CHAPTER 21.

Adrian POV

Adrian walked through the forest with Raphtalia in his arms. The girl had gone back to sleep after he had managed to calm her down, the exhaustion and shock must have knocked her out again.

He had tried to place her in the carrier but the girl had started to squirm and mutter, clearly uncomfortable until he picked her up again. Adrian tried to think but the guilt of putting the child through yet another traumatic event surged up. He truly was a fool.

He would take this chance to get some rest and wait for the eggs to hatch, according to the timer on his status screen he would have to wait for about an hour for them to emerge. Better use that chance to create a small camp where he could rest for the moment. Adrian was moving towards the edge of Dragon territory. He was still moving east, away from the capital but instead of moving deeper north into the monster-infested zone he was moving slightly towards the less dangerous areas.

With his speed, dash and Blindsight it didn't take long to find a good spot. Adrian marked out a few good locations for some traps and noted that a river was fairly close by, but not too close. It was as good an area as he was likely to find.

He allowed the carrier to land gently on the ground before placing Raphtalia inside it. Traps and monster killing first. Then he would worry about cleaning up and feeding the child.

It didn't take long. His sword made most of the parts for the traps and the trapping and hunting skills filled in any gaps in his understanding of their applications. It was disconcerting to realize that knowledge of what traps to make, how to use those traps and even which traps to use for the best results had been embedded into his brain but given all the changes that were being made to him, this was perhaps nothing special.

The traps were nothing special, just an early warning system to warn him if anything arrived in the vicinity. There should be nothing but caution was wiser than allowing a moment of laziness or overconfidence leading to death.

Raphtalia was still asleep but her expressions made it clear that it was not a comfortable rest. Adrian went back to the site with a Dash. He set up the campfire and then slowly began to cook some food normally.

He drew out the prepared meat and herbs along with some bread that was made from some of the wild grains he had picked up here and there. He used some steel utensils to make a reasonable meal. It would have been easier to have the system in the Sword to make the food...but he just wanted to enjoy himself a little. The situation was very different but this reminded him of when he had gone camping with his friends...though they'd really screwed up the food back then. Best to avoid that.

It took some time but the aroma began to spread a little and Adrian ensured that it spread to Raphtalia who was right next to him. It was strangely adorable to see the child wake up slowly while drool escaped her mouth. She only fully woke up when her stomach grumbled.

She turned to him in surprise. All other concerns giving way to fear. He wanted to sigh but chose to smile at her instead. He hoped that it would put her at ease.

"Raphtalia," he said with a nod," Dinner will be ready in a few minutes." indicating the small pan he was holding.

"Umm...yes sir," she said, her attention drifting towards the food as her stomach grumbled at her again.

Adrian had to laugh at her utterly embarrassed expression.

"I'll take you to a nearby river, you can get refreshed and change into something more comfortable," he said, Adrian had a few drop items that could actually change size. Given that he could see that she had actually grown a few centimeters it would be best to assume that normal clothing would not be sufficient.

Raphtalia nodded, her embarrassment flaring again but she said nothing.

Adrian drew the table and other furniture out from the storage space in the sword. Quickly arranged the utensils and then picked up the Filolial eggs. No need to leave them here when there was a small possibility of a monster being attracted by the smell. After securely tying them to his back he looked to Raphtalia and saw that she was holding out her arms.

Adrian had to suppress his surprise. This child...she was truly adaptable.

He picked her up quickly and then said," Eyes closed child," she obeyed with a nod and buried her head in his chest.

A moment to check his surroundings with Blindsight and he was off with dash. They were at the river in less than two seconds. He let Raphtalia down and she opened her eyes. Adrian quickly drew out a towel and the auto-adjusting clothing and gave them to her.

Raphtalia stared for a moment at the clothing which appeared to have scale-like patterns on it but thankfully said nothing. It would be quite awkward to explain that it was literally made from snakeskin though some sort of odd magical process. Still, the black coloured shirt and pant were a fairly elegant design and had some of the best defensive stats he could offer.

She quickly went to get herself cleaned up and Adrian politely looked away as she stripped and jumped into the shallow river. Though he kept Blindsight active. Security was ultimately more important than privacy.

Adrian found himself contemplating the Legendary Sword. There were some aspects that made some sense, killing monsters allowed him to take something from them to empower himself, that was experience. And if he absorbed them then he could take more and unlock specific functions in his sword which were called skills and stat boosts and even use this ephemeral something to boost his weapons.

Truthfully most of his weapon enhancement methods were based on the same idea. Absorb something and then use it for empowerment in slightly different ways. The only exception seemed to be proficiency which was oddly unrelated to the other system, sure it complemented them but it was very different.

He needed to figure out the underlying logic here or he was never going to figure out if there were more enhancement methods. Logic said yes. Glass had her own weapons from another world, there were the Seven Star Heroes here, assuming one or more method per weapon that was at least eight more possible upgrade methods. Wait...nine more methods, L'arc existed as well, and Glass' world might have even more heroes than that.

Adrian needed those methods. He had experimented a bit after speaking to Agatha but so far all he had managed to figure out was that he could use a filter function to see which swords had what type of stat boost and skills as equip bonuses. That's it. All his attempts at finding a power-up method had failed.

One obvious tactic was to ask the Seven Star Heroes but he needed a lot more leverage for that. The only other choice was experimenting whenever he had a free moment but that was more or less shooting in the dark hoping to hit a target that may or may not even exist.

Adrian considered the situation for a moment and decided that he would spend fifteen minutes each day just trying out random methods. It was likely to be useless but the benefits of even one method were just too potentially useful to dismiss.

Raphtalia came running back to him. Her hair was still a bit wet so he drew out another towel and dried it out.

"We'll have to cut your hair child," he said, studying her tangled locks. It looked surprisingly good for a child who probably had not been able to take care of it for weeks but was quite messy none-the-less.

"Yes, ," she said, her voice quiet but calm. Her fear had eased, though he would not pretend to understand why. He absorbed the soiled clothing and towels, noting that absorbing the hair had unlocked a second version of the companion series before he picked her up again and headed back.

Once again it barely took an instant, and thankfully no monsters were nearby. He kept the Filolial eggs and Raphtalia down. Quickly finished off the meal and gave Raphtalia a fairly generous portion. Easily twice as big as his.

She didn't question it or say a word, just looked to him for permission. A nod and she was ravaging the food with abandon. How odd that this messy eater looked so at peace at this moment. He didn't understand this child, surrounded by a forest full of monsters with a man she didn't know, she should not have been so calm.

Was she hiding it well? Or was it that she was lowering her guard thanks to the paltry kindness that he had shown her. He would have to be careful to ensure that she wasn't as careless in the future. This world was not a kind place.

" ," he heard her voice hesitantly.

He looked at her both through Blindsight and his eyes and was shocked for a moment. He had yet to eat even half of his meal. She was done with hers.

Adrian shook it off," Do you need more Raphtalia?" he asked, carefully studying her expression for truth.

"No," she said, shaking her head, there didn't seem to be any sign of dishonesty so he nodded.

"Good." he said, " we shall be resting here for an hour or so. The eggs are going to hatch in that time," assuming that the timer on his status screen was true.

"Are we going back to the forest after that?" she asked, her fear returning.

Adrian winced but nodded slowly, "I'm afraid so. I need to level up the Filolials a little bit. But I promise Raphtalia there won't be an incident like what happened with the Dragon again."

It was a hasty promise that he was not sure he would be able to keep but it seemed to comfort the child.

How pathetic he was. Lying to children for his own self-satisfaction.

"Get some rest," he suggested, before drawing out the carrier from before. Raphtalia nodded the fatigue obvious but then she looked to him, he tilted his head, curious as to what she had to say before she just ran towards the carrier and moved into it.

He absorbed the tables, chairs and other utensils and sat on the ground, deciding that he would meditate. He needed the calm and it would be nice to get back into the habit of it again, he had missed it over the past few days of madness after practising it constantly for years.

Adrian kept Blindsight active but allowed himself to relax as he slowly controlled his breathing. He noted that Raphtalia wasn't sleeping she was just lying down but ignored it. It was understandable.

Instead, he focused on his breath and his status system. It was about time that he began to unravel it.

His attempts failed but time passed and soon it was time for the eggs to hatch. He got up and picked up the eggs and placed it in front of himself. He found himself oddly excited by the event, it was like waiting for a lottery.

Adrian felt an odd combination of grief and amusement spike as he sensed Raphtalia trying to see the hatching while not moving from the carrier.

"Raphtalia," he said, trying to keep his voice light," I know that you're awake, you're free to watch this if you want to."

For a moment she didn't move but then she got up a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. But her excitement didn't diminish as she ran towards him, almost fell down but caught herself, and then crashed down next to him before sitting on her knees in a display of flexibility that only children could perform.

He found himself smiling as she stared eagerly at the eggs.

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