Chapter 120 - 119 Lilia’s Progress

Having exited the town where Marcus had fought the vampire, the trio of Marcus, Blitz, and Lilia, continued down the road for about an hour before stopping on the side of the road to bed down for the night.

Unfortunately, Marcus was still too tired to bother with setting up the tent and decided to just sleep in the carriage.

It had been a few days since the last time Marcus had slept and even though he still had no need to, he knew that resting his mind and soul would speed up his recovery.

Marcus told Blitz to keep watch for a four hours and then wake him up after which Marcus would let Blitz get some rest.

Nodding his head Blitz agreed to Marcus' proposal sensing through the connection of the seal with Marcus, he could feel how rough a shape Marcus was in.

Entering the carriage Marcus took one side while Lilia took the other and the two of them fell asleep nearly immediately as soon as their heads' hit their pillows.

Marcus slept soundly for the next four hours allowing his mind and soul to recover from the exhaustion of the all-out fight he had just a few hours ago.

However, his rest could not last forever, as after four hours Blitz gave him the signal that it was time to get up.

With a slight groan Marcus got up from the carriage seat still feeling a bit tired from the overuse of his unique skills but feeling much better after sleeping for four hours.

Floating out of the carriage as to not wake Lilia, Marcus became solid again and undid the harness connecting Blitz to the carriage.

Once that was done Blitz hurriedly ran over to a soft grassy area and laid down wanting to get some sleep of its own after a long day.

With his watch now starting Marcus took out a chair and sat down before taking out a book he had previously purchased and began reading.

The rest of the night quickly went by and with the first glimmer of the sun rising Marcus got up from his chair and began making something for breakfast.

He went with something simple, just cooking up some bacon and eggs and soon the smell of cooking food enticed Lilia out of the cart as she groggily walked over towards Marcus and the food.

The two of them ate and enjoyed the simple breakfast and while giving Blitz a few extra hours to sleep the two of them continued to work on Lilia's reading practice.

…

The next few days went smoothly as the three of them continued on their journey towards the kingdom's capital.

During this time, they did not have to deal with any major threats and the few times they were attacked by bandits, magic beasts, or monster, the situation was easily dealt with.

A few times Marcus had even let Lilia handle some of the weaker monsters on her own allowing her to make it up to level nine.

Lilia had also made great strides in her reading practice, being able to read a number of short stories and getting a grasp of the fundamentals of the language of Borealia.

She was still a good ways away from being considered adept at reading, but she had managed to get to around a second grade reading level.

However, the biggest achievement that Lilia accomplished just a couple of days before they would arrive in the capital was learning the mana circulation skill.

Lilia had spent countless hours trying to move the mana around her body and one day all of her effort paid off when she felt her mana begin to move much easier throughout her body.

When Lilia had told Marcus that she thought she had obtained the mana circulation skill he immediately stopped the carriage and pulled over.

Of course, they did not have method to check Lilia's status but there was another way to verify that she had obtained the skill.

"Okay Lilia concentrate your mana in you right hand and then say the chant for your tier one force magic spell."

Lilia did as Marcus told her, and while she did fumble on completing the chant a few times she quickly got it right and after around a half hour of practice Lilia cast her first spell.

"Control Impact"

After finishing the chant and saying the name of her tier one force magic spell, Lilia's hand began to glow softly as the spell took effect.

Lilia then took her right hand which was equipped with her training gauntlet and punched against a large rock.

When her fist impacted the rocks surface cracks webbed across the rock as the power behind Lilia's punch was augmented by her magic.

Seeing the power she had just exerted, Lilia stared at the rock in awe, and Marcus came over and praised Lilia for her hard work and achievement.

Lilia gave Marcus a big hug and said, "None of this would have been possible without you, thank you for saving and changing my life."

Marcus smiled at Lilia and patted her head for a few moments before getting back to training Lilia on how to use her spell.

From the description Lilia had told him Marcus knew that this spell was quite strong for a tier one spell but also very complicated.

It essentially had two forms, the first where the user used the spell to strengthen the force behind one of their attacks increasing the impact, and the other form was to use the spell to lessen the impact of an attack you were receiving.

The spell could also be focused on certain areas or the whole body much like Marcus' iron skin spell adding another layer of difficulty into mastering it.

Marcus then instructed Lilia to practice the chant since being able to say it swiftly and effortlessly were important in the heat of battle.

After a few hours of practice when Lilia could finish the chant between two and three seconds, Marcus began the next phase of Lilia training by having her continuously cast the spell and use it to empower her fists.

Once Lilia had smashed a few rocks into pieces and exhausted her mana supply Marcus had her take a break and began making something for lunch.

Since this was a special occasion Marcus decided to make a dish from Earth that he had not tried yet but used to love.

Pulling out some eggs, flour, salt, and oil, Marcus went to work on making some fresh pasta.

He first spread out the flour on a clean worktable he had purchased and once he had gotten the flour in the desired shape placed the other ingredients in the center.

Next, he used a fork to break up the eggs and once he had gotten the right consistency, he began mixing the flour with his hands until it became doughier.

Marcus then kneaded the dough into a ball and when it was up to Marcus' standards, he placed it in some wrapping paper and let it sit for around thirty minutes.

Once that was done, he took it out and cut the dough ball into four pieces, took out a rolling pin, and began rolling the dough.

It took him awhile but soon he had the pasta at the thickness he wanted, and he took out a knife and began cutting the sheets of pasta into noodles.

Marcus did his best to cut the pasta into even slices but alas he was no professional chef and many of them ended up slightly larger or smaller than Marcus intended.

Shrugging his shoulder since it was the first time he had made pasta totally from scratch, Marcus figured he did a good enough job and went onto the next step.

Marcus added the pasta to a pot of boiling water and began cooking the noodles and at the same time he took out another pot and filled it with some milk and goat cheese.

He quickly heated up the pot and melted the cheese and soon had a creamy cheese sauce with which to cover the pasta noodles with.

Marcus had originally wanted to make macaroni and cheese, but he had a hard enough time just making normal pasta noodles and had no idea how to form them into the classic macaroni shape.

The pasta and the cheese sauce were coming along nicely but Marcus was not finished yet and took out the final ingredient he was going to use.

In his hands was some type of large crayfish which Marcus was going to use in substitution for the lobster that would normally be used for this dish.

Marcus took the crayfish and quickly peeled it apart and separated the meat from the rest of it and cut the meat up and sautéed it in butter.

Once the crayfish was cooked Marcus added the pasta cheese sauce and crayfish together and his pseudo lobster macaroni and cheese was complete.

"Lilia, lunch is ready come on over and get it while it is hot."

Hearing Marcus' call Lilia got up from her chair where she was trying to read a new book and ran over to where Marcus was.

Seeing the pot of pseudo lobster macaroni and cheese Lilia's stomach began growling and she quickly took a plate and filled it up.

Marcus chuckled lightly and followed suit filling his plate high.

The two of them then began eating and Marcus was pleasantly surprised that his first attempt at making this dish tasted pretty good.

Of course, it was not as good as the times he had eaten it on Earth but for what he had, it turned out quite good.

The two of them continued to eat mouthful after mouthful until they were both satisfied, and Marcus stored the leftovers within the magic fridge he had and then put it back in his item box.

Marcus then gave Lilia a half hour to digest her food and relax before getting back to her magic training.

This time Marcus wanted her to work on using the second form of the spell and reduce the impact of the attacks Marcus would send at her.

Marcus started out moving slowly, allowing Lilia to easily see where the attack was going to land and allow her to get used to using her spell to reduce impacts.

After around an hour Marcus began to slowly increase his speed and Lilia was having to really focus to keep up. This went on for around another hour until Lilia was too exhausted to continue and threw in the towel.

Of course, Marcus was already impressed by Lilia's tenacity as he did not expect her to last this long.

'She really has made a lot of progress; she has worked incredibly hard to get this far in such a short amount of time. Although in a way it is quite sad since she is only working this hard because she never wants to end up in a hopeless situation again.'

Once Lilia had recovered a bit after a couple of hours of rest, Marcus got Blitz to come back over and reattached the harness to him and the three of them continued to travel for a couple of more hours making steady progress towards their goal of reaching the kingdom's royal capital.