You gained an Achievement: Lightning Tempering I

Reward: Increases your Lightning Affinity by one grade. C->B

You gained an Achievement: Metal Tempering I

Reward: Increases your Metal Affinity by one grade. C->B

You gained an Achievement: Elemental Tempering I

Reward: Elemental Power Gain II

Trait: Elemental Power Gain II:

When you get damaged by the elements of one of the elemental classes in your tree, you get (OV affinity + 25% of your Magical Power) in percent of the damage in mana.

Flora tried to flatten her hair as she walked to the loggy to hand in the quests. The lightning had worked better than hairspray to give her an 80s glam rock hairstyle.

Weekly Quest completed: Weekly Tempering (Elemental Caverns).

Rewards: Free access to an elemental cave. Bonus XP for all elemental affinities

Bonus: Survive 30 minutes of tempering.

Bonus-Reward: Choose one Elemental Meditation Chamber

Difficulty: S.

Completion: SS

Flora chose the Lightning Meditation Chamber because she never wanted to revisit a Lightning Cave.

Quest: Lightning Tempering (Zauberberg).

Rewards: Free access to a lightning cave. Bonus XP for Lightning Affinity

Bonus: Survive 30 minutes of tempering.

Bonus-Reward: S rated Lightning Core

Difficulty: A.

Completion: SS

…[the same notification for the other elements]…

Kaytsak closed in on Flora's hand, holding the lightning core.

"Right, that's the stuff elementals like to eat. I've seen them in rune-schemes, too. For what else do the cores get used?"

"Elemental Cores are valuable crafting materials, Milady."

"Sorry, Kaytsak. I need them. I want to build a Mover and a mech-suit that work in a magic environment." Flora pocketed the cores. "We have saved two hours because of the dual elemental caves. How should we use them? I still haven't done the quests for the Weapon-Master classes."

"A good choice, Milady. Your quest to find the Energymaster Trainer is open and nearby, as well. Additionally, the Elemental Cliff has a quarry and mines, and above it is the Zauberberg Forrest with elemental trees and herbs. All materials harvested in this area have strong magical and elemental properties."

"Sure, when we are already here… "

Aidan guided Flora to a staircase that was carved into the cliff. When she reached the top, she had a nice view of the bay and Zauberberg. The city was mindboggling. Discs with domes floated over, under, and next to each other. Some had rope bridges to others, and some had no connections at all. Maybe the junk room of a confectioner with cake boxes thrown in haphazardly would look like it.

"You have to pick up a quest, Milady. Otherwise, you'll lose reputation with Zauberberg if you fell elemental trees."

Flora jogged along the top of the cliff on a trail. The trail curved inland and stopped at a treehouse. Ignoring the players who sat on benches around it, Flora went straight to the loggy.

Weekly Quest: Wood Tag (Zauberberg Forest).

Description: With this quest, you are allowed to harvest one healthy tree for every five infected trees that you clear in the Zauberberg Forest.

Cleared infected trees: 0/25

Harvested healthy trees: 0/5

Rewards: Training XP for Wood Affinity.

Penalty: None for failing. Double reputation loss for destroying too many healthy trees.

Difficulty: D.

Bonus: Turn in your harvest.

Bonus-Rewards: According to the rating of the trees.

"I'm interested in metal and air trees for the mech-suit and the mover." Flora looked at the woods next to the treehouse. They seemed to be broadleaves, similar to oak.

Name: Oakary tree.

Description: Wood infused Oakary tree.

Rating: D

"I have downloaded the map, Milady. Trees of the same elements grow in the same area. I'll guide you to the metal and wind domain."

Flora sprinted through the forest until she saw a tree with a yellow fungus covering its bark.

Wood Domain Suppression: -1 OV Domain Handicap to non-wood skills. – 1 HP per minute.

Name: Infected Oakary tree.

Description: Wood infused Oakary tree, infected with Oakary fungi.

Rating: E

The tree crashed into the ground, and a cloud of spores rose.

"Ooops? How do we contain the spores of the fungus? Is there a way to kill the fungus without killing the tree?"

The book '1000 Homemaker Spells' helped Flora again.

The fungi on the stump and trunk shriveled, and Flora pocketed the cleared timber.

Cleared infected trees: 1/25

Harvested healthy trees: 1/5

"The counter is wrong. I clearly harvested an infected tree." Flora was miffed because she wasted one of her tags on an inferior grade tree.

On her way to the air region, she just healed the infected trees but refrained from felling them. Now and then, infected elementals and cute little mushroom warriors attacked Flora. She decimated them and animated a golem so that she didn't have to pick up the loot herself. To free up mana-reg, she changed back into her embroidered set and reduced Kaytsaks upkeep to fifteen MR/min.

The air grew colder as the wood-infused trees gave way to ice. Instead of green foliage, ice crystals replaced the leaves on the trees.

Then the wind picked up, and the first air trees appeared. The leaves resembled thin glass slices, and they jingled in the storm.

Air Domain Suppression: -1 OV Domain Handicap to non-air skills. – 1 HP per minute.

Flora channeled the spell while surveying the area. The trees glowed in varying degrees of intensity. Stopping in front of the strongest glowing tree, she cast Identify.

Name: Oakary tree.

Description: Air infused Oakary tree.

Rating: A

"Alright, remember this tree's location, Aidan. We'll run a lap to see if we can find an S-rated specimen."

(Channeled)

Next to a clearing, Flora found a tree with a strong magical aura. With Astral Vision, it looked majestic. Without the spell, one wouldn't spot a difference compared to the trees around it, except that one of the biggest elemental Flora had ever seen guarded the clearing.

Name: Oakary tree.

Description: Air infused Oakary tree.

Rating: S

The angry guardian looked like a small tornado, bigger than Shish, but not much taller than Flora.

Name: Angry Guardian

Type: Wind Elemental

Rating: B

Level: 1

"Can my wrenches even hurt a tornado?" Flora mused.

"Every elemental has a core inside, Milady. You can damage energy type elementals with standard weapons by hitting it. Magic works very well, too. Of course, they have high resistances to their own element and some resistances to other elements. So, everything but air, metal, and fire magic is suitable for fighting air elementals."

Kaytsak wielded lightning and Golly ice, so Flora shrugged and walked into spell range.

(Right Hand, Wavering Wave-Ring:)

(Right Hand, Wavering Wave-Ring, channeled:)

(Left Hand, Toasted Bracelet, channeled:)

The elemental had to struggle for every meter. The lightning shocked and jolted him and, more often than not, interrupted the casting of his wind blades. Meanwhile, Golly's ice spell slowed down him further.

Flora ignored his spells. The two he managed to form only substracted 30 damage from her. That was under 2% of her pool.

When the elemental arrived at a distance of five meters, it only had 12% of its health left, but it conjured a mighty gust that blew Kaytsak away and rattled the golly. Flora felt the wind, but other than tussling up her already destroyed hairstyle, it didn't affect her.

Flora and Golly killed it before Kaytsak rejoined the combat.

Astonished, Flora looked at the trunk. Only a scar not even as wide as her hand marred it.

Finally, the tree fell.

Cleared infected trees: 18/25

Harvested healthy trees: 2/5

Flora's hands itched to inspect the wood, and she tested its flexibility (excellent), weight (light), and smell (nice).

"Great stuff! Let's see if we can find another one." Flora ran one more lap around the domain and a slalom straight through it, but her Astral Vision enhanced sight only spotted two more A-rated trees.

Because the metal domain was on the opposite end of the cliff, Flora ran back.

While crossing the ice domain, a tall hedgerow blocked her way.

!

Flora's eyes widened when she saw where she had landed. The hedges surrounded the area on three sides. Neat rows of ice flowers adorned the space between them. A cottage stood at the fourth side.

"I think I trespassed?"

A mob of mini elementals seemed to agree. Not only did they have the size of dogs, but they stormed to Flora like they were watchdogs. Frisbee-sized snowflakes and a smurf attacked her with thin ice and water bolts.

"Holy toaster, I might die because of cuteness overload!" Flora was smitten with the little critters and stopped Kaytsak just in time from frying them.

Name: Infantile Ice-Water Elemental

Type: Infantile Hybrid Ice-Water Elemental

Rating: A

"Let's leave before the owner notices us." Flora was very tempted to snatch the smurf and tickle it until it told her its name. The elemental was a water drop with the top part frosted, which gave him the smurf head's appearance with its typical white hat.

Flora and her crew hopped over the flowerbeds to the opposite wall, but the mini elemental army waltzed right through it.

As Flora sailed to the air, an ice lance hit her, and she crashed into the hedge. Opposite to the infants' mini bolts, it carved quite a bit of health out of her pool.

"Stop right there, burglar!" A female voice commanded.

"I'm very sorry. This is a misunderstanding. I didn't know that this was private property before entering." Flora said as she disentangled herself from the icy hedge.

A woman with white hair and light blue skin pointed an ornamental staff at Flora.

Name: Dean Isabella Ghiaccio

Class: Frost Ruler

Level: 1 (250)

Rating: S

RGS: 10

Flora raised her hands in the air and immediately felt silly and had to grin.

"This is no laughing matter. You destroyed my ice flowers!"

Flora looked at the real culprits, but half of them signaled righteous anger and the other half over the top innocence. Although Flora didn't execute the damage, she was wise enough to realize that she was responsible and didn't protest. She wouldn't blame adorable babies for her mistake. Did the snowflake just do a cartwheel? That was so cute!

With difficulty, Flora wrenched her focus back to the destroyed flowers.

!

Realizing that she just proved that she could do magic with her hands in the air, Flora gave up the futile pose and directed the spell at the destroyed flowerbeds. The shards of the broken ice merged into blossoms, sparkling in the sunlight.

"Here you go, better than new. Can I do anything else to compensate you for my oversight?" Flora asked politely.

"You may go. Don't let me catch you again."

"Thank you, and your elementals are really adorable! How can one summon them?"

The lady had lowered her staff and inspected Flora even more critically than before. "I'm in the middle of finishing an experiment. If you babysit them for one hour, I'll teach you how to summon hybrid elementals."

Flora checked the time, and she had the two hours she had saved and a buffer left over until the entourage selection.

"Can you teach me summoning baby elementals instead?"

"Why would you want to do that?" The mage asked, exasperated. "They can't be summoned. Their mother is my contracted summon and left them with me."

"Alright, I take the first deal. Enjoy your experiments. The little darlings are in good hands."

Hidden Quest: Babysitting Hybrid Ice-Water Elementals

Description: Keep the infant elementals occupied, healthy and happy, and the Dean's garden pristine for one hour.

Reminder: Don't share the contents of a hidden quest.

Reward: Variant for Summon Elemental: Summon Hybrid Elemental

Penalty: Hostile Reputation with Dean Isabella Ghiaccio

Difficulty: C