Now that they had exited the confines of River Landing Marcus, directed Blitz to head northeast towards the nearest forest. He wanted to find some monsters and magical beasts that he could let Lilia fight since after his experience with Maryam Valorre getting Lilia strong enough to protect herself was of the upmost importance.
With Blitz's speed it only took them a couple of hours to make it to the periphery of the nearest wooded area a journey that would have taken a least a day by foot for an average person.
Of course, had Blitz gone at full speed they could have arrived in just a dozen or so minutes, but Marcus did not want to shake Lilia up before starting her training.
Marcus then dismounted Blitz and helped Lilia down before saying, "Lilia, I am going to start to teach you how to fight and take care of yourself, we have two days until we need to go back so I can receive my title and I plan to get a lot accomplished before then."
Lilia could see the fire burning in Marcus' eyes and not wanting to disappoint him put on a resolute face and nodded her head.
"Okay the first and most important thing is to learn the skill magic circulation. Without this skill you cannot use your mana to cast spells or enhance your fighting abilities. Getting this skill is of the upmost importance and it is what we are going to work on first."
Marcus then pulled out a couple of mats from his item box and sat down cross legged. Lilia then took a seat next to him and Marcus began instructing Lilia on how to train her magic circulation.
"Now then try to relax, if you are stiff or try to force it the mana inside you will not flow properly. Inside everyone there is a certain amount of mana, it normally rests in someone's body like a stagnate lake, but what you are trying to do is make it flow like that lake has a bunch of streams that move throughout your body. Now try to look inside yourself and find your center and then try to get the mana to flow."
After giving Lilia these instructions, Marcus sat there and waited, hoping for some good results.
Of course, Marcus had no idea how effective this method was going to be since instead of training all he did was purchase the skill, and he was pretty much just reiterating the training method he found in the fire magic book he had gotten from Wade a long time ago.
The two of them sat there for hours as Lilia tried to find and then move her mana around, but soon the sun had set, and night had overtaken them.
"Okay Lilia that is enough, you should get some rest. Overexerting yourself will not yield favorable results so we can try again tomorrow."
Hearing this Lilia stopped concentrating and allowed herself to completely relax. She had actually managed to feel the mana within her and tried moving it but found the process to be excruciatingly difficult. However, what Lilia did not know was that even just feeling the mana within themselves would normally take a week for even a genius at her level and she had her massively boosted stats to thank for her ability to sense her mana quicker.
Seeing Lilia sprawled out on the mat Marcus cast his floating lantern spell to give them a bit of light and got to work.
He quickly set up the new tent he had bought which was far more luxurious than the last one, and that he had made sure to know how to set it up before leaving the store.
Once that was set up Marcus brought out the magic fridge he had bought and took out a number of ingredients and made some skewers for Lilia to eat.
When Lilia got a whiff of the delicious roasting meat and vegetables she quickly got up and went over to where Marcus was cooking.
Soon the food was done and the two of them enjoyed a quick meal before Marcus sent Lilia to bed.
'Now then while Lilia sleeps it is time for me to work on my own training, it has been too long since I have just sat down and worked on my skills.'
"Blitz I am going out for a bit, make sure to watch Lilia and keep her safe, and if something you cannot handle appears shot a bolt of lightning into the air and I will come running."
After giving Blitz his instructions Marcus headed deeper into the woods, and when he found a large rock, he began training his skills.
He started with darkness magic firing off multiply bullets of darkness and then seeing how many he could managed to create at one time.
It did not take long only a couple of hours before Marcus managed to level the skill up to level two.
Seeing the increase in the skill level Marcus started jumping around in joy since it had been awhile since he had just sat down and trained a skill instead of using skill points.
'Now then I will work on light magic and then fire magic, hopefully I can get both of them up to level two as well.'
Marcus then spent the rest of the night getting his fire and light magic skills to level two and practicing the new respective spells he had obtained.
'That was quite productive if I do say so myself, I honestly should have done this earlier, but oh well better late than never. Now I need to go and collect a few things for the training I have in mind for Lilia today, I just hope she can take it.'
As the first rays of light began to creep through the tent Lilia began to rouse awake, and with a big yawn she rubbed her face and opened her eyes.
She quickly noticed that Marcus was no longer in the tent with her, and she poked her head out to see where he was.
When she did what she saw gave her quite the fright. There were over a dozen monsters and magical beasts tied up by iron threads and Marcus was sitting there in the middle just reading a book.
Seeing this Lilia let out a quick scream before falling back into the tent.
'Looks like she is awake.'
Marcus then moved over to the tent and parted the door revealing Lilia who was flat on her back after having received quite the shook.
"Lilia, everything is fine, I have all of these monsters and magical beasts tied up tight so there is no need to worry. Get dressed quick because today you are going to learn how to fight."
After a few minutes Marcus watched Lilia come out of the tent wearing some of the new clothes they had just bought that were easy to move around in.
Seeing that Lilia was ready to begin Marcus said, "The first lesson you need to learn about fighting is, do not die. Even if you cannot win as long as you do not die you can always try again. Now Lilia have you ever fought a monster or beast before."
Lilia a bit embarrassed shook her head no and looked down at the ground.
"Hey, you do not need to feel down about it, fighting is not easy and if I could, I would make sure you never had to fight. Unfortunately, in this world the one who is right is the one with the bigger fist so if you do not want to be pushed around and trampled you need to be strong. Now put on your gauntlets and get ready because we are going to start."
Marcus then moved them both into a nearby clearing and using his iron threads dragged along a small goblin.
When he was certain Lilia was ready, he released the goblin from its bindings and said, "Your first goal is to beat this goblin before it beats you, now do not worry if things start too get hairy, I will intervene but do your best."
The now free goblin looked around hoping to make a break for it but when it saw Marcus standing there looking at it its instincts told it fleeing was futile.
It then looked towards the little girl that was in front of it and charged towards her hoping to kill her and then make its way past her.
Of course, Marcus had chosen this goblin first since it was only level one and he figured Lilia would have no trouble at all defeating it.
However, Lilia was a peaceful and gentle person by nature and when the goblin came running towards her, she froze up and the goblin tackled her to the ground.
The goblin then used the only weapon it had left and bit its sharp teeth into Lilia's thigh.
Luckily Lilia's high stats relative to her level made it so the goblin's teeth did not cause too much damage. Though it did break her skin and caused a trickle of blood to come out, and the pain caused her to reflexively punch forward.
When her gauntlet clad fist hit the goblin's head her strength stat that was closer to a level ten than her level three, caused the goblin to go flying as its head cracked open and it soon died.
Lilia sat there crying for a few moments before Marcus walked up and used his tier one healing spell to close her wounds.
Marcus then picked Lilia up and said, "I understand it is hard to kill, it took me a bit of time to get used to it myself, but it will often be you or them so next time do not hesitate."
After a bit of comfort and encouragement Marcus continued to train Lilia on how to fight monsters and magical beasts so that she would be strong enough to protect herself in the future.