Thera sat in the training grounds, staff outstretched as she focused on using the skill placed on her. Telekinesis felt similar enough to how she used her earth magic, to the point that she worried she was using it by mistake, especially since she had no choice but to use it with raw earth. It may have been a skill that would let her move anything through mana, but the training ground near town didn’t have anything in the way or trees or water, so she had no choice but to practice with dirt as she always did.

At least after a couple days of using it, she felt like she was getting the hang of the skill and had gotten to feel the difference from her typical magic of choice. This was only at the zeroth level after all, and she could feel the mana drain significantly more compared to her earth magic.

Unfortunately, since the level was low her control was far worse and it took longer to pull together her spell than she’d expected. All she’d been doing to practice was pulling the earth from the ground to throw it, anyone watching would assume she was just practicing her earth magic, but unfortunately her options were limited when it came to ways of training the skill. If she had a normal level of magic control she’d be able to practice in a smaller way, maybe making cutlery fly around her home or something similar, but for now she had to take the options she had.

At the very least when it came to her earth magic she believed she was feeling the results of gaining multiple magic skills her god had mentioned to her since gaining life magic, though it was hard to be sure since her earth magic leveled up at the same time. Still, she thought she’d know for sure one she could test it against the effects of having gained telekinesis, and feeling that she was almost out of time before she’d need to go back to have it applied again went for a final push, throwing her lump of earth as far as she could and feeling her staff shatter in the process.

No longer anything to be concerned about since her mother had promised to back her she didn’t give its destruction a second thought, instead trying one last thing since the effects of the magic were still with her.

Using her earth magic, she gathered dirt from across the ground into a ball. This was already an improvement over her skill in the past. Before, if she lost her staff, she could maybe raise a cloud of dirt into the air for a few moments and do nothing with it. Now though she could actually shape it into a proper sphere, even if it was still far too large and she couldn’t do anything but have it hover in the air.

This amount of growth though was what made her choose to learn telekinesis of all the available options, and with an effort of will used it with her earth magic to throw her oversized earth bullet as far as she could.

It only traveled about fifteen meters, but it was enough. Even though it couldn’t go far, the size alone made it a threat to anyone unfortunate to be in its way, and she’d finally have a way to fight if her staff broke.

Perfect timing! She thought to herself excitedly, a smile hidden by the hood of her cloak. With only a few minutes left before it wore off and with her staff broken, receiving the skill now was more than she could have hoped for and she rushed back to the shop where Ben and Zandale were still training to let them know.

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“Good news!” She called out as she opened the shop door. “I got the skill!”

“That’s great,” Ben said, or at least he tried to. He still hadn’t gotten his own skill yet, so he was laying on the floor being hit by Zandale and it interfered with any conversation. She couldn’t imagine what any customers thought walking into this, but then again the place already had a rough image from her uncle's initial demeanor and occasional rough handling of problemed clients, so she tried not to give it too much thought and left him to it, but Ben got up and stopped her.

"Hey sorry Thera, I have a bit of an awkward request and I was hoping you could help me out?"

"Need me to hit you too to try and speed things up?"

"Please no. I have a guy who's going to be here soon to pick up some dark resistance amulets. Any chance you'd be willing to stick around so they could be tested out?"

She couldn't help but grimace a bit. As far as requests went it was minor. All she would need to do was stand around and show her orders didn't affect them while wearing it. Considering that she'd just gotten a new magic skill thanks to him, not to mention his current attempt to charm-proof the entire house making it so her aunt would be able to have guests over without worry and updating the enchantment on her brace, he'd done a lot for her this week.

Actually, hasn't he done too much? When's he have time to sleep?

Thinking about it like that, how could she refuse? It would just be a little unpleasant, nothing she hadn't had to deal with before.

"Alright, sure. How long until they get here?"

"Should only be a couple minutes."

She resolved herself to wait as Ben continued to take a beating off to the side until the shop door opened again and a nervous-looking man walked in. He appeared to be a cross between a lizardman and an elf, his eyes darting around the room as Ben got up to greet him.

“Perfect timing,” Ben said, walking past him and locking the shop door so nobody else could accidentally walk in before handing over an amulet. “Thera’s here so let’s get this done quick.”

“Are you sure this will work?” He asked, giving her a fearful look before averting his eyes.

“Yes, I’ve made plenty and never had any issues. Now stop being a rude baby about it and let’s get started.”

Thera took that as her cue to begin and took off her cloak before giving a few different orders to try and compel the man to bend to her will. With each one that failed he grew more and more relaxed until he was assured enough that she could stop and put her cloak back on.

What a stupid man. She thought. If my charm had worked he wouldn’t be able to be afraid of me as soon as I took off the cloak.

“Well, it looks like it works like you said,” The man awkwardly told Ben, seeming a bit calmer. “It should be acceptable to take your deal.”

Ben shoved a bag into his hands and all but forced him out of the shop once he had his agreement. “In that case make sure you have everything ready. I’m sure there's plenty to prepare for everyone so best get on it.”

Once they were alone again, Thera couldn’t help but question his behaviour. “Is that really how you should treat a customer? What sort of deal are you making with him anyway?”

“Oh you know, just going to supply him with some resistance amulets. Thanks for helping me make the sale, I owe you one.”

“Mmh, well considering everything else I guess it’s not so bad, just don’t make it a common thing.”