SYSTEM NOTIFICATION

  +1 Attunement

  +107.340 Exp

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Reaching level forty-five and then forty-six so quickly wasn’t exactly what he’d expected, but given the danger he had faced and the effort he put into transforming [Gamma Ray] into something less likely to kill him than his opponent, he felt it was justified.

  Of course, it was only a fraction of the experience points the kill of a tier three orc shaman awarded, but despite the damage he’d inflicted, it was Asteria who actually killed it, and without her help, he had no doubt he wouldn’t have been able to finish the job.

  Seothyn would have intervened before it could kill us, but since he felt it was safe to let us go this far, I’m not exactly feeling charitable about his standards.

  “Holy damn,” Ophelia spat, staring up at the sky. Clearly, she had received quite a bit of exp as well. Probably less than half of his reward, but given her lower level, it would still lead to a few skipped levels.

  A crunching sound drew his attention, and Orion saw a very sheepish Seothyn and an incandescently angry Elodie, who seemed to have shed her awkwardness and looked ready to bite the elf’s jugular.

  She probably didn't agree to let the fight happen without help. It was incredibly reckless, but it’s reassuring to know I was right and that they were nearby if things went wrong.

  “Ah, I must apologize, Lady Ophelia, Orion. I made the decision to let you two handle the shaman, and it wasn’t really mine to make.”

  Orion doubted Seothyn was truly repentant, but at least he could fake it convincingly. Ophelia waved him off, “Don’t worry about it. I got a lot out of it, and I figured you two weren’t too far behind.”

  Seothyn smiled charmingly, but before he could accept her forgiveness, Elodie drove the pommel of her sword into his side, making him grunt in pain.

  “Alright, alright,” he muttered to his companion before turning around and surprising them by bowing deeply. “I put you two in danger for my own amusement and curiosity. That’s unforgivable. I’m sorry.”

  Elodie’s eyebrows twitched, and she clearly wanted him to say more than that, but even she seemed to realize she wouldn’t get much more from Seothyn. So, she sighed and joined him in his bow. “We are sorry. If you do not feel safe with us anymore, we will accept this as enough justification for a breach of contract.”

  Now it was Orion’s turn to be surprised. For adventurers, especially A-rank ones, having a contract broken for just cause was a black mark that could follow them throughout their career. On a high-profile job like this, it was equivalent to declaring themselves untrustworthy and would mean they’d have to switch entirely to monster hunting instead of dealing with clients directly.

  Ophelia also seemed to sense how serious the situation was, because she dropped her nonchalant attitude and looked at them with a steely glint in her eyes that reminded him that, despite being his friend and often immature, she was still the daughter of a mercenary leader powerful enough to negotiate with a major faction.

  “I see, I will take that into consideration, then,” she replied, her eyes taking on a golden sheen that made her usually hidden draconic features stand out, giving her a predatory look.

  The remaining team members, who had just arrived, stopped in their tracks at the tense scene, realizing something important was happening.

  Seothyn and Elodie kept their bows stiffly, waiting for her to finally speak, until the tension hit a peak, and Ophelia huffed. “Just don’t do stuff like that anymore. Your job is to protect us, and while we’re unarmed, you put us in real danger. I will report this to grandpa, and I expect he’ll have some choice words for you, no matter the gains.”

  That finally broke the tension, and the two stood back up. “That’s fine, I would have told him anyway,” Elodie nodded, before eyeing them with concern one last time, and stepping back, reverting to her more awkward persona.

  Bipolar? It can’t just be a front; it wouldn’t make sense to keep it up now. Or she might just be a naturally reserved person who only opens up when dealing with important matters and prefers to stay quiet otherwise. I’ve met others like that during my years in academia. She wouldn’t even be the worst case, though, admittedly, the consequences of a medieval Latin professor going mad are less unsettling than those of a one-woman army like her.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “I believe I have everything,” Asteria declared, her voice easing the remaining tension and prompting the others to come closer.

  Orion doubted she had missed anything about the exchange and was pretty sure she had some very charged words she would reserve for the Basilisk Fang the moment they were back in the city, but for now, she seemed to consider the matter closed, especially given what she’d just said.

  The last time he saw her, she had ripped out the shaman’s heart, and during that time, she’d gone to work, pulling a silver cauldron from somewhere, casting a blue fire spell to heat it, while blood, organs, various flowers, and bits of local vegetation floated around her, gradually being added to the brew.

  Though he lacked her natural talent for potions and had only taken a few years of lessons, Orion had absorbed enough knowledge of the craft by living close to a mistress to immediately recognize that this potion was an order of magnitude more complex than anything else he had seen her brew before, even when she worked in tandem with Elder Yue.

  Everyone else seemed to understand what that meant, more or less, and Seothyn took things back in his hands. “What do you need us to do, Magistra?”

  Ingredients kept being mashed, liquefied, and distilled all around her, while Asteria tapped a finger against her lips. “Hmm, I have all the ingredients I need, and I’ve made sure nothing truly dangerous is in this area, so the only thing left is taking care of the kids while I finish my work and afterward, while the rank-up happens. Can I trust you with that?”

  Ouch. Yeah, she wasn’t about to let that slide.

  Seothyn smiled, although the corner of his mouth stayed crooked as he took the dig with as much grace as possible.

  “I swear nothing will come closer to them than a hundred feet,” he replied, and something in his tone, or perhaps the ripple of mana that followed his words, told Orion it was the truth.

  Asteria seemed to sense that too, so she nodded and didn’t push further, although she probably wanted to. With one last look around, she turned back to the cauldron, waving her hand over it and raising the blue flame higher. “Alright, I will hold you to your word. Now, children, pay close attention. This isn’t something you will see very often.”

  Orion adjusted his glasses and moved closer, eager to observe the rank-up process firsthand, but was stopped by a firm hand.

  “I told your mother I wouldn’t let you get anywhere near anything dangerous,” Seothyn said, and there was a clear note in his tone that told Orion not to argue.

  That only made him want to argue more, but a look at Elodie’s face told him it would truly be dangerous. “Rank-ups are a unique thing. You will probably find out sooner rather than later,” Seothyn explained in a more soothing tone. “They are one of the most fascinating things to witness, but attempting to interrupt one, or even getting too close, can result in one of two things.”

  “Either you successfully stop the process, which is only really possible when the difference in power is significant, or you get torn apart by the volatile energies,” Bart finished for him. “I saw it happen once. A tier three mage had a feud with the family of an apprentice, and when the kid finally scrounged up enough exp to hit level fifty and went to rank up, he interfered. Neither of the two is alive now to say what they went through, but from the outside, it was nasty.”

  Orion sighed, waving them off, “Alright, I get it. No getting closer.”

  Seothyn smiled, relieved, and pulled his hand back. “You know that this is all very unorthodox, especially for a devout witch of the Sanctum, right?”

  Having always doubted how much his mother truly believed in the religion she followed, Orion had no trouble agreeing to that, but he couldn’t help but ask, “In what way, specifically? I never got to attend a lecture on ranking up before I left for Valderun.”

  The adults looked at each other, clearly debating whether they should be the ones to explain such a thing to him, rather than his mother or his teachers, but Seothyn eventually shrugged and told him.

  “No one rank-up is the same. Sometimes, the prompt doesn’t even appear after reaching the appropriate level, and it’s said that some classes have specific requirements to start the process. The first one is usually not that difficult, but most people prefer to do it inside a temple, where they believe their gods will guide and watch over them. As far as witches of the Sanctum go, I was pretty sure they are supposed to do it in a place of worship of the Moon Mother, but apparently that’s not the case.”

  Bart snorted, “Ah, that’s easy to answer. Wherever the moon shines is considered sacred to Her, and a Magistra is an important priestess of Her order. She just needs to declare a place sacred ground, and it will be so. If she had been a simple tier two witch, she would have needed to travel back to a coven, but Asteria doesn’t need to.”

  “But there is no moon, it’s barely afternoon,” Ophelia said confusedly, but Orion pointed to the sky, and sure enough, opposite the slowly descending sun, there was the moon.

  It wasn’t as bright as it was during the night, and it was only now starting to grow again after hitting its lowest point two nights earlier, but even that small sliver was enough for these purposes, and Orion couldn’t even be surprised when he saw it visibly gain a silvery sheen, where before it had been faded and white.

  “Oh,” Ophelia muttered. “Oh, ok. Damn.”

  Before any more chatter could be exchanged, there was a sound like breaking glass, and Orion saw space rip apart as two pale hands slipped through a crack in the air, pulling it apart until a lone figure could step through.

  Elder Yue barely bothered to glance at him before turning toward her apprentice, who was reaching the peak of her art, softly chanting over her silver cauldron as mana began to thicken around her.

  “Foolish girl,” the Veil Priestess muttered in affectionate exasperation, and waved a hand in a wide gesture.

  Suddenly, the forest transformed from a wild, violent place where monsters had lived and battles were fought into something much more comforting and familiar.

  Orion didn’t even need [Verification Principle] to realize she had somehow altered the flavor of the Mana Field.

  It was probably just a temporary change, as he doubted even she could so casually alter an entire landscape’s attunement without serious effort, but nonetheless, Light quickly filled the atmosphere, soothing aches and lingering pains he hadn’t even noticed.

  “What in the hells..." Ophelia muttered, her eyes wide as she watched the change in transfixion. Only then did Orion remember that she shared her specialty, Alchemy, with the Elder, and that she was probably seeing much more than he could because of that.

  The others reacted with various levels of shock, and Orion could swear he’d seen Seothyn flinch in pain at the sudden change.

  Eventually, Asteria finished her brew, and for a moment, everything was still before a smile spread across her face, and she murmured something that sounded like acceptance.