Magical Ascension Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Days passed as I either stayed in my newly repaired room meditating or spending time with Taihou who under my mother's 'loving' guidance finally broke through to the Intermediate tier mage rank! Which meant that she could finally get her second element.

For some reason Mother utterly refused to let me and Dad come see her awaken her element though... It honestly really pissed me off as I loved Taihou and I really wanted to see her unlock her new element but there wasn't anything I could do in front of Mother's blunt refusal.

Either way, Taihou had reached the intermediate-tier mage and had unlocked the Wind element to go along with her fire element.

But with the days passing I had refined my Star Dust I moved the minature stars around within my core to begin matching up the Star Path of my Astral Element. And dear gods my Astra Magic was a pain in the fucking ass to form a star map out of.

In the time it took to make progress with my astral magic, I could advance more than three times towards the intermediate tier. As the time it took to build a Star Path into a Star Track for which the stars would naturally revolve inside my body to distribute power was just ridiculous.

Just from the time it took for the element to form inside my body, meant that the Astral Element was far above the basic element in Water like the other higher tier elements like Light, Darkness, Space and Time.  In either case in the days leading up to the following weekend I had worked hard in raising both my Water Element and my Astral Element to about the middle point of the Novice rank.

"Your chest piece is slightly off." My father gruffly said as he helped me adjust the armor he had made for me and I nodded silently as he continued to speak. "This chest piece is rated for peak Warrior, and some of the weaker Commander Monsters... I would give you better armor, but running around in higher-level armor will only make you cocky Jake."

His hand tightened on my neck as he pulled me into a quick hug as he said into my ear in warning. "Never physically fight a monster, Jake... No one, no matter their talent or tools will physically overwhelm a monster."

I nodded making him pat my back heavily before he let go of me and then he handed me a necklace with him explaining. "I made this astral refinement brooch for you. It's not as great as a higher tier mana refinement tool but you been saying your astral element has been giving you trouble so I used some meteoric materials to make it."

"Thank you, Dad. This is will help me a lot and save a good deal of time." I said respectably as I looked back to Taihou and Alice who were standing by my mother at the front door as I was with my father at the front gate of our property with the Raiden Sibling's armored car ready to pick me up to take me to the Great Lake expedition.

Alice sent a nod in my direction while Taihou seeing my look at her almost managed to run towards me for a projectile hug that would probably lay me up in bed with broken ribs... But showing off her extreme reaction speed of a super human in a Super-Mage. Mother grabbed Taihou by her wrist and then yeeted her behind her and into the house making my lips twitch as Taihou dramatically got up and looked at me with despair with her holding out a hand towards me.

"Whelp I better go before Taihou makes a scene." I said wryly making my Dad chuckle with him patting my shoulder and giving me a gentle but firm push as he retorted warmly.

"Then go on Jake, I will be here when you are back." He said and I smiled and gave my father a confident nod as I pivoted on my heel and the door to the armored car opened up for me and as I approached I heard a loud voice complaining.

"Finally! Were you going to make us watch as you were sent off to war with your family in tears and planning your funeral or something?"

I sat down in the armored car and I realized I was the last member of the team to get picked up as everyone else in Furina, Keqing and Lalatina were already in the armored car that had two benches on the sides of the armored car facing the other leaving an open space in the middle of the car for our legs.

For a split second, I considered saying something about my family being worry warts. But then I remembered that Furina was an orphan with her family getting exterminated back in France. So I didn't say anything and instead just coughed as I looked at Keqing who was the nominal leader due to having been in the Great Lake several times with the Raiden Siblings.

"So what are we working with? Do we have any set locations we plan to hit in the Great Lake?" I asked as I had never been out of the walled-in sections of Columbus Ohio.

Keqing's purple eyes blinked at my question before made a noise of thought as she made her wrist watch form a weird hologram map with her saying after a moment of inspection. "No... Master has wiped my data slate clean of downloads and established maps of the area. She obviously wants myself and the rest to go in blind so there is no accusations of cheating."

'But what about the other teams? They will most certainly have maps?' I thought dryly before sighing and looking away from Keqing to Furina only to see her pouting at me for ignoring her earlier complaints so I just smiled and said with a slightly teasing smile.

"So Furina, did you bring your own ladle or did Keqing have to remind you?" And her face paled as her eyes snapped to the blank faced Keqing before her eyes snapped back to mine with a deep flush crossing her face as she snarled. "Commoner! That... You have no right to comment on a noble's discipline!?"

I raised an eyebrow at her hostility and my face went still as I remember how her family was actually exterminated for being terrible dictators back in France. 'Hoh? So really she doesn't like commoners huh.' I thought before realizing that in the time that we had split apart from the meeting room a few days ago.

She had obviously done a background check on me and had learned that my family although owning an extremely valuable service to the city along with my mother being a Super-tier mage. We didn't have any form of lineage or actual nobility, meaning that in her eyes I was basically trash...

But I found that utterly hilarious instead of insulting honestly.

So I just retorted with a cold smile as I opened up my space bracelet and took out a nice gleaming silver ladle lined with gold leave and mundane cheap gems that I all but begged my father to make just for this moment. "It's alright Furina... As I made sure to bring a proper, artisan, and noble for hitting you in the head for when you get mouthy."

Keqing and Furina's eyes snapped to the lable with Keqing's blank face going pink before she actually for the first time I got to see some emotion except for fond exasperation towards her master in Makoto. As she actually snickered at Furina's face which went bright red at the ladle that I then gently threw into Keqing's hands.

"There. Furina is indeed an enlightened noble, born with a pedigree that belongs with legends... So she obviously needs to be disciplined by a magic tool befitting her own status!"

And Furina's eyes went wide with her face going pale as she just seemingly remembered that my father was famous for making most of the best magic tools in the city with the strongest people in the Raiden Siblings making moves to try to monopolize his time. So her eyes looked at the ladle with fear while Keqing smugly put it away into her own spatial storage while giving Furina a 'kind smile'

Meanwhile, Darkness who was sitting beside me had her legs up on the chair with her face buried in her knees. And my face twitched as I heard her whisper quietly but filled with lust. "He is already making Furina edge at the thought of being punished at any point... I am so jealous!"