Wichita’s foot touched the acid before she could move away, and that was enough. The Poison mana crawled up her leg, consuming it as she tried to jump away. The cobblestones disappearing around her made her situation even worse.

“Jump. Jump. Jump.” she repeated, more to center herself than anything else. The other three followed her commands anyway, though it might just have been self-preservation that motivated them to do so. A quick look at her status told her that it wasn’t looking good.

Mana: 33/453

The Royal Skill was still on cooldown, and it didn’t seem like it would be usable in time. The Heart was recovering some of the mana by converting the Poison mana, but it was a losing battle. The mana was too powerful, it was taking her mana away faster than her Heart could convert it.

Wichita swore at her own deficiency. Leirot’s heart was so powerful that it could have stood up the forest itself, converting the surrounding mana to sustain its host. But hers was simply too weak. Forget the forest, it could not handle a little acid.

Now she was going to die. Wichita nearly lost her balance as she tried to execute a jump, but somehow managed to land on the same bunch of cobblestones again. An increasingly large number of cobblestones were falling around her. In mere moments only one remained where she stood. Yes, she had to jump, and quickly.

The enchantments on her dress were repelling the corrosion mana, but they had little effect on the Poison mana. The other three had been able to escape, but she was not sure if she could follow.

The second try at jumping had her landing on a rather safe area. Just not on her legs. Or rather leg. Wichita felt her size reduce as her body found itself lacking in mana to maintain its size. And that had her lose her balance and land on her side. Not something she wanted, considering she was surrounded by a bloody pool of acid!

Mana: 20/453

At least the heart was done with most of the Poison mana. If she was able to avoid stepping into more pools of acid, she could survive this. But that was easier said than done.

“Do you need any help?” Rose yelled back, seeming concerned. The three of them had gotten a bit ahead and were looking back with worry on their faces.

“Yes! But you can’t help me anyway.” she replied. If only they could have touched her, then perhaps they could have carried her. As it was, she had to deal with it herself. The Arcana had not been made to cooperate with other species after all. There was doubt whether they were even supposed to cooperate with each other.

Hopping on one leg as her other regenerated slowly, she jumped onto the next set of cobblestones. And promptly lost her balance. Wichita panicked, seeing her boy fall into the pool of acid.

Then she saw the vine hanging in the air.

The needle was levitating it by piercing it and then going up while still inside it. Wichita clutched the slightly magical vine and hung onto it for dear life. A single foot was still on the cobblestones, while the other was in the air. The entire situation was precarious, especially when she considered that the needle had limited mana to do this.

Still clutching it, she carefully moved her legs onto it. The needle’s mana was draining rather quickly the entire time. Wichita might be made of energy, but the vine wasn’t. The needle started moving as soon as she was safely on the vine. Thankfully it was quite fast.

The cobblestones passed under her as she hung on, hoping that she would not slip. Even though her grip was firm, and then vine was magical enough for her to interact with it, she still felt nervous. Like something would happen and drop her off. The journey was short, but it was quite harrowing for her.

Wichita passed the three others, who had made good time. The cobblestones weren’t dropping quite as quickly around them, and they were able to hop far quicker. Jace was the farthest behind, and he was considerably slower too. The poor guy must not have gained any levels, while the other two had. Just running through the cobblestones was good experience.

The needle fell down after the cobblestones ended, letting her land right after the cobblestones ended. Wichita picked up the poor thing from the ground. That was a lot of mana it had just spent to save her, especially when it hadn’t needed to.

“Is there any chance we could get a lift?” Jace shouted. Wichita turned back in confusion. Why would he need—oh fuck.

There were no cobblestones between where Jace stood and her, meaning he would not be able to walk across. There must be a few meters between him and the closest cobblestone. Rose and Tully still had a viable path, but she had a sneaking suspicion that the forest would make it harder if she were to rescue Jace. The bloody thing seemed to be quite determined to kill at least one of them here.

“I -” Wichita wracked her mind, thinking about what she could do. There was precious little, in truth. What could she do? The needle had fallen dead…but it could be recharged again. Jace wasn’t that far, compared to her. But it would mean letting more of her precious mana go away.

Growling in frustration, she sent mana into the needle, watching the numbers drop as her body shrunk. The Heart let its displeasure at her choice be known, but she ignored it. 10 points of mana. Not much, not much at all, and that was all she was left with.

“Don’t activate your speed enchantment.” she told the needle. “Eat as many vines as you can on the way, but don’t let Jace die. Rush to him if the cobblestone starts dropping.”

This was a risk, but one she had to take. Rose and Tully might still fall into danger, and she could not afford to give more mana. If she gave more, then even a random stone was liable to kill her. So the needle had to feast on something else. The vines were the only other source she could think of.

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Wichita watched with bated breath as the vine was carried over by the needle, watching as it feasted. Jace was looking very nervous as cobblestones fell around him, one by one.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked.

“I don’t have mana for another refill.” she explained. “The needle needs the mana, it might need to rescue Rose or Tully still.”

Rose jumped onto another cobblestone as she watched Tully struggle. Rose looked like she might make it, she was just one jump away. There was even a cobblestone in the way. Wichita looked at it with suspicion.

“Don’t use that one. Just jump to safety.” she told Rose, turning to Tully. The younger girl still had places she could jump to, but they were quite far away for her smaller body.

“Are you sure you don’t want to -” Wichita did not have to complete her sentence. Tully had already jumped, and landed in place.

“I got heightened dexterity and strength from my levels.” Tully offered in way of explanation. “I think I can deal with this.”

Wichita raised an eyebrow at the fact that she had apparently gained multiple levels. But she could deal with that later. Now she had other stuff to deal with. The needle had just reached Jace.

The boy was considerably heavier than her, and it showed. To make things worse, she had not accounted for it. The needle carried him over, barely able to maintain its levitation. The boy plopped next to her, and the needle landed in the hand.

“Is it…fine?” Jace asked.

“No.” Wichita sighed. “The needle is out of mana again. I didn’t take your weight into account.”

Pursing her lips she grimaced at what she might have to do. Refilling it again would reduce her mana too much. But she might not have a choice. Letting one of the others die here was not—Rose jumped to land beside her. Tully was the only one left.

Wichita looked at the girl. There was considerably less distance between her and safety than Jace had to deal with, but still too much.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at her most talented subject. Letting her die would not work. Giving up so much mana was a risk, but one she had to take.

“Wait, I will -”

“There is no need.” Tully said, a smile tearing across her face. “I leveled up.”

Wichita’s eyes narrowed. What type of Skill did she get that would help her here?

“What the heck are you -” Rose started shouting, but her sister did not even stop to listen. Tully jumped as the three of them looked on. Wichita had a feeling that even the forest was interested.

[Justice must continue]” The girl said her Skill, the smile still on her face. Wichita blinked.

That was not a Skill that a Tier 1 should have. That was—this was ridiculous! A flash of jealousy roared through her. Why were her Skills so great? A boosting Skill.

Wichita did not know what restrictions she had, but even a heavily restricted boosting Skill would be a huge help in Tier 1. The gap between Tiers was so small at this point that Tully could probably kill Tier 2 beasts outright with it.

The girl landed on the safe area, grinning at them as if expecting praise for her new Skill. Wichita was ready to give it. But first she wanted, no needed, information.

“What are the restrictions?” she let her mouth run before she could stop it. “What can the Skill boost?”

Tully’s eyes widened. “Wait you know it?”

“I know of similar Skills.” she said, “Now about the restrictions?”

Tully shrugged. “The System just said that it would last for three seconds and boost any single movement I wished. If I use it for my Sword Qi though, it will boost its effectiveness by 50%”

Wichita just stared at her. That was ridiculous.

“I am jealous.” she admitted. “That Skill will serve you well.”

“I mean, I only got this because of you. Wouldn’t have gotten the class if you didn’t use your Royal Skill.”

Wichita blinked. “The Skill is from the only Tier 9 bloodline in this world. I do not think it is fair to compare the two.”

“Can we please skip the Skill talk till later and think about what we should do? Why did the forest attack like that?” Jace interrupted them.

“Cause it wants to eat us, obviously.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Wichita told us about it several times.”

“Yes, but wasn’t it supposed to be fair? That didn’t seem very fair? Did we get targeted by the bloodthirsty side?”

The two of them looked at her Wichita. Why were they—oh, they wanted her to use her Skill. Yes that would help.

“I don’t know, that seemed pretty fair to me.” Tully said.

“What?” Jace looked shocked. “I got stranded in an acid pool! Wichita is like a foot tall now.”

“Yes, but we aren’t dead. Wichita said the forest would be fair, not that it would go easy on us. Wasn’t she able to escape even though she stepped in the acid pool? And besides, I think we are missing something here. The trees were an alternate path that none of us used.”

Tully was making a lot of sense, but Wichita was a bit distracted. The Royal Skill cooldown had ended. Wichita wasn’t sure when, she had only noticed it when she pulled up her status to use [Forgotten Melody]

“Just -can you give me a second? I need to do something.” Wichita said as she clicked the Skill. Saving it might be useful, but she really, really did not want to be so low on mana anymore.

The world flashed purple again as she landed in the same space as before. There was still mana. And it was still rushing into her. The feeling of peace came again as she closed her eyes, her worries fading away for a second.

The Heart burnt again as she felt her body’s constraints being stretched. The mana had overwhelmed her mana pool again. Wichita wondered if the Skill was ending before it should, she had no real way to know, but it was possible.

Mana: 486/485

A sigh propelled itself from her as she saw that her mana was full, more than full really. This was great. Then the System decided to make it even better.

[Forgotten Queen] has reached level 7

Mana +50

Just four more levels, and she would be ready for the next Tier…and that meant she needed to worry about getting more achievements.