An Owl's Rise

'What is that!?'

Suddenly feeling an immense amount of magical energy, Evelyn shot wide awake from her deep slumber.

She had no idea what was going on and at first, she figured that a powerful entity had invaded the burrowing owls' home, but quickly realized that was not the case.

The magical energy she was feeling did not seem to have any will and felt more like when she used the advancement chamber.

Soon after, while she was wondering what was going on, Po, the original burrowing owl that had pleaded for her help came flying towards the chamber she was resting in.

"Lady Evelyn, the magic spring has become active. I know that you must be quite tired from the battle yesterday but within a few minutes the spring will be filled and ready for you." Po said frantically.

Evelyn's eyes went wide as she heard this as she had not expected to sleep for as long as she had since she missed the initial activation of the spring.

'I suppose that I must have been more exhausted than I thought. Still, while it is a shame I missed the start, the end is more important for me.'

Now that she knew the magic spring was active Evelyn hastily made her way to the main chamber.

When she entered, she saw that all of the burrowing owls were gathered around the large spring that sat at the back of the chamber.

However, it no longer looked like plain water as it had yesterday, and bubbles of pure magical energy were flowing into it from where water normally entered the spring from underground.

A bright glow was filling up within the spring showing the progress of the magical energy and it truly was a wonderous sight to behold.

Along with that growing up along the walls around the spring were numerous vines that Evelyn had noticed the day before, but now they similarly had a far more beautiful luster than before and small rainbow fruits that looked like grapes were slowly growing on them.

'Those must be the Chryseos Vines that Po told me about. I have never heard of them before, but it is clear that they produce a high quality magical fruits.' Evelyn observed as she closed the distance to the spring.

When she landed the burrowing owls that had gathered all surrounded her and bowed their heads.

Then Otis hopped over to her and opened his right wing and pointed towards the spring.

"Lady Evelyn, as promised for your assistance we wish to allow you the honor of being the sole user of the magic spring. Normally this is only allowed when the leader of our flock is ready to ascend beyond the awakened rank, but for the immeasurable help you have given us in reclaiming our home we are more than happy to allow you to use the magic spring alone."

After saying this Otis explained that once the spring was fully filled with magical energy it would begin pulsating and let out a bright light.

"It is time Lady Evelyn. Here another gift from all of us." Otis said, presenting her with the beast core from the osprey patriarch.

In order for her to raise her tier, she would need an item that shared an affinity with her and was sufficiently powerful enough.

Luckily the osprey patriarch had a fire affinity and using it along with the magical energy coming from the spring Evelyn should have been able to raise her tier from low to mid.

'I have noticed that I need to absorb an absurd amount of magical energy to feel any difference in my capacity after reaching the awakened rank, so hopefully this spring will finally be able to give me the boost I need.' Evelyn thought as she took the core from Otis.

With everything now ready she entered the spring, and the moment she felt her foot touch it the magical energy began rushing into her.

It was a wholly different experience than she had ever felt before, and it was incredibly pleasant. Like slipping into a warm bath after an especially stressful day.

Slowly she advanced into the spring until only her head was above the water and focused most of her attention on absorbing the magical energy.

However, she did make sure to keep her senses at least somewhat trained on the burrowing owls just in case they had been deceiving her and planned to attack her while she was distracted.

Of course, this was just her distrustful paranoia, and the burrowing owls had no intentions of harming who they considered to be their savior.

Nearly an hour went by as Evelyn absorbed more and more magical energy into herself, until finally something new happened.

The beast core she was holding in her left foot began to break apart and all of its properties were absorbed into Evelyn.

Her ascension to the next tier had begun now that she had absorbed enough magical energy.

Just like the spring Evelyn began to glow and her body began undergoing a change as she advanced to the next tier.

Normally this would have taken at least a few hours, but thanks to the properties of the spring, Evelyn felt her body changing at a more rapid pace.

Thankfully it was only mildly discomforting, and within around thirty minutes she had reached the mid-tier of the awakened rank.

'Finally, that took a while even though I have been eating plenty of high ranked beast cores.' Evelyn thought as she examined the changes to her body.

She was used to making fast progress, being able to reach the next tier relatively easy enough. But had found that things truly became much more difficult once she reached the awakened rank.

In fact, her progress using the magic spring could only be considered astounding, as it would normally take a couple years for a newly evolved awakened rank beast to reach the mid-tier even if they had numerous resources at their disposal.

'It seems that I have reached my limit after advancing to the next tier. Only the Aethersphere is absorbing any magical energy now.' Evelyn observed.

Her body, while having obtained the ability to absorb far more magical energy than before after evolving, still had its limits, and she had reached hers.

Nevertheless, the Aethersphere needed magical energy to continue repairing itself and this was the perfect time for her to receive an immense amount of magical energy she would normally not have access to.

'I should also fill up some jars while I am at it.' Evelyn thought as she looked into the glowing water.

Accessing her storage items Evelyn took out a dozen large jars and filled them with spring water.

She knew that it was a useful brewing material that could enhance the potency of her potions and planned on using it along with her best ingredients to make a number of powerful potions for her personal use.

Once she had finished sealing up the last jar, she began swimming through the spring and towards the other side where the Chryseos Vines were.

The rainbow-colored fruits that resembled grapes had finished growing and swelled up to the size of plumbs now.

'They certainly look appetizing, but I am already filled up on magical energy from the spring, so I will just take some for later.'

Going around the vines Evelyn reached out and plucked off around a half dozen of the fruits that were within her reach.

This was exactly half of the fruits as the four vines each only produced three fruits.

Having gotten all she wanted from the spring, Evelyn began making her way back to the shore.

When she arrived all of the burrowing owls were looking at her with stunned stares.

A moment later they all bowed their heads to her.

"You truly are a great one. Only those leaders that have ascended to the tyrant rank have ever been able to stay in the spring and enrich themselves with its magical energy for so long." Otis said in awe.

The other burrowing owls similarly expressed their reverence for Evelyn and began praising her.

This only made her feel awkward, and she now realized that perhaps these burrowing owls were a bit too zealous.

'So, this is what Minerva meant. Those that strong will always be looked to for their leadership.'

Sighing, Evelyn had never thought of herself as much of a leader, but now that she looked back at it, she took charge of the burrowing owls and had down all she could to make them win.

Naturally this had just been for her own self-interest, but that did not change the fact that she had effectively led them to victory.

Once things began to settle down Evelyn made mention that she was finished with the magic spring and that the burrowing owls could use the remaining magical energy for themselves.

This caused all of them to swiftly enter the magic spring and soak up the rest of the magical energy.

'Wow the magical energy really goes fast when there are that many of them.' Evelyn thought as she watched the burrowing owls.

While there had only been about forty percent of the magical energy left in the spring once Evelyn was done with it, when spilt between all the burrowing owls it did not last that long.

Still, it had helped some of the low tier burrowing owls that were already close to the next tier advance. Showing just how powerful of an asset the magic spring really was.