The trio woke up in the ruins the next day and were feeling sore as hell. Well, most of them.

Harold stretched his body out and flared his magic before nodding to himself. “Hey guys, I leveled up last night,” He cheerily announced. Exclamations and congratulations followed.

“You didn’t mention it?” Asked Oscar, wondering why. Harold ruffled his already messy bed hair. “Nah, last night was all yours, that was a victory to remember and it’s not like I got a new Skill that might matter during the night, I'm a level 2 [Chaos Druid], Order Classes beware!" He did his best imitation of a bear before snapping back. "If that's even a thing,”

“How did you do it?” prodded Kalle, wanting the full story.

“Well I’ve been using [Regenerating Form] to deal with my muscle aches at nights, and it doesn’t seem to be hindering their growth at all, the opposite really, since I start each day so fresh and can push all the harder.” Harold beamed at them. “And I’ve been trying out my Domain Skill as well, but it’s not very large yet and I can only manage a couple of minutes.”

As it turns out Harold had been spending the last of his magic each day to recover his form, pretty obvious in hindsight. It wasn't enough to completely restore him, since he wasn't actually hurt, just in a state of change. But when he did it again in the morning, after having recovered his nature essence during the night, it was enough to restore him fully. And oh yes, he'd been taking advantage.

Suddenly Harold’s obnoxiously, but still somewhat inspiring levels of energy at the start of each day got cast in a very different light and made a lot more sense.

Kalle forced out through gritted teeth. “That’s great Harold, keep at it.” Before the trio resumed walking.

Kalle had been doing something similar, cauterizing the worst of their homesickness and other negative emotions they had agreed upon, with his [Esper's Balm], but he was already a level 4 [Esperlock] and it had not been enough for a new level even though he could feel he was getting closer to the mid point to his capstone, nor was the environment constantly recharging him on the cheap.

When Harold went to speak again Kalle and Oscar both gave him the same rude gesture as planned, and studiously ignored him for the first leg of the day’s journey in the autumn sun.

Eventually they warmed up to all the aches and pains from yesterday’s uphill push, although they still felt drained to the bone. Harold tried offering to use his Spell on them too, but they weren't even sure it worked like that, and a cursory attempt provided zero results and they did not have the energy to keep trying.

Eventually they all felt like they were back on track to Dormata and the day turned out mostly like the many others they had enjoyed since leaving Brunner’s farm. They had been lucky enough to enjoy a breeze blowing directly in their faces during the worst of the day’s heat and a bird shitting on Harold was enough to break the last of the earlier tension.

They were in a different environment now, the trees looked much younger but the ground everywhere was uneven and looked almost like it had been rearranged multiple times. It was overgrown now, but throughout the day they came upon sights that left them perplexed, wondering what animal or natural phenomena might be causing such scenes.

In the afternoon Harold spotted a warrior wasp on its lonesome, and decided to try and catch it. Using his own companions they managed to corner it and his [Touch of Chaos] had its loyalties shifted to match the rest of his squad in seconds. Oscar looked tremendously jealous, despite having his issues with getting too close to the normally aggressive critters. It wasn't so much the wasps as the ability he thirsted for.

Kalle felt recovered enough to take a small detour again and on returning he had collected a whole range of strange mushrooms, one of which even seemed like it could be magic in nature. However, when Oscar pointed out they might well be toxic, even to touch, and that all three of them were clueless when it came to identifying such rare types, they quickly abandoned the idea of collecting more.

Harold was most disappointed by this turn of events. He felt like he was missing a whole portion of his Class. Finding a teacher was quickly becoming his highest priority.