Chapter 612: Thera's Perspective

Chapter 612: Thera's Perspective

Thera woke up to the sounds of chatter around her and the smell of cooking, two things that would normally pull her from her slumber with both the spirits around her enjoying her ambient mana and Ben out making breakfast, even if there was a difference about the sounds she was hearing that day as she opened her eyes to find something unusual amongst the mass of mana that was floating around her. Not just the dense points of mana she was used to seeing from her paternal race, but also some that were more spread out. A different form of mana-based life, with earth and water elementals in the mix.

“Um, hello,” She greeted them, more awake than usual from the surprise of their presence as they almost seemed to shuffle about, acting as though they’d been caught as they looked between each other, with one speaking up.

“Hello, princess,” An earth elemental began as Thera raised her hand.

“Please, just call me Thera.”

I do not want to end up with elemental princess as a title if calling me that catches on among them. It was hard enough to get Ben to stop laughing when spirit princess caught on.

“Thera then. Forgive the intrusion, we shall be on our way.”

“Uh, wait, hold on, you don’t need to leave, I was just surprised. Should I take it you can also make use of my mana?”

It shouldn’t have shocked her, she’d already seen that she could share her mana with Insia and Rocky in the same way and her skill was called mana empowering, there was no reason to think the elementals couldn’t have made use of it, especially since she didn’t know how comparable their reproduction was to a spirit’s, but she’d been caught off guard, with the one speaking confirming as much.

“We heard about it from the spirits and were curious. Apologies for not asking first.”

“It’s fine, I don’t make the spirits ask either so if any elementals want to take what they can while I’m asleep then go for it. I don’t mind.”

“Really?” It asked, sounding hopeful, with all of the spirits around chiming in before she could say anything.

“Our princess is generous-”

“Kind-”

“Thoughtful-”

“Wonderful-”

“The best-”

“I really don’t mind so it’s fine,” She cut in, adding only one request. “But please, just let any other elementals know to just call me Thera, It doesn’t matter how many of you come.”

With how far her passive mana would spread out, she was sure the entire house was filled and if she kept the effect up once she went out then it would stretch far beyond it. Even if a few thousand elementals joined in at any given time, it wouldn’t make much difference to her and if it would help them then why would she say no?

It got a strong reaction though, with the ones already in her room buzzing about in excitement, the one speaking for them sounding thrilled.

“Thank you! The spirits are right to talk of you so highly!”

“Uh, thanks. Just to be clear though, how often do they talk about me when I’m not around?”

“Constantly.”

Great. No clue how I’m supposed to react to that so just going to pretend I never asked.

At the very least, she didn’t collect titles for that fact the way Ben seemed to, which was good enough for her as she finally got up to start the day.

“Thera, Aso, hey!” Sachel called out. “How’d things go today?”

“Well, we ran into a demon but she handled it calmly enough and managed to get the kill without my help,” Thera told them proudly, feeling personally pleased with Aso’s growth. “How about you guys? Take any quests today?”

“Ah, not today, we’re actually just here to hang out. We’ve got our point to go to and since we’re leaving in a couple of days we wanted to relax a bit while we can and chat with folks, you know?”

Right, she’s fighting in the invasion too. That could be a problem.

“Will you guys be coming back when they close again?”

“The week after,” Ralia answered. “By then they’ll have spread out so much and Stonewall needs protecting too, same as any other place.”

“Perfect. In that case, there was something I wanted to ask you all. You guys have two frontline fighters and one backline. When you return, take another mage.”

She patted Aso’s back as she said it, making it clear who she was referring to as the group looked amongst themselves for a moment, speaking with their eyes before Sachel spoke up.

“I personally don’t mind.”

“Sachel, working with a beginner is a bit...” Skoe trailed off, trying at least to be polite, even if Thera still glared at him.

“What? Are you saying you wouldn’t benefit from another backline fighter? One who has different magics from your other mage I might add. Plus she isn’t a beginner, she’s been at this for almost two years now.”

“Okay, but having a second mage isn’t super important,” He argued. “Look at you, it's not like you use a traditional party when your main partner is a craftsman. Our composition works fine.”

“The difference is that Ben could kill the three of you without much effort,” Thera told him coldly, with that answer making both Skoe and Ralia look to Sachel for her own thoughts. Aside from being their powerhouse by virtue of holding a second-tier skill, she was also the one who knew them best as high-ranking members of the same faith and she briefly thought it over.

“I’d personally run if it somehow came down to us fighting,” She said with a shrug, handily closing any comparisons between the two parties.

While Sachel had only really seen Ben fight the same time as her other two party members when he’d dueled the man who had come to win over Thera, she was aware that he had more awakened skills than he’d let on and that all of that growth had come in the few short years he’d been on the world, not to mention some of the other things she’d seen from him. The way he’d calmly spoken in her head after having been disassembled in the life tower as he instructed her on how to put his body back together was something that was going to haunt her nightmares forever, she didn’t want to ever go up against someone who could do that.

It was the answer Thera had wanted as well and she gave a positive nod when she got it. “There. My party has nothing to do with yours and you wouldn’t be hurt in any way having her. Both fire and light magic would give you guys more options and I’m not even asking you to take her in permanently, just when you’re back and I’m off dealing with other things; if you’d want her to join you on a more regular basis after that is a discussion you can have in the future. So are you willing to do that?”

“We will,” Ralia agreed, casting her own vote on the matter and giving a majority as she looked to Skoe. “Everyone starts somewhere and it would be good for her to get experience working in a team. As high-ranked adventurers we need to help with raising up the newer recruits.”

“Okay, but this isn’t exactly the time?”

“Then when would it be?” The snake-woman laughed. “Even if we win, the world’s going to have a demon problem forever and until that point anyone who can fight is important. Better she works with us for a bit and grows her skills more with the bit of safety we can provide than we leave her on her own to either die alone or when things get bad enough here and she doesn’t have the skills to handle it. Sorry Skoe, majority rules.”

Thera gave her a nod of thanks before turning to address Aso. “So there you have it. Even if it’s going to be a while until you officially start working with them, talk to them for a bit and figure things out and remember, if Skoe mistreats you in any way then just tell me and I’ll ask the spirits to hide his body somewhere nobody would ever find. It would be easy enough to get it dragged to the center of the planet and without witnesses we wouldn’t have to worry so don’t hesitate, okay?”

Aso nodded happily at that while Skoe felt a shiver go down his spine at how matter-of-factly she said it, making him truly believe she was fully willing to carry out that threat before she turned to thank them one more time and went off, happy with how things had turned out as she headed home.

So that’s one problem done, as long as none of them die during the next wave and Aso doesn’t do anything stupid until we’re all back then things will be fine, that just leaves-

That. Perfect.

It was a job she’d been gaining passive experience for and any time she wasn’t equipping her mana empowering to her soul she had her brace on to suppress whatever dark effect she was intentionally giving off, making that a quick one as she lightly touched her necklace, getting nothing new to choose from and leaving her to take what she’d already been planning, war mage.

A few of those levels were enough to raise an eyebrow at, especially the sleep resistance given how much effort she’d just put into raising it and what gaining a level implied for the expectations of a mage going to war, but all of it would be useful to her, just like any skill would be and given the name of the job itself, she’d be gaining a flood of experience soon enough, all she’d need to do was her best on the battlefield that would lay before her.