Demon's Virtue

After Eiro poured the water onto his Tree's roots, he and Nelli chose to refine a little bit more water until Eiro's mana ran relatively low, and just give the newly refined water to the Tree as well, all to level up the Spirit Magic Skill. And it did work, and the skill actually leveled up around five times while they were working on it, despite it only having been around an hour or so!

With a satisfied mind, Eiro then spent the rest of the day hunting and gathering some herbs. He actually managed to hunt three rabbits and two pheasants today, so that was something that Eiro was really happy about as well. While he didn't end up leveling up through it, he was still satisfied that it seemed he was getting closer to his next level-up through this.

And when evening came, Eiro's mood that had risen quite high returned to the bottom that it was at this morning when he saw Rudy and remembered what he did. Dinner was a little awkward and quiet, although Arc and Clementine did their best to try and lift the mood, which Eiro was rather grateful for as well, but it didn't change the fact that Rudy didn't even look Eiro in the eyes in the brief moments where they were talking to each other.

So, with his stomach turned upside down, Eiro went to bed that night and barely got any sleep. Or rather, 'barely' was still too much, since he only had his eyes closed for maybe an hour, and even then didn't actually sleep. And so, he soon stood up again when it was an hour before the time that the training bow the Demon was making for Sammy had to be taken out of the treatment bath.

That last hour was really just spent sitting there on a chair in the hut and waiting for the hour to be over, all the whilst starting to carve some parts for arrows out of some spare wood that he had laying around. Having a bow without arrows was quite useless, after all. But since these didn't need to be made out of anything specail, Eiro just made them out of anything and created a bunch of straigth sticks that he could then use as a base for arrows later on. It would still be a couple of days until they would start practicing after all, since it still took a while for Clementine's Staff to be finished.

And then, once Eiro took the bow out of the treatment bath, he re-attached the bowstring to it and then started to actually carve the riser into the shape that he wanted it to have to properly fit Sammy's hand. He took a look at Sammy's hand last night before going to bed to figure out which shape would be best for it, and now was working that into the actual bow. Once he was done roughly two hours later, Eiro placed it down at his table and got rid of the treatment solution that the bow had been sitting in, since he didn't need it anymore.

Once he was done with that, Eiro figured he may as well just sit there and read for a little while, until it was time to go out into the forest for the day.

In the actual forest, what the Demon did was practice his earth, and then his spirit magic, sometimes at the same time since Nelli was able to take care of the refinement herself, and then they fed the refined water to Eiro's tree until his mana was close to running out.

Then they returned home, on their way grabbing some herbs and small animals that got into some of the traps that Eiro put up, and then he ate Dinner with the children before going to bed.

That exact circle of sleeping, reading, practicing, hunting, and eating went on for the next four days, which seemed just extremely monotonous to Eiro at a level that he didn't even realize. He was used to going out and doing the same thing every single day, but even for him it was a bit weird, because once he got home all he experienced was awkward silence instead of welcoming smiles.

And on the fourth day after completing the bow, Eiro pushed his hands into the bath of magically-created water and pulled out the Staff that he made for Clementine. The texture of the wood was quite different to what it was just a week ago, since it seemed like an extremely thin glass- or gem-like layer had grown all over the staff's surface, and it seemed like it could slip out of his hands at any moment now.

So, after wiping the Staff down with a piece of cloth to dry it, Eiro just placed it down onto the table next to the other items he made and then stepped out of the hut, making his way through the house's front door where the others were still sitting around a bit before starting their day.

"I'm done." Eiro said in a clear voice, "Come over and grab your things. We're starting our training today." The Demon told them, and the children looked at Eiro surprised, although Arc quite swiftly jumped up from his seat and was the first to get dressed to go outside, being rather excited about this.

But soon, the others also properly got dressed to go outside, and then followed behind the Demon and the oldest 'sibling' amongst them.

Once Eiro opened the door to the hut, the others slowly stepped inside, and Eiro swiftly grabbed the two training swords that he made for Arc, swiftly handing them over to him.

"Here you go. Try not to touch the blade-part too much if you can avoid it." The Demon said, and then grabbed the bow that he made for Sammy as well as the bundles of arrows that he finished over the past few days and held them over toward the girl.

"These are yours, if you find any issue with the balancing, let me know and I'll fix it." Eiro told her, before Sammy happily looked down at the bow and arrows in her hand, nodding her head excitedly.

"As for this," Eiro started as he grabbed the recently-finished Staff and gave it to Clementine, "this is yours now. Try to have Nelli explain to you how healing magic works before you try anything though, alright?" The Imp suggested, before stepping up to the last item, the large shield that was standing against the wall that Eiro swiftly grabbed and held up to Rudy.

"And now, your shield. If you can't deal with the way the shield works, tell me and I'll remake it in a different way." He said, but Rudy slowly shook his head in response, "Don't worry, it's fine." The boy said with a warm smile that made Eiro think that maybe Rudy was slowly starting to get his thoughts together about what happened a few days ago, before he saw Arc swinging his two-handed sword around behind the others.

"This is so cool!" He exclaimed excitedly, "Am I doing this right? Am I a prodigy?" Arc asked with a loud laugh, and just then, Sammy realized something.

"Actually... How are we going to learn how to use these? Who's going to teach us about these?" She asked with a bit of confusion in her voice, before she heard Eiro crack his knuckles with a light frown.

"Who do you think? Me, of course." The Demon pointed out as he stepped over toward the corner of the room, where a set of other things was laying around. A Shield with similar dimensions to Rudy's, a set of a two- and a one-handed sword, as well as a relatively simple bow. They were all simple versions of the items he made for the kids, with the exception of Clementine's staff, since he already had one of those as his right hand. These things weren't special in any way, and mostly just made of regular oak wood, but they were just supposed to be a thing for demonstration purposes anyway.

"Ehh...? But do you have all those skills..?" Clementine asked confusedly, before Eiro just shook his head in response, "Not at all, but in return, I have my head, and my memories. The times that I've seen others practice, fight, or defend themselves are all still in my mind. So, combining that knowledge with the things I've read about your different weapons, I should be able to be of a fair amount of help to you." Eiro pointed out, before he lightly smiled at them.

"But don't worry, all of you. Jura came up with these, and he was sure to know what your talents were, so I doubt you will have any issues." The Demon pointed out, and then picked the different items up before bringing them outside.

"Alright... Clementine, you please just have Nelli teach you a bit more about specifics of casting magic, while I will teach you three." Eiro explained, and Rudy, Arc, and Sammy looked at each other with unsure expressions while Leon and Avalin were just playing around a bit in the grass.

"Don't worry... I should be able to do it." The Imp told them, and then picked up his own two-handed sword with the same shape of the Sword, the Katana, that he made for Arc.

Then, he dug through his memories, trying to figure out if he ever, at any point whatsoever, encountered anyone that had a weapon like this.

In the nearby town, there was nobody. On his travels, there was nobody. Not even amongst all those that Eiro remembered from walking through the ruined capital during the invasion of <The Sun> and the Monster Horde, there was nobody.

And then, Eiro found somebody. It was while they were waiting at the floating island, the morning they climbed the bridge. Eiro had been in the proper state of mind to actually try looking around, different to the evening before then where he was trying to escape the fear that the being in the river inflicted upon him.

While there were training rooms inside of the Inn itself as well, there were also plots to train outside, and there was one in a rather hidden and seemingly unpopular position where a man with a Katana like this, just the actual proper metal version, was training some moves. Eiro hadn't really been paying attention to that, and it was just in the corner of his eye then, but now after delving into his memory, he was able to see it as if the man was standing right in front of him.

But instead of just watching the man, Eiro took some steps forward and stepped into the man's body, taking over his position. The moves that Eiro now remembered seeing back then were put into his own body, and the Demon grasped the wooden sword in his hand as tightly as he could and held it up above his head, swinging it down as quickly as he could just to stop it right before it touched the ground, and then swung it diagonally upward until it was on hip-level with Eiro's body, before the Demon swung the blade horizontally in a straight motion.

These moves weren't really all that impressive, but nonetheless they weirdly enough made Eiro's body tense up in numerous places all over his body, a sensation that he really didn't enjoy. But when he opened his eyes, Arc looked at him excitedly.

"That's actually really cool, can you show me how to do that?" He asked, and Eiro just lightly smiled, "This was really just a test to see how well I can make use of this kind of thing. Actual practice will start pretty monotonously, according to the books I've read. You need to build you muscles toward being able to wield a weapon, before actually doing so." Eiro explained, and Arc looked at him with a wry smile.

"And what's that supposed to mean..?" The boy asked, before Eiro just lightly smiled at him.

"That you're going to find out what it means to practice."