“I suppose you’re looking at your so-called enhancements again, aren’t you?” Cellestra’s voice mentioned exactly what I was doing.

I quickly gestured yes and continued looking at my options while the elf had her eyes fixated on my abdomen. There was no doubt she was eying the colorations there. I had to admit they did look quite pretty.

There were several new spells that had popped up that I had never heard about. Another thing that I noted was that there were several spells without ranks. I decided to go over each one of them to make sure what they did.

Let’s go top to bottom...

Mana Manipulation

Allows spells to be cast at lower ranks, conserving mana when the most powerful version of the spell isn’t needed. Also allows minor magic to be cast freely.

That sounded interesting at first, but I soon realized it may not be as useful as I thought. Sure, I could conserve mana by using less destructive spells, but this blessing also forced me into killing larger and stronger creatures with each evolution. For the moment, it didn’t feel like I had much use holding back.

That being said… This skill could be quite useful later on.

Also, minor magic? I imagined it meant magic similar to Cellestra’s flame spell.

Next up was another rankless spell, Wind Gust.

Wind Gust

Release a gust of wind forward, knocking back enemies in close range.

That sounded simple enough. This spell wasn’t intended to do damage, rather, it was to prevent enemies from landing a hit on you.

I was used to taking hits, but I doubted my choices so far would make me feel comfortable with taking a hit. I’d avoided melee combat as much as possible, simply because I didn’t know the limits of this body.

Right now, I imagined I could take some hits, but there was no reason for me to even find out anymore. My spells were strong enough that I didn’t need to put myself at risk.

Lightning Arc

Channels an arc of lightning to electrocute your target. The damage of the arc grows in intensity over the channel duration, but the mana cost is increased with it.

That… was an interesting spell. The longer I channeled it, the more damage it would do at an increased mana cost. That made me wonder, would this spell do more damage than my fireball if I channeled it while my mana reserves were at full capacity?

The only problem was that I would have to keep up the channel without getting interrupted. Nonetheless, I liked the idea behind this spell. I had plenty of points too. Despite its high cost, I was tempted to take it. High cost meant it was quite strong, right?

I checked my other spells first.

Holy Pulse

A channeled ability that sends out waves of holy fire around the caster. Each wave does more damage and costs more mana. Specifically effective against undead and demons.

Undead…

The idea alone made me shudder. I had never fought, or even seen, undead before. I used to live in an area that was far away from bastions of necromantic magic. The only undead that I theoretically could have seen had to be dungeon creatures.

Fortunately, I’d never run into those, either. Though, it wasn’t surprising considering I’d never set foot in a dungeon before…

I had heard tales of dungeons and all their dangers and riches. Adventurers would come from far and wide in order to seek their fortune in them. Many died as a result of their greed, but some adventurers would find exquisite items and wealth.

It wasn’t for me.

It was not that I had never wanted to explore dungeons, but I had trouble trusting people. Going inside the most dangerous places in the world required a certain amount of trust and knowledge of your fellow companions’ abilities.

I had never bothered.

I had decided I’d try to find some kind of happiness elsewhere. Had I succeeded in that when I learned that the family I protected lived because of my actions? I did not know.

I found my mind wandering off to my old life and quickly refocused on what was in front of me.

Cyclone

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Spell that does no damage, but envelops an enemy within strong winds, preventing them from moving for a certain duration. Maximum enemy size and duration increase with spell rank.

Another spell that would allow me to manipulate the battlefield to my advantage. This would be an excellent spell to have when fighting multiple enemies at once.

Earthen Spike

Compress the earth beneath a target to form a solid spike that then erupts from the ground beneath a target.

Cannot be used on rocky surfaces.

This sounded like a great spell to have. I had trouble penetrating enemies’ hides, but then again, I hadn’t leveled my ice lance further. I should probably take this spell and upgrade my ice lance spell when I have the chance.

Another advantage of this spell, in particular, was that it would erupt below my target. More often than not, creatures’ vulnerable spots were their bellies. This spell would have an easier time targeting those areas compared to my ice lance.

And then lastly there was a spell with “Spider” in the name. I couldn’t help but think Elysa was somewhere... laughing at this…

Spider Lightning

Channel a lightning arc at an enemy that deals damage and slowly creeps to seek out nearby creatures that are considered enemies by the caster. This ability keeps on creeping and searching for enemies as long as the ability is channeled. When the ability channel is canceled, it will shock all targets connected by the lightning arc, dealing damage based on how many enemies are connected by the arc. The more enemies are hit, the more damage the final shock will do.

By the goddess.

That spell looked incredibly powerful. This was an ability that completely focused on hitting as many targets as possible. While my fireball could theoretically do the trick, this ability seems to easily overtake fireball in usefulness when enemies weren’t standing right on top of one another… which was pretty much always.

Once again, there was one issue… I did not intend to fight eight wolves or so, at once. While the spell sounded incredibly useful, upon closer inspection, it wouldn’t help me much… right now. Ideally, I’d fight one enemy at a time. At this moment, the earthen spike, lightning arc, and cyclone spells appealed to me the most.

I could get the maximum rank of the cyclone and the arc lightning spells for 270 points, leaving me with only 7.

I thought about it for a moment.

Suddenly an idea struck me.

One of the reasons I’d held off on levelling the barrier skills was that I did not want to disturb Cellestra’s progress on her spell learning.

But…

I could work around that. If I took mana manipulation, I could level my barrier spells to their maximum ranks, which would provide a lot of safety, and I could still help Cellestra learn the rank of the barrier spell that she’d started learning.

Safety sounded reasonable. How many points would I need for both my barrier spells, mana manipulation, and cyclone?

405.

That was too much. I went over my list and checked where I could save points.

Ultimately, I decided to get the mana manipulation, highest rank physical barrier, and the cyclone skill up to strong. Once I had the points, I would get the final upgrade for that skill. I thought about what I wanted next after that, and came to the conclusion that the magical barrier would be a safe route. After that, it would likely be Earthen Spike, or Lightning Arc.

This lightning arc was so tempting. I had no idea why.

Perhaps it was the feeling that from the spell’s description, I got the idea that it would kill an enemy with a very precise amount of mana. Fireball used mana in large chunks, but the power of lightning arc and its cost seemed to increase in increments, meaning that once I’d dealt lethal damage, I could immediately stop the channel, right?

With the mana manipulation, I would be better off using fireball in some scenarios, though. I was basing that on the fact that wolves and boars seemed to be quite flammable. I could probably use lower-rank fireball spells to kill creatures like that.

However…

I would need an offensive spell for creatures where this wouldn’t be the case. I imagined lightning arc would fill that gap well.

I went through the enhancements that I had selected earlier one by one. Cellestra kept observing me as I felt the magic flow through me and the knowledge of the new spells being formed in my mind.

When I finalized my changes, I tapped Cellestra’s hand gently with two of my legs, getting her attention before spelling out more words.

“All done. Got new spell. Want check later?”

“Sure, I’d love to. But first… dinner. I believe it’s right about done.”

She walked to the kitchen while I sat there dumbly wondering how in the world we were going to have dinner with me taking up most of the table…