Chapter 41 - Adventure Over

Lily exhaled in relief when she saw the gremlin's death. She wanted to relax but realized there might still have been others, so she clambered to her feet and looked back at Rose. She gasped.

Almost the entire circular platform was carpeted in flickering flames, which looked like a grill. At the center, standing triumphantly, was Rose. The dragon girl had a fierce grin on her face that looked ill-suited to the kind and loving big sister she had grown up with.

Lily unconsciously gulped. Lily found the sight intimidating as Rose pounded her fist at a collapsed gremlin. It violently exploded, scattering into countless black flecks.

I hope she returns to normal after her trip with Lady Desthu... This is too much.

Lily couldn't see any other gremlins, so she quickly started trying to start her spiral gathering. The sight baffled her, though.

Why is there so little? I would've thought there should be more; we killed so many gremlins!

The few black specks she noticed in the meditative trance seemed to float away from her, and she struggled to capture them into her spiral. Once properly seized, they behaved normally, but she wasn't entirely sure why she had found them so hard to collect.

Are they drawn to Rose? I understand if the ones she defeated would go to her, but what about the ones I fought on my own?

Sadly, Lily had no answers to her questions, so she just tried to absorb the ambient Mana as quickly as possible and hopefully nurture her Mana Core.

"That was amazing!" Rose screamed aloud. "We beat the absolute crap out of them! I've never felt better!"

Lily had just finished her gathering and opened her eyes to see the positively beaming Rose. She was just glad that ferocity had toned down and been replaced with joyous excitement.

"That was crazy… I've never even seen a gremlin before, let alone that many of them!" Lily replied.

"I wonder if they were drawn to the ritual?" Rose questioned. "They were at least trying to deface it."

Lily glanced at the stone surface and noted its wrecked state: scorch marks, cracks, gashes, and broken chunks taken out were plentiful.

"Well… After your fiery display, I don't think we need to worry about anyone discovering what was left of it," Lily joked.

Rose blinked and turned around, finally taking in the destruction she had taken part in. She let out a whistle. "Damn, I really went wild!"

"It was a bit terrifying," Lily admitted with a tiny nod. "I've never seen that side of you before."

To her surprise, Rose blushed. "Oh… Yeah… I really need to get this sorted out with Lady Desthu."

Rose walked over and put a gentle hand on Lily's shoulder.

"Sorry if I scared you… I hope I didn't cause you any harm-" Rose noticed the dirt and scuff marks from Lily's tumble. "What happened!?"

Lily grinned. "I defeated a gremlin all by myself!"

"It didn't bite you, did it?" Rose immediately questioned, then shook her head and corrected herself. "No, wait, first, congrats! That's amazing! I knew you could do it!"

Lily blushed from the praise but answered the question. "It didn't bite me. It snuck up behind me and must have tried to attack me, but it triggered my shield talisman on my back instead and sent me tumbling. I used my other shield to defend myself and shot it straight through the big toothy mouth!"

"Woah!" Rose exclaimed, genuinely impressed by the retelling. "That's my little sister! I'm so proud of you."

Rose began hugging Lily tightly, and to their surprise, there was a cracking sound followed by shattering. Lily's frontward shield talisman had shattered under the might of the draconic hug.

"Oops…" Rose mumbled with embarrassment. "Sorry…"

Lily giggled. "At least it saved me!"

"So, did you get a lot of stuff for your Mana Core?" Rose questioned. "With so many gremlins, it must have been a lot, right?"

Lily frowned as she shook her head. "No… Strangely, it wasn't that much. It seemed like it was being taken away while I was trying to collect it."

"Huh… Do you think it was that Mana gathering thing?" Rose asked as she pointed to the thoroughly ruined ritual site.

"Maybe ?" Lily pondered. It was certainly a possibility she hadn't considered. "Although the ritual was quite broken… I think it was supposed to disperse after we were done, especially considering how easily the stone broke after the fact. The collection of Mana was supposed to protect it from being damaged."

"Hmm… I have no idea, then," Rose admitted with a shrug.

Lily was about to postulate the theory that perhaps Rose had sucked it all up but held her tongue. Even if that was the case, Rose had done the majority of the work and deserved it. Plus, she had no evidence, just a gut feeling. Not to mention that if Rose hadn't admitted to it, then she must have done it subconsciously.

Plus, she's going away… If she gets stronger before her trip, that's good! She might need it…

"We better get going," Lily finally said as she pointed to the sun, now in a much lower position than when they had left the city.

"Oh crap!" Rose shouted, "You're right, we better hurry!"

Both girls began jogging back at a brisk pace. Rose had intended to offer to carry Lily when they got into the clearing, but seeing the bunny not nearly as out of breath as she had expected, she gave her a reassuring cheer.

Before they reached the gate, Lily dusted herself off, ensuring she didn't look like she had just had a scuffle with a gremlin. Then, they tried nonchalantly approaching the gate.

Oz immediately spotted them and walked over; relief was evident on his face.

"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you two?" Oz questioned with a chuckle.

"We are back before curfew," Rose snapped back.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Oz held out his hands, trying to defend himself. "I'm just relieved you two came back in one piece."

"Oz here kept staring at the sky; I've never seen him so diligent before!" One of the other random guards commented, causing Oz to splutter and mumble sheepishly.

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"I was just ensuring there were no dire hawks!" Oz protested.

"Yeah, yeah…" The guard replied before walking away.

"Thanks for the good work, Oz!" Lily replied, hoping to cheer him up.

"Ah... No… I was just…" Oz tried to explain but then sighed, shaking his head. "You're welcome. Now hurry back before Margit comes and gives me an earful."

Both girls giggled before saying their goodbyes and heading back to the orphanage.

"We better take a bath before heading for dinner, or Margit's keen eyes might spot something," Rose suggested, to which Lily nodded in agreement.

After a nice long and relaxing bath, they had a wonderful dinner. Both girls found themselves eating far more than their usual portions, but thankfully, the staff seemed not to mind, waving it off as "growing kids need to eat."

When Lily finally returned to her bedroom, she retrieved Arakil's book from his usual hiding place and began retelling her events.

"-And then I gathered what I could; I feel like my Mana Core has definitely grown a bit!" Lily finished excitedly.

[I'm glad my theory regarding monsters in this world was correct. Previously, you had nothing to direct the essence towards, so you received nothing from the two dire hawks that perished. Now, not only should your Mana Core passively direct some of it towards itself, but by gathering with meditation, you should be able to substantially improve the results.]

"Do you think Rose sucked up all the essence?" Lily asked.

[It's possible. Judging by your description of the events, it sounds like it might be something instinctual from Rose's heritage. Or perhaps her draconic heritage has enhanced her organs in some way. In my time, a dragon's heart was a powerful magical ingredient.]

"No hearts, no blood ! You promised !" Lily protested. "I'm just glad I didn't do anything wrong. Rose did more of the work, so I'm fine with her getting the bigger portion."

[I wasn't suggesting that... I was just giving some arcane trivia. Moving on, have you thought about what you wish to pursue as your bloodline magic? Remember, this doesn't matter too much other than for appearance's sake and passing the school's evaluation, as while specializing has its uses, having a broader reach is generally more convenient.]

Lilly barely needed to think about her options. Ever since she witnessed Arakil's magical demonstration that night, one recurring idea constantly floated in her head.

"I want star magic!" Lily replied enthusiastically. "Like what you did for me."

[Star magic? What I did that evening was illusions . While it is a very good category of magic, thanks to its versatility, I'm afraid we are probably forced to disregard it. From what Rose gathered from her teacher, two races already exist with that as their bloodline, the foxlike Vulpia, for instance.]

"No, not illusions. I want real stars, and moons, and things like that!" Lily insisted.

Arakil took quite a long time to respond despite Lily providing him with ink. The ink swirled and swirled, indicative of his deep thought.

In reality, Arakil was feeling very conflicted. He had an option that met Lily's childlike fantasy of magic, but ... He loathed that school of magic with vigor.

Astral Magic. Many of the spells in that Magic category were related to fate and luck . For example, one of the basic attack spells fired a cluster of tiny starlike projectiles, a decent offensive spell if you looked at it in a vacuum, especially since Astral Magic was unique by being almost entirely unaligned, avoiding many common forms of resistances.

The issue was that the spell had an element of probability and randomness; the most basic version of the spell fired between 0 and 2 stars, and as you enhanced that spell and progressed it further, both the minimum and maximum values would increase.

Again, to a normal person, this would seem like a wonderful spell with a good potential for growth. Arakil's deep-rooted dislike for the magic was down to his luck . Anytime he cast the spell, even empowered to the maximum with an astronomically large minimum and maximum star count, he would always , without fail, get the minimum amount.

Other Astral spells were supposed to aid you by tilting the scales of probability in your favor, but they never seemed to work for Arakil for unknown reasons. A witch had once joked that Arakil's luck was cursed, but he refused to believe in such an absurd reasoning. Thus, Astral Magic took the brunt of his ire.

[There might be something like that, but wouldn't you much prefer something truly useful? Perhaps Time Magic? Spatial magic is another one I'm very fond of. Or what about Spirit Magic? ]

Arakil continued to throw out suggestion after suggestion. Lily sat silently reading them all, and while they all sounded amazing or fascinating, none of them immediately sparked a desire in her.

Lily was sure she would eventually want to learn something from them, but her heart was set on the stars. Also, there was another issue that Arakil probably overlooked.

"Do I even have the Mana for Time Magic?" Lily questioned. "Or even half of these suggestions?"

[Admittedly... No... But it is certainly something you can and should strive for!]

Lily giggled.

I bet Arakil wants me to choose his favorite kind of magic.

"We don't have the time for that," Lily replied. "I must pass the test as soon as possible to enroll and join Rose. Who knows how long it will take me to grow my Mana Core to do something crazy like a Spatial spell? I'm sure you can teach me that later, but for the bloodline test, we need something smaller. Unless the star magic is also very Mana expensive?"

[No... Astral has some very low-cast starting spells, unlike Time and Spatial magic.]

"Astral magic!" Lily repeated the words with excitement.

[Don't get too excited. While Astral spells are visually appealing, I'll admit, their effects are relatively minor.]

"Doesn't that sound perfect for passing the test? Look flashy and unique?" Lily questioned.

Once again, Arakil took a while to respond. He was particularly reluctant to admit that Lily's arguments for Astral magic made logical sense, but he was struggling to overcome his personal bias against the category of magic.

[Yes... That does indeed sound good for passing the test.]

Meanwhile, Lily's eyes were sparkling with anticipation and excitement.

Astral magic! That sounds amazing!