Planning for Brakenkal had forced the trio into a string of difficult decisions. The most important of them was what to do about their corrupted mana cores.
Naturally, the infested mana would cleanse on its own, but only over time—days, at most—depending on how deeply a core had been tainted.
Considering Astensia and Thor had traveled through desolate lands, fighting wave after wave of demon spawn, their cores were as corrupted as one could get.
There was another, faster way. It could purge the demon essence in mere seconds.
Blessed Flames. Sold for thirty silver in any magic shop worth its salt. They were golden fire drawn from the Fountain Furnace, and sealed in crystal vials.
A single swallow burned away every shred of demon essence in one's core, leaving it pure and ready to replenish mana again.
But with the world falling to pieces beyond them, the route to get these flames wasn't nearly so simple.
Blessed Flames were commonly gotten as loot. Killing beasts from Lvl. 30 upwards gave a 10% drop rate of getting them, and the odds grew slightly better with higher levels.
Demon spawns were more generous—at least, those at Level 20 or above—offering a 20% drop rate.
There was, however, an issue in both of these routes.
Hunting beasts would be painfully slow, and with no usable mana to aid them in battle, the grind would feel even more exhausting and unrewarding.
Ten kills were necessary to get just one vial of Blessed Flame, and they needed at least two. All while making sure they were only killing Lvl.30 beasts and above.
It was less a hunt and more a trudge.
The demon spawn option was hardly better.
The odds were one in five kills for a Blessed Flame. Yet, considering demon spawns were way more difficult to kill than beasts, and fighting them meant risking even more exposure to demon essence, it was basically a gamble that leaned toward suicide.
There was, of course, the merchant route.
Traders who stocked a few embers for a fitting ransom. Finding them, however, meant cutting through the same roads infested by what they were trying to avoid.
Which left their choice narrowed to the most frustrating option: waiting.
For the coming days, that was what they did.
They allowed their mana to cleanse naturally until they were certain of their skills in battle. Half-cleansed was still cleansed enough to move.
With that, they could hunt Lvl. 30 demon spawns, claim Blessed Flames from loot, and build momentum toward the Poisoned Green.
Still, staying idle didn't sit well with any of them.
Both Heroines turned to Asleroc.
He narrowed his eyes, glancing between Astensia's soft features and Thor's sharper ones, both staring him down thoughtfully. "What?" he asked.
"You are weak," Thor said with no reaction on her face.
Asleroc's brows shot up. "Oh… uhm. Ouch?"
Thor realized that she might have spoken too plainly and blinked to restrict herself.
"I do not say it to ridicule," she clarified, shifting her tone.
"I merely mean to say that with you having no strength, no combat training, no Skills or mana to aid you, you will be an open wound before demon spawns or beasts. That will complicate our travels."
Asleroc pursed his lips. 'So she's basically calling me a deadweight.' He shrugged inwardly. 'Eh, I don't blame her really. It is fairly true. I can't just sit back and ensure my protection to both of them.'
It was a fair point.
The Heroines might be ordained to fight his battles until he awakened, but deadweight was still deadweight.
He needed enough spine to survive the minutes between a scream and a rescue. To be able to hold off a demon spawn until Astensia sliced off its head.
"I'll train him," Astensia offered at once. She nodded at Thor before turning to Asleroc, bowing her head slightly. "If that is of course fine by you, my Worship. I would like to oversee your regimen."
Asleroc agreed easily. Objectively because she was the Heroine of War Affairs, who better to train him than her?
But he also agreed because the idea of training skin-to-skin with the beautiful, blond version of Diana Prince didn't sound all that bad to him.
No matter the new world, Asleroc hadn't fully shaken the Lee Parker within.
For Thor, she left the Fort in gusts and thunder-lines, hammer in hand, scouring sky lanes and horizon paths.
She couldn't fly very far, but she could fly far enough to map the threats around the mana shield of the Fort, making sure that the paths they had carved remained clear from suspicious demon activity.
That left Asleroc with one duty: learning how to fight.
Astensia chose the outer court as the training ground. Asleroc hadn't been there since he arrived at the Fort, and seeing it the way it was, was almost disheartening when he thought of how monumental the building had been in the novel.
It wasn't destroyed or anything like that, it was merely forgotten. The priorities of goddesses warring for survival did not include maintaining stone and statuary.
The pillars had splinters all over, and the statues of angels were weatherworn. Grass had fought its way through seams of stone, patches of green stubborn as prayer.
Over everything, the sky burned a hard, bright blue, and beyond the courtyard the mana shield held upright, keeping them protected in its translucent dome of energy.
Astensia had insisted he change. His plain leathers were swapped for proper training gear: a close-fit linen gambeson quilted in diamond stitch, leather bracers with palm wraps, light greaves over boots that bit the ground and a simple belt to hold it all together.
Asleroc felt excitement rushing through him as he stepped into the court in the training gear, but he was also conservative of his expectations.
He compared his stats with Astensia's.
「Asleroc Leogardt - Heavenly Hero」
「STR 3 | AGI 4 | SPD 7 | DEX 5 | END 2 | INT 6 | WIS 92 | CHA 57 | MAN 0 」
「Astensia - Heroine of Blade and War Affairs」
「STR 66 | AGI 51 | SPD 57 | DEX 82 | END 52 | INT 71 | WIS 52 | CHA 33 | MAN 67」
He almost laughed at himself. Asleroc's stats were pathetic. He was a fossil compared to Astensia.
Understandably, it was because he was unawakened and had no mana within him. Which also made his point.
Training could nudge the numbers a bit, maybe increase his stats by three to five points each, but until he was awakened, he was a mere twig amongst swords.
Training was never going to give him a high score on Strength and Agility, there was a cap for the unawakened.
Which was why he knew the reason his Wisdom and Charisma stats were so high was because of his overall knowledge of the world and the Character Building System within him.
Not from natural causes under Cinriten's law.
Astensia's footsteps pulled him from his thoughts. He lifted his gaze and watched her step into the courtyard, calm and purposeful.
She wore a tighter, simpler training gear, one that hugged her feminine figure more ruthlessly.
Training hadn't even started and Asleroc was already sweating as he watched her tie her braid, sunlight striking fire from every golden strand, the curve of her breasts elegant under the—
"Are you ready, my Worship?"
Asleroc blinked, shaking off the daydream he had wandered off to. "Huh?"
He saw that Astensia was waiting, offering him a sword.
"Yes," he said quickly, forcing composure as he took the weapon. "Yes I am."