The second goal was to increase his profession’s levels. He needed to bring at least his tailoring and enchanting up to level 450 or higher so he could craft gear that would actually help him survive.

Woodworking was less important since he mainly used his summons to fight, but improving it would be useful later when he had the chance to make some wands or staves.

The challenge was in balancing both goals. If he focused on leveling, his professions would fall further behind. If he focused on crafting, he would miss opportunities to gain levels while the volcanic zone was accessible.

<I’ll need to alternate. Hunt for a few days, craft for a few days, and repeat until both are where they need to be.>

The plan was not ideal, but it was workable. The real question was whether Mara would cooperate by staying in the area long enough for him to execute it.

Reidar stood and stretched. His body still ached from the fight and the environmental damage, but his health was full now, and his mana had nearly recovered. He needed to check on Mara and see what she was doing.

The woman had started moving again. She was walking through the badlands, following a path that led south. She looked worn out but better than before.

She was far away now. The distance between them had grown to over 20 miles while he had been dealing with the Behemoth and reviewing his loot.

<I need to close the distance now.>

If she got too far ahead, he might lose track of her, and if he lost track of her, he would not know when or where she created the teleportation circle unless he found her again, and that was not going to be easy. That would ruin everything.

Reidar summoned a flock of ravens instead. The ravens were faster over long distances. He mounted the largest raven and took off, directing the flock to follow Mara’s trail.

The flight took thirty minutes. Reidar kept the ravens high to avoid detection, and when he finally spotted Mara below, he slowed and matched her pace, remaining a couple of miles away.

The woman walked for another hour before stopping again. She found a sheltered spot between two rock formations and sat down, pulling out her backpack. She removed several items, including what looked like chalk and a small knife.

Reidar observed through the eyes of a Vorathid Sky-Hunter staying around those parts.

<Is she starting to make the magic circle?>

It seemed unlikely. The place was too open. The rock formations provided some shelter from the wind but offered no real place to hide. Anyone or anything passing through the area would spot her.

More importantly, a magic circle would increase the ambient mana concentration in the surrounding area. Monsters on every planet were drawn to mana like moths to a flame, and creating a world-opening magic circle in an exposed location such as this would attract every creature within miles.

If she wanted to do this, she needed a better place to hide.

<Let’s see what she has in mind.>

Mara began to draw symbols on the rock surface with the chalk, and then she took out various kinds of minerals and bones and placed them around.

The symbols started glowing. Reidar had no idea what that thing did.

The pattern she made was not complex. It was simpler than mana gathering magic circles and surely far simpler than portal-opening ones.

It seemed more compact, with fewer inscriptions and a different geometric structure.

<That’s not a portal circle.>

Reidar changed his perspective between multiple Sky-Hunters, trying to get a better view of the thing. He compared what he saw to what he knew about the magic circles he had seen up to that point.

The pattern matched nothing he knew.

<What is she doing?>

The woman worked for twenty minutes, drawing each symbol and connecting them with lines. When she finished, she placed her hands on one of the ores she placed on some dots inside the circle, which Reidar started calling Anchor points, as they served as the channels from which the mana went from the material to the circle itself.

It looked like she pushed some of her mana into the circle through the ore. The chalk lines flared with bright light, and the entire pattern lifted off the ground, hovering a few inches above the rock surface.

Mara then stepped into the center of the circle.

The light intensified, wrapping around her body. She closed her eyes and remained still as the circle’s energy built to a peak. Then, in a flash, she vanished.

The circle collapsed, its light fading to nothing. The chalk marks remained on the rock, but they no longer glowed. The spot where Mara had stood was empty.

Reidar stared at the empty space through his summon’s eyes.

<What the hell was that?>

He sent Sky-Hunters circling lower, searching the area around where Mara had been. She was not hiding around. She was not crouching in a shadow or a crevice. She was simply gone.

<A teleportation circle. She used a teleportation circle to jump to another location.>

The problem was that Mara could short- and somehow long-range teleport, so if she needed a magic circle, it meant she went even farther than that.

<Damn it!>

Reidar summoned more Sky-Hunters, spreading them out in all directions from Mara’s last position. He needed to find her. If she had jumped a few miles, his Sky-Hunters would spot her. If she had jumped farther, he would have needed to expand the search.

The Sky-Hunters flew around and spread as much as they could, scanning the badlands for any sign of the priestess.

Ten minutes passed. Nothing.

Twenty minutes. Still nothing.

Reidar felt panic beginning to rise. The Sky-Hunters covered a radius of 15 miles now, and if Mara had teleported within that range, he should have found her.

<She went farther. How far can that circle bring someone?>

He did not know. Teleportation magic was something Mara made, and that only the church, or maybe the Aegis Phalanx, knew about.

<I need to think. Where would she go?>

Mara’s goal was the same as his—create a world-opening portal and leave this planet. She would not waste time exploring or sightseeing. She would find a defensible location, set up her portal circle, and leave.

The problem was that Reidar had no idea what made up a good portal location on this planet. He knew the basics—stable ground, high mana amounts, which weren’t hard to find on this planet, and protection from monsters and the weather—but without knowing the terrain better, he could not predict where she would choose.

Plus, she needed materials, and if she decided to use the ones she had available now to make a teleportation circle, it meant she didn’t have good enough materials to open a portal.

<Damn it, damn it, damn it!>

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep