Valentina

Damien knew that the place he currently was in, is like her own haven. He had no idea whether she would find it irksome if he were to still stay there even after waking up. Even if she was the one who brought him here, he thought she would be expecting him to leave after he woke up. He didn't want to have his blood sucked when she's five levels stronger than him. After all, he was not in his prime condition.

He knew that ethereal beasts would find themselves annoyed when an outsider occupies their home without their permission.

The girl just kept blankly staring at Damien as he slowly sat under a tree. Seeing that her expressions didn't change, Damien heaved a sigh of relief inwardly thinking that she didn't mind him resting there.

"You shouldn't think that her intelligence is low. Her soul cultivation is also more powerful than you. After all, her soul is at the Peak Nascent Soul Stage." Luna remarked.

"What?? She can even cultivate her soul?...Damn." Damien was not only shocked that the girl's soul cultivation was also higher than him but also that an ethereal beast like her was able to cultivate her soul.

Damien knew that as one's ethereal cultivation increases, their body and soul also advances. But their soul wouldn't make drastic improvements as much as when they cultivate their soul.

Just like how a Brown Claw Wolf at the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm would only have a soul at the Early or Middle Origin Soul Stage at most. Generally, human cultivators who cultivate both their ethereal energy and soul would have an Peak Origin Soul Stage at the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm and Early Nascent Soul Stage when they are at the third level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm.

It was harder to cultivate one's soul than their ethereal energy. Which was why in general, no one's soul cultivation would overshadow their ethereal cultivation and why cultivators mainly focus only on other's ethereal cultivation for comparison or for a fight.

Damien then decided to test out something. He beckoned the girl to come near him with his hands.

The girl squinted her eyes seeing Damien waving his hands at her. After hesitating for a while, she slowly approached him and stood near him, looking into his eyes.

"Say Damien." Damien prompted. He even tried sign language to prompt her to speak.

The girl blinked as her beautiful eyelashes fluttered. Damien prompted a few times and finally a tender high pitched voice came out of her mouth, "Daaamiiieeeen."

Damien clapped his hands and said, "Bravo. You can speak!" He smiled jubilantly. The girl understood that when she spoke, Damien got happy.

Damien prompted her a few more times till she said, "Damien." Surprisingly, she was finally able to say his name clearly. Damien then thought that he underestimated her intelligence and she was way faster at learning things than he expected.

"Hmm...I think a cute girl like you should have a nice name...let me think." Damien had a pondering expression trying to come up with a name for the girl.

"Got it!" Damien's eyes lit up, "How about I name you Valentina?" Damien said while pointing at her.

The girl was surprised seeing Damien pointing at her and hearing him stress the word "Valentina".

Damien again prompted her a few times pointing at her, "Valentina."

The girl seemed to concentrate on Damien's words and finally said pointing at herself, "Vaaaleentiinna."

After repeating it a few more times, she was able to say it clearly, "Valentina." Damien again clapped and complimented her, "Good! Henceforth, your name shall be Valentina, since you are as beautiful as the Camellia flowers."

Even though her face was scarred with claw marks and made her face look ghastly, Damien didn't find her ugly but instead he thought she was a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart. Seeing her innocence reminded him of himself when he was a kid in his previous life.

"Thehehe"

Valentina giggled seeing Damien's happy expression and then she pointed at Damien and said, "Damien."

Damien's eyes sparkled, "That's it! Now you know how to call each other." He was really astonished at the speed at which she was able to pick up things.

*growl~*

Damien winced hearing the sound of hunger pangs from his stomach. He then looked at Valentina and asked, "Say, do you like wolf meat?"

——

It was dusk already when Damien was roasting a wolf meat over an open fire. He instructed and taught Valentina to bring some wooden branches to have his own cooking fire. Before that, with the help of Luna, he transferred and taught the 'Ethereal Language' to Valentina so that she could learn and understand his words faster and completely. He also taught her some basic customs and the ways of humans.

Surprisingly after a few tries, her speech wasn't even incoherent whenever she spoke new sentences. And soon enough, she was able to articulate her words perfectly. If it was a mortal trying to learn a language for the first time, who knows how many years it would take.

Unlike a mortal, someone who cultivates their soul would have a faster thinking process, powerful memory, higher comprehension ability, etc as their soul cultivation increases.

Damien slowly got used to her learning rate and enjoyed teaching her.

Valentina's wariness around Damien completely disappeared as she was curious about these new things Damien was teaching her and was interested in learning more from him.

"Big Brother Damien, why are you putting that strange powder over the meat?" Valentina asked with a curious expression when she saw Damien putting some powder over the piece of meat in his hands.

Damien had told her to call him as 'Big Brother Damien' since he always imagined being called like that by an imaginary cute little sister even in his previous life.

"Oh, this is something we put on our food as a seasoning to enhance its taste. Here, why don't you have a try?" Damien offered the meat in his hands to Valentina.

Valentina took it with sparkling eyes as she chomped on it trying to savor its taste.

"Yummmmm...It's so tasty!" Valentina said with an ecstatic expression as she had never eaten something so delicious.

Damien softly smiled seeing her adorable expressions and patted her head. Valentina's ears twitched when Damien stroked her head. She stopped munching and looked at Damien with a blissful expression.

"Oh, you like being patted on your head?" Damien asked, raising one of his brows.

Valentina nodded slowly and closed her eyes indulging herself in the soothing feeling she was getting from Damien's gentle caress.

Damien also felt it nice to stroke her head as it felt so soft and smooth. He felt as if he was stroking a puppy.

"So, you said that you have always been living in this forest?" Damien asked remembering he had asked Valentina before where she was from.

"Yes, I only remember living in this forest. There were big, strong ethereal beasts deeper inside the forest, so I avoided those places. But one day I got the scent of this red colored flower. It smelled so good that my body craved for it. But a strong ethereal beast was sitting near the flower and it hurt me so badly." Valentina scowled with a hostile expression on her face when she said the last sentence.

"Wait a sec...how did you manage to survive in those dangerous areas?" Damien asked with a surprised expression. He guessed that those claw marks must be from the ethereal beast who was guarding the flower.

Valentina looked at Damien with her chin up and smiled, "It's hard for those big ethereal beasts to even catch or see me."