Earth Star

After receiving permission, Hekate did not even return to her room. She ran straight out of the residence, found a deserted place, pulled up the hood of her mage robe, and flew toward her destination.

A Magus could fly fairly quickly, so the round trip would not take long.

Lady Audrey had wanted to help Hekate pack, since she would need to prepare some things before setting out on an adventure. Yet after searching the entire residence, she could not find Hekate anywhere.

After flying for a day, she landed temporarily in a small town and entered an inn.

The Innkeeper watched Hekate warily. "Recently, many Cultists have been pretending to be mages. I hope Your Excellency can prove your identity."

"Oh, and our town has five Intermediate Mages serving as guards," the Innkeeper added.

Hekate: "?"

Was she suspecting me of being a Cultist?

She frowned. Had Cultists really become this rampant? She then took out the emblem of Grants Academy and placed it on the table.

The Innkeeper's eyes widened instantly. She slapped herself, and after confirming she had not seen wrong, quickly smiled. "So you are a mage from Grants Academy! I was mistaken. I'll prepare a room for you right away."

After paying for her stay, Hekate took the key and went up to the second floor.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, she carried out her daily draw.

Duang~

Gift of Fate: Randomly fuse two similar pieces of knowledge into a new piece of knowledge. Hair shortened by 10 centimeters.

A new gift!

After growing it out for two years, her hair had already reached her waist. Losing ten centimeters was nothing.

She accepted the gift.

Fire Curse Technique + Summon Thunder Technique = Thunder Fire Tribulation (Advanced · Mastery)

A new piece of magical knowledge appeared in her mind.

It summoned catastrophic Fire Thunder upon the target in the form of a curse. Not only did this spell possess both fire and lightning attributes, it could also ignore part of an enemy's defenses.

Very powerful.

After finishing her draw, she went downstairs for breakfast, then continued on her journey.

Breakfast at the small-town inn was nothing special, but it was cheap, costing only a few pence.

As Hekate ate, a pitch-black carriage suddenly arrived outside. Its very presence exuded an unsettling aura.

The Innkeeper's face went pale at the sight.

She wanted to close the door and stop them from entering, but it was already too late. Several men in their forties, dressed in standardized mage robes, stepped down from the carriage.

Hekate took a few looks. Although those mage robes bore no markings of the Chaos Kingdom, their style and design clearly belonged to it.

The Innkeeper hurriedly went forward, her legs trembling. "Welcome, guests. Are you looking for rooms?"

The leading man snorted coldly, his face vicious. "We invited you to attend worship at our Church. Why did you not come? Are you disrespecting our god?"

The Innkeeper collapsed in fright.

At that moment, the town guards rushed over after hearing the commotion. The five of them surrounded the Cultists, their faces cold. "Sirs, preaching is forbidden in the Uruk Kingdom. We hope you leave immediately, or do not blame us for being impolite!"

Yet the Cultists merely snorted. Without saying a word, they directly cast magic at the five guards. Fortunately, the guards had already been on alert and immediately raised their Magic Shields.

Even so, the five guards were blasted away. The leading guard got to his feet and said in shock, "You're a High Mage!"

"Yes. So die. Anyone who does not believe in My God, die!" A bloodthirsty aura instantly erupted from the Cultists.

They cackled wickedly. Clearly, they had run out of patience and only wanted to unleash the killing intent in their hearts.

Hekate finished her breakfast in a few bites, stood up, and pointed at them. Thunder Fire Tribulation!

Golden-red lightning descended in an instant, striking the High Mage she had pointed at. He was immediately scorched black and smoking, blood pouring wildly from the corners of his mouth. He clearly would not live long.

The other Cultists panicked and tried to flee, but Hekate did not spare them. One Thunder Fire Tribulation each, and they were all struck dead on the spot.

The sudden reversal left everyone stunned.

"I'll leave them to you," Hekate said to the five dumbfounded guards. Then she flew up from the ground and continued toward her destination.

Only then did the guards recover from their shock. "That little girl was a High Mage too?"

"Probably not merely a High Mage," the Guard Captain said as he looked at the Cultist who had been killed by a single bolt of lightning.

After leaving the town and flying a little farther, she arrived at the treasure site.

Following the location marked on the Treasure Map, Hekate found a wooden stick and began digging downward. After an hour without finding anything, she used magic to blast the ground. She kept blasting for another half hour, frightening all the nearby small animals away, before finally blowing the buried Magic Crystals out of the soil.

They had probably been buried for hundreds of years.

Hekate jumped into the large pit and searched through the shattered Treasure Chest. There were three Magic Crystals in total, enough to let her break through to Grand Magus.

She absorbed one each day. Three days later, Hekate successfully broke through the bottleneck of a 10-star Magus.

The moment she broke through, the magic power within her surged violently. Invisible currents of air lifted every strand of her hair, while an enormous pressure spread outward from her.

After breaking through to the next major rank, the Star Chain of her Star Witch could resonate with another star.

Without hesitation, she activated the Star Chain's ability and randomly resonated with a star in the Starry Sky.

Congratulations, you have successfully resonated with Earth Star.

Another Resonance Star appeared on her attribute list.

She glanced at the Star Chain ability.

Resonance Stars: Star of Magic, Star of Fire Element, Star of Thunder Element, Star of Dark Element, Star of Wind Element, Earth Star

At that moment, several mages in black robes surrounded her. They had likely been drawn over by the sound of the explosions.

One of the black-robed men saw Hekate and immediately said, "Cult Leader, it was her. She was the one who killed your son!"

The black-robed mages surrounded her with malicious intent. One of them removed his hood, revealing a head of pale white hair. He stared at Hekate with hatred. "Interesting. Such a young mage—she must be some genius mage from Uruk. You killed my son, so it is only reasonable for me to kill you in revenge."

The old man instantly erupted with the magical fluctuations of a 3-star Great Mage.

Hekate gave them a calm look. If she were still a Magus, instantly killing a Great Mage would indeed have been somewhat difficult. But she had just broken through.

Resonate with Star of Magic, Star of Fire Element, Star of Thunder Element!

The power of Thunder Fire Tribulation instantly increased by 300%.

Not knowing their names, she could only quickly use her finger to target the spell. The next second, the old man Hekate pointed at was struck by Thunder Fire Tribulation and immediately burst into flames. The other black-robed men were startled by the lightning that had suddenly descended and leaped away in terror.

However, Hekate did not let them go either. One Thunder Fire Tribulation per person, and they were all sent on their way amid crackling blasts.