22 Flaw

After a sufficient amount of time pasted, the duo separated and sat down. Going through so much emotional stress in such a small amount of time had taken a toll on the two, and they needed time to recover.

Beatrice's recovery was relatively slow because the wounds and guilt from losing her husband were still fresh in her mind. His screams and his face when he had been brutally eaten alive were still fresh in her memory and as such, would take time to heal.

Marcus on the other hand, recovered slightly more quickly. It had been three years now since his untimely separation from his family. Of course he still thought of them from time to time, but with his thoughts and emotions of them being so conflicted right now, he tried to not think about it much.

They'd sat there for about two hours before Beatrice finally broke the silence.

"The prukade will die soon," she said as she eyed the outside of the shop cautiously.

Marcus, who had his head down, looked up to Beatrice, and he then shifted his gaze to the flowers. The orbs of mana floating around them had lessened in number and dimmed considerably. This was a very bad sign.

The only reason they could sit here so leisurely was because the prukade hid them from the eyes of the swamp creeper. Without them, they'd be once again revealed to the monster who most certainly hadn't given up on its prey.

Marcus was also well aware now that there were other creepers outside the town below the swamp. This effectively funneled them into either going towards the east or west gate. He could only hope this was a coincidence and not a trap created by those monstrosities.

Once again, as if to remind him of his condition, his stomach started growling. It seemed it wasn't satisfied with measly flowers as a meal and needed something with more substanance.

Marcus had been suppressing his stomach's growls for awhile now as to not worry Beatrice, but it didn't seem like he'd be able to keep up his act any longer.

Thus, Beatrice finally took notice. It was hard for her not to hear it either when the only sounds that could be heard right now were the creature's occasional footsteps, to remind them it had not left yet, and the sounds of the two breathing.

"Beatrice, um.. can I have some more water?" Marcus said weakly in hopes she wouldn't take notice to his hunger pains.

"Marcus," Beatrice said as she let out a tired sigh. "We need to get you something to eat. My water can prevent us from dying of thirst, but it can only do so much for that hunger of yours."

As she said this, she spoke an incantation that conjured up water to float directly into Marcus's mouth, and he readily accepted it in hopes it would delay his stomach from feeling like it was eating itself again.

"I'll be fine. We just need to figure out a way to get away from that thing and we can worry about food then."

Deciding to help his pupil out a bit, his master gave him a bit of advice.

"That creature may be too powerful for either of you to handle right now but it does have a fatal flaw. A flaw of which, is actually the reason why it can't progress past F-rank."

Marcus was curious about how the ranks of people and monster's worked but decided it wasn't the time for such questions. He could always inquire about it at a later date once he made it out of this.

Beatrice went back to focusing on the prukades and the sound of the creeper's footsteps as she gazed outside. Because of this, she wasn't able to pick up on Marcus's whispers as he spoke to his master to possibly find a way out of this.

"What flaw are you talking about?" Marcus inquired.

His master once again scoffed at Marcus's inability to use context clues and think for himself. His father may have provided him with basic survival and fitness training but Marcus lacked the ability to think for himself at times. However, his master was going to make sure to fix this flaw of his.

"The answer is obvious. You just need to use that thing between you ears and you'll figure it out."

Marcus was too tired to argue with his master so he instead focused his energy on recalling what he knew about the swamp creepers so far.

He knew that Beatrice was an advanced water mage but was unable to do anything to the creature based off of what his master had mentioned earlier. He also knew that according to Beatrice, the monster could not see them inside the shop as long as they were surrounded by the prukade.

These were all useful pieces of knowledge, but they couldn't help him figure out a way to escape. Beatrice may have been more powerful than him due to being an advanced water mage instead of a novice, but whatever mage arts she possessed were ineffective against the creeper, and Marcus still had none to speak of yet.

Knowing that the prukade helped hide them was also helpful, but soon they'd have to leave and it was unlikely they'd run into another batch of them to hide near again.

His master said to use context clues, so this meant he already had the information to solve this problem but he couldn't readily recall receiving such valuable information.

'Think. What else do I know about them that was mentioned already.'

Marcus started to recall a previous conversation Beatrice spoke about in regards to when she and the other slaves and slavers crossed the bridge. She'd mentioned that slaves fell into the swamp and never floated back to the top.

Marcus had already assumed they'd been killed by the numerous creepers below the water but this wasn't what was important.

'Why hadn't they just killed them while they crossed the bridge.'

Marcus hadn't seen the bridge for himself, but judging from what Beatrice said about it, he'd hardly claim it to be safe and secure. The people crossing should have been easy pickings for the hungry abominations lurking below the water. The question was, why had they only waited to act when one fell into the water versus killing them while they crossed the bridge?

Marcus decided to ask Beatrice a question in hopes of solving this riddle.

"Beatrice, when you all crossed the bridge with the slavers, what time of day was it?"

Beatrice, who had still been focused on keeping watch didn't think much of the question and answered while still looking towards the slowly dying prukade.

"It was mid-day and the sun still hung low in the sky as we walked across."

Marcus's face scrunched up in thought and it seemed he'd figured something out in regards to the monsters' flaw.

His master hadn't said anything since ridiculing him but if one could view his master's face right now they'd catch a faint smirk appearing over the mysterious being's face.

Right then, the final wisps of mana from the prukade vanished and Beatrice stood up. Time was up and they had to move.