An important event occurred the day after Winnidith woke up—the representatives of the Orc Tribes arrived in the City of Emerald Shadows.
Their entrance was exceptionally grand, and their tempers were every bit as foul as the rumors suggested.
As soon as they entered the city, a fight broke out between them and a Ninth-tier Priest of the Elf race.
Quite a few people from both the Empire Mission and the Alandine Mission went to watch the excitement.
She did not go.
She only learned later from Aaron that an Level 8 Battle Maniac had actually managed to hold his ground against the Priest for a long time.
He truly lived up to the reputation of the Beast Race’s strongest individual combatants.
Of course, she had not stayed behind out of laziness.
After sleeping for two days straight, even the last of the twelve zodiac animals would have to get up and move around.
She was busy researching the harvest she had gained from the Fountain of Memory.
Thanks to that bizarre and kaleidoscopic dream, she had completely forgotten three of the ten Ninth Rank Magic spells she had acquired in the Fountain of Memory.
Another four had become blurry and indistinct, requiring time to reconstruct.
Fortunately, among the remaining three was the magic she wanted—one capable of severely wounding Elaril at a critical moment.
Otherwise, she might have broken down in tears.
Furthermore, she discovered upon waking that the Mana in her body had increased significantly, reaching the level of a 7th-tier Magic User.
As long as she could successfully cast a Level 7 magic spell once, she could apply to the Magic Association for a 7th-tier Magic User badge.
In addition to that, there was the mass of transparent power nestled near her heart.
She still had absolutely no idea how to utilize it.
Because it was located at her heart, Winnidith did not dare to move it recklessly without help.
Fortunately, it remained quiet, and her Spirit Perception did not warn her of any danger, so she simply left it alone.
Since her strength had improved, it was only natural to find someone to test it.
The opponent would ideally be a 7th-tier Magic User, so they could teach her how to use high-tier Magic during the test.
Thus, our Miss Mela was once again dragged over to serve as a teaching aid and a part-time punching bag.
However, when Mela heard that she was to spar with Winnidith, whose Mana reserves had reached Level 7, she shook her head like a rattle.
“Before, when you only had Level 5 Mana, I already had to use high-tier Magic to offset your attacks. Now that you’re about to use Level 7 magic, I can’t even imagine how powerful it will be!”
“I still want to live for a few more years, Young Lady!!!”
Reluctantly, Winnidith could only ask her to first teach her how to use high-tier Magic.
Since there was no life-threatening danger in that, Mela agreed.
Then, she watched as Winnidith began her incantation.
Before she even specified which element she was petitioning, various elements in the environment rushed to gather by her side, looking as eager as concubines waiting to be chosen by an emperor.
Mela felt that for the sake of her own worldview, she should have gone to the city gate to watch the commotion instead.
But she still wanted to test one thing.
“O respected Wind, please…”
Mela focused and chanted in a low voice.
In the end, only a few meager wisps of Wind Element drifted to her side.
Forget releasing high-tier Magic; that amount of elemental energy would struggle to power even a Level 3 spell.
Speechless, Mela dispersed the Wind Element and crouched on the ground in a corner, drawing circles in the dirt in a state of self-imposed isolation.
“Is this enough to release high-tier Magic?”
Winnidith eventually chose the Light Element.
Even without using Elemental Vision, she could feel that the Light Element surrounding her was terrifyingly dense.
After finishing the prayer and gathering the elements, the next step was the construction of the Magic Formula.
She took a deep breath, took out a pre-prepared Level 7 Magic Array diagram, and mentally constructed the formula bit by bit according to the patterns.
Normally, one should continue chanting during this phase to maintain the elemental concentration, but Winnidith estimated the Light Element around her was already sufficient and skipped that step.
The Light Element converged and arranged itself under her control, gradually taking physical form.
A terrifying amount of Mana began to coalesce.
The sulking Mela suddenly sensed something was wrong.
This level of Mana was absolutely not something a Level 7 spell should possess!
“Miss Winnidith!!! Please…”
“High-tier Magic—Brilliant Sacred Spear!”
***
That day, two major events occurred in the City of Emerald Shadows.
The first was the conflict between the Orc Battle Maniac and the Elf Priest; their battle was truly spectacular.
Even though the Battle Maniac was eventually defeated, none of the Level 8 experts present dared to look down on him.
The second was the abnormal explosion that occurred within the Silver Moon Palace.
According to the later explanation provided by the Empire, the explosion was the result of a 7th-tier Magic User losing control of their Mana while researching a new spell.
However, whether anyone actually believed that explanation was another matter entirely.
“To be able to produce the power of a Level 8 spell the first time you cast Level 7 magic… Wendy, you really do know how to surprise me.”
Inside a tea room, Isabella sipped her black tea, slowly digesting this good news after her thoughts had been disrupted by the explosion.
In this sense, Wendy could be considered one of the Empire’s strongest assets, and her personal safety was now better guaranteed.
However, Winnidith, who had just set a record as the youngest high-tier mage, showed no sign of joy.
Instead, she looked distressed as she stroked the Sea Blue Bracelet on her right wrist.
“The power of a spell depends mainly on elemental concentration and Mana content. Because I have a high affinity for all elements, the concentration around me during the prayer was very high.”
“But my own Mana capacity is insufficient. The reason the Brilliant Sacred Spear was so powerful was that I habitually drew Mana from the Sea Blue Bracelet.”
The price was quite clear: the Mana stored within the Sea Blue Bracelet had been slashed by half.
It was estimated to take half a month to fully recover.
Moreover, there was more bad news.
If she wanted to cast Ninth Rank Magic, setting aside the difficulty of the incantation and the formula, the Mana consumption alone would drain both her and the Sea Blue Bracelet completely.
This meant the spell she had previously thought would save her life at a critical moment had a flaw she absolutely could not fix.
She couldn’t exactly jump into the Fountain of Memory again, could she?
‘What a headache…’
“In that case, how about accompanying me out to clear your head?”
Isabella saw her distress and set down her porcelain cup, looking at her with a smile.
“As it happens, there’s a place I’ve been wanting to visit for a while.”
Winnidith agreed.
The two women changed into common clothes and took Arns with them, hiding their identities as they headed into the city districts of Emerald Shadows.
They eventually arrived at the place Isabella had mentioned.
“The place you were talking about… is here?”
They sat in a secluded corner where the shadows of the venue completely concealed them.
Even if they had openly shown their faces, no one would have noticed.
After all, this was the Starlight Opera House; everyone’s eyes were fixed on the stage!
Unless they actively drew attention to themselves, who would bother observing the audience in the surrounding seats?
Besides, the vast majority of people were still preoccupied with the two major events at the city gate and the Silver Moon Palace, so there were hardly any people in the theater.
Winnidith scanned the room and estimated there were only about thirty spectators in the 1,000-person theater, most of whom were elves who didn’t care about them at all.
The Starlight Opera House was the largest entertainment venue in this dull City of Emerald Shadows.
According to Leah, professional actors performed dances and plays here every day.
“Yes. The Natural Forest lacks entertainment works, so most of the performances in the Starlight Opera House are historical legends or adaptations from other races.”
Isabella watched as the costumed actors entered the stage one by one and saw the stage props being placed in their designated spots, quietly waiting for the play to begin.
“I asked someone for the opera house’s performance schedule in advance. Today’s show is one of the Elf race’s most classic and oldest scripts.”
Just as she finished speaking, an elf responsible for announcing the play walked onto the stage carrying a wooden board with the title of the drama.
Only then did Winnidith finally learn the name of the play.
The War of Divine Fire