Alec sat in a corner and looked at Celia, she had just said that she wanted to try to make six magic pills at the same time. Alec had never seen a mage make magic pill without a cauldron, let alone several magic pills at the same time, he couldn't wait to see it.
Celia had just prepared the materials to make the six magic pills, and she had placed a bottle filled with the lake water at her feet, as a precaution, he thought.
Alec was blown away, Celia had a mastery over her spiritual energy that would make any mage he knew green with envy, she was reducing into powder all eighteen magic herbs at the same time, then he couldn't see her removing the impurities from the powder, but he saw that it required a lot of effort. Drops of sweat had appeared on her forehead, and began to descend down her temples.
About five minutes later, he saw her change positions, she turned her palms to the sky and the eighteen magic herbs, which she had previously grouped three by three to finalize the six magic pills, found themselves just above her hands, he saw her freeze and she started to turn really pale.
Alec got up ready to intervene, Celia fell to her knees but held on, the six magic pills were emerging, once she placed them gently on the floor she collapsed into Alec's arms. Alec took the water bottle from the floor and forced her to take several sips.
Celia said grateful to him: "Thank you Alec, this is the first time that I have drained almost all my spiritual energy, going from four to six magic pills seemed a little too presumptuous of me, I thought that, with the addition of the fifty percent of the spiritual energy thanks to the spiritual energy reserve magic pill that would be enough though."
Alec was shocked: "What are you talking about? You did it! You just made six magic pills at once, and with their color I'm sure they're all one hundred percent pure."
Celia, thanks to the spiritual water of the lake, was already doing much better, she explained to him: "Even if I managed to make them, it is not the result that I expected. If I am not able to stand up at the end, then it is a failure!
My reserve of spiritual energy is not yet large enough. As I have already promised Liam and Anaya, I am not trying to put myself in danger, I just want to be as efficient as possible."
Celia stood up and formed a triangle with her hands: "Stop playing! Give me five minutes to get to level three."
Alec was feeling a little lost, how did Celia plan to go from level two to level three in five minutes her color hadn't even started to blend yet?
And yet, little by little, he saw the gray of her color mixing with yellow to completely disappear exactly five minutes later. What the hell, thought Alec.
Celia said more to herself than to Alec: "Level three is much better, my spiritual energy reserve has doubled. Alec, can I ask you a question?"
Alec who still had a hard time realizing what had just happened answered her anyway: "Of course! I'm here for that, ask whatever you want."
Celia smiled at him and came over to sit in front of him: "Did Liam explain to you about the loop I created, the one that allows me to keep my spiritual energy reserve always full?"
Alec nodded: "Yes, he told me about it, he told me that you were dividing your concentration in two, one part for the loop that you use to restore your spiritual energy and the other to make the magic pills. Do you want to try something else with this loop?"
Celia thought before continuing: "Will my spiritual energy reserve double every time I level up?"
Alec said to her: "Indeed, at each level your spiritual energy reserve will double in size.
Right now it doesn't represent much, but imagine when you are at level ten and your spiritual energy reserve will double when you level up to level eleven, the difference between the levels becomes more and more important as you progress."
Celia was thinking aloud: "If it really doubles every time, then my loop will be very effective in the future. Alec I don't want to change anything about my loop I use it already at it maximum. The thing I need is more talisman papers, I only have two hundred green papers, I am the only one of us who can store energy inside but all of us can use them.
Actually, I was thinking to use them to trade with the demons too, Liam said that they can't use natural elements, and I can store elements energy inside those papers. I need huge quantities, since with my loop my spiritual energy is always full I can make plenty of them.
Imagine when I'm able to store elements energy inside them it would mean that you and Liam could also use the five elements, isn't that wonderful?"
Alec was thinking carefully before speaking: "Yes, it is! The papers for the talisman are not very common, very few mages manage to use them, but you are lucky, in three weeks we will make a stopover in Spirit city, we should be able to find some there, it is a very well-known merchant city where you can really find everything."
Celia was over the moon: "Super Alec, do you have a shop there?"
Alec replied: "Not in this city, why?"
Celia sighed: "Too bad, you could have ordered your men to stock papers talisman up for us later."
Alec put a hand on her head and stroking her hair, he said: "Don't worry, I have communication stones with me, I will contact them when we are out of the dimension but we will have to wait for our final destination to be able to collect them, those we find in Spirit city will be a plus."
Alec smiled at Celia's delighted look: "Well, I can see that I'm not of much use for you at the moment, if you don't mind I would like to study the red jade discs and the books from the library, let me know when you want to learn martial arts."
Celia gave him her magic bag that Anaya had prepared for her so that she could study wherever she wanted: "Here, I'm just going to make magic pills for now, we'll see later about martial arts."
The days training in the dimension passed at breakneck speed.
Three weeks later, the girls had consolidated their level three and thanks to Celia's magic pills, their energy reserves had increased by another fifty percent.
Alec had started storing level four magic herbs for Celia, thanks to the red jade discs he had learned to plant and deal with magic herbs very quickly.
It took a week for the level four magic herbs to mature, once they were ripe only Celia could harvest them, because to harvest them you had to use spiritual energy so that the roots could be detached from the earth without being damaged.
For level five magic herbs, it needed three weeks for them to mature, so Alec and Celia had decided to plant level six magic herbs as well, as the maturation time increased considerably with the level of magic herbs, two month was needed for level six herbs.
The magic herbs that were planted near the lake were all level eleven and twelve. As they roamed the dimension, they had discovered more patches of magic herbs, but they were all level eight and above.
Alec had suggested that Celia wait until she reached level five before planting level seven magic herbs, because according to the jade discs, at that point Celia could give orders to AVA, A.I.'s dimension and it could plant, water and collect the magic herbs on her own.
Alec had also started training Celia in martial arts and they trained with gravity every now and then, Celia had to use gravity level seven to start having an effect on her, she was very happy to learn how to defend herself, she never wanted to learn how to attack, she just wanted to be a support for Anaya and not a burden.
Anaya and Celia began to plan how to fight together using the best of their own talents, after all, after their trip to the Isle of Death they would be attending a big competition and they would be representing the Northern Academy so they couldn't mess up.
For their fighting plan Celia needed more talisman papers and after three weeks of travel they finally landed in Spirit city for a short stopover.