Chapter 54
A month passed.
By the final stretch of the Month of Life—late February by Earth's reckoning—daytime temperatures in the Kingdom of Hesse, at the southern edge of the Blythean Empire, hovered around ninety-one degrees.
Inside the Pyreflame Woods, the heat climbed higher still. Near Aurelia's equator lay the Redfire Belt, a region where temperatures could soar past two hundred degrees, and Crimsonwood was the closest human city to that burning frontier.
So even in late February, the city endured brutal heat and the forest's damp, smothering breath.
When ordinary people began to buckle under it, the Awakened knew it was time to move.
The Church of Light decided to press ahead with the first wave of town construction around Crimsonwood—then expand toward the river, draw in water, install large-scale magical arrays, and improve living conditions for the common folk.
The Awakened who had come chasing noble titles lit up the moment the Church marked out the sites for the new settlements.
Take a commission to develop and defend one of those towns, see it through, and a barony was likely waiting at the end of it.
While most of the Awakened were busy choosing their targets, a small crowd had gathered in the courtyard of Elise's residence.
Lofnar the dwarf had come to deliver mana crystals. His clan was working with the Church in Crimsonwood, forging alchemical equipment and overseeing mineral operations, which made him the obvious man to ask whenever Elise needed crystals.
Glenrius the elf had brought potions and letters. Most of Elise's correspondence with Lady Gwenaeris passed through his hands.
Chalmers, Harkian, Lia, Lina, and several others were there as well.
All of them were on good terms with Elise. Over the past month, whenever they had a free afternoon, they would stop by her residence to talk.
But the real reason was simpler.
They wanted to witness Elise's absurd rate of progress with their own eyes.
Inside the meditation chamber, Elise sat with her eyes closed.
The mana rippling around her was far denser than it had been a month ago. There was a new weight to her presence—a quiet pressure that came only from real power.
A short while later, two system messages appeared.
[Meditation Skill EXP +103.]
[Breathing Technique Skill EXP +33.]
Elise opened her eyes and pulled up her status.
---
[Status]
[Name: Elise]
[Spirit: 39.08] (Second-tier)
[Mana: 210.35] (Second-tier)
[Constitution: 8.60] (Second-tier)
Skills:
[Light Theology] (Lv. 4: 12,732/100,000)
[Yassian Language] (Lv. 3: 5,978/10,000)
[Meditation] (Lv. 4: 5,641/100,000)
[Breathing Technique] (Lv. 3: 3,187/10,000)
[Potioncraft] (Lv. 4: 19,386/100,000)
[Runecraft] (Lv. 4: 3,373/100,000)
[Appraisal] (Lv. 4: 1,754/100,000)
[Holy Light] (Lv. 5: 17,804/1,000,000)
[Holy Light Arrow] (Lv. 5: 13,451/1,000,000)
[Holy Light Bolt] (Lv. 5: 10,351/1,000,000)
[Lightshield] (Lv. 5: 12,084/1,000,000)
[Lightbind] (Lv. 5: 3,984/1,000,000)
[Healing Spell] (Lv. 5: 17,681/1,000,000)
[Light of Life] (Lv. 5: 20,993/1,000,000)
[Mana Link] (Lv. 4: 21,317/100,000)
[Revivification] (Lv. 4: 35,907/100,000)
---
My Constitution has almost stalled out. Second-tier breathing elixirs aren't worth the cost anymore.
Elise ran her eyes down her three core attributes and sighed inwardly.
Over the past thirty-five days, her attributes had climbed quickly at first, then slowed, then gradually settled into a steady rhythm.
Now, on the afternoon of the fourth day of the fourth week of the Month of Life, her Spirit was gaining roughly 0.73 points per day. Her Mana rose by a full 4.51.
Her Constitution, however, had dwindled to a mere 0.11 points per day.
At that rate, Elise doubted Second-tier potions were making any real difference. First-tier potions would serve just as well.
Her skill experience had slowed badly too.
Nearly all of her combat spells had reached Lv. 5. Only [Mana Link] and [Revivification], which she hadn't been training as deliberately, lagged behind.
[Holy Light] and [Holy Light Arrow] had been the first to hit Lv. 5, and both had already banked more than ten thousand experience points. Even so, the next level remained a distant speck on the horizon.
Their mastery, though, was in an entirely different league now.
Among her general skills, [Meditation] and [Appraisal] had both reached Lv. 4 and unlocked new modifiers.
The results were mixed.
[Meditation: A foundational spellcaster ability. ]
[Lv. 4 Effects: Increases spiritual affinity, improves control over spiritual energy, strengthens willpower.]
[Appraisal: A general spell.]
[Lv. 4 Effects: Increases learning speed, improves skill comprehension, grants divine power perception.]
Reading through the new modifiers, Elise felt equal parts pleased and let down.
[Meditation] was the good news.
"Strengthens willpower" sounded modest, but its effect was enormous.
Willpower represented the resilience and intensity of one's spiritual energy.
For most spellcasting Awakened, drawing on more than seventy percent of their spiritual energy was dangerous. Push past that threshold, and they risked injuring themselves.
With her strengthened willpower, Elise could now push close to seventy-five percent without harm.
That was more than a seven percent gain in usable spiritual energy.
Combined with the support Tymis provided after advancing to Second-tier, Elise could draw on more of her spiritual energy than ever, and each point of Spirit could now govern up to 6.2 points of Mana.
[Appraisal], on the other hand, hadn't done much for her.
More precisely, it hadn't done much yet.
If [Appraisal] ever evolved into a divine art, its patron deity would be the God of Wisdom.
With divine power perception and borrowed divine power, the skill would essentially gain an extra step—one where the God of Wisdom himself helped answer the question.
But Elise had spent the entire month buried in training, so her Lv. 4 [Appraisal] had mostly sat idle.
Besides, she had more spells to improve than time to improve them. For now, she had chosen only three Second-tier spells to study.
And then there was the biggest problem of all.
Skill experience was getting harder and harder to come by.
It was time to return to real combat.
But if she wanted real combat, Archbishop Norias's restriction still stood squarely in her way.
Elise's Second-tier Spirit now sat at 39.08 points. She believed she had a strong chance of breaking through to Senior High Cleric—but "strong" wasn't good enough.
Her plan was to end her retreat, use live combat to acclimate to her new strength, and then attempt the breakthrough.
Which was why she had already laid the groundwork.
She had bought mana crystals from the dwarves, ordered potions through the elves, and quizzed her friends on the latest developments around Crimsonwood.
At the thought, Elise extended her senses toward the courtyard outside and smiled.
Then she rose.
"Mewww!"
Tymis came fluttering over on its little wings, crying sweetly.
It was hungry.
"You little menace. You've eaten more than three thousand gold coins' worth of Soul Mana Crystals." Elise rubbed Tymis's head with exaggerated indignation.
Tymis widened its adorable eyes at her, as if to say, You burned through several times that much yourself.
The little creature grew more expressive by the day.
Elise laughed. "I earned my own money. What about you? Weren't you supposed to go charm half the city into feeding you? You've barely left the house all month."
"Tch. Tch."
Tymis looked ready to hoist a protest banner.
After advancing to Second-tier, of course it had needed its contractor to feed it.
Besides, Soul Mana Crystals carried too many spiritual impurities. If it ate those, it couldn't very well go begging for snacks afterward—it had to spend the time purging the impurities instead.
Under Tymis's deeply judgmental stare, Elise felt a strange pang of guilt.
So she smiled, tugged its long ears, and walked out of the meditation chamber with her familiar in tow.
The moment she appeared, everyone in the courtyard rose to their feet.
Over the past month, they had all watched Elise's strength climb at a terrifying pace.
Even Lofnar, a Prime Second-tier silver dwarf, now treated her with genuine respect.
The reason was simple.
Once Elise advanced to Senior High Cleric, her combat strength would almost certainly surpass his.
The strong deserved respect.
And Elise was now the strongest Second-tier Awakened in all of Crimsonwood.