Chapter 39 - Routine

Despite all the changes to herself and her daily life, Lily’s daily routine felt oddly similar to her prior routine…with only minor alterations. Meditation and trying to move the Mana in her body took up much of her time, which would have been spent learning new crests and sigils. However, Lily still practiced her current repertoire appropriately to ensure they didn't fall out of practice.

Her work at Camilla's shop changed the most. Rather than drawing glyphs, the woman now had her practicing brewing potions! Camilla had so many pages of stored glyphs now that the woman probably could last a month or two without needing a single new one.

Lily welcomed the change, though, as it was the rare opportunity she had to spend her Mana. Through the brewing process, they discovered that while Lily had Mana, her capacity was minuscule , according to the alchemist.

When they made that discovery, the woman tried to console Lily, as having a small Mana capacity was one of the main reasons people failed to become fully qualified mages.

Lily took the news with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was disappointed to hear that she didn't do a good enough job, but on the other hand, Lily knew that she would be able to grow it.

I'm starting small, but I'll catch up and eventually surpass everyone else! I got Rose and Arakil on my side!

Lily tried her best to understand how the enchanted ladle was pulling her Mana to her hands with such ease, but it was still a very alien feeling to her. She could only compare it to suddenly growing an extra hand and not understanding how to use it properly.

Or… I guess a tail? Poor Rose probably also feels awkward about having that addition.

After a brewing session, Lily would have to take a break to recover her Mana. She tried her best to time it, but she realized that her impatience was getting the better of her. This would probably be a long-term goal, and she wouldn't see significant gains after only a few tries.

Her monster outing with Rose drew nearer, and Lily was still unsuccessful with gathering Mana in her hands unaided. She needed to draw more glyphs so as not to be deadweight or use her last resort from Arakil.

I have one shadow cloak, four shields, two light orbs, and Arakil's attack spell… That isn't nearly enough!

Lily put on her best pleading face and asked Camilla to help her by brewing a batch of glyph ink.

"Sure, why not?" Camilla said with a shrug. "Better yet, I'll teach you how to do it!"

Lily giggled with delight. It had entirely slipped her mind that it was something she could do now. She wrote down everything Camilla said in great detail, especially the solvent needed to properly dissolve the Fairymoss.

Camilla particularly liked this solvent as it catalyzed with Mana to aid in the dissolving process. Once channeled Mana was removed, it lost that acidity. It was one of the main reasons she had never given the final recipe to Lily, as without Mana, Lily would have crafted a very subpar version of glyph ink, as the solvent would have failed to dissolve the herb properly.

That's just another reason why people never bothered with glyph ink… If you need someone with Mana to make it in the first place, you're put in a very hard position where you're entirely reliant on others. Lily thought somberly.

Under Camilla's guidance, Lily successfully brewed a full pot of glyph ink for herself. She was absolutely giddy with success, to which the woman snorted a laugh.

"Girl, you've brewed much more impressive things than that," Camilla teased. "We'll make a fortune selling those detox potions to the adventurers! They're always going out and getting poisoned by some big monster."

Lily nodded. Having helped a bit with the bookkeeping, she knew that the magical potions Camilla was selling were generating quite a small fortune for the woman. She claimed she wanted enough to retire, but Lily couldn't imagine the woman ever giving up on her lust for more coin.

With a fresh pot of glyph ink, Lily could finally start working on some new spells! The fire crest was Lily's best option for an offense spell unless she got very creative with water. She had probed Arakil on some of the best ways to apply it to an attack spell, but some suggestions were too much for the ineffectual glyph ink.

Arakil is always so outrageous; I don't need it to explode into a ring of flame if I'm going to cast it against a rat or a slime!

After scaling down, the aptly named firebolt spell they recreated was little more than the fire crest, a directional sigil, a range limit of 20 meters, and shaped into a long drill. By putting the distance restriction on the glyph, Lily gave it a much-needed safety feature and greatly reduced the projected Mana expenditure.

Plus, I don't have to worry about missing the target, and it goes flying into the forest and causes a fire!

Once Arakil gave his seal of approval, Lily was going to mass produce a few of the glyphs, but to her surprise, Arakil suggested against adding the extra circle to trigger the glyph upon breaking.

Opting to save the somewhat scarce ink and informing Lily that she should start practicing learning how to activate them on her own by channeling Mana into the paper.

Lily agreed and then proceeded to draw her glyphs without the extra trigger. She wasn't sure how many monsters Rose intended to fight, but she wanted to ensure she was prepared, and thanks to the new instruction, she could make quite a few. She also made an extra shield and shadow cloak for extra precaution.

I don't think I can get any more ready… Lily thought while stifling a yawn.

Tomorrow was the day.

***

"Make sure to stay near me so I can punch or kick anything that gets too close," Rose warned Lily as they walked toward the gate.

"I will, don't worry," Lily agreed. "I'll also use the shield talisman as soon as we exit the gate."

Rose grinned. "I'm excited… I've been taking fewer walks, so hopefully, we might get lucky and run into a gremlin or something."

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Lily gulped. "I don't think I've ever seen a gremlin before…"

"They're pushovers," Rose answered, waving her hand dismissively. "Other than their sticky fingers, they aren't much of a threat. They do have a bit of a nasty bite if you let them get too close."

Lily nodded. "Don't let them bite me. Got it!"

When they reached the gate, they were greeted by a familiar face—Oz.

"Hey! Good to see you again!" Oz said cheerfully as he gave Lily a friendly wave.

"Hi," Lily replied shyly as she waved back. "Thanks again for the help and getting us home.'

"Oh, that? Don't mention it…" Oz chuckled. "The guards were mightily embarrassed by that whole fiasco. The captain made us do much larger patrols and even started distributing more crossbows to some of us. I only recently finished my marksman training."

"Oh… I'm sorry," Lily replied. She felt guilty that he was being forced to train because of her.

"What? Don't be sorry, it's our job!" Oz replied. "In fact, it should be us who apologize. We would always ignore flying monsters like dire hawks since there'd never been an incident with them before. I was worried the experience might have made you decide to be a shut-in and never leave the city again."

"Bah! Lily's not a coward to let one little incident like that get to her!" Rose interjected.

"Good… I'm glad," Oz said with relief in his eyes.

He must have felt guilty since he took us to the flower patch… I should have sought him out sooner to let him know I was alright.

Lily had wondered why she hadn't seen him at the gate, but his crossbow training must have kept him busy. Although they had tried their best not to draw attention to themselves when they went to the ritual site.

The ritual!? Don't we need to get rid of it or something? Lily suddenly remembered.

"Well, don't let me keep you two. Hope you enjoy some fresh air!" Oz said, giving a friendly salute.

"Thanks! Gonna look to see if any slimes or gremlins have spawned," Rose said with a mischievous grin.

"Ah!" Oz said as he lightly punched his palm. "So you're the one the other guards mentioned who was cleaning the surroundings!"

"Oh? Rumors are spreading about me?" Rose said, puffing out her chest proudly.

Oz chuckled, "It was mostly bets on whether you would join the adventurers or the guards. A few were thankful their job was done for them."

"Definitely an adventurer!" Rose immediately responded. "No offense, but I can't handle standing around all day as a guard."

"Ha! None taken," Oz dismissed with a chuckle. "I just like the stable pay, plus occasionally some excitement comes around like you two to make the day less monotonous. Speaking of which, I better get back to my post."

They all waved goodbye and continued out. When they were far enough away from the gate, Lily spoke first.

"We forgot about the ritual site!" Lily hissed.

"Oh… Right!" Rose replied. "Were we supposed to try to destroy it or something?"

"I have no idea…" Lily admitted. "Can we even? It's a giant rock circle."

Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I suppose without Arakil whipping up another magic page, we might not be able to? We could make a slight detour and see if it's still around?"

Lily nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. Maybe it even deteriorated on its own?"

"Now, that would be convenient!" Rose chuckled.

They continued to chat while they started heading toward the forest. Lily was paying attention to their immediate surroundings while Rose tried her best to scout for any small monsters so they could try fighting.

"Damn, have the other brats been stealing my turf?" Rose muttered angrily.

Lily shrugged before something shimmering caught her eye. She immediately pointed toward it.

"Oh! Good eye!" Rose said excitedly. "It's a slime!"

Rose began rushing closer, with Lily trailing after. Lily found the little slime oddly cute, with its blue jelly that it used to bounce around in. In the center of its blue goop was a bright red crystal orb.

"Okay!" Rose excitedly clapped. "So… Slimes are especially weak; they mostly just eat bugs and stuff. Attacking their jelly body does nothing, but a good blow to their core is enough to kill them. They're pretty fragile, so it should be perfect for you!"

Lily frowned slightly as she saw the little slime blob sloshing around, barely even noticing the two of them. It currently looked like it was trying to eat a dandelion.

"Is this really a monster? It seems kinda harmless…" Lily mumbled.

"Yup!" Rose responded. "They just have pretty bad eyesight; as soon as you get in their range, they try to eat you. Just these blue ones are super weak, so at worst, you'll get a stinging sensation if you touch it directly."

"How do you know that?" Lily asked.

"Well… I once threw a slime at one of the other kids," Rose admitted.

"What?" Lily gasped in shock.

"He had it coming!" Rose growled. "Asshole grabbed my tail. He's lucky I didn't punch his teeth out."

Lily nodded and was glad Rose had taken the lesser options of revenge.

Rose snorted and pointed at the slime. "Anyway… Watch. I'll get close, and you'll see it come at me like I was food and start trying to blob me."

Rose got closer to the slime, and once she was a few steps away, the slime's entire body warbled, and it started oozing toward her. Lily frowned; what was once a cute, bluish ball shape was now a small, writhing mass of tendrils seeking food.

"See? Totally a monster!" Rose said as she briskly walked backward and away from the slime. "Anyway, why don't you try shooting it with your paper spell?"

"Okay!" Lily agreed and pulled out one of the pages with the simple firebolt glyph she had crafted.

"Remember to aim for the core!" Rose reminded her.

Lily nodded again. She held the page with the glyph facing outwards as if it were a proclamation and tried her best to line up her protruding arm toward the slime center.

She reached inside herself and began spinning her Mana Core, releasing the flow of Mana into her entire body. After the brief exhilaration filled her, she guided it as best as possible toward the hand. As soon as she felt the Mana filling her fingers, the page lit up with a soft orange glow before immediately burning up.

A tiny flame apparated barely an inch away from where the page once was before it fired forward in the shape of a drill. The tiny, flaming projectile surged forward, effortlessly burning through the slime layers before scoring a direct hit against the ruby-red slime core.

The slime core shattered, and the entire creature exploded into a scattering of black flecks. Lily couldn't help but recall how the dire hawk had died in a similarly showy fashion, except not nearly as quickly as this.

Lily's thoughts were interrupted by a friendly slap on the back from a very happy-looking dragon girl.