The night ended with Nadia and Aoife begrudgingly accepting that Leah was sick, though they were still not satisfied with the answer.
Rowan was sitting on the couch next to the door. He had volunteered to take the first watch and was listening to the soft patter of rain on the ceiling. The house was well insulated, though Rowan still had a blanket wrapped around him.
Nadia and Aoife were in one of the adjacent rooms, while Ben was in a room of his own. Rowan stared at the door through which Leah was behind, and hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to get her the rest of the way home.
They had wasted most of the first day, so it was still likely another two days' travel before they made it to Cork. He fiddled with Nadia's spear as he wondered if they would need to find a cart or sled, something to make it easier to travel over the roads.
Rowan figured that in the worst case, they could make a simple one using a mattress and some cardboard, but he'd rather have one with wheels.
As he turned the spear over and over in his hands, he decided to test how his ability actually worked, and lowered the blade to his palm. He was frozen for a few seconds, the instinctual fear holding him back from cutting himself, but he brought the blade down and across, a bright red seam appearing behind it.
It was a strange feeling, the wound was closing almost as soon as it appeared, and the pain faded quickly as well, but he felt a sapping of his strength as the essence was consumed by his ability.
Bringing the system screen back up, he noticed that he had gained a 2% mastery in his ability, rather than the 0% before.
'It must go up the more I use it, but I wonder why it didn't go up when it healed me the first time. It's likely because I was unconscious, or just out of the Hell.'
Rowan spent the rest of the watch forming small cuts on himself throughout the night, watching as they healed before his eyes. It was very reassuring after his grievous injury in the Hell, to know that with this ability he would be able to recover from any and all injury.
Of course, it took time to heal however, so he still had to practice his swordsmanship and train his body to be strong enough to prevent being overwhelmed while injured.
As his essence ran dry, he got up from the couch and began stretching, warming up his cold muscles. He performed push-ups, squats and jabs with the spear as quietly as he could, so as not to wake the others with the noise.
To his surprise, he started growing lethargic before he grew sore. Usually, when he was exercising, there would be pain in his muscles from the exertion, but now they only felt tired. Panting softly, he sat back down on the couch as he realised it was his regeneration kicking in.
'It seems like my regeneration is enhancing my recovery? I think Aoife mentioned that exercising is just straining the muscles so that they build stronger, so my regeneration must be healing the strain.'
A brief shadow of doubt washed over Rowan as he wondered if it would impact his training. Was his regeneration going to be building it back the same way his body would, or return it to the way it was?
The first would be a significant boon to his training, as it would mean he could go without a rest day, and with enough essence, train non-stop, for as long as his stamina allowed him.
The second option would make training near impossible, as his essence would need to be fully drained for prolonged periods in order for his body to recover on its own. That would mean either training while injured, or waiting until he had a second ability to use essence on.
He had no choice but to hope it was the first, and continue training as he had been.
Already tired enough and essence completely empty, he waited out the rest of the shift without any more activities, simply listening to the rain and keeping an eye on any approaching beasts or Hells.
Occasionally, he would hear sounds coming from outside, claws scraping against rock, wings flapping in the sky, or distant snarls, but nothing seemed keen on approaching their temporary base, thankfully.
Referring to the clock on the wall, Rowan saw that he still had another hour left in his shift, and sighed as he threw his head back. Watching the time tick by was not making it go by any faster, in fact, it was definitely the opposite.
Foot tapping on the ground, he looked around the room for the eighty-ninth time, familiarising himself with the area.
'Kitchen with nothing in it, lounge with three couches, four bedrooms, basement...'
He groaned as he kept repeating the same process, almost, almost hoping that a beast would attack to give him something to do. Instead, nothing happened, and Rowan ended up passing the shift to Nadia with a few brief words of encouragement.
He went to the bedroom next to Aoife and Nadia, and stripped off his armour before lying down. Staring at the white ceiling, he was astounded at how comfortable the bed was. It could have been the time since he had last slept comfortably, but Rowan could have sworn it was the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in.
Within a few minutes, he was asleep, exhausted from the training session which had required much more stamina than he was previously accustomed to. The night passed by uneventfully, and as he woke to the sounds of people moving around the house, he donned the leather gear once more.
Stepping outside, Nadia and Aoife were eating some fruits on the couch, while he saw Ben going into Leah's room, already padded up. He had an odd look in his eyes as he shifted nervously, causing Rowan's stomach to drop as he reevaluated the boy.