Lily gasped when she saw Rose. Judging by her ragged appearance, she looked like she had wrestled with the entire forest. But surprisingly, there was no blood or visible wounds on her.

  But that wasn't the cause of her gasp. No. Rose was now sporting a massively large tail!

  What was once a small, almost cute, tadpole-like tail had transformed into a thick, long appendage. The red draconic scales that now covered it gave it a rather intimidating appearance and it seemed to be growing something akin to a spike at the tip.

  "What happened!?" Lily asked, pointing to the tail.

  Perhaps a true reflection of Rose's emotions, the tail began to sway back and forth a bit. Almost… Embarrassedly?

  "It grew… And ruined my pants…" Rose said somberly. "I found some dire wolves, and it must have hastened my dragon… Thing. Starting with the tail."

  "Dire wolves? You fought dire wolves?" Lily asked with shock.

  "Yeah, they weren't so tough! I found a small glade that I think would be the perfect spot for this ritual thing. The only issue was it was home to a bunch of dire wolves, so I cleaned it out!" Rose bragged, her pride evident in her voice.

  Lily wanted to scold Rose for being so reckless but instead decided to praise her. She was clearly upset about the tail situation and looked rather proud of beating dire wolves.

  "That's amazing! You're basically an adventurer already!" Lily said cheerfully.

  Rose blushed and giggled. "I know, right? I'm the most awesome big sister there is. I even used some magic to clean up the fire afterward!"

  "Amazing!" Lily exclaimed. "I thought you might have just punched them to death."

  "Well, there was a lot of punching, but also a lot of fire!" Rose began excitedly explaining what happened.

  She let her tell the tale without any interruption. The whole thing sounded like something an adventurer would do, and Lily was captivated, even if Rose was embellishing it a bit. She even grew her tail in the middle of battle and instinctively used it! That sounded exactly like the hero in a story getting the power-up they needed to win!

  Lily was truly awed by Rose's retelling.

  One day… I'll be able to do something like that, too! Lily wished deep in her heart.

  Before eating, they both bathed, where Lily saw some of Rose's injuries. After cleaning up, she insisted on giving Rose some medical treatment even if the stubborn dragon insisted it would heal on its own.

  At the bottom of Lily's cupboard was almost a small collection of herbal remedies from her lessons at Camilla. The woman had let her keep a small portion of the items she produced as a memento. Lily didn't really care, but she was glad to finally have a use for some of it before it potentially expired or diminished in quality.

  "Now, this will sting a little, but make sure you don't remove it!" Lily insisted.

  Rose let out a chortle. "I took a bite from a dire wolf. I don't think a little medicinal paste is going to—AGH!" She yelled with a flinch.

  "I did warn you!" Lily said with a mischievous giggle.

  "Are you sure this is going to heal me?" Rose asked doubtfully. I swear it shouldn't sting this much."

  Lily pouted. "Yes, it will. And it'll not even leave a scar!"

  "Oh… That's handy," Rose admitted. "I just wish it didn't feel like I had bees under my skin."

  "That means it's working!" Lily responded, trying and failing to give her best impression of Camilla.

  Rose snorted a laugh, and both girls giggled. They then relayed how things had been proceeding on their ends, their bond growing stronger with each shared experience.

  It had been a few days since their original meeting, during which they discussed the plan to proceed with the ritual. Their determination was palpable, and things were proceeding rather smoothly so far.

  Rose had solved one of the biggest outstanding issues by locating a potential ritual site. Now, Lily just had to overcome her biggest personal hurdle—meditation.

  Lily hated it. Her mind was too active to sit entirely still and focus only on the meditation. Arakil had said it would be simpler if she could sense the Mana, but since she was doing it effectively blind, it was like trying to learn how to swordfight without a sword or even a stick to practice with!

  At least on the tracing front, she had successfully reproduced the sub-ritual Arakil had designed. It was still completely beyond her understanding, but at least she was drawing it correctly.

  Work with Camilla was also proceeding smoothly; as promised, she had placed orders for more Mana herbs. Lily had handed over practically all her savings to the woman with some reluctance, but she didn't want any screw-ups with the ritual, and they would need as much raw Mana as they could get their hands on.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Lily also prodded Camilla for information about how she created the blood ink. She wasn't kidding when she said it was an easy process.

  Effectively, she just mixed a preset amount of her blood in some ink. Lily was almost dumbfounded by the ease of the solution, and once again, it only explained why nobody bothered with plant-based glyph ink anymore.

  Now, the only issue was discovering how much of Rose's blood to mix into the ink to not overwhelm it. The correct mixture ratio was important; Rose undoubtedly had much more potent blood than Camilla.

  Arakil had suggested doing a test with a rather simple light glyph, as by examining the intensity of the produced glowing orb, you could get a relatively accurate idea of the quality of the Mana. Although Lily had been avoiding it with the excuse that she wanted to get more practice with copying out the sub-ritual.

  Before they went to bed, Rose helped Lily try to complete her meditation. Arakil had given her some verbal mantras to read while she tried to focus, and Lily had transcribed them so they were readable to anyone else.

  "You know, this technique is actually really similar to what they had us do during our magic class," Rose pointed out.

  "Well, it is meant to feel and control the flow of your Mana," Lily responded.

  "I wonder... If I started practicing this method, would it help me get any better?" Rose asked curiously.

  "Maybe?" Lily shrugged. "Although this one is designed to get your Mana to focus into a singular point. I'm not sure how useful that will be for you. We could ask Arakil for a different method for you."

  Rose hummed in thought. "Actually, focusing my Mana into a singular point might be useful. I could make a super fireball spell!"

  "Please be safe!" Lily insisted.

  "Yeah, yeah," Rose shrugged it off. "Fire can't seem to harm me anyway. But I'll ensure that I don't do it indoors or with anything flammable nearby."

  "We could just ask Arakil?" Lily suggested again.

  "Maybe later. I can't say I'm too interested in learning a new meditation method right now; it was more just idle curiosity. It took me long enough to learn this one and feel the Mana in my blood."

  After taking a deep breath through her nose, Lily nodded, closed her eyes, and then slowly exhaled through her mouth.

  "Right… Let's get started," Rose said softly.

  Even with Rose's words trying to help her focus, her mind kept dancing from subject to subject. How would Mana feel inside her? Will the Mana Core hurt? How big will it grow? What should be the first spell to learn? These were just a few of the rapid-fire introspections that plagued her mind now that she had no physical stimulus to keep her occupied.

  "Focus, Lily!" Rose reprimanded her. "I can see you're getting distracted…"

  "Yes, Miss Rose…" Lily replied sarcastically.

  "That's Lady Rose to you!" Rose snapped back in an equal tone.

  Both girls giggled.

  ***

  "Just a few drops!" Lily repeated again.

  "Yes, yes… I understand; stop being so nitpicky over this, Lily." Rose said, rolling her eyes.

  "It's important," Lily emphasized. "You were the one who wanted us to use your blood for glyphs; now, we need to make sure the amounts are precise."

  "I just expected it to be more… Flashy, 'ya know?" Rose said with a shrug.

  "Well, this is a light glyph, so it will be extremely flashy," Lily answered deadpan.

  "You know what I mean," Rose sighed. "Okay, five drops!"

  Exposing the underside of her arm, she extended one of her clawed nails and gently stabbed part of the fleshy bit between the scales. Blood was almost immediately produced, and after letting it collect on her claw, she extended the finger over the vial of ink Lily was holding.

  They counted out the drops together, and Lily immediately pulled back the vial before corking it and shaking it up to mix the contents. When she ran out of steam from shaking the vial, she started swirling it around gently before holding it up for both of them to examine. The once black ink was now visibly red despite such a small quantity.

  "Well, this is exciting!" Rose said, admiring the mixture.

  "I just hope this works," Lily said, pulling out one of her old pens she was sacrificing for this endeavor.

  She began drawing out the glyph with pen, parchment, and ink in hand. Unlike Arakil's paper, this one accepted Rose's blood without any issue, and soon Lily was in a trance as she drew the glyph to her utmost capabilities.

  Part of her wanted to add efficiencies to the glyph, but that wasn't the point of this exercise, and she had to regretfully deny the little nitpicking she had partially inherited from Arakil.

  "Okay, it's done!" Lily said proudly and handed Rose the small piece of parchment.

  "Dang, you draw quickly. I think that would have taken me an hour at minimum!" Rose complimented as she examined the handiwork up close.

  "Lots of practice. I'm sure you could do it as well," Lily replied, although she still blushed slightly, feeling happy to have her efforts recognized.

  "Now remember, you just let a trickle of your Mana flow into it to activate it. Don't go overboard, or you might contaminate the test results!"

  Rose nodded, and after an involuntary throat clear, she let the Mana flow into the page. Abruptly, a sphere of pure white light arose from the page and floated in place.

  "Ah!" Both girls let out a startled cry and shut their eyes. The light was far brighter than either of them expected.

  "I think we overdid it, Lily!" Rose said, her eyes shut tight. "My eyes are burning; it was like staring directly into the sun for hours!"

  "You're exaggerating!" Lily protested. "But still… This is definitely too much!"

  "How do we stop it?" Rose asked.

  "Tear the page or wait for it to run out of Mana!" Lily answered. "It's a continuous glyph, so it needs to remain intact for it to function."

  "I dropped the page, though!" Rose replied sheepishly. "H-how long do you think it'll last for?"

  "It could be hours, maybe even days, I'm not sure," Lily admitted. "Your blood is kind of crazy, Camilla's didn't do anything like this.

  Rose winced as she tried to squint with her eyes to locate the page. She eventually dropped to the floor and started blindly fumbling around for it. Lily eventually joined her in the blind hunt. Eventually, Rose found it and hastily tore the page in two.

  "Did that do it?" She asked, wincing.

  "I think so…" Lily murmured. "But I still see colors when I blink."

  "So… Three drops next time?" Rose asked with a grin.

  "I was thinking only two!" Lily immediately countered.

  "Yeah… You're probably right," Rose nodded. "Still, I'm glad to know my blood is good for something!"

  "Imagine if we didn't get the mixture right…" Lily murmured. "Instead of inscribing the sub-ritual into the stone, it might be inscribed deep into the ground! Or maybe a hundred meters wide instead of only a few!"

  "I agree with you! Don't shoot the supplier!" Rose teased.

  Lily sighed. "Sorry… I just need this to work."

  Rose patted her on the head, rubbing her big floppy ears. "Don't worry; with the three of us working together, nobody can stop us!"