With no means to get any news about Lila, Aira immersed herself in the training and exploration of her new abilities even more. Especially after Ainorrh's recommendation to try focusing her actions through Heart of the Forest.

  The Rune reacted to Aira's actions. It played in symphony with the source of elemental energy. But for Aira, it was a foreign type of magic she had yet to find an approach to. It worked in waves. One day, she was able to feel a distant settlement that resonated in an unfamiliar way—Ainorrh confirmed it was another enlightened city, Ziemrot, with its Earth affinity—on other days, Aira sat in meditation for hours, not being able to breach the magical barriers of Wentouk.

  Despite the challenges, Aira felt a sense of achievement every day. Her ability to sense the presence of enlightened individuals around her was sharpening, allowing her to observe the intricate ways they manipulated elemental energy.

  This way, three weeks passed almost unnoticed. Without the wake-sleep cycle, Aira had to rely on visually confirming the passage of days. Which was tricky when she immersed herself in a multi-hour meditation.

  To feel at least some connection with Lila, Aira continued her magic-less workouts as well. It had been more than a month since her human friend showed Aira the routine, and the results were visible. To celebrate an anniversary of sorts, Aira ran up the same high-rise building one evening to greet the night during the sundown.

  Even without any gadgets on her body to focus her magical powers and connect Aira to the System, every step she took on the stairs felt as if she still had all the boosts on her base stats. Only before approaching the final floor did Aira finally feel a bit winded, exertion catching up with her.

  As Aira sat on the roof, watching the sun dip below the horizon, she sent a wave of gratitude towards Lila. While she knew that even if it could reach the human, she would never be able to decipher the message, Aira's thoughts filled with hope for her friend's safety and return to Wentouk.

  ***

  The System still wouldn't show Aira her base stats. So, there was no way to assess if they changed by evaluating the numbers. Aira knew that her body was going through a transformation; she could feel it in the way she walked or ran at a high distance.

  But then, there was one indirect way to take measure of the changes that were happening thanks to Lila's training regimen. Unlike the base stats, Aira still could see that her health pool had increased by a few points. Normally, its value depended on Aira's endurance.

  Of course, the rules of the System could be different in this world. They were different in so many ways. But with this, Aira felt that she could rely on measuring the difference to gauge, at least approximately, the new value of her endurance stat. And, consequently, the other base stats as well.

  Aira remembered her health level at the beginning of their training pretty well. It wasn't strange, but when she had the System menu in her vision almost constantly, it was hard not to remember the numbers. Since then, memorizing the most crucial information has remained a habit. But this time, the number was quite remarkable as well. The last time Aira checked it before trying Lila's routine, her health was at 555 points.

  And Aira last checked her current stats before ascending the high-rise building that night. Then, it was twelve points higher.

  Really hard to miss the difference.

  The only other reason that could have explained this change was gaining another level. Again, that was how the System worked—levels affected all base stats and, consequently, health.

  And while Aira was getting closer and closer to that, as Alliot noticed a few weeks earlier, closer to going over the needed threshold and becoming a level 101 arcane wielder, she still had to gain a few hundred thousand experience points to get there.

  Long story short, there was no other explanation for getting these boosts without gaining a new level.

  Thinking of Lila made Aira end her nightly routine early. There was no chance she would make any progress in reaching out to her human friend while not having any gadgets on her. She still couldn't even sense the source of Wentouk without the boosts the tech provided her.

  That was another Aira's goal. She knew it was possible. She did that at least once, during the execution. She knew it was possible to use her magic without any tech. On that fateful morning, Aira incapacitated Garrick and his cronies and then killed them. Even if she ended up being unconscious, that was proof of her capabilities.

  She just had to figure out how to trigger them. Preferably without putting herself out at the same time.

  With a sigh, Aira stood up and began her descent to the enlightened forest. If she couldn't finish her meditation here, she could try finding the resonance with Heart of the Forest. Maybe that would allow her to spread her senses even further today.

  ***

  As soon as Aira put her wristband back on her arm, she received a message from Ainorrh.

  "Where have you been? Did you somehow block me?" Ainorrh said. "I didn't know that was even possible!"

  "Sorry, I didn't block you, I can only exclude you from the party, and you've known that," Aira answered. "I just… I've been meditating and thinking about Lila. I'm concerned about her safety. It's already three weeks since she left and that's plenty of time to go there and back, and spend almost a week at the facility."

  "Meet me at Heart of the Forest, I have some spare time right now," said Ainorrh. "Let's give it another try, maybe we can figure out how to spread your senses further away. You should be able to do that. In the end, your skills are more powerful than mine."

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  On her way to the central part of the enlightened forest, Aira couldn't stop but consider what else Ainorrh could offer her. Even while the shaman had a much lower level than Aira, she had hundreds of years of experience working with the elemental source. Exploring its power and following the flows of Air affinity magic.

  On the one hand, Aira didn't doubt she still had much to learn from Ainorrh. On the other hand, she was different. Aira was an outworlder with a System that acted in its own way. It wasn't the same as before when she still was a human Mystic Enforcer. Not a mage, but still a wielder of the arcane. Her System wasn't the Nexus of the enlightened people.

  So, was there really anything Ainorrh could offer that would work for Aira?

  They came to the same spot where Aira first felt the resonance between her Rune and Heart of the Forest. Somehow, Ainorrh never came here with her, directing Aira's experiments with the source from a distance or during training and meditation sessions held at the other parts of the enlightened city.

  The place didn't change since the last time Aira had been here. There was something different in how the ambient magic felt around the source. But Aira wasn't yet able to pin down the feeling.

  At Ainorrh's gesture, dozens of enlightened people stepped out of the shadows and showed themselves to Aira.

  Now, Ainorrh was standing there surrounded by other people. But they left some space around Aira, leaving her alone. She felt the power of the Air element flowing around them. Now, after all these past weeks of training and attuning herself to it, she could paint a more nuanced picture of energy patterns flowing through the forest, people, and herself.

  And now she could explain why she felt different in this place. It was the interference of all these other enlightened. Most of them appeared to be some of the most proficient magic users of Wentouk.

  "Thanks for comin, Aira," said Ainorrh. "I invited some other members of our community for this. I've also invited Alliot. I think his presence is important for what to come."

  "But what is it?" asked Aira. "For what reason did you invite all of these people here?"

  "We discussed it before, that while I may be of much lower level than you are, we have our methods of boosting the powers of our shamans and other people," said Ainorrh. "We discussed some of these methods before. I even showed you some of the techniques. And I think you'll find good use for them in the future. But then, there is something we haven't tried with you yet."

  Ainorrh gestured to all the people that surrounded them.

  "One the first day you came here, I acquired a new skill," she said. "And to do that, I used the help of some of my friends and other members of our community. That's what I'd like for you to do with us today."

  "Get a new skill? But I don't have…" said Aira. "Oh, wait… How could I have forgotten…?"

  "What was it? What do you mean?" asked Ainorrh. "No, I just wanted to offer to join our forces to boost your abilities. I didn't share this approach, this… ritual with you because I'm not ready to give away all our capabilities yet. In the end, that's a matter of our safety. But what is it about a skill? Do you have one you can add to your range?"

  "This may sound a bit stupid," said Aira. "But yes, I have one. I've got it on the same day Alliot first brought us here. I just… So many things had happened on that day. Lila left us soon after. And I… I just immersed myself in training and trying to reach out to her."

  "Don't beat yourself up," Alliot said, abrupt as usual. "Strange day for all of us. Priorities shift."

  "So, what do you want to do about that?" asked Ainorrh. "As far as I remember, you don't need our help to acquire a skill. But will you share its description with us?"

  Mentally commanding her wristband, that piece of tech that for some reason was one of her connections to the arcane, Aira called out the relevant System menu and began reading the information to Ainorrh and Alliot.

  --- New Skill(s) Available ---

  Nature's Call

  - Makes the use of elemental energy of any source more efficient.

  - Boosts your connection with the elemental sources and environment. Enhances sensitivity towards the elemental energy sources.

  - Maximum skill use distance: [100 m x Level] = 10 km

  Ainorrh's expression changed with each word Aira sent through the party interface.

  "High Shaman, we can't expect her to fully understand our sensibilities…" began Alliot.

  "No," Ainorrh interrupted him. "We can't. But give me a moment to process that."

  "Process what? What's happening?" asked Aira. "I didn't plan to offend anyone by forgetting to check a skill that was offered to me."

  "Of course, of course," said Ainorrh. "I just didn't expect that. I'm sure you remember how I explained that all of us are attuned to a single elemental power."

  "Yes, I remember that," said Aira. "You have also told me that visiting an alternative place of power may badly influence an enlightened person."

  "Exactly," said Ainorrh. "But rarely, we get a person attuned to more than one affinity. It's rare, but it happens. And at least once, we had someone who was able to weave three elemental powers together. And by 'we 'I don't mean out community in Wentouk. I mean the whole of the enlightened people in this world."

  "Alright, I get that it's rare," said Aira. "How does my skill play into all of that?"

  "May I?" asked Alliot.

  "Sure," said Ainorrh. "Please do your best."

  "Our skills? Air magic, mostly," Alliot told Aira. "Few exceptions, like Enlightened Governance, but even those lean toward our element. Same for all of us. Check my skills—pure Air. Yours? It doesn't follow the same pattern. No single element there."

  "Yes, I've noticed that," said Aira. "Still, it seems that this new skill is even more special in your opinion."

  "It is. It truly is special," said Alliot. "Works with any element, any source. That's… Rare."

  "Exactly, that's the reason why this skill is so special," said Ainorrh. "But even more than that, it confirms how special you are, Aira.

  "So, what you want me to do?" said Aira.

  "If you planned to add this skill to your range, I guess it would be the right moment to do that," said Ainorrh. "And then we can proceed with what I planned for this moment. Why I invited all of these people to join us. Your skill will only make our effort more focused and the chances of success higher."

  "Alright," said Aira with a sigh. "Let's do that!"

  Nature's Call (Level 1 / 24 SP to upgrade to Level 2)

  […]

  Upgrade further [Y/N]?

  For now, Aira decided not to push the skill any further. There were many reasons for that. She still didn't open up fully to Ainorrh and the other enlightened about her abilities to upgrade the skills and availability of skill points. Even if Ainorrh could probably see the drop in Aira's stat sheet, she didn't want to bring additional attention to that fact. But besides that, she had to keep in mind the other skills she may have to improve in the future.

  Aira checked her skill point reserves. As she expected, she was down by more than a thousand SP. The payment for the first-level skill wasn't high, only a few points. What was getting really expensive was the price of adding the thirty-third skill. As before, for some reason, she was punished by the System for having those thirty skills that weren't available to her anymore.

  "So, what's next?" asked Aira. "What do you want me to do?"

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