Chapter 41

Rydel was dressed in a long white tunic, it gave him a clean and pristine look. His feet were bare, the earth felt warm with each step. It wasn’t uncomfortable due to his endurance.

The entire village was silent, every elf was busy with the last preparations in their homes. The ceremony would be conducted in the main plaza.

Naveena was wearing a simple-looking circlet on her head. It combined with her crown-shaped white tuft of fur, giving her a simple but royal appearance. This was the best solution given as it’d be weird for her to wear normal clothes, but it was still needed for her to look formal.

The rest of the village would be wearing the same type of long white tunic, with a few exceptions. Those worn by the Ascended were colored green and Thalia, as the focus of the event, would be wearing a forest green tunic.

The ceremony was being held when the sun was at its highest point. The plaza was slowly being filled as the elves silently placed themselves in an orderly fashion.

Gran Elder Pyria presided over the ceremony, next to her there were only Elder Galather and Lady Allyna, Rex wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

There was an enormous empty cauldron in the center of the plaza.

“We are here reunited to congratulate the new guardian of the Elphyra’s Clan. Someone who against all odds has managed to walk the next step in her cultivation journey.” Pyria spoke in a slow but powerful tone.

“The Ceremony of Ascension is made with the purpose to help those with the duty of the protection of the Clan. It’s also made for her to never forget any of us in her long new life, to always remember her roots.”

She didn’t waste more time with explanations and asked the first person to stand next to the cauldron. This elf was given a ceremonial short sword embedded with life stones on the hilt, and a blade filled with formations.

His wrist was cut without any hesitation and a trickle of blood flowed into the cauldron. He held a proud expression even as his face became paler. After twenty seconds of this, he walked back with wavering steps.

A line of elves was formed as each person repeated this same motion. The cauldron was filling its contents with bubbling greenish blood, a strong aura of life and forest slowly emerged from it.

As the hours passed, some of the weakened elves had to sit down to rest and recuperate their vitality. The last elves to go through the ceremony were the mortals closest to Thalia.

Beginning with the Elders who were like parents to her, continuing with her best friends Dessielle and Mylaela, until Edyrm who was the last one to leave his blood behind.

Neither Naveena nor Rydel could go through this process, as they weren’t forest elves and their blood would taint the contents of the cauldron.

Rydel felt for the first time the consequences of having his race mutated. The possibility of helping his mother by donating a tiny part of his vital essence was denied to him.

He felt a little guilty as the vitality that held the most effect was those closest to the person. In this case, it’d only be him.

However, it was also true that as he was still in the early stage, and his vitality wasn’t his strong point, it wouldn’t have made much difference in the end. That helped with his negative feelings.

In the end, the last two to cut their wrist were Elder Galather and Grand Elder Pyria. After dropping their blood in the cauldron, the color turned to a more vibrant green and the aura increased by several magnitudes.

Both Elders didn’t turn as pale as the rest of the Clan, but their aura still emitted a hint of weakness.

A word wasn’t exchanged in this entire process, there wasn’t a need to. The mind of everyone in the Elphyra’s Clan was on the same wavelength.

Lady Allyna and Shael watched with fascination at the selfless ceremony. If they were attacked at this moment, the clan could suffer from a calamity as their warriors weren’t in the condition to fight.

If it wasn’t because of Galather’s insurance, no outsider would be allowed to watch the ceremony. It only took a nefarious thought for their situation to turn into one of despair.

Finally, Thalia approached the cauldron, she lightly floated into the air and plunged inside of it. Elder Roshia took the lid and sealed her inside.

This time, Lady Allyna helped with the process. She along with Galather and Pyria stood in a triangle injecting spiritual energy into the cauldron.

The cauldron shone with light, ravenously devouring every mote of energy that entered from the outside. Even some of the ambient energy was attracted.

The sky rumbled as thick black clouds clouded the day. Arcs of lighting swam through the clouds with anger as the refinement continued.

The heavens were in wrath, it wouldn’t allow such practice of forbidden arts without any punishments. The thunder increasingly grew in the sky.

The first bolt of lighting fell into the cauldron not long after. The Ascended didn’t reject it, nor tried to remove it. Heaven Lightning was as much as a punishment, as a boon for those that could harness it.

They let the increasing numbers of bolts enter the cauldron. These bolts started as light red, and the tone kept darkening until they became bloody-red. The thickness went from the size of a finger to the size of an arm too.

After a few more hours like this, the Heaven’s Cloud dispersed and the Sun peeked into the Elphyra’s Clan once more.

The Elders stopped injecting more energy and stood away a little bit in wait. After five minutes, the lid of the cauldron was carelessly thrust away and Thalia emerged from the cauldron.

She looked younger, if previously she looked thirty years old age-wise, now she appeared to be in her twenties. Her eyes retained the maturity conferred only by age and her facial features had softened. The most defining change was how her rainbow-colored hair had become even brighter, like the rainbow peeking after heavy rain.

In stark comparison to the weakened state of her clanmates, her aura was like the sun, shining with vigor.

“I thank everyone who has given me this opportunity from the bottom of my heart. I will never forget any of you, even if Mother Earth reclaimed you to her embrace.” Thalia made a bow for an entire minute, before standing proudly again.

The plaza erupted in cheers for the first time during the ceremony. Elves rapidly moved around in order to prepare a banquet that would last for a week.

Huge vats of wine were brought out, and whole beasts’ carcasses were prepared in a myriad of ways, from roasted in skewers to raw delicacies. Mountains of vegetables and herbs were made into diverse main dishes and accompanies.

Musicians led by Elder Vulas performed in solos, or in groups, even Shael joined them at one point.

The festive atmosphere didn’t stop for anything. Even if an elf got unconscious for any reason, he was just placed on the side to continue the party.

Sparring, dancing, talent shows, every imaginable game was played at the party. By the middle of the celebration, the weaker elves couldn’t continue anymore. They didn’t care, the passion must never stop. The healers prescribed them an invigoration pill and they were good to go again.

Rydel’s state was far from lucid, making him not care and shamelessly flirted with Shael. Of course, only when his mind allowed him to remember that she was there.

Naveena even approached some of the most drunken elves to finally have a conversation with them. A talking fox wasn’t even on their current list of top weirdest things that they were experiencing due to the alcohol, and other substances.

Edyrm partied the loudest. He was the proudest in this whole event and his colleagues didn’t miss the chance to make him go wild.

Thalia had retired early to process the gains and stabilize her condition. She had reignited her potential, reaping an incredible amount of benefits. However, even if the people who donated the blood were willing, the ritual still bordered on the forbidden arts. At least she didn’t have to deal with any lingering resentment.

By the time the last day of the party was winding up, only piles of groaning elves remained.

***

Rydel felt like shit. There wasn’t anything on his body that didn’t ache, he winced any time that his head throbbed. His vitality kicked in again, and immediately his whole body felt better.

It was tradition to turn the vitality off, or at least put it at its lowest level. They were being protected by the Ascended, who had recuperated after a day or so, so they didn’t need to worry. You could have fun without drinking, but only Mother Earth knew how much it helped.

For the last week, being sober was considered a sin.

Rydel waited until the next day, to be in top condition, before going to Roshia’s house to ask for her help.

She scolded him for being reckless, however, she understood his problem. They made different batches of pills using medicinal plants, along with various parts of beasts with high endurance.

Rydel thanked her before coming home. Thalia was still processing and integrating the vital essence from the ceremony. She had to turn that blood into her, ejecting the leftover. This was made easy as the blood belonged to the same race and species, and due to being in a clan with closely-tied blood relations.

Rydel took out from his spatial ring a jar of pills. They were fingernail-sized and entirely black.

He took one of them and instinctively sniffed them. They had a faint medicinal fragrance and a little bit of sour hint. Rydel took one of them and put it in his mouth.

They dissolved in an instant, a torrent of vigor entered his body before disappearing shortly after.

His endurance had shot six entire points, but he knew that the first one would be the most effective. Rydel kept consuming pills, each one giving him one point less. He stopped after taking the sixth, as it would be useless to consume more.

Vitality: 66

Strength: 25

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 61

Perception: 223

Spirit: 390

AP: 0

Finally, he wasn’t in danger of his body bursting anymore because of his spirit. He now had 200 points of margin before having to worry again.

However, this was just a temporary gap, he needed to do something permanently about the physical part of his attributes. His strength and dexterity were too low, in just a little bit of time, his body would start to become lacking. Even his vitality was nothing to write home about.

Of course, this was just compared to his spirit and perception. The accumulation that he made during the F-grade had paid off, and if he fought with just a sword, nobody would believe that he is a pure mage.

However, if he had the strength to back off the abundant energy from his spirit, or a body resistant enough to unleash his whole output, he’d become terrifying. As he was right now, he was like a baby with a gun.

It was a dangerous weapon, but he wasn’t able to use it in full capacity.

His next stop was the capital. Hopefully, he’d find the solution to his problems there.