Elemental Cats

Since Lucy seemed to have gone missing, Toz naturally wanted to go and find him. But he knew that Lucy was busy, and Toz stomping around, flipping stones, and rummaging through the ground was bound to put Lucy in more trouble rather than help him.

Toz didn't even know where to begin if he were to go looking for Lucy. The only clue he had was that Lucy had gone to investigate the people from the Redire Kingdom. He could easily find where they were staying. But he couldn't just go sniffing around every soldier, servant, or noble from that kingdom when there were so many of them.

Not to mention how doing that would easily tip them off about his and possibly Lucy's activities. If Toz recklessly went looking for Lucy just because he was worried, he could endanger both Lucy and everyone else. His actions might even force the conspirators to put their plan into action before Toz is ready to stop it.

Although he at least wanted to make sure Lucy was okay, Toz held himself back and focused on the grimoire. There probably wasn't much reason to worry anyways. Lucy was a master of stealth, and even if he did get caught by the ones he and Toz decided to call Blood Demons, he wouldn't go down without a fight. And if his opponents are demons or something similar, Lucy won't lose.

If there was anything Toz was confident about, it was Lucy's abilities. And that was even without knowing the full extent of what Lucy was capable of. He never did get a chance to explain what he did to that demonic buffalo leader he disposed of.

After they were interrupted during Lucy's storytelling, Toz and the cats kind of forgot about it. And then things happened, which led to Lucy also forgetting about continuing the rest of his story. Even if they asked him, he might have already put it behind himself and forgotten the details since they weren't that important.

With how Lucy worked, it was very likely that he wouldn't want to explain, even if Toz and the cats asked him. They hadn't listened when he told his story, and then they had quickly forgotten about it afterward, so it didn't matter that they wanted to hear it now. It was too late. It didn't matter that Lucy had also forgotten about it. The only thing that mattered was that Toz and the cats were selfish and only wanted to hear what Lucy had to say when they wanted to hear it, not when Lucy wanted to say it.

Toz could almost hear Lucy pouting as he imagined how he would act.

He had a hard time focusing on the grimoire and just let his mind wander. Toz realized that it was the first time he had been separated from Lucy for so long ever since he picked him up. It was likely good from a neutral point of view that they could build some independence. But he couldn't help but miss him, just like how he missed the other cats and rushed blindly through the battlefield to join them as soon as he could.

But Toz eventually snapped himself back into order. No matter how much he worried, it wouldn't bring Lucy any more into his hair or lap. He decided to force any stray thoughts out of his head by filling it with the contents of the spell instead.

After reaching the sixth refinement and then going wild with his lightning magic, Toz began understanding at least some of the spell. He wasn't at a level of understanding where he could begin to use it, partly because it was a lot risker to use it and fail when compared to most other spells.

When he learned Dissolution, the only thing that happened if Toz failed was that he would lose some mana, and his practice target would remain undamaged. But the lightning spell he got from Hassandra wasn't only a lot more difficult to learn. It also carried some risk in the learning process. Even after mastering it, the mage using it could still injure themselves quite severely if they didn't know what they were doing.

But all that risk and possibility of injury wasn't for nothing. If anything, it solidified Toz's opinion of how much potential the spell had. But he wouldn't try to use it before he was somewhat confident that he could control it. Until then, it would remain a strictly theoretical practice.

Hopefully, that would still be enough for Toz to learn the spell before things started happening. The general's plan and the conspiracy hiding itself behind the slave collars and the Redire Kingdom were both putting pressure on Toz, especially since he didn't know the timeframe for either of them.

It was understandable that he didn't know what the Blood Demons were scheming since they were obviously planning something nefarious that would undoubtedly spell trouble for the human realm.

But Toz found it a little unreasonable that the general only told him to wait for Merr's letter. What if he decided to take a stroll when that happened, and when he returned to his tent, it was already too late?

Toz knew that the general was worried about information leaking and someone interfering with the plan, whatever it may be. But he still wanted something to go on.

He didn't mind staying cooped up in the tent too much since he had the grimoire. But he had to share that with Scrael. And the other cats didn't have anything to do other than train and half-heartedly try to reach the eighth level. After they recovered from the fatigue of being on the battlefield for an extended period of time, they naturally wanted to go back out and fight and use their magic as much as possible so that they could hone their skills.

Toz didn't blame them. If he didn't have the grimoire, he would be the first one out the tent.

He liked excitement and exploring, and since there was neither excitement nor any possibilities of exploring inside the tent, he at least wanted to go for the excitement of the battlefield.