Since there were some meat from the Platinum Bear left over there was no need to hunt so we walked until long after the sun set. This is going to be a pain, I know nothing about sword skills and Gwyn already left towards the river with a look full of expectations.

"Shin!!! I want to go too!" Lily clinging to me isn't helping, not even sweets made her stop.

"Why don't you take her along too?" Tarbalt suggested, "I know you said we shouldn't since it'll be dangerous if we try to imitate the training but Lily won't be doing anything would she?" Since strength training has nothing to do with a fairy no she won't... but she has a big mouth, last thing I need is for Lily to give Gwyn training ideas.

"Why not, that is unless you're planning to attack Gwyn," Fergul laughed lightly at his own joke but Tarbalt was glaring darkly at me. I'm not planning to... but if I was it's true that nothing they could do whether they were there or not.

"I'm not going to do anything but Lily is going to get in the way," I pulled my trump card from my inventory, a glass vial of golden liquid.

"You can't make me stay with food!!!" Lily tightly clung to my neck, my shirt was soon getting wet from drool. Sunlight Honey, collected from a special Day Lily that Fafnoth cultivated by Flare Bees it was a honey with over whelming sweetness and aroma as well as magical power. We had a one of the floors dedicated to various flowers but the bee population remains low even with continuous summoning since the bee's die burning up with the slightest climate change so the amount of honey I had on me was only two per type.

"Oh right, I know we have enough food but you might want to set some extra guards." Saying that to Tarbalt I uncorked the honey, instantly a huge wind slammed into us blowing several pieces of equipment away and knocking the men down. I looked at where I set camp to see Lily greedily gorging on the honey surrounded by walls of wind. "Ah don't touch that by the way, the wind will cut you up."

"What was tha-" Tarbalt was cut short as the sound of activity came from the forest.

"The honey doesn't affect humans much but for monsters and beings of magic it's irresistible, soooo have fun with that." Leaving Tarbalt and company still staring in shock I headed off towards where Gwyn was, Lily will probably just fall asleep after she finishes the honey.

"That was quite a commotion you made heading over here." Gwyn was sitting on a rock with her feet submerged in the river.

"You don't seem very concerned about it."

"Hmmm... I guess it's because you were there?" Gwyn had her eyes closed with a small smile on her face, "I'm a little surprised myself at how much I trust you, it probably has a lot to do with your strength but maybe also how you interact with Lily. You just... seem like a nice person."

"It could be an act you know, and that could have been us eliminating your soldiers."

Gwyn looked at me and laughed, "There's no reason you would have to act, you could have easily wiped us out alone." She turned her body to face me, "Thank you for your concern but I won't blindly trust just anyone."

I scratched my head, damn got immersed in the atmosphere, "it really wasn't out of concern, your words just reminded me of several character's lines."

"Character's lines huh..." Gwyn stretched and gave me a gentle smile, "You are one big mystery, the things you say and the things you do can differ so much. Well let's not waste anymore time." Standing up Gwyn picked up the sword at her feet, "Let's start training."

It was a full moon tonight without any clouds in sight, Gwyn usual attitude made her seem rough but the gentle moon light really brings out her beauty... "What's wrong?" I jumped back away from Gwyn who had walked up close to me and was looking at my face. Crap, release Restraint on Lust Control.

I wonder just what you were thinking.

Two years of straight training without any sort of release led me gaining that stupidly useful skill and the mastery of it. When I was heading down the mountain I used Restraint on all my abilities and just released or edited the amount on the several skills I needed since it was faster, Lust Control completely slipped me mind. "Sorry," I bowed my head, "I'm actually not sure how to train someone and I have no weapons training so..."

Gwyn shrugged, "Doesn't have to be weapons training nor do you need to teach me anything special. I'll take anything I can get whether it's just physical training or a simple form of hand to hand combat. Well I'm not going to force you if you really don't want to but isn't there something you can teach me?"

There wasn't much I did out of the ordinary although in much more extreme conditions, but truly I wouldn't be able to do that without the system assist/skill mastery system and my unique abilities. Vilana never said anything about teaching her arts to someone else but I don't want to do so without asking, plus it literally is just basic stances she never taught me anything else. "Oh, what about magic? I know a little about controlling it."

"Are you referring to the coloured aura that covers you sometimes?" Technically speaking that uses stamina but...

"Yeah more or less, although you did use something similar it seemed kind of wasteful." Back then her aura was definitely impressive but it was constantly leaking power out, to someone who can see it that could be an intimidation attempt but less than a quarter of the total mana she used there actually went into her attack.

Gwyn opened her eyes in shock but quickly recovered, "As expected of Shin I guess to be able to see that. I have no talent in magic, whenever I use magic a lot of it is wasted because I am unable to control it very well."

"Then doesn't that just require practice?" Efficiency and proper control was something I learned after many days of painful practice.

"That doesn't work, once I start using magic my mana flows out until it's empty; it's one of the reasons I decided to just use that one hit against you instead of dragging it out." I'm sure the sword breaking was another big factor but I did wonder why she didn't keep the buff from using that ability and just went for a single attack.

"Have... you tried doing an in between thing?" Gwyn looked at me with confusion, "Sorry I'm not good at explaining it, what I meant was instead of keeping your ability up or using all your mana up in one attack have you tried storing the excess mana in your blade while the ability is up?" What she did back then was cover her sword in a layer of mana, when the blade collided with my fist however the mana scattered; some of it went into the broken pieces of the blade leading to it becoming unstable.

"Wouldn't that be the same as what I was doing? And the ability ends once my mana runs out so even if I put it into my sword it wouldn't change the duration much. Plus my sword would become unusable from the mana" Oh right, I think Carey said something about items that could store magical power are rare and expensive.

"For now... how about meditating?"

"Meditating? That was something monks and priests do isn't it?"

"It's pretty relaxing and it helps you control your emotions as well as your energy better."

"Are you that against teaching me your training?" With a teasing smile Gwyn sat down cross legged with both her hands on her legs, "I've never really done this before so what next?"

"Close your eyes and just relax, try not to think of anything but don't fall asleep." I fell asleep many times when I was first meditating and ended up almost being put to eternal sleep by a fist. Following my instructions Gwyn closed her eyes and slowly relaxed her body, she was still a little tense in some places but for a beginner this was actually really good. "Now breathe in and out using deep steady breathes." Taking a similar position facing her I synchronized with her breathing and stared at her using Stalker's Eye. Damn, this is making me feel guilty and it seems that Lust Control can't suppress everything; I'm not even close to meditating properly right now.

It's been 29 minutes and 33 seconds. I didn't know you had this kind of hobby though.

Damn it Karen... it's hard enough to pay attention to just Gwyn for so long I don't need your distractions. It had been in actuality almost an hour since we started, I've had to restart the countdown for Discerning Gaze several times at the beginning because my gaze and mind kept straying. Even now I'm barely managing to restrain myself even with Lust Control, Meditate, Inner Peace and Stalker's Eye all running unrestrained.

*Ding

Conditions for Discerning Gaze has been cleared, bringing up stat screen now.

Status WIndowNameGwyn BrevarLevel89ClassWarriorEXP165748/409500Sub-ClassDemonic WarriorRaceHumanTitlePrincess of HellHP2080/2080MP1420/1420Stamina1489/2160Alignment976 : GoodStrength193(+30)Vitality89(+30)Endurance97(+30)Agility56Dexterity58Luck25Intelligence53Wisdom41

Wow she has a lot of strength, it's more than double her other stats.

Status:

Meditation (Active) - Restores 1% of missing Health, Mana, and Stamina every 10 seconds. Reduces effects of status effects by 5% every 10 seconds.

Blessing of Strength (Divine Passive) - All strength experience gained is increased by 25%

Magically Impaired (Divine Curse, Uncontrollable) - Once used Mana will continue flowing until it hits 0, in addition Stamina will be drained at half the speed of Mana for the duration.

Damn as I thought it's a trait, well a divine curse; if it was just a normal curse or disability there might have been something Fafnoth or I could have done. That did help explain why she was so exhausted after using her ability, draining Stamina as well is a terrible side effect. "Which god did it though..."

It could just be a random blessing, it's like how some people are born naturally talented at something or with a complete lack of talent.

Well training magic really is inefficient for her, the most it'll be able to do is reduce the cost of Mana and therefore reducing the amount of Stamina it consumes. Gwyn seems completely into meditating right now, surprising considering her personality, getting up slowly so I don't disturb her I look up at the sky. Back in the cities seeing stars were rare and the ones you did see might not be stars at all but satellites or aircraft. The moon looks absolutely amazing tonight though... Oh there's that.

Unexpectedly when Gwyn started meditating and followed Shin's instructions it felt really nice in a peaceful way. All her life there was always pressure because she was the first princess of the royal family. The politics required by such a role and the stress as a result of that was overwhelming. Then one day she met a mercenary who was training with some of his companions, that was when Gwyn set out on the path of the warrior. In a way it was an escape, the marriage requests and interactions from nobles decreased over time and when her sister was born it almost stopped completely. Only when Gwyn stepped down from being a successor to the throne did the nobles stop bothering her, but Gwyn felt guilt ever since that time; for all the problems she ran away from ended up falling upon her younger sister.

She had told her sister all about it once, however Shea at the time did not act in the way Gwyn thought she would. There was no blame nor anger, in fact Shea had hugged Gwyn close saying that she would take care of it all despite the fact that Gwyn should have been the one to do that. Since then Gwyn had started taking over the military duties of the royal family while Shea started taking the economical and political duties. While the king and general did handle the majority of it all, there was no denying that the princesses had contributed greatly.

They were bitter sweet memories for Gwyn and as she started meditating those and others floated into her mind, after her memories caught up with the current time all that was left before her was blissful emptiness. It was peaceful, quiet and calming here although Gwyn was vaguely aware of the world around her; for now all she wanted to was relax in this space.

For an indeterminable amount of time Gwyn spent in a trance like state, not fully awake yet not asleep before she felt that she had spent enough time here. But yet she lingered, nothing mattered here; there was no deceit, no enemies, nothing. After spending yet more time trying to decide, a sweet scent started pulled her away from the place. That scent brought with it the sense of reality, the duty she had to her sister and the people. Slowly opening her eyes Gwyn was greeted by an elegant, translucent glass cup glistening in the moonlight, the sweet scent originated from within.

"How was it?" Tearing her gaze away from the cup Gwyn looked up into the smiling face of Shin who was opposite of her.

"Really relaxing... so much that I might get addicted to it." Gwyn slowly blinked a couple of times and stretched, her gaze never leaving the cup.

"I figured rather than training we should just enjoy the view for the rest of the night." I gestured for her to pick up the glass, I held a similar glass in my other hand. It was just water, pure crystal clear water created with magic the only difference however was that I put a single drop of Moonlight Honey into each cup. Unlike it's counter part Moonlight Honey does affect humans however it was like a gentle caress and the taste was that of a subtle sweetness.

"It's... really beautiful." Gwyn was looking between the glass and me in surprise, despite describing it with a word that isn't used to describe taste I know what she meant.

"Perfect for star gazing don't you think?" Raising the glass again to my mouth I drank it slowly, it was definitely something you would easily get addicted to. Actually now that I think about it I'm a little worried about Lily drinking all of the Sunlight Honey, but knowing her she should be fine. Putting all thoughts aside me and Gwyn enjoyed the stars and water together with the sound of the stream flowing by. After the moon rose high into the sky, Gwyn put down her empty glass reluctantly and looked at me.

"Let me guess, you can't do anything about my magic problem?" I blinked in surprise a few times and Gwyn gave a knowing smile at my reaction, well might as well tell her.

"Kind of, there's no way to actually fix the problem but raising your efficiency will help deal with it and maybe if you had a... never mind that won't really be possible."

Gwyn looked at me with eyes full of suspicion, "What's the second thing?"

"If you had an item that increased your mana regeneration to the point where it could match or even exceed the amount you lost then it'll work." But considering this world-

"That's impossible, even if there was such an item the cost would be too high for anyone to pay. Well I'm glad you didn't say anything like sacrificing people to a god or something. There were rumors that you could get a favor from certain gods if you did a mass sacrifice, well not like it'll be worth it even if it was real." Considering the state this world was in any item with a normally negligible amount of regen to gamers would be an extremely rare object.Well I can actually make one right now but... she may end up an enemy in the future. As for the sacrifice thing... I'll just feign ignorance but I have a feeling I know who the criminal of those rumors were.

"Well... I'll try practicing magic a bit and thank you, for teaching me how to meditate." Gwyn stood up and bowed to me, don't girls usually curtsy instead? "Also for the little treat, however I believe we should head back to camp now."

*Ding

Due to your actions you have gained a new skill:

Teacher (Passive): Increases the effectiveness of your teaching and reduces the amount of time required for the student to learn. Novice 1 - 50%, Increases effectiveness by 10% and reduces time required by 5%.

Did that require her stating that I taught her for me to get the skill? As always the conditions to get skills and stuff are really random, I still haven't gotten many magic skills like ice spear yet despite having used them repeatedly. Well probably some hidden condition I have to clear for it. "I didn't do much, I basically just told you to breathe. I'm glad you liked the drink, sorry to say there's not going to be anymore it can get a bit addicting."

You're not going to give her any more despite the fact that you're on your third cup?

No one needs to know that, non at all.

When we got back the area was a mess to say the least, the corpses of beasts of all shapes and sizes were littered around everywhere and the men exhausted. Well there were no major injuries so that's nice, although the area where I set up is soaked in blood with Lily sleeping while floating several inches in the air hugging the vial with a satisfied look on her face. I stored the corpses in my inventory then moved Lily over to a clean spot while thinking that I would not lightly used the honey again. Looking over I saw Gwyn talking to Tarbalt and Fergul heartily, noticing me she gave me a knowing look before she went off to set up the watch and get the men to settle down.

I had checked earlier with Sense Presence and there was nothing threatening nearby, actually most of anything nearby was dead and the rest that stopped coming midway seemed more confused about where they were than attacking us. Well if anything dangerous comes I'll know, for now I'll just enjoy sleeping even if I didn't require much.

Note* Okay... soooo stuff happened and they haven't reached the Capital City yet... I seem to be terrible at estimating things so I'm going to stop doing that. Also technically I could have finished the chapter for the capital city as well but I was working on a different story (spontaneous ideas are spontaneous) so sorry bout that. Anyways night!