Chapter 51 - Growth

Practice, practice, practice. That was all that went through Lily's mind. She was shocked at how much she managed to dedicate to it now that she had proper motivation. None of her other studies even came close to this level of focus.

Learning the Moonlight spell was extremely difficult despite having a good mental image of what she needed to accomplish. The spell would manifest a magical moon, which then would be the source of the directed light. Lily's conjured moons were about the size of a grape.

"If it was at least the size of a strawberry, I'd be happier… But a single grape is pitiful…" Lily grumbled.

Worst of all, Arakil had pointed out that the normal size was around the size of a watermelon ! She lacked Mana capacity and control, and it affected the spell greatly.

To aid her, Arakil gave her some extra exercises to gain better control by using her starlight spell. It boiled down to forming multiple of the little tiny star sparkles and causing them to maneuver around her room. While it was supposed to be training, Lily found it absolutely magical and loved every moment of it.

Her Nebula Veil was bordering on the size of a small cloak or perhaps a poncho. She could wrap her entire upper torso in the astral substance, but it left her legs dangling below the starry protection.

Lily attended more of the boys' ventures; attacking slimes and other small critter-like monsters. The kids often did it on the weekend, so it was easy for her to fit in her schedule. The gains were small but gradual.

Which eventually led to a rather strange encounter with Margit. Lily's clothes had started to rip and tear. She sheepishly approached Margit and showed her what was happening.

Lily had expected to get scolded for having her clothes tear, especially since she wasn't exactly supposed to be going out the walls. Or at least, she hadn't informed any of the adults. But Margit's reaction surprised her greatly.

"My! Look who's finally hitting her growth spurt!" Margit said happily.

"Growth spurt?" Lily questioned, tilting her head.

"Lily, have you been studying potions and whatnot so hard that you haven't even noticed? Have you looked in a mirror recently?" Margit said with a soft giggle.

"I look in the mirror…" Lily mumbled defensively.

"I guess one doesn't notice things about themselves as easily. Come, let's quickly go to the medical room," Margit declared.

Lily grumbled, not wanting to go near that frogwoman, but she complied with Margit's request. Once in the room, Margit measured her height and weight and then pulled out her old records.

"Take a look," Margit said, pointing to Lily's old records. "That's quite some substantial growth!"

Lily gasped, especially when she saw the prior records. For years, there had been almost no changes in her height or weight, as if she had been trapped in her tiny body.

"Who knew you were such a late bloomer?" Margit giggled. "We will have to get you some larger clothes. I absolutely can't wait!"

Lily knew the real reason. Arakil had mentioned that the Mana might be purifying her body and making her healthier. Would she finally be the size of the other kids around her?

Even if I'm a little on the small side, I'll be glad as long as I don't permanently look like a tiny child.

With Margit's aid, they raided one of the supply closets for suitable clothing for Lily. Her old clothes were really child-sized, and now she was wearing clothes ideal for someone about to enter their teenage years.

Margit spent far too much time playing dress up with Lily as her captive, but they found some suitable clothes for her in the donations. Margit suggested that Lily spend some of her wages on buying special garments for herself, but Lily decided to cross that bridge at a later date.

I don't want to spend my money, and then I'll grow out of it… I'll stick to the donated clothes for now. These clothes are cute enough as is, and I don't intend to go full tomboy like Rose.

Lily would live to be extremely thankful for that decision later, as it was clear her growth was far from over in the coming year.

Life went on. Lily had still not decided when to announce her magical capabilities, but she had started getting braver and decided to try going out alone.

Armed with a plethora of glyphs and an almost completed Nebula Veil, she felt as ready as ever. In addition, she desperately wanted to actually try out the Starcluster spell. She'd practiced the chant relentlessly, but always without actually directing Mana to her words. Arakil had told her she was ready, but she had been putting it off.

Under the cover of darkness, Lily slapped on the shadow cloak glyph she had drawn and snuck out of the orphanage. She felt nostalgic tangs of sorrow, remembering the first time she had done this with Rose.

I hope she's safe and sound… She promised to send me a letter as soon as she was at Regarth.

By Lily's rough estimation, she would be there soon to start her school year. Assuming her hunting trip with Lady Desthu was over.

Or, for all I know, Rose had so much fun hunting that she's decided to give up on Regarth entirely. I seriously wouldn't put it past her; Lady Desthu is practically giving her an adventurer's experience!

Lily shook her head at the negative thoughts. She believed in Rose until the end, and they were in this together.

This means I need to really focus on this. I have roughly a year left, and I'm running out of time! If I miss joining the next batch of students, I will have to wait another year, and that's more time for the gap between me and Rose to widen!

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Lily held her breath as she snuck past the guards, and once again, she was out beyond the walls in the evening's twilight. When she was enough distance away, she slapped another talisman on herself, a shield glyph that enveloped her entire body in a thin protective film.

Perfect! I don't need to waste two whole talismans to protect myself now! Who needs stupid Fairymoss anymore? My own glyph ink is way better! Lily thought triumphantly.

Lily focused her thoughts and cast Starlight, producing three tiny stars she positioned like a pointed triangle to improve her nighttime vision of her surroundings. Then, she began hunting for a slime, dire rat, or other critterlike monster.

Lily couldn't help but draw parallels between herself and Rose, and wondered if the dragon girl would be proud of what Lily was doing right now. She began heading towards the flower hole first, hoping to also harvest some plants to drain off their Mana to nurture her Core.

On the way she spotted it; her Starlight caused the jellylike substance to shimmer and glow like a magical fluid and its red sphere to sparkle—a slime!

The slime was either asleep or hadn't noticed her, as she was still cloaked in the remains of her shadow cloak glyph. When that ran out, she planned on donning the Nebula Veil.

Lily calmed her breathing and began going through her practice of the Starcluster spell, except for real this time. She spun her Mana Core and flooded her body with Mana before redirecting it to her throat. She chanted.

Arakil had told her to expect between 0 and 1 stars to form, assuming Lily didn't screw up the incantation or visualization. At the end of her chant, she thrust out her hand, and erupting from the palm of her hand was a singular star that hurtled toward the slime.

The star was small and, to Lily's horror, did not look like a star at all. It was not an actual star; it looked like a flat, spinning five-pointed star shape . It certainly looked pretty, especially the small trail of stardust behind it.

But Lily had been visualizing the night sky stars, or contained in her Nebula Cloak, or produced by the Starlight spell—not this childlike rendition of a star!

Thanks to the bad visualization, the outcome was rather lackluster. When the Starburst struck the slime, it survived the blow. It seemed to writhe and swirl angrily as it began lurching toward the source of the attack and Lily's present location.

Lily shook off her surprise and began casting the spell again, now with a more thorough understanding of the image she was supposed to envision.

Seriously, Arakil, you could have told me! Although… He did mention that he's never made a single star appear. Maybe he had no idea it even looked like this?

Lily finished the chant again and outstretched her hand. Poof . No star appeared, and instead, her hand sprayed harmless stardust.

Damn… The first time, I was lucky; this time, I wasn't.

She now understood why Arakil had discouraged this spell that relied on luck and not just pure aptitude and suggested Lily have backups. But, the slime was slow enough in its approach that she could easily attempt the spell another two times, more if she started retreating while casting.

Lily calmed her breath and began the chant again. She focused on the visualization and thrust her hand out as she felt her Mana surge. In a burst of stardust, two spinning stars shot from her outstretched hand, spiraling around each other in a helix formation and directly at the slime.

The twirling stars left behind a sparkling trail of stardust as before, but thanks to Lily's better visualization, the stars were much more magical in appearance this time. The two stars struck the slime, but rather than just bludgeoning it, they exploded into a tiny shower of stardust, instantly defeating the monster slime.

"Yes!" Lily cheered before quickly realizing she needed to absorb the black flecks and began drawing in on her spiral.

To her surprise, the amount was more than she had expected. She had seen it portioned out among the kids, and it had always been slim pickings, but even compared to when she went out with Rose if she halved this portion, it would be more than she received back then.

Does Rose take in more passively than me? They say dragons are greedy, so did her body greedily take in more essence?

Lily giggled at the idea and couldn't wait to possibly tease Rose a bit for it when they next met. Assuming she remembered it.

Still… That Starcluster spell was a lot better! And I shot two stars! I didn't expect them to explode; that first one certainly didn't explode!

Lily had no idea if the tiny explosion of stardust actually accomplished anything, but she wouldn't be unhappy about such a visually impressive spell. Even if it was a bit childish in its appearance.

She noted that her shadow cloak had run out when she finished her absorption cycle. Rather than be discouraged, she focused and replaced it with the Nebula Veil. Her dedicated practice had seen spell-manufactured apparel continue to expand, and now only her feet were peaking out if she swathed her entire body in it.

If not for my growth spurt, I could cover myself entirely… Oh well, I'm sure I'll have it fixed up in less than a week! Lily thought confidently.

As impressive as the Starcluster spell was in taking out the slime and how useful the Starlight spell was for navigating the dark or putting on tiny light shows in her room, the Nebula Veil was her favorite spell at the moment.

Now that Lily had some better control over her Mana, she could vaguely control the magic-formed cloak. She could command it to wrap and unwrap her body and get it to cease its flutterings, remaining as still as a lake's surface.

Arakil had even mentioned that when her control over the spell grew more, she could send out the cloak to wrap itself over a foe's head, potentially blinding their vision.

Lily had originally protested that idea, not wanting to give up her beloved cloak to someone else, until Arakil had pointed out the obvious. Lily could just recast the spell again and keep her own cloak. It wasn't like she was summoning that specific cloak each and every time.

Lily giggled joyously and stared up at the moon in the night sky.

I've really become a mage… She thought as she stared at the massively glowing celestial body.

Lily nodded happily to herself and swirled the nebula cloak around in a somewhat glamorous display before continuing her journey into the night.