Chapter 23.

Adrian woke up and immediately flared his Blindsight. He took a good long look at his surroundings and only relaxed once he verified that there were no monsters in the area, Raphtaia and his filolials were safe and uninjured and that there was no threat that was likely to manifest in the next minute.

He was still a little concerned about some sort of long-range monitoring by the Kingdom but that was a problem for later.

It was only after this that he noted exactly what his three party members were doing. They had started a game with some wooden sticks in a pile of cloth. Raphtalia was using her hands to catch and throw the ball while the filolials were kicking it around. Adrian wondered just how he had missed this, sure it wasn't harmful but had he truly been so tired as to ignore the sound and just sleep?

Still, he couldn't say that this was a bad thing. It was good that Raphtalia could even consider playing around a little bit, though he was starting to become certain that she was doing her best to just live in the moment and avoid thinking about her past or the uncertain future. It was not a bad survival tactic but he would need to be careful about her mental health.

Adrian considered the situation for the moment, it was about eight in the morning, which meant that he had slept for more than six hours, a rarity since he had been forced into this world. All the same, it was clear that his party members had just started to play around and that once he showed them that he was awake then they would probably stop, or at least Raphtalia would.

That decided it. He would allow them more time to play while he tested out some ideas he had for enhancement methods. He had noted just how odd the proficiency was and how it was a little odd that it only really applied to the sword as a whole while the monster part enchantment had multiple applications.

Adrian kept his eyes closed and carefully regulated his breathing, he did his best to take deeper and deeper breaths and slowly found himself reaching a state of calm. It was wonderful to be able to relax, the sounds of the forest, of the children playing and even the occasional breeze all, felt quite nice now that he wasn't just looking out for threats.

But he disciplined himself, he would allow some time for a relaxing meditation later, for now, he needed to be aware of the environment, Blindsight would serve for that purpose, and try out some of his ideas.

It took him several minutes of trial and error to conclude that he could not access anything new with respect to boosting his stats using the proficiency nor did he appear to have any ability to gain levels by using monster parts or by using a proficiency like system. Adrian wasn't sure if this was simply due to insufficient belief in the methods he was considering or if there was some assumption he was making with respect to the method or even some type of condition he needed to fulfil in order to access the method but he failed time and again. It was quite annoying but not unexpected. The chances of him stumbling across an enhancement method barely a few hours after his first attempt were pretty low anyway.

Adrian decided that it had been long enough opened his eyes and stood up. Immediately the game stopped and the black filolial cheerfully dived at him as a greeting. Adrian moved out of the way, very grateful for his speed stat. The filolial was absolutely massive in comparison to yesterday and probably weighed more than he did now. It was nearly as tall as he was and had a far denser bone and muscle structure than most humans, the Filolials inability to fly made a lot of sense now, though he wasn't certain if he really should consider biology an obstacle in this absurd world. After all, he had seen monsters that casually violated the square-cube law and even thermodynamics with their ridiculous size and heat generation.

The filolial went barreling past him and nearly slammed into the tree that he had been leaning against. It looked at him with wide eyes and Adrian started to feel bad at the betrayed look it was giving him until reason asserted itself and Adrian remembered that the bird's stats were probably high enough to do some serious damage if Adrian was careless. It may have only been level 20 but its' stats were quite high for such a low level.

Adrian wanted to admonish him but then realized that he really should name the two of them, it was rather rude of him not to do so actually, especially after they had demonstrated that they were quite intelligent moment after their birth...he also had two names in mind, though he wondered how appropriate they would be.

He decided to simply ask them about it later once they could talk. While it was rude not to name them immediately, this was a rather unique situation where he could ask a newborn about their opinions on their own names, an exception would have to be made.

Still, that didn't stop the Black filolial from preparing to pounce on his again.

"Don't," he warned, and felt a little bad as the bird wilted, it was hard to remember that this bird was barely a few hours old when he was this large.

He walked up to him and stroked his head getting a chirp of contentment," I am not durable enough to have you jump on me okay? Please don't do that again." he said, and then sighed when he found that the bird was ignoring him. Though he pecked Adrian's had insistently when he stopped petting him.

Adrian sighed and continued doing so even as he turned towards the other two people in their camp, "Good morning to both of you." he said, "how are you feeling? Any problems regarding your growth spurts?"

Adrian could tell that they were fine, his First Aid and Diagnosis skills told him that they were fine, but these skills only gave him a clinical interpretation of their health. It told him precisely nothing about their emotional wellbeing or how they felt about their growth.

The white filolial gave him a shake of her head that he was able to tell was a negative and then bounded over to him, he gave her a smile and began to pet her as well. The fact that these birds fully understood what he was saying and had an emotional spectrum that was as broad as humans still stunned him. It felt very odd that they were so human. How was it that a species that had to be biologically different was so very similar to humans in their manner of thought?

Raphtalia just shook her head and said, "I'm okay ," but he could tell that she was a little confused.

Adrian stopped petting the birds and walked towards the centre of the camp, he absorbed the plates and the scraps of food that were lying around and released the new plates from his sword that were clean and then placed some fresh food on them. Each plate was full to the maximum that he could stuff on them with some fairly fragrant hot food and the two filolials didn't wait for a moment before starting to eat. Raphtalia was more hesitant but as Adrian sat down and patted the ground next to him, she quickly jumped in place and pulled the plate towards herself.

She looked to him again before taking a bite but Adrian just smiled and said, "Eat child. You'll need the food to fuel your growth."

She looked a little confused again but shook it off quickly and began to consume her share quickly. Raphtalia was nothing compared to the messy and ridiculously quick speed of the filolials but she was eating quite swiftly nonetheless. She must have been very hungry.

Adrian took a moment to note that Raphtalia had not grown as much as he had expected. Barely a few centimetres taller and a slightly more developed body with her muscles and fat layers building up a bit. Then again her growth was only slow compared to the filolials, if compared to any other situation then she had probably aged by months during the past twelve or so hours.

Adrian shook it off. He would study their growth later. For now, he considered his plans for the day. He needed to get his party to level 30 by the end of the day and hopefully he could move past the thirties today, four levels in a day were probably too much to expect but hopefully, a full day of hunting in dragon territory would be enough to ensure at least that much.

Adrian had managed to reconfigure his status menu to show him a graphical representation of his experience gain with respect to time. It was fascinating to realize that he was actually increasing his experience gain exponentially with time and that he was genuinely getting better at slaughtering monsters.

It was just too bad that the exp requirement for levelling up was growing even faster. In the past six hours Adrian had killed more than 3500 monsters, he was still harvesting them all, but despite his massively increased kill rate, he was still only level 38. At this rate, he would need to kill at least 50,000 monsters on par with the ones he had killed today just to get to level 50 and Adrian highly doubted that he could manage to find that many monsters in the next few days.

The only good part was that while his level growth had slowed to a crawl his stat growth thanks to mastering weapon forms had increased. So his stats were probably good enough to match a level 70 with ease at this point despite his own pathetic level. It was a bit of comfort but despite the fact that he had surpassed that level 75 werewolf he felt quite unsafe. After all, a rogue hero like himself would not be targeted by just one or two weaklings, if he was a target they would likely send an army after him.

"Guee?" came the sound of the Black Filolial as it looked down at him inquiringly. It must have noticed that Adrian had finished harvesting the body of the dragon.

"Yes, I'm done for now," he said, feeling a little better just speaking to the bird, "We can have our break."

"Guee!" the Filolial King exclaimed with joy before bounding back to the wooden disk that carried the food and starting with the meal. But before it could really get into it, the massive bird used its' wing to indicate that he should come over.

Adrian felt a surge of gratitude towards him. It was quite out of character for the glutton to be concerned about anything when food was in front of him but he just shook his head and waved his hand. The massive pile of food on the disk was meant to be for the Filolials alone.

Adrian then turned his attention to the white filolial who was letting Raphtalia get off her back before she walked towards the food and began to eat as well. Adrian walked towards the girl who was looking around a bit awkwardly.

"Raphtalia, I wanted to speak to you about something important," he said,while leading her to an area where the smell of the beast he had just harvested was not as strong and drawing out a table and chair combination from his sword "It is regarding what you wish to do with your future."

She sat down and he followed, she started to say something but then hesitated before starting again, "My future?"

Adrian was glad that she was willing to ask rather than just stay silent and nod, "Yes child. You are a free young lady and that means that your future is your choice. I will do my best to help you with information, money or any other resources or training that you might need, but in the end, the choice must be yours."

Raphtalia looked overwhelmed, "Umm, I-I don't understand "

Adrian smiled ruefully, feeling a little annoyed with himself, this was a conversation he was handling quite poorly, "Raphtalia I want you to think about what you wish to do in the future. You have a great many possibilities. If you desire to look for a family member of yours, then I'll do my best to track them down. If your goal is to become a crafter then I'll try to arrange an apprenticeship and pay for it and so on." he said, trying to explain, "I'm not asking you to figure out an answer right away but I'd like for you to start thinking about it. Okay?" he asked, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible.

She nodded rapidly," Y-yes." she said, but he could tell that she had not fully assimilated what he had asked of her.

He smiled nonetheless, "Very well child but please remember that you are always free to ask me questions about this matter and any other and that I will help you no matter your goal. Just take your time and think about it."

Raphtalia swallowed and then spoke up hesitantly, "Don't you want me to fight?"

Adrian frowned, considering her for a long moment during which Raphtalia face seemed to show greater and greater fear, he answered "No child I don't. I am levelling you up just to ensure that you are as safe as possible and to make sure that you have more options available later on. A higher level has few drawbacks."

She nodded, the relief on her face was heartbreaking.

Had she really been so worried about this possibility? It was sickening to realize just how little he understood this child. She must have been terrified of the possibility that he would throw her in battle as soon as he levelled her enough.

Adrian promised that he would do better. He needed to be better if he was to raise this child right. He may not have thought it wise to aid her but in the end, he had chosen to help her, it would be pathetic of him not to treat her to the best of his ability.