Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 789: Astrea’s Resolve [Part 1]

Astrea continued working nonstop as her friends took a short break to recover from overexhaustion.

One talisman.

Then another.

And another.

The young lady’s quill moved across the talisman. She channeled her mana, turning it into magical ink as she carefully copied the runes from Nessia’s instructions onto each piece of magical paper.

Having made several talismans, she had already memorized the entire process.

Even then, she never weakened her focus, refusing to be careless.

After all, a single misplaced rune could cause the talisman to malfunction. Considering the amount of these things they needed, she couldn’t afford to make mistakes.

‘Thirty-eight…’

Astrea silently counted the number of talismans she had completed.

She glanced at Chuck and Lapiz, who were both still sleeping peacefully on the couches.

Neither of them showed signs of waking up.

As she had promised, she should have woken them up an hour ago. However, she understood that a mere hour of sleep wouldn’t be enough for them to recover their strength.

Astrea already anticipated their anger once they were awake. But she didn’t mind if it meant her friends could sleep for a little longer. With that, she returned to her work with full concentration.

The room was silent except for the faint sleeping breaths of Chuck and Lapiz, as well as the scratching of a quill against paper.

If Chuck and Lapiz were in her place, both would have already drunk a high-quality mana potion at this point. That was how much of a magical drain each talisman completion put on their bodies.

However, this wasn’t a problem for Astrea. Thanks to her dragon heritage, continuously infusing the talismans with her mana didn’t take too much of a toll on her body.

After all, dragons were beings that stood at the apex of the world. Compared to the magical prowess of an ordinary human, they held so much mana that they could cast high-level spells nonstop like a magical turret.

After finishing her 45th talisman, Astrea sighed and looked at the window. The sky had already turned dark, and the image of the young man who had taken many of her first times appeared in her head.

‘Alex is still out there.’ Astrea couldn’t help but wonder what the young man was doing right now.

That thought alone was enough to keep her going.

She didn’t know what kind of danger he was facing.

All she knew was that he had gone ‌south with the others to save Charles.

If he was willing to risk his life for his friends, then she could at least do this much for him.

Astrea smiled at the thought. ‘I’m going to make sure you have a safe place to return to.’

She then resumed her work.

Eventually, two hours had passed since Chuck and Lapiz took a nap.

By the time she finally placed her quill down, fifty completed talismans were neatly arranged on the table.

Astrea leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms. She might be a dragon with great reserves of mana inside her body, but she had to admit that this kind of work was very hard.

“Fifty talismans.” She glanced at the pile of talismans with a satisfied smile.

Although fifty might not sound like much compared to the four hundred they needed, every single talisman mattered.

More importantly, she had managed to make them without waking up either Chuck or Lapiz.

The young lady then looked at her sleeping friends. Chuck and Lapiz now looked way better than they did an hour ago, which made her believe that she had made the right decision in letting them sleep a little longer.

“They really needed the rest,” Astrea muttered.

After she finished stretching her arms, she stood up and carefully gathered the fifty talismans. Just as she was about to place them in the designated container that Aeris would collect later, she heard a groan come from the couch.

“Ugh…”

Chuck slowly opened his eyes and subconsciously looked at the window. At that moment, he was still half asleep. However, when he saw that the sky outside had already gone dark, every last dreg of sleepiness inside his body disappeared in an instant.

“WHAT?!” Chuck gasped in shock before hurrying to stand up.

Astrea nearly dropped the talismans in her hands, surprised by the young man’s shout.

“It’s already dark?!” Chuck hurried to the window to see and double-check if he was just imagining things. After confirming that it was indeed already nighttime, he looked at Astrea with a pale face. “How long was I asleep?!”

“About two hours,” Astrea replied calmly.

“Two hours?!” Chuck looked genuinely horrified. “You said you’d wake us up after an hour!”

He then noticed the talismans that Astrea was currently holding in her hands and approached her in haste.

“How many did you manage to make while I was asleep?” Chuck asked, his face pale.

“Fifty pieces,” Astrea answered.

Chuck’s reaction made her falter a little. Perhaps letting her friends sleep longer was not that good of an idea.

Chuck froze at those words. “Fifty?”

“Yes.” Astrea nodded.

“You made fifty?” Chuck repeated in disbelief.

Astrea nodded once more.

The young man then stared at the young lady, wanting to double-check if she had grown an extra pair of arms. After all, finishing fifty talismans in two hours was something even he couldn’t do on his own.

In fact, it would take Chuck at least four hours to make fifty talismans by himself. That was how difficult it was!

“By yourself?” Chuck was still in a state of shock, unable to process how Astrea had finished fifty talismans without anyone helping her.

“Yes.” Astrea was very close to slapping Chuck with the talismans in order for him to understand that she wasn’t lying.

However, she held that thought back, and instead handed the finished talismans to the young man so he could double-check if she did them right.

After all, if she made a mistake, it would be disastrous for everyone. Especially to Chuck and Lapiz, who had nearly passed out because of exhaustion from making the talismans for the upcoming battle.

Chuck finally snapped out of his daze and double-checked the talismans one by one. He scrutinized them stroke by stroke, making sure that there wasn’t any mistake in their creation.

Astrea watched from the side, feeling a little anxious after seeing how serious Chuck was. Still, she believed that she did everything right, hoping that her hard work would not fail her and her friends who depended on her.