already halfway into the second day.” He told her.
“Oh… An awful lot of time passed. I didn’t think the effects of the fruit would be that strong.” She said and shook her head.
“How do you feel?” Leon asked. He was curious to know what she felt after waking up.
“Stronger. I think my rank increased a bit. I should be stronger then you now.” She grinned, clenching her fist to feel her power. She felt mana surge through her mana circuits and run all through her body, and her eyes glowed.
Whoosh!
A wave of red erupted from her, forming a faint red dome around her body.
“Finally…”
Leon stared at his Companion Spirit stupendously. He did not understand what she was doing one bit, and he understood even less when he gazed upon the manifestation of a red sphere around her form.
“What is that?” He asked, looking curious, and also excited.
“It’s a physical manifestation of my aura. It manifests in stronger beings, mostly starting from B rank, but also a few in Peak C rank.” Nedra explained.
“Oh.” Leon made an ‘O’ shape with his mouth. “Wait, so that mean’s you’re Peak C rank now?!” Leon suddenly realized that she had mentioned Peak C rank. His eyes went round as he realized the sudden strength gap that had been created after Nedra digested the fruit.
“Yup!” Nedra grinned and nodded.
“That’s great! Now, we don’t have to fear anything in here again!” He exclaimed, jumping up.
“Hold your horses, Leon. I may be Peak C rank, but that does not mean I can take on every other Peak C rank creature in this zone. There may be humongous Peak C rank beasts hiding around in this zone that can put up fights against B rank beings. There is no way I can defeat them on my own.” She said firmly, bursting his ambitious bubble.
“Yeah… You’re right.” Leon sighed, his features falling. “Oh well, we can only continue forward. We will set off after I finish off this book. Then I can put up an amazing display of quadra-elemental spell casting.” He still grinned, holding up the journal in his hand.
.
.
Two hours later, Leon sighed as he shut the book in his hands. He threw his head back as a wave of knowledge, both theoretical and practical, engulfed his mind. The wind around him whipped up, stirring a small whirlwind that shook the branches and leaves of the trees around the clearing.
Nedra’s eyes glazed over as she shared this experience with Leon, gaining the skill <Apprentice Wind Magic>. It was a breeze experience, to say the least.
After roughly half an hour, a shorter time compared to the others thanks to Leon’s increased Intelligence stat, the both of them snapped out of their daze.
Leon held up his right hand, and four swirling elements danced around a few inches above him palm. A tongue of fire, a bubble of water, a chunk of earth, and a tornado of wind. The four base elements were all under his control. A wide grin spread over his face.
“Finally, this small goal is complete.” He sighed and wave his hand. The flame and wind dissipated, while the earth and water dropped to the ground. “Let’s go, Nedra.”
.
.
In another part of the forest, the group of three that consisted of Adrian, Bella, and Malaki packed up their bags after a meal. Adrian sighed and shook his head slowly.
“Let’s be more careful. I will scout any potential treasure before we move there. You have your whistles, right?” He turned to his friends.
“Yeah, we do.” Bella and Malaki held up the small, white whistles that hung around their necks.
“Good. If for any reason we get separated, don’t forget to activate them.” He said firmly.
The whistles that hung around their necks were gifts given to the trio by Benny after returning back to Arnox. He had felt bad for them upon hearing of their misfortune and had gifted them the whistles. The whistles were magical items that functioned as a sort of locator. One only needed to blow on it for a signal to be sent out to a linked whistle. The linked whistle would then begin to glow subtly. The further one got from the person who blew the whistle, the dimmer the whistled glowed, while the closer one got, the brighter it glowed.
“Alright.” The two nodded their head. After a few minutes, they had packed up everything and put it in their bags.
Bella lifted her staff, gripping it with her sweaty hands. “Um, guys…” She suddenly said, making the two men pause.
“What’s wrong, Bella? Do you not feel well?” Adrian turned around and immediately noticed that her hands were shaking and she seemed slightly paler than a moment ago. His senses immediately heightened as he thought an enemy was sneaking up on them and Bella had sensed it.
“No, no. I feel well. It’s just…” She waved and stuttered. “Yesterday, when we were running away from the tree… I noticed something. Something familiar… Can you remember the undead we saw in the ruins of that town?”