"Place your hand on the altar, and pour mana into it," the man said, Daniela who was back in the altar did as he advised.
"Now what?" she asked as a blue aura around her drained into the altar, symbol and sigils lit up.
"Now, we wait. Since you consumed the elixir, you should have a lot of mana in your body, pour it all in."
"Alright," she nodded, continuing her action, the blue slightly shifted to a more darker colour, finally turning green. The elixir gave me a large amount of mana, and my body absorbed most of the main mana, but some normal mana was left in me.
The altar screeches while the multiple patterns of birds, mural drawings of wind and gusts lit up, covering the entire temple in an ethereal glow.
Two pillars rose up from the ground besides the altar, the large stone pillars towering her. The two pillars crumbled from the front revealing a fissure on each pillar.
Daniela took a step back to look at the pillars, and noticed there was a gust of wind circling the pillar. The pillar on the left had a green mask while the right pillar had a black wand.
"Hey, are these guarded by spells?" Daniela asked the man, who was standing a few feet away from her.
"No, rather than spells, they're authorities. Fret not, they'll open up after you defeat the two wind tigers."
Right on cue, the walls crumbled as two more tigers similar to the one Daniela had taken down earlier came out.
"Have fun," the man chuckled.
"I will," Daniela prepared her wand as the two tigers growled, "Mana coalesce and amalgamate, Pyro Aqua blind," a heavy mist scattered across the room as she finished casting.
The two creatures looked around trying to find her, but to no avail the most wasn't going down.
Not yet, Daniela hid behind a stone pillar waiting for the right moment to strike. It's not just one, but two of them. Even if I am a one star I shouldn't get too arrogant.
One of the tigers opened its maw, the wind starting to gather around its open jaw, while the other tiger whiffed around the room.
This is bad, shit, I should wait, Daniela thought, the mist almost disappearing as the tiger took it all in.
The other tiger walked to where Daniela was, its footsteps barely audible, as it got closer, Daniela covered her nose and mouth to avoid making any sort of noise.
GROWL
The tiger for closer and closer it's low growl penetrating her ears, while the other one was almost done sucking up all the mist.
The creature jumps in behind the pillar, but is greeted by a rather unsuspecting surprise.
"Hey, Mana bullet," Daniela said, the bullet already prepared shimmering as it tore blew off the unsuspecting creature skull.
The result was the same as the earlier tiger's death, blood and brain scattered, some even splashing into her pristine white suit.
"Ahh, you know how hard it is to clean white?" Daniela grumbled as she got off from behind the pillar and ran towards the second tiger, who had completed its task.
The creature noticing her rushing towards it decides to strike her straight, jumping at her in one leap.
"Water, flow and deafen the censure ahead of me: Aqua guard," the water flowing around Daniela surged with more efficiency than before, striking the beast and pushing it back.
"Haste," Daniela moved much faster, getting on the creature's blind side, "Mana coalesce and amalgamate, Pyro Ventus; Ember bullet," the yellow fireball pushed into the creature's abdomen splitting it in two.
Daniela stood here basking in her victory, "Ha, now I can use spells without much incantation, and even cut down handsigns, guess forming a star makes me way stronger."
"The elixir hasn't taken effect on your body yet, the mana is floating around in your body, you should get that figured out," the man laid down on the floor.
"You've been giving me advice for some time, what's that about?" Daniela asked as she walked towards the two pillars, her voice teasing.
"Like I said, I just want to get out of this wretched temple."
"Alright, so is that all?" Daniela turned a glance back at the man, "Wind tigers, I mean?"
"I'm not sure, we'll see," the man stared into the ceiling.
As she got closer to the pillar, the wind surrounding the two pillars went down revealing the artifacts inside.
The mask on the pillar was now clearer, a green cat mask with yellow eye lens and red outlining.
APPRAISAL COMPLETE
The mask of the first disciple of ****.
"What's with the censored information?" Daniela mumbled under her breath.
She walks over to the second pillar, noticing the black wand excluding a sinister green energy.
APPRAISAL IMPOSSIBLE
"Should have thought so, the system will have some sort of restrictions after all."
Her fingers slide in, pulling out the wand, the grip felt better than her own wand.
"Hey what's this wand?" Daniela waved at the man.
"It's a powerful weapon, one used by some old Archmages. It's been passed down through generations till it somehow ended up here."
Generations... but when Miss Shia came here in the story originally, they couldn't find anything besides the elixir—
Daniela's thoughts were interrupted by the creaking noise of the walls crumbling and bricks moving. Multiple of the tigers she had massacred earlier came out, each as ferocious as the earlier ones.
"Hey, you're contracted to me, right?" Daniela looked at the man who was lazily laying on the floor. "Help me," she requested as the tigers all filled murderous intent circles around her.
"Alright," the man stood up stretching languidly, "time for a stretch I guess," he turned into mist and disappeared.
"Hey, whe—"
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"How is your professor?" Finn asked Donatello who was munching on his lunch.
He paused eating before thinking, "Well, she's amazing, she was able to find problems in my posture and even tweak them for me," Donatello impatiently said as he got back to eating.
"I could say the same about mine, he was amazing, I couldn't put a finger on him," Finn said, his mind back in the training grounds thinking of ways to land a strike on the professor.
"Ah, who is your professor?"
"He told me his name was Victor, just Victor."
"Hey, boys," Aileen walked towards them holding a tray with her lunch on it. "Got space for one more?"
Donatello moves aside sliding his tray of lunch along with him, giving her some space.
"Thanks," Aileen put her tray down, and handed herself down.
"So how was your day?" Finn asked.
Aileen rubbed her temples, "Well, you could say it was nothing much, maybe even a bit boring."
"Really?" Donatello joined, "Finn here was telling me how he had his ass whooped by his professor."
"He got beat up by his professor? Who was it?" Aileen asked, the topic, piquing her interest.
"Victor."
"Victor, you mean the greatest marksman Victor?"
"Oh, that's why his name sounded familiar, yes, he wasn't old but he had grays."
"Wow, you're getting taught by a great warrior," Aileen said.
"I guess I am lucky, but not as lucky as her," Finn looked at a lone girl sitting on a distant table, a simple smile on her face as she ate her lunch.
"Her? Why?" Aileen asked curiously.
Donatello says, "Her professor is Finn's drinking buddy, I guess?
"Hey!" Finn cuts in.
Aileen looks at Nichole at the girl for a moment before looking back at Finn, "Yes, you owe me an explanation about your redhead professor."
_________________________
The food here is good, too bad I don't know anyone to go sit with, Nichole took a bite of her bread.
The soft dough melted in her mouth, it was a simple meal, yet the soft bread washed away her worries.
The professor's class is also pretty interesting, I was worried for nothing just because of some rumors.
She had been through way too much trouble, so much that a simple meal was comforting.
I haven't seen senior Daniela ever since, could be nice if I could see her, she continued her meal, her thoughts drifting off.
_________________________
"Brr, why did it get cold all of a sudden?" Daniela felt a chill run through her.
"Hey, you there?" she whispered.
"Yes," a small cloud appeared near her left shoulder, the voice familiar to the ball of cloud Daniela had met at the temple, it was the demon.
"What made you change your mind?" Daniela asked.
"You're interesting, I want to see how far you can go," the cloud disappears.
This guy, but I can borrow his power, like back in the temple he took over my body taking out almost ten of those tigers, well, good thing he likes me, Daniela walked around trying to spot a place to have her lunch in peace.
There were already enough bad rumors, and now that she had come to the academy with blood and injuries, people had started talking more about her.
"Hm, wher—, ah, is that Nichole?" she spots her enjoying her meal alone. The table was large enough that six people could sit, three on each side, yet the girl sat there alone, avoided by everyone.
She walked over to her, the murmurs around her getting louder, but she couldn't care less about it.
"Hey there," Daniela put down her tray, looking at Nichole, "got room for one more."
"Oh, senior, I was just thinking about yo—" her words were cut off when she took a closer look at Daniela, "and what happened to you?" a small cut on her cheek, blood splatter on her coat, and dirt all over.
"Our class ended early, and I decided to go explore the forest outside, and uh, I had some encounters," Daniela giggled.
"Encounters?" Nichole looked at her, slightly concerned, "are you alright senior?"
"Don't worry about me, and how was class, and your professor?"
"He's very good," Nichole's face lit up at the mention of her professor, "it's like he knows what he's doing, and he's very kind, unlike the rumors," Nichole looked around with a smug expression.
"Ah, didn't I tell you, it seems academy life is going to suit you just fine, but do try to make some friends."
"Haha, I'll try, but it doesn't seem like anyone wants to even talk to me," Nichole looked down at her meal, a small piece of bread, some gravy and a few slices of apple.
"Wait, why do I only have four slices of apples?" Daniela took thin slices and inspected them, holding it close to her face.
"You really are something senior, and why did you go into the forest?"
"For some stuff obviously, I got some valuable things, hey do you want a wand?"
"Um, no? I already have one," Nichole looked at Daniela I'm confusion.
"Too bad, anyways how's your class going?"
"I'm having some trouble... with my element manifestation."
"Oh, I have a solution for that."
_________________________
"Professor, what do you think of my deal?"
"Ha, I must say, it's quite tempting, but..."
"But, what?" Charla chuckled.
Jack's face strained under the choices before him, "I'll..."
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