Sunpeak Town
Aeliana hadn’t much thought about her territory before she arrived at the town’s eastern gate with her appearance hidden under a black hooded cloak.
But upon seeing the bleak situation within her town, her heart was slightly stirred by emotions.
Sunpeak Town used to be a prosperous town under her mother’s rule.
Given its upward growth and rapid development, it could have turned into a major city of trade, becoming a reputable place in the kingdom’s central region within a few years.
But before it could reach the peak of its prosperity, the town was ruined by her.
She was to blame for its current state.
The stone walls were filled with cracks and filthy goblin blood stains that had not been washed or maintained.
Overgrown weeds had obscured the footpaths.
The buildings looked aged and abandoned, covered in weeds, moss, wood decay, and even cracks. Only the doors and windows showed some maintenance.
‘I thought I had abandoned everything behind and only have Lord Vaan as the sole purpose of my living, but it seems I still have some attachments to this town…’ Aeliana thought.
As she toured the town with her appearance hidden, she was neither approached nor welcomed by anyone.
Everyone minded their own businesses like they were just performing the bare minimum to get by. They were neither lively nor expectant towards anything.
Surprisingly, it bothered her to see the people like that.
‘I want to return the town to the way it was before,’ such thoughts entered Aeliana’s mind.
Nevertheless, her lord sent her to Sunpeak Town for a few tasks, and she had every intention to complete them without fail.
As her lord instructed, she should visit her mother.
However, she failed to find anyone at their old home, the Lord’s Manor. That said, she vaguely recalled some memories from her spores that were spread out in the region.
Since the incident, her mother has worked at Golden Peacock Inn for the past three years.
Aeliana quickly dropped by the Golden Peacock Inn but discovered the place was temporarily closed. After she scanned the inn, she didn’t find anyone within the property either.
Evidently, her mother, Solana Leclair, was away.
After Aeliana realized that, she didn’t bother to look for her mother and went on to complete her next main task.
She went back out of town and connected with a tree with Dryad Transformation before she drew in the anti-magic spores scattered across the region.
Each anti-magic spore was filled with pure mana. But despite being a Peak-stage Senior Witch, the very peak of the Senior Witch rank, she easily absorbed all the pure mana into her body.
However, they weren’t absorbed by her magic circles, which had already reached complete saturation, nor her Magic Domain, which was also full.
After the Magic Domain was filled to the brim, the excess pure mana was stored inside her mutated mana veins.
Large volumes of pure mana poured into her mana veins in unending streams. Yet, her mana veins swallowed everything with a bottomless appetite.
They had no sense of fullness; everything was devoured cleanly.
As that happened, Aeliana felt her mana veins becoming tougher. The pure mana inside her veins was constantly condensed and compacted to make room for more pure mana.
At the same time, she vaguely sensed her two Specialized Magic becoming more powerful.
According to the standard practice of witch cultivation, she was a Peak-stage Senior Witch. But the power of her Dryad Transformation alone was already at Early-stage High Witch.
And yet, that power was still rising.
‘This is the true path of a witch,’ Aeliana thought.
It was a path that witches had long abandoned due to its lack of versatility.
After all, no matter how much they strengthen their mana veins, only their Specialized Magic becomes stronger.
They couldn’t use any other magic without mana rings, otherwise known as magic circles.
Even so, it shouldn’t have been so easy for her to raise the power of her Specialized Magic.
Magic circles wouldn’t be the mainstream practice if it were so easy to improve. At the very least, there should have been more witches that practiced both paths.
Her mutated mana veins were most likely the reason behind her improvement. It was as if its limiter had been removed.
As Aeliana kept absorbing all the pure mana from her anti-magic spores, her mana veins continued to strengthen.
Sometime later, Aeliana recalled all her anti-magic spores, including the ones trapped inside of the townspeople’s bodies.
By that point, she felt like the power of her Specialized Magic had already exceeded Early-stage High Witches.
At the same time, the enormous movement of mana did not go unnoticed. Many people were drawn to the tree that attracted all the mana.
It wasn’t long before the town’s witches realized they had regained their abilities.
“I feel like I can control mana again… Something was removed from my body… I can use magic again…!”
“You’re right! I feel young and lively again. My body is receiving the nourishment of mana!”
Several middle-aged-looking witches realized with surprise before they became overjoyed.
It wasn’t long before they started worshipping the tree outside the town, treating it like a holy tree for curing them of the curse that plagued them for the past three years.
“Thank you, Holy Tree! Thank you for blessing us! We’ve been given a second chance at life!” a sixty-year-old True Witch prostrated to the tree Aeliana was hidden within.
With people gathering around the tree, she found it hard to leave unnoticed. As such, she was forced to listen to the townspeople’s ramblings.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t just the witches in the town that were cured of the curse. Even the aura users regained control of their aura.
“Haiz, we should quickly go and find Lady Solana. She had left to investigate the commotion in the mountains the other day and still hasn’t returned. I fear something has happened to her,” a woman in her 70’s uttered with concern.
“Don’t speak like that. That’s bad luck,” an Aura Master in his 50’s chided before he added, “What if something happens to Lady Solana because of what you said?”
Shortly after the man finished speaking, the sky rumbled with thunder.