"My my, who is your little cute and adorable friend here, Leaf?"

"Oh, uuh...hello."

Thea's compliments flustered Temtem.

"Her name is Temtem. Actually, I gave her the name myself."

"Temtem, hello. I am feeling perfectly fine now. Thank you for caring."

"Well, it's good that you're fine. Now Leaf doesn't have to feel sad anymore. Promise that you won't make her sad again!"

Temtem got really demanding towards the end.

"Yes, yes. I promise."

Thea looked at the children around her. She felt she had to protect herself so that she could protect them.

"Hmm, I said I feel fine but I also feel different."

"I also feel like you changed."

Temtem added.

"Let's see."

Thea held out her hand. She stretched her index finger out and concentrated. She divided her mana a few times and pushed it out of her finger. And there, a flame appeared.

"Wow."

Thea exclaimed.

"This is elemental creation."

Thea moved her mana more and made a circle out of fire. What Thea was doing right now was different from before when she made fire. For mages that are three star and below, there are two ways to create magic of their respective elements.

One is the normal method of forging a pattern through mana, a magic circle. This is done by either directly drawing a magic circle in the air or using an item with a magic engraving. The mage has to study for years, understand the elements, understand the logic behind the patterns and finally utilize the magic circle. This is the safe method.

The second is to brute force it. Using your will and sacrificing the mana channels in the body, the mage can bring out power that they cannot wield normally. This is reserved for emergency situations usually. Thea used this technique during her fight with the demons. But only because she knew that there would be no permanent damage due to Janna.

The second method usually means the end of a mage's life of magic since it destroys the magic pathways.

But after reaching four stars, the mana channels clear up and the body evolves. It allows for a mage to let mana flow through the body unobstructed and have a better control over the mana in the body overall. And so using only will of oneself alone, a mage can generate elements without needing magic circles.

It was still better to use circles because of efficiency and complexity of the producible magic spells. You wouldn't want to will fireballs repeatedly into existence. It would take too much effort. A magic circle that creates fireballs is much easier to do.

Thea looked at her hand.

"This means I have reached four star rank."

"Didn't you say that there would be an explosion if that happened?"

Leaf remembered Thea talking about it in the carriage.

"I know, this is so mysterious."

Thea looked inwards to her mana channels. The flow and quantity of mana seemed to have stayed about the same. Normally, a mage sees an increase but for Thea it was barely noticeable. What was more important was that her control seemed to have doubled or even tripled. How much it actually increased was something that needed to be check after getting familiar with the new upgraded body.

While looking inside her body, Thea noticed something. Something weird. A foreign structure but something that also felt familiar.

It was fully constructed with mana.

"I need to head to the garden."

Thea wasn't sure what it was so she wanted to go to the backyard area to check it out immediately.

"NO! NO!"

But her plan was thumped by an angry Leaf.

"How can you even think about leaving your bed when you're sick?"

"Eh? But I have to..."

"Go, Nem. Call Janna Unnie, we're making a complain."

"Wait, wait! Stop, don't call her."

"Okay, Nem. Wait. It seems Thea Unnie is willing to listen after all."

Leaf had learned that Thea's one weakness was Janna's disappointment. Thea didn't want to make Janna disappointed by anything she does.

"Now here's what's gonna happen, Unnie."

Leaf looked like an angry mother scolding her young kid for eating ice cream late at night.

"You will stay in bed until we say it is okay to leave the bed."

"Yes..."

Though Thea was reluctant, she had to listen to the children's demands.

"Can I at least get my books?"

Thea was talking about her research books. It had all types of concepts and observations done by mages throughout the centuries. There was also a book that Thea had written herself, though it was mostly ideas and nothing important.

"You can have your books. But no experimenting!"

With Leaf's command, Thea could only read.

At night time, Sophily came to visit the orphanage with Lexx. Originally, they would have been turned away but since Thea had woken up, the mood of the orphanage had risen and they let them come in.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet."

"It's no problem."

"Did the owner wake up yet?"

"Yes, she woke up a couple of hours ago."

"Is that so? We can provide you with a healer's service from the guild."

"It's fine, you don't need to. I don't want to owe the guild."

"You misunderstood. This is an act of apology. There will be no fee and you won't owe the guild anything."

"In that case, thank you for helping out. Is that all you came to say?"

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Janna wasn't comfortable talking to Lexx. And she hadn't met Sophily before.

"Actually...we have a favor to ask."

"A favor?"

Janna wasn't too sure about listening to this favor.

"Please! Don't report our guild branch!"

Lexx put her hands together in a praying posture.

"What are you saying?"

"I mean the fight with Benoik, please don't report it to the higher guild branch."

"Fight? Oh! You mean that fight three days ago? We never thought about reporting you guys. I didn't even remember the fight because those guys were just so weak."

Lexx's face was full of shock. She had been worrying so much for the past few days, only to learn that she was worrying over nothing. Janna didn't even bother to remember the fight.

"If there is nothing else, please leave. I need to prepare dinner."

Janna wanted them to leave quickly. She had been cooking a feast for Thea's awakening when she was interrupted by them.

"There's one more thing."

"And what is this thing?"

Lexx was silent for a few seconds. She was hesitant to say it.

"...we...could use your help..."

"Huh?"

Janna didn't listen any further and pushed them towards the door.

"Please listen first! It's really important for the safety of the town."

Janna stopped when she heard safety of the town.

"Speak fast."

Safety of the town concerned not only the people of the town in general, but more important it was related to the kids of the orphanage.

"In the forest, an ogre was spotted."

"So? Don't you have people to deal with that?"

"No, our guild doesn't have anyone strong enough to deal with it. So we planned on doing a group raid."

An ogre is a three star monster, but a very strong one that even four star monster would lose to. So hunting an ogre required the strength of a C rank adventurer. Or a group of D rank adventurers.

"But our vanguard was defeated by you."

"That Benoik guy?"

"Yes, and now we are in a bit of a pinch. So we are asking for your help."

"Fine, since I'm the one at fault here, I will help you guys out. But only this one time."

After telling Janna about the plan, Lexx and Sophily left. Janna went back to cooking.

The day went by fast. Leaf allowed Thea to leave the bed the day after.

Thea and Janna stood outside in the garden. They were investigating what the weird thing was inside Thea.

"Are you sure you wanna do it here?"

"Yes, I set up a lot of safety measures here. It's safer than being anywhere else."

"But these spells are only three star defensive spells, right?"

Since Thea had only just become a four star mage, so she hadn't learnt any four star spells.

"It should be fine. I found something in the books that is eerily similar to what happened to me. If what I read is correct, then there's nothing to worry about."

"I hope you're right."

"Let's begin."

Thea sat down and crossed her legs. She swirled her mana towards the foreign object in her body. It was like a transparent pearl. Thea's mana was repelled by the pearl, like magnets. Only thing Thea could do was push harder.

As she pushed harder, the ground and space around Thea also saw an effect. The grass was being shook and the air was continuously being moved. Like a swirl in a pool or a tornado.

Thea pushed hard, and finally a single point of mana touched the surface of the pearl. The repelling effect disappeared and Thea's mana fell to a single point immediately. Thea couldn't control it anymore because of how much force she had already put in.

As the mana clashed in the center, it had an effect on Thea's body. She spit out blood and Janna rushed to her immediately.

"Thea!"

"...I'm fine..."

Thea barely could speak a word. Her insides were like a hot soup right now. Her mana was settling down. A few minutes later, Thea had recovered.

As her mana settled and calmed, the pearl had disappeared. But Thea could feel it still. It had melted and fused into her mana.

"This is..."

Thea looked at her hand and conjured forth some of that mana. Since she was a four star mage, she could create the elements in her mana immediately.

She used element creation only for the new aspect of her mana. Tiny beads of dirt from the ground started to float up.

"Gravity mana?"

"What? You only have the fire and water elements so how are you controlling gravity?"

Janna was confused.

"I don't know how I got it but that thing that was in my body was likely a elemental heart."

"What's that?"

"It's a special magical construct that's naturally made. If someone eats it then they gain the power of that element."

"So now you have this gravity element?"

"I think it's more than just gravity element."

"Can you...lift me up?"

Janna asked while looking in awe.

"I can try."

Thea immediately willed her mana to be moved.

She tried to lift Janna with her newly acquired mana element. Janna's hair moved up and that was it.

"Sorry, I need more time."

Like all mages, the affinity with the element had to be increased. This gravity magic was also more intense than other elements. It required more mana than her fire element. If the fire element required a white grape sized volume of mana, then this gravity element needed at least the amount of a basketball's volume.

It was much more demanding to use this element. The higher mana usage also meant a greater toll on the body in prolonged usage.

"It's fine."

Janna was slightly disappointed that Thea could lift her, but she understood.

"But Thea, you need to go back to bed."

"What? Why? I'm fine. Plus, being close to you helps me heal faster."

Thea was talking about the special magic she and Janna had.

"Doesn't matter. I'm in the house anyways so the magic works just fine. You just injured your body again. So you are staying in bed for a few more days. And no using magic!"

Janna pointed at the mouthful of blood on the floor.

"I shouldn't have asked you to lift me just now. What if you got hurt more?"

Janna was too caught up in the moment earlier and didn't think too much and asked Thea to lift her. She felt guilty for asking Thea.

"Fine, I'll go to my room. But I want delicious food in return for listening to you."

"Okay, I will compromise."

"I want chocolate pudding."

"Yes, yes."

The day went by again with Thea being in the bed. She had been stuck in bed for the whole week almost. Now it was time for Janna to join the guild and go hunt down the ogre that had appeared in the forest. Leaving it alone would be too dangerous for the people of the town.

"Why can't I join?"

"Because we don't need you. It's enough if I go alone."

Thea wanted to join Janna in the hunt but was shot down.

"Hmph. Isn't having a four star mage better for you guys anyways?"

"And how many four star spell do you know, Master?"

Master was the title given to a four star mage.

"I learned one."

"One is not enough. Besides, we really don't need you. We have everything that's needed prepared already."

And with that, Janna went alone to the guild's hunt.

"Hmph. Who said I can't take a walk in the forest?"

Meanwhile, Thea was too bored of being confined to her bed and left to go to the forest. Her path in the forest was only coincidently the same as the place the guild went.

Thea had to keep her mana hidden and couldn't let Janna know that she was being follow. The hunting party approached the latest location of the ogre.

The area of the location was flattened. The trees lay on the forest ground. It seemed like a truck had driven into the trees and knocked them over.

In the middle of the area, there was a huge figure. A green large boulder like figure. It was awoken by the footsteps of the hunting party. The hunting party readied their weapons.

The monster ogre stood up. It reached a height of three and a half meters. It's two large red eyes looked at the adventurers. It had a fat body. A big short nose. And a sharp teeth filled mouth.

Dirt was all over it's coarse skin.

It bent it's legs a bit and stretched it's arms. Then it let out a roar that made all the birds startle and fly away.

"Wow..."

Thea exclaimed in hiding. It was her first time seeing an ogre. At the academy, they used monsters in combat practice but they were all low rank and safer monsters.

An ogre on the other hand is known to have two great strengths. The first is it's strength. Its large body isn't just for show. Filled with muscles, an ogre can punch through rocks.

The second strength was its endurance. Unless an ogre is killed immediately, the fight can last for hours. And such a fight is not advantageous for adventurers.

So the common tactic is to strike fast and hard. Aim to kill it in one go.

The hunting party engaged with the ogre. There were three tanks. Big guys who had big shields. They would attract the ogre's attention and absorb the ogre's damage.

Then were the three damage dealers. Janna, the only sword wielder. While the other two were spear wielders.

Lastly, at the back were support mages. They would buff the tanks and damage dealers. There were only two of them since mages are hard to get.

The ogre walked forward and struck towards one of the tanks. Taking the brunt of the attack with the heavy shield, the tank stopped the attack. The other two tanks didn't sit idly. They used their shields to hold the hand of the ogre down immediately.

With it's hand down, the ogre's movement was restricted. This allowed the damage dealers to get close and do damage. The spear holders stabbed at it's arm and body. While Janna aimed for it's head and neck.

But the ogre had strong muscles. They could only leave wounds on its skin.

Janna covered her sword in mana. A technique that was simple and effective on monsters. She made her sword become sharper and stronger. Attacking again, some of the muscles got torn.

Blood flowed from the ogre. Now began the real battle. The ogre was enraged. It pulled its arm out from the two tanks hold and swung it at Janna.

Janna used the force of the attack to push herself out of the way. The ogre's attacks were very simple and Janna used it to her advantage.

The two spearmen moved back.

An enraged ogre is much more dangerous because it doesn't care about its body and will do damage at all cost.

The fight continued with Janna moving around quickly. Getting some hits in with her sword and dodging the ogre's attacks. The tanks would restrict the ogre's movement as much as they could and the spearmen would wear it down with their barrage of attacks.

Ten minutes later, the ogre was pretty worn down. But its attacks still continued. Janna had been aiming for its neck the whole time and had caused a lot of damage. Enough that she was thinking of ending the fight soon.

A strong attack that would kill it immediately. She gave the signal to the others and prepared herself.

Janna readied the sword, holding it her two hands. She imbued it with mana. A blue glow swirled around the sword. This was Janna's family swordsmanship. It ranked pretty high in the world, often being called one of the ten best in the world.

The blue dragon swordsmanship.