By the time they got back, the sun was starting to set. Dahani had explained the more important points about working with poison magic. The key was going slowly. You couldn't go for the harder substances until you had completely mastered the previous one, you would be risking your life for a low chance of success. Not worth it. There were several types going from the lethal ones to the paralytic ones. They also could be classified by the method of administration like by touch or through the air, and by how long it takes them to affect the subject. Like most magics, it was a path that would take a lifetime to perfect.

At the same time, Luke told her about the technological marvels present in this world. She had already seen a few things inside the house, but he wanted to prepare her for the things she will see in the future. Even if she stayed in the forest, it might come a time when she would have to confront this new type of magic. After all, the better the technology, the more it resembled magic.

This topic made him realize that he should set some defenses against modern warfare strategies and weapons. He had only been thinking about the new kind of dangers he was defending from while completely forgetting his own world menaces. He had barely any idea of what was going on outside, so it may pay off to be cautious. The problem was that an helicopter throwing bombs, a missile or simply a flamethrower could deal tremendous damage to the forest before he could even perceive the attack. There should be a way with a ward but he would have to think about the exact wording. Maybe if he got the fire affinity he could develop a better protection.

Luke sighed. There seemed to be no pause to the things he had to ponder about. Every time he set a new defensive mechanism (be it wards or patrols or whatever), a new potential trouble arose in his mind. It was quite taxing. He wanted to establish something that would cover most threats, or maybe a safeguard with the ability to evolve… However, until he did, he would have to conform with dealing with troubles as they popped up.

They had a dinner composed mainly of rabbit stew with some vegetables. It was more filling than tasty, but it would do for now. He knew how to cook, though he was seriously considering researching how to improve. If he had to survive with his cooking for the rest of his life, he would certainly need to get better. After the meal, Dahani told him that she wanted to sleep between the trees today. He remembered the treehouse and showed it to her, asking if that was enough or if she wanted the complete experience. She was satisfied with it and Luke helped move some bedding there. He suspected she wanted to train in her magic without worrying about hurting him.

He asked her what she knew about affinities before going to sleep. He wanted to acquire as many of them as possible and then he would train them into something useful. After all, getting the affinity required meditation by his experience until now. On the other hand, developing pseudo spells was more of a trial and error process.

“There isn’t much now about affinities. Most people are born with one or two of them and only bother to improve those ones. There have been cases of someone consciously connecting with a new one, but it is rare. It is considered too much work for little result. The issue with acquired affinities was that they grew a lot slower than the inherent ones. So, most people don’t consider it worth their time.” Despite her pessimistic answer, he didn’t change his mind. He suspected that the changes his body suffered after the system started will extend his life expectancy quite significantly. Hard to now in the near future, but he really hope it was so. He wasn’t interested in being immortal (too many novels explained how lonely and depressing immortality could be), but being young a longer period of time was very tempting.

“To gain an affinity is usually a painful experience because our body must get used to accepting a kind of energy it wasn’t originally prepared to. It was dangerous too, due to the bonding process. The person attempting it will try to connect to the element and he would feel the whole extent of the physical representation of said element. No matter which one, it would endanger his or her sanity. For example, Water element doesn’t create ay pain, but the peacefulness that the person feel, might make him lost himself in the feeling. If he does, he would be mentally dead. So most people don’t even try if there are no pressing causes” Understanding Dahani’s words, he started to sweat buckets. He hadn’t realized how dangerous acquiring an affinity was. He discovered how lucky he had been in the past. He decided then and there not to try again. Yes, he really desired to get each one, but he didn’t want to risk it for now.

He sat in his usual spot (below the Mana tree branches with his back against its trunk) and pondered what to do next. He would continue to patrol once or twice everyday, but with the help of the forest elves, there were less chances of something getting closer. At least dangers at the goblins level would stop being an issue. He had more time to investigate his power and to create more wards. He put his next goal as establishing a forest wide ward that could cope with fire. A forest fire was one of the biggest danger he could face. He thought about making a circle with the trees at the border with some kind of heat absorption ward, but that wouldn’t work due to two reasons: the fire could be fast enough to break the circle by affecting the runes in one of the trees (it would depend in how fast it could absorb, he believed that his enchanting and warding abilities weren’t high enough to make a spell that could neutralize a flamethrower for example. Or if they poured fuel into the tree before setting it on fire, it would be the same) and there was also the possibility than the ward would provoke sub zero temperatures while inside the forest. It would be uncomfortable to say the least. The first problem meant he would have to enhance the strength of the ward while the second could be solved by adding conditions to it. He suspected that even if he went through all of this, the first issue wouldn’t be completely taken care of.

He decided to leave this ward for the next day. Too many things had happened this day to spend the night without sleeping. He grabbed a blanket from the house (nights were a little chilly even in summer) and laid down next to the tree. He channeled Mana to it and went to sleep. Curiously, nights have been quiet all this time and this wasn’t the exception.