Lyte’s PoV

“Sooo~ do you want to try another duel?”

“Dammit!” Dranner cried and stomped off, leaving his sword and the rest of us behind.

“Ach, now ye've done it,” sighed Thora, breaking the silence. “Dranner'll be in a bad mood fer the rest of the assessment.”

“I'll try to do some damage control,” offered Liz, significantly less enthusiasm in her voice than usual, and headed off in the direction Dranner had left in. The other adventurers also dispersed rapidly.

“Did you have to be that brutal?” Lupia asked, still slightly shocked.

“I hate arrogant types like him, and he disrespected both you and Tear so he had it coming,” I replied calmly.

“Well thank you, but you just made my life harder.” I winced at her bitter tone.

“Well, anyway, diner,” I said in an attempt to change the topic.

“Ooo, what're we having?” Tear asked eagerly.

“Pizzah!”

As I headed back into my tower and up the stairs, I reflected on the duel. The knowledge the God of Reincarnation had given me on the use and techniques of the huge variety of swords, on top of what I had learnt on Earth meant that I was highly proficient in their use, but… I had only barely stopped my strike from splitting Dranner’s throat open. Something was… off about how I moved.

I wasn’t sure it was down to the difference having naturally functional legs made, or if it was due to not being quite in sync with the improved capabilities of my Terrarian’s body, or if it was due to boosting my sword with lifeforce. Either way, it boiled down to me needing more practice.

Back in the kitchen, I kneaded and spread the sticky dough, my movements becoming smoother and more fluid as I got reaccustomed to the process. Once the bases were spread to my satisfaction, I added a smooth layer of puréed tomato, then added thinly sliced cheese (I made a mental note to get, or make, a cheese grater), then a variety of toppings. I then used my bare hands to place them into a stone oven I had built the previous day, which I had preheated using Meteorite ore, which, similar to Hellstone, gave off heat, though less heat than Hellstone. About the right amount to cook a pizza through the thick lining of a stone oven.

Now the pizzas were cooking, I zipped up the central shaft to the guest rooms, let Tear and Lupia know that dinner would be ready in 15 min or so, and that I would have a quick dip in the bath first, then dropped down, using the Rod of Discord to teleport to the other side of the glass floor mid fall, hitting the water with a colossal splash.

I descended into the dining hall from the kitchen wearing causal clothes, a towel over one shoulder. Lupia took one look at me immediately made a comment. “Huh, I wasn't expecting the silver hair.”

“I said that too,” Tear replied.

“Why is that a thing?” I sighed, setting the table, “I’ve seen people in the outpost with all sorts of wildly coloured hair, and your own hair is grey; how come silver is so noteworthy?”

“It’s unusual for all of the races. All metallic colours are.”

“Hm? I didn’t know that,” I paused halfway through pouring a glass of water as I suddenly wondered something. “Does that apply to races without hair like lizardmen or birdmen?”

“I think so, but it applies to their scales or plumage rather than hair.”

“Hmmm~”

I brought the pizzas out from my inventory where they were staying warm, laying them on plates. I demonstrated how to slice mine, and the two beastgirls followed suit.

Lupia took a single bite, then exclaimed “Lyte! Your food is mana infused!”

I just kinda shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

“What do you mean ‘yeah, so?’?! Mana infused food goes at a premium! It’s great for increasing your strength and recovering from wounds and malnutrition!”

I just shrugged again. “Leave anything in this tower for an hour or two and it’ll become mana infused; it’s not something all that special. At least that explains why Tear’s been recovering so fast. Good to know.” I glanced over at the catgirl, then back to Lupia. “You should probably start eating, else the food inhaler here’ll finish and start trying to steal yours.”

Lupia eyed the way Tear was devouring her food and decided that taking my advice was probably the best way to retain her dinner. After that, we were each distracted by the food. I thought I'd done quite well, and Tear and Lupia seemed to like them, so everyone polished them off quite rapidly.

For dessert I brought out an apple tart I had baked the previous day, which was still warm since time didn't seem to move for anything in my inventory. Tear seemed to inhale her slice even faster than her pizza, then sat and stared desirously at mine so I cut her another piece. It seemed she really liked sweet things.

Once I had finished, I leant back in my chair with a contented sigh.

“That... was not bad,” I said, then yawned and pulled up the time on my internal Cell Phone display. “Huh, it's surprisingly late. You should be off to bed Tear, we've got a relatively early morning tomorrow.”

“What about you? You seem to sleep as much if not more than me,” she challenged sleepily, seemingly by reflex.

“Well tonight I won't be sleeping, I'll be checking out that meditation technique that Liz told me about on the way here, and anyway, I don't need to sleep, I like to sleep. It's the only time I get any rest,” I clarified.

“I'll say,” Lupia said, “you built this place in 9 days!”

”Talking of which, how do you like my tower?”

“It's amazing,” she declared. “The rooms you've got here are luxurious, there's hot and cold running water, a bath… pool… thing, and an entire library. And that’s without taking the mana density into account. I've never felt it so high before! Though frankly the sheer size of the place is a bit overkill. I could fit the entire town hall onto a single floor! And the number of stairs are a bit of a pain,” she added.

“Oh that reminds me, do you have any enchanted equipment?” From the knowledge the God of Reincarnation gave me, enchanted equipment seemed to be what this world called accessories. They were even limited to 6 per person, which would probably be increased to 7 like me if they consumed a demon heart. Amour, weapons, and informational equipment largely didn’t seem to count either, just like informational accessories.

“I think I trust you enough to tell you I have. Only one though.” She seemed slightly wary of my question, which seemed fair enough.

“Great, you have a slot free! Take this and tuck it into your belt.”

Lupia took the object I passed to her and turned it over in her hands curiously. “What is it?” she asked.

“It’s a ‘Lucky Horseshoe’. No matter how far you fall or how you poorly land, you’ll be completely fine as long as you have that on your person. Just in case you sleepwalk or something and manage to fall down the central shaft.” I gave her a grin.

“Wait, what?! You’re just giving this to me?! A piece of enchanted equipment with an effect like that would surely be worth a lot of money! What if you need it?!”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m only giving it to you for the duration of your stay in the tower. I expect it back when you leave. As for the other questions; in reverse order, these have the same effect and also allow me to fly,” I said, waggling my wings, “and I have literally hundreds of Lucky Horseshoes in my storage space.”

At this, Lupia.exe appeared to encounter a fatal error.

“And besides, Lucky Horseshoes are a bit awkward to carry around. That’s why I adjusted the one I gave Tear,” I commented, glancing over at the uncharacteristically quiet catgirl, finding her asleep in her chair. She was a lot cuter when she wasn't glaring at me.

Lupia’s stalled brain seemed to latch onto something normal to focus on and restarted.

“She's had a long day,” the wolfgirl commented, “no wonder she's tired.”

“Yeah.” I got up and lifted Tear gently in a princess carry. “I'll take her up to bed, so I guess this is 'goodnight'. We agreed to leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning correct? Shall I knock on your door to wake you then?”

“Yes, and yes please,” she smiled her response as I spread my wings and took off, gently hovering just off the floor.

“Well goodnight then Lupia.”

“Goodnight Lyte,” she replied and I flapped a bit harder to rise up through the tower.

After depositing Tear on her bed (thankfully she'd already changed out of her travelling gear into cleaner clothes), I returned to my room, pausing for a moment to grimace before walking over to one of my actuated openings and stepping out. I flew gently down to check on our escorts, Karma briefly raising his head as he sensed my approach before laying it back down in front of the entrance.

All six adventurers were present in the camp; four sleeping, two standing watch with their backs to a small fire.

I nodded gently and took off into the night. Almost five kilometres from the tower, I came in to land in the top of a tree. The pressure of holding in my aura for this long was really starting to strain the bounds of what I could manage to contain. I took a deep breath and slowly released it, allowing my hold over my aura to be released alongside it. Once it was completely free, I relaxed back against the tree and sighed.

“I really need to find a better way of doing this.”