Chapter 731 731 It's That Time
The most significant change in the pentacle bonds wasn’t the feedback that Wolfe was giving to the others, thought that was drastically improved now that he had advanced again. Instead, it was the quality of the effect that their bonds had which had changed for the better.
Not only was it effortless to connect with the thoughts and desires of those in the Pentacles, but the mana aptitude that Wolfe had gained from the advancement was slowly seeping through to the Witches and Demons.
Nimue was the first to notice, as the two sides of her conflicting nature stopped trying to fight each other and started to work in harmony for the first time in her life, but the others noticed well before lunch, the first time that they went to cast more than a minor spell.
The mana had never tried to fight them the way that it did to Nimue, but now it almost felt like it knew what they wanted, and was willing to bend more easily to their will, creating the spells with far less effort, despite the relatively minor growth that they had experienced overnight.
“If it’s like this, I think that it won’t be an issue for us to continue casting all day without exhaustion. The improvement in the way that the mana flows has made it so much easier to cast that I can barely tell that I’m casting the new Garden Charms at Rank Four.” Cassie noted as she worked with Ella on some upgrades for the underground areas of Forest Grove.
“Right? It’s crazy how much easier it got just because Wolfe’s mana knows what it’s doing. But I think that if we completely empty our aura, then it should be even better. A lot of the energy was converted before he advanced, so if we exhaust ourselves and thin the aura, what reforms when we recover should actually be an improvement on this.
It might not be easy to do, but I think that if we try, we should see even more gains.” Ella agreed.
That was fairly sound logic for the witches. Their aura didn’t store mana, but it converted it, and it thinned with use and recovered with rest. So, if they exhausted what they had, the new batch might be more efficient at converting mana into magic, thanks to the influence of Wolfe on the Pentacles.
It would be even better if they drew directly from him to restore their auras after the casting session was done.
It didn’t take much to restore the used aura, the primary loss was actually the exhaustion, so he should barely notice that it was gone.
But it was the pair of Succubi that were enjoying the change the most. They were both already strong, and finding a stronger partner to increase their growth rate was not an easy task once a Demon made it to Rank Six.
For the most part, Rank Seven Demons would be in a political marriage, so playing around with random Succubi would only be acceptable to the Incubus Kingdom. The goal of marrying someone strong was to pass on those genes to the next generation. Spending nights with a succubus went directly contrary to the purpose of their marriages, and the wishes of both families.
The same went for Incubi. Unless he was stronger or had more potential than the husband, even taking the slightest risk of getting pregnant by him was unacceptable. But even if his potential was good, there was usually a political alliance to consider, and it would be broken if the child was not of the husband’s bloodline.
It was a strange dichotomy for the Demons. On one hand, an entire species group needed intimacy to survive. But on the other hand, there was politics, and all the species that pair bonded.
For example, the Vampires. Though they would bite nearly anyone for growth reasons, they would also strongly pair bond with one specific person to an obsessive level, and would not partake in any of the usual antics of the lust demons.
That had led a lot of species to question their categorization, but the blood thirst was enough to keep their official spot firmly within the lust demon category.
Wolfe was enjoying a drink in the spire after breakfast and chatting with all the well-wishers when a messenger with the badge for the airbase came running up to meet him.
“Sir, we have an issue. There is a huge undead force in the Northwest of the Mountains, headed for the Free Covens region. Nobody knows where they came from, other than the general direction, but the Free Covens don’t have anyone above Rank Two right now, and all their guardians are here for the Festival.” The scout explained.
A few of the nearby diners overheard the frantic message and immediately stood, while a few others took out transmission tokens to warn the ones that were supposed to be protecting the Free Coven towns.
They had likely left an assistant behind somewhere, a Rank Three or Four employee, but if there was an Undead Monster Tide coming for them, they would not be anywhere near enough to deal with it alone.
“How strong is the leader of the group?” Wolfe asked.
“At least Rank Four. We were flying far overhead, so we can’t be certain, but the feeling that we got was at least as strong as the twins, who are on border duty today, and they’re Rank Four now.”
Wolfe got to his feet and addressed the situation. “Alright. Someone, please send the message to the Free Covens protectors that they are urgently needed at home. I will gather whoever is free, and we will join them within the next few hours.
How long of a flight is it in the new cargo planes?”
“Six hours, but some of them will be further north.” She replied.
If they were moving on foot, that should be enough time for him to get there ahead of the Undead, since they were detected early. The question was: Why didn’t the message get relayed through the radio operators?