She pushed open the gates and got her first view of her home city in a week. It would be an emotional moment if Ben hadn’t left the other two challengers by her side while he did his own thing. The two were still unconscious, with Glob looking beaten half to death.

The two succubi who stood guard at the gates looked at them in surprise, quickly running off to get help, while unexpectedly her mother was there, waiting to greet her.

“How did you know I would be out?” Thera asked her, surprised to get to see her mother so soon.

“I asked Anailias apostle if it would be possible to inform me when you were coming out, and thankfully our god is agreeable. It would have been nice to get some warning about the other two though.” Pelenia bent down and placed a hand on both Karly and Glob, activating her life magic to do what she could while they waited for help to arrive. Much like Sonya, she had an affinity for the magic but hadn’t taken the time to raise its level beyond what she had expected to need in the past, unlike her sister who decided to use it in her career.

“Ben’s pretty sure they decided to fight each other when their duplicates showed up, Glob got his butt kicked and then there was nobody to try and wake Karly up when Glob’s copy disappeared.”

“A reasonable conclusion, and what about Ben?” The queen broached. “I was informed you both successfully made it through, but he doesn’t seem to be around.”

Pelenia also wanted to ask how they even managed to come across Glob and Karly. The trial was set up in a way that any groups should always be guided away from one another, the fact they had met at all shouldn't have occurred. It wasn’t immediately important though and Pelenia could get the details later, the covenant between god and trial taker not preventing any two who had already taken the trial from discussing it.

As for Ben, Thera was more exasperated than anything. “He said he wanted to take the chance to look at the enchantments placed on the inside of the wall while he could so he’ll be out in a day when he’s gotten everything he can out of them.”

The queen couldn’t help it, in all of her years she’d never heard of a trial taker doing such a thing and she burst into laughter. “You really have found yourself an interesting friend.”

“He’s a character. Anyway mother, I completed the trial and even leveled up my earth magic and completed the apprentice mage job. I assume you have no issue with supporting me while I continue to try and improve my magic?”

“Nope, you passed with flying colours.”

“So what was even the point of all this?” After being stuck in her dream, remembering her childhood, Thera was left thinking about her mom. She was a pain. She was always doing something annoying when she wanted to have her fun, and could be overly serious about various things, and would try and get people to make the choices she thought was right, but even for that last one, getting Thera to take a trial seemed pretty extreme.

Surprising her though, her mother gave her what seemed to be an honest answer. “Well my main goal was for you to get the mid-trial reward, I put your odds at having to escape after that at around 50/50, but if you want to insist on continuing to be a mage I wanted you to have whatever little advantage you could.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Pelenia just smiled. “Anailias trial is kind. Even if you don’t complete it, if you get past your duplicates without killing them you’ll get a boost. A strengthening of your soul or something like that, either way it has the potential to bring up some of your skill levels or bring you closer to leveling them up in the future. I thought if you at least got that you’d be able to come closer to your dream.”

“Okay, but then why not just tell me? I want you to know I did almost die a few times there.”

“And yet you’ve come back much stronger, and with a blessing to boot. Anyway, I couldn’t tell you due to the covenant, and I wasn’t sure you’d actually do it if I just asked you to. Bullying you a little seemed like the best choice; and besides,” She started, losing her more serious tone and taking on a smug smile. “Wasn’t it a good opportunity to get closer to your friend?”

Thera looked to her mother silently for a moment, before sighing and turning away. “I’m going to change my job, I’ll see you later at home.”

“Hey now, I’m just having my fun. If you’re going to go, why not leave the flower then and I’ll have it placed in your room once someone comes to look after these two for me?”

Still not able to handle her mother, Thera handed off the flower and started walking off to one of the city's job change rooms.

She elected to go to the main church of Anailia to do it. The walk was a bit far compared to just going to the craftsman guild or the merchants guild, but given all of the benefits she had just received from her god, including advice on how to finally improve her magic after so many years, it just felt right to go to a place she could give thanks again as she did it.

Walking up to the crystal, she placed her hands on it, and let the options fill her mind.

AVAILABLE JOBS

Queen of mana Musician Professional Dancer Bard Earth mage Darkness mage -charm specialized

As always the queen of mana job tempted her on name alone, but from looking into it, it seemed it wouldn’t actually improve her magic, instead sharply raising the speed she could improve her mana attribute and recovery, which was definitely one of the last things she wanted. She already had enough trouble controlling her mana, she didn’t want to raise its quantity even higher without mastering her magic control.

While she had some small interest in the more musically inclined jobs, she knew she wouldn’t be taking them again unless she somehow found herself with no other magic option aside from the darkness one. As far as she was concerned, charm was never being advanced, at least not willingly. If it had taken twenty years of her life for it to go up one level on its own then she should have plenty more time before it would again.

Really there was only one job there she would take and without hesitation selected it.

Name: Thera Oress

Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid

Titles: Spirit Child

Jobs: Earth mage (lv0)

Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage

Attributes:

Vitality: 1001 Vitality recovery rate: 10/hr Mana: 255,624 Mana recovery rate: 30/min Strength: 101 Agility: 314 Stamina: 254 Intelligence: 228

Affinities:

Light: 4 Life: 22 Fire: 11 Water: 14 Air: 12 Earth: 103 Death: 3 Dark: 43 Space: 2 Time: 1

Resistances:

Light: 5 Life: 9 Fire: 11 Water: 16 Air: 12 Earth: 35 Death: 13 Dark: 42 Space: 7 Time: 8

Blessed skills:

Earth magic lv3 Charm magic lv1

Passive skills:

World speak+ Coordination lv3 Medical knowledge lv0 Bind

Active skills:

Calculate lv1 Dance lv4 String instrument lv3 Woodwind instrument lv2 Cleaning lv1 Staff user lv0 Meditation lv2 Speed reading lv2

Blessings

Anailias Blessing

Trials

Trial of Anailia and Tolona

Thera looked at her status and couldn’t help but smile. Things were looking up.