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(continued)

"…" Teresa's breathing quickens, pausing her meal as she leans closer to the snake skin.

"Y-you did this?" She cannot help but ask to confirm her suspicion.

"Uhn… Kkkkk." Rellandus nods as he points at himself and does a chopping motion in the air.

"Wow…" Teresa can only whisper as she looks at Rellandus in awe.

She suspected that Rellandus is powerful, but not this powerful.

Soon, possibilities start rotating in her head.

She becomes skeptical that Rellandus killed the beast alone and must have killed the people he hunted the beast with, making him be the sole possessor of the snake skin.

She also figures that if Rellandus is capable of murder, he might also be capable of forcing himself to her, sexually.

Her apprehension returns, but does not show it.

Instead, she simply continues on her meal while as she resumes the naming game with Rellandus, hoping to distract Rellandus from any unsavory ideas.

.

Done with her meal, "Ahhh…" Teresa slumps down on her chair in satisfaction.

She forgot the last time she felt this stuffed. Not even in her settlement where there is a fairly steady supply of food, did she indulge herself in gluttony.

"Good?" Rellandus asks.

"Yes." Teresa nods.

"Thank you." She adds.

She thought she has to explain what her words meant, but she sees Rellandus simply nod in 'welcome'.

She figures her non-verbal cues was enough to express what she is feeling.

An uncomfortable silence however soon follows.

She does not know how else to proceed her interactions with the stranger so she can only stand up, gather the dining utensils, and place them on the sink.

After doing so, she sneaks a glance at Rellandus over her shoulder and sees the man pulling out objects from his leather bag.

Seeing the man busy himself with something seemingly mundane, she rejoins him to watch what he is about to do.

Rellandus, with his ivory knife, starts cutting shapes out of the snake leather.

Teresa meanwhile, silently appreciates the hypnotic process of whatever Rellandus is doing.

A few minutes pass and she finally has an idea of what Rellandus is making; a leather coat.

She is amazed at how easily Rellandus is working such tough materials with his bare hands. She tried to help Rellandus, but she was barely any help. She tried as hard as she could, but she exhausted herself making just two stitch holes in the leather using Rellandus's needle made out of the snake's fang.

Rellandus on the other hand, could work the material as if the leather is paper.

This tells her that Rellandus has incredible physical strength, and might actually have the strength to hunt the beast alone and that he was honest with her.

A few more minutes later, there is now a new, crisp leather coat spread out on the table. One that is very similar to the one that Rellandus is wearing.

She notices however that the coat is too small for Rellandus to wear.

The next moment, she finds out why the coat is that small.

"Yours." Rellandus says as he slides the new coat to Teresa.

"Mine?" Teresa asks in bewilderment. Despite the hesitance in her voice, she cannot wait to put on the coat made out of the skin of the beast she had long feared.

"Yes." Rellandus nods.

"Me. Give you food, water. You. Give me Anglorian." He asks.

After a few seconds of processing Rellandus's words, Teresa understands that Rellandus wants her to teach him the Anglorian language in exchange for food and water.

"Yes. Good." Teresa quickly accepts the arrangement.

Being too weak to forage, she does not know what else to do to get food.

.

The evening soon arrives and, "My… Not only are you strong, you seem to be a genius too." Teresa sighs in wonder as she stretches her stiff body on her chair.

She has long dropped her apprehensions of Rellandus. After all, for fourteen long hours, Rellandus was very focused on learning Anglorian and she did not see any signs of evil intent from the man.

At first, she did not know where to start teaching, but Rellandus took the lead.

Instead of her thinking of what words or things to teach, it was Rellandus who was incessantly asking for new words either by pointing at objects, or by miming actions.

Rellandus's ability to absorb her teachings also astounded her.

As soon as she noticed Rellandus's learning speed, she started measuring it which led her to find that they have been covering an average of four to five words per minute.

Therefore, by noon, the two already ran out of things to name, and Rellandus can already speak to her comfortably, barring the shaky grammar.

After having her lunch and a short nap, Teresa proceeded to teach Rellandus the Anglorian alphabet which Rellandus was able to learn in under half-an hour to a reading level.

With the newly learned ability to read the language, Rellandus grabbed every written material he can find in Teresa's living area which starts new rounds of incessant inquiry for vocabulary by Rellandus and a non-stop recitation and explanation by Teresa.

While teaching, more things crossed Teresa's mind.

She immediately realized that a powerful person with genius-level intellect like Rellandus is not the type to stay in a place like this tower and possibly has a home to return to, and a community to provide for.

With Rellandus's learning speed, she figures that it will not take long before she outlasts her use to the man, and therefore will be left by him soon. This realization made her start planning how to convince the man to take her with him to his camp, or at least make him stay with her for as long as possible.

Unfortunately for her, Rellandus's strong desire to learn stopped her from planning.

"What is a genius?" Rellandus asks.

"An incredibly smart person." Teresa explains before shaking her head.

"Ah. Genius." Rellandus nods, not new to the compliment.

"Shall we call it a day? I'm exhau- tired." Teresa asks as she rubs her face with her palms.

She can feel a huge headache coming. This is after all, the firs time she has strained his brain like this.

"Call it a day? I don't understand." Rellandus asks.

"Oh. I mean, let's stop for today." Teresa rephrases.

"Oh." Rellandus nods.

"Do you want dinner?" He asks.

"No. I need sleep." Teresa refuses the offer.

She is still full from the berries and fruits that Rellandus gathered, which she has been snacking on during the lessons.

"Okay. Let's continue tomorrow." Rellandus nods but eyes the novels that they have not yet gone through.

"Hoh." Teresa scoffs in envy, seeing Rellandus not looking any less tired than when she first laid her eyes on him this morning.

Rellandus drops his hunger for knowledge for now and stands up.

"I will bring your breakfast tomorrow." He tells Teresa.

"You're not staying the night?" She asks.

"No." Rellandus answers plainly.

"Going home?" Teresa asks cautiously.

"No." Rellandus shrugs, not explaining.

"Then where are you going to sleep?" Teresa asks.

"Make hole in a tree, sleep there." Rellandus shrugs.

"No. I can't let you do that. You can sleep here. There's plenty of room." Teresa insists.

"No. It's too smelly here." Rellandus smirks.

"Y-you…" Teresa realizes that she indeed has not showered in an embarrassingly long time.

"Is it that bad?" She asks, tempted to sniff herself.

"No. But, my nose is very strong." Rellandus shrugs.

"Strong? No. Sensitive is a better word." Teresa corrects him.

"Sensitive… I have A sensitive nose." Rellandus corrects himself immediately.

"Ah. May I leave my things here?" He then asks.

"O-of course." Teresa can only relent.

She does not dare stop someone as powerful as Rellandus.

Even if she can, she has the decency and self-consciousness to prevent herself from forcing someone to endure her stink.

Rellandus meanwhile, could have chosen to stay, but decided not to.

He figures he has to leave Teresa on her own thoughts and process her grief of the people she just lost.

Besides, he does not feel sleepy at all.

"Oh. Before I go…" Rellandus walks to the kitchen counter and "Container for water, right?" points at an empty plastic tank secured above the sink.

"Yes. Obviously." Teresa finds the question odd.

"Oh." Rellandus nods.

"Hm?" Teresa frowns seeing Rellandus opening the faucet and putting his palm under it.

Her eyes widen the next moment however. A small but strong stream of water appears on Rellandus's palm and enters the faucet.

Her surprise furthers when she sees that the plastic water tank starts getting filled very quickly.

A few seconds later, the water tank is full, and she looks at Rellandus in amazement.

The water tank contains eight water jug's worth of water after all; enough water to liberally consume for six weeks.

And Rellandus filled it in only a few seconds.

"Shower water." Rellandus turns to face Teresa.

"wha…" Teresa is almost speechless.

"Can I drink it instead?" She can only utter.

"Sure. It is cleaner than boiled water." Rellandus informs.

"And you want me to use it to shower?" Teresa's heart aches at the idea.

"Hmm…" Rellandus then turns to the sink, opens the faucet, and does the same with what he did with the drinking water tank.

Teresa can only watch with her mouth open in shock.

Soon afterwards, "That's shower water then." Rellandus is done filling the tap water reserve.

"Y-you… Are you okay?" Teresa asks in worry.

"Yes? Why would not I be?" Rellandus asks in confusion.

He does not understand Teresa's reaction to a basic water conjuration. Something that even mortal cultivators can do.

"W-well…" Teresa struggles to explain.

Rellandus meanwhile, understands as soon as he brushes his divine sense upon Teresa's surface thoughts.

It was not because water conjuration is unheard of in this mortal domain, but because he made it look effortless.

From Teresa's thoughts, he sees her compare to another human, who also has the ability to manipulate water. That woman could fill up a cylindrical water container, but after doing so, would display signs of exhaustion.

'Hunter powers.', another interesting thing Rellandus learned about the humans of this mortal domain.

Unlike cultivators who can conjure and manipulate many natural elements and has many mystical abilities, the people in this world who have 'Hunter Powers' like Teresa and Shaun, have a very limited range of abilities, and are often very specialized.

He will have to investigate the phenomenon later on.