Chapter 284 - A new martha
After seeing these words from the system, Martha didn't need Lenny to confirm anything, not only that but she could feel it in her body, it was screaming with an energy she had never felt before and around her heart, it felt like there was now a small shield.
"Well, looks like it was a success," Lenny said.
"Do I look any different?" Martha asked.
Jack and Lenny started to look Martha all over but there were no changes.
"I can't see anything which is good, when I went through my evolution there were no changes as well," Lenny replied.
Martha continued to move her body slowly as she felt like a new person.
"Can I perform magic now?"
"The harpies specialise in wind magic so at the very least you should be able to do that." Lenny explained, "But if you wish to learn more different types of magic, it will be harder and take some time to learn"
Lenny then went to a nearby desk to grab Martha???s Bow and Quiver. He then handed it out to her. "I guess you want to test your new power don't you?"
The three of them moved from the bas.e.m.e.nt to the outside back garden of the mansion. There was nothing special about the garden. It was a single large green field surrounded by a fence, showing what land belonged to the mansion.
When Martha stepped outside, she could smell the clean air and the grass that was on the ground. She also noticed her vision had improved. Off in the distance where the fence was at least a hundred meters away, she could see everything clearly.
She then took out her bow, placed her arrow and carefully lined up her shot and when she was ready, she let go releasing the arrow.
It flew through the air at great speed and,
"It hit." She said.
"but couldn't you do that before?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, but the thing was, I wasn't using any of my Ki this time."
Although Martha could shoot great distances, she had to add the use of Ki into her fingers, bow and the arrow as well. But now Martha was able to hit around a hundred meters without even using Ki.
From this simple test, she could see how much her power had grown. "I want you to teach me magic," Martha said.
"I thought as much." Lenny said "The gathering and controlling mana is a similar feeling to when you are using your Ki, the only difference is instead of gathering the energy from the inside, you must gather the energy from the outside. The difference between a strong and weak mage is the amount of mana they can control and gather. There are artificial ways of increasing this amount such as using a staff with a beast crystal. However, to use these items you will need precise control. Gather too much mana into the crystal and add your own to it by accident and it will break. For now, let us start by just gathering mana."
Lenny gave Martha instructions every step of the way and Martha listened and followed them carefully. It was just as Lenny had said, when trying to activate her Ki she suddenly felt two sources of energy. She started to gather the second source of energy rather than her Ki but then something strange happened.
The mana from outside started to enter inside her body. It shifted and swirled around until she had a tingling feeling on her back. The source of mana had stayed there and then something felt like it was sprouting.
Jack who was uninterested in the whole affair before was sitting on the grass, suddenly, he stood up and walked forward as he wanted to get a better view.
"An angel." He said.
Martha started to blush.
"What did you call me, I'm sorry Jack but you know my heart belongs to someone else."
Then Jack lifted his hand and pointed, not directly at her but slightly off to the side.
As she turned her head, she flinched at what she was seeing but at the same time they moved. Then she released they were attached to her body. Martha had obtained a set of Harpy wings.
Without having to think about it much Martha was able to move the wings freely as if they were another set of arms.
"I thought you said it wouldn't change my appearance?"
"Believe me I am as surprised as you, perhaps different crystals affect different people." Lenny said, "Can you try putting them away?"
Martha then closed her eyes and tried to release the mana energy from her body back to the outside world and at the same time, the wings retreated back inside her body.
"This is amazing." Lenny said, "Well what are you waiting for, give them a go, right now you are able to fulfil one of mankind's biggest dreams, the ability of flight. Sure, there are some mages that can power themselves and levitate into the air but this is completely different."
Martha once again gathered her mana and the wings had sprouted out from her body. She started to flap them about like crazy and then when she was slightly airborne, she ran forward and jumped.
"I'm doing it, I'm really doing it," Martha said as she was lifted into the air, however, it was short-lived. She glided in the air for a total of a second, before plummeting her face into the grass and mud.
"Looks like we might need some practice," Lenny said.
Even if Martha couldn't fly right now, she could already tell she could get stronger. As an archer having the aerial view and being able to attack from above was a huge advantage. It was indeed the perfect beast to pair up with her skill set.
The group then decided to rest for the night. Lenny was worn out from giving his mana during the process and so was Jack a little. The only one that was full of energy was Martha but she could see the other two were tired.
The three of them were able to rest in the mansion. Lenny had gotten permission from Mia to use it as much as he liked during his stay at Roland.
This was great news for the three as they would no longer be required to pay for an inn and it would save them money.
The three of them were sat in a living room, each on their own separate sofa with a table in the middle. The table contained a bowl of fruit that each of them was snacking on.
"Hey Lenny, if the basic tier crystals allowed me to evolve, if we repeated the process with intermediate crystals would I be able to evolve again?" Martha asked.
"In theory that could work but there is a problem, you saw and felt how you nearly died during the first evolution process. I made sure before doing it on myself I had trained up my ability in magic in case anything went wrong. With you, we took a shortcut, I believed my magic abilities would be enough to help you just like they did me but I was wrong. I would hate to think about how strong someone's magic would be if they needed to help you with another evolution."
Just then a strange knock was heard at the door. The group looked around and counted everyone there, all three of them were there so who could it be?
"Come out you damn, thieves!"