<~> Chapter 102It was a long night. I was frankly surprised by the sheer number of mohat had tried to attack ons. The early m was filled with adventurers cutting into the corpses of the mohat had prowled too close through the night. The experience was eye-opening, when I had been told that monsters were more active at night I didn't think that it was to this extent. There were over a dozen monster corpses per wagon surrounding us. We were lucky that everything that had gotten close was retively low leveled and small. None of them were like the rge Stream stalker we had fought in the rain. One of the other adveold me that it's even more dangerous trying to travel at night, many monsters like to chase you if you're moving at night.

  I watched over Torien's shoulder as she cut out another mana core from the st of the monster corpses. None of the mohat attacked us were particurly valuable i or hides so she just cut into the bodies to retrieve the mana cores ahe rest aside. To feel like I was helping rather than just watg her, I dragged the bodies off te pyre the adventurers had set up for this purpose after she was doh eae. Only one of the mohrough the entire night had been valuable and it had been taken down by some of the adventurers oher side of on circle. Some kind e electric deer. It was rather impressive looking if nothing else.

  "Lilith look at this!" Torien held up a rge yellow mana core. It was much rger thahers by a pretty signifit degree.

  "That's big." I unhelpfully pointed out.

  Torien just ughed. "It is, but look! This yellow eans it's terra-aspected mana. This might be enough to charge Man's staff!"

  "That's great! We'll have to tell Man, she'll probably be excited."

  It was still quite early but everyone in roup was already awake, including my party. Tarklin wao get a really early start to put some distaween us and the cultists ba the city and I couldn't agree more. Putting some distaween myself and the Tamin adherents didn't seem like a bad idea either. From the way Corrine spoke, I seemed more ected to 'The Order of Lilith' than just my name. After hearing all that I was surprised she let me go at all evee the situation. The more I thought about it the more I was sure I should do everything I could to avoid the Tamin Church further, not that it's been all that easy so far.

  I finally came up to Bel, Man, and Silva. They seemed to be in a good mht now, it was o see after everything that happened yesterday. Even Bel looked like she was in good spirits again. I got there just in time to see someone I was surprised to see approag roup. Fae was timidly ing over but as she got closer she kept gng at Silva nervously.

  I smiled at her. "Good m Fae. Are you doing alright? We were worried about you."

  She put on a forced smile. "Yes, good m Lilith. I'm doing well... uhe circumstances." She turo Silva. "I'm... I'm gd you're okay Silva..."

  Silva was caught off guard. "Thanks. I'm gd you're alright too, st night was crazy..." The air was awkward, her of them knew what else to say.

  Finally, Fae turned bae. "That goes for all of you, I was worried when the five of you didn't leave town with us. It was a relief to hear you rejoined us after I had goo sleep. Someoold me you had run into... some of the people attag the city."

  I nodded. "We weren't sure what was going on but we made it out okay. It was like a warzoweeamin churd the people in bck. After we were... attacked, we were able to avoid them."

  "Right..." There was an awkward air for a moment before she cleared her throat. "Would you be willing to have lunch with me ter today? I hear we're skipping breakfast to put some distaween us and... whoever those people are."

  I smiled. "Sure, I don't mind." I turo my friends who all nodded, including Silva. "Should we find you at lunch?"

  She smiled, she looked like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "No need, I will e to find the five of you. Be safe during our travels." She nodded a, returning to Tarklin before entering the carriage she spent most of her time in.

  Silva scratched the back of her head. "What was that about? I thought she hated me..."

  Man smiled. "Perhaps it's not that simple."

  "Oh! Mori! Look what we found from one of our kills this m!" She pulled out the rger-than-average terra monster core.

  Man's eyes lit up. "A terra core! This might be enough to aspect my staff with Terra magic!" She turned and hugged her sister tight before turning to me. " I have this please? I think it'll work!"

  I smiled. "Of course, will it take long to do?"

  "No, it should be quick! we do it now?"

  "Sure, what should we do?"

  She handed me the core. "Hold this out and I'll draw the mana from it and move it to my staff." She turo look at Mimi who was currently a neckce around Bel's neck. "Make sure you watch closely Mimi, it'll be good practice for your mana sight," she whispered.

  I felt her aowledgment through our bond. "She's watg. Are you ready?"

  "Yes! Let's do this."

  I held out the orb and watched as the terra-aspected mana slowly pulled from the stone and swirled around Man. It didn't shoot straight into the staff as I had initially imagined, instead, it flowed around her, like it was orbiting her instead. Once all of the mana was drawn out of the stohin sliver branched off of the mana like a thin river and fed intan's clear gss staff. Man's brows furrowed in tration as the swirl of mana pooled into the staff, increasing in speed as she went. Before long the maled iaff and the clear gss now looked like it had fkes of gold suspended in it. Ohe mana had taken root iaff, she released her trol and it began to emaerra magic.

  Man was nearly vibrating iement now. "I think it worked! Let me try it!"

  She held the staff out in front of her and I could see Man take trol of some of the ambient mana and vert it to terra magic. The mana raced into the ground and a small pilr of brown stone-like hardened dirt rose out of the ground in a fsh, creating a wall a little bit taller than herself. Man gasped in wonder before patting the stone wall experimentally. Curious I pushed against the wall she had created myself. Despite its look, it was totally solid. Something more akin to crete from my estimation, though not as cool and smooth.

  She quickly turo me. "Lilith! This ges everything! This opens up so many options!"

  I looked around, notig the odd pt of a stone wall out in the middle of a field. I turned baan. " you uh... put the wall back? I don't know if it's a good idea to leave a random wall in the middle of nowhere. Especially this close to town."

  "Right! Of course! Hold o me try." Some of the surrounding mana once again turo terra magic, though this time Man's trol of it looked weaker. She mao work it in the wall but rather than sink it bato the ground it instead began to soften and fall into a pile of dirt, vely filling a hole that opened beh it.

  Man wiped the sweat from her bro, okay. That was harder than I thought. It seems I'm not as used t with terra magic as I thought and there are some limitations to the amount of ambient mana I vert at a time. It's not like there's a hard limit but I only grab and trol so much mana arou'll take practice but I think I get better at it and even now I could probably build structures given a little time!" She grabbed her sister and pulled her into a group hug with me. "Thank you thank you! I'm so gd you two found this for me!"

  Torien looked a bit awkward, clearly not used to this level of public affe, even from her sister. But I could see hoy she was to see Man so excited. I squeezed the two girls, taking advantage of the opportunity to give the twins a big group hug.

  Torien patted my shoulder. "Okay okay! That's enough, everyone's staring at us!" Despite the rge blush on her face, Torien seemed quite happy. That didn't stop her from pushing the two of us off of her though.

  "That's all very impressive and all, but it's time we got going." I turo see Tarklin standio where the wall had beely testing the ground with his foot. "We're aiming to get ba the road ihan half a bell. Get to your positions. Lilith, do you think you're up to ride Nikka again today?"

  "Sure." I nodded.

  "Great! Oh! Before I fet, I talked to one of the merts and he agreed to blead dye your armor the ime we stop for the night. Don't worry about paying for it, I worked out a deal with him. Give me the twandines and I'll have them colored blue for you."

  "Blue?" I asked.

  He nodded. "That was the color I was able to work out with the mert. I assumed you wouldn't want something ugly like yellow and apparently he has enough surplus blue that I was able to make a deal with him, even if blue is normally quite expensive."

  "Sure that sounds good to me." I quickly g Silva who just nodded. "Are you sure you're willing to pay for it?"

  He smiled. "Not a problem, sider it a bonus for taking the uuna shifts. You don't realize it but taking the number of shifts you have has really saved the pany a lot of trouble. Nikka seems to like you quite a bit as well, that doesn't always happen so I like to reward it where I . It means you have a good heart."

  "Sounds a bit cheesy," I say with a grin.

  He ughs. "Perhaps it does, but it doesn't ge how I feel about it. Alright everyone, get to your positions. We o get moving. We're going to be moving through the te Baron's territory today and we might need extra time to find a suitable pce to stay the night with everything going ht now."

  He waved and started heading for a different group of people he had to talk to before we left. Tarklin really was a busy man.

  I turo my party. "Alright, who wants to go with who today?"

  " I go with Man today? I want to talk to her about some things..." Bel said nervously.

  "Of course, Man?" I turo her.

  "I'd be happy to. Beware though Bel, you'll have to listen to me gabbing on about all the hings I do with terra magic!" Man looked quite enthusiastic right now.

  Bel smiled. "Not a problem. Maybe you help me with my nature magic too? We 't really practice while moving but your input might help me out."

  "Sure! That sounds fun!"

  I look over at the other two, Torien and Silva. "That means you twoing to ride together again. I hope you don't mind."

  Silva looked over at Torien. "Sounds good to me. I like hanging out with her, she's really iing to talk to."

  For the briefest moment I thought I saw Torien blush at the pliment but rather than aowledge it she just quickly moved on. "No problem Lilith. Will you be okay riding today? You didn't get any sleep st night."

  I patted her on the shoulder. "No problem! I feel great thanks to you. Hopefully you get some sleep orip."

  She ughed. "Yeah, I don't know about that. I'd be too scared of falling off!"

  The five of us ughed aarted to split up. Before I walked off Bel handed me Mimi's neckce, Mimi seemed to prefer being near me during the day. I took the neckd put it on. It felt a tiny bit heavier than it should but the weight was fortable. It retty amazing Mimi could shift to such a small form at all. I felt gratitude and fidence flow through our bond, Mimi seemed to enjoy sharing her emotions more than her words. It felt quite intimate and it made me feel closer to the Mimic, despite her having to hide all the time.

  I checked Nikka's straps, patted her gently on the neck, and climbed up. As challenging as yesterday was, today doesn't seem like it'll give us a break either. Time to get moving.

  Saine

  Hello! Torien got a bit of an upgrade! Let's hope she doesn't have to use it too soon. See you ime!

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