Mage And Wolf
Chapter 105

Chapter 105: Chapter 105

Two more outposts were built without incident and the City of Spokane is in sight. There’s Drake Rider patrols circling, and a few Dragon Kin to be seen, but the city still looks mostly like it did before.

If you ignore some damaged buildings and widespread signs of recent riots that is.

We’re greeted outside the city by a Drake patrol, 2 flying beasts with a Priest of the War God riding passenger on one.

"Welcome to Spokane Highness, I trust your mission went well?" The Drake bows a formal greeting at the command of its rider.

"Better than expected. The locals are all pleased with our outposts, the guards received no hostility and the fuel tanks are gaining us many allies."

The Red Priest seems pleased to know that the plan worked, as the trading outposts are another facility, like the orphanages, that falls under the purview of the God Of War.

"The only remaining concern is the road itself" one of the Nature Priestesses in green robes adds. "No schedule for maintenance has yet been relayed and the mountain passes will require a lot of it, even if they are closed for the winter"

Seasonal travel might become an issue for a lot of communities. But with luck they will at least remain organized enough to keep plows running. If not there will be a scramble for a solution in a few months.

"I shall relay it to the Council myself." I inform the others. "Year round merchant travel is a staple of life in this planet, keeping the road to our outposts open to merchants year round will be important."

We’re in a location with phone service, so Hui’Jin sends a quick message to Lady Lelou on my behalf, asking her to contact someone to arrange having the main road clear after winter storms.

She assures us it’s not a problem and the base staff has already sent a proposal to have certain Adventurer’s Guild registered merchants equipped with plows on their trucks for the winter.

That’s a sensible solution, and ensures that the merchants who keep the Guild happiest are the ones who will have the easiest time getting between cities to serve the smaller communities.

The old commercial vehicle rules are rapidly going away, with slow moving traffic becoming more common and big trucks often hauling double trailers with a wide assortment of goods to trade becoming commonplace.

The Priest with the patrol has also been in communication and informs me that a team of Earth Mages will be sent every spring from Drakon City to Arcana to fix bridges and smooth the road as necessary.

Good enough. In fact, better than most regions have managed, we’re slowly becoming a fully functional post apocalyptic society.

Spokane City Cathedral has comfortable rooms for us all, positively luxurious in my case, so we settle in for the night before deciding if we should take the newly installed travel gate or drive back to double check the outposts.

I’ve just gotten comfortable on the couch to catch up on the news when my phone dings an alert.

’Emergency Assistance mission from Spokane Adventurers Guild to all cultivators Condensation Realm and up.’ it reads, so I head out into the common areas to see what the other Priestesses think.

"None of us are combat specialists, should we even bother?" The Bronze Priestess asks the gathering.

"You’ve got a point" I tell her "If it’s monster fighting, the only really useful ones here are me, my acolyte and the White Priestess."

"I’m worse in a fight than even the Green Acolytes" the White robed young lady laughs. "I don’t know a single offensive spell, and a white dragon’s Ice Breath isn’t the strongest in a tropical area like they want to send us"

"But you can heal. As a servant of the Death God I’m well aware that survivability matters in combat."

"What is the enemy?" Hui’Jin asks one of the other acolytes.

"30 meter tall giant monsters" The terrified looking girl replies "They’re category 3 monsters, but 10 times the size they’re supposed to be, so they’re really hard to kill"

"It’s Gojira" Hui’Jin cheers at me "I loved that movie! I even got His Highness Karl to teach me to enchant objects so me and the twins could reenact the tank fight scene with explosions"

"Where did you even watch that movie?" I ask, concerned about the base parental controls setting.

"Alpha Petros let me watch it in the Pack House" she smiles.

Of course he did. Giant monster movies are his favorites.

I wonder if I’m even going to be any good in a fight against something that big? I’m not the best at energy attacks that separate from my body, and arm deep might not actually hurt those things much. We will have to find out how far I can spread the energy from an attack now that I’ll have huge targets to practice on.

In the end is decided that Hui’Jin and I will take up the mission, as did 6 Priestesses of The Red and a handful of cultivators visiting our world so far, unless another city hasn’t reported in their volunteers yet.

Arcana really can’t spare anyone else right now. The whole place is growing so fast that under staffing is becoming a major issue. Even in the Church itself. Me and Hui’Jin are the only ones strong enough that don’t have an essential position that ties us to the city.

Technically Hui’Jin isn’t strong enough, not even close, but we can fix that. Pouring Death Energy into a black dragon or Death Energy cultivator ranks them up insanely quickly, according to Elder Song’s memories of alchemy experiments, so I fully intend to power level my dear young acolyte.

If my guess is right, her spirit ocean should be wide open, as she can use magic, and her body is literally made for this technique.

"Hui’Jin, how is the state of your spirit ocean?" If it’s strong she should gain a lot from a transfer of Death Energy.

I am taking in more than my body can use lately, so it would be a great benefit if I could speed her cultivation with my excess.

"It’s the size of a small lake and fairly deep. Above average for dragon kin if that helps?"

"That should do. After a minor zombie related incident I find myself with more Death Energy than I can absorb. I’m going to attempt to saturate your body and trigger a series of breakthroughs."

"Is that even safe?" she asks nervously.

"For once, yes, this plan is perfectly safe. If you can’t absorb it all the excess will just coat you for later use"

"For once?"

"While I was on the other side of that portal, I met a cultivator with a habit of running experiments that might blow people up. Long story" I shrug to reassure her it’s not a big deal right now.

I’m going to pretend that look means she’s reassured.

I gently take her hands and focus on transferring Death Energy over. It’s flowing smoothly, no problems that I can find.

"I can feel a breakthrough coming, and my spirit ocean is getting massive." Hui’Jin narrates.

The level up hits her hard, so I sit down with her in my lap, still transferring energy. Not just Death Energy, but energy from my own spirit ocean. I can feel energy pouring in as fast as I’m using it, so there’s no danger of wearing myself out.

One breakthrough slides effortlessly into another and a third, bringing her to Foundation 10 before the pace starts to falter. Time for the secret technique.

Pills.

I feed her a Core Formation and Soul Forging Pill at the same time, bringing her progression back into full swing.

"Whatever you gave me is amazing, I can actually see my spirit ocean expanding on its own." Hui’Jin marvels.

"It’s the last step to power leveling" I stretch the truth a little. It’s not really a lie, it’s as far as we’re going to take things today. Her cultivation feels stable, no point in pushing our luck any further.

"Kal’Elouet says you fight nearly a full Realm higher than an equivalent Realm average human, so reaching Fortification Realm today should make you reasonably qualified for the task we’re about to undertake."

"The amount of power I have available now is insane. Beyond the Rank up, the amount of energy you dumped into me expanded my spirit ocean to an extent even a full dragon would envy in the Fortification Realm."

"That’s great news. I’ll need my favorite fire mage full of mana as much as possible." I smile at her awe towards the changes she just underwent.