“Are you sure you don’t want a ride with us, uncle?” She asked as they prepared to part ways at the gate.

“I originally only came back to tell you all that I’d be delayed by a month, the client had more work for me than expected so the sooner I go deal with it the sooner I get home. Just be safe driving that thing, would you?”

“Don’t worry, it’s actually super easy,” She told him enthusiastically, the smile on her face hidden by her cloak now that they had to leave. Aside from training with her father, she’d taken to practicing moving the carriage with her mana as well and was finding it far more enjoyable than she’d expected. It left her feeling a level of freedom that she usually only enjoyed while she was hunting, but it felt like the world had opened up to her now that she had this.

He didn’t look convinced but wished them well after extracting a promise from him that he’d make her be careful, and with that they were on their way.

“JESUS CHRIST THERA SLOW DOWN!” Ben yelled as she drove the carriage down the empty dirt road between the gate and Stonewall. As soon as she’d gotten out of the city and didn’t have to worry about any other carriages blocking her way she decided to see just how fast she could go, and she couldn’t help but be thrilled with the results despite his complaints.

“Don’t worry so much, I’m just getting us back a little faster than expected, I think we can cut the time down to a single day if I keep up the pace.”

“I DIDN’T PUT SEATBELTS ON THIS THING IF YOU NEED TO COME TO A SUDDEN STOP WE’RE BOTH FLYING OFF AND DYING PLEASE LOWER THE SPEED!”

“Fine fine, no need to be such a baby about it,” She said as she did what he asked. At the very least she’d made plenty of distance before giving in, they could still probably manage it in one trip so long as they drove through the night.

“If my intense desire to live makes me a baby then so be it, we don’t all have a vitality over a thousand you know. At least let me get a couple more levels of defense enhancement before you do that again.”

“Come on, relax. Aren’t you looking forward to getting back too?”

“Yes, ideally with all of my limbs attached.”

“Again, you’re being a baby. I already slowed down and everything.”

“Just want to remind you that I already went through dying once is all. Even if it happened while I was asleep, I don't want any repeats.”

“I’m only going twice as fast as anyone else now, it’s fine.”

She thought she heard him muttering something about speed limits and other things she wasn’t too sure of when her eyes caught something a bit farther ahead, and without warming sped up.

“Thera!”

“I think someone ahead is being attacked, just hold on!”

There was a carriage in the distance at a standstill with something surrounding it, and as she drew closer she was able to make out the forms a bit easier, leaving her to groan.

“Oh man, don’t tell me those are what I think they are?” Ben asked.

“If you think they’re more time ferrets then I have bad news for you.”

“Great. In that case, what do you want to do?”

There looked to be ten of them surrounding the carriage, keeping it at a standstill as they repeatedly threw themselves at it head first, as well as trying to dig through the doors with their claws. They had their time magic to slow them down while speeding up their own movements, but she was pretty sure she had an idea to at least deal with a few of them.

“Um, you might want to hang onto something,” She warned before bringing her speed up and slamming into the five on her side, feeling their bodies break as the metal carriage slammed into them as Ben swore up a storm.

“Oh, I did not like that.”

“Just five more,” She said as she jumped out of the carriage, trying to get the rest before they could react. They were on the other side of the carriage but she moved to get them in her sights, finding them frozen from the development, an opportunity she didn’t let herself miss on.

Using her earth magic she raised a cloud of dirt into the air letting go of the smaller dust to focus on the pebbles and stones, before bringing it together as if she were trying to make an earth bullet out of it, but with a level of power and speed that could only be done through a tremendous expenditure of mana as each tiny stone tore through the bodies of the beasts, leaving them dead on the ground and riddled with holes.

The carnage of the attack couldn’t help fill her with joy. Despite its violence, it was more evidence of her growing control to match her power, with the notification going off in her head being the icing on the cake. As disappointing as it was that she hadn’t gained a level of earth magic during the job, it wasn’t like the bonuses went anywhere, and after checking the occupants of the carriage to offer her healing magic if they needed it she went to Ben to use his job crystal, admiring the options before her.

AVAILABLE JOBS

Queen of mana Musician Professional Dancer Bard Darkness mage -charm specialized Life mage Healer Telekinetic mage Dark mage Spirit mage Adventurer

As exciting as it was to see the adventurer job available for becoming rank four, she was well aware it was an option she’d probably never take unless desperate. While it was disappointing that there weren’t any new options besides that, it did leave her to think on what exactly to take.

My only real options are life mage, healer, telekinetic mage, or spirit mage. But which to go with? Healer and life mage are both basically the same anyway, and I really would like to get a bit better with my life magic. On the other hand, I could do more with my earth magic if I took telekinetic mage too. Obviously, it’s one of those two that are the correct choice. I'm looking to improve my earth magic and my life magic, I should clearly pick one of them. She thought as she tried to convince herself, before heaving a sigh and giving in to her curiosity, taking spirit mage.

Name: Thera Oress

Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid

Titles: Spirit Child

Jobs: Spirit mage (lv15)

Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage, Earth mage, True mage, High earth mage

Attributes:

Vitality: 1036 Vitality recovery rate: 11/hr Mana: 256,849 Mana recovery rate: 35/min Strength: 108 Agility: 364 Stamina: 303 Intelligence: 290

Affinities:

Light: 4 Life: 22 Fire: 11 Water: 14 Air: 12 Earth: 103 Death: 3 Dark: 43 Space: 2 Time: 1

Resistances:

Light: 5 Life: 9 Fire: 11 Water: 16 Air: 12 Earth: 35 Death: 13 Dark: 42 Space: 7 Time: 8

Blessed skills:

Earth magic lv7 Charm magic lv2

Passive skills:

World speak+ Coordination lv3 Medical knowledge lv2 Bind

Active skills:

Calculate lv1 Dance lv4 String instrument lv3 Woodwind instrument lv2 Cleaning lv1 Staff wielder lv0 Meditation lv2 Speed reading lv2 Life magic lv4 Telekinesis lv1 Dark magic lv1 Spirit empowering lv0

Blessings:

Anailias Blessing

Trials:

Trial of Anailia and Tolona

Well… that’s a lot to take in.

Considering it was the first time any of her jobs had ever provided either levels or skills, to say that what just happened was big was an understatement. Almost a quarter of her skills had just improved all at once, and the change was enough to leave her feeling dizzy. She didn’t even have it in her to feel too bad about her charm going up as well, though something must have shown to that effect as Ben took her hand.

“Everything okay?” He asked, eyes filled with concern.

“Well, my charm went up, but I don’t think I can let it bother me too much when every single affinitied magic skill I have did as well. Looks like I’m pretty compatible with the spirit mage job, I even got a new skill on top of it.”

“Wow,” He was as stunned as she was. Even if he’d gotten a couple levels and skills by that point, what she’d received was massive. That wasn’t even considering what she hadn’t mentioned, that the bonuses to those skills were described as major, a good indicator that things would be going very well for her so long as she carried it through to the end. “In that case, what’s the new skill?”

“Spirit empowering. I’m not positive, but it feels like it costs mana to use,” All she had to go off of was what little instinctual knowledge came with the skill, as well as the fact it was an active skill, but that still left plenty of possibilities that needed to be explored if she was going to figure it out. Not that it was a priority. It seemed like she’d be able to level the job just fine as she used her magic like she normally did, worst to worst it could be ignored.

“From the name, maybe it’s a buff skill then?” Ben asked, significantly more curious since he’d be making a copy of it for his enchanting. “From how it sounds I’d think maybe one that could exclusively be used on spirits, but then what would it buff? Maybe it would make their magic more powerful since they aren’t able to level it?”

“Not sure but I can work on figuring it out later if I see any stray spirits, for the time being let's focus on getting the rest of the way home.”

At Ben’s insistence, they stopped for the night to rest before getting back to town by the afternoon the following day. While she would have been happy to test the maximum speed they could go, it seemed to put him on edge so she gave in.

Once they got to town, they parked their new carriage around the back of her uncle's shop before walking home from there. Since they didn’t have anywhere else to store it that was the only real choice, but given its sheer weight from being made of solid metal as well as the lack of places to get an animal to pull from, theft wasn’t a major concern.

They let themselves enjoy the walk back the best they could, though Ben's spirits were still low from the dour ending of their trip.

“Want to stop for a snack?” She suggested, trying to appeal to his stomach. “It’s been a while since we’ve been back, I wouldn’t mind a taste of home.”

“Maybe tomorrow, I don’t know why but the atmosphere feels kind of bad. Why does everyone around look so worried?”

Ah.

During the last few weeks he’d been cooped away, doing his best to save Inux, meaning he wasn’t super aware of what was going on. She should have realized, but that meant the awkward responsibility of explaining things was falling to her.

“In a couple weeks we’ll be seeing if the prophet gods were right with their earliest prediction for the invasion, it’s not just here, the entire world is a little on edge. Still, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, with a two-decade window, what's the point of being bothered by it for the time being?”

“Wait, what?” He asked, confused. “Shouldn’t there be something like another year before we need to worry about that?”

“Yeah, but for whatever reason, the invaders announce their arrival a year in advance, we’ll be seeing it in a couple weeks if they’ll be here in a year.”

“So that means it’s already been two years, huh?” He said quietly as his expression took on a darker tone before he tried to force it back. “Well, no point in worrying about it when nothing’s happened yet. Let’s just relax for the day, I could use a break.”

Despite the assertion that he wanted to relax, both she and her aunt could tell that something was wrong as the night went on. He lacked the spirit he usually had and snuck off to bed early while they were in the middle of a game of low mage.

“So what happened with Ben?” Sonya asked when they were alone. “It seems like something’s on his mind.”

“I don’t know. He was sad about what happened with the talos that came for his help, but then we got to talking about why everyone in town seemed worried and his mood dropped even more from there. Maybe he’s worried about the invasion?”

She wished she was as good at reading him as he was for her, or better yet, to have a skill with mind reading aspects to it like he did, but no such luck. All she could do was try to pull together the best guess she could, something her aunt had far more experience with as she tapped her cheek, her eyes lighting up in understanding.

“Right, I suppose if it’s close to the invasion prophecy then we’re also close to that.”

“What?”

“The anniversary of the various summoned arriving in the world, including Ben.”

She wanted to hit herself. Of course that would be the issue, how could she not have been able to see that herself? Not only was she well aware that he still struggled with the fact that his home was lost to him, it was the anniversary of his death. How could this be anything but a stressful time for him?

She stared down at the brace on her arm, something he kept working hard on improving for her. He’d done so much to try and help her since they’d met and it felt like she’d done so little to thank him in comparison. If he was going to be in a bad place emotionally because of it then she wanted to help, the only question was how?