Hovering above a massive insect nest, Aella hummed curiously as she examined the area.
“They can hide themselves from me?” She questioned, a slight frown appearing on her face. She hadn’t been putting any points into her mind stat, so her mental capabilities were far lower than what they could be, but it was a significant surprise that some E-rank boss and his minions could hide from the senses of a 3-tailed Foxin.
“Seriously. How the hell? A unique bloodline or species ability? Are there any insect-like species that have stealth abilities?”
With her hand to her head, as she considered all the possibilities, she eventually sighed and landed in the heart of the nest in hopes of finding something after spreading her Mana a bit thinner, but to no avail.
“Whatever. Since I have a bit of time before they expect me to return, I guess I can see if I remember how to make pills without a furnace.” Aella mused, giving up on the boss for now.
Out of her bag, Aella grabbed an assortment of herbs. Star shadow leaves, moon bloom petals, and sun spire roots, to name a few. Their names were as over the top as she was used to. Some things never change, no matter what planet you’re on. It would kill whoever named these plants something simple.
Hell, these, in particular, weren’t even rare. Not anymore, at least. With the advance of technology, most plants with alchemical properties have been recreated and made commercially available. Alas, as long as someone wasn’t making their technique names entire paragraphs, she didn’t care that much.
With grace, a glorious blue flame appeared above the palm of her free hand, which seemed to burn brighter than usual, no doubt her true power after leveling her skill.
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With the sun as her only witness, she gently placed her ingredients into the mesmerizing blue flames of her [Foxfire] skill. Quickly, she put a thin layer of her own Mana in between the ingredients and the flame so that not all of it burned simultaneously.
On the contrary, instead of burning them, it was almost like it cradled them, weaving around each ingredient with a precise, choreographed dance. The herbs began to disintegrate, not into ash, but into a fine, glowing dust that swirled within the flame, merging into a luminescent orb.
A beautiful display of her [Kneading], the ability to precisely manipulate attributeless Mana on top of attributed Mana. While both her swords and armor of reverence were applications of this ability of hers, they were far more crude in nature than this. Allowing her flames to selectively burn only what she wanted, for how long she wanted, creating what she wanted.
Even for her, the amount of concentration required was a task that couldn’t be considered easy. A transcendent aroma filled the bugs’ nest as the dust took shape inside the flames. In less than a second, the ground started to shake like a high-magnitude earthquake tried to attack her, and only milliseconds later, perhaps less, a massive and grotesque maggot burst forth from the ground below her.
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“Oh, so that’s where you were.” She mused with a smug smile, narrowly leaping into the sky, avoiding the infantile bug.
Angry that it missed its prey, the maggot let out a deafening roar. Only now did the system notify her of her encountering the boss.
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“You… You don’t fucking say, system?”
As she rolled her eyes at the system, her flames nearly went out of control, nearly making her lose her balance while fixing it, giving the maggot another chance to attack her, only for her to vault over the creature with her free hand, making sure to coat her hand with a thin layer of Wind Magic to make sure she wasn’t touching whatever was on the larva.
“Do you mind?”
Clearly, he did, as he attacked again without hesitation, his sharp teeth snapping shut inches away from where Aella once stood. Landing nimbly, her eyes were fixed on her [Foxfire]. The pill, now fully formed and began glowing with an inner light, floated down into her waiting hand.
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‘Only 1? I thought at least three would come out. I messed up the alchemical formula somewhere.’ Aella let out one final sigh before placing her newly created pill in her bag.
“Now then… What to do with you? I doubt killing an E-rank boss would do anything for me.”
Continuing to dodge the maggot’s attacks effortlessly for the next half dozen minutes, a lightbulb suddenly appeared over her head.
“Let’s go on a field trip!” She shouted with a giggle before seemingly letting the maggot bite down on her, only to grab it by the teeth and fly off.
With the boss in tow, it’s screams of… Agony? Terror? Anger? Whatever the screams were about, it wasn’t happy…
“Hey guys! I’m back!” Aella said, appearing out of basically nowhere; the only one noticing her arrival before she announced herself was Magnus.
“AAHJHGGG!” Both Seraphina and Cid screamed in horror, hiding behind Blair and Magnus at the sight of the giant bug.
“Aella! What? Why?” Blair tried to question, only to realize it would be a grave mistake if she pushed further.
They weren’t happy either…
Grayson didn’t spare the thing a glance, still glued to the booklet Aella gave him. Magnus, surprisingly, had a reasonably surprised expression.
‘Did she just drag a boss here by its teeth?’
For a moment, part of him wanted to believe that Aella was genuinely incomprehensibly older than him. Even E-rank bosses had methods of harming S-ranks if they did things like this, but Aella didn’t care. It was backward, yes. Her carelessness should make her seem younger than she is, but for some reason, Aella had the opposite effect on people.
Dropping the bug and pushing down on it with her wind so it didn’t escape, Aella walked over to Seraphina.
“Alright, Seraphina! Kill it without Aetherion’s help! I believe in you!” Aella clapped.
Seraphina naturally shook her head furiously while glaring at Aella and her innocent smile, “No, no! No way! You can’t make me! Never in millions of years!”
“Don’t think I won’t. I’ll wait millions of years,” Aella mumbled on her breath, getting caught by Blair, but once again, Blair didn’t have the willpower to call her out on that.
“Come on! You got this! It’s just a bug! You need real combat experience!” Aella continued urging the young girl.
She knew this would happen, and for that reason, Seraphina needed to do this. In combat power alone, Seraphina would sit pretty against those at the peak of C-rank and even some in the B-rank, much less a boss of E+ rank.
If Aetherion were added to that equation, well, the number of people who could beat her without any problems would be few and far between. That said, Seraphina still had the mindset of a little girl. Fears and disgust were natural. That much feels obvious whenever nearly every species in existence develops these two emotions. Aella didn’t want Seraphina to conquer these fears or disgust. Aella herself had many things she feared, but she needed to be able to handle herself in situations that forced her to be around such things as her greatest fears and phobias.
Pondering how to get Seraphina to go along with her plans, Aella casually spoke. “If you kill it, I’ll do one favor for you, whatever it might be.”
Suddenly, Seraphina shut up, her eyes wide as if she entered a trance. Without saying a word, she walked forward, each step dragging her close to the oversized bug.
Aella’s words… They couldn’t possibly backfire on her… Could they?