"GRAAAARRGH!"
The Wendigos immediately attacked, leaping over Elayne with great speed and amazing reflexes. They were slightly afraid of her light spell, but they were so hungry they were willing to go through some pain to get what they want.
Elayne, however, was faster. By boosting her body reflexes through the usage of Mana flowing through every vein of her body, she quickly materialized a powerful armor made out of spiritual wood.
"[Yggdrasil's Armor]!"
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The sharp jaws of the Wendigos ended gnawing at the hard, spiritual wood covering Elayne's body like a powerful armor, some of their teeth even shattered upon trying to force their way.
"[Wooden Cage]!"
FLAAASH!
Elayne acted quickly, generating a powerful cage made of spiritual wood surrounding the mysterious girl she found in here, protecting her from the wendigos while she readied herself to fight, bringing out the Intelligent Shovel Staff, Irene, who had been stored inside her Inventory.
BAAAAM!
And smacked the head of a Wendigo with all her strength, so strongly that the creature's head gave a spin and then flew out of its body.
The head rolled over the floor while the Wendigo's body continued moving, Elayne quickly finished it off by expanding one of her fingers into a sharp wooden needle and piercing the monster's Magic Crystal.
CRASH!
By piercing the magic crystals of monsters using her own body, she was also able to recover Mana by absorbing them. Even if the magic crystals were contaminated, due to her spiritual runes reaching such a high amount, the contaminated mana was purified as it traveled into her body.
"SHAAAAHH!"
More Wendigos leaped over Elayne, fearless of her previous demonstration of strength. It was clear they were crazed, non-intelligent beasts that only wanted to eat the living's flesh and drink their blood. And Elayne punished these critters with all her might, smacking them into the ground one after the other, and blowing away their heads like tennis balls
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLAAASH!
FLUOOOOSH!
A powerful Spiritual Shockwave was unleashed the more she fought and absorbed the Mana, her magic circle continued developing more Runes, and she decided to also evolve her current low-level light spells to acquire stronger ones using this excess of Mana she was getting.
The mysterious system-like voice once more whispered to her the more her abilities evolved.
[You have absorbed a Magic Crystal; your Mana has been refilled.]
[You have formed a large quantity of Spiritual Runes.]
[The [Light Ball] Spell has evolved to the [Light Bullet] Spell.]
"[Light Bullets]!"
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Elayne quickly began firing countless bullets made of light, not as strong as Rita's bullets, but strong enough to pierce through the bodies of the Wendigos, taking a few more of them before the pack of monsters understood this was pointless, beginning to run away from her.
"GRRYYAAARRGH!"
One of the Wendigos roared back at Elayne before disappearing into the dark caves. Elayne sighed in relief, finally having some time to rest as she kneeled over the floor.
"Hahhh… Oh god, that was tough." She sighed in relief, looking at the few Magic Crystals left to absorb and beginning to absorb a few more.
[Your Mana has been refilled.]
[You have met the criteria of Spiritual Runes.]
[Your Magic Circle is evolving into a Tier 2 Magic Circle.]
FLUOOOSH!
"Huh?!"
Elayne was shocked after what had happened, but her Magic Circle not only reached Tier 1 Rank 10 but started to evolve into a Tier 2 Magic Circle right away! She felt within her heart that her magic circle gained yet another circle, where she could place even more Runes and develop her spells even further.
[You have become a Tier 2 Rank 1 Magic Circle Magician.]
[You have gained a large quantity of Magic Power.]
[Your Spiritual Runes have increased greatly.]
[Several Spells have evolved.]
[You learned the new Spells: [Light Shield], [Healing Light], [Spiritual Domain], [Spirit Creation]…]
Was it her idea or was the voice becoming more and more active now? She didn't even needed the Great Spirit to tell her most stuff now with the voice becoming this active. She started to think that it might have something to do with her connection with Arcadia or even an after-effect of the [Pathway] Ability.
"Great job, you've done it!" The Great Spirit congratulated Elayne. "Now, who the heck is this girl?"
Elayne quickly opened the Nature's Cage, finding the girl still somewhat alive. However, she looked extremely pale. She was gasping for hair and her hair was completely white the same as her skin.
"Hahhh… Hahhh…"
"Ahhh, she has a fever! Will this help?" Wondered Elayne, trying to use her newly acquired healing spell. "[Healing Light]!"
FLAAASH!
A healing golden light emerged out of Elayne's hands, but the only thing it did was burn the girl's skin, making her groan in agony and wake up out of the blue.
"Uuaaagggh! W-What the…?! UNGH! Let go of me!" She roared furiously.
"Huh?! Uwaah!" Elayne panicked.
The girl's nails suddenly grew super sharp, slashing away at Elayne and throwing her away, she quickly jumped away from her, glaring at her ferociously as her eyes stared glowing bright red.
"GRRHHHH…! Who are you?! Where am I?!" She asked angrily, suddenly taking out a handgun from her pocket and pointing it at Elayne.
"I'm sorry! I didn't knew the light magic would hurt you!" Elayne apologized. "Are you okay?!"
"Huh? Light magic- Ah! Did you just tried to heal a Dhampir with light magic?!" The girl asked in disbelief.
"W-Well, it wasn't really obvious you were one… A week ago I didn't even believed monsters were real, you know?" Elayne sighed, facepalming.
"This woman… Are you one of the magicians that was protecting that town?" The girl wondered. "My name is Rose, what's your name?"
"Err… I would prefer not to say it…" Elayne said. Despite her clumsy nature, she had grown wary. This mysterious girl might even be related with something like an organization, or even the government.
"Come on just tell her! How do you plan to make her trust you, dummy?!" Asked the Great Spirit. "Her name's Elayne!"
The Great Spirit materialized out of thin air, appearing above Elayne.
"What the hell?!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
However, Rose panicked after seeing the Great Spirit appear out of thin air, shooting several bullets at her!
