Early morning the next day~
"Did we really have to leave today? We could've stayed a few more days—it's so early too."
They didn't even get any missions yet. Couldn't they have enjoyed the warm bed and food longer?
Raki grumbled as he rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes from how tired he was. They had gotten up very early this morning to leave before the city woke up.
Seth sneered.
"You went to sleep before we went off to kill the yoma. That's like what… a little after sundown so quit your complaining."
He chided the young man as he smacked him heavily on the back, nearly knocking the wind out of him as he fell forward.
Raki quickly caught himself before he fell, then said weakly.
"…I didn't get much sleep because I was worried about you guys!"
"Yeah, yeah. No pity points for you." Seth waved him off, turning to Clare who was walking silently beside him.
"Where do we start our search?"
They had previously made up their minds to help the other claymores but since they neither know when or where they might be so they'd have to roll dice on where to start.
Clare didn't immediately answer. She silently mulled over their next course of action before finally realizing another issue.
They couldn't even choose a village randomly as the likelihood of a claymore being in a village is nearly nonexistent as they typically travel from one place to another, only staying long enough to complete their assigned mission.
What's more disheartening, they don't even travel in groups so even if they located one, the rest are another search entirely.
Just thinking about it now is giving her a slight headache.
After a few seconds of silence, she looked straight into Seth's face and said:
"…I don't know."
"…"
Seth sighed before rubbing the back of his neck.
"It seems we're gonna have to find them as we go. who knows… we might even find your target."
He still remembered her original goal was to find Teresa's murderer and avenge her.
Being reminded of her goal, Clare clenched her fists tightly and her eyes flashed with killing intent making Seth feel a shiver run down his spine.
"Well anyway!" He spoke up. "… We should just do whatever until then. I'm sure they'll come around in due time."
Seth shrugged.
It's not like we'll never run into any in the future…
Begrudgingly, he shoved the matter to the back of his mind since he had no way of shorting that timeframe and turned to another issue.
"You're still having problems with your new abilities, right? Since nothing's currently happening, you should use the time to familiarize yourself with them…"
Since her biology had achieved near perfect harmony, her previous skills of self restraint which were to prevent monsterfication had become a limiting factor.
With her physical abilities now skyrocketing through the roof, she also gained—or more like unlocked—a more diverse kit and opened up to many new possibilities.
All of which were still very uncomfortable for her to get used to as it's quite difficult to overwrite nearly a decade of habits in just a couple of days.
"After all, it might get you killed," He finished.
"…You're right."
Clare didn't hesitate after saying that.
—
And just like that, their "figure it out as we go" plan was set aside as they delved into something a lot more productive.
For the rest of the day—and honestly, way past what should've just been a normal day—Seth and Clare focused entirely on training and getting her adjusted.
At first, it was rough.
The amount of yoki Clare could draw on now is massive, nearly as much as Seth due to it constantly being generated.
As a claymore that was active for close to a decade, her control over the energy, along with her efficiency and precision—all of it was already outscale that of Seth.(while it cannot be called mastery per se, as it's more like constantly fighting it to keep it under wraps, it still needs some degree of mastery to pull whats need for use)
But there was an underlying problem. Clare was rigid.
Everything she did followed a strict, practiced pattern. Safe, controlled, predictable. Leaving no rooms to explore and cause risks.
Meanwhile, Seth was the complete opposite.
His control over yoki? Barely above average.
Only between seventy and eighty percent of his yoki gets used when he performs an action with it. The rest just gets lost in the wind.
But the way he used it was completely unorthodox.
Creative in ways that only a fellow gamer and media consumer would understand. He treated yoki no differently than how he would a game—he simply messed around until an "oh shit!" moment happened.
And that's where a balance between had quietly been established.
Clare holds mastery.
Seth had imagination.
So while he helped her loosen up—experiment, try new applications, break out of her old habits—
She, in return, helped refine his sloppy control, correcting his inefficiencies and tightening up his usage.
It was a pretty solid trade.
And during that time, off to the side, Raki who was watching for a while had quietly started doing his own thing.
Push-ups. Running. Basic training.
Nothing flashy, nothing special.
But he stuck with it.
If they were going to keep traveling together like this, he didn't want to be the only one left behind.
Quietly a sudden determination began growing inside him.
Somewhere along the way, though…
Things began to subtly shift.
It wasn't something major or abrupt for either of them to notice but it was definitely there.
The distance between Seth and Clare?
Pretty much gone.
Instructions turned into casual back-and-forth.
Corrections became physical—her grabbing him arm, adjusting his stance and slowly guiding his movements carelessly.
The distance between them was slowly being chipped away.(am I pushing this a bit?🤔)
Unknowingly time passed quickly.
The day turned into night. The night into day.
And they just… kept going, even while young Raki fell asleep.
No in between breaks nor rest.
Seth didn't need it and feeling tired was impossible. And before, Clare needed little, now, it's even less.
So they continued training for two full days and one whole night straight. Only pausing to catch an animal or two for Raki.
By the end of it, though it completely flipped, Clare's control had gotten a certain degree better than when she was in Rabona.
…
It was now late afternoon. A few past 10pm according to his system. They were still going to their little training session.
Seth stood with his sword above his head and Clare behind him with a forensic adorning her beautiful face.
When—
A familiar voice cut in from inside the darkness of the bushes.
"…You've been quite busy I see."
Both of them stopped what they were doing.
Seth sighed immediately, crossing his arms annoyed at the old geezer.
"Of course…"
Standing a short distance away was Rubel, looking as composed(sketchy too) as ever like he hadn't just interrupted something important.(I don't know what's supposed to be important but hey…"
Clare straightened slightly.
"…Another mission?."
Rubel gave a small nod.
Then reached into his cloak and pulled out an envelope with the mission details.
"A new assignment. This time, you'll be a part of a team with three others. That makes four in total."
!!!
Hearing the Rubel's words, they perked up, Seth's previous annoyance disappeared as he now paid attention to his words.
"The request came from a small town called Toriro. From the details, it seems to be a voracious eater. You'll be meeting the others outside the town…"
He went on to explain a bit more about the mission before he left.
Silence.
"…Hey…What did I say, huh? They'll come around eventually." He grinned.
"But you had no idea it'd be this soon."
Chapter 24 end.
——————————————
My interest in this book is dwindling. Picking back up my other novel cause I got some inspiration but it'll take a while to drop a chapter cause I don't remember shit