Chapter 31 Settling In

"This mountain valley should do, right?" Blake asked as he stared down at the skinny valley below. They had spent another five days walking around the mountain range, looking for a proper hiding place where they could settle down in.

"This should do. It is farther in and well hidden. Unless they detect us somehow, there will probably be no way any Dragonic will be finding us for the foreseeable future. " Lillia answered. She had been the one in charge of finding the perfect spot for them to settle in until the Age of Magic arrived. She had been taking into account every possible precaution needed when selecting a place.

"Then let's get down there." Even though the ridge was many hundreds of feet, high, Blake did not hesitate to jump off the edge and straight down into the valley. He was followed by both Lillia and Tina. Not even Tina hesitated as she jumped down. This was because of the wyvern meat the two had been eating non-stop three times a day. Their bodies were strong enough now to take the impact of jumping off anything that was less than a thousand feet high.

When they landed, the group made their way to the area where the value came to a sharp point. This trip took another two days, but when they finally arrived, they were met with a small little oasis deep in the mountains. The flora and fauna covered the area in a way that made the place seem like a fantasy land. There were many plants here that Tina and Blake had never seen.

Lillia knelt down and looked at the large purple flower with petals as big as her head with a smile. "To think even one of these survived."

"Lillia, you recognize this plant?" Tina asked.

"It is a plant that predates the reset. My guess is that there is a small source of mana underground here. It's not much because I can barely feel it, and unless someone was really searching for it, they would not be able to find it either, but I know it's there now that I am actually searching for it. But to answer your question, this flower is called Purple Elysi. If it is refined and has its properties extracted correctly, it can be turned into a potion called ether. This potion helps in recovering mana, although it is pretty disgusting on its own and needs a few other plants to not only amplify the potency of the ether but to make it taste better. Otherwise, you would probably just throw it back up. Not even dragons can drink an ether made of pure Purple Elysi."

"Hmmm… Should we leave something like this sitting out here?" Blake asked. He wondered if this was going to cause any unwanted attention.

"No, I planned to pluck it anyway as we will be needing ingredients like this soon. Long duration fights rely on how much mana one has. If you run out, you are just asking to die." Lillia answered. And without hesitating, she dug her hand into the ground and ripped up a huge patch of it, and stuffed it into her space. "The roots hold the seeds, and they can also be replanted to regrow another one. You can even split the part to grow multiples. It is a kind of plant that easily grows anywhere and in abundance."

"That is good to know." Blake was happy to hear that because, in his past life, there were many new kinds of plants, but no one ever tried to do anything with them as far as he knew. That was because there was no real way of testing their effects or figuring out their properties anymore.

The Age of Magic had brought upon it a whole new world. Earth was nothing like it was in the past, and almost everything was brand new. Some plants did survive and evolved to become a superior version of their older self, but this was far and few between. The rest seemed to have transformed into whole new species of plant.

As long as Blake and his group can stay alive until the Age of Magic, they can finally go out into the world and work to grow stronger. He had no idea what he had to do just yet besides using magic over and over, but he hoped there were other ways as well.

The group walked over to the cliffside, where Lillia waved her hand, creating an entrance into the cliffside about one hundred feet deep. Once the group entered, she closed it up behind them. If one were to look at the cliff side now, they would not know that there were people inside the cliff itself. But if you looked closely, one would see a line of pin holes at the bottom and top to let air in and out. Each one had a small magic circle sucking air in and or blowing air out of the tunnel they were in. Each one was also surrounded by another barrier that kept the magic fluctuation from being detected. Lillia had thought things through carefully before using forms of magic that would be easier to detect.

Lillia then took out a strange tool that looked like a lantern of some kind. It did not have a wick or a lightbulb inside, just a white rock that was emitting light. "Blake, hold this while I make our dwelling."

Blake nodded and reached out, taking the lantern. Both he and Tina watched as Lillia licked her lips and began waving her hands, causing multiple magic circles to appear. It was similar to the process of how she made the underground house in the forest outside the city, but each magic circle was carefully encased in a barrier.

In no time at all, a small door opened up to a large room, and then there was a long hallway that led to many more rooms on each side. After a bit more work, the entire place suddenly lit up like it was day allowing everyone to get a good look inside. "Tina, your room is on the left side. Blake and mine are on the right."

p Blake chuckled. He found it amusing that she still put Tina's room as far away as possible. "Not bad. With all the daily necessities we have on us, we can actually make this place quite comfortable. As always, you do amazing things, Lillia. Thank you."

"Hehe!" Lillia blushed as she lowered her head towards Blake. Blake chuckled once again as he reached over and patted her head. She seemed to like these head pats.

"Now then. Let's get settled in and eat before Tina begins her evolution." Blake said as he looked over at Tina, who started to become nervous. She had heard from Blake that it was not only very painful but that there were chances of her becoming a monster or just plain dying.

"Shouldn't I wait a little bit longer?" Tina asked nervously.

"No. Blake is right. It is best to get you started now so you can work on growing stronger. This means this whole place will need a barrier to keep anyone from sensing our magic. Which reminds me, Blake, Tina, I do hope you both are ready for intensive training. You will not only learn magic but also how to properly fight with many different weapons. You will be holding mock battles where I expect you to get hurt. But don't worry, even if you lose a limb or something, I can heal you back up." Lillia answered. She had a fire in her eyes as she eyed the two humans in front of her. She planned to work them hard and mold them into warriors who could easily survive in the new world that was about to form.

Blake's eyes also flashed with determination. He had wanted to ask Lillia if she could train him in other things. So now he was kind of glad that Tina had followed them as well. He would have a training partner to work with while they learned everything they could.

"Okay, enough chit chat let's get started. I do not want to waste any time. From Blake's knowledge, we only have less than six months to go. During this time, I will turn you both into warriors!" Lillia announced before suddenly dumping a bunch of things onto the floor. It was pots and pans along with bedding and other necessities. "I will go work on the bath."

After saying that, Lillia turned and headed towards the backside wall and created another hallway. Blake looked over at Tina, who was pale faced, and shook his head. "Your body has grown much stronger since you have been eating wyvern meat. You will be fine." Sadly while Blake's words were meant to smooth over Tina's worries, she still could not keep herself from worrying too much.

Blake sighed when he saw no change in her expression. He could only shrug and start getting things in order. He knew she would be fine, but he knew the pain was not easy to deal with. He had already evolved two times. Once in his past life and once in this life. When he thought about how he would need to go through his second evolution at some point, he couldn't help but be a little worried himself, but he was sure that Tina would be fine phsyically because she had eaten wyvern meat. He just hoped her mental state was strong enough to deal with the pain.