Chapter 520 519: Preparing For The Excursion (8)



That next training session was rather... intense and grueling, as the three women pushed their limits as best they could without almost killing one another, trying the Shop Made Items as much as they could during those long hours.

Anput marveled at how much more control she had over her blades, as well as the fact that the power behind them was greater then before, pushing her abilities even further than before as she struck with precision that could shatter our defenses with ease, all while hitting just that much harder.

Leone cast her spells quicker and took note of how they all had more potency behind their blasts, the Vampire shooting fireballs into the air and observing their explosions with and without the earring dangling from her ear, her crimson eyes sparkling with both intrigue and the bright flashes of exploding flames.

Finally, Jahi took a more... barbaric approach to her changes, taking the new dagger and slitting her palm open, observing the deepness of the wound and how quickly it began to scab over with and without her amulet, whilst also having Anput summon two identical stone slabs for her to punch, observing the differences in power behind her strikes.

All three of them took to their changes quickly, acclimating to the increase in their abilities before returning to our spars, continuing our routine for that day.

With a week plus left to us to prepare for whatever the Marquess had in store for us, we put our heads down and did what we needed to get ready, all of us assuming the worst was to come beneath the Marquess' orders.

After all, she was the same woman who let us fight against a monster far stronger than us back in Fovos Forest, all while she watched from the tree line as we almost got killed.

She got her just desserts from that encounter, but it was that mixture of callousness and harshness that we had come to expect from her in regards to training, so none of us were willing to be too relaxed during these weeks.

Anput spent as much time in the forge as she could, and we eventually got to learn why; two days after the gifting of their Divine touched items, the Jackalkin returned with a set of four chainmail shirts, each link made from a black metal alloy that was slightly warm to the touch.

They were well made and well woven, the black circles interlocked in such a way that even a dagger would struggle punching through them, and the armor wasn't too restrictive as we draped it over our chests.

Of course, that made the Jackalkin smile wryly at us all, scratching the back of her head as she watched all three of us allow it to flow over our breasts, while the Jackalkin just watched it drop over her own chest...

Leone and I even had to smile wryly as we handed the chainmail back to the Jackalkin, who needed to add another few inches to cover out stomachs completely.

Letting out a low sigh, Anput just shrugged as she took them away, before grabbing one of the many potions that Leone had been brewing as she grabbed the Vampire, bullying the Princess for that night for having such a bountiful bosom.

Speaking of, the Princess had been just as hard at work as Anput had been, the woman brewing vats of potions for us to use as well as to sell at the markets for rarer materials or more diverse ingredients, so that she could create a better set of potions for us to utilize on our journey.

We had a large basket filled with bundles of potions of all colors, each meant for a different use that was tailored for each of us, the Vampire going above and beyond as she selected potions meant to hasten your movements, increase reaction speeds, harden the skin, increase blood flow, empower the Core, and so much more...I think you should take a look at

Her skills had grown over these days, and as she eased herself back into the intricacies of Alchemy, the Vampire showed us her genius time and time again as she returned with more and more potent potions, creating a large stockpile for us to utilize whenever.

This increased stockpile allowed us to train for longer and harder each night, supplementing rest and removing the need for the usual five hours of sleep that we needed, replacing it with three.

Obviously, artificial rest and supplements weren't as good as the real thing, but it would need to be abused for a long period of time for it to begin damaging our bodies, and we were setting rest days to counteract that as best we could.

Jahi continued to learn under Lady D'Arcon, who had shown her a new path of Light Magic that she wanted to begin treading, one filled with more supportive and healing magics then offensive.

Of course, the other bearer of Light Magic had her fair share of attack spells that were far more destructive then her innocent, gentle appearance would suggest, but they were all fueled by her devotion to one of her Goddess' - Luxiana, Goddess of Brilliant Light and Reflections.

She placed her belief in Luxiana and cast spells in her name, intertwining her mana with faith in her Goddess and imbuing it with power that couldn't be replicated easily.

Most of her repertoire of spells were based on her faith and beliefs, but some of her spells could be replicated with a deep enough understanding on runes and sequences, which the Demoness was sufficient enough in to learn.

Broadening her own repertoire of spells was important for us all, as the power in her mana was above ours most of the time, and having another person who could heal and buff would be invaluable going forwards, giving Leone and I less of a strain to only cast support magic so that we could join the fray.

As for me, I continued to visit the chapel and soothe my mind through prayer, before joining the twins out in the gardens, sometimes with Lady Yusa, where we all studied something together to push our understandings further.

The Snow Woman placed an emphasis on understanding the basics of our Ice, and giving us multiple paths to tread to reach her level; either study one of its component parts to the extreme, creating a variation of Ice Magic that was heavily weighted towards one element, or deepen our understanding of what Ice Magic was and how it worked on its own, treating the two elements as just their sum part - Ice - instead of two separate components.

All of her paths had pros and cons, and she herself showed us that her Ice only approach was not always the greatest in certain situations, since a lack of certain things could lead to it being fragile or too unstable to be considered a reliable power, forcing her to switch to her weaker elements that she wasn't too confident with.

However, she also showed us that the paths the twins were treading - mastering a single of the two elements and building up that as the base - had its own set of problems, specifically how quickly the Ice could be shattered if more of that element was added, the mana imbalance causing a backlash as the Ice was destroyed and sent back towards the twins.

There were problems with all of them, but they were all valid paths that one could take, and I had a choice to make going forwards, but a choice that I wanted to ponder over before I made it, to make sure I was going to make the right decision for myself in the future.

With the days drawing closer to the end of our preparation days though, we went down to the Caverns during those last days, getting some experience on the field and putting our new gear to a true test.