Chapter 71: Petra’s Herbs

  Over the next few days, Emilia finally managed to complete the absorption of the main portion of the mushroom meat and began to carefully examine the results. And they were incredible! Her Mana had significantly increased from 173 to 215 units! Her body was at least 50% stronger, which was perhaps even much more important than the mana!! She was able to run and move much faster, and even her cognitive abilities had significantly grown.

  "But this is more than the twenty percent increase from Hecate's quest!" she marveled. But then she remembered that the 20% from the quest applied to her entire life in the System. The boost from the mushrooms, however, was a one-time thing. When she reached a thousand mana, 20% would be a full 200 mana—roughly the same amount of mana she currently possessed. Moreover, these System bonuses could stack, and if she acquired a few more of them, her power would be incredible.

  Emilia had nearly used up all the monster blood and bone marrow when the group finally assembled again.

  This time, they were once again sent out on a task: they had to investigate the border territories of the swamp. The group advanced slowly, often stopping for long periods while Petra, accompanied by one or another member of the group, scouted the monster tracks. They then recorded their behavior in a journal and marked it on a temporary map. Emilia took advantage of these breaks to work on her formations. At this point, she was confident enough to work directly on her armor.

  "Emilia, why are you removing your armor?" asked the perpetually curious and energetic Zevan.

  "I want to draw a defensive formation on it. It will have only about 20% of its full strength, but that will still be significantly better than nothing. And later, I'll even be able to create normal healing formations."

  "Hmm. 20% isn't bad at all. Could you make a defensive formation for me too?"

  Emilia approached and began to examine Zevan's armor. It was much heavier, featuring elements of metal, leather, and rattan. In some places, it was reinforced with ironwood and monster parts. Zevan had also chosen to place items like monster teeth and claws on his armor, stitching them on himself wherever possible.

  "Perhaps, but your armor is much larger and different from mine. I'll need a lot of blood and bone marrow, as well as time. I had to do a lot of experiments with my own armor, and now I know the properties of its materials perfectly."

  "Perfect. We are here to hunt monsters, after all. So you'll have blood soon."

  Emilia quickly agreed and continued her work. She drew slowly, reinforcing specific lines. Master Fjorn's voice often echoed in her head, and she recalled him pointing out one mistake or another. While calculating the materials or the resistance of the mana flows, she heard his long lectures in her mind and remembered their time together among the thorny roots in the private space.

  Soon, after about two rest periods, Emilia finally finished working on her armor. She immediately activated the formation's eyes, which were further reinforced with her strongest river pebbles. They didn't retain mana well, so she had to charge them periodically, but this boosted the strength from 20% to reach 25–27%.

  But that wasn't all. She immediately began working on something she considered especially valuable: a talisman that could be used more than once.

  Talismans were typically single-use, which solved a lot of problems and significantly reduced their cost. Those who created reusable glyphs and formations were called Inscribers and belonged to a series of different professions. Some dealt with household items or commercial formations, others with weapons, armor, flying ships, and countless other things.

  Nothing but time and financial investment prevented some Inscribers from changing their specialization from armor to commercial formations, and then to talismans. They would need to learn a tremendous amount, but they certainly wouldn't be starting from scratch.

  Some professions were far more closely related; weapon Inscribers were quite similar to those who inscribed civilian objects, as they often worked with comparable materials. Talisman masters, however, were farther down the line. They worked with entirely different materials.

  The most crucial element, though—the written form of the Celestial language, the laws for mana transfer, and the synchronization of different elements—was fundamental to all these professions.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  And so, Emilia’s plan was to draw a small formation that used glyphs to create a defensive magical wall. The energy would quickly be depleted, and she would have to fix the formation again and again, as well as continuously add energy sources. However, she hoped that despite the need for constant repairs, this would save her time and effort from continuously drawing protective talismans. At the same time, it would give her valuable practice with formations working in real-time and a deeper understanding of the materials.

  All of this, though, required time and more monster blood. But there was none to be had. Petra repeatedly returned with information that the monsters had become more passive and had hidden deep within their territory. Some were frightened by the recent wave of passing monsters, others were injured, and still others were absorbing the parts of the mushroom.

  Petra was extremely happy, as she had collected a huge number of herbs without anyone to guard them. Emilia, however, frowned.

  "What's wrong, Emilia? Are you jealous of Petra’s herbs?" Zevan asked.

  "I'm not jealous."

  "Then why are you frowning? Your face is starting to look like tree bark. Soon you'll become like one of those Rolonds."

  Emilia instantly remembered the creatures that had attacked them by the river, along with the children of the moon. They were hideous, with skin like tree bark.

  “I’m not a Rolond. My skin is beautiful, like Helen of Troy’s.”

  “That’s right,” Titus added. “You’ll grow up too, and all the kids in the neighborhood will fight over you. The lower district will attack the upper one in your name, and Homer himself will compose an epic in your honor.”

  “Let’s not forget—beauties love apples. Everyone knows how Paris won Helen’s heart with the Apple of Discord,” Zevan said, grinning.

  “Well, I love turnips!” Emilia stomped her foot.

  Everyone immediately burst out laughing. Varis, who was just drinking young wine, almost choked, and a large stream shot out of his nose. He fell, rolling on the ground, out of breath but unable to stop laughing.

  “Turnips… she loves turnips… Emilia, you’re completely immune to the Apple of Discord!” Titus said.

  After that, the others started laughing at Varis, who was still rolling on the ground, struggling for air.

  Then Petra slipped in another clever remark: “Congratulations, Emilia, you’ve felled your first follower. Charmed by your face—and your skin, which is NOT like a Rolond’s—he couldn’t resist and fell at your feet!”

  Varis, listening to all this, was about to die from laughter and lack of air, while the others mercilessly teased him.

  Gradually, their break ended, and they continued exploring the area.

  Emilia's supplies ran out, forcing her to return to the boring paper talismans, where she barely raised her skills and wasted her priceless remaining time with Chiron’s blessing.

  ***

  Soon, flying snakes attacked them, but this time they were a little larger, and instead of greenish skin, it was closer to brown. The group immediately formed a defensive line to protect Petra, who was cutting them down with her accurate arrows.

  Emilia took the opportunity to test her armor, as the snakes moved quite fast, biting the defenders and attacking them with their weak paralyzing venom.

  Twice, Emilia surprised the snakes with a magical shield, trapping them and preventing them from retreating after biting her, allowing Titus and Garrick to finish them off with precise strikes. The battle started quickly but lasted a considerable time. The ground became slick with snake blood, and the sun gradually began to set.

  If most of the monsters hadn't retreated into their territories, at least one or two of them would have joined the fight by now, excited by the blood and meat of the other creatures.

  Finally, though, the snakes retreated, and the group quickly set about collecting various parts from the animals. Emilia, however, was severely disappointed, as these creatures were quite small and were not suitable for extracting blood. Perhaps a few drops could be salvaged, but most of the creatures had died more than ten minutes ago, and their blood had long lost its properties.

  Emilia did not hesitate and ultimately extracted the few drops of blood she could, but bone marrow was entirely out of the question. The group quickly gathered the creatures' wings and a few chemical reagents, as well as enough meat for three days. They then headed to a nearby cave and decided to finish early so they could treat their wounds.

  Emilia quickly began to feel unwell and started shaking violently. Varis offered her more of the pungent liquid from his flask, and Lora rubbed her with various ointments. Petra went out to look for a special herb, but Emilia felt miserable throughout the night and could barely sleep.

  I can’t believe we’re here!

  First of all, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has been reading, commenting, and supporting Emilia since day one. Whether you’ve been here from her very first breath in this new world or just joined recently, your support is what made this journey possible. This story grew because of you, and I’ve grown as an author alongside it.

  That’s why I’m so incredibly proud to share that Emilia Transmigrated has reached a huge milestone—it’s officially coming to Amazon on January 19th!

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0GFXLQXJR

  (Note: If the link above is not working due to platform issues, please check the Fiction Description or the Author's Note below for a clickable version!)

  Seeing Emilia’s mastery of talismans, formations, and magic go from a web serial to a professional book is a dream come true, and I couldn’t have done it without this community.

  A quick heads-up: Because the book is joining Kindle Unlimited, I’ll have to 'stub' (remove) most of the chapters here shortly. I wanted to tell you now so you have time to finish reading or grab a copy for your Kindle library if you'd like to support the series.

  Thank you for being such an amazing audience and for taking this journey with me. This is just the beginning for Emilia—let's see how far she can go!

  With much gratitude, Bate Ivo