Slark Attack...

Michael shakes his head, "Considering I'm the guy who apparently resurrected you, a bit of respect is warranted." he states, wondering just who this 'Slithice' that killed him is.

"The Dark Ones are the only ones worthy of respect. You think I'll thank you for playing with my soul? Bah! Just another pretender that'll meet his end like the rest." he spits on the ground, "You can suck my spawn and kiss my tail, I'm not doing a thing you say you giant baby-face shit!" he exclaims before finally rushing into the ocean, diving into it and disappearing from view.

...

Michael tilts his head and squints at the scene, shaking the book to see if he could get Slark to come back out again, but to no avail. It seems the slippery bastard would be far harder to ingratiate himself with than Rhasta, not that he was all that keen on it now anyway. Aside from Slark's skill with a dagger, he doubted he'd be able to learn much from him.

Slark was an underwater creature after all, and Michael doubted most of his skills would actually apply above sea level...

"You'll come around eventually, you creepy-ass fish." Michael states as he claps the book closed and goes back to see how Tiffania was doing in her studies.

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With that, the duo stayed in the cave, lounging around and working together to figure out the various spells contained within the book. Michael couldn't use any of them obviously, but it helped Tiffania a lot just to hear another perspective on the subject.

They actually managed to figure out Tiffania's elemental affinity without the ritual even being required... How you ask? Well, aside from Void Magic, the only spells Tiffania was able to effectively cast were Wind spells. Which makes sense all things considered.

Unfortunately, a single day of study isn't much in the grand scheme of things, and by the time night rolled around, Tiffania was only able to cast small gusts of air that'd barely ruffle some leaves, let alone halt a charging person. She was improving though, something Tiffania was incredibly happy about.

Still, it was a problem that Tiffania was only able to use her mind erase spell in combat, he'd try and get her to learn Explosion, as that spell came to Louise as easily as Erase did to Tiffania, but trying such a spell while they were being pursued wasn't the best choice.

Michael actually suspected that something was peculiar with the way Void Magic functioned, with its users becoming overly specialized with specific singular spells. Louise was only able to cast Explosion and nothing else. Tiffania was kind of the same, except she didn't find regular spells as difficult to learn, meaning either Louise just lacked talent, or something else was impeding her progress.

This left Michael with a problem though, if he wanted Tiffania to eventually learn how to open a world gate, he'd need to get her Brimir's prayer book, the book that taught Void Spells to Louise in the anime.

Whatever, he could steal that from the Academy, the Palace, or wherever it was supposed to be when he went to the Capital for Derflinger. He'd not be going until he was powerful enough though, for obvious reasons.

Once night fell, the duo set up a similar sleeping arrangement as last time, though, both were too embarrassed to actually hold hands as they tried to sleep...

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Tiffania was awaked during the night with a start, she was covered in cold sweat and felt incredibly anxious after dreaming about the sensation of flames... She silently weeps into her hands and eventually composes herself, but has her attention drawn by the stressed groans let out by Michael. The situation was reversed from last time, and Tiffania wasn't even aware of her own actions as she held Michael's free hand, almost instantly calming him down, like he had done for her the previous night.

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The next morning Michael awakens and finds Tiffania hugging him yet again. He manages to slide out of her grasp this time however, preventing the previous day's embarrassment. Once both are awake they have a small breakfast and begin discussing their plans for the day.

"I want to try attack Cendri tonight, so locating the granaries is a must... I don't know if I want to take you along for that though." he admits as he chews on some beef jerky. Not wanting to put Tiffania in a dangerous situation before the plan even began.

Tiffania can only nod despite her protestations, however, knowing that she'd be a weight around Michael's leg if she came. She felt the need to participate, but that could wait for when they began the actual plan tonight. "Ah... Okay... I'll stay here and work on my magic, are you sure you'll be safe?" she asks.

Michael nods, "Safer than if I brought you. I'm not planning on doing anything big, only checking out the place, so hopefully I won't even be fighting." he pauses and reaches into his pocket, pulling out the Fairy Fire he'd received yesterday, "Here, crush this and it'll heal you if you need it." he says.

Tiffania takes it, clutches it to her chest and nods, "Wouldn't it be better for you to have it?"

Michael shrugs, "I can heal without it, you can't." he says while standing, "Alright, I'll be back soon, stay safe and try to stay out of trouble. If anyone comes by, blast them with Erase until they forget how to breathe." he states while making his way out of the cave.

She waves him off, "Ah, come back soon Michael! Please be safe!" she says before sitting down with the Magical Theory Book with renewed determination. She didn't want to continue being useless... She wanted to be useful for Michael and be able to help him like how he helped her.