-Hahhh! Finally!

-Wow…I’ve never seen a bath this big…it also has such a unique way of heating water…

-Well the method of heating water in this manner is pretty standard for most modern houses, we’re lucky that this building has it since we don’t need to transport water and can just fill the bath with water before turning on the boiler to heat it up.

-Let Ogra clean your back!

After returning back to the store, the women didn’t waste any time as they all went to the bath, Ogra actually didn’t care about the bath, but was dragged in anyway as the girls were worried that if they didn’t pay attention to her hygiene she would start stinking up the place.

Steamed surrounded every bit of the room as the girls sat inside the giant stone bath tub and enjoyed the warm water on their skin.

A lot of things happened, from being bought as a slave, finding a master, buying clothes and other things and registering as adventurers, everyone had a lot to think about, something that they didn’t get a whole lot of time for as they constantly moved around doing one thing or the other.

Silence enveloped the girl as they sat and each respective corner of the bath, it wasn’t a awkward silence or anything since they already got to know each other decently, rather it was more of a brooding silence as some of the girls felt anxious about some things which caused one of them to finally speak up as they felt suffocated the more they started thinking.

-Ehm…is this…really going to be fine? I am talking about the monster horde and us becoming adventurers, they said that this monster horde is going to be the biggest one yet, should we really stay here? Even though I am a [Hunter] I can’t imagine being of much use, I never fought in my life and honestly…I am scared.

Deborah said, not raising her head as she kept it low while holding her legs and curling up into a ball.

Deborah didn’t know the expression of everyone present was, but she was expecting to get reprimanded for being so negative, surprising for her this did not happen as there was a person who agreed with what she said, that person being Cornelia, but even she stayed quiet not knowing what to say herself.

Instead someone else suddenly spoke as she sighed while enjoying the warm waters with her arms and legs stretched out revealing her sublime figure that was both tight and very well trained.

-That’s fine, everyone can get scared, just because you’re scared it doesn’t mean you’re not useful and honestly if you came with these thoughts to our master and honestly asked him if you could be excused…he probably would do it, but don’t be mistaken that this is master’s kindness, what I really want to ask you, is it fine if you stay the way you are?

-Stay the way I am?

-Yes, you joined master for a reason right? He didn’t just take you without any considerations, he asked you what you wanted, and you told him your desire, he asked you to work hard for that and not for him, you understand?

Deborah’s eyes momentarily shone as she looked at Gabriella who looked to be simply enjoying the waters, Deborah herself hadn’t forgotten, it was just that she was shaken from the monster horde and the dangerous she would face in the future together with everyone.

Speaking with Gabriella she realized that she had walked onto a dangerous slope of abandoning herself, her eyes momentarily steeled as she thought to herself reigniting her purpose once more as she stopped curling herself into a ball.

-I…I won’t disappoint Lukas! I will work hard! I will find my father no matter what!

Gabriella smiled gently, opening her eyes momentarily before shutting them again feeling Deborah’s determination without even looking.

-That’s good, and its not like you’re alone either, we all will help you grow stronger, you just need to chase after that goal, it isn’t wrong to be greedy to desire things, chase after it, think about what you want.

-Ogra is hungry! She wants food!

Ogra chimed in, momentarily changing the atmosphere as Gabriella and Deborah couldn’t help but chuckle at her.

Everyone was getting along fine, but there was one person who had yet to say a word, but was deep in thought as she looked at the other 3.

-What I want…

Cornelia muttered, looking down at the waters as she saw her own clear reflection was deep in thought, for a week now she had been merely following and doing what Avian was telling her, she had been sad and grieving not having much will to do something without being explicitly told or force into it like Avian was doing to her, listening to them made her realize, that she couldn’t stay like this forever.

Marco likely wouldn’t have wanted that which is why he entrusted her to someone like Avian.

The thing was Cornelia still didn’t know what to do exactly, or what she even wanted.

Within the midst boisterous voices Cornelia alone pondered to herself as the steam seemed to cloud her mind the more she soaked in the waters.

At times like these Cornelia couldn’t help but to think about Avian, after all compared to her Avian always seemed to know what to do, she had never once seen him hesitate or walk doubt himself.

Cornelia thought, she wanted to be just like that.

======================

-Arghh…I didn’t think the humans of this world actually had such detailed understanding of the human body, its fortunate I found this book in a town like this, but the money I had pay leaves me wanting…

Avian muttered, sitting inside of the empty rooms with his camp set up whilst studying a human anatomy book he was lucky to find on their shopping trip.

This wasn’t the only book Avian bought either, he also bought a book about skinning and dismantling different kinds of animals and monsters, a book about crafting medicine and a map of the area that has been so far explored out in the frontier.

All of this cost Avian a pretty penny, he only had 8 small gold pieces left from his original 70, all spend within a day, it would be tomorrow that Avian was planning on taking everyone and starting their first ever hunting session to grow stronger in combat.

Avian was also planning on setting regular training sessions with everyone everyday just like with Cornelia, but this time he was going to ask Gabriella to do so since she obviously knew how to do this better then him considering her experience as a knight.

With Gabriella taking over the training Avian would find himself with a lot more time to do his own thing, namely studying anatomy and medicine, the reason being a recent event that happened a week ago which was Marco’s death.

Avian had been considering since then ways to be able to use his [Blood Control] in different ways to stop something like this happening in the future, since they didn’t have a healer in their party, Avian wanted to get at least a gap stop measure until they did have a healer or had a better method in case of emergencies.

Avian also felt that learning about the human body and medicine in general would help him improve his [Hemomancer] blessing, a particular problem he wanted to solve at the moment was the fact he always needed to use his own blood whenever Avian used his abilities.

This wasn’t a problem when he used only a small amount for reinforcing his spear head with [Blood Reinforcement], but it was a problem when he needed more blood to do bigger things like creating armor out of blood or making a shield which would take a lot more blood which could be extremely dangerous if he wasn’t careful.

Most importantly Avian wanted to acquire a ranged method of attack as Avian had learned over the past week that he could actually form arrows of blood and shoot them quite effectively within 35 meters.

This wasn’t a ability Avian had from the beginning as he only was able to do so after tirelessly training for 2 weeks and last week when he focused more on how to used his BP directly, at the end as a test he shot an arrow he formed with his blood at a tree a small distance away, the result of which was the blood arrow almost piercing through the entire tree penetrating quite deeply, previously when he tried to do something like this before, the blood arrow would always lose its form and turn into a puddle of wasted blood, but after the training it kept its shape even after it was launched, which was all because Avian had training his ability to control BP better, but that was still on a timer as the blood arrow would always ultimately turn into a blood stain without form.

Further training of shaping and controlling his blood increased the casting speed and the amount of [Blood Arrows] he could form at the same time.

Depending on the amount of BP input into the arrow it would keep its shape for longer, fly faster and penetrate deeper, Avian already knew how much BP he needed at every single distance and how to maximize his damage for each shot.

Avian’s BP recovery increased the more the trained it making BP or [Aura] consumption not much of a problem currently since he wasn’t doing anything huge yet.

The only problem was, the cost of the [Blood Arrow] itself, 1 blood arrow took approximately 100 milliliters of blood from his body, this meant that Avian could at most shoot 20 [Blood Arrows] before he started to feel its effects and strain on his body, even 20 was risky as that would already drain 2/5 of his blood which was normally capable of putting most people out of commission.

Avian could retrieve the blood that he shot off, but that was something more suited at the end of battle compared to in the heat of it which his opponent would likely not give any opportunity to do so

To solve this Avian thought about keeping blood in vials on his body to use that instead of his own blood, after all Avian wasn’t limited to using his own blood as his [Blood Control] allowed to him use any blood be it from humans, animals or monsters.

This in fact worked for a certain amount of time, note the phrase “certain amount of time”, as Avian discovered that keeping blood in a vial to use while effective couldn’t be used for a long amount of time.

The reason being blood spoilage, Avian could still control spoiled blood, but his control over this spoiled blood would lessen the longer it was rotting until finally the blood became completely useless and not blood at all from where which he would completely lose the ability to use such blood.

Coming again to another road block, Avian tried to find ways to keep blood fresh, his first and most obvious thought was to freeze it, but that immediately went out of the window considering he didn’t have a mini cooler or could cast something like [Ice Magic] as he wasn’t a [Wizard], no, Avian needed a method of use or preservation that would let him use as much blood as he could keep on his body and at any time possible without needing to prepare blood for each encounter, one option he thought of was to directly use the blood of his enemies once he killed them, this was a good idea considering that way he would have tons of blood right there and then.

The problem with this method was that Avian would be then required to learn how to do it midst battle which was hectic on top of that it would also put the requirement of needing to always kill an enemy first if he wanted access to most of his advanced blood abilities.

If by unlucky chance something happened in which he can’t or couldn’t do so, Avian would face some dire straits, Avian didn’t want to die just because he was caught unprepared, that would be incredibly pathetic on his part considering he always prepared for everything.

Avian hadn’t been doing all this thinking by himself either, to advance his search for a solution Avian asked around methods of preserving blood and keeping it fresh for a long time, most people had no knowledge of such method, but luckily Avian did find a clue from a local butcher when they went out shopping.

-Preserving blood? I normally just use it immediately after draining it or keep it in a cool place whenever I want to make blood sausage, but there was once a time I had so much blood that I wanted to store it for a long time, I didn’t have any ice to keep it cold, so I went to ask around for other methods, and I found out from a Merchant coming from Mistelheim that there existed [Wizard’s] in their kingdom who could turn blood into crystals and preserve them for a long time that way turning them back into liquid blood when needed, of course such method was not something I could ever employ which is why I gave up.

The butcher said, in all actuality giving Avian not much of useful information but at least something he could look into later if he had time, traveling to Mistelheim which was one of the beastman countries for a method of preserving blood was a too big of a project for him to do currently, but he still kept it in mind as he felt this was his best bet.

-Well I think this is enough studying, the others should be close to finishing with their bath as well, so I should start cooking some dinner.

Avian said feeling hungry, but just as he was about to stand up, the little figure sleeping near him suddenly shifted pulling his attention as he watched her wriggle around inside his cloak that covered her from head to toe.

The rabbit girl had almost slept the entire day, waking from her slumber she groggily raised her upper body and sat with her legs stretched out.

Her sole and half ripped rabbit ear twitched quite unnaturally while her breath was somewhat uneven but still calm as she slowly started to look around her or rather try to perceive her surroundings even through her blindness.

The rabbit girl instantly realized that she wasn’t in the place she previously was, Avian didn’t know if she even remembered what happened before she asleep back then, but as the rabbit girl tried to get her surroundings, she noticed Avian quite unnaturally even though he didn’t move or made a single sound.

This fact surprised Avian, but he brushed it aside for the moment as he gently spoke.

-Good morning, or rather good night? I hope you slept well.

The rabbit girl was quiet, not making a single move or sound at first as she shivered lightly.

Avian thought he was scaring her and that he would need to take it slow with her, but unexpectedly she replied.

-I…I slept…well…thank…you…

Her words were slow and very quiet, but Avian understood them nonetheless as he smiled at her even if she couldn’t see him do so.

Next he put his hand on her head, feeling Avian patting her head the rabbit girl immediately started to shiver intensely like a motor boat as her heart beat like a drum while intense fear enveloped her.

She didn’t know what was happening or who this man was, the last thing she recalled was being brought away somewhere she didn’t know before a stranger started patting and hugging her as she curled up into a ball not knowing what would happen next completely scared out of her mind, her memory ended then as she fell asleep when she felt the stranger’s comfortable patting and gentle words which she could only recall vaguely that put her to sleep.

The voice she remembered actually sounded exactly like…

(Gruuuuu)

Suddenly, the sound of a stomach growl interrupted the pair as Avian stopped patting the rabbit girl who seemed to calm down.

The rabbit girl immediately hugged her stomach when it happened ashamed and fearful as she suddenly remembered how in the past she would get beaten whenever her stomach made a sound like that.

The person beating her always saying that they were wasting food on a filthy mongrel like her and that they were only feeding her scraps out of pity and goodness of their heart.

The rabbit girl came to associate the sound of a hungry stomach with beatings, which is why she quickly curled up much more when it happened.

Avian obviously didn’t understand that, but he did know that she was hungry which is why he continued to pat her whilst hugging her so that she would calm down as he spoke.

-You’re hungry, let’s go eat something, I am going to make some tasty food for you so please calm down and try to eat it, I promise it is tasty.

Gently coaxing her, the rabbit girl slowly started to feel more comfortable even when she was scared, she gently raised her head for a moment to face Avian with her blind eyes.

She didn’t know who this man was, but regardless this was the first time the rabbit girl felt safe, she was still scared of course, and she had no idea what was going on, she didn’t even know if this was a dream or reality as she had experienced torture for so long that she stopped being able to differentiate between either of those states of reality.

In a sense the rabbit girl started to think of both states as reality as both were horrible, but this time it was completely different, when she slept and dreamt inside her nightmare, she felt a safe presence inside her nightmare that kept near her and kept her safe, because of this, the rabbit girl slept peacefully for the first time in a long while and when she woke up she woke up next to a stranger who made her feel the same safe presence.

Her thoughts were completely jumbled up because of this as she felt tides of feelings and emotions she simply never experienced or understood making her mind chaotic.

The only thing she knew for certain as Avian patted and had her lean on his chest was this.

-(I don’t…want to leave…)

For a while the two simply sat there like this with Avian hugging her, Avian didn’t know how long this would require, but he decided to stay as long as she wanted.

Fortunately, they didn’t need to stay like this for long as another growl came forth as they sat around.

(Gruuuuuu)

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