She pulled the mana from the fire but kept the flames alive around her. However, the mana that was pulled from the flames was pure arcane mana. This was where I had to tread very carefully. As a ghost, I was weak to magic, so the fact that she was throwing around pure mana was a bit terrifying. She slammed her foot against the ground again, and large chunks of rocks rose and orbited around her. She flicked her hand, and the water tore its self from the ground and into the air and danced softly around the fire that circled her. The wind kicked up, and streams of air became opaque as they solidified into blades.

The wind whipped violently around and caused the plants that doubled as her hair to flap widely in turn. She sent a wave of rocks towards me, which I sidestepped. However, a wave of fire came rushing towards me next and blinded me momentarily, and then a burning pain cut through my lower half. Damn, she was moving me around and not letting me focus on the fight on hand. She significantly outclassed me. That much was obvious.

I used fleeting steps and tried to close the gap between us. Waves of rocks and water rushed towards me, yet my fleeting steps nulled them. Thankfully most of the objects that were coming my way were not created by magic. Otherwise, they would be damaging me much more than they were. The only real sources of danger were the flames since they were created by magic and the pure mana that Aphelia kept close to her, which made it dangerous to close her. Sadly, however, that was the only option available to me in this form.

I kept glancing around the area, trying to find an opening to attack her. The waves of mana that were dancing around her were erratic and hard to predict. I kept activating fleeting steps to dodge each wave of thrown rocks. She was using this as a cover, so I couldn't see what she was doing next. However, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. I activated transdimensional step, and the familiar wave of color washed over me, and I quickly moved closer to her position. I reappeared just behind her and pressed my hands into her shoulders.

The plants all around her started to wither and die at an alarming rate. She tried to spin around and throw a sything arc of mana at me, but I pressed myself against her back and started to inflict all the damage I could with close-range spells. I was lacking a large amount of damage output that I would usually have in my other forms, so I was merely just chipping away at her health.

I was throwing every spell at her that I could imagine before a golden yellow light enveloped me, causing my health bar to drain faster than I could have imagined possible. I had to use fleeting steps to quickly back away from her and create space. “How did you like that, Kairos!” Aphelia called out to me as the pain washed over my body in steady waves. She used a light spell to deal heavy damage to me.

“That wasn’t fair!” I replied in turn as I started to float around, looking for another chance to strike.

“Eh, ghosts at any level are a pain in the ass to fight. You have to fight dirty if you want to win against one. You are lucky I am holding back; otherwise, I would have killed you by now.” She said as she observed me. Bright golden lights danced around her fingertips dangerously.

“I didn’t realize they were that strong.” I had to cycle through my magic to see what was available to me since I was locked out of a lot of stuff in this form.

“Basic ghost? No, they aren't too strong. A strong magical attack will kill them. It's just trapping them in a position to kill them. That is usually the issue. Speaking of which, I didn’t realize you were a ghost.” Lighting crackled around her, and darkness started to crawl through the trees. Not even the balls of fire that cast a faint glow on the forest could stop the darkness that was encroaching around us. It was terrifying the ease with which Aphelia could handle all the elements around her.

“It was just a path that I walked. I’ve been neglecting it since I was busy doing other things. I do appreciate you training me; it puts me a few steps closer to letting me evolve this form.” After eying through the menu, I saw that the only magic that I had at my disposal was magic regarding cold and ice, at least for now. There were also options for stuff like telekinesis, but I had no clue where, to begin with, that. After that, it would depend on which evolutions I took.

“I don’t mind. This is fun and a great stress reliever.” She shrugged and rolled her head, and the rain stopped falling from the sky. “Gain anything from the fighting so far?”

I brought up the list of notifications that were violently blinking in the corner.

The path of the Monster has gained three levels.

You have learned the following skills. *Due to the nature of the skills, they will be folded into your Administrator class.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Freezing Grasp: Your touch passively draws life from whatever you are touching and replaces it with a deep piercing cold that only gets stronger over time. You also heal for a portion of the damage dealt.

Chilled Air has evolved into Forsaken Air I: The air around you sucks life essence away and replaces it with a piercing cold. You will heal for a portion of the damage dealt.

Levels left to first evolution: Two

Click here for non-administrator level increases.

The Trandemisonal domain has gained one level

Stats gained:

Agility: +3

Health: +3

Focus:+1

Control:+1

Grace:+1

Stamina:+2

Mana:+2

Fleeting Steps IV has been unlocked.

“Well, I have a decent haul of stuff, so I appreciate it,” I told her as I dismissed the notifications and glanced at the clock to take a look. “Hey Aphelia, I hate to cut this short. But I need to take care of a few things before I head out to the simulation.”

Her face turned back into her blue-haired one, and a frown crossed her face. “Oh, that's no fun. We can continue this later, I suppose.”

I shifted myself back to my host form and crossed my arms. “How is Xxylennia, by the way? Has she hatched yet?”

She quickly shook her head, “No, the egg is still basking in the core; I am not sure how long it will be before it hatches, though.”

That wasn't very reassuring. I was hoping to have her when we leave. I guess that leaves me with Quinn. “I see. Well, just let me know when she's born. However, you still owe me a skill, yes?” I asked and waggled my eyebrows at her, which elicited a chuckle from her.

“That is true. Do you have any preference for a skill that you would like to know?”

I thought it over for a moment. From what I could tell, she had control over a vast amount of elements. But what I was inquisitive about was the weather magic she had. “Can I learn weather manipulation?”

She snapped her fingers, and the plants that were burnt and destroyed started to fade into the ground rapidly, and the trees that were damaged started to heal and grow taller than before. “Sure. However, one of the biggest things to note is that weather manipulation is tied to elemental mastery.” She punctuated this by sticking out her hand and summoning various balls of elements that slowly moved in a loose circle around her palm. “Each of these is a different element that I have mastery over and will have a different effect on the weather.” At a glance, I could see the basic elements like fire and water, but then there were a handful of elements that I have never seen before. One was a ball of grey mass with small fire specs in it, much like ash or cinder. Another was a virulent green that pulsed with earthly life. I think that would be the plant magic that she uses. However, I won’t pay too much attention to them for now, though they do seem to have an appeal to them.

“Let me see what masteries I have. Do they need to be maxed out, or is it alright if I have a basic understanding of it?” I brought up my menu and started going through the mind-boggling long list of nonadministrator skills that I could use.

“The better the mastery the better the effect and the higher control.” She rose her hand into the sky and the orbs of mana vanished leaving just a ball of water that she threw into the air. The sky let out a low rumble, and a slight drizzle started shortly after.

I nodded my head and found a section of masteries. I had a basic mastery over fire, lightning, and cold attributes and a common mastery over arcane. “So I have three basic masteries and an arcane mastery. That should work, right?”

She bobbed her head and walked closer to me. “Yes, so let's get this started, shall we?”

I summoned a ball of ice mana into the palm of my hand and forced mana into the surrounding air as I threw it high into the sky. I kept a mana line attached to it as she instructed and started to pump more mana through the channel. The sky started to darken slowly, and a gust of cold wind pushed through the forest around us. A few moments later, small specs of snow started to fall. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start.

You have unlocked basic weather manipulation.

Types of weather available for use:

Minor lightning storm

Minor snowstorm

Mana storm

I was elated that I had another skill to add to my reserve. However, I wanted this skill in my main class, which would cost me more creation points. I used up the last that I had to transfer the skill over before I glanced back over to her. “Thank you for this, Aphelia. I won’t be going in as helpless as I could have.”

Some birds were perched on her crown of vines chirping happily, and plant life seemed to be growing around her at visible speeds. “It’s no problem. Just hurry back to me, and Xxylenia, please.” She said with a wink as she vanished, leaving me feeling a feeling of warmth in my chest that seemed to pulse with my heartbeat.

I had to push that feeling back along with the smile that was forming on my face. Now isn’t the time to be a love-struck idiot. I still had things to do. I activated my teleport ability and went down to the south pole. It was time to visit the Ancient Ones.

I appeared at the mouth of the cave that Omega lived in. The area the cave was at looked about the same as it did last time. The snow had a slight green tint to it, and small spores lazily fell through the sky before coming to rest on the snow. I looked through my stats to ensure everything was back to normal before I began my journey into the cave to visit my chosen.