I had no idea what was going on. My mind was playing tricks on me, I was certain of it.

Maybe there was still some fear inside of me. She never did tell me the full story behind her curse, after all…

While I was sitting on one of the tree’s branches, I went over my enhancement list and decided to level up my paralytic venom up to strong. While I was at it, I also upgraded my toxin resistance by two levels. I thought it might be a good idea considering I’d run into a few snakes earlier. I was left with seven points.

A few minutes later, all the enhancements had been applied to my body and I continued looking over the list of skills for the future.

My next step would obviously be the highest level of paralytic venom. I would probably wait with the rest until after my evolution.

That would be the last effective combat-boosting skill I could get in this evolution. For that, I needed 43 more evolution points. I had four more levels to go until my cap, meaning I would get 80 more points from leveling.

I imagined that meant I could save some achievements until after my evolution…

I thought about it and came to the conclusion it would be the smart thing to do. I had to kill at least a wolf for the rainbow evolution to become available which would also reward me with several more evolution points. I could delay the achievement where I had to dodge or nullify a spell and the one where I had to kill “Large” creatures.

Doing that would award me with more evolution points in the long run, and right now, I would hardly sacrifice any power. All my remaining possible enhancements were defense-orientated and it wasn’t like boars could climb trees or fish could run on land.

Wolves couldn’t climb trees either, right?

I believed bears could, but I had no intention of running into them, either way.

For now…

My thoughts wandered off to Cellestra once again. I started getting frustrated because of it. This was becoming an annoyance. The fact that I had no idea why this was happening in the first place only made it worse.

I tried to think of what could be going on. Was it because I wanted to tell her that I would be happy to have her join me, but that I couldn’t do it right now? The need to give her the option had been tugging at me, but I had decided for myself that I wouldn’t want to exploit her in any way.

She did not deserve such a thing.

I sighed mentally and decided to just go home again.

It felt odd to call it home, but I guess it was that, even if it was just temporary. I felt more at ease calling this home than that damned orphanage, or even the barracks that I stayed in after that.

Maybe this new world wasn’t so bad after all. I had a new chance to do everything over again. This time, at least there was still hope in my life. I knew there was happiness in the prospect of seeing my parents again.

My only issue was this body.

I could probably grow to be quite strong thanks to this blessing, but I was still a monster.

At least Cellestra didn’t see me as one…

There it was again. My mind wandering off. I slapped my head with one of my legs and went to Cellestra’s home. I entered and made my way back onto the table where I observed the elf adding some more seasoning to the haunch of meat she’d taken from the boar.

“Welcome back,” Cellestra said without even looking. “You’re back pretty early. Dinner’s almost done so it’s not a bad thing.”

She placed the meat back inside the stove and sat down at the table. “Nothing of interest?” She asked, obviously referring to my “hunt”.

“Nothing,” I spelled out.

I saw her looking with a spark in her eyes. I thought she was eager to see me spell out more words but I had no idea what to say.

“Practice barrier?” I ultimately asked.

“Uh,” I saw her hesitate for a moment. “Can try it once or twice, I guess.”

I cast my physical barrier after Cellestra allowed her mana to flow into me. The feeling of it started to get… familiar… comforting. The elf’s smile made me feel even more at ease.

“I think I’m starting to see things a bit more clearly now,” Cellestra said. “The flow patterns are so intricate… but I’m starting to see some sense in them. Let’s try that once more before dinner.”

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“Not a problem.”

I allowed her mana to search mine once more and cast the barrier again. When I was finished, Cellestra smiled briefly before standing up to get the meat out of the stove.

Soon after, I was enjoying the fruits of my kill from earlier. This wild boar tasted amazing. Cellestra’s hands probably had a great influence on the end result, though.

By the time we finished, I saw the sun begin to set on the outside world. Cellestra lit the candles around the room and fed her tarantula a beetle before continuing to practice spells with me.

I was having a great time watching Cellestra observe my mana flows while casting and then trying to cast the spell herself. She failed miserably but had a few good laughs about it.

“It’s necessary to fail to succeed,” She had said. “Rose taught me plenty when it came to magic. She instructed me to observe the flow first and then try to replicate the spell piece by piece. I’m almost getting to the point where I can reconstruct the very first piece of your spell. There are many to go, but it’s finally getting somewhere.”

She sounded happy with her progress so far.

I didn’t quite know how to feel.

On one hand, I was happy that she seemed to be getting somewhere, but on the other hand… This spell was so simple for me. I almost felt as if I was doing something that could be considered forbidden knowledge.

We continued for a while until Cellestra said she finally understood the first part of the spell.

She leaned back in her chair with a deep sigh and smiled.

“Thank you so much. This magic is truly amazing.”

Her smile then disappeared in a matter of seconds. I saw her mouth open as to speak, but she quickly closed it again. Cellestra then looked at the tarantula that was ever unmoving.

“What is matter?” I asked.

“I just thought of something...” Cellestra spoke softly. “This curse of mine. I’ve been working on curing it for so long, but I have found no magic or alchemy product that has any effect on it. I’m at the point where I am almost out of conventional options...”

She paused for a while.

“Do you see what I’m getting at?”

I had somewhat of an idea, but I wanted to hear it from her. “No,” I spelled.

Cellestra sighed again. “I was thinking that if conventional magic doesn’t work, maybe unconventional magic does. I was thinking that maybe I would be able to use your way of casting spells to find a solution, but I don’t want to try anything until I have your permission. It would just feel like stealing.”

I didn’t see why that would be an issue. If I could help her out, I would.

“Not a problem. Happy to help.”

The elf smiled. “Thank you, Kealyna.”

I continued writing. “Maybe I get spell that can help out later. Don’t know. Next evolution is special. Hope I get some more answers.”

“Special? That sounds… interesting.”

“Very curious, myself.”

I wasn’t lying. I was incredibly curious about the options that would appear after selecting the rainbow evolution. The speech part was the one thing I was after the most, and I was hoping it would be available soon. This whole letter writing thing was annoying me to no end, as effective as it was.

If I kept growing through evolutions, we may even need more paper and bigger letters soon.

“Well,” Cellestra said. “I had a great time today. It’s time for bed. I believe the traveling merchant is bound to visit again tomorrow and I’d like to have a good night’s rest before he arrives.”

The elf extinguished the candles and led the way to her bedroom with the small fire in her hands. I skittered over to the pillow and lay down on it while Cellestra placed herself under her covers.

“Good night, Kealyna,” She said.

I wished I could reply to that with words. All I could do for now was simply wave with one of my legs.

It did earn a giggle from her, which sparked joy in my core, but not being able to speak was getting to me.

It was getting worse by the day…