Chapter 56: The Loot

Chapter 56: The Loot

“What happened to her?” The pity in Tavia’s voice couldn’t be mistaken.

Seris was slumped against the house’s wall, bemoaning her life and trying her best to keep the many, many cakes she had eaten inside her stomach. Cal felt a pang of regret at having to speed back to the Northern Wastes. However, the fear of damage to his crops made it necessary in his mind.

He had managed to reduce the trip to less than thirty minutes, but looking at Seris, he wondered if it was worth it.

“Poor girl,” Tavia knelt beside Seris and gently patted her back. “Do you need me to take you to a healer? My carriage will let us get to town quickly.”

Seris heard the word ‘quickly’ and turned greener than she already was. It looked like she was going to fail to keep the food inside her stomach.

“I’m—” Cal was interrupted.

“No! No more talk about trips! I want to keep my delicious desserts inside!” Seris wriggled around like she was about to die, then froze as she looked at Cal. “I left a slice of cake in the restaurant!” She proceeded to look even more miserable than she already was.

Cal really had been feeling apologetic, but the mention of cake erased almost all of his sympathy. If she could cry about uneaten dessert, the issue clearly wasn’t as severe as she made it.

“I have some work to do. Keep an eye on her, Tavia,” Cal left after his fellow guild member nodded without looking at him. Tavia was more concerned about consoling Seris.

He walked to the planted patch and noticed the soil almost looked dry. If he hadn’t returned at full speed, the disaster he feared might have actually happened. He cast [Rainfall] and watched it revitalize the soil.

Tavia and Seris are much closer than I expected. Cal looked in their direction. And they’ve only met a few times.

He wasn’t complaining about it. It was more of a fascination with how fast they clicked together. He didn’t think it was possible to get along so quickly.

It took Oleg and I nearly a year before we bothered to care about something as unimportant as the other’s feelings.

Cal glanced at them again with furrowed brows.

This may be how they are. They became comfortable with me in no time at all.

He finished watering the crops and studied the part of the field next to the patch. The slurry of water and powdered crystals he had spread across the patch had almost settled, but it still needed a few more hours before he could proceed to the last step and add the mulch.

Cal noticed that Tavia and Seris had disappeared, likely moving inside the house. He had no desire to join them. At least, not when the replacement furnishings hadn’t arrived yet. The Overseer mentioned an order that should arrive closer to the end of the day, and he assumed that it would be delivered together with the furnishings.Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

I might as well study the spell booklets.

He made a short hop to the makeshift flat top of the rocky rubble and took a seat. It was then he realized that the ’short hop’ was well over twenty feet high.

... I really need to measure my physical limits at some point. With how weak most guild members are, I might be able to overpower them in a battle purely due to my strength while they are Initiates.

Cal’s fantasy of powering his way through battles with his fists would probably stay a fantasy. Still, the image it brought up amused him. He chuckled as he pulled out the booklet for [Liquid Core].

Liquid Core

Description: Create a ball of water. The size can range from a marble to the limit of what your mana can handle.

Effect: Can be manipulated for various purposes. The most common being a blunt weapon.

Learning [Rainfall] took care of most of the basics of learning water spells. [Liquid Core] needed the knowledge of how water acted in different conditions. Temperature changes and pressure, to name a few.

He quickly realized what happened.

The mana I infused into the ball dissipated before impact. The density was lost, and so was any chance of damage to the stone. My mana wasn’t going to waste like I assumed.

Cal waited patiently for several minutes for his mana to recover to max capacity before trying again. A few seconds later, he once again had a ball of water floating before him.

He didn’t spare more mana than was necessary and dumped it all into the ball.

Cal picked the same stone as the target and launched the water ball with his remaining mana.

BOOM!

The stone no longer existed. A wide hole had taken its place.

That worked.

Cal already planned to make the whole process efficient, but now he was adding the next step: making it possible to conjure multiple balls of water at the same time.

It could allow him to suppress any threats long before they came close to him.

“What was that!?”

Cal turned to see Seris and Tavia staring at him. The hills of rubble blocked them from seeing the area where he launched the water ball.

“I’m testing a new spell!”

“Oh! Can I see?” Seris might have posed that as a question, but she was already scrambling up the hill.

It looks like she got over her nausea.

Cal didn’t deny her, but it wouldn’t be impressive. Not after what she saw Tavia do. Speaking of...

“Where are you going?” Cal asked as Tavia headed to the stables.

“Lumina!” Tavia yelled back. “I want to make sure the things I’ve ordered are correct. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

A wide smile appeared on Cal’s face. “Thank you for your hard work! I’ll be waiting for you to return with furnishing in reasonable colors!”

He chuckled when Tavia glared at him out of her carriage as she left the field.

“Cal,” Seris poked him as soon as she stood beside him at the peak. “Show me the new spell.”

Cal’s lips twitched at her boldness. He was more convinced than even that she hadn’t seen whatever he did to Tarn.

“You didn’t want to go with Tavia? I remember you were reluctant to leave Lumina.”

Seris turned a light shade of green. “Let’s not talk about going anywhere, please.”

Cal looked away to hide his smile when she uneasily put her hands on her stomach.