Chapter 55
"Elise."
"High Cleric Elise."
"Good afternoon, honored High Cleric Elise."
Greetings came from all sides as she crossed to the stone table in the sitting area.
"Good afternoon. May the Light bless you all."
Elise bowed in the Church's fashion, then gestured for everyone to sit.
The sky had cleared just in time. The morning rain had washed away the worst of the heat, and twin rainbows arched over the horizon. A light breeze drifted through the courtyard as the guests sipped the potion-infused refreshments Wylan had brought out and sampled the fruit and pastries.
Even so, every eye stayed fixed on Elise.
Aside from Wylan, who was working off his tuition, everyone present was Awakened. All of them could feel the potent waves of mana rolling off her.
The business that had brought them here suddenly felt even more important.
"Elise, Master Rofhak asked me to bring you these mana crystals."
As the highest-ranked Awakened present, Lofnar spoke first.
He set a rectangular case on the table and slid it toward her.
Elise opened it to find two kinds of mana crystals arranged neatly inside: milky white and clear emerald green.
"Please thank Master Rofhak for me. I need these badly," she said sincerely.
The case held Second-tier light-aspect and life-aspect mana crystals. Elise didn't need [Appraisal] to tell they were excellent quality.
In other words, they were fit even for Senior Second-tier spellcasters.
Each crystal was worth several dozen gold coins and held usable mana equal to several dozen Second-tier units.
Elise's Second-tier Spirit had reached 39.08. Since she could safely draw on about seventy-five percent of it, that gave her 29.31 points of active Spirit.
Her Mana stood at 210.35. With each point of Spirit able to govern 6.2 points of Mana, she could direct roughly 181.7 points in battle.
If she used a Spirit Potion, she would run dry partway through her second round of casting.
Any follow-up barrage after that would have to draw on mana stored inside transcendent equipment.
Aspect mana crystals solved part of the problem. Once the mana inside was consumed, their spent cores could be crafted into transcendent equipment designed to store mana.
Elise needed them for rapid casting.
Once she finished grinding spell experience, she planned to take the empty crystal cores to a craftsman and have them worked into equipment.
The whole process would cost several hundred gold coins at the very least.
Even Lofnar could only marvel at how expensive spellcasters were in a real fight.
He accepted Elise's thanks with a smile, then rose and took his leave.
After seeing Lofnar off, Elise turned to Glenrius.
The elf had brought potions and materials on behalf of his people.
Elise thanked him as she always did.
Glenrius, however, was an old teammate. After the delivery changed hands, Elise made no move to send him off, and he settled back with a smile, clearly planning to stay and chat.
Next came Chalmers and Harkian.
The brothers traded a glance before Chalmers, a Second-tier Grand Knight, spoke.
"Elise, House Fris would like to request your help."
"I have no ties to House Fris beyond official Church business."
Chalmers and Harkian both froze.
Then Elise smiled and added, "But the two of you are my teammates. You shouldn't have asked in House Fris's name."
"That was my mistake."
Chalmers rose at once and bowed in formal apology.
Beside him, Harkian broke into a wide grin.
This was Elise—the Church of Light's rising star, a former commoner who had reached High Cleric in under half a year.
Measured purely by present rank and strength, she might not yet compare to House Fris.
But in terms of future potential?
House Fris wasn't even in the conversation.
Elise had refused any connection to the house, yet acknowledged Chalmers and Harkian as former teammates.
That alone would raise the brothers' standing in both their family and the Church.
After accepting Chalmers's apology, Elise said evenly, "Chalmers, what I need next is real combat training. Whatever you're asking should fit that."
"It does. Harkian and I have a younger brother named Lannic. He wants to apply for the post at Redleaf Town."
Chalmers laid out the situation.
The Church planned to build seven towns around Crimsonwood, each site roughly six miles from the city.
Everyone understood what those towns would eventually become.
In time, they would grow into Crimsonwood's outer districts.
Whoever accepted a town defense commission now would likely receive a barony once the settlement was complete. And after the town was absorbed into the city, that baron would become a landed noble within Crimsonwood itself, with a genuine shot at rising to viscount.
That was why both the noble houses and the mercenary factions had been working themselves ragged lately.
Everyone wanted a bite of the prize.
House Fris wanted to build merit for Lannic, third son of Viscount Karner. Chalmers and Harkian were willing to help, so they had come to Elise.
As the Church of Light's extraordinary young talent, Elise was still only an ordinary Second-tier Awakened by rank, but her combat power already rivaled a Senior Second-tier High Cleric's at minimum.
Clearing the magical beasts and other threats around Redleaf Town should be well within her ability.
Except...
"You're telling me the main threat near Redleaf Town is Black Root-Borer Ants?"
Elise felt a headache coming on.
Black Root-Borer Ants built their nests deep beneath tree roots, and their queens could reach Second-tier.
On paper, any Second-tier Awakened could kill one.
The problem was that ants had survived in Aurelia's transcendent ecosystem on the back of their terrifying reproduction rate.
A queen could lay nearly ten thousand eggs a day. A mature colony might contain millions of ants, including a number of so-called transcendent ants at First-tier.
Given their size, they posed little threat to the Awakened themselves.
But there were simply far too many of them.
Worse, once the nest was destroyed, the survivors would scatter. In less than a month, they could establish smaller nests elsewhere.
To ordinary people, they were lethal.
Wiping them out took more than rank and raw power. It took exceptional spell control.
Elise had never faced this kind of creature before. She couldn't claim to be fully confident.
Seeing the hesitation on her face, Chalmers and Harkian exchanged another glance.
"Elise, your mana is strong enough," Chalmers explained. "As long as you can mark most of the colony with your mana signature, we have a way to wipe them out."
"Oh?"
Elise's interest sharpened.
Chalmers went on. "Killing the ants isn't hard. The hard part is making sure none escape. The real problem is finding their new nests."
The logic was simple.
Ants survived in Aurelia through sheer reproduction, so the key to eradicating them was tracking.
What Chalmers and Harkian needed was Elise's ability to cast above her rank.
If it worked, Elise could dilute [Holy Light] and spread it across as many ants as possible, marking them with her mana.
Destroy the main nest.
Let the ants scatter.
Track the marked survivors to their new nests.
Then clean them out, one by one.
Once that was done, the remaining large magical beasts in the area would be easy pickings for House Fris. After that, construction on the town could begin.
"I can't guarantee your plan will work," Elise said when he finished, "but I'm willing to try."
With that settled, Elise accepted the brothers' thanks, then finally turned to Lia and Lina.
Lina needed no explanation.
She came by almost every day to eat and drink for free, and Elise often answered her questions about training, which put their relationship somewhere between friends and teacher-and-student.
As for Lia...
Elise studied the pint-sized girl with the glossy, sparkling hair, then swept her spiritual energy over the mana stirring around her.
Her eyes lit up.
"Lia, are you preparing to break through to Second-tier?"
"Yes, Elise. I'm going to catch up with you!"
Lia lifted her chin proudly, her small face bright with joy.
Beside her, Lina teased, "Lia's grandfather has been sending her a mountain of resources lately."
"Hmph. I don't need Vesserdali's help. I earned my resources through missions."
Lia declared it proudly, then snuck a glance at Tymis and muttered, "At most, I borrowed a few of Tymis's Second-tier Soul Mana Crystals..."
"Lia, are you sure absorbing Soul Mana Crystals is safe for you?" Elise asked.
The concern was genuine.
This little girl had dared to absorb energy directly from Soul Mana Crystals for the sake of her training.
Even Elise found that astonishing.
But Lia truly had the talent for it.