Chapter 11 The Focus

To complete the set, Elysia bent down to pick up the ring, only for her hand to be swiped away. “You must pay first.”

With almost teary eyes at the sudden rebuke, Elysia asked, “Why? I just want to try it on.”

The sister’s expressions softened as they explained, “Once worn, it will tune itself to your elemental essence. Though possible to reset, it’s quite difficult and requires a more powerful elementalist.”

Elysia glanced down at the table but found her bag of mana crystals gone. Her core pulsed in panic as she frantically scanned the room until Joe spoke. “When we returned, I stored your crystals away.”

A sigh of relief escaped Elysia’s lips before making a grabby motion with her hands.

Joe disappeared behind the peninsula, opening a cabinet, then tossing the bag to Elysia.

Upon catching it, she peered inside to find several crystals missing. Her judgmental gaze gravitated to a certain shopaholic girl who was doing her best to avoid eye contact. “Explain.”

Eva fidgeted for a few seconds before giving in. “Sorry, I may have snuck back and took some more crystals.”

Elysia’s gaze hardened with lightning just below the surface. “How many.”

Still unable to meet Elysia’s gaze, Eva whispered, “four high grade mana crystals.”

The shaded cabin lit a little brighter as Elysia’s armor sparked with violet electricity.

Eyes wide in panic, Eva waved her hands frantically. “I’m sorry! I just couldn’t resist after I found out how much I could make. I promise we made a profit.”

Silence reigned in the room as Elysia’s shining gaze drilled into Eva, who shrunk back. “How much do we have left?”

“I have one high grade mana crystal plus the remaining crystals in the pouch.” Blurted Eva.

“So let me get this straight. I gave you ten medium grade mana crystals, then you stole four high grade and we have three high grade left. How is that a profit?”

While keeping her eyes glued to the floor, Eva mumbled, “those dresses just looked so cute I couldn’t resist.”

Unable to keep her anger up any longer, Elysia deflated with an exhausted sigh. “So an impulsive purchase undid all that bragging about your haggling skills.”

Eva’s gaze shot to Elysia’s, any previous fear or shame gone. “Hey! I was up fifty medium grade crystals before that beautiful shop lured me in.”

Unimpressed, Elysia shot back, “Still, you still ended up in the red with my money.”

Refusing to lose Eva revealed, “I started with 4.1 high grade mana crystals and bought ten high grade worth of stuff!”

Elysia’s gaze continued to drill into Eva as she spoke in a low tone, “So if you controlled your impulses, we could have six more high grade but instead you lost us three.”

Eva slumped in defeat. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist there were so many shops.”

While keeping her gaze locked on the squirming girl, Elysia’s thoughts wandered. If only she could control her impulses. We would always have money, though eventually they would have kicked her out. If Las Vegas survived, I think I’ll chain her to Umbra. She is a casino’s wet dream. No impulse control and doesn’t know when to stop. Fortunately, I doubt I will make it that far inland any time soon.

Done with the shopaholic girl, Elysia scooped a high grade crystal from her stash and tossed it toward the sisters before bending down to grab the ring.

The moment her fingers made contract the ring glowed purple, shocking her. Her hand jerked back, but a primal instinct drove her to claim the ring. Despite her fingers tingling, she grasped the ring, pulling it free from its stand.

Elysia closed her hand around the ring, refusing to give in as her arm spasmed. Her lightning sprang to life, flowing through her veins to the ring. With a grimace, she held on while smoke and the smell of burned flesh wafted off her clenched fist.

Her lightning flooded into the ring, smothering any resistance in a heartbeat. As the pain subsided, her hand opened, dropping the ring, which she caught with her other hand before hot potatoing it onto the table. Smoke rose from the table until Joe used a pair of tongs to drop it into a cut of water. Still smoldering hot, the water instantly boiled, forcing him to use hot pads to put it in the sink then run water on it.

While Joe scrambled to cool down the ring, Elysia stared down at the burned ring in her palm as it visibly healed.

A few seconds later, the ring cooled down just as Elysia’s hand healed.

A pull on her core drew her toward the ring where the ring laid in a cup of hot water. She tipped the cup over, careful to avoid sending the ring down the drain before picking it up. Still hot to the touch, but manageable, Elysia slipped the ring on her right pointer finger.

+30% Lightning Damage, +30% Lightning efficiency, +30% Lightning control.

Achievement! Put a ring on it.

“About time you found yourself a quality item, though the armor isn’t too shabby either.”

Reward: Two Attribute Points.

Huh, I haven’t had one of those in a while. I can’t say I missed the snark.

Unable to resist, Elysia ignored her audience as she trotted out onto the rear deck before grasping at her core. As if her mental hand had the ring too, the lightning felt slightly less slippery, allowing her to grab a few threads the size of her first lightning attacks.

She tried to grab more, but every time she tried, she lost control of the first threads. Her face scrunched up in concentration as she stressed her mental muscles to grab thicker threads, but no matter how many times she tried, only thin threads siphoned off her core.

After giving her core a mental glare, she pulled the two thin threads she had control off and brought them through her body to her right hand. She pointed her hand toward the center of the lake as she commended the threads to release only for them to fizzle the moment they left her hand.

Refusing to give up, she grasped another pair, but the same thing happened.

With a growl, she yanked on her core, ripping free a large thread. The lightning wriggled in her mental hands before exploding. Pain speared through her chest as she collapsed to the deck, lightning sparking from her twitching body.

Fortunately, the lightning died down a few seconds later, returning control to her body.

Elysia released a groan as she sat up. When her eyes landed on her audience, a blush grew. While hiding her tomato face behind her hair, she climbed to her feet, using the side rail to steady herself.

Contrary to her expectations, all she saw was looks of concern as she hobbled inside and plopped on the couch. Ione curled up on her lap a moment later, drawing her hand toward the silky soft fluff.

Elysia’s eyes gravitated to the siblings who just entered. “Is there something I can buy to improve my control further?”

Both sisters gave her an apologetic look as the lighter scaled sister answered. “I’m sorry young elemental, but focuses don’t stack. You either need a better focus, which we don’t have, nor know where you could get one or improve your lightning affinity with practice.”

An annoyed sigh escaped her mouth before Elysia asked her next question. “What about a portable recharge option?”

“Why would you need one of those? There are so many ways to recharge, especially in a dungeon.” Questioned the darker scaled sister.

“There is? The only time I recharged myself in a dungeon was from level ups or finding a power source.”

The sisters gave her a pitying look, causing Elysia to frown. She wracked her brain to figure out what she missed that the sisters thought was obvious. After a moment, memories of her gorging herself on a freshly killed crab played through her mind. Just to be sure she was right, despite her pride fighting her Elysia asked, “do you mean eating monsters in the dungeon? Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

“Yes, and no. For most, yes, it could be dangerous, but as an elemental you should be immune to most flesh based ailments. However, only creatures with an elemental affinity will provide a recharge. It doesn’t matter what their element is as your body would convert the elemental essence into your element, though I’m sure consuming a lighting based creature would provide higher benefits.”

Elysia groaned, thinking back to all the times she nearly ran out of charge only for the other sister to speak. “Most dungeons you delved until now probably didn’t have elemental attuned creatures other than maybe the boss. Elemental attunement doesn’t become common until over level fifty in dungeons. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half the monsters you face in Mezo have an attunement, so don’t be afraid to make meals out of your prey.”

I have no desire to eat raw meat. Even lightning charred crab meat tasted like crap, or maybe those crabs were just nasty to begin with. At the thought, another question formed.

“Could I buy a portable cook stove?”

Instead of the siblings answering, Eva butted in with a smug expression. “I thought you might want something to cook with in the field, so I bought one.”

Elysia gave Eva a thankful smile but frowned a moment later as she remembered all the wasteful spending the girl did. “Good job. If only you didn’t waste so many crystals on useless things.”

The sisters glanced out the window before the lighter scaled one announced. “Is there anything else you need of us? If not, we have to get back to work. Items don’t create themselves well, not usually at least.”

Still exhausted from her focus testing, Elysia shook her head.

Both sisters gave a respectful nod to Elysia. “Contact Urus if you need us again.”

After the Chrotile left, Elysia drilled her gaze into Eva. “I’m going to take a nap. When I get up, I better find all your purchases organized and stored.”

Eva nodded her head, prompting Elysia to stand up. Just before walking down the steps, Elysia paused and grabbed the big of crystals on the table before stretching her hand out to Eva. Despite looking almost pained, Eva dug her last high-grade mana crystal from her pocket before tossing it to Elysia.

She dropped the crystal in the big with the others before descending the stairs to her inner sanctum. The first thing she did upon arriving in her bedroom was enter her closet. She opened her safe, setting the bag on a shelf before stripping off her armor, only to realize she had nowhere to store it, prompting her to jog back upstairs to grab the scaly chest it came in.

As she passed, she gave a glare at Eva, who was lazing on the couch while inspecting something in her hand. Probably a purchase. Said girl jumped to attention, grabbing several shopping bags before retreating into the control room.

Despite the strain the sisters showed from the weight of the crate, it felt feather light almost unnaturally so, but she pushed away the oddness in favor of completing her current mission.

Still unconvinced the armor wasn’t fragile, she gently laid it down in the crate in the same layout as it came. Her eyes landed on the whip just before closing the lid. I never tried out the whip. I guess I’ll play with it after a nap. Actually, I probably should practice with the whip Thrazk gave me first. This one looks really sharp. I’d rather not slice myself open.

With a post nap plan set, Elysia closed the lid before sliding the crate on the bottom shelf of the safe, then closed the door and spun the wheel to keep away a certain shopaholic.

Satisfied, Elysia flopped on her bed beckoning her ever present shadow Ione toward her. The moment Ione was in arm’s reach, Elysia grabbed her, turning the fluffy kitten into a hug pillow.

Ione struggled for a few seconds but Elysia’s arms refused to budge, so she gave into the inevitable and started up her purr motor, hoping to receive some petting.

Her efforts were rewarded as Elysia lazily stroked her head between her ears as she fell asleep.