After the treatment, grandma Triss was feeling much better. The two had a day out in the city, but it was cut short since Triss started to feel tired, and they still had a long trip back to her place. On the next days, Triss kept sending showing off to Hera how she could get down the stairs, go for long walks, and even dance a little. Her grandmother wasn't a sad person, but seeing her with that child-like smile warmed Hera's heart.

The next day Hera was already back at Hazelpond. It didn't feel right to stay in her flat, not when she had a big house waiting for her inside the MAZE, even if she had to take the last boat of the day leaving Brinefront.

Hera was worried about her skills. Improved stamina was rank 3, just like her hide skill that ranked up when the assassin's role quest was over. If she weren't careful, the skill would improve once more and trigger a new role quest. Stamina sounded like something that a fighter would need, but it could be what she needed for the controller role. Still, none of those sounded interesting for now. With her focus on spells and Helena's work, Hera wanted to get either the mage role or the researcher one.

Now, with the increase in the skill, she had to focus on something else before it was too late. If not, she would end up with a role that she wasn't too keen on getting. At the same time, ignoring the quest seemed counterproductive. Even if she refused the new role, she would still need to increase another skill to rank 4 before getting another role skill.

Her only skill that could trigger the mage role was mana recovery. She had confirmed that with other explorers in the order of the lost court. The easiest other options would be acquiring an elemental damage boost or resistance, and the magic sensitivity skill, which helped her notice magic around her. Other skills that could trigger the mage role quest were more complicated to get and could take years to reach rank 4.

Talking to Helena, she understood that mana recovery would increase its rank as the mastery increased. So it was something she could actively see growing. Unlike how it was with spells, Helena was able to help Hera with the skill. There was no formula or code for them. It was all about the flow of mana through their bodies. There were just two issues. First, Helena reached a barrier, her mana recovery was stuck at rank 4 for a few years already. Second, not being able to use magic at the moment made it so she had to take everything from memory.

Still, Helena did her best. She explained how mana wasn't supposed to stop being gathered, even after her mana was full. She had to keep the mana in constant motion, almost like it was a blood flow. This was another thing. The human body wasn't supposed to fill up with mana like a glass of water, but to take the mana inside your organs and veins. Just like they say it in physics, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Mana wasn't above that.

With Helena's guidance, Hera was able to increase her mastery by 1%. It seemed little, but considering that she could barely grasp the concepts, it was a significant improvement. Not just that, but that 1% increase was enough to make the skill rank up.

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Mana Recovery (Rank 2)

Improves your natural mana recovery. This effect increases as the mastery of the technique used to create the skill increases. The skill increases your passive mana recovery.

By activating the skill, you can recover mana at an accelerated pace. However, if the skill concentration is broken, you become unable to recover mana for 25 minutes. The amount recovered by the active effect increases significantly with the mastery of the technique.

Passive Recovery: 30 mana per minute

Active Recovery: 39 mana per minute

Mastery: 11%

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There seemed to be no change in the actual skill aside from the reduced penalty if the concentration was broken and the difference in her maximum mana. During the rampage, her mana had increased by over 100 points, now sitting at 435. Helena explained that the skill worked like that. Unlike others who just grew as they were used, the mana regeneration was something that people had to learn and figure out. It was closer to the development of fighting styles. Only after becoming more proficient with the moves and understanding how it worked, the skill would increase.

The two had the house all for themselves. But Helena didn't want to leave her research, and now that the rampage was over, she could actually focus. It was a shame that Hera had forgotten to use her elemental sight during the defense, but at the same time, she wasn't in a position to be thinking about other things.

Hera practiced the mana recovery for a few hours when Helena emerged from the basement.

"Want some tea, sweetie?"

"Sure," Hera said as she walked towards the kitchen.

Helena placed a kettle on the stove, "You said you wanted to ask me about something else, right? Something about a monster that you saw doing something."

"Oh, right. This pangolin was controlling its scales with strands of mana. Do you know the name of a spell that can do that? I forgot to check the guild or the order store," Hera replied, getting the teacups and the infuser.

"Give me more details. How did the scales move? Where did they come from? What you described is too broad," Helena said.

Hera explained, trying to remember every detail that she could about that fight, "... then I tried to make my mana pull the chakram. My idea was to make it move around without pulling the string. It jumped up, but I can't do it again."

"Humm... there are a few ways. You can have an elemental manipulation spell and use another to coat the scale with that element. Telekinesis works, but it's very mana heavy. But the mana connection being as small as a strand of hair... Maybe the scales themselves were part of the spell. That is a thing. You can invoke elemental objects and control them with your mana. It takes a lot of concentration and a quick mind, but it works almost as if you have some backup, even without anyone around. Those are called elemental projections. If you search for that in the guild or a store, you should find it."

Hera considered the possibilities. More interesting than having some sort of telekinesis, having a magic weapon following her would be incredible. Of course, a spell like that should take a lot of mana, but if she could increase her mana regeneration enough, it could work.

"By the way, how was the effect of the scales?" Helena asked after a few moments where Hera was quietly contemplating her options.

"Sorry, what?"

"The scales, sweetie? How the spells behaved going through them?"

"Oh... I didn't use it," Hera looked away.

"Seriously? That was supposed to help with the defense!" Helena gasped.

"There was too much going on. I completely forgot about that," Hera tried to explain herself.

"Look at this girl. She used to be so kind, now she even talks back to me," Helena clicked her tongue.

"Sorry, Ms. Ditrro. It won't happen again," Hera said with a serious expression.

Helena rolled her eyes, "You are no fun, you know that?"

"It’s hard to be fun when you are about to burn our tea," Hera chuckled.

Helena looked back and saw the string of the tea bag catching on fire. She quickly put it out, tossing the bag in the sink and opening the faucet.

After a few moments with the water still running, Hera asked, "Do you want me to make the tea?”.

Helena didn't even look back, "Yes, please."

During the afternoon, Hera looked for the spells that Helena mentioned. As she said, telekinesis was very costly. It would take 10 mana to lift a single gram for one second, which means that just raising her handaxe for a second would cost almost 14 thousand mana each second. That was a no go. The elemental manipulation was more cost-effective. To control one element, she would need from 10 to 100 mana per second, and it was more about size than weight. A rock the size of her fist would cost only 10 mana per second, while a person's life-sized statue would be 50 mana per second. This was just to move it around, it wouldn’t be possible to raise it too far from the ground, and to use it as an attack required much more mana. Yet to control her chakram as she wanted, it would require a solid element. She wouldn't be able to use fire, lightning, or poison. It had to be rock, wood, ice, or something like it. Wind and water could work, but it would be less about moving the blade around than tossing it from one place to another.

She looked at her last option, the elemental projection. As Helena said, it was very different than the rest. Using this spell, she would be creating a new weapon or object to move around instead of using something she already had. Hera looked at the mana projection to understand the core of it. Reading the description, it was a relatively straightforward spell.

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Mana Projection

Rank: Novice

Gives a form to your mana. The size and shape affect the cost of mana to maintain the projection. The projection can affect the world to an extent, and it can have different properties. The user can give simple commands to the projection.

With an increased rank, the projection can acquire more complex and unique characteristics.

Range: 2 meters

Base mana cost per second: 10 mana

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The mana cost was minimal. She could be able to make the projection last over seven minutes. That was already a significant amount of time for a fight. The problem was the cost. She was using the guild store, and a training module for this spell costs 35 000 gold. She tried the Order store, where she could trade contribution points for spells, and found the mana projection for just 8 000 points. It was still expensive, but much more manageable than gold. Yet, right now, for the few jobs she did for the Order of the Lost Court, she only had 300 points.

Thinking for a moment, Hera realized that she never got her reward for the scales. With her being attacked by the Wendigo and everything, she completely forgot about that. Heading down to the basement, Hera called Helena.

"Lena, how is the best boss in the world doing?"

Helena raised her head from her notes and stared at Hera dead in the eye, "What did you do? Or what do you want? No one is that nice without a reason."

"I'm hurt. Do you honestly think that I wouldn't say nice things about you?"

"You would, just not like that. What is it?" Helena replied.

"Fine. What's the reward I'm getting for the scales and the data I brought you from the pangolins?" Hera asked.

Helena stared at her for a moment before her eyes went wide, "I'm soooo sorry. I completely spaced out. Let me check it."

She grabbed her tablet and made a few notes, "For the scales, all the data and everything, hum... Can I give you tomorrow? I have to do some math."

"Sure. Any chance it will be 8 000 points for the order?"

"What?" Helena stopped, "Why that many?"

"I found the mana projection for sale there. I could get from the guild, but that's 35k. It's cheaper if I get from the order," Hera explained.

"Do you have the store opened in the tablet?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, here," Hera showed the page.

Helena read something," Forget it. This one is only for the formula."

"What?" Hera looked at the page. In the description of the product, it did state that it was a formula for the spell. The code would cost 12 000 points, and the compendium for a trainer 28 000 points, "Oh, man."

"Sorry, sweetie and the mana cost of that one is sneaky. It says only 10 mana, but that is to make a leaf. If you want to make something like a sword or a shield, the cost increases by tenfold. Besides, there is no reason for you ever to buy those things. Your biggest advantage is being able to figure out spells on your own. Just try to make it work," Helena turned back to her research.

"What do you mean?"

"C'mon, sweetie. All your spells come from you trying to make something happen. You think about the effect, which triggers it, just like the grease fire you learned. Stop thinking about getting the spell through other people. Just figure out. Conceptual mages have that edge above everyone else. You should try to use that advantage on purpose instead of by luck."

Hera had to admit, Helena was right. People always said that her way of learning spells was all about creativity, and the talk she had with Tom confirmed that. It sucked that she wasn’t able to learn new spells through other people like Helena or Bonnie, but if she could master the ability to create spells, it could work really well. Maybe it was time to figure out how to start that.