CH271 A week without Ben

<MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE LEVEL INCREASED>

<SPEED READING LEVEL INCREASED>

Thera put down the book she was reading, surprised to have gotten the level up. Even if she was doing her best to learn it, she felt that she was too distracted by the last week for anything to have really gotten through.

Ben still hadn’t gotten out of the trial. She could still feel his direction thanks to the skill they shared, but that was a small comfort that did nothing for her misery. She was so horribly lonely, in a way she’d never been before they’d met. Her life had been filled with nothing but solitude and awkward encounters for as long as she could remember, she should have been used to it, but then he’d come in and stripped that all away. She’d gotten to see just how nice having friends could be, to care about someone and to be cared about in return, and now he was gone.

He’s not gone. She chided herself. He’s just stuck for now. He’ll be back and things will be fine, I just need to be patient.

As much as she hated it, it had only been a week. While there were plenty of shorter trials, there were longer ones too, she just needed to wait it out. No matter how bad it felt, she just needed to be patient.

Looking down from her seat in the woods, she cast a few more healing spells before firing off some dark ones too towards the swarm of fighting beasts below her. She was trying to be a bit more creative with it than she’d been in the first few days, using her life magic to enhance the strength of the weaker creatures around her while her dark magic was put towards weakening the stronger. It took a lot of concentration and effort to do both, the power behind her magics wanting to explode around her instead of hitting specific targets, but she held it in, pushing her control to the limits to get the results she wanted.

She no longer let herself worry about how raising her dark magic could affect her charm, she just wanted to be better. She didn’t want to feel so powerless, even though increasing her levels wouldn’t change things for her at all. Raw strength or skill couldn’t change the fact that she was alone.

It was as she was doing this that a swarm of earth spirits came to her, buzzing about her head as they did as she tried to hide some of her feelings to keep herself from taking them out on them.

Greetings earthkin… Are you well? One asked hesitantly as it saw the carnage below them. Thera had been using the same spot for her training for days and the ground was soaked with blood as a result, with its surface covered in bones.

“I’m fine. Did my father ask you all to check on me?”

No, should the great one have? It asked in confusion, only to immediately be brushed off.

“No, it’s fine. In that case, what can I do for you all?”

We’d heard that you could help us after more spirits have been produced. We’ve come seeking aid.

“The usual then. Okay, come on, one by one.”

She held out her hand leaving each spirit to fly to it as she did, filling them each with mana to make up for what they’d lost. Earth spirits were nice because of just how easy they were to give mana to. There was no mana loss and the process was fast enough that it didn’t take long at all, leaving them to thank her as they went on their way.

<SPIRIT EMPOWERING LEVEL INCREASED>

She ignored the notification in her head and decided it was time to clean up for the day. She’d been there for so many hours that even though it was still bright, night would be falling in Allfaith and she wanted to get back to rest while she could, even if she doubted she’d be sleeping well.

To finish things up below her she used her dark magic to debuff every beast she could see, the quantity of her mana keeping them all but defenseless as she used her telekinesis to pull some fallen logs from the surroundings and crush each creature one by one.

<TELEKINESIS LEVEL INCREASED>

<DARK MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>

If it wasn’t for the constant worry she’d been feeling she would have been elated. To have so many skills level up at once had made it an exceptionally lucky day, with the growth of her two magic skills being excellent news for her control as a whole.

She knew that she didn’t typically train those two magics enough. Dark magic was almost entirely untouched with the exception of a little bit of practice should she ever find herself needing it in an emergency, and telekinesis was mostly just used to enhance her earth magic. Since she had a staff that could stand up to her magic and nothing but time to practice both with, it would do her no harm to try and get more levels of each as she distracted herself from everything like she wanted to. A goal that got harder from the guests standing outside the embassy waiting for her.

Steph and Will were both standing around and she could tell from their eyes that both had been crying. They looked terrible and exhausted, like they’d been getting as much rest as she had, but they still came to see her.

“Hi,” Steph said, putting on a small smile. “We, uh, we thought we’d come see how you’re holding up?”

“I’m fine,” She told them, feeling glad to have her cloak on to hide however she was looking from the world. “I was just going to get some rest.”

“Oh, okay. But if you need anything, you can stop by or call for us you know. We want to help.”

“…Thank you, I might visit in a couple weeks, I just need some time to myself.”

They gave a nod and walked away as Thera went in and threw herself in bed. It was nice enough of them to come by, and she was lonely, but there was really only one person she wanted to see.

Falk walked down the darkened empty street of Allfaith, a strong drink and two glasses in hand as he got to where he wanted to be, the trial of the dead god, and took a seat beside the great spirit leaning against its sealed door.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Don’t suppose you’d share a drink with an old friend,” The yeti said as he handed a cup over and filled it as Abrus chuckled.

“Does a few decades make us old friends?”

“It does for any other race on this world. Good friends then?”