Summoning magic was complicated to practise and learn, but most of all, it was expensive. The book repeatedly mentioned how expensive the ingredients, the powder, the ink, and the talismans were.
Since I had no idea of the value of money in this world and on Earth, I could not really compare the price. The book was so old that there was a possibility that all the market values it contained were outdated. On Earth, there was such a thing as inflation. I never really researched it, but apparently, it affected the currency and changed its value over time. My brother complained about it every time he visited me.
Lavanda was rich, every item and ingredient she mentioned was abundant in her storeroom. Her collection was full of fancy things like manuals and decorative weapons. Had she not been in exile, she would have been the epitome of a rich noblewoman.
Funnily enough, a mysterious author named The Exiled Witch even signed some books on display. Clearly not obvious enough, but her fictions were good.
At that moment, I was training a special variant of summoning magic. I dipped my bare feet in blue slime ink and traced the same pattern shown in the summoning manual. I started slowly, being careful not to mess up the drawing, and then gradually sped up my movements. The hardest part was that with this technique, there was no order in which you had to draw. It was pure trial and error and instinct.
At one point I was dancing around, sliding on the slime, trying not to slip. I could use the dance incantation in almost any kind of ritual, but its difficulty usually made practitioners give up. If you mastered it, you could massively speed up the drawing process and put on a good show. Not that I cared, it looked fun, and since I had my legs again, learning to dance was on my bucket list.
Completely sweaty, I finally finished, and the result was acceptable. It wasn't my first attempt but by far my best. I filled the excess slime into a bucket, and it was a blessing that the ink didn't disappear until the incantation had taken place.
It was finally time to summon my storage magic. I touched the ink, transferred mana into it, and hoped it works.
The configuration glowed with a strong blue light until it stopped. There was nothing to be seen. This was normal because it was my first time using storage magic.
I placed a few garments and potions on the formation, following the instruction and concentrating a disruptive type of mana into my finger. With a single snap, the storage was gone and nothing remained.
By doing everything again, I confirmed that all my possessions were safe. Storage summoning using the advanced dance technique was now something I could do.
With a broad smile on my face, I was proud. Lavanda's knowledge was truly a blessing…
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“What! Why?!” Lavanda, please don't make it so hard for me.
“I want to challenge myself, it's that simple.”
“Young girl, that kind of nonsense killed more adventurers than my collection could memorize. This is way more dangerous than you think this is, especially now!” She said. The worried look on her face made me second-doubt my choice. Was it the smartest option? No, it wasn’t. Was I suicidal? No, not in this life. Then why risk my life on this pointless endeavour? The answer was personal.
I couldn't handle being saved by others anymore. Always owing them my life. Either being by a machine, help, or a last-minute save, death was always after my head, and someone was always there to protect me. I promised myself I was done being helpless, done constantly needing support, done being crippled.
For my mental sanity, I needed to do this.
The last time I was in a proper fight, I would have been dead without Lendwrek's help. I'll be the first to admit that I had a habit of putting myself in life-threatening situations that could kill me at any moment. And I do not like being the damsel in distress all the time.
The solution to this problem was simple, I just have to make it a habit to always survive life-threatening situations. It's not like it's impossible to roll a hundred natural 20 in a row to survive. It's just harder than dying. Pushing myself to my limit, and take revenge on death, is what I needed.
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“But why do you want to go back there? Didn't Randal save your ass last time?”
“Lavanda, please, even you know that an oversized spider can not kill me at my level,” I tried to convince her. “This time it will be different, I will be careful,” I said, trying to hide my lie.
After the biggest argument of my life, she finally resigned herself to letting me go. As a compromise and precaution, she would be around with Lendwrek, ready to char everything if I required help. I would make sure she wouldn’t need to intervene.
I packed up my gear and made sure everything was ready. I still relied mostly on evasive manoeuvres to stay alive. My new armour was a little different from the last. I still had a black cloak, but this time she gave me a gambeson. Basically a padded defensive jacket. It was more durable than the one I got last time, without restricting my movement. Of course, she knitted it herself.
As a weapon, I went back to my roots and used my good old vine whip. It's been a while since I had used it. A sword and a dagger were still on my hip, just in case.
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Flying over the spider island, I jumped down from Lendwrek to my old clearing.
The air was just as I remembered it, pure and refreshing, I never thought I would become nostalgic for this place.
The place was a mess; the spiders had destroyed everything, from the makeshift fence to my hammock. Patches of webs still hung everywhere.
I made my way to their nest, as I did last time. I discovered a few hundred spiders here and there. The queen wasted no effort and again multiplied her species to an even greater number than before.
I didn't avoid any of them this time. Beating up Spitter, Webber, and Reaper would be a good warm-up for the boss fight.
“SHRIIIIIII!”
As soon as the first patrol spotted me, they wasted no time. I dodged their shots, focusing first on those who specialized in close combat. When I attacked them with my whip, I was surprised that I needed more hits to kill them than before. Their scythes looked sharper than I remembered and easily cut any tree standing behind me, a second before I avoided their claim on my head.
They weren't as weak as last time. The acid the Spitters spewed even melted whole trees, not that I wanted a new burning scar. The Webbers, now shooting from further away, and with their web stickier than ever. I had to double-check each time I was about to set my feet somewhere.
More and more were coming toward our location, which I did not mind because I intended to rid this place of all the pests living there.
To make this a real challenge and not just abuse all my magical knowledge to wipe out every living thing in this forest. I have decided to limit the use of my plant and fire magic. Plants will be limited to entangling them and my whip, and fire to incendiary dirt. Without these restrictions, there would be no point in doing this.
Still, their skin was more resilient than I would have liked. I adjusted the strength and elasticity of my whip and added some thorns to it as well. Its lethality was now on a completely different degree. It shredded everything it touched like a saw.
Remembering the way to my objective, I left behind me a feast of unrecognizable origin, mother nature would not go hungry with my offering. I still haven’t forgotten the scars they inflicted on me the last time. It was personal.
Hordes of them fell upon me to protect their home, needless to say that their effort was futile. The number I fought at the same time, occasionally climbed up to 50 of them. This place was child's play, compared to the mad night.
I did my best to save my magic arsenal for when things would get serious. I still was using my water and plague acid, as much as I could, to cover any of my whip's blind spots. I made sure to recycle all the liquid after each usage, and not waste a single drop.
Whenever I had downtime, I created a lance of light and prepared myself for the next fight. If I made the lance thin enough, but with a lot of light and mana, I was able to throw it and slay multiple enemies before it disappeared.
This kind of constant fight with small but tense pauses was exactly what I was looking for.
Finally, reaching the core of the nest, I felt a different presence with my magic. This one was way bigger than the other small fry. With a bloodthirsty smile on my face, I could feel the adrenaline getting to me. I hoped this fight would live up to it, just like last time.
In the spider den, they stopped attacking and retreated toward their queen. Saving what was left of their number to regroup for the final fight.
The Queen was hiding behind her cannon fodder, as I stopped a good distance away from them. We looked at each other for a while. I didn’t move, she didn’t move, none of us did. We knew that as soon as we started, there will be no end until one of us died.
I didn’t really know what I was waiting for. Maybe I wanted to appreciate the calm before the storm, the forest was silent, and no sound was disturbing our patience. Or maybe admire the fear in her eight eyes, as she searched for any advantage she could find, any crack in my armour, any hope of survival.
That was the kind of power I wanted.
With a glimmering light hidden in the palm of my hand. The silence continued, calmer than ever, I could almost meditate on the sound of my beating heart.
Then we started.