Hera was ditating on her bed. Ever since she and Bonnie talked about the mana regeneration, she was eager to find where she had a higher absorption rate and if that would allow her to rank up the skill. Following Bonnie's instructions, Hera focused on gathering mana at a single point of her body first. Only after mastering that she could test around to see where the absorption rate was better. It had been just two days since she talked with Bonnie about it. During that ti, Hera learned how to feel where the mana was coming from, but blocking it from entering through other areas was still an issue.
"Hera, breakfast is ready," Helena called from the kitchen.
"She ans she just finished setting up the table, don't worry, it's all store brought," Blue followed up.
In her ditative state, Hera could've sworn that she heard the sound of soone getting slapped. She opened her eye and checked her mana regeneration skill. During the last couple of days, this had been her main focus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skill Acquired
Mana Recovery (Rank 3)
Improves your natural mana recovery. This effect increases as the mastery of the technique used to create the skill increases. The skill increases your passive mana recovery.
By activating the skill, you can recover mana at an accelerated pace. However, if the skill concentration is broken, you beco unable to recover mana for 25 minutes. The amount recovered by the active effect increases significantly with the mastery of the technique.
Passive Recovery: 33 mana per minute
Active Recovery: 46 mana per minute
Mastery: 21%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Yes!" Hera celebrated. Having broken through the 20% mastery, she was able to increase the skill's rank by 1. Now she was even closer to getting the mage role quest. Satisfied with the results of the day, Hera headed downstairs to join the others.
After their mock battle, the group formally invited Bonnie to join. She agreed to it, but she had to finish a couple of quests before joining them in Hazelpond. Initially, she was going to find a hotel, but after hearing that she would join Hera's party, Helena insisted on inviting her to stay in the house. They drew straws, and Blue was the one who was supposed to share her room. However, they all agreed that letting the two be roommates would be asking for a cri to happen, so Hera ended up being the one who shared. Alex protested since it was mostly Helena and Hera's place, but in the end, there was no changing the explorer's mind.
In reality, Hera was excited to have a roommate. The only ti she shared a room with soone was when she and Blue were in the hotel. Bonnie had the sa feeling. She lived her entire life as soone who had all the space in the world, but she beca used to sharing a room when she left her father. Having too much space for herself reminded her of the tis she got scolded for not performing as her father expected.
The group spent those two days training and workshopping so different tactics. Now that they had soone to take care of the backline they could explore more possibilities. Both Hera and Alex were usually shifting positions, but none of them could fit the role of a ranged attacker. Having Bonnie around would change that. Even if she wasn't there yet, they could already try to consider how the flow of battle would change. The idea would be for Bonnie to help control the field, but they had to talk to her before making any final decision.
Bonnie was coming to Hazelpond today. Hera had already set up her room. She didn't have many clothes, and the second bed ca in from the outside on the day before. Bonnie arrived during the afternoon. It didn't take long for her to get set up in her new room. The two had a similar taste, but Bonnie had one thing that Hera always wanted to have. A big collection of books. She had even more outside the MAZE. The ones she brought were just the ones she got after becoming a researcher.
After setting everything up, Bonnie and Hera went to the living room, but Helena stopped them on the way.
"Hey, is everything ok?"
"Yeah, we just finished setting everything up," Bonnie replied.
"Oh, good. Do you need anything else?"
"Yeah, do we have any more blankets? I only have a thin one right now," Hera said.
"I'll check. But before that. Can I talk to you for a mont, Hera? Downstairs," Helena asked.
"Sure. Is everything ok?"
"Just co with ," Helena walked down to the lab, followed by Hera.
There were several of the stones on a table and a training dummy on the side. Hera noticed that the number of stones was much higher than she rembered. She had only brought a pouch of the rocks, but there was even a crate full of them on the side of the room.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Am I getting fired?" Hera asked.
"What? Of course not," Helena looked at the rocks, "There is no need to send my ace explorer to collect sothing that we already know is there. Let's leave the grunt work for other people. Besides, since no one wants those rocks, I can buy them for cheap, and we can sell them for high prices later. Items that increase the power of spells are hard to co by on this layer. Those are considered a luxury even deeper in the MAZE."
"I see…" Hera kept staring at the rocks. Even though it was much more than she could have brought, it still felt weird to have soone else getting what Helena needed.
"Don't worry about it. You help much more than just by getting resources. In fact, I got a new spell for you," Helena picked up a sheet of paper, "Now. I have no idea how you are going to get it. So I set up the code and the formula here, but I also put all my thought processes into how the spell works. I want you to try it out. If it works like I expect it to, we can even share it with your party."
"Ok… why are you so mysterious? What kind of spell is it? If I'm turning into a frog, you are the one breaking the news to Alex."
Helena placed one hand on her chest, "I'm hurt! How could you compare with a witch?"
Hera pointed to a pot on the desk, "You do have a cauldron here."
"I'm taking the dirt out of the elental rocks. If I boil them with so herbs, most of it cos out, then I can just clean the rest out. That can make the effect stronger. I'm even trying to figure out if there is a potion or a salve that can make this faster," Helena defended.
Hera smiled, "Do you hear yourself?"
Helena paused for a mont, "Shut up. Do you want the spell or not?"
"I an, it's kind of hard to want sothing that you still haven't explained."
"Oh, right. It's a lesser version of the pangolin scales. According to my tests, the scales can give a 15% boost to a spell. But this… let's call it enchantnt, can give a 5% boost to spells and doesn't use as much mana as it would take to give that increase. I'm hoping that with ti and practice, the buff is increased."
"Wait, how does that work? You talk as if it's not just a buff."
"It's not. Here let show you," Helena pointed to one of the pages with the magic formula, "So I used the fire arrow spell you have as an example. The idea is to make this be part of the spell kind of modular. I never managed to do it before because I had no idea how I could increase its potency, but the scales gave an idea. Instead of having the part of the spell that changes the mana into so elent, I put the increased potency part. That finally worked, but you have to use it with the right type of mana."
"Ok, so it’s kind of an attachnt? Like a cover for your cellphone."
"Exactly. The problem is, I have no idea if that works. Mages get that increase in potency as we get a complete affinity. And it seems like doubling down on it doesn't work. I an I have the spell, it just doesn’t have any effect on my magic. Soooo, think you can figure out a way to use it?"
"I have no idea, but I can try. Let pass those notes to my spellbook," Hera sit down by the desk and started to transcribe everything on her tablet.
"Look at you, having a spellbook always on hand. Are you finally taking magic seriously?"
"It's not like I wasn't. I just had no idea what to do. I need to figure out how to make things work. I realized that I don't know how to make new spells on my own. They just sort of happened."
"I see, well if you need any help you know you can call . Even though I don't understand how your spells work."
"I will, and if you don't mind asking this. If you ask around, can you give all the suggestions that other people talk about? Last ti so of the tips would have helped a lot."
"Yeah, don't worry. I learned my lesson," Helena opened her tablet, "By the way. We got an email that might help . I'm thinking about trying what they suggested."
Hera looked up, "Really? I was thinking about deleting that email account. We didn't get a single useful idea, and it's mostly just… n being annoying."
"I know, but sothing useful finally ca through," Helena showed Hera the email.
It talked about a dicine that could cleanse the body and remove impurities. It was called 'a drop of honey' due to the amber-colored circle in the middle of the concoction. The problem was the price since it required high-level materials and its demand wasn't particularly high. Parasite monsters were rare and easy to remove on-site since it took them a while to enter the body. Ordering one would cost them 50 thousand gold, and that was just to make it. To gather the materials, they should be looking at another 200 thousand. Helena would try to make the order with the guild since, after all, they still owed her, but it was a long shot. Still, getting that much money would just take so ti. Hera would chip in to pay for it as well, but that was a conversation for another day.
"You know what we need?" Hera turned to Helena.
"A potion of eternal youth and a big pile of platinum?"
"No... well, yes. But we need a chemist, soone to make so potions that could help you."
"I think there are a couple of people in the order who can fit that bill. I'll talk to them and see if anyone needs a guinea pig."
"Pigs, plural. Don't even think about leaving out of it. Not to ntion that they might need to test potions in combat situations," Hera replied instantly.
Helena rolled her eyes, "It's my problem."
"And you are my friend. C'mon Lena, we've been over this. I'm part of the drug trials, and that's final."
"If my earings weren't recharging, I would blind you right now."
"Not my fault. You are the one that called here," Hera replied with a smirk.
"Whatever," Helena scoffed, "Try to figure out that spell. If it works, we can discuss sharing with the rest of your party."
Hera nodded and kept writing down the notes on her spellbook. When she was done, Helena was polishing one of the elental stones, "Why are you doing that? Do they get better when clean?"
"Not really, but we can't sell these if they are not pretty. Or at least we can charge more if they look better," Helena replied.
"You intend to sell those?"
"Maybe. I have a contact, and she'll take a look at a few to figure out a price. It's the first ti that I've seen sothing that can directly change your mana. Maybe we can make so good money with these since we are the only ones that can tell each elent," Helena explained while polishing one of the green rocks.
"Just don't spend the money willy nilly ok. That's going for the potion fund," Hera replied.
"Yes, mother," Helena giggled.
"Was that payback for the witch comnt?" Hera stared at Helena.
"Maybe."
"Well, good luck. I'm going to hunt sothing to vent after that one," Hera got up and left the basent in a huff.
Helena kept calling her out, but she quickly left the house. The rest of her party went after her, hoping she wouldn't do sothing stupid out of anger.
Reviews
All reviews (0)