The End Of Their Journey

They found out that he was human too a few moments later when, after packing their camp, he fell on the road and laughed out loud. Black veins were pulsing around his body, giving him a scary and ill look.

"Teacher, are you ok ?"Evelyn said while panicking and rushing to Jack's side.

Laena helped him to get up and was surprised by his hand's coldness. She felt like she was touching a corpse and noticed that his left forearm was completely free of those weird looking veins. After calming his ragged breath, the immortal explained them with a smile going from ear to ear :

"It seems that I pushed myself a little hard during our training. My magic isn't one that a mortal should wield, even more without training his mana circuits. I felt a little sore and painful after our exercises but I didn't expect that it was because of this. Just because I finally got a mana heart I forgot how feeble a human body is, excuse my foolishness."

"I didn't understand everything so I will simply ask this : Will you be alright ?" Laena asked with a worried expression.

Her teacher was a mystery and a beast to her : Even with the same mana heart as them he gave the impression of having bottomless reserve of energy and never looked tired. It was the first time that he seemed weak and it creeped her out.

"Hum... I guess ?" Jack replied while laughing. Seeing the dumbfounded look of his apprentices, he then clarified himself with a smile: "I should be alright with some rest. Furthermore, it's not like I could die you know?"

A collective sigh came from his students and they decided to put a stop on today's trip to rest a little more. They had scavenged more than enough food in the city's ruins so they weren't really worried by the time and enjoyed their rest together.

After some training and checking their progress, Jack told Laena to stop training to trigger her blade's abilities. Managing to create elemental mana would help her toward this goal and allow her to wield magic, getting two birds with one stone.

Evelyn made a good progress on her Wind Blade, managing to manifest it two meters from her dagger and cutting a twig with it. She seemed truly happy as she got praised and enjoyed the feeling of progressing on the path of magic.

They looked like children with their grandfather, sitting around the tired immortal and pestering him with questions about his past. He told them many stories about the places he visited : The ancient and natural architectural style of the elves, the huge fortress-cities made in the dwarven mountains, the dead plains around a lich's mage tower...

However, he never spoke about himself nor his companions, he simply stated his memories like they were an outsider's one. This only made the girls more curious but they knew that he wouldn't speak about him and Laena remembered herself of how terrifying it felt when he got angered. However, her ears perked up when she heard her fellow feminine companion ask a sly question about him :

"Teacher, if your magic isn't made to be wielded by a human, how did you manage to survive before?"

"My body modified itself, that's how. With years and years of practice and a few... Questionable tests, I managed to find a way to reach greater heights without turning into a lich or a being more suited for it." Replied the immortal being, answering the question but remaining vague.

"But if you modified yourself, didn't you become something else than a human then ?" Laena said, raising an eyebrow. Jack seemed quite surprised, thinking a little before speaking.

"I guess you are right but I managed to keep all the benefices without losing anything. I wasn't like a lich without body or a monster without emotions, I could still touch, eat and ... Love."He murmured, his eyes looking at the sky, seemingly further than what one could see.

After having the mood thoroughly ruined the girls felt quite bad and excused themselves to train a little more before sleeping. They went further than what they esteemed as Jack's hearing range and while both diligently doing their exercises they chatted :

"Do you think that master has a woman in his life ?" Evelyn asked while slicing a tree's bark with magic.

"I don't know... He's so elusive with this kind of questions, I guess we will never have any answer." Laena replied, trying to stay neutral while her wriggling ears said otherwise.

"I guess he has," the young girl sighed . "Maybe we could try probing him discretely since he has a face now. With your elven senses you should be able to read him no?"

"We elves can guess what the other is thinking by listening to their heartbeats and looking for other signs, not read minds." the swordswoman grunted while hacking another tree in pieces. "You know, he's still the same even with a human face. He's really stoic and only smile to us.

Furthermore, he seems to have a good grip on himself which is quite logic since he spent a few millennia all alone in a cave." She then took a pause, seriously choosing her phrasing before speaking.

"Do you... Do you truly believe him about his stories ? Ugh I know it seems mean if I say this but how can you trust him ? For all I know he may be an ancient demon that we unleashed unknowingly."

Evelyn then stopped training, turning to look Laena in the eyes with a serious look in her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she then said :

"I know that he's really mysterious and seems dangerous but did he do anything bad to us ? He could have killed us both, especially me after I helped him to free himself. Yet, he did nothing like that : He gave me a warmth that I thought I lost with my family and the power I need to stand by myself. Whoever he is and whatever he is, I don't care. I will follow him as long as he's fine with it and I hope that soon I will be able to stand alongside him in his fights."

Motivation and affection could almost be seen in her eyes and the elf found it hard to stand those deep blue eyes staring at her.

'Her maturity surprise me sometimes, she even beats me there. How can a villager speak like this..? I guess the heart has ways that the head doesn't know.'Laena thought while smiling.

"Well said Evelyn. Indeed, I'm indebted to him and even if he's weird, he's not that bad. Maybe I'll stick around a little more to try to learn magic." Was what she said.

Their discussion having reached a conclusion, they came back to the camp and found Jack smiling at them. He was playing with some food, probably trying to create something edible out of potatoes, lettuce, artichoke and other unknown things. It seemed that cooking was a passion for him and when they asked while eating their questionably tasting meal, he simply reminded them this :

"If you even forgot the feeling of tasting something, if you forgot what it was to feel the warmth of a fire why wouldn't you try to get those back together? "

When they apologized because they felt that they hurt him he simply shrugged the matter off and decided the guard order. After all, since he was human again he would need some proper sleep. Laena took the first one and together with Evelyn they headed for the tent. Every movement was painful to him but he simply welcomed the pain as a long forgotten friend like the others.

'My first true sleep in a few millennia... I never thought that I would love having a bed that much. It feels so comfortable, my dear stone throne should be jealous of this fluffiness. Hmm? What is this ball of warmth cuddling me ?'

Opening his eyes, he saw that his young apprentice fell asleep before him and hugged him in her sleep. It reminded the old man of their first encounter and after seeing her peaceful expression he simply patted her and closed his eyes again. Soon, he drifted in the world of dreams and way too late he remembered why he had chosen to stop sleeping a long time ago.

In front of his eyes was the same battlefield as the one he stepped on before being imprisoned. The earth was cracked and dry, forming patches of solid orange clay where grew wretched bushes. Above him the sky looked dark as it was covered by grey clouds but there was still enough light to see clearly thanks to another source : The enemy army.

When he saw them again, he felt his heart beating louder and louder. He then looked at his clawed, armored hands and saw that he was shaking a little. Not from fear but from excitement. Finally, he would be able to take his revenge. Turning around, he saw his mighty army awaiting for his word. Only one was enough. When he was about to say it, he heard a feminine voice calling him.

"Jack ! Jack ! Wake up !" He then saw Laena above him with a ghastly complexion.

"Hmm... What's happening ?" The man asked, a bit groggy.

"Don't you dare "What's happening" me. You did your trick again ! There was a blood sea all around... And lots, lots of undeads... They all seemed ready to butcher me !" The elf murmured, not wanting to wake Evelyn up because of her panic.

"Oops, my bad. I lost myself in a bad dream, excuse me." Jack said while yawning. "Is it day already ?"

"No, it's still dark outside. I should wake her up to take her guard turn but she seems so happy..." Laena said while pointing the young girl still quietly sleeping with her head on the man's torso.

"I will take it then." The man sighed, trying to get up. The elf gently pushed him back and told him :

"Let me take care of this and enjoy your first night in a while but no more ghost thing ok ?"

Feeling his tiredness grabbing him back in the dreamworld, he gave up and closed his eyes in defeat. After trying to turn on his side and feeling the weight on his chest hanging on, he chuckled a bit and thought that he had gained two fine students.

The rest of his sleep was quiet and he woke up fresh and refreshed a few hours later. However, his body felt incredibly heavy and his arms were locked by something weighting on it.

Grumbling and looking around, he found his apprentices using his arms as pillows and couldn't help but cheerily laugh at their cuteness. Carefully getting up without troubling them he got up and checked on his body.

His mana veins looked like they were back to normal and all his muscles were aching but nothing wrong or unusual. The sun still had to rise completely, leaving a little mist hanging around the plain where they rested. Jack enjoyed the sight of the pinkish sky, simply staring while sorting his thoughts.

After a few minutes of meditation, he created a longsword with some ice and started practicing. His body was still in a terrible condition in his eyes and unfortunately, only working out would help him to regain his former stamina. He could say the same for his mana heart. If not for the absurdly high mana density he would as powerful as he was before getting his body back. Now he could tire himself out and cast spells level 0 non stop for one minute or cast a spell level 2 if he drained himself to the point of fainting.

'I'm so weak... Well let's not cry over spilled milk and build myself up again. I've got time and companions, let's appreciate it.'

After they all woke up they packed their stuff, Jack happy to move and the girls happy to leave without him asking questions. They both had realized from their position in the bed that they slept on him and it gave them a bit of color.

The rest of their trip was mainly composed of relentless training, weird food tasting and walking. Finally, they were awarded by the sight of the city's wall. They knew from a few other people they talked with on the road that they had arrived at Dragard, one of the greatest city for adventurers. Since monsters were quite common and dangerous the government had raised huge stone walls to keep them together and it gave off quite an oppressing feeling.

Seeing a queue of people awaiting by the entrance, Jack asked Laena why they were waiting. She naturally responded that they were waiting for their ID to be checked. It was something delivered by the lord of your region if you wished to move away and proved that you were citizen of this country.

"How am I supposed to do then?" The former skeleton asked, knowing that he literally popped out of nowhere this was going to be troublesome for him. Same could be said for Evelyn as she had no more home.