Chapter 2232: 2232. Frustrated Growth
Chapter 2232: 2232. Frustrated Growth
"While Walker is busy, we can have a small vacation, right?" Gil stretched his arms over his head while looking at Su who he was sure would prefer to be doing something.
"No, you will be training the archers here. You understand that their new homes just had a possible attack from the elemental planes. How would you feel if a monster could walk in to your living room at any moment?"
"You should have seen that coming. Su isn't letting us leave because she wants us to relax. She wants us to help make sure that there are sage places for the people when the bridge to the elemental planes is used." Remey was backing Su up because she knew that Su would make them both work harder if she didn't.
"What about midnight then? She disappeared without saying a word." The idea that Midnight would even have been kept sight of was a hard one for Su and Remey to speak on. Mostly because she had gotten very good at sneaking off using the shadow wrapping skill.
They all knew that she had gone to Mordant to learn a little here and there. With his skill hiding in shadows and manipulating them, it was a matter of time before Midnight was able to use them better too. Maybe not melting in to shadows to travel like Mordant did, but hiding away, easily done.
"Sister is spending time with Erika. None of you noticed that Erica came with a group of soldiers behind us. She was curious and Midnight made sure to keep her safe. Now she is teaching Erica how to mix wind and light mana inside her body better. Brother was watching her but Erica was spending time in the cathedral until she saw the commotion."
"So that's where she went!" The fact that Onyx had kept track of everything was exactly what Gil trusted him to do. Onyx might not speak out often but he had learned a lot from everyone in the group. The scouting that Onyx did was partially learned from Gil's partnership with him while traveling. It was natural that Onyx would have kept an eye on Midnight.
"Fine, let them be, but you! Are going to help!" Su made sure that Gil wouldn't go running off. And so, that was the start of the heroes training the village's guards. Plus helping out to prepare better plans for other potential elemental visitors from the elemental planes.
Meanwhile, Midnight was showing Erica a few of her special attacks. The little hatchling was very interested and had been very happy with herself for managing to get here. She had never been to an island and now her sneaking had paid off.
Well, she had gotten a small bit of reprimand from Midnight in the form of a few slaps and then a lot of growling. But that was fine, because now, she was able to learn from Midnight who was older than her and stronger than many of the other dragons. Even though Midnight was still pretty young, it made Midnight a role model.
The slashes from her claws continuously left deep slashes within the earth. Erica was amazed by how Midnight could breathe out some wind mana that she had stored within the body to make the claws stronger. To be able to send that gathered wind mana out with the strike of her claws themselves. It was astounding to a hatchling's eyes since she had never seen it.
Imitating Midnight was a challenge that Erica had taken to in an instant. The constant attempts to copy each form of slash along with each movement of her muscles was in accordance with how Midnight moved. But they appeared broken and clumsy. Enough to prove that Erica had never done such things.
Then it came to the leaps and bits. Midnight could easily crush the small trees she targets. Naturally, she was holding back so as not to damage the trees on the island. She wanted to ensure that there would be a tree left after all.
But Erica left small chips in the bark of each tree. Just enough to prove that something had been there. However, she was disappointed in the fact that she couldn't keep the wind mana within her mouth and cause the wood to shred in the ways that Midnight showed her. It only seemed more difficult the longer they worked.
Then it was on to the light mana. Midnight could easily breathe out a dragon fire breath with light mana as the focus. Let alone a purer light mana breath that could blind people while damaging them with the intense amount of light mana within it. This was all aside from the fact that Midnight even seemed to radiate the light mana on her scales as a boost to her defenses, however minute that might be.
The frustration that Erica had as being too small and too weak to copy what Midnight was doing only grew. Her annoyance began to show and Midnight only huffed softly since she had felt that way too. But where midnight had kept growing, Erica was still very small. She had to begin that training. Had to fight the fights needed to gain proper experience.
That was where Midnight left off with Erica. A lesson on hope to attack with the basics while also seeing the examples of how to channel manas better form within herself. It left Erica in the clearing surrounded by trees with a single goal.
Improve.
While all this happened, Walker looked at the half dead pure ice demon Aie. he wondered if they had gone too hard on her at first since she had never had to deal with this much paperwork and learning at once. To be fair, she had been following her culture and focusing on the gathering of pure water mana.
"What did you think of your first day? A representative might have a lot to do, but there are a lot of benefits when it comes to being one." Walker finally broke Aie out of her stupor. He knew that he should do his best to show her some hospitality since her people had just been guided toward the water dragon and the water elf living areas.
"It will be a very interesting change. I can already feel it, I don't have to worry about the constant gathering of water mana whether i focus on it or not. It is more like I can cut myself off from water mana entirely if I desire it. I can think more clearly."
Considering that the pure ice demons had always had to worry about gathering too much mana and losing their minds, this was a good thing. Being able to cut themselves off from the water mana which had been both their strength and their weakness meant that they had the chance to think calmly and without other worries.
A large change like that would shake their foundations, but it could also strengthen them. Especially since they had the knowledge for how to gather water mana with varying purities now. It meant that they could strengthen themselves in other ways before they worried about pushing themselves to grow using the water mana they were so close to.
"I was very interested to hear about the coliseum that the demi-human race favors. It sounded like a very good training area when battling monsters which desire to break in to your home and feed on your body." This made Walker halt a moment.
He had not considered the ecosystem that came with the elemental planes. The pure ice demons had to worry about monsters roaming the planes and using them as food. They were a small group and fought amongst one another too. Therefore, they definitely did not have a settled village or safe place.
They had to deal with monsters in the wilderness of the elemental planes at all times. "You won't have to worry about monsters here. In Genesis, we have plenty of guards, heroes, and even some people you might think of as myths protecting the city. Even the kingdoms allied with us were formed with some ideas of peace for those that had always feared monsters or other dangers. So make sure you take advantage of that. Find new things out about yourselves and grow stronger."
"You know, you do not act like the origin beings we have heard of. Domineering and powerful. Demanding of respect. Untouchable. Impossible to hear speak or understand. You are closer to people than what I expected." Walker smiled very wide hearing this.
"Then I am doing it right. The people are my family and this city is my home. We all worked hard to make it. And I will keep growing my family."
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