CH660 Thera's Perspective

I have no clue how he handles that so well.

Being faced with the totality of the world’s gods at once had been enough to make it feel like she was going to have a heart attack. It still felt like she was on the verge of one as her chest pounded all the way to the gate, with Ben’s own goals echoing through her mind too.

Thera had no clue where the desire to try and push her to the third tier had come from. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand the sentiment behind it, he was correct in what he’d said about her but there was a level of urgency it seemed like he was feeling that she had no answer too.

Just what else happened while he was taken to make him want to try and push things so fast? I mean, it’s not like he’s wrong. If I can somehow squeeze out that level of power before the next wave then that really would be the best for everyone, but doing it in less than a year… Yeah, no matter what it’s unrealistic, although I guess the chances got a little better after all of the jobs I just finished. Speaking off.

After the few hours of healing she’d done the day prior it really felt like she should have been done the one she’d chosen and glancing quickly at her card she found she had, with the combination of her work and the exhaustion her body was under being enough to make her miss that notification.

Stupid. I should have realized there was something wrong about not having it done last night. Okay, taking a new one and then worrying about the rest of everything before then.

Knowing she couldn’t put it off again, Thera grabbed her necklace, looked at all of her options and tried not to dwell on her disappointment.

AVAILABLE JOBS

• Musician

• Bard

• Darkness mage: charm specialized

• Staff user

• Empathy mage

• Barrier mage

• High crystallization mage

• Master spirit mage

• Heretic

• Mathematician

• Apprentice chef

…Still not much.

The list of options she had available had grown depressingly small, with healer not having helped her gain some advanced life option like she’d hoped.

It was reflected in everything she’d taken the past day as well. Non-affinity mage had only granted her a single advanced job after taking it and while that might eventually change should she finish the lower options she had associated with it, she’d essentially gained nothing new from all of the ones she’d gone through.

Not like I’m going to take mathematician or apprentice chef any time soon. This is not great.

At the very least, it looked like she had one good option left and was likely to get at least one beyond that, but without anything better she was going to be forced to start taking worse jobs, potentially even getting down to ones that were pretty irrelevant to anything she currently cared about raising.

And with how low the experience cost is for some of those and how many demons I can kill at once to gain experience, I might even end up with an empty list soon. 

…Okay, there’s nothing I can worry about if that does come to pass so all I can do is my best and hope that it will work out. For now, I’m taking master spirit mage.

<ACQUIRED JOB- MASTER SPIRIT MAGE LV0>

<MAJOR BONUSES GRANTED TO IMPROVING MANA, MANA RECOVERY RATE, AND INTELLIGENCE>

<ALL SPIRIT RELATED SKILLS WILL RECEIVE A MAJOR GROWTH BONUS>

<MANA EMPOWERING LEVEL INCREASED>

<ACQUIRED SKILL LIFE SENSE LEVEL 0>

<ACQUIRED SKILL DARK SENSE LEVEL 0>

Name: Thera Oress

Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid

Titles: Spirit Child, Madman’s lover, Spirit princess, Saintess, Destined holder of Spirit Empowering, Outsider slayer, Friend of Elementals

Jobs: Master spirit mage (lv1)

Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage, Earth mage, True mage, High earth mage, Spirit mage, Life mage, High life mage, Telekinetic mage, Adventurer, High telekinetic mage, High spirit mage, Master earth mage, Earth princess, Master life mage, Life princess, Saintess, Crystallization mage, Master adventurer, Queen of mana, Mana embodiment, Dark mage, High dark mage, Master dark mage, Dark princess, War mage, Annihilation mage, Homunculus creator, Chimera maker, Non-affinity mage, Construct mage, Professional dancer, Healer

Attribute:

• Vitality: 2853

• Vitality recovery rate: 51/hr

• Mana: 677,246

• Mana recovery rate: 375/min

• Strength: 637

• Agility: 1229

• Stamina: 1081

• Intelligence: 1349
  

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:

• Spiritual earth magic lv7*

• Spiritual dark magic lv4*
  

Passive skills: 

• World speak+

• Coordination lv8

• Bind

• Mana recovery rate enhancement lv9

• Earth sense lv9

• Dark sight lv1

• Mana enhancement lv6

• Magic inclination lv5

• Sacrilege lv1

• Sleep resistance lv4

• Life sense lv0

• Dark sense lv0

Active skills: 

• Calculate lv4

• Dance lv6

• String instrument lv5

• Woodwind instrument lv4

• Cleaning lv3

• Staff wielder lv2

• Meditation lv3

• Speed reading lv6

• Spiritual life magic lv8*

• Overwhelming non-affinity magic lv2*

• Mana empowering lv1*

• Cooking lv2

• Mana examination lv9

• Spirit comprehension lv3

Blessings:

• Anailia’s Blessing

• Elvat’s life magic Blessing

• Quox’s Blessing

• Eneth’s Blessing

• Earth Pantheon’s Blessing

• Life Pantheon’s Blessing

• Dark Pantheon’s Blessing

• Yuzu’s mana regeneration Blessing

Trials:

• Trial of Anailia and Tolona

• Earth Tower

• Life Tower

• Dark Tower

Not just one level which was more than she’d hoped but two new skills with it, both of which paired well with ones she already had as she instantly began feeling their effects.

Like her earth sense, her new ones instantly attuned her to the elements they were attached to but both were already being enhanced by other things on her status. She already had dark sight, the skill making her better with nights and more aware of any dark mana around her and she could feel the effects of life sense making her more aware of the living things around her in a way that was interacting with her mana examination for the closest ones nearby.

A good harvest as far as skill acquisitions went but for the time being what she’d really wanted were job options to make her even a little stronger.

And maybe a few more levels would be what I need to get it.

For whatever reason Ben had to try and get so much from the gods for her, be it entirely what he said or something more, she wouldn’t turn down any rewards she might receive. What mattered most was growing all she could with the time she had.

---

Stepping through the gate, the first thing Thera noticed was smoke and screams, a sign of disaster that forced her on guard as she raised herself in the air to see where the danger was coming from, with the cause nearby.

While far from any invasion point, dozens of demons had made their way to the city, breaking through its walls to wreak havoc on the population within as multiple of the monsters shot off fire spells, waves of flames burning the city around them to the ground, with the one that seemed to be in the lead noticing her hanging in the air before she could shoot a spell, leading to a clash of magic.

In the confines of a city, she couldn’t use the same sort of attacks she’d been using on the battlefield without risking the structural integrity of the entire area, making her take a split second to use her mana crystallization to attack while those monsters were far quicker in their choices, having no consideration to make even for each other as all attributes were directed her way.

With hers passing through to kill a handful, she threw up a barrier to block what she could, but not well enough. It was quick and sloppy and not all attacks at her were purely physical, letting some of the hodgepodge mix and break through as effects blended and took effect, leaving her to fall from the sky as she dealt with it all.

Things were moving too fast and she was dealing with an assault on the senses, nausea and vertigo and pain all at once while she struggled to react in a way that would create a coherent spell to catch her, ditching that option purely out of reflex as she instead focused on herself in a way she had overwhelming experience with ever since the beginning of the wave, focusing all of the healing spells she could on herself before she’d made contact with the ground.

In one movement she felt bones snap and repair, each bit of damage from the fall being fixed but coming with quick bursts of pain that helped her focus her thoughts enough to apply her dark spells to herself next, forcing that mind magic to focus herself beyond the far weaker effects she was under as she shot up and began to run, not taking to the skies again for what any easy target it would make her and instead buffed herself to get to them on foot, racing through building as others ran away and that time going prepared.

She already had spells on her fingertips and unlike before was ready to use them as her mana took shape the second she saw them, giving form to her thoughts as constructs shot off and ripped through the remaining bodies she’d missed the first time, breaking them before they could think to react in a way their far weaker magics couldn’t resist and ending the short clash then and there, even if it had done enough.

One of the city's walls was broken, houses and other buildings destroyed with some still burning and plenty of injuries to go along with it and that wasn’t even considering whatever deaths had managed to occur in such a short time, changing the purpose of her presence there as the order of what she needed to do was confirmed.

She couldn’t fix any of the buildings, she didn’t have the technical knowledge for that, but she could heal the most critical among the injured before going to fix the wall and then focusing on the hospital like she’d originally intended.

Feeling the extra weight, she didn’t let herself dwell on it and moved to do all of that, the day becoming so much longer for the same sort of event that had to be happening across the world.

---

She didn’t run back to Anailia as soon as she was done. After a day that had run for far too long, she couldn’t resist the impulse to take a seat and collect herself, just trying to breathe after every bit of work she had to spend as she closed her eyes before eventually opening them to the realm of her goddess.

“Hello Thera,” Anailia greeted gently. “It seems you’ve been busy.”

“It’s been a long day.”

She wasn’t as able to give the amount of respect she’d usually try to show in the presence of her god, she didn’t have the energy. It was just another day to top off a month of constant work but it wasn’t getting any easier. She wanted to rest but no matter how much she did the work wasn’t going to end. All of life was going to be overwhelmingly busy from that point forth and even if she didn’t mean for it to be the case, the feeling of it was reflected in her attitude.

Not that her goddess seemed to mind, with Anailia patting her head instead of rebuking her.

“You’re doing your best, I’m sorry to take a few moments of your rest.”

“Um, no, it’s fine, of course. What can I do for you?”

“It’s more what I can do for you. Your little lover drives a hard bargain while making a compelling point. I’m here to tell you that we’ve agreed to his terms and passed on the reward for your prior work.”

Without missing a beat, Anailia gently kissed her head, forcing the sounds of notifications to fill her thoughts.

<MAGIC INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<MAGIC INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<MAGIC INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<MAGIC INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<MAGIC INCLINATION HAS AWAKENED TO MAGIC AFFINITY>

<SPIRITUAL LIFE MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>

Before Thera could so much as react to all of the notifications going off in her head, Anailia gave a small chuckle.

“A bit of a shame that raising your inclination so much didn’t raise your other magics with it but doing it that way at least reduced the cost of getting you your ninth level. And now that it's done I’ll have to let you go. I’d love to chat longer but given the strength of your awakenings, the fact it just happened isn’t going to go unnoticed by anyone else around, I’d suggest heading home for the night.”

“Right. Still, thank you Anailia, I hope you’ll convey my gratitude to the other gods as well.”

“I will. Work hard child, do your best to ensure the opportunity you’ve been given doesn’t go to waste.”

“I will do everything I can to make you proud.”