When Cecil opened his eyes, he felt that only a brief moment had pa.s.sed by, but his entire body felt a little stiff. He started stretching and limbered up his body a bit. He was just about to continue cultivating again, since he felt that it was too short, but he suddenly heard Lucia and Serilla"s cries."Cel!"
"Darling!"
Cecil only looked up at the girls and saw the worried look on their faces which was odd.
"Oh hey, sorry I"m still not done cultivating, I"ll be done before dinner so please don—"
"IDIOT!!" Lucia immediately pounced on him and began pulling his cheeks back while Serilla flashed behind him and began hugging tightly onto his back.
"Wraiii??? Stahhhp purrringg ma cheeeksshhh Ruru!!"
"Idiot! You"re stopping right now! You"ve been cultivating for a whole month without stopping! You haven"t even eaten nor done anything else, but sit there like a statue!!!"
"Wraht?"
"That"s right, dummy... you just sat here like a statue for a whole month! If we didn"t feel your pulse or sense the circulating Mana in your body which indicated you were cultivating, we thought you might have died!"
"Huh? Buh, I onry cuhlevahed a riherl biht," Cecil said in response.
He turned his sense into his body and what he saw astounded him. There were way too many changes that occurred inside his body in that "little bit" of time he had been cultivating.
During this entire month of selfless cultivation, his body was transformed by the Ether inside his body which had grown to the size of a walnut and many changes occurred to his body.
His organs were the first to transform after being baptized by the Ether. They strengthened themselves and he was more impervious to internal damages, poisons, and diseases.
Also, the hidden impurities that couldn"t be cleansed out of his body by marrow cleansing were fully expelled after his month-long cultivation. They weren"t expelled from his body in the form of black ooze, but they were directly erased by the Ether from within.
Cecil also noticed that all his Energy Circuits had expanded and they were able channel much more energy than before. The amount of Mana and Ki inside his body had also grown substantially despite a small portion of them being transformed into Ether.
Both his Mana and Ki cultivation were about to step into the middle stages of their current stage. He wasn"t sure what level his Ether cultivation was since there were no records or information he gained that described Ether cultivation, but he was sure that he had made a large step in that area as well.
Opportunities like this were hard to come by and Cecil knew that this was probably a once in a lifetime chance. He could only pray and count on his lucky stars that he"d be able to experience it again. Thinking back to his thoughts during his "brief" cultivation, Cecil felt enlightened and thought to try something out.
When he opened his eyes, he saw two red faced, teary-eyed, pouting girls in front of him.
"Uhh..."
"You were totally ignoring us just now!"
"W-we were so concerned...but you..."
"I"m sorry, I"m sorry! I only wanted to check my body"s condition okay? I wasn"t going to cultivate again! I"ll take a break, I"ll take a break!" Cecil replied in a fl.u.s.ter. He knew that cultivation was important, but he didn"t like seeing these 2 cry, especially if it was because of him. He felt like a total s.h.i.thead at the moment for making them cry and worry so much.
"c.r.a.p, l-let"s just spend time with them for the 3 days before I even think about cultivating again."
Cecil quickly hugged both girls until they calmed down. He was just about to lean back and continue hugging them, however, he then remembered the girls saying that he had been cultivating for a month.
This meant that he hadn"t eaten, drank, excrete, or even cleaned himself for one whole month. He should be awfully filthy right now. Cecil paled at this thought and he gently pushed both girls back before standing up silently.
"Uhm, let me go shower and clean myself first...I haven"t done that in a whole month, right?" Cecil said awkwardly.
Lucia and Serilla both smiled at him and pulled him back down onto the couch and clung tightly to him.
"Don"t worry darling~ we made sure to clean you every day~"
"Yup! We cleaned you VERY thoroughly, Cel~"
"Huh?"
******
A wagon was being surrounded by a pack of monsters and a small party of 3 was clearing them out.
Cecil, Lucia, and Serilla were quickly cutting down the pack of Venomfang Raptors that were surrounding the Wanderer.
Another half month had pa.s.sed by and the weather had long since experienced a ma.s.sive change. It was now snowing heavily and the snow piled up high on the road which hindered the party"s travels while on the ground.
It did little to affect their travels in the air however. It was a good thing that Cecil had installed a couple of his magi-tech AC-Heaters in the wagon early on so despite the freezing climate outside, they were able to stay warm and cozy while inside the wagon.
Only Silver had to take the freezing weather head on while they were flying. It was saddening, but he was a big boy and he could take at least that much. Besides, when he was resting, he would be laying in the warm embrace of his big sis.
As for Sleipnir, the rare breed of Storm Colts that the Wanderers had taken in, he would be placed inside the pet plane by Cecil and would only be called out when it was time for him to feed or pull the carriage.
Serilla had taken a liking to the large colt because she had a similar horse-type monster back at home who was her mount. Other than being a student and the Sword Maiden, Serilla was also a knight of the Anglaria Kingdom so she naturally owned a monster mount that was uniform with the rest of the kingdom"s army.
Serilla offered to take care of it and Cecil naturally let her do so. Sleipnir was naturally glad to have someone take care of him. He was also a good a.s.set in battle and just like its name; Sleipnir was able to use Wind magic. In battle, Serilla would ride him and the two would trample and cut down on the monsters that tried attacking their party.
"Well, that"s the last of "em...Lulu, clear the path forward." Cecil said as he saw Serilla cutting down the last of the Venomfang Raptors.
"Hmhm~"
Lucia tapped her foot on the ground and the snow covered road ahead of them immediately lit up in purple flames.
"Alright, this should keep us going for a couple hundred meters." Lucia said. It had started snowing a month or so ago, during the time when Cecil was still cultivating like a statue.
It was a good thing that Lucia had already finished preparing their winter clothes before then so they were able to stay warm even when they had to go out of the wagon and into the snow.
From afar, Cecil could see dark clouds looming on the horizon. If he wasn"t wrong, a blizzard might kick in soon. This wouldn"t be the first time he experienced one. On the day he woke up from his cultivation, the party was besieged by powerful blizzard not long after and they had to quickly take shelter for a few days before the storm subsided. However, while it was drop dead cold outside, it was pretty steamy inside the wagon, for various reasons other than the heater.
Cecil saw the dark clouds as a bad omen while the girls saw it as an opportunity for them to take a break from cultivation and let Cecil spoil them.
"We should hurry and find cover. A blizzard might hit us soon. If it"s just a mild snowstorm, we"ll continue pushing for a while and see how it goes. If it doesn"t let up we"ll stop and take a break."
"Okay darling~ don"t push Sleipnir to hard now! Even he gets cold sometimes!" Serilla called out to him as she approached on Sleipnir"s back.
Cecil smiled at her and replied, "Don"t worry, I"m not that heartless. Besides, he also has you to take care of him."
"Hihihi~ and I have you to take care of me!"
"..."
"Hey guys, we should really be going now! Look, those storm clouds are fast approaching!" Lucia called out to them.
Cecil immediately fastened Sleipnir"s harness and the Wanderer quickly moved away. Lucia sat next to Cecil on the driver"s seat and maintained a heating spell on the both of them.
Whenever she saw the dry road end in the distance, Lucia would quickly flash on to the road, melt the snow before quickly flashing back onto the wagon.
They would only stop if monsters attacked them like earlier, but most of the time, this was how the party traveled while on the ground.
After another couple of hours, a blizzard or snowstorm didn"t kick in, but they had to stop the wagon and take shelter. This was because it had started hailing instead.
"Haaahhh...just our luck, it hails instead..." Cecil said while looking out the wagon"s front door window.
He turned around and saw the girls looking hopefully at him. He sighed and walked over to the both of them. The two immediately clung onto him and Serilla laid her head down on the boy"s lap and began napping.
Lucia pulled out a quilt she had just recently finished and draped it over the sleeping girl. She pulled another one out and went to sit beside Cecil before she wrapped him and herself together with the larger quilt.
This was how they spent their time waiting for the storms to subside. It took anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days. During this time the 3 would stop cultivating and just spend time with each other, doing whatever they pleased.
It was shame that Cecil didn"t think about making any of Earth"s entertainments before going on the journey. Making playing cards or a chessboard would have been good. Now that he thought about it, since it was already snowing, Christmas should be just right by the corner.
He didn"t remember it last year because in his brain, "snow" equals "almost time for Christmas", and it didn"t snow back in Anglaria Kingdom so he missed it.
"I guess I should prepare a gift. I wonder what the girls would like..."