Blessing of the Seas

Luna listened to Bennett take rapid deep breaths for about a minute before using another new Skill that had shown up in the list, Revitalize. She pulled a droplet from the large drop still floating around them, smacking a Fire Elemental with one of her tentacles to keep it away before giving a drop to everyone in the party, giving them more energy and increasing their Mana (MP, Luna, she thought to herself) Regen by a small amount, though she could increase it, but she didn’t exactly want to give away that she was completely broken, in terms of them. Along with Revitalize, she’d gotten Droplet, which could hold her healing Skills.

“Thanks, Lu,” Bennett said, teleporting and cutting a weird bird in half while still holding Luna.

She patted his chest lightly, keeping one tentacle out, just in case. He gave her an odd look when she’d first shown them to him, very nervous for his reaction, but after he’d processed the fact she was truly a “Seaborn”, he’d been outright ecstatic… at least until he nearly had his arm bitten off as he was distracted.

This is just… tedious, She thought as Bennett destroyed another pair of wolves with Lightning.

They got another bit of downtime, and she took this time to look at their progress.

___

Wave Four : Completed!

Downtime : 9:56

Exam Completion : 5/3

___

Jennifer let out a shaky sigh, slowly moving closer to Bennett, who didn’t seem to notice her. “This is just… torture! What do they want from us?! How many of these are there going to be?” she complained.

Mia sighed and glared at her. “Until there’s only 3 teams left. We’re lucky we have everyone still on the team, so quit your complaining.”

Bennett, clearly still tired, sat down on the ground in front of a tree, letting Luna sit on his lap. “This is so exhausting. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I don’t know how much longer I can go on. Even Tyreese is folding to the pressure!”

Luna eyed Tyreese, who was face-first in the dirt, seemingly half-dead.

Wait… I forgot to give him Revitalize.

She sent an orb of said Skill into him and he shivered before jumping up and shaking his hair out with a wild grin.

“WOOOO!” he yelled. “I feel good! Let’s keep-”

Mia smacked him in the head with her spear shaft and he flinched away, hiding behind a tree.

“Hey! Don’t hit me with that thing! We’re a team!” He complained, dodging her next swing.

“Oh, I didn’t notice. I thought you were a stray monster,” Mia said coldly, waving her spear threateningly.

“Uh huh. I don’t believe that for a second.”

The two of them argued for nearly five minutes before Bennett groaned, lifting both himself and Luna up. “You two should rest instead of argue. You’ll be in much better shape. And, Jennifer, I know you don’t want to sit in the dirt, but you’re already covered in it, so just sit down and rest.”

The both of them shut up begrudgingly before sitting down on complete opposite sides of the clearing they were situated in. Jennifer simply nodded and sat down next to a tree, looking a bit mortified that she was covered in dirt. Bennett sat back down and patted Luna on the head,

She gave him a baffled look and he smiled at her. “Thanks for the healing. It must be taxing on your mind and MP to keep doing that.”

Luna nodded, making a show of putting her head against his chest with a dramatic sigh, knowing full well that her MP was probably sitting at around 75% and quickly rising. He patted her head and she did her best to react, though she was pretty happy about it, for some unknown reason.

Hmph… I may or may not like headpats.

~~~

___

Wave 5 : Completion - 32%

Consists of : Normal Beasts (Rare), Attuned Beasts (Uncommon), Elementals, (Common), Boss (1 remaining)

___

“I couldn’t possibly know where the Boss is!” Mia said, obviously annoyed at the crashing throughout the forest. “It would have to be so loud for me to notice it!”

Luna was also a bit annoyed at how loud the thing was as well. However, she was too busy focusing on the group’s condition to pay attention. For one-

“Fire Elemental, Lu. Right,” Bennett practically breathed.

She shot a stream of water at the Fire Elemental rapidly closing in, dispellign it. She then gave Bennett some Rejuvenation, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything. In fact, it didn’t seem to do anything for anyone.

Are my Skills getting less effective because it’s not their bodies that are tired, but their minds? Luna thought. Do I know anything to deal with that except for rest-

“Big bad, incoming!” Tyreese suddenly yelled.

A bear of a respectable size blasted through trees and nearly rammed into Mia, who panicked, throwing herself out the way, only able to due to Jennifer’s buff. Bennett Flickered back with Luna, gritting his teeth.

Luna scanned it.

___

Exam Boss - Level 10

Attuned Bear

Attunement : Ice

A bear attuned to the element of Ice, specifically made to challenge those attending the exam.

Threat Level : Minor

___

The hell you mean ‘minor’? How-

She felt a slight tingle as electricity went over Bennett’s skin. However, it didn’t touch her directly. Her attention was then immediately locked on him. I wonder, does his body produce lightning? Or is it MP? If it’s his body, he should be able to pick up skills like Lightning Creation, if that exists, and Lightning Manipulation, also if that exists. If so, he’d have so much more control over the Skills he can learn. I know quite a bit about manipulating Lightning as well, as I am a Goddess of Storms. I don’t have full control over it, but I’m sure I can teach him a thing or two-

She then resisted the urge to bang her head against his chest. Focus on the fighting, Luna! Not Bennett!

After that thought, she felt her face heat up but she ignored it, sending drops of healing to each of the party. She then began to refill Droplet with healing, looking to make sure none of the party was harmed.

***

Bennett, to say the least, was exhausted. He was finding it difficult to keep going, but he knew that he had to persevere. He looked to Luna, who was focusing intently on the entire party while not noticing that she had wrapped one of her tentacles around him to keep herself in place.

When she’d shown Bennett the eight tentacles that sprouted from below her dress, probably from her waist, his first thought was: Damn, I forgot she wore a dress.

That was before he was mauled by a wolf that he’d promptly shoved a bolt of lightning up its throat. He’d grown used to doing such horrific things as he’d done a lot worse things in the wilderness so he could sell things like wolf pelts. He’d killed so many different things, it was a surprise he was only Level 2. But, to be fair, to get Levels, you had to fight and defeat things that had MP, either from cultivating it, or killing something else that had MP. Once it was officially recognized by the Heavenly System, it would be eligible to be killed for EXP. Those things were still able to reproduce and their offspring would naturally have Mana. This happened pretty rarely though, so he had only killed a few, only getting to Level 2, unlike his sister, who’d gotten to Level 3 by fighting other things.

Bennett would admit: his sister was far stronger than him. However, he’d been in far more precarious situations and nearly died a few times. He’d been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted before. This was nothing new to him. But… this was worse, in a way. Bennett felt like he was unable to move, but he knew he had to. If he didn’t, he could be taken out, dooming the team.

He didn’t mean that he was the part keeping the team together, but that if he was taken out, the team would eventually be overwhelmed. He was just barely holding on at this point…

Nearly ten minutes later, he almost fell to his knees in sheer exhaustion. Luna was poking his cheek in a panic as his Lightning fizzled out of existence, his mind finally strained to the limit.

“Hey! Get up!” Mia yelled. “There’s- Damn it!”

However, Bennett couldn’t hear her.

Oh. Wow. This is what it feels like to be dying from exhaustion, huh? It’s… kinda nice. I… wait a moment.

Bennett felt a frown appearing on his face. What the… weren’t we fighting something… a Boss.

His eyes snapped open as Luna clearly tried not to panic above him. He noticed his HP had reached 345%, Luna obviously had lost control of her Overheal in her panic. When she noticed he’d gotten up, he felt two surprisingly strong tentacles lift him off the ground, courtesy of Luna.

“Yeah… I’m alive… barely,” he muttered. “Why wasn’t I pulled out?” And how the hell did you heal so damn much?

Luna shook her head at him, not risking him falling back over by getting into her position. He looked over to Jennifer, who gave him a worried look. He nodded before glaring at the very angry looking bear.

Level 10, huh? Well, let’s see just how much MP a single bolt of lightning can hold.

He ignored all the other things happening around him as he began to charge Lightning Strike. He funneled all his MP into it, unwilling to let a single percent go to waste. At this moment, he could feel something in his mind, an emotion that wasn’t his. Worry. Extreme amounts of worry. However, he ignored it.

He only had one job.

***

Luna would love to say she didn’t panic. She’d love to admit she didn’t shriek in horror when Bennett fell face down onto the dirt, seemingly passed out. She wanted to explain that she didn’t use nearly twenty percent of her Mana (MP, Luna) to use Overheal on Bennett, thinking he was dying. Alas, she had done all of those things. Now, she was wondering why she panicked so much. However, as usual, she didn’t have much time to think about it as Bennett seemed to be overcharging a bolt of lightning with a tired expression. She was honestly baffled that he was able to get back up. He’d just been on the verge of death from exhaustion and now he was standing up again, ready to throw a bolt of lightning the size of Luna’s body.

By all that’s holy… is he about to throw a bolt of tribulation at a damned bear? Does he know what tribulation is? Wait, does anyone know what it is? I mean, I remember a lot of pain from it. Not much else. Something from when I Evolved? Or something? I dunno. I honestly don’t remember much from before I was a God-

Luna shook her head. I must be exhausted to have my thoughts trailing around like this. I can’t wait to crawl somewhere and sleep for a few days. Preferably in the ocean. Maybe in a bed. I dunno which I like more at this point…

She suddenly blinked as her hair rose up into the air. What the- why did it get so strong all of a sudden?

Luna stared at Bennett’s bolt of lightning, which was now tinted with red…

Blood Magic?! What the hell- is he draining his lifeforce?!

Luna, at that moment, genuinely panicked. She rushed over to him and pulled on his arm, making an attempt to stop him, but he didn’t budge, gritting his teeth instead. In desperation, she looked over to Jennifer, who was staring in horror at Bennett’s display.

Useless! Luna hissed in her head, somehow bypassing her Mental Communication Restriction and sending her anger towards Jennifer, who flinched and backed away.

“Goddamn it, die already!” Luna heard Tyreese yell. “Why won’t you just-”

Bennett suddenly let go of the bolt and, less than a second later, it had already jumped into the bear. It froze, right above Mia, before the bolt jumped out of it, the entire thing turning to ash and falling all over Mia, who blinked at the bloodred bolt jumping around and killing everything in sight.

Luna, however, didn’t notice this, more focused on Bennett, who was facefirst in the dirt again. In her panic, she ignored the MP she used as she filled him up with Overheal, probably shooting him to over 300% HP again. Suddenly, she felt lightheaded.

Oh, shit, She thought. Did I actually use all my MP? How the hell? How low was his HP after that? He had to have been around 350% before… did he knock himself all the way to near death for that bolt. But, more importantly, how did he use Blood Magic? I’m pretty sure I locked that away millenia ago. Maybe some idiot mortal unlocked it?

Her head pounded her out of her thoughts. Right. MP. I should probably… rest…

She keeled over, her face against Bennett’s chest. She fell asleep almost immediately, but not before she saw the blessed notification.

___

Wave Five : Completed!

Exam Completion : 3/3

You have completed the-

___

The rest of the notification faded into darkness as she fell asleep, a giggle escaping her throat.

Seems like I may actually find some difficult situations, huh?

~~~

Luna blinked awake, hissing at the light in her eyes.

My head still hurts like the circles of hell are trying to break into my head.

Luna shook her head and sat up, realizing she was on a bed. And it was warm. She nearly melted into the bed but she was momentarily distracted as she looked up through the roof of glass.

Wait… it’s midday? It was afternoon from what I remember… Wait, was I out all day? Did Bennett wake up?

The moment that the thought of Bennett entered her mind, a slight panic exploded in the back of her mind, but she was just barely able to suppress this as she looked around, using her tentacles to move the blanket on top of her and hopped off the bed. She slowly moved the curtain that separated her from the outside world. She blinked in confusion at the area behind the curtain.

It was a huge room with multiple sections with curtains opening up to beds just like the one Luna had been on. The floor was practically shining, clearly sanitized. Some curtains were closed, possibly signaling that there were other people in those places.

Which one is Bennett though? She thought before sniffing the air despite herself. Her head turned over to a nearby curtained area, a familiar scent emanating from there. There.

She slowly walked over to the curtained bed and pulled it open slightly. There, she saw Bennett, dead asleep with a vacant expression. Luna slowly approached him, coming up to his side and watching him sleep for a few moments.

What happened when I fell asleep? I know Bennett was knocked out by the sheer amount of lifeforce and MP he used, but how did we get here? Luna suddenly had an epiphany as she saw the Mana Gathering Runes on the sides of the bed (Or, in this case, would they be called MP Gathering Runes…?) Are we… in the Academy?

Excitement blew up in Luna’s chest and she let out a small giggle that she was unable to muffle. Bennett groaned in response and she covered her mouth. He eventually fell back asleep, continuing to snore softly.

For nearly ten minutes, she sat there, watching him.

I mean, watching Bennett sleep is… nice, I guess, but what exactly am I supposed to do? She thought with a sigh, pulling forward one of the chairs that was near his bed before resting her head on said bed. Guess I could stay like this for a little bit…

Of course, she immediately fell asleep.

***

“How does one with absolutely no clue what Blood Magic is suddenly develop it?” The Headmaster mused. “It must have something-”

“-To do with Luna? Yes. That’s the fourth time you’ve said that,” Melony interrupted. “I’m sure that it was a one time thing. He probably got desperate and used his life force to charge up a Skill.”

Melony was in a bad mood, to say the least. She’d been called from her damned infirmary and had to Transfer herself all the way to the Academy, just because her son managed to use life force in a bolt of lightning. At first, she’d been horrified at the concept, but she’d eventually cooled off and was now very much annoyed at the fact that the Headmaster would not shut up about it so she could get back to her infirmary.

“Yes, Melony, but imagine the potential. He could be a great-”

“He Resonated with Lightning. Not Blood. Don’t try anything dumb,” Melony snapped. “Now, I’m going to go to see my patients, since you pulled me here for no reason.”

As she was about to turn around, she saw a slightly nervous look appear on the headmaster’s face. She frowned. “What now?”

He cleared his throat. “Well… I have a request to ask of you.”

“What have you done this time? Killed someone important? Started an underground war-?”

“Well, the last teacher for Ice Magic has recently retired and there’s no one who’s willing to teach the newest students.”

Melony stared at him. “What.”

The headmaster had the gall to look abashed. “Well…”

“You know our agreement: I can roam around free as long as nobody knows who I am. Teaching at this school again completely defeats the purpose of that. Especially the school that my children are attending. What would they think when they found out I’ve been lying to them for their entire lives?”

“Then use a disguise,” the headmaster said with a shrug. “We seriously need an Ice Teacher. I’ve been told that there’s more Ice Alignments than ever before. Plus, I know you’re short on money-”

“Oh, damn you,” Melony hissed, as Ice crawled down her arm. “Fine. However, this better be some damn good compensation. And extra if my twins find out about it.”

***

Luna woke up, warm. Really warm. She nuzzled her face into the warmth, annoyed that she’d woken up. Content to snuggle up against the warmth, she nearly fell back asleep but was interrupted by a poke in her back.

“Lu, I know you’re awake,” a familiar voice said from above her.

Luna ignored the voice, too warm to care. It sighed. “I know my brother is all nice and cuddly, but this is slightly pushing it.”

Eh. “Brother”? Wait, am I-?

Luna suddenly sat up ignoring her very much messed up hair. She looked down next to her to see Bennett, still asleep. Did I fall asleep with Bennett?!

She looked up at a very smug-faced Yelena, her face heating up as she rolled herself out of the bed, nearly falling to the floor in embarrassment. Luna looked up at Yelena, who simply shook her head.

“It’s fine; I know you’re pretty attached to him. I noticed that you weren’t in your bed, so I assumed you were with Ben. He hasn’t woken up?” she asked, looking at her brother with a worried expression.

Luna, after poking her own cheek, shrugged. Yelena gave her brother a worried look. “Ben… what did you do to yourself this time?” she muttered, shaking her head. “Well, I guess there’s not much more I can ask. You can go back to sleep.”

Luna frowned. I’m already awake, dimwit. I can’t just go back to sleep- wait. I’m contradicting myself; I literally did that maybe an hour and a half ago.

However, Luna shook her head, looking down at Bennett’s peaceful expression…

Ah.

She summoned an orb of water, shrugged, and dumped it onto Bennett’s face as Yelena watched, baffled. Bennett immediately woke up, spitting out the water and shaking it out his hair. He sat up, blinking in confusion.

“Wha- Luna? Why did you dump water on my face?” he grumbled groggily. He then shook his head. “Actually, I’ve probably been asleep for a while. Fair enough-”

Suddenly, Yelena jumped at her brother and wrapped her arms around his neck. He blinked before hugging his sister back.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Ben,” Yelena muttered into his chest.

“Am I ever not okay?” He responded, rolling his eyes at her while patting her hair. “Other than the thing with the oversized bees-”

Yelena then sat up and hit him over the head, glaring at him. “What the hell could you have possibly done that knocked you out for over a day?! Seriously, Benny, if you were asleep another hour, you would’ve missed Orientation!”

He cringed. “I… honestly don’t know. It may have something to do with this new Skill I have-”

“Read. Now,” his sister snapped.

He gulped and Luna decided to listen closely. Luna hopped back onto the bed and listened intently, a frown slowly growing on her face.

___

Bloodbolt (Damage)

By sacrificing HP and MP, you can create a bolt of lightning that you can hold. Every 1% HP increases damage dealt by this Skill by (Skill Level * 0.5)% and every 1% MP increases damage dealt by (Skill Level * 0.2)%. After sacrificing MP and HP, you regenerate HP and MP (30 - Skill Level *1.5)% slower. Deals Lightning/Blood damage. Additionally after dealing damage to an opponent with this Skill, you will deal (Skill Level * 3)% more damage to this opponent for 5 minutes. Can be used on multiple different opponents. Depending on HP% used, it decreases cooldown by up to 70% (Every 1% HP = 2% Cooldown reduction)

Cooldown - 10 seconds

*Note: Branch of Lightning Strike. Has most of the same properties of Lightning Strike

___

That’s… interesting, to say the least. The potential of the skill is… obscene. If I’m right, the max Level for Skills (Apart for Level MAX) is 10, which translates to 5% Damage per 1% HP and 2% Damage per 1% MP. That’s a solid, assuming he uses 20% HP and MP, 140% damage. Normally, the HP Drain would be a problem for most Blood Mages, but with me here and my Overheal… he can use 100% HP, which, alone, is 500% extra Damage-

Luna blinked. Why am I thinking about this? I’m acting like I’ll be helping him forever, or at least for an extended amount of time. All he is is just a minor detour until I… I…

She stared up at Bennett as he finished speaking. So, for nearly a month, I haven’t even thought about my goal here? I know that I wanted to come to the Academy to study the Magic they perform here, but I haven’t even thought about what to do afterwards.

Luna suddenly pushed those thoughts away as Yelena frowned at her brother. “That’s… both insanely powerful and insanely scary. You could accidentally kill yourself if you’re not paying attention. You can’t use that like some sort of… of…”

“Manic? Masochist? Dipshit?” Bennett supplied, shrugging.

Luna blinked at his use of language but, then again, she had uttered some non-family-friendly things… when she was able to speak, that is.

Yelena nodded rapidly. “Exactly! Don’t be those!”

Bennett rolled his eyes at his sister before frowning. “Wait, earlier… you said something about ‘Orientation’?” His eyes widened. “Do you mean-?”

Yelena hugged her brother again. “We made it to the Academy!”

~~~

Bennett carried Luna so she could see above the heads of all the other students waiting in the large room.

Exactly 147 of them, excluding Bennett, Yelena, and her. Luna looked over the heads of most of the students, thanks to Bennett’s height, noticing the ears of Wolfkin and Elves and the horns of Dragonborn. Strangely, though she was sure they existed here, there were no Drakes, not to be confused with Dragonborn.

Drakes, unlike Dragons, had two pairs of wings, no matter what some people may say about them not having wings at all. Drakes are smaller, and more agile in the air as Dragons, though they lost when it came to speed (Excluding the horrifying speed of Lightning Drakes, which had caught even Luna off guard sometimes). Drakes were a bit of a strange case, being made of both Magic and flesh. Wyverns and Wyrms were made of flesh, so that made Drakes a kind of inbetween, with Dragons being made of Magic. They had astounding Magical Capabilities, able to use most, if not all the Elements, though they also lost against Dragons, however, they were great rivals when it came to that. They were quite adept at disguise as well, but that was more natural, due to her next point. The most defining feature about them, however, was their ability to shift their flesh into that of a Human… mostly.

They still had the wings and the highly venomous stinger on their tails, with a few scales in weak spots, but they would basically look Human, if you ignored the wings and tail. From what she could remember, they participated in a war and afterwards, the Human Race began to make scanners to identify Drakes, since said Drakes were infamous for their ability to stay hidden and then kill important Human leaders without anyone realizing they weren’t Human.

Luna had always wondered why specifically Human’s were the only things they could mimic, but later had found out that the very existence of them was an anomaly. According to some ancient Records made from when Elves and Humans actually got along, Drakes were a biological nightmare, seeing as they were able to freely shift from Human to Drake. Their venom was the most potent of anything currently discovered, which, as far as Luna knew, still held up now. The worst part (according to them) was that even though they were able to have children with practically any other race and those children would most likely be Drakes as well, which had accelerated their growth so quickly, that only after about five hundred or so years, they were able to be called their own race.

No one, except for Luna, knew where they came from, but she’d rather not spoil it for her followers. It was a pretty funny-

“-una? You okay in there?” Yelena inquired, pulling Luna out of her head. “Did you like, start daydreaming? On the most important day of your entire life?”

Luna frowned at Yelena before looking at Bennett, who seemed to not even be paying attention, and instead was staring up ahead, a small frown on his face. She then looked back at Yelena, shrugging. Yelena shook her head, seeming disappointed in her.

“Whatever. You-” Yelena looked up at her brother and his frown. “-You okay, Ben?”

Bennett’s frown deepened. “Do you think that woman near the front looks a bit familiar?”

Both Luna and Yelena looked forward and, at least in Luna’s case, she had no clue who he was talking about until she saw the faint Illusion Man- MP. She forced it away from her eyes and blinked.

Bennett’s mother was there, standing in the middle of the academy with a very much annoyed look on her face.