The next morning, I wanted to conduct my experiment of the sun shining on Lila.
Lila and I were lying on our sides facing each other with her face buried in my chest. The arm I was laying on was stretched out above her head with my palm up, the other was wrapped around her back, holding her close.
Elaria was up so I motioned to her with my hand not touching Lila, to pull the blankets off us.
She slowly pulled them back, and when the sun hit Lila's face, she just moved her hand to block out the sun, resting it on the side of her face over her eye. I don't think she woke up.
Seeing light going across her planted some ideas in my mind, mainly the lightning element dancing on my fingertips, skating across her skin. A wicked smile spread across my face, but I held myself back from trying it now. It would be too mean if it was as stimulating as I imagined then I didn't finish the job since we have stuff to do today.
I woke Lila up, and Elaria gave her some food before dressing her. I devoured our camp again, and we set off to the Dreadwood Forest.
Everyone kept saying not to go very far into the forest. I didn't know how you define "very far," so I decided we'd go in about 100 meters, then go right or left while staying only 100 meters from the edge.
The inside of the forest was darker than I expected, with thick trees blocking out the sunlight. There was the sound of insects, unlike the area around the dragon. I don't know if this meant there weren't any monsters around, or dragons are just scarier.
I decided to go right, not for any particular reason, just because I needed to pick one.
The grass was tall, going up to the bottom of Lila's chest. It was kind of amusing watching her wading through the tall grass holding her arms above the tops of the grass.
We walked as quietly as we could, trying to minimize our presence, not knowing what was out there.
After an hour or so, I heard the rustling of grass, accompanied by what sounded like an animal snorting.
We all froze and looked in the direction.
I cast a frontal shield that would block attacks from where the sound emitted and motioned for us to move towards it quietly.
We crept slowly, and every once in a while, some sound came from ahead, indicating that the monster was still there.
When we'd passed enough trees to see the monster, I saw what looked like a giant deer with glass antlers.
It should be a Crystal Deer, fast but with low defense. They can usually use one element to attack, most typically that element is wind.
I started casting an attack spell and motioned for Lila and Elaria to do the same, and that we should all attack at the same time
I decided to attack with an ice spear, hoping it would pierce it in one go.
When all our attacks were ready, I counted down from 3 with my fingers.
3,
2,
1
Lila unexpectedly launched her attack. When we saw hers flying, Elaria and I released ours also.
I had meant to go on 0, but I guess she didn't know that.
Lila's attack hit and did quite a bit of damage; she had gone with an earth spike. The Crystal Deer jumped forward as the other two attacks hit. The fire and ice spear stabbed into its hip but unfortunately didn't completely stop its movement.
It started running as fast as it could on its three good legs. I cast a lightning net in front of it, where it skidded to a halt. It jumped off to the right and I cast another.
It knew it was cornered and turned around while casting a large wind blade.
I cast a wind blade to counter, and the two blades met head-on, causing a loud bang and the surrounding air to ripple. Pressure waves radiated out from the warring blades.
The surrounding grass was flattened, and I had to open and close my mouth several times to get the pressure in my ears to go back to normal.
The monster was in bad shape, bleeding from its wounds, mainly the one inflicted by Lila. It also wasn't protected with a shield when the wind blades met.
"Attack again."
We all cast our spells again, and the Crystal Deer tried to dodge and counter the spells with wind magic, but there were just too many, and it was getting too slow.
My ice spear pierced its chest, blood ran off the end that remained sticking out.
Within seconds, it succumbed to its wounds and died.
I quickly stored it in my inventory, and we left the scene. I wasn't sure if stronger monsters would come check out the scene, and I didn't want to stick around to find out.
We went back to our 100 meters away from the edge and kept walking as silently as possible.
"Next time I count down from 3, attack on 0, not 1." I whispered to Lila
Lila nodded and whispered back, "When you count 1, 2, 3 and attack, you attack on 3, so why when you go in the opposite order do you attack on 0?"
I thought about it for a bit, "I think it's because when you get to 0, it means there isn't any time left, so you attack. But when you count from 1 to 3, you just kind of skip saying 0."
About two hours later, we found two Mithril Boars. I put up a shield in front of us.
The Mithril Boars were as tall as me, their fur made of dense mithril, which happened to be their favorite snack. The mithril eventually replaced their fur, giving them good defense. Their tusks were made of their tough bone, and they would charge towards their opponents in an attempt to impale them.
They could also attack with the earth element or create a barrier in an attempt to escape.
The mithril, usually not having a weakness or affinity for a specific element, once eaten and grown as the boar's hair, is transformed to have an affinity for the earth element. Thankfully, this also means it gains the weaknesses of the earth element.
Fire ➔ Air ➔ Water ➔ Earth ➔ Fire ...
So the mithril boars are weak against water.
There are also sub-elements to each of the four main elements, like how lightning is a sub-element to air.
I motioned to the boar on the left, and we all charged water attacks. This time I used a new 6th circle spell, Vortex Surge.
3
2
1
0
We all launched our attacks on 0 this time.
A huge spinning vortex of water surged towards the mithril boar. Thin wire-like strands of water spun around the vortex, shredding everything in its path.
Water can be incredibly vicious when directed in a thin stream at high enough pressure, just like how a water cutter slices through thick steel like butter.
My Vortex Surge spell crashed into the mithril fur of the boar, shredding it and leaving many lacerations through its bones. Lila and Elaria's Water Bolt spells followed immediately behind without even enough time for the boar to react. They pierced the chest cavity of the boar where I had cleared the fur easily.
The boar only had enough time to let out two screeches before dying.
The other boar stomped the ground, erecting a stone barrier between us, trying to flee.
I jumped on the air to see over the stone wall, seeing which direction the boar was heading, I cast a long wall of water. The wall had thin strands of water whipping out, trying to slice everything that got close, and there was no way the boar could push through without suffering severe injuries.
The boar turned around, facing back toward the stone wall it had created.
Lila and Elaria couldn't step on air yet to see what was happening and help kill the boar, so I destroyed the stone wall.
The boar charged with a roar towards our position, and I dropped back to the ground, then got ready for it to impact the shield while casting the Vortex Surge again.
I really need to reach the proficiency of instant cast with all my spells again now.
Lila and Elaria also cast their water bolt spell, though not attacking till I did.
Boom!
The boar crashed into the shield, coming to a halt, the instant stop causing its back feet to come off the ground about a foot.
The boar's face was only about a meter away and looked slightly dazed.
I launched my spell, and the girls followed right after.
All the fur and skin on the boar's face was instantly gone, and its skull could be seen with a web of cracks running through its bone. The two water bolts pierced its weakened skull, killing it instantly.
I stored the corpses, and we continued the hunt. We found a King Ogre, but it was no match for our combined attacks. We also killed a Shadow Wolf.
The Shadow Wolf was a little trickier than the King Ogre due to its stealth abilities until I decided to flood the area with light, eliminating every shadow it could twist to its advantage. With the source of its magic eliminated, it was easy enough to kill.
We left the forest for the day before it got too dark and made camp a few miles away.
I took out the five corpses and extracted the five high-grade mana crystals. I took two, gave two to Lila, and one to Elaria.
"Lila, reach the 6th circle, then use the rest for cultivation. I think you should be able to get to the peak of the 9th layer of Qi Refinement but not quite foundation establishment."
She nodded and sat down on a blanket to start cultivating.
I looked at Elaria, "Get to the 6th circle, then use the rest to start cultivating."
"Yes, master."
We sat down, and I looked at my two crystals. I should be able to use these two to reach the 7th circle. Two high-grade crystals were enough that almost ten mages could go from 0 to the 6th circle, but they were just barely not enough to go from the 6th to the 7th circle.
Thankfully, I'd still been working on my circles, so I think I can reach it with these two.
After several hours, we'd all finished. Lila reached the 6th circle and the peak of the 9th layer. Elaria also reached the 6th circle but only the 4th layer.
I'd reached the 7th circle, but it was so close I thought I was going to fail a few times. I think for the next circle, I'll need about 20 high-grade crystals.
After checking with each other on our gains from the day, Lila pulled me down to the ground to start celebrating our newfound power.