CH286 Thera’s Perspective

<SPIRIT EMPOWERING LEVEL INCREASED>

<MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE LEVEL INCREASED>

“Thank you for taking so much time to teach me,” Thera said graciously to the group of life spirits around her who had been spending the last few weeks by her side, educating her on the finer points of the magic and the structures of the living things she was hunting in exchange for consistently transferring them mana to reproduce and recover.

“Of course earthkin, but it is you we owe thanks. Even if still low, any recovery to our numbers is a gift. We will leave you to your own tasks before coming again.”

With that, well over a hundred of the spirits left, leaving her to get back to her magic practice as she focused on the carnage beneath her.

As she continued to use the same spot in the woods over the last few months the landscape had irrevocably changed. Beasts of enough power had knocked down the trees around her and the colour of the earth itself had been permanently marked by the blood and carnage, at least what could be seen through the piles of bones.

She also no longer bothered wearing either her cloak or her brace so deep into the woods, if only for the practical reason that she couldn’t keep practicing there if she did. So many thousands of beasts had died during her months of training there that she was sure she’d all but exterminated the monster populations in the region. If she didn’t leave herself uncovered then nothing would be drawn.

Even now, she was looking at a meager ten monsters below her, fighting to the death in their frenzy as she watched, empowering some and weakening others to keep the balance, healing all of them so they could keep going, and through all of that occasionally using her telekinesis to help level her job.

It was still hard to use on a moving target, the magical effect taking too long to activate and letting any beast that began to feel it escape from her grasp, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything. As with her other magics, she used the time to experiment, applying enough force to distract one creature, letting another seize the opportunity to attack and getting an advantage, pouring out mana at some swipes of the talon or claw to either lessen the blow it would deal or give its target the split second to move out of the way, or pressing down on all of them, creating a crushing force that could be shaken but still provided an additional challenge to what happened down below.

Still, I really should start thinking about finding a new hunting ground. Maybe go through a different gate instead and set up another wall. Either way, I can worry about it later, for now I guess I should finish up.

She decided to throw the creatures below her into a greater frenzy to end things, not using her life magic to heal or strengthen any of them and instead letting it come to an end as she squeezed as much of her dark magic into the spell as she could, only for two things to happen. She leveled up her dark magic and she felt her staff break.

It was something that shouldn’t have been shocking. Even though it was able to stand up to the power of her magic, Ben had still been maintaining it at the end of each day, the fact that it had lasted for over two months of almost continuous use without him was a testament to bother her growing control and the skill that went into its creation, but as it shattered to dust in her grasp she felt her heart twist as she had to stop herself from crying out, instead just staring at her now empty hand.

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Her staff that Ben had worked so hard to make her had just vanished with the wind. The thing she’d been relying on, letting her accomplish so much was gone, just like its maker.

She sat there, overwhelmed by the world and trying to keep the waves of emotions from getting to her. Ben had said he hadn’t given up and she believed him. As long as she knew he was still alive she knew he would do everything he could to make it out, but it didn’t make things easier.

It was as she stamped down her feelings, trying to keep from breaking down that she let out a sad mutter.

“I just want to see you.”