After a night's rest, Shade had completely returned to normal. Or rather, just as with his past bouts of prolonged discomfort, once he recovered, he felt that he had grown stronger.
Of course, this was no illusion—
Outlander, you have absorbed part of the essence of the Mad Moon. Your control over the power of the Red Moon has further increased.
Outlander, your Enlightenment-Flesh Spirit Rune has been strengthened. The effects of all related thaumaturgies have increased. The cost of all Transformation Spells has been reduced, and the penalty to casting costs while transformed has been lessened.
Outlander, your thaumaturgy, Body of Courage, has been strengthened. Its bodily transformation effect has been further enhanced, and its cost has been reduced.
The most important thing was not the enhancement of the thaumaturgy's effects, but the improvement in his control over the power of the Red Moon.
This had not suddenly turned Shade's Red Moon Spirit Rune into a Core Ling Rune, but when he woke up floating in the hot spring that morning, he could clearly sense that his control over the Red Moon had already surpassed that of any non-core Spirit Rune.
It was a difficult feeling to describe. He had now crossed an important threshold. Like the Silver Moon, the Red Moon was breaking away from the Ring Arcanist system and becoming part of his instincts.
Water splashed as a hand reached out from behind the gauzy curtains and grabbed at the clothes on the snow surface. It was Shade's hand. The Girl with Purple Eyes and the blonde Miss Writer probably would not be joining breakfast today.
It was not because they were overly exhausted. The hot spring's restorative effects were quite effective. It was simply that the girls from Tobesk did not want to face everyone else's