Everyone mostly focused on magic training while waiting for Lily to recover from her daze-like state. Since Stardust wasn’t able to use magic, he was busy doing all the needed daily tasks.

Scarlett walked inside the tent to observe the daze-like Lily. She was resting peacefully on the floor with Remi sleeping beside her. Nobody else was around, it was the perfect opportunity to kill the both of them since everyone else was busy training magic and Stardust was busy attending to the other daily tasks.

( Scarlett) >

Scarlett used her [ Mind Magic LVL 1] skill to send weak hypnotic suggestions towards the daze-like state Lily to turn against her husband Stardust. The skill didn’t work and Scarlett was unaware of it. But it would work if Lily wasn’t in a daze-like state. Remi suddenly jolted awake as she sensed that something was amiss.

“ Scarlett, are you trying to practice your magic against us? You better stop it,” warned Remi.

“ I was just trying to see if my confusion magic can help Lily wake up,” smiled Scarlett.

Nobody was aware that Scarlett had [ Mind Magic LVL 1] as she lied to everyone about having [ Confusion Magic LVL 1]. Fortunately, no one else lied about what type of magic they learned. Just like how Lily is hiding skills from the rest of the party, Scarlett also wanted to hide her skills from them as well. Stardust has no interest in forcing any of his NPCS’ to reveal what skills they have if they don't want to. Whether or not this privilege of skill privacy will be beneficial to the party, only time can tell.

“ It’s good that you care for Lily but it’s best to let her rest peacefully.”

“ Of course! I will take my leave.”

Scarlett left the tent. Remi took one last look at Lily to make sure nothing happened to her before dozing off to sleep and reporting her actions to Stardust. Remi was another pair of watchful eyes watching over the party for Stardust to ensure none of these evil NPCs do something terrible to the party.

======

Luna was practicing her [ Fire Magic LVL 1] skill. She was trying to create a flame barrier to protect her from all the nasty insects. Although she had stockpiled many of the repelis plants that could be used to repel insects. It could run out without any opportunity to restock them again. Even though the party leader Stardust was super kind towards his NPCS’, she had a feeling that he would approve of the party dragging her into the lands of many large nasty insects rummaging about.

Luna had a sadistic smile as her mastery over fire was getting better. Initially, only 10% of the flame barrier’s area could be maintained for about 10 seconds but now she can maintain a flame barrier at 40% for a few minutes. > “HAHAHAHAHA! BURN ALL THOSE INSECT TRASH TO DEATH!”

She spun her head around to see if anyone caught her exposing her outlandish shout. Luckily, everyone else was too busy practicing their magic to even notice her and she was far away enough from everyone. >

Luna’s [ Fire Magic LVL 1] → [ Fire Magic LVL 2].

======

> ( Stardust)

***** Updated Cleanliness Ranking ( Clean freaks to dirty freaks) *****

Luna ( Extremely concern for cleanliness)

2. Lily ( Must be extremely clean for her husband)

3. Queen

4. Rainbow

5. Violet

6. Scarlett

7. Marla

8. Remi

9. Stardust ( Literally does not care about being dirty in the name of survival)

10. Monica ( Completely apathetic to cleanliness)

***** End *****

Stardust was busy prepping up all the meat for the ladies to eat since they were all busy practicing magic all day long. Stardust occasionally checked upon the sleeping Lily to see if she would wake up from her daze-like state.

> ( Stardust)

The party members were making steady progress in their self magical learning. Except for Queen, she was getting depressed. She tried to copy the magic of the other party members like Marla’s [ Magic Strength],

Luna’s [ Fire Magic],

Violet’s [ Wind Magic],

and even Monica’s [ Blood Magic] but she was utterly failing.

(Queen) >

======

Before dinner time, Luna was no longer starting the fires manually but with her convenient fire magic. “ I’m no longer a backwater barbarian starting a fire with my sticks,” cheered Luna.

A light breeze blew upon the fire, enraging it quickly as it started consuming the biomass used to keep the fire going. “ My wind magic is pretty handy as well,” said Violet. “ I can imbue my elemental wind magic into my bows and arrows to make them shoot faster and deadlier. Also, I can gracefully glide through the air instead of falling abruptly, in case we ever fall into a deep hole. Although I still need more training to use my wind magic to support everyone. Maybe I can even learn how to fly!”

“ Hehehe I can imbue my magic strength into my weapons to make them stronger and have more durability too.” smiled Marla. “ Although having better weapons would be much better. My magical strength has nearly doubled my physical power and speed! So this is what Stardust meant when he said magical power is like half your capability.”

Marla became even more of a powerhouse of an NPC. She already can beat everyone to a 1 vs 1 but now probably beats them in a 3 vs 1 without any problems. But if they were to all gang up on her, she would still put up a good fight as she could dodge many of their attacks and nobody would be able to outrun her. It was possible Marla could defeat the entire party herself. The range attackers are all sitting ducks for her. In real battles against mages, archers, and any other ranged attackers, they would all shit their pants at the super-fast Marla forcing them to fight in melee range where she will hold all the advantages. If those back-liners don’t have any front-liners protecting them then Marla would wipe them out.

Marla could further increase her deadliness if she gained the basic [ Magic Defense] skill, allowing her body to defend directly against magical or physical attacks on her body. [ Magic Strength] and [ Magic Defense] were two very important skills for any melee or front-liners attackers to learn. They mostly don’t use any special types of magic to fight with as they prefer using physical weapons with magic empowering their bodies and weapons. These types of attackers are often able to become much stronger than everyone else at the start of their progress but it does balance out towards the middle stages and the later stages. The other types of attackers do have their usage as well and let’s not forget the support classes with all their utility that they can bring to the battle. Right now we have Lily’s [ Evil God’s Happiness LVL LVL 2] skill that can neutralize an incredibly powerful enemy for 24 hours. And even Scarlett’s [ Mind Magic LVL 1] skill can help distract their enemies into making a mistake.

“ Everyone if you don’t mind, I can use my blood magic to wash away the filth off your body,” offered Monica.

Naturally, the clean-freaks were displeased with a few others being unsure of it. Until…

“ Sure you can try it on me,” said Stardust.

There were surprises among them but all of them were curious if it would work or not. Monica held out her arm, an old wound reopened up on her arm as blood was being magically transported out. It looked to be quite painful but Monica’s facial expression hasn’t changed. Using your blood for [ Blood Magic] makes it stronger and deadlier but it does come at a cost as you would start to feel lightheaded and could pass out or even die from too much blood loss. Although you could certainly utilize the blood of other living things or even create them from scratch, it was less mana intensive to use pre-existing blood as a resource. [ Blood Magic] can become more deadly in prolonged fights as Monica could gather up more blood from all of her enemies to use as a weapon.

Stardust activated some NPC healing on Monica so she would be in her optimal condition. Then, Stardust stood still as Monica controlled a few moving ribbons of blood moving rapidly over Stardust’s body. He was still clothed. The blood ribbons were collecting up the filth as they were being washed over him. After a few minutes of swirling the blood ribbons, Stardust was completely free of any sand, dust, or filth and there wasn’t any foul odor either. It was like he was being washed with water but with blood instead. And he was completely dry without any speck of blood left on him.

Everyone was surprised to see this outcome and observed Stardust from every angle and touched him to see if it was still wet. The blood-cleansing worked! And Monica had already used it on herself before gathering for dinner. She stood still, all smug as she knew everyone was going to ask for a blood cleansing from her which would earn her more social points among the party.

“ CLEAN ME NEXT!” demanded Luna.

Everyone was surprised to see the #1 clean freak demand a blood cleansing. And so Monica happily gave her a blood cleansing and everyone was lining up to get theirs. Monica could only clean one of them at a time as using it on multiple targets was too complicated for her. The only NPC not to get a blood cleansing was Queen as she sat aside while being depressed that she can’t use magic as well as the others. Lily and Remi would get the blood cleansing when they are awake again.

“ Queen come and get a blood cleansing, you will feel clean and fresh,” encouraged Rainbow.

“ No I cannot!” asserted Queen. “ I will try super hard to learn [ Water Magic] so I can clean myself. Staying filthy like this will only motivate me to learn magic.”

Unlike Queen, Rainbow had already learned [ Magic Strength LVL 1] from Marla, [ Fire Magic LVL 1] from Luna, [ Darkness Magic LVL 1] from Remi, [ Wind Magic LVL 1] from Violet, and [ Blood Magic LVL 1] from Monica. The only exception was Scarlett as she didn’t want to teach Rainbow her unique magic skill which was [ Mind Magic LVL 1] that nobody knows she has. Lily was the fastest to understand the fundamentals of magic but Rainbow was a pure magical prodigy. She greatly reminded Stardust about his past magical genius. Level one skills are the easiest to obtain but to learn multiple level one skills this fast is considered a genius. Now it was up to Rainbow if she could take these skills to a high level or remain a weak generalist. During this time, Rainbow’s [ Skill Mastery LVL 3] went up to [ Skill Mastery LVL 4].

Queen looked at Rainbow and it only made her more depressed than before. The NPC with the most talent in learning new skills versus the NPC with no talent in learning skills. She silently ran away from the party and alone into the wilderness to once again try and learn her [ Water Magic]. Rainbow wanted to chase after her but stopped to recognize Queen’s ambition. Rainbow did her best to help Queen learn magic earlier but it was futile, Queen couldn’t do it.

Everyone was very happy to be cleaned. They all felt sympathy for Queen but didn’t let her depressed attitude bring their mood down. Even Stardust wasn’t worried about it as it does take time to learn magic and that Queen will eventually obtain it. Queen didn’t want them to comfort her with their kind words either and wanted to be left alone.

Soon Queen came back to the party only after leaving for a few minutes and quietly asked for the blood cleansing. Monica happily gave her the blood cleansing and she experienced a short celebrity status among the party. When Monica was done with her blood cleansing, the blood went back into her arm into the same wound as before. Stardust healed Monica so she wouldn’t have a wound anymore. It would be a waste of resources if he had to heal Monica every time she uses blood magic so it was kept to a minimum.

Scarlett said, “ Isn’t it pretty boring that we are all training peacefully in Desert Area 2? Wouldn’t it be more fun if we put our lives on the line while fighting in Desert Area 3? The pressure of survival will surely help us grow much faster and stronger as an NPC or else we will die. It will make our lives much more memorable and full-filling. A boring life isn’t worth living after all.”

“ Don’t be stupid Scarlett,” rebuked Violet. “ There are many things you could do in life for fun that don't require you to be an idiot courting pointless death.”

“ If we could make some sacrifices to achieve our goals faster, we should do them.”

Everyone was annoyed at Scarlett for wanting to embark on riskier ventures. There was simply no reason to do something so foolish.

“ Go ahead Scarlett,” directed Queen. “ Nobody is stopping you from killing yourself.”

“ Awww, won’t anyone come along with me?” asked Scarlett, “It’s not fun being alone you know.”

“ I will come with you,” stated Monica. >

A few moments of silence…

“ Well, does anyone else want to come with us?” wondered Scarlett. “ We need at least 3 members, perhaps Lily or Remi would be interested? Let’s wait for them to wake up.”

“ Lily and Remi would not,” said Stardust. “ I strongly advise the both of you to not do anything risky.”

“ How about you come with us, Stardust?” encouraged Scarlett.

Before Stardust could reply, Marla, Luna, Violet, and Monica held a battle stance against Scarlett. A deadly bone short sword from Marla, a small fireball in Luna’s hand, an arrow imbued with wind magic for more piercing power from Violet’s bow, and three strands of blood hovering over Monica’s hands. They were not going to let Scarlett get Stardust killed for no reason. He was their Creator and benefactor but even more so, they all liked him as a person. He could even create more NPCS for them to interact with. It was also funny that Monica would defend him from going after she herself would go with Scarlett.

“ You know… I’m starting to think we should just put you in jail Scarlett,” warned Marla. “ This is to stop you from doing anything disastrous to the party.”

Stardust said, “ we will not put anyone in jail if they haven’t committed any crimes.”

Scarlett was only giggling at how everyone was getting agitated over her. She was also using her [ Mind Magic LVL 1] on everyone here to sway them into her stance but it wasn’t working very well for her opposers except for Rainbow.

“ … I will go with you two,” said Rainbow. > Scarlett’s mind magic had swayed her since Rainbow was initially unsure of what to do.

“ No you will not go with them,” appealed Luna as she tugged onto Rainbow. “ It’s too dangerous to go in our current state, we can still become much stronger and better equipped to handle the dangerous monsters in Desert Area 3.”

“ Then why didn’t you speak up for Monica when she said she would go with Scarlett?” asked Rainbow.

“ …oh uh… Monica don’t go either!” said Luna.

“ I understand the risks and I do desire to go with Scarlett,” answered Monica.

Rainbow argued, “ is it because Scarlett and Monica both have negative karma values? And everyone thinks it's okay to send them to their deaths? So they would no longer be a hindrance to the party? Scarlett may have her problems and Monica is a very good girl. But they are still both valuable party members. I will make sure they won’t do anything too risky too and we could make great contributions to the party.”

Violet replied, “ It is because we respect their autonomy and personal decisions. However, I don’t see why you would go with them, Rainbow. Sure you girls could obtain new resources and other potential rewards but what is it worth anything if you are dead forever?”

“ You girls can go,” said Marla. “ If the three of you can defeat me in a 1v1 first.”

“ Hey that isn’t fair at all,” rejected Scarlett. “ Stardust please stop Marla from controlling our decisions.”

Stardust looked at his feet, “ there is nothing I can do.” He was simply turning a blind eye to the situation so Marla could protect everyone even if it is against their wishes. He doesn’t want any of his precious NPCS' to die foolish deaths like his first NPC Freya.

“ Well girls, looks like you will have to get through me first,” smiled Marla.

Scarlett, Monica, and Rainbow resigned their fate and remained in the camp.

=====

The very next day, Lily came out of her daze-like state. Stardust had briefed her on all the events that transpired during the last 24 hours. Remi told them about how Scarlett tried to use [Confusion Magic] upon Lily. Remi also wondered if Scarlett really used [Confusion Magic] or if it was something else. Stardust was not able to tell what kind of magic it was but he inferred it was some sort of hypnotism magic. He experienced it throughout the day and during dinner discussions. He was okay with it if Scarlett used it on him during practice times but wanted her to get consent from the others before using it on them. The others did notice a strange mental effect, but they were simply able to shrug them off.

( Lily) >

Queen struggled to learn magic from the others so she turned to Lily for help. Lily was smiling as Queen told her of her struggles and all that Lily could think of was >

“ Perhaps you are thinking of learning magic for the wrong reasons, Queen,” lectured Lily. “ If you think of using magic to accomplish your goals and the specific type of magic required for it, you would probably understand it more intuitively. All the magic that the others learned was suited for them… unless you are Rainbow who is collecting skills like a madwoman. I’m not sure if [Water Magic] is suited for you either because it has nothing to do with ruling a nation. Although it's not to say you can’t learn water magic. Stardust did say that it was much easier to learn specific types of magic from other people who already learned it. So maybe we could find a water mage willing to teach you water magic.”

Queen had an epiphany at her realization, “ yes you are right Lily! I must think of awesome cool magic to learn to help me rule a nation.”

An hour later, Queen did not learn magic but she did learn [ Charisma LVL 1], a skill to make you appear more attractive and persuasive to other people. When Queen revealed her new skill to everyone, she received praises from everyone but was all secretly jealous of her. Beauty and handsomeness is an innate trait that all humans seek. Why wouldn’t you let yourself become more beautiful or handsome if you could?

( Lily) >