A week later, Banan grasslands.
Swoosh~
Zarestia dashed across the flower field with dexterous maneuver.
Behind her more than eight Courtesan bears followed suit, with their zombie-like body. Anyone would find themselves agitated in Zarestia's situation, however that wasn't the case with her. She appeared confident as the wind propelled her speed forward.
"Hey! I brought more of them~" Zarestia waved her hand at Orsted, who appeared to be focusing.
"Good job." Giving her a compliment, Orsted's face grew serious. Red particles gathered around his body, before his body shone in a light reddish hue.
[Tear stigma] appeared on his eyes, shining in a predatory glint. Dozens of star-shaped magic circles manifested around him - releasing magical particles extensively.
'No matter how many times I experience this state, it's hard to get used to it. It feels as if....I can do anything.' Orsted felt a little addicted to this state.
If it was now, his ego could be comparable to Regulus Corneas, the archbishop of greed. The difference being, Orsted didn't like spouting nonsense.
[Existence analysis] - Orsted focused his gaze onto the Courtesan bears chasing Zarestia.
Information flowed into his mind naturally, tracing every ounce of data from the Courtesan bears.
'1....2....It has improved. Now I can complete the analysis on them in just 2 seconds.' Orsted calculated internally.
A week ago, the first time he used [Tear stigma] - it took a whole minute to analyse a single Courtesan bear. Clearly Orsted's mana gate was still weak to make [Tear stigma] shine.
However, in midst of the disappointment, Orsted discovered that [Tear stigma]'s analysis worked faster when used repeatedly on the same thing.
After using it on the Courtesan bears for the past week, Orsted could now analyse dozens of them simultaneously in 2 to 3 seconds.
It was as if the data bank of the [Tear stigma] grew stronger as it analysed more things. As a side-effect, it put a lot of pressure on the wielder's mind - which led Orsted to enhance his mind again with [Rewrite], with 20 years of lifespan.
For now, Orsted didn't feel any pressure going through the information analysed by [Tear stigma].
"Begone." Orsted coldly stretched his hand towards the Courtesan bears.
At that moment, multiple star-shaped magic circles appeared above the Courtesan bears. Before they could even stop to look above, their body began turning into ash - flowing away with the gentle wind.
"...They disappeared faster than before?" Zarestia tilted her head, as she slowed down her speed.
"That's right." Orsted answered after closing his eyes, the red glow around his body dispersed slowly.
Zarestia nodded her head in wonder, pumping her hands up: "Anyway, now it's my turn! I will hunt more than yesterday and surpass my past self!"
"Alright..." Orsted followed her, while contemplating.
Zarestia showed keen pride in her skills in being able to hunt witchbeast from day one. In exchange for helping Orsted with his experiments, she only wanted to hunt and show off her skills.
'All the witchbeast have almost been wiped out now. I guess it's about time.' Orsted threw out appropriate compliments to Zarestia, while lost in thought. He knew that she liked being praised.
Four days ago, Orsted had already given the light sphere to the green lizardman, who belonged to Didorii's bandit group in the past.
If nothing went wrong, they would be soon getting information on Zarestia's thief.
Orsted had finished testing out [Tear stigma] and all of its ability. He had even used [Light blast] three days ago.
The result destroyed one-third of the whole flowerfield, along with the Courtesan bears in it.
With some calculation, Orsted predicted that he could destroy more than half of Banan instantly, if he used it on the city.
But the backlash from using [Light blast] left Orsted immobile for hours in the end. So it can only be used as a trump card to end the battle.
Zarestia grew a little more obedient too, after watching his destructive capabilities. A mutual respect to a capable individual and hunter.
After watching Zarestia hunt for fun, it grew apparent that it became harder to spot even a single Courtesan bear.
"Let's go back, it's already evening." Orsted pointed towards the horizon.
"...It can't be helped. Let's go to that bath-house that everyone speaks of, in the city!" Zarestia proposed while walking back to him.
'Bath-house? Why does she want to go to such a crowded place?' Orsted had gone there curiously, beside liking the sweet milk there - he didn't find the place pleasant.
Bathing in a mixed bath? It was uncomfortable and a disaster with his curse.
"You can go if you want. But don't take anything a stranger offers." Orsted spoke while slowly floating up.
"Do you think I'm a kid!? There is no way any danger would be present in a bath-house! Everyone uses it!" Zarestia kept stomping with every sentence.
After moving around with Orsted for a week, Zarestia had experienced his paranoia and cautiousness first hand.
'What does he even mean by - [Don't touch random black fur in the ground, it might be cursed] or [beat up anyone who offers me alcohol or sake]!'
It didn't make sense at all.
Halibel had returned four days ago and had even visited his house just after - to meet Zarestia.
That led Orsted to be very careful of Halibel. Besides his skills as a shinobi, he was an expert Shaman too, well versed in the art of cursecraft. He could imbue curses on his fur and sword that led to inescapable death.
"Sigh....So you won't come to the bath-house?" Zarestia asked while folding her hands before her chest, grumbling.
Seeing her blatant attempt in trying to hide her loneliness, Orsted paused: "I will wait outside and try out the new special milk.... Come along already."
Two bright wings materialized behind Orsted.
As Zarestia recovered her memories slowly, it filled her mind with the memory of spending centuries in Zarestia's bed - hunting like a machine. She was yet to recover it fully.
Hence, Orsted felt it was a good time to deepen his relationship with her, who doesn't want to feel lonely.
"Oh! Let's go!" Zarestia followed him with her wind element.
Orsted split some of his focus into the system and checked his dragon points.
[Dragon points: 6,877]
It had increased dramatically in the past week and it was expected to continue increasing for a while. At this point, his name had only spread within Kararagi.
After a while, it would spread to all the countries, boosting his dragon points further.
'It's time to upgrade the template.'