Chapter 51
Two more days slipped past in the blink of an eye.
That morning, in the courtyard where Elise lived, a spring breeze stirred the red-tinged leaves. Tymis's adorable little form flickered in and out among the branches.
Then a beam of light dropped onto it.
"Mew..."
Tymis let out a sweet cry, stretched out a paw, and curiously prodded the shield of light wrapped around its body.
[Lightshield Skill Experience +411.]
Elise received the system prompt first.
Then, watching Tymis's reaction, she couldn't resist casting another spell at it.
[Holy Light Bolt Skill Experience +634.]
The bolt of light-attribute mana streaked toward Tymis, whose fur bristled instantly. The little creature shot straight at Elise, leaving her no time to check the new system prompt.
"Hehe... How many times have we done this now? You're still scared?"
Elise laughed.
Over the past few days, she had discovered an excellent target for spell practice.
Her contracted beast, Tymis.
The little creature was beloved by the God of Space. Dodging spells was practically instinct for it, which meant plenty of harmless spells could be safely tested on it.
Spells like [Lightshield] and [Holy Light Bolt] were especially well suited to this kind of practice.
But Tymis had one weakness.
It was timid.
When Elise wrapped [Lightshield] around it, only today had it finally worked up the courage to reach out and touch the shield with its paw. Before that, it had always slipped into the void and fled.
As for [Holy Light Bolt], Tymis treated it as a mortal threat. The moment it sensed the spell, it would tunnel through the void, pounce on Elise, and act cute until she handed over spirit energy as compensation.
At times like this, Elise would feed it a cluster of spirit energy, then open her system interface.
---
[Status]
[Name: Elise]
[Spirit: 13.16] (Second-tier)
[Mana: 51.58] (Second-tier)
[Constitution: 1.86] (Second-tier)
Skills:
[Meditation LV3: 6,030/10,000]
[Potioncraft LV4: 14,620/100,000]
[Appraisal (LV3: 9,106/10,000]
[Holy Light (LV5: 12,093/1,000,000]
[Holy Light Bolt (LV5: 10,027/1,000,000]
---
Her three main attributes had barely budged over the past few days, mostly because she had overdrawn her spirit energy killing Anarias. The damage had only fully healed last night.
Her skill progress had suffered too. Only [Meditation] and [Potioncraft] had climbed at anything like a normal pace. The skill closest to leveling up now was [Appraisal].
"Level 4 [Appraisal] should be decent, but the good things I identify still cost Merits to exchange."
"The Breathing Technique, though..."
Elise's thoughts drifted back to it again.
Breathing Techniques for caster-type Awakened were completely different from those used by martial transcendent classes.
Martial Awakened had to condition their bodies from childhood, learn to sense the life energy within themselves, then refine it through Breathing Techniques while merging spirit energy into their flesh.
Caster-type Awakened took another path entirely.
They usually waited until Second-tier before starting First-tier Breathing Technique training, skipping the basic body-conditioning stage altogether.
Physical professionals could accept being exceptional in one narrow area, then using that strength to drag the rest of their constitution up after it.
Casters didn't think that way.
Breathing Techniques like [Bloodbone Breathing], [Razorclaw Bear Breathing], and [Sacred Wolf Breathing] were beneath them.
If they were going to train, they wanted something comprehensive.
Fast.
Strong.
Enduring.
No suitable Breathing Technique existed?
Then they'd create one.
After all, the spirit energy of a Second-tier caster carried its own unique frequency. Any Breathing Technique trained with that spirit energy had to match the frequency exactly.
So when caster-type Awakened trained lower-rank Breathing Techniques, what they were really doing was building a personalized method through gradual trial and error.
And that took many, many attempts.
Elise was close to success.
She rubbed Tymis's head, gave its fleshy little wings a playful tug, then stood and left her residence.
Outside, Elise glanced up at the twin suns, gauged the time, and set off toward Archbishop Norias's mage tower.
Along the way, First-tier Awakened of the Church of Light bowed to her one after another.
She returned a greeting here and there, but mostly answered with a smile.
After admiring the progress of the Church district's expansion, she arrived at the foot of the mage tower.
Compared with a proper mage tower, Archbishop Norias was working under limited conditions in Crimsonwood. For now, all he could do was dismantle his tower in Oakhaven Province piece by piece and slowly rebuild it here.
The tower currently stood nearly fifty feet tall. Its structure was brick and stone, with magic arrays inlaid across the exterior in mithril and aurumite. The most striking feature was the spire, which gave off clearly perceptible ripples of mana.
The tower had five floors.
For the time being, the second floor had been given over to Honorius, Norias's student, and for the past few days Elise had been studying Second-tier progression under Bishop Honorius.
At the tower's entrance, Elise fed a thread of mana into the door, and the heavy gate swung open on its own.
Inside, several servants bustled about the first floor.
She nodded to them, then climbed the stairs.
On the second floor, Elise made her way to a laboratory.
Knock, knock, knock.
She rapped on the door, and it opened by itself.
The centerpiece of the room was an alchemy workbench, where Honorius was busy processing materials.
Elise stood quietly and waited.
A short while later, Honorius finished his work.
Elegant as always, he turned, his eyes settling on Elise.
"Beautiful Elise, how glad I am to see you again," Honorius said with a smile.
"Bishop Honorius, I'm still not used to these noble greetings of yours," Elise said, smiling as she teased him.
Honorius laughed.
He came from House Frace, an earl's family, and had received a noble's education since childhood. Even after joining the Church, many of those habits had stayed with him.
But the man's bearing was genuinely impeccable. He was handsome and powerful, and in Oakhaven Province he would have counted as a dream match for many.
Across the entire province, Elise was one of the very few who treated Honorius like an ordinary Bishop.
With the system behind her, Elise was certain that reaching Legendary rank wouldn't be difficult. With that being the case, she naturally had no intention of settling for a Third-tier Awakened.
To Honorius, Elise was more like the girl next door.
And he had rarely met a young woman of about twenty who carried herself the way Elise did.
He liked her personality.
And her kindness.
Yes.
Honorius thought Elise was too kind.
She was a Second-tier High Cleric, yet deep down she held no rigid sense of class toward ordinary people. In Aurelia, that was a rare kindness indeed.
Yet that very kindness fascinated people, because through it, they could see Elise's ease and confidence.
Because she was at ease, she didn't mind when ordinary people accidentally gave some small offense.
Because she was confident, some part of her simply felt there was no real difference between Awakened and ordinary people.
That was one reason her relationship with the elves had improved lately.
Gwenaeris and the others approved of how Elise treated her companions.
Thinking of that, Honorius asked curiously, "Elise, did your potion brewing succeed?"
Elise's relationship with the elves had warmed, and the elves were responsible for assisting with potion preparation in Crimsonwood.
Because of that, she not only held a position in the potion department but could also enter the elves' quarters whenever she needed.
Naturally, the elves had helped her brew a potion tailored to her personal Breathing Technique.
Honorius envied her that—but he didn't believe Elise could succeed so quickly.
After all, this was a caster-type Awakened creating her first unique Breathing Technique at Second-tier.
Even if Elise was a genius...
Even if the Church of Light could supply unlimited relevant knowledge...
Surely she would still need more than a month to succeed.
If she did, she might have a chance to advance from ordinary High Cleric to Senior High Cleric within a single year.