After waking up, I finally had some time for myself, so I wanted to check my Status and see what to do. Naturia and the rest seem to have leveled up a lot from all the shared EXP, and might be able to evolve now, I believe. Getting shared EXP from three True Demon Dukes, tons of True Demons, and hundreds of High Tier Monsters is no joke after all.
However, before I could get to it, Aquarina came running to my tent with a wooden table, bringing a plate with a lot of stew, bread, baked potatoes, and warm herbal tea. Zack came behind her bringing a large pot with stew recently warmed and more plates.
"Sylphy we came to eat with you!" Aquarina said.
"I know your mom told you that you should rest even if you can move now, so we brought you lunch." Zack said.
"Ah, thank you…" I said, I couldn't help but smile as my friends came to accompany me, although I wanted a bit of a time alone.
The stew was red-colored, and had a few spices that gave it a unique flavor. It also had potatoes and carrots in big chunks, which were soft after being boiled. There was also some rice at the side, so it was a delicious plate.
"Oh this stew is not that juicy." I said.
"It is a preparation of our tribe named curry." Aquarina said. "I helped at preparing it!"
"Yeah, we use special herbs that grow back in the jungles. But I guess we won't be able to eat this any longer once our stock runs out…" Zack sighed.
"Oh…" I said, as I appreciated the flavor even more. "I do wonder, are there seeds for these herbs?"
"Maybe?" Wondered Aquarina.
"I don't know, most of it is all dried leaves." Said Zack.
"Ah… well, if we can get some seeds, I could help at growing them. Maybe we could make some plant pot using clay to grow plants and bring them as we travel." I said.
"Yeah but it is kind of hard to pack them up somewhere where we can bring them with ourselves…" Said Zack.
"But it is a nice idea! Though we just have left to cross the sea to get to your home Sylphy, so you shouldn't worry too much." Aquarina said.
"Hm, yeah right." Said Zack. "I do remember your father saying something about a special island in the middle of the sea that connected both this port city and the Atlanta Continent."
"Oh yeah but he said he wasn't going to visit it anyways, so perhaps in about a week we'll take another ship that goes directly there. According to mama and papa they said that the technology here is nice, there are magic ships fueled with Magic Stones and Mana Crystals from monsters." Said Aquarina.
"Oh, so that's a thing?!" I asked. "But what's the difference between Magic Stones and Mana Crystals?" I wondered.
"I think Magic Stones are made through alchemy by refining specific magic ores, the others are just the crystals you find inside of monsters." Said Aquarina.
"Yeah, right, Ninhursag told me that Mana Crystals regulate the magic inside of Monsters and make them strong. When you break it while they're alive, it either weakens them severely or could even instantly kill them." Zack pointed out. "Though its hard to find them. Sometimes strong monsters have multiple ones too."
"Talking about strong monsters, what's with this stew meat? Is it too delicious!" I said. "Is it made with the monsters summoned back in the city?"
"Yeah, that's right! It is pretty tasty, right? After that entire incident was done mama and papa and your parents all helped to store a lot of the monsters, though they left half of the corpses back there. They said they were every valuable and might help the city make up for all the loses they had." Aquarina explained.
"We have been eating these monsters' meat lately because they're very tasty, they contain a lot of Beast Power inside of them, so that makes our Beast Auras stronger!" Said Zack.
"Yeah I can tell." I said, noticing that Aquarina and Zack's auras were growing stronger without them realizing.
"So what happened with the city? Do you guys know something?" I wondered.
"Ah, well, papa said something about the city being now governed by a distant cousin of the previous lord." Said Aquarina. "They're not slowly getting back up but it'll take a while."
"Wait, what happened to the previous lord?" I asked. I had fallen unconscious before I could even see what happened.
"He… Well, they found him dead…" Zack said, looking down into the floor.
"Y-Yeah… It wasn't Celeste though; she was fighting with you and fell unconscious almost at the same time. He was apparently attacked by a monster when he ran away from the scene." Aquarina sighed.
"Oh… Damn it…" I muttered, feeling slightly bad over fighting to protect his stupid life only for the idiot to kill himself at the end by panicking and running straight into the monsters…
"Well, he did it to himself, you don't have to blame yourself." Said Zack.
"Yeah, you don't have any fault on this Sylphy." Aquaria said, head patting me.
"I guess…" I sighed, feeling slightly relieved I was already away from that damned city. We went through too many things there, I just wanted to relax and live a normal life for a couple of years for now. I can kind of understand why my parents wanted a calm life. If they were living that kind of hell every single day as heroes, I don't know how they never went insane.
I wanted to spend more time with them, but I also wanted to see my Status and everything else, so I quickly decided to fake feeling sleepy.
"Well, for now I want to sleep a bit more…" I said.
"Alright then, we'll come visit you in a few hours." Aquarina said.
"Sleep well, Sylphy." Zack said.
My two friends quickly walked away from the tent, as I decided to resume what I was doing before.