Legacy World 4.10 Training Ground

[Ah! Should I have warned you? I just assumed that it'd be alright since he was just getting close to you and not touching you or do you mind that as well?] BaoBao rattled on in his fear that he made the wrong judgement.

/He didn't do anything to me, did he?/

[Nope!]

/Then it's fine./ She reassured BaoBao while she tried to pry her shirt out of his hand.

[Erm... But he DID do something to himself... I think.]

/What did he do?/ Vanora absentmindedly questioned while she struggled to get her shirt out of his hand. Having done the same thing with Erica for so many times before, she felt odd for experiencing so much difficulty with it this time round.

[The mark of a black rose appeared at the back of his hand.]

Vanora turned his hand over and saw nothing but flawless skin. /Don't tell me.../ She gradually used greater force to yank her shirt out of his deathly tight grip. The mark suddenly made its appearance and his eyes flew open. He sat up immediately and looked around with wide eyes. Only his husky voice and bed hair gave away the fact that he had just woken up from a deep sleep. "What happened?"

"... I need to go." Vanora calmly explained.

Panic filled his face. "Where?"

"The bathroom?"

He blinked a few times with his lips apart. His mouth gradually formed an "O" as realization dawned on him. "Sorry." Black smoke wafted from the back of his hand and he let go off her shirt.

Vanora stared at him for a short moment before leaving the bedroom.

/I wonder if he'll get better overtime./

[What do you mean?]

/He looks kind of emotionally unstable. I can't tell if it's because he's supposed to be like this... He definitely didn't appear this way in the book./ Vanora sighed lightly. /I just hope it's not because of my transmigration./

[Ah... The warning from the administrators...] BaoBao finally understood her worries.

/Oh well, I'll just keep doing what I can./

When she came out of the bathroom, she found another new attire waiting for her to change into, She took it off the shelf then shook it out. It unraveled and revealed an all-black gothic lolita dress with puffy sleeves that ended just before her elbow. She frowned slightly as it looked troublesome to wear. Vlad remained blissfully completely unaware that his taste in clothes and women was being questioned at this very moment. Vanora looked down at her pajamas then back at the lolita dress in her hands. It was one or the other.

When she returned to the main room, Vlad's eyes were immediately drawn to her, then he nodded with satisfaction and approval. With a smug look, he slid her cup of tea towards her. Vanora obediently sat down at the table and drank her tea while he went to wash up.

/I feel like a free-loader./

She sighed helplessly and comforted herself that these were things she had to do to repay her debt to him. He had already taught her a lot and would only be providing her with more in the future.

"Breakfast?" Vlad returned before she was done with her tea.

"No, thank you." She wanted to use every second she could to train, get stronger, and increase her chance of survival. The fact that she did not need food for sustenance but merely for preventing insanity worked in her favour. She did not have to spend much time on cooking and eating. 

"But-"

"I'm not hungry." Before Vlad could insist, she quickly changed the topic. "Before we look for demons that I can fight, is there anywhere near here where I can practice my hellfire? In private?"

When Vlad stared at her unblinking, she prompted him again. "There's no place like that?"

"Now there'll be."

"What do you mean?"

"This is hell. Demons and other hell creatures roam everywhere. There's no such thing as privacy. I mean, there's no need for it. If anyone's unhappy, we just fight. For example, if anyone comes in here, they'll be dead meat. The smart ones know whose territories to avoid. But don't worry, I just thought of a way to make it private for you." He winked then beamed proudly like a dog asking for treats. "Oh, but why do you need it to be nearby?"

"So that I can go there by myself. You don't need to escort me everywhere. At the very least, you should do the things you need to do while I practice by myself every morning." 

Vlad stared at her with wide innocent and clueless eyes. "My current job is to mentor you though? What else do I have to do?"

Vanora barely kept her brow from twitching in annoyance at his blatant ignorance. He must have some kind of demon lord's duties that he had been neglecting to be with her all the time. As much as she wanted to push him away and have some space to herself, she had to keep up the pretense of not knowing his true identity. "Is that so? Please bring me to the area then."

"Sure!" He nodded. "Just give me a moment. Finish your tea in the meantime!" He disappeared as soon as he was done speaking. She glanced at her cup. There was not much tea left. She gulped what was left of her tea and only needed to wait a short while before he appeared in the room again. Vanora got up and walked to his outstretched arm.

"Ready?" He asked with a brilliant smile as he circled his arm around her waist.

"As I'll ever be." 

Fog surrounded them and quickly covered the entire scene before her eyes.

BaoBao pouted a little at the liberties Vlad was taking with Vanora. [Even if he needed contact to teleport somewhere with you, he could hold onto your hands! Or your shoulders! Lecher...]

Vanora laughed a little in her mind at how BaoBao was acting like the pure maiden on her behalf. As for her, she really did not mind as long as it was not too intimate. She did not believe that there was anything about her that anyone would want to take advantage of.

BaoBao was biting on a handkerchief in grievance. [Vanora...]

When the fog lifted, the sight of bare trees crooked and bent in creepy ways first caught her attention. The land was otherwise barren and greatly uneven. The night sky above them was the same endless and starless one she saw from the room. Finding the scene familiar, she asked, "Is this the canyon just outside the room?" 

"How smart!" Vlad praised.

/Seems like the length of time it takes for the fog to clear is proportional to the distance traveled./

Vlad comfortably settled down on the branch of a tree not too far away from Vanora and watched her practice.

Vanora's hands blazed with her hellfire. She carefully imagined turning the dial of a stove down, but her flames immediately jumped to a weak dying one before getting snuffed out. This repeated a few more times. It felt like she was fighting against a strong current that could only be plugged or unplugged. /Wait a minute. Current... Plug and unplugged... On or off... Like a tap.../

She changed her mental image and pictured her body like a huge basin containing hellfire. She imagined herself releasing it either by drips, a trickle, a stream, or a gush. The flames acted in the same way as her mental image. Drips resulted in a flickering flame. A trickle resulted in a weak flame, and so on. Her control was still sort of jerky but it was no longer an all or none phenomenon. Her progress brought a smile to her face. She had not held much hope for herself. Putting off her practice for another time, she moved on to experiment with the maximum output she could manage.

She pictured emptying herself of her hellfire all at once and her body burst into flames. It raged and shone brilliantly but the strength of her flames was the same as her usual maximum output. /Maybe I need to fight to bring out the emotions I need to make it stronger./ Noting it as something to test at a later time, she moved on with training her fine control.

This came a lot more easily for her, especially now that she had the appropriate mental image. It was no different from circulating her spiritual energy around her body and concentrating it to certain body parts. In this way, she lit up different parts of her limbs and found that focusing the flames on a particular body part resulted in a longer range. /Interesting.../

She played around with her flames and tried to form various shapes with it. Eventually, she tried modelling a larger arm like an extension of her own. /I should test if it works.../ She scanned the area and her gaze landed on Vlad who looked like he was spacing out. An idea popped into her head and made her smirk a little. /BaoBao, you'd like to settle your grievances, don't you?/

[Yes please!] BaoBao giggled.

Vlad had been keeping a close eye on her aura. It remained a stable dim and faint colour. Her ability in keeping her emotions in check this well was amazing in its own way. /What happened to the rich intensity of her aura from when I first met her? If this is a permanent issue, it would greatly stunt her growth./

He began wondering about how he could help her let go and feel more of her emotions. All of a sudden, a big fire claw appeared in front of him and came down on him. Shock and alarm filled him and he instinctively vanished from where he was. He now stood at a higher branch, safely out of reach. The fire claw missed the branch and struck the trunk. However, it merely passed through the tree like a ghost with no substance and the tree instantly caught on fire. Although she retracted the flames almost immediately after that, the tree was already charred. Vlad quickly understood what just happened and an endearing smile stretched across his face like a parent who saw his child attempt something absolutely adorable. He settled back down on the original branch he was on with an arm casually propped up with his bent knee.

/It was very brief but I hope his fearful face was enough for you, BaoBao./

BaoBao giggled non-stop. [It's more than I could hope for from a demon lord! Besides, I can reproduce that image for myself now that I've seen it. Thank you Vanora!]

Vanora turned away from Vlad before he could see the soft smile gracing her lips. /As long as you're appeased. Now, it looks like manipulating shapes seems kind of pointless besides using it to entertain and scare./

By the end of her experimentations, Vanora also concluded that her hellfire could only part from her body if it had something else to fuel it. Now that she had gathered all the information she needed, she devised a routine for this world. It was largely similar to the one she led in the second world. "Let's go."

"Although you don't need to eat to survive, eating a little meat everyday should be good?" Vlad's smile was carefree but something about the way he spoke made it sound like there was no room for negotiation. Vanora thought back to how she had to fight so hard against her instincts when she first transmigrated and admitted that there was truth in his words. She may only notice her loss of sanity and control when it was too late.

"Alright." She relented. Besides, she had accomplished a lot more this day than she had expected.

After bringing her back to the room, Vlad instructed her to take a seat while he brought in her meal. Although he left by the door, BaoBao informed her that he disappeared right after he closed it. BaoBao kept Vanora up to date and informed her the moment Vlad reappeared with food in his hand. Vlad entered through the doorway with a bright smile, completely oblivious that his little secret trip away from the establishment had been exposed.