Scarlet Rhael Ning Xin was squatting in the open with her cousin, Kong Jing patting her back as she vomited the contents of her stomach out. It was unpleasant. Regurgitating food she had swallowed was something she never thought she would do but she couldn’t help it. Spatial travel over such a massive distance in such a short time frame when she wasn’t a space mage or didn’t have the right resistance or skills to protect herself was hard on the body.
She was already dizzy from the first day of spatial leaping. Her mana didn’t protect her well enough, maybe she wasn’t too good at encapsulating her body with mana yet. Kong Jing obviously didn’t focus too much on shielding her because she practically crossed the entire continent from one end to the other in 5 days.
It was customary for them to start training a magic body skill once they were Master Classed so that they could start gaining resistance to all sorts of magic and elements. It was deemed detrimental to start too early due to a waste of time and effort into a relatively less useful skill when a Journeyman had a very limited mana pool. She had gained her magical resistances through some other temporary methods.
Cold, heat, lightning and poison were basic examples that a physical body could build resistance to but her earth and wind resistance was not gained by simply letting her physical body get hit by earth or wind magic. As for divination resistance, according to her grandma, everyone had an astral body that most people are unaware of that would get hit by her magic and naturally develop a resistance when hit by divination magic that was strong enough.
Kong Jing didn’t even stop for a second and kept teleporting them as if she was in a rush to get rid of her. She only found out they reached Trailane Plains not far from Fifth Tide when she smelled the sea breeze and her cousin told her.
She emptied her stomach after almost 15 worst minutes of her life. She washed herself up with her cousin's help in blocking her from anyone’s sight, if there was anyone around. For the first time since she got her physique, she wasn’t tempted to eat anything for a while despite having emptied her stomach.
“Sister Jing, why are you in such a hurry?” Scarlet asked after getting her bearings back together.
“Your grandmother said to bring you to a town called Ailbury as fast as possible. Don’t ask me why, you know she doesn’t tell people the most important things.” Kong Jing shrugged, it pained her to see her little sister vomit because of her.
“Knowing her it should be another destiny or fate talk.” Scarlet understood her grandmother pretty well. She might fool around all day but rarely does things without reason.
“Yep. Take your time little Xin, I’ll look around for the town.” Kong Jing knew that nothing in the area could harm them so she just left to look for a small town she never heard of.
Scarlet couldn’t stop Kong Jing in time and was left stranded alone. It was just grass and further in the distance was the sea. She saw a greyish field bunny pop out from the ground but was in no mood or appetite to chase it. Drinking water and opening up the lower portion which Kong Jing just modified for her to wash out the horrid smell and acidic burn near the back of her throat. The part covering her mouth just vanished with a thought.
Kong Jing didn’t take long before she put her hand on her shoulder. Scarlet couldn’t stop her in time before she was teleported twice more, directly entering the town. At least she managed to hold the urge to vomit, there was nothing much left to vomit. She scolded Kong Jing for the suddenness but her cousin only laughed at her expense.
“It’s already night time so I wanted to hurry it up to get somewhere to rest. There probably isn’t anywhere that I can place my house in this small town and an inn might not have any rooms if we come late.” Kong Jing defended herself.
“Still! You can let me protect myself with mana first, can't you?” Scarlet complained, a side she only showed to Kong Jing and her grandmother.
“I forgot. He never needed to garb himself in mana.” Kong Jing said thoughtlessly. She was never used to moving people other than herself to begin with. Ebony also never needed any time to protect himself with mana so it slipped her mind.
Scarlet crossed her arms and turned around. Kong Jing knew that she was probably pouting because she had nothing left to say in her own defence.
They found a random inn that was the closest and just rested for the night. Bathing and sharing a room and bed for the first time in a long while. Scarlet barged into the inn’s kitchen and made breakfast for them the next morning. She paid the staff to shut them up but they didn’t really try to kick her out anyway. She didn’t overeat but had to fill her stomach back up with something light and easier on an empty stomach.
“Alright, thanks for cooking. I’m gonna get going now. Oh yes, one of the Purples in your mask is swapped out with ones that contain that punk’s and my mana. It’s not much but it is slightly tougher than pure ones. The effect of the healing rune is increased a little too, he’s a partial mana being isn’t he? The Vitality in his mana helps. Careful, artificial ones can’t be charged back up with your mana or ambient mana so that will run out.” It wasn’t hard for Kong Jing who analysed everything and anything to tell that Ebony was partially mana.
The Xengs had no talent in healing, so they studied other ways they could heal. Runic venture was the first research area that they found, needed no talent other than effort in studying and researching. It was still one of the hardest ‘elements’ if it can be considered an element due to how complicated healing was. It was different for everyone.
The mask that Xeng wore was not just for unmarried women. Men, women, married or not would have one made. It was the accumulation of all their history. Upgraded and improved every generation. Every single one is personalised for each individual. After all, each individual's mask had a small part of that individual's soul in them and would evolve with them.
Kong Jing used the same line of thought or technology for Ebony’s Icicle. The runes of scanning and copying the person’s entire body frame and healing runes that return every back to the status quo condition would not go wrong unless some other magic was working on the person. It was almost failproof, there hadn’t been any more cases of failed healing or extra bones or body parts healing. It was the closest they got to time reversal of a body’s condition which honestly was hard to improve on already.
The mask can even read when the person was injured to the point where it reached lethal levels and activated itself. It was something that Kong Jing had no confidence of improving any further in a short frame of time. Besides, the materials they were made from can’t even be found on Elcra. Kong Jing really wanted to get her hands on that but it was beyond her right now.
“Where will you be going this time?” Scarlet asked, she just touched her mask but didn’t say anything about Kong Jing’s clarification.
“Wherever has interesting things or materials I guess. Wait no, I’ll hunt for Zenin.” Kong Jing always wandered wherever she felt like.
“Oh, I see. Bye bye.” Scarlet didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t even know why she asked when she already mostly knew her cousin’s answer.
“You can just call if you want to talk. It wouldn’t even cost much even if I was on the other end of Elva.” Kong Jing understood her shy little sister who wasn’t all that great with words. She imagined the young lady would have a hard time with the similarly bad with words little brother she got. Scarlet just nodded and Kong Jing left after a tight warm hug.
With no one left and no directions, Scarlet just went for a walk around town. She wanted to see what local specialities this small town had. One could learn a lot about a town from their street food. The type of produce that is common in these parts. The taste buds of the locals. Expensive food would be produce that was hard to obtain here and whatnot. The life of the people can be observed from the food they eat. At least that was what she thought.
It took her some time to sniff out the street that had more food stalls. The heavy smell of earth and metal was in the air. The mana density here felt slightly higher than Plainston's as well, her perception of mana was not sensitive enough to confirm. With all the miners she passed by it wasn’t hard to guess the town was near a mine.
There were multiple stalls selling fish. The only one that smelled decent was half a fish served on a large leaf with brownish-red sauce. She wanted to try it but it was so inconvenient to find somewhere private to eat, she had to return the plate too. She held back.
Hardly any candy selling stall meant there were few young children in the town.
Meat skewers. Those were good choices, she didn’t have to eat on the spot to return any cutlery or plates. She found herself in front of a stall already.
‘No. No. I’m already full, there’s no point eating more now.’ Her breakfast was only light in flavour and not in quantity.
‘But a single skewer couldn’t hurt right?’
Scarlet stared at the skewer being barbequed as she had an internal battle with her strengthened gluttonous desire. Another scent whiffed past her nose. It was a familiar smell but she shook her head. She can’t be distracted by food all day long when her appetite was already suppressed for the moment. She closed her eyes and strengthened her resolve, turning around to walk away.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
It wasn’t even half a second later when her eyes shot open again, both hands finding themselves on the hilt of her twin swords. She was shivering. Not daring to take a single step or move a single gar.
“You…” The single word has caused Scarlet to hold her breath and stiffen even more, hoping not to gain the attention of whoever said it.
Unfortunately, whoever or whatever said it was whispering right into her ears. Scarlet couldn’t see or sense all the people around her anymore. The only thing in her sight was a devastatingly beautiful face, unlike anything she had seen on a woman. She was only as tall as her Sister Jing yet it felt like she was towering over her.
“You smell good.” The woman spoke softly but the words hammered into Scarlet’s head with enough force that she was barely keeping herself standing or conscious.
[Blood Mage Saintess Lvl ????]
‘A Saintess?! Why would a Saintess be on Elcra?’ Scarlet didn’t register her Appraise skill level ups. She was dumbfounded why someone of this lady’s power and status would be here. She already knew resistance was futile before she even used Appraise on the woman.
“Phoenix blood.” Scarlet didn’t know how the lady knew but that wasn’t important. The way she spoke so slowly seemed to stress Scarlet further. Did her Physique catch the woman’s eye? The woman was getting uncomfortably close, literally breathing down on her neck.
“What luck I have. A pity. So young.” She made a statement instead of a question. Scarlet tried her best to calm herself and regain control over her body. She couldn’t even form a grip with her fingers struggling to move. The overwhelming vitality crushed her knees and bore down on her shoulders.
“Unripe.” The woman moved back but it didn’t lighten the fear Scarlet felt. With the distance, Scarlet could see the lady was dressed in red like her. Just a much darker shade of red, including her hair. Looking at Scarlet like how Scarlet was wondering whether she should eat the skewer of meat.
Scarlet could feel it, the woman was restraining her overflowing essence, Vitality and Wisdom. Yet it wasn’t enough as one of the reasons why she thought the lady spoke slowly was because she was already under the effects of her essence. It was usually the other way around and the world would seem as it sped up. As well as her being unable to move with all the pressure of essence acting on her body. Most of all, Scarlet was frightened.
No! How can she be frightened?
Her body couldn’t move but her mana could. Her blood still flowed. Her heart still beat.
Her heart raced as Violent Heart Acceleration got going. Fire mana conjured in her as Blood Boil kicked in. It wasn’t enough. Lightning mana conjured in her as well as it bundled up and Pulsating Lightning Enhancement was encouraging her stiff muscles to move.
Scarlet used all her enhancements together with every weapon strengthening skill like Heated Blade, Lightning Inoculation and Revolving Razorwind Film. She didn’t hold back at all and used every single point of mana she had. The other lady seemed blind to it and was just holding her chin while inspecting Scarlet’s body up and down.
Violent Heart Acceleration and Blood Boil reached the limit she could take faster than she ever managed. Squeezing out every last drop of courage she could muster, both her blades flew out of their sheaths. She didn’t know what to expect but she saw both her blades stopped by a droplet of red liquid. Not blown away by her wind, not evaporated by her heat. Ineffective.
Blood Boil and all her enhancements flickered out, even Violent Heart Acceleration seemed to give up on her. But she didn’t bend and stared straight into the beauty’s eyes for the first time.
“Impressive. A feisty one. As expected from her kin.” The only indication she meant it when she called Scarlet impressive was her raised brow. She stared right back and the corners of her lips slowly rose.
“I like your eyes. It’ll be nice to age your blood a little.” The Saintess waved her hand and Scarlet fell into a pool of blood. Disappearing from the town. The daily life of the townspeople continued. It appeared as if no one saw Scarlet disappear into thin air or even noticed the tall lady in the middle of the street.
❅❅❅
Scarlet coughed out blood. It wasn’t her blood, just what she accidentally swallowed by falling into the pool of blood that appeared under her. The Saintess lady wasn’t around. Scarlet had fallen onto the ground but there was no blood on her other than what she coughed out.
It was dark but there was some illumination from some plant nearby. Blood red moss that glowed a dim red light. She found herself in a tight cave, it was a small dome. Just sitting up straight will cause her to hit her head on the ceiling. Only one path was present, a hole that she would have to crawl through to fit. She didn’t rush or panic. With time to think clearly and without the pressure of a Saintess bearing down on her, she could analyse her situation better.
Her grandma asked her to be sent here. She must have known this would have happened. Perhaps, attacking the Saintess had been the rashness her grandmother warned her against. Scarlet didn’t know if getting sent into this dome was a good thing or not. She could obviously be killed at any time so not having been killed yet can only mean good things. Naive.
Still, her grandmother wouldn’t send her here for no reason. She could only believe that she was on the right track. Scarlet tried her best to relax while lying down since sitting up would be uncomfortable if she had to bend her back or neck against the ceiling. She needed all the mana and energy she could get.
It was unknown where she was and the Blood Mage Saintess just left her there without saying anything else. She had to assume there was danger outside this small hole. Fortunately, it wasn’t so squeezy she couldn’t move around. Sadly there wasn’t enough space to bring her kitchen out. She ate what she had to calm her nerves.
Hearing some sound through the hole did cause her nerves to tighten but she was just scaring herself. A filled stomach and mana pool later, she started crawling out. The tunnel was a little tighter than it looked, both her upper and lower body had difficulty squeezing through. Maybe she should eat a little less, she began to think.
Ten minutes of crawling and squeezing later.
Scarlet made sure to check if there was anything around with both her scent and sight together with her Heat Perception. Her Sublime Instincts which were numb from telling her to run from the Saintess were not picking anything up either.
She crawled out to find rocky stalactites and stalagmites filling the cave. She wouldn’t exactly call the cave wide but it wasn’t small.
There was only one way forward with the tunnel she crawled out from being the dead end. Without further ado, she started exploring the place illuminated by [Blood Ichor Moss(Rare)]. The rarity gave Scarlet bad feelings, the whole cave was filled with it. She never heard of this type of moss so Appraise didn’t tell her much, a name for it was good enough.
Not even five minutes walk in and she heard a familiar sound before her Sublime Instincts warned her to move away. She jumped back to see a red rope, no, it was a web that was shooting out at her from the side.
[Bloodweb Spider Lvl 94]
Scarlet exploded with pure speed like she always does. She didn’t like insect or spider type monsters. She didn’t want to try eating them either. Not even with her current increase in desire to eat. But spider types were the most common for spaces like caves. She was still proficient enough with Live Ingredient Processing to know where its weak points were.
The same races of different subspecies usually have the same weaknesses. Their body build would be very similar too.
She didn’t expect the spider, the size of a large dog, to be able to move its leg out of the path of her blade. Having aimed for its joint, her long sword landed on the leg itself. Her arms numbed from the impact. The lower level monster surprised her with its outer skeleton’s toughness.
Scarlet kicked it up a notch, using a little mana for Heated Blade. She swung hundreds of times, aiming for its weak points or stabbing at wherever looked the softest. Cascading Laceration and Pinpoint Perforation got faster and stronger as she attacked. The spider was using 4 legs to defend itself like a blademaster itself, using 2 more when it couldn’t keep up anymore.
Its outer skeleton cracked and she was about to slice it down when another dark red web came shooting at her. A single level 94 spider already gave her more trouble than she thought it would. No matter.
She slayed one after the other. They kept popping up from somewhere. Scarlet continued ahead after slaying a dozen of them. There seemed to be only Bloodweb Spiders around. A lot of them. Their numbers and relative strength kept increasing as she moved further ahead the one way tunnel cave. The cave also got wider and wider, attacks came from more directions.
The moment the spiders appeared was level 100, she needed to use her Core Skill already. The moment they were evolved level 100, she had used magic without limiting herself. The difference in strength and power shown by those who evolved was very high. Her mana ran out in 2 fights against less than 10 of these spiders.
She was forced back, but the spiders were only excited by her escape. They saw it as a chance to push their attack. Their bodies were chopped up and cooked well done but Scarlet didn’t feel good about it. The rush of spiders only increased as she ran back. Crawling back through the tight tunnel a little too slowly, her boots and pants were clawed at but they held. Her feet still hurt from the impact. At least they didn’t manage to land their web shot at her.
She crawled and crawled, ignoring the dirt she was getting onto herself. Manipulating blood to remove themselves from her body. She realised the exoskeleton on the spider was just solidified blood.
Panting. She knew she wasn’t getting out any time soon.
‘I should expand this place.’ The walls were too tough to dig and widen by hand. There was just enough space for her to scrape the wall and ceiling with a shovel. The wall was much harder than she thought but it was still possible with the shovel Kong Jing gave her.
Scarlet was inwardly worried.
What if she ran out of food?