A hearty breakfast was all it took to trigger the celestial's second molt, everything was normal at first, they pulled themselves free from their shells and dried off just fine. The problem happened about a minute after they stood back up, their abdomens started to very lightly glow and their eyelids started drooping at the same time. Victoria and I both tried to encourage them to pull their magic back, force the light conversion to stop being automatic, lean on their feedback resistance to pull through if it's hard. It didn't work, but according to Victoria we were on the right track in some way since she got to watch her sisters light up and they passed out the moment they did instead of taking a little while.

Still, having some levels in MFR should help them handle my second idea, which I got from feeding the berry bush, direct mana injection to the light energy gland so their natural energy can go to themselves. I carefully lifted one of them, one hand cradling her thorax and the other wrapped around her abdomen. Turning on magic sense with the range tuned down so I could see inside her as well as possible I could clearly spot mana flowing into an oblong object and vanishing, since it stopped being mana when it enters. I trace along the outside and see the majority is flowing like a river straight from her heart, which seems to be where mana is generated. I ever so gently forced mana out of my hand and directed it to join the main flow, she grimaces in her sleep for a second but slowly relaxed.

The tiny thread of power I was feeding in didn't seem to do much, so I steadily increased it's strength while keeping an eye on her face and a psychic ear out for signs of pain. I got to nearly the amount of juice it took for three tendrils of dirt control to go full power before a change happened. The empty spot filled up with mana as it finally used it slower than what could be poured into it, I got a level in something new, and she shuddered slightly as the mana she was producing sputtered inside her. I had to increase my output a bit more and edged her mana flow out of the way before she finally woke up.

She looked around sleepily for a moment before her eyes went wide, she startled herself, and attempted to jump out of my hands, but my grip was too strong. I had to whisper soothingly to her psychically for her to calm down and explained what was going on and that if she broke contact she would probably fall asleep again. I carefully helped her maneuver so she could get a grip on my upper arm before I redirected my mana flow through there and finally let go of her abdomen. The amount of energy needed to keep her up was patently absurd, I can't help but feel there is something missing that is supposed to go on here instead of the organ just eating more energy than ten of them could produce.

I looked to Victoria and said "well, she's awake, but barely, and only while I am pouring a ridiculous amount of extra energy into her."

Instead of saying something immediately she walked over and hugged me first "you are the ridiculous one, 1000 years of knowledge passed down to me and all of it painted a picture of this being impossible, that a celestial's fate is a helpless light maker. With her being awake I am now more hopeful than ever that you will be able to let me live a real life after reaching higher levels." She then caresses the head of the daughter on my arm and tells her "I am sorry you wont be awake all the time, your father has too many jobs, but enjoy today as much as you can before you have to go back to sleep, I promise we will wake you up occasionally so you can have different dreams."

She nodded confidently and told her mom she will be okay, being awake was a surprise for her as well and she will make the most of it. I scooped up the second celestial before heading for the surface and saw the workers had finished the fortificationso, meaning I could send them back down to work on the stairs. They were actually rearranging the stones to abut the wall instead of being a pile near it but they were essentially finished. I called out for all of them to finish up and come over which they did quickly, and I handed over the still sleeping celestial and told them they can start doing the next job. They carried her off with gusto in their happy but silent way and I followed after for a bit but stopped in the entrance chamber to fix up the wounded guard.

I sat down next to her and moved my arm so my passenger could make physical contact with the wound, and she did her thing. Watching with mana sense told me nearly nothing, there was a weird flex in it as she focused but what I saw happening with my physical eyes did not match at all. I would say the light poured off of her abdomen like a liquid and as it flowed over the cracks they sealed shut and the light liquid evaporated, or something. Once she stopped dripping I backed up and the soldier stood up, knocked on her chest twice to check it's sturdiness before saluting me and saying something to her little sister before heading out to start hunting again.

That healing procedure looked a lot different from the last time I saw a celestial heal a wound, I sent her the memory and asked about the different healing methods. She explained that her trait screen now had "light converter: an organ for the conversion of mana into light energy" and that she already had a spell "healing light: focus light energy into healing precipitate via mana reaction", which explained the weird flex her mana was doing. The light burst was weaker and used just light energy but with no direction, it was also the only thing a celestial could use while asleep since they lacked the mana to cause the reaction. This also explained why celestials seemed to always be stuck at level one, they were just converting mana into light but not actually using the light properly so it wasn't worth exp.

For instance, Victoria's sister that we brought with us was apparently born sometime before she was and her light had identical output to the youngest one she seen. Not gaining a single level over three months of constant work does not make sense with what I had seen, but now I know she actually wasn't working over those three months, she was just living. Anyway, now that I had a healer I can do training that would normally wound me, like punching rocks as hard as possible while using power coat. To do that I piled up a bunch of rocks against the wall and used hardened dirt to keep it stable, it took a bit longer than it should have due to having an adorable power leech, but I still had enough to work with.

I moved her to my back with her head peeking over my shoulder, like this I can punch without her getting whipped around on my arm and I can just move my hand under her whenever I hurt something from punching. I unleashed a haymaker on my improvised rock wall and there was a horrible sound as I cracked a knuckle bone and rock shattered. The pain was terrible, but compared to when I blew out magic sense it was nothing, I just moved my hand behind my back and asked my little girl to fix me up. There was a flash of light and the healing juice dripped on my hand, as it infused my hand I was reminded of something from a while back, the void. The gentle soothing sensation reminded me deeply of that space between worlds where I met with the god of this one.

I had no idea what it could possibly mean other than there being a connection in some manner, but anything more specific than that would be pure speculation at this point. A few hours pass as I punch a wall and heal from punching a wall, annoyingly I only get to level twenty four of power coat and suffer a mastery freeze, I need to use it in a new way but I have no idea what that could be, so I guess that's it for focused training on that for now. I also gained another unknown skill after the fortieth time I cracked my finger, it must be some kind of toughness skill since it stopped that from happening again.

I'll need to add that to the soldier's training regimen later, but for now I needed something else to do. After a look around I decided to add the finishing touch to my metal melter, as in set it on fire until it gets hard. Plenty of wood was still left over from the wall construction so getting that set up was easy enough, I set the crucible to the side for now since I want to bake it properly with a air pumped charcoal fire instead of just harden it with a wood fire. I talked as I worked, it helped me stay on task but it was also to explain what I was doing for my passenger so she could imagine it properly when she was sleeping. I kept one tendril of magic active in the structure as it baked in order to make sure it wont crack as it hardened but otherwise I didn't really push it too much.

Eventually Christina came back from a hunt while I was watching the fire and after dropping the boar by the cooking fire she told me she was finally level four so she felt she was ready for combat with her sisters. I stopped her and explained there was something else she could do that could help that I had just discovered, I had her start fighting my stone wall, and as expected she cracked the shell on her knuckles. Is a little funny that fighting a stone wall was easiest for workers due to their specialized hardened hands while a soldier's combat armor failed against stone. Regardless she was healed and the exercise was repeated until eventually she noticed it stopped happening, and then explaining hidden skills took an effort and a half to get across to her.

With that done though, it was finally time to arrange the big fight, the soldier that was cooking and Christina both went out to gather up some hunters while I watched the cooking meat and my enflamed smelter. It took around an hour for them to finally get back with five soldiers in tow, once gathered I explained what I wanted to have happen. All five normal soldiers would fight Christina, at the same time, they were confused and Christina asked for an explanation since she knows winning five one on one battles was what it took. It was simple, due to traits and skills having tiers I felt that a better thing would happen if she did a harder challenge, and I felt that she was powerful enough to handle it.

She was nervous about it, but my reassurance was enough for her to agree to go along with my idea, so she went to her position a ways to my left while the five soldiers lined up to my right. I made sure they understood the rules of engagement; no active skills, offensive or defensive, but due to having a celestial on site for wounds they were allowed to otherwise cripple eachother with broken limbs. I backed up so I wont get in the way and sent Christina a last bit of advice, to remember that they all are using the first style that is all or nothing attacks and that her armor is built to deflect not blunt so twist to make blows glance off, she nodded and put on her serious face, with that I raised my arm up and swung it down as I yelled "Fight!"