Chapter 68: Magic circles

The next day Diana and Kira went hunting to complete the Adventurers' Guild quests, the quests Diana chose to take.

While they went hunting Érica went to train her magic alone again and I went to guide Ibuki with his Fist of Chaos training.

I was training Ibuki until mid-afternoon before making her stop to rest, after she stopped I went to read the fourth and last basic book Érica recommended me to read before I started learning about elemental magic, the book is about controlling the Mana from the body.

Reading this book was easier and faster for me than reading the others, maybe it's because I've already read books that explain the basics of magic or the fact that before I learned anything about magic I used my meditation to train my senses of Mana.

While reading the book I continued to grind monster bones with my teeth using my skill [ Leech Bite: 8 ].

I won't waste any time improving my skills, I stay until close to dusk reading the book and grinding bones.

Ding!

<[ Your skill leveled up [ Low Leech Bite: 8 > 9 ] ]>

When the sky turned completely dark I started to get worried, Kira and Diana still hadn't come back.

It's not normal for them to stay out so late, I wanted to go after them but Érica stopped me, she used a great argument to stop me, she said Kira and Diana must be hunting the Undead to complete the two Guild of Guild missions Adventurers I told them to complete first.

After thinking about what Érica said I decided to wait a little longer, as worried as I was I couldn't read any more books, so I sat in front of the camp gates waiting for them to come back.

I waited around two hours and when I was tired of waiting they came back, as soon as they went through the gate and saw me looking at them they turned pale, I go to them looking to see if they are not hurt.

"Where were you guys?" (I)

"Why did you take so long to get back?" (I)

"..." (Kira/Diana)

"Answer!" (I)

As I demand they answer my questions I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down, master." (Érica)

"..." (I)

"I know you were worried about them, but with you releasing an Aura with so much pressure they won't be able to say anything." (Érica)

Huh?

After Érica spoke to me that I noticed, at some point my Chaos Aura ability activated by itself, I closed my eyes and tried to take a few deep breaths to calm myself while trying to deactivate my Aura ability.

After I've calmed down a bit and managed to disable my ability, I look back at Diana and Kira who look less pale.

"I'm sorry I lost control a bit." (I)

"Alright master." (Diana)

"Now that I've calmed down, tell me why you were gone so long?" (I)

"Sorry master, we were hunting some monsters during the day for Diana's quest, but we didn't find any Undead." (Kira)

"So we both thought we'd wait until dark for them to come out of their hiding places, then we went hunting some to fulfill the missions." (Diana)

"Why didn't you let me know in the morning when night fell and you didn't come back I was so worried that I wanted to go after you, if it wasn't Erica stopping me I'd be out there now looking for you both." (I)

"Sorry for worrying you, master." (Kira)

"We should have warned the master that we would be gone longer today." (Diana)

"There, now that you all are calmer, let's go inside and talk to the cabin." (Érica)

Following Érica's advice, we all entered the cabin, as we always sat in a circle on the wolf rug.

"So how was your hunt?" (I)

"We only complete one mission." (Diana)

"We killed ten Goblins, with that I completed the mission." (Diana)

"We've also killed three Kobolds, with seven more Diana can complete one more mission." (Kira)

"Apart from the Goblins and Kobolds, during the night we managed to hunt down four Zombies and two Skeletons." (Kira)

"If you are going to hunt Undead tomorrow I want you to leave only at dusk, I want you rested and prepared to fight the Undead, I don't want you to eat a fight being tired because of repeated fights." (I)

"Got it?" (I)

"Yes Master." (Diana/Kira)

"Tomorrow when you are hunting, if you see that there are many enemies I want you to run, I don't want you to be in danger." (I)

"You made the master very worried this time, next time let me know first." (Érica)

After talking for a few hours, everyone goes to their proper places, we always follow the same shift divisions so I head straight out of the cabin.

This night is a bit dark so I decided to continuously use my night vision skill while reading a book and Érica seems to be meditating not far from me, I let Ibuki sleep today as she is very tired from training.

Ding!

<[ Your skill leveled up [ Night Vision: 1 > 2 ] ]>

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The next day I woke up with Érica hugging me and using her breasts as pillows.

Ding!

<[ Your skill leveled up [ Improved sexual stamina: 6 > 7 ] ]>

I try to get up without waking her up, I get out of bed, after I get out of bed I look out the cabin window and see that the weather is closing in, this may mean that it might rain today or tomorrow.

I leave the hut and see Ibuki, Kira, and Diana training their respective martial arts, I go over to them.

"Good morning, girls." (I)

"Good morning Master." (Ibuki)

"Good morning, will the master train too?" (Diana)

"Good Morning." (Kira)

After greeting them I do my daily training in martial arts and weapons techniques, Érica wakes up while I train and after I finish my daily training I go to her.

"Good morning Érica." (I)

"Good morning Master." (Érica)

"I wanted to start my practical magic training today, what do you think?" (I)

"What books did the master just read from the list I made." (Érica)

"I've just finished reading three of them, the ones that talk about the basics of the theory and practice of magic, I've also just read the book that talks about magic circles, at the moment I'm halfway through the book on Mana control." (I)

"Since the master already has the Mana Control skill, we can start training with Mana Transformations." (Érica)

"You can extract Mana out of the body and shape her, right?" (Érica)

"Yes." (I)

"But he shouldn't get perfect shapes yet, let alone form straight lines." (Érica)

"You are right." (I)

"The training the master did can be considered Mana Transformation training, he is good to practice but not efficient." (Érica)

"This way of training is normally just used for people to get used to manipulating Mana, what I'm going to teach the master is to draw magic circles in the air using my fingers." (Érica)

"The first step in doing this is for you to focus your Mana on your finger, then you use your finger with a pen to draw in the air." (Érica)

"Remember that you have to make a small part of your Mana fall behind where your finger passes to form the circle." (Érica)

"Try drawing a simple circle for training." (Érica)

"I am going to try." (I)

I close my eyes and focus my mana on my index finger, not too much, just enough to try and draw.

Then I open my eyes and see my index finger lightly glowing an almost transparent white color.

I try to draw a circle with this finger, but no traces of Mana are left behind.

"Try letting some of your Mana slip off your finger and fall behind." (Érica)

When I didn't know what to do I hear Érica talking behind me, I try to do as she said and while I make a circle in the air with my finger I let my Mana out little by little it leaves a light trail of white transparent Light behind when I'm almost completing the circle the end where I started began to disappear.

"What happened?" (I)

"You still don't have much control over your Mana outside your body, over time it fades into the environment." (Érica)

"With time and practice you will be able to control better and you will decrease the rate at which the Mana goes out, but now you can increase the amount of Mana you use to have more time to draw the circle." (Érica)

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I spent the rest of the day training to make circles, drawing in the air with my finger, as time went by I managed to do it faster, Érica praised me saying that I learn fast.

Ding!

<[ Your skill leveled up [ Mana Control: 7 > 8 ] ]>

Kira and Diana left to hunt the Undead for Diana's mission, it took them a few hours to get back.

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When they finally arrived, the moons were already at their highest point.

"How was the hunt?" (I)

"We completed both missions, master." (Diana)

"We managed to hunt nine Skeletons and fourteen Zombies." (Kira)

"Great, now you can go to sleep, starting tomorrow you will go back to hunting only during the day to complete the other missions." (I)

"Yes Master." (Diana/Kira)

I made them both go to sleep and stayed awake finishing reading the book on Mana control.