The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family Chapter 366: A problem to solve (2)

The second goal was to increase his profession's levels. He needed to bring at least his tailoring and enchanting up to level 450 or higher so he could craft gear that would actually help him survive.

Woodworking was less important since he mainly used his summons to fight, but improving it would be useful later when he had the chance to make so wands or staves.

The challenge was in balancing both goals. If he focused on leveling, his professions would fall further behind. If he focused on crafting, he would miss opportunities to gain levels while the volcanic zone was accessible.

Reidar changed his perspective between multiple Sky-Hunters, trying to get a better view of the thing. He compared what he saw to what he knew about the magic circles he had seen up to that point.

The pattern matched nothing he knew.

The woman worked for twenty minutes, drawing each symbol and connecting them with lines. When she finished, she placed her hands on one of the ores she placed on so dots inside the circle, which Reidar started calling Anchor points, as they served as the channels from which the mana went from the material to the circle itself.

It looked like she pushed so of her mana into the circle through the ore. The chalk lines flared with bright light, and the entire pattern lifted off the ground, hovering a few inches above the rock surface.

Mara then stepped into the center of the circle.

The light intensified, wrapping around her body. She closed her eyes and remained still as the circle's energy built to a peak. Then, in a flash, she vanished.

The circle collapsed, its light fading to nothing. The chalk marks remained on the rock, but they no longer glowed. The spot where Mara had stood was empty.

Reidar stared at the empty space through his summon's eyes.

He sent Sky-Hunters circling lower, searching the area around where Mara had been. She was not hiding around. She was not crouching in a shadow or a crevice. She was simply gone.

The problem was that Mara could short- and sohow long-range teleport, so if she needed a magic circle, it ant she went even farther than that.

Reidar summoned more Sky-Hunters, spreading them out in all directions from Mara's last position. He needed to find her. If she had jumped a few miles, his Sky-Hunters would spot her. If she had jumped farther, he would have needed to expand the search.

The Sky-Hunters flew around and spread as much as they could, scanning the badlands for any sign of the priestess.

Ten minutes passed. Nothing.

Twenty minutes. Still nothing.

Reidar felt panic beginning to rise. The Sky-Hunters covered a radius of 15 miles now, and if Mara had teleported within that range, he should have found her.

He did not know. Teleportation magic was sothing Mara made, and that only the church, or maybe the Aegis Phalanx, knew about.

Mara's goal was the sa as his—create a world-opening portal and leave this planet. She would not waste ti exploring or sightseeing. She would find a defensible location, set up her portal circle, and leave.

The problem was that Reidar had no idea what made up a good portal location on this planet. He knew the basics—stable ground, high mana amounts, which weren't hard to find on this planet, and protection from monsters and the weather—but without knowing the terrain better, he could not predict where she would choose.

Plus, she needed materials, and if she decided to use the ones she had available now to make a teleportation circle, it ant she didn't have good enough materials to open a portal.