With little to no leeway in pushing for Estoria to leave with someone to protect her in case of emergency, the twins and Edmond saw her out of the house.
"Stay safe, Mommy. I don't know what I'd do if you ended up in trouble," Tino hugged her goodbye.
"When you meet up with the other witches, try to do things quickly and quietly. We just need any information on everything summons," Angie reiterated the mission's purpose.
Estoria smiled warmly as she felt the concern her children had for her, "Don't worry, my loves. I know a thing or two about keeping it discreet. Just focus on bettering yourselves and I'll be back before you notice."
"I'll see to it that they do in your absence," Edmond laid his hands on the twins' shoulders, "If you do manage to find yourself in any trouble, I'll know. Wherever you are, I'll be there in a heartbeat, so just focus on finding your fellow witches."
"Thank you," was all she said before shutting the door behind her.
Edmond's grip tightened on the twins' shoulders as she left, but they paid the action no mind.
They were too focused on trying to hope for the best.
"Let's get back to work! No point in dwelling on things outside of our control, right?"
Tino looked at Angie who met his look with the same anxious eyes.
"Alright!"
"Okay!"
The three spent their time summoning more slimes and trying their best to gather as much information on what they were capable of and any special traits they had.
There was not much they found out in the beginning, but the more they tried and the more slimes that Tino absorbed, the better they understood their peculiarities.
It first happened after absorbing a substantial number of slimes.
Whenever Tino would cut himself to replenish the blood for the circles, his flesh bent and resisted the sharp edge of the knife albeit briefly before eventually being cut.
"There's a physical change in your body. Now we just need to know whether there are other deeper changes to yourself," Edmond figured that since the physical changes arrived, he must have also gained hidden features.
"Hmm. Slimes are kind of like demons in that they consume endlessly, aren't they? What if it's something related to consumption," Angie proposed.
"Now that you mentioned it, I haven't exactly felt the hunger I did after absorbing the demonic essence. It's like the hunger changed somehow."
'Oh? Could something as simple as a slime suppress the hunger of a demon,' Edmond himself still felt the hunger just that it was much more manageable.
"Let's have dinner then."
The trio moved to the kitchen where all of the food was stored.
Since Estoria had splurged on food for about a month, most of the food was either stored in a chest freezer full of ice or well preserved.
"What should we eat," Angie asked, "I can prepare us something simple."
"Simple sounds good to me," Tino said while rubbing his stomach.
They had ample amounts of rice, so Angie started there.
Then, she chose a meat to go with it along with some vegetables stored in the freezer.
While waiting for her to finish dinner, Tino played around with the knife seeing how much pressure it took to finally draw blood.
After being reinforced by the demonic essence, his skin had grown a bit tougher, but the benefits the slime essence gave made it so that the knife had to be more penetrative than sharp-edged.
Edmond stood in place while he communicated with Ego, 'How far out are the rest of the crew?'
'A few more days at this point. The use of the flame chart helped them dictate the path towards this planet and the spirit energy fuel makes the ship one of the fastest out there.'
'Alright. That's good.'
'Oh no! Somethings happening with Estoria!'
Suddenly, Ego warned Edmond of a meeting gone wrong with Estoria and the other witches.
Apparently, all was well with her happenings as she found her fellow witches after reaching a lesser-known bar with a person that gave instructions on the whereabouts of witch-run businesses.
After leaving the bar, Estoria made her way to an animal shelter that allegedly had a veterinarian witch who prioritized her studies on all things creature related.
Because Ego was not prioritizing their attention on what was going on around her, they failed to notice a person tailing her from each location.
It seemed that after her large purchase of food and necessities, a close eye was kept on her.
Unaware of this, Estoria successfully found the vet clinic and once she was there asked for the witch who she knew by description.
The stalker found this strange as she had no reason to be at the vet clinic and so he called together a devout group of witch hunters and waited for her to be alone.
It seemed that everything was going well, but in secret, a horrible threat was waiting for her and her new witch friend.
The moment they stepped out to talk, the same stalker followed them until they reached a hidden building.
Inside were normal people gathered which they walked past and disregarded until they were met with a heavily secured door.
The veterinarian witch easily undid the locking mechanisms and allowed for them to easily enter the hidden room.
There were many items of witchcraft, bookshelves filled along the walls, and other witches enjoying the company of each other.
"This is amazing! If only my kids could see this," Estoria's eyes brightened.
"This is only one of our secret hideouts. We've got many like this among the communities from here to more secluded areas."
The other witch sat with Estoria and talked about the summons and higher beings surrounding them.
The conversation was fruitful and she was even recommended some books to take home.
When she was ready to leave, Estoria thanked the veterinarian witch and told her she would come back soon, next time with her children.
Then, all hell broke loose as the witch hunters stormed the building.
They carried weapons with them and torches that burned the flammable materials of the building.
"They went through here! These damned witches are hiding behind that door!"
The stalker led the group through the burning building to the heavily locked door.
Since they had no idea how to open it, they opted to breaking it down.
"Oh no! They've found us!"
After hearing the screaming of the normal folk, the witches were alarmed to hear banging on the door.
"Hurry! There's a secret exit through here," Estoria's new friend led her to an unseeming corner of the room where a hatch was.
The rest of the witches hurriedly grabbed what they could and made their way through the hatch while the witch hunters were busy breaking down the door.
Once outside, they thought they were relatively out of the woods, but unfortunately for them there were a few of the witch hunters left outside on watch.
"Look there! Witches!"
"After them!"
"Kill them if they fight back!"
'I hope you stay true to your word, Edmond,' Estoria was slowly panicking as the danger loomed over her and her fellow witches.