The monsters were nearly all dismantled, and Aisha was back up and helping by the time Zack felt even remotely well enough to move. The bears were using sharpened scales as knives to cut everything apart. Unfortunately, despite the beasts originating from slightly farther inside the portal region, no mana crystals had been found inside them.

Sitting up, Zack glanced from his sister to the bear she was watching closely. “Do you have enough mana to fully animate her now?” He asked gently.

Zara started in surprise and nodded. “Would it be alright if I went ahead and did it now?” She asked, with an untold amount of longing.

He nodded and gingerly climbed to his feet. The damage bleeding through from his astral form had stopped and even reversed to a degree. It would be awhile yet, though, before he was anywhere close to being in a decent condition.

“I’ll give you some privacy and go closer to the trees.” Zack ruffled her hair and shuffled off with a muffled, pained grunt. He had been putting off looking at his status page since the battle ended, and it was time to see what had changed.

Zara may have been disappointed by not getting more levels, but she had been pleased with the number of status points she had gotten. Aberration classes typically got more points per level. In their case, they both received a single additional point. However, they also got another point with every level because of their race. Additionally, their title ‘Child of the Portals’ gave them two points on the landmark levels.

All of that meant that while they may have their weaknesses, they would also have their strengths.

Looking back, Zack saw a blood-encrusted Zelda tottering over to a teary-eyed Zara. He and his sister had a special connection formed through their shared experience. Zelda, however, was her first real friend. The bear had been given to her by their parents, and she had latched onto it with a vengeance. Then, she had been forced through the portal with him and figured out how to animate the bear.

Everything had changed for her after that.

He turned away from the private moment and edged closer to the trees. He wasn’t looking for a fight, only some privacy of his own so he could review his status page. Zack moved away from a suspicious-looking vine and sat down, with his back against a tree closest to the clearing.

Relaxing against the smooth bark, he pulled up his status page and stared at it in surprise.

Zackary ??

Level: 4

Exp to next Level: 5/845

Class: Arcane Mystic

Race: Dimensional Child

Titles: Child of the Portals, First to Second

Elemental Affinity: Space

Strength: 07.3 | 10

Intelligence: 15(+.1) | 11

Dexterity: 11.2 | 13

Magic: 21.5(+.4) | 39

Constitution: 20.5 | 25

Agility: 12.2 | 14

Abilities: Life Burner Lv. 4, Arcane Manipulation Lv. 0

SP: 9

Spells: Arcane Bolt Lv. 1

Getting to level four was only somewhat unexpected to him, after hearing that Zara had gotten to level three. If she hadn’t said anything, then he wouldn’t have expected it. Instead, it simply highlighted how strong the monsters had been and how screwed they nearly were. That leveling speed would slow quite a bit after level five, even with his compatibility rating. The amount required for each level after that grew exponentially with each landmark level.

Zack glared at his level and then at his nine available points in regret. He desperately wanted to place them in ‘Constitution’. Unfortunately, as an even level of four, he could only place his points in one of his class’s major stats. Which as a magic class, even if he was an aberration, those were still ‘Intelligence’ and ‘Magic’.

Both were stats that his class modulated on its own, and they would increase with a set pattern. Intelligence increased by one point every odd level. While magic increased by two every even level. Any other points he put towards them counted for very little. It was a system that kept him powerful, but with little mana to spare for anything else.

He would simply have to wait until level five before placing any of the status points.

Closing his page, he batted the vine crawling across the ground to the side and stood. Back near the portal, Zara looked to be nearing completion with her animation spell on Zelda. The first of the three bears she would be doing it on, and the one he expected to include a long and tear-filled reunion.

None of the others had ever been animated before. He had given George to her shortly after their rescue, and the bear had never been through the portal before.

Speaking of the other bears, he drifted over to where they were separating the scales, tendons, and other useable pieces. The items couldn’t be brought outside the portal, but they could be used as armor while they were still inside. Or, in the case of the bears, as everything, weapons and armor.

The bear’s pace was slow as they were forced to work in an injured and incomplete state. George was missing an arm and some of his inner fluff. Aisha, meanwhile, was missing her entire lower half and was scooting around on a snake scale she was fused to with some dried blood.

Glancing at his sister, Zack looked back at the tree line and frowned. He didn’t want to just sit around and wait until she was ready, at the same time, however, he was still injured. His mana levels were back to normal, and he could fire off another two or three shots without injuring himself.

The problem was, there were almost never just two or three monsters when it came to beasts in a forest. They lived close together and were easily alerted by noises, or bright lights, as had happened earlier.

Going in alone would be beyond stupid in his current condition.

Putting his back to the portal, he stared out into the darkness and carefully remembered everything he had seen earlier that day. A hazy overlay of the forest appeared in his mind’s eye, enough to remind him of where he believed they were mining the mana crystals from.

It gave them a direction to head towards when Zara was done animating each of the bears.

Something that she was close to being done with on Zelda. If the intricate and nonsensical collection of runes and glyphs appearing in magical script meant what he thought they did.

The sight drew his attention despite his best efforts to give her some privacy. He found himself drawn to the light and the bear that it all sank into. It was a magical sight that he had never seen the like before.

The process took only a few moments to finish from the time he noticed.

George and Aisha stilled, unconsciously stopping as their controller held her breath.

Zelda fell to her rump and shook her head, the movements of her arms and legs momentarily uncoordinated. Zara didn’t dare to breathe as the bear tried to climb to her feet twice, succeeding on the third try. She tottered over to the girl and lifted a grime encrusted teddy bear-sized paw to her cheek.

Zara sniffled and wrapped her friend in her arms, paying no mind to how dirty she was.

Zack was sure Zelda was already talking to her, but he would never be able to hear her. Only Zara was capable of that. Feeling curiously sad, he turned away and waited for them to finish with their reunion.

Sometime later, Zack felt a soft tap on his shoulder. Standing behind him, coming up to just around the height of his shoulder while he was sitting, was Zelda.

“Hi,” He coughed, his voice rough and dry. He pulled out a bottle of water from his bag and looked towards the portal, and took a quick sip of tepid water. “She going to wake up the other two already?”

Zelda nodded.

“Will you be able to talk to them?” He asked, suddenly curious about what relationship the bears would have, if any, with each other.

Zelda tilted her head and shrugged. Apparently, she didn’t know the answer either. It wasn’t surprising, this would be the first time that Zara would be fully animating more than just her after all.

“What do you want to do while we wait? Stand guard, explore the tree line, maybe go farther in?” He glanced at the pile of materials that was beginning to stink. “Maybe construct some armor and weapons for you and the other two first? What do you think?”

She brought a filthy paw to beneath her chin and gagged, waving the offending limb away from her face.

“Sorry, I can’t do anything about that for you. The river is farther in, and I don’t know where the nearest stream is. And we’re not wasting a water bottle on cleaning any of you.” He quickly stored the aforementioned item before she got any ideas.

Zelda stamped her foot and glared at him for a second, picking up a nearby stick when it did no good. “Armor and weapons.” She scrawled the words across the ground several times, each time crossing it out and trying again when she inevitably misspelled a word.

“You want to make weapons and armor for the three of you first?” He clarified.

She nodded.

“Okay, let’s get to work then.”