Dinner turned out to be… interesting…

I had managed to make enough space by lifting my huge abdomen against the glass of the tarantula enclosure. Cellestra had grinned as she returned with the plates and observed my antics.

I thanked the elf from the bottom of my heart for preparing such a large meal. It appeared she had planned for my new size as I now ate far more than her.

“Well,” Cellestra said with a smile after dinner. “It would seem that if you keep growing at this rate, we will get rid of that boar with no problems before it spoils. My freezing spell can only keep it good for so long.”

Freezing spell? So she could use both fire and ice magic. Then again, I guess being able to refrigerate your food out here would be a blessing.

Cellestra seemed to do the dishes with haste, as right after she was done she sat down at the table and eagerly asked me a question.

“Tell me about this new spell of yours.”

“Called cyclone. Used to keep enemies in place.”

Then something came to mind.

How could I show Cellestra how this spell worked? I feared I couldn’t just cast this spell on anything, let alone indoors.

“Actually dumb. Do not know how to show. Cannot cast here.”

Cellestra giggled. “Damn, Kealyna, you got me all fired up for nothing.”

“Am sorry.”

I felt sad that I couldn’t show her, but she seemed to simply laugh it off. My sadness soon faded when her eyes looked into mine. I couldn’t explain it. She just seemed to have an aura around her that calmed me down.

“We could just continue our work on the magical barrier, though,” She offered.

I nodded with my limbs and felt the elf place a hand on my abdomen and soon felt the familiar spell course through my body. Somehow, I was even more aware of the magic that coursed through me and even found myself able to adjust its course, albeit slightly.

I redirected as much of her spell into mine as I could as I cast the barrier. From my experience so far, I found that some of her spell would simply split off from the main stream of mana and fail to enter my spell.

Was this the mana manipulation spell’s work?

As I forcefully moved her mana into my spell, I found her spell suddenly dissipate into nothingness as Cellestra gasped and removed her hand from my abdomen.

“Kealyna… was that… you?” She asked in obvious disbelief.

I nodded with my limbs before tapping on the paper to make her head turn to the letters.

“Got skill called mana manipulation. I think I used it to redirect your spell to force more of it into mine.”

That was a bunch of letters I had to spell out, but I wanted to be exact.

“That’s… amazing...” Cellestra spoke softly. “What you did… it made everything much clearer. My mind… it was overloaded with new information. I’m sorry if I startled you. It was a reflex. I didn’t see that coming.”

She blinked a few times before speaking. “Is it okay to try again?”

I nodded with my pedipalps.

She then repeated the spell and closed her eyes as she focused. I forced her mana into my spell again as I cast my magical barrier spell. She let out another gasp but this time she didn’t break her spell. Her hand remained on my abdomen even after the spell was finished.

I waited a bit before I saw her open her eyes.

“Kealyna… this is… beyond what I thought possible.”

She paused for a few more moments as she gathered her words. “This new skill of yours. It makes everything so much clearer. Before, it felt like there were pieces of a puzzle that were missing that I had to fill in by just trying and trying until I found the solution, but now… the solution is right there! The spell is still intricate enough to need practice, but I feel like I can learn it so much faster now!”

She spoke quickly and a smile grew over the course of her dialogue. It filled me with happiness to know that this would allow her to learn the spell much faster.

We repeated the same course of events a few more times before Cellestra smiled and stood up to retrieve the jar of bugs to feed the tarantula.

“I cannot believe you used to be smaller than this guy here,” The elf said with a grin. “You’re going to rival me in size soon enough. Just don’t eat me okay?”

I could never. I would never do that.

I shook no with my pedipalps but judged from the laugh that followed that it hadn’t been a serious question.

She finished feeding her… other spider, before stretching her arms and yawning.

“It’s about time we go to sleep. I’d love to see if we can try out that new spell of yours tomorrow. Will you be okay with that?”

I somewhat regretted not continuing our practice now. Her hand on my abdomen always felt so… comforting. Was that why I was so eager to practice with her?

I nodded with my limbs once more as she gave me one of her signature warm smiles. “Lovely.”

She then extinguished the candles she’d lit shortly before dinner and led the way with her flame spell. I kind of wanted to try to see if I could replicate her spell on my own but figured it would be dangerous to try something like that right now. For all I knew I could accidentally burn down the house…

“Good night,” Cellestra wished me after she’d undressed and made herself comfortable.

I simply responded with a wave as she canceled her illumination spell.

In the darkness, I was checking out my evolution requirements. I had not looked at them earlier and found that now would be a good time. It would also allow me to make sure Cellestra had a good night of sleep. I hoped she wouldn’t experience those nasty nightmares but wanted to be there for her if she did.

It would appear that three new achievements had become visible. I would still need to get the achievements that I could see earlier, which I assumed were more of a matter of finding the correct target rather than being difficult.

The bear, though… I didn’t know how difficult that would be. I would probably try to look for one after getting the spells I’d ogled earlier.

The resistance one seemed like it should be fairly simple as well. I could ask Cellestra to help me with that one if I needed to, but I didn’t think it would be needed. My plan was to acquire the highest possible toxin resistance and then go hunting for one of those green vipers and force them to bite me.

The lifesaver… should be fairly simple?

The achievement stated nothing about who or what had to be wounded. I could simply wound a creature with an attack that would kill them over time and then heal them. It sounded kind of cruel.

Scrap that, it was very cruel.

Was this some kind of sick joke, Elysa?

Though, I guess it was nice I could show my knightly side and save a life for once, instead of taking it. I would just do it on a squirrel or something. I would then obviously let them go afterward.

I finished the possible scenarios in my head as I heard noise coming from Cellestra’s bed. As if on cue, she was thrashing about again in her sleep.

I stepped into her bed for the third night in a row and cast my healing light on the poor elf several times to calm her down. After a few minutes of observing her now calmed down state, I decided to stay in her bed again. I had outgrown the pillow but didn’t want to bother Cellestra for anything else. Surely she wouldn’t have a problem with me in her bed. If she did, she would have told me yesterday.

I placed myself on the covers and peered through the darkness at the elf’s face. I felt… happy to be this close to her and to be able to help.

Before I knew it, I had placed my right legs over her covered frame as if to hug her. I then spread out my other legs and simply enjoyed the feelings that this pose gave me as I drifted off to sleep myself.