An Unconventional Strategy

[Condition Fulfilled: New Skills "Magic Transference Lvl 1," "Intermediate Healing Magic Lvl 1," and "Sanctify Lvl 1" Created!]

[Skills:

Name: Magic Transference Lvl 1

Description: A Novice-level Spell that converts personal Magic Reserves into Magic or Mana and transfers it over for others to use. The higher the Lvl, the smaller the ratio of conversion. Current ratio is 10:1.

Name: Sanctify Lvl 1

Description: An Adept-level Spell that erases various status conditions. The higher the Lvl, the higher the degree of status condition this spell will be able to nullify.]

[Title Earned: Healing Mage Adept]

"So that's how it is," I couldn't even muster up any excitement after finally managing to learn the Sanctify Spell.

It had taken me days since we reached the Levins Fall Valley to figure out the secret to the Spell. Magic Transference had been as easy to pick up as every other Spell I'd learned thus far, so we had already been fighting and hunting the predominantly lightning-type Monsters for a while. But it had been annoying not having the Sanctify Spell, and I meant that for reasons beyond being unable to decontaminate some meat after our hunts.

Sure, Katherine had her rations and my Magic Gizzard could ignore any potential illness or venom hidden in the monster carcasses that I ate, bar anything rated as Lesser B Rank or higher. However, it would have been nice to get rid of stunned effects and minor paralysis after every other time I needed to tank a lightning-type attack or spell.

Now, I would finally be able to do so; or at least have the means to improve my Sanctify Spell to the point of eventually being able to do so against C Rank enemies. But it was beyond aggravating to realize what I'd been doing wrong all this time.

Really, I was almost inclined to put the blame on literally anything other than myself. I mean, everything had failed me; my memories, Katherine, and even the name of the Spell.

It was called "Healing Spell of Sanctification" and its description by the Akashic Decrees stated that its effect was 'erasing' status conditions. But that's not even remotely close to what the theory, as I understood it, suggested.

No, instead of erasing anything, the spell worked almost like some kind of reality-breaking time-rewinding bullshit. I couldn't erase anything. Rather, the process demanded that I conceptualize how the target of my spell ought to have been and then restore it to that state.

Of course, there was a hard limit to what I could restore with the Spell; I couldn't just will for a new limb to grow or even for something minor like wounds to close. But, curing frostbite, killing off illness-causing bacteria, and even detoxifying the corpse of a venomous monster set to release venom all over its body upon death… All those effects that worked on a microscopic level and more were within my reach.

In fact…

"Hey Katherine," I called out to her as she continued eating from her dwindling rations.

"Is it time to go back already?" She asked with hardly concealed anxiousness. Even after days of relatively intense training, it was obvious that she continued to have doubts about surviving the trip.

"No," I shook my head. "Roll up the sleeve on your right arm."

"Uh… Why?" She asked even as she moved to comply.

When her sleeve was up to her elbow, my eyes narrowed on the ugly mark leftover from one of our most recent battles with a Standard C Rank Thunderpunch Bear.

In it, I'd been struck with a relatively weak lightning bolt Spell that had left me vulnerable for a fraction for a second. But, before I would have been on the receiving end of one of its namesake "Thunder Punches," Katherine had Earthshifted between us and tanked the Spell after summoning a construct of Earthen Armor.

We killed the bear shortly thereafter, but even after I'd healed Katherine, I'd been unable to do anything about the scar that had been left behind… until now.

Casting an atrocious, if stable, Tier 3 Sanctify Spell concentrated on her forearm, her arm lit up with the green hue of Healing Magic for a second before it vanished to reveal that her scar had 'barely' changed at all. It had, in fact, grown fainter but this was my second successful cast of the Spell, she classified as Greater C Rank target, and the scar was pretty fucking gnarly.

Welp, at least I now had a target to practice my Spell on. This would last all the way up until we left to run the gauntlet once more and hunt us up some more Monsters, anyway.

Looking at the smile that was growing on Katherine's face, I grinned. Rejoice, for you will finally be able to cast aside those disgusting nutrient bricks.

Tonight, we will feast!

...

Or not.

I mean, how could I have possibly known it would be this hard to improve Adept-level Spells? I had no reason to even use the only other ones I currently knew; Ice Augment and Relay.

Even after busting out the Sanctify Spell every chance I got during the rest of our battle for today, nothing changed! Well, that's not strictly true. But, I don't think a change as small as feeling a fraction of a percent less stunned in the middle of a battle counts as a meaningful change.

Ugh, this was going to take a while.

But that's well within the boundary of reason. It's not like I could spend all my time practicing the Sanctify Spell. I had to conserve my Magic and keep a lookout for ambushes while Katherine rested and beyond that, I also had to spend most of the days fighting monsters with her so we could both get stronger.

Since we had settled down in Levins Fall, it had taken three days for me to Level Up. That had been three days ago, and I knew precisely why it would only take longer and longer at the rate I was going.

Even as I was now, focusing only on Fire, Strengthening, and Healing Magic, I was stretching myself out too thin. As an Arcane Eagle, Understanding Magic would play just as great a role in my advancement as hunting and eating other monsters would. Yet, I had ignored the easy way out my Worldly Resonance triggering had given me with the Skill "Understanding of Ice."

Still, I wasn't planning on changing anything as things currently stood; especially not after going over the expanded evolutionary paths I'd grown privy to after gaining my Arcane Eagle Bloodline.

No, for now, I'll stick to toiling through improving my three chosen types of magic. It'll all be worth it even if it takes years or decades to realize the potential behind that specific combination of elements.

To get there, though… I sighed as I turned to look at Katherine's sleeping form. I'm going to have to start by learning the rest of the Novice and Adept level Spells unlocked by my memories. I only pray that they aren't as unintuitive to learn as the Sanctify Spell was.

...

[Worldly Resonance Triggered!]

I nearly balked at the alert as I finished swallowing the Standard C Rank Monster Core of what had to be my second or third hundredth Thunderpunch Bear. It wasn't like I particularly hated them, just that they were a prevalent species in the valley.

Instead of what happened the first time Worldly Resonance triggered, I felt my Magic unconsciously concentrate on the tip of my beak before it started to spark with a blindingly bright light that somehow didn't cause my eyes any discomfort.

The magic then transmuted into wild lightning which needed to be released soon, else I'd probably end up with some sort of backlash. So, I pecked at the closest thing to me, and the next thing I knew a savagely cut three-meter-thick tree that was still smoking had started falling away from me.

[Condition Fulfilled: New Skills "Understanding of Lightning Lvl 1," and "Thunderpiercing Peck Lvl 1" Created!]

"Whoa, I didn't know you were a Lightning-type Eagle," Katherine commented as I watched my handiwork with uncertainty in my eyes.

"I'm not," I grumbled as my mind was somewhere else entirely; hypothesizing over what had just happened. "Arcane Eagles should be every bit as Neutral as Common Eagle Soldiers."

"Then… how'd you use lightning outside of a Spell?"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's because of all the Thunderpunch Bear Monster Cores I've eaten in the past two weeks. Their innate Skill is the Thunderpunch which concentrates lightning into their paws to deliver a devastating punch, while I just figured out how to apply the same principle to my beak for a piercing peck instead… I think."

"Oh! You have one of those extremely rare Absorption Skills. That's how you managed to pull off that Ice Augment Spell too, isn't it?"

"Not quite," I gave her a look. "I mean, it first took that massive pile of Ice resources and now over two weeks of hunting Thunderpunch Bears to manifest into those two Skills."

"Right," she nodded with a pitiful expression as she carelessly said, "I imagine that wouldn't be much of a useful Skill unless you used it to grow in a place with monsters that specialized in the elements you normally use."

"Well..." I confirmed that Understanding of Lightning gave me the same resistance bonus towards lightning that Understanding of Ice did towards Ice, "It will make the rest of our stay here less aggravating, that's for sure."

And wasn't that just the understatement of the year?

In our very next confrontation with a Spark Coat Panther, I began to learn just how much of a difference Understanding an element could make. To put it bluntly, the difference couldn't even be called night and day. Especially not after my Evil Eyes' ability to perceive magic synergized with my newfound Understanding and let me dissect the Panther's use of Lightning.

An hour prior, the same lightning that would have stunned me for a split second could barely even tickle me as I could dispel it internally with just a flex of my Magic. And without the effects of lightning, all the Monsters in Levins Fall Valley might as well have dropped a small rank or two before me.

Yet all that wasn't even the most ridiculous benefit I'd gained from Understanding of Lightning. For beyond just the resistance, which alone would have been a godsend, Understanding of Lightning meant understanding the nature of lightning's effects.

My Sanctify Spell which hadn't directly increased in proficiency due to Worldly Resonance triggering grew countless times more effective against dispelling the status effects of paralysis and being stunned. And that meant that just by gaining that one skill, all the Monsters native to the valley became an utter joke to my tag team with Katherine.

Truly, the power of Healing Magic couldn't be more evident when just by virtue of being able to cancel certain status effects, I could turn Katherine from a 'mere' strong fighter into an unstoppable war god. Of course, that only applied to us in Levins Fall Valley because she outranked all the monsters 'and' she had me to heal her at the drop of a hat. But it was what finally got her to smile less sadly and truly start to believe in my plan to train our way back to human civilization.

Two weeks was all it took for us to conquer a Standard C Rank Lightning-type Monster territory. Granted, Worldly Resonance granting me my Understanding of Lightning was the main reason we had gotten this far so quickly. But beyond that, we had grown relatively stronger despite my overpowered Skill.

Within a couple weeks or months, Katherine might ascend up to Lesser B Rank and the stronger she got, the stronger the monsters we could take on together. Stronger monsters meant tougher battles and better quality carcasses which helped me Level Up.

The only thing that could have made things better was if a suitable territory with Fire, Healing, or Strengthening-type Monsters existed while en route to the northwest. Sadly, while there were some territories with the right type of Monsters, it was either vastly beyond our current strength and skillset or well beneath the effort of diverting our path.

Oh well…

Perhaps this was a good thing. Maybe, being stuck through a couple more places for long enough to trigger a couple more instances of World Resonance would be worth the slow growth. I mean, now that I knew just how blatantly overpowered Understanding Skills were, I couldn't go wrong with gaining a few more.