Thera woke up to the sounds of chatter around her and the smell of cooking, two things that would normally pull her from her slumber with both the spirits around her enjoying her ambient mana and Ben out making breakfast, even if there was a difference about the sounds she was hearing that day as she opened her eyes to find something unusual amongst the mass of mana that was floating around her. Not just the dense points of mana she was used to seeing from her paternal race, but also some that were more spread out. A different form of mana-based life, with earth and water elementals in the mix.

“Um, hello,” She greeted them, more awake than usual from the surprise of their presence as they almost seemed to shuffle about, acting as though they’d been caught as they looked between each other, with one speaking up.

“Hello, princess,” An earth elemental began as Thera raised her hand.

“Please, just call me Thera.”

I do not want to end up with elemental princess as a title if calling me that catches on among them. It was hard enough to get Ben to stop laughing when spirit princess caught on.

“Thera then. Forgive the intrusion, we shall be on our way.”

“Uh, wait, hold on, you don’t need to leave, I was just surprised. Should I take it you can also make use of my mana?”

It shouldn’t have shocked her, she’d already seen that she could share her mana with Insia and Rocky in the same way and her skill was called mana empowering, there was no reason to think the elementals couldn’t have made use of it, especially since she didn’t know how comparable their reproduction was to a spirit’s, but she’d been caught off guard, with the one speaking confirming as much.

“We heard about it from the spirits and were curious. Apologies for not asking first.”

“It’s fine, I don’t make the spirits ask either so if any elementals want to take what they can while I’m asleep then go for it. I don’t mind.”

“Really?” It asked, sounding hopeful, with all of the spirits around chiming in before she could say anything.

“Our princess is generous-”

“Kind-”

“Thoughtful-”

“Wonderful-”

“The best-”

“I really don’t mind so it’s fine,” She cut in, adding only one request. “But please, just let any other elementals know to just call me Thera, It doesn’t matter how many of you come.”

With how far her passive mana would spread out, she was sure the entire house was filled and if she kept the effect up once she went out then it would stretch far beyond it. Even if a few thousand elementals joined in at any given time, it wouldn’t make much difference to her and if it would help them then why would she say no?

It got a strong reaction though, with the ones already in her room buzzing about in excitement, the one speaking for them sounding thrilled.

“Thank you! The spirits are right to talk of you so highly!”

“Uh, thanks. Just to be clear though, how often do they talk about me when I’m not around?”

“Constantly.”

Great. No clue how I’m supposed to react to that so just going to pretend I never asked.

At the very least, she didn’t collect titles for that fact the way Ben seemed to, which was good enough for her as she finally got up to start the day.

She didn’t know how bad of a sign to take it as, but going out that day with Aso, they encountered another demon.

So many of them had gotten into the world in such a short time, even if she’d only seen a handful herself, that adventurers across the planet were busy fighting and killing them constantly, even if most who were just serving in their towns had likely only come across one or two, with many not witnessing any at all. It all came down to numbers and luck, with how things had turned out at least acting as a decent experience for her friend.

Unlike the first time Aso had encountered one, this time she was prepared, still suffering under the same system effect that was forcing her to view it as a person but compartmentalizing that to see it as an enemy as she did her best to go up against it for the practice and experience it would provide.

Given that the third wave was sure to be worse, Thera wanted her friend to get every bit of experience she could until that point, even if it was going to be hard and watched from the side, ready to step in if need be but was willing to see her struggle a bit as she went up against the beast.

As both a light and fire mage, she’d already allowed the creature to get too close but there wasn’t much helping that. Both of them were mages and Aso didn’t seem too interested in finding a different party, meaning she had nobody to fill a warrior role to keep them in place, nor anyone to lure them in.

It wasn’t exactly something Thera could comment on though given the way she’d done things so she let it be, instead watching as the other fought, creating illusions to trick the demon briefly before its other senses told the creature they were fake and burning it with her fire while dodging its oncoming attacks, getting a few cuts herself when the thing got too close but otherwise handling herself during it all until it briefly looked like the monster had gained the lead when it jumped in, only to be felled by the knife she kept on her hip, cutting across it and letting her finish it with the bite of her fire from a safe distance.

Once done, Aso slumped over, looking exhausted from the ordeal as Thera moved to her side to encourage her.

“Good work, you handled that really well,” She said positively. “But don’t wait to heal your wounds. Demons are tricky and adaptable, you have no way to know if there's going to be poison or something else on their claws that you don’t want to wait to deal with.”

“Right,” The girl nodded as she started healing herself, obviously tired from the fight as Thera went on, broaching a different subject that she knew needed to be addressed before she left to face the next wave.

“And have you still not found any party to join?”

That question got a grimace. “Mmh, no, I’m honestly not super interested in anyone in town.”

“Okay, mind if I ask why not?”The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

While Thera had her own issues with the adventurers of Stonewall, there was no reason for anything to be holding Aso back. As far as she knew, the girl didn’t have a bad history with any of them and she was even well thought of in town, not only from acting as one of the healers but also for being their clinic head’s daughter. As far as she could see, there should have been people lining up to work with her, if only for the hope that she’d be able to get them some priority healing if things ever went wrong.

To Thera’s surprise though, it seemed like she was more involved in the choice than she’d expected as Aso explained with some embarrassment.

“Because we’re friends.”

The answer instantly made the earth under her feet shake in her anger. Was Aso being mistreated just because the girl dared to get along with her? If that really was the case then she was mere moments from tearing away the ground below to fly to the guild and beat every adventurer there to a bloody pulp with her bare fists, only holding back the impulse as Aso reached out to stop her.

“Wait, that’s not what I mean!” She yelled, seeing the misunderstanding she’d caused. “I meant we’re friends so I don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t treat you well or only does because they’re afraid of you so don’t give them a new reason to be afraid of you!”

That passified her rage, even if it created other issues as she reached out and gently rubbed her friend’s head.

“Okay, I won’t murder anyone and I appreciate the thought but things are going to get dangerous, Aso. I know you go out by yourself when I’m not around and I’m not around a lot. Heck, I’m probably going to be away a lot more once the next wave is in full force and the world’s going to be significantly more dangerous at that point. I’m not going to tell you not to go without me but you really need to find someone else to work with. It doesn’t matter if they don’t like me, if you die it would break my heart.”

“Mmh, but if I joined up with anyone and they badmouthed you I’d definitely crack them over the head,” She said, waving her staff to emphasize the point.

Hmm, that is a problem. Which means it needs to be someone I know won’t talk bad about me behind my back which is admittedly pretty hard. Or I guess someone who it would be okay to hit…

Wait, don’t I know a group that would have both?

“Okay then, in that case let’s go, I know exactly who you could join up with.”

She’d thought she might need to invade their home to find them but Thera came across the exact party she was looking for as the two of them went to report the completion of their quests, with Sachel, Ralia, and Skoe sitting down at a table, the first of them already waving her over.

“Thera, Aso, hey!” Sachel called out. “How’d things go today?”

“Well, we ran into a demon but she handled it calmly enough and managed to get the kill without my help,” Thera told them proudly, feeling personally pleased with Aso’s growth. “How about you guys? Take any quests today?”

“Ah, not today, we’re actually just here to hang out. We’ve got our point to go to and since we’re leaving in a couple of days we wanted to relax a bit while we can and chat with folks, you know?”

Right, she’s fighting in the invasion too. That could be a problem.

“Will you guys be coming back when they close again?”

“The week after,” Ralia answered. “By then they’ll have spread out so much and Stonewall needs protecting too, same as any other place.”

“Perfect. In that case, there was something I wanted to ask you all. You guys have two frontline fighters and one backline. When you return, take another mage.”

She patted Aso’s back as she said it, making it clear who she was referring to as the group looked amongst themselves for a moment, speaking with their eyes before Sachel spoke up.

“I personally don’t mind.”

“Sachel, working with a beginner is a bit…” Skoe trailed off, trying at least to be polite, even if Thera still glared at him.

“What? Are you saying you wouldn’t benefit from another backline fighter? One who has different magics from your other mage I might add. Plus she isn’t a beginner, she’s been at this for almost two years now.”

“Okay, but having a second mage isn’t super important,” He argued. “Look at you, it's not like you use a traditional party when your main partner is a craftsman. Our composition works fine.”

“The difference is that Ben could kill the three of you without much effort,” Thera told him coldly, with that answer making both Skoe and Ralia look to Sachel for her own thoughts. Aside from being their powerhouse by virtue of holding a second-tier skill, she was also the one who knew them best as high-ranking members of the same faith and she briefly thought it over.

“I’d personally run if it somehow came down to us fighting,” She said with a shrug, handily closing any comparisons between the two parties.

While Sachel had only really seen Ben fight the same time as her other two party members when he’d dueled the man who had come to win over Thera, she was aware that he had more awakened skills than he’d let on and that all of that growth had come in the few short years he’d been on the world, not to mention some of the other things she’d seen from him. The way he’d calmly spoken in her head after having been disassembled in the life tower as he instructed her on how to put his body back together was something that was going to haunt her nightmares forever, she didn’t want to ever go up against someone who could do that.

It was the answer Thera had wanted as well and she gave a positive nod when she got it. “There. My party has nothing to do with yours and you wouldn’t be hurt in any way having her. Both fire and light magic would give you guys more options and I’m not even asking you to take her in permanently, just when you’re back and I’m off dealing with other things; if you’d want her to join you on a more regular basis after that is a discussion you can have in the future. So are you willing to do that?”

“We will,” Ralia agreed, casting her own vote on the matter and giving a majority as she looked to Skoe. “Everyone starts somewhere and it would be good for her to get experience working in a team. As high-ranked adventurers we need to help with raising up the newer recruits.”

“Okay, but this isn’t exactly the time?”

“Then when would it be?” The snake-woman laughed. “Even if we win, the world’s going to have a demon problem forever and until that point anyone who can fight is important. Better she works with us for a bit and grows her skills more with the bit of safety we can provide than we leave her on her own to either die alone or when things get bad enough here and she doesn’t have the skills to handle it. Sorry Skoe, majority rules.”

Thera gave her a nod of thanks before turning to address Aso. “So there you have it. Even if it’s going to be a while until you officially start working with them, talk to them for a bit and figure things out and remember, if Skoe mistreats you in any way then just tell me and I’ll ask the spirits to hide his body somewhere nobody would ever find. It would be easy enough to get it dragged to the center of the planet and without witnesses we wouldn’t have to worry so don’t hesitate, okay?”

Aso nodded happily at that while Skoe felt a shiver go down his spine at how matter-of-factly she said it, making him truly believe she was fully willing to carry out that threat before she turned to thank them one more time and went off, happy with how things had turned out as she headed home.

So that’s one problem done, as long as none of them die during the next wave and Aso doesn’t do anything stupid until we’re all back then things will be fine, that just leaves-

<MAX LEVEL OF THE DARK PRINCESS JOB ACHIEVED>

That. Perfect.

It was a job she’d been gaining passive experience for and any time she wasn’t equipping her mana empowering to her soul she had her brace on to suppress whatever dark effect she was intentionally giving off, making that a quick one as she lightly touched her necklace, getting nothing new to choose from and leaving her to take what she’d already been planning, war mage.

<ACQUIRED JOB- WAR MAGE LV0>

<MAJOR BONUSES GRANTED TO IMPROVING MANA, MANA RECOVERY RATE, AND INTELLIGENCE>

<ALL MAGIC AND RELATED SKILLS WILL RECEIVE A MAJOR GROWTH BONUS>

<OVERWHELMING NON-AFFINITY MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>

<SPIRIT COMPREHENSION LEVEL INCREASED>

<MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<MAGIC INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<SLEEP RESISTANCE LEVEL INCREASED>

<COORDINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

A few of those levels were enough to raise an eyebrow at, especially the sleep resistance given how much effort she’d just put into raising it and what gaining a level implied for the expectations of a mage going to war, but all of it would be useful to her, just like any skill would be and given the name of the job itself, she’d be gaining a flood of experience soon enough, all she’d need to do was her best on the battlefield that would lay before her.

<ACQUIRED TITLE- FRIEND OF ELEMENTALS>