《Singer Sailor Merchant Mage》 Prologue: Nothing special "I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I''ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten." Nicholas Sparks There was nothing ever particularly special about me. I led a relatively normal and ordinary life right up until my death. I have often woken up from sleeping and thought, "Am I still dreaming?" Often struggled to differentiate my dreams from reality. Woken up to be angry that I can no longer fly. That¡¯s how this moment of memory started for me. . . . I was on my way home after a long day of work. Dusk had fallen and the sky was turning when I hit the ice. I must have driven past the slow down sign 1000 times before and as usual, I did. Hitting the brakes as I came up to the corner. Unfortunately, that is when I hit the ice. The car spun. Like the ice I froze, unable to move as the car careened out of control. Pushed into the side of the car I felt it shudder as it pressed through the barrier before flipping off the side of the road and over the side of the cliff. It was a long way down. . . . Drifting out of the depths of unconsciousness, I felt alone. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. . . . Tuntun, tuntun. I could feel my heartbeat as if I¡¯m underwater. . . . Tuntun, tuntun. We all die alone, the thought came unprompted. . . . Tuntun, tuntun. But it turned out I¡¯m not alone, Lub dub. . . . My heart was racing but it kept time with another. . . . Lub dub, . . . Tuntun, tuntun, tuntun, . . . Lub dub. . . . A heartbeat that was moving slower than mine but still they kept time together. Two beats to my six, still their speed rose and fell together. . . . Once more from the pit of oblivion I arose, with the thought "I think therefore I am." . . . tuntun, tuntun. . . . My heartbeat therefore I was alive, tuntun, tuntun, but I felt no pain . . . so . . . "Either I¡¯m injured beyond belief . . . or I¡¯m fine?" I thought to myself. . . . "Have I woken up from dreaming but still find myself unable to move?" I wondered. . . . "Was that what seemed to be happening here . . . " I speculated. . . . I just had to wait. I would either awake or fall back into nothingness. . . . Lub dub, . . . tuntun, tuntun, tuntun, . . . lub dub. . . . Slowly I swam up out of my stupor, I opened my eyes but all I could see was an orange glow. Waking to the warmth I found myself floating and without warning, I could hear now more than just a heartbeat. I was suddenly surrounded by sound. A humming filled my head. The notes rose and fell, the lullaby already unknowingly remembered, and soothed, I once more fell to sleep. . . . Ding. Sentience recognised. User interface enabled. Level: 0 Experience: 0/100 Health: 10/10 Stamina: 1/3 Mana: 10/10 Vitality: 1 Endurance: 0 Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0 Senses: 0 Mind: 44 Clarity: 0 Magic: 1 Skills: That was new. . . . Was I awake or . . . was I still dreaming? Chapter 1: In a Nutshell "I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself a King of infinite space - were it not that I have bad dreams." William Shakespeare Yes. It seems that I am back in a shell so to speak or even further back. I''m in a womb again, reincarnated or being reborn with time travel. Either that or an incredibly complex organic sci-fi rebirthing technology. I''m trying not to think about it too much as it is either incredibly intimate or absolutely alien and all utterly confusing. On top of that mind-bending conundrum, that my slowly healing or developing brain is trying to wrap its cerebrum around, is also the completely magical or futuristic fact that I appear to have a system! I simply have to think about my status for it to appear in my mind. The words written in light on the inside of my brain, eyes open or closed they are there to see. Level: 0 Experience: 0/100 Health: 10/10 Stamina: 1/2 Mana 10/10 Vitality: 1 Endurance: 0 Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0 Senses: 0 Mind: 44 Clarity: 0 Magic: 1 Skills: None I might not be able to move or breathe yet and my current status seems a little anaemic but how cool is this going to be . . . eventually! Provided I don¡¯t actually die before I¡¯m born. Mortality rates are not particularly good for . . . well, actually, I don¡¯t know what mortality rates are for infants here or wherever I am when I have no idea what the world is like and I am yet to be born. Anyway, here I am, floating around, arms flailing a little as I come to terms with my situation. . . . Waiting, tick tock tick tock. . . . Waiting, nothing to do. . . . Waiting, all alone in here. . . . Wondering who or what I¡¯m in and what I¡¯m in for. . . . All alone, all alone All alone, all alone All alone, all alone All alone, all alone . . . My eyes are still closed as I drift from side to side, up and down, still passing in and out of dreams and consciousness. Alone in my own private isolation bubble, alone with my thoughts as I tumble and turn. Worried that simply tumbling and turning could be dangerous, what with an umbilical cord floating around in here too. I try not to turn too much but still I end up bouncing gently against the walls of the womb. The elastic walls and water vibrating to a song or lullaby I know I have heard before, something unknowingly remembered. The occasional muffled voice making its way through the melody or pausing for a reply. But the words and song are not yet clear enough to understand or even identify the syllables used. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. . . . Still, at least I''m not completely alone. . . . There is life outside. . . . But what sort of life? I don¡¯t know if it is going to be my world, a different world, a sci-fi world, a mythical world but it¡¯s certainly going to be interesting, especially if I have a magic system. Or maybe the magic will simply be science I don''t understand yet. Either way, not life as I remember it on the planet I used to call home. A planet called Earth. . . . Unless that is exactly where I am. I think it is new. I think it is different. But what if where I am, is the same but it is only me who is changed? . . . I can¡¯t wait to see, something I don''t seem able to do yet and ultimately there is not much that I can do till then. . . . I wonder how many days old, how many months I am? . . . Am I a boy or a girl? . . . Am I even human? . . . Putting aside my existential crisis on my circumstances and my new reality. Let''s focus on what I can work out. On the words, I can see without working eyes. A status embedded in my mind. Skills, experience... how do I get them and what do I need to do? Better question yet, what can I do? I can¡¯t breathe, I can¡¯t speak, can¡¯t even move much, can¡¯t do much of anything really. All I can do is listen. . . . I can listen! . . . Can I get a skill in that? I¡¯m going to have to sit here and listen. What can I hear? I can hear my heartbeat, do I need to focus? I can hear my mother¡¯s heartbeat. How long do I have to listen for? No listening skill yet. But was that long enough to count as a skill? . . . What else can I do? Counting! I can count, 1,2,3 . . . 999, 1000 . . . . . . I think I must¡¯ve fallen asleep. I don¡¯t seem to have that much focus at the moment. I have no idea how much time has passed or how much time is passing now I suppose I can count the seconds as there doesn¡¯t seem to be a lot else to do . . . 3,599, 3,600. Ding! Time Sense (Lv 1) Bingo! I have my first skill! My first level! I gained 100 experience counting for 1 hour without falling asleep. It took three or four attempts to be able to stay awake for that long but I don''t have a lot of stamina which makes staying awake hard. Especially as it runs out when I try to stay out of dreamland. Level: 1 Experience: 0/200 Age: 1 day Health: 10/10 Stamina: 1/3 Mana 10/10 Vitality: 1 Endurance: 0 Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0 Senses: 1 Mind: 45 Clarity: 1 Magic: 1 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 1) Not only has my level increased with the experience gained through gaining a skill. I have also gained 1 stat for senses, so keep sensing, listening and counting I guess. But first, a quick nap to regain my stamina. . . . I¡¯ve woken up again, still warm, still content. Still not really sure what¡¯s going to happen next but at least I have a system! Something to engage my brain with. The problem is there is not a lot you can do here. I¡¯m going to see if I can get a counting skill next. In the end, I made it up to 3,600 again and nothing. 4,000 okay this is getting really boring 5,000. How long have I been counting for now? 60 seconds in a minute, 600 seconds in 10 minutes. If 10 minutes is 600 seconds then hundred minutes is 6000 seconds. So 500 minutes is . . . I''m confused. Think I need a pen and paper for this but don''t have any to hand right now. Probably need to work on my maths. Let¡¯s try again 60 seconds in a minute and 360 seconds in six minutes. So 3600 seconds in an hour. 3600! So if I count to 36,000 that¡¯ll be 10 hours of counting. I think I will stick to my counting rather than the maths. Decimal time would be so much easier to count in here. Yes! I just got another 100 experience for levelling up my time sense, through continuing to count, although still didn''t get anything like a counting skill. The bad news is the time it took doubled to 2 hours, 7,200 seconds. It¡¯s clearly going to take longer and longer to level this skill. While it is a shame there is no counting skill at least I know how to keep improving the skill I do have. Plus I was able to count for twice as long this time without falling asleep. My stamina and senses have risen but don''t know if that is simply natural growth or experience gained. Either way, it is helping me to stay conscious. Level: 1 Experience: 100/200 Age: 1 day Health: 10/10 Stamina: 7/7 Mana 10/10 Vitality: 1 Endurance: 1 Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0 Senses: 2 Mind: 46 Clarity: 1 Magic: 1 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 2) What should I do with these free points? Chapter 2: To spend or not to spend That is the question. I mean is it better to try and build a stronger foundation before birth, becoming a super baby? Or is it safer to stay as I am and grow naturally? Maybe here all babies are born super. Is it better to keep it simple and not stand out or should I stand up and face the world as strong as I can be? Yet if I don''t do something in here surely I will go mad. I need something to focus on, to hold to. For how ever long this may take. But by standing out at birth might I not end up getting hammered down? ³ö¤ëᔤϴò¤¿¤ì¤ë. To die once more, perchance to sleep again, and still yet may be reborn once more. But what to spend them on. I don¡¯t think spending them on strength would be a good idea because I could hurt my mother moving. Dexterity has no use to me here because I can¡¯t move anywhere and I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s going to be like when I¡¯m born. Though when I¡¯m born is it going to be dangerous? Hopefully not. Everything seems to be okay here but I¡¯ve got another 3 to 9 months, an appallingly vague assumption, waiting here and there¡¯s not a lot I can do. Magic? Again don¡¯t want to cause any problems and who knows what fire, ice, air, earth or simply some form of magical energy might do to me in here, let alone my mother. Clarity, mind and senses seem like the only stats that I can really change without leading to some form of disaster. But again there is no guarantee and I simply do not know enough and so my conscience or simple overthinking makes a coward of me and I lose the will to act. Maybe I will be able to take the risk at a later date, but for now, for when it all seems so novel and new, and completely bewildering, I will wait to make a decision. Lest I become more than discombulated in mind but in body as well. The paradox being that by not choosing I''m still making a choice. My choice is I¡¯ve decided I¡¯m not going to spend any of these points. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Ultimately being informed being more important than totally ignorant and I just don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing or what I¡¯m going to need. I don¡¯t want to cause problems whilst I¡¯m here in a womb. In any case, my stats seem to be improving naturally as I am growing here anyway so maybe save them for when I stop growing or an emergency is the best choice I can make. I choose to save rather than spend. Having got my time sense skill, it seems to have added itself to my stats list and I don¡¯t need to count every second for it to continue to add my age although not too accurately yet. But I found out that by counting for another 2 hours I can continue to level up my time sense ability. My skill is still at level two so not quite enough experience to move my overall level up to level two. My main problem is that I am still falling asleep far too quickly and way before I can count up to 14,400 at the moment. 4 hours of concentration seems to be a little too much for my baby brain. I will have to wait for my stamina to improve. Right so other than counting and keeping track of time. My next question is what else can I do for an hour at a time. The only thing I can think of and something I never had enough time for in my first life is meditation. Breathe in then breathe out. That doesn¡¯t work out too well for me at the moment. Meditation seems to be a lot harder to do if you are focusing on your breathing when you¡¯re not actually breathing. Try it out sometime because that¡¯s how it feels at the moment. Somehow it still feels comfortable to be under that pressure but it makes it challenging to focus on an in and out motion without breathing in and breathing out. Without that to focus on what is next easiest to focus on, keeping track of time and I¡¯ve done that. Let''s try meditation again can I get rid of all my thoughts and just feel¡­ . . . Managed it for a second but there is just so much nosie bubbling all around me. and . . . Well . . . It''s a little boring! Still I¡¯m going to keep trying. It took me several tries to get the time sense skill so it will take sometime to get the meditation. What it doesn¡¯t take much for is for me to fall asleep. Or daydream. As I lie here with my eyes closed counting I keep wondering what else I can do? How can I get another skill or gain more experience. The only other thing I can do is listen to my mother¡¯s heart beat. Right, that¡¯s it! By the time I¡¯m born I am going to be a super counter and a super listener. Can I do both at the same time. Just listen to my mother¡¯s heart beat and count it. Lub dub, lub dub, 1, 2, 3, 4 Lub dub lub dub 5, 6, 7, 8 Lub dub lub dub 3,599, 3,600 Bingo! Listening is now Lv1! Although my Time sense has yet to level again, I''ve managed to get to Level 2! Just keep counting, Just keep listening. What do we do? We level. Or at least thats what I hope I will be able to keep doing. Otherwise it is going to be a long gestation period for me! Level: 2 Experience: 0/400 Age: 2 days Health: 20/20 Stamina: 7/7 Mana 10/10 Vitality: 2 Endurance: 1 Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0 Senses: 3 Mind: 47 Clarity: 1 Magic: 1 Free Points 20 Skills: Time sense (LV 2) Listening (LV 1) Can I level two skills at the same time? Chapter 3: Listening with curiosity When was the last time you listened to someone? Listened, without thinking about what you were going to say in reply? Or waiting for your turn to talk? Unfortunately, that is all I can do at the moment. What¡¯s worse I can¡¯t even understand what they are saying. I¡¯m literally listening to her heart and to her guts, as well as mine. But literally and figuratively I¡¯m still in the dark. The only one I can actually understand, listen to and talk to is myself. I¡¯m continuing to count, continuing to listen and those are the only things that I can do at the moment. This morning, I thought I could hear my mother¡¯s voice. I¡¯m not sure at what point the cochlear develops in the womb but words and sounds seem to be becoming clearer. I guess maybe I¡¯ve been feeling her heartbeat more than hearing it but now I can hear my mother¡¯s voice and she is singing. Singing to me maybe. Does she even know that I¡¯m here? Will she have noticed? How long does it take for a baby to be aware? And long does it take a woman to be aware of a baby? I mean premature babies can survive, but from what age can they survive, and at what point does consciousness begin? Maybe it is simply because my listening skill has levelled that I can hear her. Sound being fairly muffled in here, easily half as loud as it would be outside. Also, interestingly enough, my endurance, strength and dexterity all gained 1 stat overnight. I¡¯m growing and my stats seem to be growing with me. I wonder when they will stop or if they ever stop. Will adding in my free points support or stunt my growth. There are just so many things I don¡¯t know so best to leave it to nature for now. Anyway, back to the singing or humming, not a hundred percent sure which it is, what with my ears under water and still under development. That said, I think it sounds beautiful. Even if, it still doesn¡¯t make sense. It is quite clearly not English, French or Spanish it doesn¡¯t sound like a Slavic language but I was never very good at those. It¡¯s not German, Japanese, Korean or Chinese but is pleasant and enjoyable to listen to. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Hopefully I will get another skill from listening in. Maybe a musical appreciation skill. I¡¯m not quite sure what skill I would get and my listening skill needed to be done for at least an hour before I got that. Plus, she isn¡¯t singing for two hours at a time, maybe I could give a kick whenever she stops. But I suppose if it adds up over time maybe in a week or two I will be able to level it up. Besides I think I am still too small for a kick to be felt right now. As for my day today, I know it must be day as she is moving around a lot so obviously it¡¯s daytime that or she sleepwalks. Anyway, she¡¯s up and about, physically moving and yes I think I¡¯m upside down again right now. I know you need to be upside down later on in time to be born so maybe I¡¯ll just stay this way round. Not that I¡¯m being particularly successful at turning around and I don¡¯t know whether I am to be born soon or later. I still have a fair amount of space and without too much pressure on me or rather all around me it will probably be later rather than sooner. Right back to this meditation school of mine. I¡¯m going to get it somehow. Without being able to concentrate on my breath I¡¯m going to focus on a heartbeat. Mine is too quick to relax to as it feels like I¡¯m sprinting all the time at the speed it is going. Paying attention to my mother¡¯s which is slower and louder seems to be the way to go. 3,600 seconds later, with a fair few detours into dreams, I still don¡¯t have it. Could be a lack of being able to focus on the breathing and it is difficult to stop thinking about what life will be like but I¡¯m going to persevere. I¡¯ll try again tomorrow or actually maybe later tonight. One of the things that makes it hard to try and get is the fact that I¡¯m moving or being moved around so much and the fact that I¡¯m upside down half the time. I¡¯ll try again tonight, when she stops moving. Hopefully I will be lying down rather than being upside down and I¡¯ll see if I can¡¯t get it then. Today¡¯s highlights are that I have time sense up to level 3 and listening up to level 2! Then I finally got my meditation skill! It took most of last night before she started getting up again and moving around but I now have meditation level one and that¡¯s enough to put me up to an overall level three. I think I¡¯ve been aware on and off for a week now although time sense says it has only been three days since I got a system. Got to keep grinding the skills that I have, counting the seconds, listening to my mother and meditating the nights away. The best result from today though is that my health has shot up to 30 when I got a point in vitality and my mana shot up to 20 when I gained a point in magic. Stamina has made it to 17 as I gained a point in strength and dexterity. Not quite sure how the physical stats impact one another. The stats for Mind and Senses continue to grow the most perhaps through leveling related skills. Level: 3 Experience: 0/800 Age: 3 days Health: 30/30 Stamina: 17/17 Mana: 20/20 Vitality: 3 Endurance: 1 Strength: 1 Dexterity: 1 Senses: 3 Mind: 48 Clarity: 2 Magic: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Time sense (LV 3) Listening (LV 2) Meditation (LV 1) Chapter 4: Swimming in circles Like a fish in a bowl, I''m swimming in circles. More accurately I''m rolling around and floating about but my new life has become a little bit repetitive. Unfortunately, unlike a fish my memory is lasting a little longer than 3 seconds and without any bright new ideas I''m left with a lot of navel gazing. In my case, an excessive comtemplation of the new addition to life as I know it, my stats. Looking at my stats again, now that I am level 3 I have 30 free points and I know that what I am going to be spending a few of my points on is my vitality. 30 points does not sound like a lot of health but when my vitality naturally went up to 3 as I grew my health went up to 30. So that¡¯s where I want to put my points at the moment. But the question I keep circling back to as always is how would that affect my growth, how would that affect my mother and how would it affect me? Probably best to leave it alone for now but if it ever starts dipping that¡¯s a 300 health lifeline. Still again I don¡¯t know how much rope that will actually get me or whether that will just be a drop in the ocean. Back to counting, listening and meditating. Or swimming in circles. According to my time sense skill I¡¯ve been awake for a week now. I¡¯m more aware now I have my two skills, one for tracking time and my meditation but now that I¡¯ve finally got the skill I¡¯m sensing something else. When meditating and after clearing my mind I can feel a heat, a pressure it is difficult to describe but it seems to come from both inside and outside. It is different to the warmth of being surrounded by amniotic fluid and the pressure holding me. Beyond those feelings there is a tingling, a sense of static, something I can almost see even with my eyes closed. Based on the fact that there is a stat for magic I think that this must be it, the magic, mana, force of this universe. How cool is that? I might be swimming in circles but I''m floating in Magic. My Vitality, Endurance, Strength and Dexterity have continued to grow as I have, slowly. Where I have seen a bigger improvement is in my senses and mind the two things that I have been able to exercise and gain skills with. Maybe if I focus on feeling this new sensation I will be able to start improving my Magic at a greater speed too. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. It feels a little like the sun on your skin and a warm bowl of soup at the same time. It is both external and internal. Obviously, it is being produced by myself to have the 20 mana that I do as well as being produced by my mother which is maybe why I can feel it inside and outside at the same time. But it is more than that. Up till this point I have lived in darkness but now there is a soft glow to it and I¡¯m unsure if it is simply my eyes continuing to develop and I¡¯m seeing light through the walls of the womb or magic, mana call it what you will, lighting up the walls of my home. Either way I¡¯m going to keep looking, sensing and feeling whatever this is and hopefully the system will give me an answer through the skill gained. So counting, listening, meditating and now looking at or feeling this new sense or warmth I count another hour. 1,2,3,4 . . . If there was a counting skill I would have it by now and like the sheep passing by they put me to sleep again. 99 . . . Drifting into dreams a rainbow of colours grace my thoughts. Might not have the memory of a fish but certainly seem to have the stamina. Starting again. Once more sensing and looking at a light I''m not even sure is internal or external I begin my count again. 3599, 3600 Bingo! It is Mana that I am sensing and I now have the skill to prove it. Took a little longer than just one hour so this one might be slightly slower to level than the others. But I have it. I may be swimming in circles but I''m getting stronger, hearing better, seeing further and hopefully staying awake for longer. I even got a surprise, a new skill. It is something that I have been doing for the last 7 days but I haven¡¯t been concentrating or focusing on it. Simply floating around for the most part although I have been moving my arms and legs even if somewhat uncoordinatedly. With 7 days of it, this seems to be enough for level 1 of swimming. If the time doubles then it will take me another 2 weeks to gain the next level of the skill. But how much does focus and concentration speed up the levelling process. If it takes an hour of solid concentration to gain the first level and two hours of clear focus to gain the second. Will I just naturally pick up skills if I do them for 7 days straight without concentrating on them? Are there other factors to getting a skill? Sadly the 5 separate levels gained in my skills only gets me half way to my overall level 4, when that same 500 experience would have taken me all the way from level 0 to nearly gaining level 3. I may never level again as quickly as I have here on my first few levels, with the increasing experience required for each level and the increasing time required to gain each skill up. But hopefully slow and steady wins the race. Moreover, I''ve concievably started the race before being born. Level: 3 Experience: 500/800 Age: 7 days Health: 30/30 Stamina: 23/23 Mana 30/30 Vitality: 3 Endurance: 2 Strength: 2 Dexterity: 2 Senses: 5 Mind 49 Clarity: 3 Magic: 3 Free Points: 30 Skills: Time sense (LV 4) Listening (LV 3) Meditation (LV 2) Mana sense (LV 1) Swimming (LV 1) Does anyone even know I''m in here? Chapter 5: The world outside I have the skill Eavesdrop! Yes! This means that there are other prerequisites to gaining skills. Simply listening feeds into the listening skill but I¡¯m guessing that I was able to listen to people who didn¡¯t realise I was listening in order to gain my new skill. Another difference is the level of experience gained for this skill. I got 200 experience instead of the usual 100, so there must be stages to the skills. Beginner and at least intermediate but I¡¯m still starting out so probably advanced and above too! Maybe each one of my skills has a tree of skills based on it to level up to. Listening then Eavesdrop what would be next in this tree and what do I need to do to be able to get it? Are there different branches? Mother is singing again. It sounds nice and is comforting. I¡¯m not alone here even if I can¡¯t respond. I was wondering if I can get smarter by listening to her singing. Fairly sure that was a thing back home people playing Mozart to babies to make them smarter. I remember thinking that seems a bit strange but it¡¯s only got my brain thinking. Now, I¡¯m listening to the words trying to work them out, well working out what they mean might be impossible. But maybe I can get begin to get the sounds used and understanding what they are. I remember when I first started learning Japanese then it all just sounded like a big blur of sounds. Actually being able to hear the separate sounds took me at least 3 months to work out where one word started and the next ended. I¡¯m guessing I¡¯ll be learning a new language here. Then at least I can get a leg up. There''s nothing like eavesdropping to show that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head. It isn''t so much that the world inside my head is different it''s that I simply don''t know what anything is. Everything is a guess and the only way to work out what the world might be like is through listening. Eavesdropping on others to make a guesstimate at what I might be expecting. I¡¯m listening to this house trying to imagine what the world outside looks like and even if I don¡¯t know what the words mean yet, I can start guessing. Maybe I can even learn the songs you don¡¯t need to know what the words mean to sing along. Other than that it is taking me longer and longer to level up the skills I have. 1 hour for the first level Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. 2 hours for the second 4 hours for the third 8 hours for the fourth Finally, 16 hours for the fifth level of each skill and that skill level isn¡¯t gaining me any more experience than the first. Compounded with the fact that the experience required for my overall level to improve is also going up exponentially. I might have made it to Level 5 for my time sense now but the key to my continued overall growth is going to be getting intermediate skills and hopefully advanced skills as well. To that end, I need to think about how I can build on the skills I have to gain their intermediate versions. What can I get from Time sense? Are there things I can time? What else could I get from listening? What would be the next stage after Eavesdrop? Where could meditation lead? If I can sense Mana can I absorb or expel it? Might be a little limited on the swimming as I don¡¯t have a lot of room in here. But maybe I can get breath control seeing as I haven¡¯t taken a breath in 2 weeks. Still proud of my progress in reaching level 4. Level 5 looks a lot further off but hopefully, I can think my way along a skill tree or two. Also, I have remembered that hearing begins around halfway through pregnancy so assuming I''m human and that the gestation period is the same wherever I am I think I must have around 20 - 22 weeks to go to term or at least another 140 days. I must have spent the first 20 weeks or 140 days drifting in and out of consciousness or maybe my baby brain simply wasn''t big enough to hold my consciousness. Either way, I should have ten times the amount of time left that I remember so far. That''s a long time to be without a way to interact with someone. I remember traveling on my own or taking a break out to hills, forests, or the countryside where I was unlikely to meet anyone but the option was always there. I know I''m not alone, I''m literally surrounded by family. But the inability to communicate in any manner makes me feel lonely. I want them to know I''m here, to feel my presence, to something . . . I push, stretch, kick. I want out. But it doesn''t happen and won''t for a long time yet. I push, stretch, kick, and then suddenly there''s a response. A gasp, an inhale of air, and without warning an extra pressure pushing down on me in here. I push once more and am pushed back in return. The muffled, sound of a word murmured meets my ears. Then I''m pressed again from two sides. I''m not alone. I might not be able to see much or hear much of the world outside but the world outside knows I''m here. I give them a last kick goodnight before drifting back to sleep my stamina is stretched by the simple movements made to gain their attention and wrapped in what I hope is my parent''s warm embrace. Level: 4 Experience: 200/3200 Age: 14 days Health: 40/40 Stamina: 13/33 Mana 50/50 Vitality: 4 Endurance: 3 Strength: 3 Dexterity: 3 Senses: 7 Mind: 50 Clarity: 5 Magic: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Time sense (LV 5) Listening (LV 4) Meditation (LV 3) Sense Mana (LV 2) Swimming (LV 1) Eavesdrop (LV 1) My last thought before sleep claims me once more is can babies get claustrophobia? Chapter 6: Everybody else does it You see my kidneys must have started working, or maybe they have worked for a while and I didn''t notice. Anyway working kidneys mean urine. Urine means pee and when you are trapped in a balloon it isn''t going anywhere but back round in a circle. My very own water cycle. Which is where my point that everybody else does it comes in. At least that''s what I''m telling myself. I''m just being a little more direct about it. You see back on earth the idea was that as dinosaurs had been around for so many million years they had to have drunk all the water in circulation on the earth therefore we were all drinking Dinosaur Pee! Anyway that idea makes it a little more palatable. As there is nothing else on tap in here. Although I don''t know if dinosaurs exist or existed where I am now so maybe not. It¡¯s been a month in here now. A whole 4 weeks! 28 days! Maybe only 16 more weeks to go but it sounds a lot longer when you say maybe another 112 days. Maybe only one more to go who knows. But I doubt that as I still have a fair amount of room in here. Not sure exactly when I gained consciousness. Also, not sure how long gestation will be here on this world or with whatever species I am. I have all my old skills which I have continued to level up and now I¡¯ve got one more, memorisation. I¡¯m learning the songs! I don¡¯t understand them but hopefully I¡¯ll be able to hum them when I¡¯m born. It¡¯s harder to remember a song without knowing what it means but I guess it¡¯s good for gaining the memorisation skill. Memorising a completely random, from my perspective at least, set of syllables attached to an interesting set of pitches, tones and rhythms. I remember learning a song in primary school in Klogbi. I¡¯ve still no idea what it means. But I can remember it because I memorised the sounds, pitch and rhythm. Once you get the first three syllables the rest roll out of my memory. Same goes for Frere Jaque in French means something about brother John but not sure about the meaning of the rest of the lines even though I can still remember the song and words. Quite proud of my progress so far but maybe I shouldn''t be after all pride cometh before a fall. Maybe all babies are born with stats around 10 and my efforts so far are lackluster, I just don''t know. So guess I will have to wait and see. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Eitherway I¡¯ve got all the skills and started to improve my senses. Although I¡¯m still level four some of my skills are catching up with one another as it takes longer and longer to level them. Level 6 for time sense took approximately 32 hours but during that time I was able to level meditation from level 3 to level 5 and sense mana from level 2 to level 5 as well! But the most important thing to note is that levelling Eavesdrop from level 1 to level 5 in the same time has given me the same amount of experience as the rest of my old skills combined! Need to work on gaining some more intermediate skills. But I haven¡¯t managed it yet. Anyway, I¡¯ve been developing a daily routine meditating at night when my mother is asleep, eavesdropping and memorising when she¡¯s singing, keeping track of time when she seems to be sitting still or between movements, oh and sensing mana and trying to do that all the time got sense mana to skill level five not sure what else I can get. My main problem still seems to be . . . that I¡¯m falling asleep . . . half the time. Still as my stamina grows so does the length of time I can stay awake. Although simply growing seems to be using my stamina up as I double in size. At least I assume I''m doubling in size nothing to measure with in here and it''s all relative and changing size anyway. As my senses have got better with my ears developing and increased with each level of listening combined with an increase in my senses stat I can hear more. It¡¯s still mainly my mother¡¯s heartbeat and listening to her songs and memorising those for the majority of the time. But there¡¯s also another voice maybe a sibling as it is higher pitched and possibly a father¡¯s voice as it is lower still not sure as it is harder to hear what they¡¯re saying and because it¡¯s a bit muffled coming from outside my little world but I think this is where the eavesdrop skill is coming in. Since when I use the skill it gets closer and easier to being able to hear it. Maybe the eavesdrop skill started levelling up quicker as I listen to someone else rather than my mother or when she is talking to someone else rather than me. I¡¯ve also just realised we¡¯re probably not in a sci-fi world as my mother doesn¡¯t seem to go anywhere other than where we are now. There are no sudden accelerations, limited to the movement of walking and it doesn¡¯t feel like there¡¯s any quick vertical movement so no elevators. I¡¯ve been trying to work out how and when we are moving and how far and where using my listening skill and I can now make out sounds of things being moved around. I''m not sure how much is coming through hearing or feeling but I can¡¯t close my ears off to just feel although I can close my eyes to just listen and still can¡¯t see much of anything anyway. Time for another nap, night night. Level: 4 Experience: 1900/3200 Age: 28 days Health: 70/70 Stamina: 50/50 Mana 70/70 Vitality: 7 Endurance: 4 Strength: 4 Dexterity: 4 Senses: 10 Mind 55 Clarity: 7 Magic: 7 Free Points: 40 Skills: Time sense (LV 6) Listening (LV 5) Meditation (LV 5) Sense Mana (LV 5) Swimming (LV 2) Eavesdrop (LV 5) Memorisation (LV 1) Chapter 7: Through the listening glass So wondering what other skills I can get whilst I¡¯m here to get me there. Bit stuck with nothings much else to do. Over the last two months I have learnt a lot of songs but now I seem to have come to the end of my mother''s repertoire. It has been very good for my memorisation skill and I am able to learn them quicker and quicker now. Sure that the continued development of my ears and my improving listening skill have helped with that too. Wondering how much my senses stat has gone up is due to my developing body or due to my increasing listening skill. Also wondering about my parents occupation maybe my mother is a singer? Doubt this as I have never heard a crowd''s applause. Thinking about what I am or what I will be. What life might be like? Will I have a choice? As I''ve thought before there is no point worrying about it as I can¡¯t really do anything about. But I do anyway. Okay I could have three months left or I could have as little as a week left as always not sure really. I think I¡¯m going to think there¡¯s three months total before I¡¯m born because premature babies get born up to 6 months early and I like to think I could survive outside by now. My most recent worry is that increasing my vitality might mean that it takes me longer to be born. Not really sure how vitality works. Does it mean I¡¯m getting healthier? My health has gone up to 80 now so that¡¯s obviously a good thing but is that going to make it harder for me to keep growing? Or does that speed up my growth? I remember from one class or another that the record for the longest pregnancy lasted over a year because of the fetus developing slowly. I could always spend more time in here, for more growth before facing the unknown would be good but honestly I''d really like to get out more than anything. Thoughts like these reinforce my decision not to spend any points. Like I said, I don¡¯t want to hurt my mother and I don''t know the consequences. If I doubled my strength would I double my size? That could be dangerous at the moment for both of us. I¡¯m amazed at how well I can listen now to the other voices outside. I have identified a few more regular visitors to our house. First is definitely a male voice probably my father as it seems quite low and is reguarly around morning and night. Second voice I¡¯ve been able to pick out is a higher pitched one which seems similar to my mothers so female and could be an aunt or a sister. Third is another females voice slightly lower voice so another sister, aunt or perhaps a grandmother. Fourth and fith voices that I can now identify are both lower male voices but not around as much so maybe an older brother, uncle or a grandfather again not sure. This could be a family tree I''m building up in my head or it could be the neighbours passing by! I¡¯m enjoying guessing what different sounds might be when mother walks around trying to guess how big the house might be or is it a house it could be a cottage as I haven''t heard any stairs yet. Could even be a tent! Also trying to guess where movements change and if we are moving in different directions. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Tried making music today didn¡¯t work as I can¡¯t sing because I don¡¯t have any air. I can¡¯t hum either because I don¡¯t have any air yet. My lungs are literally filled with liquid. Cracking my teeth doesn¡¯t work because I haven¡¯t got in any can¡¯t click my fingers because I¡¯m underwater so developing my musical skills will have to wait a little bit longer. 64 hrs! Yes that''s right. That¡¯s how long Time sense took to level up. Maybe they get capped at level 10 of the skill. There has to be a better way to keep improving! Luckily there is! That¡¯s right I have a new skill, echolocation. I spent so long trying to listen and work out where things are and what things are that I¡¯m beginning to have some idea of what¡¯s around. Obviously I can¡¯t speak or emit my own noise for it to bounce back but I¡¯m beginning to be able to tell a little bit about what is around me from other people''s sounds bouncing around. This seems to use my listening skill to listen past all the noises I''m surrounded by of my mothers heart beat, breathing, gut movements. Focusing only on the noises outside. Then with eavesdrop I can target individuals before devloping an idea of where everyone is. Unfortunately I can¡¯t see, hear where the room and objects in it are yet, let alone anything much more than where the sounds are coming from but I¡¯m beginning to get a sense of where everyone is in relation to us and where the walls might be. At the moment it¡¯s still more or less amorphous blobs within a box but that¡¯s more than I used to have so I can say that I am likely to be humanoid living in a humanoid world. Again still can¡¯t say the colour of our species and might still be an elf. Still it¡¯s an improvement. And the best thing is that it is an advanced skill so I gained a full 400 experience for the first level which puts me over into level 5! Yes! Level 5! Feels like a major milestone. Certainly is a large jump up in experience required for the next level. Think this might be the limit of what I can get to in here in the womb as the next level up is going to take 64 level ups with beginner skills, 32 level ups with intermediate skills or 16 level ups with an advanced skill. Might be possible but think I will probably be born before then. Especially as most of my current skills will require at least 32 hours to get the next level. Maybe skills max out at Level 10. But to be fair to myself I managed to get to level 5 in 56 days. So if I can find and work on 8 new different skills (6 beginner, 1 intermediate and 1 advanced) then that should give me enough experience to get to level 6 by day 100. Level: 5 Experience: 200/6400 Age: 56 days Health: 80/80 Stamina: 60/60 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 8 Endurance: 5 Strength: 5 Dexterity: 5 Senses: 15 Mind: 60 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 50 Skills: Time sense (LV 7) Listening (LV 6) Meditation (LV 6) Sense Mana (LV 6) Swimming (LV 3) Eavesdrop (LV 6) Memorisation (LV 6) Echolocation (LV 1) Do you think there is a sleeping or daydreaming skill? Because I''m certainly putting enough time into those. Chapter 8: Home is where the heart lies Approximately 10 cm meters above my head is where my mother''s heart is and hence my home. A mobile home to be sure but one I can''t escape from. Still here, obviously! Think I''m having a bad day. Fallen off the wagon, daily routine wise. Everything . . . is . . . just . . . taking . . . so . . . long . . . . to . . . level . . . up now! The level 7 to level 8 is taking 64 hours for each skill. Now that might not seem too long. Less than 3 days really but break it down into 8 hour working days and it suddenly shoots up to 8 days. Further hamper yourself with a baby brain and although I know I will get there eventually it is becoming impossible to work out when. Plus you can''t level all the different skills at the same time although there is some overlap. I¡¯m not going anywhere, yet still moving back and forward somewhere, somewhen, somehow. I think if I remember correctly babies can be born from around 20 weeks. That¡¯s about five months. So assuming that is my start point for sufficient brain development is to be able to host consciousness, although I¡¯ve no idea at what point of consciousness can be hosted, that means I that means I could possibly have another approximately 60 days, 8 and half weeks or 2 months in the womb still to go. So this could be my last month and then again I don¡¯t really know how long gestation is. Am I even human? What if I¡¯m an elf or a dwarf? I can¡¯t really tell like I said to myself earlier. Other than the fact that I have two hands ten fingers and maybe ten toes I don''t know if I''m green, blue, pink or black. Think positive, think positive, think positive. Well postives are the improvements I''ve made with Mana Sense and echolocation. Combining the two skills I¡¯ve now managed to get a better idea of peoples faces out there. They have progressed past simply being other blobs of sounds or mana. I can now recognise my mother and father. Father appears to be a bigger humanoid than mother and I¡¯m fairly sure I have a sibling because they¡¯re often here in the house and they are smaller than my mother. Then there is one more male adult who is smaller than father so possibly a grandfather and what appear to be another pair of grandparents who visit regularly to the box that is my world outside the womb. Anyway I¡¯m definitely getting bigger and it''s definitely getting a little bit more cramped in here. Still comfortable, warm and content? This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Not sure if that''s true. I still haven¡¯t added any points to my stats and not because I don''t want to now. I tried to add just a single extra point to each stat to see what would happen. To see if I could notice a difference. I felt that I had grown enough that it would only be a 10 - 20 % increase and therefore manageable or at least not a harmful increase to either myself or my mother. But I now know I can''t because when I tried I recieved the following message saying. Status locked for 160 months Guessing this is some way to stop children or even babies allocating their status points away. Which is a shame as I was kind of looking forward to being a superbaby. Thinking about it by the time 160 months pass and the gestation period is over, however long that may be, won''t every other child have caught up anyway. As level 12 of a skill is going to take a year and a half to reach. Which would give people enough time to get from level 1 to level 11 because of the doubling of time required. Will there be much of a difference between a level 11 and a level 12. That''s not taking into account that the experience gained for each level doesn''t seem to change but the experience required for overall leveling up is also increasing exponentially. It''s literally infinity squared. Feeling a little burned out to be honest. It was fun whilst I was making progress that I could see and seemed tangible but as the gains get smaller and smaller and the costs get bigger and bigger. I find myself stalling. How can I prepare for something when I have no idea what to expect. I''ve memorised all the songs my mother sings to me. I have a rough idea of where I am. Anything else is pure speculation. Can I be a ranger, a warrior, a wizard, singer, merchant mage. Am I going to be a serf, peasant, lord or lady? A farmer or a mechanic? Surprisingly, in the end, the last month was enough to get my skills an extra level. But it took nearly 16 days to get level 8 of time sense. Not a whole month but no man, I mean no baby can keep doing the same thing hour after hour for a month. Time to take a break, time to have a daydream. I have a new hobby world building. The definition on my echolocation / mana sense is improving but still blurry. So yes, I¡¯m building a world in my mind, I can imagine it in greater detail than I can see, well it is more of a room at the moment than a world. I use the Stat screen to form one wall of my mind hut, before building the other four walls off from it. On the left wall I have a self portrait of who I was and on the right wall I have a portrait of who I will be on the right. On the left a renaissance self portrait with items of my old life spread around me. In the portrait there is a table with various books on top, a computer, an easel with art work half completed, various other items in the background. On the right wall I just have an embryo picture surrounded by darkness because at the moment I have absolutely no idea what I will be or what I will look like. Thinking of this room as the core of who I was, am and will be. I have a compass rose on the floor and the night sky constellations on the ceiling. Going to add another room next door for my mediation. Thinking of making it a Japanese room with Tatami mats for my mediation. But I''m tired and it''s time for sleep. Level: 5 Experience: 3300/6400 Age: 84 days Health: 100/100 Stamina: 73/73 Mana: 120/120 Vitality: 10 Endurance: 6 Strength: 6 Dexterity: 6 Senses: 20 Mind: 65 Clarity: 12 Magic: 12 Free Points: 50 Skills: Time sense (LV 8) Listening (LV 7) Meditation (LV 7) Sense Mana (LV 7) Swimming (LV 4) Eavesdrop (LV 7) Memorisation (LV 7) Echolocation (LV 7) Is home where the heart lies or rather where the mind rests? Chapter 9: Old dogs, old tricks Think my mother has had a drink or two. I know it''s not good for babies but do they know it is not good for babies? Really enjoying the feeling but worried about my braincells. I mean in my old world it wasn''t until 1973 that fetal alchol synodrome became a thing and even then it wasn''t until 1978 that it actually became recognised as a significant problem for the babies involved. Either way I am drifting in and out of sleep a little quicker at the moment and with just a little bit of a buzz today. Maybe it is her birthday or someone elses? Plus I don''t know if I have said this to myself before, but there is a certain taste to the amniotic fluid and at the moment I am swallowing a little more than usual. Most of the time I try not too, but I think whatever I am absorbing through the umbilical is persuading me that this is a good idea. Probably not though. Although I think that this is one of the few situations that I will ever have were I have absolutely no control of the amount of alchol being absorbed into my bloodstream. It used to be all my own fault. Anyway, other than my slightly inebriated state, which is questionable, because I think she only had one, it seems that a new audience means . . . new experience! Even for old dogs and old tricks. I¡¯m back on task, back on track even if I might be swaying from side to side metaphoricaally speaking, and I got there with a new skill called Recall. It is only an intermediate skill which I would have been happy with anyway and with it I am able to rebuild memories of old songs and books but it is a game changer. Why I ask? Well . . . With each song I am able to completely recall, remember then perform in my head until it memorised once again I am gaining 100 experience. A whole new type of experience gain. I¡¯m starting simple with nursery rhymes but so far; Twinkle, twinkle, little star, Baa baa black sheep, Hickory Dickory dock, Do you know the muffin man, Mary had a little lamb, Humpty Dumpty , The Grand old Duke of York, It¡¯s raining its pouring and London¡¯s burning have netted me 1000 experience in total. Who would have thought nursery rhymes could be worth more than a pleasant time entertaining nieces and nephews. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Might have something do to with the fact that at the moment those are the only complete songs I can think of Anyway, this has opened up a whole new way of earning experience for me. Before I could only gain the experience through the skill progress and levelling up my skills. But now I have another method. It seems to be something called Origin experience and now my experience is dividing itself into the two different types. What¡¯s even better is that the songs seem to keep getting 100 experience for each new one. It isn¡¯t decreasing with each new song. Which is fantastic! It is the first time I have found something to do that would reward me equal amounts of experience without taking exponentially longer to do. If there are two types of experience gain maybe there are others. Could I get listening experience? Watching experience? Who knows? Regardless, it can be really uncomfortable in here sometimes. Listening to conversations I¡¯m unable to contribute to and being jostled around backwards and forwards often without warning. But the progress I¡¯m making with my stats and status is something I can hold onto. To base my life around something that is a little more stable than my movement in the world. Thinking that if I can get a skill and experience for recalling songs from my world I thought to see if I could make up my own. It wasn¡¯t a great song but it netted me two new things. A skill called composition another intermediate skill worth 300 per level and the 200 experience for my rather poor self creation. I know that my musical skills are not particularly great, particularly as my mother for the first time since my memory began has decided to have a drink. But maybe the extra lubrication will inspire my musical talents to come up with more than nursery rhymes and build my own songs? There once was a ship that put to sea The name of the ship was the Singer you see The winds blew up, her Sailors dipped low Oh row the merchant cried Mmm, doesn''t sound like me yet but who knows? Maybe I can turn it into a tune or two. Soon may the super baby come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the sailing is done We''ll take our leave and go Mmm, let''s say it is a work in progress. Maybe I should stick with . . . What should we do with the drunken baby, What should we do with the drunken baby, What should we do with the drunken baby, Early in the morning! I''m tired . . . Probably time to go to sleep. Still exciting news. I made it to another level. Discovered a new way to gain experience. Levelled up and natually grew my stats a little bit more. Hey I might not be able to add my free points for another 160 months but thinkgs are looking up! Umm, do think that means the due date is soon. Who knows? Happy to fall asleep with a little bit of a buzz even if I know that can''t be a good thing for my baby brain. Maybe I can get some alcohol resistance here? But that wouldn''t be good to get my mother to have another drink. Even though I have absolutely no control over anything she does anyway. Night . . . . . . . night . . . . . . z.z.z. . . . z.z.z. . . . p.s. Level: 6 Experience: 700/12,800 Age: 91 days Health: 110/110 Stamina: 83/83 Mana 150/150 Vitality 11 Endurance 7 Strength 7 Dexterity 7 Senses: 20 Mind: 70 Clarity: 15 Magic: 15 Free Points: 60 Skills: Time sense (LV 9) Listening (LV 8) Meditation (LV 8) Sense Mana (LV 8) Swimming (LV 5) Eavesdrop (LV 8) Memorisation (LV 8) Echolocation (LV 8) Recall (Lv8) Composition (Lv 1) Skill experience: 3000 Origin experience: 1300 In my old world, making music is like printing money. In my new world, recalling music is like printing exp! Super baby, for all to see! Chapter 10: Fortress of solitude Day 100 of self isolation! I¡¯ve been locked in here for 100 days without being able to say a single word. Without pardon or parole the length of my sentence is ambiguous and unclear Unable to move properly, still gaining control over my limbs. There have been good days and there have been bad days. I have listened carefully to the world outside waiting for my day to come. I have faced these blank glowing walls that undulate and I have rebuilt my own world within my mind I might not be getting out today but today is a good day. I have new skills! Skill: Mind fortress My daydreams have developed a depth, density and permanence to them now. Not so much a dream as an internal world I can escape into. I know it isn¡¯t a new world but it is real in a way this world somehow recognises. My fortress is a set of rooms based on the golden spiral idea of the Fibonacci sequence. It is a way for me to build rooms that are sequenced but are structured. A way for me to easily tell the difference between them and I''m still growing it. The first room of my fortress is my core, my ID, my stats and status. One of the smallest rooms at the center of the spiral. It is a 1 by 1 block that I first daydreamed about with my two self portraits on either side and a wall for my stats at the end. It seems that after holding this image of a room long enough in my consciousness, as a place to retreat to from the womb, I gained my first level in Mind fortress. Not only did I gain a new skill but it isn¡¯t a beginner (100 exp), intermediate (200 exp) or even advanced (400exp). It¡¯s even beyond the next level. Not gaining me 800 exp but 1600 experience per level! Think I am going to have to rename skill stages, tiers, or something else but this must be a fith tier skill and with it I can power through my overall levels, at least to start! 8 levels in mind fortress will take me all the way to level 7. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. On it¡¯s own! And I already know what I¡¯m going to make and how it¡¯s going to be. The second room of my fortress is my mediation room this is also one block by one block with a clock in the corner counting the time pass. I can sit and meditate or listen to the world outside the womb without the distractions of body inbetweeen. It helps me with my meditation. I already had these two in place from my daydreams and each room gave me another level in the skill. The third room of my mind fortress is my library a two by two block with shelves lining the walls. Admittedly they are all still empty at the moment but all the songs I¡¯ve memorised, written down, and all the songs I can recall I''m mentally writing them down and filling the empty shelves with the knowledge of the world I once knew and the world I¡¯¡¯m stretching my senses to learn about. Mind fortress (Lv 3) ! The fourth room of my mind fortress is my music room. This one is larger still 3 blocks by 3 blocks. It has a piano in the corner and ever so happy to have something to tinker around with in my head. The rooms are still mainly empty but there is so much more I can fill it with. At the moment I am grinding the experience so I will press on. Mind fortress (Lv 4) ! The fith room of my mind fortress is my swimming pool room. A five by five block area I mentally filled it with water and am enjoying paddling around in here. As life in the womb has gotten tighter and tighter it has become impossible to stretch out in here. It is nice to have a place to stretch my legs and arms mentally speaking. Here I can practice my skill that has had the most anaemic growth my swimming skill. My body might not yet remember how to do it but my mind does. I hoping that practicing in here might be able to help level up the skill. But who knows? Nothing ventured nothing gained. Mind fortress (Lv 5) ! My mind is feeling a little stretched with the creation of the last room of my mental world. So stopping there for now. I came up with a few more sea shanties to get a little bit more of the origin experience and fill a few more of my shelves in my imaginary library. That combined with the other skills I have levelled over the week has been enough to put me over level 7! Kicking back and floating on my back in my imaginary pool I''m feeling proud of my progress in here. It might have been 100 days of isolation but it has given me time to come to grips with my new reality. I''ve accepted that I am having some form of rebirth and reincarnation hopefully in the not too distant future. I have bit the bullet that either the world, me or both will not be quite like how I remember them that there has probably been some form of transmigration. Finally I feel I have seized the opportunity to make the most of this new stat system of mine. Who knows? Maybe I can make it to level 10 before my birth day. Especially if I can somehow use my mind fortress to level up some physical skills or continue to level the skills I already have with some form of persistent levelling. I wonder if I can fall asleep when I am in here? Going to head to my meditation room, lay out a futon and take a mental nap. Before I tackle the largest challenge yet of getting to level 8. Level: 7 Experience: 1,100/25,600 Age: 100 days Health: 120/120 Stamina: 93/93 Mana 160/160 Vitality: 12 Endurance: 8 Strength: 8 Dexterity: 8 Senses: 21 Mind: 77 Clarity: 17 Magic: 16 Free Points: 70 Skills: Time sense (LV 9) Listening (LV 8) Meditation (LV 8) Sense Mana (LV 8) Swimming (LV 5) Eavesdrop (LV 8) Memorisation (LV 8) Echolocation (LV 8) Recall (Lv8) Composition (Lv 6) Mind fortress (Lv 5) Skill experience: 12,200 Origin experience: 1000 Chapter 11: Sometimes you need a little magic "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don''t believe in magic will never find it." Roald Dahl I always believed in magic and now I''ve found it. Somedays it is easy to forget who I was and only focus on the here and now. But as I start to stock the library in my mind fortress I reflect on all the books I''ve read. My Recall skill is working overtime as I struggle to remember all the books I''ve enjoyed reading as well as all the ones I''ve used to teach others. Certain authors spring to mind quicker, the children books filled with rhythm and rhyme coming the quickest. While the huge novels of high fantasy and science fiction are far beyond the level my Recall skill can reach. Yet still I''m hopefull that one day they will be mine again. For now I begin to fill my shelves with the shortest books I can remember. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. My illustrastions aren''t the best but with time they will improve and time seems to be all that I have at the moment. That and my mind. My Mind Fortress skill is fantastic. It might have taken 100 days of isolation to build it, or hit the requirements for it but the skill will be with me for the rest of my life. I might be reborn. I might be inhuman. I might be born at either the dawn or sunset of a civilisation. But . . . I will in time be able to bring part of my own world with me. Even if it only ever exists in my head. I''ve started to add more detail to my spartan fortress. Room 1A now has a Mariners Windrose Compass ingraved on the floor. I was always a fan of the their names. Tramontana for the Northern point and Greco for the north east. Levante to the East and Scirocco for the South East. Ostro for the South and Libeccio to the South West. Ponente for the West and finally Maestro for the North West. I''ve also added a constellation or two to the ceiling Aquarius and Aquila. Leo and Orion as well as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Maybe when my mind stat increases and I can handle building more rooms to my fortress I can make my own planetarium. I wonder what the night sky looks like wherever it is I am. The self portraits are still a work in progress. Art was never one of my strengths but again with time maybe this life I will be able to make better progress. I have tried to move my Stats on the central wall from which this all spirals to reorganise them but I have yet to be successful. However, with my Time sense surprisingly hitting (Lv 10) this week and I was able to add some extra detail to my age. I am unsure if this happened because I have created a clock for each of my rooms within my mind fortress or for some other reason as I had thought that it would take me a full 64 days to reach what I thought would be the final (Lv 10) in Time Sense. Now I am unsure if there are other tricks to levelling skills or even if (Lv 10) is not the cap for a skill after all. Although it took the full 32 days to level up my other skills to reach (Lv 9) so not convinced either way yet. Today I will have been aware for 4 months, 2 weeks, 6 days and 20 hours. Assuming my baby brain was well enough formed to cope with an adult consciousness just before midway through a normal human pregnancy I believe I have up to 1 month and 2 weeks left to my delivery day. Again assumption being the mother of all failures I won''t be pinning my hopes or plans on it. If consciousness magically began at the day of conception I could have as many as 5 months 2 weeks left, and in a world with magical stats anything is possible. Alternatively if I did not drift into consciouness midway but later, then tomorrow is entirely possible too. Hoping for the best preparing for the worst. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. But how do you plan for being reborn? I''m not quite sure. Still looking once more at the Stats I''m so proud of I have two major concerns. My first concern is my rather lopsided set of stats I have managed to build up in here. Restricted by my location I have focused on the mental skills and physical senses that I could use, test and practice. Apart from my Mind stat which was 44 times higher than anything else at the conception of my consciousness. This seems to have helped my Senses, Clarity and Magic grow twice as quickly as physical stats of Vitality, Endurance, Strength and Dexterity. Will this restrict my physical growth once I am born or put me at a disadvantage? Should I see if I can somehow raise my physical stats to reflect similar levels of my mental stats and how would I go about doing that? My second concern is that does this mean that a typical baby would be born with stats ranging between 8 and 12? If so, will they, my parents, relatives, society in general be able to tell? Is there someway I can hide the mental progress I have made in here? I can hide my senses by pretending not to hear or feigning incomprehension which won''t be too hard as I still can''t understand what they are saying. I don''t see how they could see what my mind stat is at but maybe I can thicken the wall of my mind fortress somehow. Again I don''t see how they could see my clarity sense, but who knows? It is my Magic stat that worries me the most as not only is it over double my physical stats it is also responsible for my Mana pool. Something I believe they will be able to sense, if they haven''t already, when I am born. You see when I use my echolocation to sense the world around me I am able to see their positions and size. Furthermore this week to my delight I have discovered that this world really is full of magical things. Patiently waiting for my senses to grow sharper I am now able to see past the glow of my mother''s mana that still surrounds me and when I add this sense to the picture I get from echolocation I can gain a sense of their strength in magic. If I can see their pools of mana, won''t they be able to see mine? That is my worry. It might be best not to stand out too much till I know the consequences. That ship might have already sailed with the progress I have been making so far in here. But I don''t think I could have done any less and stayed sane. Keeping busy has kept my mind occupied and apart from the odd day or two, free from doubt and depression. There is nothing I can do regarding my phyical stats and their progression. So I am left wondering how can I hide my magic. I think the answer will be to double down on practicing it. If I can lower my mana by expelling it, using it, compressing it, hiding it somehow then I can pretend to be a normal baby at least until I can finally work out what everybody is saying outside. I''ve continued to try and work out what they are saying but other than translating ''Ow'' from when I''ve accidentally kicked or stretched, which is ''Aiy'' by the way, I''ve yet to make much progress on it. Still with hopefully 2 months left I can find some way to hide my mana pool. Looking at my stats once more before leaving my mind fortress I am happy with the consolidation I have made in my skills levels over the last month. I might not have made it all the way to Level 8 overall but the filling of my library with songs and simple books has continued to give me origin experience and the skills were always going to take longer and longer to level up. That said it is the longest I have gone without getting a new skill and all the more reason to see if I can''t get another focused on using my magic somehow. Stepping outside of my mind I return to the inside of my mother''s womb. It is certainly getting tighter in here, it is hard not to panic as I get used to the pressure again. I had forgotten what it felt like whilst wrapped in my own mind. I try to fall asleep in the real world as the first time I fell asleep in my meditation room it was incredibly disorientating to wake up back in the womb with all the physical senses returned. I think it was the first time I truly panicked in here. The change too abrupt for me to remember where I was. It was the certainly the eureka moment for working out that Ai meant Ow. I try now not to fall asleep in my mind fortress, as without conscious thought the skill ends and I return to my physical body. Anyway I''m tired mentally and physically. Growing this much takes a lot out of me. I might not be doubling in size every week now but I''m still growing a lot. Maybe next time I''m in my mind fortress I could add a count down clock to my rooms. Approx. 40 days to D day Tired. Orange . . . glow. Close . . . eyes. Sleep Level: 7 Experience: 12,100/25,600 Age: 4 months 2 weeks 6 days 20 hours Health: 140/140 Stamina: 107/107 Mana 180/180 Vitality: 14 Endurance: 9 Strength: 9 Dexterity: 9 Senses: 24 Mind: 82 Clarity: 18 Magic: 18 Free Points: 70 Skills: Time sense (LV 10) Listening (LV 9) Meditation (LV 9) Sense Mana (LV 9) Swimming (LV 6) Eavesdrop (LV 9) Memorisation (LV 9) Echolocation (LV 9) Recall (Lv9) Composition (Lv 7) Mind fortress (Lv 5) Skill experience: 3000 Origin experience: 8000 Can I make it to level 10 before I''m born? Chapter 12: Defeat is temporary, giving up is permanent "For a hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character." Cressida Cowell I might not be a hero but this last month Magic is proving challenging for me. I have continued to make great progress with my old skills and seemed to have capped nearly all of them to level 10. But when it came to trying to work out a way to minimise my mana pool I hit the problem I had worried about from the very start and a rather alarming complication. After a long time focusing on my Mana I was able to push part of it from my body gaining the skill Expel Mana. I was so elated about achieving the skill I didn''t notice for a moment the pain and panic it caused my mother. Frantically, I attempted to pull my mana back into me succeeding in part due to being able to sense the difference between our two mana pools but it was more blind luck than anything else. Although, after the mutual panic and hasty withdrawal of my mana back into me I managed to get half of it back, calming my mother as hopefully the pain went away and gaining me the Absorb Mana skill. Hopefully it just felt like heartburn and nothing more than that. Still it was alarming for both of us and this is where the complication came in. I had managed to expel 20 mana from my pool dropping it down to 180. I was thinking to try and push out 20 at a time, 5 times to lower my pool to 100 to be in line with my physical stats at 10 each. As well as check regeneration time. However, when I checked my status to see if it had any affect I found to my horror an extra type of experience. Combat experience. The 10 Mana I had failed to recall had been given back to me in a different way and it looks like I caused 10 experience worth of damage to my mother. Looking at my current health I can only assume that she will be fine. That she surely must have significantly more health than me after living in the world long enough to be old enough to have at least two children. Anyway to test that I attempted it the other way around. It felt significantly harder than absorbing my mana back into me. But eventually I was able to take 1 mana from my mothers pool. It pushed my pool up to 201/200. It was uncomfortable but not painful. Still when I looked at my status again my Health had decreased to 149/150 and continued to decrease as long as I held onto that extra 1 mana. Although silver lining to all this experimentation was another skill, Mana Drain. Not only was it another skill it was at a Tier 4 skill gaining me 800 experience for it''s first level. The other difference is the speed I was able to gain these skills. All my original skills have taken increasingly longer to level up and took a solid hour of practicing the skill before I was able to get the first level. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. But I was able to gain these first levels almost instantly. It might have taken me a long time to work out how to do them but once I had worked out how to push and pull. The skills came instantly with the action. It didn''t take an hour of expelling mana, an hour of absorbing mana or even more than 1 mana drained to gain the three skills. The only reason I can think of for this is that it is linked to the new combat experience. Somehow impact on others, gives skills quicker than simply practicing for hours on end. What kind of world is that fact going to make? If it is so much quicker to level skills through combat than drilling or practicing in your mind perhaps levels don''t get capped at level 10. It is just that with level 11 taking 1024 hours or approximately 128 days of practice there is no way I will find that out in here. All in all though, it simply isn''t safe to practice magic in here and defeats my idea of somehow hiding my mana pool through some sort of magical skill. Delivery day is any day now and there simply isn''t time to develop a magical method of hiding it. Still I''m not giving up, just yet. Looking at my status I can''t help but focus on my most powerful Tier 5 skill, mind fortress. Is there some way that I can use it. The extra experience through my new skills, levelling up my old ones and the Origin experience for new songs and books I am filling my mind up with has been just enough to push me up to Level 8. I doubt I will make it to Level 9 or 10 before my birth day, but maybe just maybe I can do something about about hiding my status. Defeat is temporary, giving up is permanent. Level: 8 Experience: 10 / 51,200 Age: 5 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours Health: 150/150 Stamina: 117/117 Mana 200/200 Vitality: 15 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 25 Mind: 85 Clarity: 20 Magic: 20 Free Points: 80 Skills: Time sense (LV 10) Listening (LV 10) Meditation (LV 10) Sense Mana (LV 10) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 10) Memorisation (LV 10) Echolocation (LV 10) Recall (Lv10) Composition (Lv 10) Mind fortress (Lv 10) Expel Mana (Lv 1) Absorb Mana (Lv 1) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Skill experience: 11,500 Origin experience: 2000 Combat experience: 10 Right, that looks awesome to me. But how can I hide it from others if there is such a thing as an Analysis or Inspect skill? I think I am going to have to do some renovations of my mind fortress for what I have in mind. As I continued to level up my Mind Fortress skill to Lv 10 I developed the ability to create 10 rooms of sizes, 1x1,1x1,2x2,3x3,5x5,8x8,13x13,21x21,34x34 and 55x55. So far I haven''t filled the larger rooms with anything so I won''t be losing anything when I attempt this. First up, I allow the larger rooms 6 to 10 to slowly collapse, layering my orginal 5 with their remains until I have more of a mind bunker than a mind fortress buried deep in my mind. The next step is the trick and one I hope is going to work. Working my way up through the 16 layers I was able to build on top of my mind fortress I build a staircase reaching to the top. Then at the top of my mind I build once more what was the first wall of my fortress my status wall. But this time it is just a wall not a room, a false wall if you will, for a false Status. Leveled to what I believe would have been my natural growth without my consciousness being reborn here. Level: 1 Experience: (100/200) Health: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 10 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 10 Skills: Listening (LV 1) Swimming (LV 1) Skill experience: 200 Fingers crossed this works, but I will hopefully know one way or another soon I''ve reached the end of my mental count down, D Day has to be any day now. Chapter 13: Better late than never "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to". Gandalf the Grey. I''ve been in here exactly 6 months now! Well past when I thought I would be born. But I am a wizard! Well, hoping to be one day and I am going to stick with Gandalf''s line. I will arrive . . . precisely . . . when I mean to! Never late but hopefully worth the wait. Although, ''Better late than never'' and ''Better never late!'' Was what my cranky old computing teacher used complain to us if we were ever late to class. Along with ''Were you born in a barn!'' if we ever left the door open on our way in. I don''t think I will be born in a barn but who knows. I''m seven days overdue by my count and it is getting really tight in here. Think my mother must have abs of steel because there is very little give. Although nothing new there. First time round, in my last life, I was at least 10 days late. I am upside down, think I''m facing the right way round and I''m not moving. Not necessarily because I wouldn''t like to but because there simply isn''t any room left to move. A flex is about the most I can manage. The last fortnight has to have been the least productive in terms of levelling up myself or my skills. No new skills and not risking levelling the Mana skills with my mother''s health at risk over it. Pregnancy can kill the mother but it generally is a medical issue rather than a conscious decision or accidental manslaughter by the fetus. But I have managed something new despite not moving anywhere. In my mind fortress it seems that the clocks I added to each room really do reduce the time required to level up the skill, Time Sense. It finally hit Lv 11, breaking through my imaginary cap at Lv 10. By my estimate and this is more a guestimate than anything else. Each clock reduces it by a factor. So 2 clocks reduced the time for Lv 11 to 512 hours and the five clocks I have added reduced it down to 128 hours or roughly twenty five 8 hour days for Lv 11 of the skill Time Sense. Not only that but this Tier 1 skill, that used to only get me 100 experience per level between levels 1 and 10 is now gaining me 200 experience. I''m assuming the experience gained will increase with each set of 10 levels but who knows how high it will go. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Having worked that out I am trying to think how I could decrease the time for my other skills. What could I add to each room for my mind fortress to continually level a skill or level it at 5 times the normal speed? For listening, it was fairly easy to add a speaker or two, to each room, allowing me to hear our heartbeats and the hum of her singing whenever I am in here. I always wanted my own home surround system. Eavesdrop was more of a conscious choice to focus on the conversations rather than let them wash over me. So I have added a voice recorder on a stand to record any conversations of interest. This will hopefully help with both my Eavesdrop skill as well as my Recall skill at the same time. For Meditation I added a chime to each room but don''t think that it will help as unlike the speaker and clocks it isn''t something I can do all the time in each room. Also it generally involves me actively ignoring all the external distractions rather than having them run in repeatably in multiple rooms of my mind. For Sense Mana and Echolocation I have added some 4 screens to each of my rooms to act as windows to the world around me. Initially using these skills were either a very green screen of Mana or a black world with white fuzzy blobs for the people and objects. But as I have practiced and the skills levelled the picture''s definition has gradually gotten better and better. The green screen of Mana now has other colours floating through it. While the Echolocation is now black with white outlines of the objects around our house. The other skills don''t seem easily repeatable in each room. But I have been able to remember a few more lines from a few more books to start adding them to my library. Still more fiction than fact at the moment. Hopefully as the skills continue to level I will be able to recall more of my dry school textbooks. As entertaining as fiction is, fact would probably be more useful. Still my physical growth and mental gymnastics have managed to add a few more points to my stats and a little more experience. Only 50,000 more to go! I''m going to need a lot more experience one way or another. Level: 8 Experience: 1210 / 51,200 Age: 6 months 0 weeks 0 days 0 hours Health: 160/160 Stamina: 127/127 Mana 210/210 Vitality: 16 Endurance: 11 Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Senses: 26 Mind: 86 Clarity: 21 Magic: 21 Free Points: 80 Skills: Time sense (LV 11) Listening (LV 10) Meditation (LV 10) Sense Mana (LV 10) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 10) Memorisation (LV 10) Echolocation (LV 10) Recall (Lv10) Composition (Lv 10) Mind fortress (Lv 10) Expel Mana (Lv 1) Absorb Mana (Lv 1) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Skill experience: 200 Origin experience: 1000 Combat experience: 0 On second thought, I have edited my false status, my tabula rasa, once more to remove all skills I''ve gained in here. I have no idea what babies would be normally be born with but since the initial wake up to this world was . . . Ding. Sentience recognised. User interface enabled. I worry that skills wouldn''t usually begin until after birth. I mean, can babies even get the interface before being born. At what point does consciouness begin or qualify as sufficient for their user interfaces to be enabled. Keep it simple, stupid. Although if people can read other people''s interfaces I''m sure mine will look interesting anyway, what with 10 for everything but trying to keep it simple. Level: 1 Experience: (000/200) Health: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 10 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 10 Ouch! Is that a contraction? Wow their strong! Finally time to get out of here Chapter 14: D Day "Come with me, where dreams are born and time is never planned." Peter Pan It''s Delivery Day! I know this was the plan. The time overdue. My own Prison Break! But I didn''t realise it was going to be so painful. In theory, I knew that delivery was going to be a challenge with all the pushing and squeezing through a narrow canal. But somehow I thought it would be more painful for the mother than the baby. I don''t know how much pain she is in but this is a terrifying, painful, extraordinarily traumatic experience which looks like it might just end my life before it has even began. When the contractions begain it wasn''t particularly comfortable but not painful simple strong pushes downward towards the exit. Only there isn''t actually much of an exit there. From that point onwards it ramped up. The contractions started off at 1 every ten minutes and only got stronger, longer and more often from there on. It was at this point that I thought it might be better to sit this one out in my mind fortress. I thought that, right up until . . . my clavical fractured. Yep, that''s just how strong my mother is or rather how weak I am. I might technically have a Stat of 10 for my Strength and Endurance but it clearly doesn''t mean much in here. That or these are some ridiculously intense contractions. On the other hand, it turns out that all that was needed for a Pain Resistance skill was continual crushing force for a least an hour accompanied by the agonising pain shooting through my left shoulder. Think my head is going to fracture next at this rate it is certainly being squeezed enough to reshape it. I have to push through or all that will come out, will be my broken body. I''m not exaggerating I can actually see my health points dipping with each injury I''m gaining as well as every minute of crushing force I am subjected to. I started this with 160 health and I''m already down to 80 points. 1 point off for each minute and an extra 20 for the fractured clavical. If a fractured skull is another 20 points then I only have another 60 minutes to get out and that''s without any more injuries. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Also that time is not taking into account the light headedness I am getting from possibly being asphyxiated. It is now or never. Push. Don''t think normal babies can push. But I''m spelunking my way out. One wonders whether I really have to leave but I''m certainly not being allowed to stay in here alive. The waves of contractions press down and forcibly force the top of my head down. I''m nearly there. Crack! Think that was my head fracturing. I hope I''m nearly there. My secret status shows I''m down to 50 points. While my Tabula Rasa is now sitting at 0 health Ding! Suddenly I see, Parental Overide Allowed. What? All free points allocated to Vitality Hang on a minute! I''ve crowned. I''m out. Spluttering, spitting in relief, fear, anger, frustration and whirlwind of emotions I manage to get rid of all the gunk in my mouth and scream. Can''t form any words, just a babies wail. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" ALL MY FREE POINTS have been WHAT? Allocated to vitality! I dive into my status to check my Tabula Rasa. Level: 1 Experience: (100/200) Health: 90/200 Stamina: 9/100 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 20 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 0 Combat experience: 200 Babies are born fighting for their lives here, I guess that counts as combat experience. I very nearly died and would have if my Tabula Rasa was my true Status. Could my mother somehow tell that I had hit 0 health on it? Is that why the system allowed a parental overide? What about my hidden status. I panic. Before diving down through the layers of my mind fortress to my true status. No! I can''t believe it! Not only my 10 free points from above have been allocated . . . but . . . all of them including the ones I had tried to hide away. Level: 8 Experience: 1210 / 51,200 Age: 0 hr 0 min Health: 850/960 Stamina: 302/393 Mana 210/210 Vitality: 96 Endurance: 11 Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Senses: 26 Mind: 86 Clarity: 21 Magic: 21 Free Points: 0 Skills: Time sense (LV 11) Listening (LV 10) Meditation (LV 10) Sense Mana (LV 10) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 10) Memorisation (LV 10) Echolocation (LV 10) Recall (Lv10) Composition (Lv 10) Mind fortress (Lv 10) Expel Mana (Lv 1) Absorb Mana (Lv 1) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Skill experience: 200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 200 I suppose I was close to running out of stamina as well as bottoming out my health. Little bit panicked at how close I came to death. If mother hadn''t been able to do that then I might not have made it. . . . I mignt not be here. . . . Looking around, I can see, I can breathe, I can move although only a little. Ouch! That hasn''t healed up then. Still in pain from the clavicle, head and general bruising all over. Difficult not to wail when be being handled. Think I''m doing a fantastic job of being a baby. The air tastes so fantastic although cold. It feels surprisingly scary without the pressure all around me holding me, keeping me warm. I . . . miss . . . it? Raising my senses might be a problem as the light is so bright and the sounds so loud. The air is almost biting my skin after the warm comfort of the womb. But there¡¯s so much to see! I look around. I''m in the land of giants! But I am so exhausted from my ordeal I can barely concentrate on what is happening around me. As I''m wrapped and passed from adult to adult. Happy to say that I seem to be human or at least my family is human. That must be my mother, my father, a sister. I''m back, curled up again, with my mother. I''m out. Wait! Am I a boy . . . or . . . a girl? Chapter 15: No prison can hold me ¡°Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.¡± Lemuel Gulliver Awakening to pangs of hunger, something never felt before, I opened my eyes to a land of giants. I was so small in comparison. For the first time, I could see more than the walls of the womb. Waking up like this was disorientating, my change in circumstances so great. I was no longer in the womb. It bears repeating. It was that new. Ravenously hungry I tried to formulate some words. But never having had air before to practice with my tongue was still a lump of lead in my mouth. I have air, lungs and sound but no consonants yet. I am so hungry. I am so crying. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It''s not hard to pretend to be a baby when you can''t talk. Not sure exactly what my face is doing but I doubt it''s very pretty right now. Feed me Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Can Babies move much? I''d like to think that with my physical stats above 10 I could make a could go of it. Even without much co ordination or practice. But I am swaddled up so tight that I doubt that Houdini could escape. I can roll a little to the left and a little to right. Unable to move, all I can do is cry. Suddenly, I¡¯m held close. Where was she? Where am I? I''m not hidden in the womb anymore. People can see me. People can touch me. People can hear me. People . . . can . . . hear . . . me! I''m hungry! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I latch on. My hunger abates. It''s at this point that my brain kicks in. I realise I''m not using any of the skills I would normally be using to work out what was happening my listening, echolocation, mana sense skills. I''m simply overwhelmed by all the other sights, senses and smells. The next thing I realise is that I''m magically cured. I remember passing out from the pain and the exhaustion. Mainly the exhaustion and the lack of stamina. But there is no pain anywhere! Is it that my vitality is so high now it has enabled me to heal? Or is there another reason? I look up and get my first look at my mother without my brain being clouded by pain, exhaustion or hunger. She has dark long flowing hair that curls and twists falling down past her shoulders. She looks tired but then I¡¯d be to her after what we went through together. Hope she has healed up as well as I have. Although it can''t have been that long. Checking my status. I''ve only been asleep for 40 minutes. Her warm brown eyes are staring down lovingly. We¡¯ve only just met but I feel like we¡¯ve known each other forever. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It¡¯s easy to see how babies can¡¯t tell the difference, can¡¯t differentiate between themselves and their mothers. We''ve simply spent so long together it feels like we¡¯re still one. But we are not alone together anymore. I can see a huge giant of a man, my father, now bending low to look at me. Then there is another face appearing, a sister. My older sister appears excitedly over the edge of the bed. Creeping ever closer. I look. I stare. This is my family. "Aaaeeo" Is the closest I can get to "Hello" not that they would have understood it. But it is loved anyway and they burst into a babble of sound. It is my very own tower of Babel. This is going to take a while to work out. But if babies can do it then so can I. Time to put that hopefully impressive mind stat to use. Focus, focus, focus. No new levels, no new skills, simply the experience of being part of a family again. My mother sings. The songs I know. I fall asleep. . . . I wake four times that night ravishingly hungry. I¡¯m no longer fed directly, my umbilical cut, and it seems like I need to eat a lot. Each time I''m woken by my stomach, I wake them in return. Until what goes in must come out. Not my proudest moment. And I know . . . there are going to be many more I''m not proud of. . . . Each time she sings me to sleep. Until finally on the fourth time. I hum along and I notice a flicker of surprise in my mother¡®s eyes. Then then I¡¯m falling asleep again. . . . This goes on for a couple of days. Each time I wake hungry. I eat, sleep, repeat. A very short cycle sometimes expanded to eat, sleep, poop repeat. But throughout it all I''m looking, I''m listening, I''m learning. . . . . . . Each time my mother sings me to sleep but now with other eyes watching. I hum along and I notice the surprise in my father and sister''s eyes. Then then I¡¯m falling asleep again. . . . Sometimes, I eat, sleep, pee. This meant, I finally got to work out whether I was a boy or a girl. . . . I¡¯m a boy! . . . Although the manner and method by which I found out wasn¡¯t particularly impressive. Turns out that if you can pee above your waist line, while being carried around or lying down and being changed you are definitely a boy. Haven¡¯t seemed to quite manage to control that part of my body yet. But hoping to soon. . . . Finally at the end of my first week, I''m carried out of the house, down through a town to the edge of a lake. There, before more people than I have a chance to count, I am thrown into the water for all to see in what seems to be a dedication of some sort. I¡¯m quickly taken out of the lake by my mother and father, half drowned but still alive and held up for all to see. Then promptly dried and swaddled. It was only for a second but I swam. . . . Then the crowd roars. . . . ******** Kai ! . . . ******** Kai ! . . . I might not know much of the language yet, but . . . I think . . . my name is . . . Kai. Tabula Rasa. Name: Kai Level: 2 Experience: (0/400) Health: 200/200 Stamina: 133/133 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 20 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 10 Skills: Humming (Lv 1) Skill experience:100 I have tried to keep my lies simple, the humming skill seemed a big enough change for now. Meanwhile I continue to grow and my hidden stats with me. Secret Status Name: Kai Level: 8 Experience: 1310 / 51,200 Age: 1 week 0 hr 40 min Health: 970/970 Stamina: 403/403 Mana: 210/210 Vitality: 97 Endurance: 12 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Senses: 27 Mind: 87 Clarity: 22 Magic: 22 Free Points: 0 Skills: Time sense (LV 11) Listening (LV 10) Meditation (LV 10) Sense Mana (LV 10) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 10) Memorisation (LV 10) Echolocation (LV 10) Recall (Lv10) Composition (Lv 10) Mind fortress (Lv 10) Expel Mana (Lv 1) Absorb Mana (Lv 1) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Humming (Lv 1) Skill experience: 100 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 It has taken me a week to get used to life outside the womb. Time to move beyond eat, sleep, repeat. No prison can hold me, I just need to get out of my SWADDLING! Chapter 16: The very hungry baby "You, like the little catterpillar, will grow up, unfold your wings and fly off into the future. Eric Carle I''m so very hungry! At 1 o''clock, I had one helping. At 2 o''clock, I had two helpings. By 3 o''clock, I had two helpings and went back for seconds. I don''t know about eating apples, pears, plums, strawberries and oranges. But I would if I could. Unfortunately I have no teeth yet! Still nearly constantly swaddled. My mother seems to be a seamstress of some sort. After feeding and swaddling, I''m bundled up in a box and left at my mother''s feet as she spins and weaves the cloth. My sister is busy washing and carding the wool between looking in on me. She appears fascinated with my face, as that is all that she can see of me! Still wrapped in swaddling left in a box! This leaves me with a lot of nap time in my little box. I suppose most babies would need all these naps between feedings but probably due to my mother putting all my stats into Vitality and giving me a health of 970 and a stamina of 403, I''m suprisingly not at all that sleepy. But other than wriggling around like a catterpillar I''m still limited in my mobility. I always hum along a little with my mother''s singing before pretending to fall back to sleep and I am using the levels I am getting in humming to move my decoy status along. Just in case anyone is checking. It might be paranoia but better safe than sorry. Besides it''s not paranoia if they are really out to get you and who knows if they are or aren''t. Now that they think I''m asleep it''s time to dive back into my mind fortress and reassess where I am and how I''m moving forward figuratively. It won''t be long till I''m dragged back into my body by a stomach that requires constant refills. Name: Kai Level: 2 Experience: (200/400) Health: 200/200 Stamina: 133/133 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 20 Endurance: 10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 10 Skills: Humming (Lv 3) Skill experience:200 Having checked my visible status I descend down a mental circular stairway through the layers of my mind. Here''s to hoping I won''t have my free points stolen away from me again. Not that I actually have the free points to spend anyway. Just like the rest of my fake status. They are made up! I don''t actually have any more free points to spend having not yet gained enough skill, origin or combat experience to level up my true status to gain them. This could be a problem if my parents can still overide the status lock and allocate points I don''t actually have. It won''t be a problem if they allocate them to Vitality, Senses, Mind, Clarity or Magic but if they put them towards any of my physical stats there might be a bit of an issue if they add more than 3 to each. But then, that might have just been an option for mothers when their unborn baby is near death and has any free points to spend. Fingers crossed, they can''t see my status and toes crossed they can''t overide my status lock again. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Status locked for 159 months It would be nice to be in charge of my own growth. Even if I have to wait 159 months for it. Always thought 160 months was an odd number of months. If there are 12 months in a year I will be 13 and a bit. Who knows? Maybe there are 16 months in the year and I will be 10 years old when it arrives. Alternatively it could be 10 and I will be 16 years old. There is still so much I need to learn and I''m limited by my lack of understanding and lack of mobility. Might be time to fight my swaddling when I wake back up. Ending my mental walk I enter the hidden bunker of my mind fortress. It is wonderful to have my own space to relax and engage my brain away from the monotony of looking at the ceiling for hours on end. It is honestly rather boring staring up at it and everyone else seems a little busy with housework to play with me. Although I have managed to level up my Mind Fortress skill I haven''t built any further rooms. Opting instead to try and deepen the bunker adding another layer between it and the surface of my mind. Hopefully this will be able to hide my status better and prevent my stats being controlled and added to my stats later on without my permission. I have managed to level up the majority of my skills once in the last month. Although the time to do so has increased exponentially, being able to divide that time by a factor of five (the number of rooms in my mind fortress and having the skills running concurrently in them) has made it manageable for now. Actually the most success I have had has been with my magical skills which were too dangerous to practice inside the womb. I wait till they have all fallen asleep, checking the room with sense mana, listening and echolocation so see where they are and that they are really asleep. Then once I am absolutely sure they are asleep their heartbeats slowed and breathing calm. I carefully and slowly start to practice the skills expel mana followed by absorb mana. It''s only been a month but exercising the skills at night I have managed to make it to Lv 8 with both of them netting me 6,400 skill experience from their growth. Not quite sure how to practice Mana drain without a willing participent or unwilling victim. Either of which would also require a little more mobility on my part to actually grab hold of them. Leaving Pain Tolerance well alone for now. I''m sure, it would come in handy one day. But right now, no pain no gain in it, is perfectly fine with me. Finally the skill Humming I am letting level as slowly as I can or rather letting it level naturally. I''m not practicing it outside of what my family can hear or trying to force it up somehow by practicing it in my mind. They already seemed surprised by my ability to hum so no reason to freak them out quite so soon over it levelling quickly. I''m sure we will surprise one another plenty over time. Still I need to keep levelling everything else even if only to gain another 10 free points to make my fake status a little more real. So I spend most of my pretend naps recalling old songs and stories I know and adding them to my mental library. While listening to the world around me pausing whenever something catches my attention to listen a little harder or watch a little closer through my mana sense and echo location. Only another 37,090 points of experience to go! Either I need to come up with some new skills I can learn without worrying my parents, find another exploit to level faster or find something a baby can sensibly combat. Dragged back to the room by my rumbling stomach. It''s 4 o''clock. Time for breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch, tea, supper, dinner who knows. I''m hungry again. As I''m raised out of my box for another filling, my eyes alight on a line of ants walking across the corner of the room. I wonder, would they count as combat experience? Nom, nom. True Status Name: Kai Level: 8 Experience: 14,310 / 51,200 Age: 1 month 0 week 2 days 16 hr 0 min Health: 980/980 Stamina: 413/413 Mana: 250/250 Vitality: 98 Endurance: 13 Strength: 13 Dexterity: 13 Senses: 30 Mind: 88 Clarity: 24 Magic: 25 Free Points: 0 Skills: Time sense (LV 12) Listening (LV 11) Meditation (LV 11) Sense Mana (LV 11) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 11) Memorisation (LV 11) Echolocation (LV 11) Recall (Lv11) Composition (Lv 11) Mind fortress (Lv 11) Expel Mana (Lv 8) Absorb Mana (Lv 8) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Humming (Lv 3) Skill experience: 10,100 Origin experience: 2000 Combat experience: 0 Chapter 17: Temper Tantrums "Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them." Lemony Snicket Ha! Take that Lemony Snicket. My temper tantrum worked perfectly. It took having a loud tantrum every time I was about to be put back into my swaddling after each feeding. But it seems to have finally worked. I am no longer swaddled. Although it took them a while to get over the inital confusion that it wasn''t food, sleep, colic or unmentionables. Fighting the good fight I finally prevailed. Not only that but after rolling back and forth in my box to the point that I managed to rock it over. I was no longer merely thinking and looking outside the box I was acting outside the box. I haven''t quite managed to get rid of the box though as that is where I wake up whenever I do actually fall asleep or pretend to take a nap. Now I am free to crawl around the floor of the room. It is suprisingly difficult to relearn. I know what I need to do. I know how to do it. But actually doing it is challenging. Especially, coordinating all the muscles at the right time. They say muscles have memory and sadly these muscles are new. So remember literally nothing. I shouldn''t have to think through each motion for my muscles, they should remember it. But I''m still in the teaching them phase. There simply wasn''t room in the womb to practice. That being said I''m doing it. I now have a couple different methods of getting around. The Classic Crawl, the Crab, the Commando and the Rolling Wonder. Whatever works to get me there. Have to say the rolling wonder is probably my favourite. Many adults forget what it feels like to be a child. But I am having no difficulty remembering. The energy, the spark, the thrill of throwing myself around when nothing hurts or aches and the bruises heal in minutes. Not that I have managed to pick up enough speed to do anything particularly painful to myself. Anyway, now that I have walked out of the womb, escaped the straight jacket that was swaddling and broken out of the box they put me in I now have a new nemesis. . . . My sister! . . . She has been tasked with keeping me out of anything and everything now that I can move around. She is taking this a lot more seriously than her previous washing and carding of the wool in my opinion. Having at least 10 years and roughly 25 kg against my 2 months and approximately 5 kg I''m way out of my weight class and lose each battle that we have. I wonder what her strength is at. Does it add to her existing frame and muscle mass or is it a direct representation of who she is? I can feel myself getting stronger every day more than is simply represented by my stats which are still rising. I will have doubled in weight by 5 months and tripled by age 1. But my strength stat is unlikely to have double and tripled by then at this rate. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. She is also a lot quicker than me. Longer legs and the ability to walk certainly help but I have similar questions about dexterity. Although interestingly enough I think I have the stamina to outlast her. It only happened the once and I pretended to nap afterwards but I think she was the one who ran out of steam first. My other trick is actually that. Pretending to fall asleep. Sometimes if she is in charge of me and I pretend to fall asleep on something soft. I will be left where I am. She lets sleeping dogs lie especially if she has to have been chasing after me for a while. Then when she is recalled back to her washing and carding I can pay attention to her with my echo location and mana sense while my eyes are shut until she is fully engaged with her task before slowly and stealthily sneaking off. The first time I managed this. I made it all the way to the Kitchen and was able to squish a line of ants as part of my experiment on combat experience before I was caught and brought back to the main room. She is far more watchful now checking regularly so I have yet to make it as far again. Although I have nearly made it once or twice since. There were two successes from this first attempt. The first was I gained the skill Sneak. It is only a Tier 1 skill so far but I am hoping it will lead to more rogue like skills later. I will be a ninja baby yet. The second success although I am unsure how I feel about this is that 1 ant equals 1 experience. That seems small compared to the scale of how much experience I have to get to continue to level up again. Nevertheless it sets a dangerous precedent for what I can expect in this world. If an hour can gain me 100 experience in levelling up a skill. How many ants could someone kill and how much experience could one gain in the same time? Sufficient quantity of death even insects will have a quality all of it''s own. Won''t this system support people who like to kill? Ergo won''t the more successful people pass on their genes creating an increasingly aggressive population. I haven''t seen anything like hyper aggressive people here yet but then I have only really repeatedly interacted with my mother, father and sister to any particular extent. My father seems happy with me poking his hand in my fingers, my hand automatically grips his. His main game balancing me on his hand to get me to stand up then catching me when I fall. Is he happy with my strength of grip or my ability to stand on his hand by 2 months? He continues to happily half drown me in the sea most days and is responsible for me adding Swimming to my Visible Status. Although I have been careful not to level my humming any higher as it would tip me over into Level 3 and I have yet to gain enough experience to have the 10 extra free points for Level 2! Though I am nearly there. Name: Kai Level: 2 Experience: (300/400) Health: 200/200 Stamina: 133/133 Mana 100/100 Vitality: 20 Endurance:10 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Senses: 10 Mind: 10 Clarity: 10 Magic: 10 Free Points: 10 Skills: Humming (Lv 3) Swimming (Lv 1) Skill experience:100 True Status Name: Kai Level: 8 Experience: 14,310 / 51,200 Age: 2 month 1 week 2 days 16 hr 0 min Health: 980/980 Stamina: 403/403 Mana: 210/210 Vitality: 98 Endurance: 13 Strength: 13 Dexterity: 13 Senses: 30 Mind: 88 Clarity: 24 Magic: 25 Free Points: 0 Skills: Time sense (LV 12) Listening (LV 11) Meditation (LV 11) Sense Mana (LV 11) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 11) Memorisation (LV 11) Echolocation (LV 11) Recall (Lv11) Composition (Lv 11) Mind fortress (Lv 11) Expel Mana (Lv 8) Absorb Mana (Lv 8) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Humming (Lv 5) Sneak (Lv 1) Skill experience: 300 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 7: The ants go marching one by one Hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one Hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one The little one is, mmm stuck on my thumb As they all go marching along the line To face the end of the line Doom, Doom, Doom Notlimah Chapter 18: Practice makes perfect "Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it." Yo Yo Ma I found myself being rather nostalgic this month. Remembering all the things I used to have and might be forever out of my reach here. No TV for starters althouth that might not be a bad thing. Less time spent procrastinating! Hardly any books here. Although I am rectifying that with my mental library. What I''m really missing though, is my music. There was never a day without some form of music. From Renaissance to Romantic, Big Band to Brass Band, Punk to Pop. I would always be listening to something. If not listening and humming along then I would be playing. So after playing around in my mind until I had a mental model of a piano. More a set of keys than an actual working model. Looking inside the lid I have strings and hammers to hit them with but no actual memory of the action parts within that it is more of magical construct than a practical one. I wonder if they''ve invented the piano or harpsichord here. Either way after an hour of piano practice I now have a new discovery. My mind fortress has been useful to level up skills that I had already gained from real world practice. However this last two months, I have discovered it can also be used to gain them in the first place. Especially if I already used to be able to do them in my previous life. This is how I am going to maintain the same sort of speed of growth as those first few easy levels. When in reality I''m so much further along the exponential curve. Especially whilst maintaining the pretence that I am more or less a normal baby if somewhat advanced. These last two months, I have added several new skills, through the use of my mind fortress. This does mean that my skill list is getting a little unwieldy. Will have to look at a way to tidy that up on my status wall somehow. Each skill has still required an hour to get the initial level in but after that I am able to replicate the process in the other rooms. My favourite replication is the little automatic piano''s I have created playing in each room! At this rate I will have to have a little mini orchestra playing sometime soon. Anyway focusing on my music in my mind fortress and practicing some of the skills I used to have in my earlier life I have managed to acheive a lot. The Tier 1 musical skills that I have added to Humming (Lv10) are, Whistling (Lv 10) Singing (Lv 10) and Drumming (Lv 10) for a total of 4000 experience points. I''ve had many jobs over my lifetime one of which was a music teacher for a couple of years, so easy to recall and rebuild these skills. At Tier 2 I have gained Piano (Lv 10), Violin (Lv 10), Trombone (Lv 10), Saxophone (Lv 10) for a total of 8000 experience points. These were a little harder to acheive never being a particularly good Violinist or Saxophone player. But the great about this system is that once you have acheived something once it helps remember it for you. Still takes hard work and focus to level up but you don''t lose your progress while switching between the different instruments. I am the music man! What can you play? As much as I can remember. This has also been fantastic for my origin experience as my imaginary fingers have been able to recall far more tunes once I get the first couple of notes down. Helping to level up recall, memorisation and composition at the same time. . . . Meanwhile in the real world, life moves on slowly. Particularly because it is becoming increasingly obvious that we are in a pre industrial society here by the lake. Lake Town? Still haven''t cracked the language although beginning to understand different words for different things. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. My mother still weaves and sings. Father still sails, fishes and half drowns me on the weekends. My Nemesis is still responsible for keeping me safe and catching me before I can escape anywhere. But I have a new weapon in my arsenal now. I can walk and I''m only a quick step away from running. In my old world babies would generally start crawling around 4 months and walking around 6 months at the earliest. The fact that I managed it at 1 month and 4 months shows I''m ahead of the curve but hopefully not too exceptionally so. Still it means that I can move a lot faster and . . . Doh . . . I''ve been caught again. I may have wriggled out of the womb, escaped the swaddling, broken out of the box but I am still regularly defeated by the door. Sadly standing at just over half a meter in height. I struggle to reach the latch on the exit. I seem to be growing slowly? In height at least. My stats are still improving as I grow and I''m hoping I won''t become a dwarf. I believe it has something to do with the trait I received when my vitality reached 100 and my health hit 1000. Health reached 1000 before age 1 awarded the trait Long Lived. It was a bit of a shock. The only time the system has spoken to me other than the inital Sychronisation and any time I try to allocate my free points. It still says. Status locked for 156 months Still moving on it seems that reaching a 100 in a stat before turning 1 is a milestone worth reaching for. Mind should get there soon enough and doubt I would be able to get there for any of the physical stats but it might be possible for Senses or Magic. Good news as I have hit Level 3 on my false status it gives me twice as long to pretend to be a level 3 in comparison to when I was a Level 2. Unless there are some unforseen circumstances. So far though our routine continues and no one seems to be judging my level and stats or reallocating them. I''ve added an extra stat or two to my false status in line with my humming and swimming skills levelling. But still need to find another baby to play with in order to compare our strength, speed etc. Name: Kai Level: 3 Experience: (100/800) Health: 220/220 Stamina: 147/147 Mana: 110/110 Vitality: 22 Endurances:11 Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Senses: 11 Mind: 11 Clarity: 11 Magic: 11 Free Points: 20 Skills: Humming (Lv 4) Swimming (Lv 2) Skill experience: 200 Still happy to say that all that mental musical practice of mine has paid off in experience gain earning enough to finally reach Level 9! Yes! 10 Free Points, can''t use them yet but that should cover up to 20 points being added anwhere across my false status provided it''s divided between two stats if it is added to my physical ones. Only 102,400 required to read Level 10. I did squish another 90 ants over the last two months. But it was more to round out my experience back to 100 again than for the experience. My mother and sister dislike me doing it and promptly stop and scold me for it whenever it happens. However I promptly messed up my nice round number of how much experience I had with a new discovery. Crafting experience! They have a drop spindle here. I doubt they thought I could do anything with it simply giving it to me in an attempt give me something to do rather than trying to escape all the time. Which I will still be attempting. It might be time for another tantrum if I can''t get out on my own at this rate. Anyway I had been watching them with the washing, carding of the wool as well as the spinning so know how to use it. When I had a go with it myself I discovered if you can produce a metre of thread. It was worth another 10 experience but this time Crafting experience. So I am back to having a random 10 experience added on to my total experience. I find it particularly frustrating but at least it isn''t a single digit like I had to suffer with the ants and their initial value. Maybe like the Elves in the shoemaker story I could creep out of bed and make some more. Unfortunately my hopes at becoming an Ninja baby are progressing slowly as I don''t yet have the climbing skills required to get around the house quietly. My high stamina still gives me plenty of awake time each day and night. But I spend my daytimes pretending to nap and working in my mind fortress, while I spend my night''s when they are asleep working on my mana skills. True Status Level: 9 Name: Kai Experience: 14,610/ 102,400 Age: 4 month 2 week 4 days 12 hr 10 min Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 433/433 Mana: 300/300 Trait: Long lived Vitality: 100 Endurance: 15 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 15 Senses: 36 Mind: 93 Clarity: 27 Magic: 30 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 14) Listening (LV 13) Meditation (LV 13) Sense Mana (LV 13) Swimming (LV 13) Eavesdrop (LV 13) Memorisation (LV 13) Echolocation (LV 13) Recall (Lv13) Composition (Lv 13) Mind fortress (Lv 13) Expel Mana (Lv 12) Absorb Mana (Lv 12) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Humming (Lv 10) Sneak (Lv 5) Whistling (Lv 10) Singing (Lv 10) and Drumming (Lv 10) Piano (Lv 10), Violin (Lv 10), Trombone (Lv 10), Saxophone (Lv 10) Skill experience: 22,200 Origin experience: 12,000 Combat experience: 90 Crafting experience: 10 I am the music man I come from down your way And I can play What can you play? I play piano Pia-pia-pia-no Pia-no pia-no Pia-pia-pia-no Pia-pia-no . . . Chapter 19: Teething problems "Watching teething babies is like watching over a thermonuclear reactor - it is best done in shifts, by well-rested people." Anthony Doerr Turns out I''m having teething problems in more ways than one. First off my teeth are coming in and boy is it painful. I''m actually leveling my Pain Tolerance off of this. Second, they have nothing to chew on here to help with the pain, frustration, and general annoyance that new teeth are. Third and most importantly I made a mistake and I am now being watched not quite in shifts, but by several more people now. I thought it would be fun to sing along with my mother a little. I''m six months old now so talking is within the realms of possibility. Even if I still don''t fully understand what it is I am saying when singing along I thought it would be nice to sing along with her and my sister. I always loved the idea that before a child talks they sing, before they write they draw, and as soon as they stand they dance. That ultimately art is an intrinsic part of human expression and the first to be expressed. After all, everything real had to be imagined first. Thought it would be a lovely line in my legend. A mini Mozart in the making. And it was . . . for all of a day. My mother laughed and sang all the more, my sister joined in more often and we even had an impromptu concert for when father came home. All was well. I was proud of showing off some of my skills, even if I have a long way to go before I can call myself Pavarotti. However, pride cometh before a fall. It seems that the Grandparents found out. Suddenly we have been seeing a lot more of them. I am being watched a little closer and I don''t think it is because of my teething problems. They always popped around once a week on average before now. But generally, I was napping or pretending to nap when they have visited so they never seemed to pay much attention to me other than seeming to enjoy the fact that they have a grandchild they don''t have to spend all their time looking after. Now though, they are interested. I am prodded awake if I''m pretending to be napping when they visit. And kept awake if I try to fall asleep while they are here. They are suddenly taking an interest in how far I can walk and all the other baby milestones. Like whether or not I can run which I was still hiding from them. Most of all though they are encouraging me to sing. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Through all manner of methods. Though it seems to vary between the two sets of grandparents. My father''s wealthier parents seem happy to offer sweets for singing and I have had my first ever taste of sugar in this world. I''ve never had a sweet tooth and I''m sure that sugar can''t be too good for my brand new baby teeth so I''m not overly impressed but the message is obvious singing equals sweets from them. However, my mother''s father has taken the opposite approach, and whenever he visits I have to sing for my supper. As in crying for food is no longer acceptable I have to sing for my suckling. He will actively hold back my mother from acting until he has got me to sing. This is a different and rather significant change in behaviour even if I am a little unsure what it means. He certainly seems like a harsher grandparent to please. Also, I''m getting a little hungry. I''ve added the skill onto my false status to help explain the ability if anyone is checking. But no one seems to have looked or commented on it yet. And how would I know if they had? The language is still that step beyond my complete understanding. I think it is about high time I started talking even if only to demand food and no poking. I have a growing understanding of the lexicon and looking forward to their expressions for Mama, Dada. But most importantly I''m looking forward to saying NO! . . . to my maternal grandfather when he next demands I sing. I am not a monkey. I''ve also leveled up my fake stats to reflect a little closer to the actual stats I have. It is a work in progress and will take time to get there but perhaps I will work towards having them at a third of my true levels? Who knows. Where is a baby and mum group when you need one to compare yourself to others? Name: Kai Level: 3 Experience: (600/800) Health: 220/220 Stamina: 147/147 Mana: 110/110 Vitality: 22 Endurances:11 Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Senses: 13 Mind: 14 Clarity: 12 Magic: 12 Free Points: 20 Skills: Humming (Lv 5) Swimming (Lv 4) Singing (Lv 1) Skill experience: 500 My swimming skill has continued to improve and I am now only drowning around a quarter of the time. Not quite sure what my father''s insistence with learning this is but happy to go along with it. I always enjoyed swimming although I think he would have killed a less robust baby. Seriously doubt they would have the stamina or health for his methods of teaching which is still to simply throw me in. I''ve gotten him back once or twice by taking a rather large breath and simply sank to the bottom. It was fairly fun to watch him panic before he had to go all the way under to pull me back up. Surprisingly enough I don''t think he mentioned that one to my mother. The one positive from all the interest that my grandparents seem to be taking in me is that my mother is being encouraged to let me out and about. Either with them or with my sister. So I am finally going to see a little bit more of ''Lake Town''. No one has called it by any name that I have noticed yet. But beginning to understand more and more so any day now. Not that there is a lot to see compared to my old world but it is far more exciting to look at than the same old four walls that I have been looking at for the last 6 months. How easily we become bored. Or rather how quickly I forget what it was like to be completely alone in the womb. There is so much more to do out here. But I still want to do more, to move more, and to see more. Communication will be key. I need to be able to say more than Mama, Dada, Yes, and No. I need to be able to ask what and why and understand their responses in return. True Status Level: 9 Name: Kai Experience: 39,000/ 102,400 Age: 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hr 10 min Health: 1020/1020 Stamina: 433/433 Mana: 340/340 Trait: Long-lived Vitality: 102 Endurance: 17 Strength: 17 Dexterity: 17 Senses: 42 Mind: 97 Clarity: 29 Magic: 34 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 15) Listening (LV 14) Meditation (LV 14) Sense Mana (LV 14) Swimming (LV 14) Eavesdrop (LV 14) Memorisation (LV 14) Echolocation (LV 14) Recall (Lv14) Composition (Lv 14) Mind fortress (Lv 14) Expel Mana (Lv 14) Absorb Mana (Lv 14) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 14) Sneak (Lv 10) Whistling (Lv 14) Singing (Lv 14) and Drumming (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 14), Violin (Lv 14), Trombone (Lv 14), Saxophone (Lv 14) Running (Lv 1) Skill experience: 14,300 Origin experience: 10,000 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 90 Shall I try talking next? Chapter 20: As a Man Thinketh For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? James Allen For quick success sometimes you just need to ask Why repeatedly. At least that''s what I have discovered regarding opening the dreaded door. . . . I''m talking! . . . I''m talking! . . . My vocabulary is limited and trying to keep things simple anyway but I now have enough to understand roughly what is being said and respond in kind. I could have been talking a while ago, if it was in English, Spanish, German, French, or Japanese. But I have only just learned enough of my new lingua franca to understand and be understood in return. However, the most important word for me so far has been what. "What this?" " A door." "What this?" "The floor." "What this?" "A loom." Aliyah and Aleera (My mother and sister) are happy to answer my morning routine of questioning as much as I can within the room. Mainly because once I run out of what questions they know what is coming next, why! "Can I out?" I ask in my cutest voice. "No." my mother responds. "Why?" I ask curiously. "You are too young," she answers. "Why?" I ask confused. "Because you are only 9 months old," she explains. "Why?" I ask crossly. "Because you are too small." she calmly replies. "Why too small?" I expand my vocabulary slightly. "Because you are supposed to be a baby." she exhales. "Granpa Smit out" I argue. "Because he looks after you." she remonstrates. "Why Aleera Kai out?" I offer. "Because Aleera is busy." she points out, motioning at Aleera. "Why Aleera busy?" I question. "Because she is helping spin thread." she "Why spin?" I shrug. "To help mother." she exasperatedly answers. "Why not Kai?" I point out. "My turn." "Because she is busy, Kai!" She moans. I know this isn''t the best way to go about getting what I want but it is effective and I am limited by my vocabulary and lexicon in arguing my case anyway. Besides whoever heard of a 9-month-old arguing. The "Why" question is a well-known technique that all children pick up to pester their parents with. I''m simply a little earlier and more pointed in my practice. I will get there eventually once mother makes a mistake with her weaving from answering my questions she will let us go. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Aleera actually likes being let out of the house too. But never asks for it. You can get away with a lot when you are younger. Particularly if you are a little bit of a prodigy. I''m still hiding the extent of my talents and development from them. But I am simply unable to say nothing when I have finally worked out most of the language I''m not capable of that. I''m limiting myself to a smaller vocabulary than I could actually use. Acting as it were to be younger than I am. The cool thing about acting to be a baby is that I actually got the skill for it as well! Furthermore, it is leveling up quickly as I act like a baby every minute of every day. Not quite sure why it required talking for it to appear but now that it has it seems that every minute I am in the role I gain experience to level it up. Having realised that I could gain skills from talking out loud. I tried that in my mental fortress. Quickly gaining the Tier 1 languages, English (Lv 10), Spanish (Lv 10), Japanese (Lv 10), German (Lv 7), French (Lv 5). I wonder if there is Elvish, Dwarf, or Orc here. The extra bonus to gaining the Tier 1 skills was gaining the Tier 2 skill Linguist (Lv 10) and the Tier 2 skill Translation (Lv 10) when having a go at adding some different languages to my library. Back to asking variations on why. "Why busy?" I quietly ask "Because we need to finish this piece of cloth." she patiently responds. "Why finish?" I question curiously. As much as I am doing this to annoy her into letting us out. I''m still gaining valuable information about life here. "It''s needed to make a sail." she calmly responds. Think I spent too long thinking to myself she has calmed down enough that we need to start from the beginning and work our way back up again. "What''s sail?" I clarify. "A sail is a piece of cloth on a boat," she explains. "Why cloth boat?" I ask confused. "It helps to push it through the water," she explains with her hands. "How?" I innocently question. We''re nearly there. "Well, the wind blows into the sail. The sail catches it and so the wind pulls the boat along." She explains gesturing with her hands to explain how that would work and that is when she makes a mistake with her loom. Frustrated she snapped. "Fine Aleera take him out." as she started to undo the last weave of the loom. Outwardly cowed but inwardly exhilarated I head for the door. Quietly waiting as Aleera unlatches the hook that is still out of my reach. Ready, steady, Go! Catch me if you can. Can''t catch me I''m the baby, boy, man. I start to leg it out the door when I am promptly grabbed by the neck by my older sister. "Not so fast. You are holding my hand." she smiles down at me. "Why?" I moan. "Because I am not chasing you around the town or losing sight of you. I know you too well by now." she frowns at me. "Would you like us to get anything?" She asks mother before leaving. "Some more rice, vegetables, and fruit if they have any, Father will bring home some fish." She replies. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not . . . shopping! I wanted to explore. Bored out of my mind, hand firmly clamped by my sister, I retreat into my mind and let my body move forward on autopilot. Disappointed and discouraged by the failure of my close escape. Next time. I''ll get away next time. Name: Kai Level: 3 Experience: (700/800) Health: 220/220 Stamina: 147/147 Mana: 110/110 Vitality: 23 Endurances:11 Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Senses: 14 Mind: 15 Clarity: 12 Magic: 13 Free Points: 20 Skills: Humming (Lv 5) Swimming (Lv 4) Singing (Lv 2) Skill experience: 500 My stats are still improving as I have grown over the last couple of months and I managed to add another trait when my mind reached 100. Mind reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait, Fast Learner. I was hoping for something similar to when my vitality reached 100 before turning 1. So was thrilled to see this. I haven''t quite worked out its impact on my learning but with some new skills hopefully, I will be able to see a difference in the speed of leveling or time it takes me to get them. The surprise came afterward. Mind reached 100 before age 1 awarded Hidden Resource Psi: 1000 That was a shock. It looks like not all resources are available for everyone. No matter the quizzing verbally or mentally the system refuses to give me any more information other than the usual any time I try to allocate my free points. It still says. Status locked for 151 months Does this mean there are other Hidden Resources available? What are they and how do I get them? Maybe others don''t have the Magic stat and the resource of Mana. Once again I am limited by my understanding of this world. Are there hidden stats? Like Charm or Luck? The next challenge is to see if I can get my Senses stat up to 100 before I turn 1. Doubt I will be able to do it as I only have 3 months left but nothing ventured nothing gained. True Status Level: 9 Name: Kai Experience: 66,300/ 102,400 Age: 9 month 3 week 5 days 10 hr 0 min Health: 1050/1050 Stamina: 470/470 Mana: 370/370 Psi: 1000 Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner, Vitality: 105 Endurance: 18 Strength: 18 Dexterity: 18 Senses: 45 Mind: 100 Clarity: 33 Magic: 37 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 16) Listening (LV 15) Meditation (LV 15) Sense Mana (LV 15) Swimming (LV 15) Eavesdrop (LV 15) Memorisation (LV 15) Echolocation (LV 15) Recall (Lv15) Composition (Lv 15) Mind fortress (Lv 15) Expel Mana (Lv 15) Absorb Mana (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 15) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 15) Singing (Lv 15) and Drumming (Lv 15) Piano (Lv 15), Violin (Lv 15), Trombone (Lv 15), Saxophone (Lv 15) Running (Lv 5), Acting (10), English (Lv 10), Spanish (Lv 10), Japanese (Lv 10), German (Lv 7), French (Lv 5) Linguistics (Lv 10) Translation (Lv 10) Skill experience: 17,300 Origin experience: 10,000 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Level 10 Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? Let''s get cracking. Chapter 21: Weird or normal? Weird: Involving or sugging the supernatural; unearthly, uncanny, fantastic, bizarre. Or a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange. Normal: Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual, regular, typical or expected. Approximately average in any psychological trait. As I lie in my box looking up at the ceiling I catch myself contemplating my future on the eve of my first birthday. I don''t think I was ever going to be normal and I am perfectly fine with that. I''m just hoping that my bizarreness isn''t immediately obvious. I don''t want to be ordinary I want to be extraordinary. But at the same time, I don''t want to be thought a complete freak, I still want to fit in somehow. Hypocritical I know. Traits are clearly not normal. The fact that I have two possibly double so. Long-lived hopefully does what it says on the can. I will get to live for a long time. The catch? It looks like I am aging slower from the point of getting it. So even though I''m just about to turn 1 I think I am growing slower than normal children. Now that I am allowed out on occasion with my sister we have walked around the whole town. Sometimes ran. Depending on whether I have been able to get away or not. It isn''t the case of her having a higher dexterity stat. I think my legs can just as quick as hers. It''s basic physics. Hers are easily 3 times longer so she covers the ground 3 times quicker. Still, I did manage to pick up the skill Dodge (Lv 1). Aleera was certainly excited to tell everyone at home that she had managed to level up her running skill when she went home although was a little bit embarrassed to tell them how it had leveled up in the first place. She was even allowed a small cup of wine with the evening meal in celebration. Even my father Kaius, is starting to notice that I might turn out to be smaller than average at this rate. He still thinks the world of me and is still enjoying, far too much I hasten to add, my weekly drowning in the Lake but he is also beginning to add ''Little'' in front of Kai all the time when talking about me. "Little Kai nearly made it to shore." he laughed about how he has been taken me further and further out into the lake. "Little Kai sunk like a stone." he smiled. He no longer panics when I sink to the bottom. Happy to leave me down there until I have to come to the surface. About the only joy, I gain from these father-son bonding moments is a new skill called Breath Control (Lv 1) which is necessary requirement for the sessions. Although I am getting closer and closer to being able to control my body the way I remember being able to do it. Without thought. . . . The trait Fast Learner though, is without any catches and has had the most immediate effect on all the skills I am learning. Flattening out the exponential curve completely! It still takes me an hour to get a Tier 1 skill, 2 hrs now for a Tier 2 and 3 hrs for Tier 3 skill, etc. But the time taken to improve the skill no longer increases exponentially. So level 16 - 20 of Time sense took only 4 hours rather than some hideously high amount of time that I am not going to even bother to try and calculate. Even when divided by 5 for the number of rooms in my mind fortress that have the skill running concurrently. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. All in all, I''m ecstatic with the trait. The best news yet though is in the process of testing all of this. Adding processes to my mind fortress and taking them away. I created mannequins as part of my automatic process. It was fun to watch them playing the instruments I had made. Then letting them act on their own. In turn, the system and I realised that I was already running multiple minds. Ding! Mutliple Minds (Lv 1) I wouldn''t say that I am having conversations with myself yet. But it''s nice to have my other avatars completing the skill practice for me rather than the automatic keyboard creepily playing away. Simply set them up one in each room to an activity and they keep the skill running for me. Even better it is a Tier 4 skill worth 800 experience per level and now that I have Fast Learner it is going up quickly. Initially slower for the 1st 3 levels but then the quirk that is fast learner improves with every level as the time it takes stays the same rather than increasing exponentially! I am now up to (Lv 10) earning me 8000 experience in total and I can have another internal avatar for every level of the skill I achieve. So I now have 10 mini me''s sitting around my fortress practicing one skill or another. Fast learner allowed me to focus on my sense skills in particular this last month. Even stopped bugging my mother quite so much to let me out in an effort to raise my senses stat to 100. I wasn''t sure what I might get but thought it would clearly be worth it to get it there before I turn 1. I have focused solely on the skills related to sensing one way or another. Time Sense, Listening, Eavesdrop, Echolocation, Sense Mana, Working hard to level them all up to (Lv 20) I even managed to gain 25 points in my Senses stat. Unfortunately, it wasn''t enough to level it to 100. Maybe I should have focused on my Magic stat but I am out of time now. I will be 1 any minute. I''ve seen one or two other babies around town now and none of them seem quite as mobile as me. In terms of toddlers, we seem to be similar speed-wise so thinking my physical stats might be the same as theirs. But then maybe it is just slightly better coordination than theirs that helps me get around. Name: Kai Level: 4 Experience: (400/1600) Health: 240/240 Stamina: 160/160 Mana: 150/150 Vitality: 24 Endurances:12 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Senses: 16 Mind: 18 Clarity: 14 Magic: 15 Free Points: 30 Skills: Humming (Lv 6) Swimming (Lv 5) Singing (Lv 4) Running (Lv 1) Skill experience: 500 My true success for the last couple of months though as been levelling up my skills enough to reach Level 10! I was thinking that I would get some sort of Ding! for reaching Level 10 but no such luck yet. Maybe tomorrow, I mean it is my Birthday! I''ve survived a year outside the womb in what feels to be the middle ages after all surely that deserves a prize. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 10,400/ 204,800 Age: 11 month 3 week 6 days 23 hr 59 min Health: 1070/1070 Stamina: 470/470 Mana: 400/400 Psi: 1020 Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner, Vitality: 107 Endurance: 19 Strength: 19 Dexterity: 19 Senses: 70 Mind: 102 Clarity: 35 Magic: 40 Free Points: 20 Skills: Time sense (LV 20) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 20) Sense Mana (LV 20) Swimming (LV 20) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Echolocation (LV 20) Recall (Lv20) Composition (Lv 20) Mind fortress (Lv 15) Expel Mana (Lv 20) Absorb Mana (Lv 20) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Piano (Lv 20), Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Multiple Minds (Lv 10), Dodge (Lv 1), Breath Control (Lv 1) Skill experience: 36,100 Origin experience: 10,000 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Wonder what I will be getting for my birthday? What if they don''t celebrate birthdays? Should I have asked? I want presents! Chapter 22: Its my birthday! "Happy Birthday to me Happy Birthday to me Happy Birthday Dear Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii Happy Birthday to me" As I finished singing the song to myself I looked around at the rest of my family. Don''t think they know the song but they are all looking astounded. I love being a baby, I''m awesome! They are happy with whatever I do. I''m no Pavarotti yet but it is fun to pretend. Besides, it''s my Birthday! Do you think I can have a glass of wine to celebrate? We have all gathered at my Grandpa Smit''s house for a small celebration. My Grandpa and Grandma seem to be doing very well in comparison to us. Why is my dad a fisherman when he could be living like this! They have a clock! First time visiting their house but also my first time seeing a clock since my rebirth. Technology here has been very limited so seeing one was a bit of a shock. If they have a clock what else do they have? Also turns out that we are part of a larger family than I realised. There were a lot of new faces when I was born but seems like Grandpa Smit is building a small trading union with his seven sons and two daughters Aaron the blacksmith, Barric the farmer, Cephas the stonemason, Dushnah the Tanner, Karl the carpenter, Romeo the Roofer, Hunter the Butcher and Sharina the glass blower. Seems like he missed a few letters before naming Kaius. Not only do I have a few uncles but I have a cousin or two as well. Akeen son of Aaron, Bella daughter of Borba, and Chris son of Carl. They are all older than me but younger than Aleera. Probably around 5, 7, and 9 years old respectively but no one is mentioning their ages as everyone already knows everybody. We have even met them before around town but no one ever mentioned, ''Hey cousin'', or at least I haven''t worked out the word for that particular family relationship yet. Anyway, it is nice to see children my age. Who am I kidding? Not them. They clearly consider me a baby. So as they rush off to play. I am left chasing after them. Do I want to play? Not particularly. Do I need to play? No Am I happy with being purposely excluded? No, I am not. So I chased after them. It then devolved into a game of hide and seek. Little did they know that I am cheating. Echolocation and Sense Mana makes it easy to find them as I hum a little tune following along after them. I made a little effort at pretending not to find them but it was more to act as if it wasn''t absurdly easy. After the morning spent playing with the children. We were finally corralled together and the children are sat with their parents whilst I am placed on my own in front of a small table with a table cloth. On top of the table cloth, they had laid out several items. A book, hammer, scarf, chisel, ruler, toy boat, fishing line, coins, gold ring, pottery, doll, trowel, feather and ink. Stolen story; please report. They are sat there waiting expectantly. Waiting to see what I would do. Waiting to see me choose. Waiting for me. Hmmm . . . I was not going to fall for some sort of Zhuazhou trick. So I carefully and calmly walked to the table. Took one corner of the table cloth, then walked to the other corner of the table to get the other corner of the table cloth before folding it over the top of all the items. Then without looking backward at the adults who were looking confused with my response ran off with my presents. They are mine now! Plus if it is anything like Zhuazhou, I haven''t made any choice about my future as I have chosen all the options. The parents, grandparents, uncles and partners all erupted in shouted conversations after I left. But no one tried to grab what I viewed as my birthday presents. The rest of the children ran out after me but plenty of practice of hide and seek this morning had meant that I was now very familiar with my grandparent''s large house and how to hide in it. Once I had squirreled away my cheekily acquired gains I sat down to look at the most immediately useful prize. The book! Opening it up, it looked like a primer for children. Pictures and words graced the pages and I happily spent the next 30 minutes trying to puzzle out their meanings. No surprise but it was Aleera who found me. The other children had not considered my ability to climb up to the top of the linen cupboard a possibility, so hadn''t even bothered to look and whenever the door opened I merely needed to stay still before they closed the door and left again. She, however, took the time to check out each shelf before moving on and consequently found me. Surprisingly, she didn''t call out and joined me in my hiding place. "Let me read it to you." she motioned me to move over. "Thanku" I replied passing her the book. We spent the next hour, her quietly whispering the words on the page. Teaching me their sounds, meaning, and more as we hid away in our grandparent''s house. The cousins had run back to tell the parents that I had left the house somehow and were dispatched to search the town. It was time for the evening meal before we returned. Prompted more by my stomach than any desire to put down the book. Turned out I was right, though. Everyone had been waiting for my decision on what item to choose and having chosen them all, they were a little baffled as to who I would become in the future. When asked which item I liked best. I simply responded that I liked everything. So despite the fact that they hadn''t sung me Happy Birthday, that there was no Birthday Cake and not even any presents. I still managed to walk away with a tablecloth full of goodies. They were unsure how to take them away and I wasn''t going to give them the opportunity. So uninterrupted I exited the house with them holding my sister''s hand we made our way home. All the other children keen to know how and where we had hidden left the parents to continue the grown-up conversation about our futures without us.
Level: 4 Experience: (400/1600) Health: 240/240 Stamina: 160/160 Mana: 150/150 Endurance:12 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Senses: 16 Mind: 18 Clarity: 14 Magic: 15
Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 10,400/ 204,800 Age: 1 year 18 hr 9 min Health: 1070/1070 Stamina: 470/470 Mana: 400/400 Psi: 1020
Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner,
Vitality: 107 Endurance: 19 Strength: 19 Dexterity: 19 Senses: 70 Mind: 102 Clarity: 35 Magic: 40 Free Points: 20
Skills: Time sense (LV 20) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 20) Sense Mana (LV 20) Swimming (LV 20) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Echolocation (LV 20) Recall (Lv20) Composition (Lv 20) Mind fortress (Lv 15) Expel Mana (Lv 20) Absorb Mana (Lv 20) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Piano (Lv 20), Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Multiple Minds (Lv 10), Dodge (Lv 1), Breath Control (Lv 1)
Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Canon Chapter 23: Equipped with his 5 senses
¡°The senses, being the explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.¡± Maria Montessori
Turns out my internal clock is wrong, not completely but wrong enough. It turns out I am not yet 1 or at least I would be in my old world but not in this one. There was more than one reason why everyone seemed fairly astounded by my Happy Birthday routine. It could have been the baby singing. It could have been the song. But actually, it was probably the date.
I was 4 months too early!
It was a sheer coincidence that the extended family happened to meet up on that day. The ceremony that I thought was my birthday was actually just a moment of synchronicity between the timetables of my relatives, my family, and my 12 month anniversary of my birth.
Think I am still missing something in my translations. Well nobody is perfect.
There are in fact 16 months in the year on this planet, not 12. Easy mistake to make seeing as the time is the same. 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week etc. It is also something I don¡¯t think Aleera is going to let me forget anytime soon judging by the number of times she has brought it up at home to my mother and laughed about it.
I¡¯m a baby.
I will not get upset at being made fun of.
This is harder than it looks so I¡¯m going to pretend to fall asleep and retreat into my mind fortress to do something else.
Still, at least I got to keep the presents. Especially the book which Aleera continues to teach me from every day. I have now an understanding of Bussola the written language here. Again it is some sort of a reference to a common language being the key or compass to communication. Both for navigating your conversation and the area within which it takes place. Language is hard sometimes.
Hey! Maybe, that means I will get some more on my actual birthday.
Anyway, I still have another 4 months to get those stats up to 100 if I can.
Practicing the sense skills really helped me level up my senses stat so practicing the magic skills that I have and trying to come up with new ones should hopefully help me there with that stat as well. Still trying to come up with a few more ideas.
No longer falling over when I¡¯m walking or running is wonderful. The bumps and bruises might heal quickly but they are still surprisingly painful. It¡¯s time to tackle climbing! Bearing in mind I am still fairly limited in what I am able to climb but making the effort to climb the chair every day and all the shelves I can find.
Finally, I am able to climb out of my box at night without rocking it over and waking everybody up.
Next step Ninja baby!
I still have far more energy and stamina than most children let alone babies, so I have plenty of energy for a little ¡®sleep walking¡¯.
Step 1 to my nighttime routine is to wait for everyone to fall asleep. Step 2 climb out of my box without knocking it over. Step 3 sneak out of the bedroom Step 4 practice sneaking around the house using echolocation and Mana Sense Step 5 physical exercises Step 6 magic skills Step 7 Back into the box before being noticed and without knocking it over!
I have had a few successes with this practice. First, my Sneak has continued to level and I have now developed a Tier 2 skill of stealth. I gained this after a week of sneaking around without being caught.
The key point being not being caught which gives me some time to put in some physical activity that would look strange to see a baby doing eg: press-ups and sit-ups. Have to admit that my form is a lot better in my mind fortress and it is going to take a while for my body to fall in line with what I want it to. That and my arms are so much shorter and stubbier in comparison to my torso which is rounder. It is harder than you might think, more of a plank to start off with. Still, I have to start somewhere. So each night I climb out of my box which is getting smaller and smaller to practice a plank and curl or two.
It also really helped to level up my Echolocation and Mana Sense as it is completely pitch black in here. No night lights, no electric lights, and the windows are small leaving the house completely unilluminated.
I even managed to gain a skill for Sight straining my eyes to see anything when the occasional beam of moonlight managed to somehow get slip under the door. Gaining what felt like at the time such a silly skill led me to wonder if I could get one for touch, taste, and smell as well.
Bit of regression in terms of my baby progression during the day but I am now I am putting everything in my mouth to taste it as well as closing my eyes and going back to crawling half the time in order to feel everything as I move around.
When we are allowed out of the house I have taken to hiding my head in my tunic and holding onto my sister¡¯s hand for the walk to the market. I have no idea what my sister Aleera thinks about it but I am feeling each cobble or paving stone with my feet. They have yet to buy me any shoes which is understandable seeing how quickly my feet were growing before I got the trait Long-Lived so it is good practice for practicing my sense of touch.
Then when we get to market we can usually get a small sample of most everything to practice with and that has become part of my morning games as well.
¡°I want to guess what it is from smelling it first,¡± I say as I stand there with my hands over my eyes.
¡°Apple?¡± I ask.
¡°No.¡± Aleera smugly replies.
Then if I can¡¯t guess the food by smell, the next step is to try and guess it from touch.
¡°I can do it by touching.¡± I doubtfully continue.
¡°Apricot?¡± I ask questioningly.
¡°No.¡± She smiles. I can¡¯t see her doing it but I can hear it in her reply.
Finally, I try again with tasting, and she places a small amount into my mouth.
¡°Plum?¡± I quizzically raise my eyebrows even though they can¡¯t be seen beneath my hands as I roll the portion of fruit around in my mouth.
¡°No. It is a Pluot.¡± She shouts excited to have won. I had been doing quite well this trip to the market.
Exasperated I open my eyes to see what on earth a Pluot is. Hah! It is some sort of cross between an Apricot and a Plum! How on earth was I supposed to get that? They haven¡¯t even had that in the market before. Where did it come from?
¡°Not fair! You cheated!¡± I complain.
¡°It isn¡¯t a Plum, it isn¡¯t an Apricot, it is a Pluot. Now this means no running on the way home.¡±
That had been the agreement I had made on our way to the market. I had been boasting to Aleera about how good I was getting at picking out the different smells, touches and tastes of the different items at the market. She was keen to gamble on the outcome as I always try to persuade her to run home to up my Running Level or if I can¡¯t persuade her attempt to slip away which is a lot easier when she is carrying food home. While she is always keen to keep us to a far more sensible walk.
Pride cometh before a fall. Especially when you have an older sister to trip you up or push you over.
The people in the market seem to enjoy the game and mother is happy to have us out the house for a moment longer than the time it would normally take us to do the shopping in the morning as well. I think she believes it is well worth the extra coin for some peace and quiet. Small houses are not made for small children or at least not one as energetic as I can be.
All this training has resulted in a few more bumps and bruises and some fairly disgusting tastes left in my mouth when Aleera has felt like being mean. Although that hasn¡¯t happened so much since I insisted on doing smell first, touch second and taste last. It is a lot safer in that order.
It has also resulted in getting those skills that at first seem incredibly simple but I¡¯m hopeful that these are the start of some good skill trees.
Ding! Scent (Lv 1) Ding! Detect (Lv 1) Ding! Taste (Lv 1)
Still, they are really helping with increasing my Senses Stat. I¡¯m nearly there. My push forwards of stats has been given a fresh burst of enthusiasm from finding out that I actually had 4 months left.
This actually makes a lot more sense what with . . .
Status locked for 147 months
I will be 10 years old when it unlocks after the full 160 months. Not sure why I didn¡¯t notice it sooner really. Hmm, oh well.
Magic stat next.
False Status
Level: 4 Name: Kai This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.Experience: (1000/1600) Health: 250/250 Stamina: 163/163 Mana: 160/160
Vitality: 25 Endurance:12 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Senses: 17 Mind: 19 Clarity: 14 Magic: 16
Free Points: 30 Skills: Humming (Lv 6) Swimming (Lv 6) Singing (Lv 6) Running (Lv 4)
Skill experience: 600
With all of my nighttime activities and practices, I haven''t really had any time this fortnight to add anything to my mental library.
True Status
Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 23,800/ 204,800 Age: 12 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours Health: 1080/1080 Stamina: 493/493 Mana: 440/440 Psi: 1020
Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner,
Vitality: 108 Endurance: 20 Strength: 20 Dexterity: 20 Senses: 94 Mind: 105 Clarity: 36 Magic: 44 Free Points: 20
Skills:
Tier 1: Time sense (LV 20) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 20) Swimming (LV 20) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Runnning (Lv 4) Sight (Lv 5) Scent (Lv 5) Detect (Lv 5) Taste (Lv 5)
Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 25) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 5)
Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 20) Expel Mana (Lv 25) Absorb Mana (Lv 25)
Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 11) Multiple Minds (Lv 10)
Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15)
Skill experience: 12900 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 24: Playing with fire ¡°The one advantage of playing with fire . . . is that no one ever gets singed. It is the people who don¡¯t know how to play with it who get burned up.¡± Oscar Wilde My Ninja baby practice has continued and now I am playing with fire or at least trying to. Many a night building and burning bonfires in my former life leave me cautious even if I am trying to do it magically. I have left Mana Sense on all the time in the hopes of leveling it up and it is moving up but slowly. I might need to focus on my meditation if that is the start of my skill tree. Stronger skill tree roots might support quicker growth in the higher branches of the skill tree. At night when I break out from the box as well as the physical and sense training I also sit in front of the fireplace and the dying embers of our hearth expelling my mana in the hopes of making a fire or rekindling ours. They let the fire die down naturally overnight banking it but never put it out. If I did manage to make a flame it wouldn''t be noticed here. I haven¡¯t succeeded yet and the one time I thought I might be getting close I think I passed out from using too much mana and was woken up by my mother finding me there the next morning. They didn¡¯t say anything about finding me there simply assuming I had got up earlier than them although I doubt they suspected quite how much earlier. Since then they double-check the latch on the door outside every night just to check I don¡¯t go wandering out but they don¡¯t seem too concerned about any possible sleepwalking or getting out of bed early and exploring the house. Different era different concerns at least when it comes to baby safety. They might think differently if they knew exactly what I get up to when they are asleep or exactly quite how early I was getting up. Nighttime is the best time to practice anything that would otherwise look beyond odd for a baby to be doing. With the high vitality and the ability to take naps whenever I want during the day I¡¯m not particularly worn down by it. Now, I practiced Expel Mana for half my mana and then try Absorb Mana. Absorb Mana has always been very slow in comparison to the Expel Mana and rarely regains all of it back in again. The next step in my Wizard training routine is trying Mana Drain on the logs in the fireplace. I managed to drain more Mana quicker than when I try to use my skill Absorb Mana but I am never quite able to remove all the Mana in the stick. Furthermore once finished the Mana in the surrounding starts to leak back into it. Changed slightly but seemingly porous to an extent the Mana reaches equilibrium through some form of osmosis almost. Rinse and repeat. I have been able to level up the three skills and it has helped to add more stats to my Magic stat with each level I gain in the skills. But it wasn¡¯t going to be enough in the 3 months I have left. So . . . I have started experimenting Experiment 1: I started holding a little of the kindling. This time when I tried to expel the mana I tried to force it into the little stick that I was holding rather than letting it dissipate into my surroundings. I managed to get it to hold more and more of the mana until it felt like it couldn¡¯t hold anymore and started leaking itself. So far so good but I wouldn¡¯t be able to get to throw any fireballs at this rate. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The next step was I tried to force more than it would take but it felt like I was pushing against a brick wall with my mind. Seeing as I couldn¡¯t get any more to go into it I tried to take control of my Mana that was in the stick to see if I could get it to do anything. I tried to make it freeze to stop its flow within and out of the stick but again I was unable to get it to do anything. Thinking about old physics lessons and how atoms move when heating up I then tried to do the opposite of freezing them. Not adding any more mana to the stick but trying to get my mana that was already there to move a little bit faster, imagining being able to get the atoms to vibrate a little more. It felt as hard as trying to get the stick to hold more mana than it was able to but eventually I felt like I could see more movement. So I kept pushing in a little mana, trying to get a little bit more control, trying to get it to move a little bit faster. Slowly, ever so slowly, it moved a little faster and a little faster. Until finally, with a sudden whoosh, the piece of kindling burst into flames and I threw it onto the fading embers of the fire. Ding! Mana Manipulation (Lv 1) Ding! Ignite (Lv 1) Yes! I had my first spell, Ignite! It wasn¡¯t a fireball yet but I¡¯m on my way. Roll up, roll up to see Kai the Miraculous Baby Wizard! Even better when I checked my Stats I can see I have helped my Magic stats to grow another 2 points. It doesn¡¯t always work out like that but I have found the more I am able to push up skill levels with related stats the quicker those stats have grown. Which I feel is the main reason I was able to get my mind up so high is the ability to regain through this system the skills I already had from my previous life. It takes time and effort but the skills were already there. I just have to prove I have them to the system that seems to govern this world. This time I tidied up my experiments, heading back to bed early, and climbed back into my box. My family was none the wiser about my efforts. It might be nice to tell someone. To talk about who I am and how I remember more than just the 12 months I have been alive here as well as my time in the womb. But how would I say it? Would they believe me? And if they did what would happen next? Keep it simple stupid! Telling them now when I am entirely dependent on them for everything seems like a risky proposition. Maybe when I¡¯m older, when I feel more secure, when I know what the consequences might be, I will risk it but for now, I will be a baby. A brilliant baby if I may say so but a baby nonetheless. I will grow up soon enough. They know I¡¯m quick and a little . . . well maybe a lot . . . unusual. But hopefully no more than a baby Mozart, Cruz, Pascal or Picasso perhaps all rolled into one. Which reminds me I should set up an art studio in my mind fortress somewhere. I might not have been very good artistically in my past life. But I have a new one now with time to spend. Who knows I might finally be able to get that perfect circle drawn properly like Brunel. Being a baby is like being on holiday. I have no responsibilities, no job, nothing I have to do. I may be keen to level up quickly and gain any and every hidden trait possible. But as for growing up quickly, I''m going to take as long as possible. My childhood will be over all too quickly, best to make the most of it. Tired from my training I fell asleep, dreaming of drawings and paintings I might try to repeat as well as the tricks I could play and the havoc I could create while protected by my childlike innocence. Long may it last. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 24,600/ 204,800 Age: 12 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours Health: 1080/1080 Stamina: 493/493 Mana: 670/670Psi: 1050 Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner, Vitality: 108 Endurance: 20 Strength: 20 Dexterity: 20 Senses: 94 Mind: 105 Clarity: 36 Magic: 67 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 20) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 20) Swimming (LV 20) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 5) Scent (Lv 5) Detect (Lv 5) Taste (Lv 5) Bulosa (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 25) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 20) Expel Mana (Lv 25) Absorb Mana (Lv 25) Mana Manipulation (Lv 1) Ignite (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 11) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 800 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 25 : Wielding water ¡°If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.¡± Loren Eisley My Nighttime Ninja Baby Wizard routine has continued. Next up on my list was water. ¡°I will command all four elements before I¡¯m one.¡± I thought to myself. I know it seems like a long stretch for me but shoot for the stars and I might just land on the moon. Besides I already had Ignite for fire I thought maybe I could get boil for water. Although if I was going to go full Avatar I really should have started with Air, then water, earth, and fire. Same steps as always wait in my mind fortress practicing skills while waiting for my family to fall asleep. I have started drawing to pass the time gaining the skill Draw (Lv 1) I was never very good at art. So going to practice with pencils for a while before I attempt any other mediums for what you might generously describe as avant-garde attempts at drawing. But I am getting better at my circles. Then quietly sneaking out of my box activating stealth to slip into the main room. Tempted to troll them by spinning Aleera¡¯s thread or attempting to weave something but silence is key to my secret practice. So no pranks yet. I¡¯ve added a little to my physical routine with press-ups and sit-ups now possible and able to move beyond a simple plank. My body is beginning to fall in line a little more with the ideal practiced in my mind. But I am still often defeated by the practicalities of a baby''s body. Or maybe it is just my baby body that is chubby and fat. Still, I keep practicing. Sense practice is nothing new, straining my sight, heightening my hearing, strengthening my sense of touch in the depths of the night. Scent and taste still level better from the blindfolded bets in the market. The fact that I have no control somehow aids my progress there. Then comes the magic practice expel, absorb and drain. Before expel, manipulate and ignite. My progress with the higher tier skills stopped completely for a while. Which was a little alarming as I worried I had reached a cap. However, more by accident than design my mediation skill went up a level and my Mana skills promptly caught up. Highlighting that the skills are for the most part reliant on the levels of skills lower in the same tree. For example, it will be hard to level up stealth past level 20 if I never get sneak past level 20. Anyway, taking the progress I had made with the stick and exciting the mana within it. I tried the same experiment with a cup of water. I was not trying to get it to ignite as I doubted that dihydrogen monoxide would ever burn even with the application of magic. Still, I thought I might be able to get the skill boil or evaporate. In practice though, this seems to be nigh impossible at the moment. The very small cup of water that I had prepared for the experiment and hidden behind the log pile in preparation seemed to have an unlimited thirst for my mana. It was able to soak up far more than the small sticks could and furthermore no matter how much my Mana manipulation might have increased I was unable to get it to move enough to heat it up at all, let alone boil. In fact, it was far easier for me in terms of my magic ability to heat the water up by setting a stick on fire and holding it underneath the pewter cup. It took less mana, less manipulation, and was far less draining. Watching it all happen through Mana sense did remind me though of something I had long forgotten. When watching the heat transfer, along with the fire mana to the pewter and being able to watch the fire mana transfer its heat to the water I was able to watch something alarming. Something I doubt anyone here has seen or they wouldn¡¯t be drinking out of pewter cups. When I looked closely I was able to watch a very small trace of silver mana leave the pewter and join the water. It looked beautiful as it spiraled up through the water with the heat until it turned black settling to the bottom of the mug and I remembered that Pewter was an alloy made with lead. That pewter readily leaches lead. That lead is poisonous. ****! My first self-appointed crusade is going to be to steal all the pewter we have and hide it. How on earth am I going to do that? I can¡¯t even get out of the house yet! None of my family seems to be showing any signs of lead poisoning so maybe the Vitality stat counteracts the poison. But that is the last time I¡¯m using my spoon. Back to fingers, it will be! Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. How will I get rid of it all? One spoon or utensil at a time for now. The bigger problem is how do I get them not to replace it with more pewter? Looks like we have something else to find at the market. . . . My nightly practice with my Mana has actually been fairly exhausting. So much so that my pretend daytime naps are now a lot more real. Much to my disgruntlement when being woken up to sing. I don¡¯t want to sing for my supper I¡¯d rather sleep. Thank you very much! That combined with me continuing to stick everything in my mouth to taste test, closing my eyes, and crawling half the time might just be undoing some of my parents and grandparent¡¯s great expectations. Although that doesn¡¯t seem to be the case with a certain grandfather who still won¡¯t let me sleep even if I am actually napping. I think before he knew I was pretending and I believe that now even though I¡¯m 100% sure he knows I am now actually asleep he still delights in waking me up when he visits. He has even offered to look after me for my mother for a day or two each week. Mother raised her eyebrow at that either surprised or concerned. I was concerned! I ran straight to my mother to hold on and expressed in no uncertain terms that I did not wish to be left at the mercy of my maternal grandfather mainly through the expedient method of wailing my eyes out at the idea. It hasn¡¯t happened yet but it is only a matter of time before it happens so I better eat up well now because I will likely be starving by the end of any weekend stay with him. . . . Swimming lessons have stayed the same, and although I feel a little guilty about doing it they also provide the best opportunity for losing a Pewter utensil or too in the water. He throws me in. I dive down dispose of a utensil and return to the surface with no one the wiser. He is no longer panicking when I stay under and doesn¡¯t watch too carefully to see what I am doing down here. Although the water is a beautiful blue, and salty. A little scuffle on the bottom of the lake disturbs enough dirt to make it hard to see me burying our utensils one piece at a time. . . . At home, I am now refusing to eat off any pewter plate, use any pewter utensil or drink out of any pewter cup or tankard. Mother is less than pleased at the regression but as I am still suckling she seems to see it as simply a step back in the weaning process. She also seems rather confused at the disappearing pewter as we did not have a lot to start off with. When we were finally sent off to replace the utensils from the market I was able to convince Aleera through tact, charm, and a fair amount of whining. That a wooden one would be better. Ultimately, I don¡¯t think it was my convincing that did the trick they were simply cheaper than the other options among our admittedly limited selection. Still, although I am now being frisked on every exit out of the house and they are incredibly suspicious that it has something to do with me, failing to fall for my insistence that it was Fairies, they have yet to catch me in the act. The problem now is that the plates and tankards are far too big to hide in my clothing! But that will have to be a challenge for another week. . . . Admittedly distracted by my discovery for a moment it didn¡¯t stop me from practicing my mana manipulation with water and if I couldn¡¯t get it to heat up then I was going to try and move it the other way. I practiced absorbing mana from the water and draining the mana from the water. I could never quite get it all but once I was nearly there or as close as I could get I would try to use my mana manipulation to hold whatever mana remained in the water still. Calculating that if making it move faster was similar or equivalent to adding energy heat to the system then holding it still would be similar to removing the energy and taking the heat out of it. Eventually, I was successful although the manner of success left something to be desired. The best way I had found to drain mana or absorb it was through touching the item in question. So as my finger was still in the pewter cup when I finally managed to remove enough mana and hold it still through my manipulation it flash froze on my finger. Ding! Freeze (Lv 1) Great now I had my finger caught in the cookie jar so to speak. Worse I had pretty much run out of mana with my practice not even enough to cast absorb or drain which always required a certain amount of mana left to jumpstart them before I could draw the mana back in. Frustrated, I had to go back to my box with my cup in hand or stuck on my finger before passing out from exhaustion. Boy was that embarrassing the next morning when I was awoken. Mother didn¡¯t seem to notice the extra cup or comment on it but they certainly noticed the rather large puddle in my box. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 41,100/ 204,800 Age: 12 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 2 hours Health: 1080/1080 Stamina: 493/493 Mana: 670/670Psi: 1050 Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner, Vitality: 109 Endurance: 21 Strength: 21 Dexterity: 21 Senses: 99 Mind: 106 Clarity: 37 Magic: 92 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 21) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 30) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 20) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 6) Scent (Lv 6) Detect (Lv 6) Taste (Lv 6) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 27) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 8) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 20) Expel Mana (Lv 27 Absorb Mana (Lv 27) Mana Manipulation (Lv 11) Ignite (Lv 10) Freeze (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 15) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 16500 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 26: Usual suspects
¡°The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn¡¯t exist.¡± The Usual Suspects Life moves slowly here. Mother still weaves while Aleera helps and Father still sails and fishes. I have yet to convince anyone that Fairies did it and I am still the prime suspect in the case of the missing pewterware. Which the family is still talking about and wondering where they are and what happened to them. I¡¯m beginning to worry that maybe the bottom of the lake might not have been the best place to hide them. Even if it was the easiest place for a person as limited as a baby to put them. If they do get found there, will somebody mention them, and if they are mentioned it won¡¯t be too hard to connect them to me. However, my worry is balanced by anticipation. I have now found out to my excitement that Fairies do actually exist. How exciting is that! A new world to explore and learn about as well as a new species to see. Now that I am a little older Mother has taken to reading stories at bedtime rather than trying to sing me to sleep and they are full of a wealth of information. I¡¯m not sure which bits are true and which bits are false but it would appear that Fairies are real and are known for their tricks. The only problem with my assertion that it was the Fairies who took the pewter utensils is that they tend to stick to the forests and none have ever been seen in town. Although apparently, they are very, very fast, far faster than humans, and therefore difficult to spot. So, it isn¡¯t entirely impossible that it might have been them apart from the fact that they have never been seen here before and no one else missing any pewter. Neither do they have a reputation for stealing pewter. I wonder if they are naturally maxed out on their dexterity stat or have an advantage in it, maybe a trait. Do they have a status like humans do? What other species are there? The book mother is reading to me at night is from my father¡¯s parents and appears to be on loan to us rather than an actual present. Although they were pleased I was interested in it when they brought it around. It is easily the most expensive book I have seen here so far. So expensive they are keeping it under lock and key and I have no chance to peruse it when they are not looking. Their argument is that this way the ¡®Fairies¡¯ will not be able to get their hands on it. I cannot wait to hear the rest of the stories but looks like it will take some time to hear them all. I have been asking mother if Aleera and we can go explore the forest to find the fairies and the missing pewter ware but so far, my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Apparently, although it is relatively safe outside the town walls, it is not completely safe and if we are allowed to go we will have to be accompanied. Probably by a relative to make sure we stay safe. Night-time Ninja baby training has finally paid off! I have passed 100 in my Senses Stat before hitting age 1! The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Senses reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait, Super Senses. When I achieved it I was glad it was nighttime for a couple of reasons. First, the room that I had been struggling to see even with my Lv10 sight suddenly brightened and I could see it as clear as day simply without the depth of colour. I would have enjoyed the sudden improvement in resolution if it was the only sense enhancement. Instead, I was overwhelmed by the abrupt deluge of extra information from all 5 of my unexpectedly heightened senses. The quiet breathing of my parents that I always kept an ear out for with Lv25 Listening to see if they were waking or moving towards me suddenly sounded as if they were right next to me and I was still in my box but this time on the bed next to them. Whilst at the same time I could hear my sister as if she was on the other side of the box and in the bed with us. The scents of the room were also swiftly becoming overpowering so strong I could practically taste them on my tongue. I could smell the ambrosial scent of my mother''s milk at the same time as the nauseating stench of an unemptied bedpan. A revolting combination that would have soon made me throw up if I was not completely overcome by my last sense, touch. It felt as if my skin had been set on fire. The abrasive slide of cloth over my skin felt like a rough razor moving across my body dangerously close to hurting me. The air on my face felt cold and clean when a second earlier it had merely felt cool. As a tear fell from my eye I could taste and smell the salt in it, as well as see a scintillating sparkle of moonlight reflected in it as it dropped to the floor. Curling into a ball I cried silently as I felt my icy tears carve tracks across my face before soaking my night tunic. Afraid of making a noise lest the sound hurt my ears I lay on the floor shaking and shivering as my senses overwhelmed my body and my mind. My last thought before passing out was, ¡®I may have made a mistake.¡¯ True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 47,300/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 1 hours Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 940/940 Psi: 1070/1070 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses Vitality: 110 Endurance: 22 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 22 Senses: 101 Mind: 107 Clarity: 38 Magic: 94 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 21) Listening (LV 25) Meditation (LV 30) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 10) Scent (Lv 10) Detect (Lv 10) Taste (Lv 10) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 28) Eavesdrop (LV 21) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 21) Expel Mana (Lv 28 Absorb Mana (Lv 28) Mana Manipulation (Lv 11) Ignite (Lv 10) Freeze (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 6200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0
Chapter 27: Sensory Overload Chapter 27: Sensory Overload ¡°Life has become a state of sensory overload.¡± Joseph Curiale I was found the next morning still curled up in the foetal position on the floor in the main room. When they woke me, the light was blindingly bright whilst also showing more detail than I had ever seen before. Their soft arms as they lifted me up, to change me, felt as if they would leave bruises behind with their strength, yet left not a single mark. A stroke to comfort, made my skin feel as if it was on fire and left me flinching. Their questions of concern left me confused. I knew not, whether to cover my eyes from the painful brilliance of the light, or my ears from the deafening booming of their voices. "Are you okay, Kai?" they asked as I hid my face from the light. I kept my eyes closed. Staying as still as I could and curled up into a ball whenever possible. Finally, as they emptied the bedpan outside, the instant it passed through the main room, the stench alone was enough to make me retch and the sudden taste of it in my mouth had me throwing up all over the floor. As they tidied up the mess and me, still worried and concerned, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± they asked. But how could I explain it? How could I explain the level to which I was sensing and feeling without giving the game away? Was it even worth trying to hide it if they could give me a solution to my pain? ¡°Light hurts,¡± I replied with my meagre vocabulary covering my head with the newly abrasive cloth of my tunic. I flinched away as they pulled it down to check my temperature but it was no higher than normal or any different from my core temperature. ¡°Does it hurt here?¡± They worriedly asked, prodding gently, concerned by my startled movements. ¡°Skin sore,¡± I explained as I feel their vice-like grip leave my head and abdomen. ¡°Bedpan smells bad.¡± I tried to explain why I threw up. ¡°Yes, it does. But it is not too bad. Try not to think too much about it and you will soon feel better. Imagine a nice sweet to suck on instead.¡± Mother replied. It would be nice to say that she did so calmly but she was clearly concerned. Father stayed home for the first time in my life and they even sent Aleera alone to fetch someone I¡¯ve never heard of to come and look at me. The town healer or midwife I believe. They think I¡¯m sick with a fever or flu and hope to fetch someone to help. . . . The only positive to my position and that was stretching the definition of a silver lining was . . . Ding! Pain Tolerance (Lv 7) . . . That took barely 10 minutes of pain but it gave me a level. So either those ten minutes were highly effective or being in my particular predicament is somehow boosting my experience gain for certain skills. However, in terms of my perception of those ten minutes, it certainly felt like an hour or two. So can experience be compounded by pain or perception and increased alongside how long it felt to have taken or the stress that accompanied them. No pain, no gain? Who cares? I don''t! At least not right now! . . . Curled up on the floor, I was drowning in an endless sea of sensations. The only break from my 5 senses was when I left my body completely. Either by passing out or by hiding myself away in my Mind Fortress. But even here things were no longer the same. It was not simply my five senses that were benefitting from the new trait Super Senses, every single sensory skill was also suddenly enhanced and I had several of them. Time Sense suddenly felt as if I could feel the microseconds between each second. I could certainly now count a decisecond not verbally in time but I could see them flickering through on my internal clocks. It felt as if I might even be able to sense a millisecond as well. But another wave of sensation broke my concentration. Listening levelled almost as soon as I focused on it. But at least in my mind fortress, I was able to turn the sound down to a barely acceptable level. Sight, Scent, Detect and Taste all levelled from my most recent trauma without having to even look at an internal monitor, smell a flower, touch a wall, or taste a dessert within my mind. Using Eavesdrop I could hear every single conversation within our house without difficulty and when I pushed my senses I discovered that I could hear the conversations from the house next door as well! When Echolocation pinged, I could not only hear my neighbours but see them as well! It too levelled up to represent the sudden increase in clarity, depth and distance it now went. Inside my mind fortress, I was able to dial down the level of light on my windows to the world. I could dampen the sound of my parent''s breath until it was a comfortable white noise rather than loud enough to cover the pounding of my racing heart which felt as if it was ready to beat its way out of my chest. Divorced from my sense of touch, taste and smell I realised that I should add them to my mind fortress in the future but for now, I simply enjoyed their absence. Along with the absence of senses, I had never noticed before. Thermoception seemed to be making me acutely aware of the temperature all over my body I could feel the heat of one hand with the other from a foot apart instead of an inch. The mildest of breezes sent the temperature fluctuating wildly up and down. It was the most overwhelming on my head where even though they had never cut my hair I could feel the subtlest breezes passing along my scalp and sending my temperature there up and down This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Proprioception allowed me to sense where my body was in relation to itself suddenly all the time. Normally you would have to think when moving hands between ears and nose with your eyes closed. Now I felt as if I could achieve the same back and forth between ears and nose blindfolded and attempting the challenge with chopsticks. If it hadn''t been so overwhelming I would probably be enjoying my new spider-sense. Nociception, this sense was the sense that seemed to be levelling up my pain tolerance. The overloading of my senses through my skin seemed simple enough but I was also feeling the pain of growing muscles, joints and bones. As well as the uncomfortable movements of my food through my digestive tract and the slow build-up in my bowels. Equilibrioception, the sense that normally helps me to keep my balance has also been dialled up to 10 making every movement feel almost like a rollercoaster as I am lifted up and down. Thankfully they are not moving me around at the moment so I am no longer having to hold onto my stomach to prevent myself from throwing up from motion sickness. Hoping my vestibular labyrinthine system calms down soon. Magnetoreception, makes it suddenly clear that this planet has magnetic fields as both north and south are abruptly made obvious. I won''t be getting lost anytime soon. Or at least I will always know in which direction I am headed. Surprised that I haven''t received new skills for the senses that I have always had but never noticed. It would probably take some time to practice focusing on them before I gained any skills and at the moment I am trying as hard as I can to ignore them. I am assuming it was the chemoreceptors and spike in sense of smell that are what triggered my vomiting when the stool passed through the room to be thrown out. But now I can sense the growing thirst and hunger the lack of food in my stomach is creating. Equally, I am assuming that the stretch receptors are the ones responsible for my newly pounding head! I am in too much pain to count the new senses I am instantly made aware of but I am eternally grateful that it only seems to be 20 odd senses not Cohen''s enthusiastic 53. Which I truly believe would have melted my mind. At least for a while. Divorced from my body and hidden within my mind fortress I felt a moment of calm. But it was the moment before the storm as it was then that I noticed it. That every . . . sensory . . . skill . . . had been upgraded. Including Sense Mana! A sense that had never existed on my previous planet. Up till now, my mind fortress had mainly been used to practice mental skills before I added to each room aspects of my sensory skills. Now however Sense Mana was working in here as well when before I had never been able to sense any. Right now this second I could sense the mana outside adding an overlay to my windows to the world. One for echolocation and one for the colourful swirls that I saw Mana as. But not only the Mana that was outside of me but the Mana inside of me was suddenly shining through the joints and corners of my mind fortress. I may have been safe within my mind but the seams were shining with light that was absorbed by my avatar. Never before had I been able to use the magical skills within my mind but Absorb Mana sucked the light out of the room while Expel Mana filled it. Ignite left me with one less piece of furniture in my mind that I would have to rebuild and Freeze left the floor an accident waiting to happen. Each skill levelling left me dazed by the dings and astonished at the rapid improvement in my skills that super senses allowed. . . . The use of my mind fortress left my body rolling around after been woken up from sleeping. I think my parents were beginning to freak out from the non-responsive nature of my body. I guessed I needed to go back and be there for when this person arrived simply to show them that I was okay or if not okay at least improving albeit incredibly slowly. Although how I was to do that when my Pain Tolerance was continuing to rise I didn¡¯t know. Ding! Pain Tolerance (Lv 8) I always knew it would be useful but I was hoping I wouldn¡¯t need to use it until after I was out of diapers at least. No bodily harm seemed to be being caused, it was all mental pain. I returned to my body focussing on Meditation to calm my racing heart, learning to accept the new feelings for a second before building it up to two and so on. The challenge alone provided another level in it and by the time Aleera returned with a wizened old crone I was up to maintaining a calm steady heartbeat for at least a minute provided there was no new stimulus for the duration of the minute. . . . ¡°What seems to be the problem with him then?¡± she motioned mother to hand me over. Maintaining my meditation I was able to mute my senses enough not to flinch as I was handed over. ¡°He¡¯s not crying so not he¡¯s not in pain." she pointed out. Wait, what? On what grounds was she making that assumption? Did she have any skills or was it all pure guesswork? Was this really the level of medicine available here? The only reason I wasn''t screaming was that I was trying to maintain a stoic facade, continue to fake the fact that I was a more or less normal if prodigy of a baby and not completely freak my parents out. "Was this really worth making me walk all the way over here?¡± She grumbled, clearly tired from the walk to our house and none too happy to have made it. ¡°Everyone has said he¡¯s quick-witted. Boy, what¡¯s wrong with you?¡± She outrageously demanded. Did she not realise I had yet to turn one yet? ¡°Sore tummy, threw up, tired.¡± I quickly responded hoping I would be able to maintain my meditation and calm long enough for her to simply leave me alone. I just needed to be put down to rest so I could have some time to get a grip on my new senses. ¡°Right then, give him plenty of water today, chicken broth and lots of rest. No running around.¡± She tapped me on the nose with a smile as if she had solved a huge dilemma and handed me back to my mother. ¡°If they¡¯re not hot, cold, still eating and haven''t got the runs, babies be fine especially if they are not wailing.¡± After what had to have been the shortest and speediest medical I have ever had, she returned to complaining about the walkover as she walked to the door. ¡°It is good to be careful but remember me rules before making me rush over. Looking forward to some fresh fish this evening Kaius, don¡¯t forget!¡± and with that, she left the house. Leaving me completely astonished as what passed for medieval medicine and a family that clearly felt none the wiser as to what was wrong with me. I truly believe that I could have managed to maintain a calm and quiet baby disposition especially as I could feel my Acting level increasing as I was being discussed if only the recent levels in Magical skills had not resulted in an increase in my Magic stat. It was only 6 points. One for each skill I had gained a level in within my mind fortress, more by accident than by design, but it was enough to hit another milestone. Magic reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait, Source of Mana. That is when everything became truly interesting. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 50,600/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 110 Endurance: 22 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 22 Senses: 109 Mind: 107 Clarity: 38 Magic: 100 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11) Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 29) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 22) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29) Mana Manipulation (Lv 11) Ignite (Lv 11) Freeze (Lv 2) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 3300 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 28: No longer secret. No longer safe? ¡°Is it secret? Is it safe?¡± Gandalf Source of Mana! As if managing my hypersensitive state caused by Super Senses was not enough. Suddenly, my insides felt like they were glowing. Expel Mana started up all on its own, I couldn¡¯t hold all the mana within me it was literally leaking out of me. Even though the Mana I was giving off was invisible to normal eyes, my mother and sister looked shocked. The door had closed, the old crone had left. But rather than rush after her, mother ordered us into the back room, and quietly commanded father to quickly get Grandfather adding, "But don¡¯t look like you are rushing!" as well as, "Get him to bring the family amulet." Before having Aleera bolt the door as he left. Finally, once Father had left, the conversation between them started. ¡°He¡¯s awakened.¡± She stammered. ¡°But how he isn¡¯t 5 yet. Isn¡¯t it far too early.¡± Aleera questioned. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, this changes things.¡± She replied ¡°But he¡¯s too young to hide it.¡± Aleera worried. ¡°He can¡¯t even stop himself from running out the door.¡± ¡°He is gifted, anyone can see that, he will hide it in time. But you might have to go and stay with Grandfather for a bit until he understands enough to show more restraint than he has shown yet.¡± She cautioned. ¡°But he¡¯s not even 1 yet.¡± Aleera pointed out. ¡°Well then he will have to learn quickly or you will be staying with Grandfather for a good deal longer!¡± Mother pointed out exasperated. I did not catch the whole conversation as I had to alternate between controlling and calming my body still inundated with far more information than I was normally aware of through my 5 senses. Then I had to deal with the infusion of energy that was Source of Mana. Regardless of my family''s presence, I had to expel mana simply to reduce the pressure, heat, and light I felt inside. But it wasn¡¯t enough to alleviate the rapidly building pressure that accumulated every time I succumbed to the overwhelming nature of my overloaded senses. ¡°Water.¡± I croaked. Aleera quickly fetched me a cup. Still pewter as I still hadn¡¯t managed to get rid of all the plates and cups. But good enough for my purposes. I drank a little to get the horrible flavour of my own vomit down to acceptable levels, although I could still taste a lingering level of stomach acid. Then I poured my mana into it. I had never managed to add enough mana to make much of a difference temperature wise with the water, finding it far easier to take the energy out and freeze it. Now however it was something safe I could pour the energy into the water eagerly absorbing all the energy I gave it. I reached the same border that I had arrived at before but then I went through it. Mana still filling up the cup and the water, the water began to boil. Ding! Boil (Lv 1) There wasn¡¯t enough water and it soon began boiling away. Another cup or two of water and we were out of water in the house no one having gone to fetch any this morning and no one inclined to do so now. Mother and Aleera sat in shock as the water steamed away. When it was gone I was left with my empty cup wishing I had the foresight to alternate between boil and freeze to maintain the water as now it had evaporated and I had nothing left to fill with Mana in the moments of clarity interspersed with the moments where my senses overwhelmed me. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I stopped worrying about the mana for a moment to control my breathing and heartbeat once again too stimulated by my senses. Yet for every moment I maintained my calm the pressure would continue to build until I had to ignore my body once more to do something, anything. My nightly ninja routines had covered fire and water, but I wasn¡¯t particularly keen to burn anything down especially with my current level of control and the large amount of mana I was putting into everything. Left with nothing to fill, I experimented. I started to fill the flagstone of the floor in front of me with Mana. Just like the water before my new trait, it soaked it up and I was able to dump half my Mana into it without it boiling away. I lifted my hands from the flagstone wondering whether the warmth I felt was my hands'' own heat or the mana I had just sunk into it. My Mana was now only 500/1000. But then I started to watch it fill up again at a visible pace. It had never refilled at a pace I could watch before. Always taking the night to refill I would find it full again in the morning. Now though I could see it slowly going up. Taking a moment to gain control of my senses now that I no longer felt like I was going to explode. I calmed, looked around, and realised I was so busted. Mother and Aleera were still staring at me as if in shock having watched me boil the water away there was absolutely no way that I could play this off as feeling a little poorly. If in doubt, ask. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± I asked hoping that I was portraying the right level of confusion, innocence, and naivety. But also hoping that they would enlighten me a little as to their own reactions and my concerns. ¡°You seem to have awakened your Magic Stat, Kai.¡± Mother explained. ¡°But you seem to have a little more than most people and have awakened earlier than anyone I have ever heard of. In fact, many people never awaken their Magic Stat at all.¡± She added extra details that I had been unaware of but this is where the level of concern came from as she looked once more at Aleera. ¡°Because some people never awaken their Magic Stat those that do are sometimes treated differently. It is safer to keep it secret, so you are going to go with your sister to your Grandfather¡¯s house because he lives out of town, at least until you have learned how to keep it hidden. If you can keep it secret it will help to keep you safe. Then when you are a little older we can think about things but you might not have the chance to rethink things if everyone knows now.¡± It looked like Magic was not universally awesome or there were some added complications to having it. ¡°Kai, how did you do that to the water?¡± Aleera curiously questioned. ¡°Mana into the water,¡± I answered. Sometimes honesty is the best policy. ¡°Yes, but how? Is it a skill?¡± she asked trying to understand. ¡°Boil,¡± I responded keeping it simple. ¡°Boil?¡± she raised her eyebrows in disbelief. ¡°Yes,¡± I stated. ¡°But that¡¯s impossible mother.¡± She shouted. ¡°He¡¯s not even one!¡± The shout was enough to trigger another wave of nausea and I threw up once more. Barely able to handle my stomach before the inquisition had started and having to forgo conversation in an attempt to regain control of my body and feelings. ¡°Enough, Aleera!¡± Mother crossly whispered. ¡°He¡¯s clearly not coping well with the change and seems to have more mana than most. Let¡¯s put him down and give him some time and space.¡± They cleaned me once more, then thankfully, left me alone in my box, no longer questioning me or demanding answers whilst I tried to get a handle on my situation. The cat was out of the bag. They quietly discussed it next door and although I could listen in if I had wanted to. I tried to close down my senses and lock myself away within my mind fortress where I could rest for a moment or two before popping back to my body to expel any excess mana I seemed to be generating. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 51,000/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 110 Endurance: 22 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 22 Senses: 109 Mind: 107 Clarity: 38 Magic: 100 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11) Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 29) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 22) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29) Mana Manipulation (Lv 12) Ignite (Lv 11) Freeze (Lv 2) Boil (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 800 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 There are always consequences to the truth. I just wonder, ¡®What they are going to be?¡¯ Chapter 29: Dont judge a baby by where he is!
¡°Don¡¯t judge a man by where he is, you don¡¯t know how far he has come!¡± C.S.Lewis "Where is he?" were the first words I heard from my grandfather as he burst through the front door. "He¡¯s fine. He¡¯s resting." my mother replied. It took my father, what felt like, half the day to find and bring grandfather back from wherever he had been. I was now more or less in control of my senses and able to eavesdrop on the conversation happening only next door. "Is little Kai going to be okay?" father asked worriedly. "Yes, yes." replied mother instantly, almost absently, before quizzing grandfather, ¡°You have it?¡± On the other hand, grandfather paused before replying, ¡°Yes.¡± to my mother and to my father, "He¡¯s going to be fine. Just might need to stay with me for a while. "Why exactly is that, if he¡¯s going to be fine?" questioned father worried, concerned, and clearly sounding like he was growing somewhat suspicious. . . . There was a long pause before another long sigh sounded. . . . "Well he¡¯s awoken his magic stat." explained grandfather bluntly after possibly sharing a look with mother. It was difficult to use eavesdrop at the same time as echolocation, my resolution continued to improve with the skill level increased but it was still easier to use one at a time rather than both of them. I sat up in interest at what appeared to be a controversial subject. . . . "His magic stat? As in like a noble or a mage?" questioned my father. "Right, and if we don¡¯t want him taken away by the Kingdom to join the army or a noble to join their household we need to keep this between ourselves." pointed out grandfather. "He needs to know how to control it and . . . he is far too young to hide it right now, no matter how quick you say he might be." "Right . . . " replied father before pausing and clearly thinking about the possible consequences of being found out. ¡°But, why . . .¡± father started before being interrupted. "It might be best if Kai and Aleera are to stay with me . . . " he repeated before going on to explain his reasoning, "As I live out on Ash Island in the center of the lake, it is far enough away that no one will be able to find out, or see for a while at least, that he has magic." Grandfather interrupted. Then having gained control of the conversation again he paused, thinking, before continuing. "If Aliayah says she has some complicated project to do and needs them out the way to complete it. Then I can step forward, to look after them. I''ve hardly seen them at all in comparison to how often your father and mother come around. It would be good to bond, have some family time." Listening to the silent response from my father, my grandfather compromised, "You can come out every day to see them. You can still teach Kai how to swim and sail.¡± ¡°No one has noticed anything yet, won¡¯t a move seem odd? Especially as he is so young, he is barely even weaned yet.¡± Father seemed to be arguing with himself more than my grandfather. ¡°Kai will be able to play with Magic without worrying about being found out. But also there are a couple of other lessons that he needs to learn. A couple of the skills that will be essential if he¡¯s going to keep this under wraps and continue to live in the town." Grandfather went into more detail. "What kind of skills will you be teaching him?" demanded father once again argumentative. "Well for starters, he''ll need to learn how to lie." Shrugged grandfather. "Lie?" father asked surprised. "Yes. Yes, he needs to learn how to lie. Nobles cheated and lied to get to where they are. That or they were incredibly strong or lucky. Moreover, the majority of them need to continue to lie and cheat in order to stay where they are." Grandfather sardonically spelled out. "He needs to learn how to deceive, to be able to hide his magic . . .¡± and here he hesitated again. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡° . . . just like Aleera does.¡± . . . I could see him pausing further as father turned shocked to look at Aleera. . . . "Aleera and . . . Aliyah." he broke off . . . before murmuring, "And me." . . . There was a stunned silence as Kaius, the head of our household, took in the fact that there was not only one potential mage in the house right now, but four! I was stunned too. I had never not for a moment noticed, seen, or even suspected that my family might have some magic skills. Our lives seemed so mundane and ordinary for the medieval times I found myself living in. Why wasn¡¯t magic part of our everyday life? Was it so terrible and dangerous? Barring my disaster of hitting two traits in the same day, compounding the effects of gaining traits magic had been simply . . . magical for me. Everything I had dreamed of being able to do had I had the powers of magic in my former life, which I suddenly did in my new life here. . . . ¡°You¡¯re a mage?¡± quizzed father focusing on my grandfather rather than his wife for the moment. ¡°Yes, well no. I have the potential to be one but not the training, skills, or resources. Kai does too which is why we will have to keep it hidden for him. Otherwise he will be found and bound to a noble house just like I was bound to a noble house before it fell. We need to do this to ensure his and our freedom.¡± He finished gesturing at all three of them. "Wouldn¡¯t he be registered as a new noble?" father pointed out. "No. To be a noble you need Magic, power, land and money. You need all four, else you just get absorbed by another house or robbed of the ones you do have. That¡¯s why we are here on the remnants of the furthest mountain west of the Compass kingdoms western capital. The Ponente Kingdom may be a decent kingdom in general. Better than many for most, but its nobles can be as cutthroat as any. Without the backing of a house, I didn¡¯t have the contacts, money, or lands to keep my daughter safe. That¡¯s why we fled here, when the noble house I was bound to fell." He continued to explain his reasons to the one person in the room he had left to convince. The only person in the room he had to convince. ¡°But he could be . . . one day,¡± Father argued once more. Again, grandfather paused before replying, "Now with Kai, maybe, one day we can build a new house here but not until we have sufficient resources to withstand the pressure that would come to bear on a new emergent house and even then, it would be safer to stay as we are. There is safety and security in anonymity and obscurity. We are happy as we are. Aren¡¯t you happy as you are?¡± ¡°Yes but . . . does my father know of you, of us, of Kai?¡± "Your father may suspect but he doesn¡¯t know. He is trying to build a house. That much is clear. Certainly, he has collected enough land and money. Indeed, that¡¯s probably why he has pushed his sons into so many different professions, and maybe one day he will. But to keep your wife, daughter, and son safe they need to be older and stronger to weather any complications caused by your grandfather¡¯s ambitions.¡± Expounded grandfather. "He knows I am stronger than I look than I should be and supported your courtship of Aliyah, but I have experienced the rise and fall of houses and it is our distance rather than his caution that has kept him safe as he has moved forward with his plans. Kai cannot be a bargaining chip on the table. To keep your family safe, you have to keep this secret at least for now. Visit every day by all means and continue to swim and play with Kai but he will be safer with me for now." He reiterated leaving my father thinking quietly. Ending the conversation with my father, he reached into a satchel bag taking out something in his hand, he turned to Aleera telling her to go and pack her stuff. ¡°Let¡¯s go and check up on him, shall we?¡± Then they came to look at me. By now, I was fully in control of my body even if I wasn¡¯t feeling in control of my thoughts. I had 101 questions to ask, but it didn¡¯t look like now would be the time. "Come on Kai. You can stay with grandfather for a bit. Time to learn some rules on how to behave before you come back to town." He explained as loomed over me. Then he lent down to place his arms around my neck and placed a small amulet on my chest. As soon as it touched my skin I felt it beginning to absorb some of the mana I was producing to make some sort of a shell around us. I didn''t know what the shell of mana did but it didn''t seem to be causing me any harm. Then he lifted my box, picking up all my worldly belongings and me, before hanging them around his shoulder with a strap. I was bundled up and carried out the front door, down through the town, to the dock on the edge of the lake to the jetty where the boats were moored. Grandfather apparently had his own boat and I was placed in it as Aleera climbed on board with a small bag of her belongings. Mother and father watching waved us off from the shore. We sailed across the crystal blue lake towards the island in the middle, Ash Island. Black as soot it rose out of the water covered in trees. I hadn¡¯t realised that anybody lived here but apparently grandfather does. We sailed in silence, lost in our own thoughts, before tying up to a wooden post and clambering ashore. It was a short walk from there to grandfather¡¯s house. A small house built into the side of the mountain, more a cave than a house. Less built as a free-standing house more it seemed almost carved out of the rock of the hillside. ¡°Well make yourself at home.¡± Grandfather gruffly told us. Aleera had obviously been here before and set about tidying up and squaring our stuff away. Left to my own devices, I started to explore, while grandfather set about getting dinner ready. Once again, I was defeated by the doors. This time it wasn¡¯t just a latch that defeated me. Grandfather had locks. And all his doors were locked. ¡°Take him outside to play.¡± Grandfather absently told Aleera. ¡°We will talk about how we are all to move forward after supper.¡± We left Grandfather fixing food but clearly deep in thought. As we made our way back to the shore to stare at the town we had just left across the lake I thought to myself, ¡®I¡¯ve come so far in such a short time here but I still know so little. It''s good to plan ahead but have I worried over nothing. My family seems to support me should I let them see a little more of what I can do? Yet where I am and what I can do is still so dependent on those who surround me. What if it all goes wrong? There is still so little that I can do for myself by myself, I certainly can''t feed, clothe or house myself. What else does the world have in store for me waiting in the wings?'' Chapter 30: 5 year plan
¡°I don¡¯t always have a 5-year plan. One thing you must always do in life is to keep your learning curve as high as possible.¡±
Yo-Yo Ma Aleera took me out down to the shore where we could look back at the town across the lake where home lay while grandfather prepared dinner. ¡°Well, we¡¯re here for however long.¡± Aleera sighed. Turning to me, she asked, ¡°So, any more surprises today?¡± Stopped for a second by the sudden changes in my life, I decided to return the questions, ¡°You can do magic? You never showed me! What can you do? Can you fly? Can you make me fly?¡± I kept asking questions trying to find out what else the rest of my family could do that I had never known. Were we all secretly magicians from a faraway kingdom? I¡¯ve always tried to keep my learning curve as high as possible and I might not have a 5-year plan but it has certainly felt like there has been a lot of curveballs today. ¡°When do you practice? I¡¯ve never seen you do magic?¡± I pointed out, still a little put out that I could have been watching people perform magic and getting so much better at it. Yet not once had they ever shown me any. Aleera responded, ¡°That¡¯s because we are supposed to keep it secret!¡± Before continuing, ¡°The merchants may be few and far between but they do still come here. A secret is best kept by yourself not a 13-month-old baby.¡± She teased. ¡°I can secret.¡± Aleera smirked, ¡°You can¡¯t even talk properly yet.¡± Even though she continued to speak to me as if I understood everything and for the most part I could. Still, there were words I missed, hadn¡¯t heard yet, or couldn¡¯t quite get the conjugation correct with. Baby talk was so much simpler sometimes and they understood what I meant even if I didn¡¯t say it correctly 9 times out of 10. Maybe I was just lazy. I¡¯d get there in time especially as I didn¡¯t have a language book to learn from or a dictionary to build my knowledge off of others'' studies. Every language has its own words, idioms, slang, and take on the world but at least it is no longer ¦Â¦Á¦Ñ-¦Â¦Á¦Ñ (bar-bar) a completely incomprehensible babble to me. ¡°Cantu.¡± I defended obtusely in as dumbed-down baby talk as I could and still be understood. She ignored my childish behaviour before beginning to teach me. ¡°Okay then. The trick to having Magic while looking like you don¡¯t have it is to use it to do you things that look like skills you already have or support them with it.¡± Confused I asked, ¡°Like what? How?¡± ¡°Well, when I¡¯m using the drop spindle or spinning thread, I¡¯m also trying to use my magic rather than a skill I¡¯ve learned. Then, if anyone looks in or is watching, it simply looks like I¡¯m just using the skill Spinning. But actually, I am leveling up my magical skills.¡± ¡°Can you show me?¡± I asked excitedly. This would be the first time I would actually see someone else¡¯s magic rather than my own. I wonder what else she can do. I watched as she held a thread she pulled from her pocket and made it spin in the air twisting and curling up on itself then and curling and twisting. Finally, just spinning around and around in the air. It looked like the string had come alive. Yet, unless you watched the mana within the string itself, there was no visible magic at all! ¡°The trick is to keep your magic as small and as controlled as possible.¡± She explained. ¡°Then if anyone does look in it looks like you¡¯re spinning the thread rather than practicing your magic.¡± She reiterated. ¡°Is that why you spend so much time spinning.? ¡°I asked. I had always been confused why she didn¡¯t want to leave the house more. It had seemed so boring to sit there spinning and spinning. Washing and carding didn¡¯t look like much fun either. ¡°Yes. ¡°She replied. I stand looking out over the water, pausing to consider how many other little things I had watched and assumed were skills that actually might have been being performed through magic. Her magic and mana control was amazing the mana never left the thread. It was completely contained within it. Leaving her fingers where they held one end the mana flowed along the fibers that made the single thread. Where I had just been pushing my mana out of my body, when I looked closely at hers, it was tightly controlled and woven through a single thread. ¡°I¡¯ve shown you what I can do. Now, are you going to show me what can you do, you little monster?¡± With my new excess of mana, it was no longer challenging to practice beyond my previous limited amounts despite the amulet that was still continuing to drain my mana pool to do whatever it was that it was doing. So I happily showed some of what I could do with my magic enthusiastic to show off a little. I started with the first skill I had learned how to do. Borrowing her little thread I asked her to lean forward to watch. ¡°Well I can¡¯t make it spin but I can do this!¡± Ignite! I fell over laughing as she shrieked in surprise and fell over backward, best of all, she landed in a shallow rock pool. My moment of glee was soon cut off as she rose wet from water. Hmm, uh oh, The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Maybe that hadn¡¯t been the best of ideas. I¡¯d expected the shriek but not the trip and fall especially not into the water. ¡°Wait.¡± I gestured trying to calm her down as she started towards me. ¡°You asked me. Wasn¡¯t my fault. You fell over.¡± ¡°You could have taken my eyebrows off. Set my hair on fire! Magic can be dangerous you little twerp!¡± She replied as she advanced towards me. I backed away, a little too scared to turn and make a run for it. She had never hurt me before but then I had never really succeeded in escaping much further than 5 meters before she caught me and lifted me up. I¡¯d certainly never managed to actually upset her more than bumbling physical failings that had been looked on more with amusement than annoyance. But now she looked a little more than annoyed and close to cross. I continued to back up and away from her up a small rise from the lake. ¡°Tell me what you are going to do before you do it or you will get a tanning. Not by me, mother or father but by Grandfather when I tell him!¡± She took one more step towards me and I took one last step away from her. It was my last because I tripped backward into a pool of my own. But here I had a different conclusion to her fall. My new trait Super Senses meant that as soon as I began to fall I noticed it immediately and time seemed to slow enough to give me just enough time to work out what to do. I did not have sufficient control of my baby body to do more than put my hands behind me but somehow, I had a single moment of time when they hit the water before my body in which I was able to flash freeze the water. Freeze! I landed with a thump on my little sheet of ice that now covered the rock pool. It would have been perfect and a moment of magical triumph if I hadn¡¯t straight away shattered the sheet of ice with my weight dumping me into a now freezing if still shallow rock pool. It was quite a shock and I am sure my surprised face must have been a sight for a sore sister because she was soon laughing at my freezing cold sodden features. ¡°It¡¯s freezing!¡± I shouted as I struggled to climb up out of the water which was harder than it looked with slippery algae covering my particular pool. Super senses now once more almost a curse as I sat there shivering. ¡°Quit complaining, the pools aren¡¯t that cold after most of the day in the sun.¡± she motioned me to calm down. Clearly, she hadn¡¯t seen my trick with the ice from her angle closer to the shore. Still, even if my pool of water was cold it didn¡¯t have to stay that way especially not with the wellspring of mana I had within me. I had spent hardly any mana igniting the thread and although I was not entirely sure how much I had spent on my unfortunately too thin piece of ice I still had plenty left. Having already made far too many mistakes today I slowly, very slowly started to heat the water with my mana making a very slow and cautious use of my skill Boil having no desire to cook myself alive. I raised the temperature enough so that it was warm and then seeing as I could I kept going a little to give myself my first hot bath on this planet. Water and heating it, being a chore I had yet to have a truly hot bath. Mainly being bathed in, at best lukewarm water, which was more often cold than not. I enjoyed my first hot bath and stopped struggling to get out of my baby bath. Aleera her mouth agape finally reached a point where she could see into the pool of water. It no longer had any ice floating in it but it seemed the steam floating up from it was equally shocking. ¡°How are you doing that?¡± she demanded. ¡°You put your mana into the water. It gets warm.¡± I gave her a simplified explanation. ¡°Setting things on fire and boiling lakes. Are you sure you¡¯re not a little demon?¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°This is why we are now on an island. Come on back to Grandfather¡¯s before you give the game away even hiding here on the island.¡± ¡°No one is here,¡± I complained sitting in my steaming if shrinking pool. I had finally gotten the temperature just right. ¡°You don¡¯t know that Kai and even if there isn¡¯t someone here they could be looking out at us here from town.¡± She patiently explained hands on hips as she looked down on me. ¡°They couldn¡¯t see us from there,¡± I mutter knowing she has a point even if I¡¯m only hoping to enjoy my bath for a moment longer. As it was my first proper one in so long and knowing full well that the walk back was going to quickly become cold and chafing. ¡°Everyone has skills, Kai, and some of them are strong. Eagle Eye and Farsight are just two that could let someone see us here.¡± She says as she pulls me out of my shrinking puddle, the salt crusting on the algae as the pool continues to evaporate away. ¡°Oh.¡± Fair enough I¡¯ve always known I didn¡¯t know very much and that point has been driven home particularly hard today several times. ¡°Exactly let¡¯s go back before you do anything else and Grandfather will explain the rules.¡± She says leading me by the hand back to the cave my grandfather calls a house. ¡°There are rules?¡± I apprehensively ask. ¡°Yes. How do you think mother, him, and I have managed to stay hidden here for so long? You will need to learn them and follow them too. For all of our sakes.¡± She murmured the last sentence so softly that without my skill in listening and my hypersensitivity I doubt I would have heard her worries. Sad to have caused such stress I distracted myself with my new skill as we walked back. A skill I had gained as she had threatened me earlier. A skill suited to my super senses. A skill any baby ninja needed. Ding! Quick Reflexes (Lv 1) Spiderman here I come! As we walked into grandfather¡¯s home he had already finished cooking dinner, laid the table, and was sat there waiting for us. ¡°Right, food first. Then we will discuss the next five years and the rules you will have to learn to live by.¡± He gruffly started before pausing . . . ¡°Why are you wet and why Kai are you covered in salt?¡± . . . Kai''s True Staus True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 50,800/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 16 hours Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 110 Endurance: 22 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 23 Senses: 109 Mind: 107 Clarity: 38 Magic: 100 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11) Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 29) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Quick reflexes (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 22) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29) Mana Manipulation (Lv 12) Ignite (Lv 11) Freeze (Lv 2) Boil (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Multiple Minds (Lv 10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15) Skill experience: 200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 31: Begging forgiveness
¡°It being less difficult to obtain forgiveness for it after it was done, than permission for doing it.¡±
Earl of Peterborough After a short explanation of what had happened down by the shore and a quick demonstration of my two skills Ignite and Boil, Grandfather was as equally astonished as my sister, but a great deal more furious about it all. We were both soon begging forgiveness for our foolishness down by the lake. Aleera more than me as I was still somewhat shielded by my age, assumed innocence, and ignorance but it was driven home fiercely that this was not . . . to ever . . . happen again! . . . ¡°And that is precisely why we are all out here!¡± he admonished ending his rather long lecture on why we were on Ash Island and how we were to keep our magic hidden at all times from now on. It could be boiled down to three rules. 1. No magic unsupervised 2. No magic unless hidden 3. No magic not vetted by and practiced with an adult first. No way I was following all of those rules but that wasn¡¯t to be the end of restrictions to my freedom. Having calmed a little after his fairly furious and lengthy outburst he continued, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t normally start this training till you were at least 5 years old but you seem to be far too intelligent not too. In fact, I¡¯ve never seen a pair of smarter fools. There is no point in being sophisticated about your use of mana if you are completely lacking in common sense and wisdom the both of you. Besides having awoken your magic stat and displayed some level of talent in it, it is imperative that we start now.¡± He wasn¡¯t quite pulling his hair out but still certainly unimpressed with the two of us. He then went on to detail our itinerary, ¡°Listen up Aleera and Kai, tomorrow we will start to learn you your reading, writing, and arithmetic. Aleera can teach you these while I am out with these." He pointed at a small pile of books set off to the side. ¡°Once she has taught you those and you understand them we can move onto other subjects such as geography, history, trade, and languages of the Compass Kingdoms, which I might as well teach you both.¡± ¡°Then when I return we can start with a light run, swim, and climb before knife work.¡± Looking pointedly at Aleera, ¡°Aleera you have been practicing your knife skills, haven¡¯t you?¡± Grandfather questioned, already unconvinced of what her answer was going to be. ¡°Um, yes.¡± Mumbled Aleera, clearly guilty of every child¡¯s mistake. . . . . . Not doing their homework! ¡°Right. Well, after that we can look at your magical development. Aleera you have been practicing what I have taught you so far at least?¡± he questioned, ¡°Yes, Grandfather.¡± She replied a little more upbeat and honestly for once. ¡°Now, for Kai to have any skills at all is impressive but your application of mana is heavy-handed at best and what is worst is that it is dangerously obvious to anyone looking. If you are going to use mana in front of others or even near them you have to pretend it is a system-given skill of the world. The only way you can do that, to pretend it is a skill, is for it to be carefully controlled in order for it to be hidden. You have not been careful. You are not controlled. So that is what we will focus on first.¡± Not being allowed a word in edgewise I was relegated to listening and nodding my head as the diatribe continued. How he expected me to understand all of this I do not know. But he seemed to be talking to Aleera as much as me going into great detail about how she would have to facilitate my training and supervision. It was difficult to tell if he was proud of my prodigious progress or vexed by it. Clearly, it was unexpected and unplanned. The lack of planning for it seemed to be the most frustrating aspect of it to my grandfather and what he was evidently trying to rectify right this second with an overabundance of planning. Even if no plan survives contact with the enemy which he seemed to be implying everyone other than family was. Even there, it seemed that anyone outside of our immediate circle was also one risk too many. ¡°We are all in agreement, then.¡± He paused here as if expecting us to agree fully when this was clearly a dictatorial relationship. ¡°Right, off to bed. I only have one spare roll so you will have to share, top and tail. Off you go and sort yourselves out.¡± Pointing we headed out of the room, tired and overwhelmed by the events of the day. The food was left cold on the table our first punishment for failing to follow the three rules. Hungry we went to bed. ¡°Sorry,¡± I whispered as we lay down to go to sleep. ¡°Not your fault, Kai.¡± She replied. ¡°Sleep, training tomorrow.¡± She said as she rolled onto her side. Lying on my back looking up at another bare ceiling I pondered my mistakes. Had I pushed too hard to hit the milestones before age 1? Maybe, but they were clearly worth it. Ultimately, I would do it again. Perhaps, not tonight though. Hungry, I closed my eyes and delved deeper into my body taking a break from my super senses. I opened my eyes to the world I had built in my head, my mind fortress. My false stats shone in the stone wall and sat above my hidden trapdoor entrance. As far as I can tell no one seems to have looked at or commented on my stats and skills but if they can see them one day it needed another update after today¡¯s explosive developments and revelations. Sophistical Status Level: 5 Name: Kai Experience: (900/3200) Health: 300/300 Stamina: 163/163 Mana: 300/300 Vitality: 30 Endurance:12 Strength: 12 Dexterity: 12 Senses: 30 Mind: 30 Clarity: 14 Magic: 30 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Humming (Lv 6) Swimming (Lv 6) Singing (Lv 6) Running (Lv 4) Meditation (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (Lv 1) Tier 3: Ignite (Lv 1) Freeze (Lv 1) Boil (Lv 1) Even only adding in 1 level of the skills I would need to be able to get to the Tier 3 magic skills still would have pushed me up to level 5. This will be okay if they are unable to assign any of my free points which would now possibly plausibly be 40. This is all still somewhat like attempting to nail jelly to the wall. But that is the most I can be without being scarily honest with my family. There are always consequences to the truth and I am still worried about what they might be. If anything, today has reinforced my idea that it is safer to keep things secret even from my closest family. They only know a little of what I can truly do and their first response was to hide me away. What would they do if they knew everything? I enjoy who I am and have learned to love my family. My mother who carried me and brought me into this world, possibly even saved me at birth. My sister spends all of her with me, caring for me, carrying me, and indulging my many whims. She may annoy me and stop me from some things but all siblings fight over something to some degree. My father who does his best for me has dreams for me and with love and affection drowns me. I know they all have my best interests at heart. I was, am, and still will be scared to lose any of that. . . . I moved on from my morbid thoughts, pondering that if they can reassign my points again I only have 20 free points to assign anywhere. If 40 were assigned to Vitality, Senses, Mind, or Magic I would be able to cover it with my true stats. Anything else I would be short by up to 10 points. I hoped that the training that they were talking about will help my endurance, strength, and dexterity to grow quicker to cover that imaginary gap of 10. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. That or I needed to redo my mind fortress again, to focus on the physical. I did not trust my Ninja baby skills for a nighttime practice against Grandfather tonight so refurbishments it was. Under my sham status, I mentally lifted up the hidden trapdoor before I went down the spiral staircase through my mental layers to my hidden Mind Fortress, a bunker to retreat to from the constant buzzing of my heightened senses. Room 1 My Id (1x1) The first room of my fortress I have not changed at all. It is still my core, my id, my stats, and my skills. The smallest of the rooms at the center of the Fibonacci spiral that I have built my mind fortress around. My two self-portraits stood on either side of me. The middle-aged man that I once was stands on the left. There my painted self is surrounded by the items that made up my life before I was reborn like a modern-day version of The Ambassadors by Holbein. Never so rich as them, the items that surround me are more memories of mundane modernity, something that in this world would seem simply magical and I miss them. But they are no longer available and there is no point pining over things I will not have for a long, long time lest I make them myself. My portrait on the right now reflected who I am now. A small baby almost a toddler. No longer a fetus wrapped in the womb. Time feels surreal sometimes as I have spent so much of my conscious life inside my head. Inside the world, I built in my head, my mind fortress, that I formed to save my sanity in the womb. In the painting, I sit there surrounded by the items they had laid out for me for my Zhuazhou day. They represent a variety of futures I could take but selfishly I took them all and do not want to have to make a choice between them, at least I have not wanted to or had to yet. That being said I am no longer alone in this portrait unlike the other. My father, mother, and sister surround me, standing by a sailboat, sewing and spinning respectively. They are part of who I am now. The Mariners Windrose Compass is still engraved on the floor and I am sure my father would be keen to see such an important sailors tool embedded in the heart of my mind. My mother would love the ceiling and the constellation I¡¯ve kept from my old world. Some of the most intricate of her weaving has been patterns involving the stars above the compass kingdoms. Patterns that she adds by hand to her woven cloth. My real Stats still stand on the central wall from which it all spirals but I have been able to reorganise them into tiers. I wonder if one day I will be able to put them into trees of abilities but fear that will get far too complicated far too quickly. Room 2 My meditation room (1x1) I have kept this the same simplicity the best policy. My meditation room is where I gained some control after being overwhelmed by Super Senses. Without it, I would probably still be trembling and shaking overwhelmed by my Super senses. Relaxed, here I took a moment to appreciate my fortune in my family. It was still somewhere I could zone out, feel at peace, feel zen. I had even added a small bonsai tree to complement the tatami flooring and paper walls I had imagined to decorate the area. I had removed the screens that I used to represent my skills mana sense and echolocation. Purity in the simplicity of the room. Without distractions, I paused to meditate to gain a level of serenity before I moved onto the refurbishments I wanted to make. Room 3 My control room (2x2) This is the first room that I started to change. Mentally I boxed up the literature that I had recreated. I then proceeded to pull apart my library imagining stacking it by the door. I planned to rebuild it next door but a little larger. This gave me space for something else I wished to add to my repertoire. A control room. A cross between Nasa and a Star Trek Bridge, my critical operations control room was a spy room from which I could view the world while my body seemingly slept. I curved the walls giving me a circle in which I could sit. The 360 screens gave me a panoramic view of the room the image I representation of both my Mana Sense and Echolocation. If I focused on parts of the picture I could now zoom through to see beyond the surface image. The definition was raised higher by my heightened senses and extra screens for my new skills Sight, Scent, Detect and Taste. Facsimiles of me sat at each station ready to alert me to changes. Quietly waiting, processing without thinking beyond the bounds of the task I had assigned them. Room 4 My library (3x3) After constructing my control room I rebuilt my library. But first I had to jump ahead to room 5 draining my imaginary pool to push across my music room. Then I returned to Room 4 where I unpacked the boxed literature I started to fill the larger wall-to-wall shelving that flowed from floor to ceiling in my mind. I had always wanted my own library in my former life and now I had it of a sort. Admittedly many a row was still empty but they were beginning to fill up. Little wooden carved signs detailing the areas I am trying to remember fiction, non fiction, geography, history, animals, science, etc. Like my core room, I am keeping old world knowledge on the left and hopefully now that I have access to some books I will be able to fill up the right side with the world I now live in. Maybe I can even write my own guides to this world and novels to entertain. Who is there to claim patent or enforce intellectual property rights in a world that might not have ever heard of them? Room 5 My music room (5x5) The fifth room I remodeled as my music room. I had already pushed it across from room 4 so I simply pushed out the walls to match the larger space before extending them and wooden flooring. Significantly larger now I set up for a small orchestra to play. I cannot play all of these imaginary instruments yet and cannot carry the various lines simultaneously yet. But maybe one day. Room 6 My dojo (8x8) Faced with the routine my Grandfather has laid out for us. It did not seem like it would be long before he is handing me some form of weaponry to practice with. Always be prepared may have been the Scout motto but it is one I will happily follow. A few lessons I once had of Karate, Judo, and Kendo allowed me to recreate various areas for them. Plenty of films made recreating a boxing ring easy enough even if I don¡¯t yet have someone to fight against in my head I can practice some of the moves I remember watching. My only concern was a worry about any bad habits I may form. Practice doesn¡¯t guarantee perfection no matter how many times they say practice makes perfect. In reality, practice makes permanent and if you practice something wrong repeatedly all you will do is engrain your bad habits until they become incredibly difficult if not impossible to correct. Still, I know some of the basics low stable stance, etc. The question is; Will the system of levels help improve my skills as they increase or can bad habits follow you through each level never corrected no matter how high a level you achieve? Room 7 My swimming pool (13x13) The seventh room of my mind fortress I reflooded and recreated my swimming pool room but now significantly larger. Here I thought little about the depth of the pool mentally creating it as I had before. This proved to be a problem. Throughout my time in the womb when in my head and building my mind fortress I had always imagined myself as I was in my old life. An avatar so to speak of a middle-aged man. But now as I stood in my pool I realised that my mental image of who I now was had shrunk. It seemed I had regressed much like Benjamin Button aging backward as he moved forward in time and the initial pool that I created the same depth as my original pool was now a little too deep for me to stand comfortably in. Freaked out I formed a mirror to see what age I appeared to be but I appeared malleable looking like however, I wished to be a child or an adult. Only my perspective had lowered to be closer to my new reality. The water was now too high I had to add a shallow end to my pool. Toddler or middle-aged man no matter what I looked like on the outside my height remained smaller. Had I resized everything to my perspective? Not noticing the change before reaching room 7. I found the entire situation strange an odd quirk of my mental landscape, that once noticed, I found difficult to ignore. Room 8 My running track (21x21) Still concerned about the physical nature of Grandfather¡¯s training. This room is now a running track for practicing the planned running with a bouldering wall around the edges to practice the planned climbing. While a set of all the athletic events and equipment I can remember I recreated and filled the middle with. Though I think I will need some skill to get a Skill or rather a lot of luck. The same concerns over forming poor habits played on my mind. Room 9 My forest (34 x 34) I have no previous experience foraging beyond picking blackberries and strawberries but survivalist training seems a necessity for traveling any further afield. So thinking ahead I am growing a mental forest to help me out later on. Maybe I can practice planting? Finally, Room 10 My sailing sea (55 x 55) My spiral fortress had gotten significantly larger and this last room was huge. Mentally drained from the refurbishments I had made it was simpler to fill it with water adding a dock and a small boat to sail on it with. Father seems determined to have me follow in his footsteps. So the sooner I get my sea legs and learn my port side from my starboard the happier he will be and hopefully more lenient in allowing me my foibles. Besides if I am not allowed home for a few months or god forbid it a few years. Sailing a boat might be the only way to get off Ash island. Mentally exhausted from the mental remodeling of my mind fortress I returned to my body but not before taking a last look at my status. Surprised at the increase in experience over only a few hours tonight. It seemed to break down to the Mind Fortress, Ignite, Freeze, Boil, and Mana Sense skills leveling during the last day. True Status Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 54,000/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 110 Endurance: 22 Strength: 22 Dexterity: 23 Senses: 109 Mind: 107 Clarity: 38 Magic: 100 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23) Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20) Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11) Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 30) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20) Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Quick reflexes (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 23) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29) Mana Manipulation (Lv 12) Ignite (Lv 12) Freeze (Lv 3) Boil (Lv 2) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 11) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 16) Skill experience: 4200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 It''s been a busy day. Life is full of surprises, I just have to accept that I cannot plan for them all. I wonder what life will be like here with Grandfather and Aleera. Chapter 32: A journey of a thousand miles.
Qi¨¡nl¨« zh¨© x¨ªng, sh¨«y¨² z¨² xi¨¤
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Lao Tzu A week later. . . It turned out that Grandfather would be gone by the time we woke up most mornings. Not sure what it is that he does or where it is that he disappears to but he sails back at noon, most days, in time for lunch. I thought that this might mean we get to lie in and enjoy the morning for ourselves. But not so. He left his list of tasks for us to do and Aleera has become something of a taskmaster. There are a certain amount of steps to our journey back home and she is insistent that I tackle each and every step. Every morning I¡¯m dragged out of bed and thrown into the lake to practice swimming. It¡¯s hard to believe that someone could be worse at teaching swimming than my father but she is! If I didn¡¯t already know how to swim, in mind if not fully in body yet, I would probably be dead. I¡¯m not sure if she is naturally this bad at teaching someone how to swim or if she simply knows that I¡¯m capable of more than most. Anyway, my swimming is improving rapidly and I¡¯m beginning to catch up where I imagine I would be with a full-size body, that worked as well as my last. After swimming I am dragged out of the water and forced to clamber and climb after Aleera if I want to have any breakfast. I now have the skill Climb (Lv 1) for my efforts but I won¡¯t be scaling any mountains anytime soon as my limbs are too short to make most of the moves found on a climbing wall. It is more scrambling than bouldering but the system seems to accept it as some form of climbing. Then we run back to our new home. I tried pointing out to Aleera that we didn¡¯t need to do this that we were going to do it with Grandfather later in the afternoons. But her response was, "You¡¯ll see." Not at all ominous! Once back to the house, she involves me in everything from tending the fire, to setting out our meager breakfast, often leftovers from last night. She suffers no fools and no longer has as much patience for me. Our rough and tumble play mean that she knows I am stronger, quicker, and will endure longer than a normal baby could or should. She knows me better than my parents and has pushed me all the harder for it. After breakfast, she always pulled out the books as we started working on my reading, writing, and arithmetic. It seems relatively straightforward to me. As I already understand the majority of the concepts if not the abstract forms they are written down in. Bulosa did not prove to be too challenging to learn to write. Phonetically simpler like Spanish or Japanese the characters used are artistic, more like calligraphy than English letters but the rules are simpler and there seem to be fewer exceptions to them. I quickly gained another skill Calligraphy(Lv 1) perhaps reflecting my belief that the writing was more artistic than functionally necessary. Does our own focus shift the skills we can gain? Is it arbitrary or does it follow a set of rules and criteria? Next every day, she would move on to maths. Again, having the majority of the concepts, she was teaching it was easy to answer her questions verbally although more challenging to decode the squiggles used to represent them. Ultimately progress was smooth and I soon had another skill Mathematics(Lv 1) that I would be able to level quickly within my mind. Much as I would be able to do with Calligraphy and Climb. The issue as always with new skills was that it would increase the level displayed on my Sham Status beyond what I had the points to support. The sole consolation to this was that the morning swim, climb and run were beginning to prop up the physical growth of my stats. I hadn¡¯t seen so much growth in them, so quickly, in a long time. Finally, she would finish our school sessions with reading. I already had the majority of the alphabet understood it was just a process of putting them together to then read them out. Interestingly enough the system did not award me literacy as a skill but rather Decoding (Lv1) perhaps because I can already read and am functionally literate, if not in Bulosa yet. I wonder if this skill will support translation skills later as well. Either way my ability to read is speeding up although I am yet to be left unsupervised with what are clearly expensive and possibly irreplaceable books. I feel there is some resentment from Aleera though. Something about having been made to move out here with me. She looks after me without fault and teaches me with precision but she has lost some of her softness, some of the playfulness that she had around me, toughening me up as she is forced to toughen up herself up when Grandfather returns home. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. His knife work lessons begin as soon as he returns and he can be a little brutal in his teaching methods. The series of thrusts blocks stabs and slashes she can make are remarkable for a 10-year-old but Grandfather is insanely fast. His knife flickers and flashes catching any thrust she makes towards him flicking them away and past them occasionally he simply steps out the way. The speed he can move shows the importance of stats. His dexterity, must be incredibly high. They danced back across the islands back towards home. The terrain is as much a weapon as the knives they hold in their hands during their running battles. I trundled and ran along behind them as they moved quickly back home. After almost a week of knocking the rust off Aleera¡¯s knife skills, Grandfather moved on to the next step of our training. The next step was that she had to defend me from him whilst he attacked. The consequence for our failure, if we were caught, no dinner. It basically meant no lunch at all because he can outrace any block that Aleera can make and I¡¯m clearly not quick enough to get home before him on my own. The rules to this exercise were that we needed to be in sight of him when he landed around lunchtime. When we realised that we couldn''t face him or block him or come anywhere near defeating him we saw our best option was to put me on Aleera¡¯s back and for her to simply rush back as soon as it was possible to see him pulling up to the dock. This got us one meal of the week. But he was quick to change the rules of the training exercise and we continued to lose. Aleera seemed to be expecting this having been through this with Grandfather before and this might explain some of the resentment I am feeling. Some amount of starvation seems to be part of his training process but I¡¯m now so hungry that as soon as we awake and before I am thrown into the sea we started to hunt for muscles and shellfish to eat along the shoreline. I have never been a fan of seafood but hunger truly is the most effective spice. Perhaps this is all part of his training regime to teach us how to forage for ourselves. He has not been entirely clear. Interestingly enough catching and eating the shellfish is giving me small amounts of experience each time for their deaths. A lot more than the ants did. Perhaps it''s their size. This must be how fishermen gain their experience and levels. We kill what we catch gaining sustenance and experience in the process. Something I never gained for eating food before. Frustratingly when stood on the shoreline, I can sense where some of the fish are in the water using mana sense and echolocation and they are often only just out of reach. Out of conventional sight and out of reach. Maybe I can convince my father to part with a net or a fishing rod. Echolocation and Mana Sense make it simple for me to see where they are. Fresh fish, fresh food, just teasingly out of touch. I need to work out a way to catch them or I need to work out how to pick the lock to the larder. Why are the rooms even locked? There is nobody around. So now that we are starving a little less after our morning snacks we have a little bit more energy to be a little bit more creative about foraging for food. He isn¡¯t going to let us starve hopefully but we could do more to make the most of our enforced time here. The other thing that we do to add a little flavour to our foraging of food is harvesting sea salt. If Aleera is happy about one thing with me this week it is my ability to speed up the process of harvesting sea salt. She calls it white gold as the price of salt is rather high at the market. She has a few places she knows to collect it from around the island but I can go one step further in filling the basins she¡¯s found over the years then evaporating it off using the skill boil. It¡¯s hardly an industrial production of salt, yet. But she is passing half of it to me. So when I return to the mainland I will probably have my body''s weight''s worth of sea salt to spend however I want. The trick, as always, will be to get it past grandfather somehow without him noticing. Today I am a baby imprisoned unfairly on an island, tomorrow salt merchant of the world! As the morning mists cleared, we could see across the bay. It¡¯s a long way across the lake towards home. In a way, we have a lot more freedom on the island to run and practice magic out of sight. But I miss my mother. We prepare ourselves for our run back home. We can just see our Grandfather approaching. Slowly we backed away, always staying just on the edge of his sight. Aleera bends to pick me up. Ready, steady, Run! Will we be getting dinner today? Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 63,350/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 12 hours Health: 1110/1110 Stamina: 523/523 Mana: 1020/1020 Psi: 1090/1090 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 111 Endurance: 23 Strength: 23 Dexterity: 24 Senses: 110 Mind: 109 Clarity: 40 Magic: 102 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 23) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 32) Swimming (LV 24) Humming (Lv 21) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 21) Singing (Lv 21) and Drumming (Lv 21) Running (Lv 12), Acting (17), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 5) Breath Control (Lv 5) Sight (Lv 12) Scent (Lv 12) Detect (Lv 12) Taste (Lv 12) Bulosa (Lv 5) Draw (Lv 2) Climb (Lv 2) Calligraphy (Lv 2) Mathematics (Lv 2) Decoding (Lv 2) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 31) Eavesdrop (LV 23) Memorisation (LV 21) Composition (Lv 21) Recall (Lv21) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 23) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29) Mana Manipulation (Lv 12) Ignite (Lv 12) Freeze (Lv 3) Boil (Lv 5) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 11) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 16) Skill experience: 7000 Origin experience: 1000 Combat experience: 550 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 33: Best foot forward
¡°Putting your best foot forward at least keeps it out of your mouth.¡±
Morris Mandel As soon as he landed on the island we scarpered. At half Aleera¡¯s size I am still the millstone around her neck. In this case I¡¯m bound to Aleera¡¯s back and the cross she has to bear in an attempt to speed up our flight from Grandfather. Strapped to her back I could see him nod before giving chase. ¡°He¡¯s coming.¡± I shout. ¡°Right as planned then!¡± is all she has time to say as she starts sprinting. We took an oblique angle to the house cutting across the coast along our newly prepared route. On our way home, yet seemingly, running away from it, out along a short peninsular of the island. It was a change from our usual straight dash to house and Grandfather paused before following. Perhaps confused at our direction or simply amused. It was difficult to tell from this distance although he was probably both. . . . In the afternoons after our run, clamber, swim and running battle against grandfather we would work on our magic. We were hoping that what we have practiced will help us make it home before being caught. . . . ¡°Now Kai.¡± Aleera whispered. Rounding a corner as we passed a pool of water and reached the coast I used my skill boil to set it steaming sending my Mana along the top of the water as far down the coast as I can manage. We have attempted this before and in the cool autumn days the water steams creating a mist covered coast much like the morning mists that sometimes hide the island completely from lake town. Silent we freeze and hide in a thin crevice watching the mist quickly expand along the shoreline. Hopefully enough to block the view of wherever we might have fled to. Just in time as Grandfather quickly rounds the bend. ¡°Ha.¡± We hear him exclaim before the sound of his foot beats quickly disappear into the fog along the peninsular we are no longer running down. It would not give us long but every second counts in our dash home. . . . We are allowed to use magic now in our battles as long as it is simple and not immediately obvious. I suppose from the mainland it probably looks like Grandfather is just playing a game with grandchildren. A distant game of tag played in fun perhaps. Although I¡¯m sure someone with a farsight skill could probably catch us at our games, Grandfather doesn¡¯t seem concerned and has allowed the inclusion of magic in our flight home. As long as it is out of sight from the town. Where we had hidden and the mist billowing down the coast was just out of sight round the edge of the island from the town. . . . Aleera quietly pointed and motioned for me to get on with the next bit. We had no idea how good his hearing was and did not want to give the game away having made it this far undiscovered. Walking as quietly as possible we clambered across the rocks till we reached the inside of the inlet and our magically prepared craft. I would like to say that I had fashioned a beautiful boat out of ice but it would be more truthful to say that I had created a slab of ice that was somewhere between a basic raft and kayak but unrecognisable as either. Setting out silently, we slipped out onto the water. In theory and practice the ice should last till we made it to the other side as we would need to be engaged with calling the wind. While Aleera may have been impressed with my ignite, freeze and boil skills. I have been equally impressed with her ability to control her mana inside threads to make them move seemingly of their own accord and her ability to call the wind sometimes enough to cut her threads. We were not planning to cut anything but instead planned to use the wrap she used to hold me in as makeshift sail and quickly sail across the inlet before Grandfather noticed and returned. I started to expel mana into her waiting hands powering Aleera to magnify and sustain her spell gust as she started turn it into a northerly wind. Softly at first but increasingly stronger, eventually the breeze began to blow us across the water. Aleera held onto me and the wrap as I acted like a sail to propel us across the bay. We hoped that even if he noticed us he would choose to run around the inlet rather than simply swim across to catch us. Gaining us a few more moments to make it. We hoped that we might just this once manage to get home first. There was a gentle crunch as we land. Had he heard it? Off we went. . . . We dashed up from our melting mode of transport. The wrap was significantly looser now that we had used it for a sail. With me having to hold on hard to prevent myself falling off I realised we should have tied it tight properly before setting off. Less haste more speed and all that. But we were so close now, it was hard not to rush. However, holding on as I was, I couldn¡¯t look back. We were nearly there. At the door when . . . ¡°Ow!¡± I screamed. You would think that I would have gotten used to this part of the training. Grandfather felt that for the game to be truly important it was important to bleed and his stiletto helped with that part of the training. I don¡¯t know about important but it helped with levelling. Ding! Pain tolerance (Lv 9) ¡°Ugh.¡± Aleera grunted far more accustomed to being cut by Grandfather than I was. Every time he does it, he seems to find a new painful place to cut us, never deep and quick to heal but always exceptionally painful. I am beginning to truly grasp Aleera¡¯s resentment at having to come back to the island. It appears she has always had to come here for training since her 5th birthday but never for so long. Only ever for a weekend at a time. The fact that I have been sent here to hide me has given Grandfather free range with our training. Something I don¡¯t think he has ever been allowed before. ¡°Nearly there.¡± He smiled. ¡°Nice try with the mist. Gained you nearly enough time. But it won¡¯t work again like that.¡± He pointed out before adding, ¡°Guess you won¡¯t be eating tonight then.¡± A counterpoint to our groans. Once back inside Grandfather tested me on everything that I was supposed to have learned that day. Generally, the academic side of things is not too much of a struggle but then he turns to the physical aspects of my training. First and foremost was the run, climb and swim. However, with Aleera taking up the mantle on that part of my training he has moved on to the next item on his agenda knife wielding. You wouldn¡¯t think an adult would give an under one a knife and to be fair my knife is a little bit different from Aleera¡¯s. It is still a knife but the sheath has been fastened on with wire so it doesn¡¯t come off easily. This way I¡¯m unable to cut myself but according to the system at least, it is enough to practice and gain some knife skills. Still being a baby my range of motion and reach is significantly smaller than Aleera¡¯s or grandfather¡¯s. In fact, if I was to attack them or anything else really, the only thing I¡¯d be able to damage is an ankle. Moreover if my opponent was actually fighting back all it would take for them to dislodge me would be a good, hard kick. Stolen novel; please report. Ankle biter is often another word for toddler in my previous life. Not for nothing it would seem and although technically I¡¯m toddling I¡¯m still a little younger than the average toddler and not so much an ankle biter as an ankle stabber. Because of this grandfather was initially stuck for a moment on how to train someone with such a disparity in height. The solution was that when Aleera has to fight me, she has to fight me on her knees. I still only come up to her waist but it puts a little more of her body within range my attacks not that I have ever been able to land any on her yet. This would almost be fun if my every error were not corrected with pointed pokes from a stiletto that is only sometimes fully sheathed. Just as Aleera is substantially slower their grandfather so am I substantially slower than Aleera. Who seems to playing with her dagger as I slash and hack she seems to enjoy blocking, slapping and flicking away my strikes. Still I suppose it¡¯s nice change from being beaten up. As we practiced grandfather continued to teach encouraging Aleera to disarm me quickly and adding the consequence of a poke or two to me once I¡¯ve been disarmed and a poke to Aleera if she isn¡¯t sufficiently quick or dextrous in her disarmament. Her blade is sheathed as well so no blood is drawn by her. But it still hurts when rapped over the knuckles with a sheath. Once we have completed our knife drills, checked my arithmetic, reading and writing. He also checks Aleera¡¯s progress and is never quite happy enough with either of us which is ridiculous seeing as I am less than one and couldn¡¯t even hold onto the pencil in the first place when I arrived. Why? Well my fine motor skills are still developing. Even if I know what it¡¯s supposed to feel like it. It sometimes feels as if I¡¯m wearing mittens in terms of grabbing things and manipulating them. My dexterity may be increasing but my ability to manipulate small objects is still ridiculously low. Getting better at grabbing though and my fist grip for writing is effective enough in my opinion. In the evening the extra skill to support dexterity is actually needlework. Aleera is sewing has continued throughout and now I too am being forced to sew too. It never being a skill I had before other than to put a button on a jackets which were about to fall off this is taking me a frustratingly long time to go to hang off and despite bearing in mind I¡¯m still a baby Aleera seems to find great joy in my frustration over needlework. And as much as I like to think I can do anything perhaps tailoring is not in my future. It will be interesting to see how much the sewing skill improves my sewing ability as well as my dexterity stat if it feeds into that. For a lot of the skills that I have I already had some form of them in my former life. Not being so much is learning something new as simply recalling something already learnt. Like riding a bicycle some skills are not easily forgotten. The skill system is merely a set of exams I pass to prove my proficiency. I haven¡¯t seen a bicycle here but I am sure that should one exist being able to get on it and cycle straight away would surely level my skills quite quickly back to what my actual level once was. There are two more one-to-one skills that grandfather is teaching. The first is Lying. Lying is a skill easily practised by deceiving Aleera. Attempting to deceive grandfather on the other hand is considerably harder. After a week of questions to which I was expected to lie I finally gained the skill Lie (Lv 1). It¡¯s only a Tier one skill but I think that some of my experience for it has been being syphoned off into Acting which has now reached (Lv 17). Once I had it we started to play a game. It turned out that Aleera already had the skill. Moreover, if you are able to convince somebody of your lie you gain more experience towards your next level. This is my most favourite skill to level with Grandfather predominantly because it doesn¡¯t involve being stabbed at the moment unlike running, climbing and fighting which all end up with a nick here or there. Interestingly enough we play a game much like call my bluff as a way to level up the skill. Each of us is given a card where among the three of us two are correct and one is false. Mother must have written the game as even Grandfather does not know the all the answers. . . . ¡°Scroyle is the word.¡± Grandfather states. Then we all had a go at attempting to be convincing. Two of us were lying while one of us was telling the truth. ¡°1. A scroyle was a type of scroll, designed to be small enough to put in a purse. Scroyles were often printed with morals or popular sayings e.g. It is writ upon my scroyle.¡± Aleera informed us. My turn next, ¡°2. A scroyle was a type of stocking often worn by aristocratic lords. Because of their unusually fine weave, scroyles were expensive and only owned by those with money to spend e.g. His legs are dressed in finest scroyles.¡± I slowly read from the card. My reading is improving and I think I sometimes win simply because I spend so long trying to read out loud the words some of which I still don¡¯t know till after they have been explained I can deliver them factually whether they are true or not. Albeit with the odd occasionaly mispronunciation. ¡°3. A scroyle was a scoundrel or ruffian. Often used in the plural to insult a whole group of people e.g. These Ponentian scroyles are keen to fight.¡± Finshed Grandfather once more. Before we attempted to work out who was telling the truth and who was lying. . . . Fascinatingly, we can actually all play this game as long has the cards are grouped in their threes. Once the three cards get picked up, you know that one of the other two is telling the truth and the other is lying if you hold a false card. However, if you hold the truth card you know the other two must be false but the other two don¡¯t know and you have to be effective in your lying to keep them from finding out. I find it fascinating that there are games to teach skills. The game is doing wonders for my vocabulary but they are sometimes left explaining in detail have the words before I can understand enough to even have a half way decent guess. . . . Grandfather insisted that we don¡¯t reveal our answers if we could so that the words can go back into the box. Sometimes I wonder if we haven¡¯t all drawn lies that we are trying to convince the other two are truths. ¡°The next word is Wanny.¡± Grandfather continued. ¡°1. Wanny meant to whinge and grizzle (usually unnecessarily). It is probably a conflagration of the words whine and whinny ¨C the noises humans and horses make respectively e.g. Must thou wanny so?¡± Aleera left me confused with some of the long words but you can generally take a guess at the gist of it even if you can¡¯t understand every single word. ¡°2. Wanny meant wan i.e. pallid and pale. Often used to describe the pale cheeks of a young lady or the pale complexion of the sick e.g. How her wanny cheeks are faded.¡± I cheerfully responded actually able to comprehend the majority of my words as well as the fact that mine was the true answer. I hoped my cheerfulness reflected my success with words rather than a smugness in knowing I had the right answer. ¡°3. A wanny, was a small cheap fish commonly made into pies by the poor. It lived plentifully in rivers but was rather small and bony by all accounts! E.g. Be thankful for your wanny pie.¡± Grandfather almost smirked as if reminding us that we had missed out on dinner once again that night. . . . Again, this skill would normally be taught after turning 5 so like all of his training so far Grandfather does not seem to expect me to excel and seems to think my successes are more due to luck than any real skill. My biggest question though is why aren¡¯t all skills played like games, levelled through games. If all children were playing these games to learn skills wouldn¡¯t all our levels rise. A rising tide lifts all boats. There are so many ideas, tips and tricks that could be shared to help everyone improve but it does not seem like that is done here. Apparently, every house has its own proprietarily skills, techniques, games and methods of learning skills and they are guarded most jealousy. In fact, the methods and manner of gaining skills and levels can actually be nobles house¡¯s most prize possessions. Money land even power can be lost through the fortunes of war and fate but your levels and stats will always be yours no matter what. Grandfather has told us tales of houses who lost all their money, power and land but have been able to retain their noble status through their traditions and teachings or at least they have been able to safeguard their titles through their own physical might and the strength of their children raised by their traditions and teachings. When asked why we couldn¡¯t use this to start our own Noble house he pointed out that those nobles who had managed to maintain it had sufficiently strong enough older members than an old man, a 10-year-old and a baby. He had a good point. As he pessimistically reiterated, ¡°No matter the training methods we might have access to from the fallen house I was bound to. Until we have gained and used the skills, levels and stats from them they are not a strength merely another weakness. A gem or jewel stronger houses will covet.¡± Thinking about it though, we have an island, we are gaining magic and have a fallen houses training system. All we really need is time to build our own house and personal strength. I am certainly not particularly keen to be beholden to someone else. This world feels to very much be a feudal era where they can command more I was used to in the modern world I once lived in. It seems strange that should I be found out, I could be conscripted or poached from my home. It is not that I don¡¯t want to see the world. I just want to see it on my own terms.
Chapter 34: Go where the wind blows ¡°The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects the wind to change, the realist adjusts the sails.¡± William Arthur Ward There is very little choice that I have in regards to where and how I live. I do not have any control over the matter. I can either rail and rage at where I am, hope that it will somehow get better or simply make the best of it. Father had been visiting us on our very own Alcatraz every now and then but he had not rescued us from our somewhat arduous training, at least not yet. ¡°Mother said you might be hungry.¡± He said with a wan smile as he took in our somewhat hardened appearances handing us a loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese along with some stew. Our time on the island so far may have been good for gaining the skills Grandfather felt we needed and practicing them. But it had not aided my growth, particularly when compared to my own nightly ninja training regime. Sometimes we learn best at our own pace and what was the rush as long as I managed to maintain control of my magic. Sure, now I could Lie and had basic Knife skills but we had yet to unlock any other significant developments other than skills levels here. Grandfather¡¯s school of hard knocks seemed based primarily on running away, evading trouble, and then knifing it if it got too close. Maybe this was only the basic level of training for beginners but there was so much more I could do with my mind in the comfort of my own box at home. I missed my mother and food had never tasted so great as we wolfed down the breakfast. Nothing ever tasted as good as home cooking and the small amount of stew we had to share between the two of us tasted of our mother''s love for us. We had got a lot better at foraging for shellfish, food along the shoreline even going as far as drying out what looked like seaweed to eat. But the best days were always days when he visited. Father had arrived just after we had awoken. Arriving so early we had yet to leave the house. He poked his head in but other than trying his hand at the locked doors and watching us eat. He soon took us back to his boat. My swimming had improved enough that he deemed it now acceptable to take me and Aleera out on the boat and I was his good luck charm. ¡°Where should I cast then Kai?¡± Father¡¯s boat skipped along the water, Aleera¡¯s magic filling the sails when the wind lagged. It was a great family time together. She seemed happy to finally tell her father about everything she could do and proud to show off as well. ¡°Watch this.¡± She said pushing a burst of Mana into her spell. Giving the boat a burst of speed to push us over the top of a swell. Keen to demonstrate her own importance now that Father was in the circle of trust. ¡°Easy there Aleera. Try not to capsize us.¡± Father smiled to remove the sting of the restriction. Truly happy it seemed to have us all out on the lake as a family. I hadn¡¯t told them how I could tell where the fish were with a combination of Echolocation, Mana Sense, and my Super Senses. But father was happy to trust in my uncanny ability to pick out the best places to stop and cast the nets which when he listened to me often came up full and heavy. ¡°Cast here,¡± I said pointing to the port side of the boat. We were coming up on a shoal of decent-sized fish father would be keen to catch. ¡°Net overboard.¡± He shouted as he cast the net. Any cloud of concern over our incarceration on the island disappeared with the pleasure of sailing and the joy of not struggling to find the fish or catch them with my father¡¯s help. Apparently in order to support the story that mother was working hard on a complicated piece of tapestry she had actually started one. Father had been banished for the daytime at least from the house as well as us in order for her to finish it. Father looked a little unsure when talking about mother. He still loved her and us but clearly had complicated feelings about the secret we had all been keeping in one way or another. But he was always happy to put aside his worries and enjoy the moment with us. He truly enjoyed sailing and his enjoyment was infectious. Flying over the waves was fantastic. The best bit about sailing though was the experience gain. Fish have lives. Fish gained experience and when I was able to point out where they were for Father to catch. I seemed to gain part of that experience when he ended their lives. Far more even than the shellfish, we gathered along the shoreline. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. 1 ant = 1 experience 1 shellfish = 10 experience 1 fish = 100 experience Perhaps it was due to how far up the food chain they were. Each haul of fish I was finding for him would pull in between 10 and 100 fish gaining me 1000 to 10,000 experience. I wasn¡¯t sure if father knew that my contribution was being counted somehow by the system or not but it was quickly adding up. While training might be leveling up my skills. Sailing was going to be the thing that gave me enough experience to level up quickest so far. This world truly did reward the death of others with more personal power. It made me wonder how strong was my father. What had he invested his stats in? And how had Grandfather gained his strength? If he wasn¡¯t a fisherman? If that was the approximate gain for ants, shellfish, and fish. Would the experience gain continue to grow with the size of the sea animal? Or their place in the food chain? 1 dolphin = 1000 experience? 1 shark = 10,000 experience? 1 Orca = 100,000 experience? Were there larger sea monsters hidden in the lake? A Loch Ness so to speak? I continued to scan using Mana sense and echolocation for anything larger cruising the waters below us but fortunately or unfortunately was unable to see too far below us or anything much bigger than what we had already caught. Pulling in the net father insisted that we all have a go at pulling it in even if my efforts were more to take part in the activity than to actively help them. We soon had a catch filling the bottom of the boat. Sped by the wind my sister called, powered by the mana I provided we sped back to our island prison. ¡°Can¡¯t we come home with you?¡± Aleera questioned as we clambered ashore once more. ¡°Best let your mother and grandfather sort that out.¡± He cautioned. ¡°But I will see what I can do.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯m happy to see you are learning well out here. Your magical skills are truly amazing. Think I have caught a day¡¯s worth of fish in just the morning.¡± ¡°Yes, but we could be doing all this at home. Kai isn¡¯t burning, boiling, or freezing anything.¡± Aleera argued. ¡°I¡¯m glad Kai seems to have everything under control,¡± Father responded. ¡°But then he seemed to be perfectly fine before if a little quicker than most.¡± Aleera, did not seem particularly pleased with the announcement. ¡°Now don¡¯t take it out on Kai. You are both special and family is the most important thing in the world to me. So, if it is safer for you to be here for a while. Then that really is the best thing for you both. I will visit more often and bring a little more food. Hey up maybe once mother has finished her tapestry we could all look to moving out here for a bit. Certainly, seems to be more fish on this side of the lake!¡± He smiled as he tried to convince Aleera. I wanted to go home too. But I could see the benefits of staying here as well. Harsh as it was my stats had continued to level here as well as my skill levels. We just need mother here too to take the edges off of Grandfather soften him a little bit but mainly we needed her cooking and food. It would be wonderful if we could all be here in our own little magical kingdom of mages. Imagine what we could accomplish without the world watching. Free to use our gifts to their full potential. ¡°Can we go fishing tomorrow?¡± I asked father. It was not just for the joy of speeding along the top of the waves or the break from our morning routine of scavaging food although that was a large part of it. The amount of experience I had gained in helping father catch fish outweighed all the experience I had managed to gain from leveling my skills while we had been on the island. If grandfather truly wanted to make us stronger surely we should spend the day fishing every day. We would soon have enough to level up. Why wasn¡¯t everyone fishing? It seemed so simple other than the fact that we might run out of fish if the whole town was doing so every day. ¡°We¡¯ll see. But I don¡¯t see why not.¡± Father replied, happy that one of his family was keen to go sailing with him rather than unhappy that he was leaving so soon. He jumped back into his boat before heading off to the town. We waved until he was out of sight before turning back to eat as quickly as possible all the food he had brought us. With the amount of food, we were eating I doubted we would be able to out waddle grandfather let alone outrun but at least we wouldn¡¯t be hungry today. Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 119,550/ 204,800 Age: 13 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 9 hours Health: 1120/1120 Stamina: 533/533 Mana: 1120/1120 Psi: 1140/1140 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 112 Endurance: 24 Strength: 24 Dexterity: 26 Senses: 115 Mind: 114 Clarity: 45 Magic: 112 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 34) Swimming (LV 26) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 15), Acting (18), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 10) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bulosa (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 5) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 5) Decoding (Lv 5) Lie (Lv 3) Knife Skills (Lv 3 Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 34) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 12) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 10) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 6) Boil (Lv 10) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 21,100 Origin experience: 10,000 Combat experience: 25,100 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 35: Frog in a well
¡°A frog in a well cannot discuss the ocean, because he is limited by the size of his well. A summer insect cannot discuss ice, because it knows only its own season. A narrow-minded scholar cannot discuss the Tao, because he is constrained by his teachings. Now you have come out of your banks and seen the Great Ocean. You now know your own inferiority, so it is now possible to discuss great principles with you.¡± Zhuangzi, The Way of Chuang Tzu While not a wise man or baby I knew the first step towards wisdom. As Socrates said, ¡®The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.¡¯ I did not think however that I would be both figuratively and literally the frog in the well. I was busily swimming in circles in my leaf and it was beginning to take a toll. Run ragged was how I was feeling at the moment. My sister and my grandfather were all pushing me to sing more, to fight more to make more, to be more, to do more with my magic, body, and mind. It was just as well I had such high vitality otherwise I¡¯m sure I would have been sick by now. But it was still taking its toll I wasn''t even 1 yet. Any other child would have been screaming, kicking, and crying by now. Maybe that was my mistake and they were just waiting for me to do that before they eased up. Sickness or ill health still exists here despite the system and its stats, although the stats must surely help significantly. Considering my own personal medical experience with the old crone I am convinced that the medicine here is not particularly effective. I was making good progress though and despite the fact that I collapsed to sleep at night and actually slept, my parallel thought process allowed my brain to process and practice the skills learned during the day, at night. Our fishing trips with Father have shown how important it is to kill to gain experience and this must be how most people get their experience. We only went out fishing for a few short trips but the experience points were definitely worth it, particularly how quickly and efficiently we were able to gain the experience compared to everything else I have done. I could see why my father was so keen to get me swimming and out on the boat. Easy experience means easy levels. Even if taking a one-year-old on a fishing trip would not be the best idea in my old world, it makes perfect sense, here, in my new world. Out with the old and in with the new. One wonders why all fathers aren¡¯t taking their children out on the lake. I¡¯m not sure that he has ever taken Aleera out sailing before our trip out on the lake together. Is this world sexist? It hasn''t stopped Grandfather forcing her through her moves but maybe it stopped father from thinking about taking her out until now. I wonder how much experience Aleera gained speeding our boat along and facilitating our fishing trips. Does it count towards facilitating our fishing trip? Who judges? How does the system work? Who knows? I still don''t. Father tried to involve me in every part of the process and that seems to be enough for me to gain the experience. I wonder if it is shared equally so there¡¯s a shared pool of experience. Would I gain more if I was on my own? Or would we gain more if Aleera was not there with us? The evidence so far supports my theory developed after the ant apocalypse that this world rewards those who kill. What are the politics of the world going to be like when the strongest humans will be the psychopaths and sociopaths, who like killing? Do leaders ensure their scions have hunted animals throughout their childhood? That¡¯s not to say the world doesn¡¯t reward those who create as well. Origin experience is clearly supporting those who are creating. Sadly, if you compare the experience between catching 50 fish at 5000 experience and having to write five books for an equal amount, the 5000 experience it the system is clearly weighted in time and energy towards those who are happy to kill rather than those who are happy to craft. I¡¯m not sure exactly how noble society works here but it would appear that my grandfather''s high level is what is protecting us to a certain extent from the influence of my other grandfather. One wonders how he got so strong, he doesn¡¯t appear particularly creative so what and how many creatures did he have to kill to get where he is today? Fishing as a career though is making more and more sense. Relatively guilt-free experience, food, and leveling. I wonder who has the higher level Kaius or his older brothers. His brothers are older some of them significantly so. But Kaius must be gaining greater experience everyday fishing compared to his crafting older brothers. Besides there can¡¯t be that big a market for their goods in a town so small but maybe they export a lot more than is needed here. My mind bounced back and forth between topics as we made our way across the lake once more. Distracting me from the fact that we were going back to town. We were going back home or near enough. It had all begun that morning. . . . ¡°Come on let¡¯s get you two back to town!¡± Grandpa Smit explained when he surprised us with his presence this morning on Ash Island. Stolen story; please report. We had been hunting for food along the shoreline when Grandpa Smit had turned up and was suddenly offering to take us back home. Well at least to town, to stay with him and Grandma. ¡°I¡¯ve spoken to your father and mother. They both said it would be fine for a while at least. We¡¯ve decided that if your mother is too busy this month that you can stay with us for the rest of the month during the day then pop on home at the end of the day.¡± He explained. He said that he had spoken with mother and father. Although I was not convinced that he actually had, what option did we really have? We were only children and he was an adult. On top of that, he was, is and will still be the head of our family and a leader of the town. ¡°It was clear that your grandfather doesn¡¯t have the time to look after you two properly out here.¡± He continued. ¡°He hasn''t stopped working to look after you. Isn¡¯t here half the time and there is so little for you to do out here when he isn¡¯t here.¡± ¡°We¡¯re fine,¡± Aleera argued pointing out that we were fine, even if still a little hungry. Father''s fishing trips and pack lunches had helped fill us back up. But Grandpa Smit wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer. That and the fact that he was an adult and we were still children meant that we wouldn¡¯t have much of a choice even if we tried to force the issue. Not that I really had a point or desire to argue. "Come on now. I have other things to do and Grandma is looking forward to mothering you both for a bit." He hurried us along. We gathered our few belongings that we had brought out here to start off with along with our slowly accumulating bags of salt. We were hardly able to hide it from him, particularly well with our meager collection of belongings, not being enough to cover more than a pack of cards let along our bulging bags of salt. Grandfather pointed out. ¡°What has he been having you do? Mine salt?¡± ¡°No, we have just been collecting the salt from the lake in the morning.¡± Aleera explained as we loaded his boat up with our stuff before we set sail to go back home. It took barely any time to sail back to town, the first time we had sailed in this direction since landing on Ash Island. As Grandpa Smit took us back through town it seemed like we had been gone for such a long time, even though it had only been a few weeks really. Grandpa Smit seemed determined to carry me around which seemed strange after having had so much independence for so long. But wiggling did not get me anywhere, his arm was like an iron bar holding me in place. Not as hard or cold but physically unmoving despite how I struggled to get put down. He just laughed it off walking us back to his large home at the top of the town. Once we arrived at his home, he said ¡°You can go on home and let your mother know we are back if you would like to. I¡¯m sure you would like a break after looking after Kai for so long. Go and enjoy an afternoon off, treat yourself.¡± He added giving Aleera a small pouch of money to spend at the market. Again, left without an option to decline, Aleera gave me a look before heading off and I realised this would be the first time I was without her since I was born. Other than my nightly ninja practice she had been there every morning, every day, and every night. At home, walking to the market, swimming in the lake, or isolated on our island of isolation she had been there with me for every moment. I was surprisingly anxious as she left me in Granpa Smit¡¯s care. Looking back one last time as she walked back down into the town to let Mother know we were home. Once she was out of sight. Grandpa turned took me into the house and shouted, "Just taking Kai up to the ridgeline." before heading straight back out. ¡°Let¡¯s show you a little more of the world shall we.¡± Still holding me tight he started walking further up the hill out of the town towards the top of the ridgeline of the mountains that surrounded the bowl of a valley our lake and town lived in. Facing downhill and looking over the top of his shoulder I watched the town grow smaller and smaller as he carried me up to the top. Ash island, in the middle of the lake, looked so small, sat alone in the distance. Had we really been there only an hour ago? My whole life so far was all within sight. Our house at the edge of the town a river running past the edge of the town wall. The jetty where the few sailing boats, the town had, set forth across the lake. Up to Grandpa¡¯s Smits large house at the top of the town looking out across it all. Reaching the very top of the rise I was able to see it all in a stunning panoramic view. ¡°This is my town, our town.¡± Grandpa Smit said as he lifted me into his arms and turned to look down at it all with me, gesturing to the town laid out below us. Then he turned us around with me in his arms to look out beyond our valley, its lake, and town. ¡°But one day . . . one day, it could be your island.¡± He said as we stared out across an ocean that stretched off beyond the horizon. Hang on a minute, we¡¯re on an island! Level: 10 Name: Kai Experience: 156,150/ 204,800 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 1 days, 10 hours Health: 1130/1130 Stamina: 543/543 Mana: 1150/1150 Psi: 1180/1180 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 113 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 28 Senses: 118 Mind: 118 Clarity: 48 Magic: 115 Free Points: 20 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 27) Listening (LV 27) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 23) Sneak (Lv 23) Whistling (Lv 23) Singing (Lv 23) and Drumming (Lv 23) Running (Lv 18), Acting (20), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 13) Breath Control (Lv 10) Sight (Lv 18) Scent (Lv 18) Detect (Lv 18) Taste (Lv 18) Bulosa (Lv 8) Draw (Lv 7) Climb (Lv 8) Calligraphy (Lv 8) Mathematics (Lv 8) Decoding (Lv 8) Lie (Lv 6) Knife Skills (Lv 6) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 26) Memorisation (LV 23) Composition (Lv 23) Recall (Lv23) Pain tolerance (Lv 15) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 17) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 15) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 16) Ignite (Lv 16) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 13) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 12,200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 24,400 Crafting experience: 0 Chapter 36: A drop in the Ocean ¡°We ourselves feel that we are just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.¡± Mother Teresa Feeling stupid is something everyone feels once in a while, some more than most, but I was having a burst of revelations and realisations that were making me feel smaller than I actually was. My first mistake was that the word I thought was lake in Bulosa was actually in hindsight either lagoon or crater lake. I couldn¡¯t see where the sea joined our inland lagoon but it was suddenly clear that it had to join it somewhere or it had in the past and that would explain the salt in it. Next up from my new vantage point it was clear that lake town should really be called caldera town as we lived in a caldera of what I hoped was a dormant volcano, not a valley. Furthermore, Ash island was actually the volcanic cinder cone of all that was left of a volcano. It even had what looked like its own volcanic crater at the top of it. I had never noticed that before when living on the island not having actually climbed up to the top. It was amazing how a shift in perspective changed so much. Our home, our island was made up of a ring of land surrounding an inner lagoon or lake and the smaller island within it. A little like a cross between Wizard¡¯s Island in Crater Lake National Park Oregon, Yankicha of the Kuril Islands, Santorini in the Aegean Sea and the Ko?olau Range of O¡¯ahu. The cliffs rose majestically out of the ocean that surrounded us and encircled our town before sloping down to the inner crater lagoon that Ash Island sat in the middle of. By some geographical miracle, there were a few waterfalls that ran down the inside of the caldera and could be seen through the forest that filled the basin. That was just what I could see inside the walls of the caldera. Outside, outside was the ocean. It stretched on towards the horizon in all directions with nothing else in sight. Still small, suddenly I felt it. What else was out there? How far would I have to go to see it? ¡°Well, Kai, what do you think of the view?¡± Grandpa Smit asked. ¡°It¡¯s so big!¡± I said as I looked over the cliffs to the ocean below. I did not need to act to show my surprise and shock at finding out where we were and at the same time as I turned to look back to the town below, ¡°We¡¯re so small.¡± I whispered. ¡°That we are, that we are.¡± He repeated to himself as much as to me. ¡°But we are growing bigger and can build something special here, won¡¯t we.¡± I was not sure exactly what validation a grown man expected to get from a toddler but many a man has lived out their dreams through their children and their children¡¯s children. Who was I to know or say that this was any different? While the scenery did look absolutely amazing it did reinforce the fact that not only were we living in a pre-industrial society we were also isolated from the rest of civilisation as well. I was confused as to why he had carried me all the way up here. As well as pondering how and where the few merchants that had visited had come from. There did not appear to be a path down to the ocean from the top of the cliffs. When I looked over the edge neither could I see a port, dock or harbour at the base of them. ¡°Right shall we go and meet my friend,¡± Grandpa asked. ¡°Where?¡± I asked. ¡°This way Kai.¡± He said as he took us along the cliff to a hidden ravine which revealed a winding path working its way back and forth along the crack to down out of sight into the depths of the earth but you could hear the sound of the sea crashing below coming up the chimney. ¡°Who?¡± was my next question as he carried me down the traversing steps. ¡°Someone who has facilitated our families progress with building something better here, Mercurio the merchant captain.¡± ¡°The merchants arrived this morning?¡± We had missed that bypassing the market square on our walk up towards Grandpa¡¯s house. I wondered if Aleena was selling our salt and finding a few things to buy or barter for in the process. ¡°Yes, so we are going to visit Mercurio as he stays with his ship. Our trade is the real reason he sails this way so often, the other merchants he brings are just small-time sailors When we reached the bottom of the steps I found myself in a fold of the cliff that had become a cavern and nestled in the hidden Cove was a merchant ship. The galleon shook up a good quarter of the cove bobbing up and down on the waves rocking to and fro to the swell. ¡°And here¡¯s the Swift.¡° Grandpa gestured at the ship lying at anchor. ¡°All the other merchants have taken their wares up the stairs and down into town.¡± He continued as we walked down the final stairs. ¡°Our business is just with the captain. Come on Kai.¡± He said as he set forth once more onto the stone harbour to the floating ship. ¡°Ahoy there. Smit coming on board.¡± The captain appeared as if by magic. ¡°Welcome, welcome. Welcome aboard. What do you have for me this time?¡± He was excited to see us. Excited to see grandpa before as he rushed across the deck. Ushering us forward before leading us into his cabin. ¡°Let¡¯s get down to business then.¡± He said as soon as he entered his room expectantly hurrying around the table he unfurled a map of the island across the top. ¡°What parts do you plan on purchasing next?¡± he asked keen to get to the meat of the matter. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Looking down from my grandfather¡®s arms, I could see a detailed map of our island. It was shaded in several different colours. Pale red almost pink predominated the map covering nearly all of the town and more than half the island. ¡°I thought Kaya here could make the purchase this time around.¡± Grandpa asked smiling. Confused I listened while still studying the map laid out before me. ¡°Kai?¡± Confused he looked at the baby in front of him. ¡°Hi?¡± He waved at me, I waved back. ¡°Hi Kai? Haha! A new grandson? Congratulations!¡± All smiles and enthusiasm on the surface. Although his eyes looked questioningly at the two of us. Ignorant of exactly what was going on I continued to look at the map easily distracted by the wealth of information in front of me. ¡°Congratulations. Looks like a fine young baby, I¡¯m sure he will be a strong young man one day.¡± He continued to praise before arriving at the problem he had with my Grandfather¡¯s request. ¡°But . . er . . I was looking forward to making some experience off of this trade.¡± He hesitated. ¡°I know I¡¯m only the middleman. But it is still worth a fair chunk of experience towards my skills and levels. Do you think it will it count if I take the payment off a grandson so young he is unaware of what he is doing?¡± he questioned. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. It worked whenever my other grandchildren bought their parcels of land.¡± Grandpa shrugged. ¡°Yes, yes. That¡¯s true but they were . . . a little older? They knew a little more about life in general . . . understood that they were trading one thing for another. Sweets wasn¡¯t it? That you had them buy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t merchants and nobles and start their children off young?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± agreed the merchant. ¡°I just don¡¯t want you or me to miss out on the experience we could gain. Especially if Kai isn¡¯t aware enough to qualify for either the experience and without the skill to level from it.¡± He continued to try and persuade Grandpa. ¡°Look if it doesn¡¯t take, we can try again.¡± Grandpa agreed. ¡°Fair enough.¡± He replied raising his hands. ¡°Well, which area do you want to add to your growing estate?¡± He asked once more amenable to the transaction. ¡°We¡¯ll let the boy choose.¡± He further flustered the merchant with his answer. ¡°Well Kai, if you could have any part of the island for yourself which bit would you choose?¡± He asked turning to me. ¡°You can choose any of these colours.¡± He said pointing down at the grey area of the map still uncoloured. The merchant raised his eyes once more as he watched me as my grandpa hold me out above the map and gestured for me to point. It was clear that somehow grandpa had bought the majority of the island from the two main colours on the map that included his house and our uncle''s houses. I¡¯m not sure who exactly he was buying it from but they clearly had a detailed map of the island. I could even make out the name of the island in the top left-hand corner of the map, Wester Ponente. Although like the view from the top of the cliff all the map showed was an island surrounded by sea. Looking closer it looked like grandpa owned everything from the dock to the town before stretching out around either side of the lake lagoon working both northwards and southwards around the lagoon past the halfway point and he was getting close to owning all the island. There wasn¡¯t a lot left to choose from. You could see that on the forested far side of the lake there were still spaces to choose places where a waterfall fell as well as a couple of other empty spaces with symbols that had been noted and although I could see the key to the map I didn¡¯t understand exactly what they were marking. Going over it carefully, I realised that they were both waiting for me to make a decision, the merchant with doubt and Grandpa with a level of excitement. I also suddenly realised that Ash Island in the centre hadn¡¯t been chosen at all. Without thinking too hard about it at all I plumped my pudgy little finger down in the centre of the map. In the centre of Ash Island, in the centre of the lake, in the centre of the island. ¡°There you go,¡± Laughed grandpa, ¡°He¡¯s chosen.¡± ¡°Right, right. Okay if that¡¯s how you want to choose it. I¡¯d like to do the trade now. That will be 1000 deepwater pearls.¡± ¡°A thousand? Prices have gone up. Do you take me for a fool?¡± ¡°You¡¯re asking me to risk my experience trading with an infant. I¡¯m not going to haggle with one. He probably can¡¯t pick out a plot from any other plot. Let alone comprehend what we¡¯re trying to do here.¡± ¡°Still a thousand is a fairly hefty price increase. Especially as a mark up seeing as you¡¯re only passing it along to the Western Prince along with notifying him of the change of ownership. Our forefathers only moved out to settle this area on the understanding that we would be buying the land rather than paying taxes on it. An area that size is only worth.¡± He paused here as he compared past plot sizes to past prices that had been noted down next to the areas along with their dates of sale. ¡°700 pearls at most, unless the prices of deepwater pearls have seriously dropped in the last 6 months.¡± ¡°Yes, it is. But then you¡¯re not in a position to haggle if you¡¯re not making the trade.¡± The merchant middleman responded. ¡°Come now we¡¯ve done this before.¡± Grandpa demurred. ¡°Yes, but never with one so young. These sales and the experience I make from them are the reason I sail out so far at all.¡± he shrugged unwilling to budge. ¡°What if I say he can haggle?¡± he gambled. ¡°Then I¡¯d say your tale is longer than the fish I caught last week, on the way here, and it was this long.¡± He replied stretching out his arms. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t dare fish these waters on your way here.¡± laughed Grandpa Smit ¡°Exactly,¡± he replied pursing his lips. ¡°Yes, but say if he could . . . would you haggle then?¡± he posed a what if. ¡°If Kai can meet me halfway. I will accept the trade and call it a story well bought. But if he can¡¯t then I expect the full thousand.¡± He answered crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair behind the table. Nodding his head in agreement, Grandpa gave me my orders. ¡°Right then Kai. Time to buy your own freehold.¡± Grandpa had sat me down on the table almost exactly on top of the map and handed me the satchel. It was a bit of a gamble on both their parts, partly on grandpa¡¯s because I did not think he¡¯d ever heard me count higher than 10 and perhaps less of a gamble on the merchant¡¯s part seeing as no baby he¡¯d ever heard of could count at all. As well as the fact that I had not spoken in his presence at all. ¡°A thousand pearls for the island in the middle,¡± he said keeping it simple as he leaned forward over the table to face me. ¡°Go on Kai, how much are you willing to pay.¡± Grandpa gently asked opening the satchel for me to look inside. Inside I could see that it had been filled with pearls. Hesitatingly, I took one and placed it on the table in front of me and said, ¡°One.¡± Mercurial raised his eyebrow laughing as grandpa smiled and said ¡°I¡¯ll go as low as 999.¡± Slowly, I added another to the first and responded ¡°Two.¡± Chuckling Mercurial continued. ¡°I could possibly do 998.¡± Adding one more, ¡°Three.¡± . . . When I reached 10 pearls on the table. Mercurial paused our competition to pick up a box to fill them with before turning to Grandpa. ¡°How high can he count?¡± He asked Grandpa intently before adding. ¡°[Honest Word]¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Grandpa shrugged. ¡°Never heard him count past 10 before in my life.¡± Answered before pausing. ¡°No skills in this though he¡¯s just a baby.¡± . . . We continued our back and forth up to 99 with words alone. Here I reached my first bump in what had been an enjoyable demonstration of my ability. I did not know the word for 100. Turning to grandpa as I placed the 100th pearl in the merchant¡¯s box I asked ¡°How many?¡± ¡°100 Kai.¡± Grandpa answered telling me the word for 100 and I repeated it to the merchant. ¡°Hang on. No coaching or helping him haggle.¡± Argued the merchant cross that he might actually be losing something on this deal. I doubted that he would think the story worth the cost if it was going to cost him 200 pearls on the original price and 500 less than what he had tried to charge me. . . . Chapter 37: The Devil is in the details
¡°A good deal is a state of mind.¡± Lee Iacocca ¡°500!¡± I had eventually counted up to 500 and the back and forth between us had eventually reached the middle. ¡°500.¡± Mercurio sighed, disappointed that I had unbelievably been able to count all the way there. ¡°500, ha!¡± Laughed Granpa Smit. ¡°I told you he could do it, o ye of little faith.¡± ¡°Right, right. Colour me impressed. A tall tale indeed but not one worth the cost or one I will be bragging about. A fool and his money are easily parted, no need to give anyone any more ideas or evidence on that front.¡± He grumbled as he closed the lid on the box of pearls, pulling out a title deed to the land and filling in the relevant changes for the land being bought before creating two copies one which went into the box with the pearls and the other he paused looking at me once more before he finally handed it to me. ¡°Congratulations on your purchase.¡± He said with a false smile as I took hold of the piece of paper. Ding! Trading (Lv 1) Ding! Haggle (Lv 1) Ding! Bargain (Lv 1) We both paused as we noted our new notifications, his smile turning genuine as he turned to Grandfather to say, ¡°It qualified as a complete transaction. I have my experience for selling the land and it will double when I return to hand over the deed and pearls to the prince. A better trade than I expected although you still have me at a loss.¡± He qualified. ¡°A pleasure doing business with you for once,¡± Grandpa responded. ¡°Hold on now, we have done a lot of business over the years and I have facilitated the purchase of this island for your family over the years, no questions asked. You have to help me out here otherwise I am going to make a loss on this trip.¡± He argued. ¡°Not sure why that is our problem.¡± Grandpa shrugged before taking the title out of my hands, pocketing it before he picked me up and turned to leave. ¡°Well, it might be if I choose not to make this run as often as I have been. I mean margins are tight especially if I make a loss on the land trade that I have to explain to the prince. How will the islanders feel about your leadership then? A fairly independent lot, they might not take it too well, if I can¡¯t come as often as I have been and you¡¯re the reason? Besides I have one more item that you would be interested in.¡± ¡°What are you proposing and what are you offering?¡± Grandpa asked as he paused at the door. ¡°Something I procured for you to support your ambitions in building a legacy. But, with this morning¡¯s success, it might be better used with a younger customer. You would have the first brick in your house and if the rumours are true, Kai might gain even more than both of us.¡± ¡°You have it?¡± Grandpa raised an eyebrow, from looking at his face he seemed calm and reassured but held close to his chest I could feel his fingers tighten and heard his heart begin to beat a little faster. ¡°Yes, I have. It was not easy, but after years of loyal and dedicated service selling the majority of this island to you and your family I was able to get it directly from the Prince''s Seneschal on the understanding and condition that you would continue to purchase the remainder of the land from the Prince, there are currently some border disputes and he needs a little more cash to outfit a few more soldiers to stand guard on the border.¡± Mercurio proudly told Grandpa. Intrigued I continued to listen in, what was he after? What else did he need seeing as he seemingly owned and ran the majority of the island we lived on already. ¡°How much?¡± Grandpa attempted to appear nonchalant and delivered it with a calm, devil may care, attitude but after having spent what appeared to be years waiting for this, whatever it was, he wasn¡¯t fooling anyone. ¡°Approximately 735 deepwater pearls, non-negotiable.¡± He answered with a big smile. ¡°Isn¡¯t that interesting, that price is precisely the amount I have left in my satchel.¡± Grandpa frowned as he looked at the pearls he had left in the satchel at his side. ¡°Well,¡± shrugged the merchant. ¡°We aren¡¯t engaged in a battle of wills for a bet. So, all skills are back on the table and one of mine is telling me what you can afford today. Besides I need to recoup my losses on the last trade.¡± He pointed out explaining that all was fair in love and war and for any merchant trade was their battleground. ¡°Very well, if that is what it¡¯s going cost me.¡± Grandpa sounded resigned to paying the full amount regardless of the cost and its seeming rarity appeared to make its true value impossible to judge. ¡°I¡¯m glad we can agree on the cost but . . . before you buy . . . I would like you to consider an alternative to you purchasing it.¡± He hesitated as he placed another piece of paper on the table between us. As Grandpa returned to the table and took a seat I was unable from my position in his lap to read the paper on the table. Mercurio leaned over the table as if to tell us his deepest darkest secrets and whispered. ¡°There is a rumour that there is another stat available for nobles and that this is how they give it to their children. Not all Lords and Ladies are born Masters and Mistresses, they don¡¯t always have magic when they are born, and their elegance is not necessarily a naturally grown trait of their parents or a matter of education but actually might be a product of applying their points to a hidden stat, Charisma. A stat that the majority of us mere commoners don¡¯t have and never will.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you use it yourself then?¡± Grandpa asked doubting the merchant¡¯s generosity in the matter. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°As I said we can¡¯t get it, at least not as we are now, we are simply put too old.¡± Mercurio continued to explain. ¡°Too old?¡± quizzed grandpa. ¡°Aye, the rumour is that by gaining a title of property, a title of nobility, a subject or two of the estate, along with some of the accoutrements of nobility is all that is required. It is believed that this is how their children gain access to the hidden stat and the benefits it provides but it has to happen in their childhood before their 5th birthday. If we were to attempt it we would surely fail to gain it, but perhaps Kai could, he certainly isn¡¯t too old at least. This is also possibly the difference between old blood and new blood nobles, those who have grown up within the fold and those like you, who are attempting to buy their way in.¡± he speculated. Grandpa paused before he replied, ¡°Say we did, what would we need to do and what is in it for you?¡± ¡°Well for starters you would have to allow your grandson to buy the title instead of yourself. Then we would need to get him a nicer set of clothes, possibly a servant or slave or two at the minimum to be part of his household.¡± Mecurio began to list a few more of what he considered the basic necessities of a scion of a noble house. ¡°This is getting increasingly expensive, Mercurio. I don¡¯t have the resources to pay for half of these things and slavery is outlawed on our island.¡± Grandpa raised his hands to stop him from expounding any further on what appeared to be an impossible proposition. . . . Again Mercurio paused before continuing, ¡°I would provide or loan all of the items I believe are required.¡± ¡°Your generosity is suspiciously unfamiliar. You have never in all my years of dealing with you done anything that did not profit you in some way. What¡¯s in this for you?¡± demanded Grandpa. ¡°Other than proving the rumour true which on its own would be worth finding out. Indeed selling that information to any new or burgeoning noble houses would be worth significant remuneration in favours if not funds.¡± ¡°And?¡± Prompted Grandpa, his long dealings with the merchant leaving him sure there was something else that he was after. ¡°Indeed, there are a few other small concessions that I would require on top of the initial price of the title, which I will not forfeit.¡± He said leaning back in his chair. ¡°And they are?¡± Grandpa repeated his question nearly rolling his eyes in frustration. I was once more ignored by both parties believing that this conversation was passing literally and figuratively above my head as I sat there quietly on my grandpa¡¯s lap. ¡°I would like to relocate my ships port of registration to the new estate of Kai¡¯s house and to give my yearly tithe to Kai on the understanding that it would remain a child¡¯s allowance enough to fulfill the law that all merchants must tithe to a house of their ship¡¯s port rather than a full 10 percent of my income that my current lord expects from me.¡± He clarified in detail. ¡°That¡¯s all? This is a jetty not a harbour and hardly safe for a ship to stay in longer than you normally do due to the weather and sea.¡± Confused by the seeming disparity in cost versus value received. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t stay any longer than I normally do but a shift in my allegiance, registration and tithing would be well worth any expense required now. Besides, I will be loaning the extra items required not gifting them. That¡¯s my offer. What do you think? Will you be buying the title of nobility for yourself or will your grandson be buying it? Either way, it is the opportunity of a lifetime.¡± Mercurio continued to sell the idea as an opportunity. As I listened to them discuss my future and its possibilities I could not help but think that the truth of the rumour was certainly a possibility. I had found some hidden traits already and it appeared that Magic was a stat that only certain children unlocked although I had awoken with it in the womb. Who was to say there weren¡¯t other stats available through fulfilling hidden prerequisites. Where was the game manual for this world when you needed it? Although if there was a manual to life maybe I would not have lost my last one. Distracted by my thoughts I looked at my status while they continued to discuss the practicalities of creating a noble house from scratch and what they might need to ensure I fully qualified. There I found a significant shock. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 14,750/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours Health: 1140/1140 Stamina: 546/546 Mana: 1140/1140 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 114 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 117 Mind: 116 Clarity: 49 Magic: 116 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (19) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bulosa (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 5) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 5) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 11) Haggling (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 1) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 4500 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 100,000 I had a new type of experience Trading Experience. Furthermore, that was an insane amount of experience gained from a single trade. How much was each pearl worth in terms of money and experience? How much was the island worth in terms of money and experience? How was a single trade worth nearly all the experience I had gained so far? If a child could gain that amount of experience through a single trade it also meant something else. My level was not special. I was not special. . . . I remembered being so proud of my progress. I had gained 100 experience to get to Level 1, another 200 experience to get to Level 2, 400 to get to level 3, 800 to get to Level 4 and so on. Pride cometh before a fall and with this new knowledge of how much experience you could gain through a single trade. Well . . . Then any noble-born child would have his first 10 levels easily bought for him by his parents. 100,000 experience would take anyone all the way from Level 1 to Level 9! I was no different than anyone born with a silver spoon. Money made my old world go round and here on a new one money made experience flow and levels grow. At this rate, my false status and my real status were growing closer and closer together in terms of Levels. Which meant that I would have to be more and more honest about what was included on it. The only things I could keep hidden would be my unusual and eclectic mix of skills, the experience gained from them and the extra level or two they had afforded me. The power of money was obvious and the devil was in the details. What was more important to me? Skill progress, base stats, mental or physical or simply financial wealth? Could I buy my way to security and if so what was the easiest or safest way to do that? Grandpa and Mercurio continued to discuss what I would need in order to buy my nobility and hopefully a hidden stat. Intrigued but uninvolved in the conversation I crawled to the fruit bowl to help myself to some sliced fruit. Wow, were these Mangoes?
Chapter 38: A hostage to fortune ¡°It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.¡± Ralph Waldo Emerson That afternoon as I sat eating a delectable selection of fruit from around the Compass Kingdoms, fruit I had never been able to eat before, I listened to the conversation flowing above, around, and concerning me. What I found out was that the Compass Continent was the name of the main continent in this world. That it was divided into 8 major kingdoms named after the 8 compass points with a few more minor kingdoms scattered among them. I still missed nuances to their conversation and there were random words I would try and clarify later if I could remember them. Still, as far as I could tell, we apparently lived on the island furthest west of the known world, further west was death either by sea monster or the edge of the world. No one knew, as no one had yet to return or see anything more than sea, sky, and monsters until they were forced to return either by lack of provisions or simply getting lost. Our island was still technically in the Ponente Kingdom but at the westernmost edge and had only relatively recently been settled. Furthermore, it was significantly far enough away that no noble house had desired to claim or own them when the initial settlers had set out. Named the Wester Isles, there were three of them; Wester Ponente where we lived, Wester Levante the island to the east, and Little Wester an even smaller isle than ours to our south. My grandpa¡¯s grandfather who was now long dead and all the original settlers had been promised lives without taxation to entice them to move all the way out here, as long as they made yearly deposits to buy land from the Royal Family of Ponente, currently the Prince of Ponente. This had been enough to encourage a large enough group of people to make the journey and live in stark and spartan conditions for most of their lives, gradually building something better which was the medieval town we now lived in. Somehow my great-great-grandpa had taken control of the purchasing of land in return for freedom from taxation, that or the amount of land that he had been buying was sufficient for all the settlers to be left unbothered and had been slowly collecting the titles to the land ever since. It might have meant that historically our family had seemed poorer than the rest. But as the land owned was increased and tamed the profit from the growing estate had gradually become significant. So the plan of grandpa¡¯s to create a Noble house was nothing new, it was not the work of a single lifetime but several. Each of the family since grandpa¡¯s father had been bought or been given a parcel of land which was then held by the head of the family with the aim of raising the family into the nobility. It appeared that even my mother had been gifted with the wealth to buy a plot as part of her dowry on her entry into the family and had purchased a lovely section of timberland on the farside of the lake. It also turned out that technically my Grandfather was squatting on Ash Island and I was now legally according to Compass Kingdom law his landlord. That being said possession is nine-tenths of the law. At this distance from the mainland and moreover as a baby I had no hope of ever evicting my maternal grandfather or charging him rent for the place where he had built his home. Spreading out the purchases between the family meant that all my uncles, aunts, and cousins had been bought their first ten levels worth of experience by the family and for the family. A strong start for all of them, allowing them to excel when the system unlocked for them. They were allowed to allocate their stats when they turned 10 after 160 months but had been encouraged to focus on a broad range of professions required to build and improve the town and its holdings. It was no mistake that my uncles were all working in different fields. This meant that the head of the family, Grandpa Smit, was not exceedingly high leveled from the continuing land purchases but whatever level he was you had to consider the fact that the higher the level the less impact the land acquisition would have had anyway. It also meant that when it was my turn to unlock my system I would probably be pressured into choosing stats that would support the advancement of the family in some way or other. My one land purchase would be enough to get you nearly all the way to Level 10 so worth 10 levels to his grandchildren. But after level 10 they would only be worth half, quarter, eighth, or each consecutive level. Still worth a lot towards your progress but worth so much more to your children and your children¡¯s children. A relatively risk-free advancement in a world that seemed to reward destruction so much more when compared to creation. My Grandpa and Mercurio set out to attempt to fulfill the hidden requirements for unlocking a hidden stat when I bought the title of nobility. They felt it was worth the gamble as they knew I already had the title of property, experience. Little did they know I also had the magic stat unlocked as well, although perhaps Grandpa had already guessed but simply not mentioned it in front of the visitor to the island. I was surprised that they had not asked for my Stats or Levels but I was not going to offer up what had not yet been asked for. The false status seemed less relevant by the day with no one looking. But what today had made clear was that we were truly at the back end of beyond, balanced on the very edge of the map. We might live on the border of the map which literally read ¡®here be sea monsters¡¯ but it was clear that there were no human titans among us. The question was who knew what nobles with hidden stats might be able to achieve back on the mainland. Keeping myself hidden meant keeping myself safe. However here was my own grandpa pushing me forward to gain a noble title and possibly a hidden stat. Even though it was just the three of us in the room, this felt like the exact opposite of keeping me hidden and keeping me safe. Grandfather might be a complete tyrant in terms of Aleera¡¯s training and mine as I tagged along with her, or rather physically carried by her. I mean it certainly was not pleasant for either of us. Still, although I sat here with a full stomach, filled with delicious fruits from around the world, I felt my tummy tense at the speed of the decisions being made for me that might ultimately be more dangerous for my future than the terrible training I had received so far. Having prepared as much as they could in terms of items, people and clothing, their conversation circled back to repeating previous points. Attempting to convince themselves that this was a gamble worth making. ¡°Membership into the nobility is generally granted by a monarch or official of the said monarch. Bearing this paper from his seneschal I am acting in his stead as an official. Whether he ascends into the nobility is not in question but whether we can add the rumored Charisma stat to his build, is ultimately up to who he is.¡± Mercurio motioned at me, who was now dressed up in far finer clothing than I had ever seen before, the two of them searching through chests of fine clothes had found an outrageously fine outfit only a few sizes too large and stuffed me into it. Clothing was far more expensive in this world where it was all made by hand rather than by machine and my new clothes for the day were robes of a deep purple with mother of pearl buttons and bindings. I stood imperiously in my finery enjoying my new fortune despite my misgivings, pretending for a moment longer I was a prince or a baron. Something that would soon become legally true. ¡°That is a strong purple.¡± Grandpa blinked more offended at the choice of colour than the quality of the robe. ¡°Don¡¯t you have anything better?¡± ¡°This is more than just purple! This pigment is practically impossible to acquire as the secret to its production is not publicly known. Although it is rumoured to be expensive and complex to make. Caracol Purple dyed fabric is only available from a select noble house and they use its cost to maintain their wealth, position, and power. The dye is greatly prized as it does not easily fade but becomes brighter and lighter with time. A garment such as this one is a symbol of wealth, status, and power. I have this one solely because it would only fit a child. I could never afford a full adult sized robe of the material.¡± Mercurio explained. ¡°Yes, well he has his title of the property, his fancy clothing, does he really need to become the sole beneficiary of my family''s property and I, his steward?¡± Grandpa¡¯s enthusiasm for the plan had waned as the cost and complications of Mercurio¡¯s ideas increased. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°I believe to achieve the activation of the hidden stat Charisma, Kai must have a sufficient acquisition of power, wealth, military prowess, or royal favour to enable him as a commoner to access it. Now military prowess is impossible for Kai to achieve before his 5th birthday but sufficient wealth and the royal favour of supporting the prince in buying his title of nobility might be enough especially when the Prince is in substantial need of more easily accessible finances. Then again it might not. Most nobles'' wealth is derived from their estates, your family has collected a wide range of fields, pasture, orchards, timberland, hunting grounds, streams, and fishing rights even if they are not all currently being used. By making Kai the owner of all of this on paper at least he will hopefully have sufficient power, wealth, and royal favour to activate the stat.¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t know you better.¡± Grandpa loomed to press his point. ¡°I would assume you planned on making off with my grandson and the culmination of my family''s legacy. You know that won¡¯t work don¡¯t you.¡± He threatened. ¡°No that would never work." raising his hands to placate my Grandpa. "Your deeds are registered with the Prince¡¯s office and even if they were to accept my claim to them through your grandson the timing would be inherently suspicious. Furthermore, the law would be unenforceable from the mainland especially at this distance. You have nothing to fear from me. I am simply attempting to facilitate a favourable relationship with yourself and my future lord.¡± Mercurio appeased. ¡°Then the two slaves? Are they really required?¡± Pointing at the two boys who had joined us kneeling in the corner of the room. ¡°Slavery is outlawed on the Wester Isles. A few too many of our forefathers, were a little too close to becoming ones, when they came to settle these islands, that the idea of it is abhorrent, to most of those living here.¡± ¡°As Kai¡¯s guardian and legal representative of his house you represent one member of his household. As his personal merchant, I will represent another. Two slaves are a cheap price to pay if they double the number of his household hopefully improving the chances of Kai unlocking the stat. Further, they are unable to explain to any the details of our trade.¡± Gesturing to the two of them once more. Eye¡¯s flaring and shocked he replied, ¡°That¡¯s barbaric! And precisely the reason why the people here are so against slavery.¡± Looking appalled at the two boys kneeling with their heads bowed. ¡°No, no, no. You think too little of me, they don¡¯t have their tongues cut out. They are from the Kingdom of Libeccio and have never learned Bussola.¡± Calmed Mercurio. ¡°I had high hopes for them as cabin boys but they have yet to gain their sea legs and without them, I would have had to sell them on anyway at the next port of call, after the Wester Isles, that would take them.¡± ¡°What am I going to do with them?¡± asked Granpda Smit. ¡°I can¡¯t bring slaves onto Wester Ponente or into town.¡± ¡°Call them servants then. I have trained them a little over the voyage but as I said they are not spectacular, or worthy to be an old blood noble''s servants. Part of why I am happy to part with them and they will do adequately well enough for Kai.¡± He continued to poorly sell his wares. ¡°Names?¡± I asked as I interjected myself into the conversation. Toddling over to the two boys I offered them some of the fruit I had been eating then asked again, ¡°Names?¡± ¡°Sinis.¡± said one. ¡°Des.¡± said the other. They looked as if they were brought up in the Mediterranean in my old world. Dark black hair, tanned skin, and dark brown eyes looked me in the eye as I stood eye to eye with them even though they were kneeling. Grandpa and Mercurio looked down at us. I wasn¡¯t sure about the idea of owning anybody but much like most of the decisions being made in my life. It wasn¡¯t mine to make. Still, I could make the consequences as soft as possible and good first impressions were always important. "Like the fruit? Like some more?¡± I asked as I offered them my last pieces of fruit. Understanding the language or not it was clear what I was offering and they gladly accepted and the last pieces of fruit quickly disappeared. Turning I pointed at the bowl on the table then pointed at myself. The boys looked towards Mercurio watching him nod once more at me before they followed my commands and gave me the fruit bowl. We sat down in a triangle after I had gestured for them to do so and I shared out the fruit between us collecting the different pips they all had in a pocket on my fancy new purple robe. ¡°There you go! Servants for Kai. Simple enough that even a baby can tell them what to do.¡± Mercurio pointed out. ¡°Fine, fine.¡± Conceded Grandpa. ¡°But what his mother is going to say I do not know. Is that everything? Do you believe it will be enough to make it work?¡± he asked. ¡°I believe so and no better time to strike than when the deal is real. Kai come here.¡± Mercurio gestured to the tabletop again. Thinking for a moment I gestured to Sinis and Des to lift me up and place me on the table. It took only a moment and I was soon standing on the table flanked by the two new members of my household. I wouldn¡¯t call them slaves even in my head but I would worry about what I would call them later. Mercurio filled out the title of nobility before placing it on the table in front of me. ¡°735 deepwater pearls.¡± He asked. ¡°1.¡± I answered. ¡°No Kai," smiled Mecurio. "No haggling this time round. Your Grandpa has already agreed the price.¡± Keen to get his pound of flesh. ¡°735 deepwater pearls. [Accept price]¡± he finished his price with a skill. Shocked I found myself answering ¡°735 deep water pearls.¡± ¡°[Bound by word]¡± he quickly added before I had even processed the fact that he had used the first skill on me I found myself handing over the satchel of pearls which he began to count out into the lock box he had placed the previous land deed and pearls in. How did that work? Was it system enforced? Were there checks and balances to the skill or could he have convinced me to say anything and pay anything. I had felt a compulsion to repeat his price back to him and a compulsion to hand over the satchel. But could I have fought it? Maybe? But it had been unexpected and surprising. I had no idea that the system was capable of altering another in such a way. Changing reality I had seen with the magic I could control. Controlling others, or compelling others was a scary introduction into a whole other area of system skills I had never even considered. ¡°Were the skills really necessary? We had already agreed a price.¡± Grandpa grumpily asked as he watched me hand over the rest of his fortune to buy my nobility. A purchase he had probably hoped to make for himself. The practice now a habit of bringing his children and grandchildren here to make them probably the only reason he was accepting sacrificing his advancement for a child he hoped would gain more from it. Besides he would still control the finances and direction of the family as a steward now instead of the patriach. Nothing was different except on paper. ¡°Better he practice against the skills now with a friend than he faces the skills later alone against an enemy.¡± Argued Mercurio, as he counted out the final pearls before he pushed over the piece of paper that named me Kai, Baron of Wester Isle. Ding! Congratulations on unlocking Charisma. This will aid you in leading humans and negotiating with other races. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 217,250/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours Health: 1140/1140 Stamina: 546/546 Mana: 1140/1140 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 114 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 117 Mind: 116 Clarity: 49 Magic: 116 Charisma: 7 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (19) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 5) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 5) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 5) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 11) Haggling (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 5) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 2500 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 200,000 Buying a barony would appear to be twice as important as buying an island despite the island being the estate of the barony to start off with and the title of nobility just a piece of paper. Trading had jumped up as well as Bargain. Clearly, the system felt I was getting a good deal even if I had been unable to haggle over it. This single day and my Grandpa¡¯s resources had earned me more experience than every other day combined including those I had spent awake in the womb! I had even unlocked Charisma as an attribute I could one day add to. Charisma: 7 Lucky me. Even this world . . . must think . . . babies . . . were . . . cute. Chapter 39: A dish best served cold ¡°If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us Shall we not revenge?¡± Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare Mercurio celebrated my new patent of nobility as well as himself gaining a new noble patron, the Baron of Wester Isles, with an impromptu feast. ¡°To the Baron of Wester Isles.¡± He raised a toast once his servants had laid a new table full of food for the four of us. Des and Sinis collected and laid the majority of it before taking their new positions behind my chair. ¡°To the Baron.¡± Grandpa quickly toasted, downing his drink. The map, pearls, and paperwork had been cleared off the table and he was keen to return before the other merchants returned and Mercurio set sail. But still, he was convinced to stay for a short meal by the merchant who was keen to leave Grandpa happy with the transfer of his wealth. I could have told him that a quick exit would sooner mend the sting of emptying his purse. Still, I had been given a small cup of grape juice so joined in. ¡°To me.¡± While the adults laughed at my simple comment. I continued to sample the dishes laid out before us until I was unable to move. Passing anything I did not eat to Des and Sinis to finish. If the way to a man¡¯s heart was through his stomach I would hopefully be held with affection in their hearts soon. They were not underfed but hardly had any fat reserves either, much like myself. I quietly pocketed any dried fruits, nuts, or jerky off the table motioning them to take some as well, filling all of our pockets till the table was empty. I did not know whether I would soon be back on Ash Island but if I was I hoped to hide a small stash of food to supplement our fishing and scavenging along the shoreline. I had potentially two more mouths to feed along with mine. Meanwhile, the adults, led mainly by Mercurio, engaged in the self-congratulatory conversation we were uninvolved in either due to the belief we were too young to fully understand or in the case of Des and Sinis that they were below our august personage. It was the first time in this world that I had seen such lines in society drawn and was shocked to see the lines so stark and clear. Perhaps I was reading too much into a conversation between adults that did not involve children. But it did set a worrying precedent about the world outside of the Wester Isles. I was unaware of whatever their system had told Mercurio but assumed it was enough for them to believe that the Stat had unlocked for me with the gaining of my new title. They still had not asked me about my status and I still was not telling. I was beginning to believe that a child¡¯s status perhaps did not unlock until later on in the life perhaps by age 5. My sister and grandfather knew I had skills and therefore a system but no one else in my family was aware other than my mother and father who knew I had unlocked my magic and was able to use it. Mercurio finished his conversation with Grandpa, surprised to see that the food had all been eaten. ¡°Growing lads the lot of you I suppose.¡± He paused before continuing. ¡°I am happy to have helped in some small way to help you create this new house of yours Smit and am sure that it will rise to great heights one day.¡± He said this self-depreciatingly as if the whole idea hadn¡¯t been his alone. Then continued with, ¡°From this day forth I look forward to being a merchant for the Baron of Wester Isles.¡± He signed two copies of the same page before passing it across to me for me to make my mark. Looking at the paper I couldn¡¯t read it all but I could see where he had filled in his tithe at 0% creating a tax-free haven for him to operate out of. ¡°10 percent.¡± I hadn¡¯t said a lot but when I had it counted. I remembered how he had bemoaned his current tax of 10% and was keen to get a little more from the merchant who would be making the most of my title to avoid his taxes to the Kingdom of Ponente. ¡°Kai, Kai. This was part of the agreement.¡± He raised his hands as if apologising for the terms already set. But . . . I had never agreed to them! ¡°10 percent,¡± I said once more, leaning forward preparing myself to face his skill. ¡°0 percent as stated in our document. [Accept price]¡± he added the skill at the end to hold me to our words. But I had never agreed to that arrangement, that was not my price so I pushed against the skill holding my tongue and clenching my mouth shut until the compulsion to agree passed, and a shocked, still Mercurio found me countering with, ¡°10 percent.¡± ¡°We agreed Smit.¡± He turned in protest to Grandpa as incredulous of my ability to understand enough to ask for more as he was unbelieving of my ability to defy his skill unless I was somehow supported by Grandpa in an invisible way. ¡°Aye we did. But who am I a mere Steward to go against my Baron¡¯s command.¡± Giving his first genuine smile since I had emptied his satchel for him. ¡°0% taxes to be based on Wester Ponente and operate out of the Wester Isles. [Bound by word]¡± he hastily argued one final time. But I had not said those words and it wasn¡¯t my price so despite the compulsion I felt once more to lift my hand and sign the paper with my simple scrawl I held my hands together fingers interlocked and refused to budge. Once the compulsion had ended, ¡°10 percent.¡± I said once more. Almost disbelieving, ¡°1 percent.¡± He murmured beginning our back and forth. ¡°9 percent.¡± I confidently continued happy to have him following along. ¡°2 percent.¡± He muttered almost rote routine rather than active haggling. ¡°8 percent.¡± I sang, our roles now were in reverse with me decreasing the percentage of his sales I would claim. ¡°3 percent.¡± He sullenly spoke, as he slowly added to how much he would be required to pay. ¡°7 percent.¡± I chimed and smiled as I had a sudden thought. ¡°4 percent.¡± He grimaced as shock finally dissolved into aggrieved disbelief that this was actually happening. ¡°6 percent.¡± I reached for the quill not to sign the piece of paper but to work out what I was going to ask for next once he agreed. ¡°5 percent.¡± Resigned to his fate he uttered the final number meeting me in the middle once more. As I confirmed with another ¡°5 percent!¡± ¡°Pleasure doing business with you once more.¡± Grandpa Smit joined in as he took the sheets of parchment off a stunned Mecurio before he sanded off the 0 percent and added in a 5 percent. Finally, he presented them to me to sign alongside Mercurio¡¯s signature. Which now that I was happy with them in the end, I did. He kept one in his empty satchels and returned the other to Mercurio who still sat there shell-shocked from the reversal in his fortunes. He would still do far better than his previous percentage with whoever his earlier patron was but after coming so close to achieving the completely tax-free situation that we had here on the Wester Isles it was hard for him not to be disgruntled. Still, before we left I had one more surprise to spring upon him. 500 + 735 = 1235 1235 / 100 = 12.35 12.35 x 5 = 61.75 I had doodled the maths down on my hand as I worked it out only really needing to do any jottings for the last multiplication to remember everything I was adding up. Happy with my maths. I held out my hand to the possibly broken merchant. ¡°61 deepwater pearls,¡± I added ¡°61 deep . . . water . . . pearls.¡± Poor Mercurio repeated one shock after another having left him slow to catch on. ¡°Yes, 61.¡± I smiled waiting for him to catch on. ¡°For . . . the . . . trades?¡± he questioned as I watched him add up the sum in his head and calculate the percentage. Or maybe there was a skill for that and he was just reading it off a system wall in his head. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Slowly he opened his desk, pulled out the lockbox filled with pearls, unlocked it, and began counting them out. ¡°Pleasure,¡± I responded as I counted them into my satchel that held the title to Ash Island in my name and my Patent of nobility. Inside my head I finished the sentence ¡®doing business with you.¡¯ Still unsure of some words and not wanting to mess up the sentence appearing crazy or get it right and appear too mercenary for Mercurio. Holding out for 10% would have been more impressive but there was no need to push the man too far. ¡°Bamboozled by a baby.¡± He whispered before adding ¡°Another tale too tall to tell and far too farcical and expensively bought, again.¡± He muttered. ¡°I would invite you to stay for dessert but fear it would be far too expensive for my tastes in one way or another. So I bid you a good day and wish you a fine time till I return.¡± Mercurio ushered us out of his cabin and across his decks before pursing his lips as he waved us down the plank onto the stone harbour below. Grandpa, happy to be finally leaving, was left chuckling as the merchant returned to his cabin muttering something about ¡®quitting while ahead¡¯ and tales too tall to tell which would do no one least of all him well. Turning to the two silent shadows that had followed us off the boat he said, ¡°Right, lads. Let¡¯s be off then.¡± and Des and Sinis followed on behind as he turned to walk back up the chimney steps hidden in the fold of the cliff. Silently I watched over the top of my Grandpa¡¯s shoulder as they looked at one another before following us up. Halfway up we met the rest of the merchants coming back down laden with goods from our town and a few of their own they had failed to sell. We shuffled around one another before setting off once more up to the top of the cliff as the merchants continued to climb down to the dock hidden in the cavern. A few of them turned back with curiosity to watch Des and Sinis as they made their way up. A few eyes even lingered on me and my purple robe. Confused they seemed to look between me and my grandpa before focussing back on me once more as we ascended. I had seen the merchants before in the town square but I had never realised that they were not from the town themselves or not closer to home. It seemed that some of the merchants had shipped with Mercurio from Wester Levante and Little Wester making a short circuit of our isles to sell their wares. While one represented Mercurio in his buying and selling the other had hitched a lift from the mainland to buy and sell wares not easily found in the Ponente Kingdom. It was his eyes that seemed to linger the longest on me, my robe and my Grandpa¡¯s satchel. ¡°Are we at the top yet?¡± I jokingly asked Grandpa as I was facing the wrong way on his shoulder. ¡°Nearly there Kai.¡± Grandpa responded as we crested the top of the crevice coming out onto the top of the cliff. Des and Sinis looked a little out of breath from the climb while my ancient grandpa seemed not out of breath at all. It was little moments like these when an elderly man seemed to have more energy than youthful boys that drove home the difference between my past and present world. Normally it would have been the other way round but levels and stats made daily differences that the majority of people, never knowing any different, ever thought about. At what age did aging actually impact a person¡¯s abilities greater than their stats that they had built up over time? Was it possible for people to lose stats as they aged? I had, apart from the stats my mother had added, never actually added any stats to my build. everything had been accumulated naturally through my growing body and the development of skills that seemed to be pushing them along. Just an idle thought as we cleared the chimney in the fold of the cliff finally standing at the top looking back across the ocean. We paused to watch Mercurio¡¯s ship set sail, Grandpa with a grin, the boys in stoic silence obviously unsure about the change in their circumstances. Clearly, the merchants had reached the bottom quicker than we had reached the top and speedily boarded the boat with their wares. I sat on my Grandpa¡¯s shoulder in silence too, contemplating the vast changes in my fortunes orchestrated by him. As Quintilian said, ¡®Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.¡¯ I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. ¡°Time to go home.¡± Grandpa pointed the way down to the town. It was at this point that we saw someone making their way quickly up the mountain. They were a fair way down the slope but even in the distance and at the speed he was moving it looked like Grandfather. And again even from this distance, he did not look particularly happy to be heading this way. ¡°Ahh yes. Might be best if you wait up there by the cliff for a moment, Kai.¡± Grandpa said as he put me down and motioned for me to join Des and Sinis who were still watching the ship sail out of sight. So I toddled off to join them keeping in sight and hearing my Grandpa who seemed to brace himself for my oncoming Grandfather. ¡°Where¡¯s Kai?¡± were his first words as he flashed into view and abruptly stopped to shout. ¡°He¡¯s perfectly fine there with Des and Sinis.¡± Calmly responded attempting to deescalate the situation. ¡°Who are they?¡± He paused confused by the new people sat down with me. Then his eyes alit on my new purple robe. A sharp intake of breath later, he hissed, ¡°You had no right. Kai is my grandson.¡± ¡°He¡¯s my grandson too and I have his best interests at heart. I have invested in him and in his future.¡± Justifying his actions to the only person I had ever seen him wary of. ¡°What have you been doing for him out on your island?¡± He quizzed defensively before he pointed out, ¡°It looks like you have barely been able to feed him let alone look after him. How dare you question me how best to look after my Grandson!¡± He ended angrily unable to allow someone else to talk down to him when he had stood at the head of our family for so long. ¡°My methods are none of your business. And his best interests? Are you a complete fool? What exactly have you done?¡± he quizzed. ¡°You have no right to demand from me answers when you have refused to be part of the family for so long.¡± ¡°I have every right when you dangle my blood and flesh above eel infested waters. What do you think will happen to Kai as a noble without the stats, power, wealth, and connections to support him? Do you truly believe they will welcome him with open arms?¡± ¡°We are all the way out here away from the intrigue and dangers of court, Kai will be fine.¡± ¡°No, he will not. They will come for him.¡± ¡°You never challenged me on my ideas before why now?¡± ¡°Because they won¡¯t care about an old man gaining a title before he dies and neither did I if you wanted to risk your own neck then so be it, I¡¯ve cautioned you before. But a child, my grandchild? He is now either a threat or a pawn in their games and we don¡¯t have the resources to protect him. The eastern lords will support him while the western lords will feel threatened by his encroachment on their domain.¡± ¡°Come now you are exaggerating.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. A patent of nobility is a double-edged sword seemingly only providing benefits to those without. However, to those with one, there is a hidden cost and danger to carrying it. That is what I have been trying to prepare Aleera and Kai for, a world that will not hesitate to stab you in the back. Especially now you have added a target to their backs and a bonus of experience gained by their deaths!¡± ¡°No lords own any property out here apart from the prince and no one will know for months till the house is registered with the prince when Mercurio returns to the capital. You worry too much.¡± ¡°And you worry too little. The reason no lords own property out here is precisely because it is the Prince¡¯s domain. Settled by commoners and all Lords were either blocked from expanding out here or had no desire to. You have changed all that and change comes at a cost.¡± Ignoring Grandpa he strode past him to come and pick me up. I felt myself lifted as if to be passed to Grandpa and used to being carried everywhere half the time, I didn¡¯t think anything of it. Until I saw Grandfather¡¯s eyes widen in fear and felt myself being launched backward up into the air as he flash stepped towards me seemingly appearing where I had stood only a moment before. I did not even have time to scream so surprised by the turn of events I reached the top of my arc before beginning to fall, backward off the top of the cliff. Was it Des or Sinis? No, they stood there watching me fall horrified their arms stretched out uselessly in shock. No, there was a fifth person standing on the edge of the cliff a red light flaring from something in his hand as he faced off against a now furious grandfather. One of the Merchants or porters from all that I could see of his clothing from behind. Grandpa stood in the background to their burgeoning conflict standing still in disbelief as he watched his dream drop out of sight. Quick reflexes almost a curse I had the time to take the whole scene in before my momentum and the face of the cliff took it from my view. . . . To be continued . . . Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 221,250/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours Health: 1140/1140 Stamina: 546/546 Mana: 1140/1140 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 114 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 117 Mind: 116 Clarity: 49 Magic: 116 Charisma: 7 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (19) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 5) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 12) Haggling (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 4000 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Chapter 40: No time to die Chapter 40: No time to die ¡°First you jump off the cliff and you build your wings on the way down.¡± Ray Bradbury I had not jumped. I had been thrown. I had not seen thating. Des and Sinis in their horror certainly hadn¡¯t. Grandpa in his shock seemed unable toprehend. I don¡¯t think that even Grandfather judging by his fury had seen iting either. Despite the argument about whether bing a noble was a wise or foolish idea. None of us had seen the threating, no fear of the future had prepared me to suddenly face the fact that I was now falling. Falling to my death as I had little doubt that I would not survive the impact with the ocean after a fall at terminal velocity. Something the staggeringly high cliffs would probably allow me to reach. I had barely begun to live again, there was so much I wanted to do. Seemed silly toin when I had already been given a second shot at life, but sometimes silly thoughts are all that sh through your mind when in shock. I had around 10 to 12 seconds toe up with a solution, before st. Who knows how far down the water was I had not been counting the steps on the way back up. I was not even facing the right way still looking back up at the top of the cliff, helpless I watched my purple robe stream behind me, whipped back in the wind. The cliff was not too far away if I could somehow, grab on, I might break an arm or two in the process and that is even if my grip would somehow be strong enough to arrest my fall. When suddenly . . . with a tearing noise my beautiful new absolutely essential purple robe caught on the cliff face and stopped my fall hard with a jerk. I was now dangling headfirst over the void of space but stationary for a second and in a moment of madness I looked at my notification. Ding! Due to avoiding certain death by a one in a million moment of serendipity before the age of 1, you have been awarded the hidden stat Luck. Too bbergasted to do more, my body still frozen in shock from the fall and brush with death, I looked deeper into my stats. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 217,250/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours Health: 1100/1140 Stamina: 546/546 Mana: 1140/1140 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 114 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 117 Mind: 116 rity: 49 Magic: 116 Charisma: 7 Luck: 1 mming into the cliff wall at speed seemed to have taken 40 off my health, the majority of the deeleration which had been taken up by the robe catching, tearing, and swinging me around into the cliff face. In my current position as dangled above an over 400-meter drop that did not seem like enough luck to get me out of what still looked to me very much like a life-threatening situation. Hesitatingly, I gently turned to look up the cliff to see where my robe had caught on the cliffside. If I could pull myself up and get a grip on the cliff perhaps I could hold on long enough for them to throw down a rope? Where they would get a rope from I had no idea but it was the best idea I had at the moment as I did not wish to try free climbing back to the top of the cliff. I might be able to do it in my mind fortress but in the real world no matter my skill level I was still limited by the strength of my baby muscles despite what my stats may have said. Carefully I pulled myself up on the beautiful new absolutely essential purple robe I had been gifted managing to make myself horizontal. Reaching up once more make thest foot to . . . The categorically useless, poorly made, and ill-dyed piece of fabric they called a robe ripped through sending me falling once more. I had maybe 11 seconds left to build those wings and learn to fly. The slight improvement in my situation was that I was now falling face forwards towards the rapidly approaching water than staring up uselessly at the sky. But if I was being honest with myself that was not much of an improvement and I would have far rather have been still stuck to the cliff face. I could see the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, the stretches of open water along the shore, and I could watch my death approach at an increasing pace. 10 seconds left, maybe. Ignoring my looming death I scrolled through my skills to see if just in case I had forgotten any of them gave me the power of flight. Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (19) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 5) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 12) Haggling (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) No, I had not forgotten anything the system had given me. My mind and senses allowed me to see with frightening rity the full situation I was in. Quick Reflexes gave me the time to think it through. As I fell to my death. Sensing skills were useless, Musical skills were useless, Language skills were useless, Trading skills were useless and all my physical skills requirednd or water to work, in the sky I was helpless. All I had left to consider was my magical skills but again boiling or freezing water and setting fire to my clothing would do little to affect my oue only make it more spectacr. A baby zing through the air like a little meteor was not how I wished to end my second life. 9 seconds left, maybe. Clothing? The ripped robe billowed out around me as I fell. Could I use that somehow? I had water and fire magic skills what I needed right now was air magic and an avatar state. Something I doubted existed in this world. I had seen my sister use Gust before. I knew how to do it in theory although I had yet to achieve it in practice. The trick I had been told was not to try to push the air away from you but to create a circle of mana moving the air, sucking in more and more air to create a stream of air aimed where you wanted it. No time like the present to practice 8 seconds left. I spent my mana freely and air mmed into me whipping my hair around and buffeting me from side to side as I fell. But it seemed to have had little effect in slowing me down. Ding! New skill Gale learned. Either the experience of falling to your death or my greater mana pool seemed to have given me a stronger version of my sister¡¯s skill. Normally I would have been ecstatic about a fantastic new skill to practice sailing with but right now I had hoped for a more immediately useful skill or result. For example, a flight skill would have been good right about now. 7 seconds left I threw my mana once more into the air this time aimed slightly behind me and my robe billowed up behind me forming a small parachute that slowed me slightly but still not enough to make my dive anything less than catastrophic andical now that I was effectively falling under a giant purple streamer. The fall itself would not kill me it was hitting the water that would break every bone in my body, stats or no stats. 6 seconds left. I could always hope for more but somehow doubted gravity would give me any. I needed to change my velocity and as softly yet as quickly as my body could cope with. The purple streamer was not working as a parachute but I had to make it work somehow. It was all I had to work with. So I threw mana and with it air as I hoped to make it billow out and catch me somehow. 5 seconds left. I continued to use a gale of air against myself and my robe feeling thebination halt my eleration and hopefully slow me a little even though it was still clearly not enough as I continued to plummet down far too quickly. Thank the system I had Source of Mana as a trait, or I would have already run out. I was down to myst thought andst possible option. I flooded the purple robe with my mana and rather than using the elegant control my sister had once shown I brute forced it to form the shape I needed. A band of cloth between my legs, a band of cloth between my arms. It was an incredibly rudimental flight suit but I held it firm against the wind with my mana rather than the strength of my arms and legs. The effect was instantaneous. My downward velocity was tranted into horizontal velocity. I shot along the edge of the cliff. I was still moving quickly but at least it was no longer straight down to the rocks below at the base of the cliffs. I continued to fall no longer moving down as quickly as much as along and down. I angled out a little from the cliff to avoid the rocks. There was no uplift that I could tell but I didn''t want to move too far out to see as the water was rtively calm this close to the ind. 4 seconds left? I wasn¡¯t sure now how long I would have left terminal velocity can be achieved in 12 seconds after around 450 meters of falling. If the cliffs were around 500 meters that was easily enough height for me to reach it but now that I was moving forward was I still going down as quickly? I didn''t think so. But the water was still approaching rapidly. 3 seconds left? I continued to use mana to hold the cloth steady still aiming gale to support and slow my trajectory. I had to get this right or bye bye baby me. 2 seconds left? I knew I had to keep my legs lower than my head in order to skim along the top of the water rather than bounce and break myself in too. I was in danger of snapping my neck I just had toe in as t as possible and I might make it. 1 second left? Any second now I had done the best I could do. I was still moving far too quickly but my momentum was now aimed more forward than downward. I had halted my body''s movement towards terminal velocity and transferred it to horizontal momentum without breaking my body in the process. My mana was holding the cloth in position and doing all the work, not my muscles, which would have probably snapped had I attempted this without my mana, much like I thought they would have, had I managed to grab hold of the cliff, in my frozen moment of freefall, at the top of the cliff. Head up, arms out and back, legs behind me and down to enter the water first and drag behind me to slow me further. I had one shot at this. But it was poss . . . I kissed the water with my feet and they dragged me down thest foot but the mana flooding my robe held it in shape and held my body in the right form too. My beautiful, elegant, purple robe held my body safe and sound as we skimmed across the sea. Unable to see in the spray I used my mana in my robe to protect my head, face and eyes having already formed a mini helmet and face shield with it. A little out of breath from the impact and possibly bruised everywhere on my front, but there didn''t seem to be anyncing pain from any of my bones or organs. The Mana-filled robe seemed to have supported my body well enough to weather the impact although I was sure I would be missing a few more points than the 40 from the start of my fall. Thank the system it was a calm day and we were on the leeward side of the ind where it was calmer without the choppy waves I could only imagine rose and fell on the westward side of the ind. Finally, I came to a stop in the water and I was finally able to gasp a breath of air before I started to sink. I . . . was . . . . . . alive! I almost couldn¡¯t believe it. But I didn¡¯t have time to bask in my brilliance, the robe, my saviour, and the sole reason I had managed to survive was now soaked with water and weighing me down. Was it really already time to let it go? I had only just received it and within hours it had already saved my life. I was alive! Adrenalin still coursed through my system but I had been thrown into the water before and despite being out at sea it was not nearly as terrifying as the fall had just been. That had been the single scariest moment of my life both past and present. If it hadn¡¯t been for the robe it might have been myst I was keeping it if I could. Yes, my thoughts were running in circles repeating the same facts. I focused and with a burst of mana I formed a little mini iceberg which floated me and my magnificent robe to the surface grabbing another breath of air. After an ident or two with Aleera, I now knew to put as much ice below me as possible and angle it outwards to form a t sheet with an inverted pyramid underneath to prevent me from being the weight that rolled the iceberg right over andnding it on top of me. Moments of memory Aleera particrly enjoyed but also the closest I had evere to actually drowning, bar my father''s initial attempts at teaching me how to swim. Then, before hypothermia set in, another burst of magic and mana heated me, dried my robe, and left me in a warm pool of water that I quickly refroze beneath my feet. I finally had more than 10 seconds to think about my impending demise. Someone had tried to kill me! Someone . . . Tried . . . To . . . Kill . . . ME! Now that I was not frantically fighting for my life, I realised that someone had tried to assassinate me, within hours of bing a noble. Maybe my maternal grandfather had been the wiser of the two grandparents fighting over my future today. His methods may not be legal in my old world, more child abuse than training, but without the skill Quick Reflexes would I have even had the time to consider my demise let alone act on it? As I bobbed about in the ocean and gently blew myself back along the cliffs, around the edge of the heand towards the dock hidden in the cavern. As I floated towards the bottom of the fold in the cliff I reconsidered today¡¯s changing fortune. I might have gone up in the world on paper but in practice, I had the quickest, sharpest drop off a CLIFF in response! Could I go hide somewhere else? I wondered to myself. No, not really. I was for all intents and purposes stillpletely dependent on the adults around me for food, shelter, and clothing. There was nond in sight from what I now knew as the Ind of Wester Ponente. While I was beginning to learn the basics of sailing from my father I did not fool myself into believing I had a chance at sailing a floating ice cube anywhere other than home. What was the assassination all about? Why me? Was it because I had be a noble? Was it the revenge of the merchant unhappy with having to pay 5% in tithes to a new lord? Why on earth would someone just throw me off the top of a cliff without some form of warning, demand, or interaction? I didn¡¯t believe that I had ever met them before in my life. I sailed closer to the dark mouth of the cavern. Was it safe to go back? Would I find another assassin on the docks? I honestly did not have much choice in the matter but I could try to be a little more cautious about my return. We had watched Mercurio¡¯s ship sail out of sight. So I was not surprised to see a small 1 man dinghy with sail tied up to the dock left behind when therger ship set sail. I was d to see that it was empty and that looking up the stairs no one seemed to be running down them fleeing towards their escape from the ind. Hopefully, everyone at the top of the cliff was well but I had little doubt that Grandfather would hesitate in ending the assassin''s life. I was a little surprised his dead body had not been sent flying off the cliff with me. But if he had survived or worse killed my Grandfathers, Des and Sinis then he would being down the stairs any minute now. I pulled myself up onto the dock and rather than toddle up the looming stairs to either my rescue or my doom. I added a little ice to my berg to float me higher and make the climb a little more possible. Then I boarded the dinghy and pushed it out to float gently in the middle of the cavern away from the dock. Luckily the rope had been hastily tied and was neither too tight or too heavy for me to pull apart to do so. If the assassin had survived and was on his way then I still had an escape route and wouldn¡¯t be sitting on the dock or standing on the stairs for him to kick out of the way as he left the ind. Hopefully, he would not be able to swim too quickly but I was wary of taking the boat any closer to the exit of the cavern. I knew what to do but as with most things, it is easier to say than to do. Especially when you are the size I am. So I sat there in the boat in the middle of the cavern, then I waited. Digging into my pockets I found the slightly sodden remains of food from our feast. It felt like a lifetime ago that I had been cheekily stuffing my cheeks and pockets with the food. Tucking into it, the taste of the dried fruit was spoiled by the salt. However, with the jerky and nuts, it was hardly noticeable, that they had had a dip in the sea, as they were already salted for preservation. Either way, it filled my stomach and gave me something to do while I waited. And I waited some more. I hadn¡¯t timed us on our descent but my recollection on our descent, ascent and based on Naismith¡¯s rule they could not take longer than 2 hours to get down here. My brain was too tired to try and work out Tobler¡¯s hiking function even though I had the time to try. I was still concentrating on the stairs hoping that if I did see someoneing I would have the time to sail in to meet them if they were friends or the time to sail away if it was the enemy. Waiting for so long was boring after havingpleted my preparations, but I dared not enter my mind in case friend or foe arrived. Sitting still, rocking to and fro on the boat I had finished eating the rest of the food I had squirreled away by the time it started to get dark, and still no one hade down either to flee the ind or to find me. I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time. The dark did not scare me. With my skills echolocation and mana sense, I had not been blind in the dark for a long time. In fact, since I had gained super senses as a trait night time had be the best time of day to have a reprieve from some of them. The quiet and dark were calming and weing. What was not weing was the thought that I had to make a move. It had been several hours now. Plenty of time for the fight to be over one way or another. Plenty of time for either my assassin or rescuer to make their way down either to escape or to attempt to find me. But no one had appeared. I would have to make a decision. I now had the means to make it to Little Wester or Wester Levante but I would be sailing after Mercurio possibly sailing after my assassins and who knew if from my nce at the map if I could actually navigate either south to Little Wester or North-East to Wester Levante even if it was not now fully dark. Surely, I was safer here with my family as long as I could make it to them again. Tying up my new little boat to the dock my health, stamina, and mana had mostly recovered while I had been waiting so I set forth to face . . . The stairs. It was going to be a long, long way up to the top with these little legs of mine. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 226,450/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 20 hours Health: 900/1140 Stamina: 500/546 Mana: 900/1160 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 114 Endurance: 25 Strength: 25 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 117 Mind: 116 rity: 59 Magic: 116 Charisma: 7 Luck: 1 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (19) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 5) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 25) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 11) Quick reflexes (Lv 12) Haggling (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 25) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 5) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 4) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 5200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Chapter 41: My old enemy Chapter 41: My old enemy ¡°You don¡¯t have to see the whole staircase. You just have to take the first step.¡± Martin Luther King Jr Stairs. There were so many of them and they went on for so long. I may have spent most of my childhood so far, trying to escape from my swaddling, house, sister, as well as Ash Ind in the center of the craterke, but I would gain no joy from climbing these. Sometimes it truly was just better to be carried. Better get started then. I wrapped my robe around me tighter and headed forward. Night had fallen so I made my way up the stairs inplete darkness, having to climb them as much as walking the stairs since the individual steps had been made with adults in mind, not toddlers. Still, it was a great full-body workout. I was once more d for my purple robe as it gave me extra padding on my knees as I hauled myself up each step. Just keep climbing, climbing, what do we do? We climb. Through my super senses I could still see the edges of the steps but what would take an adult an hour or two in ascending was going to take me a lot longer. I wondered if perhaps I should have weighed anchor in the cove and slept the night away before making the ascent in the morning. It would be well past midnight by the time I had made the climb then descended down into town. The clouds cleared above the top of the chimney sending a shaft of moonlight down into the depths to light my way for a moment before the clouds shifted once more blocking the light. Eventually, after what felt like days of climbing but was actually only 4 hours, judging by my time sense, I had finally made it to the top of the climb and now knew it was precisely 1,983 steps from top to bottom of the cliff. Why had I counted? Well, I had nothing else to do other than keep watch for anyone descending and it took my mind off my near-death experience. After I had reached the top I worked my way across to where we had been when the day had taken such a disastrous turn. There was no one there. I had suspected as much but for there to be no mark to thendscape where something so momentous had happened seemed somehow wrong. Lonely and alone, I turned to face downhill. It was time to make my way back home. Caution was still my keyword as I headed down to the town. With night fallen, no one noticed my descent. In the dark, the town seemed somber and silent from outside. As I made my way under the gate in the walls that surrounded the town I thought to myself that we really needed a better level of protection. What if an assassin wanted to break in? Why didn¡¯t we have guards on the walls at night? The truth was the town had never needed them before and would it really change anything for one child¡¯s death. Who was I to them really? Other than short trips to the market following after my sister or trying to run ahead. I knew very few of the people outside my family who had visited and my cousins. Would they even notice if I was gone? What was the child mortality rate around these parts anyway? Quietly, I made my way through the town. Easily avoiding the few people still moving around town, the majority of them squared away in their homes by now, maybe eating dinner or getting ready for bed. Most people would be up with the sun and go to bed earlier than in the modern world with its electricity and lightbulbs. Here staying up required fire or candles both of which offered poor lighting for thimble work or sewing and would quickly be prohibitively expensive if using them all the time. It was simpler to go to bed, get a good night''s sleep and be up with the sun was cheaper too! On the few asions, someone walked close by I heard theming in advance and had time to hide. Covered as I was in my purple robe, just a small lump at the edge of the road, in the darkness, I was practically invisible. Sneak and Stealth both leveled up as I hid from passers-by but generally, I made my way home with quiet confident steps as I toddled forward unafraid of the darkness and aware of anyone who came too close. Truth be told animals would be of a greater threat to me than people but I didn''te across anyrger, hungrier, or more dangerous than me on my way home. Eventually, I arrived home to find my family destroyed, not literally but emotionally. I had been listening into the houses as I passed checking each time as I made my way from street to street that the people were settled and unlikely to head out. When I arrived on my street I did the same. As I listened in to my house, I heard through eavesdrop and saw through thebination of mana sense and echolocation, a sad scene. Des and Sinis sat on the floor by the fire, bowls of food in their hands while my two grandfathers, mother, father, and sister sat around the table. They weren¡¯t eating or talking really. Their food sat cold and untouched on tes in front of them. They had clearly been there for a while but they were all processing things differently but together as a family. ¡°I don¡¯t understand though,¡± Kaius asked for an exnation probably for the umpteenth time while he held a shaking and sobbing Aliyah. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know why?¡± Grandfather exined he was still furious with Grandpa Smit but allowing his temper to run free in front of his heartbroken daughter would heal no wounds. ¡°From what I have learned of how the day went it could have been the merchant reneging on his deal, a spy following the patent of nobility, or somethingpletely unrted. With the man dead we are unlikely to ever know who sent him or why. Or even if it was only Kai who was his target.¡± ¡°It all looked like it wasing together so well,¡± Grandpa added in disbelief probably thinking back to how his lifetimes'' work hade to fruition only hours earlier suddenly to be thrown off a cliff. ¡°That is precisely the problem. It is what you can¡¯t seeing that kills you.¡± Grandfather rebutted. ¡°What did you do with the body of the assassin?¡± Kaius asked. ¡°Wrapped him up in a cloth and put him in my boat to go bury him on my ind. Might burn him first. Either way, it will be easier to cover it up there than here.¡± ¡°On Kai¡¯s ind.¡± Murmured Grandpa Smit. ¡°What use is the ind to him if he is dead.¡± Grandfather harshly responded. "Thank you very much by the way for making my deceased grandson myndlord!" he crossly responded. No one was shouting probably to keep the neighbours from hearing but you could hear the venom in his voice and the anger in the harsh tone of his sarcastic delivery. ¡°What are we to do with these two?¡± Aliyah asked raising her head from my father''s shoulders. ¡°Raise them. We have no very on this ind for good reason.¡± One of the grandfathers responded. Des and Sinis ignorant of the conversation concerning them continued to eat their dinner. ¡°Is that the end of this though? Did Kai die for nothing? Don¡¯t we want to make them pay?¡± Aleera asked from where she sat. ¡°To make who pay? For what? The order could havee from anyone from the Merchant to the Prince himself. We just don¡¯t know. Do you really want to pitch our meager family against forces we don¡¯t know and can¡¯t fight?¡± Grandfather responded. It seemed that they didn¡¯t know any more than I did. The small sailboat had yielded no clues. Simply a small vessel to escape the ind with. Probably incapable of making it any further than Wester Levante or Little Wester and even that would have been a nautical challenge in the dark. The enemy was dispatched probably by my Grandfather and everyone else was alive and well. The house in front of me was my best bet at safety, security, and happiness. Checking the coast was clear onest time I left the shadows and approached the front door. Still defeated by door handles I was left with nothing to climb, my legs not yet long enough to reach between the two sides of the door frame I found it was impossible to shimmy up. I raised my hand. Knock, Knock. Silence descended on those within. I heard my father stand up to open the door. ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± Was all I had time to utter before I was swept up into his arms my mother crying out in delight as she rushed to us from the table. Aleera looked up in shock before she too jumped up to join us in a crushing family hug. ¡°You¡¯re alive.¡± She whispered. ¡°But you fell.¡± Aleera had only heard what had happened third hand but she couldn¡¯t seem to believe that I could have possibly survived the fall. I guess that is why they never came to look. They simply didn''t believe it was possible for anyone, certainly not me to have survived a fall that far. That or possibly having to hide the body and hurry home to tell my parents. ¡°I fell.¡± I smiled, ¡°but . . .¡± I paused flexing my mana once more. I filled my purple robe with mana, shaping it until it formed two rudimentary wings behind me, ¡°I fell . . . but I fell with style.¡± Iughed, at myself, at the danger, at the ludicrousness of the whole situation. ¡°You little monster.¡± Aleeraughed. While the rest of the adults looked on in various degrees of shock or surprise. ¡°I love your demon wings.¡± She gave me big hug no longer shocked just happy to have me home safe and sound. She understood how I could have survived in the water as long as I survived the fall or rather the impact with the water. We had spent enough time trying to build boats to get off the ind together out of ice. ¡°He . . .can . . . do . . . magic?¡± stuttered Grandpa Smit the only one not in the loop sitting back down in surprise from where he had stood at my entrance. "Since when?" He was probably the most shocked of the lot, the other adults at least knew that some form of magic had probably been the reason I had survived. While Des and Sinis had not known me long enough to form any opinions in particr and just took it as another outrageous event in a day filled with a long line of them. Perhaps things were just more exciting back on thepass continent and this was another normal day for them. ¡°Since when?¡± he asked again as no one responded to answer him. He frowned slowly connecting the dots in his head as he thought back on everything that had happened in thest couple of weeks. I had for a moment considered lying and pretending it was all a fluke of luck. But even I would have found it difficult toe up with a sophisticated enough lie that was strong enough to stand up to the barrage of questions that would surely follow. Sometimes honesty truly is the best policy especially if it leaves your audience so speechless they are unable to ask any follow-up questions. "Bedtime? I''m tired." I say as I close my eyes. Ready to ignore any questions that are about toe my way. Sue me I''m a baby, I''m exhausted and honestly, I just want to go to bed. Despite being exhausted from my ordeal, the climbing more than the falling it still took a good half an hour to get the grandfathers out of the house and everyone into bed. They had made us all promise to stay in the house tomorrow morning and wait till they returned to discuss our options. Des and Sinis slept on roll mats in the main room. While I was tucked up in bed with my parents too tall and no longer able to fit in my little box. It had always been a small box and I had outgrown it in more ways than one. I didn¡¯t mind. It had been a truly terrifying day. I appreciated the warm arms of my mother wrapped around me holding me tight, keeping me warm, keeping me safe. Stats or not the adrenaline that had kept me going through the fall, the wait, and the climb, left me. Suddenly, the fear of the fall, the frantic attempts to stall, the highspeed glide, the desperate attempt to hit the water right and not break my neck, the wait at the bottom of the chimney for rescue or having to once more face the assassin, the arduous climb up the endless staircase, the caution creeping back into the town, all of that, hit me all at once and I found myself shaking and crying into my pillow while my mother held me tight. However old I might have been in my head. My body was still that of a child. I might have been able to think my way out of my predicament but I also understood in detail the myriad ways in which it could have gonepletely wrong. The emotions and chemicals my brain made flooded my body. A new body. A baby''s body that was unused to the sheer terror it had faced today. I felt everything so strongly as if for the first time because for this body it was the first time. Everything up till now I had been able to look at a little distantly almost as if I was ying a game or it was happening to someone else. It was my second life, I would make the most of it, but I had never felt as connected to my situation and circumstances as I did when it all came crashing down on me. It hurt as my body was wracked with sobs and shivers. Happy to be home. I held my mother and cried. Chapter 42: A little learning to be done Chapter 42: A little learning to be done ¡°Intellectual growth shouldmence at birth and cease only at death.¡± Albert Einstein During the night I awoke, startled from my sleep, wrapped in my mother''s arms. I had been dreaming of falling, waking before I hit the earth, and I realised I still had a lot left to learn about this world. My growth had only just begun and I was not ready to stop or leave it quite so soon. As my heart calmed once more I resolved to find out the answers tomorrow if I could and I fell back asleep. When I awoke in the morning it was to find myself still wrapped in my mother¡¯s arms. Cryingst night had been cathartic and after sleeping soundly and deeply I felt refreshed and ready to face the day. Hesitating to move Iy there enjoying being held unsure if my mother was also awake wey there together as if asleep until father awoke with a start. Getting up I finally changed out of my salt-encrusted clothing, something I probably should have done before bed but too exhausted to attempt it. Aware they all knew about my abilities I unapologetically heated the washing tub before carefully climbing into it for bathing. My mother perhaps anxious to be close after my near-miss with death insisted on cleaning me and washing my hair. After months of intimate attention, I was unashamed of my nudity only sshing Aleera when she came to poke fun at me probably she only teased me in an attempt to hurry me out of the tub so that she could make use of the hot water. Something that would normally take them a lot longer to arrange and usually result in lukewarm water at best. Once I was dressed again, I finally felt like my ordeal hade to an end. I was a new baby. A baby with ns and ideas. Aleera had finished her wash and Des and Sinis were invited to use the water before throwing it out. It was only as we were sitting down to break our fast that the grandfathers arrived. ¡°We need to sit down and exin what and how everything happened.¡± Grandpa Smit started before being talked over by Grandfather. ¡°We need to work together as a family now to n our way forward, to sail a clear course through the reefs we now find ourselves plotted into.¡± Grandfather started clearlyying the me for our recent problems at Smit¡¯s feet. ¡°We spokest night after we left and we have a lot to exin to make sure that everyone understands where we are, where we havee from, and how we are going to be moving forward after yesterday.¡± Grandpa continued where he had left off before he had been interrupted. ¡°Do Kai and Aleera need to be here for this discussion?¡± Questioned father always thest to treat us differently and ever the first to say let''s go for a swim or a sail. Problems or dangers he often seemed to think could be put over the edge of the horizon. Faced tomorrow rather than today. ¡°Yes, they do because we all need to understand where each of us is currently and where we are aiming for as a family and as individuals.¡± Grandpa Smit counseled. ¡°Besides Aleera has always understood everything and Kai has certainly proved himself capable far beyond his years.¡± A round of nods of agreement or partial agreement went around the table. ¡°Kai, Aleera, we are going to exin who and where our family came from and where we hope to get to. I''m going to have to exin a little bit of the background of the world, our kingdoms, and our ce among them first though." He started looking at both of us to see if we understood what was going on. I didn''t fully but dutifully nodded along with Aleera. It looked like I might be getting some of those answers I was looking for. "First off it boils down to stats and the system.¡± He paused seeing if he was going to have any more interruptions before going on to exin. ¡°There are differences between species in terms of their bnce and growth of stats for example Elves will start life with a high value in vitality and it will continue to grow quicklypared to their other stats allowing them to live longer than all other species reaching in some cases 1000 years old. Dwarves, on the other hand, their racial bonus, is in endurance giving them greater durability both in stamina and body allowing them to generally reach at least 500 years old. Giants have strength and so on. But within that, there are also differences with species. Now I don¡¯t know how it is different within other races but within humans, we are special in that we are not special, at least to start with. We have no stat we are particrly inclined towards.¡± Intrigued by this exnation I moved to interrupt his monologue and question him about the other races and their bonuses, ¡°What about senses? What race are they the bonus of? And . . .¡± but I was halted by his hand and he continued talking. ¡°Beastkin. Now don¡¯t interrupt until I¡¯ve finished. I might very well answer your questions if you just wait to hear what I have to say. As I was saying humans are not special, we have no racial bonus to our stats but we are also not bound as closely to them.¡± Grandfather continued to lecture us. Aleera listened eagerly while the adults seemed to know the majority of what he was saying so far. ¡°What about the mind stat? What race has a bonus in mind?¡± I interrupted still wanting to find out about the stats I had managed to unlock traits for. Did all of these species have the same traits I had unlocked? That would make sense with the long lives of elves and the super senses of beast kin. ¡°Gnomes Kai. Gnomes have the bonus for the mind stat. This enables them to build fantastical things and level up, where their size would otherwise hinder them in gaining experience, particrly in a world so dangerous for a people that size. Now don¡¯t interrupt your Grandfather again.¡± My mother calmly answered preventing Grandfather from blustering me back into silence. ¡°As I was saying,¡± repeated Grandfather frustrated from being interrupted again but unable to do more than begin again, protected as I was by the presence of my parents and family. ¡°The average human on this ind will awaken their 6 stats by the age of 5 when exactly depends on the child¡¯s understanding and circumstances of birth, education, etc. The old argument of nature versus nurture. Then when they are 10 regardless of when they awakened their status they will be able to allocate their stats and for most of them, they are called the simple six. Owning to the fact that they only have the six base attributes. Those with the simple six stats are themoners of the Compass Kingdoms, the serfs, and the ves. Free men and women too but the majority of humans are afforded the simple six when it came to their stats.¡± Hang on a second, most people only had six stats? I had been born with eight. Why the discrepancy. Was it nature my gics and lineage? Or was it nurture? The fact that I already had several decades of schooling and further education under my belt. My attention returned to Grandfather as he began talking once more taking up the baton of exining the world to us. I wasn¡¯t sure quite how this was all relevant to yesterday but I was sure the link would be obvious in time. Best to sit quietly and not interrupt anymore. Questions could alwayse at the end and I had a lot of them. ¡°Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Senses, Mind are all a man needs to make his way in the world and this is what I and your Father have. It may mean we have less flexibility in spending our stats across six instead of 7 or more stats but having only six is also a strength in that as we have fewer attributes to allocate them to it also means we have more stat points inparison to be ced in them.¡± Interrupted Grandpa Smit this time unwilling to let Grandfather belittle him or my father. I turned to look at them seeing no difference between them and myself. There was no way to tell just as there was no way to tell whenparing them with my sister, mother, or grandfather. But I could see how others could see it as a disability or a lesser type of people. Being different in any way was all too often used as an argument for discrimination be it gender, race, or belief in my old world. Here it would appear stats would be the ism over which people fell out. ¡°Yes, well this is where our race is different from the others because we have a certain adaptability to our stats. A seventh attribute that we can add. The lucky seven who can raise themselves up from their birth and reach higher in society.¡± Continued Grandfather, neither abashed nor repentant for what he seemed to judge a factual exnation of the world around me. ¡°Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Senses, Mind and Magic are your mother¡¯s build and the bare minimum that you could have before you could even think about making the move up the social hierarchy into the nobility.¡± He paused here staring at Grandpa Smit pointedly because as far as he had been aware I had not had that when he had me buy my patent of nobility. ¡°I am happy where I am.¡± Added mother patting father¡¯s hand. ¡°I have no wish to move up in the world, having heard enough about its ups and downs from Grandfather. This little ind isted from the political turmoil of the continent is perfect. Here there are only sea monsters to worry about, not human ones, at least until yesterday.¡± Father squeezed her hand back, happy to hear she was happy where she was with him and us. He had had time to adjust to the fact that mother was more than she seemed but loved him despite or because of the secrets she had kept from him. As Grandfather pursed his lips it was impossible to tell whether he was happy with his son-inw or not. Just as it was impossible to tell if he was happy in his daughter''s choice in husband or not. ¡°Be that as it may, unlocking an extra attribute has always been a cause for celebration and it is not always Magic that is unlocked it could also be either rity or Charisma. Unlocking one of these stats is what would support your jump into high society but with that jump, there are hidden dangers. Think first about unlocking Magic as providing a mage path into the nobility. As much as it provides you with equal magical strength to their retainers or themselves you are equally likely to be snapped up by them in the process of developing your potential.¡± ¡°Next up is my build. I have all of the above as well as rity. It is not enough to have intelligence but you have to be able to make good use of it. Everyone has a brain and a mind stat but how many people make full use of it. Fully utilising your senses, your magic, your physical abilities to gain this one. This is what I have been working on unlocking on the ind. Putting you into situations where you have to make the most of all your senses, magic, and physical abilities. It may have been tough but I am sure that you have unlocked it and it will appear when you can view your stats. The ability to not panic under fire, to stay calm and collected. To react to changes in circumstance rather than be acted upon. Clear thinking under pressure or thinking at speed. This is the path of warriors into the nobility. Maybe one day if I had not been noticed so soon or had been a little bit luckier I could have been a knight or a mage but I never had that option. Taken from my family before I was 10 I did as I was told by the house until there was no one left to tell me what to do.¡± He paused once more considering a past he rarely thought about and talked about even less before continuing. The adults around the table sat silently waiting for him to continue. Maybe as equally astonished by him opening up as much as he had. ¡°Finally, there is Charisma, it will aid leadership certainly but moving from amoner to a noble with this extra ability is the path of the bard. Although many a merchant makes excellent use of this stat should they be able to gain it. Bear in mind this is all for low nobility, the knight, the mage, the bard, while merchants are still seen asmoners until they have enough wealth not to be. What Grandpa Smit has signed you up for is high nobility. The blue blood nobles, who have been nobles all of their lives, have not risen to their positions from lower down in the social hierarchy. Or at least not in thest two or three generations of their house. You have not just been entered into low nobility through your abilities or actions though. No, your ce at the table has been bought without a true foundation to stand upon." he said with exasperation all his efforts to keep us hidden undone by a well-meaning gift from Grandpa Smit despite the strings that would have been attached. He frowned as he thought about the situation that we all now found ourselves in. Life can be simple but sometimes other people make it far moreplex. "As Baron of Wester Isles, you will be expected to have the Noble Nine in terms of your stats. You will need all nine attributes Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Senses, Mind, Magic, rity, and Charisma just to be at the same starting position as them. These were theplete attributes of the higher lords having unlocked 9 attributes into which to ce their points. Having 9 of them on which to spend their points. You would be forgiven for thinking that their individual stats would be lower than average. But this is where they used their strength, power, and connections to gain more experience than most and level quicker." I kept tight-lipped about my 10 attributes they seemed to have had enough surprises for the day and I had no desire to make myself a bigger target. Keep it secret, keep it safe. My understanding of my Grandfather¡¯s actions had crystalised after the disastrous afternoon and evening I had had. The fewer people knew the safer I would be, I had no desire to stand out at all among noble society. "Now you developed Magic on your own gifted in your own way. I have hopefully forced rity into you and you have had charisma bought for you by your grandfather. When your stats be visible you will not be hopelessly behind but that only makes you a valid threat or tool to the nobles of Ponente. Something Grandpa Smit should have realised before attempting to make you one." He red once more at Grandpa Smit. "A threat half will want to see eliminated and a tool the other half will want to use." He paused here before looking at us, gauging our thoughts and feelings. "There is really only one solution," he said heavily. Before sighing, "Kai needs to die." Chapter 43: You only live thrice? Chapter 43: You only live thrice? ¡°You only live twice: Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.¡± Ian Fleming In my case, I had already literally lived twice. Once in my old world, once in my new world. I had even looked death in the face as well after my free fall. But with the world, or rather my options in it, outlined as starkly as grandfather hadid them out everyone sits, a little shocked, around the table. No one doubted his veracity or the truth of his words especially after the near-instant and diabolically disastrous response to me bing a noble, even if it was only as a lowly baron. Entering the high nobility was clearly a dangerous proposition. Breaking the silence, I started the conversation back up again. "I don''t want to die!" I eximed backing up from the table. You never quite knew with Grandfather how serious he was being or how lethal and literal his lesson might be. "No one is killing Kai." Father joined in. "That''s not what Grandfather is saying, is he?" Mother pointedly remarked. "No, not literally." he reassured, before smiling "Just figuratively," he added with far too much relish looking at Grandpa Smit. They then reluctantly exined that "The baby Baron Kai of Wester Isles would be far safer dead than alive." ording to him in our situation, there were really only three options moving forward. After their detailed exnation of what the world was like, it was impossible not to take his opinions seriously and it looked like I might be starting my life again, for the third time in one form or another! They went on to exin our options. First, I continued to be alive. As a noble, I would probably face increasingly hostile actions to remove me from my barony, but if I managed to stay alive I would also be given support to defend myself. Yet again, each gift or favour woulde with a string attached that canter be pulled on to move me, to force me to act, or y some part in a Lord or Lady¡¯s plot. Which apparently, can be just as deadly for those involved as facing those nobility actively trying to take me out! Not a tempting option although the gifts and presents would probably be pretty nice. Second, I needed to run away. This would apparently be better with just myself running away but as a toddle that in itself would be practically impossible. Even if at most a single family member came to help me run away, as any more than that, in fact, the fact of a single-family member disappearing, would still draw attention because to get to the maind we would have to pass through the Archipgo on our way to the Compass Continent. Ostensibly, it is practically impossible to do so without significantly better sailing skills or getting very lucky with the weather. The only one who would be able to make that journey would be my father who is one of the less worldly of family. It turns out that the trade wind blowing towards us is a very strong part of why it is going to take ¡®The Swift¡¯ so long to get back to the maind and have my im to nobility registered. Third, I needed to die. With this option, the idea is to pretend that I never survived the fall. Something that would not be difficult for anybody to believe. The man who threw me off the side of the cliff let off a signal re after doing so, so whoever was against my ascension to the nobility was or probably would soon be aware of my murder. Probably even before the receipt of me buying my title and patent of nobility is registered by Mercurio. This is the option grandfather is in favour of, as it would result in me being back on the ind, hidden away. He doesn¡¯t seem to have a timeline for when I would get to remerge into the world as someone else. So, I am hoping it won¡¯t be forever although my mother is very happy with the idea as the whole idea of going there to start off with was to hide my magic, to keep me safe. Although I think I have a pretty good handle on the magic so the only argument for hiding out there again for any longer is to be hidden away from potential assassins sent by nobles. Again to keep me safe but perhaps the most boring of the options. Grandfather proposed taking the boat out a little way away from the ind, scuttling it, before sailing back. After all the assassin did let off a red magical signal so as far as everyone else is concerned I am dead and the assassin would have sailed off the ind probably to make his own way home or to catch up with Mercurio¡¯s ship somehow. He feels it is highly unlikely that they would believe that the Assassin would not have been able to kill me and then escape on his boat. This leaves the trail cold with my death and the assassin disappearing after the act. Hopefully, they will assume that hepleted his mission and then died attempting to sail back to the Mecurio¡¯s Ship or the Compass Continent. This is obviously the option he went into the most detail on and he seems to be managing to convince everybody that it is the best idea. Personally, I am not looking forward to being locked up on an ind alone for the rest of my life with only Grandfather forpany and I¡¯m going to fight this in any way I can. I went quietly the first time I¡¯m not going quietly this time. I mean I did not want to die either but option three needed some serious amendments if they expected me to go along with it. ¡°Mamma, I don¡¯t want to go back onto the ind.¡± I cried ¡°I know pearl.¡± Mother replied, ¡°but it is for the best and to keep you safe.¡± She exined as if I was not already aware of all the implications of their conversations. ¡°I¡¯m not going without you.¡± I cried keen to get a few others over there with me. If my family was there Grandfather would have to be a little more restrained in his training methods. Although maybe they would calm down on their own if I told him that I already had rity. Then again, he seemed to think that I was not yet already able to see my status even if I couldn¡¯t act on it. ¡°You won¡¯t be alone. I¡¯ll be there with you.¡± Mother reassured me. Yes! I thought in my head. One down two to go. ¡°If you¡¯re going I¡¯m going.¡± Father joined in on the conversation. He had been missing me as much as I had him and I preferred his attempts at teaching me how to swimpared to my sisters. ¡°It looks like we will all be going to the ind.¡± Mother dered making Aleera¡¯s decision for her. Aleera red at me before she argued, ¡°But there won¡¯t be enough space for everyone.¡± Never fooled for a second about my innocence and unhappy with the idea of returning to the ind she had only just managed to get off. ¡°You haven¡¯t gone exploring yet?¡± Mother asked. ¡°We spent most of our spare time looking for food.¡± she pointedly replied ring at Grandfather now. ¡°Hmm, yes, well there is a little more space avable than at first sight if you know where to look.¡± Grandfather exined rubbing his head a little ruefully. ¡°You see behind the locked doors, my house actually goes a lot further back into the mountain.¡± ¡°Yes, there is plenty of space in the caves and with all of us out there we will have enough hands to make them a little more liveable and home-like.¡± Mother exined. ¡°Caves?¡± I excitedly asked. I suddenly had visions of building my own secret cave dancing through my head. Faking my own death and staying hidden away might not be so bad if I was obscenely rich and had my own hiddenplex to y in. I might not be rich yet but I had an idea or two on that front. However a hiddenplex of caves to explore and build in couldn''t be bought, only found if you were lucky enough to do so. ¡°You were right when you said my house seemed more carved from the mountain than built. There are a few tunnels left from when the mountain grew however many years ago that was. Some of them even go all the way out to the shoreline of the ind.¡± He exined. Visions of an underwater underground exit were now being imagined along with ways to create hidden exits all over the ind. Super senses where had you been? I had never noticed these hidden caves. I needed to focus on seeing what I could sense through stone somehow. Build some sort of ground sensing skill where I can see through stone to find the tunnels and anything else that might be hiding down there. This could actually be quite cool . . . . . . especially if I manage to get some earth Magic sorted out and begin to reshape them! I have fire, water and air. I only needed earth toplete the four elements and enter the full avatar state. Nothing like a little bit of base building, more den building, to perk up your spirits after a near-death experience even if it is only in your head and take the sting out of being forced to fake your own death. As a kid in my previous life, I had once spent the summer digging holes in the back garden before gradually covering them up and joining them together. Building myself a little crawlspace of a cave system I could delve into. This is going to be so much better. As it was more a small rabbit warren I could only just crawl through than the Batcave I had been imagining I could build. I even had a dream to install a chimney and fire pit which went swimmingly well, until I broke my dad¡®s ¡ê40 chimney that I had found sat in the garage and appropriated. Walking around with anything that was half your size is challenging especially when it¡¯s heavy enough to tip you over. I never didplete my fire pit and chimney having to hide out in a dank, dark, barrow rather than a cool caveman¡®s hiddenir. Because after exining at the tender age of 7 or 8 what I had needed it for and how it had broken I had been told firmly and in no uncertain words that I was not to set any fires going in what amounted, at least in my parent''s opinion, to a borderline death trap. Still, it had been fun while itsted. This was going to be so much better! Returning from my daydream of the past and the future I returned to the present. Grandfather doesn¡¯t look particrly happy with the idea of having mother and father out there as well as me but I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to be able to stop them this time. Especially if this is for an indeterminate length of time. In fact, it was at this point that Grandpa joined in with their ongoing conversation about the logistics of the move. He had been unusually quietpared to his usual boisterous and bold self possibly self reflecting on the wisdom of his actions. But it would not take him long to return to his ambitious designs and dreams. Nothing builds sess like sess and you only ever fail if you refuse to get back up again. Although most would find it impossible to get back up at all after a fall off a cliff. ¡°If you¡¯re all going to the Ind, then what¡¯s to stop Kai from being born again?¡± he asked. All the adults looked at him confused, myself and Aleera, included. They had already covered the fact that this wouldn''t be forever. ¡°I mean just think about this for a second. Our family has just spent a significant amount of money in buying a barony for my grandson Kai that¡¯s going to be registered with the Prince who will, in theory, respect the agreement made and make it official.¡± He paused before continuing. ¡°Our worry is that this will create a level of interest among the nobility to get rid of him and having witnessed that in action I can now understand how devastating that response might be. But the barony will still exist and it will still belong to my grandson who I am the Steward for.¡± He carried on borating his position as continue to wait for him to get to the point. ¡°You are saying that when our new barony bes public knowledge some nobility will be positive and supportive for example possibly the majority of the Eastern Lords of Ponente. While others probably the Western Lords of Ponente will be confrontational about the creation of a new barony. Now whoever paid for the assassin is going to know or have received the fact that Kai is dead.¡± He resumed his hypothesis. I was now lost in where exactly he was taking us. But the rest of my family seemed willing to wait to hear him out before dering theirplete confusion as to where he was going and where he was taking us. ¡°So, three months to go to the Capital. Then three months back that¡¯s six months before anybody will turn up to kill Kai. And if they doe then at that point we just say Kai is dead as we have already agreed. They are hardly going to stay all the way out here with so few amenities and nothing else to do so will turn around and go back. But the barony will still exist, I will still be the steward for it. Why not, after they have left again, re-introduce Kai to the world as a new grandson?¡± He finally reached the end of his roundabout exnation. A new grandson? A new grandson? Will no one question Grandpa¡¯s sanity? We would have exactly the same problem we have now except we are kicking it down the road half a year. ¡°Anyway, six months. We say that you¡¯re dead. Then we say that your mother had another child. In that window of time, there is no reason you couldn¡¯t be Kai-II (the second) we get to keep the barony, within the family, the initial threat is over and we keep quiet about what happened. By this point, we will have discovered they of thend so to speak and have supporters of our own to ensure your survival.¡± It all seems veryplicated to me. But we can worry about thatter. Keep me secret keep me safe is what I am worried about now and that means I need to disappear but hopefully take my family with me this time. ¡°What about the town?¡± I asked interrupting the ideas that are bouncing back and forth as they consider increasinglyplex ns. I liked the simplicity of the three options and getting started with option three. Especially now that I had heard about the hidden caves on the ind. ¡°Well, I think it would be perfectly reasonable for Aliyah to not want toe back to the town for a while. Seeing as this is where you died. All we need to do is skip the birthing ceremony, due to fears of assassins, and I¡¯m sure everybody would understand how she felt so that shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± Grandpa Smit was enjoying plotting his idea of, ¡°Kai the second emerges the new Baron Wester Isles, a precocious one-year-old much like his deceased older brother had been before he was brutally assassinated by being thrown off a cliff." ''Mann tracht und Gotcht'' and all that. ns were good and all but we needed to focus on the here and now. Something my mother agreed with. When I had asked ¡®What about the town?¡¯ I had not meant what would they think about the future. I was more wondering how they think about my death in the current moment. ¡°Either way we don¡¯t need to worry about the future as long as Kai goes into hiding now we can work out the restter.¡± Mother began to override her father-inw. ¡°We have the barony, we have thend, we have the localised power we just need to build the connections and support moving forwards,¡± Grandpa muttered to himself ignored by everyone else as they focused on the most immediate problem. The logistics of nning my death, funeral, and the family''s move back to the ind. It¡¯s all a lot to take in but I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to be given much choice in the matter it looks like we will be faking my death. I hope they n me a nice funeral. I wonder if I can get Pachelbel''s Canon in D? Probably not. Chapter 44: A short tale so far Chapter 44: A short tale so far ¡°As is a tale, so is a life: Not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.¡± Seneca My funeral was a sad asion. Super senses, Echolocation, Eavesdrop, and Mana Sense allowed me to hear it from afar and see it to an extent, hidden as I was, in a backpack carried by Des who stood side by side with Sinis, alone alongside Grandfather¡¯s boat. They were waiting till after the funeral to head to the ind with me. No one had really questioned what or who the two boys were in the light of the news of my death and my two servants, ves, employees or whatever they were, would be apanying their lord in his escape into exile. Theirck of thenguage Buss was a blessing in disguise as they were unable to confirm or deny any story of my demise. There was no need for them to lie unable as they were to understand or answer any of the questions they had been asked. The story of what had happened rested with my maternal and paternal grandfather¡¯s. One a pir of themunity the other, well I was still unsure what precisely it was my more militant grandfather did exactly. Des and Sinis spoke quietly to one another watching the ceremony unfold. Anothernguage to learn another skill and experience to gain but I had not started yet too wrapped up in the events unfolding on the shoreline. I had a small coffin, more a wooden box than anything fancy, it was ced on a raft which was about to be pushed to sea. Obviously, it didn¡¯t have my body in it and everyone knew that. The story of my demise was that I had or rather my body had never been found after I dropped off the cliff into the sea. It was not a difficult story to tell as it was for the most part true and it wasn¡¯t hard to understand that a baby would never survive the fall. In fact, it would have been more challenging for the people of the town to know that I had survived. People were cross but it was a wave of diffuse anger spread out among a few the people med. Some med the attempted murderer or man acting as an assassin, some the merchant, some the nobles, some my grandfather. It all depended on how they viewed the world and how much of the story they were aware of. Either way, it was a shock to the system and the majority were stunned by the sudden disappearance of thetest addition to the ind not through ident, illness, or injury but through foul y. Their emotions seemed to switch between sadness that debilitated and a wave of anger that drove them to action. But held by the service, they stood in silence as my family stepped up to the coffin. Before they pushed it out onto thegoon they had some final words to say. ¡°To Kai, the song of my heart.¡± My mother spoke quietly but clearly for all to hear, remembering all the times we had sung or hummed together. She ced a little whistle on the raft next to the box. ¡°To Kai, the sailor of our little sea.¡± My father intoned, louder, proud of the progress I had made, yet still clearly sad about my passing. He ced a small sailboat alongside the whistle. ¡°To Kai, my brother a merchant in the making and a tall tale cut short too quick.¡± Aleera said. As she ced a little bag of salt and a toy soldier or doll down with them. I wonder where they got the items from as I had not seen them before, or who they were for . . . Wait a second! . . . Are those my birthday presents? Do we really need to burn my birthday presents? That¡¯s so not fair! . . . My parents stood there watching as my raft was pushed out onto theke it was small and hastily cobbled together rather than the fine and probably false Viking funeral my imagination conjured. Still, the small cloth sail was filled by an errant gust of wind which took it out further onto thegoon. If I had been in the crowd I would have raised an eyebrow suspiciously at my sister, but hidden as I was all I could do was wonder whether my suspicions were correct, rather than watch her face to gain an answer. My Grandfather removed a bow and with a burning arrow lit on fire fired it out onto the little raft. Four arrowster, the box and base packed with kindling were zing away. The crowd murmured, talking quietly as they watched the memory of my mortal remains quickly burn to the waterline before sinking under the water. It was a poignant way to sell the story, making me wonder what had happened to my first body in my old world. Had I been buried or cremated? I couldn¡¯t remember if I had ever written a will or what I had decided to do on my death. It hadn¡¯t been something I had ever really considered. Also, what happened to you here when you died? Would I start another life in another world? No one else here seemed to have done so. I certainly couldn¡¯t bank on it happening again, so holding onto the new life that I miraculously had again was my goal in life. But it also made me wonder about what people believed here. I found it interesting that people can have simr rituals despite living in different times on different worlds. A question for another time, my parents had not talked to me about religion yet but I¡¯m sure there are some. All cultures have some form of faith, either in god, spirits or simply themselves. After the raft had sunk below the waterline, we all made our way to the grandfather¡¯s boat. Today it was just Des, Sinis, and I. Mother, Father and Aleera would follow tomorrow. My family after watching the raft sink set about packing up their house before they nned to move out to the ind. The n was to be on the ind for at least 3 years before returning to the town. One year to allow mother to be pregnant again. One year to allow to pretend that a new baby has been born. Finally one more year to allow the imaginary baby that I am going to pretend to be to be old enough that my 4 years of age could be confused with a child that is supposed to only be 2. That all seems ratherplicated and indeed it is but it will hopefully give us a window of opportunity free from noble interference to consolidate our position and let me grow up a little. ¡°Everybody ready?¡± Grandfather asked after we had climbed aboard. ¡°Good, let¡¯s get going then.¡± Without waiting for an answer from two boys who couldn¡¯t reply or me who was hidden away in a bag now in the bottom of the boat he set sail for the ind. I grinned to myself. My ind. Do you think anyone had mentioned to him that I was now hisndlord? Probably not. . . . I could just imagine the conversation in my head. ¡°Where¡¯s my rent?¡± baby me. ¡°Kai?¡± confused grandfather. ¡°You pay me now!¡± baby scream. ¡°I¡¯m going to go get my bow and arrow, time to practice your dodging skills.¡± Sardonic grandfather. . . . Somehow, I didn¡¯t think it would go as well as the 2-year-oldndlord Pearl I hadughed at all those years ago. . . . As we sailed across the innergoon of Wester Ponente, I was not bothered by the fact that I had been packed away in a bag. I closed my eyes and napped or daydreamed about what was toe next. Chapter 45: Nature, nurture or simply fate Chapter 45: Nature, nurture or simply fate "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." William Shakespeare Kaius POV As I watched the tiny raft float out onto thegoon I couldn¡¯t help but remember the first time I had seen Kai. The day he hade into the world had been a morning much like this one, but my memory started out on thegoon rather than the shoreline. . . . I kicked back, my boots resting on the side of the boat, rxed as I could be I waited for my haul to arrive or the fish to bite. It probably didn¡¯t help my case that I was within sight of the town, the fish still swim by now and then but as for the big ones they would be further out around the other side of the Ash Ind. I did not really want to go too far today or yesterday. I probably would not want to go too far tomorrow either because it could happen any day now. I had started fishing closer to home thisst week the women - my wife, mother, and the old crone - reckoned the due date was any day now. But despite fishing closer to home nothing had happened yet. Maybe I should go further out to see if that triggered the birth. A silly thought but something, anything would be better than waiting any further. Aliyah had enjoyed the majority of her pregnancy once she was past the morning sickness up till thisst week when she had decided that enough was enough it was time for the baby to be born. It wasn¡¯t like it affected me as much as her, I still needed to catch some fish and make some money while waiting for the baby to arrive. But I was on tenterhooks after what had happenedst time. It had not been easy, the first birth. Aliyah, almost too strong for Aleera to break free. The second birth . . . well that was a sorry tale we did not like to talk about at home, a sad tale without a happy ending. It had taken a long time for Aliyah to build up the courage to try again. But eventually, she had and here he sat waiting. If all went well perhaps they would try for another but if not. This could be thest time she tried. I waited. . . . Suddenly I saw it, a fire re-up on the shoreline. I had arranged for them to light a fire just in case. I mean it could be an attack or disaster but hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t be one of those two but a third reason that my wife had finally gone intobour. . . . Aliyah was strong. I was sure should be fine. But I couldn¡¯t help but worry would the baby be? What if something went wrong. I quickly dragged the up not bothering to keep the few feeble fish I had caught and emptied the catch straight back into thegoon rather than spend the time sorting them and keeping the best of them on board. As quick as I could I readied the sail but there was no wind. Barely a breeze blowing and even that was going in the wrong direction anyway. Another reason why I was fishing so close to home. Quickly I put the oars into their oarlocks then dropping the des into the water I pulled as hard as I could the boat suddenly shooting back towards the shore, skimming along the top of the water and picking up speed. I had been sailing for many a year now and had a good rhythm and the callouses as well as the stats for strength and endurance to keep up a blistering pace back to the shoreline. I¡¯d make it in time. I had the skills, deep pull, double scull, lower bast, direct course. Trusting In the strength of my strokes the lightened boat and the skill to navigate without looking I lost myself in the rhythm of pulling the oars sending my boat skipping over the waves towards home, hoping to get there in time. I hoped Aleera was okay. I hoped the baby would be fine. There was not much I could do there. There was not much anyone could do, to be honest. It was all down to Aliyah and her body. The baby, and their body now. All I could do was be there, a witness to the terror and wonder of childbirth. . . . All I could do was be there. . . . I had to be there. . . . I pushed myself harder and harder until finally, I drove the boat out of theke up onto the beach by speed and rowing alone. I jumped out and paused only long enough to drag it up a little further out of the water before I set off sprinting for home. I had never seen the need to practice this skill always nning to sail but had been forced to practice it by my father alongside my brothers. It finally came in useful now. My skill level was not particrly high but every extra second counted. All I could do was get there as quickly as I could. I dashed up through the town people moving out of the way. No one stopped me to ask any questions - they knew I was focused on someone else right now and would not be stopping. I ran breathlessly through the front door. To find the crone and my mother there watching over her as Aliyah ignored mepletely concentrating on her breathing. It was at times like these that I no longer enjoyed living at the edge of the world. We had no healer, medicine man or chirurgeon on our isle or any that I knew of had ever made it out as far as the Western Isles. Now if I had heard of them I would have gone and got them to be here and damn the cost. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I gasped, ¡°Is the baby okay? Are you having contractions?¡± She didn¡¯t answer but I reached her side and held her hand flinching as she clenched my hand tight. Gods, she was a strong woman. A physical reminder of just how strong my wife actually was. I could match her in strength but she was far stronger than most women her age on the ind. Her strength had been one of the things that drew me to her though, that and her magical voice. Any melody she sang to me made me feel truly loved. ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± I settled for a statement instead of all the questions I felt building up inside. ¡°I know.¡± her hands clenched mine once more. . . . ¡°Do you think you¡¯re close?¡± I asked as I finally got my breath back under control. It had been a quick sprint through the town and a frantic scull across thegoon and my stamina was probably quite low but I did not have time to look as I watched my wife¡¯s face with concern. I couldn¡¯t do anything but I wouldn¡¯t miss a moment either. I tried to keep a stoic face as I held her hand waiting for her to tell me how it was going. ¡®Please be okay,¡¯ I desperately thought to myself. ¡°How¡¯s it going darling?¡± ¡°Same as thest time you asked me,¡± she replied when the contractions had passed her by again. She grimaced in pain as another contraction racked her body once more. ¡°It will be okay.¡± I repeatedly reassured talking as much to myself as to her. . . . It was to be a long afternoon. . . . Three hourster the contractions were still going when they suddenly got harder, sharper and fastering closer and closer together as the baby got closer and closer toing out. My hand now bruised from my wife¡¯s grip switched to the other side giving her something else to hold down on as the child once more made a move. ¡°Push down. Breathe. Hold it and push down harder.¡± The old crone just needed to be quiet. Let my wife do her work. It seemed everybody had heard by now my mother had turned up to look after Aleera and help. Aliyah¡¯s mother had apparently died a long time ago either in childbirth or near enough as grandfather never said and refused to talk about it. Aleera and Grandma fetched the water, the sheets and towels, all I did was stand there holding her hand. I needed to be able to do something, anything to take my mind off matters. I needed to stop worrying whether everything would be okay but it was impossible to do. She was strong, she would be okay. But what if the baby was not, the contractions seemed so strong. Finally, the contractions grew closer and closer, a head finally breached but I wasn¡¯t watching just holding her hand wishing her well, telling her she could do it that everything would be fine and everything would be okay as she bore us another child. The strength of this woman. Having held in her screams till now, it was with a final shout for the baby that they were born. ¡°They''re okay?¡± I asked with tears in my eyes, would they both be okay? "He is fine." someone answered me but at the moment I could not have told you who. I was given the small bundle of baby wrapped in a sheet before I presented him to his mother. ¡°Are they okay? Did they make it?¡± Aliyah asked as I handed her our child. ¡°Everything looks fine they¡¯re well.¡± I calmly reassured her now that it was finally over. Aliyah rxed into her bed and held the baby close. There were still a few contractions left to push everything out but the hard part was over and they were both alive. . . . As the raft burned through and sank below the waterline I realised that the hard part wasn¡¯t over after all. I might not have been able to do more than be there at his birth but there was so much more that I could do for him now that he was here. I needed to teach him every skill that I knew. I had to protect him and to do that, I needed to get stronger too. Filled with determination to protect my family I headed home with my wife and daughter to pack up our household to move out to the ind so that I could continue doing that. We would all need to do more, to be more. Chapter 46: Stepping stone Chapter 46: Stepping stone ¡°An obstacle is often a stepping stone.¡± William Prescott As we sailed to the ind, hidden in a bag I looked once more at my stats. The excitement of the fall, climb, and conniving had kept me too busy to contemte them. It had only been two days since my fall and my attempt at bing a super baby. So much had happened in that time, yet at the same time so little. This detour back to the ind might seem like an obstacle to my growth but I viewed it as a stepping stone to my future. I looked at my status surprised by the increase, searching the stats to find the reason why. The increase in vitality could possibly be exined by my body quickly recovering from the damage of the fall. The climb up the endless stairs could exin the increase in Endurance and Strength. Obviously, I had not been particrly dextrous as there was no movement there. Senses possibly levelled from keeping a lookout on my hidden return to home or spying on my own funeral. Which was more important and which had given me the status point I did not know. Mind that had shown such a high start and such quick growth seemed to have stalled for the moment a little perhaps I had reached the ceiling of my former life¡¯s intelligence and any growth I made from now on would be a little harder to earn. It felt strange to see senses as my highest stat when it had been the third to reach the 100 point milestone. But thinking about it, it kind of made sense. It had not started high like Mind or had points dumped into it like Vitality and it had been the area in which I had gained the most skills and levels as well as spent the most time practising them in and out of the womb when sensing the world around me was the only activity I could do unable as I was to interact with it. Next, there was rity. I finally understood how to increase its level, put myself in mortal danger and use all my physical and mental stats and skills at the same time to save my life somehow. I now understood why Grandfather had been such a tyrant but also realised that my mental age and past life experiences had possibly counted against me in helping improve it. I had always realised that what we were going through was some form of training, terrible as it might have been. I had avoided the pain but never felt in fear for my life. Was that what had been missing for it to level and increase my own perception of an imminent demise at the hands of an abusive Grandfather? I would never consider myself a military man but I had done my 4 years-service, mainly to get the army to pay for my degree than for any particr desire to be there, and knew I could put up with pretty much anything for a month at a time. It had been ridiculous but not terrifying. Was it possible to level solely through terror alone? Would a normal child have developed some form of Fear tolerance alongside Pain tolerance? Who knew? But maybe I could level up my rity by throwing myself of some more cliffs. I only had 7 more weeks left before my 1st birthday, 7 skydives might be enough to hit another milestone rity-wise. Magic . . . MAGIC! How amazing was it that I had magic! It was still the coolest stat by far and the one I was the proudest of increasing so much through effort, skill, and luck. It was also the one that had taken the most effort. But it was an effort well worth it. I had great sess I felt so far using the mana within to affect the world without. Stone was next on the list of elements I wanted to try and wrangle. But there had to be some sort of system to how it all worked didn¡¯t there? We really needed an old wizard to teach me the ways of the world but didn¡¯t look like there was one on Wester Ind much to my disappointment. Use the force I would. Bend not only the elements but the energy within myself. Etc etc. Then there was Charisma, a new stat for a new lord. I felt lucky to have started at 7 already and was not yet sure how to start developing it although I had a few ideas. I guessed it was only fair to have one or two new things to work out seeing as I had finally gotten a handle on how to improve my rity. Finally, luck, the lowest of my attributes and I was not particrly keen on having to survive near-death experiences to develop it further but hopefully, there was a way. Also, how much difference did it actually make? If I took a coin and tossed it 100 times would I even notice a difference? Would there be 50 for head and tails? How about 1000? Or 10,000? How many times would I have to do it to actually get a statistically provable set of results to prove it had any impact at all? Having worked my way through my stats I looked at my skills to see if the answer to the jump in experience came there. Some small gains in my listening, acting, lying, eavesdropping, stealth, and echolocation could all be exined by the funeral ceremony. I was surprised to see that Sense Mana had not levelled alongside eavesdrop and echolocation but guessed maybe it must be capped by Meditation staying at Lv 35 as I had barely a minute to think about my situation let alone meditate. There was a surprise with a new skill in Tier 2 called Misdirection and another in Tier 3 called Deception. I guessed it had been a bit of a magic trick and might ount for the increase in Charisma and we had been lucky to pull it off. So far so good. But the big bump in experience did note from those increases and new skills rather it came from a new type of experience Popr Experience. Perhaps this was rted to the public, popce, or simply fame. Working out more would take time and experimentation but it appeared faking your own death and pretending to have a funeral was worthy of some serious experience. Not as much as buying the ind or my title of nobility had been but then again my funeral had been a lot cheaper I doubted the experience was based on the number of coins spent more the number of people convinced and the effect it would have on the town. If I had been older, had a job, and had arger impact on the town would I have been able to leverage more experience out of my death? Still had a long way to go to get to Level 12 though. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 249,750/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 4 days, 11 hours Health: 1150/1150 Stamina: 500/546 Mana: 1160/1160 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 115 Endurance: 26 Strength: 26 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 118 Mind: 116 rity: 59 Magic: 116 Charisma: 10 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 28) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 22) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 22) Singing (Lv 22) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 12) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 5) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 4) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 3300 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Popr experience: 20,000 I was interrupted from my musing as the boat beached on the ind. My ind now! Do you think I could rename it? Ash Ind was so boring, urate but boring. What about Obsidian Isle, Wizard¡¯s Ind, Antis, or Olympus? Too egotistical? As Des or Sinis stood up with me attached I could feel myself being carried ashore. ¡°This way boys.¡± Grandfather pointed after tying up the boat. Des and Sinis silently followed him as he led the way home. We arrived quickly enough and I was finally let out of the bag. Freedom. ¡°Caves?¡± I had been holding that in for so long. Why hadn¡¯t he mentioned themst time? That would have been so cool and exploring them was so much fun. ¡°This way.¡± He answered although I could swear I heard, ¡°You little monster,¡± alongside the words. Although maybe that was just me reading too much into his facial expressions. Opening the locked door in his house he said, ¡°They are safe enough for you to explore a little with Des and Sinis. Don¡¯t go too far or you might get lost.¡± Beyond the door, I could see a tunnel disappearing into the darkness down into the depths of the mountain. ¡°Light?¡± I asked. ¡°Here you go,¡± he said handing a torch to Sinis. ¡°Up?¡± I asked as I turned to Des who, raising an eyebrow, picked me up and we headed on down into the dark. The torch sent flickering shadows along the wall, as we worked our way deeper and deeper. I really needed to work out a way to turn Mana into Light. The Torch was effective in lighting our way making sure we didn¡¯t trip and fall but better lighting would show us so much more. We kept walking, I say we but really it was Des and Sinis doing the walking one carrying the torch and one carrying me until we reached a fork in the tunnel as well as what looked like either an old coldva waterfall which dropped the floor of the cave or one of the original vents ofva which dropped deep into the earth. It was not a chasm but we would not be able to get down without climbing or rope to get back up again. There had not been a lot to see but it was very cool and there was a lot of potential here to build a cool bat cave in my exile. Actually, we hadn¡¯t seen any bats or wildlife at all on our walk but then who knew how far the tunnels went, and obviously, our end of it was blocked off by Grandfather¡¯s house so nothing would be getting in that way. I just needed to work out a way to tten the floors either with magic or chemistry. How did you make cement again, limestone and y, then add the sand and aggregate? Did we have that on the ind somewhere? Probably? Possibly? Maybe? Then get some more light in here and we could have an undergroundplex. Recreate my mind fortress in the real world? I had years left to live to y around provided I did not get knocked off by a noble family or two. First things first though we were going to have to go back home for dinner and I needed to work out what I could do to stone with mana. Hopefully, it would not have such a jump in mana requirements as water had needed to get boil. I seemed to remember some way to use vibrations to cut stone. Could I do that? It would probably be simpler to ask an uncle, but only if they were allowed to know I was alive. Chapter 47: Nothing is set in stone Chapter 47: Nothing is set in stone ¡°Everything changes, even stone.¡± ude M Mother, Father, and Aleera finally arrived on the ind which put an end to my Grandfather''s potentially lethal training. Aleera had spilled the beans about our time on the ind and Aliyah had heard enough about the training from Aleera to put her foot down. ¡°You were to bring him out here to hide him! Not to bury him!¡± she shouted furious with her father. ¡°He could take it.¡± He protested. ¡°Aleera carried him for the most part anyway.¡± He pointed out. ¡°And the knife training?¡± She said raising her eyebrow at him. ¡°Look the de doesn¡¯te out. I wrapped the sheath on it with wire. You can never be too young to pick up a de and if he picks up a skill with it the sooner the better.¡± He demonstrated how the de could note out of the sheath. ¡°Good practice for his fine motor skills being able to hold on to that.¡± ¡°Very well.¡± She relented on her baby holding a sheathed weapon before she delivered the coup d''etat ¡°But cutting a baby!?¡± she practically screamed. ¡°I was attempting to awaken his rity. I did the same with you.¡± He exined. ¡°Yes, but not until I was five!¡± she remonstrated ¡°Why start so early with him?¡± ¡°Because he can take it, my skills are telling me he was not even scared. How was I supposed to awaken his rity if he never felt in danger?¡± he shouted back exasperated. That was a first, had he been using a skill on me the whole time and I hadn¡¯t even noticed. To be fair we had mainly spent those moments focusing on our ability to run away from him. ¡°You don¡¯t actually put him in danger to do it.¡± She crosslymented. ¡°He¡¯s too smart, to fool. The training had to be real to be effective and even then, I doubt that it was.¡± He muttered to himself. ¡°He isn¡¯t yet one. He has time to grow. You didn¡¯t need to start now. Why not wait until he is like five like a normal parent? Starting this early is surely pointless and you will do more harm than good.¡± ¡°Well, he survived his first assassination attempt so it wasn¡¯tpletely pointless.¡± Argued Grandfather. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they were still alive to be assassinated. You haven¡¯t even been feeding them properly! I GAVE YOU MY MILK!¡± She shouted refusing to be cated by him. ¡°What on earth did you do with it if you haven¡¯t been feeding it to Kai.¡± It was clear now that my mother hadn¡¯t expected me to be weaned so soon and had still been expressing milk for me to drink even when I had been on the ind. His mumbled response was lost. As Grandfather knowing he wasn¡¯t going to win any argument, anywhere or anyhow with my Mother stormed out of the room and his house. ¡°Now that we have dealt with that. Let¡¯s get some food into you Kai.¡± She calmly spoke to me now that Grandfather was gone. ¡°Yes, Mama.¡± I hade off the milk a while back but who was I to say no to more nutrients. I worried that since gaining the Long-lived trait I had stopped putting on as much weight as I had been initially. I knew the n was to pretend that I was dead then reintroduce myself at ater date pretending to be a newer younger sibling of Aleera but I had no desire to be 5 years old and still look like I was a 1 year old due tock of nutrients. I needed to eat as much as I could to support my growth particrly after ourst time on the ind. After feeding Mother set about putting the house to rights. Grandfather kept it fairly clean but Mother had made it spotless. Father and Aleera had been set about sorting everything out. Then once it was tidy and everything was squared away they had been sent out on theke to fish for dinner. They didn¡¯t have me this time so I wasn¡¯t sure how quickly they would be returning or with how much fish. She had moved part of her work out here and was spinning thread again. The rest of her loom would be collected tomorrow. So, I was left to y. y!?! I hadn¡¯t been allowed to y in . . . well I forgot. Not that I minded and not that I was going to y anyway. Stone, and what I could do with it, would be what I was working on next. I had grabbed a few stones from the cave and the shore and was seeing what I could do with them. Ignite had no impact. Boil made no impression Freeze allowed me to chip off a small fragment but that was not manipting the stone as identally freezing a small pocket of water within the rock caused a part to pop off much to my surprise and then disappointment when I worked out what I had done. I didn¡¯t even bother with gale as all that would do would blow up the dust in the house. The fantastic thing about everyone knowing about my magic meant that I didn¡¯t have to hide it from them any longer. I could y around with it to my heart''s content and my Mother would just sit there happing watching. Happily spinning. I focused my eyes stretching out my mana sense. She was using magic in her spinning. Then when she appeared to have misced her scissors she gave a short whistle and her magic cut quickly and cleanly through the thread she was working on. What was that? ¡°Mama! How!¡± I pointed at the thread she had just severed with a whistle. Could I do that somehow? Could I do that with stone? ¡°Ah you were watching?¡± she smiled demurely. Perhaps if I¡¯m being honest it was more a smug smile. I guess she was enjoying being out of sight on the ind as well. ¡°Did Grandfather not show you? Hmm, guess not. He did seem rather focused on rity, didn¡¯t he? Well, this is simple enough to do. But you need to be careful, Kai. Can you do that?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes, I can.¡± I quickly replied hopeful that she would not realize that giving me a way to cut things was probably just as dangerous for a child of my age as giving them a knife. ¡°Very well, watch closely.¡± She held up a thread of string. Then with a sharp little whistle magically sliced through it. That did not exin much. I tilted my head in confusion. ¡°What you need to do is infuse the sound with your mana then push it out towards the object along with the sound. Let the whistle carry the mana to your target then hold the mana thin and hard when it hits it. At least that is the way I do it. I¡¯m sure you will work out your way in time.¡± She said smiling at me. Eager to practice I held up a piece of string and went to whistle. The whistle came out, the mana was expelled but the sound did not carry it along. An amorphous blob of mana drifted off from my body but I was unable to channel it along with the sound. Mother who had been watching, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it now. It wille with practice. Why not try just filling the sound with mana before aiming for an effect.¡± She demonstrated once more humming a little tune which although filled with mana did not attempt to affect the world around us. But when looking at with Mana sense you could see a structure to the mana that wasn¡¯t there before as it flowed along with the music. Humming I joined in with the familiar tune, slowly releasing mana at the same time and attempting to copy my mother. Gradually, over the morning my mana fell in line with my music following the melody as it rose and fell in pitch as well as swelling and waning with each crescendo and diminuendo. I hadn¡¯t achieved what I had hoped to but my mother was impressed with my progress. ¡°Well done, that¡¯s fantastic progress.¡± She said. ¡°The rest wille in time.¡± While we had whiled away the morning singing, humming, and whistling, Father and Aleera had been out on thegoon and caught our lunch, dinner and, breakfast. Which reminded me of my idea. We certainly had a lot of fish straight from the sea so to speak but much of our food came from the market. Wouldn¡¯t it be wonderful if we could grow some of our own out here on my ind? Turning out my pockets I pulled out all the seeds I had collected from the merchant¡¯s table. ¡°Mama, can I grow?¡± I asked holding up the handfuls or random seeds. I had no idea which one was which but it would be exciting to find out. ¡°Where did you get all of those Kai?¡± confused by my assorted collection of seeds from around thepass kingdoms. ¡°Lunch with Merchant,¡± I replied. Even though it would be wonderful to surprise her with my freshly grown fruit and veg I was going to need some help. First off, I needed to get some better soil out here. Second, I would need to find a spot. Third, I would need permission and time outside of the cave to do it. Unless I could build my own underground hydroponics bay which did not seem particrly likely. ¡°Yes, I suppose you can try to grow them here along the window to start with although where they will go as they get bigger you will have to work out for yourself.¡± She seemed amused by my attempt at horticulture. ¡°I¡¯m sure Aleera can pick up some pots and soil to get you started next time she is a town.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled, happy to be listened to, happy to have my thoughts taken on board. So much had been decided for me and although I understood it sometimes it grated a little to have to wait on others for permission or help, to actually make any progress outside of myself, my skills, and my inner sanctum. Lunch was a fun affair. Our first time eating altogether for lunch without the stresses and strains of deciding what to do. Now that the decision had been made, we were just going to get on with it. Grandfather had not returned yet as Kaius and Aleera had said that they had seen him sailing to town on his own. The only difference other than our location to our old lunchtime meals was Des and Sinis sitting at the table with us. They hadn¡¯t been given anything particr to do this morning so had wandered off to the shoreline and walked along exploring their surroundings again ording to Kaius and Aleera who had seen them from the sailboat. We all enjoyed the family time before feeling a little down about having to hide away on the ind for the foreseeable future. Mother maybe picked up on the mood of the two of us as she started up the conversation again. ¡°Well how do you feel about exploring the caves a little after lunch?¡± she asked to pick us up. ¡°I can show you all my favorite spots.¡± It was a family affair that headed into the mountain that afternoon, Mother leading the way with Aleera, followed by Father carrying me. Des and Sinis seemed happy to stay outside on the shoreline messing around. The brothers were probably happy just to be without being told what to do. Not that we could actually tell them what to do yet only show them. I needed to get to work on learning the Libian dialect of Buss. Some words would follow through much like loan words in English but it seemed that the majority of them were different. We followed mother along what appeared to be ava tube to the drop-off where Des, Sinis, and I had stopped before. Fairly boring walk although it had plenty of space to develop. When we arrived mother showed Aleera some handholds that had been carved into the side of the old coldva waterfall which we had missed when we first came here. ¡°This way down.¡± She said as she showed Aleera and Kaius the handholds down. Father put me onto his back before making his way down. At the bottom from this angle, we could see an exit we had been unable to from the top. Leading us through a small entrance the tunnel gradually grew wider until just before we came to a corner we could hear the gentle sounds of wavespping up against stone walls. ¡°This is my favorite way on and off the ind.¡± She said showing us a brilliant blueke that filled the cave till it exited in a tiny white circle at the edge of the ind. ¡°This is amazing!¡± Aleera eximed. ¡°Why did you never show me this before?¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy where I am. I don¡¯t like toe back here too often and whenever we have it has only been to check on you or Grandfather.¡± She said. ¡°Besides don¡¯t you want to find your own secret ces rather than have them shown to you?¡± she asked. Kaius though was looking at the water and the cave with different eyes. ¡°Kai can continue to learn how to swim in here. We won¡¯t be able to get my sailboat in here but I¡¯m sure we could make a little one to practice within here. Aleera could practice using her spell to blow him around.¡± Father as always was focused on how to improve my swimming and sailing abilities. Aleera though was looking at the salt. "No need to stop producing salt either, Kai., she said pointedly. I was thinking we would have to review the margins on that. It was my mana making it. All she did was sell it for me which I could get Des and Sinis to do for considerably less and still feel it ethically eptable. "This isn''t all there is down here. You two will have a fun time exploring it over the next year or so." Mother exined, putting a positive spin on everything that had happened. "Lots of different stones to discover and maybe if you practice really hard you will be able to shape it too." She hummed as she ran her hand along the stone wall leaving a smooth stretch of stone behind where her hand had passed. We all stared at her in astonishment. "We all have our little secrets." sheughed before leading us back to our new home. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 249,750/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 0 weeks, 4 days, 11 hours Health: 1150/1150 Stamina: 500/546 Mana: 1160/1160 Psi: 1160/1160 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 115 Endurance: 26 Strength: 26 Dexterity: 29 Senses: 118 Mind: 116 rity: 59 Magic: 116 Charisma: 10 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 28) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 23) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 23) Singing (Lv 23) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20), Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 12) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 31) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 15) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 5) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 4) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 300 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Popr experience: 0 Chapter 48: Time reveals all Chapter 48: Time reveals all ¡°There are no secrets that time does not reveal.¡± Jean Racine ¡°We all have our own little secrets.¡± My mother¡¯s words echoed in my mind. I certainly do and I guess some have more than others. But it made me wonder what other secrets the rest of my family might be hiding from me. Were they even hiding them at all though? I was so young and they were so old inparison. Everyone can umte a lot of different secrets over time even if they were never secrets to start off with. Merely facts of life that they had yet to mention. But it made me wonder what else people weren¡¯t talking about. I still had so much to learn. Mother had never mentioned the caves. Grandfather had never mentioned the caves. Did it count as them keeping secrets? Or simply failing to tell us something we would find interesting. What more could she do? What more could everybody do? It seemed almost taboo to speak about stats and skills at least the specific stats and skills of individuals. But I really wanted to know. What they were and who had what? Probably the easiest person to ask would be Aleera but she would probably also be the most suspicious. Maybe if I got Des and Sinis to speak Buss then I could order them to tell me theirs, but that seemed a bit of a selfish move and taking advantage of the weird power dynamic between us. Off the ind, they would be my ves. On the ind very did not exist. It was weird and I tried not to think about it too much. ¡°Aleera, Aleera, what level are you?¡± I whispered to her one night. Whether it was worth whispering to her I didn¡¯t know. I had realised that if I could hear everything that was happening in and around the house then maybe they could too. Who knew what their senses stat might be at. ¡°Kai, don¡¯t ask me that. It¡¯s incredibly rude.¡± She whispered back. ¡°Why?¡± I mean I didn¡¯t want to tell anyone my stats but then I thought I was probably a little weird with my stats and still paranoid about telling anyone them despite my family''s unbelievable eptance of me, my magic, and my survival. ¡°You will know when you get your stats. They are very ¡­¡± she paused, ¡°Private. If you knew yours would you tell me?¡± she asked. ¡°Maybe,¡± I whispered back. Still unsure if I would or not. Would I really tell her mine if she told me hers? I wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°What can you tell me?¡± I kept whispering my questions. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± she sighed. ¡°When did you get your system? What was it like? What happens next?¡± I was trying to be as vague as possible in asking so as not to arouse suspicion that I already had ess and was trying to get a basis forparison. Grandfather¡¯s speech back at the house had been all very interesting but I was hoping for a little more detail and specifics. I was finally getting a better handle on the vocabry of Buss and its syntax. My baby-style talk was not simply a part of acting younger than I was mentally although fairly sure that the cat was out of the bag that I was not normal after a month or two of revtions. It had also been part of learning thenguage which I was still inordinately proud that I had managed to do so quickly. It hadn¡¯t been easy without a dictionary to reference or a teacher to trante for me. I wondered if it was partly due to the fact that a baby''s brain is inordinately fantastic at building connections and learning from all the new stimuli it is exposed to. Or maybe it was the result of the high mind stat that I had managed to develop. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know as much as mother and father. And I definitely don¡¯t know nearly as much as Grandfather. Why don¡¯t you ask them?¡± She attempted to deflect probably keener to go to sleep than actively avoiding my questions. ¡°It is nice to know how big and strong my big sister is.¡± I ttered in the hopes of eliciting an answer. ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell you my level or my specific stats. History is filled with stories of what happens to those who are too honest. Even if they were only honest to the ones they love.¡± She reproached. ¡°What stories?¡± no one had mentioned them within my hearing was it another secret or simply a story I had not had time yet to hear. Growing up I had always been told that if I didn¡¯t behave my inheritance would be given to the cat''s home. It was not until I was a lot older that I discovered this family saying was based on the real-life actions of my great grandmother. Who has thought? Was this a secret story or simply a story I was yet to hear? ¡°Look if you promise to go to sleep afterward I will tell you are a story about why it is less than wise to verbalise your stats.¡± Shepromised. ¡°Ok,¡± I said. ¡°This is the story of the lion and the mouse.¡± She started. ¡°Oh, I know this one. Is this the story where the Lion lets the mouse go and then the mouse helps the lion?¡± I ask. ¡°What a strange story, no not quite.¡± She answered. ¡°Once upon a time a Lion was sleeping alone in the jungle when a mouse came rushing past. In his fright and flight, he identally ran across the mighty lion and awoke him from his slumber. Despite his attempt to flee he was caught quick and held fast by the strong and might lion. Please don¡¯t eat me great and mighty lion the mouse pleaded I can help you one day he dered. But the mighty lion justughed andughed. You¡¯ll taste good as a mid-morning snack he chuckled as he lifted the mouse to his lips. Oh, great and mighty lion then at least tell me your stats so I might know by what a great and mighty Lion it is that is eating me, the mouse begged with hisst words. The lion proudly told the mouse of his hundred stats in strength. The mouse ttered him about his strength and asked him to reveal more of his greatness and proud of his abilities the Lion went on to tell the rest of them. He went on to tell all who could hear his strengths and fro those listening carefully his weaknesses.¡± ¡°Did the mouse escape? Did he have a high dexterity?¡± I asked intrigued by how the mouse was going to escape the lion. ¡°Not quite, the mouse pointed out that although he had very no strength stat to speak of he had a very strong mind, and the one day if the Lion let him go then he might be able to repay the favour somehow. Finally convinced the Lion let the little mouse go on the condition that one day he would repay the favour. It was just as the Lion was letting the mouse go that a hawk who had been listening in the whole time blessed as he was with 100 senses and 100 dexterity swept in and ate the pardoned mouse.¡± I sat there in shock, ¡°That¡¯s not how the story goes.¡± Iined. ¡°Yes, it is.¡± She calmly replied. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not a very good story,¡± Iined frustrated by this world¡¯s twisting of what I had thought would be a fable simr to Aesop¡¯s. ¡°It is not supposed to be a nice story, it¡¯s supposed to point out the dangers of telling your stats out loud. You never know who is listening and who is going to gobble you up. Go to sleep Kai!¡± she said rolling back over to go to sleep. Left with my thoughts Iy sulking in silence. Chapter 49: One story at a time Chapter 49: One story at a time ¡°Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.¡± Leo Buscaglia It might be uncharted territory but sometimes you just needed to wake your sister up to find out another story and I wasn¡¯t in the mood to wait another moment for it. ¡° . . . . zzzzzzzzzzzz!¡± Aleera pretended to fall asleep. ¡®You¡¯ll see when you get your stats.¡¯ What did she mean? Was she just trying to sound worldly and older than she was or had I missed out on something? Who knew? ¡°What they look like?¡± I quizzed and poking her, not falling for her poor pretend effort at feigning sleep. I had managed to get a better hold on my super senses now able to filter out overwhelming stimuli and focus on something in particr. In this case, it was my sister and how she was or rather wasn¡¯t sleeping. At least not yet, as her fake slow breathing gradually quickened up a little as she stopped pretending that she was asleep. My syntax was gradually improving as I learnt more of thenguage and let a little more of who I really wase through. I had my family, we were hiding out here on Ash Ind and I was beginning to realise that they would move heaven and earth to keep us safe. Taking a big sigh and resigned to the fact that I wasn¡¯t going to let go back to sleep without answering a few more of my questions. ¡°Mine looked like a string of pearls, same as mother¡¯s and father¡¯s stats do. They would tell you all of this if you asked them.¡± ¡°Pearls?¡± Mine didn¡¯t look like that. Had ying the odd video game or being aware of what a Dungeons and Dragons character sheet looked like affected how my stats looked to me even if I had never been a keen yer of either games? ¡°Yes, lines of Pearls for each stat. My stats for vitality were red pearls, my stats for strength were represented with orange, my endurance was yellow pearls, my dexterity was green pearls, while my senses appeared as blue and my mind as purple. Unlike some little monsters I know I hadn¡¯t learned how to read yet so they didn¡¯te withbels back then only a sense of what each stat did.¡± So everyone¡¯s stats looked different to themselves I guess that would make sense if there were illiterate people in the world how would they be able to read or understand them otherwise. Kind of made creating a false status redundant even if they could actually see mine as they wouldn¡¯t actually understand it as it was written in English! Suppose I would have to make my false status written in Buss, unless the system somehow tranted it for them, where was the rule book when you needed it. This life was no different from my first there was no rule book there either and as game-like as this life seemed to be sometimes there didn¡¯t seem to be a rule book here either. ¡°When did you get them? Will I get them soon then?¡± I asked convinced that maybe I probably shouldn¡¯t actually be able to see them yet. I knew I must be ahead of the curve with some of my stats but by how much I didn¡¯t know. ¡°Sometime between age 4 and five, closer to four than 5, so earlier than most. I can¡¯t quite remember but I am sure that mother and father could tell you how old I was. We had a nice little party to celebrate my statsing in.¡± she went on to describe a little party that the family and extended family had held for her. Did this mean I was 4 or 5 years ahead of the curve in terms of stats and skills? I had already been disabused of my super baby status after meeting with the merchant and realising that nobility could buy their way to the top of the pile through literally buying experience through one form or another for their children so doubted that my level would ever be higher than a child with the full backing of their noble house behind them. They might not start with as many stats as I may have had but each level they get bought for them woulde with the extra points that they could allocate to their stats. It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine that the princes and princesses of thepass kingdom would start their lives with a possibly obscene amount of stats the majority of the poption would never have ess to. ¡°How many stats did you have then?¡± I quizzed wondering if I could get her to tell me more. She was being a little more talkative than usual perhaps the fact that we were back here for an indeterminate amount of time once again was weighing on her and her talking partners were limited to her family once more. ¡°I¡¯m not telling you how many stats I have or points I have to allocate.¡± She raised an eyebrow at me. In the dark, I don¡¯t know why she thought that would be effective but even in the low light, I could see her well enough to get the message. ¡°No, I mean how many did you start off with. You know when you were four or five. How many will I start off when I¡¯m 4 or 5?¡± I backpedalled hoping to gain a base forparison. ¡°Well, you¡¯re a little monster so I have no idea how much you will start with but I started with 10. Which is a fair amount and I was earlier to unlock than most plus I had gained enough experience to unlock somewhere above level 5!¡± She said proud of her achievements and seemed to have forgotten that she wasn¡¯t going to tell me her levels and stats. Although I guess they would have changed in thest 4 years that she had been alive. ¡°10 of what? Which stat? Were the points spread?¡± Finally getting some information I was keen to keep soaking up as much as I could. ¡°10 of everything.¡± She shrugged smiling. ¡°What?¡± I frowned confused. When my status had appeared I had 0 in most things except mind. How could you start with such a higher base? But thinking on it 6 months after gaining consciousness I had entered the world with the majority of my stats starting around 10 with the exceptions of the ones I had been able to work on in the womb, senses, mind and magic. rity had improved too so making it to term was clearly more dangerous than I had thought it had been. ¡°10 vitality, 10 endurance, 10 strength, 10 dexterity, 10 senses and 10 mind and 10 magic. I hadn¡¯t had the pleasure of my rity being unlocked yet. That happened the next month after staying with Grandfather.¡± She frowned in turn probably remembering an equally unpleasant experience with him. ¡°10 of everything? Does everyone start with 10? What if I get 100 strength will I be stronger than you?¡± 10 didn¡¯t seem as much as she was making it out to be and I had over twice that now in my physical stats let alone my mental stats and the more eclectic stats I had managed to unlock. ¡°Ha, no. You are still a baby you are limited by your vessel, your body. An ant might have a strength of 100 and be able to lift 20 times its own size but it¡¯s still only an ant. It would still get squashed under our feet even if it had a 100 in vitality and 100 in endurance. There is only so much stats can do. Just like we would get squashed if we me some of the beasts out there. Even if you had 100 in all your stats Kai your still going to be my little brother. I¡¯m going to be stronger than you for a lot longer yet. Although you are freakishly smart and a monster for having unlocked your magic somehow.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said disappointed to hear that physics limited stats although perhaps relieved that the ants wouldn¡¯t be able to take their revenge one day unless oversized ants were living somewhere, which seeing as this whole world seemed to be a mix of myth and fantasy that might not be as far removed from reality as I might be hoping. I guessed it made sense. I might be super strong . . . for a baby and although I thought I had managed to run my older sister ragged keeping up with me it might have been more about my stamina and attempts to escape than my strength and speed. Also, her exhaustion was probably more caused by her attempts to keep me safe from myself than any physical challenge I posed to her. I guess I was still a baby and it would take time to grow into my stats. But I wasn¡¯tpletely convinced on this. I was able to outperform any baby I had ever heard of and as I turned into a toddler I felt it wouldn¡¯t be long before I was giving her a run for her money. My insane vitality stat that I had had from the moment I was born had given me a crazy amount of stamina throughout my earliest development allowing me to stay mentally awake for far longer than would be normal even if I had looked asleep to everyone else. There had toe a point when stats overpowered the limits of my ¡®vessel¡¯. But so far it was my mental stats along with my ess to magic that allowed me to achieve the unbelievable. It would be a while before my physical stats caught up if ever. They should probably be where I invested my points when I was finally, one day, able to allocate them. ¡°Well if you awaken your Stats before five yes most people start at 10 or around there. Although if you ess themter than five then maybe you will awaken with slightly different levels of stats.¡± She exined. ¡°But most people awaken their stats around five and everybody does before 10 when you are finally able to allocate your free points.¡± ¡°How many points do you have?¡± I raise an eyebrow even though she can¡¯t see it and not expecting an answer, nothing ventured nothing gained. ¡°Secret.¡± She purses her lips not pleased at my continuing questioning. ¡°What level are you?¡± I asked raising both eyebrows and biting my own lips. ¡°That¡¯s the same question stupid, and still secret!¡± she answered. ¡°Does everybody start around level one to five?¡± I consider the different awakenings other people seem to have had. However, to most babies, toddlers and children how useful would a stat screen be other than as a system given baby crib mobile to distract them with coloured pearls? ¡°Nobody says explicitly but it gets harder and harder to level up so I doubt that anyone can awaken to their stats any higher than level 10 in the first 5 to 10 years of their lives. Although there are tales of heroes and kings who must have had unbelievably strong stats and start in life to achieve half of what they are rumoured to have achieved in their rises to fame during their youth.¡± Well, I was definitely ahead of the curve but did I want to be a hero or king. Not really. They both sounded incredibly dangerous and or taxing to do. I just wanted to be strong, safe and secure. Then once that was achieved independence and explore the world on my own terms. But family seemed to have different expectations of me depending on which family member you listened to. Sister was happy with me making her money through selling my magic made salt, but I didn¡¯t want to spend my whole life simply making money besides she would soon saturate the local market if we kept going on. Father clearly wanted me to follow in his footsteps or rather his wake sailing around theke, but again while there was clearly a lot more to explore on the cratergoon and I certainly loved sailing it was not the sole thing I wanted to do with my life. Mother was happy hearing me hum so singing was definitely an option with her, but how sessful would any singer be here in a world without the radio, tv or inte. Most musicians made their money by selling their songs. Did recording and ying devices even exist here in a world that seemed medieval at best? Finally, there was magic, bing a mage was a dream of mine however without a school or a teacher how much would I actually be able to learn and any hope of entering society looking for them ording to my family at least was like painting a target on your back. Still perhaps as a noble, there might be a way to do it a little more safely. Not that being a noble had proven particrly safe so far. Something to think about certainly. ¡°Right I¡¯m tired and I¡¯m not answering anymore of your questions Kai.¡± She said. ¡°Time to go to bed.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m not tired.¡± I jokinglyined. ¡°Night Kai.¡± She pointedly ended the conversation Left to my own devices and bored without the inte to keep me entertained I dove into my head to continue with my work in my mind fortress world-building details to my home away from home and practising the odd skill each one taking longer and longer to level up without real-world experience to help them grow. "Night Aleera," I whispered as she fell asleep and I fell into my own head. Chapter 50: Positive Catalyst Chapter 50: Positive Catalyst ¡°The home is the greenhouse in which baby humans are nurtured until they are strong enough to withstand the elements outside.¡± Rick Boyer Ever since the anger, over our treatment, had erupted from mother when she arrived on the ind and the dressing down grandfather had received he avoided the home. Almost understandably he would returnte from wherever it is he went during the day. Returning only to change clothes and pick up food rather than actual sleep. I didn¡¯t know if at higher levels you even needed a house to sleep in, but he didn¡¯t seem to be doing his sleeping here so I wondered where he was doing it. The weather was getting colder but if your endurance and vitality were high enough would it actually difference whether you were sleeping inside or outside? I did not have any passives, titles or skills to support sleeping outside but that didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any. It was not hard to imagine how dwarves with their durability and giants with their strength would have enough stamina to sleep in the snow. Waking up with only a few missing points on it rather than frostbite or not waking up at all. Not that there was any snow or much chance of it, to be honest, but with wintering I was going to be missing out on St Nick and all the festivities that came with it. I wondered if they had something simr, a winter solstice or a harvest festival to keep the winter nights at bay. It was bad enough that my presents had gone up in mes but I hadn¡¯t heard anything yet and with our once again enforced istion on the ind I certainly wouldn¡¯t be going to any parties any time soon. Maybe I could make my own here. Although the party food would be restricted to . . . fish and the drinks to . . . water. With how cross mother had been I was surprised that Grandfather even came back at all. But he continued to check in with us as a family if only for a minute or two every day all he received from her was a continuing simmering, bubbling and sometimes exploding level of anger that she didn¡¯t seem to have given up on. Seemingly reassured by our continued health and growing resources that we were fishing, farming or building up here on the ind. Personally, if I was in as much trouble as him I would have stayed elsewhere even if it meant building it afresh. But maybe he had other cave homes or a lean to in the woods somewhere on the maind. Either way, I was particrly surprised to find he was going to look after me today. Even more surprised that my mother was letting him. ¡°Just thought I¡¯d take him up to see the top of the ind. It is, after all, his now.¡± He had exined this morning. ¡°I¡¯ve noticed the nts that you¡¯re trying to grow here.¡± He pointed out the seedlings sprouting along the window sill. They had sprouted a lot quicker than I had thought they would and the plugs would need repotting soon at this rate. I had carefully made sure to keep watering them daily but only ever giving them a tiny amount of water at a time. ¡°There is a ce up at the top of the ind that might be a good ce for some of them to grow.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°It gets light most of the day being higher up and out of the shade of the ind as well as sheltered from the elements.¡± Sounded like a good ce to be nting the seedlings. Although I was nervous about leaving the home without either another family member or Des or Sinis. All three of them had gone with father to sell some of the salt I had been making. Well, I evaporated the water, Des and Sinis collected and carried the salt while Aleera sold it in town having convinced Father to sail them all across to the market. They were limiting themselves to only selling half of what we were making in an attempt to notpletely flood the market with salt to the point that it started to lower its price. So I would be alone with Grandfather if mother allowed him to . . . ¡°I expect him back in the same condition as he is right now.¡± Mother pointedly responded before permitting him to take me off her hands. Personally, I didn¡¯t, feel like I was much of a botherpared to most babies. But I suppose the fact that I was ying with the building blocks of magic instead of wooden ones meant that she kept a rather closer eye on me than maybe she would with a more normal baby and what I was doing was probably as equally as stressful for her as maybe watching to make sure your baby didn¡¯t crawl up or rather off anything high enough to hurt themselves. ¡°We¡¯ll be back this afternoon, I¡¯ve packed us a lunch to eat at the top, although if you have any milk in a bottle to take up with us I will make sure he gets it.¡± He seemed to be trying to make up for his earlier treatment of us. What I didn¡¯t understand was why it seemed to be working. ¡°Take care, both of you.¡± Mother said as she passed him a small bottle of milk she must have collected at some point. Now that we were all back together again I was still getting my mothers milk either from herself or from Father in a bottle. This must have been one of those. I suppose family forgives one another even maybe when they have gone beyond what should have been eptable or forgivable. I was packed up in the rucksack again to be carried although I had a little p I could look out from underneath. Grandfather didn¡¯t run up the side of the mountain but it hardly took very long for him to make his way up to the top. Maybe some skills were being used maybe not it was hard to tell from within the bag although it would certainly have taken me or even Aleera significantly longer to have made it up to the top. There I discovered we had another little volcanic crater at the top of the ind. When we arrived at the top, I was greeted by the hidden sight of a small crater hidden at the top of the mountain. There was very little soil up here but some nts had managed to make their way up to the top and seemed to be growing some seemed to be thriving within it. I wondered how much soil and water we would have to cart up if I was to make my dreams of gardening here a reality. A caldera, on the top of a mountain, forming an ind, within agoon, in the middle of a caldera, at the center of an ind, somewhere deep into the Western Sea. Made you wonder if the sea was in an even bigger crater or ring of earth. But apparently, it wasn¡¯t the Compass Kingdoms that were on the only known continent to our East and formed the center of the known universe. Ostentatiously, grandfather was here to show me where I could grow my nts now that they had begun to outgrow the windowsill. However, it was a little colder than it had been and it would probably be best to nt them when it started to warm up again. That being said though, the crater appears to be incredibly sheltered from both the oceanic winds and out of sight of the town and the ridgeline. Looking down into the crater I could imagine how I could slowly terrace it to support growing a variety of nts that I was growing the seeds for. Again, out of sight of the residents of Wester Isles. The main problem would be getting enough water up here to support the growth of what I hoped to achieve. But if I could somehow create a tunnel up here for all the steam I was generating producing salt it was not entirely impossible. Improbable, certainly, and a lot of hard work but not impossible to do. My own little water cycle. Till then though I would have to get Des, Sinis, or a family member to haul up enough water for my little nts. Still, I could dream of building my own ¡®initiation well¡¯ like the one in Sintra, Portugal to funnel water up from below but first I would have to dig, cut or tunnel a hole to support the nts. It would probably be simpler to distil the water when making the salt and then pump it up somehow. But where would the fun be in that? Although barring some magical fix that was looking like the easiest solution to get the water up here. A series of pools up the side of the mountain to pump up from one to the other once I have desalinated it from theke. With enough water, I would be able to create a veritable cornucopia of produce on this ind much like Aogashima. Lost in my daydreams, I walked around the inside of the crater hidden from sight I imagined bond viin¡¯sirs, fantasy citadels, ancient ssical ruins with magic wasn¡¯t anything possible. Startled from my daydreams I jumped as my Grandfather lifted me to look at him. ¡°You are not normal, are you?¡± pondering as he held me up to contemte. I realised that I had spent thest hour walking around the inside of the caldera pausing to imagine how things would or could be. ¡°Mama, says I¡¯m special.¡±, responded as simply as I could. Cautious about where this conversation was going. ¡°Yes, special. That¡¯s one way of putting it. But there aremon babies, there are noble babies, there are babies of different species, elves, giants, dwarves, beastkin, gnomes etc and then there¡¯s you.¡± He said sitting down as he put me down on the ground in front of him. ¡°I might not be able to see stats and in theory yo,u shouldn¡¯t have grown into them yet. But I have skills that can help me to get a sense of how strong my enemies are as well has to help me know how hard I can push students in order to train them better. Aleera and your mother are nearly noble so awakening magic although early was not a surprise. rity cane with training and Charisma can be and has been bought. But while physically immature your training here has hardly evere close to hurting your health, mana or stamina. As I said I can¡¯t see them but I can get a sense for your resources and either you have farrger resources avable to you than most 5 or even 10-year-olds have or you have developed skills that allow you to avoid using them at all. It simply doesn¡¯t make sense, Kai.¡± He paused biting his thumb as well as his tongue while he stared at me as if he could somehow draw out the secrets hidden within me. ¡°Did you Kai that you had an older brother?¡± he took the conversation in a different direction. ¡°No, just Aleera,¡± I replied confused with where this was going. ¡°Yes, well your mother has put her stats into her mental abilities, magic, mind, senses, then secondly vitality, dexterity,stly strength and endurance. You were very lucky to have been born alive Kai. When too many stats are put into strength and endurance the baby simply doesn¡¯t survive. Oftentimes noble children are cut not born from their mother''s wombs. On the Compass Continent, within a noble family, they will have the healers, medicine to support this but out here we don¡¯t. I warned her that her physical stats were creeping up too high but Kaius wanted a son and so she tried to give him one. Your older brother didn¡¯t survive the birth. You were lucky to. Even at birth, you were more robust than you had any right to be.¡± Silent I digest this little bit of family history I was unaware of. It had been a challenging birth but I hadn¡¯t realised that my levels and blossoming stats had been the only reason I had survived it. ¡°And now . . . now have you noticed? Your mother and father don¡¯t seem to have done but I have. You are growing too slow, yet you are too smart, moreover, you see and hear far too much. It is as if you are half-elf, half-gnome and half-beastkin all at the same time even though I know you are not.¡± Still silent I am unsure how to respond. Although this all seems rhetorical as he continues his thoughts out loud. ¡°I pushed because I could tell you weren¡¯t close to breaking or even having a tantrum too calm by far, too thoughtful, too aware. Aleera she notices and as much as she calls you a monster, again I know you are not one, or at least no more than any man can be.¡± He rambled on. ¡°Did you know that Aleera has gained twice as many levels in thest 14 months ying with you than she has in thebined 14 months worth of training she has had with me over her lifetime?¡± he asked unexpecting an answer. ¡°Did you know that your mother who while she has always been musical had reached a teau in her levelling skills suddenly halfway through your gestation was able to level, humming, whistling and singing, as well as her magical skills of sense mana and mana maniption?¡± he added to his argument ¡°Did you know that your father who has probably spent the least time with you has been able to gain a level or two in swimming despite his failure to drown you while teaching you how to swim?¡± clearly not a fan of my father. ¡°Even I have managed to gain a level in a multitude of skills I had stopped levelling a long time ago, climbing, knife skills, stealth, quick reflexes. One might have been happenstance, twice a coincidence, but three and even four times that is a pattern." he paused. "You, Kai, are a Catalyst.¡± Chapter 51: New heights Chapter 51: New heights ¡°Catalyst, a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change, or a person or thing that precipitates an event.¡± Oxford Languages Maybe, I would be both, something that increased people''s rate of growth as well as someone who precipitated change. ¡°What¡¯s a catalyst?¡± I could make an educated guess but wanted my suspicions confirmed. ¡°A catalyst? Well, they are rumoured to be people who enable the growth of others, either through helping improve their skills, stats or levels. No one knows for sure the why or the how of it exactly. Whether it is because they go on to achieve great things and the system recognises any input into their growth as having a greater effect on the world or simply their presence enables others to seed. Experience can be weighted differently sometimes and life isn¡¯t always fair. Anyway, they are very few and very far in between.¡± He exined in more detail than he had ever before. ¡°What does this mean for me?¡± surprised by his unusually verbose reply. Was this going to make a difference to our n to stay hidden away? All his time away from the family repelled by the level of anger my mother had levelled at him had possibly, maybe, made him reconsider a few things. But then again maybe not. ¡°Only that you will be more than just special one day.¡± He sighed almost despondent about the fact. ¡°It is said that the founders of the eight majorpass kingdoms were catalysts. Ponente, Maestro, Tramontana, Greco, Levante, Sciro, Ostro and Libio were all built on the skills, stats and levels of their kings. At least you don¡¯t seem to have developed an elemental talent, yet.¡± He added sardonically. ¡°Although maybe they didn¡¯t gain theirs until they were older. Who knows it is lost in the annals of history,¡± he added as he rubbed his forehead. ¡°What¡¯s an elemental talent?¡± I quizzed that sounded exciting would be cool to be a catalyst if I could get one of those. I imagined myself controlling the four elements. So far I had managed to shape them to an extent, change them for a purpose but so far it had seemed to be along the basis of a force or energy applied or removed from a system supplied by my mana. The thermodynamics or mechanics of mana so to speak. My rudimentary understanding of these subjects seemed to have been helping me gain skills or improve them based on applications of Newton''sws about how energy and force functioned. However controlling an element by thought alone would surely be far easier, efficient and effective. ¡°Separate from skills and the magic you can create with your mana the Royal families of each Kingdom all have an elemental talent that flows in their bloodline and ii is inherited by their descendants. It is part of what separates the Royals from the nobility although there has been some intermingling among them. The Royal Family of Ponente has power over and the ability to call on the element of Water. The Royal Family of Maestro can control and fashion Wood. The Royals of Tramontana control Earth while the Royal family of Gro can control metal. Levante Royals call and control fire. Sciro can call on lightning though it is questionable if anyone can ever truly control that element. Ostro can call and control the air while those of Libio control and shape the element of ice.¡± He continued his exnation of the world around us. While I wanted to argue that half of those weren¡¯t elements at all, we literally came from different worlds and one world¡¯s truth might be another world¡¯s falsehood. Who was I to disagree? I didn¡¯t know enough to argue. I was simply happy to hear more about the wider world and confused by grandfather''s capittion to my questioning. Still learning about the wider world, it seemed suspiciously well organised. Did location provide an elemental affinity? ¡°Will I awaken water?¡± fascinated with the idea of another hidden option within the system avable only to those born of royalty and making the leap of logic that if we were in Ponente then water would be the element. ¡°Who knows? Hopefully not, but if you did you would probably be adopted into the Royal family so let¡¯s try and avoid that if possible Kai. I¡¯m happy . . .¡± he paused, ¡°I¡¯m content here and would hate to have to relocate again. Besides, there isn¡¯t much further we could go and still be connected to humanity.¡± He answered. ¡°But the point is that even without trying you were always going to change Wester Ponente even without trying as those around you would have grown and levelled more. Indeed an unambitious catalyst could easily raise a vige to a town, or a town to a city simply through growing up and living there. Now that you are ¡®Lord of the Isle¡¯ so to speak the changes will only be that much greater.¡± He grimaced as he turned to consider the hidden caldera. While I was excited by the possibilities and opportunities to change the world around me, he was cautious and concerned. ¡°Time to go home,¡± he muttered. As we made our way back down the mountain my brain continued to boil over with ideas. I was still excited about the potential the ind afforded. My own little kingdom, a once and future king maybe. King under the mountain. Hall of the Mountain King, I yed the song in my head as we descended, imagining how winding stairs could be built up the side of the mountain, or a simple straight stairway. This could be called the Compass Caldera of . . . Antis? Probably best not to go with mythical ce names just in case there was another reincarnated person knocking around somewhere. As we got to a particrly steep part of the mountain on the way down I was pulled from my pondering as grandfather, almost casually asked, ¡°Ready to fly?¡± before he pulled back his arm as if to throw me off the mountain. ¡°Stop!¡± I cried and surprisingly enough he actually did as his arm froze in the split-second before he would haveunched me off the mountainside. He lowered his arm, and although he seemed angry with it or himself for listening to me or angry with me for calling out, a momentter calm, he asked curiously, ¡°Why not? You survived a far higher fall with less warning. Be good training for you." As I red up at him, ¡°Because . . . I¡¯ll . . . go . . . st!¡± I practically screamed. ¡°I thought you weren¡¯t going to do this anymore. You . . . promised . . . Mother!¡± I shouted as I crossed my arms and stared daggers at him. ¡°Just wanted to see this flight or falling skill in action. You were never in any danger, this time.¡± He raised his shoulders catingly. ¡°Surviving yourst fall would have definitely been worth the experience as well ensured you should unlock rity when your system unlocks even if it gained you nothing else but it might have given a skill like featherfall," he exined his position referring back to my more literal and nearly figurative terminal fall. "There¡¯s no better teaching method than practical application my teachers always told me. We learn best by doing and the system rewards us more if the straits are dire.¡± He continued to exin his reasoning. "Besides I could have caught you if you actually looked like you were failing to fly or falling too quickly. But training when you know I can catch you will gain you less experience if you know there is no danger to it." he cated possibly concerned I would be telling talester to a certain someone. "That makes no sense," I whispered to myself. Why should the perception of an action change the reward for the act itself if the act wasn''t changed as well? Surprised, both by him exining in greater detail as well as the fact that he actually listened to little baby me I shook a little as the adrenaline left my system. "Hmm?" he queried my whispered words. Hesitantly, I slowly answered, ¡°Too low.¡± answering his earlier question. I exined in more detail, ¡°Need to be higher.¡± Looking at the craggy ground he had been thinking about throwing me off I had quickly realised I wouldn¡¯t have the time to build up enough speed for the fake flight suit to catch enough air with and I would have probably made it no further than the craggy cliffs below rather than getting far enough tond on the water. ¡°Surely it¡¯s more dangerous the higher you are.¡± contemted grandfather. ¡°Yes and no.¡± I was hardly going to try and exin aerodynamics to my grandfather but with the slow speed of being thrown and this angle, I¡¯d probably hit the ground before I had enough speed for my wings to catch the air. That was if I was even able to be quick enough to form the wings I needed before hitting the ground anyway. What I really needed was a way to make a decent paraglider. Now that would give me enough lift to actually go up instead of simply falling if I could find the right thermals. Then again with a proper fabric wing, I could probably give myself enough magical lift through my skill gale to properly fly. Why spend effort manipting a material when I could get my mother to build me a proper one somehow? Although that would be difficult to exin how I knew that. I wondered at what age Leonardo Da Vinci started. It was strange that he had actually listened to me asking him to stop, rather than simply throwing me off. But thinking back on it, I had never really asked him to stop before. Had I ever simply called out and told him to stop before, maybe I should have or would have if I''d known he would listen. Although maybe he never would have done so before all my mothers yelling. "So shall we go and find somewhere higher?" he asked. Chapter 52: Happy days Chapter 52: Happy days "Folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln Not sure why I was entertaining the idea but . . . ¡°Needs to be higher and closer to the water to be safer.¡± Wondering whether managing risk meant the fall would be worth less experience in the long run. Still better to be alive than squished t as a pancake. ¡°Hmm, okay.¡± He mused, ¡°Maybe not from this ind then but back to the Wester Ind¡¯s Outer Cliff again. Wouldn¡¯t want to be too close to the town in case you''re spotted so the other side of the ind . . . though we would need your father to pick you up on the boat afterwards, a family affair, as there is no way up the cliffs on the western side of the ind.¡± He contemted before sighing, ¡°No flying today then.¡± Relieved that he had listened to reason I doubted that he would convince my mother anytime soon that this was a good idea, so I should be safe from skydiving anytime soon. Finally allowed back into the new family home Grandfather did not suggest his ns straight away that night opting instead to eat dinner with the family without causing amotion or rocking the boat. I had been thoroughly inspected when we returned home and the fact that I had returned home happy, healthy and without a hair out of ce meant that mother was grudgingly beginning to ept my grandfather¡¯s presence even if I was fairly sure he had not actually apologised for his actions at all. Around the table, we discussed our day. ¡°So how was everyone¡¯s day?¡± Mother asked. ¡°Karl is happy to make agoon boat for Aleera to practice on.¡± Father started the conversation going. While the boat was for Aleera I would be able to practice on it in the blue cave. It turned out that most of the boats made were either designed for the sea or thegoon. I wasn¡¯t entirely about what was the difference but boats for thegoon were apparently significantly cheaper. Maybe they were less seaworthy? ¡°Sold the salt.¡± Aleera smiled pausing eating her dinner to divide the money between the four of us Aleera, Des, Sinis and I. An equal division for perhaps an unequal division ofbour. I provided the magical might behind this little enterprise, Des and Sinis did the majority of the manualbour scrapping up the salt left behind bagging it and carrying it to our salt storage cave and the boat before they carried it for Aleera to market. Finally, Aleera took the salt to market and attempted to get the best deal from the merchants. They had also taken to selling it door to door and bartering for bits and bobs sort of like a salt milkman. They could do both better and worse this way picking up a collection of odds and ends than they would normally but unfortunately picking up unneeded things as well. At this rate, we would be able to open a general store with the random items they were collecting. Still, the coins or pearls collected were divided equally while the odds and ends if useful went to mother to be used for dinner or to be added to the growing list of items for a store. Besides I was keeping half the salt stored as a stockpile to trade to a proper merchant one day and hopefully by that point the quantity of it would have reached a quality all of its own. ¡°I¡¯vepleted mymission.¡± Mother proudly told us. As she too paused her dinner left the table to show us a piece that she had been working on the entire time we had been on and off the ind. It was an incredibly detailed and artistic setting of Wester Ponente viewed from out to sea it showed what looked like to be a barren ind with towering stone cliffs. It would have taken any normal human years to weave together but skills and a little magic clearly allowed her to work a lot quicker. ¡°Here you go, Father.¡± She added handing it to grandfather. Wait! What? Aleera and I looked at grandfather in confusion then back to mother again who smiled at our confusion. Father clearly in on the joke kept eating his dinner. ¡°Well, she needed an impressive enoughmission so that if anyone ever asked why she was working so hard and needed you out from underfoot she would have a decent answer an excuse.¡± He said as he rolled it up and put it out of the way in a corner of the room. ¡°Besides if Kai is going to be a noble he will be expected to have at least one tapestry and or carpet and rug in each room of your manor house or castle. If we can¡¯t afford to buy them hopefully we will have enough time to make them. First impressions are very important to the nobility and even though I doubt we will have any noble visitors anytime soon, anyone they send will be equally inquisitive and reporting back on our ¡®budding¡¯ house. Looking for strengths and weaknesses to either capitalise on or exploit. Fear of another assassination of a house member will politely let us keep the majority of them off the ind until they send someone of higher rank. So we should still have several years till we need to host anyone on the ind but eventually, they will arrive and have expectations when they finally set foot here.¡± He rambled on elucidating his thoughts. How had medieval lords and barons disyed their wealth? Would I need to create some sort of estate to disy wealth I did not yet have? I imagined creating some sort of paved ind from which the mountain grew out. Shaping stone in one form or another was going to be important to do that. Although if I could find a way to type out my own stories filling my head I could certainly create an eclectic otherworldly library of my own in the real world and music too from the collections I had been building in my head. I had never been an impressive artist but with a skill system to steady my hand would I not be able to excel in creating artwork eventually. Too bad we were going to have to create the castle or manor house to put them in. Maybe we could create a fa?ade, carve the mountain into the appearance of a castle while only ever going one room deep. That would be suitably impressive, although still incredibly time-consuming. We were going to need some more help building this fictional fantasy of a noble house with a strong foundation. Des and Sinis sat silently at the table eating until questioned by mother about how their day went. ¡°So how did your day go?¡± she asked ¡°Good,¡± said Sinis as he nodded. Theirnguage still had a long way to go but they were beginning to be able to respond to questions andmands that they understood. They still seemed a little bemused by their change in circumstances but happy enough. It was difficult to tell without being able to talk to them in greater depth about how they felt than simply good, bad or tired. ¡°Sold the salt.¡± Repeated Des remembering and parroting Aleera earlier phrase hefting his cut. Clearly happy with retaining his portion of the profit. Apparently, on thepass continent a ve could buy out his contract but in reality practically impossible to achieve with most owners taking any profit a ve might make as their own and the dangers of trying to hide anything particrly profit from their masters or mistresses an act doomed to disaster. ¡°Well Kai, how was your day?¡± mother moved on happy to have had a response from them at all. ¡°Mountain top good ce for nts. Need water and soil. Des and Sinis carry?¡± I recap my day and request assistance. Mother nodded at my answer as she dished a little more food out on our tes. ¡°Oh and Grandfather wants to throw me off a cliff again.¡± ¡°What?!?!¡± shouted mother and father as they both swivelled to face grandfather. Another happy day I smiled as I watched the chaos unfold. Loved by my family and I loved them in return. Grandfather was forgiven but his actions were not forgotten. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 255,450/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 18 hours Health: 1160/1160 Stamina: 566/566 Mana: 1180/1180 Psi: 1180/1180 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 116 Endurance: 27 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 30 Senses: 119 Mind: 118 rity: 60 Magic: 118 Charisma: 11 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 27) Listening (LV 28) Meditation (LV 36) Swimming (LV 28) Humming (Lv 24) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 24) Singing (Lv 24) Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 8) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 8) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 23) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 21) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 13) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 32) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 16) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 5) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 4) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 2200 Origin experience: 1000 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 2000 Trading experience: 500 Popr experience: 0 Chapter 53: Audere est Facere Chapter 53: Audere est Facere ¡°To dare is to do . . . to fear is to fail.¡± John Goddard As Yoda once wisely said ¡®Do or do not. There is no try.¡¯ I would either be seeding or I wouldn¡¯t. I wondered to myself how I had ended up here again, this time by choice and how much it would hurt if I didn¡¯t seed. Was chasing those stats and levels really worth it? Was I tempting fate one too many times? I hoped so and I hoped not I thought to myself as I once more looked over the edge of a cliff, this time by choice. My father and sister were waiting at the bottom this time. While my mother and grandfather stood alongside me at the top. One to hold my hand and one to give me a push. How had we ended up here again? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The meal had dissolved into chaos after my finalment about what grandfather hoped to achieve, as my parents yelled questions or usations against him, but this time he didn¡¯t back down and he had his arguments ready. In a moment of quiet he was finally able to get a word in edgewise. ¡°I admit, I went too far with Kai.¡± He raised his hands catingly. ¡°But at the same time, we didn¡¯t go far enough.¡± He both apologised and didn¡¯t in the same breath. Before my mother and father could jump in though, he continued. ¡°Let me finish, please.¡± He gestured for them to return to their seats from where they had stood to argue. Once they had sat down again he continued talking to the whole table. ¡°We all know Kai is special or will be one day if he lives long enough to see it. The whole point of the initial training was to awaken rity, which I would argue he will have done when his system unlocks. But have you not noticed what makes him special is not only his individual stats, levels and skills? Have you not noticed the impact that he has had on you?¡± he asked the open question to the table. Aleera looked to our parents now confused by his questions even though she had smiled just as wide as I had when our parents once moreunched into him. It was clear that she had not noticed anything from our time together. But then again I was her one and only brother. Mother and father though looked at one another as if they might have an inkling about what he was talking about even if they had never verbalised it themselves or admitted it to themselves out loud. ¡°You know what I¡¯m implying don¡¯t you.¡± He lead them further through the maze of his thoughts. ¡°I don¡¯t.¡± Aleera broke the quiet contemtion my parents had as they looked at one another. Having already heard my grandfather postte and prove, at least to me, his ideas I knew what would being next. Addressing Aleera first, ¡°Aleera you have gained twice as many levels in the skills I have been teaching you in thest 14 months ying with him as you have in all the training you have had with me over your lifetime¡± he exined. ¡°That¡¯s not normal.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing really hard.¡± She defended her improvements. ¡°I¡¯ve been getting better and better.¡± ¡°Yes you have been getting better and better but it¡¯s not solely down to how hard you have been practicing.¡± He exined. ¡°It is not normal for it to be suddenly easier to gain levels in skills simply through training without adding extra experience through either life-threatening experiences or some form ofbat and death. We haven¡¯t added that to your training the only difference there is to exin you sudden improvement is your brother¡¯s prescence.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked still defensive and suspicious of what grandfather might be leading up to. ¡°Did you know that your mother has also, despite reaching a teau in some of her skills, levelled her humming, whistling and singing skills, as well as her magical skills of sense mana and mana maniption?¡± he questioned ¡°Well yes, we celebrated her improvements with a bottle of rum, even mother had a ss. What of it?¡± ¡°It happened halfway through your brother¡¯s gestation and it has continued ever since. Hasn¡¯t it Aliyah?¡± ¡°Yes, but that doesn¡¯t mean what you are implying father.¡± Mother argued but even to me it sounded as if she was in self-denial. ¡°One of the reasons masters take on apprentices is not only the money they charge for an apprenticeship or all the menial tasks they can get them to do but the fact that a student can sometimes help their teacher to continue to their levelling when it might have stalled. Through teaching their skills to another you can sometimes get a better understanding of the skill you are teaching and it can help them to get over a teau in your own levelling. Coming from the continent people used to say we remember 10 percent of what we read, 20 percent of what we hear, 30 percent of what we see, 50 percent of what we see and hear, 70 percent of what we discuss with others, 80 percent of what we personally experience and 95 percent of what we teach.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to go into how Dales learning cone had never had any percentages attached to it originally before I rememberd we were in a different world and that meant different rules maybe they had actually quantified this somehow. More likely much like my own world they had added the nice round numbers to make a memorable point about learning back by ¡®cold hard¡¯ numbers. ¡°Have you been actively teaching Kai how to hum, whistle and sing?¡± he asked mother pointedly. ¡°Well no not specifically, he is just quick to pick it up.¡± My speed in learning being used to justify how easily I seemed to pick things up. They still hadn¡¯t realised that it was more relearning how to do things I already knew how to do than actually learning them for the first time. ¡°Precisely! You haven¡¯t been teaching him. He has just been picking it up. So why would you start to level again if you are not putting the effort into teaching? What new epiphanies are you having from rethinking how to teach him? You aren¡¯t and haven¡¯t because you¡¯re not teaching him.¡± He paused to let that sink in before he continued with his relentless questioning, ¡°So where are your skill levelsing from? Have you suddenly started practicing more? Performing to an audience? Saving your life with your skills or humming, whistling or singing someone to death?¡± he waited in silence for my mother to answer, as did we all, but it was clear that she didn¡¯t have an answer to give. As she sat there silently ring at grandfather. ¡°Exactly, Kai is a catalyst.¡± He proved his point with my mother¡¯s silence. ¡°Come on now, we all acknowledge Kai is special, he¡¯s my son. But a catalyst don¡¯t you think you are exaggerating just a little.¡± Father rubbed his head as he frowned at his father inw. Mother still silent and unable to rebut his ims. ¡°The fact that he is a catalyst is probably the only reason your son is alive.¡± Grandfatherughed at father. ¡°I warned you Aliyah was too strong for another child and you didn¡¯t listen to me. If he wasn¡¯t I seriously doubt that he would have survived his birth or your attempts at teaching him how to swim.¡± He condescended. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Kaius crossly demanded. ¡°With her stats and magic she is as strong as a borderline mage or noble and required a healer to give birth, as I told you when you married her. A proper healer who can heal with magic is someone we don¡¯t have out here on the Wester Isles and requesting one would have just drawn attention. How do you think a noble with high stats in strength or endurance is able to have a child?¡± Grandfather equally angrily replied. There was clearly some history here that I was unaware of but whoever really agreed with their inws about everything. ¡°Same way anyone does.¡± Kaius answered still angry at his father inws condescension. ¡°No, they cut them out and heal them up afterwards. It is the only way for their children to survive the birth.¡± He brutally exined. ¡°And as for your swimming lessons, people weren¡¯t watching just to see how well Kai would do, but to jump in if you left him under too long. You teach a child to swim one skill at a time, legs, then arms, thenbine along with teaching them how to float. You don¡¯t just dump them into the water and expect them to figure it out.¡± ¡°Same way I learnt to swim.¡± He muttered under his breath although fairly sure most of us here could hear what he was saying. ¡°So again I ask with your method of teaching why on earth would gain a level in your skill?¡± he interrogated. ¡°It was effective, Kai is getting better and better at swimming. System rewarded that.¡± Grumpily answered. ¡°Yes! It should reward Kai, why should it reward you with a skill level if you haven¡¯t learned or realised anything new about swimming?¡± Feeling he had once again proved his point. It had taken a little longer to lockdown his argument with father than mother but they all sat in silence now pondering his point, that I was a catalyst. Up till this point I had been uninvolved in the discussion I had precipitated with them arguing above our heads for the most part. ¡°Now as with most rumours and myths I know very little about how catalysts work but it is clear from our experience with Kai that they learn quickly and rapidly gain skills with or without our support and teaching. But even more importantly they help others level. If we are serious about creating a house this is the one fact we have going for us that could make it a strong probability instead of a weak possibility.¡± ¡°We need to think of Kai as the cornerstone to our Noble house. If everyone teaches him their skills then they too will level them and raise their own levels in turn. The stronger we make Kai the stronger we all will be. This is why we need to push him and push him now. He is growing too slowly as it is. Almost as if he is a half¨Celf. If we wait until he is bigger, taller or simply looks older we will be waiting a long time. While this will support the idea that he has only just been born it is great but we simply can¡¯t wait till he is older, we have to act now. Furthermore he is too smart, it is all very well saying that he is quick, but Aleera was quick too and she well without being harsh Kai is on another level. Again it is as if he is half-gnome rather than half-elf. We need to stop pretending he is a baby when he can clearly understand the majority of what we are talking about and has the wit to respond.¡± Here he turned to re at me, ¡°Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t notice what you did earlier Kai.¡± Busted. Who me? Nope I didn¡¯t know what he was talking about but I wasn¡¯t going to make the mistake of responding and proving his point. Not that he seemed to be having much difficulty proving them on his own. ¡°Moreover, somehow he sees, and hears far too much. From the moment his magic stat was unlocked he has been sensitive beyond normal. After testing his senses he is able of noticing noises that within the family only I can sense and that is with decades of practice and what I would hope are significantly higher levels in skills specifically targeting the senses. If you watch him at night it seems as if can see as if it was daylight. Again, it is as if he is a half-beastkin in terms of the levels of his senses. And as for his levels of magic, simply look at the amount of salt that they have been carting off to town and storing in the caves and you can see that once again he clearly has a monstrous level of mana. Now I don¡¯t know the how or the why of how Kai is seemingly slowly unlocking the abilities of the enlightened races but he has and he is. What I mean to ask is what if he can unlock the rest of their abilities?¡± My parents sat there in silence as they digested everything that he had unloaded onto them. I sat there in silence too, stunned by the depth to which he had studied me without me noticing him doing so. I had always felt that I had been rtively subtle about my more extreme abilities. But it would appear not subtle enough as he was able to outline each moment I had achieved above and beyond what even a gifted child would have been able to do. I hade to assume that it wasn¡¯t possible to see another¡¯s stats and levels as I would have been revealed the moment I had been born if they could but perhaps with experience you could make a close enough educated guess at where people¡¯s levels and stats actually were anyway. How much of who I was, was hidden at all? I¡¯d like to think Luck at least was still hidden as despite the increased level of knowledge he was now giving us all he had yet to mention that. But other than that he seemed to have the rest of my stats nailed down rtively well. Their effects if not their actual numbers. I¡¯d like to think that he would still be surprised by the numbers. But maybe I was just kidding myself. Mother and father seemed to have digested everything that grandfather was saying and turned to me questioningly. I was stumped on how to answer any unspoken questions they had. How could I tell them I remembered another life? That this life had felt like a game of numbers and gains until I had nearly died. Yes I remembered another life but I hade to ept that it was a different world a different time. That yes this life was the one I had now. This was the one I had to focus on. That this was my family and that in truth I loved them much like they loved me. ¡°That is why we need to continue to push Kai. Endurance and Strength will be impossible to raise as an infant. He simply doesn¡¯t have the bone strength or muscles to build and anything greater than his own weight is more likely to break him or harm his growth. However with Dexterity and rity, there is no reason we can¡¯t focus on skills using those to help him continue to level them. That is why,¡± here he paused after holding the conversation and our attention for so long as if hesitant to raise his final point, which considering all the feelings and secrets he had bulldozed his way through seemed to be a little strange, until he finished his final sentence. ¡°I would like Kai to try to fly once more.¡± The chaos of the earlier reveal was defused as they sat there now considering what I had told them in a different light. Understanding his reasoning behind, the actions, he no longer seemed quite so mad. Their arguments already dismantled they were left to contemte and weigh up the possibility that what he was proposing was not insanity but actually a sane n to push me forward. Mother held onto Father¡¯s hand before she finally said. ¡°I think it should be up to Kai.¡± Surprised, by the option I sat there considering how to respond. Was I an adult now, expected to make my own decisions on how to live. If I answered the question how would that change our family dynamics. I sat paralysed by the possibilities, unable to foresee where this answer would take me next. ¡°Well Kai?¡± Father gently asked. ¡°Why learn to walk before you can run . . . if you can sail the sky instead.¡± I smiled. ¡°That¡¯s my boy.¡± Heughed lifting me up and swinging me round. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . That¡¯s how I ended up at the top of a cliff about to jump again. Chapter 54: Ignorance is bliss Chapter 54: Ignorance is bliss ¡°We live on a cid ind of ignorance in the midst of ck seas of infinity and it was not meant that we should voyage far.¡± H.P. Lovecraft ¡°Are you ready?¡± Mother asked. ¡°Um . . . yes?¡± I replied. Was I really going to do this again by choice? ¡°Good. Then off you go.¡± Grandfather responded as he lifted me up off the ground and threw me out over the edge of the cliff. My heart started thudding as I felt myself rise to the top of the arch before the moment of weightlessness followed by my fall. It wasn¡¯t quite as terrifying this time having prepared in advance for this and having already done it once before. Quick reflexes seemed to help me quickly stabilise my fall and I knew what I was doing as I flooded my purple robe with my mana using expel mana before I used mana maniption and material maniption to create the shape I desired. Mother had even given me an extra robe to go underneath to buttress my creation from the inside. I hadn¡¯t managed to create a glider yet. However maybe as my mana pool expanded or with a little engineering maybe that wouldn¡¯t be too far off in the future if we kept this practising up. Using gale I was able to slow my descent levelling off into a shallow glide rather than a free fall or a steep dive. I shot off away from the ind it felt as if I was falling and moving across the sea deceptively slowly due to theck ofndmarks, the blue simply blurring below me, but when I turned my head to look back I could see that I had already moved miles out to sea. I banked to turn back towards the ind. It was then that I noticed a shadow passing beneath me. How far beneath the waves it was, I couldn¡¯t tell. Was it a whale? But I was already past it and moving back towards the cliffs where my father and sister were waiting in the assassin''s boat at the bottom of the cliff. It had turned out that this was a seaworthy boat after all, worth 10 times the amount of agoon boat, and after some consideration, the family had decided to keep it rather than scuttle it. Yes, it was a loose end that could potentially tie us to the assassin one day but the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. It turned out that the reason it was worth 10 times what my father''s boat was worth was due to the runes engraved in the bottom of the boat and powered by gems embedded in the inside of the hull. They allowed the boat to move quicker through the water, float higher, weather stronger waves and most importantly apparently they hid the boat from any monsters under the water, there was even an invisibility spell for the entire boat above water as well which exined why the assassin had feltfortable being left behind. He had clearly expected to be able to catch up to Mercurio¡¯s boat without difficulty. This was also the reason that on inspection and after consideration they had decided to keep the boat. As I glided back towards the ind and then along the cliff to where my family were waiting to pick me up. I wondered had that been a monster, not a whale? We had never really spoken about the sea life. Were there sharks, giant squids, Leviathans or Kraken? And why was I only just thinking about this now when I was about tond in it? Well if Inded close enough to my father and sister I would only be in the water for a short moment, right? And the ocean was awfully big to bending on a sea monster. The closer I came to the water the slower I was able to slow my descent until I was skimming along with the top of the waves gale was now strong enough to push me up into a level flight along the top of the water. I was able to glide right up to the boat. Barelying to a stop as I skimmed along the top of the water before I was hauled up into the boat by my sister. ¡°That was amazing Kai!¡± she eximed as she hauled me up over the side. ¡°You had to see it to believe it.¡± Mumbled father clearly impressed by the oue. ¡°Yes, yes. Let¡¯s go.¡± I said still preupied with the possibility that some sort of sea monster lurked below us. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Father asked concerned. ¡°Large shadow under the water,¡± I replied pointing in the direction that I had seen the possible monster. We all turned to look in the direction I pointed, and there, ploughing its way through the water was something. We couldn¡¯t see what it was or how big it was but the wake seemed to be moving towards where I hadnded in the water. Like a fish attracted to the insects thatnded on the water, it was heading our way, and quickly. Father dropped the sails shouting, ¡°Aleera wind.¡± As he pulled them tight Aleera filled them with air and we shot off from where we had been picking up speed and racing closer into the cliff where the water was shallower. ¡°Kai power the invisibility rune,¡± Father shouted as he turned the boat to race along the edge of the cliff. The fantastic thing about Aleera providing the wind was that the boat could turn in any direction as the wind was always behind it. To a point though, we still couldn¡¯t go straight into the wind but neither were we halted by any calms that formed alongside the base of the cliffs where the wind was sometimes blocked. With Father focused on where we were going and Aleera providing the wind, I was the only one able to look back at where we had been. As I powered the gem embedded in the hull that was empowering the invisibility rune, I watched the water where the boat had been waiting and I arrived, simply disappear. Arge misshapen fin or pointed nose crested the water before disappearing back below. Somethingrge under the water had opened a vast cavernous mouth and the surface water and anything that had been on it had just disappeared into it. Relieved that the invisibility runes appeared to be working on the sea monster I told them, ¡°It missed us.¡± ¡°Aye but time to go home I think.¡± Answered Father and he took us towards the cliffnding us in a hidden cove on the western side of the ind. Beaching the boat, he quickly dragged it up out of the water as if the sea creature might follow us up onto thend. Father looked concerned about what had just happened as he carried me to the ropedder they had already prepared for us to climb up out of the cove, Aleera following on behind. As he strapped me to his chest to begin the climb, he remembered to say, ¡°Well done Kai that was truly impressive.¡± Before returning to silence as he pondered the brief brush with death that we had had. Aleera was silent too as she followed father up the ropedder a long, slow and silent climb to the top. When we finally reached the top I was crushed to my mother''s chest in a warm embrace. ¡°That was amazing Kai.¡± She said. While Father turned to Grandfather and asked, ¡°Did you see it?¡± ¡°Yes, I did.¡± Murmured grandfather having had an eagle eye view of my flight,nding, pick up and subsequent escape from one of the monsters of the deep. ¡°Well, what was it then?¡± asked father again. ¡°It looked like a Goblin Shark,¡± grandfather mused, ¡°Surprising that it woulde all the way up to the surface in the daylight.¡± ¡°This could be a problem if it sticks around here. Not sure that we want Kai to be jumping into shark-infested waters, they are usually far further west closer to the trench where the water is deeper, darker and the mana density higher.¡± Clearly concerned about the idea of us practising anymore today. ¡°The runes on the boat seemed to work fine. Once a tasty morsel like Kai was out of the water and onto the boat the Goblin shark headed for hisst position and didn¡¯t chase the boat at all. As long as you keep the runes powered you should be fine.¡± He calmed father down. ¡°Besides have you checked your status?¡± Intrigued by his question, I pretended to keep my eyes closed while hugging my mother as I checked mine. Father and Aleera were more obvious in checking theirs staring out into space infront of them. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 266,950/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 1 weeks, 1 days, 9 hours Health: 1150/1150 Stamina: 506/556 Mana: 700/1170 Psi: 1170/1170 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 115 Endurance: 26 Strength: 26 Dexterity: 30 Senses: 118 Mind: 117 rity: 68 Magic: 117 Charisma: 15 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 28) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 23) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 23) Singing (Lv 23) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 11) Sailing (Lv 3) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 17) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 35) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 20) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 10) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 8)Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 10,200 Origin experience: 1000 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 1000 Trading experience: 1000 Popr experience: 4000 This death-defying stunt had clearly supported growth across the board and as I had finally found something that helped me to level rity I was excited to try again. It seemed to have even gained me popr experience from impressing my family. While I had also levelled some crafting and trading experience from selling the salt earlier on in the week. The bonus surprise was the levels in Sailing I had achieved for such little work while being part of the crew. I was brought out of my head back to the real world by Aleera¡¯s gasp of surprise and Fathers grunt of acknowledgement. ¡°Well, how many levels?¡± Grandfather asked. ¡°I gained a level in several skills as well as some experience,¡± grunted father surprised by the level and experience gains for such a short mornings work. Especially considering they had not caught or killed any fish. ¡°I gained two levels in sailing!¡± Aleera eximed, ¡°As well as two levels in my wind magic skill!¡± she practically vibrated with excitement. ¡°Let¡¯s do it again!¡± ¡°Worth another flight then, especially if Kai can stay out of the water this time around.¡± ruminated grandfather out loud. ¡°Can yound on the boat Kai?¡± Mother asked. Clearly, Mother and Grandfather had already discussed this while we had been climbing back up to the top of the cliff and thought through why the goblin shark approached so quickly. ¡°Maybe not the boat but if it is moving I couldnd in the sail.¡± I thought to myself wondering how slow can I slow myself down and how quick can the boat speed up. Might be a little moreplicated to do but if the boat is moving quickly enough and I am moving slowly enough it should be a soft enoughnding. ¡°Okay then let¡¯s try this again,¡± Grandfather said. ¡°But I will join you on the boat just in case you need me.¡± He said leading them towards thedder, father and Aleera followed and started to climb down once more leaving me at the top of the cliff with my mother. ¡°Are you sure you are happy to have another go Kai?¡± she asked. ¡°He has always been a little extreme in pushing for the biggest gains ever since I was little.¡± She exined. ¡°It¡¯s okay to say no once in a while.¡± She smiled at me as she held me up. ¡°No, it¡¯s okay. We can try again.¡± My mana was slowly ticking up as I continued to generate it and my stamina was hardly low yet. We waited at the top of the cliff looking down, searching the depths for any monsters, but I saw none, despite my super senses. Echolocation was too far from the water to have much effect and Sense Mana was the same. I wondered if, as my senses stat continued to grow whether I would one day be able to see under the sea from on top of the cliff. A sonar skill would be something good to train if only to tell me how big the sea creatures were and whether I should be running from or towards them. After a while, we saw them set sail from the cove edging out to sea before preparing to wait for me to make the jump. ¡°Ready Kai?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes,¡± I responded far more confident than the first time. Then I stepped up to the edge of the cliff looked down and jumped forwards. Snapping my mana out into my robe, I manipted it into the shape I needed as I glided out to sea before banking, circling and heading back towards the cliff before flying along in front of it. Again, I saw a shadow of something under the waves but it was too far below me for it to notice me as I zoomed by overhead. It seemed that it hadn¡¯t noticed me until I hit the waterst time so as long asnded in the boat things should go smoothly this time. The boat was zipping along the top of the waves away from me but I wasing up quickly behind it. Father sailing, Aleera supplementing the natural wind with a gust or two to speed up the boat and my grandfather standing as steady as a rock, on the boat that moved up and down below him, facing back towards me. He called out directions to reassure father who was focused on the sea and the waves ahead. As I closed in he put his arms out to catch me. Coming in tond I lifted higher up from the water and was able to slow myself that extra bit further as I barrelled into my grandfather who spun as he caught me slowing me down. Laughing at the sessful fall, flight andnding. I realised that was the first time I had ever heard my grandfatherughing. Father slowed the boat, Aleera stopped her gusts of wind and we all quietly celebrated as we sailed back to shore. Looking out over the side of the boat for any more monsters of the deep we didn¡¯t rx until we were once more onnd. ¡°How many levels?¡± Grandfather asked once more. ¡°No levels but a little experience,¡± grumbled father, ¡°But no sea monster this time either so safer overall.¡± ¡°I gained another level in sailing¡± Aleera eximed, ¡°As well as one more level in my wind magic skill¡± she was still visibly excited at her progress. ¡°But less thanst time.¡± ¡°Complete the same task you will get diminishing returns especially if you find it easier.¡± Grandfather exined. ¡°Particrly if the danger of the task is removed.¡± Reminding us that we hadn¡¯t had a scare like we had the first time we practised this. As we had headed back in while looking for sea monsters I checked my own status. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 273,250/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 1 weeks, 1 days, 9 hours Health: 1150/1150 Stamina: 506/556 Mana: 350/1170 Psi: 1170/1170 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 115 Endurance: 26 Strength: 26 Dexterity: 30 Senses: 118 Mind: 117 rity: 76 Magic: 117 Charisma: 16 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 26) Listening (LV 28) Meditation (LV 35) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 23) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 23) Singing (Lv 23) and Drumming (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 11) Sailing (Lv 4) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 35) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 20) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 35) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 23) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 12) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 10) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 4300 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Popr experience: 2000 Thergest jump had still been in rity but the other skills had levelled as well. However, Expel Mana appeared to be capped at level 35 the same level my meditation and sense mana had made it up to. While other magic skills still appeared to have room to grow for the moment. It seemed that rity had jumped up less this time around than the first time so it appeared there would be diminishing returns for this as well. Still, 5 more jumps should be enough to make it over 100 stat milestone at this rate. The problem wasn¡¯t so much whether it would work more whether I had enough mana to keep doing it. My method for flight was heavily mana intensive. I was sure that with a little better engineering the mana cost could be reduced to a fraction of what it currently was. However, would I still gain the same bonus of rity if I did it in a properly built glider? My current gains seemed to be supported by the fact that I was essentially base jumping without a parachute and building it on the way down. I had seven weeks left until I turned 1 year old at 16 months. So I wasn¡¯t in any rush. Two jumps a week should see me easily pass the milestone of 100 points of rity. ¡°Are you up for trying it again?¡± I was asked. But honestly, I was tired and a little frazzled as exciting as it had been. ¡°I¡¯m tired,¡± I exined. ¡°Fair enough.¡± Father said, ¡°Let¡¯s go home and celebrate.¡± Chapter 55: Building character Chapter 55: Building character ¡°Even as water carves monuments of stone, so do our thoughts shape our character.¡± Hugh B Brown We had done another two jumps over thest fortnight and this meant that I was now sitting on 88 points of rity. I suppose I could have insisted on them helping me every day but they also had jobs to do, food to catch, salt to sell, tapestry to weave and whatever it was Grandfather did all day. I was not in too much of a rush but at the same time, I was on a deadline. I only had 1 month left now. In the end, it was not so much that I couldn¡¯t have insisted, it was simply that the weather had been pretty poor for most of thest fortnight with stormy weather hitting the outer cliffs of the ind most days. It made me appreciate how sheltered we were within the caldera. I had never particrly noticed it before seeing the clouds whizz across the sky I had simply thought the weather in our town was merely magical, a new part of a new world. Now that I understood, I realised it was not simply magical but a demonstration of how sheltered we were within the caldera and it made me wonder more about the world and its winds. They seemed incredibly strong to seed the clouds skidding across the sky, although I guess being in the middle of the sea there wasn¡¯t a lot to slow the winds down. Either way they weren''t something I wanted to fight with when falling off a cliff. I had spent nearly all of my time indoors unable to go outside for two reasons now. One due to both the weather and two I was still pretending I no longer existed. It had given me more time to practice levelling some of the skills I had been neglecting. The ones that required me to sit still for longer and longer amounts of time. I levelled time sense and meditation and noticed that as my meditation level rose to level 36 my Sense Mana and Expel Mana both also rose alongside it to Level 36 as well. It appeared that some of my higher tier skills were built on top of the lower-tier skills levels. Not all of them obviously but there was clearly some sort of skill tree system at work here. T1 Meditation Level 36 T2 Sense Mana Level 36 T3 Expel Mana Level 36 It would appear that my meditation level was holding back my progress on the higher tier skills using magic so I used some of my indoor time to continue to practice it in the hopes of raising it higher. Another skill tree of sorts I thought I had found was T1 Listening Level 29 T2 Eavesdrop Level 27 T3 Echolocation Level 26 If I wanted to develop some time of sonar-like skill much as dolphins have to see under the water I would have to continue to level these skills. I didn¡¯t want to be meeting any goblin sharks anytime soon. Also, I was still wondering how it had noticed my arrival in the water so quickly. Did it sense food through heat, blood, electromaic signals or the mana that I had been producing? Whatever it was I needed to work more on my stealth skills as well. So hide and seek with Des and Sinis was back on the table although I had not managed to level up yet. The skill tree idea didn¡¯t seem to work perfectly though as Tier 2 Linguistics was Level 16 whereas the rest of mynguages were lower English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15), German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7), Buss (Lv 7) but perhaps it could be higher because my T1nguagesbined had a total of 59 levels. I would need to write out some sort of skill trees to see how it worked but it was clear that I could not neglect my lower-tier skills if I wanted to continue to advance my higher tier skills. It also appeared that the more Tier 1 roots to the skill tree the higher the Tier 2 skill could go. I was very tempted to ask my family but as far as they were aware I hadn¡¯t unlocked my system yet so felt that I was doing rtively fine with my own experimentation. I would work it out in the end. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 282,150/ 409,600 Age: 14 months, 3 weeks, 1 days, 9 hours Health: 1160/1160 Stamina: 559/559 Mana: 1190/1190 Psi: 1190/1190 Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 116 Endurance: 26 Strength: 26 Dexterity: 32 Senses: 119 Mind: 119 rity: 88 Magic: 119 Charisma: 18 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 27)Listening (LV 29)Meditation (LV 36) Swimming (LV 27) Humming (Lv 23) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 24) Singing (Lv 24) Drumming (Lv 23) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 7) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 11) Sailing (Lv 4) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 36) Eavesdrop (LV 27) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 24) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 36) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 25) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 14) Deception (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 11) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 4800 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 2000 Trading experience: 1000 Popr experience: 2000 The practice of meditating and listening, even eavesdropping when I could, supported the slow growth in mind, senses and magic my three highest stats but it seemed repeated performances of my sky diving feat were giving me less popr experience and slower growth of my charisma stat. I had taken to singing at supper in the hopes that it would help somehow but my family had heard me sing before and while happy to hear me again they were not impressed enough to help. In fact, some family members were entirely unhappy to hear me drumming or whistling again all the time. Namely my sister. ¡°Will you cut that out!¡± she said holding my hands down to the table after I had been sitting there drumming with my utensils. I stopped not so much by choice as my hands were still being held down but I wouldn¡¯t be starting up again once she let go either. I might be levelling up quickly and had a variety of magic under my belt but boiling, freezing or setting your sister on fire seemed like a bit of an esction for holding my hands down. I wondered if I could do something with material maniption under the table while she wasn¡¯t looking but I didn¡¯t have the control to tie anyone¡¯sces yet and certainly couldn¡¯t do it subtly without creating suspicion and causing it to fail. The interesting thing was though that while my skill practice and levels continued to go up with practice helping to build my character sheet so to say, the making and selling of salt was at the moment a far easier and less time-consuming way to gain experience. It seemed that the bigger the effect I had on the world therger experience I could gain through the different types of experience. ¡°Shall we have a go at making the salt ts after dinner?" Aleera asked. While we continued to make salt from our blue cave. The amount we were producing was beginning to be noted on my the townspeople and it had been decided that making some salt ts even if they did not supply the majority of what we were making and selling would be a reasonable exnation for where the salt wasing from. "Sure." I replied. Going out after dark was one of the few times I could leave the house without being carried around in a bag. Although I still tended to get carried anyway. The n was to start on the far side of the ind from the town. We would start them by the water''s edge then work our way in towards the center. "I wasn''t talking to you. Mum?" she shut me down before asking Mum again. "That would be fine." she answered. The n was for mother to shave the area t with her stone shaping skill. Des and Sinis would be sweeping up all the stone that was removed to fill any potholes. Then I would attempt to melt them together. It would be a higher burst of ignite and boil but I was hopeful that I would be able to reform the broken shards of basalt into smooth blue stone. I thought it was going to look very nice if it worked. Any vegetation that we came across would be carefully removed and any soil would be carted up to our own mini caldera during the day. "Brilliant. Kai are you sure you can do this?" Aleera quizzed me. "I''m sure I can it was my idea." I staked my im. We had been discussing the salt ts for a while and Aleera felt it was just as much her ideas as mine as she had first introduced me to the salt pools figuratively and literally on this ind. Never mind that I knew how to get salt out of seawater before I was even born. The problem was that I still was not saying that so we were having a little bit of a spat over whose idea it was. It didn''t really matter in the end it was just the principle of the matter. Still, I supposed technically I would own all of them anyway so did it really matter, nope. Once we had finished our dinner we headed off into the night to the western shoreline. While the others stumbled a little in the dark it was clear as day to me. When we arrived at the edge we had the mountain between us and the town so we were not too worried about setting up somenterns to see clearly. "Ready when you are." mother started. Aleera Des and Sinis had already marked out an area to work on removed any soil, nts from it. All that was left was for mother and me to smooth it out so to speak. She started with a quiet low hum walking along in front of Des and Sinis who followed behind with a broom each to sweep up any debris created and deposit it in any of the natural crevices. We were lucky the ind was rtively t and low here by the water so mother was only taking a very shallowyer of stone off the top leaving what looked like polished bluestone behind her. Apart from any of the crevices that were now filled with the thinyer she had cut off deposited by Des and Sinis sweeping. Then it was my turn. I had yet to be able to get sound to somehow carry my magic like my mother had suggested but if there was one thing I was good at using my mana for it was giving or taking energy out of systems. All of my initial magical skills consisted of precisely that. Expel Mana, Absorb Mana,Ignite, Freeze, Boil, were all skills that I was either adding or removing mana from and with such arge Mana pool I felt confident to seed. I sat in front of the filled crevices. The area for producing salt was effectively already functional this would only tidy things up so there was no pressure to seed. If it worked great. If it didn''t that was okay too. But I knew it was going to work. I quickly pushed my mana forth into the stone chips and cut off in front of me. They began to glow. I didn''t need to set them on fire merely get them to melt. The rocks quickly shot past the point when water would begin to boil. Then pas the point that wood would begin to burn, ignite. The difference though was that at this point with ignite the work would be done and it would continue to burn on its own. With the stone we were going to have to go a little higher. I backed up a little bit from the pile of steaming stone. It started slowly ever so slowly with one of the small shards but it gradually began to melt. Filling in the cracks below it, filling the crevice. I kept going. They didn''t have to all melt merely enough to seal the gap,plete the smooth surface of the salt ts my family had created and it seemed to be working. as thest shards melted down forming a smooth stone liquid that filled the crevice perfectly. A little even floated out across the stone my mother had already smoothed looking a little like a glowing spige ofva oozing from the earth. It was really quite cool. Well obviously extremely hot but I was allowed my oxymoronic thoughts as long as they stayed in my head. It also made me exceptionally d that so far there didn''t seem to be any volcanic activity at all on the ind. "Well done everyone." Father congratted us all he had apanied us but been left holding up thenterns along with Aleera as everyone else had a job to do. We left to return home. It would take us a while to build our salterns along the coast then work our way inwards but we would do them one at a time. For me the biggest sess other than being able to melt the stone was my first earth skill another Tier 3 magical skill Melt Lv 1. Chapter 56: Alternative streams Chapter 56: Alternative streams "Never depend on a single ie. Make investments to create a second source." Warren Buffett Rome was not built in a day but every day theyid bricks or something like that, I couldn''t remember but the point was our salt ts areing along nicely. They are gradually working their way along the western side of the ind. We did a little bit more every night. Then during the day Des and Sinis would fill them up with seawater from thegoon, then wait for it to evaporate before raking it up. It didn¡¯t produce nearly as much as I did within the mountain but it would be a reasonable exnation as to where all the salt wasing from. They were gradually forming a white path around the coast of the ind. It wasn¡¯t anywhere near a circle yet but we were gradually getting there and because it had been carved into or rather below the average surface of the ind it wasn¡¯t immediately visible from the waterline and the coastline still looked as if it remained untouched. However, from the top of the mountain, there was a clear white line gradually working its way around the ind, carving a white circle within which we lived. For the moment the family had decided to keep it to the outer area of the ind so the water from thegoon didn¡¯t need to be carried too far. But who knew what would be next. I had a lot of ns. The weather had finally cleared up this week after a month of colder stronger winds battering the Wester Isles. So I had been able to make another two jumps. They had afforded me even less rity but I was so close I was sure I would make it in time. I believed it would only be another two jumps. I was still limited to two jumps a day due to the mana expenditure of simply falling with style. Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 293,550/ 409,600 Age: 15 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 13 hours Health: 1170/1170 Stamina: 570/570 Mana: 1200/1200 Psi: 1200/1200 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Vitality: 117 Endurance: 27 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 33 Senses: 120 Mind: 120 rity: 95 Magic: 120 Charisma: 20 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 28)Listening (LV 30)Meditation (LV 37)Swimming (LV 30) Humming (Lv 25) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 25) Singing (Lv 25) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 10) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 12) Sailing (Lv 4) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 37)Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 25) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 37)Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 27) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 15) Deception (Lv 1) Melt (Lv 6) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 11) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 8400 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 1000 Trading experience: 1000 Popr experience: 1000 I only had 3 weeks 3 days left till I turned one, in this world at least. In my old one, I would have been 1 year and 3 months but that was then and this was now. I was well aware of the ridiculousness of my situation, stats and abilities. My family seemed to be so too by now. Hardly impressed at all ording to the system regarding my base jumping. The time indoors had allowed my father to start up his swimming lessons again. Now that I could float and paddle around I had fewer worries about drowning and was actually beginning to enjoy them. My skill level still was higher than my bodies facility to facilitate but I was looking forward to when I was finally big enough and able enough to make full use of my skill levels. I would be speeding through the water like a dolphin. The blue cave was one of my favourite ces to spend time when swimming and with Des and Sinis pumping water out of it for our ongoing salt production, it was also our source of wealth and in hopefully more than one way now. The deepwater sea pearls that had been so highly prized and valued by the merchant were one of the products I hoped to cultivate. Eating oysters was just one of the foods we ate and I had never really thought about them. It had never been my favourite dish but when I realised how valuable the pearls were it made me realise how valuable the oysters could be too. It all began with a little game, one I knew I would win because I was cheating after all. ¡°That one,¡± I said pointing to 1 of the 100 odd oysters that father and I had pulled up out of thegoon during an early morning diving trip. Thegoon was littered with oysters why there were so many I had no idea but seeing as generally there was only 1 pearl in 10,000 it was no wonder the pearls were worth so much and lucky thegoon had so many of them. My family had gathered around to watch my magic trick and I had just asked my mother to open up a specific oyster from the selection of oysters that father had caught and brought back. I had to go with him to make sure that this magic trick was going to work. With only 1 in 10,000 chance that there would be a pearl. I had gone with him and ensured that at least one of the oysters would have a pearl in it for the magic trick. The key to the trick being, mana sense. It turns out that Pearls are biological gemstones and prized for their ability to hold mana. Hence why even when underwater I am able to use sense mana to see which oysters are collecting and storing mana in a little gem within them. Ergo I made sure that one with a pearl in it was one of the ones father brought back. ¡°Kai you only have a one in a hundred chance of getting it right.¡± Aleera raised an eyebrow. You would have thought that she would have given up betting against me by now. But if there is one superpower older sisters all appear to have it is their ability to bepletely unimpressed by whatever their younger siblings are capable of. Especially if it is being done in front of their parents. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± I smiled. Finally, mother prized open the oyster and hesitated a moment before pulling out a pearl. ¡°Yes!¡± I thought I knew I would be right but it is always better to actually see it with your own eyes to know that it is true. I had just discovered a new source of revenue to support our noble house. Hopefully, if a few of my other ideas panned out we would have enough wealth to buy the rest of the ind when or if the merchant returned. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you guessed correctly. Are you sure there are no more pearls in the other ones? He could just be being lucky.¡± Aleera was not quite ready to give up yet. ¡°He¡¯s just sensing the mana within the oyster.¡± Grandfather popped my oversized head like a balloon full of pride bringing me back down to earth all within a minute of entering the house. ¡°You would be able to do it too if you two practised a little more.¡± You could always rely on grandfather to keep you grounded or at least cut down to size. ¡°Is that why you never wanted for money when we needed some?¡± asked mother rather pointedly to grandfather. "And if you were able to do this so easily why wasn''t my dowryrger?" ¡°Well . . .¡± Grandfather hesitated to answer perhaps realising he had let out one of his own secrets in the process of revealing the trick to my magic. Served him right in my not so humble opinion. ¡°I just remembered I still have something to do before retiring,¡± he stated turning on his heel and leaving the room before he could be embroiled once more with my mother. She may have been supportive of me jumping off the cliff but it seemed she would continue to be short with him for the foreseeable future and knowing my mother she would be holding it over his head till he or she died. However, while sensing the pearls was important and necessary if we wanted to sweep up all the pearls avable in thegoon before the merchant arrived it was not what I was hoping to convince them of tonight. If I remembered correctly then you could cut off a piece of the pearl-producing oyster then by adding a piece of the shell along with the tissue into the 99 other oysters we had retrieved we would hopefully be able to start cultivating our own pearls. We would literally be able to grow our own money. I just had to convince my mother to make someting to hold any oysters my father dived for. Well, that and convince my family not to eat the oysters we had been catching at first sight. Still, that should not be a problem if we were going to rob all the pearls from thegoon before the merchant returned as they would be able to eat the oyster meat from those oysters at least. I was notpletely sure of the process but I knew that by inserting a nucleus made of shell into the empty oyster then recing them into the water it would grow a new pearl around the irritation. My family were somewhat sceptical that this was going to work. But they couldn¡¯t see what I could see and every day when we had our swimming lessons I would swim down to thes stored at the bottom of the cave to sense what I could and I believe that with my Mana Sense I could see the nuclei within each oyster gradually gettingrger andrger. Initially, I thought it was my imagination but after a month of growing, I am now sure. The first oyster we open won¡¯t be huge but I just need one that has theyer of nacre forming correctly to convince my parents that it is worth putting the oysters back in the water at least once before eating them. This was only one of the ideas that I was able toe up with while not going out due to the weather. The other idea I had and one that mother has quickly jumped on is buttons. Now I haven¡¯t reinvented the wheel by any stretch of the imagination. People already had buttons here for however long that they have had clothes. What I did do though was remember that oyster shells can be used to create the mother of pearl buttons and jewellery. I had already seen mother use the odd shiny shell in her work. However, having watched her create what appeared to be polished blue stone from the basalt when we were creating the salt ts with only her voice and mana. I had been correct in believing that she could achieve something simr with shells even ones that we would have previously thrown out. It had taken her a while to reduce her powerful whistles and hums that were capable of shaving stone to something that was able to polish shells but once I suggested the idea she had capitalised on it. Even going as far as getting Aleera, Des and Sinis to bring back the town¡¯s waste shells when they sold our salt. I on the other hand still had a control issue with my mana and was far more like to ignite, freeze or melt any shells I got my hands on. I wasn¡¯t giving up yet. But it was intensely frustrating to watch from a distance as another shell exploded from myck of control or overuse of mana when humming at them. While my mother on the other hand had turned it into a fine art where she could be working on dinner with hands while gently polishing the shells to a fine sheen with her voice once she had deshelled the food from within. It was irritating to watch someone achieve so effortlessly what I was attempting to do. Although I was aware of the hypocrisy when so much else hade so easy to me. It was clear that Aleera found it fairly enjoyable watching my attempts at copying my mother. Particrly as she seemed to be able to achieve simr results albeit a lot slower. Still, her shells didn¡¯t explode on her so I was still a little put out by the rewards of another idea of mine being hoarded by her. Either way, it was all positive. Our family while never being rich had never wanted for anything in particr. However now we would be beginning to catch up to our wealthier cousins and uncles and if we could continue toe up with alternative streams of ie we should hopefully start to have an impact on our local economy and put a bit of money in the bank so to speak, not that there appears to be a bank on the ind. Chapter 57: Quiet time Chapter 57: Quiet time ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me because I¡¯m quiet. I know more than I say, I think more than I speak and observe more than you know.¡± Micha Chung I¡¯ve be a little quiet at the moment. The problem was, it wasn¡¯t by choice. Each milestone hase with a side effect or two. Long-Lived while fantastic in the long run seemed to mean that it was going to take me a little longer to grow up than most. Not to mention the high vitality has meant that when my body was not being pushed to its limits I struggled to sleep. This has not been a particrly upsetting problem. As I generally made the most of it building my mental fortress in my head or secretly practicing my magic at night. However, at the same time, it would be have been nice not to be an insomniac before the age of 1 on this world. Still, with many years to look forward to, and various ways to work around the problems created, it has been a huge positive. Super Senses, again an amazing trait, that has helped me to see so much more of the world. Aiding me in my growth of skills linked to my senses and letting me see further and deeper into the dark that is the unknown. It has allowed me to pretend that I am a super hero in the making but it was also painfully overwhelming to begin with. I sometimes wondered, whether, without my high mind stat, if I would have ever managed to reduce my hypersensitivity to somewhat manageable levels. As much as it filled my mind with extra information, it too added to my difficulty sleeping if limited to only my body and restricted from hiding out in my mind. Once more, while Source of Mana was an irresistible source of power and a trait I couldn¡¯t live without now, especially if I hoped to continue to build my financial empire. Despite my regr daily use of it, to boil of water and create more salt, I still woke up on asion to find myself releasing uncontrolled mana, to the point that it wakes me up from my sleep. So far, I have not set anything on fire and the iridescent, green, emerald ne, I was given by my family, on awakening, seemed to be absorbing any of my excess mana. Perhaps if I didn¡¯t have it I would have incinerated, boiled or melted the bed in one form or another. A side effect I had been fortunate to have avoided. Still it made one wonder. In fact, on further reflection, considering all of these causes and effects I suppose it should not have been a surprise that meeting the milestone for rity would have given me a new trait as well as a new hidden consequence. I just, had not realised how debilitating it would be, to be reduced to a literal, as well as figurative, baby once more. I listened without understanding to the pondering speech of my family that had be to slow to understand. While I fought to move slow enough for my body to respond to the signals my brain was sending. Working out how to work around the side effect of this trait was going to take some time. I pondered on the sess and failures of this morning¡¯s final fling. The jump itself had gone well, mother herself taking part and making the throw. Grandfather now sailed with Father and Aleera just in case any denizen of the deep decided to rise for a little nibble again. So far, so good but it was an added insurance and seemed to relieve Father and Aleera that he sailed with them on the dangerous deeps of the sea. The glide went well angling out then in to ensure I was gliding down as shallowly and slowly as I could while approaching the sailboat that skipped across the sea ahead of me. Timing our intercept as carefully as possible meant that I could be caught out of the air as our speeds aligned. The sailboat powered by skills skipped along far faster than the wind along would have allowed. It was not until I was plucked out of the air my control over my purple robes fading as I pulled my mana out. That I heard that fateful chime. Ding! rity reached 100 before age 1 awarded the trait quick witted Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 295,350/ 409,600 Age: 15 months, 2 weeks, 1 days, 12 hours Health: 1180/1180 Stamina: 550/580 Mana: 1210/1210 Psi: 1210/1210 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Vitality: 118 Endurance: 28 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 34 Senses: 121 Mind: 121 rity: 100 Magic: 121 Charisma: 22 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 30) Listening (LV 30) Meditation (LV 39)Swimming (LV 32) Humming (Lv 27)Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25)Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 12) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 14)Sailing (Lv 6) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 1) Melt (Lv 10) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 10200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 1000 Trading experience: 1000 Popr experience: 1000 It all happened so quickly, I didn¡¯t notice it at first. Lost as I was in the contemtion of my new trait and my status screen within my mental fortress I simply felt the warm embrace of my grandfather¡¯s embrace. What did quick-witted mean? That I could think fast? I already had fast learner this felt a little redundant. Although I knew it had to do something it was not immediately apparent from looking at my status. Although a second look at the top of my status showed me something new . . . Level: 11 Name: Kai Experience: 292,350/ 409,600 Age: 15 months, 2 weeks, 1 days, 12 hours Health: 1180/1180 Stamina: 549/580 Mana: 1210/1210 Psi: 1210/1210 My stamina was dropping. This seemed odd. As although I always lost some stamina, from the holding my body in position, for the gliding. I tended to use as much or more magic than muscles to do so and did not lose too much after practicing it so many times. Now that I was held in my families arms though I was not doing anything. So why was my stamina still dropping? I returned to the world and my family only to notice that the world seemed to be standing still. The boat still moved through the water but slower. My grandfather still stood holding me but as he moved to pass me to Aleera I noticed that the world seemed to be moving incredibly slowly. My senses since I gained the trait Super Senses had always seemed to be ufortably strong now seemed muted of their own ord. I could still see more, hear more, sense more in so many different ways but my mind had the time or rity to process them all. I had super speed. Is this what it meant to be quick witted? I tried to move which is when I found the hidden consequence to the trait. I couldn¡¯t. Or at least it felt as if I couldn¡¯t. Held by my Grandfather, I would have been unable to change the trajectory of my movement, but I should have been able to look to the side, raise an arm or move a finger. There might have been a twitch but it was gone and over without any managing any movement at all. Freaking out I panicked but there was no movement at all other than an eye twitch or miniscule movement of my hand. I listened in horror as my family slowly began to possibly congratte me on my final fall. I got to watch in slow motion as their faces shifted through a range of emotions from tion, to confusion, to concern before settling on worry as they questioned me about my most recent glide and I was unable to respond physically or verbally. Oh dear. Chapter 58: The truth of the matter Chapter 58: The truth of the matter ¡°Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.¡± Buddha ¡°The child is imbnced.¡± sighed Grandfather. After I had been caught out of the air, I had been held and carried all the way back to the ind and up to the top of the cliff. Watching the world stand still, had, after my minor panic attack, been entertaining enough for the first hour of subjective time. The problem was I couldn¡¯t yet respond. I retreated into my mind fortress relieved to find everything still the same although mymand center showed the world moving incredibly slowly outside. Meanwhile, my stamina continued to tick down. At this rate I would be napping like a normal baby just when I was supposed to start staying awake a little longer. I couldn¡¯t currently respond to them. But it was giving me plenty of time to think about my dilemma and I had found that if I meditated within my fortress I could wait patiently between their sentences and think slow enough to understand what I was hearing even if I could not maintain my meditation well enough to allow me to control my tongue and speak. I focused on mentally imagining myself breathing in and out while I waited for the inevitable questioning of my sister. It would arrive in the end. I just had to wait for it. Any minute now. Calm and steady. This had to be helping me level up my meditation, not to mention my listening skills. ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Aleera. She was no longer panicking quite so hard now that she had an exnation as to why I was lying there in my mother¡¯s arms without seemingly responding. She had been particrly distraught on the way back to the cliff relegated to holding me while father sailed and grandfather kept an eye out for any denizens of the deep. At least I had not lost my ability to breathe. My hypothmus that governed the automatic functions of my body seemed to be working independently or was unaffected by the increased speed of my consciousness and the elongated subjective time I was now subjected to. I waited for Grandfather¡¯s response. It was like listening to or watching an incredibly slow game of tennis yed on the TV. That was part of the reason I had my eyes closed other than the difficulty of trying to control them. When I watched the world move so slowly the faces everyone made seemed hrious in slow motion andedic in effect. It seemed that there was such ack of control over so many of our movements that we never really noticed because they happened too fast for our eyes to see. ¡°What does imbnced even mean?¡± she eventually asked exasperated by the new weird and wonderful thing her younger brother had managed to do. Unfortunately, this just dyed my grandfather in responding even further from my point of view. Clearly imbnced was something that my new trait had caused. The cause and effect was obvious as I was the one suffering from it. I was just wondering whether Grandfather had an exnation for it and hopefully a cure or solution. Having finally worked out a way to make their speech understandable I was hopeful that in time I would be able to control the rest of my body. It was just going to take some time. Something I now subjectively had a lot of. ¡°Imbnced is really quite simple. It means that one of his stats far outweighs another to a detrimental effect.¡± He finally exined to my sister. I had already worked that one out. How long was it going to take him to get round to a solution. Breathe in and out. 10 subjective seconds in and 10 subjective seconds out. I was going to be very calm by the end of this conversation if I could keep this going and not be driven up my mental walls by the wait. That there was a word to describe my current condition meant that at least I was not alone. Other people must have gone through simr if not exactly the same circumstances to warrant it and when other people had simr problems hopefully other people hade up with viable solutions. Just keep breathing. In and out. ¡°For example, the easiest and mostmon example of imbnce is the brute. This is when, and here I am talking in generalities, mainly youngds stick all their points into strength in an attempt to impress their peers or a youngdy. Although they will be unreasonably strong for their level at best the consequence to their stupidity is that they have little stamina to no stamina. At worse if they have added all their stats to strength without naturally building up sufficient endurance then when their strength bes too high inparison to their vitality and endurance they can literally break apart their own bodies moving, snapping bones or tearing ligaments. There are a variety of cautionary tales on the subject and we have spoken about the importance of maintaining a bnce to your abilities.¡± He exined one state of imbnce in detail. Oh dear. At least I had not done that. Although at my age, current development, and still unable to allocate my stats myself there was little chance of that particr imbnce happening. Strength being one of my lowest stats before I managed to unlock Charisma and Luck. Speaking of luck this was hardly very lucky. How exactly was that stat helping me out here? Could having it so low have a negative effect? ¡°Well that is clearly not what has happened here. What other imbnces are there?¡± Mother asked clearly concerned by my unresponsive state as she quietly rocked me back and forth. This obviously was not a regr problem for most people. If my parents also required rification of the possible problems caused by it. I suppose the only time this was likely to happen was when your system was first unlocked and this was apparently a birds and the bees type of conversation that most parents would have with their children before their 10th birthday. ¡®Remember to take care only do a couple at a time and remember to keep yourself bnced.¡¯ Although it was clear that some imbnces were far worse than others. Thinking about it I had clearly been imbnced several times in thest year but managed to work my way through them. Each imbnce self correcting through skill usage although each one causing another imbnceter. A vitality imbnce cause by my mother led to hardly sleeping. Hardly sleeping and my already strong start of an adults mind in a babies brain allowed me to tip over the mind stat. But this in and of itself seemed to hardly have created an imbnce at all. Perhaps if I hadn¡¯t already spent most of a year in solitary istion within the womb and developed my mind fortress there would have been some negative consequences but as it was I able to simply build it bigger and better spending my mental energies on that. If I had not had the skill would I have been reduced to being trapped in my mind unable to interact with the world much like I was now. Either way this strength had led me to bing imbnced with my senses causing my painful hyper-sensory state, another imbnce. Perhaps this could have been avoided if I had levelled up rity or endurance alongside it. However this imbnce led to the next as Magic tipped over too, I was unsure what could have possibly bnced out the Magic stat but like with Mind there seemed to be little downside to my increased mana production. At some point, with everything bing imbnced one way or another I had to eventually reach a new equilibrium as my stats equalised and aligned. Still if I could have ced my points anywhere they would clearly have to go into Dexterity to speed up my body enough to catch up with my brain. Grandfather finally responded. ¡°Well, the next mostmon imbnce is the mule. Where they have added all their points to their endurance without developing enough strength to counterbnce it. This results in the opposite problem of being unable to move an increasingly durable body. Although this can be worked through providing you train through the increasing resistance of your body and raise your strength naturally. But you can¡¯t simply dump all your points into endurance without causing a problem you have to do it slowly and grow into it.¡± Grandfather described another imbnce he had clearly seen or heard of. This seemed straightforward enough. Equal points into Strength and endurance when I was finally given the option to add them. I didn¡¯t want to break myself but neither did I want to leave myself unable to move much like I was now. Would they think this was what I had managed to do to myself somehow? ¡°Is that what Kai has managed to do? Has he somehow be a mule?¡± Aleera asked curiously. I was clearly not a mule or a brute for that matter. Although maybe it was not clear at all. Hopefully, they would not test this one by bashing my body against things. For once it seemed that Grandfather was not going to pull out a de to make a prick to make his point. Although that was probably more due to the fact that my mother was still holding me rather than any actual improvement in the mental processes of the man. ¡°No, if you were watching him carefully, before he closed his eyes and calmed down his body, he was still moving. Twitching, more than moving admittedly, but it was still a rtively quick movement,pared to what happens to those who have be mules. For them every movement including facial movements particrly the eyes takes forever to happen. No his current imbnce seems be rted to the rtion between brain and body, between his mind stats and his physical stats. There are two thate to mind. Option one, a Twitch somebody who has added too many points to their dexterity stat and their body moves almost too fast for their brain to keep up with and control what they are doing. Option two an Oaf somebody who has far too much strength and endurance without enough dexterity to bnce them. Yet neither of these seems to be the case here with Kai as both are still able to move. Although either too quickly or too slowly. What I fear Kai has managed to somehow do here is be a Cripple.¡± He ominously announced. Oh dear. That did not sound good. I anxiously waited for the inevitable question of my sister. Stay calm. Keep breathing, in and out. But cripple did not sound particrly positive. Most of the terminology he had been using to describe the imbnces had been pejorative. Brute, Mule, Twitch, Oaf and now Cripple. They were clearly considered less than wise people. But was it really my fault? Nobody had warned me. But then again I hadn¡¯t asked. I had been happy keeping mum and now I was paying the consequences. When I finally worked out how to get my body in sinc with my body again the first thing I was doing wasing clean. How much I was not yet sure but I needed to tell them that I could see my status at the bare minimum. They were still working on the false assumption that I couldn¡¯t see my status or my skill levels. How much had my observation of my development changed my development itself? I couldn¡¯t for the life of me remember much about quantum physics but I could remember the quote that observing things changes the oue. How I couldn¡¯t remember but I was worried that it applied here, to me, to what I had managed to achieve. ¡°What¡¯s a cripple?¡± Aleera cautiously asked clearly aware that they answer was not going to be good. I knew the word cripple from my world as someone with some form of physical disability. It was hardly a polite term and like all the other terms for imbnces Grandfather was using, equally derogative. But it worryingly hinted at the fact that this imbnce meant that I might not be able to move. For someone who was only just gaining the ability to walk, run, climb, swim and sail this was going to be a horrible revtion, if it was true. I had only just got my sea legs so to speak I was hardly happy with the idea that I would be losing the use of my legs as well as my arms, eyes, ears and tongue. Although I had managed to gain some control of my ears again. I hoped it would not be too long before I gained control of the rest of my body. ¡°A cripple is someone who has managed to create an average imbnce between his body and brain stats. Too much brawn, the stats for strength, endurance and dexterity leads to a Durd. Too much brain, on the other hand, the stats for senses, mind and rity leads to a Cripple. Somehow Kai seems to have achieved this.¡± Here he paused for an agonisingly long time . . . ¡°Probably by jumping off the cliff.¡± He finished. We are only as sick our secrets and it appears my secret ess to my stats even though I am still unable to allocate them has caused me bigger problems in the long run. A secret kept in the dark grows and be more harmful in the long run. This certainly seems to be the case here. It seemed that my Grandfather was far more aware of what I was capable of than I had believed but at the same time still ignorant of everything I could do. Is this my fault? If I had told them I could see my stats would I be lying here now? If I had told him how high some of them were would he have advocated the same training? But if I had told them of my traits would they still consider me human and not a monster? Throughout all of our growing conversations about stats and statuses not once had traits ever once been mentioned. There was a stunned silence which for me stretched on silently for many a subjective minute. But in real time Mother and Aleera eximed simultaneously, ¡°We did this to Kai?¡± They might have helped. But in the end, I had done this to myself. Hopefully, I would be able to find the cure to it, by myself as well. I had managed work arounds before. I was hopeful I would be able to do the same again. I had my mind and I had been stuck in it before. In fact considering how much I had achieved in it before it was hardly the end of the world. I would just have to wait . . . Hmm, no. I was not going to wait another 9 years to allocate stat points to get myself out of this hole. But neither was I going to despair over it just yet. ¡°But that¡¯s the point! We shouldn¡¯t have been able to imbnce him. He shouldn¡¯t even be able to be imbnced! All growth before you are able to allocate your stats is natural and bnced. You might have a natural strength but it would never grow beyond what the rest of your natural stats could support. There was basically no way to know that this could have happened. I have only ever heard of this happening to people who either did it to themselves over the age of ten or those who were simply born this way. Even those who were born this way, can sometimes, if you help them allocate their stats properly on their 10th birthday alleviate if not eradicate their conditions. I have never heard of a child, without stats, suddenly developing an imbnce. It simply shouldn¡¯t be possible!¡± A frustrated and unsatisfied Grandfather grumbled to both himself and the rest of the family. While grandfather seemed to be repeating himself as much as justifying himself. It seemed to add weight to the idea, that simply by seeing my stats and skills, I had somehow managed to direct my growth, beyond what a normal child would have been able to do so. Unfortunately to a detrimental effect. I had always believed my growth to be beyond what a normal child could have achieved. Having had a functioning brain from the very start, along with a wealth of a modern world¡¯s knowledge, I felt I had been assured a ce myself among the geniuses of the Compass Kingdom¡¯s history abined version of Mozart, Pascal, Neumann and Da Vinci. But no I had crippled myself and this was after I discovered that I was not as special as I had believed on the Merchant¡¯s ship when I found out that the rich could simply buy their offspring their experience and levels. Obviously, we are all born ignorant but I seem to have worked particrly hard to remain stupid. ¡°But what if he did?¡± Mother quietly asked as she held me tight to her chest in concern or possibly guilt. Where was mother taking this conversation? What did she know? I had already been abused of the notion that I had hidden all my secrets from my Grandfather. Who else had I failed to keep my secrets from and what did she know. It was just as well I was unable to control my facial features at the moment as I am sure I would have given the game away many a time throughout this conversation. I was going to have to level up my acting skills if I was ever going to re-join society once more at ater date. ¡°Did what?¡± Grandfather asked confused. We all waited for mother to respond some of us felt the time go a lot slower than others but we were all resigned to waiting for my mothers response. ¡°What if he had a status and stats from the very moment he was born?¡± Chapter 59: A mothers secret Chapter 59: A mother''s secret ¡°If you want to keep a secret then you have to hide it from yourself.¡± George Orwell Now, this I had to see! My eyes spasmed open enough for me to be able to look between the lids. I left them where they were. It would have been nice to open them further but I couldn¡¯t have guaranteed that they would have remained open at all. So, I left them where they were and was fortunate enough to be able to watch as my family turned towards my mother. I kept breathing in and out. Staying calm enough to stay slow enough to listen. The moment I had attempted to move I had lost control of the movement. My eyelids both started and finished opening before they had moved a finger. ¡°From his birth?¡± grandfather questioned my mother. ¡°No one has stats when they are born. No one. Not themoners, not the nobles, not the kings, and if the unification of thepass kingdoms ever happens in the far distant future not even the future emperor. It simply does not happen.¡± He adamantly argued his position. Grandfather had some very fixed views of what was and wasn¡¯t possible. ording to what he was describing, what I had achieved simply was not possible. Beyond improbable but then wasn¡¯t my whole existent one improbability stacked on top of another. I had died, be aware, been born again, on another world another. Who knew if I was even in the same universe? The stars here certainly didn¡¯t look the same. And when the whole world existed within a system of levels, stats, experience, and traits it was clear that whatever Gods existed here were vastly different from the ones in the world where I came from. ¡°I never mentioned it because I knew you were already against the pregnancy after myst miscarriage.¡± She exined defensively. I had heard parts of this before from Grandfather but never had I heard my mother¡¯s side of the story before. I knew I had been lucky to be born alive. As angry as I had been at the time I knew that the points my mother had somehow assigned to my vitality had been what had stopped my health from hitting 0. What would have happened had they hit 0? It didn¡¯t take a genius to guess and it wasn''t something I wanted to test anytime soon. ¡°I am happy Kai was born alive but I was against it because you were simply too strong to bring him to term. On this ind, without a dedicated healer to assist in the birth, the fact that Kai was born alive at all was a miracle. I told you this before but you didn¡¯t listen and it isn¡¯t just the child that is at risk when giving birth, it is the mother too. How could I protect you from what your body is doing to itself? You and Aleera, are all I have left to protect. I didn¡¯t want you to die just to give Kaius a son. It was not worth it.¡± He defended his position emotionally. It was strange to see my grandfather, who was normally so gruff and emotionless with my sister and me, so emotional about something he had been unable to control. Angry, yes. Particrly, when we had not listened or even entertained sometimes by our failures. But perhaps, it was precisely because he was unable to control my mother¡¯s decisions to grow the family with my father, that he was so emotional about the oue and the possible failures inherent in it. ¡°Exactly, I was too strong to deliver a system-less Kai alive.¡± She reiterated her point. I could see where mother was going with this and possibly my sister could too, judging by the slow micro-expressions flickering across her face. But the point she was developing seemed to still be going over grandfather¡¯s head. I guessed we all have our own blind spots and sometimes being able to listen to loved ones are often ourrgest ones. He wasn¡¯t listening to what my mother was trying to say. ¡°That¡¯s what I said. It was a miracle.¡± He repeated himself. Double or nothing. He doubled down on his position unwilling or unable to see beyond what he had thought was possible. Father had caught on too or perhaps he had already been aware informed of the fact by my Mother. Perhaps, that was the impetuous for the swimming lessons he had subjected me to if he had been aware. We all awaited my Grandfathers enlightenment through my mother¡¯s words. Finally, ¡°There was a miracle indeed. But, it wasn¡¯t his survival. He wasn¡¯t born without a system. He wasn¡¯t born without stats. At the moment of his birth when things looked like they had begun to go wrong. I was offered the option to assign him his points. Parental override the system called it while he was still attached by his umbilical cord a part of me so to speak. Offered I believe because he was dying. I could feel him failing, faltering before he had even drawn his first breath. So, I did what the system suddenly allowed me to do, the only thing I could do, and assigned whatever he had rued to Vitality. How he had anything to assign I don¡¯t know. How many points he had to assign I don¡¯t know.¡± My family stared at my mother either in surprise and disbelief or in a confirmation of a revtion they had teetered around for so long now. I was so busted. But it was hardly as if they were all idiots. The writing had always been on the wall they just had different pieces of the mosaic and when they put them together it was immediately obvious. But then everything always is in hindsight. ¡°As I said, I don¡¯t know how many points I assigned or how much he had in each stat. But when he was born, I was given that option. I believe that he has been able to see his stats from the very moment of his birth, if not even before then when he was within the womb.¡± She sighed with exhaustion as she relieved herself of her secret. She had finally, explicitly, told him what had to be, after the ident of my rebirth in another world, my deepest, darkest secret. Was nothing sacred any longer? But, I supposed keeping secrets had not ended up well for me today. Any light shed on the matter could hopefully only improve matters. She had botched the delivery repeating herself and going around the issue more than once but it was finally clear to all the family. I was and always had been a little monster. ¡°But that¡¯s . . .¡± he hesitated clearly wanting to way the word impossible. But with the evidence slowly mounting up against him. He found himself unable to repeat a position he knew was no longer tenable. Grandfather finally sat down resting his head in his hands as he considered the possibility and what it might have meant for everything I had achieved and done so far. A child that had been born with an almost unhealthy amount of health who had awakened magic before his time. Had it always been there? He didn¡¯t know about my traits yet and I was currently unable to tell them. When discussing bing imbnced he had never mentioned how big the ratios need to be to induce it. Was it 5 to 1 or 10 to 1. Either way, I had never managed to reach those ratios. The imbnces only happened after my traits were activated. They were clearly multipliers for the stats I had gained them from. Although by how much I didn''t know. ¡°What difference would that make?¡± Father asked. ¡°We always knew he was special. So what if he could see his status. That doesn¡¯t necessarily mean he could understand . . .¡± he hesitated here. He was probably going to say that I would not have been able to understand it, but if there was one thing that my family knew, it was that I was not stupid. And thinking about what he was going to say, even despite the unlikelihood of a newborn understanding numbers and the system when shown to them for the very first time, it was still not something my father was going to bet against me knowing. Especially seeing as the status and stats was something instinctually understood by most, even those without literacy skills, the illiterate among us. Aleera had spoken of seeing pearls to represent her stats. While I was unsure that a newborn with no concept of the world or of numbers would have been able to use to represent such things. It was clear that my father was not going to state that I couldn¡¯t have done it. ¡°Well, that would exin theck of sleeppared to other children. When he was first born.¡± Grandfather finally responded to my mother¡¯s final statement. ¡°He always did need less sleep than a newborn.¡± He began to talk again. Whether he was simply talking it out, out loud to himself or exining it to the family I couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°Still doesn¡¯t exin why he is smarter than average but if his Stats were already viewable from within the womb then he must have been sentient as well then too. The leveling with your skills, I always suspected that the unborn infant could hear and react to words outside the womb, but that right there is proof. You were not simply singing to yourself but you were singing to him, teaching him. That¡¯s why you were leveling quicker than usual because he was aware because he was gaining skills, levels, experience, and levels before we had even met him. What kind of soul could support this? An old soul in a new body?¡± he pontificated. That right there was awfully close to the truth. But with my crippled body, I had the best poker face, a reincarnated adult from another world could ever hope to ask for. It was not simply that my face was calm and collected. It was as if nobody was at home at all. My eyes might have been minutely opened but I was unable to change the direction they were pointing in without the risk of being left looking at the back of my eyelids for the next subjective hour. I was left looking in whatever direction my mother pointed me in. and luckily right now it was still towards the rest of my family. While this was all immensely interesting this trip through memoryne and the revtions of my mother epiphanies of my grandfather did little to change my situation. I had been hoping to hear a solution. Aleera suddenly sat straight up. ¡°If Mother . . . If you allocated his stats before can¡¯t you do so now too? We all know Kai. We all know he can do more than he should be able to do. If he has had his stats since the very beginning there is no way that he hasn¡¯t gained another level or two since then. Especially not with him purchasing the ind and surviving an assassination and all. He should have free points to spare. Couldn¡¯t you put them into his physical stats to bnce his body? His dexterity if that is where the problem seems to lie.¡± She asked putting forth a solution. I felt a moment of glee. I was sitting on at least 30 free points. If all of that was added to my dexterity it would take me up to 64 surely that would take my body up to speed. Allow my brain and body to reconnect. Or at least connect better than it was currently doing so. Unfortunately, my moment of hope was dashed quickly. ¡°That only ever happened once. It hasn¡¯t happened since and it is something I, your father, or grandfather, have never heard of happening at all.¡± She said sadly. I gave up on listening to the conversation surrounding me, seeing as no solution was immediately forting, I settled back into my mind fortress. It had been a home away from home for so long now. I had well and truly messed up my progression this time. As I stopped trying to slow everything down my subjective time sped up and I had time to sense everything around me. This would probably do wonders for leveling up any skills that relied on my senses with so much more time to analyse them. There were bound to be plenty of ways in which I could take advantage of this. But having spent months in istion I was not keen to start that again. Although I had not known my family long I had also known them all of my life. I loved them and missed them. There had to be a way to work this one out. Crippled, I may be, in body but not in mind. The question was what could I do with my mind and the answer . . . a lot. Chapter 60: Mind over matter Chapter 60: Mind over matter ¡°Mind over matter represents the triumph of will over physical hindrance. Our thoughts are our weapon against the world.¡± David Adam I had been here before. Sat in my mind watching the world go by outside without being able to interact. I had coped then I would cope now. In fact, built on the foundations of that time most of my skills were either mental or magical in one form or another. Sense Mana didn¡¯t need my eyes to function. Echolocation used my ears but I had already managed to get them to function. Those two skills were all I needed to perceive the world around me much like I had in the womb and I had only gotten better since then. Indeed, mytest trait gave me so much more time to do so as my brain zipped along at speeds that made the world seem as if it was standing still. The counterbnce to this was the steady speed at which my stamina slowly dropped. If my family could have noticed my stamina dropping they would surely have been aware that significantly more was going on in here than they feared. Or worried about. I was going to start by cataloging my skills, working out which ones were rted to which stat, work out which ones I could still practice within the confines of my mind, when I realised, I was no longer trapped within my mother, there was no reason I couldn¡¯t use my magic, to let them know I was not aplete invalid. How to do that withoutpletely freaking them out though, that was the question. I could set things on fire, melt them, freeze them or boil them but none of those seemed to be the right way to go surprisingly enough. That left me with Gale or Material Maniption and while I was tempted to blow air in people¡¯s faces, I doubted that was going to do much to convey anything more than annoyance to my family. Material maniption it was. Luckily, as I had already worked out I could still sense the world around me through the use of my skills if not so much my eyes and ears. I could also spend the subjective time to manipte a material carefully and slowly at least to them rather than brute forcing it as I had always done. Slowly, I used mana maniption and material maniption to use my clothes to point forwards. Fluttering up and off my body to point towards my mothers workstation. Slowing my mind down once more, I listened to my family¡¯s shocked gasps. The conversation and the agonisingly slow realisation that I wanted them to take me in the direction my clothes were pointing. I admit maybe it wasn¡¯t immediately obvious but it was the best I could do with the resources I had at hand. Resources I hoped to improve if they took me to where I wanted them to. Painfully slowly, from my perspective, I was carried to the bin where mother kept her wool. Finally, I had something better to work with than my clothes. Using the wool, I was able to manipte it into the word for ¡®hello¡¯. This was then followed by the short sentence ¡®I can hear.¡¯ Another round of surprise worked its way around the family. Now they knew I was still there, I could still hear even if I couldn¡¯t move myself round. First things first. They all had a question to ask and piled in on top of one another asking them. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Mother asked my recumbent form clearly concerned with my welfare. While Aleera was less diplomatic about it. ¡°Are you just messing with us?¡± Not quite yet ready to forgive the scare I had put them through this morning. Father didn¡¯t have a question to ask just a statement, ¡°We¡¯ve got you. Don¡¯t worry it¡¯ll be okay.¡± I wasn¡¯tpletely convinced that he knew what he was talking about but it was nice to know that he was optimistic about my situation. Grandfather, on the other hand, was less concerned about my wellbeing, knew I wasn¡¯t messing around and less optimistic about my predicament. He cut straight to the heart of my secrets, ¡°Can you see your status? Have you always been able to see your status?¡± he demanded. Um. I spelled out the words Yes, No, Thanks and . . . Yes and . . .Yes to answer their questions. There wasn¡¯t really any point in hiding it from them any longer. They had outlined my situation more or less urately when discussing my current disability. Perhaps if I had been more honest about my status I would have been warned about the pitfalls of developing an imbnce and wouldn¡¯t be in my current quandary. Although to be fair they still didn¡¯t know about my traits yet, or the number of skills I had, or their levels, or the fact that I was a soul from another world and remembered a different life. Okay I was still keeping a lot from them. Would I always only confirm what they already knew or would I offer more. ¡°And why didn¡¯t you tell us you could see them?¡± Grandfather quizzed. While mother defended me, ¡°He¡¯s just a child. Leave him alone.¡± ¡°He is just a baby not even a child but has he ever behaved like one?¡± Unwilling to give up on his line of questioning. While I hesitated to do so getting Aleera to answer this question was easier than writing outplicated answers. ¡®Ask Aleera¡¯ I left the answerid out for them on the table in my mother¡¯s wool. They all turned to Aleera expectantly. ¡°Well he asked before, but I said we don¡¯t talk about our status and our stats. Less we be eaten up.¡± She quietly replied. ¡°Eaten up?¡± Kaius asked confused. ¡°Are you still going on about that stupid fable?¡± Mother turned to Grandfather unimpressed. ¡°If it stops children talking about their stats before they know what¡¯s important in life it is effective and works. And if it works it¡¯s not stupid¡± He argued back. ¡°Well maybe that is just one of the reasons Kai hasn¡¯t spoken about his status then isn¡¯t it.¡± She responded sarcastically back. ¡°Well there¡¯s no reason you couldn¡¯t have mentioned your suspicions either.¡± He said pointedly still unforgiving for having been left out of the loop. ¡°And if I had? What would you have done?¡± she was almost shouting at grandfather. ¡°I remember my time growing up! I saw what you put Aleera through! And although I never dreamed you would do something simr with a baby we now we know what you put Kai through too. What would you have done if you had known he could see his status?¡± She had passed me to Father to advance on my Grandfather. It was difficult to tell whether her anger was for herself my sister or for me as it was all wrapped up together and thrown at him. ¡°It was all to keep you safe. The strong will always rule the weak. No one can hurt you if you are stronger than them.¡± He tiredly exined as if this was a repetition of an argument often held where he knew neither one would be able to convince the other. ¡°We are safe. No one rules here and you are strong enough to protect us all. What are you so afraid of?¡± she seemed exhausted by her anger and repeating an argument she had clearly had many a time already with him. I wondered if realised she had also redirected the conversation away from questioning either me or Aleera. ¡°We have been safe because we have kept ourselves hidden. We weren¡¯t ruled, because no one was interested in a small ind, at the edge of the known world. Finally, just because I am strongpared to the humans here, that does not make me strong enough to protect you. Not from the denizens of the deep, the creatures that crawl through the earth, the spirits of death that soar through the sky, or the men of thepass kingdoms who can sometimes be more monster than man.¡± He argued, angry that he could not convince my mother of a danger she had never faced. I on the other hand had arge imagination and if the Goblin Shark was anything to go from then things on the world came inrger sizes and that was even before they became magical or mythical. Was my mother still refusing to listen simply because he was her father. Father finally stepped in to calm their ire and refocus them on the problem at hand namely me and my inability to move. ¡°Will knowing Kai¡¯s stats help us work out the imbnce?¡± he asked as he wrapped his arms around his wife and holding her close to his chest. ¡°Yes.¡± He begrudgingly answered letting go of an argument older than I was to focus on the problem at hand. ¡°Well Kai,¡± father asked, ¡°How strong is my little champion sailor?¡± This was the moment of truth for me. How much to reveal. How much to disclose. I had lied by omission and that had led me here. But they still hadn¡¯t told me what theirs were and I was hesitant to open this particr can of worms. Once they started asking how far down the rabbit hole that was my soul were they going to want to go. Honesty is the best policy at least I wouldn¡¯t have to remember any lies moving forward. Slowly for me but quickly for them I spelled out 28 on the table to a collective inhale of breath. Was that good or bad. Good I would have thought seeing as Aleera had strongly implied that 5 year olds awakened their status sheet with a set of stats filled at 10. ¡°That¡¯s my boy.¡± Father seemed excited at my strength, while Aleera looked suspicious, and mother outright concerned. I had answered all their questions so far. What about them answering mine. Before they could ask me another question or quiz me about the rest of my stats. I quickly spelled out, ¡®Normal?¡¯ on the table. Grandfatherughed, ¡°Nothing about you has ever been normal. But if you are asking what most children start with, then the average child will awaken their stats around the age of 5 and they usually start with 10 in strength. Now with training they can add their starting amount to it most years throughout their childhood up to the age of 20. Although we don¡¯t talk about it. Aleera should be sitting on a strength of at least 50. So, no Kai, not normal. You are roughly 6 years ahead in terms of your stat gains and have the strength stat of a 7 year old.¡± I was over half as strong as Aleera. That hardly felt right. She regrly carried me and moved me around. There was no way I could have stopped or halted her from moving me around at all. Something didn¡¯t add up here. ¡°I strong as 7?¡± I might have been able to spell it out quickly on the table but there was only so much wool that I had managed to get my hands on so far. ¡°No darling.¡± Mother picked me up once more to cuddle me. ¡°You are only a third of their size so even if you had the same strength stat your vessel your body being limited still in size would only be able to apply a third of it. In time you will grow into your stats just as you grow into your body.¡± ¡°He¡¯s still as strong as a 5 year old though.¡± Crowed father still happy with what I had revealed. And I suppose if the average 5 year old started with a stat strength of 10 and were 3 times my size while I with a stat strength of nearly 30 whilst being a third of their size we should average out equally. Suspicious Aleera asked the follow up question, ¡°What about your endurance and dexterity?¡± ¡°28 and 34.¡± I replied cautiously in my head at least. There wasn¡¯t anything cautious about it when it wasid out on the table in what felt like lead rather than wool. ¡°You¡¯ll make a great sailor.¡± Proudly boasted raising a ss to toast my outstanding attributes. Father still seemed a little fixated on what my potential stats might mean for a career on a boat. Aleera seemed happy to be confirming what she had already believed that I was a little monster. Mother and Grandfather though seemed to be thinking through the consequences of my statements and questioning why if those were my attributes for brawn why then was I currently presenting as a cripple. ¡°And your vitality?¡± Mother quietly whispered. Father picking up on the changing mood of the room quietened down, sipping his beer quietly while he waited for my answer. This was the big one. Well it wasn¡¯t the biggest one, but it was the first of my more outrageous attributes. If they had been struck speechless by the impossibility of me being able to have stats in the first ce, they had slowly grown to ept that I did. Even been proud of my strong start in life. But how would they respond when Iid this one out. ¡°1 . . . 1 . . . 8.¡± ¡°Eleven seems a little low in . . .¡± Aleera started to say, before halting, to the sound of my father spraying his beer out across the table. I¡¯d let the cat out of the bag, it was time to face the consequences, but at least it wouldn¡¯t be the skeleton in the closet. There was something freeing in finally letting them know. Chapter 61: Identifying the imbalance Chapter 61: Identifying the imbnce ¡°If you are unable to understand the cause of a problem it is impossible to solve it.¡± Naoto Kan Stunned silence dripped to the floor, as the beer slowly trickled its way down the wall. They sat for a second absorbing the new information. Needless to say, from the earlier conversation I had already realised that 118 was well beyond what even a 10-year-old would have unless they had assigned their free points to it. Something I had not been able to do. But something my mother had done for me in saving my life the hour it had started. Telling the truth was going to rock the boat, a little, but seeing as my body, or boat, in this metaphor already had a hole in it, and had sunk. It did not seem like I could possibly do any more damage by rocking it when I was already 6 feet under the waves. ¡°118?¡± I winced internally at Aleera¡¯s shrill questioning, happy I was safe in my mother¡¯s arms again. Without a facial response to focus on she was leftining to the table where the numbers were written in wool. ¡°That¡¯s more than me?¡± sheined. ¡°How does he have more than me?¡± She turned to Grandfather. ¡°He¡¯s supposed to be my little brother.¡± She argued with father before she turned back to me again, demanding crossly, ¡°Can you assign your stats?¡± It appeared that this was what she found unfair the most and to seemed like the only possible exnation for how I had overtaken her. ¡°Darling, you know you can¡¯t assign your stats till you are 10.¡± Father yed the peacemaker in the family. ¡°Yes Father! And you can¡¯t ess your stats till your 5. We all know the system doesn¡¯t y fair when ites to Kai!¡± This was the most childish my sister had ever appeared. A confusing turn of events, but then she had just learned that her baby brother had more vitality than her, despite being over 8 years older. There were bound to be some ruffled feathers among the family dynamics. ¡°Well . . .¡± Father was left unable to argue the case seeing as there were already a few unprecedented moments this morning when it came to the system regarding what could and couldn¡¯t be done and by what age. ¡°Hmph,¡± he cleared his throat, ¡°How do you have 118 points of Vitality? And like Aleera asked can you assign them?¡± He asked me repeating Aleera¡¯s question admittedly a lot more calmly than she had practically screamed at me. ¡°No I can¡¯t¡±, I wrote defensively on the table. Not that it would have appeared anything other than defensive after my sister¡¯s outburst. ¡°Mother,¡± I added responded reminding them of Mother¡¯s earlier confession of adding points to my vitality. There was a moment of quiet contemtion, considering first the fact that I like most other children should not be able to assign my points freely and secondly that mother¡¯s belief in what she had managed to do earlier was actually the truth. She quietly asked, ¡°How many points did I assign?¡± I remembered my frustration at the time. When all the work of my time within the womb was assigned away. It had feltpletely unfair at the time whether or not it had saved my life. I had had ns. A build I wanted to aim for and her motherly intervention, although timely and necessary to save my life, had disrupted them. I straightened out the wool before writing with it again, ¡°80.¡± This time, my father wasn¡¯t drinking, so there wasn¡¯t a spray of beer across the table to herald my announcement. Perhaps he had learned from his earlier mistake or was just being cautious this time around. Aleera though was less forgiving. ¡°Mother can¡¯t have assigned 80 free points to vitality on your birth day. That would mean that you were at least Level 8 before you were even born.¡± She argued. ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± It was interesting, that my sister, who had always known me for the little monster I was, had the most difficulty with epting my monstrous stats. If I had been someone else, perhaps she would have had less difficulty epting them, but I believed it was probably because I was her little brother that she had the difficulty. After today, she would have a harder time thinking of me as her little brother, when for the next year or at least until she turned 10 and was able to assign her stats, I would outweigh her in terms of my status. ¡°Is it so hard to believe, Aleera?¡± Grandfather mused thinking out loud. ¡°You know the first levelse the easiest. A single skill can gain you several levels if practiced long enough and within the womb what else would a sentient being have to do other than practice. More importantly though what quirk did you receive for passing 100, Kai?¡± he questioned moving on to something altogether different. ¡°Quirk?¡± Aleera questioned Grandfather before I could respond, perhaps jealous that there would be another level to the absurdity that was my vitality score. ¡°Yes, for reaching 100 before the age of 10 most noble children who manage to do so receive a quirk to their status. Now seeing as it is vitality that we are talking about the quirk added to his status should be along the lines of hale, tough or robust. There are a variety of quirks named differently but all rted to health in one form or another, making them more resistant to disease or poison, less likely to be injured, or helping them to heal quicker. There are a myriad of quirks but they are all worth getting. The question though Kai, is what is yours?¡± Again, everyone turned to look at me before focussing once more on the table. ¡°No quirk.¡± I wrote, disbelief slowly etched itself on my grandfather¡¯s face as his eyebrow rose but before he could respond and before I could be denounced once more by my sister as a liar, I quickly added the words, ¡°Trait . . . before 1 . . . Long . . . Lived¡± ¡°And what does that mean?¡± Aleera grumpily asked her family, exasperated by the repeated tangents this conversation was taking. The whole point of the conversation was supposed to be working out a way to bnce my stats but all that we seemed to be doing so far was highlighting the problems I had created for myself. And the numerous ways in which I had managed to imbnce myself. ¡°Well this means that Kai is now officially half-elf as Elves are the only race that is likely to ever hit 100 in vitality before the age of 1, or they are just born automatically with the trait, who knows, I don¡¯t.¡± Grandfather threw his hands in the air in despair before sarcastically adding, ¡°I am assuming that Kaius was the father and not an Elf or a Troll?¡± he said pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. The whole situation seemed to be bing increasingly stressful for him. Whether it was the worry over my health, frustration over beingpletely unaware of the extent of my abilities or anger at being unable so far to affect much I wasn¡¯t sure. Perhaps it was something else altogether entirely. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Kaius stood to back his wife resting his hand on her shoulder. ¡°He¡¯s our son as you well know.¡± Defending both my mother and me or perhaps just reassuring himself through repetition as to my parentage. While Aleera seemed confused by the addition of Elf and Troll to the conversation, ¡°Elf or Troll?¡± ¡°A trait isn¡¯t a quirk. It is a racial attribute. It is the difference between the characteristic of an individual and the gics of a character. They are a world apart, think of a quirk as an addition to your vitality stat and a trait as a multiplier of it. Ergo Elf or Troll. Elves are the noble race with vitality as a strength and have the trait Long-Lived meaning they heal quicker, are more resistant to disease, less likely to be injured, and just generally live ten times longer than we do. While Trolls are the base race with vitality as a strength and have the trait regeneration which does pretty much exactly the same thing only they aren¡¯t quite so pretty about it.¡± He answered as he ran his hands through his hair before biting his knuckles, as if his brain was quickly running down the branching problems my trait could cause him or us in the future. ¡°So Kai¡¯s a half-elf?¡± she turned to mother and father confused. ¡°No Kai¡¯s your brother and our son. He just appears to have gained his system and levels earlier than most and I unknowingly assigned them all to his vitality, because he was dying when he was born. As your grandfather well knows!¡± She calmly responded to Aleera before ring crossly at her father. ¡°You know what this means though. If he has that level of points supporting his brawn how on earth has he managed to gain the imbnce, crippled. Have you ever heard of a crippled elf or troll?¡± Now both hands were going through his hair and if he wasn¡¯t careful his hair would be leaving with his hands. Aleera though hadn¡¯t forgotten the 80 points and the 8 levels they represented. ¡°If you were level 8 when you were born Kai. What level are you now?¡± she cautiously asked as if she didn¡¯t really want to know the answer but still had to know anyway. In for a penny, in for a pound, besides, was there really that much of difference between level 8 and level 11. They sounded rtively close together. But I couldn¡¯t resist answering with writing, ¡°You told me not to say.¡± On the table in an effort to avoid answering a moment longer. ¡°That was then this is now.¡± She argued back in front of our parents and grandfather who were equally keen to find out but willing to let her ask the questions. ¡°You first.¡± I facetiously returned the question. I didn¡¯t see why this had to be solely the interrogation of the infant. Turn about was fair y in the family. Although knowing her level wouldn¡¯t exactly help me unbnce myself. At least I¡¯d have a greater understanding of where I stood in the world. ¡°It¡¯s not apetition children,¡± mother intervened before she could respond. ¡°Both of you need to grow up a little, and believe me, Kai, the irony is not lost on me.¡± She spoke to the two of us. Although, as I had throughout the entirety of this conversation, I responded not at all. I was going to be eternally grateful that my respiratory system worked without and separate from my status. Otherwise, I would have had to spend all my focus and attention on trying to get my body to breathe in and out without stuttering and stalling. ¡°I¡¯m Level 12.¡± She proudly answered, telling her parents for perhaps the first time. It was clear that getting to level 12 before your 10th birthday was something to be proud of especially seeing as that would mean she had 120 free points to spend when she finally had her tenth birthday. Mother and Father both congratted her on her progress while Grandfather clearly looked like he felt he could have gotten her higher if he had been given more time to work with her than he had been allowed. I knew she wasn¡¯t going to be happy with me or my answer. But the letters formed in the wool anyway. Best to rip off the bandage quickly I thought. At least I wasn¡¯t at a higher level than her. ¡°Level 11.¡± I wrote. The silver lining to the number was that there wasn¡¯t another number 8 to be added on after the 11 this time. Although I was sure Aleera was waiting just to make sure the other shoe didn¡¯t drop before she responded, questioned, or just generally justined about my level and progress. ¡°How is that fair? I know it isn¡¯t apetition, but when faced with my brother achieving in nearly 1 year what it has taken me nearly a decade to attain, don¡¯t I have a right toin?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t measure your sess by someone else¡¯s ruler. We¡¯ve already worked out Kai is a catalyst. As such he is always going to gain experience and level at a different rate to others. That has nothing to do with you, the hard work you have put in and the progress you have made. But you can make the most of this. The closer you stick to him, work with him, learn with and teach him the quicker you will rise. Don¡¯t drive your brother away by being cross about it. But make the most of it. Grow alongside and with your brother. You will only empower one another if you do.¡± Mother consoled her. ¡°We are proud of what you have achieved and if you can face it Grandfather has always been ready and willing to push you harder. Not that, that, is necessary mind you. We love you for who you are, not what level you might be, as proud as we are of your progress.¡± Regardless of Aleera belittling herself, I was impressed with Level 12. I had been stuck on Level 10 for so long it seemed. Only making it to Level 11 with my grandpa¡¯s money. I suppose he must have done the same for Aleera, but still, I wondered, how in the Compass Kingdoms she had managed to get the rest of the experience points of over the years. Especially if her near decade of progress was actually only made in the 4 years since her system had unlocked. I wanted to ask. But I wouldn¡¯t. Her feelings were clearly tender at the moment and I didn¡¯t want to rub any salt in any of her wounds. If I could have expected her to understand, I would have drawn an emoji of a smiling face on the table. But it could ofe off sarcastic. If there was one thing I didn¡¯t miss about my world it was trying to guess the right emoji for the sentence and how it could be taken wrong by the one receiving the message. Did not miss that at all. ¡°So Kai is Level 11, has a vitality of 118 a strength of 28 an endurance of 28 and a dexterity of 34. If he has all of that, as his brawn, why then is he acting as if he is crippled.¡± Father finally summarised and asked returning to the original question that started the entire debate over where my imbncey. ¡°I wonder indeed,¡± Grandfather asked, almost sardonically. ¡°What are your senses sitting at Kai?¡± The old grump knew. I might have shocked him at first but other than my sister he had always had a better handle of who I was and what I could do. While I had enjoyed their reactions to my first revtion I wasing to regret being as honest as I was. It just felt a little awkward now. As if we were actually talking about some sort of taboo subject. Which didn¡¯t really make sense considering where I had lived my first life. But here and now with my sister listening on and getting disheartened by the progress, I had made I found it getting harder and harder to give them the next shock or surprise. Although it was my life, the numbers had always made it seem like a bit of a video game. Not something to take too seriously just something to power on up through. But for my family, it had never been a game and it had never been anything other than theirplete life. While mother might have told Aleera that it was who she was not what her level was that mattered. Your level and stats were clearly the second most important thing in this world. Without family, without stats you had nothing. I hesitated, wondering whether I could pretend I had fallen asleep. I mean it wouldn¡¯t be like they could tell, limp as a ragdoll Iy. Grandfather tapped his fingers twice on the table to hurry me up. If there was one person here who was not going to let me pretend I was asleep it was him. Furthermore, he would hesitate to wake me up if I did. Resigned to revealing all I wrote ¡°121¡± in the wool. I didn¡¯t hesitate when I finally added them to the table there was no 1 . . . 2 . . . 1 this time. The numbers and the inhtion of air around the table instantaneous. ¡°And how have you . . .¡± I could hear what Aleera mumbled and clearly wanted to ask. How had I managed to achieve that if my mother had not added any points to my stats? The questions were getting harder to answer. I struggled to think of how I was going to respond to that question when it was finally asked. I let go of holding myself to the slower time while listening to the world. I let go and fell into my head allowing my subjective time to speed up. It might cost me more in terms of stamina but it would give me time to think through my answer. Plus if I was lucky I might just spend enough stamina to finally fall asleep. The Vitality had been my mother¡¯s fault more than mine. Yes, it had meant that I was a little bit of an insomniac over thest year but what I had chosen to do with that extra time was the reason for my senses stat. Well, that and my time isted within the womb. Here I supposed the reason I had done so well with the senses stat was because I had managed to sense Mana very nearly from the beginning. A new sensation was perhaps easier for me to sense than a native to this world and had known no different. That and the fact that I had never stopped sensing it since. Working on my skills through the night and sensing everything and at every opportunity had helped me to level all of my sensory skills. Then as my sensory skills levels had risen so too had the points I had in my senses stat. Was she not aware of how to raise her stats? Was thismon knowledge? Or was there another reason not to? I had never asked and no one had ever told me. At least I didn¡¯t have to mention that Senses was actually my third stat to get a trait in. When I thought about my Mind stat in more detail I found it a little bit embarrassing that the system felt that when I arrived or gained consciousness however it happened I only had the mind stat of an 8-year-old. That was just depressing. Still, we hadn¡¯t got around to them asking about my mind stat yet. Maybe children in this world were just particrly smart. That or I clearly hadn¡¯t been using a lot of my brain in my old world before I reincarnated. Not really a surprise, I could have done more, seen more, been more in myst life. ¡°No Aleera, your question stands and I will ask it if you don¡¯t.¡± Aleera had finally calmed down and hesitated to jump on questioning my answer after she had been reassured by the love of her mother. Grandfather as always was less hesitant to cut to the heart of the matter. ¡°How have you managed to get up to 121 in your senses without your mother adding any points to your status? Even if you started at 10 at birth you should still only have naturally grown up to around 29 points if your senses stat stayed in line with your strength, endurance, and dexterity stats. What is different between you and Aleera? You both have the same parents, same house, same upbringing.¡± And as usual, waspletely insensitive in how direct and pointed his questions were. ¡°Maybe a tad less aggressive Father. Bearing in mind he is still a child. Kai, how do you think you got to 121 in your senses stat?¡± Mother intervened. For once not raising her voice at her father, as if to make a point, that if she could be calm and collected, then so could he. How was I supposed to exin my growth when I didn¡¯t understand it fully myself. I didn¡¯t have their knowledge of what was and wasn¡¯t possible only guesses. I didn¡¯t have a full understanding of roughly what age people achieved level 10, 15, or 20 level skills at. Was it really fair to ask me to exin, when I didn¡¯t actually know, I could only guess and hypothesize? Hesitantly I wrote, ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Calmly, as if to show that he too could be collected Grandfather patiently asked, ¡°But you have some ideas?¡± I had spent a lot of time trying to work this one out. Admittedly to see if I could get my traits and the answer I hade up with was, ¡®I thought it might be my sensory skills that helped me to level.¡¯ Now I wasn¡¯t going to try and spell all of that out so I simply settled for writing ¡®Sensory Skills¡¯ on the table in wool. Aleea butted in, ¡°How would that help?¡± Grandfather postted for her benefit and mine, ¡°It isn¡¯tpletely urate to say that a level in a sensory skill can give you a point in senses. But . . . there does seem to be some corrtion with improving your sensory skills and your senses stat increasing. Whether that is because you are getting better at your skill and your senses improve or your senses improving which helps you to level your skill is an area up for debate. A bit like the philosophical conundrum of which came first the chicken or the egg. If he has enough sensory skills they could, in theory, allow him to level up his senses stat as he has levelled up their skill levels. But first, he would require gaining the skills, and second he would have had to level them up at the same time.¡± He exined to Aleera. ¡°So, what sensory skills do you have?¡± he asked me. Looking at my status I started to list my sensory skills. This was going to be a little bit embarrassing. The names of the skills being fairly self-exnatory as to what I had been using them for. It took me a while but I started toy it out for them. Grandfather had picked up a notebook to write them down between the waves of wool that spelled them out for them. Tier 1: Time sense (LV 30) Listening (LV 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Quick reflexes (Lv 27) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Each family member had a different reaction to the results. Mother and Father both smiled proudly through the listing, with mother raising her eyebrow at eavesdrop. Aleera though seemed to have a little epiphany with the separate senses and shouted, ¡°That¡¯s why you wanted to y the game.¡± Finally, Grandfather shouted, ¡°Ha echolocation. That¡¯s a new one, I¡¯ve never heard of it before.¡± They spent a little while looking at the list and thinking about it. Then Grandfather returned to lecturing mode talking directly to Aleera while showing her his paper list. But we all listened in eagerly, ¡°You can see if you add them all up he has 120 levels worth of tier 1 skills, 93 levels worth of tier 2 skills, and 26 levels worth of Tier 3 skills all directly rted to his senses. That is a total of 239 skill levels, which would easily support his senses stat growth from approximately 30, which would be in line with his Strength and Endurance stats, up to 120 which he is iming he has. Not to say that this isn¡¯t weird too but in theory, the numbers would work out. The oddity here is the wide range of skills and how high he has managed to level them but then perhaps that is just part and parcel of being a catalyst. So little is known about them, more myth and legend than fact and truth.¡± ¡°So, does that mean Kai has a second trait or quirk?¡± Father asked still happily unpacking my stats as if they were a present just for him rather than a measure of my soul. I suppose for a man who had clearly been hoping for a son the stronger my stats, the stronger the family legacy I would be leaving behind one day. ¡°Hmm, well seeing as he hasn¡¯t turned 1 yet I suppose he should have another trait rather than a quirk. Did you get the trait super senses?¡± Grandfather mused. ¡°Yes.¡± There was no point hiding it especially if he knew of it by name. ¡°That aligns perfectly with when he appeared to be sick then. He wasn¡¯t sick he was overwhelmed by his senses. I¡¯ve seen recruits throw up when getting sensitive as their quirk. It wasn¡¯t his magic stat causing his initial problems, it was his senses stat.¡± Grandfather looked happy to have finally worked out something that had been confusing him before. Mother and father were equally relieved to realise that I had never been in any physical danger of being unwell. While Aleera realised something else entirely, ¡°He has two traits? Does this onee from another race? What race is this one from?¡± She seemed weirdly fixated on the idea of me being part elf, part troll, part beast. As if that somehow made me more or less of a little monster to her. ¡°Well, if we were on thepass continent he would either be a Beast elf or an elfkin with those traits. It would all depend on which gic trait was more dominant in his development.¡± Wait just a second was I going to grow up as some sort of mixed breed race due to my traits. Did traits alone determine your gic makeup? I hoped not. I was quite happy being human one of the more relieving moments of being born was finding out that first I was human and second that I hadn¡¯t switched genders in this weird world that was the stage for my issekai tensei. Yes, I admitted to reading the odd manga or watching the asional anime. Just a part of my wide and varied collection of media I indulged in from time to time. Luckily Grandfather disabused Aleera of her hopes, ¡°Seeing as he has achieved this, all on his own. And . . .¡± he looked pointedly at mother, ¡°he ispletely human, you will never be able to tell his traits from looking at him.¡± Mother and Father seemed relieved to be reassured but Aleera seemed a little sad by the prospect. Maybe she needed a puppy. Suddenly tired, I found myself falling asleep. The conversation carried on around me but I no longer responded. All the poking in the world wouldn¡¯t wake me, I had finally run out of stamina. Chapter 62: Time to awaken Chapter 62: Time to awaken ¡°Sleeping is no mean art: for it¡¯s sake one must stay awake all day.¡± Friedrich Nietzsche I awoke slowly for once, there is something about oblivion that puts your problems in perspective even if it was only the stupor of sleep. It gave you a chance not to think. To dream and imagine other things. My dream was fleeting and fast disappearing but I remembered flying up instead of always falling down. In control not only of my direction but my speed as well, letting me soar through the sky. Sometimes I used to awaken angry that I could no longer fly when I realised my reality in myst life. Nowadays I held it up as a dream to aim for. One day, with skills, in a world of wonder, surely the sky was the limit. Today though I was sad thinking through it all once again as all my memories flooded back. The moment of freedom, myck of instant memories, quickly fled away. Leaving me trapped once more in a body that failed to listen to themands I was sending it. I felt a tear escape my eye and roll down my face. Unsure if this was my emotions crystalised in a physical response or simply what it would be like to wake now I could no longer stretch and yawn to my heart''s content. I was unable to stand, to call out to tell them I was awake but it appeared I didn¡¯t need to. ¡°He¡¯s awake,¡± Grandfather called out and he had clearly been watching me sleep. Using Echolocation and Mana sense I could sense my family gathering once more around the kitchen table, clearly keen to continue the conversation I had left so abruptly. The warmth of my mother''s arms wrapped around me banishing my despondent thoughts. I was held, I was loved, I would be okay again in time. Although I was hoping I wouldn¡¯t have to wait another decade to spend my stats. ¡°Does he have enough stamina to stay awake for long?¡± Father asked. Obviously, they had not stopped their conversation about me when I was no longer able to respond ande up with an exnation for my early bedtime. Judging by the amount of mana flowing through the air and the light filtering through my eyelids it was still daytime and I had probably only slept for an hour or two. A fact quickly and easily checked by having a look at my status. A two-hour nap seemed rtively normal for a toddler but for me, it was the first time I hadn¡¯t faked it and made alternative use of the time within my inner world. ¡°So Vitality 128, Strength 28, Endurance 28, Dexterity 24 and Senses 121. We have spent thest two hours wondering and guessing at the rest. Care to enlighten us Kai?¡± Hoping to dispel some of the tension that was quickly building I hoped a little humor might help. ¡°Guess?¡± I wrote on the table. Maybe if they were a little bit more invested in the answer they would distract one another and be kinder in the questioning. ¡°Guess?¡± Father asked confused. ¡°Kai if we are going to help you we need to know what we are working with. I wondered about that, they knew from my symptoms the problem did they really need to know how dire it was? I just needed to improve my stats for brawn somehow, specifically my dexterity. If they could help me with that did we really need to work our way through the numbers? Aleera, though understood me, and my humour, having been subjected to it more often than most. ¡°I say 112 for Mind.¡± She started the conversation. ¡°That is only double mine so outrageous enough for you.¡± Mother added her answer to the game, ¡°64 to be double your brawn. Brain over brawn.¡± She smiled. Father though was angling for another trait and said so, ¡°101 for another trait.¡± Grandfather waited till everyone had made their guess before taking one end of the spectrum, ¡°113¡± he smiled at Aleera everything was always apetition he had to win one way or another. I wanted to say 112 just to prove him wrong but the more honest I was, hopefully, the less likely they were to notice the lies I was going to have to make regarding my skills. I finally ended their guessing game with the answer, ¡°121¡± written on the table where Mother hadid out extra wool for me to write with. Grandfather smiled as he won the guessing game. There were no explosive expectorations this time or sudden inhtions. They had limated to the absurdity that was my existence. Simply getting on with dissecting the insanity that my stats represented. ¡°More skills?¡± Aleera asked. Having already worked out the probable cause having gone through this once before with my Senses. ¡°Yep.¡± Mind Skills, I mentally made my list then crossed out a few of what I was prepared to tell them. While they wereing to terms with my uniqueness there were some things that could not be exined without going into more detail about life in another world. Any of my othernguages or skills in musical instruments that I had never seen or with this body at least touched. How could I exin that away? I couldn¡¯t so I didn¡¯t try. Deleting them from the list I was prepared to tell them. Tier 1: Time sense (LV 30) Meditation (LV 39) Humming (Lv 27) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10) Trading (Lv 14) Tier 2: Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5) Tier 3: Bargain (Lv 10) Deception (Lv 1) Luckily when you added up all the skill levels even after crossing them out (italics) I still had over 300 levels worth of skills that were intertwined on dependent on my mind stat. It was difficult to say whether they were solely bnced on my mind stat or whether charisma or some of my brawn stats didn¡¯t lead into them as well. For example, I was counting time sense as partially linked to my mind stat as it was only through my ability to count that I had developed the ability to measure time and gain my sense of time as a sense. Would I have gained the skill with the ability to do that? I didn¡¯t know. Finally, I held back on my Tier 4 and Tier 5 skill. I would wait to see what people thought first and wait to find out what Tier skills they had. It felt a little disingenuous to miss out on these skills but without going into my rebirth and reincarnation there was no other way to avoid the questions that would follow should Ibel one of my skills English or Piano. Still, the list was novel enough to distract from any missing items andrge enough to exin my growth away. Mother seemed particrly happy when I listed my musical skills. Aleera seemed a little put out by my burgeoning merchant talents probablyparing my growth to hers. While Grandfather focused most on my acting, lying, misdirection, and deception skills, sitting back and considering something he didn¡¯t reveal to the family. Father though focused on two things. First, ¡°If you spent more time sailing with me instead of singing with your mother, selling with your sister, and learning how to read and write with your Grandfather among other things it might have helped.¡± Having said his piece he shrugged, asking ¡°So what trait did you get this time then?¡± Resigned to the fact that although initially, I had seemed to be a strong sailor I was an even stronger singer or merchant. I hoped that he wouldn¡¯t be too despondent when we got to the Magic stat. ¡°Fast . . . Learner¡± ¡°Well, that one seems self-evident, at the speed that you seem to have been able to pick up skills. Although you should live longer than the average gnome at least. We will have to see if we can get you some of their books. I can only imagine what you will be able to achieve with the time you will havepared to them with their shorter lives.¡± ¡°Gnomes?¡± asked Aleera. ¡°There are a few enves in most major cities, famous for their watches among other things.¡± He muttered waving his hand as if to move on. ¡°Right next it¡¯s Magic, rity, or Charisma? Which one did you unlock first?¡± This was new. I vaguely remembered after my fall from the cliff how he had described the stats as . . . was it themon six or the simple six? I couldn¡¯t remember but then I had never started with 6 in the first ce. I had eight before I had ever achieved the Noble Nine he had mentioned. ¡°So Mage, Warrior or Bard? Which came first?¡± I didn¡¯t need to mention the eight instead of six stats to start off with. rity came next on my status so I would answer with that. Although it left me wondering if I could or should rearrange my stats somehow. ¡°rity,¡± I answered in wool on the table. ¡°Oh so a warrior in the making,¡± heughed at a joke only he understood. This was the trait that had caused my problems, divorced me from my body, and returned me to my dependency. ¡°How many points Kai?¡± Mother asked as if aware the problemy here. ¡°100¡± I answered without hesitation or preamble. ¡°Ta-dah! We have our imbnce.¡± Grandfather sat back relieved to have finally figured it all out despite the consequences. ¡°Why would that . . .¡± Aleera started before she figured it out. ¡°He gained another trait?¡± Father thought out loud. ¡°It¡¯s our fault?¡± Mother asked as she contemted the action that had been myst. The falling, the gliding, the cliff. ¡°It¡¯s your fault!¡± she red. ¡°Now, now.¡± Grandfather cated. ¡°It¡¯s no one¡¯s fault, if the boy had gained a quirk instead of a trait for rity none of this would have be an issue.¡± He defended his decision to elerate my progress. ¡°It¡¯s only because it was a multiplier of his stats rather than an addition to that his brain outweighs his brawn. Although to be fair he was probably already close enough with his Mind and Senses Stat being already nearly 4 times his Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity Stats. What was your trait for gaining 100 rity Kai?¡± ¡°Quick . . . Witted.¡± I answered. ¡°There you go, then. That is thest piece of the puzzle. His brain is probably buzzing along at double speed, triple speed, or even higher right now. To the point that his body can no longer keep up. The quirks for rity are along the lines of nimble thought, sharp wit, or astute awareness. All of them focus on being able to analyse astutely your situation particrly high-intensity stressful situations, the quirks give you an extended moment of rity to deal with them. They are highly sought after for anyone who is going intobat of any form.¡± ¡°And the solution?¡± Mother pushed. ¡°I have a couple of ideas we can try tomorrow.¡± He evaded answering my burning question. ¡°But we might as well finish the stats for now. The big question is though whether it was skill levels or achievements that levelled this stat. rity is notoriously difficult to improve outside of mortalbat or deadly situations.¡± This was harder to work out which skills level-wise had contributed to my levelling. Had all of my swimming been deadly? No. Had some of it, yes. The same went for running, dodging, climbing, and sailing some of it had been fairly tough under my Grandfather¡¯s tutge. But really, had I ever considered myself at danger of dying? I wasn¡¯t sure that I had. Either way, I listed out my skills. Noting that they only added up to around 150 skill levels and that was even if they were connected to rity at all. No wonder I had struggled to level up rity so much and had to rely on throwing myself off a cliff in order to achieve it. Tier 1: Swimming (LV 32) Sneak (Lv 22) Running (Lv 17) Dodge (Lv 11) Climb (Lv 7) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Sailing (Lv 6) Tier 2: Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27) After I hadid out my skill list, Grandfather quickly jumped in saying, ¡°Perhaps it was half skills and half achievements from surviving the cliff.¡± However, Mother focused on just one skill in particr, her voice increasing in volume and pitch with each word, ¡°Why . . . does . . . Kai . . . have . . . pain . . . tolerance?¡± Chapter 63: At the end of the day Chapter 63: At the end of the day ¡°At the end of the day, it¡¯s important to know what really matters most in life . . . your sanity, your health, your family, and the ability to start anew.¡± Les Brown At the end of the day I had started anew, afresh in a new world, but it looked like mother was not quite yet ready to let this one go. I had my sanity and my family, we were just working on fixing my health. I was willing to wait although hopefully not too long. To be fair I had not currently worked out an option other than waiting. Which included waiting for thistest revtion to blow over. ¡°You¡¯re allowing yourself to be distracted from the matter at hand, his magic stat. We are focusing on uncovering the extent of his imbnce.¡± Grandfather was not going to give up on getting to the bottom of my stats. I wondered if we could call it a day or end at least at the noble nine. No one had ever mentioned luck. Besides, that did not seem like it was rted to either brawn or brain anyway. ¡°Distracted!¡± Mother shouted, ¡°It is at level 13!¡± she snapped before she seemed to realise I had not been her only child he had been training. ¡°Aleera, do you have Pain tolerance?¡± she quietly asked. ¡°Yes.¡± She equally quietly replied. I was unsure whether she was hoping to avoid getting herself in trouble or avoid getting her grandfather in trouble. ¡°What level is it at?¡± mother hissed still angry ¡°Level 21¡± Wow, we sat there in stunned silence. I guess you don¡¯t know the half of the abuse. But is it abuse if it serves a purpose? Where is the line between cruel and kind if you are being cruel to be kind? At what point does tough training be too much and simply harmful? In a world that rewards, deadly achievements or extreme actions as long as it is done to help do the ends always justify the training? ¡°Please don¡¯t make any sudden moves, now Aliyah.¡± Grandfather stood. I realised that Mother had stood too and was facing off against him having handed me off to my father. It made me wonder what she believed she would be able to achieve against him. ¡°For twenty years you trained me against an illusionary threat that never came. The house fell, you left, we weren¡¯t followed and aren¡¯t about to be discovered. All that I am left with is a legacy of strength. Strength, that is so far beyond what is required here that I was lucky to be able to find a man to marry me. Something that made the fact that our children survived their births a miracle. When are you going to stop pushing?¡± she advanced on him but never came to blows. She was smaller in stature than grandfather but as she stood there radiating her anger against him he clearly took her anger and possibly her magical skills seriously. ¡°When you are strong enough to stand against me.¡± He faced her down before adding, ¡°Besides he already had the skill judging by his reactions when he joined me on this ind and that¡¯s on you, not me, just a part of his life.¡± His second sentence diffused her anger and she seemed to dete back to the table. The guilt of being too strong for her children to survive and her own actions eating away at her moral authority. It was I felt a low blow. ¡°He only survived through strength when he was born. The world can be painful whether we want it to be or not and skills to survive the pain are important. People only survive through strength past, present or in the future, whether or not they want to bury their heads in the sand is up to them.¡± If I could have I would have quietly exited at this point. But held as I was in my father¡¯s arms I was not going anywhere. There seemed to be five different sides to this family. Grandfather pushed us all, Mother defended us, Father stood to the side, while Aleera was in the middle. Technically I suppose I was in the middle too but although I was very much dependent on them for everything at the same time I felt able to look at it from an outsider¡¯s point of view. My problem was it was all so subjective, bound by the rules of this world that I still didn¡¯t understand so I couldn¡¯t weigh in on either side of the argument. What I could do was distract them from it. ¡°My . . . Magic . . . 121.¡± I wrote on the table. Surprised by the stat or grateful for the change of topic they focused on the words written in wool. ¡°Wow . . . 121,¡± Father said helping me to change the dynamics of the conversation. Leading it in a different direction. ¡°Another trait?¡± Aleera asked. Helping to lighten the tension and darker thoughts and emotions still circting the atmosphere. ¡°Source . . . of . . . mana.¡± I replied giving up thest of my hidden traits. I doubted I would have the time or the ability to get any more before I turned 1. And although a dexterity trait would hopefully bnce out mytest imbnce it would be just my luck for it to imbnce me in another way. The 2 points in luck clearly were not pulling their weight which reminded me I needed to do some statistical research to work out whether they actually made me any luckier or not. Grandfather rested his face in hands giving up on predicting my nature as well as the bowing before the inevitable problems it would cause. ¡°Of course,¡± he muttered. ¡°I know this goes without saying really, but I will say it anyway, we never talk of this again. And that included you Aleera and Kai.¡± As he said this he put words to action burning the paper that he had been writing notes on. ¡°Not that I was going to, but why not? What¡¯s so wrong with Source of Mana?¡± Aleera asked the innocence of youth gradually getting shredded by our family question. ¡°Because it isn¡¯t a human trait, that¡¯s why not.¡± He answered the na?ve child and me the ignorant reborn listened on in concern. ¡°Neither were the others though, you said they were elvish, beastkin, and gnomish.¡± She argued back not quite getting at what he was hinting at. ¡°Yes, but at least they were humanoid. Source of Mana isn¡¯t a humanoid trait at all. It¡¯s a familiar¡¯s trait. Something they share with their partner for protection.¡± He exined in more detail. ¡°A familiar? What like a beast, spirit or demon?¡± she asked frowning before looking back at me, smirking then walking off to her room. ¡°That or a dragonling.¡± He added muttering to her retreating back. Where was . . .Wait there are dragons? No one ever mentioned dragons! Although dragonling sounds like a lesser version of what I am imagining. HOW COME NO ONE HAS EVER MENTIONED DRAGONS. That seemed to me to be the 101 of introductions to the Compass Kingdoms. Wee to our world, we have eight kingdoms named after the winds that move the world, and flying those winds are DRAGONS! ¡°Dragons?¡± ¡°Dragonlings, Kai.¡± He corrected me. ¡°And familiars have the trait source of mana or something simr. It is what they will offer their partners in exchange for allowing them to be part of society rather than be hunted down. Mages, Wizards, and most nobles will always develop their mana greater than any other stat working as close to imbnce as they can but they can always do with having more mana to power their spells, and familiars with the source of mana trait can provide it.¡± ¡°So, Kai can be my familiar then.¡± Aleera smiled as she returned to the room cing something on my head. Looking closer I realised that it was a pair of animal ears. I couldn¡¯t tell the colour through mana sense or echolocation but it was not appreciated! In fact, that was one of the benefits of living in a preindustrial society was the fact that I had not been subjected to being dressed in a variety of outrageous animal, cute, or kawaii outfits. Where she had gotten them from anyway? I had no idea. It had to have been something that she had made personally. ¡°Take . . . them . . . off.¡± I hoped I was making myself clear and leaving no room for misunderstanding. ¡°Don¡¯t tease your little brother,¡± Father said although I could see him and mother both smiling at my sister''s antics. The ears stayed a little longer Aleera making her point and proving that I wouldn¡¯t be able to remove them myself at the moment. Before she finally removed them. Leaving me sulking a little inside although it didn¡¯t show on my face. In fact, my mood was soon cheered up as I remember the most recent reveal. Dragonlings! ¡°Dragonling . . . Can . . . I . . Have . . One.¡± It was well worth the time writing that one out. I don¡¯t think I had ever asked for anything before. I had gone along with everything that everyone had asked of me but if there were dragons one could get as a familiar how could I fail to ask for one. I wondered how big they got. ¡°No Kai, Familiars are rare and reserved for the rich or the nobility. I¡¯m . . . A . . . noble.¡± I wrote. ¡°You are a dead noble!¡± Grandfather tried to close down the argument but I argued back, And . . . I¡¯m . . . Going . . . To . . . Be . . . Rich.¡± The seeding of pearls seemed to be going well. I had discovered prior to my fatefulst jump and my current physical disability that if you provided mana to the growing pearls you could increase the speed at which the oyster produced the pearl making themrger and leaving them holding more mana. Yes, pearls were organic gemstones capable of holding mana. We obviously hand¡¯ managed to sell any yet. But now I knew what I wanted to get with my money when we did. Buying the rest of the inds could wait if I had the opportunity to get a mythical beast of magic and might. I wanted a dragon. But then who in their right mind wouldn¡¯t want one. Exasperated Grandfather would not be denied though. ¡°We will talk about thatter at the moment though you are pretending to be dead so you are going to have to wait until you are alive again before trying to get hold of one. ¡°Skills!¡± He demanded reminding me of my predicament that I seemed to forget so used to seeing the world through my mana sense and echolocation. Tier 1: Meditation (39) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Tier 3: Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Gale (Lv 17) Melt (Lv 10) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) That was weird, Meditation was clearly supporting a lot of higher tier skills. But where were my Tier 1 and Tier 2 mage skills? Aleera had clearly noticed the same thing. ¡°Howe his skills are Tier 3 instead of Tier 1 or 2.¡± Aleera asked once more annoyed. How quickly she forgot her joy at putting animal ears on me. I was guessing that maybe she had more Tier 1 and 2 skills rather than Tier 3 so I was curious too about the possible answer. ¡°Would you like to take this one or shall I?¡± Mother asked offering and olive branch to Grandfather. ¡°By all means.¡± He offered the floor to her returning the favour. Their argument was not forgotten or even forgiven but they focused on the problem at hand, me. ¡°Well, Aleera, Ignite, Freeze, Boil, Gale and Melt all seem to be stronger versions of Tier 1 or Tier 2 skills that he would have had but seeing as he has Source of Mana and applies a lot more mana than most to the skills he has managed to gain the Tier 3 versions without collecting the Tier 1 or 2.¡± Hmm, that was interesting. If that was the case could I gain the lesser versions of them simply by supplying less mana? That would be an easy way to pick up some more skill points. Or would trying simply lead to finer control of the Tier 3 skills. Another experiment for another time. ¡°Okayst stat, then I think it is time for bed. We can sleep on it ande up with some options tomorrow. What is your Charisma Stat sitting at? I am assuming that you have managed to unlock it.¡± ¡°Yes, 22,¡± I answered. ¡°Finally, a sane number. Who am I kidding none of these numbers are sane. Still I guess you truly have the stats to support being a noble. Your other Grandpa was notpletely wrong to contemte it. I don¡¯t think I have ever heard of anyone starting their life as strongly as you appear to have managed to do. Still, you are now unbnced so there is that.¡± Although he had burned his earlier piece of paper he wrote out the numbers he had clearly memorised. ¡°Brawn 90 Brain 342. In theory, this is just under a 1 to 4 ratio so is no worse than most mages, clerics, or mind-based builds. I think it is the traits acting as multipliers that have unbnced you beyond what your body can handle seeing as you have the traits for the mind, senses, and rity stats yet have no traits for strength, endurance, or dexterity stats. You will need to get their quirks by the time you are ten if you n to don¡¯t n to spend all your points in them for the rest of your life in order to keep yourself bnced, or spend all your time training physically.¡± ¡°He can sail with me study knots, set sails, tacking, bncing the boat and trimming the sails should be great for dexterity and strength. Plus if he can keep it up then we will build up his endurance as well with rowing." Father was keen in his own way to help but again focused on the boat. Not that I minded sailing I really quite enjoyed it. Just felt that he might be forgetting that I was a little stuck right now. We needed a solution to even get me mobile let alone onto a boat. "Yes, he can focus on that and a few other exercises but only after we get him back on his feet." Grandfather calmed down the enthusiasm. "We all have a lot to think about." Mother agreed. "So let''s sleep on it and we can discuss options in the morning." "Remember Kai, no midnight practice from now on. We don''t want you to unbnce yourself any further." Grandfather pointed out. "I . . . Know." Or at least I knew now. Aleera quietly snickered as she took me out of my father''s arms and carried me off to bed. "Did I ever tell you the story of the tortoise and the hare?" Internally, I groaned bereft of my writing implements, I was forced to listen as my sister told the story. Hopefully, the magical hare would eat the magical tortoise. But somehow I thought it would probably be a pointed and nowpletely redundant story about my current situation. Bah humbug! Chapter 64: Luck be a lady tonight Chapter 64: Luck be ady tonight ¡°There are rules to luck. Not everything is chance to the wise; luck can be helped by skill.¡± Baltasar Gracian I had already had two naps today. So, even though I was tiring quicker than I used to, I was not actually tired when everyone else went to bed. Aleera regaled me with the story of the tortoise and the hare. She had to exin the animals to me first seeing as I had never seen one in this life before. The story itself was the same as the one in my world. There were nost-minute deaths to gain experience. The differencesy in the fact that the tortoise won the race because the hare in the story was imbnced. They had focused on one attribute alone. Until, they were all speed, no strength, endurance, or vitality. Let¡¯s just say it didn¡¯t end well for the hare. Regardless, I listened to Aleera fall asleep, then mother, then father, Grandfather had gone for a walk so guess he was walking it off and thinking it out. But that left me with my wheels spinning. More so than usual, as my body still refused to move. I was safe the world had fallen asleep so I left my body to sleep and fell into my own world. I hadn¡¯t spent much time here recently but my home away from home was all still there. The Rooms waiting for me to return, But I had some limits on what I could do here now. I needed to avoid adding any more to my mind, I had to stop supplementing my senses, I had to avoid adding any more to rity, Vitality would be fine to add to but that was the one stat I had never managed to add to within my mind. Strength also was something that would be a challenge to achieve. It was difficult to build your muscles with your mind alone. Endurance was pretty much the same. I was not sure where magic would fall in all of this but perhaps it was just best to avoid it as much as I loved it and the potential if offered for the moment. That left me with Dexterity, Charisma, and Luck. Dexterity seemed like the most important skill to practice right now if I wanted to help myself out of the hole I had dug myself into. The question was which skills in here could I practice to improve my dexterity. I went through my skill list and decided that drawing, painting, woodcarving, sewing, stitching, jewellery making, sculpting, fishing knots, and practicing my musical instruments were probably the best way to go for improving my dexterity. I did not have all of those skills yet but I had enough of them to get started on here in my head. Even if I hadn''t practiced them in this lifetime I had tried a lot of different hobbies growing up in my old life and while I wouldn''t have said that I excelled at any of them in the past I had enough knowledge to get started. The extra subjective time would support their improvement 10,000 hours to master something was a number bandied around often enough if I remembered that right. So plenty to keep me busy with. Although it wouldn''t half get boring trapped in my own mind again. Plus they were probably the safest skills that I could practice without furthering my imbnce and I was not going to just sit here for the next 5 to 10 years waiting to be able to ce my points in dexterity and hope that would be enough. The next question was what could I do to practice my Charisma, I felt that my musical and performance skills would help with this when I was finally able to move my body again. But to do that I was going to actually have to perform to arger audience than my family and actually acquire some instruments to do so. Finally, I had luck. Now unfortunately I had made no progress improving my points on this one. But that also meant there was lots of room for improvement if I could work out how to do it. Plus, as far as I was aware it shouldn¡¯t affect my imbnce either way. As it was not linked to either brawn or brain. But how could you train luck? I felt my best bet would be to focus on something to do with probability. I thought I would start with something simple first. A fun fact I had learned in myst life was that flipping a coin is not actually 50/50 it¡¯s actually closer to 51/49 and generally depends on whichever side was up when the coin is first thrown into the air. That being the side most likely tond upwards. The other fun fact is that when you spin a coin on a table the spinning coin will tend to fall towards the heavier side more often which again meant heads down and tails up. Now in my magical mindscape would it even be effective if I was not winning anything I wasn¡¯t sure but I could at least imagine an equally weighted coin to flip to see if I couldn¡¯t work out exactly how much 2 points of luck weighted things in my favour. It might be a bit of a boring night and might very well put me to sleep again. But it was worth finding out at least and safer use of my time for the moment. Moreover, it was better than any of the other skills I had been practicing in here that might have contributed to my imbnce. Plus flipping a coin should be good for my dexterity anyway, killing two birds with one stone. In fact, while I was ying with coins I might as well see if I could get sleight of hand skills as well. Palming, French drop and the Muscle Pass were all ones to aim at along with card trickster. Interesting thought, how were skills named, if I could get a generic sleight of hand skill or a specific french drop skill would it still be called a french drop when as far as I was aware France didn''t exist in this world? Were skill names pulled from an existing bank of infinite skills? Or did my own preconceptionsbel the skill themselves? Finally, I had had enough with the wool-gathering and started flipping coins. It took about a minute to do 10 coin tosses and record the heads to tails. 6 heads to 4 tails. A minuteter, 7 heads to 3 tails. A minuteter, 8 heads to 2 tails. Was I getting better at getting heads because of luck or simply because I was starting heads up to start off with anyway? I wasn¡¯t sure. I decided to stop trying to catch the coin and just let itnd. That seemed be a fairer way to practice this. 100 throws in I was 60 heads and 40 tails. So 2 points of luck seemed to be working pretty well in my favour. But then I remembered an old statistics lesson about how many times you had to test a variable to have a statistically reliable result. If I recalled correctly, and I was getting better and better at that, what with the weird and wonderful skills I was gaining, then I needed to be doing a sample size of at least 10,000 to reduce my statistical error to 1% which could very well wipe out any advantage 2 points of luck gave me. I groaned, I could be here a while. Maybe save the dice rolling for another night. I whiled away the night while my stamina slowly dropped down to zero. Admittedly it only felt like it was slowly dropping to zero. As with my brain moving quicker inside my head than outside all time was still subjective. Soon in the real world, I was soon sound asleep like the rest of my family. Only to be rudely awakened by the words, "You''re lying." Chapter 65: House of Cards Chapter 65: House of Cards ¡°Telling one lie almost always requires another, and before the storyteller knows it, they will be caught inside of their own web.¡± Jenna tari ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± was an interesting sentence to wake up to. But that¡¯s what I found happening to me. After a long day dissecting my stats with my family we had all fallen asleep with none of us the wiser for how to solve my crippled status. Grandfather said he had some ideas to try out but he had yet to illuminate the rest of us with them. Or maybe he had just been waiting to get me alone for a second before trying. You see I was no longer in my bed, box or any other family member''s bed. It was just me and him. Hidden away in the mountain, not ominous or foreboding at all. Especially with the line, ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Being the one that had woken me up. I had been sleeping deeper than usual since I had gained my new trait and had not noticed it when I was picked up from bed. Neither had I noticed being carried down the tunnel deeper into the mountain to a room I had never seen before. A room he had kept hidden from us all. ¡°I can tell your awake I have a skill called Foes Focus. You don¡¯t have to be a foe for me to be able to tell if you are awake, as long as you are looking at, or listening to me.¡± He said before he repeated the line I had awoken to, ¡°I know you¡¯re lying. I just don¡¯t know what you are lying about.¡± He said pacing back and forth in the hidden room. It was filled with an assortment of books he had kept hidden from the family, a variety of weapons, and some extra wealth, all hidden away in chests that failed to protect the items from the gaze of my mana sense and echolocation. If my situation had not been so rming I would have enjoyed discovering the hidden wealth of the family as well as looked forward to what the books might reveal. He started speaking again, ¡°You see I can buy the Vitality trait based on your mother adding to your stats, the same thing happened to your mother. But . . . no.¡± He started thinking out loud alluding to my mother somehow having something simr. The same thing? I wondered but my thoughts and his sentence were cut short as he backtracked again, ¡°Actually here is where I get stuck. Aleera is right. An infant, a fetus in the womb, simply would not be able to amass enough experience for 8 levels unless their mother was waging war while pregnant. It simply isn¡¯t possible. Unless . . .¡± and here he paused, yet again. I was unsure if he was having revtions our his brain was simply firing of thoughts in random directions but it was clear that like my sister he was unconvinced and being the stubborn old goat that he was, he was going to do something about it. ¡°Unless,¡° he repeated, ¡°We are looking at the progress of your development wrong. The only way I can exin how you could possibly have 8 levels worth of experience considering the rtively idyllic setting of Wester Ponente, the ind your mother lives on now, is if . . . somehow . . .¡± he struggled to specte, to prove his point even if only to himself. Eventually, after pacing back and forth a couple more times in front of the chests stacked against the wall he started talking again. ¡°The only way I can see you achieving any of this is if you were aware of your status, skills and how to gain experience from the very second you were conceived let alone born.¡± He finally finished. Before quietly, as if he dared not utter it, ¡°Are you truly Aliyah and Kaius¡¯s son?¡± He seemed both fearful of the possibility as well as defensive of the family yet also aggressive as he finally managed to articte his usation or was it a suspicion. I didn¡¯t know how to respond to this. Was he using me of being someone else¡¯s child? A changeling switched at birth? Either way, I didn¡¯t have to respond crippled as I was and I was wary of doing so to a man who seemed increasingly unstable. He hadid some wool out on the table but I didn¡¯t respond immediately with it. The answer ultimately was yes, but he was clearly suspicious, suspecting me of something although I didn¡¯t quite know what. But he had been very clear that he thought I was lying. Stuck in a stalemate and unlikely to be rescued from it anytime soon. I finally decided to respond with a question of my own. ¡°Why lying?¡± I wrote. There was no point in pretending to be unconscious if he was fully aware I was awake. This was probably the skill that he had used all those months ago when he kept prodding me ¡®awake¡¯. He had known I wasn¡¯t actually sleeping just pretending and unforgiving of my pretence had forced me awake often enough then that he was not going to fall for it now. ¡°Why do I think you are lying?¡± He asked again. He had already suggested . . . Thinking back on it he hadn¡¯t really suggested anything other than the fact that he thought my progress was unreasonable. Which in all fairness it probably was. Well to be honest it definitely was. Although he had offered up some interesting alternatives at how to level up or at least give children greater experience, levels or stats when they were born. I doubted enduring a war or general stress and strife would be good for either the mother or their child in the majority of cases. ¡°Yes,¡± I responded. Perhaps I could get him to convince himself that this didn¡¯t make sense. But I felt that the less I said the better off I would be. After another minute of pacing back and forth, he finally seemed to have his thoughts in order, ¡°The lower levels may be easy to pick up. But you have to be aware of them. You need to make a conscious effort, you need to choose to push yourself forward with your skills and level them up otherwise you simply wouldn¡¯t increase your overall level. Now that must mean, you could understand levels before you were born. What kind of mind would you need to understand that? So although vitality might have been the first trait that was given to you, by the system. That was based on your mother¡¯s actions and the levels you had already acquired to facilitate it. Ergo your mind has to have been significantly stronger before everything else caught up.¡± He was bing more animated as seemed to believe he was finally onto the right track with his thoughts. He wasn¡¯t wrong but I was getting confused by his logic which seemed to be going round in circles more than in a straight line. Although I could not argue that some of his statements were hitting closer and closer to home. ¡°It¡¯s just not possible that a baby, a newborn, an infant, a fetus even, could have leveled eight times before being born.¡± He seemed adamant about it. ¡°It¡¯s just not possible.¡± He repeated muttering. ¡°Not on this ind, without war, famine, or gue.¡° It appeared our ind was too idyllic to create abnormal freaks like me. I would have loved to have answered, ¡°You¡¯ll have to take my word for it.¡± But didn¡¯t think that would have gone too well with him at the moment. Or at any point in the past either when I thought about it. I opted for something simr but less confrontational. ¡°Trust . . . Me.¡± I wrote in the string he had provided. ¡°The problem is not in trusting your word but rather taking you at your written word.¡± He continued to mutter to himself as he opened up one of his chests before pulling out a small ss bottle filled with what to my mana sense looked like a little glowing bottle of red light. ¡°So let¡¯s do something about that imbnce.¡± Well, that was slightly rming. If he had a solution to my imbnce why didn¡¯t he bring it up earlier, when we were with the rest of the family. ¡°What¡¯s . . . That?¡± I wrote once more. ¡°Oh this, this is a dexterity elixir. Very expensive, very rare, and not a permanent solution to your problem but it should be enough to allow you to reconnect enough to your body to talk.¡± He waved away my question and all the following questions I would have liked to write like, Where did you get it from? Why is it hidden away in here? What are all the books? Why do you have a chest of weapons? Etc. ¡°Trust me.¡± He mimicked my earlier statement. Although he backed up his words with action taking a shallow sip of the liquid himself before he dropped a few drops of the potion into my mouth. My body began to twitch a little, the mind slowing down to control my movement, or my body speeding up enough to catch up to the signals my brain was sending. Either way, I was finally able to control my face, my eyes blinking in relief, mouth opening rather than drooling, tongue finally more than a lump of flesh in my mouth. The relief was so immense I couldn¡¯t help but express it in anger, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you give this to me earlier?¡± Still despite being somewhat apprehensive of my current situation I was still pleased to find that was there was a solution to my problem even if it was only temporary in avability. ¡°Because I want you to answer my question truthfully.¡± He replied. ¡°The rest of your family is too defensive of you and I need you to be honest about who or what you really are.¡± He exined before concluding with, ¡°Also you will notice that we are both talking a little bit quicker than normal. The rest of your family wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep up, would have felt excluded, and I would have ended up tranting between the lot of you!¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t lied.¡± I promptly replied, the words speeding their way out of my mouth, simply happy to be able to talk, although the elixir also added to the speed at which they were fired from my mouth. ¡°No, but I hardly feel like you¡¯re telling the whole truth either.¡± His riposte as he pursed his lips in displeasure. The conversation was flowing rapidly between us and hisment was followed by a barrage of questions, ¡°How did you level within the womb? How can you talk so quickly? How are you picking up skills so quickly? How can you read and write so quickly? All of this should take longer. Even if you are a catalyst that doesn¡¯t exin everything away.¡± His rapid questions left me no room to answer and if they had been strikes with either dagger or sword I would have been left bleeding. Despite the volley of questions, I kept my response simple, ¡°I¡¯m special¡± It¡¯s what my parents had said again and again. Probably to the frustration of my older sister and I was sure that seeing as it was being said again, to the frustration of my grandfather now. ¡°Okay.¡± He visibly put his frustration to the side. ¡°Let¡¯s keep the simply what is your name?¡° ¡°Kai.¡± I shot back. I didn''t know where this was going but it was an easy question to answer. ¡°Is that your whole name?¡± He quickly followed with. It was hard to tell if he was aiming for a quick back and forth or if the elixir was dictating the speed of our conversation as much as he was driving it forward. ¡°Kai, Lord of the Wester Isles.¡± Short and sweet although adding my new title made me a little proud of my progress in under a year. Admittedly that particr title wouldn''t have been achieved without my other Grandpa''s money but the title itself was mine now. Recognised by the system itself on my status. ¡°Do you have another name?¡± The questions came quick and fast hardly allowing me time for thought. Where was this line of questioning going? ¡°Brother, Son, Grandson.¡± I named all the names I had been called by others. ¡°Kai, Lord of the Wester Isles, brother, son, and grandson. Any other names?¡± He kept drilling down on this naming issue. Was there something I was not understanding? So far I have managed to evade answering my grandfather¡¯s questions with a lie. He had always been exceptionally good at calling our bluffs when ying games. So good at it in fact that I feared he has a skill to detect lies. So when he asked me any other names for the third time I wasn¡¯t left with a lot of wiggle room. That didn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t going to try. ¡°No other names.¡± I red my skills, acting, lie, misdirection, deception, hoping the skills would help me enough to sell my story. It would appear not. ¡°Lie, Ear for Deception.¡± He smiled, at finally catching me in an outright lie. Our skills had clearly fought one another and mine failed to hold up against his. Not surprising if you considered our age difference and it appeared that my fears were correct. He did indeed have a skill or he was just calling my bluff, but either way, it wasn¡¯t good. Was naming the skill simply part of the bluff. I liked to think so. But to be honest it had felt like my skills had not taken hold. Maybe even rebounded leaving me sweating just a little but that might have been the tense situation more than him managing to break any of my skills. Maybe being so honest with what skills I had was alreadying back to bite me, if he knew what I had. I still didn¡¯t have a clue as to his skills. So he had a clear advantage on top of his level, skills and wealth of experience given by both the system and his age. How old was he anyway? Well, the best thing to do is to learn from our mistakes and the perfect time to do that is the present, ¡°What does Ear for Deception do? What am I lying about?¡± I quizzed as I deflected for a moment to try ande up with something, anything that might answer his question yet hide my former life. ¡°Ear for Deception tells me when some is trying to be misleading or deceiving. Better than simply catching the truth or a lie, it helps me to know when someone is using the truth to mislead or deceive. That being said that was a fairly simple question with a simple if false answer. You are something or at least someone else besides Kai.¡± ¡°I am Kai.¡± I responded. The words still babbled out from my mouth despite my efforts to slow them down, before I quietly added, ¡°But I remember living another life.¡± ¡°True,¡± He confirmed my statement clearly still using his skill, ¡°Kai but also someone else. Were you human?¡± ¡±Yes.¡± I responded defensively. Although I suppose if the world can be crazy enough to reincarnate you in another world being something else in a former life is entirely possible too. ¡±At least someone else is better than something else.¡± He replied to my simple statement. ¡°But who, how, where, why and when that¡¯s what you need to convince me of now. I will protect Aliyah and Aleera from anything and anyone even you, Kai, if you turn out not to be their kin.¡± He interrogated. Clearly defensive beyond doubt of what he considered to be his true kin. Sorry Kaius. ¡°I am their son, their sister and your grandson.¡± I defended myself. My image of my body in my mind had continued to regress growing smaller and younger with each new day. I was no longer who I once was. More and more I found myself thinking of myself and only of myself as Kai. ¡°Yes, but I have questions. Who were you? How are you Kai? Where did you live? Why did you be Kai? When were you going to tell us the truth?¡± He finished his interrogation with a final skill. ¡°Compel truth.¡± #$%^& I felt his skill wrap around me and although I liked to believe I could have fought thepulsion was their a point to defending an indefensible position. I let it flow through me as the words came babbling forth. There were too many secrets holding me tight. I would finally be free from the web I had woven around myself, not with outright lies, but simple, general and unrelenting omissions. I would let the cards fall where they may and hope the consequences wouldn¡¯t be too steep. As the rest of my family slept on, somewhere deep in the mountain, my secrets were finally uncovered. Chapter 66: Wheel of Truth Chapter 66: Wheel of Truth ¡°Try to remain truthful. The power of the truth never declines. Force and violence may be effective in the short term, but in the long run it¡¯s truth that prevails. Di Lama Despite my anger at my choice in the matter being removed. I was struggling to think of any lie or omission that would not sound as equally strange as the actual truth. They say truth is stranger than fiction but in my case, I couldn¡¯t think of anything saner than the strange truth that was my reality. Resigned to my fate andpelled by a skill, my words fell from my lips like a dripping tap, drawn like blood out of a stone. Gradually they grew quicker and quicker until they fell like a torrent of water. They rushed out my mouth over the edge of the cliff like a river of words, crashing down over my chest before hitting the silent rocks of reality down below. . . . That I remembered another life. . . . That I had been someone else. . . . . A teacher, writer, soldier, son. . . . . A farmer, father, magician. . . . . A student, schr, salesperson. . . . I had lived a long and full life. . . . That I had lived in a different world. . . . A world without levels, without experience or system. . . . . A world with monsters true, but only ever in human form. . . . . But despite the ocean of words that came forth to many of the questions he had asked all I could say was . . . I don¡¯t know. How did I arrive here? I don¡¯t know. . . . Why am I here? I don¡¯t know. . . . Why I was reborn? I don¡¯t know. . . . How did it happen? I don¡¯t know. . . . Where is my world? I don¡¯t know. . . . Who are you now? Kai, son of Aliyah and Kaius, brother to Aleera. Lord of the Wester Isles. . . . I spoke until the potion had faded and my temporary dexterity left me once more. The asional twitch, was the only symptom of my crippled condition as I once more attempted to move and failed. My body, once again, was too slow to respond to the speedy signals my brain was sending it. Compel truth, although an insidious skill able to ovee an individual¡¯s free will, was based on what they actually knew, so I couldn¡¯t tell him anything I didn¡¯t. What I didn¡¯t know could fill a book, aputer, an entire library. There were certainly still a lot of gaps in my understanding of what in the earth, the world, the universe had happened, and maybe I would never know. No matter how hard I searched for answers. Grandfather sat there in silence, head bowed as my words babbled forth until by the end of them we both sat there in silence. He looked conflicted both vindicated in proving a point, yet at the same time still bewildered by the weirdness of my answers. Both of us were surprised by the answers I had given and the depth to which I had described a life now lost to me. How I had described a new life, how I had embraced my family as my own and held close a new name, I now identified myself with. Finally, after what felt like forever. Iy there uncontrolled and unmoving but watching him and waiting the whole time for his decision. I couldn''t affect his choices, I had to follow the way the wind blew. Eventually, after thinking so hard I felt that I could hear the cogs turning and burning, he sat up again. He leaned forward to give me another drop or two of the dexterity elixir allowing me once more to sit up and giving me enough control to continue our conversation. where we had left off. But he had no more questions it seemed. ¡°You need to tell the rest of the family what you told me.¡± This seemed to be the final nail in the coffin that had been my night. Although, it also seemed like a bit of a moot point by this point as he already knew. I doubted he could be kept from passing it all on. I winced at the thought of how they might respond. ¡°And it will sound bettering from you.¡± He surprised me with this statement. It was almost as if he was trying to be helpful. I wasn¡¯t sure I agreed. I didn''t know if it would or would not be better for them or for me, at all. But he would certainly seem less crazy if I was the one to exin it all. Although then again, I might seem equally crazy or possessed if I did. ¡°No.¡± I replied. I didn¡¯t want to tell my family. They loved me and I didn¡¯t want to risk losing their love. Surely revealing all my stats and skills had been enough truth for this year. Was I actually someone else? Perhaps I had just dreamed my former life. I could feel I was rewriting history but Kai was who I was now. Sure, I could draw on knowledge of another world but this was the one that I was living in. This one was real. The other was the past, history, no longer the reality I lived in. I thought about my family and how they might react. It was easy to see and easy to understand how Aleera was taking my own unreasonable stats hard. My sess eclipsed hers and she had struggled toe to grips with that. I didn¡¯t want to see what the revtion, that I had a former life, would do to our rtionship. Would she ever trust me again? How would my mother look at me when she realised that I had once been another mother¡¯s child? Would my father still consider me his legacy if he knew I already imed another family¡¯s history? I didn¡¯t want to know and I didn¡¯t want to find out, certainly not tonight at least. Maybe one day, someday when all was well and we were secure but not now. Grandfather stood to pick me up. I could imagine him carrying me back along the tunnels to the house. ¡°If you won¡¯t tell them I will.¡± He said as he picked me up and moved towards the door. I could imagine the walls shrinking in on me as he threatened to change myfortable family dynamics. The stats and status had changed plenty today but we had all gone to bed the same family as we had awoken. This though felt a far riskier and damaging truth that he wanted to reveal. ¡°No,¡± I shouted this wasn¡¯t happening, not again. ¡°Stop.¡± I cried. And to my surprise, he did pause as he headed towards the door. He lifted me up and turned me to face him. ¡°Okay. Look I understand that you¡¯re worried about how they are going to react.¡± I nodded internally, that wasn¡¯t something difficult to work out. Who would want to tell your family that you remember being someone else? The idiot. Why was he forcing this on me? ¡°Once they know, that you are who you are. Who knows how they will feel?¡± Thank you very much for reiterating the obvious I felt like screaming at him. That really wasn¡¯t helping me to feel better about telling them. ¡°I will tell them but not now.¡± I hoped to dy this reveal until they had at least begun to be a little morefortable about the absurdity of my stats. Before introducing them to the insanity that was my reincarnation within a world not my own. Once more grandfather tried to convince me that honestly was the best policy. ¡°Best to tell them now, the longer you let the lie, lie the bigger it grows.¡± He seemed oddly fixated on me telling my family the truth. Offering once more to tell my family for me. ¡°I can tell them if you don¡¯t want to.¡± He said turning to leave the room again. Again, I said, ¡°No!¡± But he kept heading for the door till once more I shouted: ¡°Stop!¡± Amazingly, and rather confusingly he appeared to listen standing at the door on the edge of carrying on into the tunnel. He had never listened to me before . . . or had he and I never noticed. I don¡¯t know whether fear of the future loss of love inspired me but I took it one step further andmanded, ¡°Put me back on the table,¡± before softening it with, ¡°to talk.¡± Interestingly enough heplied despite his clear reluctance. Although as he did he continued to talk trying to persuade me that the truth was the best policy. Almost as if he was trying to distract me from the revtion I was having. An idea that was taking root in my mind. Moreover, while his arguments carried weight I ignored them and concentrated on something else, a thought, a feeling, a suspicion. Motivated now by curiosity on top of the fear I currently held, I was focussed on the fact that whenever I had ordered him to do something he had done it. Had I nevermanded him before? I had asked, questioned, but maybe I had nevermanded. Had I discovered a new skill? I took a quick look but didn¡¯t notice a new skill anywhere with my list. Things really couldn¡¯t get much worse in my opinion and he was suggesting I throw caution to the wind in telling my whole family. I would tell them one day, when I was older. When they knew me not only for what I was, their son. But also for who I was as an individual. Scared to try, yet hopeful at the same time. I interrupted his arguments to say, ¡°Stand on one leg.¡± Nothing happened. My heart plummeted back down into my stomach. I felt hollow. Then I pondered the possibilities. One moment I thought that he had to listen to what I said and perhaps was simply ignoring me while talking or rather talking over me. But then in the next moment after thinking about how facetious I had been in answering his questions earlier while avoiding actually answering his questions. Maybe I had to do something simr now with him. I repeated my words adding in the word now. ¡°Stand on one leg, now.¡± Surely, if you had to follow my instructions then now would be the time . . . Nothing happened as he shifted to lean against the wall continuing his arguments for telling my family. Then again other than a slight shifting of his weight he . . . A shifting of his weight . . . Arguably you could say that you didn¡¯t have to lift up one leg to stand on the other leg. If he was shifting his weight he was obeying the letter of themand if not the spirit of themand. He would be standing on one leg while resting the other even if it appeared to still be resting on the ground. In for a penny in for a pound "Sit down now." I unequivocallymanded Grandfather¡­ sat¡­ down. Stopped talking and stared at me in . . . was that shock, horror or fear. He never stopped talking though, changing tack and saying, "I understand if you don''t want to tell them right now. Maybe waiting a while would be better. But some day soon we need to tell them if we are going to make you as strong as you can truly be." Bingo! This was interesting! I ignored his rapidly changing arguments to consider the most critical question. Why did grandfather have to obey mymands? There was something strange going on here. How would he like it when the shoe was on the other foot? I have to confess that I found the idea of being able to tell my grandfather what to do somewhat thrilling. But didn''t want to count my chickens before they had hatched. ¡°Why are you following my orders?¡± I asked inquisitively about this strange development unwilling to let it drop. Especially if I could find a solution to having to tell all to my family tonight. ¡°I don¡¯t want to upset you or your family. But I believe telling them the truth would be for the best.¡± That was a bit of a non-sequitur and about as obtuse as you could get in answering a question. That was perhaps his worst lie or rather stretch of the truth he had ever given and kind of proved the point that he was avoiding answering it on purpose. I didn¡¯t have ear for deception or the ability to getting him to answer clearly and concisely without obfuscating the truth was going to be ¡­ Wait just a second maybe I did! Just in a different manner. Phrasing my question very carefully as amand I said. ¡°Answer the following questions without misleading, avoiding or attempting to deceive me in any way and answer immediately.¡± He suddenly stood, attempted to flee the room and my questions but the benefit to being Quick Witted and on a dexterity elixir meant that my words or rathermands could keep up with my brain and shot out of my mouth like bullets striking him still. "Stop!" I shouted. He stopped and turned to me resigned to his fate much like I had been to mine. I wondered if he would be as angry about having to answer as I had been or find the experience as equally cathartic. ¡°Why grandfather, do you have to follow mymands?¡± Grandfather sucked his lips together as if he had just bitten a bitter lemon, before answering. ¡°Kai, I¡¯m not your grandfather.¡± Chapter 67: The other foot Chapter 67: The other foot ¡°You taste injustice, even if it¡¯s fictional, really taste it, it has a way of doing that. Sometimes you can never put the shoe on the other foot.¡± Kristen Ashley ¡°Care to exin?¡± I had not had the best of nights and asked him to add to his answer. I could not honestly say that I was not feeling a little bit of schadenfreude. Especially now, that he appeared to be forced to answer my questions, much like I had beenpelled to answer his. I¡¯d like to think, that in time, I would be the bigger man. But right now, I needed to know what I was working with. Clearly, it wasn¡¯t quite so much fun any longer for Grandfather either, the wheel of truth had turned, now that the shoe was on the other foot. However, fun would not quite be the right adjective to describe my current emotions on the matter, it was more enlightening than entertaining. His answers were infuriatingly slow to begin. Finally, he began to talk. Grudgingly, slowly, much like drawing blood from a stone, his words came forth. ¡°I am bound by blood to obey.¡± He gave a short and sinct answer that failed to exin what it meant to be bound, how it could be done by blood, the why, the how, the when, etc. I was hoping for a little more detail. I had 1,000,001 questions now. He was round by blood to obey me. Why? He certainly didn¡¯t seem to have obeyed my sister, my mother, or my father. Something strange was going on definitely going on here. Why was it just me out of all my family? What made me different to my sister or my mother? ¡°Why are you bound by blood to obey me?¡± I asked hoping for a little more rification. He hesitated here and I realised that I had asked a question rather than giving him amand and he was using the option to stall. I rephrased my words as amand and added to it the extra sentence, ¡°Answer all of my questions honestly, openly, and with significantly more detail.¡± This could take a while. I returned to the question, ¡°Why do you have to obey me? Why are you bound by blood?¡± Again, a hesitation before answering. But in the end, the binding yed out, stronger than him or his mind. ¡°You are thest heir of the Silverwood family, or rather thest lord of the Silverwood noble house, and I am bound by blood to serve the family, however they see fit.¡± He had given up fighting thepulsion and began to expand on his answers. Okay, that was a big reveal. Who was the Silverwood family? Where were they from? Clearly not from the Wester Isles. Were they the house Grandfather, it was going to take a while to stop thinking of him like that, had alluded to. What was the deal with him not listening to mother or sister if that was the case? ¡°What about mother and sister? You certainly haven¡¯t been obeying them!¡± I added confused by the difference between us. If I was thest Lord then they were thest Ladies. Lady Silverwood had a nice ring to it. But most importantly I needed to work out themand structure here. ¡°I have to obey the lord of the house, no one else. They are women and the line does not lie with them. Therefore, themand of the house and me does not fall to them.¡± That seemed somewhat sexist, and backward to me. But there had been many a feudal system in my old world where women were allowed little to nothing throughout their lives, with wealth,nd, and ves only being passed on to the oldest male descendent. Even in modern times gender differences still existed although somewhat more hidden and less obvious. Sometimes only evident and noticeable in the statistics gathered bypanies and countries. Although bound by blood seemed to be a ridiculously unfair situation to find yourself in any way. So, having a servant or ve, only passed down to the male heir or line seemed par for the course if not particrly progressive. The question though was why am I thest Lord Silverwood? What had happened to my mother¡¯s family? How had she ended up here? ¡°Why am I thest Lord of the Silverwood family?¡± I asked digging deeper into my mother¡¯s history and his. What had happened to the family? How had he been bound by blood? What did that even mean? ¡°When your maternal family¡¯s enemies closed in on your family, 30 years ago, myst order was, to take your mother, and run. To protect her and raise her strong if we were not recovered.¡± He exined perhaps for the first time in decades, for the first time ever. ¡°I took your mother and we ran. She was only a baby at the time and remembers nothing of this.¡± He looked resigned to telling his story now. ¡°How do you know that the Silverwood family fell?¡± I asked. Surely, some others had survived, cousins, nephews, aunties, or uncles. There was so much to unpack here. My mind boggled at the thought that my mother was ady, my sister was ady. I was a Lord even before my patent of nobility had been most recently bought. Did this exin how we had been born able to ess more than the sixmon stats? Was there truly a gic difference between the nobles andmoners that flowed through the blood to empower their children? I had magic, Aleera had magic, my mother had magic. I had been born with rity and quickly picked up Charisma. Was it because if our family had survived we would have been born with a silver spoon? ¡°Why doesn¡¯t mother know this?¡± I asked already suspecting the answer. ¡°Aliyah? I never told her.¡± He confirmed my suspicions. ¡°Why not?¡± I frowned. Could I have been born into thep of luxury? Though she probably would never have met Kaius, if she had been living as a noble, so I wouldn¡¯t have been born at all. ¡°What good would it do. The house is no more. The knowledge could only endanger her if she had acted on it.¡± He defended his actions to hide our history even from the child most affected by it. ¡°She was safer, ignorant of the bounty her head or hand would collect, and happier for it throughout most of her life. Bar training and making her strong she has enjoyed living here. Enjoyed meeting Kaius, loving Kaius, and building her family. She would never have had this had her survival been known. She would have been a pawn at best, dead at wor . . .¡± he hesitated once more, ¡°Well there are worse things than being dead.¡± He darkly added. What was the wider world like? It sounded safer to build paradise at home than go exploring. But I wanted to see the world someday hopefully I would be strong enough to see it safely. ¡°What was yourst order?¡± I asked to rify his position and the orders he had been working with. Even if they could have been clearly interpreted differently he had clearly continued to follow them. ¡°My Lord¡¯sst words were. ¡®Hurry, take the child. Run as far west as you can. Protect her and raise her strong. We will find you.¡¯ These were thest orders I was given and I have been acting on them ever since. We fled west as far as we could to the coast. Hunted through forest, valley, and town. We struck out to sea sailing south as fast as we could before finally turning west once more and setting off through the archipgo. This is the furthest west of thepass kingdoms you can go. I could take her, no further. They never found me, neither enemies nor family I eluded them all. Burdened by a baby, they never found us. The house must¡¯ve fallen or else they would havee to find us, to im us, to bring us back. The house is fallen and we are alone.¡± He paused contemting the fear of his flight, the horror of being hunted not by beasts but by monsters in human form. The journey sounded long and taxing. Was our family even from Ponente? It did not sound like it if they had travelled that far south. After collecting himself from the recollection he continued, ¡°We may be alone but we are safe and secure here on this ind. She is protected and I have raised her strong. I¡¯ve done my job. Obeyed my finalmand, painful as it has sometimes been, an order without end. I will follow it till my dying day.¡± He answered somehow conveying the resolve of orders followed above and beyond the call of duty. An order and duty that had perhaps twisted and warped his actions over time. I tried to imagine what life would be like being bound to a cause forever. A course not of my choosing that I had to sail over the horizon and beyond. If it wasn¡¯t his choice had he always resented it? Had he always resented us as much as he had been driven to protect and make us strong? It was impossible for me to say. But it wasn¡¯t impossible for me to ask. The question was whether I dared. Although the urge was strong the emotions that he kept buried were strong and violent. I was unsure that I wished to unearth them and bring them to light. ¡°Would you like to talk about how that made you feel?¡± I cautiously asked carefully wording it as a question rather than amand. While I had been angry about the manner in which I had been forced to talk about my past, the act itself had been cathartic to actually speak out loud to someone no matter how infuriating they were about the burdens I had been carrying. To be seen. To be heard for who I was. ¡°No.¡± His refusal was blunt and to the point. Were his private feelings on the matter and the orders he had to protect us and to raise us up to be strong the reason for his unreasonable behaviour? I would need a psychology degree in order to unpack all the emotions that had been pent up in his refusal. But it was possible that his conflicting orders had resulted in the seesaw of affection one minute and attempting to power level us the next. I decided it was safer to stick to the pertinent information and move forward. How would this affect the family dynamics moving onward? I did not want to tell the rest of my family of my hidden past. I was happy as I was with the current family dynamics and didn¡¯t want to change them. I was equally sure that he would prefer me to be the only person able to order him around. I certainly would not have wanted to hand a hypothetical cor and leash to any person let alone more than one. ¡°If I don¡¯t tell anyone about you and your past, will you keep mine hidden in return?¡± I asked. While I could have made it an order, I had just felt how viting that had been and if I was going to build a better working rtionship with the man. I had to start somewhere closer to equality even if the equality was more fictional than fact. ¡°Yes, that would be eptable.¡± His answers were still short and concise now that he was not following an order to add as much detail as possible. But I needed to know more about how he would continue to act once we returned. ¡°What will you do from now on?¡± ¡°I will continue to protect Aliyah, Aleera, and you. I will continue to make you all strong.¡± He answered still bound bymands thirty years old. Maybe it was time to change those orders. Give everyone a break from restraints, restrictions, and orders 30 years out of date. Orders, that if I changed them, no longer needed to be followed. Primarily give one another a break from each other if we wanted it. I did not feel wise enough to word this correctly so I decided to crib Asimov¡¯s threews. But before I began I thought it would be a good gesture of sincerity to gauge his opinion first. ¡°How would you feel if, as thest Lord Silverwood, I modified those rules?¡± I asked. ¡°How would you change them?¡± he cautiously almost fearfully asked. I supposed that no matter your circumstances there is always a certain fear of change that no matter how bad your situation it is always possible it could get worse. ¡°I would after putting in provisions for my family¡¯s safety. Set you free to consider other options outside of protecting us and making us strong.¡± I stated my thoughts on the matter. I wasn¡¯t willing to risk removing all restraints on the man who was so much stronger than us all. Especially if the orders were the only thing keeping us safe at night. Despite being around him for over a year of earth time. Tonight¡¯s conversations proved that I hardly knew the man. ¡°I would be happy to be free from my old orders.¡± He cautiously possibly optimistically replied. ¡°Okay.¡± I hesitated, hoping that this would not cause problems further down the line. That being said protect and make strong had not kept us from physical or emotional harm. So I had my fingers crossed that my wording would not make anything any worse. ¡°Your new orders are; first that you may not injure my family, known as Kaius, Aliyah, Aleera, and myself, or second through inaction allow us to be harmed. Third, you must follow direct orders from myself and consider favourably my family¡¯s requests except where such orders and requests would conflict with the first order. Other than that you are free from all past orders my family may have given you and are free to live and speak as you see fit.¡± As I gave him his new orders I watched carefully as he shifted. Initially, he hunched as three more orders were added to his condition, bound by blood. But then suddenly he straightened seeming an inch or two taller as he was finally freed from orders 30 years old or older that my ancestors had forced him to follow. How many orders had he been operating under? There seemed to be a stunned look of wonder on his face as he stretched his body. I could easily see how anyone would be afraid of being found out and used once more. Content to stick with the pain already felt and understood. Unwilling to risk being given tighter chains even if the individual in question could free himpletely. I had not gone that far and maybe never would. It would take a lot of time to build trust. Time to get to know who he really was without the rules of the past directing his actions. Had I made a mistake? Only time would tell. Hesitatingly he asked, ¡°Well, Kai what now, my lord?¡± seemingly surprised by the wordsing out of his mouth. ¡°Home. Bed. Tired. Don¡¯t make me regret my actions tonight.¡± I winced as saw him shiver at themand spoken carelessly, and without thought. I would have to watch what I said or at least how I said it. Carelessmands would be cruel to be given to one who had to follow them and I couldn¡¯t believe that I had never noticed his response before. He had managed to avoid suspicion magnificently but then without being aware of the possibility how could I have possibly known. ¡°Sorry,¡± I murmured referring to my carelessment as he picked me up. ¡°Peace, Kai. We will all need some time to adapt. Your family will . . .¡± he paused remembering the specific wording of his new orders, ¡°remain unharmed and I will be freer than I have been in decades. I¡¯m sorry too, but grateful for the freedom. You won¡¯t regret it.¡± Were hisst words as he magically sealed the door behind us and entered a tunnel home. Looking inwards as I was carried home once more I was not surprised to find some changes. Despite the rtively short time since yesterday morning, it felt as if I had lived a month in a single day. As if the tide hade in and out for a full moon, uncovering new truths with each wave leaving me washed out but washed clean, worn smooth by the sand of the shore. Level: 11 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 308,050/ 409,600 Age: 15 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours Health: 1180/1180 Stamina: 550/580 Mana: 1210/1210 Psi: 1210/1210 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Vitality: 118 Endurance: 28 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 34 Senses: 121 Mind: 121 rity: 101 Magic: 121 Charisma: 22 Luck: 2 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (LV 30) Listening (LV 30) Meditation (LV 39) Swimming (LV 32) Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27)Drumming (Lv 25)Running (Lv 17) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 12) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4) Climb (Lv 7) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 10 -> 12) Knife Skills (Lv 5) Trading (Lv 14) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 3) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27)Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 5 -> Lv 8) Order (Lv 2) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 1 -> Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15)Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 2700 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Popr experience: 10,000 I was tired, it was time to sleep. But I waited. Still cautious until I was silently reced next to my sister from where I had been taken. A silent nod from a man, not my grandfather, but still a forced part of this family, as he departed. What would the morrow bring? I felt the elixirs dexterity depart and sumbed to sleep. Chapter 68: Elixir Chapter 68: Elixir "Optimism is the elixir of life for the weak." Max Hastings Waking up the next morning, was a roller coaster of emotions. The initial calm as your brain transitions between unconsciousness and wakefulness. Followed by a sudden burst of adrenaline as I recalled exactly what had happenedst night. The usation, my forced revtion, and the revtion I had forced in return. Everything came flooding back, the awakening to the ominous words of you¡¯re lying, the forcedpelling of truth, the tumultuous retelling of both my past as well as my Grandfathers. I supposed that I shouldn¡¯t call him that. Hmm. What was his actual name? I don¡¯t think that anyone had ever used it. I guess that was a question forter. Once I had processed the reality of my new situation, my first action was to check my status to see if my stamina was full again. It was. I reckoned I had a good 2 to 3 hours of real-time wakefulness before I fell asleep again. I hadn¡¯t realised it at the time but the dexterity elixir while boosting my dexterity enough to allow my mind to interact with my body had also drained my stamina at a considerably quicker rate. The elixir! I used my senses to search the house but it appeared that everyone else was still asleep and without ess to another draft I wouldn¡¯t be moving anywhere anytime soon. Regretful I retired to my mind to spend the time seeing if I couldn¡¯t figure some other stuff out. There was nothing I could do while still crippled and unable to control my body. Hmm, bored I began to tinker. I was aware that I did not really want to be adding to my mind, magic, rity. A question forter, I was assuming Vitality was included with my brawn stats of Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity, but where did senses lie? Was it part of my mind utilising my body better or was it part of my body bing upgraded? The same with Charisma really, would I be more handsome? My body adapting to the attribute externally, or was it going to be part of my personality, my mind able to persuade, charm, andmand others easier? Or was it part of something altogether different? Mind, body, and soul perhaps? Either way, I had to try not to increase my mental stats while attempting to increase my physical. The irony of trying to do this while literally being trapped in my mind was not lost on me. Then there was always my luck to y with. 1,000 coin tossester, I had the horrible thought that maybe this didn¡¯t count because it wasn¡¯t really real. But I stuck with it in the hope that it would count like so much else had counted in here. To be honest I thought that my Luck stat was incredibly low considering all that had happened to me. 1. I had been reincarnated. 2. I remembered my past life 3. I was reborn on a new world 4. I had survived an assassination attempt 5. I had survived repeated base jumps. 6. I had survived my counterfeit Grandfather''s attempts to ''make us strong'' Perhaps the luck stat didn¡¯t gain any points or experience towards it until my stat had been unlocked. If so I had missed out on a lot of points, which was a shame. Nevertheless, regardless of the oue, I continued with my practice. 2000 tosses. I was hopefully building up a statistically respectable set of results. But if luck only improved my chances by 2% or even worse 0.2% it was going to be hard to tell the difference. 3000 flips 4000 flips 5000 flips While this was taking a significantly long time in my mind. The problem was my mind ran at a considerably quicker pace so my family was still asleep. I like to think that I was as determined and persistent as the next man but after a while, it got very boring. Finally, 10,000 flips. Tallying the charts did not leave me convinced either way. 4980 tails to 5020 heads. There might have been a 0.2 % increase in my luck. But there could equally be absolutely no difference what so ever and this was just a statistical probability that it was hardly going to be 5000 each anyway. I wouldn¡¯t be bettingrge sums on it anytime soon. Eventually, my family woke up. The first thing they did was toe and check on me. Watching everything happen so slowly had been amusing at first. Now though it just added to my frustration. Would they hurry up and get a move on. I was going to continue calling Grandfather, Grandfather for the moment. But he needed to hurry up and give me an elixir or tell them about the dexterity elixir. If he wanted me to keep his secret. I had a mini panic attack. What if he never told them about them, or told them I had made all of this up? And I was trapped like this forever. Quickly I calmed down. I had seen them, they existed. We held one another¡¯s secrets in a cold war of mutual self-destruction. Although I hoped that we were significantly more amicable than that now. How many did he have though? Would it allow me enough time to learn enough dexterity-based skills and level them up significantly enough to relieve me of my crippled status? I winced, I would have to be really careful about leveling anything else for a while. Dexterity from here on out. Who knew exactly how it all worked? It seemed that even Grandfather had been unsure about the ratios to create an imbnce. Finally, my senses found my grandfather returning to the family with the little bottle fromst night. My family turned to question him as he walked in holding the bottle high, ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Aleera asked the question my parents were clearly keen to ask, but content to let her ask for them, as Grandfather strode into the main room. ¡°A dexterity elixir.¡± He calmly answered, he seemed to have shed some of the fear, anger, and anxiety that he had appeared to carry before. ¡°And a temporary cure to Kai¡¯s condition.¡± He lightly responded to my mother¡¯s relief and sister¡¯s hope. ¡°Aren¡¯t those expensive and rather rare?¡± Kaius asked concerned with the cost and the temporary nature of this particr cure. It would be hard to source further elixirs if they were rare and expensive too. ¡°Yes, very expensive and certainly unobtainable on this ind.¡± He answered sadly. ¡°Either way I have a few that Kai can use to temporarily interact with his body. Although he will quickly run out of stamina if he is not careful.¡± ¡°Well, what are we waiting for?¡± Aleera asked. Not having thought through the ramifications of his calm answer. Mother replied having already worked out where the issuey, ¡°If it is a temporary solution, it is hardly a solution at all. Unless that is, we can use it to leverage it to create a permanent one. Can we?¡± she asked. ¡°Exactly!¡± Grandfather happily responded, ¡°This is only half of the solution. This however is the other half, to creating a more permanent solution to Kai¡¯s problem of being crippled.¡± He answered holding up a brown leather-bound book with a silver tree stamped or engraved onto the front cover. It did not take me being a genius to realise that it had something to do with our former family the noble house of Silverwood. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Aleera asked frowning, clearly never having seen it before. I was not surprised considering Grandfather¡¯s former reticence with the truth of our history. ¡°A house¡¯s training guide.¡± He sinctly answered. Neither adding nor borating on its history any further. ¡°Where did you get that?¡± she asked raising her eyebrows in surprise, ¡°and why haven¡¯t you shown it to us before?¡± she sounded a little suspicious of its sudden appearance. My parents were probably equally surprised but happy to let her lead with the questioning. ¡°To answer your first question, I took it when the house fell.¡± He replied, and I noticed that he was still evading telling them theplete truth. Just as he had avoided telling them that it was their house that had fallen. ¡°To answer your second question, I have used the majority of the information in here to help you gain certain skills. But . . .¡± he paused holding his hand up to stop Aleera interjecting, ¡°If you had all the skills listed in this book it would quickly be obvious that you have had ess to a noble house¡¯s skill training manual, which was never something we wanted before. Furthermore, if the skills arepletely unique not only would it indicate a noble house¡¯s skill legacy, or training manual, but they could identify the house in question, as certain skills will often be a heritage of the house itself. Something that they once built themselves up by using them prodigiously. Something we, who were hiding, were hoping to keep anyone from guessing.¡± He no longer sounded angry when having to exin his reasoning which was a pleasant change of pace. It also seemed like he was changing his mind on the issue or rather all of the circumstances were forcing him to think about how he could elevate not just me but the rest of my family to noble levels and stats. Mother looked questioningly at him, ¡°Why are you bringing it out now?¡± I was not sure if she was questioning his change in tone and attitude or the actual appearance of the book. Maybe she had seen it before. ¡°Because, if we are to leverage the dexterity elixirs into a permanent solution for Kai, we will need to consider carefully what activities he is undertaking when using it.¡± Grandfather continued to calmly exin his rationale behind continuing to withhold my elixir. ¡°Why is that important?¡± Father asked confused by what he was implying or the future consequences of essentially using up a finite resource. Once it was gone it would be gone, I could see that clearly enough as much as the dy was frustrating. ¡°Every time Kai uses it he will have to focus on maximising improving his Vitality, Endurance, Strength and Dexterity stats won¡¯t he? I am assuming the book, the extinguished house¡¯s skill legacy includes exercises for increasing them or information on gaining skills that would help to improve them. Right?¡± Mother exined to father and asked Grandfather to confirm her reasoning at the same time. ¡°Yes, exactly.¡± He confirmed before continuing toy out his ideas. ¡°So, if we are to make the most of the elixirs before they run out we need to make a set of exercises from our own knowledge, and this that will make the most of his limited time.¡± He exined in more detail. ¡°Sailing, fishing, knot tying, bncing, running are the few skills that I could teach him that are focused on dexterity,¡± Father added his input to building me a training scheme not wanting to be left behind in helping his child to gain some semnce of normalcy. ¡°Weaving, Pleating, Embroidery, Dyeing, Printing, Weaving, Knitting, Crochet are all dexterity high skills, that he can learn with me.¡± Mother added her input to what I should be doing when physically present. It looked like I would be creating a lot of scarfs, clothing, and tapestry in my moments awake. Aleera didn¡¯t join in suggesting anything for me to practice although judging by the looks she was giving Grandfather she was thinking about the ridiculous training we had undergone already. I wondered if our formerly hard ass grandfather had any other dexterity-based skills hidden up his sleeves. Seemingly wanting to change the subject even though it hadn¡¯t been spoken out loud, Grandfather waved the book once more, distracting Aleera with words, ¡°If you look through this skill legacy the key to Nobles high levels is the number of skills they are taught. With their childhood training consisting of learning how to read, write and use maths. Now Kai already unbelievably has these skills but their training legacy also includes cartography, mental puzzles, cksmith puzzles, dancing singing, ying instruments, needlework, elocution, manners, etiquette, weaving, sewing, embroidering, the Code of Chivalry, and Courtly love, running a household, herbal remedies, basic alchemy, teaching, horsemanship and caring for the horse. The list goes on with various weapon skills such as the sword, axe, mace, dagger,nce, bow, and hunting with a hawk. Before moving onto exercises for strength training, endurance training, dexterity training, vitality training. Now while he is currently far too young for the majority of the highly physical activities there is one area of training that he would not have to move so much to practice and hopefully achieve.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that then?¡± Kaius asked the question he had been lead to ask. ¡°Resistance training.¡± His answer although calm and careful was clearly expected to cause a problem. ¡°No.¡± Mother replied swiftly and firmly. ¡°What is resistance training?¡± Aleera, asked. It was as much for her benefit as mine seeing as I was listening in to everything but I had a pretty good idea of what was going to be said next. ¡°Resistance training builds up tolerances to a variety of things. Kai already has a pain tolerance but there are, ording to this book, a variety of tolerances one can develop for example tolerances to poison.¡± He clearly was not pushing his position on the rest of the family this time simply making people aware of the option. Mother though was having none of it, ¡°No, no no! He does not need that now. What age does this book even have them start their training from?¡± ¡°Five.¡± He shrugged in response. ¡°Then and only then! And only if he is still suffering from being crippled will we even consider taking that route.¡± She was adamant that this was not happening now and possibly not ever. Aleera though was not giving up on digging deeper, ¡°How would that even help Kai?¡± ¡°A lot of the resistance training, should he gain the skill can help him level up either his endurance or his vitality which would add to his brawn and hopefully rebnce him.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°We are focusing on his dexterity.¡± Mother reiterated her position on the matter. ¡°Yes, of course.¡± He agreed. But it was clear that if I was unable to leverage enough dexterity stats and skills. This ¡®resistance¡¯ training is what we would have to fall back on when we ran out of the dexterity elixir that was bound to happen sooner orter. Something fun to look forward too or an incentive to improve my dexterity as quickly as possible. My family set about gathering items to help me practice dexterity based skills while Aleera read out loud from the Skill Legacy the Silverwood family had left us as an inheritance. Life was going to take a little longer and be a little stranger moving forward from now on but I was optimistic that with the resources Grandfather had unearthed I had a shot at undoing my crippled status. Chapter 69: Happy Birthday! Chapter 69: Happy Birthday! ¡°The bestid ns of mice and men often go awry.¡± Robert Burns Tick . . . tock . . . tick . . . tock 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1! Happy Birthday to me! Iy in sullen silence as the time hour finally turned. I was never going to have a public birthday what with me being officially dered dead by family. Still, thest 12 days had dragged on in a new and disappointing way each day. My life had be utterly boring as I waited to be carried between activities. It hadn¡¯t been easy within the womb but I always had the delivery day to look forward to. Trapped as I was once more, I was finding it harder the second time around. There was only so much introspection an individual can aplish before you start going round in circles, repeating your thoughts, locked in a loop without end. I was only allowed a drop of the elixir before training. So I was limited in my movements and intensely disliked the limits of my agency. Nighttime was the worst. While my family were asleep I was left with nothing but my thoughts forpany. I knew that this too would pass in time, mainly because I would pass out fromck of stamina, as my brain sped through it, but I found myself feeling a little bit down about it all. It was childish I knew andpletely unproductive but that was how I was feeling. Not that there was a trait I would give up when I reflected on my progress. But, had I known the consequences of unbnced growth I would have attempted to grow a little slower or at least worked a little harder at building a more bnced set of attributes. I would have worked as hard at my body as I had at my mind, even though those had always been the harder attributes to level with my infantile body. After all, all things are good in moderation and too much of a good thing can quickly be a poison or at least in this case detrimental. My family was working extra hard at bncing my body with my mind and the elixir is being rationed out, drop by drop. A single drop a day to eat my meals and practice whatever they have nned for me. No exceptions! I am unsure how much precisely they have of the stuff but it is a limited resource and they are concerned it will run out before we can rebnce my world. The least I can do is try to avoid making the imbnce worse. So while I¡¯m inside my head I am careful to try not to trigger any increases in mind or skill levels unsure how to avoid making my imbnce any worse than it already is when so many of my skills and abilities continue to push me towards further imbnce. To my great disappointment, I was unable to leverage my new trait quick-witted into a higher dexterity stat before my first birthday. So no dexterity trait for me, unfortunately. Thinking about what it could have been and based on my previous experience with stats it would probably have been some form of super speed. This in itself would have been awesome! But on the other hand, I could easily see that this would probably have been switching one disability, of being unable to move, for another disability, of being able to move incredibly quickly but probably for only a few minutes at a time. If I was going to create a permanent solution I would have to level my endurance alongside my dexterity. Although that could then lead me to not having enough strength to move a more durable body. At least that is what I was taking from our earlier conversations around imbnces. So not only do I need to continue to level my dexterity to be able to move my body, I needed to level my endurance to ensure I can do it for more than a minute at a time and my strength to ensure that I would be strong enough to move a body that would be increasingly, superhumanly, even more, quick and durable. I had not quite given up hope yet though and will have to keep aiming for a triple set of quirks if only to remove my cursed crippled status. One wondered how normal people avoided such mistakes but it appeared that most people would be unable to grow their stats to such an extent with skills and practice and the only way they could do this to themselves was by assigning their free points drastically incorrectly. I was hoping that there might be some other unknown modifier somewhere between traits, that were achieved before age 1, and quirks, achieved before age 10. Ultimately, I optimistically hoped I would be able to get the quirks for strength, endurance, and dexterity before age 10 but if I managed to do so before age 5 I was hoping they will be nearly as strong as the traits achieved by age 1. I thought that if the traits are race traits and therefore in theory inheritable, then, if I¡¯m admittedly not just clutching at straws, perhaps the only difference between those achieved at age 1 and age 5 will be that they are not inheritable. Maybe trait, attribute quirk, or something along those lines. But then again, I have no idea. Discussing this with the family has not revealed anything more. We are all in uncharted waters as I am so far ahead of the learning curve as to be apletely separate species. Still, they have been understanding ifpletely stingy with the dexterity elixir. However, thest two weeks haven¡¯t been aplete failure though. I might not have been able to unlock the traits of strength, endurance, or dexterity but life moves on and our ns for creating enough wealth for a new noble house move along with it. Salt production continued within the mountain, while my family was continuing to mould the ind along the lines of my (and Aleera¡¯s) ideas creating new salterns each night. A steadily growing salt in that was spreading its way around the edge of the ind. A white road if you will stands out in stark contrast to the basalt they were building them on. They decided to work around the ind before moving any further ind. The areas were closer to the water, lower and tter areas of the ind which were more easily filled with the water from thegoon afore it evaporated once more leaving our white road of wealth, white gold indeed. Des and Sinis were still raking up the salt outdoors and indoors before storing it away. We were waiting on a boat and merchant to sell it to the nearby inds as our local market and town were already saturated. We were only going to lower the price if we continued to sell it to our town. That wasn¡¯t all that they had been doing for us though. Des and Sinis had also been carrying up bags of soil to the top of the mountain to start forming the sheltered and terraced farnd I had mentioned creating to my family previously. A ce to grow the seeds I had gathered, nted, and raised so far. With my time focused on grinding up dexterity skills I hadn¡¯t been allowed up there again or to rent the seeds that had sprouted but apparently, it is going well and I looked forward to one day being able to walk up there on my own. The pearl seeding initiative was also going well, at my request, I was carried to the water cave where we have ced them every day to see them gradually growing. I watched with fascination as the pearls we had seeded absorbed the ambient mana and grew. Father continued to bring back a few each day alongside his catch of fish. I felt that he could focus on the oysters alone, but he was adamant about maintaining his fishing trade and enjoyed sailing and fishing far more than diving for oysters. He took care to keep them alive while mother and Aleera became particrly proficient in seeding them before they were reced in our growing seed pearl farm. As the number of oysters and our underwater farm has grown I pointed out that they probably needed to be spread out further afield or it would slow the growth of the pearls. My parents took me at my word based on my ability to see the pearls growing within their shells. But actually, I was more worried about overpopting a single area thus decreasing the amount of mana and natural food for them as well as increasing the chance of a disease spreading among them. They were currently looking for some sites further afield to ce them as their numbers had grown beyond what our cave could support. Ideally, locations were ced on the far side of the ind away from the town. The inders were unlikely to pull up our markers or floats as they have theirs and traps out on the water but still, we were hoping to keep our method and market for our family alone rather than encourage others to copy our current method. A secret source of ie if you will. However, even if they did copy our method it would be doubtful that they would be able to achieve simr results of their own without a mage or two to support them. As Aleera, Mother, and I all took time to handle the oysters and impart a little of our mana to the oysters each day. I say handle but without the ability to pick them up, or rather the ability to pick them up having been deemed unnecessary to the task of supplying them with mana, theting filled with carefully spaced oysters was draped over me as I gave them a boost each day. This was the reason we believed our pearls were growing so quickly and well. That just left the progress I had made on my dexterity. only 5 points. It did not feel like a lot to me at allpared to the growth of my other stats over the first year of my life but I had been reassured by my family that 5 points of growth in a single stat over a single fortnight was still monstrous growth. It just hadn¡¯t felt like it as I had achieved so much more in a shorter time with my mental stats and skills. Plus, if it continued to take me this long then the remaining 61 points were going to take another 24 weeks! Only 6 months or half a year of my old life and even less than that on this world seeing as years were measured by 16 months. Still, my physical skills were increasing. It was just going to take some time. My body was still limited by a more normal growth more in line with nature rather than the unnatural nature of my mind, a mind advanced far beyond the years that I had spent alive in this world. Far more in line with the years that I had lived in myst. Father had taught me knots and I have managed to gain 2 levels in the skill. The bowline, reef, and clove hitch I had been quick to pick up having had some knowledge of knots even if not their names just from daily life and living. I had greater trouble with what my mother taught me, stitching. Having never stitched before other than to sew on the odd button that had fallen off this was harder for me to pick up. I had a long way to go before I would call myself a professional and perhaps the dexterity elixir was helping me out but I now had a decent variety of stitches I could follow, the running stitch, backstitch, whipstitch, and slipstitch. Great for my fine motor skills, I had also managed to gain another 2 levels in the skill. Grandfather was still banned from teaching me or rather subjecting me to any resistance training. But if I didn¡¯t see some tangible results from the training the temptation to take him up on his offer to improve my endurance through resistance training was growing by the day despite how painful it would probably be. Aleera had suddenly been freed up from chasing after me all the time. So had been delving deeply into the Silverwood family legacy reading through it nearly every day and finding new ideas to try out. Thankfully she was happy to hold it up for me to read. Although it was quite the challenge to wait patiently for her to read the page and catch up to where I had reached already. Still focusing only on her words and slowing my perception of time to just focus on her words allowed me to listen for a second time as she read it out loud. Which gave me plenty of time to digest and internalise the ideas and teaching of my maternal family''s line, the Silverwoods. That reminded me of the fact that we had never decided on a new family name for our new noble house. I was thinking that it should both reference the past and the present so I was hoping to convince the family that Lord Silversea had a nice ring to it. Referencing both the past and our present where our currently growing fortune was based on what we could draw from the sea. I was unsure that I had convinced them of it yet. But then they had failed toe up with a better name or a more convincing argument themselves so I was hopeful that it would stick. That was all that happened recently and I had few hopes for anything new happening anytime soon, regaining the use of my body looked like it would be a long slow grind ahead of me. Time to appreciate life a little more and stop spinning so many tes at the same time. Besides we all need a little break now and then. If only I didn''t find the enforced break so boring. Maybe I would get some form of surprise for my birthday. I could live in hope. . . . Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world . . . . . . Prince of Ponente''s point of view. My Royal Chancellor whispered in my ear as I watched the merchant bow low before me. I sat on my throne in the great hall a long line of petitioners stretched out in front of me. What had been a fairly mundane and normal morning was interrupted as I cursed him internally for a fool, even though I knew he was not. A frown marred my face before I wiped it away, while I wondered what he was hoping to achieve by having muttered the words out loud. Why had he whispered his message? It was a telling mark of some new y and some indication of the chaos he hoped to cause. It would have been nice to have been informed of his aim before he put his n in motion. Many here at court had high senses stats and or skills rted to ferreting out truths and rumours whether they were spoken clearly or whispered as my message had just been. Already I could see a ripple of words whip their way around the nobles of the court and see their eyes focus on the poor merchant in front of me. I wondered what game the chancellor was ying with the two factions today and whether the merchant would make it back to his boat without bing embroiled in their intrigue. Still, the message had been passed on I was now aware of his situation and could not pretend to be elsewhere when he asked for a decision. Calm despite the stares focused on him. The merchant called Mercurio raised his head while he still maintained his bow on one knee. Either, ignorant unaware of the waters he was stepping into, or naively confident in his im. I couldn¡¯t imagine a mere merchant of his level having the stats, strength or connections to be asking for himself what the words whispered had implied. ¡°I bring wealth to finance your future troops.¡± He stated as he passed a small smooth grey purse to my page. It was checked before being handed to me. Relieved that it held no poison or other sinister trap I eagerly opened it to find the wealth staring back at me. This would go far in providing for our troops on our borders. Deep-Sea Pearls were worth, far more than, their weight in gold. The gemstones capable of holding mana and powering runes that were an essential part of our modern weaponry for the Kingdom of Ponente. ¡°A fine addition to our armoury and what have they cost our majesty?¡± I asked clearly. There was no need to hide the information that ¡®my¡¯ chancellor had already decided to reveal without my permission. I might as well level the ying field for the nobles who had not invested in their senses stats. At least this way they would not be further beholden, even if only for a minor favour, to whoever revealed the whispered words of my chancellor earlier, ¡°Mercurio, Pearls for a patent . . . of nobility.¡± The words, that had sent words rippling through the nobles. Everyone nearby both those who had already heard and those about to find out had focussed on the merchant Mercurio in front of me. ¡°A patent of nobility.¡± He smiled as he answered. The crooked smile implied he was not ignorant of the chaos he was about to create. I wondered whether he was truly this na?ve or if he had a y of his own he was making. He handed a document to my page a patent for nobility although it would have to be ratified by an alderman for it to be officially recognised as such. My father had created the patents in the hopes of raising wealth for the kingdom a long time ago. I was surprised any of the documents still existed. The nobles happy in their number had opposed the creation of the patents in the first ce but had been unable to stop their release by the former king''s fiat. Still, they had blocked them effectively enough by ensuring that those who acquired them rarely survived the experience. They numbered and called the hundred, and were keen to keep the number and name the same. It didn¡¯t matter which political faction a new noble joined the other would see that you perished soon enough. Neither side was willing to allow the other to gain another vote than the ones they already had. Bnced as they were they split the vote nearly equally with a few stronger, older families holding the middle swing votes empowered by their legacies rather than the parties that they nominally belonged to. ¡°How would you like your name and family to be recorded?¡± I asked interested to hear what name he had decided to choose for his demise and would likely be recorded on his epitaph. ¡°It is not for me, your majesty. I am merely their merchant.¡± There was a short gasp as he delivered his response, loud in the silence that had filled the hall, as everyone listened to the conversation between myself and the merchant. Someone here had just lost a merchant their house had been collecting the taxes from. He was a merchant making a profit and if there was anything more painful for the nobles of this court than a cut to their pride it was a cut to their purse and profits. He continued, ¡°I merely request an alderman to apany me on my next voyage to verify the house when I return your official seal on the document. I am sure that they will be able to ensure that their coat of arms and name do not sh with any in attendance here.¡± He turned his head as if to take in or refer to the eyes bearing down on him. I paused on the verge of demanding the name of the family, to look up from the merchant at the court surrounding us. Nearly everyone was focused on the conversation we were having when usually there would be a disinterested murmur of conversation as they continued discussing issues they found of greater importance than the daily petitions of the court from themoners. Usually, they would only pay attention when it was one of the two factions'' turn to speak and mainly to argue with the opposition. Was this why my Chancellor had decided to reveal the petition''s information so publicly? I considered the results. The two factions focussed on something other than bickering and blocking my reforms and motions. This might have been precisely the distraction they needed to allow me to get something done. I nodded my confirmation to the merchant and stamped the document with my Royal Seal. ¡°See my chancellor about taking an alderman with you on your next journey. I look forward to weing a new baron to our august number of noble houses.¡± I smiled at the unexpected boon my chancellor had arranged for me. The surprise was worth the temporary frustration as he stepped beyond the bounds of his duty. ¡°If you wille with me I will see to processing your patent.¡± The chancellor motioned the merchant to exit at the rear right-hand side of the hall. This prevented a noble, who had stepped forward at the end of my conversation, from intercepting the merchant before he could depart. Live or die the new noble would be supporting the Royal Family in distracting the nobles until they had found out who they were wiping them from existence or weaving him into their webs of power. Either way, the royal family would benefit from their distraction. Chapter 70: How time flies Chapter 70: How time flies ¡°Time heals all wounds.¡± Stephen King My brain had spun until I had passed out again. I was woken up to . . . ¡°Joyful anniversary.¡± Shouted by my family as they surrounded me in my crib. It appeared the song happy birthday had yet to make an appearance in this world and I wondered whether it would be wise to introduce it or not. Perhaps for my sister¡¯s birthday I could but then I would have to endure hearing it forever more. It would be a difficult decision to make and one I would put off from making today. My first present and drink of the day was another drop of dexterity elixir, far more powerful than a shot of coffee or redbull, I was up and running round the room. My stamina would run out sooner rather thanter but I was determined to find what I hoped were my presents hidden away. But it would appear that my parents and family were finally wise to my abilities, now that they had beenid out for them, and had hidden my presents beyond my senses. I was tempted to see if I could push my senses further to discover them but held myself back. Remembering that every day I desisted from levelling senses, mind, magic and rity was another day closer to removing my crippled status. ¡°Presents?¡± I optimistically asked. ¡°Sorry they went up in in mes at your funeral, son.¡± Kaius confirmed my fears. ¡°The best present we could give you would be your body back anyway.¡± Mother tried to exin away their absence. ¡°Besides you have enough traits tost a lifetime.¡± Aleera added, ¡°What do you need material presents for anyway.¡± ¡°It would have been nice.¡± I muttered. At least I still had all the items from the baby career day squirreled away somewhere. ¡°No today¡¯s present is your new training regime schedule.¡± Grandfather smiled fully aware that that was not what I had been hoping for. ¡°Raising Dexterity alone is unlikely to be enough to unbnce you and strength simply cannot be trained as young as you are. However, your mother has finally allowed that under her supervision that you are not too young to for some endurance training as outlined in the Silverwoods Legacy.¡± He raised an eyebrow to indicate the change of heart. ¡°Not all poisons kill.¡± Mother calmly exined as if reassuring herself with her own words. ¡°What she means to say is that we will be starting with anaesthetics, before progressing to paralytics before we ever get to attempting actual poisons in an attempt to create some new tolerances and raise your endurance.¡± Grandfather exined. It was nice that he was no longer barking orders or acting without consent and exnation. ¡°We will all be training these alongside you.¡± Father added. ¡°As much as you may feel trapped and alone, you¡¯re not. We¡¯re with you and will be with you every step of the way.¡± ¡°Besides,¡± added Aleera, ¡°perhaps I will be able to catch up a little or at least stay ahead of you in these attributes.¡± ¡°Yay, joyful anniversary to me.¡± I sarcastically added. ¡°New training schedule, mild poisons and . . . anything else to make today a better anniversary?¡± I quizzed. ¡°Well . . . You have been officially dead for 2 months now. 7 more months to go before you can be reborn again. However, seeing as you seem to have had a head start once already we thought that for your new name in life you could be called Callen.¡± Father added. ¡°Joyful anniversary Callen.¡± They all chimed in. The seemed a little apprehensive about the idea of giving me a new name and in truth I was unsure about it myself. Still if I was going to pretend I had died I was always going to need a new name anyway. ¡°Callen?¡± I rolled the name around in my mouth. ¡°Callen Kai Silverseas.¡± He added. ¡°What does it mean?¡± I asked curious how they had chosen the name. ¡°Rock.¡± He bluntly answered. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± No mystical magical reasoning behind it. Simply rock. I was a little disappointed at theck of imagination. ¡°Yes, Kai meant sea. Now you are the rock in the sea, youngest scion of the noble Silversea family.¡± I paused unimpressed. At least they had decided to keep the surname I had suggested for our family. They couldn¡¯t hold their merriment at my unamused face for much longer andughing they said, that it could also mean brave little warrior, if I wished to think of it that way. I liked to think that I was brave, knew that I was little and who knew one day I could consider myself a warrior. That interpretation of my name seemed far cooler to me. Although I was little sad that I had not been allowed to choose my own new name. At least I had been able to choose the surname which no one had contested. Moreover, the name Xavier that I had been contemting due to my crippled status was probably still copyrighted across the multiverse for any crippled character with mental powers. It was probably for the best. My anniversary somehow felt a little anticlimactic. I had spent all this effort attempting to raise my levels and numbers before reaching my first birthday but had so little to show for it. Technically I had traits many would die to have but I had also burdened myself with an imbnce most would struggle to alleviate. It was only through the rare resource of a dexterity elixir that I had a chance to undo the problems I had created. The following year might not be the most exciting but bncing out my ss cannon build would be far more important than elerating down a path that would lead to a permanent crippled status. It was time to follow my families advice and build a better foundation for the build I wished to embody. Week 1 Salt production continues, pearl seeding ongoing, soil is continuing to be carried up to the top of the mountain. I remembered another possible money maker from roman times and have Des and Sins collecting a variety of shells for experimentation. My body continues to slowly grow and the training has started. This week Vitality +1, Endurance +1, Dexterity +1. It is not a lot but it is a start and I have managed to refrain from levelling my mental stats which while not progress is a necessary pause to prevent further imbnce. Knot making and Stitching continues to level. Aleera has be a little secretive about her training although is happily disappearing every day to do it. Week 2 Experiments to produce tyrian purple are ongoing. No huge sesses yet but Rome was not built in a day. Salterns continue to expand around the ind forming a smooth reflective pool much like a mirror of the sky. Think this will be quite stunning whenpleted. Pearls continue to grow well and looking into selling salt to nearby inds. Body continues to grow and despite no specific training for it managed to gain point in Strength +1 as well as Vitality + 1, Endurance +1, Dexterity +1. Week 3 Eat, sleep, train, repeat. Not a lot to add when everyday is pretty much the same. Being a baby when you are actually forced to be a baby can be entirely too boring. Luckily my family is aware of my boredom and work hard to talk to me throughout the day even when I can¡¯ physically respond. Helps keep the tedium at bay and learning a lot about the ind and a little more about the world. This week body increased Vitality +1, Endurance +1, Dexterity +1 Week 4 A month into my new training regime I am now able to stay awake a little longer. But that is nearly the only sess. The increase to Vitality and Endurance helping my stamina slowly increase. A month of saltern making aspleted the road around the outside of the ind. They decided in the end to make it a perfect circle and are creating the rest along the lines of apass one pointing directly east to where the town lies. Body has increased once more by Vitality +1, Endurance +1, Dexterity +1 Week 5 Stalling my progress with skills and my mental stats is a little depressing but necessary I have to keep reminding myself. I keep myself by watching everything we as a family are achieving. My mother has ambitiously started to carve through magic a grand fa?ade to the mountain we live in on the eastern most slope of the mountain running down to where the salterns have now extended all the way ind. It is more a Hollywood prop than an actual Hall of the Mountain King but from the outside it looks simply spectacr. Body stats have continued to increase by 1. Week 6 Family has harvested the first set of pearls from our oysters they were quite small but believe that they have grown ten times faster than they would have on earth. Magic and mana are a wonderful thing. While I have fought boredom hard to prevent my mental stats from increasing avoiding the use of magical spells as much as possible my mental stats have still levelled a little over thest 6 weeks. Significantly slower than my physical stats but any step forward for them is a step back for me. My parents told me not to worry and that I was making amazing progress. Despite my mental stats increasing I still managed to maintain my physical progress. Week 7 Same old, same old. No new news, though, seeing as we have been squirreled away for 3 months on the ind now, Mother says that I can pretend to be reborn in 6 month¡¯s time. The issue is that I will be by that point 1 year and 8 months old. (In old world time that would be 2 years old) So we will still have to stay on the isted on the ind for at least another 8 months after that if we are to pretend that my 2 year old body is only 8 months old. Something that is only possible by the slow rate of growth I have experienced due to the trait long-lived. Still it is something to look forward to one day. 14 months to go till reconnecting to the people on the town. Week 8 End of the month finally a new skill, it has seemed strange to have gone nearly two whole months without gaining more but we had been focussing on levelling up the physical skills I already had that we knew would support my physical growth. I now have the skill Diving it worked well with breath control and swimming which I used to dive down to check on the oysters rather than disturb them by pulling them up everyday. Body stats continue to slowly increase. Week 9 Without the self imposed risk and potential dangerous pushing I had made to move myself forward in my first year I found my experience growing very slowly. But the production of salt and pearls continues to go well. We have even had some sess in recreating the purple dye. Though we have been cautioned by grandfather that we should be careful selling that particr product as one particr noble house is famous for its production and would act aggressively to stop it¡¯s production elsewhere. Still another source of revenue is another source of revenue. Week 10 One of the tricks we learned from the Silverwood Legacy for levelling up their scions was in the preparation of all food. The children would be responsible for killing their catch from age 5 onwards or as soon as they essed their system. Ants it appeared were no longer strong enough for me to gain any experience from killing them. I missed when this changed but perhaps it was simply passing the threshold of my first year. Either way Father kept his catch alive until returning to the ind where I had the duty of extinguishing their lives. Knife skills have continued to level and this helped me to gain a little more strength. Week 11 With limited time functional we have stuck to the skills I know and can elerate my growth in but I found myself disappointed this week that I had been unable to develop anymore Tier 2 or Tier 3 physical skills. But every minute of my time bought with the elixir is being increasingly nned out in advance with my family ensuring that every second is used efficiently and without waste. Still I finally managed to gain an extra point in luck this week. Although I found myself wondering what it was actually was given for. This is the one of the few areas of my status I have not mentioned to my family so I couldn¡¯t even bring it up to ask them what they thought. Week 12 It has been 3 months now since we started my new training regime, slow solid growth across my physical stats but I fear that we are running out of the elixir. It as been 84 days. 84 days of drops here there and everywhere. If I was a gambling man I could always double down on my mental stats to see me through this and out the other side. But the problem is that with gambling sometimes you lose and when a crippled status is the possible result I am too terrified to try that. Our current n appears to be working why rock the boat when all it will take is time to fix it. At this rate I should hit 100 dexterity in 50 weeks or 12 months just in time to celebrate my 2ndBirthday. Time heals all wounds even the self inflicted ones. I just hoped that this would give me the quirk to be able to reintegrate smoothly with my body. Hopefully in time to rejoin society as ¡®Callen¡¯. I just need to stick with it for another 12 months. Gambare! Level: 11 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 387,450/ 409,600 Age: 1 year 3 months, 0 weeks, 1 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes Health: 1300/1300 Stamina: 660/660 Mana: 1220/1220 Psi: 1220/1220 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Vitality: 130 Endurance: 40 Strength: 31 Dexterity: 51 Senses: 122 Mind: 122 rity: 102 Magic: 122 Charisma: 25 Luck: 3 Free Points: 30 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 30 -> Lv 35) Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 39 ->45)Swimming (Lv 32 -> Lv 40) Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27)Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv17 -> 27) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11) Breath Control (Lv 12 -> 20) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 4 -> Lv 10)Climb (Lv 7 ¨C> Lv 17) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 5 ¨C Lv 10)Trading (Lv 14 -> Lv 20) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 3 ¨C> Lv 6) Knots (Lv 0 -> Lv 10) Stitching (Lv 0 -> 10) Diving (Lv 0 -> Lv 5) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27)Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv 2 ¨C Lv3) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15)Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 9400 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 40,000 Trading experience: 30,000 Popr experience: 0 We had an unexpected visitor today. It was not so much that he was unexpected rather that his time or arrival was both quicker than if he had sailed straight to the pce and back while still being slower than if he had visited all the inds on the way as most merchants were wont to do. All we could do was ept his request and we weed him to our home although I was once more hidden away. I wonder how this will go. . . . . Log of Alderman Cadmus I have been dispatched by the Royal Chancellor to apany the Merchant Mercurio for the sole purpose of validating the individuals im to nobility. I have been warned that the journey may take sometime and should pack appropriately. I fully expect to be back at the pce in a month but have been told to enjoy my time away from the pce and learn a little more about the country I serve. Week 1 Mercurio has refused to name his new patron or their location. While I understand his caution, I question the point. The results for the new noble are inevitable. I was approached several times before leaving by several members of both factions in an attempt to find out the name and location of the new noble. Naturally, I refused and would have done so even if I had known. The office of alderman is not given to those of weak resolve or faint of heart. He has kindly made his library avable to me to keep me entertained on this trip. Week 2 He is still unyielding in his refusal to reveal any more information. Simply stating that I will be astounded by the individual in question. We have had a lot of visitors to his office or rather cabin and he has insisted that I am present for all of them. He is giving me a detailed tour of the coastal cities south from the capital. His continued evasion of answering any questions about the noble house has meant that I have little to do other than enjoy the trip and am treating it as a vacation. Enjoying the calm away from court. Week 3 The opportunity to travel for free and fully funded is actually quite pleasant once you resign yourself to the fact that there is little you can do to change the course of events. I have finally figured out part of the charade that he appears to be pulling. By visiting every coastal city in the Western Kingdom of Ponente and entertaining multiple eligible individuals for meeting, lunch and dinner with myself as the sole witness means that anyone following us as there indubitably are will have a devilish time unravelling the gordian knot of individuals we are weaving and leaving in our wake for them to solve. Week 4 It has taken us a month to reach the south of the coastal shores and we are now heading west towards the western archipgo. I fully expect that we will be stopping at each and every ind on this wild goose chase of a trip. Surprisingly enough all the subterfuge does not seem to be hurting the merchants bottom line at all with each and every city and merchant unwilling to possibly offend a new noble house and keen for the opportunities that a new house might provide. A month at sea has meant that I have read the majority of his books. Still living a life without having to pay for my upkeep has given me more money for books of my own and I must admit that I have enjoyed visiting the bookstores of other cities. Week 5 I have taken up a little profiteering of my own. Inspired by the manner in which Mercurio has an almost savant ability to buy low and sell high. I have begun to invest most of my earnings into the products he is buying and selling. This is a gray area of thew. While technically not a bribe I am making an increasing profit from this trip which will soon be equivalent to if not greater than my daily sry. I am treating it as form of gambling as I do not possess the skills to make as big a winning as I am without the help and teaching of Mercurio. Week 6 I have gained a new skill or two. Although I am proud of my progress the skills are superfluous to my work in the pce. Still any experience is good experience and with the sailing and selling we are continuing to do I am raising the skills up quickly through their lower levels. Although I am aware my sess is shepherded by Mercurio I have enjoyed making trades in olive oil, purple dye and spices. He secures the majority of his profits through trading the more expensive goods and products but always carries a smaller amount of iron, tin, corn and beef which he sells whenever the price is high enough to make a significant profit. This he converts to precious stones, pearls and spices high in value, light to carry and easy to hide. Week 7 We have had our first run in with pirates. I was for the most partpletely useless and spent the sh hidden in my stateroom. The boarders were swiftly repelled, the quality of Mercurio¡¯s guards and sailors quickly apparent and a small bribe along with the demise of the initial borders and the threat of death for a significant portion of pirates if they attempted it again, meant that they were happy to let us go rather than try their luck with us. A few sailors were wounded but seemed happy to have been able to level up their skills and gain some experience from the incident. I have never felt the need for physical skills as I have always been backed by my position at the pce and have the mental strength and skills to ensure my independence. However after today¡¯s incident so far from the pce I am reviewing my position. Week 8 It has been two whole months now. Far longer than I had initially suspected. I am positive the smile I saw as I left the Chancellors office meant he was fully aware and approved of Mercurio¡¯s maniptive machinations. Another week has meant another ind. I have given up guessing whether this will be the one. I have taken up some morning training with the crew under the watchful eye of the bosun. I am admittedly rather poor at it but hopefully with time and practice I will improve. I endeavour to shock my colleagues with my improvement over this journey, although perhaps it would be best to keep my changes to my build under my hat. A hidden de often more effective as ast resort than a visible one. Indeed, it would have to be ast resort for me to ever pull a de within the pce but out hear on the sea I would be a fool not to at least learn a little. Week 9 My progress with a de is proving slow and torturous I hurt in ces and muscles I never knew I had or existed. Without doubt this is the sorest I have felt since being forced to learn how to ride a horse when the Chancellor decided I had to apany him on an unscheduled and surprise audit for one of the nobles at court. By the time I had arrived the convoluted web of lies they had used to cover their tracks was far less painful to take apart than when I had to stand up or sit down the morning after we arrived. Still I am buoyed by the profits I continue to make alongside Mercurio although they are a pittance to the amounts he is buying and selling. Week 10 This week has been much the same as thest and I find myself with little to add to my log. The sea has been calm and the wind steady we have made good progress on our journey as crooked as it may be. We have visited several inds that have been often within sight of the next. Each with its own character and charm. Their own individualistic produce and products as varied as their inds. As we reach nearly the end of our third month at sea I find myself missing the finer aspects of civilisation although Mercurio has managed to bring the majority of them along for the ride on his boat. Week 11 We are nearing the end of the archipgo. Only 3 inds left to visit before we reach the edge of our known world. It is hard to believe that a noble family could grow or flourish this far out from civilisation. They are also further spread out than the majority of the archipgo we have sailing through. When the captain of the Swift said here be monsters I hoped for moment that he was joking but s the words he spoke were true. There is a heightened level of caution among the sailors as they trim the sails and climb the rigging. Mercurio though as reassured me that the runes for stealth and defense are fully powered and that we are unlikely to meet any monsters this side of the inds we are visiting although he did acknowledge the possibility. Week 12 We have finally reached the end of the world and the furthest west we can travel before we have to turn around and head back. I cannot help but wonder if this whole voyage has been one giant stalling mechanism whereby Mercurio has been able to make arger profit without taxation to his registered lord and find myself adding up the amount of profit made over thest 3 months and possibly the next three months on our homeward bound journey. Nearly half a year¡¯s trading without taxation may be less than the cost of a patent of nobility. Still if so I can fully understand the Prince and Chancellor¡¯s decision to go along with the deception. The lords of thend are likely to spend an equal amount of time if not double ours chasing after what might be an entirely fictional lord. I find myself unbegrudging of such an endeavour as although our trip has cost a significant amount of time it has furnished me more fully in funds, skills and stats than I could ever have expected. Chapter 71: Short or Long? Chapter 71: Short or Long? ¡°Time flies when you are having fun.¡± Albert Einstein Alderman Cadmus POV The Swift finally arrived at the ind Wester Ponente, the furthermost isle of the Kingdom. This would be thest stop before the ship made its way back through the archipgo. Mercurio and I made our way up the stone stairway in the early morning light before descending down the slope, with the sun at our backs, to the town hidden on the shores of a concealedgoon within the recursive ind. It was a beacon of civilisation among the dangerous waters we had found ourselves sailing in at the end of our journey. As we arrived at the town, it was just waking and we started our search for the man called Smit. ording to the documentation I had been given this morning by Mercurio, he either owned himself or was the power and money behind the people who owned the majority of the ind. He was effectively the town mayor of this pioneer ind although not known by that title. The ind seemed to have done away with the majority of our civilisation¡¯s bureaucracy in order to be founded and survive after having established itself. A policy favoured on asion by Kings hoping to settle areas of wilderness before reabsorbing them into the fold. ¡°Good day,¡± I started when we finally found the man. ¡°I am Alderman Cadmus and am here to register the individual known as Kai, to validate his ascension to nobility as the Baron of Wester Ponente to record his full name and coat of arms so that they may be registered at the Royal Pce of Ponente under the Princes direct orders.¡± I smiled at the thought of finally being able toplete the task I had been given at the beginning of this long journey. The man¡¯s face formed a frown as he heard my opening words. ¡°Beste with me.¡± He gestured almost angrily before leading the way down to the shore of thegoon. He didn¡¯t respond further along the walk as we followed on behind him and when Mercurio raised an eyebrow in curiosity and questioning, he curtly answered, ¡°My Son and daughter inw were particrly unhappy with the results of ourst meeting, Mecurio. In truth so was I but I will let them exin it for themselves.¡± It seemed there was a certainck of trust between the two which was very different from how Mecurio had described their rtionship earlier before we left the ship. ¡°You were happy with the trade at the time.¡± Mercurio frowned seemingly confused by the change in attitude. ¡°If I recall correctly you got the better end of the deal.¡± He continued clearly thinking back on the losses he had made. True he had benefitted handsomely since his new patron had epted only 5 percent of trades as his cut but if he had been aiming for a life without taxation then he had missed that by a significant margin. ¡°I can¡¯t say more on the matter until you have met his parents and his other Grandfather, Mercurio. But do not expect weing reception. Come on now, I have said enough.¡± He borated on the matter without saying anything new at all. We had arrived at the small docks and after seating us in a small boat he pulled on the oars taking us out onto thegoon. The man called Smit seemed determined to refuse any further conversation. The ind in the center of thegoon gradually grew closer and closer but as we got closer it seemed as the water stilled leaving a reflection of the mountain standing still above and below the water. There was some form of a reflective pool that stretched out from its base towards where we would bending. Smit broke the silence ¡°Think there is some salt for you to sell if you are interested in regaining their favour.¡± As we drew closer we saw that a narrow strip of rock made a path leading from the small jetty to the base of the mountain. It was lined on either side with salt-encrusted pools lined white by the deposit. ¡°Has this always been here?¡± Mercurio asked. ¡°No, they¡¯ve been busy over thest quarter. Hence the salt if you¡¯re interested.¡± Gruffly responded. Vastly different from the humorous fellow Mercurio had described before we met him. I wondered what precisely had happened to change his attitude so significantly. Together we walked along the path towards the base of the mountain. Judging by the sun still at our back we had arrived at the easternmost point of the ind and were now walking along a path headed due west to the center of the ind and its mountain. As we walked along the path the rising sun began to throw into greater relief the rock face in front of us. The light revealed a growing mountain fortress, a wall that was beginning to run around the base of the mountain and above which an eight-columned building seemed to be built into or out of the mountainside. The eight pirs appeared to be holding up a triangr framed roof even though it was clearly carved out of the rising mountain it was still an impressive architectural structure we were approaching. Far different from the town through which we had passed. As we neared the wall, and started to climb up the steps to the building above, from the darkness between the pirs, there emerged 4 individuals. A family dressed all in matching purple-dyed robes, adorned with pearl nes and earrings. There was an elderly man who looked much the same age as our guide Smit, a man who appeared to be Smit¡¯s son judging by the family resemnce, and by association possibly a daughter inw and granddaughter. But of the individual Kai, who was supposed to be registered as the new lord, there was no sign. They stood in silence awaiting us to arrive. Pausing for a moment, unsure whether to continue in the silence, I gathered my courage remembered the Royal Family backing my position, and pressed on, ¡°Good day, I am Alderman Cadmus. We are here to register the individual known as Kai and validate his position as Baron of the Wester Isles. Taking note of all property held and wealth owned that will support his ascension into noble society. May we meet the young man?¡± I asked excited to finally meet the individual that I had travelled so far and for so long to meet. . . . Kai¡¯s POV We had plenty of notice of the two interlopers'' arrival. Des and Sinis had been collecting salt most mornings watching and waiting for anyone to arrive. Smit had visited once or twice over thest 3 months and been brought up to speed on my new circumstances. He had not been told everything but enough to understand why I was currently having difficulty being as active as I used to be. He had vowed to support us however he could, still somewhat chastened by his failure to predict or expect the almost instantaneous dangers that had followed ourst meeting with the merchant. This time though, we were hopefully safer on our ind and my family hade up with a different proposal for the entrepreneurial merchant. They began to notice the product of my mother''s work over thest 3 months on the east-facing side of the mountain and slowed to take it all in. It was hardlyplete more a fa?ade than a pce. But from the outside, that was what it looked like, a panthenon carved into the side of the mountain. Eight pirs representing each of the eight major kingdoms and the cardinal and ordinalpass points appeared to be holding up a triangr framed roof. Even though it was clearly carved out of the rising mountain it was an impressive structure they were approaching and it showed as they slowed to take in the structure in front of them. Built along the lines of the Nabatean stone-carved city of Petra the entrance sat recessed into the mountain in darkness. Darkness from which I could listen and observe while still staying hidden, held as I was by Des. I was there to listen and to observe but to remain officially dead, my existence literally and figuratively unseen and unknown. ¡°There is no one called by name Kai here for you to register or validate.¡± Mother started off our rebuttal with her head bowed and dressed in purple so dark as to be viewed almost ck she portrayed a mother still in mourning. Although there was a pretend baby bump that was barely visible against the deep purple robe. Technically I was no longer known as Kai but Callen. I was still getting used to the idea of a new name but it was necessary to support the fiction that I had perished. Should I ever be able to emerge from the mountain we now called our home. ¡°What?¡± Mercurio¡¯s shocked gasp reverberated loudly within the high entrance hall we had created. ¡°But that makes no . . .¡± he continued as if to argue against the reality we were describing. He was interrupted by Grandfather talking over the top of his protest, ¡°He was thrown off the top of the cliff by one of the merchants or porters that apanied you less than an hour after you had departed. You were still within sight when he fell to what we can only assume was his death. Did you not notice the absence of one of your ownpanions?¡± Mecurio, looked at Grandpa Smit for confirmation of the incident who nodded before he answered, ¡°Yes, but . . .¡± Mercurio objected. ¡°We request the return of the pearls that paid for the patent of nobility.¡± The line was delivered firmly without hesitation, the family had decided that a good defense was a strong offense. Even though we knew that our cover was blown to a certain extent. As a family, we were keen to w back as much of our cover as possible. ¡°You cannot seriously expect the prince to . . .¡± his eyes went wide at the idea and ramifications of it should he attempt to follow our request. But he was interrupted once more by Grandfather¡¯s voice as it boomed out, almost shouting over the top of his, in anger. ¡°When it is clear you had no intention of honouring your deal.¡± ¡°Now hold on just a minute. I have and had every intention of honouring our deal. In fact, here I have the 5 percent of the profit that I promised to deliver on every trade made.¡± He thumped a substantially heavy purse that clinked loudly from his belt to the palm of his other hand. 5 percent of all sales made over nearly a third of a year was clearly a significant amount. ¡°A likely story to cover up your own actions. How can you ount for one of your own men throwing my grandchild off the top of the cliff?¡± Grandfather interrogated the merchant. ¡°I had nothing to do with that.¡± He argued defensively. ¡°The patent of nobility was previously intended for Smit here. I only changed it in consultation with him.¡± ¡°Alderman Cadmus, how would you find a merchant who sold fraudulent goods which were then stolen back or invalidated the very day they were sold?¡± Grandfather continued to attack Mercurio¡¯s position. The Alderman paused, thinking quietly before answering, very carefully, ¡°Those would be very serious ims and would therefore warrant further investigation. But, if true, would require the full remuneration of the goods sold and a further fine on top of that.¡± Alderman Cadmus turned to face a shocked and stunned Mercurio adding quietly and almost consolingly, ¡°They would be well within their rights if this was the case.¡± Before he turned back to my family to ask, ¡°Did the assassin survive his attack?¡± ¡°No, he failed to leave the ind alive,¡± Grandfather answered dourly. ¡°Then unless you were able to trace it to a specific noble with motive, opportunity, and means to have hired this porter or merchant then Mercurio would indeed be the prime suspect for this case. Which would be particrly important to prosecute as the murder of a noble.¡± Cadmusid out thew of thend and how it would affect our case. As a family, we were not nning on prosecuting Mercurio for what now appeared to be actions out of his control. But at the same time, we were hoping for our wealth to be returned or at least dy any further interactions with nobles who had Machiavellian machinations. Failing that we had another n in motion which might just be necessary seeing as an Alderman had already arrived to validate our im. Raising his hands in protest Mercurio reiterated, ¡°I had nothing to do with the death of your son.¡± He repeated before adding, ¡°But I cannot return the price given. I have already given it to the prince. His seal has been given on the document to the effect of raising an individual to the status of nobility once verified.¡± ¡°Then we find ourselves at an impasse.¡± Grandfather crossed his arms. As the highest levelled individual in our ¡®family¡¯ he had the strongest position to force them to ept our alternative solution. A solution that hopefully diluted the threat towards me but at the cost of increasing it for everyone else in my family. An option most clearly summed up by the phrase, ¡®In for a penny, in for a pound.¡¯ Cadmus clearly disturbed by the direction the conversation had taken began to talk, ¡°I have travelled a significant distance and at a lengthy cost of time to verify and validate a new noble house. During the time I have travelled with the Merchant Mercurio I have witnessed his trade dealings, to be honest, and fair. I highly doubt that he had anything to do with your grandson¡¯s death and if you can forgive him the circumstantial evidence and unfortunate timing of his demise, I could continue to verify and validate a new noble house, even if it is not to raise Kai himself. The money has been spent and requesting it be returned would only raise the Prince¡¯s ire and fail to achieve whatever it is you are hoping for.¡± ¡°If you truly mean what you say and are willing to vouch for the merchant Mercurio then you may return to the prince and request that the patent of nobility is honoured for our family but for all of our family instead.¡± Grandfather demanded. This was the n that they had decided on. If the money was spent, if the nobles had be aware of a family that had the audacity to attempt to join their number then perhaps the only way forward was to double down on the bet. In for a penny, in for a pound. If one of us was raised creating a target on our backs then we might as well all be raised if that was possible. Alderman Cadmus considered the idea before he answered, ¡°I myself am unable to bind the Prince to a new situation beyond our expectations. I was only authorised to raise the individual Kai to the status of Baron of Wester Isles no one else. I would in fact have to return for further authorisation if you wished to raise the entire family in rpense for the death of your eldest son.¡± ¡°Then so be it.¡± Grandfather returned to his curt responses. Cadmus and the Merchant turned as if to depart this awkward and incriminating conversation but were stopped as Aleera raised her voice. ¡°But before you depart we wish to buy out the remainder of the isle and as much as possible of Wester Levante and Little Wester that our 5 percent can obtain. . .¡± she paused before adding, ¡°If you truly meant to honor your agreement with our family when you arrived.¡± Mercurio looked towards Cadmus before agreeing, ¡°Certainly I would be happy to help facilitate such a trade. 5 percent should indeed buy out the remainder of this ind, the majority of Little Wester and the remainder a little of Wester Levante, if your family is happy to remain, my future noble patron, once the paperwork is ratified.¡± He exined and questioned in the same sentence. ¡°Then we are content to continue our patronage of you and your vessel the Swift.¡± She articted before adding, ¡°And as such, I am sure you would not mind selling a little salt for us.¡± ¡°Of course, of course, not a problem, I am happy to take all you have to sell.¡± He demurred bowing low. Thankful that the legal situation had resolved itself although sad that Kai was now a missed opportunity. He would have to review and interrogate his employees a little more thoroughly on their return journey to ensure they were who he thought they were. . . . . . . . ¡°Ha, not a problem indeed,¡± Mercurio muttered as he surveyed the bags of salt filling his ship''s hold until it was nigh bursting at the seams. Salt was an easymodity to sell even on the coast but while the quality of the salt was not a problem, the quantity might very well be. After they had returned to the ship, arranged for the deeds to thend to be bought with the 5 percent earned on his trades. The salt began to arrive. Moreover, it continued to arrive. Carried by the two boys he recognised as Des and Sinis they seemed to have grown in leaps and bounds ind living clearly being good for them. However, it was also carried by the porters he had sent to collect it, Kaius, Aleera¡¯s father, Smit and the other Grandfather also carried bags of it and it kept on arriving. The trip had not been aplete sess and he was truly sorry for the death of Kai however neither had it been aplete failure. Any change was an opportunity as much as a problem you just had to work a little harder at finding it. He had managed to maintain a future noble houses patronage even if the nobles in question themselves had changed. This meant that he could continue to legally operate at a 5 percent tax as opposed to the arm and a leg his former patron had taxed him at. He had managed to sell the majority of the inds for the Prince and would earn amission on that once he had delivered his 5 percent to the pce to pay for it, getting some of that tax back. He even had an abundance of salt to sell. Even if was forcing him to offload some of his other wares here on Wester Ponente. As Mercurio watched the bags of salt begin to fill his deck, he realised that at this rate his sailors would be sleeping on it if need be. Aldeman Cadmus came over to join him in his musings. ¡°I used to feel that your level of subterfuge was beyond that of normal paranoia. Now I realise you were not stringent enough. In truth I never expected the new noble to survive when half the house will wish to see him dead while the other half see him survive if bound to their cause. But then I never expected the nobility to silence an individual who had yet to reach their first birthday either. When we return I will support your request for the entire family to be raised in rpense for the tragedy that they have been forced to endure. Although I am unsure whether that will have any impact on the Prince''s decision, perhaps it may." "Thank you for your support Cadmus." Mercurio responded while still contemting precisely where the rest of the salt was going to go. "But I have one question." Cadmus asked resting his chin in his hand as he too stared over the line of salt continuing to be loaded. "Yes?" Mercurio asked. "Will we be sailing the short or the long route back to the Pce?" Chapter 72: The walls we build Chapter 72: The walls we build "You are confined only by the walls you build yourself." Unknown A lot can happen in a year. Then again, not a lot can happen in a year too! The question was, ''Which areas in your life have seen changes and which areas have not?'' If I was on earth, my former world, I would have reached my 2nd birthday today seeing as it had been 24 months since my Delivery Day. Here though, in this world of the Compass Kingdoms, I am only 1 and a half. My dexterity stat had increased significantly but not enough to remove my crippled nature. Although I had shown some progress in using my mind to get better atpensating for it. I am still unable to move around without using a drop of dexterity elixir. Life continued on. We still made salt. The pearls wereing along nicely. Des and Sinis were my hands and feet. Grandfather has taken to training Mother, Father and Sister. They had decided that if we were going to be a noble house we might as well all develop the skills for it. In the words of my Grandfather "We all needed to learn how to lie, cheat, steal and stab one another in the back." I thought he was possibly being a little bit pessimistic probably heavily influenced by the demise of our former house but I was not going to argue with him. Any skill was a good skill and would help us to continue to level up in my mind. Aleera was taking to it the quickest along with Des and Sinis. Mother came next in the speed at which she picked up new skills before finally father who both had a wide range of their own skills they had developed themselves. I sat or rather was carried around and listened to it all. I couldn''t act on most of it in the real world but I had memorised the skills, their requirements, and methods of practice internally and yed it out in my mind fortress. I thought back on how thest 5 months had been since the departure of Mercurio and Cadmus. Month 1 They had set sail unaware that I had never died. The merchant was happy to maintain his nigh tax-free status although somewhat less happy at the quantity of salt he had agreed to sell. The alderman impressed with our burgeoning resources was content to rmend raising our family to the prince after he had seen our holdings, our growing estate, fine clothing, and expensive jewellery. The benefit to deep-sea pearl jewellery was that it was simple enough to make but still incredibly expensive simply due to the quantity and quality of pearls used. There was one additional request per family member before they departed. Father requested that they purchase dexterity elixirs ¡®ere they left. While clearly, they wondered at the reasoning behind the request they were happy to oblige. Mother requested a selection of dyes and if possible to obtain a set of seeds and or seedlings of the nts they were derived from. This they needed no exnation for having already been familiar with the expertise of my mother''s sewing. Aleera requested that the profits from the salt sold be used to purchase any remaining parts of the Wester Isles we had failed to acquire keen to establish our growing barony and free it from any others who might think to purchase part of it. Grandfather though had a slightly different and more specific set of requests which he discussed with them privately before they left. I could have ordered him to tell me but I was endeavouring to be a kind and benevolent tyrant to the man whose leash I technically held. I hoped that my final order to him, ''Don''t make me regret it.'' would ensure that any surprises we recieved from him would be pleasant or necessary from then on. Month 2 Dodgeball was an awesome game to y with Des, Sinis and Aleera. Training had been a lot more fun with Grandfather since hispulsion has been removed. That or the fact that it waspleted under the watchful eye of either my mother or father who also joined in from time to time. We still had no chance of hitting Grandfather though when he joined in. He was always an inch or two out of the way of any throw we might have made. I wondered how high his dexterity actually was. Still, the game got us all a new skill Throw which we were rapidly levelling up. Des and Sinis were levelling up alongside Aleera and I. Not necessarily part of the family yet but certainly not ves we nevertheless treated them as trusted employees. We had asked them if they wanted to go back home one day but it sounded like they didn¡¯t have a home to go back to. They were gradually getting better at speaking Buss. Turned out that what they were speaking was not actually a differentnguage just a dialect so weird it sounded like a differentnguage. Throw was also useful skill in developing my second tier skill for the knife, Knife Arts. I had to confess that I had never thrown a knife in my past life. But here it appeared that attempting and finally seeding at urately throwing it was enough to gain the new skill. Grandfather seemed the most pleased by its development and promised to show me more that could be done with a de once I regained more control of my body much to the disapproval of my mother. Although Des and Sinis listened in to the possibility with much eagerness. Month 3 It would appear that they were rationing the elixir out even further and there cannot be much of it left. I was now no longer allowed more than a drop a day. Theck of elixir had always infringed on any possible training regime I couldplete for my body but now it was stifling it even further. I had always refrained from working on my mental skills but it was impossible not to use them at all. So the stats continued to grow even without hardly any effort towards them. This maintained the imbnce although I hoped it was beginning to diminish as my dexterity stat grew closer to gaining a trait, quirk or whatever it would gain when it passed 100. Month 4 One drop a week now. My physical growth has slowed and it is a challenge to restrain myself from continuing to grow mentally. There was only so much to think about. I did not achieve so much, restricted as I was, but I tried to make the most of each drop with every activityid out in front of me. I even felt that perhaps the time restriction to my physical ability maybe helped me to level them faster as it was a greater challenge toplete them at speed. There was one thing to celebrate this month though and that was finally gaining Level 12 and another 10 free stat points to distribute one day when the system finally unlocked itself for me. The salt and trading seemed to be decreasing in value as time went on but perhaps that was because we had flooded the local area and it too was literally less valuable now. Still we continued to stockpile it and hopefully Mercurio would get a good price for it further afield. Month 5 We finally ran out of elixir. This was a long month. It was just as well Mercurio and Cadmus were expected this month. I needed the elixir if I was going to ever end this imbnce. At the rate I was improving it was going to take another 29 weeks. Just under 8 months before I was mobile again. Which would make me mobile just in time for my 2nd birthday on this world. (32 months old = 2 years and 8 months on my old world) My family was really supportive in helping me through thest month. Unable to move they have tried to entertain me to the best of their abilities. I was always strapped to one of them carried wherever they are going or working. It has been amazing to see the salterns spread around the ind creating a magnificent reflective pool from the base of the mountain to the edge of thegoon. I was a little concerned that there might not be any salt left in thegoon to take at this rate. However, it seemed to remain unchanged and simply the fact that it was salty in the first ce implied that it was connected to the sea somehow anyway. Mother continued to amaze us with her power and artistry carving deeper into the mountain to make our fa?ade of a pce a reality. Father, Des and Sinis had all been conscripted into the effort helping to shift stone out of the rooms or halls once it had been cut away and I am sure the effort and practice must be doing wonders for their growth of the strength stat. That being said this month had also been incredibly boring. Too boring. Yes, they had tried their best but I was still trapped in my mind for hours at a time before oblivion arrived as my stamina ran out. In fact, that length of time had increased further as my stamina had risen from my efforts at developing my physical stats. So I had spent a significant amount of time searching my mind fortress for something I had never been able to find. Something that had sat on my status for a while yet I have never managed to trigger. Health had always made sense, when I was hurt or injured it dipped in response. Stamina likewise gradually worked it¡¯s way down during the day or if I exerted myself. Mana equally dropped as I expend it using the skills that I had developed. But I had never managed to find or use my Psi no matter how hard I looked for it. Until today. I had left my Fiboni spiral rooms, which were my mind fortress, to look at my False Status. Feeling that it probably needed a little bit of an update, after all the improvements I had made to my actual status. I felt that if my sister had stats around 50 or 60 then it should be fine for my fake status to be around half that. So I set all my false stats to 24 across the board. This would be 1 stat for each month that I had been out in the world. With the exception of luck seeing as I had never added luck to my status in the first ce so left it at that. It was as I was considering whether it was even worth maintaining the false status that I looked up at the void that surrounded my fortress or rather the void my fortress floated in and noticed the stars. They were not immediately obvious and you had to focus to truly see them. But once you did I noticed that there were sixrger ones clearly closer by and then obviously in the distance there was cluster of a few hundred smaller stars that shone . . . I looked below me through to the room that held my id. The room I viewed as my core self. The room, held apass floor. I looked up at the void and the stars shining in it. The cluster was to the east. The town was to the east. I quickly focused on therger stars that seemed somehow closer. As I focussed on the sixrger stars I realised that they themselves were also of different sizes. There were two smaller stars almost twins that stood alone. Arger star that shone bright beneath two evenrger stars. Finally thergest star of those 6 pulsed strongly yet seemed to emanate danger. How had I never noticed them before? I supposed I had note up to change the false status much over thest year wondering if there was even a point to maintaining it. Then when I had I focussed solely on changing the te that held my stats rather than staring into the void. However, now that I looked up at the 6 stars nearest it was clear that they represented, Des, Sinis, Aleera, Mother, Father, and Grandfather. I focussed upon the star that I intrinsically recognised as Aleera. I was unable to pull it closer to me but by focussing on it I was able to throw my thoughts, myself, out towards it. The star gradually resolved itself into a mental image of my sister sitting somewhere possible reading the Silverwood tome. I could not hear or technically see this it was more of an impression but she was happy, she was reading. Ding! Insight (Lv 1) This was new, had the walls I had built for my mental fortress hidden it from me all this time. I felt like kicking myself. But I knew this was one area I would have to take slowly. Psi and my new skill Insight were clearly mental skills. Skills I had to avoid levelling up until I have managed to rebnce my body with my mind. But surely there was no harm in looking. What were Des and Sinis up to? I threw my mind out into the void towards them. Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 24,350/ 819,200 Age: 1 year 8 months, 1 weeks, 1 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes Health: 1350/1350 Stamina: 770/770 Mana: 1270/1270 Psi: 1270/1270 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Vitality: 135 (+5) Endurance: 55 (+15) Strength: 41 (+13) Dexterity: 71 (+20) Senses: 127 (+5) Mind: 127 (+5) rity: 107 (+5) Magic: 127 (+5) Charisma: 30 (+5) Luck: 4 (+1) Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 35 ) Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 45 <>Swimming (Lv 40 <> Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27)Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv27 <> Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 11 <>Breath Control (Lv 20 Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 10 <>Climb (Lv 17 Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 10 <>Trading (Lv 20 <> Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 6)Knots (Lv 10 Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27)Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15)Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 10,500 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 20,000 Trading experience: 15,000 Popr experience: 0 Chapter 73: The Journey home Chapter 73: The Journey home "It¡¯s a funny thing,ing home. Everything looks the same, feels the same, and even smells the same. You realise what¡¯s changed is you.¡±
F. Scott Fitzgerald
It was a short sail back to the growing ind town on the shore of thegoon before we quickly walked through it towards the hidden harbour in the cliff. As we made the long climb back up to the top of the cliff, that surrounded the ind and protected it from both the sea and the monsters within it, Mercurio frowned furiously thinking about something. We finally crested the slope and were able to look out across the sea. After he had checked once more to see that we were out of sight, from both the town and anyone else who might be out and about in the midday sun, he spoke, ¡°We have a spy on board.¡± He spat over the side of the cliff. ¡°I noted the red re but it meant nothing to me at the time. Luckily the situation is still salvageable but . . .¡± he hesitated. ¡°It might not be next time." He paced back and forth, "I knew there would be resistance to a new noble family, but for it to be so quick, and extreme, is a little frightening. The waters are deep and the depths are dark. I didn¡¯t expect the response so soon or to be so lethal. I thought we would have more time. When we return to the ship I can only ask that you do not mention our new arrangements until we have returned to the prince. I hope that you can amodate me on this.¡± Although it was a statement it was said almost questioningly. ¡°That won¡¯t be a problem. As an Alderman, I am bound to the prince not any other within Ponente. It is the only thing that allows Aldermen to be considered sufficiently trustworthy enough to be impartial. Although I acknowledge there are still some ways in which the binding can be bent.¡± I responded. I supported my country and the Prince of Ponente, and if this was his decision, if he truly meant to honour his father''s writ of nobility, then I was bound to support this new noble family in their inception. ¡°I doubt that he will raise the entire family without significant remuneration, but believe he is currently supporting the creation of their house. Whether this will be enough to restrain the other nobles of thend I could not possibly say.¡± Although I highly doubted this attack would be thest the new Silversea family would have to face. Hopefully, with official royal recognition of their status, the more physical and lethal attacks would desist. Despite the fact that I was sure that even if they did the nobility would find other ways to crush, curtail or restrict any new house. ¡°Yes, well. Time and distance will hopefully dull their threats enough to help Silverseas to weather any more significant incidents.¡± Mercurio responded. ¡°Although Royal support in founding their house would be a substantial help in curbing their excesses. Is there any way we can ensure his support for them?¡± he asked obviously not only concerned for their welfare but his own financial freedom as well. ¡°Actions speak louder than words and money carries a volume all of its own. If you put some of your money where your mouth is I am sure that you could gain his support for as long as the money continued to flow. Although whether the other nobles would counter such financial support is impossible to say. They would probably far rather nip the problem in the bud for significantly less cost and a more permanent result.¡± I hypothesised. Nobles could be counted on for one thing, and one thing only, which was to work towards their own self-interest. If you could make it worth their while they would support it. But if it infringed or cut into their profits you could also count on them to counter it however they could. ¡°Something to think about then. Remember not a word about this when we return to the ship. Until we work out who the assassin wasmunicating onboard any conversations about the Silversea family will have to be kept private. Now, let''s hurry back to the Swift to send some porters to pick up the salt. We will need to clear some space for the salt they mentioned though it should not be too much.¡± Mercurio turned to begin the descent down the fold in the cliff to the ship below. ¡°I remember,¡± I replied pondering how effective silence would truly be on the ship when we would be announcing the results to the prince in 3 months anyway. Still, we had travelled a rather convoluted route through the archipgo and along the coast so provided they did not actually know which ind the new noble was on it could take the majority of nobles, who opposed the idea, a considerably longer time to track down the new noble family. We descended the cliff to board, what for me had be, a home away from home. Log of Alderman Cadmus Once the salt had been squared away, as much as was possible, our first task was to stop at the two nearby inds of Little Wester and Wester Levante to sell as much as possible of the salt. The trick as always for any merchant was to do so at the highest price they could. Mercurio even had a skill that allowed him to know the best price to sell at called, ¡®Market Value¡¯ This allowed him to have an understanding of what the market would price his goods at as well as notified him when the amount that he was selling started to devalue his product. A suitably impressive skill that meant he could prevent himself from lowering the value of his products. While he sold a lot of salt on the behalf of the Silversea family he never sold more than the market could handle maximising their profit and preventing a boom and bust cycle of prices. He assured me that by the time the Swift returned, presumably with more salt, the price would be back to where it was today and ready for another infusion. This, unfortunately, meant that we were unable to offload all the salt and it seemed that we would be continuing to sell it at each ind we stopped at on the way home to the capital. Our short visit to Wester Ponente meant that I had failed to acquire any more goods for the next round of inds leaving me to pick up a few at Little Wester and Wester Levante but this far out from the capital there were few civilised goods to acquire. Although Mercurio reassured me that a profit could still be made nheless. This time he rmended I pick up items of scrimshaw from Little Wester, as well as polished shells and other curiosities from Wester Levante which he assured me he knew two markets for back in the capital that would be keen to buy such seemingly worthless items of wood, stone, and shell. Mercurio had yet to steer me wrong on any of my mercantile investments so I followed his advice but only parted with a small percentage of my profits to do so as he said that there would be no market for them until we returned to the capital. If I had invested all my earnings in them I would be unable to profit from the multitude of stops that we would be making on our return journey and I had be rather ustomed to the steadily increasing weight and wealth of my purse. Indeed I would soon need a small chest to amodate my gains although that in itself would cut into my profits but would be a worthwhile investment if only to hold my newfound wealth but also hopefully keep it safe as well. We visited another 8 major inds along the northern edge of the archipgo although we stopped here and there at smaller isles. Each time Mercurio offloaded as much salt as the market could hold. I realised that we could have visited these inds on the way out to Wester Ponente but Mercurio clearly had nned a circr clockwise route and we would not be visiting the same inds that we had visited before on our westward outbound journey. Now that we were travelling eastward and homebound we visited the inds we had failed to do so already. We stopped at each ind for a day or two to ensure we had filled the hold with more goods to sell both between the isles and for when we returned to the capital of Ponente. Our journey was an interesting cross-section of the trade within Ponente. While there were a fair few trade goods that we didn¡¯t buy and sell, each ind had a favoured export that Mercurio was able to pick up cheaper than elsewhere. On the western isle of Favon, we acquired olives and olive oil, while at Corus we were able to buy both grapes and wine. At each isle, we sold our salt as well as goods from the previous isles. On Circe, we traded in dried fish which was probably the cheapest of goods but popr when sold on Septon in exchange for their pottery. On Aquil, we picked up ssware which were filled with perfume on Caecia. Our final stop within the archipgo before ending back to the coast of Ponente proper was Sn where we were able to pick up a variety of spices that reinvigorated our daily meals. Then we headed towards the northern part of Ponente on the border with Maestro before we worked our way back down the coast towards the capital. Solstice City It felt incredibly strange to be back in the capital, Solstice city. I had be ustomed to the rock of the boat and for some reason, thend itself felt less secure beneath my feet as we crossed the capital to the pce, at the center of the ind, within the bay. Our glorious capitaly on star ind within a bay whose mouth opened out to the west and the western archipgo we had just sailed around. Before we hadnded on Star Ind and entered Solstice City we had visited the three sister cities on the shore of the Compass continent within the bay offloading the Swift''s full hold of goods. Different goods were offloaded at each city depending on whether they would be going North, East, or South depending on the level of profit that could be made there. Mecurio¡¯s profits turned into gold, silver, and gems for the short trip back across the bay to the capital and the biggest banks on the continent. If I judged by the profits I had made on this trip then Mercurio''s profits must have been truly outstanding. However, I had merely profited and faced none of the costs he would have had to face. I was unsure of the general wage of a sailor or how much it cost to outfit a ship from bow to stern. But I was sure they would cut heavily into any perceived profit well before any noble took their cut. Although Mecurio had managed to reduce that part of his expenses significantly. Following Aleera''s request, the profits from selling salt had been reinvested into buying the remainder of Wester Ponente and the majority of the remainingnd avable on both Little Wester and Wester Levante. Suchnd was remarkably cheap for its volume although I supposed that was only to be expected seeing as it wasnd so far from the capital. Ponente was not a smallpass kingdom by any means and had made its mark on the world through its marine trade up and down the west coast north to the north-western kingdom of Maestro and beyond to the northern kingdom of Tramontana as well as south along the coast past the southwestern kingdom of Libio as far south as the southern capital of Ostro the southern kingdom. Merchants would travel further afield certainly working their way all the way around thepass continent. But you did not have to travel so far or risk such dangers to make such a profit. Plying the Western Archipgo was full of trade goods to be found as Mercurio had most excellently shown me. I apanied him as much by habit as by necessity. We had spent the majority of thest six months together and it felt strange to consider that our time together was nearly up. As we climbed the steps to the pce I found myself reminiscing on our travels together. Once we had returned I found myself quickly gathered up by the Royal Seneschal while Mercurio was forced to wait with the other petitioners. Then I found myself quickly grilled on everything that had happened over thest 6 months. Before being escorted quickly and quietly to the line of petitioners where I was once more ced next to Mercurio. Pce of Ponente After a significant amount of time waiting and slowly shuffling forward in line with the other petitioners we had made it once more to the base on his throne and found ourselves once more looking up at him. ¡°Have you seeded in ratifying the rise of this individual to nobility based onnd, riches, and nobility?¡± the prince asked addressing his question to me rather than Mercurio. ¡°No, your highness. I was unable to do so, due to the individual in question, promptly perishing within an hour of his purchase of the patent of nobility.¡± I dourly responded. The court had already stilled to listen to our conversation but now there wasplete silence. ¡°That is a sad state of affairs, indeed. It is truly troubling to hear that a recently ennobled individual who was weed into our society by the foresight of my father should be so quickly and violently ended.¡± He spoke more to the court at hand than to answer me. I had already passed on all the relevant details to the Royal seneschal as soon as we entered the pce and this was merely a y put on for the lords anddies watching. The oue had already been decided the decisions made. This was but a y put on to gauge their reactions and establish our exit. ¡°It is even worse though, your highness. Particrly, as the individual in question was just a child, their future bought for him by his family and for it to be so abruptly ended it is not only a crime against my subject of investigation but for all nobility, and indeed, your majesty himself.¡± These were the words I had been given to say by the seneschal who had clearly created a n to take care of the chaos that was about to unfold. ¡°A child?¡± asked the prince seemingly shocked and I was left wondering how much the prince was aware of. Had he been informed of everything in advance or were his responses in line with what the Seneschal had predicted merely an exceptional example of the Seneschal''s predictions. ¡°Yes. The individual in question was not yet one year of age, but he was cruelly thrown from the top of a cliff after the patent had been purchased on his behalf.¡± I calmly answered although out of the corner of my eye I could clearly see the sweat forming on Mercurio''s brow. His n had always been to provide remuneration to the Prince for thend on Little Wester, Wester Levante and Wester Ponente hopefully gaining his trust and support before ever airing such a tragedy in public. There was a suitable gasp of outrage among the nobles whether feigned or real I had not the senses or skills to tell. But it was a suitable reaction to the tragic tale of woe of a child''s time on thepass continent cut short before their time. For if the nobles had a second rule after that of their own self-interest it was that their children at least until they came of age were off-limits to some of the more lethal games of politics they yed. A child not yet able to assign stats, a child under even the age when the system was granted to them would have had no chance at all against their machinations. It was considered particrly poor form to have to resort to such drastic measures against children even if they were for the most part united in their refusal to allow others to join their august group. Although there had been no usation or judgement of guilt a small space formed around one family in particr. The family that had once been the patron of Merchant Mercurio. There might not be any evidence or any way to use or even recuse themselves from the possibility, but it was clear that the other nobles at least felt that this noble family was the most likely to have been responsible for the reprehensible crime. ¡°That is a most shocking and disturbing story. Is there a close rtive that could retain the title in rpense for such an unjust and dare I say it evil act?¡± The prince asked the question even though he knew the answer. By airing it in court after such a build-up no noble present could truly object to the title being carried to another even if they still desired it without appearing to be eitherplicit in the child¡¯s death or amoral enough to bepletely unmoved by the sentiment filling the royal hall. This was the point of the farce. For whatever reason, it appeared that the Prince and the Seneschal were supporting the creation of a new noble house, and with their support, perhaps, possibly, the new house had a chance at survival. ¡°Yes, your majesty. He was survived by his close family, a sister, mother, and father, and presuming they survive their birth another sibling will have already been added to the family.¡± I answered calmly still kneeling on one knee. ¡°Very well. I am assuming that everything else was in order for the patent of nobility apart from the demise of its holder?¡± He questioned me once more. ¡°Yes, your highness. Their holdings, wealth, influence and power were all in line with those needed to raise a household to nobility asid out by your forefather¡± I answered. ¡°Then I decree that the siblings shall inherit the title of Lord or Lady as appropriate. Forthwith I expect, . . . ¡± here he levelled his gaze at the nobles overlooking the court, ¡°that they will both be alive to be weed to court on their 20th year. This is my royal decree and I expect all nobility across Ponente to abide by our decision lest we have to look closer into the cause of their demise. Indeed should they perish before they are presented to our august selves we will be most vexed and moved to further action against those who could so cruelly act against a new noble house not only once but twice.¡± The susurration of whispers that whipped their way around the court made it clear that while certain nobles were unquestionably unhappy with such a decision, under the current circumstances, they were unable to verbally object to it. It would also appear that the Silversea family would not all be bing lords anddies. Still, a 20-year reprieve from the most immediate and obvious threats would surely help them build a strong enough foundation to weather future strife and conflict. However the prince did not end is announcements there, ¡°Furthermore, under the light of their most recent circumstances, until the new noble house and its members are presented to court they are under no obligation to reveal their location, crest, or members. Alderman Cadmus and Merchant Mecurio you are hereby ordered by royal decree not to divulge your knowledge of such matters.¡± This was hisst statement before he waved us to depart. Mercurio for his part had been silent for the majority of our time in the hall but was looking confused as we were led off to the exit. Seneschal side room ¡°While I obviously appreciate the royal decree protecting and preventing me from divulging the knowledge within my head why the secrecy? The nobles will surely find out who they are before their 20th year is up anyway.¡± Mercurio asked even though this was what he had hoped for he was cautious of epting such a boon for both him and them at face value. ¡°Whether they will or won¡¯t is up for debate. But before I attempt to answer that in more detail, what do you really understand of the court factions?" The seneschal held from answering him immediately. "There are two main factions of nobility. The Western lords of Ponente from the coasts and isles as well as the Eastern lords who are the maindndlocked areas of the kingdom. Both parties wield considerable power in setting policy for Ponente but the Prince holds the deciding vote in the majority of matters." Mercurio summarised his understanding of politics within the pce. "An urate enough assessment from the outside. However, what initially may appear to be one faction for and one against is often actually moreplicated. To start with while all nobles object to a new noble on principle each faction is divided further into two again. For example, the Western lords would not object to having another member in their faction as it would bolster their numbers but would still be against someone taking part of their territory which the Silversea family will in theory over time begin to do should they expand beyond the Wester Isles. Then again, on the other hand, while the Eastern lords will, in theory, be against having another member in the opposite faction some of them would be in favour of another western noble diluting the other western lord''s power or creating strife within the faction. Life is always both moreplicated and simple than it needs to be. Indeed, again after the initial objection, the Independent faction themselves would be happy to add another to their faction if and only if they are strong enough to stand alone yet with them.¡± He began to exin just a few of theplexities of life here at the pce. I was aware of the struggles between the groups but due to my position and the essential neutrality required for arbitration, I had managed to avoid, evade or overrule such political problems before. ¡°Ultimately,plicated politics is a necessary part of running Ponente although on asion unnecessarilyplicated. Still, if you can enjoy the level ofplexity there is no game greater or more worth ying. Point of fact, adding to theplexity of this particr conundrum, there are at least two types of individual lords that will be particrly unhappy with today''s turn of events. First, the ones whose wealth is derived from pearls and second the ones whose wealth is derived from salt ording to Alderman Cadmus the Silversea family will be taking over a significant share of the market should they continue to bring such significant amounts to the market.¡± He smiled at some joke or pleasure he found in the situation only he was aware of. ¡°Then again there is the case of your own former noble patron. Since you have been gone they have raised a motion questioning the legality of poaching merchants from their patron''s families. So far the motion has not gained any traction as no other nobles or merchants for that matter are willing to offer or risk switching sides no matter how favourable the terms are. The Silversea family on the other hand are in the envious position of existing on a pioneer ind where taxes are officially neither owed nor expected by the crown as part of the legal lease that allowed and supported them to settle there on such inhospitable and uninhabited inds. Should other merchants be aware of their location and your generous terms with them they would undoubtedly be interested in making simr deals. Yet another reason to sustain the secrecy for as long as possible one might think. Surely that would be beneficial to all including the crown, officially and unofficially.¡± He exined some of the hidden currents swirling here at court. The hidden subtext to the conversation and quite clearly not vocalised officially was that if the Silversea family hoped to continue to enjoy the protection of the crown such gifts or purchases ofnd would have to continue. ¡°Now I believe that seeing as there are now two patents of nobility to be registered it might be best if the two of you returned to wherever it was you found such a family in the first ce.¡± He smiled once more. ¡°But sir I just returned.¡± It had been fun while it hadsted but I had been looking forward to returning home for the first time in 6 months. ¡°I feel that another journey would be the best thing for your health. A royal decree carries a lot of weight with nobles but we ourselves are unfortunately not nobles.¡± He nodded his head as if everything was settled. "Scribner will take a record of their new holdings and pass on the payment for any purchases made. Best to keep such purchases private for the moment. I look forward to seeing you in six months'' time Cadmus." With his finalment and introduction to the man who had been at his side, he departed leaving us with Scribner. After being thoroughly quizzed about the Silversea family, for the records, we were escorted quickly and quietly back out of the pce avoiding the courtiers and nobles attending court. Before we managed to slip away again. Mercurio had a quick meeting with the Compass Star Bank cing the majority of his profits and funds there before we departed once more to return to the Wester isles via our convoluted and serpentine route. The journey once more took us along the southern coastal cities travelling once more to the edge of Ponente and the border with Libio, before turning westward once more and working our way through the southern inds of the archipgo on our journey westwards. We stopped at the inds of Apelio, Vulturn, Euron, Notos, Auster, and Libon once more as Mercurio traded his way back to Wester Ponente. 3 monthster we finally arrived to finalise the agreement we had made 6 months earlier with the noble children now officially recognised by the Prince of Ponente. Chapter 74: Bored of being bored Chapter 74: Bored of being bored ¡°I¡¯m so bored, of being bored, because being bored, is really boring.¡± Anon Another boring month with little to do. I was left mainly in my mind now that the elixir had run out. I carefully and slowly explored the world I could perceive from outside of my mind fortress. It was slow going by nature and design. I could not believe it had taken me so long to notice the new method of perception. But I was hesitant to add too many new skills to my burgeoning list that would support any further growth of my mind stat. Especially, before I had managed to bnce myself out. However, I had a list of abilities I would like to one day achieve, telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation. Telepathy was an interesting word and the etymology behind its Greek roots meant far or distant feeling or perception. Anyway, I spent some time imagining how I might achieve a variety of psychic powers. Having unlocked the ability, it seemed silly not to develop it to its utmost potential. I just had to wait a little while until my body was more in bnce. Furthermore, if it was as unusual as I suspected it would be another hidden string to my bow. I had told my family practically everything one way or another. Wouldn¡¯t it be okay to keep a couple of secrets to myself? Probably not, if you considered where my current unbnced stats had led me. I might have to let them know sooner rather thanter. But technically they had never asked me about other resources or stats so it was not as if I had lied to them, technically speaking. That wasn¡¯t the only thing upying my mind though. There were a few other activities I had been up to within my mind fortress. Long ago I had created amand room with screens disying the physical world around me and outside my body. This is how I had managed to view the world from within my mind fortress. Kept my body in contact with my mind even if I had managed to hide my mental senses from my consciousness within my mind. I felt like I was being a little convoluted in thinking that out. But I guessed we all were onions, in that regard. There were always a lot ofyers to each and every one of us. It just so happened, that there were moreyers to my mind than most. Anyway, I was bored of being bored. While I was still hesitant to try out my new psychic powers, in fear of acerbating my situation and having already remodelled my mind fortress more than once, I decided to try something else. Something that would hopefully have me thinking in a different manner without adding any new skills or increasing my mental stats too much. You see every time I wanted to look at my stats I had to pull them up or delve into my mind fortress to do so. The time that it took me to delve within simply took too long. One day it was likely to be a liability. Especially, if I ever needed to quickly know how much gas I had left in the tank at a nce. For example, if I was ever in the middle ofbat, or a life and death situation, it could end up being the death of me. So seeing as I had nothing else to do I decided to see I could not create my own unique type of status screen. One through which I could view the world rather than one that hid it behind itself. First, I called up my status to cover my vision rather than diving into my mind fortress. I had it expand out until it took up the entirety of my vision. The next step was attempting to make it as transparent as possible. I was not sure if this was possible because of my super senses or mental prowess, but eventually, this allowed me to see the world through my screen. It did give the world a little bit of a blue tint to it but it was possible to eventually see the world through it without too much of an obstruction. Second, I then pushed my Health, Stamina, Mana, and Psi information into bar shapes coloured by the percentage of resources remaining. Removing the numbers for values so that I would be able to tell from a quick nce, rather than having itpletely blocking my view and then having to read the numbers off. Once I had managed to do that then I coloured them, Green for 100 to 50 percent of the resource, Amber for 50 to 20 percent and Red for 10 percent and under. It was a quick, clear, and concise way to keep up to date on my status without having to see my whole status at a time. Third, I gradually managed to remove all the see-through stats from this cover screen as I had no need to know this. Or at least not to see it constantly updated second by second especially when there was no change. But the main reason was to clear up my visual window to the world. I had equally hidden away my skill list and likewise, I had hidden my name, level, and experience not needing to know this instantly. Particrly as unless something went drastically wrong then by day, hour, minute and seconds I rarely forgot my own name. I had however left the time stamp my time sense skill had given me finding it useful to have a clock within my vision. It seemed strange after having always had ess to a clock, watch or phone to tell the time in my old world, here I just left the skill running constantly. The only problem with my clock was that it was based on my birth rather than the Compass calendar and the clock that this world ran off. I would have to learn how to recalibrate that one day. Fourth, I added to my view panel some of the other stations that my super senses had allowed me to build within my mind fortress. Apass and minimap were easily added based on what my skills allowed me to see. In fact, I was also able to switch my vision to add the details provided by mana sense and echolocation. One added colours to the world based on the type and strength of the mana present. The other was a ck world built with lines formed by the information echolocation returned. Either way, it was a cool effect and well worth the time I had been forced to endure wrapped up in my head. It was strange to see the world this way but no stranger than when I had first discovered the skill and still just as cool. I had effectively turned my status into a gaming console screen that I could keep up at will. I did worry a little that this might make me view the world a little more like a game to be yed but I also thought that my crippled nature and the asional crippling pain I had experienced so far would be quick to wake me up to the fact that ultimately this was not game it was my life. Still, there was one thing missing from my heads-up disy. If I was going all the way, then I might as well add this as well. Fifth and finally, I added my music. A separate scroll bar of actual scrolls that I had written out, the music of my former world. The trick here was to again utilise multiple skills at the same time. While parallel process would y the music within my mind fortress, my waking mind viewing the world would be able to listen in and enjoy a soundtrack to my life. I had built myself my own mental gaming station through which I viewed the world and once I could actually move again, I could only imagine how cool it would be, to finally move to music once again. The best bit about all the mental exercises was that it was utilising skills I already had rather than discovering new ones. So while my levels ticked up a little and added a little to my stats it hopefully would not be too big a boost to them like I feared my psi skills might be should I y around with them too much and discover new skills. Better still, even though I was still lying there crippled, I was no longer bored! . . . At the end of the month, we were finally graced with Mercurio and Cadmus¡¯s presence. Luckily it appeared that the royal interest in our family had been positive. The situation or our petition was summarised as a ¡®yes¡¯ to the children, Aleera and I would be bing nobles once more. But it was a ¡®no¡¯ to the adult part of our family bing nobles unless the prince received further remuneration for future patents of nobility. While Grandfather was reluctantly willing to pay for his daughter¡¯s ennoblement he was not willing to pay for the son-inw¡¯s title so we would be waiting on Grandpa Smit and Father to make enough money before that happened. Besides that, there were possible benefits to this situation if we, as children, had been put off the board of the game nobility appeared to y with our lives, by the Royal family. ording to them, we had over 10 Compass Kingdom years until Aleera reached the age of inheritance and had to be presented to the court. 10 Compass Kingdom years, during which, in theory at least, our family should be free from physical threats to our well-being. This was all in theory though. Both Mercurio and Cadmus emphasised the fact that our distance from the capital as well as our obscurity to the nobles ying such dangerous games was of equal protection as a Royal edict that we should attend his court healthy and whole. They further pointed out that being healthy and whole did not preclude entrapping our family fiscally, legally or in any other manner or method the nobles could think of. That did not mean to say that they were not impressed with how productive our family had continued to be over thest 6 months and they attempted to reassure the family that there was profit and safety to be had as well. While they had been away, mother continued to slowly add to the pce she was slowly carving into the side of the mountain. So we were able to meet the two of them on a small balcony overlooking the salt ts. They had been flooded once more this morning, when we realised they wereing, to create the correct aesthetic. The view of the mountain as they arrived and the caldera reflected in the salt ts as they looked back across the azure bluegoon they had sailed across was surely majestic. Particrly lit as it was, in the light of the midday sun, beneath a cerulean sky. Surprisingly, I was even reintroduced to Mercurio and introduced to Cadmus for the first official time, as their new son Callen. There was some question as to whether this was a wise idea or not. Particrly with the difficulties of a 1 and a half-year-old pretending to be a newly born baby. I might be growing slowly but there was still a size discrepancy. However, to aid in the disguise and deception, they had my new cot built. It was specially constructed, with hidden space for my legs to drop down below my body. Added to this my mother, had sewn fake feet onto my knees. I found the whole effectical as I now looked significantly shorter than my true height, probably around half my height seeing as I was lying down. My ability to lieatose as if sleeping was no challenge for me at all, crippled as I still was. Luckily, Mercurio had returned with several bottles of dexterity elixir which meant that as soon as they had left I would be able to move again. Still, while Iy there listening they exined their return journey to our family. Aleera was able to ask the questions that interested me the most. I heard about the circr route they had taken through the archipgo. They happily told her of the ind¡¯s names Favon, Corus, Circe, Septen, Aquil, Caecia, Sn, Apelio, Vulturn, Euron, Notos, Auster and Libon as well as what could be purchased on each beyond the usual coastal city products of fish, shells, pearls and salt. Clearly encouraging her in her mercantile dreams. I attempted to build a mental map of the world they were describing in my mind but looked forward to getting hold of a proper map myself to see how far we were from the ¡®modern¡¯ center of civilisation that Cadmus described. Aleera hardly needed the encouragement to engage in further trade. Indeed, we had been hard at work producing more salt over thest six months and we had finally harvested our first set of pearls that were ready for sale. But their information had certainly given me a few ideas on how we could build our empire and I was sure that she would be only too happy to help me realise them for a price of course. Once he realised that we had more assets for sale, Mercurio was ecstatic to receive them, although he bargained hard over their price. While it was still clear that he was allowing Aleera some sess at the bargaining table, he appeared to be less willing, after his agreement to sell all our salt for us, to pay the top price for them. Nevertheless, he didn¡¯t try to keep the price down too hard. Her sess at selling the items would trante into his own sess, as he transferred her profit into buyingnd across Little Wester and Wester Levante. Then more so when he took a part of themission on the sales from the Prince. Over thest couple of months, Grandfather had emphasised the importance of owning outright our locality simply to prevent others from establishing a foothold when our family was eventually discovered. Father had been happy to hear that we were under the Prince¡¯s protection for the next two decades. But Cadmus was quick caution to him, that while it was a royal decree it did not assure us our safety merely increased the possible cost of our death and demise and reinforced our Grandfather¡¯s point about the importance of owning our own or nearbynd. Cadmus went on to exin that he did not doubt that within the decade our name and location would be leaked either through the nobles'' diligence in searching for us or a leak from either the Swift or the Pce and not to put too much faith in the Prince to protect them. Especially as far from the center of Ponente as we were. It was with this final word of warning that their meeting was adjourned. They left Mercurio never suspecting that I was not the original child he sold the patent of nobility to. I wondered if I had two patents of nobility would that make me a lord squared? Was a double baron a viscount? The system rewarded me with nothing new so I assumed it made no difference at all. Chapter 75: Life’s gifts Chapter 75: Life¡¯s gifts ¡°Life is a gift and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by bing something more.¡±Tony Robbins After Mercurio and Cadmus had left it was time to look at some of the gifts that they had brought us. Despite the fact, that we had paid for them in one form or another they still felt quite special as we opened them up. Especially, in a pre-industrial world wheremercialism had yet to run rampant and our possessions were few and far between. For the most part, they were essential items rather than frivolous, although as we developed into a noble family, we were beginning to build up some of the trappings required to enter that part of society. Personally, I found it quite pleasant not to be surrounded by the detritus of an entire life¡¯s worth of collecting various bits and bobs while still being unable to throw it all out. If there was one thing, I could rmend about being reborn it was not having to clear out my garage, cupboards, bedrooms and attic. That and magic, and the system and just general wonder at getting a second chance at life . . . Admittedly, there was a lot to be grateful for beyond a clean garage but focusing on the more recent physical gifts. First, the patents of nobility were worth their weight in gold figuratively and nearly literally as well, the amount of gold leaf they were embossed with, nearly outweighed the parchment they had been written on. Even though they had been handwritten, the formation of letters was so exact and precise, that it was almost as if they had been printed. They officially weed the Silversea Family to the Noble Families of Ponente recognised by the Crown. Cadmus had added our names to the individual patents before he had left, as well as added his own signature as an alderman to confirm their authenticity. My full name had been written down as Callen Kai Silversea. My fake death and rebirth had not lost me my name merely gained me an extra one in remembrance of my ''older brother''. It was not necessary to produce the patents on most asions, but they could be asked for, in order to rify our positions, by various institutions of the Kingdom, should we need to prove our status. They were carefully packed away and hidden within the mountain. We had been warned by Cadmus that while they were supposedly unforgeable documents, they were still important documents and therefore profitable items to be stolen. Either to be ransomed back to us or fraudulently used in some nefarious scheme for which we might end up beholden to the consequences. The deeds to thends that Aleera had purchased were divided equally between the two of us. Almost as if we were ying a game of monopoly. Thend was still cheap this far out from the continent. That might change if we could make our own little paradise on earth here in the Wester Isles, although maybe not. Real estate prices rose and fell with politics and war, and I was not going to bet on either of them. We also made payments to Des and Sinis by giving them a small plot ofnd from our holdings, for their support and work in collecting, packaging and then selling the salt. This world, like many countries in my former, was biased towards men. While technically as the first male heir I would inherit, own, or oversee all assets of the Silversea family, Aleera was obviously and understandably not a fan of this idea. Particrly because it had never been much of an issue before so it was not something she had grown up knowing or thinking about. The sudden windfall of wealth meant that she was not keen to part with it or acknowledge the prevailing views as either understandable or eptable. Either way, I was happy for her to have the titles to thend on the other inds, but I was trying to consolidate the ownership of Wester Ponente under my own title. Not saying that we argued over the matter but there was a fair amount of sibling squabbling settled by our mother. Indeed, looking at the map detailing plots ofnd was an interesting read. It seemed that most of the people who lived in the town had bought their plots ofnd outright but after that had invested more in their homes over buying morend, they felt they had no need for. That didn¡¯t mean there were not the asional family that had bought plots outside the bounds of the town. But the vast majority had not bothered. This meant that despite the generalck of individual wealth in our pioneer town most people and families lived far beyond what their wealth would have been able to have afforded them back on the maind. Living on plots ofnd and homes that were bigger than they would have been able to afford on the Compass Continent. A town of domus, not quite vis in their own right, rather than being packed with inse and single-room apartments. That was not to say that the younger families such as our own did not live in smaller oikos than their parents¡¯ families had lived in. But while the town had left a significant amount of space internally when the outside walls went up it had not expanded externally despite the expansion of the poption internally. This meant, that while the original families had blocked outrger plots for their shops and family homes, their children if they moved out had to build on smaller plots ofnd. Doubly so for any new additions to the town from further afield, not that there seemed to have been another wave of immigration from the time that the ind was initially settled. I guessed that mother and father could have always moved out to the ind to build their home, considering that everyone had always given grandfather a wide berth, but they had chosen to live within the town walls. So despite theirparatively wealthy status from my mother''s weaving and my father''s fishing they had settled for a smaller house within the town rather than live with my father¡¯s parents and honestly who would have wanted to do that. That is why our home had been a rather spartan affair consisting of my parent¡¯s room, Aleera¡¯s room, the main room where the cooking, eating and the room where the weaving had taken ce. We may have had our own little shop front, but it was nothing like some of therger homes, with their atriums. But Father had delivered his catch directly to those who bought it at the end of his days fishing and mother had either invited people into our home or visited theirs for the most basic of fittings. With the smaller number of peoplepared to a modern town or city nothing more was needed. I had not been too na?ve to notice that while women had visited our home unapanied for their fittings, any men had always been apanied by either their wives, sisters or mothers. We had lived in a small town and while everyone knew one another one way or the other there were still some forms of propriety over gender differences and no man had visited unapanied, or if they had they had been politely turned away due to being busy or asked to return with a female rtive. The other surprise gift that was unexpected was the musical instruments which Grandfather had apparently asked to be dropped off when they returned. They were nothing like the musical instruments that I was used to in my previous life, but I could see the precursors to the modern violin, trumpet, and flute. As well as a harp, which was simr no matter what culture or age you hailed from. The problem was that I was somewhat limited by my size. All the instruments were made for an adult or at least a child capable of holding them. However, I felt that I would have the most sess with the Rebec, the name of the early model violin, which I would be able to be treated like a cello. The only problem was that the bow was far too big for me to hold and attempt to use on it. But if they could make me a smaller one, I could probably sit down and have a go at ying it. It only had 3 strings rather than the usual 4 but I was looking forward to attempting it. I hadn¡¯t yed in a long time now and was looking forward to making the attempt even if the instrument was different to the ones I had grown up with. I was also hoping that being able to physically y the musical instruments would support me in gaining those dexterity stats I so desperately needed. It was one thing to regain the skill, I had once had, in my mind. But that did not appear to be adding to my dexterity stats, it merely seemed to be the system recognising a skill I had already possessed in my former life and quantifying it as part of my status with skill levels, but not actually increasing physical stats unless physically practised. The Cornu would one day end up looking like a trumpet if the technological progress of this world was anything like my own, but this early version of it was made without valves and went round in a circle. It depended entirely on one¡¯s embouchure to change its pitch. I was still looking forward to learning to y it but doubted that learning this instrument would be helping me improve my dexterity as much as the rebec. Particrly seeing as it solely relied on my lips rather than abination of speed and dexterity with my fingers and arms that the rebec would require. Then again if I could get my tongue to move quick enough to y double or even triple tonguing perhaps Rimsky Korsakov''s Flight of the Bumblebee maybe it was not impossible. The Aulos, on the other hand, was another sure possibility for improving my dexterity. It was an early version of the flute. It was not particrlyrge but I could only attempt to y half of it with my tiny hands as short and stumpy as they were. I wondered if this would affect my attempt at gaining and levelling the skill. Did one have to y the entire range of an instrument to be considered able to y it? While most days I merely thought of myself as a height-challenged adult, it was days like this, when I attempted to y the instruments, that drove home that I was still an infant no matter how differently I might have imagined myself in my head or how grown up I was treated by my family. Internally, my mental image of myself had continued to regress. It hadn¡¯t quite reached the toddler I was in reality, but I was now a small child wandering through rooms, in my mental fortress, that feltrger to my smaller mental avatar than the adult they had originally been created for. The gift my mother received was twofold. The dyes that she had asked for were interesting enough and hade apanied with instructions on how to use them for the best effect. There were reds, blues and yellows to add to our very own purple. Mercurio had gone above and beyond in his efforts to develop good rtionships with each, and every member of our family so he had also provided the nts the dyes could be derived from. He had packaged each nt carefully and managed to keep them alive throughout their sea journey. They would not be enough to replenish the dyes that were far easier to buy than grow but in time they one day might be. We would nt them up at the top of our mountain and in time would support a small number of dyes. I was not sure how quickly we would be able to make them grow or quite how many nts would be required to create our own dyes but it was a kind gesture that had not gone unnoticed. Now that we had our patents of nobility. Now that Mercurio and Cadmus had finally left. Now that I was officially recognised as Callen, Kai Silversea. It was also time to reintroduce myself to the town once more. While my former ¡®death¡¯ exined why our family had removed themselves to the ind for several months, to mourn, grieve and ¡®have another child¡¯ in safety it was time to reintroduce me to both my wider family and then the town atrge. On that note, it seemed silly, but the town was actually named after the ind and was simply known as Wester. Maybe our old home could be renamed as Westward, then our address would have been Westward, West Street, Wester, Wester Ponente! Not that there was a postal system here and our road despite being called West Street actually ran towards the north! There was probably some convoluted reason why or rather how that had happened but none of our family knew the reason why. Regardless of what the town was called, it was decided that we would introduce ourselves as the Silversea Family to our wider family first and see how that changed the dynamics before we attempted returning to Wester and reintegrating with town life on a more permanent basis. It might not even be possible to return to town. As we were now nobles, we were expected to have the finest house, or rather, mansion around. This would have cost a lot more to achieve building up from the ground in the town rather than what we were currently doing which was carving down out of the mountain. So, while I would be reintroduced to the world atrge we would still end up staying here on the ind not only for the safety it provided being one step removed from the town, but also to begin to project an image of a new bourgeoisie familying into money. The first part of this n would be to start inviting our wider family, our cousins, aunts and uncles out to see our new home and me for the first time known as Callen. If I was being honest I still preferred the name Kai and while I was now nearly 2 years old in this world I would be pretending to be 12 months old. So in reality I was a 50-year old (old world years) pretending to be a 2 year old (new world years which was 32 months) pretending to be a 12-month-old (both world months). It was a littleplicated if you thought about it that way. So I tried not to. I just acted as I would have anyway. Any attempts at acting so far had not been particrly sessful and the reality was so far removed from most people''s expectations and experiences that it was practically unguessable anyway. The final gifts were the dexterity elixirs that Mercurio had provided. While he had clearly been interested in the reason behind the request he had not asked merely sold our family the elixirs as part of the percentage we were owed. We had all winced at the price, Aleera questioning why exactly and how exactly Grandfather had first, had so many and second afforded them all in the first ce. I thought she was just a little sore that I might have well have been drinking liquid gold for what it was costing us. However, she couldn¡¯t argue with their purpose and the slowly rationed elixirs had helped me regain my mobility. With a new set I continued to be able to practice my skills and increase my dexterity stats. 1st month Life went on, as usual, salt, snails, pearls and purple. I was restricted from doing the majority of the work by the rationing of the elixir but I was present for most of it. Mana made the mage and I had plenty of it to help with. Grandpa Smit and Grandma also came to visit. While Grandpa had visited before it was the first time Grandma had visited us. Despite clearly having been warned she was suitably shocked by the progress we had made on our pce. They discussed the best way to reintroduce our family to the town as well as how to broach the idea that our family was now a new noble family. It was felt that while on the one hand, it would be good practice to set such expectations it might create more problems than it was worth. Smit¡¯s family¡¯s history of buying up all the ind was hardly hidden but the extent of their sess in buying it all up was also hardly recognised either. The question was whether it would create more problems than it was worth in the short term or the long term. And the answer was that it probably would create more than it was worth to be so explicit about it. Grandma pointed out that we could simply return as the new bourgeoise family, a family that hade into new wealth, a hidden inheritance from the maind if you will. One that might exin the death of Kai, an event they were still specting about. If there had been money involved, then while the crime would still be terrible there would be some understanding of a possible motive even if they didn¡¯t suspect the actual truth. She didn¡¯t frame it exactly like this, but in reference to our finer clothing as well as the pce we were building on the ind, it would not be difficult to infer through purchases, requests and other jobs that we could slowly, and slightly more subtly than simply announcing it. Hopefully, we could be the dominant family through soft power rather than hard. In the end, this was a pioneer town and ind. A fair few families hade here, risked sailing treacherous seas, specifically in order to get away from the nobility. This was why and how Smit¡¯s family had alreadye to be more or less in charge without ever having to define themselves as such. It was also clear that Grandma had exerted just as much influence in the families smooth progression forward towards bing nobles as Grandpa Smit and his desire to push each son into a different profession. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker did not quite match his efforts in spreading his sons out across the professions but it was not far off. 2nd Month The cousins came to visit. I was kept wrapped up the entire time and carried everywhere but they have been reintroduced to my face. I had even been ced in my fake cot to try to reinforce how small we were pretending I was. My hair had even been shaved the month prior to their visit to reinforce my newborn status. The family were kind enough not to mention how I looked like Kai although Aleera was mentioned many a time in how simr we looked as babies. I suppose most babies or at least siblings look alike anyway and there were no photos topare us face to face. They were all suitably impressed by the slowly growing pce we were carving. The other cousins even went as far as to mention that the Siren of Ash ind finally had a pce to match her voice. It turned out that when Grandfather and Aliyah had first turned up here he had retreated to the isle with her barely letting her out of his sight or off the ind as a child. The mists and the songs that could faintly be heard by those out fishing painted a mysterious picture of the ind and its inhabitants at the time. This history had been dredged up by our extended families'' return to the isle. It was an interesting idea to imagine mother out here on her own. One wondered how on earth Father managed to seed in meeting her or stealing her away from Grandfather. 3rd Month By now Mercurio and Cadmus would be back at Solstice City once more and at Grandfather¡¯s request opening bank ounts in our names. No one would be able to withdraw from them until we presented our patents of nobility but Mercurio had promised to deposit our 5 percent share of his profits there until we were able to collect it ourselves or requested it was spent on something else. We had all had little requests before he left but they were minor things that would hardly ount for all the profit from the salt as well as our 5 percent share. I had a lot of ideas but until I was bigger I would be limited by what I was able to achieve. So, I had requested fruit, olive, and date saplings along with grape vines. Things that, just like me, would take time to grow before being immediately useful. I had ns in ce for where to nt them. Des and Sinis both resigned to carrying more soil up the mountain to the caldera where I nned to recreate a veritable garden of eden. 4th Month By now I had been ying my musical instruments for 3 months quickly gaining the skills and levels for them simr to their modern counterparts. They had also been helping significantly with my dexterity stat improvements. Where once before I had only been able to gain 1 or 2 points in dexterity per month now I was able to gain at least 3 asionally 4. I was still working as little as possible on my mental stats be they magic, rity or mind. But despite that, the sheer number of skills I had in them helped them to keep ticking upward with or without my focus. The huge sess was not in my dexterity though but in my charisma. I had once again impressed my wider family with my cuteness but my inner nuclear family had been amazed at my ability to y both the Aulos and the Rebec. They had always known that I was musical, my mother was the proudest of that fact. But they had never heard me on an instrument until now. I had requested Grandfather to help me practice in private until I had a good enough grasp of the Rebec to perform a short piece and when I did my Charisma had shot up. Unfortunately, it appeared Charisma was most efficiently earned for first impressions, practice and repeat performances while helping me improve my dexterity did little to continue the growth of the stat. However, the key here was scbility. If I had been able to gain such an amount from my families first impressions, how much could I achieve from performing for the entire town? My sister while still suitably impressed by my performance quietly resented my quick progress. If not for my performance on the Cornu our rtionship might have grown a little strained. You see I simply did not have enough stamina or lung capacity to make much progress with the Cornu at all. It sounded more like high pitched tulence than actual music much to Aleera¡¯s delight. She took great joy inmandeering the instrument and ying it with the proper strength and lung capacity it required. Not that I didn¡¯t get tough in return when she first attempted it creating more tulence albeit significantly louder before she got the hang of powering through to create a proper note. 5th Month Life went on, as usual, salt, snails, pearls and purple. Our merchant will have plenty of salt to sell when he next visits and we n on collecting another batch of pearls before he arrives. Father continued to collect the oysters he finds for us to seed rather than eat or sell them in Wester. Our Oyster farm continued to grow, and we continued to give them a little extra mana to help them grow that little bit quicker. Purple though and purple coloured cloth would be a slightly more delicate product to shift. Our homespun cloth while fine enough for us was simply not fine enough to counterfeit the clothes normally dyed purple. Much like in Roman times, Purple while not solely reserved for Royalty is reserved for the noble ss. As such it is only used on the finest cloth and silk. Also, unfortunately, it appears that only one noble family is the sole owner of the secret of its production and the only distributor. They own the entire market of the cloth and as a monopoly can ask any price, they wish for it. Any entry into the market will be quickly noticed and only gain us another enemy before we have even entered the royal court. Cadmus, out of earshot of Mercurio, had informed us of some of the currents within the court. He pointed out that on top of whichever family it is that we had deprived them of Mercurio, as well as the families that traded in salt and pearls it might not be the best idea to create another wealthy and influential enemy. Therefore while we would continue to produce it. We would do so quietly, slowly and stockpile our product rather than let a hint of our knowledge and product be another target on our back. 6th Month Cadmus and Mercurio visited again. Their trip took them once more around the archipgo and back again. Court had appeared to have settled to some extent although they were heavily quizzed on our whereabouts before they were able to depart. As such, they would be keeping their visit short as despite the multiple stops they had made on their trip to a variety of powerful and influential people and ces they could not guarantee that someone on their ship would not be aware of our new status and sell the information to the highest bidder or all of the bidders if possible. Other than the trades, that Mercurio must have been making a mint on considering the size of his smile, they dide with one other question. Which was would Aleera like a tutor? The Prince of Ponente had decided that it might be appropriate for Aleera to have a tutor before being presented to the court on her 20th year. Normally most noble families would hire a variety of tutors to teach their children as many skills as possible. A single tutor would still be a disadvantagepared to our peers on the maind but better than none was the opinion given and our answer a resounding yes. They departed before my 2nd birthday and before I was able to move again but I was hopefully very close to obtaining some form of perk for my dexterity. So very, very, close. Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 71,050/ 819,200 Age: 1 year 15 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, 0 minutes Health: 1410/1410 Stamina: 860/860 Mana: 1330/1330 Psi: 1330/1330 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Vitality: 141 +6 Endurance: 69 +14 Strength: 48 +7 Dexterity: 99 +28 Senses: 133 +6 Mind: 133 +6 rity: 113 +6 Magic: 133 +6 Charisma: 36 +6 Luck: 5 +1 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 40 -> 45) Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 45 -> Lv 50) Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv37 -> Lv 42) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 21 -> 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 20 -> 25) Climb (Lv 27) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 20 -> Lv 22) Trading (Lv 25) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 20 -> Lv 25) Stitching (Lv 20 ->25) Diving (Lv 15) Throw (Lv 10 ¨C> Lv 12) Insight (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38 -> 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27 -> Lv 30) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1) Rebec (Lv 1 ¨C Lv 12) Aulos (Lv 1 ¨C Lv 12) Cornu (Lv 1) Harp (Lv 1) Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26 -> Lv 28) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15 -> Lv 16) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 11,800 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 15,000 Trading experience: 10,000 Popr experience: 10,000 Chapter 76: Less haste more speed Chapter 76: Less haste more speed ¡°Walking is man¡¯s best medicine.¡± Hippocrates I was sat wrapped around my rebec, treating it much like a cello for an infant. My fingers tried to pluck away as quick as I could, eager to get thatst point in dexterity. Finally, on the penultimate day before my 2nd birthday, I gained the final point of dexterity needed to get the next trait. I let out a huge sigh of relief, as I stopped ying and rxed my sore fingers. It had been a long journey to get here. I had spent half my life unable to walk in one form or another. Admittedly that was only 1 year or rather 16 months but that was still a very long time especially when you looked at it as a percentage. A very long part of the nearly 32 months I had spent here in this world. Ding! Dexterity reached 100 before the age of 5 you have been awarded the attribute . . . Celerity! This was followed by a yell of triumph as I took off. Although I was careful not to drop the rebec it took me only a second to carefully put it down. The added attribute to my stats, on top of the effects of the dexterity elixir, that had yet to wear off, meant that I was zipping around the ce. My body had finally caught up to my brain! I liked to think I was uncatchable, but my belief was soon cut short as Grandfather stepped in to pick me up. I had yet to go quicker than him despite my sudden boost. What exactly were his ruddy stats? I was trying to be the bigger man and wait for him to reveal his information himself rather than demand it like a petnt 2-year-old. But some days . . . it was harder than others. Particrly moments like these when my sess and progress were held up literally and figuratively by the stubborn old man. Over thest year, we had reached a new equilibrium between us. He appeared able to finally rx a little, have some time off from a mission, decades-long, ept that however strong we were was strong enough for now. He had evenughed when he lifted me up into the air. Much to the delight of my mother who looked up from her weaving. Aleera was practising some of her own mana control weaving something or other while Grandfather as part of his retirement from a decade longmand seemed to enjoy listening to me y the instruments he had provided. ¡°No fair,¡± I shouted as he swung me around. My voice babbled quickly out of my mouth. It was going to take some time and effort to slow down. But I was not fooling anyone with my tantrum least of all him. This was all part of the game we yed. He pretended I was not an old man already and I pretended that I had forgiven him for his attitude, actions and the decisions he had made in the first year of my life. In truth, despite the fact that I knew he could have done things better, without being under the samepulsions, that he had been under, it was difficult to know how I might have been able to have done any better. I didn¡¯t dig deeper into it and neither did he. Mother shouted in surprise, ¡°Did you get a trait or a perk?¡± ¡°Neither,¡± I replied drawing the suspense out a little longer. I grinned like a Cheshire cat as I held the answer out of their reach much like the floor was being held out of mine. At least their cliff would soon be resolved. I doubted I would be allowed down until I had answered all of their questions. ¡°Well, what did you get then?¡± Aleera demanded. ¡°An attribute!¡± I blurted out in glee I could already tell by my sudden increase in speed that it would be enough to bnce my stats. ¡°What?¡± Mother and Aleera both shouted at me in confusion. I had shouted my answer too fast to be heard clearly by either of them. So, my moment of glee was marred by my failure tomunicate clearly, yet again. ¡°He said he got an attribute.¡± Grandfather exined to them. He was still able to keep up with me despite my verbal diarrhoea. Surely, he had a strong senses and strong dexterity build to hear and decode my rapid-fire answers. ¡°What¡¯s an attribute?¡± They quizzed their questionsing slowly inparison to my answers. If I was not still being held by Grandfather, I probably would have been running up to them to see if I could move fast enough to prank them. Probably not quite yet. Supersonic speed was not yet within my grasp, especially held still as I was. I even had time to notice that my stamina on my hud was ticking down even faster now that my body was able to keep up with my brain. If just my buzzing brain was enough to drain it quickly, my hyperactive state seemed to be draining it even faster. It was clear what stat I would have to focus on next, Endurance. ¡°It seems to be just like a trait as far as I can tell. It¡¯s called Celerity and I can move a lot faster than I used to be able to. Although how much that is due to my elixir and how much that is due to my stats I don¡¯t know.¡± I puzzled out loud wondering whether my elixir would run out quicker now that it was working at an even faster pace due to the spike in my dexterity. Rapid rate indeed. I wondered how fast my heartbeat was going. I would have to do some testing on that. Maybe that would tell me how much quicker I was moving. If the average heart rate of a 32-month-year-old was between 80 beats and 120 beats per minute, I just needed to count to see how much quicker mine was going to work it out. Or maybe it would make no difference at hall due to some system-based shenanigans. Still, I didn¡¯t have time to test this, certainly not a full minute uninterrupted, as they were back to quizzing me. They had the listened to Grandfather tranting my sentence into slow speech for them. ¡°That¡¯s wonderful.¡± Mother eximed ecstatically that my imbnce had finally after all this time and effort smoothed itself out. ¡°More like diabolical.¡± Muttered Aleera under her breath but my super senses made me fully aware of what she was saying. Furthermore, I knew, she knew I could hear what she was saying. In fact, if I could then Grandfather could probably hear her too. So the only one being left out of the loop was the only one who would tell her off, my mother! ¡°Are you going to put me down?¡± I fired at Grandfather who was still grappling with me. Ever held a child who wants to get put down, an infant who had finally regained use of his legs and wanted to use them? They can be really wriggly when they want to be. It would be nice to get some payback on Aleera especially if I was faster than she was now. If only for a moment until the dexterity elixir ran out. Thoughts ran through my head of possible pranks I might be able to y on her and finally be able to get away with. I was bed-bound no more. ¡°I will put you down as long as you watch yourself.¡± Grandfather cautioned. ¡°I¡¯m fine. Fit as a fiddle. Finally able to be independent. Wheeeeeee!¡± I ran at Aleera. She put her hands up in self-defence only for me to pass out and fall head first towards the floor before I got to her. Her confusionsted a microsecond before she stepped forward to catch my falling body. Her basic decency outweighed any annoyance she might still hold against her younger brother. As my mind slipped into unconsciousness, I heard Grandfather chuckle. ¡°I told you so.¡± He seemed somehow aware that my consciousness had not just left my body and seemed to enjoy, far too much, the ability to get in thest words I would hear. . . . Their conversation continued on without me as my motherunched herself towards Aleera to scoop me up out of her arms before she berated Grandfather, ¡°Why did you let him go? If you knew this would happen!¡± She snapped. Leaving him to defend himself once more, ¡°I told him to watch himself. But does he listen? How is that my fault?¡± The rxed Grandfather was growing closer to the family, now that he was not pushing so hard all the time but they had a history, that was not so easily buried. Conversations and words sometimes triggered far more of an emotional response than expected. ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be the adult in this situation!¡± She remonstrated. ¡°Why did he pass out?¡± Aleera questioned curiously now she had been relieved of myatose body. ¡°Is he okay?¡± ¡°He¡¯s fine. Just probably ran out of stamina what with the elixir as well as his new stats running at the same time. He should be fine once the elixir runs out. He will bounce right back.¡± Grandfather exined. . . . I woke upter in the morning just in time for lunch. I might have used up my stamina quickly during the morning, but it didn¡¯t take too long, a quick nap, and then I was ready to go again. Father had returned from fishing out on thegoon and Des and Sinis had joined us too from raking up the increasinglyrge salt ts surrounding the mountain. As soon as my father realised, I was awake there a was a big booming congrattions from him, along with the line, ¡°Congrattions Kai, I mean Callen, now you can spend some more time out on theke with your father. You don¡¯t want to spend too much time working on that brain of yours lest you unbnce yourself again. Time to learn some practical physical skills from your father.¡± Everybody had dealt with my imbnce or at leaste up with different solutions to resolving it and the one my father had always proposed was that I needed to spend more time with him learning the trade physically and practically to develop the right attributes for it. Which would just so happen to be bing a Sailor. Many a parent has pushed their child into their own profession. But I didn¡¯t mind too much. I enjoyed sailing, swimming and being able to sense treasure even if it was only pearls on thegoon bed was a pleasure all in itself. I was going to enjoy going out to collect them and the oysters they grew in with my father now that I was back on my feet so to speak. My ability to find them seemed almost broken I couldn¡¯t believe how easy it was. But I was going to take full advantage of it. Our burgeoning house needed all the resources it could gather. Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 71,450/ 819,200 Age: 1 year 15 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 12 hours, 30 minutes Health: 1410/1410 Stamina: 860/860 Mana: 1330/1330 Psi: 1330/1330 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity Vitality: 141 Endurance: 69 Strength: 48 Dexterity: 100 +1 Senses: 133 Mind: 133 rity: 113 Magic: 133 Charisma: 36 Luck: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 45) Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv 42) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 25) Climb (Lv 27) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 22) Trading (Lv 25) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 25) Stitching (Lv 25) Diving (Lv 15) Throw (Lv 12) Insight (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 30) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1) Rebec (Lv 12 -> Lv 13) Aulos (Lv 12 ¨C Lv 13) Cornu (Lv 1 ¨C> Lv 3) Harp (Lv 1 ¨C> Lv 3) Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 28) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Maniption (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17) Skill experience: 1200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 0 Trading experience: 0 Popr experience: 0 Chapter 77: Smooth sailing Chapter 77: Smooth sailing "We plunged into the deep waters and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart." J.R.R. Tolkien. ¡°Come on Kai, I mean Callen, where are the fish today?¡± Father asked. He was just happy to be out sailing and even happier to have me out there with him. It didn¡¯t honestly matter if the fish were biting or not. He just enjoyed sailing. It was hard to argue with him over the enjoyment of skimming along the top of thegoon. I loved it too. We both revelled in speeding along far faster than walking and running. His skills kept us skidding along the top of the water angling the boat to catch as much of the wind as we could. It had been deemed eptable, by the family, for us to go out on thegoon. The condition was that it was ok as long as we returned to the ind again by the crack of dawn. This was all to keep me out of sight and therefore out of the minds of the other inders. They knew I had been born but we were keeping our interactions limited to our closest family. We had edged out of the hidden blue cave in the early hours of the night and set sail across thegoon. There was little to watch out for, other than the ind we were living on, and the far shore. Father was not afraid to sail in the early hours of the day under the silver moonlight that sparkled on the water. His stats clearly helped him to sail without care or concern. While my stats and traits allowed me to sail as if it was daylight, albeit a world of cks and greys as opposed to the full-colour spectrum it would be painted once the sun rose. Still, his enjoyment of sailing didn¡¯t preclude a desire to catch some fish to keep us fed and earn a living. Yes, the family had diversified and was making significantly more through other endeavours. But Father was not going to give up his early morning fishing. Once we were far enough out, or rather after he had a moment or two to enjoy sending us scudding across the top of the water, he turned his mind and mouth to the task at hand. ¡°While you are looking for the fish don¡¯t forget to shout out if you see any pearls.¡± He reminded me as if I would forget! Pearl farming was my baby and with it beingpletely my own idea it meant that the majority of the proceeds were considered mine. Not that everyone did not take a cut of it for facilitating it all. Especially over thest year, when I had been limited in my functionality. While my sister, who floated the idea of collecting salt meant that she was far more in control of the wealth distribution from that enterprise. Initially, I had held my own with how we were producing the salt beingpletely dependent on me. Now though the salt ts extended all the way around the ind so I was not strictly needed to produce the salt with magic any longer if I didn''t want to maintain my slice of the pie. Des and Sinis did the majority of the work and the local market was so saturated that they struggled to sell it on the Wester Isle. We still stockpiled it for when Mercurio would return but we were now dependent on him to sell it for us. The main problem with being on the wrong side of a monopoly was being unable to set the price and we would have a weaker bargaining position for the moment. Humming I leaned over the side of the boat. Myshing pulled taught and I ran my hand through the water as the boat banked against the wind. Hummmm. I had yet to achieve a sonar skill but I was working on it. My echolocation filled in my minimap with ck and white representing thegoon bed below but still far frompletely urate. While my Mana sense allowed me to see the mana of the fish sparkle below us their mana sparking as blue blobs within the image my echolocation helped me make. Their movement was too quick and erratic for echolocation to form a solid picture of them before they were gone again. Hopefully, in time I would be able to see them clearly with it but for now, it was enough tobine the two. ¡°Starboard ho,¡± I shouted. I had no idea if I was shouting it correct but Father hade to enjoy my idiosyncrasies over thest two years and turned the boat to follow the fish I was sensing. Understanding my random words even if they had no counterparts in thenguage of Buss I now spoke. ¡°Nearly there,s now!¡± I added telling him when to throw the fishings as we coasted to a stop above the small school of fish. The fish within thegoon were apparently small frypared to the fish in the open sea although they seemed plenty big to me. It was unknown if fish levelled like sapient beings but seeing as therger the fish the more experience was gained for catching it they maybe had something simr to sentient beings. He told tall tales of how he had dared to fish on the open sea to be strong enough to woo my mother but now he was married and with two kids it was far safer and simpler to fish from thegoon. The tales he told sounded terrifying and I was far happier sailing here on thegoon rather than venturing forth on the sea. Mercurio and Cadmus had never mentioned any monsters on their visits but maybe it was a normal natural part of any sea voyage and therefore not mentioned in particr. Father enjoyed fishing with me because he could catch an entire day¡¯s worth of fish in a single trip. He could catch a day¡¯s catch before dawn, drop off some with our family, before selling the rest to the town. Leaving far more time for other pursuits. In line with the idea that we would be a noble family one day, he had taken to hunting for pearls to fund this, for the rest of his time. Something else I was able to speed up his search for, now that I was mobile once more. He joked that he would be a true noble as well as us, a man of leisure. He even threatened to take up weaving and sewing with mother in his spare time. While she enjoyed him singing along with her once in a while he apparently did not have the dexterity for the fine patterns she was making and was unable to help with the magical method by which she was singing us a veritable pce from the mountain. This left him looking for other projects to focus on. Father quickly hauled his catch up onto the boat and we set sail once more. This time looking out for oysters and sea snails rather than the fish that swam above them. Closing my eyes while leaving my hand running through the water I concentrated hard. Finding them was a lot harder than finding the fish. Eyes closed I listened to what echolocation was telling me. While looking with Mana sense to see if could add anything to the picture I was building. Now in theory having made my own heads up disy to do all this for me this might have seemed a little redundant. But I had found that even though my Heads Up Disy, or HUD for short, was amazing at everyday awareness, it did not outperform what I could achieve when I levelled all of my focus and stats on a single skill and task at a time. We were sailing slowly now, no longer skipping over the water. My father was giving me the extra time to spend searching thegoon floor with my mind. We continued to coast slowly across the water the sails only pulled tight for turns as we crisscrossed the water. We had a pattern and a route and were working our way across today''s grid. The idea was, that we would work our way around thegoon in a grid pattern to ensure we had covered every area of thegoon floor. This way we would scour thegoon bed as we searched for what drove us to still be sailing out here despite having already caught today¡¯s catch, pearl oysters! ¡°Anything yet?¡± Kaius whispered as if somehow talking normally would dangerously disrupt my attention and stop us from finding anything forever. While he knew it wouldn''t affect my searching loud noises could certainly disrupt my concentration. The oysters always took us a lot longer to find than the fish mainly because they were generally smaller and deeper than the fish, but most days we would be sessful before we had to return home with the light. It was not that I couldn¡¯t go anywhere or move at all in front of our extended family. It was just that, as a family, we were trying to keep the extent of my mobility and development somewhat secret from them and the town atrge. That being said, they were already predisposed to the fact that I would a be a little monster much like my deceased older brother ¡®Kai¡¯ so they wouldn¡¯t hopefully be too surprised when I started to show simr traits. For thest year pretending to be a fully dependent baby was not a particrly difficult challenge crippled as I had been. However, now that I was capable of so much more it was suddenly all that much harder to stay still when they visited. I loved our morning sails not only for the fish and hopefully pearls and purple it would provide us but simply to be up and about with someone who knew what I could do and was happy to let me do it. Father''s early swimming lessons had not been particrly enjoyable to start off with but at the same time, he now trusted in my ability to float, dive and swim only ever stepping in if I was genuinely in trouble. ¡°There,¡± I shouted as I pointed. Within my mind and the map that I had built up of thegoon floor, I could see their hard shell shapes bouncing back from my echolocation skill and the soft blue and yellow shimmer of water and earth mana collecting somewhere down below within them. Their stationary position and budding organic mana gem helped to catch my eye as we coasted along above them. Father dropped anchor to keep the boat in ce while we went for a little dive and a swim. If there was one aspect of our early morning sails that disagreed with me, it was our skinny-dipping-free-diving in the middle of the night without the hot sun to warm us up afterwards. It was not freezing by any means but it was hardly pleasant. What was worse was that it took the two of us to do this in the middle of the night. Father could easily dive down there. However, in the darkness, he would take ten times longer to find the shells. ¡°Are you ready?¡± He asked me before double-checking. ¡°Are you sure you have enough stamina for the dive?¡± A quick check, a sh of my eyes to the corner of my vision and I nodded back, "I''m sure." While I was back on my feet so to speak, I could easily fall off them. If I ran out of the stamina required to power my new trait of Celerity which oftentimes demanded more stamina in order to keep my body working at the same level as my brain. It had not happened yet but the idea of running out of stamina while underwater was not a good one and a daily fear of my mothers. So we did this together for more than one reason. The final check was something that mother had insisted father do every time we had to take a dive together. Father could see well enough in the moonlight to sail. Diving deep underwater and attempting to find oysters or snails on the other hand was another matter. He didn¡¯t have the magic stat let alone the skill to sense mana so to him the depths were dark and impossible to search quickly or easily. I on the other hand could see well enough above and below the water. Furthermore, with the skill mana sense to highlight the growing pearls collecting mana from water as well as the nt or earth-based impurities floating in it, they were simple to locate. The only problem was the depth at which they were located. I could swim, yes. I had breath control, true. I was finally mobile again, but making it down to thegoon floor and back again, was far easier for my father than it was for me. The solution was for me to hold onto my father as he dived below the ck waters holding tight with my arms around his neck as he quickly powered his way down to the seafloor his strength, endurance and dexterity stats sending us down with celerity. Then once down at the bottom, holding onto him I led us to the oyster''s location. The colony of pearl oysters were hidden just around the corner of a column of stone and there at the base of a rock on thegoon floor they grew. Between us, we quickly grabbed as many as we could before my air started to run out and I headed back to the surface on my own. Father wouldst a little longer down there and gather as many as he could. I had already cherry-picked the ones with the pearls growing in them. But any more new oysters to add to our farm were always wee. It was not necessary to take every single one indeed I was somewhat worried that our efficiency in both catching fish and finding the oysters would upset the local biome of thegoon. At what point would our stats and skills harm the local wildlife beyond recovery. It was impossible to tell for sure but it was certainly a future problem to keep an eye out for. So we left a few each time we found a patch and we only stopped at therger patches that were worth harvesting. As I crested the water''s surface I contemted the oysters I had in the bag on my belt. I had only just discovered since regaining my mobility that the pearl oysters were not the oysters we normally ate. A rather unfortunate and miscalcted experiment on my part had proven that the pearl oysters were highly unptable,pletely inedible and ording to the rather severe tummy troubles I had experienced afterwards just a little bit poisonous. Ding! Poison Tolerance (Lv 1) Ding! Pain Tolerance (Lv 14) If I had not confessed my curiosity and stupidity which nearly killed this cat. My mother would still be shouting at Grandfather over the assumption that he was to me for my new skill, shakes and shivers. If I had not been desperately retching at the time it would have been incredibly entertaining. Unfortunately, it was not. In retrospect, new world means new rules and I should not put things in my mouth just to see if they will go down well. I mean that is something any old baby would do. One that needed watching and looking after. Suppose in some ways I am still an old baby in more ways than one. The whole experience quite put me off the idea of any further poison tolerance training other than alcohol which I have been reassured is possible. But in this new world much like my old world, it is somehow known that alcohol for infants is not the brightest of ideas. The silver lining to me struggling to hold my insides inside was that the fairly strong pain that came with the cramps and retching was enough to push my pain tolerance to lv 14. Still, that was not something to be considered as I floated at the surface. Father would not be far behind and would help me into the boat if I needed assistance getting in but I liked to try by myself first. I failed. I might have grown significantly over thest two years but not enough to haul myself over the side of a boat floating too high up in the water. It was not my strength, dexterity or endurance that was the problem this time. It was simply that my arms and legs were still too short to reach and pull me up out of the water. Still, I was sure that the effort counted even if the system did not allocate points for the step or failure. Floating on my back in thegoon I looked up at the stars above they were slowly disappearing as the sky lightened. I contemted life in general and found it good to be alive again while I waited for him to re-emerge from the depths. A short momentter he did. Even sooner I was hefted up into the boat alongside our precious pearl oyster cargo. Once aboard, he bundled us both up, and wrapped us up nice and warm in towels, in an attempt to help us warm up at this ungodly hour. It was cold without the sun and even chillier when you added a light breeze to our situation. While technically I knew that if the experience was suitably terrible and chilling then I could possibly, potentially gain both greater experience as well as some sort of cold resistance. But, I was too much of a baby to do that. Plus I was encouraged not to by my father a man who despite hisck of magic seemed to delight in its use all the more. ¡°Come on Kai, Callen, Kal, heat us up.¡± He said as he pulled himself onto the boat. Over thest year, it had finally been exined what the Silverwood family amulet, I had been given when I gained the trait source of mana, actually did. Obviously, it had been absorbing all the excess mana that I had been producing. Mana that was far beyond what the meagre amount my vessel could hold. However, that was not apparently all that it did or even what it was initially designed for. It had been absorbing it and holding it. All that mana for over an entire year was stored within it. Furthermore, that was not actually its main function at all. ording to Grandfather, it had been a grand gift to the Silverwood family by a northern noble family from the northern kingdom of Tramontana. The precise reasons behind its gifting were lost to the waves of time. The amulet looked much like a Viking Compass Amulet, a Vegvisir, with a green, emerald gemstone at the centre of thepass. A gem that must be sitting on several tens of thousands of points of mana all carefully stored away within its multi-faceted faces. How that worked precisely, I could not yet tell, but I had been taught how to ess some of it and apply it to the runes the bracelet held. One of which was able to produce hot air. The original northern amulet would have been powered by the individual but apparently, the green emerald had been added to it to act as its power source before it was presented to the family in the Kingdom of Maestro, to fit the country it would be worn in. Apparently, blue sapphires were the gem of choice within Ponente while green emeralds were the gem of choice for Maestro. Possibly due to their Royal family''s elemental power being over wood or simply the preponderance of the gemstone in question within the kingdoms. Although perhaps our homegrown pearls could and would one-day power simr enchanted jewellery if we could gain a jewel smith and enchanter to work for us bing the gem of choice within the archipgo. Anyway, around the outside of the amulet were eight symbols and by rotating the central piece with the gemstone attached you could align it to the spell you wished for. There were some intrinsic runes and the corresponding spells contained within but the eight gem powered rune spells were the only ones that I had used so far. With a burst of released mana a strong hot dry wind whipped around us forming a hot dry shell of air, a shield of air that quickly dried our cold wet bodies while we were within it. Before I turned the amulet once more breaking the rune''s alignment with the gem and ending the use of mana. Fatherughed as our clothes dried, smiling at our sudden windswept appearance, particrly the way my hair was unbound as it was now stuck up in all sorts of directions. The only problem with the spell was that. His hair was bound back behind his head in a short queue and looked no different dry or wet. Mine though, after it had been shorn for our deception, was still growing back out and now looked crazy beyond belief. ¡°Kai ¡­ Callen, time to head on home. The sun will be up soon.¡± He said once he had stoppedughing, still tripping up over my name. Our haul for the seabed already squared away on the boat, we sailed for home. Chapter 78: Harmonious harmonics Chapter 78: Harmonious harmonics "Singing is a way of escaping. It''s another world. I am no longer on earth." Edith Piaf After our morning or rather our nighttime sailing, I would be tuckered out. I often fell asleep by the time we arrived in our hidden blue cave with our haul of fish, oysters and sometimes snails. The oysters and snails would be left there for Des and Sinis to deal with while father would carry me back home through the winding paths within the mountain. I could walk once more but who didn''t like being carried particrly if I was struggling to stay awake. We still lived in Grandfather¡¯s home despite the gradually growing pce that was being carved from the mountain. One moreyer of deception to defend us our paranoid ¡®grandfather¡¯ had us believe. Personally, I thought he had just gotten used to having ourpany and was loathe to give it up now that it was a choice rather than apulsion. Once Father had deposited me back into bed. A bed! They had upgraded me from my box now that I was a little longer and no longer fit in it quite so easily. He would make his way back to the cave before he sailed out across thegoon to sell the fish with the rising of the sun. I was sure that someone must have noticed that he was a little more regr and prompt with his deliveries but no one hadmented on it yet. At least not to him or the family. I would sleep in after our nighttime excursions. But while I was draining my stamina quicker than I used to the amount of vitality and endurance meant that I only needed a short power nap of an hour or two before I could be up and at them again. I wouldn¡¯t say that it was an early start to the day seeing as I fell asleep with the rising sun but it wasn¡¯t too slovenly either. Once my morning training, sailing and simply hanging out with my father was over I spent the rest of the morning with my mother. First, we would weave for a while. Well, my mother would weave. I would sit at her feet practising my knots. Father might have left to sell his catch but he had left me the two-year-old homework to do each day which he would be testing me on the next day as we sailed or in the evening when he returned. I had a long list of knots that I had to do. The bowline knot, clove hitch, anchor hitch, sheet bend, double sheet bend, Carrick bend, figure 8 knot, half hitch, square knot, cleat hitch, rolling hitch, overhand knot, stevedore knot, thief knot, handcuff knot, scaffold knot, marlinspike hitch, bowline on a bight, butterfly knot, monkey''s fist. Whenever I had mastered another knot he gave me another one to learn. I felt like he was just making them up on the spot almost. Having learned all of the above the two that he had added today were the fisherman''s knot and the double fisherman''s knot. There were now so many it was more a task of remembering the correct name as much as it was remembering to do the right knot. It made it slightly easier in that he would use a different knot for different jobs and I remembered them more by the different jobs they were used for than their names. Once I had run through all the knots again, then came my sewing, stitching and hemming with my mother. The family had decided that just because I had managed to be bnced once more there was no reason to tempt fate twice and neglect my physical stats. I continued to practice under the watchful eyes of my family all the little tricks of the trade we had developed to advance my dexterity. The only difference now was that I was expected to continue them until I fell asleep fromck of stamina rather than my dexterity elixir running out. I sometimes wondered where my childhood had gone seeing as I supposedly hadn¡¯t left it yet. However, I understood the reasoning behind their regimen and having already fallen afoul of the hidden rules of the system I was loath to try my luck again at acting in blind ignorance once more. That is not to say we didn¡¯t have fun though and if you are enjoying your work is it really work at all. Mother loved to sing and that hadn¡¯t changed. I now got to join in along with her fully now that she had epted me for who I truly was and I could sing once more. I had gradually grown out of my burbles and churbles although the year of being crippled had slowed my progress. No, I still hadn¡¯t told them everything but neither had I hidden my abilities from them either. We would spend our mornings singing and sewing. I had already learned all of her songs but I enjoyed adding counterpoints to her melodies or adding their harmonies. I was in two minds about teaching my family new songs from my world. Some melodies maybe I could manage but so many songs were dated by their lyrics as much as their melodies and in this world, it was not that they would be dated by the lyrics but exposed by them. It was all very well singing such songs as ¡°Are you going to Scarborough Fair?¡± and recing the fair you were heading for with one of our own but modern songs or in fact any song that referenced my world¡¯s technology, would give too much away if they ever spread outside of our family. That and the fact that a baby singing about his true love would possibly be equally worrying. I knew all my mother''s songs having listened to and learned them before ever being born and she had always been happy for me to keep humming along with her but as with everything that we were doing now it was aimed at the continued bncing of my stats. It had never been difficult to level my Mental stats so every effort and every activity had to be one that worked towards either vitality strength endurance or dexterity. Stitching was an activity that focused on a skill that was hopefully helping me to level up my dexterity but we hoped that singing too could be used that way as long as I sang quick enough or was dextrous enough in the melody. I was a long way from being able to sing flight of the bumblebee or y it for that matter but it was only a matter of time in a world of stats and magic. We started off slow with a song that we knew well and then just got faster and faster until we were tripping over our own words. I say we but it was mainly me. Mother dredged her memory for new songs to learn and sing at speed. Kingdoms round apass Whichever way you wander Watch out for your whereabouts Les'' they way and end you (Ring a ring a roses) We mainly worked on this world''s nursery rhymes and their simple songs but we worked them up to a blistering speed and the skill seemed to level from it. I just hoped that this was adding to my next point in dexterity not another point towards my charisma although I wouldn¡¯t say no to a point in each if that was an option. Throw your stones on the floor, on the floor, on the floor Throw your stones on the floor stone staff wizard Pick them up and try again, try again, try again Pick them up and try again, death or glory (London Bridge) Much like the nursery rhymes of my own world, they seemed fairly morbid in their endings but there was some wisdom in each. Even if some of their meaning had to be exined to me. The kingdoms ''round apass nursery rhyme warned of the dangers of wandering in various directions but I felt that it could have given a little more information about what to do in each direction rather than warning all children off wandering at all. But maybe my mother was missing some of the verses which would enlighten us on the particr dangers. Furthermore, I supposed for most children ''not to wander'' would possibly be the best advice after all wandering off rarely ended off well for those who did in the stories of Grimm. Sail the circle sea Sail the circle sea Reef, pull, trim and lean Watch out for monsters Watch out for fish Watch out for pirates Less you be a dish Point to the north Point to the east Point to the south West for a feast Trim your sails tight Set the course Head off for home In boats of stone (Wind the bobbin up) Nowhere seemed particrly safe for children at least and even despite my inted stats,pared to any normal infant, I was still limited by my vessel. The body of an infant. Apparently, biology still had a part to y and even if my points in strength were elerating my growth of muscles, my points in dexterity the amount of possible fast-twitch muscles and endurance my stamina I still had to spend time to simply grow up. Fingers crossed we had the time to do that. As we got better at singing faster we addedplexity to it by singing the songs in rounds in harmony and finally adding in counterpoint. That was the most entertaining part of the morning for me. I would hold the tune while my mother took her voice in flights of fancy to make the simple nursery rhymes so much more. That wasn¡¯t to say that we didn¡¯t do any stitching while we were at it either. My mother was able to time her stitches to the songs plunging the needle and thread through the cloth in time to the music and so quickly I was sure she was using a skill. I had an advantage I believed with my traits and perks able to think watch and act on my thoughts quickly but they only stacked up so high against pure stats and skill levels which my mother appeared to have plenty of. We would keep up at this till my fingers and voice grew sore and my stamina dipped and it was time for another nap. It was not long till I drifted off once more to the sound of my mother''s voice weaving the world with her words. Chapter 79: Money doesn’t grow on trees Chapter 79: Money doesn¡¯t grow on trees "I have ways of making money you know nothing of." John D Rockefeller After my midday nap with my mother, it was time to work with my sister. Childcare was a full-time family job now. After my myriad multitude of private little adventures and the pitfalls they had created, it had been decided by all, that it was best to keep a permanent eye on me all of the time awake and asleep. I still had some secrets left from them but our more open policy on honesty meant that they knew most of what I was capable of now. Our salt selling empire was stalling a little on the local front with everybody in town having more than enough to lower demand. The lower demand would have led to lower prices and therefore profit so we just stockpiled the stuff to sell on to Mecurio when he arrived. If we didn¡¯t the price would have fallen so low as to encourage the locals to resell it at a profit for themselves. A profit that would have been ours if we had only waited a bit. So, although we hadn¡¯t halted production we were in no rush to do so. We hoarded it while we wait for him to return. We had a simr stockpiling issue with our Caracol Purple although it had a different reason behind it. Purple was the colour of nobility so having it allowed us to pretend to have greater wealth than we truly had but selling it and making a profit from it were a more dangerous proposition. Especially after the warning, we had received from Cadmus during one of his visits. Although it wasn¡¯t illegal to sell the dye or cloth and clothing dyed from it, entering the market with it, or rather being the recognisable source of the dye would only have painted the target on our back to the current noble family who was apparently the sole producer of it. So again we were stockpiling a valuable product unable to turn it into readily usable currency. The pearls on the other hand hade along very nicely. The deep-sea oyster farms had continued to grow. They were called deep-sea pearls because they are generally only found out at sea, often at deeper levels than thegoon was. It was only through some weird coincidence that they are able to grow within thegoon or even more surprising that they had somehow managed to find their way into it in the first ce. My grid by grid search of thegoon for oysters and snails has continued to find more spread across it. But I had been unable as of yet to find what I was sure must exist somewhere within it, a tunnel. There had to be somewhere a tunnel connecting our saltwatergoon to the sea outside our ind. That was the only way I had been able to work out that we would have these sea living creatures within our ind walls in the first ce. Either way, most noons, after I had produced a little more salt with my excess mana, boiled the snails for their purple dye again with my excess mana. We quietly sat in our hidden blue cave slowly adding a little more mana to each oyster as Des and Sinis brought them to us. We had discovered that you have to be careful in how much mana you added to each oyster. Too little and there was no noticeable difference in the size of the pearl or the speed at which it developed. Too much and although it greatly sped up the growth and size of the pearl, the oyster itself soon died from mana poisoning. Another problem of this world that no one had ever bothered to mention to me. I had a little panic attack that I could have poisoned myself when I gained the trait source of mana. But on further questioning, it sounded like familiars with the trait never poisoned themselves. On the other hand, they added that they had never heard of a human having the trait so perhaps, like being unbnced, it was possible. As my heart did little flip flops from their disagreeing positions on the matter I was finally reassured by them telling me that this should not be a problem for me either way as the amulet I was wearing would function to absorb both my own excess mana as well as external mana should it rise to dangerous levels for humans. It turned out that there were areas in the world that were mana toxic to humans, ces of power that would burn a being out. Maybe not initially or straight away but in time or ratherter cause them to die from mana toxicity that they had built up but were unable to purge. After our salt, snails and deep-sea pearls, we started to work on our next project. Continued diversification of ie and growing self-sufficiency. My former life had taught me that you could not count on the future to stay the same as the past. What you could count on though was some form of disaster befalling you at some point. It was just basic statistics. War, famine, pestilence and death were not called the four horsemen of the apocalypse for no reason. Every civilisation faced them at some point. You never knew what could happen. I might just be being a little paranoid but you¡¯re not paranoid if they are actually out to get you. Everything that we had heard about Solstice city and the capital of Ponente implied exactly that. An emerging empire built on salt could be dissolved and undersold. Just as we were building a stockpile of the stuff there was no reason not to believe that other nobles might not have simr stockpiles or be willing to build them up to bring us down at ater more critical point. A rising kingdom built on a single dye of purple could equally find itself at war with another kingdom of the same colour. Especially if such a war could restore their monopoly of the product. A pearlescent province founded on pearls could always be held hostage to the tides of fashion. Father¡¯s fish were fantastic but the amount we were pulling out of thegoon was enough for self-sufficiency and earning a wage. Again, not enough to support a noble house or challenge other houses. Indeed with the increased speed and efficiency, he was achieving from taking me along I was worried that we were too effective. That although we were not actually trawling thegoon and damaging their habitat we could indeed be overfishing what the poption could support. Mother¡¯s medley of cloth, clothing and tapestries were filling our fa?ade of a mountain faux pce, but again. One mother no matter how magical could only make so much cloth. If we truly wished to join the noble families with a simr wealth we had to achieve what all barons, nobles and the nouveau rich managed to do. We needed to be making money while we were asleep or we would work till we died and never have enough. We had to future proof not only our family but the whole town if we were to have their backing when or if economic warfare ever became physical warfare. So we continued to diversify. First, there was our aim at achieving true self-sufficiency the family had continued to work on my idea of building a garden of Eden within the cone crater at the top of our mountain home and we had much like the salterns that now surrounded our home at thegoon level had terraced the interior of the cone crater with terraced steps filled full of soil ready for nting. We had been careful to fill what was effectively a giant set of terraced nter pots on the internal slop of the crater with as close a mixture to loam as we could get. Any knowledge from my old earth I wanted to implement without actually admitting to I simply passed through my ¡®grandfather¡¯. The wise to the world ancient grumpy git could simply tell them what I wanted them know without it being questioned and having them ept it as fact. So we had aimed for as close to the 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% y as we could get. Here we nted the rows of seedlings, sprouts and saplings that we had grown from all the seeds within the fruits Mercurio had given us over thest 2 years. Each one had been nurtured at home with the utmost care. Much like our efforts with the pearls we had discovered that there was a sweet spot to the amount of energy that could be imparted to each seed to speed up and aid its growth. Far too much and the seed would dry and crack before it burst into mes. Still too much and the seed although sprouting quickly would still die a day or twoter. Seeds and mana wereplicated it was not just the amount of mana that was applied but also the location and soil it was provided for its nutrients. Each time we gave the seed, seedling, or nt a burst of mana if there was noticeable growth we discovered that we would have to repot or rent that seedling within another area. It was as if the mana had allowed the seed to pull out all of the nutrients from the soil in a single burst which left it barren and no longer fit for purpose. This initially resulted in a significant amount of stunted nts and barren soil but once we had worked out the cause the solution itself was equally profitable. Night soil. Our family was now the sole collector of all the night soil the town produced. We didn¡¯t charge a lot because ultimately we needed it for our new enterprise. Still, it was worth its weight in fruit because that was what it afforded us. Each time we aided the growth of a nt with mana we took care to add nightsoil to its surroundings and the elerated growth of the nt drained the nightsoil of nutrients rather than its own location. Leaving the night soil no longer soiled as if the burst of mana and the growth of the nt had somehow removed both nutrients and its pungency leaving it much closer to silt in itsposition. We now had a veritable variety of produce from around thepass kingdoms I was most proud of my mango trees. Even though none of the trees had fruited yet. All in all, with the resources we had on hand we could speed the development of the trees 5 fold without killing them or leaving the soil barren and stunting their further growth. This meant that although we wouldn¡¯t see any fruit this year hopefully by next year we would get our first crop from our trees be they, apple, orange, pear, lemon, peach, cherry, plum, apricot, pluot, or fig. We didn¡¯t have the wire needed to make wire trellis for the trees to grow along. However with our mana method for stimting growth we didn¡¯t need it. By holding the growing branches in the position we wanted, adding the nightsoil and then our burst of mana it meant that the trees more or less grew into the position we were holding them. Now admittedly as the trees grewrger it was less and less me holding them and more and more Aleera, Des and Sinis. However, seeing as pinching the fruits off Mercurio¡¯s tes in the first meeting we had ever had was my idea. This was counted as another one of my projects and the fruits of ourbour were mine to decide. If we ever got any to eat that was. In terms of actually having fruit to eat our vines looked like they were the closest to producing a crop worth eating. We had grapes, melons, passion fruit, dragon fruit, etc. The names might have been different but they tasted and looked the same for the most part. Fun fact a banana is a herb not a tree. So no matter how hard we tried to grow the seeds for the most part we failed miserably. The grapes though came in a variety of colours dark blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and pink so we had been able to nt them against the terraced walls to inline with the countries they came from a mini grapepass if you will that went around the wall of the cone crater. But although they would one day look that way they weren¡¯t there quite yet. The crops that we had actually managed to get topletion were those that grew on bushes or brambles. The vegetables and the berries whose nts took less time to grow to maturity reproduce and produce their bounty. We now had potatoes! I was only a short step away from finally having fish and chips! The sheer amount of seeds we had nted over thest year along with theck of night soil was actually what was slowing down the magical expansion of our garden. We needed a sizeable amount of fertiliser if we wished to start producing fruit and vegetables for selling. Still, it was extremely pleasant to have a little more variety in our meals which up till now had consisted of fish, fish and more fish. The other limiting factor to expanding the garden was water. There had been a smallke at the bottom of the cone crater but we were rapidly using it all up. Sure it rained but it was a warm ind generally subtropical inparison to old earth. We had faced significant difficulties getting enough water up to the crater cone to support the nts before mother had finally solved the problem for us. Now the majority of salt was collected naturally from the salterns surrounding our mountain. But initially, when it was all from what I could boil within the mountain there was one minor problem, the condensation. The water turned steam had to go somewhere most times it floated back out of the blue cave condensing on the roof and walls when it hit them before running back into thegoon. But not all of it did that. The condensation within the tunnels got so bad that they ended up installing a rough door at the entrance to them to force the majority of the steam back into the cave and out that way. However when we realised just how short we were going to be for water at the top of the mountain. She began to bore upwards with her voice. Each day she sang a little higher until finally, she reached the base of the crater cone. Water still condensed on the walls and runs back down but now enough of the steam made it to the top of the bore to condense there and water the garden we were growing. In time it would be an intrinsic initiation well of our own. A tower within the mountain to work your way up. But for now, the bore allowed all the steam made each lunchtime to make its way up to the crater on its own before watering the nts or filtering down to fill the littleke at the base of the crater. This meant every expenditure of mana was killing two birds with one stone. Making the salt and watering the growing garden at the same time. Money did not grow on trees but fruit did. All of this rapidly wore me out but they were happy to carry myatose body up the mountain while I had a small nap. Then carry me down the mountain as I had another small nap. Finally, after our evening meal, it was time to do some training with the reformed character that was my grandfather. Chapter 80: Yoga Yoda Yogi Chapter 80: Yoga Yoda Yogi ¡°Yoga means addition ¨C addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul.¡± Amit Ray After dinner, it was time for training with grandfather, heavily supervised training. Mother was happy for the training to go forwards as long as it was supervised by someone ¡®far more reasonable¡¯ in her words. So we would walk out onto the salt ts west of the mountain for training that was out of earshot but still within sight of the family home. Here we continued to work on my physical stats just in a slightly calmer method than we once had when we had trained without oversight. This month we were trying out yoga to see if it would result in a new skill and a level or two. As an infant, I was already incredibly bendy and flexible. But I was also working on my bnce, strength and core. Position 1, cat, I had to arch that back! The positions sounded so much better in Sanskrit but I couldn¡¯t quite recall them yet. I hoped that as my skill recall grew in strength and level hopefully one day I would be able to recall everything I had seen in my old life if only for a moment. I looked forward to remembering in HD quality some of the many many movies and tv series I had binge-watched before. ¡°You look a little ridiculous you know.¡± Grandfather might have mellowed a lot, but he was still a natural cynic. He was of course naturally critical of nearly everything I did. He always pushed for more, or for a more extreme version of the training I was attempting to do. In his words, ¡®No bleed, no speed¡¯ in referring to how quickly you were able to level a skill. The more dangerous the training the more significant and the bigger impact it would have on your status and skill list. Or at least this was the mantra he lived by. ¡°It¡¯s called cat pose,¡± I replied. We had differing views on the best way to progress forwards. Grandfather was very much of the opinion that no bleed meant no speed at levelling and gaining skills. There may very well be something like that in ce, the more arduous the training, the better the skill gain and levelling from it. However, I had managed to get a lot of skills without having to bleed for them and it did not seem to make a noticeable difference to me in terms of time and effort in achieving them. Grandfather was still of the opinion that everything would be more effective if he was flicking needle-like daggers at me during the process which was why we were doing this within sight of a mother who would shout his head off if he attempted doing anything like that again. ¡°You could join me you know.¡± I pointed out. Grandfather was technically hypothetically interested in following my unusual method if they resulted in new skills but to have someone watching my fumbling attempts at reproducing something I had never been particrly skilled in even before I was reborn as a baby was more than a little irritating. Did he really have to watch my literal and figurative baby steps in figuring this out? It would have been nice to practice some of this when they were all asleep but I slept more than most nowadays. ¡°I already have the skill surefooted as a bncing skill I don¡¯t need a new skill.¡± He waved away my suggestion. I transitioned into a cow pose. I had to admit that the Indian names for the positions sounded far better. It was a shame I still couldn''t remember them. Actually, I felt fairly impressed with myself that I could remember them in English in the first ce. I was a kic learner more than a visual or audio. Especially when that audio learning had to go through my mind attempting to trante it. ¡°What exactly are you trying to achieve again?¡± Grandfather asked. ¡°You are perfectly bendable anyway what is the point of doing these warm-up positions?¡± ¡°Well first I need to warm up, then it stretches, bncing, core and strength,¡± I answered as I moved forward into the baby pose. He had a point I was incredibly flexible in my new body but that would change over time. I hoped that if I could get into a couple of good habits now, they would follow through with me inter life. Truly one of the most pleasant benefits of being born again was my new body. No aches or pains and I aimed to keep it that way for as long as possible. I might be bendy now but if I could maintain it maybe Yoga sses in my ancient age would not be quite so embarrassing. Although watching my grandfather perhaps the system got rid of all the ailments of ageing anyway. Plus, new skills meant new levels and experience. Ding! Bncing (Lv 1) ¡°Ha! I have a new skill.¡± I smugly shouted. It had only taken a couple of sessions. ¡°What is it called?¡± Grandfather asked quizzically. ¡°Bncing.¡± I smiled. ¡°So what, now you will be able to stand without falling over. Surefooted is a far better skill to get and one that you could get if you would try out my assault course while we throw things at you.¡± He was still pushing his methods. ¡°I will do the assault course if you put in some padding for us to fall and you do the Yoga with me.¡± I bargained. ¡°Not going to put in padding but we can always run it out over the water for you to fall in if you want something soft tond in. And I will try this Yoga of yours.¡± He counter-offered. . . . So here we were working through yoga poses to see if I couldn¡¯t get some form of advanced bncing skill and level up my current one. Hopefully, this would continue to help the dexterity stat continue to grow. Grandfather sometimes grumblingly joined in and I took the moment to tease. ¡°Stand like a warrior you must, spread arms and feet apart you will. No! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. Warrior pose this is.¡± I practised my Yoda voice and speech as I held a warrior pose. At my current height, all I needed was fluffy green ears and a brown robe to pull off my Jedi impression. Grandfather was less than impressed and more confused by my weird syntax than anything else. ¡°No kill, no skill,¡± Grandfather muttered. Despite being able to copy my poses identically and without difficulty he had yet to gain the simple skill I had. Could belief hinder the growth of skills and stats? ¡°Yes, you have mentioned that, but that is patently not true. The only things I have ever killed so far are some ants and some fish. I have significantly more than a few skills rted to just the elimination of a few ants and the catching of a couple of fish.¡± I argued back. ¡°Well, we have already established that you are nothing like a normal child. Haven¡¯t we!¡± Grandfather may have be more amodating and forting with information or reasoning behind his actions, but he still advocated the school of hard knocks in nearly every situation. ¡®You¡¯re bncing? Brilliant let¡¯s make it more effective by throwing things at you.¡¯ I constantly had to object to his more extreme methods. If I was being honest even though I had a pain tolerance skill it was not something I wanted to keep levelling. Sure, it might be useful one day but I did not enjoy being in pain and tried to avoid it rather than cause it. I was all for achieving small gains and consolidating them. Slowly improve my physical condition rather than overdo things and be in agonyter. Overdoing my mental stats had resulted in unknowingly crippling myself. I had no desire to do the same again with my physical vessel. The system and stats might make a proper training regime irrelevant but I was going to take things slower with my body using nothing more than my body weight to train with. At least for the majority of my childhood. We had a rotating set of training. I still swam, still climbed, still ran. But I had also introduced, with my Grandfather¡¯s help, other more unusual things to train. From my old world, we had included Yoga and Gymnastics for now. I was still only an infant at the moment. But I hoped to recall and include some karate, judo, jujitsu and general martial arts into my training when I was a little older. Once I was a little better maybe even rhythmic gymnastics while listening to music on my mental HUD. Thoughts for ater date. But for now, under the continued pressure of my grandfather, knives were back on the table. Knife work had been allowed back into our practice routine by my mother provided nobody got stabbed. Was anybody up for knife yoga? Grandfather was. We continued our yoga poses while holding . . . of all things, knives. It was a decentpromise. As long as I wasn¡¯t being stabbed I was happy and as long as I was holding a knife Grandfather was happy too. Admittedly my knives were a lot smaller than his and one wondered what shop you went to that sold miniature knives for infants. A silly question, he had obviously had them custom made sometime in thest year. I wondered how he had exined that to whoever made them. ''Yes, I would like some miniature knives for a magic trick something I can hide within my palm.'' We ended our session with some quiet mediation. Perhaps one of our most peaceful sessions yet despite the implements of war still held in our hands. Time to have look at my progress over thest month. It was tempting to look at it every day and after every activity but most times if you did that there was no change at all. I tried to let it build it up a little before checking my status. Now that I had my hud going I could easily see how much stamina or mana I had left and those were the only two I really needed to know minute to minute. So I had managed to stop looking at it quite so much. It looked like it would be nap time soon. Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 112,650/ 819,200 Age: 2 year 1 months, 1 weeks, 1 days, 16 hours, 29 minutes Health: 1420/1420 Stamina: 103/873 Mana: 1340/1340 Psi: 1340/1340 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity Vitality: 142 +1 Endurance: 71 +2 Strength: 49 +1 Dexterity: 101 +2 Senses: 134 +1 Mind: 134 +1 rity: 114 +1 Magic: 134 +1 Charisma: 37 +1 Luck: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 45 ->46)Listening (Lv 30->31) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 27->28) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27->28)Singing (Lv 27->28) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv 42->43) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 7->10) Draw (Lv 25) Climb (Lv 27->28)Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 22->24) Trading (Lv 25->26)Sailing (Lv 6->10) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 25->30)Stitching (Lv 25->30)Diving (Lv 15->20)Throw (Lv 12 ->13) Insight (Lv 1 ->3)Farming (Lv1->5) Bnce (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 30->33) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1 ->3) Rebec (Lv 12->14) Aulos (Lv 12->14) Cornu (Lv 1->5) Harp (Lv 1->5) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transnt (Lv1->2) Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 28->30) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Maniption (Lv 29->30) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11->15) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1->2) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15->20) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17->18) Skill experience: 15900 Origin experience: 5000 Combat experience: 10500 Crafting experience: 5000 Trading experience: 5000 Popr experience: 1000 After I ran out of stamina and curled up on the floor in a baby pose, it was easy to fall asleep. I¡¯m sure that I looked less than elegant probably with my mouth wide open and drool dribbling out of it. However, I was fast asleep and noticed neither that nor being picked up and carried back home. I woke up in time for dinner or they dyed dinner for me to wake up and eat it. People discussed their day. But I had been there for most of it. The sailing in the early hours of the day, the singing and sewing in the morning, salt and farming both pearls and food in the afternoon, before some physical training with Grandfather. It didn¡¯t sound like they had been up to much other than more of the same that they had done with me. That or they weren''t telling. After the meal, I yed a little for the family on the variety of instruments my grandfather had got me. I was still grateful for the ability to y out loud rather than only listen to music in my head. The mental imagining of music and listening along in my head was never the same as actually being able to feel the vibrations in my body. The difference between cerebral pleasure and a physical one. I particrly enjoyed the buzz as I attempted to y the cornu to the best of my ability. Even better though my mother would join in singing along as I yed the tunes she already knew. Aleera hadn¡¯t as yet learned any of the instruments but it looked like she was eager to pick one up and was tapping along. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you a tale, now list to me, With a hey ho, the wind and the rain but the rain it rah every day." Gradually our singing wound down and we were ready for bed. Or rather it was time for bed. My nap times very much depended on when my stamina ran out but with this much vitality it almost solely depended on when my stamina ran out as opposed to the time of day. Everyone headed for bed in one form or another. I headed there too but while I still had stamina there were other things I could be focusing on. Silently I pulled up my hud, pulled up a song I could recall to listen to and started drawing. Time for my inner Picasso to shine forth. Chapter 81: Mapping my world Chapter 81: Mapping my world ¡°Cartography; from the Greek chartes meaning papyrus, sheet of paper or map and graphein meaning write. It is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modelled in ways thatmunicate spatial information effectively.¡± Wikipedia This evening, before I fell asleep once more, I began my newest project. Mapping my world. Drawing on my skill draw and utilising my skill recall I started to map my first view of the world. The one from within the womb. It seemed strange to think back a year ago to when I was first forming an opinion of what the world around me would be like. However, my skill recall works a lot better on my more recent memories. So, I was able to recall with uracy what the room looked like even when I couldn¡¯t at the time even see it yet. Memories from my former life are harder to recall so clearly, but I am hoping that as I continue to level the skill, so too will my ability to recall precisely events from before. Memory is a funny thing. I drew as I recalled it. My mother would sit at her loom in the corner of the room, where she would work every day making her cloth. I had drawn the rough outline of the rectangr room before I started to add the details. My sister would sit around the table in the middle of the room where she would spin the thread, and I added the other 3 chairs around the table too. Originally, I didn¡¯t know exactly what they were doing but in retrospect that is obviously what they were up to, weaving and spinning. I added in the front door, as well as the doors to my parent''s and my sister¡¯s rooms, before detailing where the windows sat in the front and back walls of the main room. Other than the loom and the main table thergest fixture of the room was the oven and stove with the chimney attached again in another corner of the room. This chimney actually kept my sister''s room a little warmer than my parent''s room. Then I added the rest of the kitchen cab for pots and pans. The water barrels in the corner, my mother''s chest of cloth, and the wood for the stove and chimney were added next. Ding! Cartography (Lv1) I wondered why I had never made a map before if the skill was so simple to gain. On a roll, I continued. I put the map drawn in chalk on a ck te to the side and started on the next one. First, I drew it again but this time I turned it around before adding in the extra rooms. My parent¡¯s room was off to the right with my old box in the corner. Then there was my sister¡¯s room to the left with what I assumed was to be my bed sometime in future. It had never happened in the past but if we ever stayed there again, I supposed that the room, would be mine too, we would have to share it. Once I had drawn that I extended upwards detailing the yard with my father¡¯s boat and fishing supplies thes and the asional lobster trap. I filled in the yard next with our olive tree and our fig tree. I had always been surprised that our water well managed to draw fresh water as close as we were to the saltgoon but somehow it managed. Next, I added on my mother¡¯s shop front with her cupboards of cloth and clothing her workbench and the three mannequins, small, medium andrge that she had used to hang her clothes on as she made it sometimes. Finally, I added in the little details like my mother¡¯s herb boxes and the old bits and bobs that she had always asked Father to get rid of but that he had failed to do, always iming they woulde in useful one day. Then I finished the outdoor area by adding in the woodpile. Ding! Cartography (Lv2) I checked my status to see if I had managed to level up the skill further and Ding! It was now at Level 2. I smiled to myself to watch the new skill levelling upwards. I would have to keep going with this one but it was time to go to bed now. Aleera leaned over me to look at my work. I was working on the floor as the table was still too high for me to reach or work at and the floor was just as t. ¡°How do you do that?¡± she asked as she looked down at the map I had just drawn. ¡°I can remember our house really well and I can draw what I can remember,¡± I exined. ¡°I understand how to draw things. I just . . . I couldn¡¯t do that when I was your age and I doubt that I could do it that well on my first attempt even now.¡± She sighed either disappointed in her own ability or frustrated by mine. ¡°I¡¯ve practised before.¡± I half exined. It was only half exining, as while she had seen me draw things before, she was not aware of the amount of time I had spent practising in my mind fortress. I might not get the system acknowledged skill levels for the time I had spent doing it within my mind but it certainly helped when I attempted to draw it in reality. To be honest I was also cheating just a little bit. I would first close my eyes and using my quick-witted trait I would quickly run through drawing it in my mind fortress. Only after I had practised it a couple of times within my mind was I willing tomit it to paper. Paper was expensive here and I had no desire to waste any of it on a poorly drawn map, room or chair. So although it looked like I was simply pausing before I attempted to put pen to paper actually I had already put it to paper once or twice, edited my work polished it too within my mind before finally showing what I was capable of. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you practising. I¡¯ve practised myself but it neveres as easy as ites for you. Just doesn¡¯t feel fair sometimes.¡± Aleera mumbled more to herself than me. It appeared that stating my stats and skills as explicitly as I had to after my unbncing had knocked my sister¡¯s confidence more than I realised. How did one support another¡¯s progress when they wereparing themselves to yourself and you were ying with a stacked deck? I had decades of experience but she didn¡¯t know that and I hadn''t told her yet. Would I ever tell her? ¡°Do you want to practice with me?¡± I asked trying to offer an olive branch and some form of support or scaffolding for her learning. ¡°Sure.¡± She answered although she didn¡¯t seem particrly convinced by either her ability to learn from me or my ability to teach her. Thinking about it trying to teach her was going to be a challenge in itself. It wasn¡¯t her ability or her interest, it was going to be theck of materials. I had spent a long time practising within my mind fortress utilising imaginary resources. I rarely asked for or was allowed to practice on actual paper seeing as it was so expensive and limited in quantity. Paper here was not paper as I knew it. It was not cheap, easily essible or even white. There was parchment which was made from animal skin scaped clean and stretched tight, vellum which was a simr product but made from younger animals. Then there was the papyrus version of paper which was made from leaves pressed together at right angles to form something that we could write on. Anyway, it was not cheap and we were not allowed lots of it to practice to get better at drawing. If I was going to try to teach Aleera how to draw better I was either going to need a lot more paper or use different materials to practice with. ¡°Practice makes perfect, we will need a sandbox and a wax tablet,¡± I told Aleera. It wasn¡¯tpletely urate as practice made permanent more than perfect. As in if she practised something wrong all that would happen would be that the bad habit would be permanently engrained. Still, the phrase was useful in its ease of remembering the importance of practising. ¡°Practice makes perfect?¡± she repeated back to me. ¡°Yes, first off we need to learn how to draw perfect circles,¡± I exined. If it worked for Isambard Kingdom Brunel it would work for us. We would just have to practice first on sand and wax tablets before using up our precious ¡®paper¡¯. I think I recalled Brunel being made to draw 10,000 perfect circles by his father. I might be wrong but there was no one in this world to correct me. ¡°I¡¯ll show you tomorrow. We can practice in the sand, everything starts with a circle.¡± I added a little more detail as I wondered whether there were any skills for teaching. If there were skills for teaching would I get more levels the more children I taught? Maybe I could have a little school of children like to encouraging them to think for themselves. Or I could introduce everyone to Arabic numbers which would be far more effective at teaching maths than the current Roman like numerals they were currently using. Thoughts for another day. I felt my stamina running out and knew that I would be soon be carried back to my bed. Aleera could see my yawns beginning. It was hard to maintain my smile and cheerful nature as the wave of exhaustion crested over me. I curled up to go to sleep confident that my family would keep me safe and secure. As I drifted off to sleep I daydreamed about the next map I would be making. I could add a roof and show the small pier of wood we had on our little plot ofnd by the edge of thegoon. Chapter 82: Unintended consequences Chapter 82: Unintended consequences ¡°Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a ce.¡± Margaret J Wheatley We continued to work on our lines, circles, and ovals as I taught Aleera the basics I remembered of drawing. I also continued to draw expanding maps of the area I had discovered so far. I had to admit I was a little artistic in my map-making but it helped me to enjoy the process more. I would have to actually go back to measure it all out properly one day. But I thought I had it pretty much perfect. I was really looking forward to when Cadmus turned up next time I was going to be asking one of my family members to get some paints and colours through him. It would make my maps look even better. I couldn¡¯t wait to have some proper brushes, paints and pastels. I wondered if they had crayons in this world yet? In theory, I could have had a go at making my own and I might very well have a goter but sometimes it is nice just to use what is already avable rather than having to start from scratch each time. The month went by quickly. We were in a routine now. I sailed at night with my father, sang with my mother while we worked, made money with my sister through farming salt, pearls or fruit, and slowly and carefully worked on bncing my stats with my Grandfather. While he still advocated the school of hard knocks he was now willing to listen to my modern old-world information about infant development and the importance of nutrition for a child¡¯s body¡¯s development. I had never thought about it before but while he was terrifyingly tallpared to me, my grandfather was actually a little short inparison to my father. If he had experienced something simr to his initial training between the ages of 5 and 10 then although his significant stats still made him a bit of a monster perhaps he would have been even stronger, quicker and resilient if he had had more to eat as a child. Either way, life was good. Even the food was so much better now with the variety of produce we had growing in our caldera garden. The trees and their fruits still had a way to go but anything growing in the ground, on a bush or vine had fruited by now and we got to enjoy meals of so much more than just fish. A fun fact I had discovered was that you could use mana drain on any weeds that were poking their heads up. I had to be careful not to drain the nts we wanted as well but a quick burst of mana drain would generally remove all their mana and if they were not firmly established, stunt their growth, and if repeated regrly kill them. Leaving behind rapidlyposting humus for the nts we did wish to grow. Once we had begun to harvest some of our crops it was time to cook them. I was still a little too small to easily use a kitchen and cook anything but I had a right and left hand in Des and Sinis who were only too happy to help me see if I could recall how to make any dishes from my old world. I had not worked out how to make any dressings yet but I even enjoyed the variety of sds we could now create. The benefit to all of this was that I gained the Tier 1 skill Cook and it helped to continue levelling upmand skills as I bossed the two around pretending to be in charge of a proper kitchen. Not that they seemed to mind. It was more of a game than strict enforcement of the former ve status, which they were not. They had been reassured repeatedly that they were no longer ves. They collected a wage for their work from Aleera and I who split some of our profits with them which they had been saving up in the hopes of one day purchasing their ownnd and building their own home within the town or on the shores of theke. We had asked them if they wished to return home but it sounded like they did not have a lot to look forward to there so they were happy to build a life for themselves here. There might or not have been some friendships developing between them and some of the younger people in the town but I was still staying away from the town so I couldn¡¯t possibly say for sure. But it was a little suspicious how they would take the odd fruit or two to town not enough to sell but enough to give as a gift now and then. Either way, they weren¡¯t saying and I wasn¡¯t there to spy out the truth. Seeing as everything was going so well and everyone was getting on so well, I should not have been surprised to find a fly in the ointment. Grandpa Smit was the bearer of the bad news. He had sailed across to the ind in time for lunch. I initially thought that he had juste for the food and we had prepared a small basket of produce for him to take home with him to Grandma. However, after the meal had finished he raised the matter he had actuallye here to address. Wester didn¡¯t have a town mayor or vige chief per say but everything seemed to go through him one way or another. ¡°There have been someints about your new skill, Kaius¡± Grandpa opened the conversation. ¡°What new skill?¡± Kaius frowned at his father. ¡°The one that you use at night to turn up every morning with the fattest fish in theke.¡± He replied exining the reason why. ¡°Okay.¡± Father hesitated to answer fully. We had levels of need to know regarding me, my stats and my secrets. Grandpa was on level 4 and not fully aware of everything my closer family had found out or forced out of me. Level 1 was me and all my old world knowledge plus the fact that I had psi powers! Level 2 was my grandfather and I who knew about my former life, old world and stats but we were bound by secrets of our own about the former noble family Mother Aleera and I were descended from. He had yet to tell them the truth about either himself or myself and we had reached a new mutually respectable equilibrium. Level 3 was my father, mother and Aleera who knew about my stats and skills but not my former life and wereplicit in aiding and abetting my fake funeral and future rise to be Lord Kai. Level 4 Des, Sinis and Grandpa who knew about my fake death and extraordinary abilities but were unaware of the true depths of my stats and the high-level nature of my skills. Level 5 knew me only as Callen and had yet to find out I was anything more than I appeared to be mainly because they had not seen me yet. ¡°What exactly is the problem?¡± he cautiously asked his father. ¡°Well, every morning you turn up with thergest fish and the best catch of the day. No one else is managing to pull half of what you are out of thegoon. So both in quantity and quality there are a few fishermen who are a little disgruntled. They feel that your new skill is allowing you to overfish thegoon and that there soon won¡¯t be any fish for anybody else to catch.¡± He raised his hand catingly as he outlined theirints. The reason we had been able to catch so many was because of me. I located thergest fish and schools and that was where we threw ours. We always took care to throw back the smallest fish. To ensure we didn¡¯t overfish but with us taking thergest fish and the other fishermen having to take the smaller I could see how there could be a problem. ¡°I¡¯m a sailor and I fish,¡± Kaius responded defensively. ¡°What do you expect me to do, father?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t. I¡¯m just saying that maybe you could do it a little less efficiently or perhaps take a break once in a while rather than doing it every day, that¡¯s all. Why not fish from the sea instead of thegoon if you still want to have a catch each morning.¡± He offered a partial solution. Kaius held his chin in his hand as he considered his father¡¯s proposal. ¡°You know why I stopped fishing on the sea. I have a family now. It was never so safe to be secure. I only did it for the levels. I only did it to win my wife.¡± He smiled at Mother and I wondered how exactly they ended up together in the first ce. I couldn¡¯t imagine that it would have been fun asking for her hand in marriage from Grandfather but maybe that wasn¡¯t a thing here anyway. It was a question to askter. ¡°Yes, but you have that new boat no? The one the assassin sailed with the runed hull. It would be far safer for you to fish the sea now than it ever was before.¡± Grandpa reasoned not quite yet giving up on convincing his son to try something new. This might be how he had achieved his unofficial position. A fixer between families his sons each had their own trades spread out throughout the town. By listening to their problems and helping fix them. I wondered what skill this would be levelling for him. Kaius turned to mother, ¡°If you¡¯re happy with it?¡± he asked for both permission and encouragement from her while Aleera and I sat at the table with Des and Sinis watching it all unfold in front of us. ¡°Just be careful and don¡¯t fish too deep and I am sure it will go well.¡± She replied. ¡°Brilliant, brilliant.¡± Grandpa smiled, ¡°I¡¯m happy we can reach a solution. They will be grateful for your restraint and fishing the sea will only help you to grow stronger. Seems sensible to make the most of the resources you have to hand.¡± He congratted and reassured his son on his decision. ¡°That uh, brings me onto the second matter that they raised,¡± he hesitated before continuing. ¡°It appears that just like how the fish are vanishing from thegoon, the deep sea pearls appear to be decreasing in number too.¡± ¡°No.¡± Mother and Aleera replied before he could ask his question. ¡°I don¡¯t dive I don¡¯t know um how many there were or are, but there are a one or two people who dive and their skill Hidden wealth is no longer pointing out any pearl bearing oysters for them. Each patch of oysters theye across has apparently already been harvested.¡± he barreled on without listening to Mother and Aleera''s statement. ¡°That¡¯s not our problem. They were there for all to take.¡± Kaius replied to his father. ¡°Well, I would agree with you there, however, their skill hidden wealth is pointing them in one direction and only one direction, yours.¡± Grandpa demurred. "If you don''t consider their position they might be visiting yours." We all paused as we considered this information. It was obvious in hindsight that collecting all the pearl bearing oysters to create our hidden pearl farms was going to cause some ripples. We simply failed to consider or think about the consequences of our actions. Our farms were working spectacrly. The pearls ripened with speed and in abundance. With all things though, we would need topromise, if we hoped to make friends not enemies. ¡°We won¡¯t be giving up our pearls.¡± Aleera dered vociferously. ¡°I¡¯m not asking you to give up your pearls. Just maybe stop collecting them from the entirety of thegoon. With your early morning delivery of fish it is clear that you are collecting the fish and oysters at night. People are not stupid. You can understand why they might wish you were a little less sessful.¡± ¡°What do you suggest?¡± Father asked rubbing his head. He knew the people here better than any of us. ¡°Why not put one or two back. You could mark them as yours to show that you are giving them back. ce them around thegoon. Just give them something to find other than the oysters you have hidden somewhere on this ind. I¡¯ll tell them that you won¡¯t be taking any more from thegoon. They just need a little time to realise that though the wealth is hidden it has still been collected. They need a little time to transition to something else. It was easy money for them and now it¡¯s gone. They are bound to be a little unhappy over their loss of livelihood.¡± Grandpa exined some of the challenges of living in a small town. Everybody was connected in one way or another. What we did affected one another as much as it did the environment. ¡°That won¡¯t work in the long run.¡± Mother extrapted the future problems of this course of action. ¡°No, but for the moment it will appease them, and fishing the sea rather than thegoon will show that you are considering others'' needs not just your own. It should be enough for now.¡± Grandpa exined thepromise. I thought about how each action has an equal and opposite reaction. Life generally wasn¡¯t a physics quiz but maybe it would be good to know a little more about life in Wester. What people did for a living and how our actions might cause an equal and opposite reactions. Till today our new home industries had only had positive effects I had thought. Cheaper salt was surely good for everybody. Collecting the night soil would result in a cleaner, healthier town. But who had made the salt before? What had happened to the waste before? Had we inadvertently hurt more families than the fishermen and divers? While they were still talking I pulled at Aleera¡¯s sleeve and whispered to her before she repeated my question to Grandpa. ¡°Could we have a list of the people who have been put at a disadvantage from our fishing, pearl collection and salt farming? We will work at helping them somehow.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay dear.¡± He responded a little patronisingly. Maybe I should have pulled on an adults sleeve instead. But Aleera was not afraid to stand up for herself. ¡°I insist.¡± She informed him. ¡°Well off the top of my head there are the three Fisherson¡¯s families, the five Divers daughters. Then regarding the salt most made a little of their own but widow Wanda is a little hard up at the moment as she used to sell some on the market but it is no longer worth enough so she is struggling a little more than usual.¡± The weight of our actions was worrying. For the majority they were enjoying the cheaper salt and fresh fish. But for the few our actions had a harsher impact. ¡°Would they be willing to work for us?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Mayhap yes, mayhap no. Wanda would be wee for work I believe. The Daughters are a little more prideful, possibly resentful too. They have a good skill that has kept them well. They have felt the pinch far harder as they have a lot more though they are currently hurting less as they have their savings. The fishers should be happy with Kaius fishing at sea. But I can ask if you would like me to.¡± Grandpa vacited other the families and thoughts on the question. ¡°Please,¡± Aleera added. ¡°Yes, well d we could work that out or at least start on solving the grumbles. Hope you have a pleasant evening.¡± He added as he picked up his basket of fruit and left. Leaving us to ponder how best to continue. It had been a profitably couple of months but had thate at the expense of others. Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 148,750/ 819,200 Age: 2 year 2 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 22 minutes Health: 1430/1430 Stamina: 887/887 Mana: 1350/1350 Psi: 1350/1350 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity Vitality: 144 +2 Endurance: 75 +4 Strength: 51 +2 Dexterity: 105 +4 Senses: 136 +2 Mind: 136 +2 rity: 116 +2 Magic: 136 +2 Charisma: 38 +1 Luck: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 46 ->50)Listening (Lv 31->33) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 28->30) Sneak (Lv 22 -> Lv24) Whistling (Lv 28->30)Singing (Lv 28->30) Drumming (Lv 25 -> 30) Running (Lv 43->45)Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25 -> Lv30)Breath Control (Lv 30 -> Lv35) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 10->15)Draw (Lv 25 -> Lv30)Climb (Lv 28->30)Calligraphy (Lv 5 -> Lv10)Mathematics (Lv 10 -> Lv 15)Decoding (Lv 6 ¨C Lv 10) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 24->28) Trading (Lv 26->30)Sailing (Lv 10->15) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 30->34)Stitching (Lv 30->34)Diving (Lv 20->25)Throw (Lv 13 ->15) Insight (Lv 1 ->3)Farming (Lv5->10) Bnce (Lv 1 ->Lv10) Cook (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 33->38) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3 -> Lv 5)Knife Arts (Lv3 ->5) Rebec (Lv 12->14) Aulos (Lv 12->14) Cornu (Lv 5->10) Harp (Lv 5->10) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transnt (Lv2->5) Cartography (Lv 1 -> Lv 5) Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 30) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Maniption (Lv 30) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 15 ¨C> Lv 20) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 2 -> Lv3) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 15 ¨C Lv 16) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18) Skill experience: 19100 Origin experience: 1000 Combat experience: 5000 Crafting experience: 5000 Trading experience: 5000 Popr experience: 1000 Meanwhile elsewhere in the world ¡°You want me to what?¡± thedy looked him straight in the eye, raising her eyebrow. ¡°Tutor an up-anding noble family¡¯s daughter. Prepare her to enter society. Nothing more than what you already do.¡± The seneschal calmly outlined the task he was asking her toplete. ¡°Yes but . . .¡± she paused almost lost for words by what she was being asked to do. ¡°You do owe me a favour remember.¡± He raised his own eyebrow in return. ¡°Do this for me and we will call ourselves quits.¡± He put his hands up catingly before ttering, ¡°You are the best.¡± ¡°Yes, I am the best. But I have a life here in Solstice. I am assuming that this daughter is not in the city otherwise it wouldn¡¯t bnce the scales. In fact, if I were to take a gamble on this matter I would wager that the daughter in question is one of the new noble scions rather than a rising branch of an old family otherwise you wouldn¡¯t be making the request. If I had to bet it would be the troublesome 101st family that is causing such a buzz at court at the moment.¡± She agreed with him before outlining one of the potential problems. ¡°I can¡¯t go into all the details until you ept a privacy court contract to prepare them for court promising not to prejudice them either way.¡± He deflected. ¡°So possibly not within a days . . .¡¯ she hesitated judging the impact of her words on the seneschal, ¡®. . . a week¡¯s travel from Solstice then . . . or more. Why me?¡± she quizzed. ¡°As well as being the best, you were also deemed to be the most neutral of the governesses avable at the moment. Considering your history and lineage you have a smaller stake in the impact a new house could have on the court here in Ponente, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡± He exined the reasoning behind his request. ¡°Yes, but I maintain that neutrality specifically by teaching children from both sides of the divide and not taking a stance on any of the politics. You are asking me to hold a hot potato and I will be judged based on where it falls.¡± She argued back. ¡°Maybe, but also you are the one least likely to influence the scions based on any personal preferences it will be their choice, not yours and the houses will see that in the end. Besides have you ever cared what they thought?¡± he asked amused at her prevarications. ¡°I might not have cared what they thought but they can still make my life, less than pleasant within Ponente if they suddenly start to care about me. Moreover, you said scions. I assume that means there are at least two of them. This is hardly a typical 5 or even 10-year contract. It could take as long as 20 years. Not an insignificant amount of time.¡± She refused to say yes straight away. ¡°As I said, this would bnce the scales between us and what is 5, 10 or even 20 years'' worth of time to you who has so much more time avable to them. You would be fully paid by the crown for as long as your presence is required. This could be quite lucrative a position for you.¡± He continued to argue the potential positives of the offer. ¡°The longer you speak the less I like the idea of taking such a position.¡± she raised a fan to air her face while she paused for thought. ¡°Then I will speak less. This is the favour I would like and I am calling in, you are eminently suitable for the position and will be paid handsomely for your time.¡± He summarised his position once more. Left unsaid was the fact that should she refuse such a position her ce within the ce and her yearly governess positions tutoring the wealthy and privileged children of Solsitce and the surrounding duchies would in all likelihood disappear. ¡°I would like to think on the matter before I make a decision.¡± she refused to bend just yet. ¡°By all means. You have until the Swift docks once more in Solstice to make your decision,¡± he answered. ¡°The Swift. Then it is true the family hails from the archipgo or the coastline as the rumours have suggested.¡± She raised her eyebrow once more. "I can neither confirm, nor deny any rumours that are in cirction. You know far better than to put too much stock in the frivolous witterings of the children here who would call themselves the nobility.¡± he gave nothing away. ¡°So not only are you expecting me to give up years of my life but also to spend them cast out into the uncivilised archipgo of the Western Kingdom. ¡° she seemed almost angered but it was hard to tell by their jousting back and forth whether it was real or feigned. ¡°You know as much as I can tell you until you have signed the court contract of privacy. If you do so then I will, of course, be able to give you significantly more details but until then my hands are tied.¡± he raised his hands as if bound. ¡°Your hands are never tired. Unless you were the ones who tied the knots.¡± she pursed her lips, ¡°I will think on it and let you know of my decision.¡± she said frowning. ¡°That¡¯s all I can ask for. Thank you for your consideration.¡± he bowed and left. Leaving her to ponder her future in Ponente. . . . . Chapter 83: Dealing with the effects Chapter 83: Dealing with the effects ¡°The most oblivious people are often the happiest.¡± George Mayer Pce of Ponente - 3 months ago. ¡°In light of the Prince¡¯s promation that the Silversea family remain unmolested until their 20th birthday when they are presented to the court. It was felt that it was only suitable that they have a tutor or governess to help them prepare for their entrance to the court. Now you have yet to mention how old this . . .¡± he paused as he looked at the documentation he had on hand. ¡°. . . Aleera is. But every eligible daughter of a noble house is required to disy the fact that they can wield the noble nine stats through a debutante performance.¡± The seneschal exined. Cadmus and Mercurio stood there in silence as the situation was exined in detail to them. ¡°She can wield the nine noble stats, correct?¡± he questioned. ¡°We believe so.¡± Mercurio hedged. He was not quite willing tomit to a bet on the matter and was hesitant to be caught in an outright lie. ¡°Well, hopefully, that is the case. Indeed, the purchasing of a noble title should have been enough to unlock the stat. If not, then their tutor should be able to unlock it for them if they have sufficient resources or skill.¡± He continued. ¡°I have not yet agreed to be their tutor.¡± Thedy interrupted as she stepped forward into the conversation out of the corner of the room. A fan flicked out in front of her face as she emphasised her point. The fan was a more recent fashion addition to the court an affectation from the Kingdom of Levante and its court. ¡°You had till this meeting to decide. By being present you are implicitly epting the contract of privacy.¡± He argued back, clearly disgruntled at both the disagreement and the interruption. ¡°There is a difference between implicitly epting a socially decreed decorum and explicitly following a legally binding rule. Besides a favour owed is but a favour, not a life debt. I have signed no contract and even then, it is not the same as being bound. I will make my own choice on the matter while I have my freedom still.¡± She dered without fear or concern for irking him further. ¡°How old is Aleera Silversea?¡± She calmly asked Mecurio and Cadmus. Cadmus replied, ¡°I believe she is not yet ten.¡± While Mecurio nodded in agreement. ¡°So all is not lost yet then.¡± She paused for thought. ¡°Her parentage?¡± Cadmus opened with, ¡°Her mother is a fine weaver while her father is a fine fisherman.¡± Before Mercurio jumped in adding, ¡°Her mother¡¯s hand was the most sought after on the ind a siren songstress as well as a seamstress of supetive clothing and weaver of the most intricate tapestries. Her father while a fisherman is no simple sailor. He is the eldest son of the local leader of the town and has levelled himself fishing the open sea surrounding the ind on the very edge of thepass.¡± ¡°So somewhere in between then.¡± She moderated their responses, then turned to face the Seneschal, ¡°And located at the very edge of the world.¡± She acerbically pointed out. ¡°Suitably safe and imagine what you could achieve without the distractions of court bothering you every day. A whole decade to help mould and form a noble without peer.¡± He walked his way around the point raised about the distance from the centre of Ponente. ¡°You have long bemoaned the quality of thedies of the court, why not raise your own without their peers polluting the quality of your education.¡± ¡°10 years on the edge of thepass.¡± She paused reconsidering before remembering the wording of the contract. ¡°And how old is the youngest?¡± Wincing internally Cadmus responded, ¡°A newborn, not yet a year old.¡± While Mercurio jumped in, ¡°But bright beyond his years if he takes after his former older brother. The Silversea family truly is a pearl hidden in the depths of the ocean.¡± ¡°So, the full 20 years then.¡± She turned to the Seneschal. ¡°If I take this tutor position, I expect you to protect my interests both here and there from afar. It is going to add a significant dy to my correspondence and I will expect timely attention to detail. This will be more than the favour owed and I will expect one in turn on my return, Scias.¡± ¡°Of course, Acacia. I promise to follow your correspondence to the letter. Moreover, on your return, there will be no hesitance on my part to return the favour.¡± He bowed deeply. Mercurio and Cadmus who had been bystanders to the majority of the conversation followed it with interest. ¡°Very well, I ept. Citizens?¡± she answered Scias before she gestured towards the door. They found themselves opening it for her and following her out in apaniment on either side as if forming her wake. This all happened before they had time to process her answer and request, or even consider following it such was the power of her skills and stats when applied with the deftest of touches. They had reached the corner of the corridor and turned when they heard Scias shout, ¡°And the contract?¡± But she continued as if it was unheard and at such a pace that Mercurio and Cadmus feltpelled to walk full speed ahead to keep up with the smooth gliding pace of thedy. ¡°We have a lot to collect if we are to depart on the next tide. Come along now boys.¡± Her head turned to the side to address them talking over her shoulder as they had still failed to catch up to her pace. . . . . . . Wester Isle We had been happy but we had also been oblivious. We had been unaware of the effect of our actions. It was time to solve the problems we had caused and I was finally allowed off the ind Aleera carrying me once more to witness it. The meetings with 3 branches of the Fisherson¡¯s family went well. They seemed almost apologetic for asking Father to fish elsewhere while defending their request couched in their concern for the number of fish within thegoon. ¡°It ain¡¯t that we begrudge you the use of your skill. It¡¯s simply there won¡¯t be much left to catch for any of us should you continue to use it within thegoon.¡± They exined their position. Their three docks were in line on the coast a straight road running along in front of their houses. They were part of the old town and one of the founding families. ¡°Well I¡¯ve taken a break from fishing thegoon this week and next week I tackle the open ocean.¡± Kaius raised his hands in his defence. ¡°Now we¡¯re not calling for that mind. There are fish enough for all here as long as we fishin¡¯ in moderation.¡± The patriarch of the family cautioned. ¡°I¡¯ve done it before. I can do it again. I know when to watch the water and when to run.¡± He replied. We had stopped pulling fish from it every night now but continued to sail it every night to improve my skill levels and continue to allow me to search thegoon floor for what I was sure had to be there somewhere, a tunnel to the sea. We had yet to find it. This was not the only reason we had sailed. Father seemed to be attempting to force every ounce of speed out of the sails and trim the sails as tight as they could until the boat could turn on an oyster''s shell. He might have appeared calm about setting sail on the deep blue sea but it was equally clear he was preparing for both rougher weather and stormier seas. As well as an increased intensity to father¡¯s actions on the boat, we had continued to find plenty of Sea snails and oysters. The odd one with a pearl in it we marked but left on thegoon floor, proof that we could have taken it had we wished, but evidence that we had left it for the diver¡¯s daughters. That meeting did not progress so smoothly. ¡°We didn¡¯t take every oyster with a pearl on the floor of thegoon for a reason.¡± The eldest argued. ¡°We knew where more were but were simply waiting for them to grow bigger before harvesting them.¡± Another added, the smallest and possibly the youngest. ¡°You have stolen our shells and our prizes.¡± A third shouted in anger. While the remaining two remained silent. It was not an auspicious start to our meeting. Aleera had attended alongside Father keen to argue the fact that possession was nine-tenths of thew. ¡°You have never begrudged the boys diving for pearls before or mentioned owning every shell on the sea floor,¡± Aleera argued back. ¡°That is because they didn¡¯t strip the floor clear of every m. The odd one they did find didn¡¯t matter too much.¡± The eldest said exasperated. ¡°We haven¡¯t taken every oyster. There are plenty out there still.¡± Aleera knew how many we had found and how many we had left behind. There were plenty still out there but certainly a lot fewer held pearls. ¡°Yes but only the empty ones.¡± The youngestined. ¡°Not true.¡± Aleera defended our actions. ¡°We pulled up all the oysters in one patch and didn¡¯t find a single pearl. We don¡¯t know how you did it or what skill you are using but you can¡¯t deny that you have robbed us blind.¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t pulled a single pearl from thegoon this week.¡± Aleera interrupted unwilling to let the middle child build up any more steam. ¡°And . . .¡± she continued shouting over the top of her, ¡°any my Father found that he believed did contain a pearl he has marked with our families symbol before leaving them there.¡± ¡°Aye, we noticed.¡± One of the silent sisters spoke up. ¡°Again, we pulled up all the oysters in that patch and the only one with a pearl worth finding was in the sole oyster with this marked on it.¡± She held up the offending shell. I was quite proud of the design. The Silverwood family had incorporated a stylised silver tree as their noble crest. Ours was simr in design a silver mountain pushing up through a silver sea on a mother of pearl background. The moreplicated design would have apass faintly etched onto the mother of pearl background but for marking oysters it was simple enough to scratch into them a simpler version. ¡°Look we promise not to pick up any more oysters from the sea floor.¡± Kaius tried to mediate. ¡°You mark the shells you are saving for yourselves, and we will mark ours.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good start.¡± The eldest said in consideration. . . . but what about all the ones you stole.¡± The loudest and most annoying sister still shouted pointing her finger at us. The presence of a baby might have earned us a calmer start to the proceedings but while we had made some progress with four of the sisters I doubted we would be making much progress with this one. We were also going to have to mark all our oysters with numbers and our emblem to make sure none of ours went missing. ¡°Thest point we would like to raise if you are going to be selling or using the pearls within the town or on the nearby isles is to try and limits yourselves. We try to limit our purchases. It helps to keep the prices high as well as gives the pearls more time to grow before we pluck them. Try not to sink the market with your bounty of pearls. Call it onest request and a pearl of wisdom.¡± The eldest had thest word before escorting her louder sister inside before she could continue the argument. We had a truce of sorts. We wouldn¡¯t be able to continue expanding so rapidly but hopefully neither would we have any more issues with our neighbours. . . . Ourst meeting of the day with widow Wanda went a lot smoother. She jumped at the chance to be paid to do some weeding of our hidden mountain garden. She might be a little elderly but the benefit of a world with stats meant that she was still fairly spritely. She lived in a smaller abode within the town but it was true that despite a long life without her former husband and without any children to support her she was significantly less well off than most. Still, her plot ofnd was full of nts, vines, trees, bushes, fruit and vegetables which boded well for what we would be asking of her. As we were leaving having visited her at home she held onto Aleera¡¯s hand once more in the doorway. ¡°Thank you,¡± she gushed once more. ¡°I truly appreciate the offer.¡± As she stood in the doorway. ¡°We apologise, Wanda,¡± Aleera replied ufortably, ¡°I didn¡¯t realise you relied so heavily on the sale of salt to make ends meet.¡± ¡°Now, now, you aren¡¯t responsible for me.¡± She stopped Aleera from continuing. ¡°The young need to grab every mote of experience they can.¡± ¡°Yes, well, Des and Sinis will be buy in the morning to pick you up.¡± She hesitated before continuing truthfully. ¡°It might not be the sweetest smelling boat you will have ever ridden but we are using the town¡¯s nightsoil to improve our soil on the ind.¡± Looking around at her garden from the back of Aleera I was impressed by how manyrge and sulent the berries, fruits and vegetables looked. I wondered if it was a skill or some other secret. Hopefully, she would be bringing both to our ind when she worked there. ¡°I understand. A fruit tree that grows in a dung heap will surely blossom. The bigger the dung heap the better.¡± She seemed unbothered by the fact that she would be travelling with the town¡¯s waste. ¡°Have you ever tried adding guano? That¡¯s what my husband used to fetch me from the foot of the cliffs sometimes for my garden.¡± I mentally kicked myself. No, we had not tried using guano to improve the quality of our soil. So obvious in retrospect. I even vaguely recalled inds in the pacific or Antic being mined specifically for the nitrate-rich guano that had covered them from decades of seabirds pooping on them. But not once had I thought to apply it here. Doh! ¡°Guano?¡± Aleera questioned. ¡°Yes, dear. Bird poo. There is a fair amount of it along the foot of some of the eastern cliffs or in crevices found on the outer wall. It was not my dear¡¯s favourite job but it was hard to argue with the food it helped produce so he collected it for me once in a while.¡± She exined. ¡°Could you maybe show Des and Sinis where they could collect some more tomorrow first? That would actually be really helpful. We would of course pay you for your time.¡± She quickly tried to capitalise on the information. ¡°It would be my pleasure. Nice to know some of you youngsters are willing to listen to your elders for advice and I am happy to help.¡± She smiled. It was hard to tell if Wanda was happier about the job prospects, the money or simply being able to help with something new. Whichever was the case it looked like we had a new employee for our blossoming garden. With the situation with our neighbours hopefully resolved we returned to the ind. The next challenge would be sailing the open ocean but for now, I continued to hope to find some tunnel or cave that would help to exin the salty nature of our innergoon. Chapter 84: Final days of freedom Chapter 84: Final days of freedom ¡°What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.¡± Marcus Tullius Cicero Little did we know it, but our final days of freedom were already counting down. Wanda worked well with Des and Sinis gathering guano from Wester Isle¡¯s cliffs and adding it to our burgeoning garden. We could hardly call it a garden now with nts working their way all the way around the inside of the cauldron caldera. The addition of an extra worker meant that we had to shift our timetable around a little so as to notpletely give the game away. It was still probably obvious that some magical skill was being used regarding how my mana aided the nts'' growth. On the other hand, we weren¡¯t actively fishing or diving any longer so we were able to do our sailing practice in the daytime as opposed to at night now. It was nice to get up at a normal hour now rather than in the middle of the night. My quickly disappearing stamina meant that I still needed plenty of naps throughout the day but at least I was now getting aplete night¡¯s sleep. Surely that had to help. Our new day started with the dawn of the sun. But this time I was leaving the house at this point rather than returning to it. Father would pick me up and carry me out to the boat if I was still asleep and many a day I would wake up as the boat edged out onto thegoon. We were no longer sailing slowly in a grid pattern across thegoon attempting to discover all of its secrets but speeding across its surface in an attempt to get every extra inch of speed out of the wind that carried us. Father rowed religiously when the wind died sending us skidding along the surface of the water. Each skill he had he practised. Without fail. I had learned a lot of his skills over thest couple of weeks or at least their names if not the abilities themselves. He had me help out when I could amplify the wind with Gale to send us speeding ever quicker. ¡°Well done Cal!¡± Kaius cried. He had never managed to fully transition to calling me Callen and seemed to settle for a nickname between the two. Not quite Kai and not quite Callen. Cal was the name he ended up with and which my family seemed to be copying him on. I didn¡¯t mind too much and would have responded to either. In fact, it made me feel just a little bit like superman. Who knew maybe one day I too would be flying through the sky rather than falling or gliding through it. But first I would have to master my mana and magic. I drove the wind harder into his sails. My mastery of mana was still based on overwhelming strength rather than finesse but in terms of powering a sail that was not necessarily a bad thing. A finer stronger point of contact would be more likely to tear the sail than the broad torrent I provided. We were making a speed run to see how quickly we could get from one side o thegoon to the other while skirting as close to our ind as possible. My inner clock counting down. I had added a timer to my internal hud to see how quickly we could do it. Father trusted my judgement on the matter. As we sailed by the ind I once more thought about its slow transformation. Seeing as it was my ind, I was still quite keen on renaming it. Ash ind might have been appropriate when it was still a dull ck centre to thegoon but with the salt ts a brilliant white, the growing pce fa?ade on the western face of our mountain and the secret garden growing within I felt like a new name for our new purpose would be most wee. What that would be I wasn¡¯t yet sure. I was quickly drawn back to focus on the task at hand by the salty spray. I was showered with water flicking upwards from the edge of the boat as the sails were pulled tight against the wind. They started to pull us up out of the water and had us hiking out over the side of the boat as our hull slowly slid glistening in the morning light out of the water. We shot past one of the diver''s daughter¡¯s boats. We gave it a clear berth, the divers'' mood despite being beneath the water made one wish to give them an even wider clearance. Their presence a sour note on our exhrating morning race. The dies¡¯ had never quite forgiven us for cutting into what they deemed their future profits. We had not touched any of the oysters since. Although we had noticed that they had taken great pains to mark up, even going as far as to number each and every one of them. Between the five of them and their efforts, it felt as if any and every oyster had now been marked as theirs. It didn¡¯t seem to matter that we were not releasing the pearls on the open market but using them to pay for specific goods a vast distance away they were still unhappy with us. And it didn¡¯t look like it their opinion was going to be changing anytime soon. I ignored the feeling and returned to focusing on the task at hand as we shot past their boat at anchor. ¡°Hold it steady,¡± Father shouted as we grew closer and closer to tipping over. Despite the daylight, I was with him on thegoon. My presence was exined away through the entricities of a father in love with both the open oceans and his son, a mother busy weaving the future, a sister spending time to make money and a grandfather who was deemed too scary to supervise me if unsupervised himself. We were using the assassin¡¯s boat to train on now. We might have had it for a while but the only times I had been aware it had been used was outside thegoon walls. The days of my freefalling before the crippling seemed such a long time ago. Grandfather and Father had spent a weekend carrying it up the cliffs somehow before bringing it back down into the caldera and starting from there. The benefits to a world with stats and family members who had more strength than sense, in more ways than one, made abundant once more. Not to say that father did not need to train on it. Our short trips outside our ind¡¯s walls had shown me the merest shallows of the open ocean and the monsters that lived within it. From the tales, my father told Goblin sharks seemed to be the least of the leviathans out there and the least of his worries. The boat grew ever closer to tipping before father shouted, ¡°Knife¡¯s edge.¡± The boat seemed to lock upright on its side the tension of the sails pulling against his skill as he attempted to turn every ounce of pressure from the wind I was applying into an eleration of the boat. He still had to lean out and hike as far as possible but the skill somehow stopped the boat from capsizing or turtling as we shot across the waves. ¡°I got that skill running away from somethingrger than I was.¡± He shoutedughing as he was sshed by the spray of the water. He was in his element and loving it. I was loving it too, strapped as I was to his chest. I got to enjoy the thrill of the sail without worrying about anything. I was along for the ride and felt safe and secure wrapped as I was. It had been decided that for training like this it would be safer for me to be strapped to him rather than scuttling around an oversized (for an infant) boat when it was travelling as fast as he could get it to go. What was interesting though was the way in which father¡¯s skill seemed to work though. While the rest of the family¡¯s skills required their mana to work, I could actively see my mana ticking down when I used the skills. Father¡¯s skills that were not purely physical seemed to rely on something unquantifiable. Sure, they took some stamina too but was that enough to ount for or exin the magical fact that the boat, despite the speed it was travelling at and how tight the sails were held to the wind, did not simply tip over. It was as vexing as it was fascinating, but I looked forward to working it out one day. ¡°Ready, about!¡± he shouted carrying me across and below the boom. He did not necessarily need to shout it out seeing as I strapped to him, but it was good practice for when they would one day let me out of the bindings used in front of other people. It also prepared me to halt the gale for a moment as we tacked which would stop us from tipping over as we did it. I had learned that lesson the hard way. It did not matter how strong a skill knife¡¯s edge was or how high levelled it was, an inappropriately applied gale either poorly aimed or timed could break whatever manner of system magic was holding the keel to the water¡¯s surface if pushed hard enough in the wrong direction. Wended on the other side, the sail pulled tight, I poured on the power with another gale, and we sprung forth in a slightly new direction leaving the divers daughters stationary boat far behind in our wake. Father and son time was simply the best when you both enjoyed the same activity and had the freedom to satisfy it to your heart¡¯s desire. Yes, we were training. Yes, it was important But right here, right now. The power to live as we wished was true freedom. . . . No matter my excitement or my enjoyment my falling stamina would still put me to sleep before long. At this point, Father would head for shore. Sailing far more sedately, or perhaps not, I was too unconscious to notice but I assumed that without my magic he would be unable to maintain the same speed. My skill at sailing had continued to level but some of his more specialised skills I had been unable to obtain. I assumed it was because I was unable to execute the actions on my own. I would awaken in the home at my mother¡¯s feet once more. . . . . ¡°I think we are going about this the wrong way Kai.¡± My mother pondered. ¡°Rather than focusing on the sound carrying your intention to make your mark on the stone let us rather treat it as you do your material maniption simply flood it with your mana.¡± ¡°But I thought we were attempting to develop my intent and my finesse,¡± I argued back. ¡°Yes, we were but we have been at it for a while without a huge amount of sess apart from a series of shattered stones.¡± She pointed at the rubble that was all that was left of the block we had been working on today. It would have been okay if it had been carefully carved down to its smaller constituent parts but it had generally shattered whenever I attempted to use sound and mana to shape it. ¡°Sometimes it is worth trying something different. What works for me might not necessarily always work for you.¡± She continued before saying, ¡°Add the mana.¡± I focused on adding the mana to one of the smaller chunks of basalt we had been working with and it was not long before it was a slowly melting puddle of molten rock which let off the asional pop as some part of it either heated irregrly or a pocket of air or some other fault in the rock was discovered. ¡°Well done. But not quite what I was asking you to do.¡± Mother praised before adding to her instructions. ¡°I would like you to flood the rock with your mana but take care not to use the mana to add heat or to freeze. I would like the stone to be full of your mana but leave the mana nk without your intent.¡± She stopped me halfway through adding the next set of mana as I had indeed been doing exactly that adding mana but working on cooling it. I tended to think of mana as energy. Something that could be added to a system to heat it up or removed from a system to cool it down. I was not strictly sure how that worked to cool something when I was still seemingly adding energy to a system but it worked for me and I was not going toin about the magical abilities I had as limited as they were. One day, one day they would be powerful and amazing but for now. . . . Dash it all my magical powers were still amazing we were just trying to refine them further. ¡°Yes, you add mana to heat and add mana to then remove it and cool the stone. But stop trying to control what your manna does as it enters the stone. Simply let it fill the area.¡± She proposed. I worked hard at slowly infusing the remaining rubble with my mana taking care not to heat it further and return it to its molten state but also taking care not to freeze it and speed up its cracking process. Mother watched silently as I worked at attempting to follow her instructions. Until finally they werepleted. ¡°Fantastic work Cal. Now maintain the level of mana within the rock but here I would like you to calmly add your intent to the mana within the mineral through the medium of sound.¡± I stared at her confused. ¡°Sing the stone into shape Cal. The mana is there waiting to do your bidding. Give it form through song, tone or note. Make it follow your intention.¡± She exined. I sat there somewhat confused with rocks in front of me filled with mana. I had added my intention with the mana that was how I had got the skills ignite, freeze, boil, and melt. Had my understanding of thews of thermodynamics coloured my perception and abilities to work with mana? Was mana more than just another form of energy I could magically control? ¡°What do you think I am doing when I am sitting here spinning, sewing and weaving away?¡± She asked her absent son refocusing me once more on the task at hand. ¡°The material is flooded with my mana and I weave with it just as much as I do with my hands. The mana moves the material in the manner I wish it to without setting it on fire, freezing it or melting it. You do the same with your robe. You flood the material with your mana then move it with your magic.¡± ¡°That¡¯s different it¡¯s a different skill, a skill the system gave me more for surviving my fall than for my sess in using my mana.¡± I try to put into words my thoughts on the matter. ¡°Yes and no. Thread is a material, cloth is a material, sand is a material, and stone is a material. Manipte it. Sing the stone.¡± She urged me and I sang a tone both pure and clear. Holding the mana in my mind, I imbued the tone with my intention and the rocks merged together without heating. Merging without melting they ttened forming a t level square in front of us. ¡°Finally.¡± Mother sighed. ¡°You can work on floors now.¡± She smiled. I had been banned from working on the floors within the mountain mansion we were building. My magic had been deemed good enough for the salt ts. But the asional pocking of the rock as it heated and cooled, and the asional explosion when the mana heated the rock unevenly, meant that I had been banned from working on the internal hall. But now by thinking about my magic and mana differently it looked like I would be able to help Mother out a lot more by making a smooth and polished entryway and hall. ¡°Beautifully done.¡± Mother praised looking closer at the square b of stone I had made. Although it was perfectly t there were some interesting patterns formed with the stone. ¡°Did you intend to make the patterns?¡± she quizzed. ¡°Not exactly,¡± I muttered in response. I wondered at the patterns myself. I had intended to meld and merge the rock together to form a t polished stone. That was my intent but had my knowledge of Cdni tes and their patterns affected the oue? Judging from the patterns revealed in the stone it looked like it. Mana was the method, intent rified the purpose but it looked like the oue was still coloured or patterned by the knowledge I held from a world where science had be its own religion. As Te said, ¡°If you want to find the secrets of the universe think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.¡± Maybe it was the same for magic. Either way, the tone had made a pretty pattern that mother looked keen for me to repeat on the smooth stone flooring. ¡°We will have visitors soon enough. We need to make a good first impression.¡± She rationalised her reasoning for me reworking some of the areas she had already covered. ¡°What about my practice with weaving?¡± I asked as I was diverted away from my normal routine. ¡°I think stone is the material for you.¡± She smiled and I was left wondering whether it was a smile of pride in my ability or relief that I would be working on something else other than weaving. Leaving my mother to work on her tapestries alone. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I wille to the hall to help direct you.¡± Or maybe not. . . . . Mother had stayed long enough to ensure I was improving her flooring rather than destroying it. Then she had left to prepare the midday meal. I stood up to admire my work, before murmuring, ¡°I stand, On a sea of sound ensouled through song in stone. The shape . . .¡± I paused as I mused searching for the next set of words. I looked along the newly patterned hallway I had been working on that led to the opening into our mountain refuge waiting for inspiration. ¡°The shape of sibnce . . . The susurrous of silence . . . Frozen for all to see . . . Stretched . . . Meh, I¡¯d get itter. ¡°Very poetic, Cal. But you¡¯rete.¡± Aleera interrupted. I jumped. I would have heard hering if I had been listening with my senses. But I had spent thete morning working to music. Music, I had made myself and recreated from memory but music my parallel process could y to me while I sang tones and patterns into the floor below my feet. I¡¯d like to say I was not surprised indeed I should have been as I had the mental HUD up and running but like anything in life if you don¡¯t pay attention to it, it will have the opportunity to catch you unaware and I had been fully focused on filling the stone with my mana, before shaping it with my intent and song. The ethereal tones ringing in my head were a counterpoint to the pure tones I shaped the stone with. ¡°Is it that time already?¡± I asked attempting to cover my surprise although I knew I was fooling no one. I would get her backter. When she wasn¡¯t expecting it. When the refuge of an adult was a short dash away. ¡°Yes.¡± She replied. ¡°It¡¯s lunchtime.¡± ¡°Race you!¡± I shouted as I took off. My little legs had to move four or more steps to every step of hers but I believed in my dexterity. The attribute of celerity helped me to sprint faster and faster. The skill levels in running raised my racing and streamlined my steps to keep them surefooted. But my sister was hot on my heels. Despite my belief in myself I was left wondering whether I was faster or not. Was I winning through skills and stats or was my vessel still letting me down. It was hard to tell. But I should not be surprised that a vessel nearly 5 times younger than hers, at least in this world, was unable to beat her. Even though the mind and soul living and breathing with it remained at least 5 times her age. I smiled at the mirror of the mathematics in the rtionships between us. She would be 10 soon enough. We raced through the tunnels now corridors that rant through the mountain connecting our fa?ade of a mountain pce with our more humble hidden abode on the other side of the mountain. It was fun to be young. . . . ¡°The divers¡¯ daughters are still disgruntled.¡± Grumbled Grandfather. He started the family conversation as we sat down to lunch. Aleera and I had raced into the home neck and neck only to be told to promptly go and wash our hands before lunch. Des and Sinis weren¡¯t with us for our midday meal as they had been busy collecting guano and Wanda before making their way up to the caldron caldera. Aleera was going to carry me up there after lunch and my midday siesta. ¡°Let them grumble we have stopped gathering them but can still grow our own.¡± Aleera waved off his concerns. ¡°What else are we supposed to do?¡± ¡°Aleera we are a closemunity here.¡± Father intervened between them. ¡°Asking for names with Grandpa Smit was a good decision. Improving those rtionships was something that had to be done.¡± ¡°And if they are stillining?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Well, you can¡¯t catch them all.¡± Father shrugged. I hoped that the measure that we had put into ce would work out well for all those concerned. Wanda seemed happy at least and the Fishersons contented. I only prayed that my father would be equally sessful out on the open ocean and that the daughters''ints never became more than vocal. . . . Chapter 85: Garden of delights Chapter 85: Garden of delights ¡°What is paradise, but, a garden, an orchard of trees and herbs, full of pleasure and nothing there but delights.¡± William Lawson ¡°What a garden of delight,¡± Wanda eximed in wonder when she first saw our secret garden as we crested the summit of our ind mountain. She looked down at the nt-filled cauldron caldera within, ¡°A veritable garden of earthly delights.¡± I shuddered in remembrance. The Garden of Earthly Delights was a painting by Hieronymus Bosch I made the error of attempting to copy for an art project decades ago when I attended school as a student rather than a teacher. The torture I inflicted on myself while attempting to copy it urately and the apanying trauma reverberated through time across one life and into the next to this very day. Why I chose something soplicated I could never quite remember. However, it did teach one indelible rule, KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Fortunately, when Wanda eximed ted that it was a Garden of delectable delights she was not referring to the triptych oil painting. ¡°How have you managed to collect such a wide variety of nts and grow them well, too? Your Grandfather must be quite the horticulturist despite his grumpiness.¡± She continued to quiz us as we made our way down into the cauldron. We traversed the first terrace, taking in the plethora of nts that lined each tier of the terraced garden. ¡°Mercurio brings us a nt each time he visits,¡± Aleera answered, deftly skirting the fact that this was not an old project of our Grandfather¡¯s but a recent start-up of our own. While we weren¡¯t going to insist onplete secrecy we still intended to withhold the range of our resources. ¡°I¡¯m amazed that you have managed to get such a broad variety to grow so well together.¡± She wondered as we wandered from section to section, ¡°Most nts need slightly different conditions to grow their best but here you have such an eclectic selection and they all seem to be growing fantastically well. There must be something magical about this mini-caldera. What did you call it again, a cauldron?¡± ¡°Yes, magical,¡± Aleera murmured, not revealing that the main magical ingredient involved with our growing was me and my mana. I was present, having been carried up by Aleera to meet with Des, Sinis, and Wanda who had arrived separately with a couple of bags of guano. Although I was present, Aleera was doing all the talking. This might have been my baby project but I was still the infant of the family so as always Aleera was my mouthpiece to outsiders. ¡°I wonder if my herbs would grow as well as everything else. You wouldn¡¯t mind if I tried growing some up here, would you?¡± Wanda asked as we worked our way down to the next terrace. ¡°No, of course not,¡± Aleera replied. ¡°The more diversity the better,¡± she said out loud, although I was sure that she was actually thinking something more along the lines of the greater the diversity the greater the profit. ¡°I¡¯m surprised your grandfather has not sold some of this fruit at the market before.¡± She looked slightly puzzled. ¡°Well, he has always been a very private person,¡± Aleera replied, avoiding answering the quizzical statement. ¡°Besides he hardly needed a lot for himself alone. It is only since all seven of us started living on the ind that we have expanded it to such an extent,¡± she continued. ¡°Well, I look forward to seeing if you can get a decent vintage of wine from these grapes,¡± she smiled as we made our way through a new section of vines ready to be harvested. ¡°I know how to make a few different beverages if you are interested in learning new recipes. It is all about drawing forth their essence, al kohl.¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯d be delighted to learn something new,¡± Aleera attempted to butter up our wizened old guest. ¡°And sell something new, no doubt too.¡± She replied raising an eyebrow. ttery will get you everywhere but that did not mean that she was unaware of Aleera¡¯s ulterior motives. I was a little dispirited as I had all sorts of ideas for various spirits, too. Plus the margins on alcohol were bound to be great. We needed more guano, water, and magic! We had gradually worked our way around the terraced beds till we ended up at the pool that sat in the middle of the garden. The centre of the cauldron and its terraced walls now looked a little like the Incan ruins of Moray in Peru. With time and my newfound ability in understanding material maniption, I was looking forward to making them look even more impressive. I nned onpletely melding the stone together and fashioning fractals into the walls based on the seven tones in the scale. Or perhaps I could work my way up in a different manner. I could work from the lowest tone and then scale up as I worked around the 360 degrees to the highest frequency. I was sure it would look amazing but I didn¡¯t need to decide now. There would be time for practiceter and it was not something I would be doing in front of Wanda anyway. ¡°I would love to work here and help out beyond directing Des and Sinis to new guano deposits. I even have some skills that would be of value in the garden.¡± She demonstrated this by plucking an insect off a nearby bush as she said, ¡°Find pest.¡± Where it hade from, I had no idea but I was also hoping to find a few insects in particr so a swift kick had Aleera calling out for it. ¡°Could I have the insect?¡± she intervened in its death. ¡°Certainly, but why ever would you want it? My skill, Find pest, shows that it is detrimental to the nt it was on. I hope you are not nning on releasing it," she said, confused. ¡°No, no. My brother is fascinated by bugs. They keep him entertained for hours.¡± She made up an excuse on the spot. ¡°Well, it¡¯s no skin off my nose what you choose to do with the little blighter. But I wouldn¡¯t rmend letting him y with it within the cauldron as it will only escape and reproduce. Then we will have ten times the problem. It really is best to nip it in the bud now.¡± Wanda seemed unable to halt her flow of advice but happily handed off the insect. I was building quite the collection of them in the house. I was hoping to find a red dye from one of them and or some version of silkworm but I hadn¡¯t had any luck yet. Maybe it would be this one, but I doubted it. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained and as my sister said, the topic, idea, and research kept me busy for hours, much to her disgust on the matter. ¡°Well, we will leave you to it. But if we did get a bucket for any insects you found we would be interested in them, too.¡± Aleera added. ¡°That¡¯s no problem, just make sure not to tip the bucket over if you don¡¯t want me to be killing them straight off the leaf. I will start here in the centre and work my way out. You don¡¯t need to worry about me. I will weed and collect any pests from the centre out. As well as give each nt the water and guano it requires to grow. Don¡¯t you worry now. Leave it to old Wanda,¡± she said, practically ignoring Aleera in her focus to get started. We stepped back to let her work and watched as she moved from nt to nt. Pulling the odd pest off and pausing in front of each to dole out guano and water in equal measures. We were unsure what other skills she was using or perhaps it was simply the skill that one acquired with experience. Either way, we left her to it. I knew we would have to return once she was gone if I wished to add any mana to speed their growth. . . . . ¡°Hold it, hold it, hold it,¡± Grandfather firmly whispered as I held on. I was currently straining to keep still as I held my body in a low stable stance. I had done very well for the first minute or two but Grandfather was pushing to see how long I could hold it for. The yoga had gone very well, with me continuing to level up my bncing skill. However, Grandfather became bored if I didn¡¯t try something new each week and add it to the routine we were creating. He had been most interested in the martial arts that I had described from my former life. It had only ever been a passing interest, the odd taster session of Jujitsu, Judo, Karate, Aikido and Kendo. Like many things, I would pick them up, try them for a time, and then put them down. Pick them up again if friends were doing them for a season before moving on. I had never taken them seriously enough to call myself proficient but I remembered enough to do the odd kata or two and that is what I had taken to showing my grandfather. I¡¯m sure I looked fairly adorable with my miniature kicks, punches and lunges. However, despite my diminutive size andck of strength, my speed made me a hazard to all shins and ankles around. For all that I still seemed to miss Grandfather or bounce off him if he allowed a strike to finally hit. It was worth it to finally hear the Ding and gain a new skill. Martial Arts (Lv 1) He seemed to be evaluating the katas as much as he was evaluating me attempting to perform them. He was able to correct both my actions and the katas themselves. Or perhaps I was just so poor at performing them that the katas themselves were actually fine. The only aspect of them that he truly objected to was the idea that you should shout with each punch, asking, ¡°Why announce your presence? Just punch them and have done.¡± He was still old school. A school of silent knocks it would appear. ¡°Okay. Stand up,¡± he finally answered my muscles silent screaming pleas for mercy. ¡°Time to stretch those muscles before we finish for today.¡± Or maybe not. ¡°Run your way through one of your Yoga routines. Take care to stretch out those legs.¡± I was unsure about the necessity of stretching. At this age, everything seemed fairly limber. My muscles recovered by the next day provided I got a good night''s sleep. The benefits of still being a growingd and an obscene amount of vitality, for my age at least. I finished my stretches before sitting down to meditate. In fact, seeing as I was sitting still for a second there was no reason I couldn¡¯t have a quick look at my status while I was at it. I turned on the mental music and considered my progress. It had not been so long since myst look but I felt happy with my progress. My main problem nowadays was so many skills but not enough time to level them all. Some of my skills seemed to have hit some limits with a variety of Tier 1 skills getting stuck at Level 50, a couple of Tier 2 skills being stuck at Level 40, and all of my Tier 4 skills being stuck at Level 20. My Tier 3 and 5 skills somehow managed to break the Level 30 and perhaps Level 10 ceiling. But maybe they were just the exceptions that proved the rule. ¡°Grandfather, is there a reason my Tier 1 skills seem stuck at 50, my Tier 2 skills seem to be stuck at 40, my Tier 3 at 30 and my Tier 4 skills at level 20?¡± I asked as I opened my eyes to find him waiting and watching me. ¡°They are the meridians.¡± He calmly answered. ¡°The what?¡± I asked confused. This had note up in conversation. Or if it had I had missed it concentrating on something else. ¡°The meridians, don¡¯t worry about it. It will just take a little extra effort to continue levelling through them. They wille in time,¡± he answered. ¡°The higher the tier of skill the lower the initial meridian, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I responded. Simple enough in hindsight. ¡°But how do you push through to continue levelling the skills?¡± I added. ¡°Well, that¡¯s simple enough.¡± He smiled. ¡°What?¡± I asked again. ¡°Just practise the skill while fighting or killing something,¡± he answered with a grin. ¡°No-kill, no skill.¡± He tilted his head mockingly. How exactly was he expecting me to do that with, Time sense, Meditation and Swimming? Level: 12 Name: Lord Kai Experience: 174,950/ 819,200 Age: 2 year 3 months, 1 weeks, 4 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes Health: 1450/1450 Stamina: 897/897 Mana: 1370/1370 Psi: 1370/1370 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity Vitality: 145 +1 Endurance: 77 +2 Strength: 52 +1 Dexterity: 107 +1 Senses: 137 +1 Mind: 137 +1 rity: 117 +1 Magic: 137 +1 Charisma: 39 +1 Luck: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 50) Listening (Lv 33 -> Lv35) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 30 -> Lv 33) Sneak (Lv24) Whistling (Lv 30->32)Singing (Lv 30->42)Drumming (Lv 25 -> 30) Running (Lv 45->46) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv30) Breath Control (Lv 35 -> Lv39) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Buss (Lv 15) Draw (Lv30) Climb (Lv 31) Calligraphy (Lv10) Mathematics (Lv 15) Decoding (Lv 10) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 28) Trading (Lv 30) Sailing (Lv 15 -> 20) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 34->36) Stitching (Lv 34->36) Diving (Lv 25->27) Throw (Lv 15)Insight (Lv 3) Farming (Lv10 -> 15) Bnce (Lv 10 -> Lv15) Cook (Lv 1 -> Lv2) Martial arts (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Trantion (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 38->40) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv 5) Knife Arts (Lv5) Rebec (Lv 14->16) Aulos (Lv 14->16) Cornu (Lv 10->14) Harp (Lv 10->13) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transnt (Lv5->10) Cartography (Lv 5 -> Lv 10) Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 30) Expel Mana (Lv 37 -> 40) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Maniption (Lv 30 -> 34) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 20) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv3) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 16 ¨C> 20) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18) Skill experience: 15200 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 0 Crafting experience: 5000 Trading experience: 5000 Popr experience: 1000 Chapter 86: First Impressions Chapter 86: First Impressions "You never get a second chance to make a first impression.¡± Will Rogers The Swift The journey through the archipgo had been precarious and for some nigh on perilous, not because of the sea monsters, pirates, or vers, those had been avoided with ease. Seen from a distance the speed of the Swift and the captain¡¯s skills kept us safe from harm. No, it was the leviathan we carried in the belly of our hold or rather the elf who hadmandeered the captain¡¯s cabin. She was always deadly serious or seriously deadly in everything she demanded. ¡°Why were we the ones tasked with bringing Acacia?¡± Cadmusined in a hushed whisper. The senses of this elf in particr seemed particrly insane. ¡°You know why,¡± Mercurio muttered in response. "They only just trust us as it is." Things had started off simply enough with them being led out of the Seneschal¡¯s office by her. However, things quickly escted inplexity. First, they visited her home, then they had to ensure the majority of her belongings were packed up. The number of items she owned was enough to make it feel as if they were moving an entire household¡¯s belongings rather than just an individual. Then it had all been required to be stowed away within the Swift¡¯s hold. This was all overseen by her and woe betide anyone who dropped, damaged or even scuffed a single item. To be fair it had only taken a day for all of this to bepleted. But it had not left them a lot of time or space to ensure their own change or choice of cargo. A significant portion of the hold was filled with Acacia¡¯s belongings, so there was significantly less space for actual goods to be traded. They were unlikely to make a profit on their outward-bound journey barely breaking even. It was only once they had delivered the tutor and picked up the pearls that they would begin to make a profit on this venture. They were all looking forward to the return journey for one reason or another. There¡¯s was not to reason nor to question why simply to do as they had beenmanded. At least that was what the Seneschal had informed them before the meeting even began. It had certainly yed out that we as it ended. Once aboard, we weremanded to sail immediately. We did as soon as the final goods arrived. Then Mercurio had the next surprise of the day. ¡°You need to sail straight there.¡± She emerged from her new cabin to make her second demand. ¡°Beggin your pardon Lady Acacia but there are a fair few stops to be made between here and our destination.¡± Mercurio vacited in vain. There was no halting her words or hermands. The first time may have caught us both a little off guard but we were beginning to get a little more used to the skill infused in her voice. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for stops.¡± She exined. ¡°If the daughter is about to hit her 10th birthday then I simply must be there before she does. There will be only so much I can do to undo the damage from amoner''s upbringing if I am able to direct her allocation of Stats. However, if she allocates them herself the damage she causes could be impossible to undo.¡± She continued to exin her reasoning. ¡°We simply cannot afford to stop. I will not have you make an already challenging prospect an impossible one.¡± ¡°Lady Acacia, we will have to stop if only for food and fresh water.¡± Mecurio pointed out their own impossibilities in making it in one straight trip. ¡°Very well, but the bare minimum only Mercurio. We will not be visiting every ind in the Archipgo on our way." She both capitted and reiterated her point. "Alderman Cadmus, good day.¡± She turned without waiting for a response or allowing further debate and departed for the former captain''s cabin now hers. ¡°So where are you sleeping then?¡± I asked as I watched her head forward and inside. ¡°Silly question really Cadmus. Dungballs roll downhill don''t they? I¡¯m having your room! The question is my dear friend where are you sleeping?¡± Mercurio sardonicallyughed and I was left unsure whether he wasughing at himself or me. Either way, I needed to go work out where I would be sleeping. A monthter . . . ¡°Lady Acacia, we simply must stop here. Our food and fresh water supplies are running perilously low.¡± Argued Mercurio. It seemed strange to see him in this light. He had always been the king of his kingdom but now there was an Empress breathing down his neck and his reasons or rationalisation were rarely seen in a favourable light. ¡°There are still rations and water enough for us to reach the next ind after this one.¡± She replied. ¡°I¡¯ve checked with your galley cook.¡± I imagined that he would get a cursing out by Mercurioter but having been on the end of Lady Acacia''s questions myself I doubted he could have said anything other than the truth, her tongue had thorns. ¡°Yes but that leaves us no room for error. A storm, monster or even having to run from a ver would put us over the line having us starving as opposed to merely rationing as we are now. I really must insist that we stop here. If only to safeguard yourself.¡± He continued to argue. The month of back and forth demands and counteroffers were finally giving him enough of a spine to begin to refuse some of her direct orders but only if he had the reasoning and evidence to support his disagreement. Also only if she actually agreed or found the facts irrefutable would she relent. ¡°Very well¡± she sighed ¡° And how long can I expect this dy tost for?¡± she sighed once more in exasperation. The entire journey she had pushed for more speed, a straighter course, she was both direct and determined. ¡°Not long at all.¡± He mollified. As soon as she descended below, he quickly and silently signalled his first mate, Brutus. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to do this quickly. Start bringing up the trade goods now andsh them to the top decks. When we hit the harbour we need everything ready to go. Foredeck with trade goods, aft deck with empty water barrels and empty provisions. This will have to be an exceedingly quick turnaround. Less we raise her ire again.¡± He detailed how we would be hitting the harbour, all in a harsh whisper and all after Lady Acacia had left the deck and delivered the dulcet tone of her door closing. 2nd month . . . ¡°We are making fantastic time, we are. It would simply be safer to let the sailors have a little longer rest than the five minutes while I bargain and pay for our provisions.¡± ¡°1 hour.¡± ¡°An hour is barely time enough tond and turn around as it is.¡± ¡°Well have them draw lots. I have heard them gambling enough as it is. Half to load and unload. Half to have, half a pint.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all they¡¯ll have time for,¡± Brutus muttered from the steering wheel. Far enough away that most would not have caught it but it was still answered by Lady Acacia. ¡°And they should be grateful for it.¡± She turned to respond to Brutus before turning back to Mercurio. ¡°We do not have time to dy. If water was not such an issue I would have had you press on. But it is so we are. However, do not make me regret my decision to dy. So it shall be for only a moment and no longer." She tapped the railing looking up at the birds passing by overhead. "Sea swifts that is what this archipgo needs to speed things up.¡± she murmured to herself, "Toote now though." How she had noticed them I had no idea based on how high their flock was flying. ¡°Beggin your pardon but how would the little birds speed our Swift up?¡± Mercurio asked cautiously curious. ¡°You could send your orders on ahead. By the time we arrived in port, the water and food provisions could be ready for collection. It would allow us to put in and leave so much sooner.¡± It would save us some of that stoppage time. ¡°I do realise that I have been pushing your crew and your vessel. They will be suitablypensated when we arrive. However, this was not an issue I was prepared to argue over.¡± She added with words that were the closest I had ever heard to being an apology. God¡¯s help the Silversea family. This woman could defend them with her words alone against all manner of enemies. Fingers crossed they wouldn''t ever be needed. Finally, within sight of Wester Isle . . . ¡°Rather foreboding isn¡¯t it?¡± She said as she perused the ind in the distance. The cliff walls seemed to climb up out of the water with no end or entrance insight. The waves crashed against them as the ship continued to head for what looked like a dark shadowed cave at their base. ¡°The outside may seem a little grim but there is a beautifulgoonke within the cliff walls of the ind. The town itself has gradually grown beyond its initial walls and the family have taken up residence on an ind within the centralke. Despite the distance from the capital, the ind¡¯s wealth in salt, pearls, and lumber has helped it to grow beyond the port towns on Little Wester and Wester Levante. The people for the most part are rtively prosperous and self-sufficient,¡± Mercurio mediated on the ind¡¯s behalf. ¡°Hmm, we will see.¡± She frowned. As first impressions went Wester Isle left a lot to be desired judging by her frown. . . . The ship docked around midday easing into the shadow of the cliff before docking within the cave. Now that we had finally arrived there was a lot to unpack again. So much so that it was going to require the majority of the crew to carry it all to Wester Town. A select few were chosen to watch the Swift, the poor fools who had won the gamblest time around, while the rest picked up a box of Lady Acacia¡¯s belongings to begin the long climb up the crevice staircase to the top of the cliff. ¡°Let¡¯s get started then.¡± The unencumbereddy set forth up the stairway with Mercurio and Cadmus in tow. A long line of fully encumbered sailors lumbered their way up the steps after them. While she always left a strong impression wherever she went it could be easy to forget just how strong she was. It was moments like this when she led the way with Mercurio breathing hard and Cadmus wheezing that drove home just how strong she truly was and what an advantage the extra years actually gave most elves in building up their base stats. It wouldn''t be polite to ask ady''s age but she had to be at least as old as my parents were before they passed despite still looking younger and fairer than me. ¡°Now this is much more picturesque.¡± She called down to the two men struggling to keep up with her. The seamen under their burdens had been left far further down the stairs in the chimney as they had marched hard to keep up with the gradually elerating elf and her continuous climb. The fact that they would be finally given an afternoon off after over two months of solid sailing was probably the only thing motivating them to make the climb as quickly as they were while as heavily loaded. ¡°Yes . . . a . . . beautiful . . . ce . . .¡± gasped Mercurio as he joined her at the top. Cadmus still out of breath remained bent over and breathing hard. Removed from the conversation by the sheer need to get more oxygen into his lungs before he could even attempt to respond. Laid out below them were the town,ke and ind. The slope and its path led down to the walled town which waspletely unaware of what was about to descend upon it. An individual with as much force of personality as the storms that hit the cliff walls of Wester Isle. However, she was within the walls and beginning to descend. ¡°Let¡¯s not keep them waiting then.¡± She smiled before she started forward once more. Her sullenness at waiting on others disappeared now that she could set the pace for the final sprint. She strode forward once more. Which was the first impression? The image of the cliffs rising to the sky of a deste ind or the image she now held in front of her. A steep slope to a quaint town below. The bright blueke that filled the caldera or the spike-like ind that stuck up from its very centre. ¡°Let¡¯s . . . not . . .¡± Mercurio repeated as he followed on after. He left Cadmus behind while he attempted to catch up to Lady Acacia. If ever someone needed an introduction to Mr Smit it was Acacia. I had no idea what on earth she would be saying or attempting to do tomorrow. The silver lining of course was that it wouldn''t be his problem anymore. . . . . Chapter 87: A New Visitor Chapter 87: A New Visitor "Visiting is a pleasure; being visited is usually a mixed or ambivalent joy¡­ The visitor can always go home; the visitee is already home, trapped like a rat in a drainpipe.¡± Barbara Hond We had visitors. I was sitting outside for my afternoon Yoga session with my Grandfather when the Lady arrived. Grandfather was the first to notice, whether this was because he wasn¡¯t trying as hard as I was to maintain his bnce upside down on his head or simply because of some hidden skill he had yet to divulge I didn¡¯t know. That or the fact that Des and Sinis were sailing back to the eastern side of the ind after obviously just passing on a message I had clearly missed. ¡°Callen, we have guests.¡± He ended our sessions with a few short words as he came to his feet and picked me up by mine without letting them hit the floor or for me to stand the right way up before moving off. A throwter, I was the right way up and he was moving far swifter than usual to our home. I would hesitate to say he burst through the door but we did enter at speed startling Mother and Aleera who were weaving and Father who was preparing dinner. ¡°Nobel,¡± was all that he said as he passed through our home into the tunnels within the mountain. Mother, Father and Aleera followed in his wake at their respective speeds. Nobody was t-out running but they were all moving at the fastest speed that they could without leaving them breathless at the end of the journey. The tunnels flew by quickly as our family stretched out along the tunnel dependent on their speed. Each one carrying their own light. My own most recent contribution to our family was a liquidntern. Like most of my solutions, I had managed to create it more by ident than by design. I had managed to discover some form of glowing nkton-like organism called mana motes, that had gradually been attracted to the increased levels of mana found within our cave and the pearls that we were growing in it. They appeared to like the higher levels of mana and glowed brighter the more mana they received. We now collected it filling bottles with the stuff which glowed on its own. But with a burst of mana would glow even brighter lighting up our journey through the tunnels. I didn¡¯t really need the light to see my way but I was not in charge of the feet carrying me along still being carried by Grandfather. Still, ourntern was the brightest as I fed it an excessive amount of mana to the mana motes within the bottle. The next brightestntern was my mothers in the middle of the pack fathers physical attributes outstripping hers kept him in between her and us. Hisntern had a feeble glow that barely lit his way, unable as he was to independently apply any more mana to it. Aleera was at the back of the pack but herntern was bright enough for her to have no difficulty following our course through the tunnels with or without us. We soon passed through the centre chamber of the mountain. Our gradually growing spiral tower was climbing its way up through the core to the hidden garden above in the cauldron garden of paradise. Another architectural wonder in progress. The tunnel grew straighter as we exited the other side of the chamber we had drilled straight through to the eastern side of the mountain where we had made our entrance to our mountain pce. Quicker than we probably realised we arrived at the rear of the chamber hall. I looked over the square tiling I had created covering the floor of the hall. I had spent so long adding the physical form of sound to the square stones that now covered our entrance hall. We had taken it in stages keeping therge hall perfect in each stage. Our ssically Greek Parthenon-style entrance led into arge hall which was hewn from the mountain itself and did not technically need the carved columns that decorated its sides. Although we had yed it safe with our ceiling arching up above our heads in a dome that should in theory support itself on top of the walls we had left. Finally, having arrived we began the second stage of our preparations to meet who we hoped was merely Aleera¡¯s new tutor, not another new surprise guest, especially if they were noble. As was suspected by Grandfather. First, as modestly as possible we stripped and stepped into the outfits that had beenid out in a side chamber at the back of the hall. It had been decided that we would not be using the clothes Grandfather had pulled out of one of his trunks as they were probably a couple of decades out of fashion and although they were the best we had on hand they would give away the fact that our old Silver Wood family was originally from the North-Western Kingdom of Maestro rather than our current residence in the western Kingdom of Ponente. So instead we were using our purple-dyed cloth for the togas that mother had made for us. We were going for simplicity of style in terms of our clothing. But all of us were adorned with the pearls that had afforded us our current status. Aleera and my mother both had nes of them on top of their earrings and hair ornaments. Grandfather and Father had a single ear piercing with pearl studs filling them. They also had availed themselves of some of the simpler rings that were hidden in the chest that would hopefully not reveal any of our hidden histories. We were primped and primed standing in light falling through a light tunnel that lit us standing at the end of what essentially looked like a throne room. It was all in time for the arrival of what appeared to be ady apanied by both Mercurio, Cadmus and Grandpa Smit. They paused at the entrance to our homemade Parthenon before striding across the Cdni-style squares that I had formed to ensoul song into stone. She paused as she approached to contemte the five of us before she began to speak. ¡°I am Lady Acacia, and have been asked by the Prince of Ponente¡¯s Seneschal to tutor your two children for their debut into noble society.¡± ¡°Wee to our humble home Lady Acacia,¡± Mother replied. It had been decided that she would be the voice for our family in meeting any other travelling families. ¡°I hope our provincial pleasures are not too parochial for ady from the centre of the kingdom.¡± ¡°I am suitably impressed by your entrance hall this will be perfectly suited for dance practice Although I would rmend a set of mirrors to be installed to ensure that you can continue to improve with or without my corrections and instruction. Or even my presence should I find myself otherwise upied. Mercurio Cadmus, I can describe to you the mirrors that we will require purchased and to be delivered on your next visit to the capital.¡± She deigned to answer in detail. ¡°We are d to hear that it meets your approval. Would you like to rest after your long journey?¡± Mother asked. ¡°That is very kind of you. But I would like to get started as soon as possible with tutoring your daughter towards her debut.¡± She answered. ¡°Perhaps she could show me towards my room?¡± she asked. ¡°Before she starts her training we were hoping to hear from you what exactly such tutoring might include.¡± Mother returned her own question delivering it as a statement, a requirement for moving forward rather than a request. She paused perhaps taken aback by the protective nature of our mother who was not afraid to stand up to this new noble, ¡°Certainly, as a new noble, a youngdy of the Silver Sea family I will be teaching her how to do every basic art a Lady is expected to be able to do; read through learning works of literature by heart, write and practice her calligraphy through creating poems, calcte through the managing of a households ounts, draw through sketching and mapping the localndscapes and architecture, paint through self-portraits and watercolours of the sea.¡± She drew a breath before continuing a long list of lessons my sister was going to have to learn. ¡°Once she has made sufficient progress on the basic aspects of her mind we will work on . . .¡± She tilted her head taking a nce at each of us in turn starting with Grandfather and descending in age to me. ¡°the minor magics that all nobles have learned before attending court. From what I can sense of your family I will provide my basic magic lessons to all who appear to have unlocked the stat. I am surprised that your family have not already been forcibly apprenticed but I suppose you have the distance to the maind to ount for that. We truly are at the edge of thepass out here.¡± ¡°We might surprise you with some of our knowledge.¡± Grandfather gruffly interrupted. But she wasn¡¯t about to be dissuaded from the dialogue of her monologue, ¡°I sincerely hope so. Alongside moulding our young Lady Aleera¡¯s mind we will also have to work on her body. Starting with her body¡¯s poise and decorum through dancing the set pieces one for each of the cardinal and ordinalpass kingdoms as well as covering manners for each along with their individual etiquette along with a basic understanding of each lingua franca and their proper elocution. After the above, we will also have to learn the ¡®Code of Chivalry and Courtly Love¡¯ for the Kingdom of Ponente as well as have to find either an instrument or have her excel in singing. Then we can move on to the physical conditioning she will require to meet her peers on the dance floor or defend her honour in the duelling arena. Children can be cruel and she will need the skills to defend herself. I am assuming that she at least has her sewing, weaving, and embroidering skills as I have been told you are both a songstress and seamstress. Which will hopefully leave us some time to look at her riding and hunting skills with knife, bow, horse and hawk. Should weplete all of the training mentioned for her mind and body we might have time to contemte cultivating Aleera¡¯s soul but I doubt we will be able to achieve all of the above even with the best will in the world. It appears that you have already turned 10 so I . . . we will be working at a serious disadvantage in attempting toplete all this in significantly less time than most would be given.¡± Aleera had looked fairly defensive at the initial critique of her possible failings but by the end of her diatribe listing the multitude of sets of subjects that she would have to cover in the next decade she looked a little shocked by the unrelenting litany of lessons she would have to learn. I reached up to squeeze her hand. I knew she could do it, I knew she could already do half of what she was outlining as the bare minimum of requirements. Emboldened by my support she strengthened her spine and faced her new tutor without fear. ¡°I will endeavour to learn all the lessons you aim to teach without fail, Lady Acacia.¡± She answered for herself. Proud of her own achievements though she had not been given the opportunity to reveal them. ¡°Well said, Aleera. I cannot abide those who will not stand up to life¡¯s adversity no matter what form in which it arrives.¡± Lady Acacia nodded. ¡°And for our son?¡± Father asked. ¡°The same as his sister but we will have an extra ten years toplete them. He looks very strong for someone so young. The lessons will be much the same,¡± She paused, ¡°Well less some of the skills of the gentler sex such as the sewing, weaving and embroidery but adding in a few manly weapon skills,¡± she smiled, ¡°such as the sword, axe, mace, dagger,nce and bow. I have a retainer or two I can call to help with such aspects of his training when he is older should you be able to provide sufficient remuneration. Either way, I will be able to provide his foundation with or without them. Which brings us to an awkward element of our introduction to one another, my remuneration.¡± ¡°And how much exactly are you expecting?¡± Mother interjected. ¡°We were of the understanding that the Prince of Ponente had appointed you to be our children¡¯s tutor. Were your costs not already covered?¡± ¡°My trip here has been without cost, Mercurio providing the means and method. The fact my tutge is a favour owed to the Prince is true, but I will still require significant remuneration to actually teach your children all they will need to know. Seeing your wealth within your home an aspect of each every month would be sufficient rpense.¡± ¡°An aspect?¡± Mother asked for further elucidation. ¡°A tithe or a percentage if you will.¡± She casually rified. ¡°Of what exactly?¡± asked Aleera. ¡°Stone flooring, sea salt, deep-sea pearls and interestingly enough from what I see in front of me Caracol Purple it would appear.¡± ¡°Stone flooring?¡± Mother asked affecting surprise to cover her true unease at the speed and ease of the Lady working out that our purple was neither purloined nor paid for but produced ourselves. ¡°Why would you be interested in our flooring?¡± ¡°Because it is novel and new. I have never seen it¡¯s like before it could fetch a high price back on the continent should I favour it to my acquaintances. Mercurio could easily enough carry it there and sell it for you.¡± She revealed. I was interested in another product to sell but it would not scale particrly well as I was the only one so far to manage the stone singing and it would once more rely on me. Furthermore listening to the long list of lessons we would soon have to take on board I doubted I would have much time to manufacture more than we required for our own home alone. A percentage of nothing was hardly anything to me. More troublesome was the speed at which she had noticed the purple. We had always known that we would be unable to sell the clothing or cloth without a significant increase in the quality of the first. I was still holding out hope to discover the right pest among the insects that we were capturing for my collection but it was yet to be found. One day though. ¡°A percentage would be eptable.¡± Mother demurred. ¡°I would be asking for more than a single per cent.¡± She returned. ¡°I know that this ind is currently not paying tax to the crown so you clearly have more surplus than a single per cent.¡± ¡°We are in renegotiations with the local tradesmen, fishermen and divers daughters. Our turnover is possibly going to be drastically cut into.¡± Aleera entered the conversation. ¡°I¡¯m sure you are working your way around such challenges, no?¡± Lady Acacia raised an eyebrow. ¡°10 per cent should be sufficient along with all costs for daily living are covered by the family.¡± ¡°10 per cent that¡¯s ridic . . .¡± Aleera found her words halted in her throat. She clearly had begun to exert some pressure or skill on the family. It halted Aleera midflow in her sentence unable to rebut her demand. Mother too started to speak, ¡°To cont . . .¡± the pressure rose and my mother¡¯s voice too fell quiet. ¡°Enough.¡± Grandfather intervened. The pressure rose our family bowed under it''s weight but Grandfather and I stood tall. Well, he stood tall while I was still being carried upright. But I was still able to look into her eyes to see her surprise when Grandfather refused to fold. ¡°Lay it off. 10 per cent is too high, let them speak freely.¡± Grandfather gruffly continued unbowed by the effect she was exerting. ¡°Interesting,¡± she tilted her head in eptance and a secondter the pressure vanished. ¡°The true patriarch of the family is revealed. Where did you sharpen your teeth old wolf and what did you dine upon?¡± she asked intrigued. ¡°Questions for another time.¡± He deflected an unconscious decision more than an active one judging by the number of times we had danced around the subject often enough before. He did not like to talk, particrly about his past. ¡°Aleera,¡± he prompted. Coming back to herself she stopped her hands from checking her throat to see if it still worked, ¡°Two per cent.¡± She nervously started to use her voice once more. ¡°Very well,¡± she responded rolling her eyes at Grandfather. ¡°9 per cent of the products stated earlier in products or profits.¡± Still almost untrusting that she would be allowed to counter, she responded ¡°3 per cent of my profits for my tuition.¡± Frowning she watched her remuneration diminish before countering with ¡°8 per cent of total profits or total products.¡± Gaining confidence, her voice rose, ¡°4 per cent of mine and Callen¡¯s profits in the manner requested.¡± Repeating her demand in a tone as hard as stone signifying that this was as low as she was willing to go she reiterated ¡°7 per cent of total profits in product or currency.¡± A slow pressure began to build up possibly almost subconsciously she was exerting her area of effect. This time though despite the pressure Aleera refused to be cowed once more. ¡°5 per cent of our total profit and that is our final offer. Take it or leave it and return to the capital.¡± The pressure increased but Aleera remained unbowed and silent in the face of it. Before Grandfather once more stepped in to mitigate the pressure with a single word, ¡°Enough.¡± ¡°Very well, 5 per cent of total profits in a manner of my choosing.¡± She responded to Aleera. Before turning to face Grandfather. ¡°But I expect the difference to be paid in stories, old wolfhound.¡± Relieved that she had maintained herposure through the pressured negotiations Aleera slumped somewhat now that the pressure had lessened. ¡°Don¡¯t let yourself slip now girl. Stand up straight.¡± She nodded in praise before correcting Aleera¡¯s posture. ¡°Now where am I staying exactly?¡± she asked. Chapter 88: Interview or interrogation Chapter 88: Interview or interrogation ¡°A police interview is non-usatory. It is an act of gathering information. An interrogation is usatory. It is an act of persuasion. ¡°An interrogation is conducted only when the investigator is reasonably certain of the suspect¡¯s guilt,¡± ording to Essentials of the Reid Technique: Criminal Interrogation and Confessions. T Christian Miller ¡°This way.¡± Aleera lead the way to the room we had prepared. We had carved out a statesman room with ensuite plumbing. It was, in my humble opinion, a far higher quality set of roomspared to where we had lived previously. I was particrly proud of the plumbing! The ability to have running water was revolutionary for our ind. Probably existed back in the Capital in one form or another but still. It was only rainwater that we had collected in a pool further up the mountain, but it was clean enough to shower in. Furthermore, it meant we had flushing toilets. Heavenly! The room itself wasrge, with stone-formed furniture. Each item had been decorated with the patterns I was able to form out of ensouling sound in stone. The interior lighting was formed of our mana motenterns, ced in recesses in the walls. Between thenterns hung tapestries that Mother had been working on. Woven with magic, as much as with skills, they depicted the cardinal views from the mountain top and were ced on their respective walls. The room led out onto arge balcony on the mountain''s eastern face, which overlooked Wester Town and beyond thegoon, towards the rising sun. If I was being honest, I was a little jealous of her future bedroom but I knew that when I was fully grown I would have my own extravagant amodation. Although now that I thought about it, there was nothing stopping me from creating my own toddler-sized set of rooms. Their size alone would be a security feature as no one would be able to chase me through corridors that were made for my stature rather than that of a full-size adult. Another project to add to the list of tasks to do. But how cool would it be to make your own toddler-sized den out of proper stone rather than the cushions in the living room? It would be a significant step up from digging giant holes in the dirt, which was as far as I had ever got in my former life at building a den in the back garden. But I guessed that was the magic of having magic! ¡°Thank you, dear,¡± she said to Aleera before turning to Mercurio and Cadmus. ¡°You will see to my furniture and luggage being delivered, yes?¡± The luggage was still being carried up the cliffs and down into the town where it was apparently being stored in our old house. The climb and the descent slowed the process down far more than the actual distance might suggest. Our house was probably very nearly full, judging by thements made earlier by Mercurio and Cadmus. ¡°It would be our pleasure, Lady Acacia,¡± Mercurio extravagantly bowed, clearly pleased to be a master of his fate once again. It sounded as if he would enjoy a more leisurely pace on their return trip. Hopefully, he would be able to create enough profit to offset the cost of the previous journey. They had not been able to haul as many goods due to her luggage filling the majority of the hold. They had also suffered from a loss in revenue because they took a direct route to our home on Wester Isle, missing many of their regr profitable stops. However, they had plenty of pearls from our farms to ensure the return journey was more than merely profitable. ¡°Lead on,¡± Lady Acacia said as she turned back to Aleera, who led her towards the entrance of our hall before turning right to head up the stairs to her rooms. For the moment, the outside of the mountain still looked very much like a mountain but in time our n was to chisel it away to form a wall. This would make our mountain an unassable fortress rather than an easy afternoon stroll upwards. But for now, her balcony would lead out onto the slope and provide easy ess should she wish to enter through it rather than our grand hall. As Aleera led her future tutor to her new amodation Grandfather started forward after them. ¡°I¡¯ll just keep an eye on our new guest," he whispered to my parents as he casually strolled after the departing duo. ¡°She is a fairly formidable personality,¡± I heard my mother say to our guests as I was carried off with Grandfather once more. ¡°You don¡¯t know the half of it,¡± muttered Mercurio in return. "Why, what else happened?" asked Father as we moved out of range of their quietly whispered conversation. It seemed Mercurio and Cadmus'' caution was contagious, although probably highly warranted in dealing with our mysterious, strong visitor. . . . As we caught up to the pair, we could hear Lady Acacia leading the conversation once more. Grandfather could be sneaky when he chose to be so we were moving silently after them and both our senses were more than enough to listen in to their continuing conversation. Eavesdrop was not a skill I had used a lot recently, but I was using it now. Interestingly enough, I couldn¡¯t hear my Grandfather¡¯s footsteps at all, even with my super senses. So I was sure that he was utilising a skill on top of his physical ability. But I had to keep quiet rather than ask so as to not give away our position. But I cogitated on the possibility of some skill with an alliterated name such as silent step, feather footfall or . . . I stopped gathering wool and listened to our new guest. ¡°First, I need to know what we are working with here. You obviously have themon six stats as all but the most unfortunatemoners do, but have you managed to unlock the full noble nine?¡± she quizzed. ¡°I noticed earlier you have a well of mana to pull from, so I am aware that you have unlocked your magic. There¡¯s no need to be shy if we are going to be working together to help you grow to your full potential," she said as they walked up the steps together. ¡°Yes, that is why my parents have put me forth to enter noble society,¡± she calmly responded, in line with what our family had agreed would be okay to reveal should a tutor turn up. I was unsure that I would be able to y it so calm but then my secrets were a littlerger than hers. But maybe that was me being just a tad egotistical and paranoid. ¡°Wonderful, at least we have the basic building blocks to work from. Now, were the attributes from birth or were they unlocked after you gained ess to your system?¡± she asked my sister while continuing the interview, or was it a subtle interrogation? ¡°I was born with eight of the noble nine and unlocked Charismast year through purchasing plots ofnd and my patent of nobility,¡± she politely informed her, sticking to the facts without volunteering extra information that mightter trip her up. We had celebrated Aleera unlocking the Charisma stat when it happened before her tenth birthday. It was a surprise for us all and it had proved the lie of Mercurio''s rumour that it had to be done before the age of five. Aleera had been hoping that would be the case after she had searched through the Silverwood skill guides and books hoping to find more skills, tricks of the trade and secrets to help build her *mental cough* our financial empire. ¡°Fantastic, not simply bought with coin but the majority in your blood to start with, that is a far better foundation than I was hoping for. Can you sing, dance or y an instrument and do you have skills for them?¡± she was beginning to sound a little more hopeful than the draconian tutor she had initially appeared to be. ¡°Yes, to all three, the ability as well as the skill,¡± Aleera smiled, proud of her progress over thest year. ¡°Well, that is better than I expected. At least you are not apletemoner. Although we will have to elevate your abilities to the appropriate standards required. One can have the skill yet still be unskilled in the task. At least we will not be starting from stationary.¡± She appeared to be warming up. Although her whisperedment to herself, ¡°Providing you haven¡¯t developed too many bad habits,¡± implied that she was not yet convinced of Aleera¡¯s prospects. ¡°But those can easily be ironed out.¡± Still, she was getting onboard even if she sounded a little patronising and condescending at the same time. Either hearing her whisperedments or sensing her fluctuating opinions, Aleera added, ¡°I also have skills in weaving, sewing and embroidery taught to me by my mother, sailing skills from my father and a scout''s skills from my grandfather.¡± She was keen to prove that she was more than a meremoner in the breadth and depth of her skills. I doubted that any of our cousins could catch or match her at her age without adding their stats lopsidedly in one direction. ¡°But what levels do you have in those skills? Have you managed to develop any Amber or Topaz skills on top of your Ruby ones?¡± Lady Acacia asked, not yet convinced. ¡°What do you mean Ruby, Amber or Topaz?¡± Aleera asked, confused by the terminology. ¡°Most children I tutor will have developed a variety of Ruby skills before I ever work with them. Then I help them to develop their skills further and hopefully gain the next colour of the skill tree.¡± She paused, noting my sister¡¯s confusion beforeing to a moment of enlightenment. ¡°Do you not call them by their Gem ratings: Ruby, Amber, Topaz, Emerald, Sapphire, Amethyst? Do you call them by their human-centric noble rankings:moner, knight, noble, lord, duke, king? Or by their metal dwarven centric counterparts: copper, bronze, silver, gold, tinum, mithril?¡± she asked, listing what was clearly a cultural difference in describing the system.¡°We go by tiers,¡± Aleera answered, using the word I had taken to describe my levels and skills to her. Had she ever used something different I was unsure. If so, she hadn¡¯t mentioned it or it had been mentioned in passing and I had forgotten. ¡°How novel," she smiled. "I don''t believe I have heard them referred to like that before. Well, either way, we will get into thatter. Next question and I hesitate to ask this as I fear the possible answer- Have you allocated all your free points?" She rushed on, not giving Aleera a chance to answer, "I was hoping to make it to you before your 10th birthday, but it appears that ship has sailed. Still, I have travelled at great expense and speed in the hopes of directing your stat expenditure in the most efficient manner possible.¡± She finally exined why she had pushed Mercurio and Cadmus so hard to make it here as quickly as possible-to control my sister¡¯s stat allocation before it was already spent. ¡°Which question would you like me to answer?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Thest and most important one. . .¡± She hesitated, clearly both eager to know and hesitant to ask, ¡°Have you spent your free points?¡± She sighed with relief, letting go of some of her tension now that she had asked the question that had been burning in her mind for the majority of the trip. ¡°A few, yes, but not the majority of them. Grandfather had me allocate them sparingly and only after strenuous training when I had reached the bottom of my reserve. He said it would help build my stats up better if I used them as part of my recovery.¡± She began to detail the diabolical nature of our grumpy grandfather. This was something I was unable to do yet as I was still unable to allocate any of my stats. I couldn''t wait to add some of my free points but I was not looking forward to any training that he would suggest before I did so. ¡°Finally, a piece of good news. It appears that your Grandfather is not aplete imbecile, then." Thest little bit of tension melted from her shoulders as she finally let herself rx. All was not lost. "It is most important to carefully consider where and when to allocate your extra stats. So manymoners allow themselves to be idiotic in the application of stats. So much so that they then require the assistance of the Lodestar Church to care for the Brutes, Mules, Twitches, Oafs and Cripples they create of themselves. As they say, ¡®A bnced life is a better life.¡¯ But truly better not to be unbnced in the first ce.¡± She smiled in pleasure at the possibility of shaping a new scion to her own design. Thinking about that brought a whole new meaning to the idea of being a bnced person. To centre oneself, did you have to achieve perfect equality among your stats? How many levels would that take for me to truly bnce myself seeing as I had unlocked so many extra attributes in the first ce? Certainly, more than I had at the moment. ¡°The body will naturally continue to grow and improve. Organically adding strength, endurance and speed to your body as it bes able to do so much more. But the best way to level your training into the best gains is to keep your stats as low as possible for the exercise using your stats to aid in your recovery and muscle building, which it sounds like you are already doing. Well done!¡± She nodded her head. Was that what Grandfather had been working on with her? They had finally reached the door to her new suite of rooms. "Ah, it appears we have arrived," she stated before adding, "and that we have visitors." She turned to calmly nod in our direction. She was either unsurprised by our presence or controlled enough to give no sign of shock. A marked contrast to Aleera, who jumped in surprise at our presence, lost as she was in either the conversation they had been having or the deep thoughts it had provoked. Chapter 89: Out of sight out of mind Chapter 89: Out of sight out of mind The Witterings of Wilden the Wanderer - Collected and edited by Simon the Scribe I have always been foolishly fond of the past, a mediocre man of small stature, I have often thought, that had I but lived 100 years past, I would have been taller then. Still, I have collected and catalogued the Witterings of Wilden the Wanderer and hopefully, in time I will seem the greater and taller man for having done so. On friends A friend is one, whom When we walk, but For a time together One in whom Comfort we find And whosepany would keep Indeed to whom, we do Once more to meet Oftimes direct our feet. Wilden the Wanderer We were quickly followed by my Father, ¡°Kai . . . Cal, think it is time for us to take that sailing trip. Your mother and Aleera can deal with settling in the new tutor. Not really our ce. Let¡¯s go.¡± He untied the boat and jumped in switching ces with Grandfather. ¡°You should stay just to make sure Aliyah is okay.¡± He said before casting off and taking us across to Wester. ¡°Coward,¡± Shouted Grandfather left standing on the shoreline. But he didn¡¯t argue with Father or stop him from going. Proof enough of his agreement despite his words. ¡°I thought out of sight out of mind would be best for Cal. Aliyah didn¡¯t disagree. So we are taking a little sailing trip now. I will send Aleera back across with Des and Sinis and the Luggage. Although ording to Mercurio and Cadmus it sounds more like she brought her furniture as well. Don¡¯t wait up for us.¡± He yelled back as he pushed the boat further out onto theke and unfurled the sails. ¡°Come on Kai, a little wind here.¡± He motioned to the sails. I obliged him and we were soon skimming across the water to Wester Town. It was a short momentter that we arrived home for the first time in so long. It was not what I had imagined homing to be like. It looked like we were moving house! Mercurio¡¯s sailors had filled our front yard with box after box of belongings. There were dressers, wardrobes and possibly even a chamber pot amongst them all stacked high. It had surely been an interesting procession through the town and I was a little sad that I had not been able to see it all as a bystander. Made you wonder what the neighbours were thinking. Des and Sinis were there organising the sailors as they continued to carry more belongings to our old home. They had taken to living in our old home as it meant they were in the right ce to collect the nightsoil as well as Wanda in the morning and she was still living in her old home so they had to bring her back each evening as well. She continued to enjoy working in our secret garden. They might not have space left to live in it if her belongings kept arriving. ¡°You might as well get started shifting this over to the ind,¡± Father told them. ¡°Just be careful with it, the tutor can be a little . . . intimidating. Trust me you don''t want to drop it. Aleera, I leave this in your capable hands. Grandfather should be able to help you shift it to the mountain and the sailors should be able to help you load the boat in order to get it out there.¡± He said as he carried me off. It was difficult to tell whether the speed at which we were travelling was based on his enthusiasm to go sailing and fishing or rather his desire to escape the view of the tutor. He had hardly been the focus of her interrogation. Maybe he just didn''t want to be in the middle or just wanted to get me out of the way. We walked through the town and it seemed fairly busy today. People bustling around on their own business but happy to hear that a boat had docked. Whenever a boat docked it meant that we would be able to get a few of the goods we wouldn''t normally be able to get. The procession of goods to our old home was also stirring up a lot of gossip, based on what I could overhear of people''s conversations as we passed on by through the market square. Questions like, ¡°Where had it alle from? Who was it for? Surely all of that would not fit in our old home? What were Kaius and Aliyah up to now? How could they afford it all?¡± It was invigorating to listen to all the conversations after being kept hidden away from them all for so long. It also highlighted how quickly misconceptions could be born and grow at the edge of earshot without correction which I was not yet in a position to do. Grandpa Smit would have to set the record straight for our family but what the record was going to be I was not sure. A few said hello to Kaius or expressed an interest in me, Callen. But the majority of them were focused on their own tasks. We exited the town by the granary and visited Kaius¡¯s brother at the Smithery to pick up some stronger hooks and lines before we headed through the fields heading southeast as opposed to directly east to where the Swift was docked. When we had been practising our sky diving it had been a secret from the town so we had sailed west of the ind and practised it off the western cliffs of Wester Isle. Now that we were publicly fishing the sea as opposed to thegoon Father had to be seen to be heading east to fish. Our boat far smaller than the Swift was taking up a smaller dock at the base of the southeastern cliffs. ¡°Remember what I have taught you, Kai?¡± He asked as we walked our way to the top of the cliffs before descending down narrow steps and sometimes ropedders to get to our boat. ¡°Everything out there wants to eat us apart from the things small enough for us to eat.¡± I solemnly replied ¡°And . . .¡± he prompted. I hadn¡¯t forgotten but it was part of our routine in learning this mantra for safe sailing. ¡°And even those will try to choke you if you try to swallow them whole.¡± I tried to show him I was indeed taking this seriously but I was just as excited to finally be setting sail on the open ocean. If sailing on thegoon was amazing I couldn¡¯t wait to get my real sea legs. ¡°So . . .¡± he continued our back and forth as we worked our way down. ¡°So, sail in shallow seas and catch only what you can carry quickly,¡± I replied. ¡°And if . . .¡± he led. ¡°And if you spot something bigger turn tail and run for home,¡± I replied resigned. ¡°Because . . . the only thing worse than no catch to eat, is being caught and eaten in return.¡± I chorused with him as the lesson had been repeated every day since they had made the decision that he would be fishing the open ocean with me as well. We had finally arrived at our pride and joy, the boat of the dead assassin. The best thing about the boat were the runes that empowered the hull and made it safer for us to sail on the open sea. They were also the only reason that Mother had even contemted Father taking me out on the open ocean. He may have sailed it when he was younger in an attempt to gain levels and win my mother''s hand but it had been a long time since then. She had finally relented when Grandfather pointed out that the only way for me to continue to level after getting to where I was would be through the experience gained on the open water. Apparently, there were events that the school and church would put on for children to help them gain experience eg: power level to a certain extent. But they were only for those over the age of 10 and I could hardlypete in them without proving an impossible monster. They had decided the earliest I could get away with taking part in them would be when I was 5 at the very earliest so it was the open ocean for me and my father. He checked the sails and ropes, tied me on, stowed the anchor and pushed us out to sea. He quickly steered us out and away from the ind heading southeast towards Little Wester. The difference, whenpared to our littleke, was immediate and obvious with the waves bing a challenge on their own. We cut our way through them before aiming our prow at the next and ploughing through. We sailed infortable silence, my father concentrating on the sailing while I enjoyed seeing a little bit more of the world. I gave him the asional burst of wind when requested but the air out on the ocean was far livelier than the breezes blowing within the cliff walls and kept us racing up and down the swells. As we grewfortable in plotting our course Kaius began to teach me again, ¡°Most of our world out here in the archipgo is covered in water my job is to show you the best parts, Kai. This route here that we are taking used to be Erasmus¡¯s sailing route and this is one of the first spots that he taught me.¡± He waited for me to ask what was special about this particr spot as he let the anchor slip into the water without a sound. ¡°What¡¯s . . .¡± I hesitated. Maybe I could work out what was special about the spot myself. I had been so wrapped up in enjoying the new experience that I had forgotten to have my HUD open with all its disys. Quickly I activated parallel processing to use mana sense and echolocation to form a map of our location add it to my HUD and gasped in surprise. Despite no obvious sign on the surface of the sea, my father had managed to take us over an impressive coral reef that was teeming with fish. Whole shoals of fish were swimming all around us, while the reef went off in every direction below us. At a variety of different depths ranging from 10 to 30 metres in depth. ¡°There¡¯s a huge reef right below us,¡± I told him what he already knew. ¡°Yes Kai,¡± father smiled unsurprised by my knowledge but clearly enjoying the surprise he had given me. ¡°So where are the fish today?¡± ¡°Everywhere!¡± I honestly answered. ¡°Brilliant! Let¡¯s get started then. Point me in the right direction.¡± He seemed eager to begin. It was almost cheating using your echolocating son to point out where the best ce to cast your bait in my opinion, but I humbly obliged. He was with my direction pulling fish out of the water almost as soon as he cast his rod and hook in and excitingly my direction along with putting the hooks on the lines for him with my knot skill was enough to gain me some part of the experience he was pulling from the water even though I did not have the strength to pull these beasts from the water. If I ever managed to get my endurance up to a reasonable value and stop sleeping quite so often to regain my stamina Strength would need to be the next attribute I focused on above Charisma and Luck. How I would do that as a toddler who had yet to stop growing I had no idea. But it would be nice to catch my own fish for once rather than watch my father do all the work. Maybe I could create some sort of winch or a spring-loaded. If I made traps, baited them then hoisted them slowly upwards and out of the water with gears and pulleys that would give me the sole experience and . . . probably add to my mental stats as a sess of brain over brawn, mind over matter. When he had filled the boat as much as he wasfortable with, should we have to run for it, he emptied the boat of the traps and pots we had brought out here. He dived down to ce them on the reef and whilst down there he brought a few urchins up with him to take home as a special treat. I was amazed at the simrity of so many of the fish to our own. But I was also astounded at all the fish I could see with echolocation and mana sense that had no versions of themselves in my old world. I couldn''t wait to go diving. But what he didn¡¯t do was allow me to dive with him here on the reef. ¡°It¡¯s the open ocean Kai, the reef might be safer but it isn¡¯t safe.¡± He answered when I asked him why I couldn¡¯t dive with him this time. ¡°We will work up to it, I promise. The shallow water stops therger monsters from eating us but there are still dangers here that could harm us. Let¡¯s keep it simple and straightforward for our first run.¡± He exined. As we returned home I thought about how we had escaped from theplications at home. ¡°It¡¯s nice to get away from it all. Is this why you sail?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t go sailing to escape my life I go sailing to live my life. Sailing and fishing gave me the best catch of my life, your mother.¡± He responded with such a corny line. On the one hand, I felt like gagging but in a world without the inte and memes were any lines Kaius said ever truly copied. And if it was his own could it truly ever be corny at all. He was still clearly smitten with my mother, he might love the sea but he loved my mother more. . . . The small coastal dock had a winch and tform that we used to haul the fish to the top of the cliff. It was not their weight of them that was challenging for Father but rather their size, shape and fundamental nature to slip around. They had been boxed up and the whole lot ced on the tform along with myself and hauled up the cliffside by my father who stood at the bottom. It was a fantastic view being lifted up the side of the cliff. At the top, I attempted to pull the boxes off the tform onto the cliff by the time my father made it to the top. But myck of strength and rapidly depleting stamina meant that I only managed one box by the time he arrived with me. It was a short job for him to load the boxes full of fish into the cart he had borrowed from his brother at the smithery. Then it was time to head back into town. The fish were very popr when we started selling them in the market square. Kaius did not bother with setting up a stand simply selling them from the back of the cart. We had probably missed out on some buyers today as we were arriving a lotter than we would have normally but they were still keen. "Why are they so enthusiastic?" I asked seeing as he was having as big a sess as usual if not better it was hard to judge as I only had his ounts of his previous sales from thegoon to go on. "They are enthusiastic because of the bigger fish from the open sea. The fish within thegoon are fantastic but well on the open water they have higher levels and lived in a mana-rich environment. They are bound to taste better and be better for your body. Who knows how much better or whether it adds to stats or skills but people believe they do so are happy to pay a little more for them. Wait till we get home and you try some. Then you can make your own decision on the matter." "Why is it a mana-rich environment?" I asked wondering about the reasoning behind this assessment. I had noticed that the fish out on the reef seemed to shine brighter to my mana sense but simply put that down to the sheer amount of food they were gorging on and the breadth and depth of the variety and quantity of the fish out there. I didn''t realise there was a fundamental improvement in their quality too. We sold all of them bar the few that he had saved for our family. "Time to go home," he said, sending the car off with a cousin working as an apprentice at the Smithery under my uncle. I had restricted myself to the sole two questions and was keen to get back home to where I would be epted for who I really was rather than watching everything in silence broken up by the asionalment on how cute I was. Home though would not be quite like it used to be. I wondered whether Lady Acacia had warmed up and what dinner might be like with her. Mother had recreated a stone dining room and dining table in case she wanted to join us for dinner but I found myself hoping that perhaps she wouldn''t for a while. Either way, it was time to go home and find out. Chapter 90: First Supper Chapter 90: First Supper The Lodestar Church - The cynosure of the Lodestar Church is to help people find their path through life, to help direct their journey. The Ordinals, who preach the faith to themon man, never advocate a single direction for the entirety of life. While pilgrimages in one direction are wee, it is understood and taught that a well-bnced life will have you moving in all directions and rarely a single one. The ultimate test of faith in the Lodestar is to circumnavigate thepass continent, a journey with a constantly changing direction yet a singr purpose. A bnced life is a better life. Simon the Scribe - Encyclopaedia of Enlightenment. When we returned Aleera was busy working somewhere with her new tutor, with Grandfather apparently watching from a distance. The majority of her luggage had been moved to the ind. We would probably have to build her a further set of rooms to hold it all. That was not everything that Mercurio had brought, though. He had finally arrived with the paints that I had asked for so I was able to colour in some of my earlier pictures. My sequence of drawings showed my slow exploration of the world around me. Next, I would have to tackle the town. But that would require a fair number of practice drawings to make sure that I didn¡¯t forget anything and that I had the measurements down urately. While I yed with my new paints, Mother and Father set up for dinner. Evidently, we would be having it all together in one of the side rooms off the main hall. It was here that the idea of our new noble house would meet a new challenge. We only had Des and Sinis to serve our meal. Mother, who had done the cooking, would, if we were putting on the pretence of a noble house, be unable to serve it to us in front of our guest. This meant more work in order to get everything ready while also being presentable at the same time. Honestly, it would be easier to serve Lady Acacia her meal in her rooms on her own. At least the fish was fresh and exotic having been caught earlier that day from the reef. The silverware had been pulled out of Grandfather¡¯s chests, ces set and we were as ready as we would ever be to wee our new visitor. Dong! At precisely six o¡¯clock the bell rang for the evening meal. Lady Acacia and my . . . sister descended the stairs. I obviously recognised her but Lady Acaia had clearly spent the early evening braiding Aleera¡¯s hair. It was not just that but both of them were gliding down the stairs. One smoother than the other but it was a noticeable difference from yesterday. The best bit about being an infant was that an open mouth was not assumed to be a sign of shock and I easily turned it into a wide smile at seeing my sister again. Father and I led the two of them into the dining room that wasrge enough tofortably seat the 6 of us without being obscenelyrge. Here, Kaius''s extended family and Smit¡¯s ambitions to push his sons into different fields and gain a monopoly over the town became most evident. The polished table was a present to him from his brother who was a carpenter, along with the wooden doors that had been opened by Des and Sinis to allow our entrance. Grandpa Smit had probably paid for most of them but got it at cost through his son and my uncle. Interestingly enough, much like in our first meeting Mother sat at the head of the table while Father sat to her right and Grandfather to her left. I sat next to Father at the table with Aleera opposite. Lady Acacia sat at the other end of the table but it was not a huge table so there were just a few ces between Aleera, myself and Lady Acacia. ¡°We hope you have had a pleasant afternoon settling yourself in,¡± Mother opened the conversation. ¡°It was most refreshing,¡± Lady Acacia riposted. I sniggered inside but kept my outward expression calm as if unaware of the hidden context. This would do wonders for my acting ability if I could keep it up. ¡°Aleera was suitably helpful in overseeing the delivery of your belongings, yes?¡± She inquired. ¡°Yes, she was most diligent in ensuring their safe and prompt relocation.¡± She smiled, ¡°While I have yet to rearrange everything to my satisfaction, she has been most attentive in learning the lessons I have started to teach her. She has made her first stride in her progress this afternoon learning the skill, Glide. I was pleasantly surprised with her broad foundation and thrilled to see her pick up a skill so quickly. I cannot wait to see what she is truly capable of with proper education.¡± She positively glowed in her praise of my sister. Glide sounded like a rather pointless skill to start with but there were no bad skills, only bad application, ording to Grandfather. I wondered how he would apply the skill. Probably to kill something but then that was how he tended to use the majority of his skills it seemed. ¡°That¡¯s wonderful, Aleera. Well done,¡± Father beamed at my sister who grinned back. ¡°We are happy to hear that you are optimistic about Aleera and her progress,¡± Mother restrained Father from adding any more. ¡°Yes, we hope you will enjoy the food just as much,¡± he said, remembering our guest. He gestured Des and Sinis to bring in the food. They returned with a wide selection of . . . you guessed it, fish. Each was carried in still sizzling on stone tes. I had used mana to heat the stones to keep the fish still cooking but not outright burning. Each dish had a different selection of herbs and spices from Wanda¡¯s garden, with a side of vegetables. They carried the dishes to Lady Acacia, offering small slices of each fish before working their way around the table and giving us all a small portion of each option before returning to the kitchen. I say kitchen but really it was a fairly empty room next door with the bare minimum of utensils required for cooking the meal that had been gathered from our home rather than prepared next door. The wonders of magic allowed Mother to do the majority of the cooking on t stones that I had heated with my magic. We were about to tuck into our food when Lady Acacia interrupted us with, ¡°Aleera, remember to switch hands.¡± We watched as Aleera faintly blushed and switched her knife and fork around. We all looked to Aleera questioningly. But it was Lady Acacia who responded, ¡°We are currently also working on gaining the skill Ambidextrous, a simple enough skill but useful in all manner of situations,¡± she exined. I was tempted to copy Aleera and start eating with alternate hands straightaway but thought I would save practising that forter out of the gaze of the new tutor. However, that was not to be the case as she continued with, ¡°I highly rmend that in such a small and intimate setting such as this we all make use of every avable opportunity to progress with both skills and stats. While your blossoming wealth might be significant in time, the Silversea family is starting from a distinct disadvantage inparison to the other noble families of Ponente.¡± After listening to the mild criticism of our position, Mother and Grandfather calmly switched over their utensils while Father switched mine and his. Then we started eating. As I watched everyone I realised a couple of things. Firstly, Grandfather and Mother already appeared to have Ambidextrous as a skill or something equally effective as it made no difference to how they would normally eat. Secondly, Father, Aleera and I on the other hand clearly didn¡¯t. After restarting as an infant, redoing my formative years had cured me of nearly all my embarrassment so I didn¡¯t mind the difficulty I had with attempting to feed myself the other way around. Aleera and Father were a little slower to join in and a little more hesitant in their cautious and careful manner of attempting to relearn how to eat. Thirdly, we were being judged. Lady Acacia might have suggested the skill and a manner in which to gain it to support Aleera¡¯s development but she was also using the lesson to assess the skill levels of my Mother and Grandfather, going by the small smiles passing between them. Father and Aleera were too focused on using their utensils correctly to notice but my . . . Ding! Ambidextrous (Lv 1) Well, that was slightly quicker than expected. Eating suddenly became a little smoother and possibly a lot more dangerous as I noticed Lady Acacia turn to frown in my direction. I fumbled the next mouthful on purpose, leaving Father to clean me up as I looked anywhere but at our guest. I had always picked up skills quicker than my sister, who had yet to quite master it. But that was possibly the fastest I had ever gained a skill after attempting it. I had not even finished my first te of fish, something else had to be at y here. Was having a tutor that effective at imparting skills? Would a skill such as tutor, teach or instruct affect a persons ability to level skills? ¡°How old did you say Callen was again?¡± Lady Acacia asked. My food was so going all over the floor after thatment. Sorry, Des and Sinis. I groaned in my head, I hadn¡¯t even been trying particrly hard. ¡°He is just over a year in age.¡± Mother replied, ¡°He was surprisingly big at birth but appears to be growing slower than Aleera since then who practically doubled in size every month after it seemed.¡± She smiled at Aleera who was still concentrating on her hands and had missed all of what had just transpired. ¡°It must be all these fine fish you are eating.¡± Lady Acacia answered. ¡°Any fish, flesh, or fowl high in mana content aids children¡¯s growth in more ways than can be truly exined yet. I always rmend the highest quality mana content cuts for all of my students. It is wonderful to see it already happening here.¡± ¡°We are lucky to live so close to a reef.¡± Father shrugged indifferently to the underlying conversation carrying on between the twodies at the table. ¡°Once Aleera is settled into a routine, I would love to visit it one day to take some measurements. If that is possible,¡± she added. ¡°I¡¯d be delighted to take you out there one day if you are interested. It is a magnificent corner of the sea,¡± Father answered, enthused about the interest shown in the open ocean. ¡°Wonderful . . .¡± she began before being interrupted. ¡°I¡¯ve got it!¡± Aleera shouted as she gained her first level in the skill. The improvement in her ability to use the knife and fork was noticeable, and, as it was repeated, obviously from the gaining of a skill and its continued use. I hoped that my gaining of the skill was put down to fluke and discounted due to my age but I wouldn¡¯t bet any money on it. She seemed suspicious but ultimately unsure about me. ¡°Wonderful Kaius, wonderful Aleera, Next time a quieter pride in your progress would be appreciated,¡± she responded,plimented, and corrected in a single sentence. ¡°Truly, the benefits of mana-rich meat are not to be discounted,¡± she added her own exnation for the speed of the skill being learnt. Two skills for my sister in a single day. I was left wondering whether it was the tutor, the fish or my presence that had helped things along. Poor Father was left struggling with his utensils throughout the meal. But his mutteredment heavily implied that he wasn¡¯t giving up anytime soon. A mutteredment that, despite its nigh-on unintelligible nature, was still picked up by the Lady at the end of the table. ¡°The benefits of youth outweigh the wisdom of age in gaining new skills. To them, everything is still new. Every moment is an intolerable age while to us it is but a fleeting second. It wille in time with practice,¡± she responded to hisment, unsolicited. "Remember Aleera, first seed the skills, then raise them. Finally, consolidate them before enjoying the fruits of yourbour. We all have a long way to go and there is always room for improvement no matter how old or how incremental the measure." ¡°To first impressions and first skills!¡± she raised a toast to our family that we returned in kind. Grandpa Smit had sent us a crate of wine as our grapes were still a way away from producing a decent crop and vintage. The crystal sses we were raising the toast in were also on loan from him. There were so many things we were going to have to buy, acquire, or make to give the right impression. However, so far we seemed to be doing well. The meal had been a sess and my sister had gained two skills in a single day. The tutor had not mentioned the debacle with the shower so possibly everything there was already forgiven. I had got to finally get out onto the open ocean. Our horizons were expanding. Lady Acacia was escorted back to her room by Aleera, and then we all disappeared deeper into the mountain to our true home for the moment, Grandfather''s. Des and Sinis sailed back to Wester and our old home. Before bedtime, Father had onest bit of advice. ¡°Before you fall asleep check your stats, you might find a nice surprise,¡± he smiled as he tucked me in. Leaving me to close my eyes and find out for myself what he was talking about, hisst words were, ¡°I¡¯ll see you tomorrow bright and early.¡± Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 207,000/ 819,200 Age: 2 year 4 months, 0 weeks, 1 days, 18 hours, 1 minutes Health: 1460/1460 Stamina: 930/930 Mana: 1380/1380 Psi: 1380/1380 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity Vitality: 146 +1 Endurance: 79 +2 Strength: 54 +2 Dexterity: 108 +1 Senses: 138 +1 Mind: 138 +1 rity: 118 +1 Magic: 138 +1 Charisma: 40 +1 Luck: 5 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Meditation (LV50) Swimming (LV50) Time Sense (LV50) Running (LV47) Listening (LV37) Breath Control (LV40) Knots (LV38) Stitching (LV37) Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Singing (LV43) Climb (LV32) Trading (LV31) Drumming (LV31) Dodge (LV31) Draw (LV33) Knife (LV30) Sneak (LV26) Acting (LV21) Diving (LV30) English (LV15) Spanish (LV15) Japanese (LV15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Throw (LV15) Lie (LV12) German (LV10) Buss (LV15) Mathematics (LV15) Sailing (LV25) French (LV7) Decoding (LV10) Appeal (LV7) Calligraphy (LV15) Farming (LV16) Insight (LV4) Bnce (LV16) Martial Arts (LV2) Cook (LV3) Ambidextrous (LV 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV40) Quick reflexes (LV40) Eavesdrop (LV30) Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20) Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Linguistics (LV16) Trantion (LV16) Pain Tolerance (LV15) Stealth (LV15) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) Transnt (LV12) Cartography (LV12) Misdirection (LV9) Haggling (LV6) Order (LV6) Knife Arts (LV6) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV40) Mana Maniption (LV34) Echolocation (LV31) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV18) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Melt (LV11) Deception (LV4) Command L (LV4) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 20) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Stone shaping (Lv 1) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18) Skill experience: 5950 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 10000 Craft experience: 5000 Trade experience: 5000 Popr experience: 1000 Exploring experience: 5000 Total Experience gain sincest stat check : 32,050 I didn¡¯t find it till the very end of my experience gain. I now got experience for exploring. How awesome was that! Having spent so long attempting to find what was different I mentally reorganised my skills to be in descending order of skill level per tier. Lady Acacia had hinted at apletely different way of thinking about skills and I looked forward to learning it even if it was only learning it second hand through Aleera. It might get harder and harder to level up but every time I reached a bottleneck the system provided me with another way to gain the experience. I couldn¡¯t wait to go sailing tomorrow. Maybe we could explore a little further. Chapter 91: The Routine Chapter 91: The Routine "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit." Aristotle Children learn best through a routine which seemed to be the rule by which Lady Acacia lived her life. Aleera¡¯s time was nearlypletely monopolised by her, structured and nned. It may have been that she had less time for herself and her projects, but it seemed that the time was being used highly effectively. I was almost jealous. The highlights of day 1 under Lady Acacia¡¯s training regimen were she had arrived at dinner having learned the skills Glide andAmbidextrous. I had managed to pick up Ambidextrous at the dinner table by mimicking my sister¡¯s actions and using alternate hands but having done so I had to hide my progress from the watchful eyes of the Lady. It wasn¡¯t until the morning that Aleera was able to exin the process, she had followed to get the skill Glide. Something I resolved to practice in private, or at least out of sight of our new guest. She had been asked to walk with cups of tea filled to the brim with water without spilling them while maintaining a smooth and steady pace forwards. It might have been a significant number of cups but what I was most impressed over was the fact that it didn¡¯t involve any knives being thrown at her. I wondered what Grandfather would think of that! On day 2 she came to dinner having gained Poise which was noticeable to watch as she sat down to dinner. Her back straight, arms level and head held high. This time she sat next to Lady Acacia and copied her every action rather than sitting with us her family although there were only a few chair seats separating us. She was working at levelling up her Poise and Ambidextrous skills. Something our family was reminded we could all be focussing on by Lady Acacia. Once more Grandfather and Mother seemed to have little difficulty in maintaining a simr pose through their skills or stats. While I also took a little longer to get there. Aleera had already attended the meal with the skill, so she was ahead of me this time. I pretended to struggle to gain it and when I did I quickly dropped it to practiceter. Father as usual struggled to pick up the skill but kept trying anyway determined to at least pick up Ambidextrous from the day before although attempting to do the two skills at the same time proved too much. This time it turned out though that she had been strapped into a back posture brace for the majority of the day to get the skill although she was not wearing it for the evening meal. Lady Acacia had told her that she could either get Poise or Posture from the training. Watching her eat was a good way to remind me to sit up straight. On day 3 she descended the stairs with Grace, Poise and Glide before continuing to practice her new skills as she ate using her new skills Grace, Poise, and Ambidextrous. She used every opportunity to level every skill. We were again suggested to copy along with her. Particrly, if we did not wish to embarrass her when she made her debut in 10 years. As it was also mentioned, if we attended her debut as the Scion of the Silversea family despite all eyes being on her we would still be watched to see how we measured up. By this point, I had managed to acquire Ambidextrous, Glide and Poise myself but Grace remained elusive in obtaining, at least during the evening meal. I would practiceter at night once Aleera exined the process. Grace, it turned out was right up my Grandfather''s alley. Aleera had to practice Poise, Glide and Ambidextrous while having various nuisances thrown at her. The annoyances ranged from startling noises to nudges, to finally soft little bean bags which were thrown closely past her but never into her all in an attempt to get her to spill the tea as she glided around the room with poise while holding it in her left hand. I thought I would get Father to help me with that one rather than Grandfather. I might get hit a little bit more but at least I knew that he would use soft balls rather than be tempted to turn to knives. On day 4 she quietly told us all over dinner how she had managed to gain Charm under Lady Acacia¡¯s Tutge. When she used her Charm skill she did indeed appear to be more engaging in her conversation but it was difficult to judge the improvement because I knew her so well. Perhaps as it levelled it would seem to be a greater skill. But for now, I was not particrly impressed. They were all only Tier 1 skills but there was some truth to the idea that quantity has a quality all of its own. Aleera was certainly picking them up a lot quicker than she had once been doing. The great news was that every skill she was being taught I was then being taught in turn so in the end, I didn¡¯t feel like I had any true reason to be jealous over the one-to-one attention. For Charm Aleera had to keep Lady Acacia engaged in lively little anecdotes of her life and life on Wester Isles for an entire hour. I thought that was fairly challenging seeing as there did not seem to be a lot going on but Aleera knew the town like the back of her hand so did not struggle overly with this one. I had a plethora of ideas to tell the world about. However, the trick was to keep the person engaged. Talking about masonry with Father would not work. You had to find a subject they were interested in to keep them charmed or be astoundingly charming. It was also very close to my Appeal skill in description and I was left wondering at the difference. Either way, regaling Father with the myriad of fantastical fish we had been discovering seemed to keep him charmed. Day 5 was Composure. Lady Acacia was proving that she was worth her weight in the pearls she was being paid. By the end of the first week, Aleea was almost a different girl when she sat down to dinner. She would glide to dinner with poise and grace beforeporting herself with Charm and Composure. While her table manners could still be improved Ambidextrous had continued to improve throughout the week and there were more than one kind of knife you could hold in the left hand. Grandfather seemed principally pleased about that aspect of the training the ability to stab someone quickly and cleanly with either hand. This time Aleera had toplete all of the above for Grace while calcting various mathematical questions that were also fired at her. The most interesting aspect of the training to me was the aspects Lady Acacia seemed to be focusing on first. She seemed to have focused on first impressions, the appearance and demeanour of nobility. The outward appearance at least. It raised some questions as to whether honour, virtue, integrity, and decency could be gained as skills through selfless acts. It made you wonder. It also made me think that while I may have be a Lord, noble in name, had I truly done anything to be noble by nature? What kind of Lord did I wish to be? With all of her time monopolised by Lady Acacia, it meant that Des and Sinis had to do the majority of the salt gathering, pearl farming and actual farming in the cauldron garden. It was great for them and their levelling but it sounded like Aleera was missing out on controlling everything and itching to get back to it. I was still leaving the ind for the majority of the day with my father while we continued to catch fish off the reef. His mini mascot for the trips. This was also the other reason I wasn¡¯t jealous of my sister. I was having a whale of a time sailing, fishing, trapping and exploring the reef. Every day adds a significant amount of experience to my total be it through catching fish or simply sailing the greater distances beyond the isle. Each day Father would cut off a different part of the coral reef or catch a different fish or eel. Each one exined to me in detail the dangers it possessed. A surprisingly high number of them were poisonous in one way or another. A greater argument for poison tolerance training a skill it turned out my father had. I had even now been allowed over the side of the boat to float and watch him dive but he had refused to let me dive down with him just yet. My job was to act as a lookout for the more dangerous of the reef¡¯s inhabitants that he had described. He had a rope that was attached to the baskets he would take down and if I was ever to see a goblin shark or other dangerous sea creatures I was to let him know by pulling on it. Luckily enough we had yet toe across anything more dangerous than my father. But we were sailing a shallow part of the sea. Therger dangers were in the deeper depths. Regardless the trips were good for our bank bnce, our stat sheets and levelling up my skills. Even if we had not seen any lethal dangers yet we seemed to be gaining more experience from our hauls. That or the fish we were pulling up were a lot higher in levels. I had even been able to direct my father to the odd pearl here and there which probably due to the ambient mana in the coral reef seemed to naturally grow farrger than the ones in theke. Or at leastrger than the ones in theke that we had not supplied with extra mana. They shone brightly to my mana sense, a sparkling diamond on the sea floor, at least to my eyes. Father enjoyed following my directions to findrger andrger pearls, riches for the taking thaty hidden for most beneath our hull. . . . The first weekend after she arrived Lady Acacia gave Aleera two days off from studying with her and went to visit the town for the day. I wondered what she would think with time to wander and appreciate the ce we had once called home. It also allowed us to expand her corridor and the rooms avable to her while she wasn¡¯t there to watch us work. Or witness the fact that our construction team consisted of me and my mother. Although all her belongings were now on the ind they failed to fit satisfactorily within her suite of rooms. So, she had requested ess to more rooms. Both for herself and the training of Aleera. At the time we created her corridor we had made stone doorways for other rooms further down the corridor. For rooms that we had not yetpleted even though it from the outside at least looked like we had. Once she was gone Mother and I worked hard and created a mini library next to her set of rooms to house her books. Her many books. When she finally fully unpacked it turned out that the majority of her belongings were books. No wonder the trunks had been so heavy for the Swift¡¯s sailors to carry. It was easier to craft the bookcases out of stone rather than wood at least for us. But I hoped one day to do something simr with wood as my material. My stone shelves had my signature stone songs sung into them. I felt this added to their form and improved on them merely being functional. Once they had been created we left the crates of books in their new home without unpacking them for her. I knew how nice it was to have thingsid out just so. Neither of us wanted to get it wrong for someone with as many thorns as Lady Acacia. Once we had created her new public spaces it was time to work on something a little more private. Something a little bit more secretive. . . . I had also started work on my toddler tunnels. They ran between rooms or along the sides of corridors. They were a lot easier to make than the other tunnels simply because they were so much smaller, they only had to berge enough to amodate me and I was not fussy. Also with the continued use of my new understanding of stone from stone singing I had finally gained a new skill, stone shaping! This meant that not only was I able to shape the tunnels quicker it also meant that I didn¡¯t require clearer doors and locks to enter them. I was now able to open and close stone doors into them and behind me wherever I wanted. The tunnels themselves took a little more work but once they were in ce I could disappear into the mountain whenever and wherever I wanted to. I was going to dominate the next game of hide and seek with our cousins. . . . While it had not been noticed yet by Lady Acacia that mother and I were singing the stone into shape, it had been noticed that we were a little light on servants. Other than our two employees Des and Sinis the only one we could mention was Wanda. She insisted that every Lady had ady in waiting at the very least. Furthermore, each Lord should have at least one servant to set things out in the morning etc. This meant that between the five of us we should at least have another three adults living on the ind with us. And that, only if you included Des and Sinis who had plenty of other jobs to do. Indeed, she had a long list of positions that we would have to fill if we were to ever receive someone officially. Butler, maid, nurse, and tutor just to mention a few that should also apparently be taking up residence on our ind. But that was not all, oh no. We also had to have a greater presence within the town. Each establishment would need a protocol for dealing with our new house. The best of the shops including the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker would have to have some business with us, whether we needed their custom or not. They did not necessarily have to be employed by us full time but we needed to have a regr order with them to establish our position as a noble family that supported the local tradesmen. It seemed a littleplicated and convoluted but at the same time, I could see how such trades and contracts would support the local area gaining us a sense of goodwill from the people as our newfound wealth was spread a little bit more equally across the town. What we would need with a box or two of candles each week when we used our mana motenterns to light the ce was seemingly not important ording to Lady Acacia. The principle of the matter was to be a greater part of our neighbour''s business. We could box them up and sell them in bulk to Mercurioter at cost or a profit. It was all about the optics of the matter. That was where she had gone this weekend. It was not so much as having a break from my delightful sister. More it was a chance for her to get to know the town and what it had to offer. She had left with a long list of the shops we had in the town and she intended to visit every one of them before closing. She intended to buy something at each one and request it be sent to the ind and was even willing to pay the delivery price rather than carry it around the town herself. We had always kept ourselves to ourselves. It seemed that Lady Acacia was determined to change this. It was the beginning of her public rtions campaign and she was adamant that it went off without a hitch. She also had a list of our cousins. Over dinner, one day father boasted about the number of brothers he had and their trades. Then continued to boast about the number of nephews and nieces that we had. These children were now top of the list for teaching the roles she wished them to y. I was not sure how keen they would be to be ying. But just like Aleera, they might not have a choice in the matter. When asked whether she would have the time to teach more children she replied that if she was already teaching one she might as well teach more. It turned out that her lesson was not just about giving Aleera a new set of skills it was also open to the public. The first lessons were to give her a head start on her peers. It sounded like she would also be visiting our rtives to see if any would be willing to take up the position of Aleera¡¯s maid. Lady Acacia had asked mother if she needed a wet nurse for herself but she declined, Thank the Compass. . . . Life looked like it was going to get a little bit busier on our ind if she had her way. Chapter 92: Building a clan Chapter 92: Building a n ¡°Call it a n, call it awork, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are you need one.¡± Jane Howard. Operation Silversea had formally started. We had gathered the whole family. They all came across in various boats to our ind. Our family stood on the steps to our Parthenon entrance as we watched them arrive and walk along the ck eastern radial path through the white salterns before we weed them in our hall. For many of them, it was their first visit, and our hall was visually intimidating in more ways than one. The carved face that formed the entrance into our mountain was easily asrge as the Lodestar Church within the town and would form the first impression of our house for any who visited. A monument to the power of our house as much as the magic that had carved it. On our side to wee them were my Father and Mother bracketed by Lady Acacia and Grandfather. I was on my father¡¯s knee while Aleera stood at my Mother¡¯s side. We were all in our formal purple togas with pearl jewellery adorning our ears and necks we were coordinated in making a statement of strength and power. Grandpa Smit came first apanied by Grandma who seemed amazed at the progress we had made in the short year we had hidden on our isle. Grandpa Smit had probably told her in advance having already visited us many times before, but it was one thing to hear about our progress and another to see it with your own eyes. Their home in the centre of the town was one of thergest but it was not as big as the pce we were building. They knew what we were hoping to achieve with this meeting and fully supported it. Next came Uncle Aaron the cksmith, his wife na, and our cousins, Farhoni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne who were equally astounded by the patterned stonework beneath their feet. They lived outside of the old town¡¯s walls on the eastern side. Although there were ns to extend the walls to epass the rtively new buildings of our extended family, they had not been built yet and they lived just outside the Eastern Walls'' southern exit. The sole cksmith for the town he was training his children Farhoni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne to join him in the family business. While a sweeping generalisation it was true that most men favoured brawn over brain and the majority of women favoured brain over brawn, that was not the case for this family. All three of his children worked in the smithery to some extent and from the outside, it seemed that they had followed their father in investing in their strength judging by their size and muscture. They arrived wearing their finest clothes and metal jewellery showcasing their skill with metal. After Uncle Aaron and his family came Uncle Karl the Carpenter, his wife Katrina and our cousins, Joyner, Sayer, and Tesi. Karl at least had some idea as to what we had been working on as we had ordered a fair few doors for our home. But he had never visited to see them installed. So while he had an idea about the number of rooms we might have due to the number of doors ordered everything else had been a mystery to him. They lived just outside the walls on the southern exit from Wester Town. Karl was a lumberjack as much as a carpenter. His family and workers continued to fell the trees south of the town opening more space for fields to be formed by the town¡¯s few farmers. Each week they would fell another tree before turning it into usable nks or beams of wood for construction or in our case doors. While not quite as big as Aaron and his family they had also clearly focused on their physical attributes. Next came Uncle Cephas the Stone mason his wife, C and our cousins, ina, Gemma, Ferris and S. Our magic had made our life a lot easier in carving our home out of the mountain, but I wondered how well skills could keep up with magic. The family were all stone workers to a certain extent. They had lived the closest to our old home and they were the reason why the new town wall had been built up at the northern end of town. Firstly, it was the closer side to the town¡¯s quarry. Secondly, he had three daughters so had made making the new wall a priority for his side of the town first. Cephas and Ferris worked hard mining and cutting the stone for the wall while his daughters and wife would carve the more ornamental pieces and polish them when required. Each house of the stone paid for a stone to be added before paying for their second stone. They were also in charge of any gemstones found on the ind and all of them wore a sapphire of some sort as they too approached in their best clothes. Then Uncle Romeo the Roofer and his children, Rand, Rolf, and Raina. I was unsure about where or who his wife was but some things even an infant knew not to ask, directly at least. Judging by their clothing, despite working mainly with y they were just as rich as the brothers who worked in metal, stone, and wood. It sounded like they spent most of their time making recement tiles for the houses within the town and new tiles for any new houses going up outside the walls. When they weren¡¯t busy doing that, they were dabbling in pottery and jewellery but that seemed to be a part-time addition to their main work. Still, they wore finely zed bracelets made from coloured y. The family lived nearly next door to Aaron at the middle exit on the eastern wall. The y pits were to the east of the town before thend rose to be the cliffs that circled the ind. The next brother Barric the farmer lived nearly next door to Aaron at the southern exit on the eastern wall. The town''s fieldsy to the south and the east of the town before thend rose to be the cliffs that circled the ind. His wife Georgiana and their six children followed, Ashby, Busby, Kelby, Rigby, Selby and Welby. Not being craftsmen of one kind or another they had less ornate clothing and outrements. But were never the less well off. If there was one human need that had to be supplied daily it was food and they supplied it. The final uncle was the butcher brother although more of a huntsman Hunter and his wife Brielle entered next followed by their children Chase, Diane, Fianna, Huntley and Rigel. They too lived outside the walls at the northern exit on the eastern wall. They would hunt north or south depending on wherever the animals roamed as well as keeping back any of the more threatening creatures on the ind from the farmer''s fields whenever they showed their heads. They would also use their skills to butcher any goats, sheep or pigs they were brought but most owners would do it themselves for the experience and the skill gained rather than take it to them. Still, they would skin all their hunts before providing them to their sister our auntie who would tan them for them. Their ornaments consisted of bones, ws or fur but looked very fine on all of them. Dushnah our Auntie was the oldest of our two Aunties and married to the town¡¯s tanner Tim. Their house was just north of our old home and their workshop the northernmost building in the town was still close to the water. Their son yde followed after all wearing finely dyed leather clothing disying their wares for all to see. Last but not least was our youngest Auntie Sharina, who was married to our town¡¯s ss blower, sson. It seemed like they only had ess to b ss for lead windows in general but were able to blow and spin bottles for the town. We had not ordered any windows for our home as I was waiting to one day improve the process with drawn or float ss but that would be a few years down the line when we were ready for it and I had more influence on the direction of not only my immediate family but those around us as well. They were apanied by their daughter Cristal. ¡°Wee everyone, to our humble home,¡± Kaius announced to his family. His brothersughed at the audacity of his statement, while his sister¡¯s raised an eyebrow. ¡°We have a proposition.¡± The seven sons of Smit and his two daughters stood in a circle in our hall with their families. How had we got here? It had all started with a simple conversation . . . ¡°You don¡¯t collect taxes?¡± Lady Acacia seemed confused by this point. ¡°No, we don¡¯t.¡± Grandpa Smit replied. ¡°A tithe?¡± she questioned. ¡°Nope.¡± He bluntly answered. ¡°Some other form of donation or time in lieu.¡± She asked puzzled. She seemed to be having difficulty in understanding just how our town of Wester worked and illustrated that with her next question. ¡°Then how does this town work?¡± she asked. ¡°How was the wall built? The docks?¡± ¡°We all chip in when and where it¡¯s required. We needed a wall we built a wall. People bought the stone from our quarry and paid our mason to carve it into blocks for the wall that they then added to.¡± ¡°And this works?¡± ¡°More or less. It helps of course that the quarryman is one of Kaius¡¯sbrothers, Cephas and his family are both the quarrymen and the stone masons.¡± ¡°How many sons do you have?¡± ¡°Just the seven.¡± Smit proudly boasted. ¡°Plus the two daughters.¡± Lady Acacia, tilted her head as if looking at something only she could see before she asked her final question. ¡°And what pray tell are their professions?¡± . . . That conversation and the professions revealed had all led to today. Lady Acacia opened the discussion by exining our proposition. ¡°The Silversea family cannot raise you to nobility but as part of their extended family, their n if you will, you could be recognised as Adal, a half noble. Typically, it is a status awarded to the bastards of nobility or legally unrecognised descendants. It is a half-step status between that of amoner and that of a noble. It would afford you no particr protection when interacting with the nobility, but it would allow you all a second name. A surname, not Silversea but a branch removed from it. Furthermore, many of the nobility¡¯s servants rather than ves are drawn from this middle ss. Thisrger n, seen as a loyal workforce, are entrusted with some of the secrets of the house.¡± ¡°That all sounds very nice, Lady Acacia.¡± Aaron held up a hand forestalling any interruptions, ¡°But, Kaius . . . we can see what you get out of this . . . what¡¯s the benefit to us.¡± He asked Kaius directly. ¡°First off, Lady Acacia has agreed to teach the children of any adult who pledges to our family. Judging by what Aleera has learned over thest month her knowledge is the map to smooth sailing through the progression of stronger stats and skills. Second, it isn¡¯t as if we wouldn¡¯t pay them a wage for their work and that alone is better than most apprenticeships right there where it is usually the other way round.¡± ¡°Yes but, . .¡± ¡°Third, as it has been exined to me. By pledging to Cal and Aleera on a Truthstone it sounds as if that alone will be beneficial to your stats much like a dedication or benediction at the Church of the Lodestar would be. What¡¯s not to like?¡± Kaius shrugged off the objection. ¡°The hidden cost. If Farhoni is having lessons from this Lady, he is not learning his trade with me. He won¡¯t be gaining his skills in the right things and if he is spending all his time learning his elocution and table manners he won¡¯t be strengthening the stats he will needter when he takes over my trade. He has learnt more than enough numbers and letters to get the basic skills at the Luminary. He doesn¡¯t need any more.¡± He argued against the idea. ¡°We are not saying that Farhoni has to give up cksmithing, Aaron. Just giving him a second hammer to his trade for a few hours of his time each day.¡± Father offered. ¡°It¡¯s a good bargain, Aaron.¡± Grandpa Smit stepped forward. ¡°This was our family''s forefather¡¯s aim all those years ago. To build a house of our own and we are finally nearly there. We are stronger together. Yes, they are young, but they are our family and they have done far better than you could know in their short time with us. I am willing to put my foot first in this and set the example I hope you will all follow, my sons and daughters.¡± He kneeled in front of Aleera and me. Father and Mother stepped out of the way, leaving us alone in front of our kneeling Grandpa. He ced his hand over the truth stone Lady Acacia had provided us with which we held in our palms between us. ¡°I, Smit of Wester Isle, the Westernmost Ind of the Western Kingdom of Ponente, swear by the guiding light of the Lodestar and growing horizon of the Compass Kingdoms that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Scions of the noble house Silversea, Callen Kai Silversea and Aleera Silversea. May my strongest stats strengthen yours.¡± He paused between the oath and the pledge, ¡°I will give my loyalty to the Silversea n and respect their requests above my own. I will uphold the Silversea values of progress and freedom. I will observe theirws faithfully and fulfil my duties and obligations as a citizen of the Wester Isles Barony.¡± The sons were left shocked still by his pronouncement. And into the silence, we spoke in unison to ept the pledge. ¡°Arise Smit Silvertongue, Adal of House Silversea. We promise to protect and guide your progress, may you serve us well as Seneschal of our house and part of our growing n. Your strength is ours and ours yours, may we find bnce through our union, in the light of the Lodestar and the growing horizon of the Compass Kingdoms.¡± Aleera may have said the words loudly as she uttered them clearly into the hall for all to hear. But I said them too and as I did, I felt both an inflowing and outgoing of energy as if the words bound more than merely our intentions. Indeed, looking inwards at my stats I noticed the most interesting thing. It appeared that I currently had a (-1) next to my vitality but I also now had a (+5) next to my mind. Our oath and pledge had changed us in more ways than one. While Smit had taken from my strongest stat he had also returned what he had taken fivefold in a different stat, his strongest stat, mind. In the silence that followed Grandfather too knelt in front of us, stating ¡°I, Arawn of Wester Isle, the Westernmost Ind of the Western Kingdom of Ponente, swear by the guiding light of the Lodestar and the growing horizon of the Compass Continent that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Scions of the noble Silversea family, Callen Kai Silversea and Aleera Silversea. May my strongest stats strengthen yours.¡± He paused between the oath and the pledge, ¡°I will give my loyalty to the Silversea n and respect their requests above my own. I will uphold the Silversea values of progress and freedom. I will observe theirws faithfully and fulfil my duties and obligations as a citizen of the Wester Isles Barony.¡± ¡°Arise Arawn Silversword, Adal of House Silversea. We promise to protect and guide your progress, may you serve us well as Guardian of our house and part of our growing n. Your strength is ours and ours yours, may we find bnce through our union, in the light of the Lodestar and the growing horizon of the Compass Kingdoms.¡± Just as with the first oath, I felt a tug at my body, mind and soul before I then felt an influx of . . . I checked within I was down 1 more for my vitality but I was up 5 for my Dexterity. What was the most shocking was not that the stats had repeated their rise and fall but that I had finally learned my Grandfather¡¯s name. The exchange had also confirmed that Dexterity was his strongest stat despite his supetive strength and endurance. It was into this stunned silence that Grandma stepped forward. ¡°I believe in you youngdy don¡¯t let me down.¡± Before she too recited the oath of allegiance to our house and pledge of loyalty. While we too offered protection, progress and freedom. Losing a little part of ourselves but gaining so much more. Losing -1 Vitality then gaining + 5 in Vitality I¡¯d always wondered if that was why she looked so good despite being so old. On arising from the floor, she turned to her children and said. ¡°Boys.¡± To which they each lined up to step forward. From Aaron, I gained 5 strength from his wife na 5 vitality. They rose Aaron and na Silverkin Adal of House Silversea. From Karl, I gained 5 strength from his wife 5 vitality. They rose Carl Silverwood Adal of House Silversea. From Cephas, I gained 5 strength from his wife 5 endurance. They rose Cephas Silverstone Adal of House Silversea. From Barric I gained 5 endurance from his wife 5 endurance. They rose Barric Silverseed Adal of House Silversea. From Romeo, I gained 5 endurance from his wife 5 endurance. They rose Romeo Silversoil Adal of House Silversea. From Hunter, I gained 5 endurance from his wife 5 dexterity. They rose Hunter Silverstag Adal of House Silversea. From Auntie Dushnah, I gained 5 dexterity and her husband 5 endurance. They rose Dushnah Silverskin Adal of House Silversea. From Auntie Sharina, I gained 5 dexterity and her husband 5 senses. They rose Sharina Silverss Adal of House Silversea. Bar the moment of my birth when my Mother had used my stats to save my life I had never received such a significant number of stats in such a short time. Yet neither had I ever lost any before either. The ebbs and surges on my soul and stats had felt beyond ufortable. Both Aleera and I were left nearly unable to stand and afraid to move under the power of our new attributes. I had lost 19 points of vitality but in exchange, I had received 15 vitality 15 strength 35 endurance 20 dexterity 5 senses and 5 mind. After contemting my inner world, I now stood at Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 397,000/ 819,200 Age: 2 years 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 10 hours, 1 minute Health: 1420/1420 Stamina: 1083/1083 Mana: 1390/1390 Psi: 1390/1390 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Vitality: 142 -4 Endurance: 114 +35 Strength: 69 +15 Dexterity: 128 +20 Senses: 143 +5 Mind: 144 +5 rity: 119 +1 Magic: 139 +1 Charisma: 59 +19 Luck: 6 +1 I hade closer to bncing my stats, bncing my mind, body and soul in a single day than I had in an entire year. I had also heard the infamous. Ding! Endurance reached 100 before the age of 5 you have been awarded the attribute . . . Durability Then our cousins lined up. . . . Chapter 93: Limitations Chapter 93: Limitations ¡°Everyone has limits. You just have to learn what your own limits are and deal with them ordingly.¡± Nn Ryan ¡°Take everything in moderation.¡± Lady Acacia stepped forward stopping the cousins from pledging. ¡°Let Aleera have some time to adjust to her new stats before adding any more.¡± Aleera seemed a little unsteady on her feet. I wondered which stats she had lost through the process. Losing 17 stats wasn¡¯t a huge deal for me when I had over 140 it was just a little over 10 per cent of my total vitality. If Aleera only had 50 or 60 it would be closer to 30 or 40 per cent of hers. Yes, we regained a lot of the vitality but losing nearly half of a stat and then regaining it had to feel ufortable. If she was bnced beforehand, she might not be now. Still, she shouldn¡¯t be too far from getting a perk of her own at this rate. I supposed this meant that most nobles would have perks for the moremon attributes, from servants, peasants or ves pledging allegiance. However, at least they would not have the extra attributes I had gained from achieving 100 before age 5 when everybody¡¯s system became viewable. They also wouldn¡¯t have ess to the racial traits you could achieve by having over 100 in them before age 1. Unless you could receive stats even before your system was visible. Was that possible? ¡°So, what now?¡± Uncle Aaron asked. ¡°Well, if the children would like to follow me, there is no time like the present to get started. I¡¯m sure you would like to see a return on your investment as soon as possible.¡± Lady Acacia sidestepped therger question by focusing on the immediate actions. ¡°A level¡¯s worth of stats is worth it if it helps my child¡¯s progress. I will soon get it back, all it will take is a little time.¡± Brielle added. A level''s worth? I only got 5 attributes, half a level''s worth. Perhaps it had been divided between the two of us. Would that mean that the cost also got divided between the two of us? Or that the attributes received by the noble family were divided among all family members. Therger the noble family, the fewer stats they would get after sharing it between them. In fact with a noble family of five receiving an oath would only work out even. I wondered how many Adals the system would allow you to create. If I raised the entirety of the ind, I could soon get my stats up into the hundreds maybe even the thousands! My line of thinking was mirrored among the adults as they verbalised my question for me. ¡°How strong can Aleera get? Is there a limit to the number of oaths she can receive?¡± Cephas asked before Lady Acacia was able to lead all the children out. I say children but the ages ranged from my own, seeing as I was being carried by Aleera, to Aaron¡¯s sons and daughters, Farhoni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne who looked like they were already over twenty. She paused before leading us out.¡°Like all things there are limits. A Royal family member can receive up to 100 oaths. This was the main reason I might add that up till this year the number of Lords in Ponente was limited to 100. There was simply no perceived benefit to allowing extra lords to arise by the Royal family. A Duke or Duchess can receive 90, a Marquee or Marchioness 80, an Earl or countess 70, a viscount or viscountess 60, a baron or baroness 50, a lord anddy up to 40 oaths.¡± ¡°So Aleera could gain another 23 oaths.¡± Cephas continued to mine for further information. ¡°Yes.¡± She calmly replied. Neither concerned nor worried about giving out what was presumably propriety information. Although what our cousins would be able to do with it was not a lot without some way to raise themselves to lords anddies themselves. Could I raise them or would I need a royal prerogative? Could I make our ind a Kingdom? Probably not without going to war with Ponente, I doubted they would support a new Kingdom being established within their sphere of influence. Even if it was on the very edge of it. ¡° . . . ¡° he was multiplying in his head. ¡°So up to another 230 points worth of stats.¡± It seemed that much like everyone else he was assuming that Aleera would have received the totality of the stats. Whoops, y daisy. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut instead of silently mumbling along. ¡°Yes, that should be the case. That is also why it is important to reassess how she is currently bnced to ensure that she receives as many perks as possible from the initial oaths. Most noble children hold at least one perk, bought by gold, owed by oaths, through gold, skills or kills." She answered. Cephas looked at his youngest Ferris. ¡°Is there any way an Adhal can gain a simr boost through oaths?¡± Intrigued at what might be achieved for him and his progeny. Any boost that could be achieved before the age of 10 would be worth its weight in gold through the advantage it would give him. The parents with the youngest children looked at them intrigued while they waited to listen intently for the important answer. ¡°The oaths system is limited to the nobility. However, I am sure you have heard of other authority-based systems. The Cardinals and Ordinals of the Lodestar Church can do something simr with the faith of their followers. In the army, a general likewise can im the loyalty of his officers his majors, captains and lieutenants. At sea a captain can im up to 30 pledges of allegiance from his crew, even the lowly knight can im the pledge of their squires although they are limited to only two.¡± she added. ¡°So, in theory by knighting my son, Aleera would allow him to gain twice what he would give her in attributes,¡± He inquired further. ¡°In theory yes, but only if the oaths are given freely without duress and are offered honestly with the intent to fulfil their vows. Anything less than theplete truth will not be acknowledged or rewarded by the system.¡± She answered. In my head, I went the other way. What about an emperor? How many would they be able to im? What would you have to do to qualify as an Emperor? Callen Kai Silver sea Emperor of the Ocean had a nice ring to it. King of Kings would it only be additive 110 oaths or multiplicative 1000 oaths. Either way, I was a long long long way away from aplishing anything like that in this lifetime or the next. However, I knew that the next step for Aleera and I would be to be acknowledged as Baron and Baroness, rather than mere Lord and Lady. Would that require more pearls being sent to the Prince? I was unsure. Alternatively was it possible for a Baron to raise his Adals to Lords and Ladies? Could I build my own Pyramid scheme with myself as the Pharoh? Or I postted I could build a hidden kingdom and a hidden army each of my cousins a general in a standing army that acted more like the reserves hidden unless called for. I was sure there were probably limitations in ce but it was nice to dream of not only empowering myself but my whole family. . . . The Silversea ns¡¯ children all gathered around the table, for you guessed it, tea. Our first lesson was to be serving tea to one another. I, still failing to reach the table was excused from attempting to serve the tea. The other children looked less than impressed at their first lesson. But were too polite or careful of Lady Acacia to say anything out loud at least. ¡°First impressions are important.¡± Lady Acacia said taking her position at the top of the table. ¡°You can never make the first impression twice. It might seem obvious but a surprising number of people forget this fact. We might modte our opinions of others up and down from what they first are but they will always be based on our first impressions. Rarely will someone be given the opportunity to shatter the first impression they made. For the most part, all they can do is slowly improve or quickly lower someone¡¯s opinion of yourself. That is why it is imperative that the first one you make is the best it can be. I can tell from your facial expressions that a fair few of you seem less than impressed at the idea. Consider this my first impression of you. Could it be better? Aleera, my dear would you care to demonstrate the benefits of working with me over thest month.¡± ¡°Certainly, Lady Acacia,¡± Aleera answered before she began to set the table and pour the tea. Having watched her improvements over thest month it did not seem too miraculous to me as she glided around the room to set things up. Especially as we had verbal exnations of all the skills she was using up till now and exmations each time she had received a new one or managed to level it up. She was using Glide, Ambidextrous, Poise, Grace, Charm, and Composure, as well as her more recently learned skills Silent step, Deft touch, Posture and Dance to make setting the table andying out tea an almost magical moment. It just needed some music to be part of a choreographed musical or Disney film. That or we needed some dwarfs and some tes to make it seem more miraculous that no tes were smashed. The cousins lost a little of their scepticism as they watched my sister achieve everything wlessly. It was hard to argue with skills and thest time they had seen Aleera she had none of the above. Neither had I for that matter but I wasn¡¯t giving the demonstration here she was. Whatever weakness she had had from the transferral of stats seemed to have left her by now and she was making extra use of the dexterity to go that little bit faster than usual. We had been given a preview of the skills on disy here most mealtimes perhaps in practice for today¡¯s events. It was hard to judge how far ahead Lady Acacia was nning or what she viewed as the next steps in Aleera¡¯s journey to be a suitable noble Lady. I enjoyed watching the performance. She had learned silent step by the expedience of wrapping cloth around her shoes initially before practising without. Deft touch had been achieved using an enchanted toy that zapped you with every misced movement much like the fairground challenge where you had to move a hoop along a copper wire. Posture was just another version of poise but had been achieved simrly. Dance was learned through movement to music and was my favourite skill finally helping me ovee my two left feet. In the privacy of my hidden tunnels, I danced to music only I could hear. I settled down to watch while Lady Acacia started to teach our cousins. She seemed to be determined that each child would have gained a skill by the time they left the ind this afternoon. While the younger of us were able to watch without too much being demanded of us. She was still under the allusion that I had yet to be able to view my status. While I watched the fumbling attempts of my cousins to reach the level of perfection required by the strict tutor I wondered what the adults were discussing back in the hall. . . . The Silversea n stood in a smaller circle now that their children had left. "Well, father are you happy now?" Aaron asked Grandpa Smit. "Your descendants are finally ennobled. But will it be worth the cost and can we weather the storm it will bring?" "It will be worth it." Grandpa Smit replied. . . . Chapter 94: Occams Razor Chapter 94: am''s Razor "No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary, ie, the fewer assumptions an exnation of a phenomenon depends on, the better the exnation." William of am Operation Silversea had been a huge sess we now had the branches of the Silversea n to support our endeavours. It was not arge change in how Grandpa Smit had always run his family, but it had made the private unwritten rules public. It had also changed the head of the family in name if not yet in nature. The seven sons and two daughters were now pulling in the same direction under the supervision of . . . well technically Aleera. However, she had not made any big decisions yet. The branches of the Silversea n seemed happy with the new skills and progress that their children were making with Lady Acacia. They had also offered lessons in return, to help the new Lady Silversea familiarise herself with the resources that she had to call upon. Aleera and I enjoyed being shown around our cousin''s homes and ces of work. All elements of life in Wester that I had missed growing up on the ind in istion. We visited our uncles in the order of their birth. First Aaron and his forge, Farhoni, Fabrian and Fabrianna were happy to show us around. They even let me y with a mini hammer and cold forge. Next, we visited Barric who showed us his field his six children showed us the best spots for picking fruits and we whispered that next time they visited for a lesson with Lady Acacia we would have to show them our secret spots. Despite having Wanda working for us and helping out in the cauldron garden our secret garden remained secret somehow. Maybe she received more for her fruits in town when people thought they came from far away or were few and far between. Next, we visited Uncle Karl, who showed us the ropes of his work. From felling a tree to preparing nks out of it. All impressively down without sawmill or modern machinery simply skills and strength of stats. Our cousins Joyner and Sayer both had parts to y in the process and we were keptpany by Tessi while we watched from the side. We had seen Auntie Dushnah¡¯s home before but we had never visited her tanning room before. Although having visited it I now realised that we had smelt it before. It seemed a little macabre to my modern sensibilities but it was on reflection just a part of life here and nothing to get too squeamish about. After Auntie Dushnah it was time to see Hunter, we caught nothing but enjoyed a walk through the wooded areas of the ind. He pointed out a plethora of nts, animals and their tracks before heading further round theke to the less civilised side of our ind while Chase and Diane escorted us home. It was only as we returned did they find something in one of their traps they had reset on our morning walk north. We had a rabbit that evening for dinner. Uncle Romeo showed us his y pit where he mined the y to mould tiles and bricks baking them in the sun. Our cousins showed their progress with pots. It seemed that their mother had been and still was the one who was able to make the more elegant pottery while their father stuck with the basics when he was not making tiles or bricks. I tried not to delve into the ufortable history. Uncle Cephas showed us the town¡¯s quarry which much like the majority of the ind was owned by our family in one way or another. It was a surface quarry but cut into the side of the rising ridge line rather than delving deep into the Lodestone. Auntie Sharina showed us her home and sswork shed. It may have seemed small but she was able to create beautiful pieces. I looked forward to the day I might be big enough to have a go with her tools. I may still be small but I had big ns. All in all, it was a fun fortnight working our way around the family and being able to interact with our cousins without the weight of adult expectations or timetabled activities. The Silversea family had a strong foundation in this town. As much as theck of modernisation might seem strange to me, their products were quickly and precisely made. Their experience and skills allowed them to achieve results rapidly and without fail. The only person who seemed disgruntled with the new status quo was Lady Acaia herself. Although it took her a while toe clean about that fact. ¡°You are not being honest with me.¡± Lady Acacia interrupted the evening meal with her statement. ¡°We all keep secrets,¡± Arawn answered shrugging in response. It still seemed strange to think of him as anything other than Grandfather, but Arawn Silversword was certainly a perfect example of someone who kept more than oneyer of secrets. Like an onion, shrivelled and smelly, you peeled back oneyer of secrets to find another. I was sure he was still harbouring many more. I just was not nning on being a hypocrite in demanding them all from him. ¡°Is there something, in particr, you are referring to?¡± Mother asked. It was a good question. Our house was not a house built on a web of lies but there were certainly a few secrets holding it up. Our pearl production, the initial hidden salt production, our yet-to-be-revealed production of purple, our hidden caldera garden, me. The list was not endless but there was more than one item on it. I wondered what in particr she was getting at. ¡°Do you two have another child?¡± she quietly demanded. The whispered question meant little when everyone at the table could hear it. However, she had hesitated to raise the issue. ¡°No,¡± answered Mother perplexed. She tilted her head, before stating, ¡°You had another child.¡± Somehow aware that there was more to the answer than a simple negative. ¡°Yes, but he died at birth. Caelus he would have been called.¡± Father stepped in to answer what was a distressing topic for the two of them. ¡°And you are sure of that?¡± She asked. ¡°Yes, I buried him myself.¡± He answered bewildered. ¡°Just to confirm neither of you two has any other children with anyone else outside of your marriage.¡± She repeated pedantically. ¡°Just what exactly are you asking?¡± Father blustered angrily. ¡°Simply whether you have any other illegitimate children.¡± She answered blithely. ¡°No!¡± Replied Mother and Father angrily. ¡°Aleera and Kai are our only children.¡± They defended vociferously. She paused bemused for a moment and murmured, "The simplest theory is usually the correct one," Before beginning again, ¡°In that case, if the issue does not lie with you two then it must lie with Aleera.¡± She frowned at Mother answering the question rather than demanding a response from her. One she nevertheless received. ¡°Me?¡± Aleera asked at the same time as Mother demanded, ¡°What about Aleera? ¡°You never mentioned in our initial talks that she was cursed.¡± She delivered leaving us in stunned confusion. Although it is possible she took our expressions to mean merely stunned as she continued into the silence we had left. ¡°It is an unusual and insidious curse to be sure, but I cannotplete my job if I do not understand the hurdles we need to surmount. I fully understand your desire not to mention it in front of your burgeoning n however I cannot do my job if you are notpletely honest with me.¡± We sat there in silence at the dinner table not quite sure how to respond. ¡°I fully understand the plots and machinations that noble families use to stay on top of the pile in Ponente. Honestly, to curse a young scion is not a surprising development. It sticks to the letter of thew that Aleera will live to her 20th year and attend her debutante ball.¡± We were left wondering what she was talking about. ¡°I am assuming that you have received a ransom or demand for the cure. I can¡¯t quite work out how you managed to be cursed so far from the court without me noticing it though. Have you received any gifts that I am unaware of?¡± We all turned to Aleera in confusion. The only one capable of exining. ¡°I¡¯m not cursed.¡± Aleera defended. We all had a sigh of relief. Although that was quickly interrupted by Lady Acacia once more. ¡°It is perfectly okay Aleera to ept help when you require it. Your family is here to support you and I am here to teach you. There is no shame in being susceptible to a Leech Curse. We will simply have to work to remove it.¡± ¡°A leech curse? What is a leech curse?¡± Father asked. At the same time, Aleera continued to defend herself. ¡°I¡¯m not cursed. Wouldn¡¯t that appear on my status?¡± ¡°A curse much like an oath is a way in which to manipte another¡¯s stats although unlike the consequences of oaths being positive the oue for curses is entirely negative for both the individual who casts it and the one who receives it. The main reason I believed it is more likely is that you would have an illegitimate sibling rather than a curse. And yes it would appear on your stats.¡± ¡°There is no curse on my status.¡± Aleera kept on repeating herself. ¡°Look if you do not have another sibling and are not cursed then how do you ount for your missing stats.¡± ¡°What missing stats?¡± We all asked confused. Although I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going. ¡°By my eye, you should have gained approximately 30 points in vitality, 30 points in strength, 70 points in endurance, 40 points in dexterity, 10 in senses and 10 in mind. This means that even with a measly 30 points of endurance you should have received your first perk and you haven¡¯t. If I had to guess I would judge you to have received just half of what I have stated. Either you have an older brother who has through your n¡¯s oaths gained half of the stats or you are cursed to only receive half of what you should have. Either way, I cannot help you move progress if you are not honest about your status.¡± She ended exasperated. ¡°I have always beenpletely honest with you Lady Acacia. I am Level: 12,¡± she started before being interrupted. ¡°That¡¯s not necessary Aleera.¡± Grandfather intervened frowning. ¡°Yes, it is. I¡¯m not lying!¡± She answered before listing the rest of her stats for the entire table to hear. ¡°Level 12: Title: Lady Name: Aleera Silversea Age: 10 years Vitality: 75 Endurance: 95 Strength: 75 Dexterity: 80 Senses: 65 Mind: 65 Magic: 60 rity: 60 Charisma: 60 Free Points: 78 As I listened to her stats I realised a couple of things. 1st I had higher stats than my sister in everything bar strength. 2nd she had worked on bncing herself at around 60 judging by the free points she must have spent and her mental attributes. 3rd she was very close to getting the perk for endurance. ¡°Thank you Aleera for your honesty but that just proves my point. Unless you only had 25 points in Endurance which I highly doubt based on your ability to keep up with my training then you are missing some of the points you should have. Someone here is not being honest.¡± She looked around the table at my Grandfather, Father and Mother. It seemed she was no longer doubting my sister. ¡°I understand that fidelity can sometimes be an issue within any marriage but as I said earlier I cannot tutor Aleera to the best of my ability if I am bound by broken truths.¡± She pushed her chair under and left the room. Having listened to all of the above the issue was obvious, even if my family didn¡¯t realise it yet, it was me. Chapter 95: Out of the mouths of infants Chapter 95: Out of the mouths of infants ¡°Even as wisdom oftenes from the mouths of babes, so does it oftene from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where ites.¡± Mahatma Gandhi ¡°That would be me?¡± she repeated, seemingly fascinated by the fact that I could talk. ¡°Yes,¡± I replied simply. I was tempted to repeat, ¡®That would be me, not you.¡¯ But I was unsure how she would take my attempt at humour. This whole situation depended on her reactions in more ways than one. How would she respond to the revtion that I was more than I seemed? ¡°You the infant brother?¡± she repeated looking at the rest of my family to see if we were pulling her leg. However, their serious faces and nods of confirmation seemed to reassure her that this was the reality of the situation. ¡°Yes,¡± I confirmed once more alongside my family¡¯s silent affirmation. ¡°And you received the other half of the stats?¡± She reached for rification confirming her belief that Aleera had not gained all of them. Pushing past the initial shock that she was after all conversing with an infant. Maybe elves matured young? ¡°Yes.¡± Again, I answered. ¡°Yet, you are younger than her. Somehow you can see your stats?¡± she seemed to be extrapting possible answers from my responses. I nodded, tired of repeating myself. ¡°Do you have skills as well as stats?¡± She probed. ¡°Yes, I can see my stats and skills,¡± I added. ¡°Since when?¡± she seemed to be reaching for my limits or finding out how deep my foundations were. ¡°My stats or my skills?¡± I asked ¡°Both, either?¡± she ignored my flippant response and focused on the details. ¡°As far back as I can remember, I¡¯ve always seen them.¡± That might be stretching the truth a little I had after all been able to see them before my eyes had physically developed enough to open. ¡°Which came first?¡± she asked. Which seemed a weird question. ¡°Why does that matter?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really in the end matter but much like the chicken and the egg it is a question often asked. When children normally first gain ess to their status, after the age of 5, they always have themon six stats as well as at least one basic skill. It could be singing, sailing, running anything really but they all start at level 1 with the experience of their first level. The question is whiches first their status or the skill? Can you have a skill without a status or a status without a skill? I admit it is not immediately relevant to the matter at hand, but I have always wondered myself which came first. ¡°Status then skills,¡± I revealed. ¡°So did you truly start at Level 0 then without a skill?¡± happy to have put that conundrum to rest. ¡°Yes, I did,¡± I remembered back to the first moment I had awoken. Without something to do, some skill to learn and practice, I thought I might have very well gone mad or at least learned how to hibernate within the womb. ¡°The paper I could write on this.¡± She smiled to herself before adding, ¡°Although most would doubt my findings. Evene and inspect you for themselves to verify my ims, which would be quite counter to your family¡¯s request for confidentiality, which I will of course honour.¡± She turned to my parents to reassure them that she was worthy of the trust we had been forced by circumstance to ce in her. ¡°If you would indulge my curiosity further. What about your stats? Did they grow from 0 as well?¡± She seemed absorbed by the intellectual theories my existence proved and disproved rather than me as an individual myself. I guessed that opportunities to talk to infants were far and few between. At least those who could remember gaining a status before a skill. ¡°More or less.¡± I avoided the fact that I had somehow brought the majority of my mind stats with me from my previous life despite the somehow dubious ability of an infant¡¯s brain to have space for them all. How that was possible I had yet to work out. But all that mattered was that it had. ¡°Very well, thank you for indulging my curiosity. However, if you have skills then you clearly have levels.¡± She theorised. ¡°And if you have levels then you have free points. Can you allocate them as well, alongside your ability to have a visible status from birth?¡± she asked intrigued. ¡°Not yet.¡± I smiled still a little disappointed about that. But in retrospect, it had probably prevented me from making a bigger mess of things than I actually had anyway. Although I liked to think that I would have been smarter than that my actions made a mockery of that thought. There was plenty that my ignorance had helped me to trip over. It also sidestepped the fact that my mother had allocated most of my stats for me before I was born. ¡°So,¡± she pondered, ¡°Stats, skills, and levels already. This leads me to ask whether you have been able to unlock your perks. Or no, maybe more than that. It has always been hypothesised that the speed of natural growth in children¡¯s statses from the natural increase in their vessel¡¯s strength, speed and endurance through puberty. Even children¡¯s ability to think, their rity of thought and their magic expands rapidly through their teenage years. The system¡¯s acknowledgement of the natural improvement of the vessel¡¯s capabilities is reflected in their naturally growing status alongside their burgeoning levels of skill. Perks I felt were prying a tad too far. Why I don¡¯t know. I had revealed a lot to her already, one long list of revtions but I still liked to keep some things closer to my chest. ¡°Noment.¡± ¡°Noment?¡± She questioned before waving my evasion aside, ¡°So something for sure. No matter, for now, you are younger than any I have ever taught before. There will be plenty of time to create a cascade.¡± ¡°A cascade? What¡¯s a cascade?¡± Aleera asked my question for me, perhaps reminding Lady Acacia of her presence so used was she to her undivided attention that was now focused solely on me. ¡°A cascade is the name for a certain sequence of improvements. The method by which you can use a perk for passing 100 in a stat to leverage your next perk in another stat and if you are clever continue to do so across your status.¡± She exined. ¡°It was what I was nning to do with your training once you received your perk for endurance.¡± ¡°So, if I had received the perk for Endurance what woulde next?¡± She asked intrigued. ¡°There are a couple of different routes, but a perk in endurance can lead to a perk in strength through greater repetition of training enabled by your endurance perk. Then you can use your perk of strength to give you a greater explosion of speed leading to levelling up your dexterity which is more than just speed but it is a significant contributor to it. Through all of the above Vitality itself should have continued to level and be close topletion etc.¡± ¡°What about the other stats? Are they not part of the cascade?¡± she continued to quiz. ¡°Ideally in a perfect world yes you could lead into the stat and so on however often to continue the cascade and achieve your perks before the time limit, it is necessary to use your free points. Another reason, I hasten to add, is why it is imperative to make the most of your stats in the first year of allocation. The mostmon cascade is in the order of Vitality, Endurance, Strength then Dexterity creating the warriors with perks for brawn. The second mostmon cascade would be mind, senses, magic then rity creating the mages with perks of mind. Of course, there are also the twin pairs such as dexterity leading to rity or mind leading to charisma but they are hardly cascades only capable of delivering dual perks whenpared to four perks or more.¡± Lady Acacia exined in more detail. When I looked back at my development I saw how I could have worked on a smoother progression. But I also saw how my stats had jumped in twin pairs one perk following the other. I was hardly a normal infant it was no surprise that my progression had not followed the standard format of cascades. It hardly mattered as I had made it there anyway and far sooner than most if not all. ¡°Can I still achieve a cascade of perks?¡± Asked Aleera concerned. ¡°You certainly should be able to achieve one simply through the remaining free points.¡± She reassured my sister. ¡°However, with your brother consuming half of the stats offered by your Adals and cousins a second cascade might be challenging to achieve in time.¡± Seemingly reminded of my existence by her words, she focused on me once more. Forgetting the tangent my sister had led her down with her questions. ¡°I was under the impression that you were only a year old, are you even human?¡± she asked. ¡°As far as I know.¡± I shrugged. She turned to my mother and father, ¡°He is a human boy? There were no extra-marital dalliances?¡± she intruded on their privacy once more to take with the topic to care for their privacy. ¡°No.¡± They frowned as they repeated yesterday¡¯s answer together. But she was not to be discouraged too quickly, continuing with this line of questioning, ¡°Do either of you have any other noble race¡¯s blood in your lineage?¡± ¡°No,¡± they answered. ¡°Why would that even matter?¡± ¡°How is this even possible?¡± she asked herself more than us. ¡°Why would that matter?¡± Father asked the question again having been ignored. ¡°Humanity is the only race that is born without a trait something that many a man has found unfair. A child born from two races can sometimes gain the traits of both.¡± She exined. ¡°What seems to have been achieved by chance here has been attempted before on purpose in the past. Why only a hundred years past the half-blood kings attempted to create the Compass Empire out of the continent. That was precisely what they were aiming for. The child in question would have been born with the traits of 4 noble races each half-blood king¡¯s offspring carrying the trait of one noble race. Strength from the Half-Giant Prince, Endurance from the Half-Dwarf Princess, Vitality from the Half-Elf Prince and Senses from the Half-Beastkin Princess. It was a dynastic scheme, decades in the making. Ultimately with its failure and the fall of the Half-Blood Kings, such mixing and their offspring has fallen out of favour. Still, half-bloods are still to be found on the edges of society or hidden in the higher ranks. Humans with stronger perks or even sometimes elements of the noble race¡¯s traits.¡± She answered my father¡¯s questions but it just created more questions of my own. ¡°How old are you truly?¡± she asked focussing back on that matter at hand, me. ¡°Two years and four months.¡± The fewer years you had made those months all the more important. Two years and four months sounded older than two and a quarter to me at least. ¡°Not even 3 and you can count, talk and see your stats. Why not head for the capital with him?¡± she asked the hall the question open to all. ¡°I¡¯m sure you can imagine why,¡± Grandfather answered for us all. ¡°I¡¯m sure you can imagine the feeding frenzy fighting over him. Those who could not have him or control him would simply try to kill him. Where would that leave us, his family? The more who know about him the less safe it bes.¡± ¡°Yes, but nearly 3 years lost. Think of what he could have learned in that time with the correct tuition.¡± She argued, acknowledging Grandfather¡¯s point and then ignoring it. ¡°I¡¯ve hardly been standing still,¡± I defended myself. ¡°Would he have been allowed to learn or would he have been bound to one cause or another? He was and is safer here away from the politics. Besides we have taught him well enough.¡± He added. I coughed at that. ¡®Well enough¡¯ was a subjective rather than objective opinion. Personally, having lived through his version of training, I thought it could have been done better. Ignoring Grandfather, she excitedly inquired, ¡°What else can you do?¡± ¡°I think that is enough for now.¡± Grandfather intervened. ¡°Oh,e now. This is the child of the century imagine what he will be capable of given time. You cannot expect me not to be curious when meeting him for the first time. Think of what he could aplish. Think of what we could achieve.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve met him before.¡± Highlighting the fact that she had not noticed at first, ¡°Given time, I¡¯m sure he will be capable of a lot.¡± Grandfather as always advocating the position, speak less and frown more. ¡°Given time, exactly. Give me the time. Callen must join Aleera in her training. We can keep their lessons separate from the cousins if you still wish to keep your wider family and the public unaware of his abilities but to fail to educate the infant, nay boy would be a crime against history.¡± She seemed passionate about her appeal. I hoped that Lady Acacia¡¯s sudden enthusiasm for tutoring mepared to when she arrived to tutor my sister, did not damage my rtionship with my sister. ¡°Hardly a crime, he is happy as he is.¡± Grandfather grumpily asserted my opinion for me, not that he was wrong. Life had been good and any change could be for the better or for the worse. ¡°Are you happy?¡± she asked me directly ignoring Grandfather. Looking around at my family, my father, my mother, my sister even my Grandfather, ¡°Yes.¡± I answered. ¡°I could make you a hero,¡± she whispered her words somehow mine alone to hear judging by how my family failed to react to them, her lips never moving. ¡°I¡¯m happy singing with my mother, sailing with my father and making money with my sister . . .¡± I paused teasing my Grandfather with my silence before relenting and adding, ¡°even fighting with Grandfather.¡± ¡°I could make your son more than a man I could make him a legend.¡± She instead tried to convince my parents. ¡°At what cost?¡± Grandfather objected. ¡°Fame and fortune favour the bold there is a risk to everything yes. However, every legend started somewhere and those who have achieved it without exceptional circumstances all had exceptional stats. A child who has been able to see his stats since he was born, a child who has been able to gain skills, and a child who has been able to gain levels for ten years before allocation instead of 5 simply must have exceptional stats. Let me give him exceptional circumstances and he will blossom.¡± She added an impassioned plea. It was difficult to tell why she was so enthralled by the idea of teaching me. What was the opportunity she saw that I was missing? ¡°He has learned all the skills you have taught me so far. What more could you teach him?¡± Aleera asked. "All the skills?" she queried raising an eyebrow. "All the skills you''ve taught me so far." She repeated, proud of her own ability to impart them to me. "What else could you teach him that you haven''t taught me?" ¡°My magic.¡± She answered. Chapter 96: Spellcraft and Spellsong Chapter 96: Spellcraft and Spellsong ¡°Words and Magic were in the beginning one and the same thing and even today words retain much of their magical power.¡± Sigmund Freud ¡°Magic?¡± I asked intrigued. Magic! Yes, please! Yes, I had some and yes it was fun, intriguing and exciting to explore the possibilities. But at the same time, it did feel like most of my applications of mana were brute-forcing the matter rather than intelligently wielding the powers of wizardry. I had a variety of system-supported spells but all of them so far was simply an application of my understanding of science from my old world. Mana in meant things heated up. Mana out or held still meant things froze. Even my stone singing was an application of Mana and sound yet another type of energy although this time modted by a frequency. What would be possible with an actual tutor? ¡°Yes, my magic.¡± Lady Acacia answered. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you taught me any yet?¡± Asked Aleera sounding a little hurt that she had not yet been offered the opportunity to do more than walk smoothly, stand straight, and present herself with decorum and grace. All the hallmarks of nobility but none of the power. ¡°It was not yet time. It was far more important for you toplete your cascade within the first year than it was to learn some spells. Perks are for life but can only be gained by the end of the first year of allocation. The various schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry can be learnedter there is no time limitation to me tutoring you in those.¡± She exined her rationale for her dy in teaching the more exciting elements of her curriculum. ¡°A variety of schools? Is there more than one type of school?¡± I asked, hoping to hear her answers. These were some exciting revtions. ¡°Yes, there is more than one school of thought and manner of using mana.¡± She answered happily to engage me in further conversation responding to my sudden enthusiasm in the matter. All teachers enjoy teaching those who wish to be taught. At least those with any passion left for their profession. It appeared to be the same for tutors. ¡°While the system and its skills may be the overarching framework for life within thepass, once you have unlocked your magic stat there are a variety of different ways in which it can be developed and utilised.¡± ¡°Such as?¡± Even my mother was interested in these answers. Answers she would have probably been given growing up if she hadn¡¯t been forced to flee with Grandfather from the Kingdom of Maestro before she was even old enough to realise that she had ever even left it. ¡°Where to start, where to start . . .¡± She paused. ¡°In the effort of being fully transparent, I am not an expert in any of the schools. I tutor children, not full-grown Word weavers, Tree singers, Glyph masons, Runesmiths, or any of the other disciplines. Neither can I tutor you in the Royal Elemental powers. However, I can, if you will let me tutor you, give you a basic understanding of Alchemy, Enchanting, Mana maniption, Spell craft, Spell song and healing. An understanding of which at least is required for all nobles less they are taken advantage of, or put at a disadvantage at court. You will need to know what people are capable of even if you are incapable of wielding such powers. As for my magic, I am most proficient in the school of Tree Singing and would be closer to the human profession of Druid of which there are many in the kingdom of Maestro.¡± She answered for the first time sounding almost humble in her acknowledgement of a broad understanding of magic rather than specialised knowledge in all fields. A druid? Lady Acacia hardly looked anything like what I would be imagining as a druid. I guessed different worlds meant different meanings to words. It was important not to get hung up on semantics. Right here in front of us was a professed wielder of magic. Someone who had what sounded like an example or two from each field of magic which she could hopefully demonstrate and teach me. It would elerate my progress so much. I might not have wanted to be her charge for the fame or the fortune, but I was seriously considering doing it for the magic she offered. ¡°Can you show me some magic?¡± My childish exuberance was no act, I was keen to see what she could do. I was also hoping to see something a little more wonderous and wholesome than the deadly skills my Grandfather had demonstrated over the year. She raised her hand saying ¡°Phos¡± and light red forth. A spell! I could create light. Well, I could already create light with my mana motenterns but that was another creature turning my mana into the light. Here was somethingpletely different. Words alone seemed to be enough for her. Or perhaps she was verbalising a skill? Either way, it was something I wanted to learn. ¡°That is an example of Word Weaving, the primary magic school of humans, Spellcraft.¡± She exined her disy. ¡°You utilise the word to determine your intent and power it with your mana. A direct application of mana, it is one of the simplest spells I can teach you.¡± She shed a simple sample of what she could do. ¡°What else can you do?¡± I quizzed. She plucked a small stone from her pocket and started singing to it. The magic this time was slower in happening but for those of us who had mana sense, it was all the more interesting. The Mana was noting from within her at all. Well, a little was but it seemed to be moving or drawing on the mana in the air and the mana in the stone more than from within herself. Coaxing it to flow rather than forcing it to. The stone cracked and began to expand. It soon became clear it wasn¡¯t a stone but a seed. It soon became a seedling sprouting up into a sapling. The sapling grew quickly in the palm of her hand. The most impressive aspect of this was the fact that the sapling was still growing. Whenever I applied my mana directly to a nt to help it grow quicker the main problem was theck of nutrients. Somehow how her song was pulling on the mana around her rather than simply pushing her own mana into it was sustaining the sapling far longer than my attempts ever had. By now based on the amount of growth achieved my mana would have forced it to burn out and die. But hers kept growing until it was a simple sapling no longer it was quickly forming a polished staff of sung wood. ¡°There is an example of Tree Singing, my speciality.¡± She finished her song as the staff thumped to the floor. "Rather than rely on your mana toplete the task you sing the mana of the world around us to support and power the spell, Spellsong." We were impressed. A way to utilise internal mana I had already realised and had acknowledged by the system. A way in which to use the world''s mana was something I had never even considered, attempted or achieved. We had just witnessed two schools of magic we had no ess to, both offered to us on a silver tter should I ept her tuition. I was convinced but still greedy. ¡°What about enchantment?¡± I asked eyes wide. ¡°I can show you basic enchantments woven into cloth, runes etched in metal and glyphs carved in stone should you be interested in my tuition of course.¡± She smiled happily to see that I was hooked on the idea of being tutored by her. I was ready to sign up and she could tell. But my parents were not quite yet convinced. ¡°I don¡¯t see why he needs to start now. When he is five is soon enough.¡± Father argued, he had quickly realised that the more time I spent with my new favourite tutor the less time I would spend with him sailing the sea. ¡°It is not just a good idea it is an essential idea. Especially if you hope to fix a problem you already have even if you have not yet noticed. My tuition of your child will be the only cost I request for helping you ovee what you have surely already started to suspect.¡± She argued her case from strength to strength, offering both carrots and cake as well as hinting at pitfalls she could somehow help us avoid. ¡°What problem?¡± Grandfather interrupted. ¡°His ageing.¡± Her abrupt response. ¡°There is nothing wrong with our child.¡± Mother defended me vigorously while Father asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with his ageing?¡± ¡°There is nothing wrong with your child. He is truly exceptional, but while he may have hesitated to reveal his perks earlier it is clear at least to me that he represents what the half-blood kings were hoping to create. If so, he will have the same problems they had.¡± She smiled alluding to a problem that required her help to fix. ¡°What problems?¡± Father asked confused. ¡°What do you know of elves?¡± she asked on a tangent that would hopefully lead us back to the topic at hand, me. ¡°A noble race originating from the northwest of thepass, they are long-lived . . .¡± He started to give a broad overview of the race before he was interrupted. ¡°Exactly, long-lived! The average elf lives for 1000 years if your child is anything like an elf child then you will need me or another elf to provide the same growth supplements they receive.¡± She began toy out the issue and judging by my mother¡¯s breath and grandfather¡¯s frown they had extrapted the hidden pitfall. ¡°Why? What supplements?¡± Father a step behind had yet to predict the problem. ¡°Think about it. If you let an elf grow at their natural pace from birth to death then on average it is going to take them approximately 10 years for every equivalent human year of growth.¡± She paused to allow him to catch up. Aleera now had followed the logic through and stood staring at me as if she could calcte what I had looked like and what I would look like in a year or a decade. Lady Acacia continued her lecture in more specific detail for my father, ¡°Your child, exceptional as he is, if I¡¯m not mistaken about his unrevealed perks, will still look like a child when you are dead and buried.¡± She paused to let him take that in before going on to exin my growth timetable in precise detail. ¡°It may very possibly take him 50 years for him to look like a 5-year-old. 100 years for him to look like a 10-year-old. With you lucky to gain the stats to live till he looks like he is 11 or 12. People are going to notice.¡± She pointed out the hidden catch to the trait long-lived. It was true that my ageing had been a little slower than most but at the same time, my understanding had been a little quicker. It was part of the reason why we felt that I could pull off being a younger brother. However, I hadn¡¯t realised it was going to be that bad. There was no way I was going to stay an infant for 50 years if there was an alternative. ¡°What supplements do they have that he needs? Could we not buy them ourselves?¡± Grandfather interrogated unwilling to trust the tutor to be the sole solution to our predicament. ¡°There are other growth elixirs it is true but they all have their own detriments they inflict on the body. Callen will need the elvish one to support his growth which I hasten to add is only made by and sold to elves. To any other race, it would be detrimental as well and therefore is not an elixir easily sourced by any race other than my own.¡± She highlighted the challenges we would face if we attempted to solve this conundrum without her support. ¡°What do you mean detrimental and why is the Elvish Elixir of Growth the only one you would rmend for Callen?¡± Grandfather demanded not quite yet ready to capitte to the idea that this was the only solution. ¡°Well, first off, humanity as a whole does not have this problem so has no solution or at least not one that would not require aplete and exhaustive exnation of your current situation. Once you feel you are far too weak to afford.¡± She pointed out the fact that most human babies did not have my constitution. It would seem that neither did the nobles. ¡°Second, it has to be an elixir that allows an elvish infant to achieve quick physical growth to match their mind but it also needs to be an elixir derived from something that lives for a very long time to bnce this out less it cut years off the length of our lives. Can you not think of something that Elves might be able to derive an elixir of growth from? What do we harbour, protect and support within our forests?¡± ¡°Trees?¡± guessed father not afraid to have a stab at an answer. ¡°Yes, and?¡± We on the other hand hesitated to guess incorrectly. ¡°The noble race of elves living in the light of the Lodestar have the long-lived trait, the base race of trolls living under the dark of the Lodestone have the regeneration trait. What other race hails from the northwest of thepass continent and what trait do they hold?¡± Grandfather finally jumped in with the answer we were all waiting for, ¡°The neutral race of the dryads living in the twilight between star and stone have the trait, shapeshift. Moreover, as long as their tree is safe are functionally immortal.¡± ¡°Exactly it takes parts of all three races to create the Elvish Elixir for growth that will allow Callen to grow at the same pace as a normal human without risking hypothetical and experimental human efforts at an elixir. Without me how do you hope toe across an elf, a troll and a dryad, let alone be able to attempt to create an elixir?¡± ¡°How much would it cost?¡± Grandfather asked defensively. ¡°It would be free on the condition that you will allow me to tutor the boy.¡± Her offer left my family speechless, particrly after the earlier position where she argued over every percentage of our profit she desired as payment for her services. It felt as if we were missing something here but what I couldn¡¯t guess. Lady Acacia seemed to realise she had led us to an impasse and satisfied in gaining our confidence or confession left us with one final statement, ¡°I¡¯m sure we all have a lot to consider. Either way, I am not going anywhere, will continue to tutor Aleera and await your decision regarding Callen at your earliest convenience.¡± She left the room leaving us once more with a lot of revtions to discuss but also only leaving us one true solution as far as I could see. . . . Chapter 97: Time to grow up Chapter 97: Time to grow up ¡°One curious thing about growing up is that you don¡¯t only move forward in time; you move backwards as well, as pieces of your parents¡¯ and grandparents¡¯ livese to you.¡± Philip Pullman ¡°I¡¯m doing it.¡± I said as soon as she had left. ¡°There¡¯s no rush to grow up.¡± Mother replied calmly. ¡°If I don¡¯t rush it sounds like you will never see me grow up,¡± I answered ¡°I¡¯m just saying this isn¡¯t something you have to decide on right now. You have plenty of time to make a decision.¡± She continued, my parents had gradually grown used to talking to me as someone who couldprehend a lot more than a child but when she looked at me I was still her baby. ¡°I¡¯m not waiting 100 years to look like I¡¯m 10.¡± Iined. ¡°We¡¯re not asking you too. Just don¡¯t be in such a rush to grow up.¡± Father added. ¡°It¡¯s not like I will suddenly be an adult. The elixir sounds like it is a lot slower growth than that but a lot faster than the speed I am currently growing at.¡± I argued. ¡°A couple of years older would be fine,¡± hepromised, ¡°but what about our sailing? You said it yourself, life is good now. Why grow up quicker?¡± he asked me to think about the snap decision I was making. ¡°There¡¯s no reason I can¡¯t do both. Besides she already expressed an interest ining out to see the reef she could alwayse out to it once or twice with us.¡± I added another item to my daily to do list. It was a lot to do but at the same time, the benefit of living on the edges of society in a preindustrialised world was that there were no distractions, no inte, no tv, no radio and unfortunately until Lady Acacia arrived no books to take up your time. ¡°I hardly think the open sea is the best ce to have a go at practising your spell craft and spell song. We have been safe enough sailing but that is because we have been careful, cautious and alert at all times, something I hardly think you will be able to be while singing the sea alive or whatever else it is she is hoping to teach you.¡± He pointed out. ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t know he might be able to pick up the skills quicker on top of a mana reef after all.¡± Grandfather chimed in always ready to make the reasonable less so. The mere fact that he was supporting my idea made me suddenly less sure it was a good one. ¡°All I am saying is that there is no need to rush into anything.¡± Mother ended the conversation with, ¡°We cane back to thister.¡± Aleera and I headed off to see our garden, I was wondering what would happen if I started singing to the nts. As we left, Aleera hissed at me, ¡°If she teaches you magic skills you are teaching me them too.¡± ¡°Fine, fine,¡± I answered. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you a skill or two if I Iearn any.¡± I waved her concern away. ¡°A skill for a skill, you owe me at least eight skills.¡± She bargained back, ever the opportunist. ¡°Okay, you mean merchant, I wasn¡¯t going to hide anything.¡± I grumbled. She raised an eyebrow at the idea that I wasn¡¯t hiding anything. ¡°I mean I¡¯m not going to hide anything more.¡± I shrugged as I struggled up the mountain after her. I wanted to grow up a little bit if only to get the longer legs that came with a bigger body. Pausing at a particrlyrge rock I looked up at her in an attempt to get some pity, ¡°Can I have a lift?¡± ¡°Fine, fine.¡± Sheughed and lifted me up. . . . Our daily dinner that evening with our resident guest was a strange affair. Lady Acacia now included me in all her demonstrations. She treated me as she did Aleera now. As if we had already epted her offer of tuition and the offer to help me grow up, even though we had yet to officially do so. Aleera modelling her newly gained skills action after Lady Acacia¡¯s instruction then the whole family and me copied them. It was not much different from earlier but now her focus seemed to be solely on my sister and I rather than attempting to correct Father who still sometimes failed or Mother and Grandfather who she seemed happy to let them learn at their own pace. Overall, I found it rtively easy to do having already been taught by Aleera in the first ce and having already acquired the majority of her new skills, even if not yet quite at the same level as her. Lady Acacia seemed suitably impressed, "Superb poise for one so young, we will do great things, great things." Ignoring the fact that my parents had yet to agree. Maybe she felt that ttery was the way forward and that I was the one she needed to convince. Thergest difference to dinner was not the skills of decorum but the fact that their practice and performance were now interrupted and inteced with examples of magic something she now knew I found far more riveting than what were effectively simply good table manners. ¡°Now this is of course frowned upon at a noble¡¯s table but I thought you would appreciate a simple example of what you will be capable of.¡± Instead of asking politely for the salt to be passed. She gestured at the salt only for it to slide along the table towards her. We looked on wide-eyed. If there was one product we had in abundance it was salt. We should probably provide each person with their own salt shaker in the future but for now it was an item to demonstrate her newest incentive for me to take up her lessons. ¡°Now obviously that effect is utilising more than one skill but the keyponents to that gesture were Word, Will and then supplying my own mana. It is from the school of Spell craft rather than spell song. A simple and direct transfer of my own mana to create an effect. It is also terribly poor table manners to do in a public ce but within a private setting or as an exercise to train children it is eptable enough.¡± She elucidated the particrs while still leaving us in the dark about how it was actually achieved. ¡°But you didn¡¯t say anything.¡± I pointed out already imagining creating a whirlwind of my belongings floating around me. ¡®Use the force Kai!¡¯ ¡°That was because I subvocalised. Silent spellcraft is the only polite spellcraft allowed at the dinner table only to be expected while dining. Anything more vocal shall we say would be apleteck of decorum and simple crass behaviour in an adult.¡± she admonished. ¡°Words? What were the words you used then?¡± I asked as she seemed happy to be teaching. ¡°Oa sal were the spell I used. Themand for the action confirmed my intent while I expended mana via the gesture.¡± She anticipated my next question answering it before I could ask. ¡°Can every noble do this?¡± asked Aleera intrigued by the possibilities and possible future threats. ¡°Yes and no.¡± She replied. ¡°Certainly, most will have mana and therefore magic to some extent. But for the most it will depend on what tutge they have received and their talent in it. I am in all modesty fairly proficient at it.¡± She humbly replied. I wanted to get started, pointing at things and demanding they fly over to me but could imagine the criticism I would receive were I to do it out loud and at the dining room table. Something to practice forter in the privacy of my room or secret tunnerls that I had been slowly expanding through the mountain. Oa and So¡¯mul. Two new spells to practice the question was whether I wanted to have a go on my own or whether it would be safer to wait for permission from my parents and tutge from the tutor. Oh, dearie me, but it was so tempting. I mean what could possibly go wrong? Saving fighting the temptation forter I kept asking questions. ¡°Do you get a skill for each spell I asked?¡± A little worried that my alreadyrge list of skills would be even more unwieldy. ¡°No that would be far too convoluted and result in apletely congested skill list. What you receive is a skill called spellcraft. Each spell though can give you a level in the skill. The same for spellsong although having to learn the songs required that tends to take a little longer to level up.¡± She paused returning to eat her food now that her demonstration was over. Aleera and I looked at one another and the salt in between us we opened our mouths inhaling to shout, ¡°. . .¡± ¡°Not at the dinner table.¡± Mother interrupted shutting down Alera and I before we could even begin. To our surprise, Lady Acacia came to our rescue saying, ¡°While frowned upon in a formal setting such disys of power will often be used to emphasise the superiority of nobles tomoners. So should youe across a noble alone, such disys are hardly umon. Furthermore, as I iterated earlier in private it is certainly allowed as practice for children.¡± We looked at our mother, while it may be allowed for other children it wasn''t to be for us at least not tonight at this table. Moving on, ¡°What else can you show us.¡± Aleera asked excitedly, equally keen to see this magical world opening up to us. ¡°Well earlier you asked after examples of enchanting, runes and glyphs. So I have brought here an example of an enchanted cloth. Note the thead and the pattern it has been woven into in the corner of the cloth.¡± She said as she passed around a handkerchief or rather a napkin that she had pulled from her sleeve. We all noted the fine cloth, and evening finer embroidery stitched into the corner of it. Even mother seemed curious to see both the weaving as well as the effect it would cause. ¡°What does it do?¡± I asked excited. Imagining . . . well anything was possible really with magic. Maybe it could fly? A mini magic flying carpet. ¡°It keeps it dry.¡± She answered with a somewhat disappointing answer although probably a practical one. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± asked Aleera asked a little nonplussed at the magical effect imbued by the embroidery. ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± she smiled at Aleera¡¯s response. ¡°But think of the applications. Here let me demonstrate.¡± She said as she spilled a little of her or rather a lot of her drink on to the table before mopping it up with the cloth leaving the stone table dry. Then she handed the cloth to Aleera. ¡°It¡¯s still dry.¡± she eximed surprised. ¡°As is the table, my dear.¡± Still teaching a point. ¡°But where did the water go?¡± I asked confused. That simply didn¡¯t make sense. Had it been boiled away evaporated or both. How could it absorb the water from the table in the first ce if it was supposed to stay dry? "What would happen if you put it into a bucket full of water or the sea for that matter?" I asked thatst question aloud. ¡°Well it is a simple enchantment so I dare say only half the bucket of water would disappear but for most purposes and the purpose it was made for, it suffices. As for the sea that would either overwhelm the enchantment or if it is cleverly conceived the cloth would stay dry despite failing to drain the sea. Still, it is only an enchantment on cloth, not a rune etched in metal or a glyph carved in stone which would have stronger effects. Still, I hope it highlights the importance of your sewing skills Aleera and demonstrates the importance of my lessons.¡± She added pointedly towards my parents. ¡°What about runes? Do you have one of those here too? I asked excited by the possibilities. She pulled a thin metal te embedded into a ceramic tile much like a coaster out of her purse cing it on the table before requesting our metal carafe of water. Then she opened a small pouch from her purse and put what looked like a few loose tea leaves in the carafe before cing it on the metal tile. ¡°Now the activation for this is fairly simple, simply supply mana and vo!¡± The metal square started to glow and with the glow came heat with the carafe quickly starting to boil releasing the scent ofvender tea across the table. Once boiled she carefully poured herself a cup of tea for Aleera, herself and me. ¡°That is a heating rune. Quite amon ce rune in the capital although it is true that the best-etched runes are the ones supplied by the Dwarven Domain in the mountains of the North Eastern Kingdom of Greco. While the runes themselves seem simple enough theirs alwaysst longer and work better than any who manage to copy them." ¡°And Glyphs?¡± ¡°I brought one of my stones. Here are a pair of Callstons. They are a set of paired glyph stones that allow your voice to travel to the other. Aleera if you would like to demonstrate.¡± She said as she handed one of them to Aleera. ¡°Just fill the glyph with a little mana the stone will do the rest.¡± She exined while pointing to the door. Aleera left the room to demonstrate, but her voice soon came back to us from the stone she ced on the table. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± we heard her ask. ¡°Yes, dear, thank you. Come back in.¡± shemanded and Aleera soon rejoined us. ¡°These Callstons are not particrly long range but they should have enough range for you to stay in contact with your husband when he is out sailing on your boat as long as he doesn¡¯t sail too far. A gift from me to you.¡± She said as she handed them to Mother and Father. Clearly a bribe to keep them happy and evidence she was still working on bringing my mother around. ¡°Thank you.¡± She politely responded although if she really wanted to bribe my mother she should be offering up the embroidered enchantments as those were far more to my mother¡¯s taste. Still, I supposed in a world without phones perhaps the importance of what was effectively magic walkie-talkies could not be underestimated. No more worrying whether Father and I would return when we were only a use of mana away from speaking to us. ¡°Where did you get them?¡± Aleera asked as she went over to look at the stones in front of my Mother. ¡°These were gifted to me by a friend of mine. They were made in the Northern Compass Kingdom of Tramontana by the Stone Wizards who learned from the Giants of the Northern Reaches.¡± She answered. ¡°Just as best Runes made by the Dwarves the best Glyphs are made by the Giants although they are a little simpler for others to copy as the originals were farrger.¡± "Just a little sample of what I will be teaching Aleera in the future. Hopefully, it will not be too long before Callen joins us as well. In fact here is a small sample of the growth elixir unfortunately it is all I have on hand but with your permission, I should be able to source some more when Mercurio next returns. Mind you take care to only use a drop at a time less you stress his vessel. What you have will probably be enough to elerate his growth to the equivalent of a 5-year-old." "Thank you for your generosity." Mother said while frowning. I watched as she carefully pocketed the elixir leaving no temptation left on the table. While I stared at the empty space. "The meal was lovely, thank you." Lady Acacia said before retiring. Leaving us with plenty of food for thought. Chapter 98: Growing pains Chapter 98: Growing pains ¡°Growth hurts because change isn¡¯t easy, that¡¯s why they call it growing pains.¡± Tony Gaskins . . . . . I sidled onto the dock where Father was working on his boat, ¡°Can I have a drop?¡± I asked Father first, thinking that he was probably the best bet at getting a favourable decision. ¡°No, go ask your mother.¡± He avoided taking sole responsibility for the decision. I left him and went to find my mother. . . . . . I wandered into the kitchen where Mother was working, ¡°Can I have a drop?¡± I asked Mother the guardian of the elixir. ¡°No, ask your father.¡± She replied without looking at me. ¡°I¡¯ve already asked him, he told me to ask you.¡± I responded ¡°Maybeter.¡± She sighed probably exasperated with Father for passing the buck. Leaving her for the moment, I left before she could give me a job to do. But it wouldn¡¯t be long before I was back. . . . . . A short whileter, ¡°Can I have one now.¡± I popped my head into the room and whined. I didn¡¯t exactly expect a different answer but it was difficult to know that the answer to myck of height was sitting on a shelf just out of reach. Oh, the irony. I mean I could probably climb up to get it. However, that would hardly be a particrly subtle attempt at appropriating it and I would definitely be stopped in the process. ¡°No, your father and I need to discuss thister.¡± If in doubt dy while saying you are waiting for someone else¡¯s decision. I grumpily stomped off in search of my sister. Who was suspiciously difficult to find. . . . . . ¡°How about now? Have you discussed it yet?¡± I wheedled. It was not that I didn¡¯t have other things to do but this one was all I could think about now. An itch I couldn¡¯t scratch. Or a stone in my shoe worrying at my thoughts. ¡°No, Kai.¡± Mother exasperated used my real name. ¡°I know you are doing this on purpose.¡± Unimpressed at my childish behaviour especially when she knew I was putting it on. Yes, a child, a true child might be unable to regte their behaviour, but they knew that I was far from a regr child and therefore knew I could do better. Even if it felt as if I couldn¡¯t. ¡°The answer is not tonight. Let¡¯s sleep on it before making any hasty decisions.¡± She gave her final answer and I knew there would be no chance of changing it before the morrow. . . . . . Moving on from my parents I finally found my sister, ¡°Up for some magic practice?¡± I asked. ¡°Lady Acacia said that it was important to follow her instructions to the letter when it came to magic and not to attempt to do it without supervision.¡± She answered firmly. I was surprised she was not more adventurous. It seemed that our tutor was having a firmer and moresting effect on my sister than I realised. ¡°Apparently it can go incredibly wrong if you are not careful, so don¡¯t even think about it.¡± She added clearly following my thoughts if not my face. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t dream of it,¡± I replied taking care not to look up to the left and maintain our eye contact, but my sister was not fooled. ¡°Seriously, Kai don¡¯t take the risk, just wait a while longer and Mother and Father wille around. There are simply too many benefits to her guidance, and you have always ran rings around them anyway. They are only dying the inevitable. Besides once she teaches me, I will teach you too if you want me to.¡± ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll wait. But not forever.¡± I grumpily answered. I walked out of sight before ducking through one of my secret entrances the secret stone door spinning shut behind me. . . . . . I doubted that I could fool Grandfather with my mini secret hideout entrances but he was bound by blood to keep my secrets anyway and surely these counted as one of them. The small tunnels now ran along most of our corridors or provided shortcuts between them. I had also created secret entrances and exits to nearly all of our rooms including the new pce we were creating. If I did get my hands on the elixir I realised that I would need to add a few inches of height to the tunnels to make sure I did not bump my head but the fundamental skeleton to my secret base was already in ce. I wandered under the mountain peeking into rooms in passing. I had even created a passage to my grandfather¡¯s hidden room over time. I had been unable to open his actual secret door due to some form of magic locking it shut but the magic preventing entry did not extend to all the walls and had not stopped me from making my own opening. I peered in before . . . ¡°Come in Kai.¡± Grandfather said as soon as I opened my eyes alighted on him. Busted. Maybe if I pretend I was never there. ¡°I know you¡¯re there, hyperawareness.¡± He even added in the skill that told him he was being watched. He had been gradually tempting me to try more of his training by offering up the names of the skills he could offer me. Grumbling internally, I opened the door. ¡°How do I get that skill then?¡± Already suspecting I knew the answer to be . . . ¡°You let me throw things as you,¡± he smiled, ¡°at least that is how I got it once I got good enough at dodging them. What do you want?¡± ¡°I was just wandering,¡± I answered avoiding answering the question as usual. It had be a bit of a pattern with him. We spoke around subjects careful not to cross one another. ¡°Well, what were you wondering about while you were wandering?¡± he dug a little deeper. ¡°The elixir,¡± I sighed ¡°Mother and Father don¡¯t want me to have any yet.¡± ¡°You will always be their child Kai, precious to them in a way you won¡¯t understand until you have your own. Doubly so after they lost their first son. Triply so after we all thought we had lost you off the side of the cliff. If you stay small despite how challenging you are even then, you are somewhat controble. Once you arerger it will be harder and harder to limit you, they are hesitating. It is understandable.¡± ¡°Would you give me a drop?¡± I asked. He paused considering his answer carefully, ¡°If you told me to, I would be bound to.¡± He cautiously waited to see if I would give themand each second a moment of temptation for me. However, when I didn¡¯t, he continued. ¡°But yes, if you asked me to, I would get you a drop. You might have freed me from my orders, but this would make you stronger sooner. Originally, I would probably have feltpelled to give it to you with or without your consent. Now it would be by my choice. Lady Acacia appears to have been honest so far and if this is how the elves deal with the hidden consequences of their long-livedd trait then you will have to drink the elixir sooner orter. It might as well be sooner.¡± ¡°Would you get me a drop then?¡± I asked ¡°Yes, I would, but are you ready for the consequences?¡± he asked. ¡°What consequences, growing up? I¡¯m ready to be a little bit bigger.¡± I answered. ¡°It won¡¯t just be a change of size it will be a change of family dynamics. You would be disobeying your parents for the first time.¡± He pointed out a consequence I had not really considered. ¡°I¡¯ve misbehaved before,¡± I said thinking back to my secret night-time escapades and the myriad of secrets I had kept from them in my first year along with the few mysteries I had yet to confide. ¡°Yes, you have your secrets just as I have mine. But the difference here is you know they don¡¯t want you to have it yet. You have been told no. This isn¡¯t acting first and asking for permissionter. You are actively making the decision to disregard their opinion as to what is best for you.¡± He outlined the situation from his viewpoint. ¡°You know I am older than I look. I think I can make my own decisions as to what is best for me.¡± I defended my choice. ¡°I¡¯m not disagreeing with your decision, I¡¯m merely pointing out that the consequences will change the family dynamics.¡± He exined. ¡°Do you disagree that I am ready?¡± I asked. ¡°No, I know you better than that, you are more than ready. But I don¡¯t think your parents are ready for you to no longer be their baby.¡± He added. ¡°The problem is they may never be ready and with my trait nature will never force me to grow up or force them to recognise me as more than their child. I need a drop to start growing up. Will you get one for me?¡± I asked once more careful not to make it amand. ¡°Yes Kai, I will.¡± He answered. ¡°Wait here.¡± He stood picked up a small bottle from a shelf before cing his palm against the stone wall behind him. It opened silently for him and the shadows wrapped around him as he disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel leaving me in his hidden cave of wonders. He could be incredibly scary when he moved silently with purpose hidden in the ckness. I pottered around the room looking at the different chests and the books within. He had a ratherrge collection of knives. Probably why he always had so many to throw. Some were long, some were short, some were small enough to hide in the palm of your hand but all of them were terribly sharp. It was not long before he returned, the elixir in hand. ¡°How did you get it?¡± I asked. ¡°A simple use of misdirectionand substitution. We have an hour before the illusion will wear off and even then it is doubtful if they will notice the switch as the bottles are roughly the same size. Humans notice sudden changes or movements; the illusion fades slowly over time and theck of movement will hide the difference. Still, it would be good to rece it if you wish to get away with this without challenging your parents¡¯ orders. Although again the consequences might very well be impossible not to notice.¡± He answered. ¡°Right bottoms up,¡± I said lifting the bottle to my lips to find my arm held in my grandfather¡¯s vice-like grip. ¡°A drop Kai,¡± he said releasing his grip once I had lowered my hand holding the elixir. ¡°Allow me.¡± He said taking the elixir off me. ¡°This is incredibly rare stuff but at the same time best to do a drop at a time, tilt your head back and open your mouth.¡± I did, somewhat ashamed by my stupidity that I had thought to swallow it whole I waited patiently as he slowly, ever so slowly tipped the bottle over my open mouth spilling a single drop to fall onto my tongue. I swallowed. The taste while ptable was hardly pleasant a sort of earthy, iron tang to what I assumed bark tasked like. The taste was quickly reced by a surge of heat. The liquid did not need to reach my stomach to begin its work. I felt the heat spreading from my mouth down my throat to my stomach following the path of the drop. But from there it started to heat up my insides spreading throughout my body until it reached my bones and their it intensified. Continuing to grow in strength until sweat burst out along my brow and I copsed from the surge in sensations. Deftly my grandfather caught me andid me down. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Kai, I will watch over you.¡± He said as I drifted towards unconsciousness my body burning up in the process. . . . I watched my young Lord Silversea slip into fitful slumber the elixir clearly working quickly to speed his growth. As always, I was conflicted. Grateful as I was to him for releasing and rxing my oaths and bonds, I felt less certain than ever as to the best course of action. My strained rtionship with my adopted daughter his mother was finally healing after I had feltpelled to push him to his limits as an infant which were far beyond the abilities of normal babies. How much would this damage it? Would my interference even be obvious? Kai was clearly capable of building a tunnel up to the elixir it was only a matter of time till he took it anyway. This way at least he had someone to watch over him while it happened. Seeing that he had settled somewhat I left the room to return the elixir before it was missed. I mean how noticeable would it be anyway? Maybe no one would even notice, a man could hope. . . . Last night had been painful. Not exceptionally so but certainly not pleasant. Sort of like growing pains and starvation all rolled into one. My body felt as if all my joints had been stretched apart. My muscles were torn and torn again before rebuilding that little bit longer. I was in a serious amount of pain. I also no longer fit my box bed with my feet sticking out below the end of my nkets. Grandfather had clearly collected it to ce me in it. Trembling I pulled back the nkets to look at my longer legs, it was not a lot maybe only an inch but to me, it felt like a mile. Sitting up I was able to reach the floor with my feet as I stood up facing forwards no longer having to roll onto my stomach and slide off the bed. A small step to start the day rather than a giant leap of faith that I would fall onto my feet! I stretched seeing how high I could now reach. My height was immediately obvious to me but I doubted if it would be immediately obvious to anyone else provided they did not start measuring me. Something this world or at least my family did not seem to do on the doorways. The only noticeable difference would be in how my clothes fit and while I was still far from as proficient as my mother at making clothes, I could easily add half an inch to each leg and half an inch to my waistline hiding my increase in size at least for the moment. If I outgrew my top that would be a little harder to manage but Mother had been making me practice patch my trousers anyway so had already provided all the materials, I needed. ¡°Ah, your awake?¡± I turned sharply to see who had spoken only to see Grandfather sitting behind me. ¡°I told your parents that we were working on some night training exercises when they asked where you were and that I would be keeping an eye on you.¡± He exined. I foolishly had not thought that it would take more than a moment or take so much out of me. I was famished. ¡°Do you have any food?¡± I demanded. ¡°Yes, plenty of fish, fruit and vegetables. That looked like it took a lot out of you. Here.¡± He offered me a tter piled high with our produce and some of our most recent catch from the mana reef. I quickly tucked in and my ravenous appetite soon devoured the te while it also left me still aching for more. ¡°A highly effective elixir. The elves make potent potions. Also, you will need to practice a little to get used to your slightly longer reach otherwise you will find yourself tripping over yourself. I would not rmend adding more than an inch a month or you might find your body struggling to handle the need for nutrients. But that would be something to ask Lady Acacia about the best ratio of time to elixir. Even at only a drop each month you will put on a foot and a half over the next year at that rate and double your size over two. You will no longer be the little ankle biter we know and love.¡± I smiled, ¡°I¡¯ll soon be taller than you old man.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got a little way to go before then and I will still be able to put you on your ass in more ways than one so don¡¯t expect to win anytime soon.¡± He failed to dampen my enthusiasm over the speed at which I could now grow up. I might not be a martial expert yet, but I would be learning magic soon and that was sure you give me a couple of ways to trip up my infuriatingly proficient grandfather. ¡°What exactly do you do while we are sewing, sailing and selling stuff?¡± I asked intrigued and hopeful that he would borate a little more on the matter seeing as he was in a cheerful mood over my growth. ¡°This and that, but mainly keep the vermin down on the ind. I¡¯ll show you when you are a little taller and able to keep up with Aleera.¡± ¡°What vermin?¡± I asked confused. ¡°Rats?¡± I could hardly imagine him as a rat catcher and had never noticed enough of them around town for them to have been a problem. ¡°The Church might lead us in the Light of the Lodestar but that doesn¡¯t stop pests pushing their way out of the Lodestone every now and then. I make sure that if they ever do, they are soon put back into the ground.¡± ¡°What pests?¡± I asked curiously but it seemed that he had exhausted his quota of words for the day. ¡°When you are taller Kai, when you are taller. Come on you will miss your father sailing if you don¡¯t head out now.¡± He opened the passageway for me and I sped out on my slightly longer legs nearly tripping over them before I got into a new rhythm of running. Ding! Running Level 51! Wow! I had finally progressed one of my Tier 1 skills past their first Meridian. Also, surprisingly it was running as opposed to meditation, time sense or swimming which had all been stuck at level 50 for far longer. Maybe I could level up my swimming at the reef today as well. If adjusting my body to running on slightly longer legs had been enough for that skill perhaps it would also work for swimming. Excited I sped up. I had to catch up to my father before he left if I hoped to achieve that today. . . . Chapter 99: Compromise and Revelations Chapter 99: Compromise and Revtions "Compromising doesn¡¯t mean that you are wrong and someone is right. It only means that you value your rtionship much more than your ego.¡± Anon ¡°Wait for me!¡± I sprinted for the dock. Father was just pulling out of the dock the wind catching in his shells. I continued to sprint down the dockunching myself of the end towards the end of the leaving boat. Ding! Sprint (Lv 1) That was a surprise, but I wasn¡¯t going to make it. It was nigh on impossible to turn a jump into a dive mid-air and I iled in flight. I reached for the boat only to find out unfortunately that it would be just out of reach despite the slightly longer length of my arms and legs. I plunged into the water only to be suddenly dragged along by my father¡¯s arm as he leaned out the back of the boat to catch me and then hauled me over the side. ¡°Running a littlete today aren¡¯t we.¡± He smiled at his own joke. ¡°Were you hoping to make a bigger ssh with your arrival?¡± Heughed. ¡°Very funny,¡± I muttered as I headed towards the front of the boat in the hopes that I would dry off a little in the wind. Luckily it wasn¡¯t too cold either in the water or out of it. But thebination of the too along with the wind was a little bit chilly so I used my amulet to dry myself off. Looking at it I considered Lady Acacia¡¯s words. Here was a fantastic example of runes at work. Mana in effect out. The difference was that it was powered by a gemstone. I wondered if there was a separate branch of gemstone magic, a question to ask herter. Once the heat had dried my clothes I was able to enjoy the fresh wind on my face as we made the brief journey to our little dock. A short walkter we were leaving the town again having picked up our cart and hiking up towards the cliffs before heading on down to our boat. ¡°Ready to set sail.¡± He asked me as I stowed the rope nodding in the satisfaction that it was put away properly. ¡°Aye aye captain.¡± I mocked up a salute before sting our sails with wind and shooting us out of the harbour. Any other boat would have required them to put out their oars and row far enough out from the leeward side of the ind to catch the wind. One of the benefits of having magic. It was not yet as efficient as an outboard motor but give me time to level up my skills or even better yet a new spell and maybe one day it would be. I checked my Hud to make sure that I had everything up and running. Mana sense and echolocation were building a map of my surrounding as we set sail for the mana reef still out of sight. It was a little scary to see the seabed drop off until it was out of my sight. Leaving me much like most menpletely unaware of what the depths might hold. I didn¡¯t like that and kept the skills up and running anxiously waiting for the moment when the sea floor began to rise and the mana reef appear in the distance. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we caught today! Where did we leave them again?¡± He asked as we arrived over the reef. He could tell we had arrived in more or less the correct spot but without my ability to see what was under the water he would have had to swim around or at least keep sticking his head under the water to find where we had left them. I pointed us in the correct direction. First, off we checked our traps pulling them up and emptying them before resetting them again. Then we moved on. Each day we tried a different area of the reef. This was not so that we wouldn¡¯t overfish a particr area there seemed to be plenty of fish even when we came back to the same spot each day. No this was to continue our hunt for pearls. We might have agreed to stop hunting for them within thegoon but we had made no such concession about the sea. Furthermore, the ones we found out here on the reef seemed to grow evenrger than ours when we could find them fuelled as they were by the higher concentration of mana in the waters below our hull. It was for the pearls that my father finally let me out of the boat. Swimming in the sea was different to swimming in thegoon. The waves higher the waters deeper. I was left straining my senses in every direction as I attempted to be aware of everything around me. I had grownfortable andcent swimming in thegoon. Here on the open water, I remember the giant fish we had seen like the Goblin shark and the tall tales our father had told us and was as cautious as I could be. We dove in pairs. Not together as you might think but attached by a rope one of us would wait at the top floating face down with a wider view of our surroundings while the other would quickly dive down and search for our treasure. When we swapped dives I would point out the area I nned on searching and if it was my Father''s turn point out where I suspected thergest pearls to be hiding judging by the glow I could see with my Mana sense. I pointed out thergest cluster of pearl-filled oysters and it was his turn to dive again. I was happy that I was out of the boat, swimming in the sea gaining the experience rather than simply floating in the boat. He was diving down when I sensed it. Something was moving quickly up through the corral to meet him. I pulled as sharply as I could on the rope bound to my father¡¯s foot pulling him to a stop as well as pulling me deeper under the water towards him when it happened. The gigantic eel burst forth out of a hole in the coral to attack my father. Its mouth bristling with jagged teeth they snapped shut startlingly close to my father¡¯s face. His knife already out to pry the oysters out of the coral was plunged into the side of the eel and as it pulled back towards it ripped a line along the eel to its head. Onest stab through its eye left it dead and no longer thrashing. Satisfied that it wouldn¡¯t attack him further, father fled back to the surface. Ding! Swimming (Lv51) Ding! Diving (Lv 51) Ding! Breath Control (Lv44) Ding! Sense Mana (Lv41) Ding! Quick Reflexes (Lv41) Iy there on the surface of the water trying to catch my breath in big gasps, a little dazed by the sudden change of events and change in my status. It had been a while since I had been so close to death. But it had also been a while since I had seen so many skills improve from a single moment. Death gave skills and levels in abundance. It had even been enough to push the skills that had been stuck at their first meridian through them. Although I had not received . . . I checked my status I had received a sizeable chunk in helping my father avoid his death and killing the sea monster. ¡°Time to go Kai.¡± He threw me into the boat breaking my concentration before hauling himself over the side. Before setting the sails. ¡°Wind. Now Kai!¡± ¡°Why?¡± I asked. ¡°What do you see happening below?¡± he asked. ¡°Fish eating the eel.¡± Hundreds of smaller fish were feasting on the giant eel thaty floating below us still halfway into his hidden home. I answered confused. ¡°And further out away do you see anything changing? Don¡¯t concentrate on the individual fish look at the overall movement. Where are they moving?¡± he asked. I looked further afield and noticed that they were gravitating towards us. As far as I could see the shoals and individual fish were heading inwards, obliquely, tangentially or on a direct line. There were no fish swimming away. ¡°Towards the eel, they are all moving towards the eel,¡± I replied finally understanding his point. ¡°Exactly which is why we need to go home now. It is only a matter of time before something bigger than we can catch develops an interest and we need to be gone before it arrives. Weave the wind and I will set the sail. Dead ahead.¡± He pointed. As I powered the wind, our sails billowed out and we began to move away from where our day had so nearly ended. I looked below as we left. The feeding frenzy was growing as they tore the eel apart still eating from the carcass rather than one another but the size of the fish was gradually growing and we were no longer the only fish fleeing the scene. The smaller fish have eaten their fill and were fleeing as well but now the sharks had arrived and they were happy to eat anything that swam too close to their mouths while they ripped huge chunks out of the eel. The seagulls had started to swarm above the feeding frenzy below. But while they dove to eat the asional scrap from the water they weren¡¯t safe from being snapped in return. Time to go indeed. We ran downwind of the wind I brought regardless of which way the wind naturally blew. Despite our near mishap, our morning had gone well, our little boat filled up with a collection of sea creatures from the ones we caught in our traps, the bags of oysters we had filled and the small shoal of fish we had caught in ours. We aimed for home. ¡°That is why Kai if there is blood in the water you get out.¡± He reemphasised. ¡°Yes, father.¡± His point had been made well the waters frothing and foaming red before we had made it out of sight. ¡°Blood can be used as a lure and anyrge carcass can create a feeding frenzy but if you hope to take advantage of it. You need to keep your feet on drynd and be hunting from the shore. Remember that Kai.¡± He exined one more of my new life lessons. ¡°Just remember you don¡¯t know from how deep or from how far the fish wille to visit.¡± Don¡¯t go bleeding in the water. Got it. ¡°Also maybe don¡¯t mention this to your mother.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± We sailed in contemtive silence back to Wester Isle both of us considering our close brush with disaster. We never mentioned the eel to anyone else but it demonstrated that even the shallower parts of the sea had their monsters. We continued to sail but dived a little less. Always taking care to scan the area as deep as I could and shying away from any areas which heldrger presences of mana and as I continued to develop my telepathic abilities anything which seemed to be able to think just a little too well for a fish. . . . Although he never spoke of the eel on the reef the incident changed his father¡¯s mind about the elixir. He no longer spoke against it. The thought that arger child was a safer child on the open sea clearly ran through his mind. Mother though had yet to change her mind. ¡°Can I have the elixir now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s up to your mother Kai. She is the one you will have to convince.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you convince her?¡± ¡°The only thing I ever managed to convince your mother of that she hadn¡¯t already decided was to marry me and even then I¡¯m not so sure she hadn¡¯t made her mind up on that already anyway.¡± ¡°But . . .¡± ¡°Ask your mother.¡± ¡°. . .¡± ¡°Ask your mother.¡± I might have changed my father¡¯s mind but not enough to get him to convince my mother that would be a job for me to do. Although there was not an argument I could make that hadn¡¯t already been made before. Still, that wouldn¡¯t stop me from making them again. I hoped this time without Father to buttress her opinion they would be enough to make her reconsider. . . . . . I sidled into the room where Mother was working. Spinning her thread and weaving her tapestries. ¡°What are we waiting for?¡± I asked quietly ¡°Kai not now.¡± She responded equally quietly ¡°When will I be old enough for you?¡± I asked sadly. ¡°We all grow at our own speed, Kai.¡± It sounded as if she was trying to justify it to herself. ¡°But my speed is hardly normal. I spent my first identity considered almost a dwarf because of how slow I grew. Would you have the same for my second?¡± I asked trying to draw her into a discussion on the matter. ¡°The smaller you are the less trouble you can get into.¡± Her reasons were growing weaker, ¡°I hate to think what you will get up to if you could reach the door handles.¡± She smiled sadly, ¡°At least this way we can still keep up with you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m squishable,¡± I argued my argument equally weak. ¡°The smaller you are the more you will be underestimated. By friends and foe alike.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m already older than I look I argued can¡¯t wepromise. At least let me reach the height that I should have already reached.¡± I argued. ¡°Why the rush you have more time than most.¡± She asked. ¡°We are on a time limit, Aleera will have to present herself in ten years. How can I support her if I still look like I¡¯m two?¡± ¡°One extra foot then.¡± ¡°Three feet.¡± I bargained. ¡°Two and over time we aren¡¯t doing this overnight.¡± Two more feet would take me to just over 4 feet. Around an eight-year-old¡¯s height in my old world. But only a 6-year-old in this world. Still, it was a start. ¡°Does that mean I can start my lessons with Lady Acacia?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll let her know at dinner.¡± She sighed finally epting that I would be growing up sooner than she hoped. I wouldn¡¯t be a giant by any stretch of the imagination but I wouldn¡¯t be quite so short either. If I added an inch each month the extra two feet would take me 24 months only another year and a half. I was going to have to double the height of my tunnels. . . . . . That evening at dinner. ¡°I am sure you will be delighted to hear that we have decided to take you up on your offer of tuition and would appreciate your support in administrating the elixir safely to Callen over the next couple of years.¡± Mother finally gave us permission to begin the next step in my education. ¡°Wonderful, wonderful. I cannot wait to get started. I have had plenty of ideas of the different directions we can take his training over thest couple of days.¡± She dered excitedly. ¡°Yes, well there¡¯s no rush.¡± She answered. ¡°No, of course not.¡± She demurred reading the room, though I thought I could still see the glint of maniacal enthusiasm hidden in her eyes. ¡°I will of course need to know a little bit more about who and what I am working with.¡± She subtly asked for a little bit more knowledge about me. Grandfather intervened, ¡°I¡¯m sure you will get to know him once you start teaching him.¡± Stopping the inquiry. ¡°Yes, well the better I understand his abilities the better I will be able to tailor his education.¡± She argued back refusing to be stopped quite so soon. ¡°Just think of him as an eight or nine-year-old. Able enough to see and gain skills but not yet old enough to assign his free points. He has managed to develop much the same skills as Aleera.¡± He gave my basic information while he avoided giving any more details than necessary. ¡°And his stats?¡± she kept digging I interrupted the conversation, ¡°I¡¯m working on my own cascade.¡± I answered for myself. If I was going to be working with her on a daily basis there was no point in hiding everything from her. Grandfather may have been defending my privacy but it was not always a helpful thing to do. ¡°What perks have you managed to have so far?¡± she inquired intrigued addressing me directly. Ignoring the storm cloud growing on grandfather¡¯s face. ¡°I have the vitality trait long-lived as well as perks in mind, senses, magic, rity, dexterity and endurance,¡± I answered watching as her eyebrows rose higher and higher in surprise. ¡°That¡¯s . . . impressive.¡± Despite her awareness of my monstrosity, the extent of it was still surprising and that was with me downying the traits as perks. ¡°It is also an interesting order of cascade. I¡¯m surprised that you didn¡¯t be imbnced, especially achieving it so young when the perks you receive are presumably stronger options for achieving them earlier.¡± ¡°Why you only have Strength and Charisma left for a fullpass cascade.¡± She eximed. ¡°What is a Compass Cascade?¡± I asked confused. ¡°A Compass Cascade works through the perks for each of the of the cardinal and ordinal kingdoms noble races, it was what they were aiming at with the half-blood kings, a Royal Cascade,¡± she answered before she looked to the side in thought. ¡°Once we have collected enough strength from your cousins by creating Adals we will have to search for some prospective future subjects with Charisma as their dominant stat. We may need to recruit from further afield as I doubt that is amon stat on the ind.¡± She pondered out loud. ¡°We will also have to focus on the two final stats in terms of skills and training. Just in case we are unable to find prospective Adals with charisma as their most prominent stat. We will make them the priority over magic for now but I promise to give you the basics to that as well.¡± She was already modifying her ns based on the little information I had given her. ¡°What level are you at? I suppose free points will not matter for a while yet.¡± I looked at my status considering what to say and what not to. It was getting a little long and a little unwieldy. I could only imagine what it would look like in a hundred years, sea monsters permitting. In for a penny in for a pound. But I would be withholding my otherworldlynguages, instruments, tier 5 skill, Psi skill, and calling my traits perks instead of traits except for Long-lived seeing as she was already aware of that one. That seemed like an awful lot of secrets to try and keep but equally an awful lot of information to be trusting somebody else with, especially someone who was not family. My less than kind Grandfather decided that it would be the right time to ensure that everyone¡¯s ss was full with a vintage of Grandpa Smit¡¯s wine, Aleera and I alone having grape juice instead. He raised a ss, ¡°To the Silversea Scions.¡± He included Aleera in the toast for which I was incredibly grateful and I yed along with his game at pranking our newest guest. ¡°I''m Level 12,¡± I said as our sses met our lips. Already aware of my stats, my family smiled as Lady Acacia practically inhaled her drink. It gave us all an inordinate amount of pleasure to see her dibobted if only for a second. ¡°Level 12?¡± She coughed delicately possibly a little wine went down the wrong way but she did far better than my father who looked if anything a little disappointed that the result had not been more explosive. ¡°Level 12,¡± I confirmed that I was at the same level as my sister. I did not mention that this level alone was taking me forever to get through despite myrge amount of progress over thest month. ¡°What are you catching out on that reef?¡± She questioned my father, who had his own little cough as he was drinking and avoided looking at his wife for a moment or two. It didn¡¯t take her long to work out another possibility which might ount for the discrepancy in levels. ¡°Are you truly only just past 1 year old? Are you not perhaps Aleera¡¯s older brother restrained from growing through the trait of long-lived and actually 11 years old? No that would not work either as you would be able to assign your stats. What is the lie, omission or assumption that I am missing?¡± She clearly knew there was a fault in her reasoning but did not yet know where it was. ¡°My full name is Lord Callen Kai Silversea,¡± I stated giving her one final clue. ¡°You¡¯re not just Callen!¡± She shouted having realized the most pertinent secret of ours to this conversation. ¡°You are the older murdered brother, Kai!¡± she seemed relieved to havee to the realization herself despite the clues I had given her. ¡°The Royal family, indeed, the entire court, believes you were thrown off a cliff.¡± She paused. ¡°It can be incredibly dangerous to lie to Royalty but only if you get caught.¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t lie about him being thrown off a cliff. It happened within hours of receiving his patent of nobility.¡± Grandfather gruffly answered for the family. ¡°And the assassin?¡± she quizzed, looking for problems that might unravel our story. ¡°Deceased and followed soon after.¡± Grandfather grumpily added. ¡°That should indeed close the loop but you do know that this means that our location, the location of the first new noble house in a century is already known to at least one family with the court.¡± Then she seemed confused again. ¡°But that still only puts you at around 2 years of age. So still a monster just a lesser degree of monstrosity and umonly lucky to survive an assassination attempt before the age of one. Exceptional circumstances make for exceptional stats.¡± I supposed that when telling someone that you could fly that would be the shock and afterwards any moderation of the height to which you could do so was inparison less shocking. ¡°I¡¯m 2 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old,¡± I answered proud of the extra months as I would be of each extra inch in height once they finally let me consume the elixir. If they would have understood what I meant I would have added ¡®I¡¯m over 3 on my world years.¡¯ But that wouldn¡¯t get me any more consideration and telling them that I was in effect a reincarnated soul from another world with many more years under my belt was something I was never sure that I would be ready to talk about with anyone other than my Grandfather who had forced the revtion out of me. ¡°2 years and 6 months. That gives me 3 years and 10 months extra to work with before you even turn 5. This is simply unprecedented!¡± She had another drink. Seemingly distracted by the revtions I was unsure if she had noticed Grandfather refilling her ss between sips. ¡°You will have a huge advantage over other nobles enough to make up for yourck of resources out here on the edges of civilization. Who knows seeing as this is outside of all expectations perhaps your Status may very well unlock at age 5. It is all simply fascinating.¡± ¡°If you are close topleting a Full Compass Cascade I can only assume you are over 100 in all of your stats with all of the associated perks. You could be a demon in the duelling courts given proper training and taking advantage of your physical perks. On the other hand, you could craft the finest products with your mental aspects. Even enter the Inner Circle City Academic Guilds with ease. The whole world is your oyster you simply have to pick a direction.¡± She still sounded thrilled at the opportunity to teach me. I confirmed her suspicions, ¡°I¡¯m over 100 in all my attributes apart from strength and charisma.¡± I failed to mention luck and if I ever hoped to be bnced I would have to keep exactly how far over 100 I was under my hat if I had to pour my next 14 levels worth of free points into luck if I ever hoped to be truly bnced. The Lodestar church put a lot of faith in it so I was not quite yet ready to write it offpletely even though I knew it was possibly quite unobtainable. ¡°All that leaves left is your skills. How many and what bands?¡± she seemed determined to work out as much as she could tonight. Lest I run away or my mother change her mind on the matter. Avoiding my otherworldly skills, I answered, ¡°I have nearly 50 tier 1 skills . . .¡± ¡°50mon skills!¡± she had been doing so well in staying calm over my revtions after her first slip on her poker face. She had shown excitement but not outright astonishment until now again. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve learned all the skills you have taught Aleera so far,¡± I added somewhat defensively. I had even waited to attempt spellcraft, spellsong, enchanting, runes and glyphs thisst month. I felt as if I had been exceptionally well behaved so far. ¡°Yes but those are . . . What about your other skills?¡± She started and stopped before starting questioning again. This time she let me finish my sentence. ¡°I have approximately 20 tier 2 skills, 10 tier 3 skills and 5 tier 4 skills.¡± I rounded up and down my skills to keep it simple. Copper, bronze, silver and gold skills, and so many,¡± she whispered to herself. ¡°All before the age of three.¡± Sheughed out loud standing. To my parents, she said, ¡°I almost don¡¯t know where to start,¡± she turned to me, ¡°but I know when! You will join Aleera and me tomorrow. Good night I have much to prepare.¡± She promptly departed leaving us a little shocked at her enthusiasm She left muttering her ns under her breath, ¡°Cataloguing skills, yes. Consolidation of tier 1 skills? No too soon. Baseline assessment of stats? Yes. Adals for strength. Need to prepare a list of Charisma-based skills or build on his originals. So much to do, so much to learn.¡± She disappeared out of sight my super senses following her whispered conversation far beyond where it was natural. Grandfather chuckled into the silence she left. ¡°And you thought I was bad. Get your rest tonight you¡¯re going to need it. Good luck Kai!¡± ¡°She¡¯s hardly that bad.¡± Aleera defended her tutor. But I just exchanged a look with my Grandfather possibly the only other person to hear her whispered monologue. I was doing this for the magic I silently repeated to myself. I was doing it for the magic. Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 516,900/ 819,200 Age: 2 years 6 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes Health: 1460/1460 Stamina: 1103/1103 Mana: 1410/1410 Psi: 1460/1460 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Vitality: 146 + 2 Endurance: 116 + 2 Strength: 71 + 2 Dexterity: 130 + 2 Senses: 145 + 2 Mind: 146 + 2 rity: 121 + 2 Magic: 141 + 2 Charisma: 61 + 2 Luck: 7 + 1 Free Points: 40 Skills: Tier 1: Meditation (LV50) Swimming (LV50 -> 51) Time Sense (LV50) Running (LV47 -> 51)Listening (LV37 -> 40)Breath Control (LV40 -> 44)Knots (LV38 -> 40) Stitching (LV37 -> 40)Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Singing (LV43) Climb (LV32 -> 35) Trading (LV31 ->33) Drumming (LV31) Dodge (LV31 -> 33) Draw (LV33 - 35) Knife (LV30 -> 33) Sneak (LV26 ->31) Acting (LV21 ->25) Diving (LV30 ->35)English (LV15) Spanish (LV15) Japanese (LV15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Throw (LV15) Lie (LV12) German (LV10) Buss (LV15) Mathematics (LV15) Sailing (LV25 ->35) French (LV7) Decoding (LV10) Appeal (LV7) Calligraphy (LV15 ->20) Farming (LV16 ->20) Insight (LV4 ->6) Bnce (LV16 ->20) Martial Arts (LV2 ->4) Cook (LV3) Ambidextrous (LV 1 ->5) Glide (Lv1 ->5) Poise (Lv1 ->5) Grace (LV1 ->5) Charm (Lv1 ->5) Composure (Lv1 -> 5) Silent Step (Lv1 -> 3) Deft touch (Lv 1 -> 3) Posture (Lv 1 ->3) Dance (Lv 1 -> 3) Sprint (Lv 1) (+10,700) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV40 ->41) Quick reflexes (LV40 ->41)Eavesdrop (LV30 -> 33) Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20) Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Linguistics (LV16) Trantion (LV16) Pain Tolerance (LV15 ->20)Stealth (LV15 -> 20) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) Transnt (LV12) Cartography (LV12 -> 15)Misdirection (LV9) Haggling (LV6) Order (LV6) Knife Arts (LV6 -> 7)Poison Tolerance (LV1) (+3800) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV40 -> 44)Mana Maniption (LV34 - 38)Echolocation (LV31 -> 35) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV18 -> 29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Melt (LV11) Deception (LV4) Command (LV4) (+4800) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv 20 -> 21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Stone shaping (Lv 1 ->5) (+4000) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18 -> 19) (+1600) Skill experience: 24,900 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 50,000 Craft experience: 10,000 Trade experience: 10,000 Popr experience: 0 Exploring experience: 25,000 Total Experience gain sincest stat check: 117,700 Chapter 100: Building a baseline Chapter 100: Building a baseline ¡°Nothing works without details. They are everything, the baseline of quality.¡± Dieter Rams ¡°Wee, Kai. I am so excited to have you here with us today.¡± She smiled delightedly, happy to have finally gotten hold of me once she knew what I was and what I was capable of. Grandfather was carefully watching from a distance to ensure there wasn¡¯t a repeat of going overboard when it came to the tuition of children. ¡°First things first, I would like to form a baseline of you and your stats. It may take the majority of today, but I promise after the initial assessments I will give you a lesson in Spellcraft as a reward. I know that is what you are really after.¡± She paused to let me absorb the program for today. ¡°Now we have already done this with Aleera so she will be able to take you through everything and give an example for each one.¡± She gestured towards Aleera who led us to the first task. Aleera had never mentioned this part of her training only focusing on telling me about the skills that she had been learning. ¡°Despite your stats and your potential, obviously your body is still that of a child.¡± She turned to aim her voice at Grandfather who could with his stats clearly still hear us even though he was watching from a distance. ¡°One that is still growing so we need to limit the assessments to the resistance your body can provide rather than applying external pressures. We don¡¯t want to damage your vessel before you have even begun to use it now, do we?¡± she said pointedly as we walked to the starting line. Aleera had apparently filled her into the manner in which we had previously been trained by him. ¡°Historically some individuals may have been trained from the age of 5 in such barbaric methods, but it breaks as many heroes as it makes and is not suitable training for the scions of nobility. Commoners maybe but the nobility is not willing to risk it with their own children and for good reason.¡± What then followed was a series of physical assessments. Each one was modelled by Aleera while Lady Acacia would then write down each result to mark her progress since her first assessment. The same was done for me to form a baseline with the addition of questioning which skills I was utilizing and what level they were at. First, she tested how fast could I run followed by how long I could run. Once the test was over, we then sat discussing which skills I was using and what level they were at. She was impressed by the fact that I had two skills both Running (Lv 51) and Sprint (Lv 1). However, she was most impressed by the fact that I had managed to get the first through its first meridian. I neglected to mention that I had achieved that after my first drop of the Elvish Elixir. She seemed unconvinced questioning how I had achieved the breakthrough. "Are you sure you don''t know how it happened? Most times you progress through the meridian by using it in a different way,ing to a new understanding of how to use the skill or using it in a life and death situation. Surely you remember something of the sort happening?" I pretended I could not recall anything of the sort. After the first tests though she also wanted to know what my influencing stats were. Having already heard that I had nearly aplete cascade she was less shocked by the numbers but still delighted to hear they were so high. ¡°The current system theory is that children receive the most natural growth of their stats because their vessel is still growing. The theory is further supported by the experimentation on the levels of monsters which appear to continue to improve their stats even without killing others in line with the size of their growth. It is possible that with your system being visible from birth you are experiencing a simrly monstrous growth based on your vessel''s increase in size.¡± ¡°My Vitality is 146, Endurance: 116, Strength: 71, Dexterity: 130, Senses: 145.¡± I briefly outlined my growing stats. Proud of my progress in my physical stats after they had been so anaemic for so long. Vitality and senses being the exceptions to the rule. ¡°A very impressive physical foundation, Kai. We will be able to shore up your strength with a few more oaths of allegiance.¡± She said writing this down. ¡°If we chose your cousins carefully we should easily get 30 more points into strength with 6 more oaths. I believe the Silverstone and Silverkin families would be the best bets.¡± She outlined my next steps. ¡°Is it safe to write this information down?¡± I asked warily watching as she filled a notebook with my information. It seemed strange to see her writing this all down when Grandfather had been so adamant that all of this was best-kept secret and hidden from anyone other than family. Even then it was not to be talked about on a weekly basis or how often it was that Lady Acacia intended to write all of this down. ¡°Quite safe. I am writing in Elvish for a start which I doubt anyone here can speak let alone read and even then I am writing it in my own personal code.¡± She considered my question then dismissed it. ¡°Your own personal code?¡± I asked for rification. ¡°Yes, most mages develop their own shorthand or code to keep their work from prying eyes. This is no different. In fact, creating your own code can give and progress a few skills of your own. Furthermore, my personal records are either kept on me or kept locked away. Your secrets are safe with me.¡± She reassured. I thought English, Spanish, Japanese or German or an amalgamation of all four should be suitable enough if I was to take up the same practice. It might also finally level up my somewhat stagnant linguistic skills. ¡°How do Ipare to other scions of the houses of Ponente?¡± I asked curiously, ¡°If that does not break your oaths of confidentiality.¡± ¡°That puts you on par with most 15 to 20-year-old nobles in terms of purely physical stats. Most nobles have at least one cascade either physical or mentalpleted. However, they would still be far stronger, quicker and more durable than you simply due to the size of their vessel. Not that you should not be proud of achieving in the first 3 years of your life the same progress that it takes them 10 to 15 years to achieve.¡± She praised and cautioned at the same time. ¡°How about Aleera?¡± I asked intrigued enough to ask despite her suddenly looming over my shoulder clearly interested in the answer as well. Directing her answer to Aleera, ¡°You are in line with where I would expect most nobles children to be at your age without oaths. The oaths of allegiance will be enough to provide you with a cascade of your own. You might be a step behind but we have till the end of the year to catch up and sufficient space in your oaths to do so. This was why I rushed so hard to make it here as soon as possible. If I had arrived after you turned 11 it would have been toote to achieve the perks and that would have been a barrier impossible to surmount.¡± She exined to her before turning back to me. ¡°However, you must be honest Kai. Even with those stats, those skill levels alone are not enough to achieve these times, especially with legs as short as yours. What else are you hiding? Are those your only running skills? Or are your perks specific to speed?¡± I thought for a moment before answering, ¡°It''s probably my perks, not my skills.¡± ¡°And those are?¡± she raised a pen to note them down. ¡°For Vitality I have Long-Lived, Endurance: Durability, Dexterity: Celerity, and for my Senses: Super Senses.¡± I briefly considered lying about their names but couldn¡¯t guess what the alternatives would be. Knowledge was power and I did not have enough to attempt to fabricate fictional perks. She inhaled, ¡°Kai . . . those aren¡¯t perks they¡¯re traits.¡± She turned to the two of us, ¡°You do understand the difference?¡± She corrected me and questioned us both at the same time before turning back to focus on me. I saw Aleera start to smile behind her back once she was focusing on me alone again, enjoying both my teacher¡¯s frustration and myeuppance. ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± I pleaded ignorance while ignoring my sister¡¯s taunting. ¡°Elvish, Dwarf, Pixie and Beastkin.¡± She muttered emphasising the Pixie as if that, in particr, was impossible. ¡°The only physical trait you have left to gain is the Giant¡¯s trait of strength.¡± She spoke to herself before refocusing on us. ¡°The difference is that traits can be passed onto your children whereas perks cannot.¡± She exined. ¡°And that is just for starters! A trait is a natural part of each race whereas a perk is only but a small part of the whole trait. For example long-lived is my natural trait, it means I will live a far longer than most races while being healthy and healing quickly. Whereas normally a human who managed to achieve the perk for vitality would have something half as strong. Something along the lines of healthy, hardy, steadfast etc. They may be simr but not the same and,¡± she repeated, ¡°not as strong!¡± She exined exasperatedly. ¡°Perks do not create problems, traits can and do. Elves have had to create elixirs to allow our children to grow up at an eptable rate. Giants may be strong but the cost is to their stamina they spend a lot of time sleeping to recover it until they are able to invest enough in their endurance. Dwarves are durable to the extent that they invest a lot into strength to facilitate their movement long before they are ever allowed to wear their heavy armour. As for Pixie¡¯s they may be able to flit from here to there faster than we can see but they move so quickly they burn out far quicker than the rest of us unless they invest heavily in vitality.¡± She seemed exhausted by her diatribe. ¡°Now hopefully your cascade will bnce you out but I cannot do my job properly if you keep hiding things from me.¡± She reprimanded. ¡°You are like a Dwarfish puzzle box. Beneath every puzzle, there is another even more preciousyer.¡± She sighed. ¡°Visible status, high stats, nigh on full cascade and now full-on traits! We haven¡¯t even got to the rest of your skills.¡± She paused, ¡°Look, I cannot protect you or warn you about potential problems if you are not honest about your abilities.¡± She rubbed her temples with her fingers as if massaging away a developing headache. ¡°We will have to at least choose a more appropriately named perk for each of those attributes in case you are ever forced to reveal them to future tutors or schools.¡± ¡°Warning number 1 you will be the most eligible bachelor this century or the most efficiently assassinated husband if the court ever finds out the depths of your system stats and your traits. It might be best if you travel for a little bit incognito while you grow up. Or settle on an elvish courtship of a decade or two before . . .¡± she paused considering her audience. ¡°Alternatively, I might not be requesting any more elixir for the next decade or two as keeping you pre-pubescent might really be for the best. You are practically a new species and with only one of your kind you are already endangered to the point of being on the edge of extinction.¡± She mused extrapting off into the far distant future. I had no ns of getting hitched anytime in a long, long, long time, and travelling the world sounded fun. But before I ever did that I wanted to get my little kingdom up and running. Making it somewhere safe and a little bit more modern than the town currently was. It would be a hidden kingdom toe back to. As my mother said there was no rush topletely grow up. ¡°I presume that the other half of your Royal Cascade are also traits as opposed to perks.¡± She queried. ¡°Yes?¡± I answered sinctly, somewhat cautious of revealing the rest of them. ¡°Well, what are they then.¡± She said somewhat impatiently. ¡°Mind: Fast learner, rity: Quick-witted, Magic: Source of Mana, I don¡¯t have one for Charisma yet,¡± I added. ¡°Source of Mana?¡± she questioned, ¡°That isn¡¯t a noble races trait at all. A dwarfish puzzle doll indeed. I suppose you will never need a familiar although that in itself would be another interesting experiment. I wonder . . .¡± she paused in contemtion. ¡°Still with the traits of each race it would open their doors to you if you imed heritage with them due to your traits. They would probably assume you some sort of half-blood although that too could bring its own problems. Far too soon for now, as I have far too much to teach you butter perhaps. Food for thought and a lure for future tutors maybe.¡± ¡°Grandfather said it was a familiar¡¯s trait? Is that true?¡± I asked before giving up and asking the question I really wanted to ask, ¡°Can you get me a dragon?¡± ¡°A dragon? You are ambitious. I won¡¯t say yes and I won¡¯t say no. I do have some connections but they are highly prized creatures, umon enough in our Kingdom that even nobles would have difficulty buying one, although there are plenty of alternatives to consider. Enough discussion for now otherwise we will neverplete your baseline.¡± She ended the conversation. We quickly returned to the testing now that I had caught my breath working out how high I could jump, how quick I could climb, how quick I could swim, how deep I could dive, and how long I could hold my breath underwater. All the basic medieval skills of survival in a world with monsters and magic. This Included, how well I could use my knives. Aleera with twice or nearly three times my height, weight and length of reach still outmanoeuvred me despite the strength of my stats. One day I vowed. One day once my vessel had grown with the elixir¡¯s help. Although why I was taking it so personally that my older sister, a ten-year-old girl, could beat me I was not quite sure. Possibly the pleasure she took in winning. Let it go, old man, let it go. Lady Acacia also had arge selection of child-sized weaponry I was asked to swing around. There was a sword, spear, axe even a mini mace. All of them were child-sized and far lighter than their actual adult versions. She even had mini archery set along with child-sized throwing knives. Unfortunately, I did not pick up the skills when I picked up the weapons but even as a catalyst it took a little longer than that. I wondered how long it would take for me to pick up the skills and how long it would take for Lady Acacia toe to the same conclusion as my Grandfather that I was a catalyst. A bridge to cross on another day. What followed next were tests in arithmetic, reading and writing all easily passed, without too much trouble at all. Although the speed and ease with which Ipleted them raised some more eyebrows. It was not a coincidence that when I became unbnced it was brain over brawn that caused my imbnce. We had a short break for lunch before we were back to it again. Lady Acacia wanted a demonstration of each skill I had that had yet to have been demonstrated through the testing. This meant that my remaining skills had a work out too. We also apparently had to catalogue both their names and their levels. Some were quick and easy to demonstrate such as Meditation (LV50). Others such as Time Sense (LV50) involved discussing how I had acquired it and why. With Time sense I simply said that I had spent a lot of my early months aware but with little else to do I had spent my time counting the seconds, minutes and hours going by. With my skill Listening (LV40) she was already raising an eyebrow even before I got to my more dubious skill of Eavesdrop before they both shot up when I exined the end of that skill tree Echolocation (LV35). Although again I argued that I had been very bored as an infant aware but unable yet to talk or initially even move independently. ¡°I wonder what secrets you were overhearing.¡± She said before going on to exin that the condition for gaining the skill was having the prerequisite Listening Skill and then using it to overhear others without their knowledge while they discussed that which they did not want others to overhear. I did not inform her that I had been within the womb at the time and was unaware of exactly what I was listening to and therefore unaware of the secrets despite apparently overhearing them. Some skills such as Knots (LV40) and Stitching (LV40) clearly came from my parents but we discussed how they had been learned with the intention of raising my dexterity. While my high level in Sailing (LV35) was exined as my father¡¯s passion. Likewise, my skills with weapons as well as the skills I needed to avoid them were attributed to my somewhat homicidal grandfather. Dodge (L33) Quick reflexes (LV41) Knife (LV33)Throw (LV15) Bnce (LV20) Martial Arts (LV4) Knife Arts (LV7) Sneak (LV31) Stealth (LV20) Pain Tolerance (LV20) Poison Tolerance (LV1). You might not approve of his methods but they were asionally effective. I didn¡¯t mention my night-time escapades and lumped those skills in with what I said my Grandfather had taught me. I¡¯m sure that his eyebrows were raised from wherever he was watching us but he didn¡¯t interrupt or correct me when I attributed the skills to his training. There were several areas of my lower skills that she found interesting. First off were my musical abilities illustrated by my tier 1 skills of Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Singing (LV43) Drumming (LV31) and tier 2 skills of Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) showed that I was musically gifted even hiding the otherworldly instruments of Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20). Especially when I included Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) as part of my musical skills. I proved my skills by demonstrating my ability to memorise, recall and thenpose new tunes that she would y me. ¡°This is a fine foundation for your presentation when it is your turn. Most female nobles learn an instrument to showcase their skills but it is not novel for a male heir to also demonstrate that there is more to him than merely military skills. We can work well with this. Particrly if we work hardest on the skills that wouldplement your sister¡¯s performance. That would be a fine way to support your sister as well as give you a practice go before you do your own presentation.¡± Secondly, my set of skills in senses, Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15). ¡°It is almost as if you were training to be a ranger. I suppose the Beastkin trait helps with the skills and it is said that a child¡¯s tongue tastes more than an adult''s but they simplyck the knowledge to differentiate the tastes. A proper application in the courts of Ponente will be to differentiate the vintages by their region and year. I have a selection of course but we will have to order some more.¡± It sounded like bing a sommelier was merely part and parcel of being a noble. I couldn¡¯t say that I would object to the practice but guessed that I would be expected to do this by scent more than taste seeing as I was still drastically underage at the moment. For a moment I wondered whether alcohol counted as poison and whether those would also be on the sybus at ater date. Thirdly my growing skills supporting wealth creation, Trading (LV33) Acting (LV25) Appeal (LV7) Farming (LV20) Cook (LV3) Transnt (LV12) Haggling (LV6) Bargain (LV11) Lady Acacia continued to group my skills based not necessarily off which stat they would support but some other method of cataloguing. It made me consider how I would or could group my skills based on more than just their tier. By the job they supported or a particr area. ¡°I have been discussing some of these skills with your sister although I have yet to make it up to this garden of yours. While all of these skills would be essential as a trader or merchant. As a noble, you will be a manager of men you need skills that will help you do that, manage men and wealth. Your ie must be passive and consistent rather than active and dependent on your time and energy. You must learn the lesson that you pay in copper and sell in silver. ¡°How would you propose we do that?¡± I asked aware of the principles but not the medieval methods of achieving a passive ie. ¡°Same way the rest of Ponente Nobles do it, rent. They own thend and rent the rest of it out,¡± she said. ¡°Everyone on Wester is a freeman with a free holding. Our family may own the rest of the ind but they have no need of thend or desire to rent it from us.¡± ¡°Then bring more people to the ind. The two boys Des and Sinis are ex-ves if I am not mistaken judging by their tattoos. They live here with you but I am sure they would be willing to pay some of their wages for a home of their own. The rent itself does not need to be extortionate merely monthly. Wealth begets wealth and there are many unfortunates who would be only too happy to be able to buy their own freedom and ecstatic to be able to rent their own domicile.¡± ¡°You would have us buy ves?¡± Aleera asked appalled. ¡°No, Elves also look down on the existence of very. I would have you free ves and offer them a home for suitable monthly remuneration.¡± She smiled. ¡°With a new noble house forming out here it is only a matter of time before others are interested in what you have to offer ande calling. Mercurio is simply the first merchant to take advantage of your generous tithes.¡± She answered. ¡°How much do other nobles insist on for their tithes?¡± I asked. ¡°It can be anywhere from a tenth to a half of all their profits. Many merchants¡¯ vessels and theirpany is owned in part or whole by the noble they serve. How Mercurio managed to buy out his noble patron and his vessel at the same time is the subject of much discussion within certain circles. People even suspect some form of skulduggery or foul y. When they realise that you had a part to y in it they will also be interested in either finding a way out from under their thumbs or stopping any other merchants from making the jump. Either way, you should consider expanding.¡± She exined the politics of the wider situation. We sat in silence contemting what would be a rather significant change to the demographic of the ind and how on earth we would go about it. But after a brief respite allowing us to think things through it was back to forming my baseline. I was quietly proud of my artistic skills never having had the time or ability before. I had leaned heavily on my skills to create the magnificent maps I was so proud of, system shenanigans at their finest.Draw (LV35) Calligraphy (LV20) Cartography (LV15). ¡°Fine skills to have but you must not limit yourself to ces, Kai. You already have the basic skills to look towards drawing people as well as ces. I have some paints packed away so the skills of Paint, Portraits, even Architecture are only a small step away.¡± She outlined some of the other artistic skill trees. There were also a few surprises hidden in my skills list even after omitting all of my otherworldlynguages such as English (LV15) Spanish (LV15) Japanese (LV15) German (LV10) French (LV7) Linguistics (LV16) Trantion (LV16) Decoding (LV10). But I either glossed over them, omitted them or included them in other sections I felt I could get away with. Lie (LV12) Misdirection (LV9) Order (LV6) and Deception (LV4) were a little dubious by nature and therefore a little harder to exin. She was pleased to see that I had picked up so many of the skills that she had already taught Aleera. Ambidextrous (LV5) Glide (Lv5) Poise (Lv5) Grace (LV5) Charm (Lv5) Composure (Lv 5) Silent Step (Lv3) Deft touch (Lv3) Posture (Lv3) Dance (Lv3). ¡°That will save us plenty of time. Although you will have to continue to level them up. In fact, your main problem is actually the number and variety of skills you have at your disposal you simply don¡¯t have the time to level them all up but we will discuss the solution to thatter and you have plenty more to learn before then.¡± Then we arrived at my more magical skills. Sense Mana (LV41) The level at least I likewise med on my baby boredom. She seemed to decide that the skill itself was one more example of my highly unusual nature and further evidence that I was despite my parents'' protests possibly not entirely human. ¡°Elves too have a strong connection to mana, all are born with the stat and we learn the skill early. Perhaps more evidence pointing towards elvish heritage your parents are unaware of.¡± Perhaps grandfather was still omitting things in his knowledge of our former family the Silverwoods from the Kingdom of Maestro. In time I could inquire about the 100 noble houses of Ponente and then after that the other noble families from Maestro and Libio. But it would be a while before I could risk asking so direct a question. The final magical skills I exined as the fact that I like to try out new things, an innocent child''s desire to experiment. Expel Mana (LV44) Mana Maniption (LV38) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Melt (LV11) Material Maniption (Lv 21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Stone shaping (Lv 5) where all evidence of how I had attempted to use my mana without tuition. How I had gained a rudimentary understanding of how magic could be used but it was all self-taught and possibly inurate despite the fact that it functioned perfectly well. We exined each skill and its use, boil for our salt production, gale for our sailing. Even how it had taken me both expel, ignite and melt to finally create my geomancy skill of Stone Shaping. She seemed genuinely delighted to discover I was responsible for the patterns in stone we used to decorate our growing pce. We also exined mana and material maniption but beyond forming my very basic flight suit we didn¡¯t give an actual demonstration. I was exhausted after demonstrating each skill and exining how I ended up with them. I had retained a few secrets but I had told the majority of my secrets sold on the promise of magic. She did not seem quite so tired after cataloguing all that I was capable of, ¡°That is a lot to consider. But looking at it objectively you have a wide spread of abilities yet at the same time you leave plenty of gaps that I can fill and plenty of areas for consolidation.¡± ¡°Now I suppose you would like to see some magic, yes?¡± My exhaustion forgotten I focused on what I really wanted to learn. Chapter 101: Magic 101 Chapter 101: Magic 101 ¡°Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.¡± Wolfgang Von Goethe Magic, finally magic! Grandfather might have had some seemingly magical skills, but they were all physical impossibilities. He didn¡¯t have true magic, not like Lady Acacia had offered us. Sure, he could probably kill mages, but I didn¡¯t want to be a mage assassin I wanted to wield the power of the elements, forge the forces of nature, and weave the very fabric of the world. I was not nning on world domination but who hasn¡¯t dreamed of magically solving their problems or developing some type of superpower. With magic and the system, it seemed both were possible with the right education and a little luck. ¡°For today¡¯s lesson let us start with the simple spell I showed you at dinner, Phos.¡± She said holding a ball of light in her hand once more. ¡°First, form your intent, light. Understand what it is you are willing into the world.¡± She motioned us to close our eyes and think about what we hoped to achieve. ¡°Second, while holding onto your intent firmly, you will pronounce the word, Phos. But this step is to bepleted at the same time as the third.¡± She hurried into herst sentence to prevent us from speaking too soon. ¡°The Third and final step is to provide the mana, powering your intent and using the words to frame the result you desire. Aleera if you would like to demonstrate.¡± She finished and pointed to my sister. I looked at Aleera surprised as she said the words before holding a ball of light which lit up the room held in the palm of her hand. She had obviously been practising with Lady Acacia despite advising me to have caution and wait for supervision before attempting it. Talk about double standards. She looked a little guilty in the light she was casting to me. ¡°Kai having the skill expel mana will facilitate this. You simply need to expel mana at the same time as you clearly pronounce the words for your spellcraft.¡± She spoke. Feeling a little betrayed by my sister despite the minor nature of the betrayal I rather crossly spoke the word and pushed my mana through them. ¡°Phos!¡± Exulting in the fact that I was finally being taught magic, lesson 101 light! Finally, I was going to be taught the fundamentals of the subject. In retrospect, it might have been a little too much mana as a mini explosion of light filled the hall with my words. Shocked I dropped the ball of light or attempted to, but it seemed attached to my hand and fell with it. But at least the light was not right in front of my face any longer. With my hand and now the light behind my back I cast a long shadow across the hall as I attempted to dismiss the skill. ¡°Too much mana Kai.¡± Lady Acacia shouted in surprise not that she needed volume when the spell itself was silent. ¡°You only need a little to form a light ball unless you are intending on blinding your enemies in which case, I would rmend using Phos¡¯sion. Not,¡± she hurried to add, ¡°that we should practice that one right now.¡± Aleera¡¯s guilt had evaporated with my explosion of light, and she seemed amused by both my mistake and my teacher¡¯s surprise. Thank God people thought I was still a child. Everybody makes mistakes but they seem to be more readily forgiven the younger you are even to be expected. I didn¡¯t like making mistakes, particrly in front of others and was left angry that what should have been a minor frustration with Aleera being a step ahead had caused me to shoot myself in the foot. I finally stopped supplying the spell with my mana and the change in lighting seemed to leave the room in darkness. Lady Acacia rubbed at her temples before starting her instruction again, ¡°The third and final step is to provide a modicum of mana to power your intent. You do not want to . . . or need to . . . provide more mana than the spell needs.¡± She added pointedly carefully adding restrictions to her repetition. I checked my status and saw that spending a third of my mana on a single spell was probably a little excessive even with the speed my mana refilled due to my Source of Mana trait. ¡°How much mana did you use exactly?¡± She asked clearly suspecting what I was up to. ¡°Um, a lot?¡± I answered trying to avoid the specifics of the question. ¡°How much exactly? You have just proved that you know your numbers up to one thousand in your baseline assessment so there is no point hiding from the truth by pretending ignorance. I¡¯m going to need a more advanced mathematical assessment seeing as the baseline one proved no problem for you.¡± She added. ¡°400.¡± I quietly whispered. ¡°You only needed around 10 to initiate and then only a mere mana per minute to maintain it. You used 40 times the required initiation no wonder it was so illuminating.¡± She informed me. ¡°Right, well next time, I will include the mana required for each spell. But you should have unlocked the skill through your enthusiastic casting.¡± I checked my status again looking for the skill and there it was. Ding! Spellcraft (Lv 1) A tier 2 skill sitting happily at the bottom of my tier 2 list of skills. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s there.¡± I humbly answered. ¡°Well, well done. Incredibly quick at picking it up but then you already had mana sense and expel mana so I suppose it is only to be expected.¡± She congratted my sess. ¡°Now there is more than one method of creating light. Just as there is more than one light source in life for example the sun, fire, candles, or even your mana motenterns. So, with magic, there are many methods for creating light. You have the words of spellcraft which we have just demonstrated. A method you will gain greater control of in time. There is a rune for light that can be etched into the metal and then powered with your mana.¡± Here she paused to show a te with a rune carved into it. When she filled it with her mana it filled the hall with light the light ending when she stopped supplying it with her mana. ¡°There are also the glyphs that can be carved into stone.¡± The stone she pulled from her pocket was a stone which shone with its own light and appeared to do so without her supplying any additional mana. She passed both the te and the stone to me and Aleera to handle and see for ourselves. We could get the te to light up by applying mana to it without thought or intent, it only required Mana. The stone glowed of its own ord without us supplying it with mana. Seemingly working without mana. Magic without mana! ¡°Finally, there is my favourite form of magic Spellsong.¡± She sang a sequence of notes filled with mana. There was no noticeable effect the first time she sang it but as she continued to sing the room began to lighten. The hall filled with a gentle light that seemed to have no source. The light grew with each repetition of the phrase until the hall was brightly lit. ¡°. . ..¡± As the final note of the melody faded. The light continued to fill the hall. Fading only slowly over time as the sound faded into memory rather than echoing around the hall. ¡°If you listen carefully you should be able to copy the . . .¡± I interrupted her singing back the tune I had memorised as she sang it repeatedly. If there was one thing that I was good at it was music. It was no trouble at all to remember the 4 note refrain especially when two of the notes were repeated. ¡°Wonderful Kai. Aleera?¡± she swiftly moved on to my sister not too bothered by my interruption but I probably should wait in the future to be polite. Aleera too was able to repeat the phrase easily. However, just the notes alone did not seem to call magical light into existence for us. ¡°Super, now infuse the notes with your mana as you sing but don¡¯t try to force your mana to create the effect as you do in spellcraft. What you are doing is encouraging the ambient mana to sing with you to create the effect. As your song and the ambient manae into harmony and it will sing with you the world will begin to glow.¡± We attempted to sing the refrain while filling our song with mana not to control it into producing light but influence the world to resonate with us. It took a lot longer than the light explosion I had caused with the words of spellcraft but eventually with the two of us singing together in unison and filling the hall with our song the ambient mana started to follow ours and the hall began to light up much like it had for Lady Acacia. ¡°Wonderful, wonderful.¡± She smiled as the hall glowed dazzlingly from our spellsong. As we stopped the glow began to fade leaving us with plenty of questions. ¡°How does it all work exactly? Why does it work? Why those notes?¡± I asked excitedly. ¡°If I could exin all of that I would be an Archmage, not a governess. However, I can summarise it to a certain extent. Spellcraft is powered by your internal mana and framed by words to bring your intentions to life. Spellsong is initiated by your internal mana but relies on ambient mana to create the effect you desire. Runes are much like spellcraft in that the rune gives shape and intent to your mana you merely need to power them, while Glyphs act on gathering ambient mana and a form of sympathy to create their effects. There are a variety of permutations based on the effect you wish to create, your resources, and the mana avable.¡± We handed back the runic te and glyph stone. While considering all the different options avable to us. Our organic mana motenterns seemed to be the best option for our lighting without creating some sort of runicwork. It took mana to initiate the reaction but once powered the mana motes continued to glow for a long time. But I was sure that there were a lot of other options and that wasn¡¯t even considering the idea of creating electricity. My own very own modern magic to bring to the realm. ¡°So far, we have just looked at the one effect and the two spells that can create it. Seeing that you have picked them up so quick I see no reason why we cannot look at one more or maybe two. Can you think of the most important necessity of life Kai?¡± ¡°Water?¡± I guessed confident in my answer. It seemed straightforward to me, 80 per cent of your body. The reason for life on earth. We cannot live without it etc. ¡°Yes, precisely that. Follow closely now, Nerano.¡± She ced her hand out much like how she held the ball of light but this time a ball of rotating and increasing water coalesced in her hand gradually growing as she continued to supply mana. Before she finally cancelled the spell with the words, ¡°Disperso!¡± Leaving her hand dry and ready for the next spell or another reason which was to gesture at her other student. ¡°Aleera if you would like to demonstrate as well. Watch closely now Kai, only 10 mana to initiate the spell then depending on your environment it can scale up or down drastically on the quantity and quality of water you collect.¡± Aleera called out ¡°Nerano.¡± And the water began to slowly pool in her hands filling the pair of them. She was not quite as smoothly as Lady Acacia¡¯s sphere of aqua but still very impressive to pull water out of nowhere. She did not manage the cancetion spell of Disperso. She simply drank what she had produced. ¡°Wonderful work, Aleera. We will work on your controlter. Now Kai would you like to have a go.¡± ¡°Nerano!¡± I shouted the words while trying to contain the initiation of the spell to a mere 10 mana. Much like my light spell, there was an explosion of water out of my hand rather than the puddle my sister had created or the carefully crafted ball of our teacher. I flooded the floor as my ball rapidly expanded until it burst in my face. I quickly cancelled my spell leaving me standing dripping wet in a pool of water. I quickly hastened to exin, ¡°I only used the 10 mana to initiate the spell honest.¡± A quick check of my status to see if that was the case was a little pointless as I rapidly regenerated mana and had already refilled after our earlier spell the exnation and exploration of runes and glyphs taking a while. ¡°Let me tidy this up.¡± I hurried to clear up the mess I had made by lifting my amulet from beneath my clothing and activating the runes for fire and air creating a hot dry st of air that dried my clothing quickly and reduced the water-covered floor to a few disappearing puddles. Lady Acacia looked at me suspiciously. ¡°It naturally should not be quite so explosive. Especially for your first spells. Most children have the opposite problem of being unable to pull for enough mana or correctly pronounce the words.¡± She frowned in confusion. ¡°That¡¯s my brother, overachieving in every area of his life.¡± Aleera chimed in with her tuppence disturbingly happy to see me facing difficulties with something. Even if it was the problem of overproducing when it came to the light and water. ¡°Control wille in time.¡± She said avoiding dismissing the explosive nature of my spells. ¡°Let¡¯s try learning the spellsong for the effect.¡± She moved on to her favourite magic and started singing a new refrain which she repeated. This time there were six notes to it which made it slightly longer to learn but it was still simple in its execution and easy enough to remember. As she sang, I watched the mana move using my mana sense. Her song infused with mana led the ambient mana the colours of the ambient mana gradually shifted to blue in harmony with her song. Then as the song built the ambient mana led by her own started to coalesce. It was not as direct or as contained as the previous spellcraft and instead the spellsong sang a mini cloud of water into existence above our heads in the hall which slowly began to drizzle then increasingly heavy rain upon us. Once she had seeded in creating the cloud she stopped singing and the cloud gradually thinned the rain turning to drizzle, the drizzle to mist until we were no longer being rained upon. Having demonstrated the melody and the effect she gave the floor to us, ¡°Your turn children.¡± she said stepping back to below a balcony, presumably to prevent our efforts from soaking her. There was not much point in drying off before our attempt, so I left the amulet below my clothing. Without discussion weunched into the refrain, singing together in harmony. Both of us were plenty capable after a lifetime of listening and singing with our mother. I watched in wonder as I saw our mana filling the hall stopping the shifting colours of the ambient mana as it had attempted to return to the yellows, browns and oranges it had been slowly shifting back to after the Elf¡¯s song. Instead, it once more continued to shift to blue as it grew closer and closer to vibrating in unison with the song we were singing. Until finally the water started to coalesce throughout the hall. A mist filled the entire hall. What we had failed to achieve in uracy whenpared to Lady Acacia we had made up in sheer mass. The cloud filled much of the hall although it failed to fill under the balcony. Then it began to rain. The rain gradually grew even despite the end of our song. The ambient mana still moving in line with our wishes despite us stopping soon after the cloud had started to rain. Lady Acacia pped our sess dry as she was protected by the balcony. Eventually, the rain stopped, and the cloud dispersed much as hers had. Perhaps ours had beenrger due to the two of singing rather than a single SpellSong singer. If magic could be created through singing the idea that our mother had been seen as a Siren songstress or sorceress made a little more sense now. ¡°Yes, well done. Now moving on, I said that we could learn at least three spells. Light to lead you through the Lodestone, water quench your thirst and for your final spell for today something to quench your hunger.¡± We stood paying rapt attention, food from mana sounded miraculous. ¡°You have heard of Manna food from the gods. While I can¡¯t offer you that mythical food I can give you something that will fill your belly. Watch carefully.¡° Here she pulled forth three tiny yellow pellets from a vial that she kept on a ne around her neck. She handed one to each of us while keeping the third for herself. ¡°This here is called a Sna seed. A wonderful invention. With it, a mage can stave off starvation for months. Provide they can remember their first two spells.¡± She carefully ced the seed in her hand beforebining the previous two spells while adding a third, ¡°Nerano phos auxano.¡± We watched in amazement as the Sna seed was enveloped first in water and then in light before it started rapidly expanding to fill the size of the water ball summoned with mana. When it reached the same diameter as the water Lady Acacia stopped supplying the spell with Mana and was left holding what looked like a round yellow fruit or a ball of yellow bread. ¡°Sna, food for the hungry. Care to try a bite?¡± She asked passing it to us. Aleera took a bite before passing it to me. It tasted like somewhere between citrus bread and a protein bar. It was not going to be my favourite food but I could feel that it would quickly fill you up. Once we handed the Sna back to Lady Acacia she took a small three small pinches of it rolling them up into balls before putting them back into her vial which she tucked into her dress. Amazing food from light and water! ¡°Aleera if you would like to have the first go.¡± Lady Acacia directed Aleera to demonstrate but judging by her shock at the Sna growing and her face when she tasted it I was assuming that she had not tried this spell before. ¡°Nerano phos auxano,¡± shemanded while holding the Sna seed in the palm of her hand. The water began to pool in her hand with light bathing it and the seed gradually began to grow. It did not form a perfect sphere as Lady Acacia had demonstrated but more of a gradually solidifying pile of yellow slime in her hand. That sounds a little more disgusting than it actually looked but I was somewhat dreading attempting it myself after my first two failures. So I might have been thinking a little negatively of her perfectly eptable first efforts. ¡°It tastes just the same.¡± Smiled Aleera, happy to say that despite the difference in appearance the product was effectively the same. ¡°Of course, dear now just remember to save a sample for your next attempt. You will need to practice the spell until you can form it in the correct shape. Some travellers use a tin or box to create slices of the stuff so that it can be paired with other food they have foraged or hunted.¡± She praised while exining her next steps and adding to her knowledge. ¡°Now Kai, gently do say the words.¡± ¡°Nerano phos auxano.¡± I practically whispered the words in the hope that if I did it a little quieter I might make less of a mess this time around. Unfortunately, that was not be. The water rapidly grew in size from a small marble to a basketball and then a beachball in no time at all. The difference this time though was that it was illuminated by light and a secondter as if racing to catch up the Sna seed rapidly expanded within it. I hastily used my second hand to catch it as I stopped the mana but I was still left holding with both hands something that was easily two or three times the size of me. I couldn¡¯t see anyone beyond the giant ball of yellow in front of me which thankfully was not ridiculously heavy despite its size. Sometime throughout all of this, I had heard Lady Acacia shouting, ¡°Enough.¡± And I could still hear Aleera¡¯s chuckles even if I couldn¡¯t see her any longer. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to.¡± I tried to hold up my hands defensively but with them still holding this giant ball of Sna I had no idea if they recognised the gesture. I was just grateful the ball had not exploded like the water or the light, a practical improvement in my mind. I put the ball down so I could engage in the conversation and see them at the same time. ¡°Stop. Just stop.¡± She put her hand up to prevent me from making up any more excuses. ¡°Something here is not quite right.¡± ¡°Could it be my trait, source of mana?¡± I asked wondering if the way in which I was able to throw mana at my problems had resulted in this happening with my Spellcraft. ¡°No, that should not make a difference. It could just be a matter of control but the three spells are quite different so I would have expected greater changes in the results if it was that. Do you have any . . . your amulet. May I have a look?¡± Looking towards my grandfather who nodded I pulled out my amulet for her to look at. ¡°First where did you get this amulet from? It is a fine piece of magical equipment. Particrly how it is a mixture of three forms of magic, runes, glyphs and gem. Second, you are going to have to take it off if you wish to learn how to practice your spellcraft as it is clearly providing extra oomph to your spells.¡± ¡°Grandfather gave it to me when I first developed my magical skills.¡± I defended myself. Even grandfather stepped forward to defend his actions. ¡°When Kai developed his magical core he was in a significant amount of stress and unable to control what, where, when or how he was releasing his mana. This was an heirloom of our family for services rendered and I knew it could help him to control his magical talents.¡± ¡°Kai is that what happened?¡± ¡°More or less.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Which is it more or less?¡± she asked for verification and I realised that as a family we had never really discussed the order in which I had achieved my stats and my traits. ¡°I already had my magic stat they gave the amulet to me when I gained the trait source of mana and was no longer able to control it.¡± ¡°Have you taken it off since then?¡± She asked. ¡°No.¡± I cautiously answered. I was sensing that there might be a problem but for the life of me, I couldn¡¯t imagine what it was. ¡°Could you take it off now and hand it to me carefully?¡± she questioned. I took it off and immediately felt myself growing ufortably warm. Lady Acacia though wasn¡¯t watching me but studying the Amulet carefully. ¡°This is truly remarkable work. You have here the runes for Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Fire, Lightning, Air and Ice allid out beautifully above the symbol of the Compass Empire. Not only that but the craftsman has included a gemstone to power the runes so that even ayman could draw the power forth. Furthermore, there is a single shield glyph carved into the stone. The craftsmanship is simply exquisite.¡± She turned back to stare at me in dismay. ¡°It was however working as much as a crutch as a shield for you. It has not let you grow naturally as it has continually siphoned off your excess mana.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Confused the amulet had been a blessed relief when I first received it and afterwards I had enjoyed learning about the different countries from it as well as all the spells I was able to enact with it. "What is the problem?" ¡°You haven¡¯t formed your core.¡± She sinctly answered. Maps Maps Basic frame for the group of inds they live on Initial view of the world from within the womb using echolocation Crawling around the house what he can see Now allowed out into the yard Finally exploring the town From when he thought he lived in a town on the edge of ake in a valley Final realisation that he lives on an ind in ake on a ind in the sea :D Chapter 102: Core consolidation Chapter 102: Core consolidation ¡°I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping of themes to settle themselves in my brain.¡± ude M ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. What is a core? No one has ever mentioned one to me before.¡± I asked confused as I quickly thought through the conversations that we had. No one had ever mentioned having a core. ¡°Try the light spell again.¡± She avoided answering my question while giving me my next task. ¡°Phos.¡± I quietly whispered a little fearful of the result. A ball of light formed perfectly in my hand. Crisis adverted . . . My thoughts were interrupted by my sister¡¯s gasp. ¡°Kai you¡¯re glowing.¡± Looking down at myself I could see that while I did indeed have a strong ball of light in my hand, I was also erupting with light from every other patch of skin even including my hair which was also lit up. ¡°There is the proof that you haven¡¯t formed your mana core.¡± She said gesturing at my glowing body. I might have cast the spell but it appeared that I was releasing mana from more than just my hand. Which was visibly obvious now that the amulet was not absorbing all of my excess magic. ¡°But I can cast spells. Why is a core important?¡± I asked confused seeing as I was able to do it without one. ¡°That is indeed truly magical. Most mages need to have solidified the core before they can cast, but you are somehow managing to do so without having formed your core. I believe having the Source of Mana trait you can cast spells without naturally forming your core. It would appear, that since this amulet has been absorbing your excess mana since you started to wear it, it has also been stopping the formation of your core. It may have been providing you with enough resistance that you have had to push through for every use of magic. But you haven¡¯t formed your core or built your control over the mana you can wield. Something that would or should have happened naturally if you had not been wearing the amulet.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± My magic had always worked for me sure I had hups now and then but it fundamentally did what I asked it to do. ¡°Use your mana sense to look at yourself and see the effect you are having on the mana now that you are no longer wearing the amulet.¡± She gestured towards me. It had been so long that I had been standing without my amulet. I wore it all the time. It was part of me it never came off. I carefully activated the skill and saw that I burned with mana. Like a molten me, the mana was flickering across my skin or pooling collecting and running off to create the equivalent of molten mana which was fuelling my spellcraft not only in the palm of my hand where I wished to have the light but anywhere else it was escaping my physical vessel. ¡°Oh,¡± I murmured. ¡°Exactly, Kai. You seem to have rushed through so much so quickly it is not surprising that you have missed out a few steps. Unfortunately, one of the steps you have missed out on is forming your mana core. This is essential for calm and controlled spellcraft without it you will continue to have explosive results. The amulet may have controlled the excess but it has also stopped you from developing the core and without it, fine mana control is significantly harder.¡± She exined. ¡°So how do I form my core?¡± I looked for the next steps. ¡°Step one is that you will have to stop wearing the amulet.¡± She outlined my steps. ¡°But won¡¯t I have a burst of mana again like when I first gained the trait?¡± I remembered back to when I first gained the trait. ¡°Yes you will have bursts of mana but at the same time, each burst will be pushing your core to develop to form a skin so to speak. In time once it has formed then you will be able to regain finer control.¡± She talked about the process. ¡°For Elves, this core will generally be formed by the time that they can ess their stats so it has never been an issue before.¡± ¡°Does this mean we have to stop the lessons?¡± ¡°Not at all. We can continue just to be prepared for excessive results until your core is properly formed. Once it is with your mana pool in one ce rather than filling and overflowing from your entire vessel it will be significantly easier to direct and control the flow of your magic. If you look closer at me using Mana Sight I will open up my shield and you will see my core.¡± I looked closely and watched as she suddenly opened up to my mana sight and I could see arge green ball of energy floating in the centre of her chest. All her mana seemed to be contained within it rather than rippling out across her vessel as mine was. I turned to look at Aleera and she too had a smaller cyan ball of energy holding her mana floating slightly higher at the base of her throat. I realized looking at the amulet in her hand that the green jewel would have hung between my throat and my chest and given the appearance of me having a green core despite having failed to form one when Lady Acacia looked at me. My false green core is one more reason for her to assume my Elven heritage if the colour of our cores is rted to our races. ¡°Can you see mine as well?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Yes,¡± I turned to look at Grandfather in the distance but he was either beyond my sight or had hidden his somehow. This was something I should have noticed before and wondered about. But if it wasn¡¯t broken I wasn¡¯t going to fix it and my mana had worked well enough for me, till now. ¡°So what now?¡± ¡°Now I think we rest, for the moment. I am sure you have plenty of tasks you need to aplish. I look forward to seeing you at dinner.¡± She dismissed us. . . . The days that followed were fine enough if a little embarrassing when my magic red up and flowed over the bounds of my vessel. However, I had enough control that I could generally mitigate my mistakes or clean up after them. . . . It was finally felt that we had sufficient time to adapt to the gains in our stats from the pledging of our uncles and aunts to be Adals. Now it was time to do the same with a few of our cousins. The difference this time was the order and the focus on achieving a cascade with their support. It was to this end that those with strength were chosen to give me my final attribute and Aleera her first perk. Then Endurance gives her a second perk. The oaths were exchanged as were our stats. Before another lesson in etiquette for us and the cousins. Arise Farhoni Silverkin, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 Strength Arise, Joyner Silverwood, Adal of House Silversea. +5 Strength Arise, Sayer Silverwood, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 Strength Arise, Ferris Silverstone, Adal of House Silversea. +5 Strength Arise Ashby Silverseed, Adal of House Silversea. +5 strength Arise Busby Silverseed, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 strength The process continued to bnce out my stats as we continued to focus on the areas in which I was the weakest, my strength. Six new Adals of House Silversea were enough to raise my strength to 101! Ding! Congrattions on gaining 100 in Strength before your 5th Birthday you are awarded the attribute Supreme Strength Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 516,900/ 819,200 Age: 2 years 7 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes Health: 1430/1430 Stamina: 1233/1233 Mana: 1430/1430 Psi: 1430/1430 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength Vitality: 143 -3 Endurance: 126 +10 Strength: 101 + 30 Dexterity: 130 Senses: 143 -2 Mind: 143 -3 rity: 121 Magic: 143 +2 Charisma: 61 Luck: 7 Free Points: 40 But we were not doing this only for me but for Aleera too. Who received the perk, mighty. A good perk for the stat. My attribute seemed a lot stronger inparison but then again I was achieving it 8 years earlier than she had. As they say, the early bird gets the worm. The downside to this particr method of force levelling our stats was I had decreased my overall Vitality, Mind and Senses. Not by a significant amount but I was rmed by the fact that my numbers could go down. Interestingly enough with all the magic practice that we had been doing and the skill levels, we had been gaining I now had 143 for not just Magic, but also Vitality, Mind and Senses. Charisma and Luck still had a long long way to go but apparently, Lady Acacia had a n to help us with those. Then we continued to gain our oaths that would support the growth of Aleera¡¯s endurance. Arise Rand Silversoil, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 endurance Arise Rold Silversoil, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 endurance I already had the trait of durability which had drastically improved my endurance allowing me to stay awake for a day at a time but now Aleera too received a perk, resilient. Level: 12 Title: Lady Name: Aleera Silversea Age:10 years Perks: Mighty, resilient Vitality: 75 Endurance: 101 +8 Strength: 101 + 24 Dexterity: 80 Senses: 65 Mind: 65 rity: 60 Magic: 60 Charisma: 60 Free Points: 78 Lady Acacia cut the oath pledging off at that point nning on saving the final oaths we could receive forter to maximise our gains and ensure that ourst Adals were chosen based on what would support our growth best. The lessons with our cousins went well enough. I enjoyed sitting back and not having to do anything. We were still restricting what our wider family knew about my abilities. So I was praised for my ability to sit still and not mess around. I took the time to rx, pretend to nap and work on my mind fortress that I had been neglecting with the amount of learning I had to do in the real world not the one I had inside my mind. . . . Another dinner, another lesson, ¡°Now that I know what I am working with it is time to discuss our future steps of consolidation and how we n to solidify your foundations.¡± This time though she was not talking about spellcraft, spellsong, enchantment, runes or glyphs. No today¡¯s revtion came in the use of the system and how to consolidate our learning. ¡°Consolidation?¡± I queried. ¡°What is a consolidation?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Consolidation is when the two skills of a lower tier arebined to create the same or simr skill in the tier above.¡± ¡°Is that possible?¡± Father asked. This was one more example of education that the nobles kept hidden from themoners. ¡°Yes. If you look at the skills I have had Aleera learning there is a certain amount of ovep and redundancy to the number alongside theck of variety. This was for a specific reason.¡± She exined her reason for teaching Aleera so many different types of table manners. ¡°However her talent in gaining these Tier 1 skills and the benefits of achieving so many will now shine forth.¡± She turned to address Aleera directly, ¡°You will if you follow my instructions correctly be able to turn two tier 1 skills into a tier 2 skill for example deportment.¡± ¡°Why not wait to work up to it?¡± Mother asked. ¡°A tier 2 skill is by its very nature stronger. Using it will be twice as effective as your tier 1 skill. It is not as if the skills are removed more as if they are hidden subskills of your tier 2 skill.¡± She paused to let us absorb the new information. Second, it allows you to continue to level your skills at a faster rate. Although the tier 1 skills will no longer appear on our status screen, they are notpletely gone folded as they are into your new tier skill. It means that you can continue to gain experience from the same things that you did before but that experience is now being concentrated on a single skill. It will therefore help your stronger skill to level up faster than if it had relied on a single source of experience.¡± I was suddenly very excited. If simr tier 1 skills could be folded into tier 2 skills then that opened wide, a vast array of possibilities for me who had multiple simr skills most obviously my musical skills and mynguage skills. Some of which I had hidden when revealed the list of my skills. This might be a way to hide them on my official status by wrapping them into more normal named higher-tier skills. ¡°What about tier 2 skills can you do the same with them to create tier 3 skills?¡± I asked excitedly. ¡°Yes as long as they are simr enough.¡± She answered. ¡°Can you give me an example?¡± I did not want to get my hopes up too high just yet. ¡°Well with a warrior having skills in knives and swords at tier 1 they can be consolidated into a tier 2 skill in des. Then bybining tier 1 skills hammer and truncheon into the tier 2 blunt instruments. It would then be possible tobine the tier 2 skills des and blunt instruments so that receive the tier 3 skill weapons. I mentally ran through the tally of my simr skills. ¡°What aboutnguages? Would it be possible tobine eight Tier 1 skills into four Tier 2 skills, then turn the four Tier 2 skills into two Tier 3 skills and then finally take those two Tier 3 skills and create a Tier 4 skill?¡± I asked still attempting to keep my voice calm. ¡°Would it be possible to get a Tier 5 skill innguages if you knew another 8?¡± ¡°Well Buss is thenguage Franca but if you learned andbined 2nguage skills you could technically get the tier 2 skill bilingual. Then it would be possible tobine two bilingual skills and you get to tier 3 multilingual. If you canbine two multilingual skills you can get the tier 4 polylingual. So in theory, if youbine all 8nguages for the lodestar races in thepass kingdoms you would have a tier 4nguage skill. I am sure that many merchants and schrs work towards this skill. Having it would certainly help them in earning more experience.¡± She paused thinking about the supposedly hypothetical question. ¡°I suppose in theory if you were able to learn the base races of the lodestonenguages as well it might be possible to learn a tier 5 skill but I do not know what that skill would be.¡± She pointed out, ¡°Besides trying to learn the base racenguages themselves would be challenging enough as it is.¡± I nodded excitedly I was sitting on another tier 4 skill innguages and could possibly get it up to Tier 5 after learning thepass kingdomnguages from Lady Acacia. Then there were my musical instruments. Would that be much the same? Two individual string instruments wouldbine to create a tier 2 stringed instrument skill. Indeed that is how it seemed to have worked for me a pyramid of lower tier skills supporting my higher level skills¡­ I could only imagine what might be possible. Each meal time was another reveal and revtion. Lady Acacia delighted in saving the best lessons for meal time with which she demonstrated her importance to our house and make each meal a mini-lecture. ¡°So how exactly do you consolidate skills?¡± I asked. Chapter 103: Resonance Chapter 103: Resonance ¡°Our hearts resonate at the same frequency as the earth and the universe. Therefore, we are all valuable instruments in the orchestration of the world and its harmony.¡± Suzy Kassem ¡°You know your skills, how to use them, and how they feel. Simr skills will feel the same. So, for example, Flute and Panpipe arepatible skills that could bebined to be Tier 2 Pipes or wind instrument skills. There is a certain resonance between them.¡± She answered while failing to give the specific steps. I looked at my skill list excited to consolidate but realising it was probably best to wait for some time alone before I attempted the process. Especially with the suspicious way in which my Grandfather was looking at me. As I thought about it if he had never had a noble¡¯s education he probably had an insane number of weapon skills that he could probably consolidate into some powerful higher-tier skills. It would not surprise me if he had 16 simr skills that could bebined to create a tier 5 skill. I watched Grandfather as I asked, ¡°What do you need to do?¡± He looked interested in the answer. ¡°Well, Kai I would wait a while before attempting it. It is worth thinking carefully about which you wish tobine and which skills you would like to keep separate. So, I would like you to wait and consult me before you attempt it. In order to create the bestpliment of skills.¡± She advised. ¡°Yes, yes but how do you do it?¡± I asked again, the entire table waiting on her answer. ¡°The first step is to pull up your status. Then ce your two hands on the two skills you wish tobine and imagine pulling them down out of your Tier 1 skills into your Tier 2 skills while pushing them together if there is sufficient resonance between the skills theirpatibility will allow them tobine.¡± ¡°Awesome. Will we be doing that soon?¡± Aleera asked excited to see what her skills would be and to gain a higher tier of skill. ¡°Aleera we will try toplete your cascades first then move on to consolidation. Kai, we need to focus on your Charisma Stat before we look towards consolidation. In fact, your task will be to focus on learning new musical instruments and building up a performance. To entertain your family, your cousins and then the town.¡± She disappointed my sister. We had made amazing progress on my cascade but Aleera¡¯s still had a long way to go and Charisma would rely entirely on my own abilities as none of our cousins had the stat as their highest stat. So there was no easy route to the trait or perk on our ind. Lady Acacia had suggested recruiting from further afield but whoever they managed to find would be unable to arrive on the ind before Aleera¡¯s 11th birthday anyway. So we were going to try and work on this with the resources we had at hand. . . . Later that night once the family had gone to bed, I was once more awake after a short nap. Despite the numbers on my stats, the boost from my trait Durability meant that I would wake up after a short nap at night. It was time to see if I could do the consolidation with my skills. I started with mynguages. I carefully pulled up my status putting a mental and physical hand on each skill English (LV15) and Spanish (LV15) carefully applying mental pressure to them with the physical gesture. The skills resonated as I attempted to move them. They vibrated in the same tone. Getting closer and closer to being perfectly in tune with one another until finally they clicked into unison and I heard thembine into a new Tier 2 skill, Bilingual (Lv 15). It had worked! Resonance was the key. Once I had created the skill I did the same with Japanese (LV15) and German (LV10) I held them until two skills vibrated at the same frequency but this time when theybined they created the skill Dual Lingo (Lv 12). It seemed that the skill level averaged out between the two skills that youbined. I left Buss (LV15) alone although I was tempted tobine it with French (LV7) however I was only attempting this with my otherworldly skills in the hopes of hiding them under another name. Also, I could imagine Lady Acacia having questions about where my Buss skill had disappeared to if I did that. Not that she wouldn''t have questions about the new high-tier skills if I suddenly revealed them. Instead, I attempted tobine Decoding (LV10) and French (Lv 7) as I mentally grabbed the two skills the tones were further apart and harder to hold together as they grew closer together in pitch. I wondered whether it was my poor French that was holding me back or a certain level of ipatibility between the skills but I persevered and the skills gradually grew closer and closer until finally with a pure tone I received the Tier 2 skill Interpreter (Lv 8). That was not the end of my experimentation as I now had a lot of Tier 2nguage skills to try consolidation out on, Bilingual (Lv15), Dual Lingo (Lv12), Interpreter (Lv8), Linguistics (Lv16), and Trantion (LV16). Looking at the new list of Tier 2 skills I still had a lot of ovep. I started with Bilingual and Dual Lingo repeating the steps I had earlier when they were only Tier 1nguage skills from my former world. A few minutester I was the proud owner of a Tier 3 Language skill, Multilingual (Lv 13)! Not to be halted there I looked at the other Tier 2 skills and considered which I couldbine, Interpreter (Lv8), Linguistics (Lv16), and Trantion (LV16). It was a tough decision. Either I could attempt Linguistics and Trantion which would allow me to maintain a higher level of skill at Tier 3 or I could attempt Interpreter and Trantion which seemed to be more closely aligned. In the end, following the difficulties I had experienced with French and decoding, I decided to go with the two skills that seemed the most closely aligned. Following the same procedure, I merged Interpreter and Trantion to create the Tier 3 skill, Polylingual (Lv 12). Sure I had dropped a little in its level but I wasn¡¯t nning on holding onto it but merging it further into a Tier 4 skill excited to see how high I could take this. When I took the two skills Polylingual and Multilingual though there was now more than one tone. I still had to merge them together but now I was forming a skill chord that reverberated in my head. Finally after what felt like an age but was probably only a minute or so I was the proud new owner of the Tier 4 skill Polyglot (Lv 12). That was sure toe in useful learning thenguages of the Compass Kingdoms. Maybe we could get started on Elvish soon? I wondered what woulde at Tier 5 or Tier 6. Although if I was going to attempt to use skill consolidation to get there it was going to take another 8nguages to create another Tier 4 skill to merge and then another 16nguages to create another Tier 5 skill to merge. Whatever skill you got at Tier 6 should be something like Universal Understanding if it was going to take learning 32nguages to get there! Alternatively, I could just go about as I always had practicing various things in the hopes of getting a skill for it. That is the way it had turned out for the majority of the skills I had gained. I couldn¡¯t wait for my first Elvish lesson to impress Lady Acacia with how quickly I could pick it up. This didn¡¯t need to be the end of my skill consolidation if my aim was to hide under another tier, my otherworldly skills. I still had Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20) tobine. They consolidated into Wind Instruments (Lv20) and String Instruments (Lv 20). I would have argued that a Piano was not the traditional definition of a string instrument but who was I to argue with the hand of fate that was the System. It seemed an arbitrary stretching of the nomenture. Still, it gave me two Tier 3 instrument skills which could bebined further into a Tier 4 skill of Virtuoso (Lv20). Lady Acacia was going to have a surprise when it came to my music lessons as well as mynguage lessons. I looked at my new consolidated skill list. It didn¡¯t look a lot smaller to me but I was happy with my new Tier 4 skills Polyglot and Virtuoso. Also if anyone was ever able to look at my skills and status without my permission there were now no longer any skills that would immediately give me away as an old soul from another world. Merely a monstrous genius savant from this one. Skills: Tier 1: Swimming (LV51) Running (LV51) Meditation (LV50) ) Time Sense (LV50) Breath Control (LV44) Singing (LV43) Listening (LV40) Knots (LV40) Stitching (LV40) Climb (LV35) Draw (LV35) Diving (LV35) Sailing (LV35) Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Trading (LV33) Dodge (LV33) Knife (LV33) Drumming (LV31) Sneak (LV31) Acting (LV25) Bnce (LV20) Calligraphy (LV20) Farming (LV20) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Throw (LV15) Lie (LV12) Buss (LV15) Mathematics (LV15) Appeal (LV7) Insight (LV6) Ambidextrous (LV 5) Glide (Lv5) Poise (Lv5) Grace (LV5) Charm (Lv5) Composure (Lv5) Martial Arts (LV4) Cook (LV3) Silent Step (Lv3) Deft touch (Lv 3) Posture (Lv 3) Dance (Lv 3) Sprint (Lv 1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV41) Quick reflexes (LV41) Eavesdrop (LV33) Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Linguistics (LV16) Pain Tolerance (LV20) Stealth (LV20) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) Transnt (LV12) Cartography (LV15) Misdirection (LV9) Haggling (LV6) Order (LV6) Knife Arts (LV7) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV44) Mana Maniption (LV38) Echolocation (LV35) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Melt (LV11) Deception (LV4) Command (LV4) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Virtuoso (Lv20) Polyglot (Lv 12) Stone shaping (Lv5) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv19) Now that I was bnced as best as I could be it was time to look at improving my mental abilities again. I had avoided focusing on practising my mental skills for nearly a year now but now it was time to start again. Hopefully this time my physical stats and abilities would be able to keep up with the support of the Elvish growth elixir. . . . Later that night, time to begin my own personal experiments with what the system and I were capable of when unfettered by the knowledge of what was and wasn¡¯t possible. The best ce to start on my mental powers was in my mind fortress. It had been a long time since I had the stamina to stay awake throughout the night but with the Attribute Durability it seemed to affect more than just my physical constitution but my stamina as well. I was now able to stay awake during the night without being too exhausted the next day. Cat naps were enough to bring me back to wakefulness. Step 1 I refreshed the individual rooms clearing away the mental cobwebs so to speak. I did not change theyout. I kept the same sequence of rooms along with my false status. Before sitting down to see what I could sense. The constetion of stars that represented the town were off to the east but there were 7 stars a lot closer. The brightest two were clearly Grandfather and Lady Acacia, it was difficult to tell which one shone the brightest but beyond the intensity of minds, there was also the feeling that it would be dangerous for me to interact too closely with them. Next up was my mother a beautiful star that did not seem anywhere as dangerous but still shone brightly. Moving closer I could sense contentment and slumber. She was dreaming and it was a pleasant dream. Nearby was Father¡¯s star not as bright his mind seemed to be sailing the sea even in his dreams he was excited and racing so fast across the waves that he was close to flying or at least that was the impression I sensed. Insight was at best a vague understanding of how they felt. Aleera shone brightest after that despite being younger than both Des and Sinis she had honed her mind and with the extra stats Magic, rity and Charisma she was stronger than both of them especially now that she had received her perks mighty and resilient. She seemed to be dreaming of the next step in her merchant empire envisioning buying up the children of ves and setting them free as we had done with Des and Sinis. Finally, there were Des and Sinis shining next to one another. Des dreamed of building a home with his brother hear on the shore of theke while Sinis dreamed of sailing the sea free. I wondered if they knew they each dreamed of different things. I also wondered when Insight might be a more effective Tier 2 skill. I had discovered that at its current level it worked best when people were asleep. When they were awake their minds seemed to be able to better defend themselves and I was only able to get the simplest of impressions, a general feeling or desire rather than the slightly more detailed impressions I was able to glean when they were asleep. I checked to see if I had managed to gain a level, Insight (Lv7) before trying to tackle my next challenge. I was not yet a warrior or a magecking the body of the former or the spells of thetter. But what I was good at were my sensory skills and once I had slightly longer legs I would have the ability to avoid the dangers I sensed. I had managed to tie Mana Sense and Echolocation into my internal Heads up disy using Parallel Processing. My aim this night was to see if I couldn¡¯t do the same with my Insight skill. Theplication to this was that the mind fortress seemed to stop my ability to sense the minds outside of my own. I had mentally created an idea of sensors on the outside of my mind fortress which were now sending their senses to my control room. I pulled up my map of the world around me. Sense mana gave me the most detail but had the shortest range. Lighting up the world around me in the colours I perceived mana to have. Echolocation gave a greater range and added ck and white to the internal radius that mana sense reached before it extended further as simply ck and white. This reached further than the mana sense but was limited by the stone around me travelling far further along the open corridors than through the walls. The next step was to add the minds to my map that Insight told me were there in the depths of my map that my other senses could not quite reach. Having achieved this I exited my mind while pulling the ovey with me onto my external vision. Walking to the wall I opened my secret tunnels watching as my echolocation suddenly extended along the pitch-ck tunnel. I headed toward the closest stars pushing mana sense and echolocation as far as they would go while I walked in through the tunnels which were challenging to see only with my physical eyes despite my supersenses trait. Gradually I grew closer to the minds of Des and Sinis perceiving them even through the stone with my . . . Ding! Mind Sense (Lv1) I was now able to include the stars that represented their minds to my mini-map that showed me what was beyond the walls separating us despite my echolocation making it through the stone. My map was now a mixture of my skills, Sense Mana, Echolocation and Mind Sense. But I wasn¡¯t finished there. There were some more skills I wanted to add to this HUD I as building again, Draw, Memorisation and Cartography. The problem with my current method was it was only what I could sense at the time not what I could remember of where I had been before. Using my memories my drawing abilities and my growing skill at cartography I was able to redraw the ces I had already been to so far tonight including my room which was now beyond any of my sensory skills. I spent an hour or two tiptoeing around the mountain building up a mental map of the ce which would light up as I grew close enough to sense everything. There were still a few nk rooms as I had not wished to wake anyone but I would get around to them when everyone was up and out. My sneaky map creation wasn¡¯t without its other benefits with Sneak reaching Level 32 and Stealth reaching Level 21 but thergest jump was in Silent Step reaching level 10. Maybe someone was up and sensing me wandering around. What made me smile though as I returned to my room and my bed was that with Mana Sense, Echolocation, Mind Sense, Draw, Memorisation and Cartography running all at the same time I had finally managed to push through the meridian on Parallel Processing reaching Level 21. All in all a good night''s progress. Time for a quick nap. Zzzzzzz . . . Chapter 104: New Curriculum Chapter 104: New Curriculum "Instead of a national curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child.¡± Charles Handy Life continued onwards, each day a new lesson to be learned. We had yet to receive any more oaths from our cousins. But there was a reason for that. I sailed less with Father and was not allowed out of the boat after our brush with the sea monster. I can¡¯t say that I minded too much enjoying the illusion of safety from inside the hull of the boat. I watched very carefully to ensure that Father did not run into something simr when he was in the water. However, the few times I had been out we had yet to see anything simr so were settling back into our routine when we went. The whole process was great for my sensory skills and continued to help level them. I was also building a mental map of the reef. The areas we had covered and the treasure of the ocean we had uncovered. It was not only pearls that I had pointed out to him, but he in turn had taught me about sea silk found on the foot of pen shells which we were also now collecting. It would provide us with very fine clothes indeed and perhaps be worthy of the caracol purple we could dye them. He was also collecting the finestrgest shells which we could polish up. We even found some sea sponges to add to our showers. Either way, although I went out less with him each time our boat came homeden with fish and the other treasures of the reef. The difference was that Lady Acacia now monopolised a significant amount of our time and directed it even when she wasn¡¯t present. Lady Acacia also had a different n for each of us. Based on Aleera¡¯s current stats she needed to improve Dexterity, Vitality and Senses in that order. To do so she created a program of study. Only after that would she focus on Mind, rity, Magic and Charisma but that would require a different n. She had the free points to spend and the ability to do so but was waiting to see how much could bepleted through natural growth and supported by improving skill levels first. That was not to say that those stats would be ignored simply that they would not be the focus. Level: 12 Title: Lady Name: Aleera Silversea Age:10 years Perks: Mighty, Resilient Vitality: 75 Endurance: 101 Strength: 101 Dexterity: 80 Senses: 65 Mind: 65 rity: 60 Magic: 60 Charisma: 60 Free Points: 78 Based on my stats I just needed to improve my Charisma and to do so she had created a program of study. Where she excelled as a tutor was being able to teach separate curriculums with different aims at the same time through the same subject, Music. Looking at my stats I also needed to continue to improve my Strength, Endurance and rity in order to create a better-bnced vessel. Maybe it was time to show Lady Acacia our sky diving method. Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 516,900/ 819,200 Age: 2 year 7 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes Health: 1430/1430 Stamina: 1103/1103 Mana: 1430/1430 Psi: 1430/1430 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength Vitality: 143 Endurance: 126 Strength: 101 Dexterity: 130 Senses: 143 Mind: 143 rity: 121 Magic: 143 Charisma: 61 Luck: 7 Free Points: 40 Where Aleera was learning a wide variety of instruments and practising increasingly challenging pieces of technical dexterity. I was performing the same pieces but being critiqued not for my technical levels but for my musicality, presence and the ability of my performance to sway the emotions of my audience. I was insanely grateful for the secret consolidation I had done to gain the Tier 4 Skill Virtuoso. Without it helping me to handle the technical aspects of the ying I doubt I would have had the space to even contemte how to affect my audience¡¯s mood. Insight was also useful here as I was able to see how my performance was affecting my listeners and lean into the moment or draw it out as required. Our audience was small just our inner family along with Des and Sinis but it seemed to be enough to help my Charisma move up a little more than usual. But it was not enough to make significant gains. So they were in discussion to decide whether it would be worth expanding the circle of those who knew about me to our Adals and the Silversea n. On the one side, we had Grandfather highlighting his standard position that the best way for two people to keep a secret is if one of them is dead. On the other side was Lady Acacia extolling the benefits to the growth of Charisma stat by performing to a greater audience and therefore having a bigger impact. She also had an extra argument for making the supportive Adal families aware of more of my abilities that none of us had realized or even contemted. It turned out that if Magic was my highest stat whenpleting an oath of allegiance it was possible to unlock the stat for the pledging Adal. This meant that we could possibly create our own mages for the Silversea house as Magic was one of my highest stats. I just needed to do a little more learning and it was sure to rise to the top again. Not something that would be too difficult with Lady Acacia willing to teach us Spellcraft, Spellsong, Runes, Glyphs, Enchantments and Sigils. Sure it would cut into my own mana capacity but with the Source of Mana trait, I already had a significant advantage in how quickly it regenerated. It was no longer an argument over simply secrecy but now a question as to whether secrecy would hinder the growth of our house. The pros of widening the circle of secrecy were a greater gain in Charisma Stat, being able to consume the elixir at a quicker rate and being able to jump-start the number of mages avable on our ind. The cons would be our entire n would be aware that I was more than merely normal. Still, that in itself was not necessarily a bad thing as I would be able to visit all their trades and learn from them directly. My abilities could be exined as a product of the oaths as well as Lady Acacia¡¯s training and elixirs neither of which would be aplete lie. Not precisely the whole truth but enough to suffice and exin my sudden growth. It hadn¡¯t been decided yet, but we practised our pieces together while aiming for different effects. Under Lady Acacia¡¯s direction my skills for the Rebec, Aulos, Cornu, and Harp had all reached Level 20 while Aleera had reached level 10 with each of them. ¡°Why does Kai level faster than I do?¡± Aleera bemoaned my speedy progress. ¡°That is not strictly urate as he was already starting at a higher level of skill.¡± Lady Acacia asked for uracy in all things. ¡°Yes but why does he level so fast?¡± she acknowledged her exaggeration but repeated her question. ¡°Well obviously he is extremely unusual but there are probably several factors that have allowed him to elerate his progress." She paused. "Keep practising Kai." she gestured for me to continue and stop listening in. Luckily I could use my Virtuoso skill to continue the music on will I continued to eavesdrop on the conversation. "First, there is the fact that he was aware of his stats from birth so that has obviously had an effect.¡± She started at the beginning. ¡°How would that have an effect? I can see my status and looking at it doesn''t make it go up any faster.¡± Aleera argued. ¡°It is the idea that observation changes that which is observed. Especially if the observed is being aware it is observed.¡± She expressed a philosophical position. ¡°How does that make a difference?¡± asked confused. ¡°He has always been aware of what he is and what he has done that helps him to improve. This has helped him to speed up his progress and don¡¯t forget that being aware since birth gave him a 5-year head start on you. It might be best to think of him as 2 and a half years and yourself as 5 years past the appearance of your stats.¡± She discussed the difference in time. ¡°Second he has been blessed with strong stats that are supporting his growth. He arguably has twice the capacity of mind so if he is not learning at twice the speed he really isn¡¯t trying his hardest.¡± She pointedly remarked looking in my direction it looked like she was notpletely convinced by my ying and probablypletely aware that I was still listening in. But on the other hand, she didn''t ask me to leave orment again. ¡°How does your mind stat help you learn faster?¡± she asked. ¡°The stat allows you to think quicker, retain more, and you just have naturally more to work with. It doesn¡¯t stop you from being an idiot through ignorance or arrogance. But will help you learn skills and structured lessons much faster.¡± she exined. ¡°Should I be investing into my mind next then to help speed my learning?¡± trying to think her way around her problem. ¡°No, we have an order for your cascade and we will be sticking to it.¡± She answered firmly. ¡°Besides it isn¡¯t just the effect of his mind stats that support his learning. He also has Fast-Learner as a trait. So if anything he is really underperforming a little inparison to what gnomes get up to creating and their contraptions. But I suppose he is still a little physically limited so we shouldn¡¯t be too harsh on him just yet.¡± Harsh on me. I¡¯m doing fantasticpared to everyone else on this ind but then I suppose the world is wide and vast. Then again she could just be winding me up because she knows I am still listening in. ¡°We should however get on with today¡¯s lessons.¡± She changed the subject. . . . We stopped our music practice and the conversation to review our spellcraft and our spellsong. She was not teaching us anything new for the moment, insisting that we master the first few spells for light, food and water saying, "These are your bread and butter for magic. Adrift at sea or lost in the depths of the lodestone these spells will keep you and anyone with you alive." For Aleera this meant that she had to work on increasing the amount of mana she could pour into the spell and working on her control. For me it meant trying to restrict my mana to limit it to the size I wished without it exploding everywhere. My core was still slowly forming without wearing the amulet every second of every day. . . . ¡°Before we finish there is a fourth and final reason why Kai levels quicker than most. As your Grandfather has put it he is a catalyst.¡± ¡°But what does that mean exactly?¡± ¡°Well, Catalyst is the human concept, not an elvish one.¡± ¡°We would say rather that he is an old soul. The Giants would call him an ice mountain. The Dwarves a pure metal.¡± ¡°Catalyst or Old soul. How does that help him to level?¡± ¡°Well, this is a matter of belief rather than something that has been able to be proved as they are few and far between. But, the idea expressed is that they have hidden depths. The Elves believe that the reason a Catalyst or an Old Soul is able to level so quickly is simply that they have already done it before but in a former life and some part of them or rather the system itself recognizes that they remember the skill even if they haven¡¯tpleted the action or achieved the action yet in their current incarnation. Then when they doplete the system requirements, it automatically awards them with some sort of amalgamation of their current life and past life skills. It, therefore, looks like they are levelling faster when in actuality they are simply regaining what they once had. The giants'' philosophy is that like the ice on the surface of the water what you see is only a small amount of the mass beneath, that their system is somehow connecting to the forces of nature they are somehow intuned with and they are being powered by them. The Dwarves would argue that they are like pure metal already hewn from the earth and processed to remove all impurities ready to be forged. That they are the chosen of the gods and that their forging and purity means that they can be quickly forged without fault by the system. As I said it is a matter of faith.¡± She exined the thoughts behind other cultures'' faith in general and in sweeping terms. But it all sounded fairly fantastical and a little close to the truth. ¡°Which do you believe?¡± she asked inquisitively. ¡°Well seeing as I¡¯m Elvish I am particrly partial to our beliefs. But then I can see something you can¡¯t.¡± ¡°What?¡± she pushed. She paused before turning to me to answer, ¡°The size of his soul.¡± Chapter 105: Soul Sight Chapter 105: Soul Sight ¡°I unpetalled you, like a rose, to see your soul, and I didn¡¯t see it. But everything around ¨C horizons ofnd and seas-, everything, out to the infinite, was filled with a fragrance, enormous and alive.¡± Juan Ramon Jimenez I freaked out! She can see my soul? Do I look like a child or an old man? What do souls even look like in the first ce anyway? What a horrible hook to leave us hung up on. Hurry up, woman borate! ¡°You can see our souls?¡± Aleera continued the conversation. ¡°What does mine look like?¡± ¡°It is not so much that I can see into your soul but rather that I can get a general sense of who you are. Yours looks, to me at least, like a young wood full of energy keen to expand. But this is my lens through which I see or envision souls.¡± She eventually answered. "How you see a soul is very much up to your perspective." ¡°What about Kai¡¯s?¡± she quizzed dauntless in her digging. She can see my soul? What do I look like? Can she see who I was as much as who I am? Stop panicking! She hasn¡¯t said anything till now. But then who would use Soul sense or whatever the skill is called on every baby you meet? Besides . . . ¡°To me, Kai¡¯s is arge forest with an ancient imprable oak dominating at its centre. A forest withrge clearings leaving plenty of space for growth within as well as without.¡± Her poetic description of our souls put my mind slightly more at ease. That did not sound drastically different to how she was describing Aleera¡¯s soul and she had nevermented on them before. So other than the size of it maybe it looked the same as everyone else. ¡°How do our souls affect our levels?¡± Aleera asked keen as always to focus on cause and effect. She wanted something and was trying to work out how to get it. ¡°Well, our beliefs, supported by my skill soul sight, imply that therger the soul the greater the amount of life experience, and the greater the number of skills. Inparison to your soul, Kai¡¯s is significantlyrger. Larger even than mine or your Grandfathers¡¯ but it is only supporting a rtively small number of skills inparison to my list and probably your Grandfather¡¯s.¡± She enlightened us on an aspect of the system we had never considered. "This fact alone suggests he is an old soul rather than a new soul." ¡°How does that affect things? If anything he has the opposite problem of not being able to grow up quick enough although I suppose you are solving that with the Elixir." Keen to identify the effects she kept quizzing. ¡°Well, most Elves myself included see our souls as forests. Within the forests that form our souls, our skills grow as trees. Therger your soul the more nutrients to support your skills. My soul isrge and supports a wide variety of skills which grow. It is possible that despite arge number of skills for his age Kai has rtively few skills for the size of his soul meaning that they are all able to grow quickly supported by the depth of his soul. There are many different theories about how this might affect skill growth. However, Elves would argue as an old soul he already has acquired the seeds for each skill he learns quickly and oncepleting the requirements needed it quickly blossoms into a skill tree. Because he is regrowing a tree he already once had rather than growing it from scratch.¡± ¡°He has a fat soul and his skills grow quickly because his soul already knew them?¡± Aleera summarised her theories in a single sentence. Before driving forward again, ¡°How can I get my soul to grow as big as his?¡± ¡°Life, experiences, experience. Your soul will grow in time.¡± Lady Acacia gave the oft-given and most hated of all answerers to children, it will happen in time and when you¡¯re older. ¡°Is there any way, to make my soul grow quicker?¡± She wasn¡¯t giving up just yet. ¡°Maybe, but now we are back to where we started, if you invest your time in attempting to grow your soul, only to speed up your levelling you are losing the time you would have spent levelling up your skills. It is circr problem and your time is finite.¡± She advocated waiting rather than worrying. ¡°So I can either spend my time levelling my skills as I am or I can spend my time increasing the size of my soul. This might help me speed the levelling up my skillster but will cost the same amount of time as I save. Bah!¡± She threw her hands up in frustration. ¡°So do you still want to know?¡± Lady Acacia smiled. ¡°Know what?¡± Aleera asked a little confused after Lady Acacia had answered that time was the best remedy to her conundrum. ¡°How to help your soul grow?¡± Lady Acacia continued to smile. ¡°Yes?¡± she tilted her head unsure whether the answer would help or hinder the speed of her growth. ¡°Through helping others to grow.¡± She offered an alternative to time. ¡°Others?¡± she asked for rification of the short answer. ¡°Other people, other animals, other, nts, others.¡± She borated a little more. ¡°Animals? nts?¡± She seemed surprised that even they would count. ¡°Why do you think Elves are known for protecting the forest and the life that lives in it? It is not an entirely selfless effort. It also helps our souls to grow.¡± Elves were known for their forest on the border between the Kingdoms of Ponente and Maestro. It was also the buffer between the Kingdoms and possibly the only reason they weren¡¯t at war was the vigorous manner in which the Elves protected their forest. ¡°Would our garden help my soul grow?¡± Tried to think about what she had that she could use to apply to increase the size of her soul. ¡°As long as the nts are growing and healthy it should certainly help.¡± She answered. ¡°Does helping us grow help you grow?¡± I asked having thought of an alternative reason to the Prince¡¯s request for her presence with us on our ind. Was she here for the progress she could make on her soul as much as helping us out? ¡°Yes, beyond my skills teaching, training, tutoring, instructing and coaching levelling as much as they have. I believe the experience of visiting this remote ind as well as the progress both you and your Adals are making is helping me to grow my soul. I would love to help out with your garden as well.¡± She answered honestly. ¡°Why do you have so many skills for the same thing?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°They all have a slightly different focus, teaching supports my academic lessons. Training supports me in helping you develop your physical skills along with your weapons skills. Instructing is primarily focused on helping you learn your social skills while tutoring is used for children as well as the one-to-one nature of our lessons much like coaching. Each one is specific to a particr function and allows me to educate more efficiently.¡± Why were we talking about this when we should be asking more about the soul? That was the most important aspect of this conversation. ¡°How do you learn to see the soul of others?¡± I asked. ¡°First step is being able to see your own.¡± She answered, and we waited patiently for a little more boration. We continued to wait some of us patiently some of us impatiently. Before she finally deigned to continue her exnation. I swear she did this on purpose sometimes. ¡°Meditation is the first step. Second, clear your mind and attempt to divorce your sense of self from that of your body. Attempt to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul. Third attempt to step out of your mind, your body into your soul.¡± That sounded confusing. ¡°What is the difference between your mind and your soul? Surely if you can envision yourself in your mind it is the same as being in your soul?¡± I was a little confused at the distinction between them. Especially as I was already able to envision myself in my mind within my fortress. Was that not my soul? Was it merely a mental construct but still part of my body? I was confusing myself and waited to hope for a little more rification. ¡°Yes and no.¡± She answered, which hardly rified anything. ¡°Remember I said I would improve your mind body and soul. I was not exaggerating when I said so or being superfluous with my vocabry. You might not get to be able to see souls such as I do but there is no reason we can¡¯t work on yours in the process. You may use a mirror to see your face but to see your soul you can use works of art. Time to pick up those paints young master and mistress.¡± She deftly transitioned us into the next lesson ignoring any further questions about her skills, their consolidation or more importantly in my humble opinion, the soul. ¡°Today let¡¯s focus on a quick sketch before adding some shading, remember to blend before adding your detailing.¡± We were left drawing the literal fruit while pondering the metaphorical food for thought and wondering how this might be helping our souls to grow. Ding! Painting (LV1) I wondered whether a new tree had joined the forest that Lady Acacia saw as my soul. . . . It was a short whileter that we found ourselves making our way up to our hidden garden. We were both intrigued to see what Lady Acacia would make of it. It was our own. Something we had done without our family''s support or suggestion. We crested the ridge line of the crater. Wanda was working her way around the nts but other than that all our farming efforts wereid out in front of her in a row after circr row descending to the bottom of the crater. ¡°Amazing work children.¡± She looked impressed by our efforts. Mana made many a thing possible. In this case, it had sped the speed at which we could grow our nts and create our produce. We walked her around talking through each nt and what it needed best for it to grow to its full potential. Our vines had finally fruited and they were ready for us to harvest. ¡°I''m very impressed." Wanda came up to meet us and walk us through the garden while exining our crops and their sesses. "Have you ever considered nting trees?" she asked. "There is hardly space here for trees if we want to continue growing this variety of crops." "No, but you do own the rest of the ind do you not? You are hardly limited to this as your only area avable." "I suppose we could." "Which one would you suggest?" "The Elendil." "What is special about the Elendil Tree?" "If you nt one here in the center of your garden I will show you." She said producing a seed from out of nowhere. It did not take much effort to create a little ind of stone and soil in the centre of the cauldron. I was worried that the tree would destroy my beautiful initiation well. But was promised that she would be able to sing the tree around it in time. Directing its growth so that it grew over and around without damaging the structure itself. In fact, she promised that when it wasplete we would be able to walk into the tree before descending the well. That it would be a guardian of sorts or at least a secret entrance once it had covered it up. We spent a pleasant afternoon watching her work as she sang the Elendil Tree from a seed to a shoot to a sapling. It would take a lot longer before it was asrge as she described it was possible to get but the possibilities were exciting. Not that we didn''t have to help out as well. "There is no reason we cannot practice your spells at the same time, you two. We will need the same three spells that I first taught you. What works to keep us alive also helps to keep nts alive. Kai if you will provide the water." she gestured to where she wished to have more water. "Nerano." I shouted. My control had been getting better as my core stabilised. So I was now able to direct the water to where I wished it to go more or less. "Aleera if you would be kind as to create a little more light." "Would it not be better and more efficient to apply the mana directly to the nt?" She asked. "The best method is time, but we are skipping that with our magic. The closer we can keep it to its natural growth the better." She exined. "Phos." Aleera illuminated the area. With water and light provided through our spellcraft. Lady Acacia continued to sing the tree into the shape she wished it to take. It was simply magical watching ten years of growth happen in 10 minutes. "Pause for a second Aleera and Kai." We stopped to see what the next stage would be. "We have exhausted much of the soil''s nutrients from the surrounding area so they need to be replenished. Before we attempt to sing it any higher." "That''s not a problem Lady Acacia, Des and Sinis regrly bring up plenty of fertiliser to support the growth of our garden. If you follow us this way you have a choice of three different kinds." Aleera informed her excited to help. Des and Sinis kept bringing it up and formed 3 piles of different nutrients for our soil. Firstly there was the nightsoil that we had started using. Then there was the guano that Wanda had rmended. Finally, we had also started collecting all the fish offal and any other offal from the town. For the most part, they had been using it to feed local livestock but any that was not we were now collecting. "The offal and guano are perfectly eptable as is. The nightsoil however needs to be prepared before that is eptable to give to the Elendil tree as food." She perused our offer. "What is wrong with using it directly," I asked a little concerned as we had used all three to support our garden''s growth. "Humans are not always the cleanest of animals." she started with before pausing to consider her audience. "It would be better prepared to ensure there are no possible parasites or diseases." I inwardly winced not having really considered the danger when I had first suggested the idea. "Not to worry, we have created a solution to this a long time ago." She showed us a vial much like the one she kept the Sna seed in. "This is Sno. Much like how Sna is the basic food for the noble races from light and water. This creates the essential nutrients for nts from light, water and . . ." she hesitated, "other organic material." She showed us a green seed that threw into the pile that had been collected before quietly reciting her spellcraft. "Nerano phos auxano." The pile was showered with light and water a huge green ball grew out of and across the pile. "It also smells a lot better." She smiled at us. "Now if you three would like to bring that back to the Elendil we can work on singing it a little taller. It waste afternoon before we made our way back down the mountain to prepare for the evening meal. The Elendil tree was now twenty feet high and magically following Lady Acacia''s Spellsong in how and where it was growing. It would be a wonderful centrepiece for our gardens in time. . . . "Think about it, if we want to increase the size of our souls by experiencing life and helping others grow we need to do it on a bigger scale. We need to set up a school." I spitballed with Aleera. "And just how are we going to do that? There is already the Lodestar Luminary in town. Why would anyonee here to learn?" she unknowingly yed devil''s advocate. "Because we will pay them toe." I had been thinking about this. "Why would we do that?" she sounded horrified at the idea of paying anyone anything. "To get them toe." I grinned. "Money doesn''t grow on trees Kai!" she was not impressed with my circr logic. "No, but fruit does!" I pointed back to the wealth I was thinking of. "We don''t have to pay them in coins or pearls. How many parents would be happy to send them here for a free meal." I grinned excited my idea. "Pay them in food?" she asked. "Yes but not just that get them to work for it too!" I kept running with the idea. "If they turn up at the beginning of the day they can help Des and Sinis carry up a bag of fertiliser for an apple at the top. Then a short maths or Buss lesson followed by helping out in the garden in order to earn their lunch. If helping others to grow helps us then we would be growing our souls, our workforce and our garden all in one go!" Once I got going I kept going. "Not sure that it is going to work out quite as well as you are hoping but no reason not to try." Chapter 106: A different language or two Chapter 106: A differentnguage or two "The structure ofnguage determines not only thought, but reality itself." Noam Chomsky Languages! Lady Acacia was finally teaching me some. A differentnguage is a different vision of reality. Each one holds not just words, but thoughts, culture, and traditions. I was excited to learn the magic of the world hidden in theirnguages. What new ways in which to view the world would I find? . . . ¡°Kai! Are you paying attention?¡± Lady Acacia drew me back to her. ¡°Yes, ready to learn.¡± I was going to knock her socks off with mynguage acquisition skills this time around. . . . Despite the system rewarding me with multiplenguages and skills for it. To be honest, in my former life I had never been an exceptionally gifted linguist. I just liked to talk and was not afraid to do so. It had never mattered to me too much about the grammar or even the order of the words as long as I had been able tomunicate with the new people I met. It was not until I had made it to university and studied there that I met some truly gifted linguists able to pick upnguages as easy as picking up a book to read. It had been a little depressing but I had persevered. I probably had not ever impressed my tutors with the uracy of my trantions but I had possibly impressed them with my refusal to quit the courses despite so many of my fellow students stopping after a year or two. This time it was going to be different I had skills to rely on and I was going to lean into them heavily. . . . ¡°Let¡¯s start with my home tree tongue of Elvish. There are of course a couple of different dialects within it but we will concentrate on the most widely spoken of them.¡± ¡°Man erin.¡± She started ¡°Man erin.¡± I repeated but I wasn¡¯t alone Aleera was joining in with these lessons. ¡°That means Good morning.¡± She exined. ¡°Hana I lumb, o cin nimloth?¡± She raised at the end implying a question. ¡°Hana I lumb, o cin nimloth?¡± We repeated like parrots. ¡°That implies, Fare thee well?¡± she continued to trante our lesson. ¡°But its more literal trantion is along the lines of how is the shade of your tree? If you are looking for the deeper meaning is asking about the health of your home due to the amount of foliage it has. However, we do not and will not go into much detail until we have the basics down.¡± ¡°I¡¯mm triw, sanc sin.¡± Came next. ¡°I¡¯mm triw, sanc sin.¡± We echoed. ¡°Which trantes as I¡¯m fine thank you.¡± ¡°A cin?¡± she stated questioningly. ¡°A cin?¡± we reiterated. ¡°Is the question, and you?¡± I burst outughing my internal glee bursting forth without control. Anyone who has taught English as a foreignnguage or had to learn it as a kid would recognise that conversation. ¡®Good morning, how are you? Answered with, I¡¯m fine, thank you. And you? It appeared that even though we were worlds apart from where I remembered my first life. Some things likenguage lessons didn¡¯t change. ¡°Is everything okay Kai?¡± Lady Acacia asked a little concerned by my outburst. I was beginning to be a little more open in my character in front of her. Guarding my thoughts and words a little less carefully each day as we got to know her. ¡°Ignore him he gets like this sometimes. Laughs for no reason and then tells you to ignore him.¡± Aleera answered before I could get a word in edgewise. It was notpletely inurate. I had alwaysughed at my own internal jokes even if everyone would not have had I uttered them out loud. But once she had finished I had my own thing to say. ¡°Man erin. Hana i lumb, o cin nimloth? I¡¯mm triw sanc sin.¡± I sang to her before Iughed again. My skills helped me pronounce the phrases quickly and fluently without error. ¡°I¡¯mm triw, sanc sin.¡± She replied, ¡°Wonderful pronunciation but you should really wait for me to respond before you answer the question I have yet to ask.¡± . . . Our first lessons started with Elvish but she didn¡¯t stop there. My Polyglot skill allowed me to pick them up with ease. Eachnguage rewarded me with another level in the skill Polyglot as well as . . . Ding! Elvish (Lv1) Everynguage is a different lens with which to see the world and one of the obvious differences between Buss and Elvish was the sheer number of words to describe the colour green. Simr to how English had, green, chartreuse, juniper, jade, vert, sage, lime, fern, olive, emerald, pear, moss, shamrock, seafoam, pine parakeet, mint, seaweed, pickle pistachio, basil and crocodile green. So too did Elvish. The difference was the colour names did not appear to be based upon different nouns simply the colour itself. In the Elvish dictionary, I had been given they had helpfully given coloured examples for each one to ensure aplete understanding of the word and its meaning. The colours were all drawn in the shapes of leaves and looking at the page was much like looking at a forest from a distance each tree holding a different shade of green to its leaves. Differentiating the colours along with remembering the specific word for the specific colour was harder than picking up thenguage the memorization of colours is not supported by the Polyglot skill. Lady Acacia was very impressed with my ability to pick upnguages and as soon as I had a basic grasp on them she would quickly move on to the next. Along with eachnguage came a little description of the culture it came from and its location in the Compass Kingdoms. It seemed that while humans were everywhere each race could be found along a differentpass point. Often on the border of the human kingdoms or within them. While the focus of her lessons was thenguages and their acquisition I was also able to absorb a lot more than just that. Aleera was learning with me and she took a little longer to gain the skills without the benefit of a Polyglot skill. This meant that I would be given a book to read on each culture in a corner while waiting for her to catch up. Thankfully the books that she had provided me were written in Buss as I had yet to learn how to read Elvish another new script. Hopefully Polyglot would help with that as well when it was time to tackle that. My reading resulted in another level or two in cartography as I studied the maps. I looked forward to attempting to create my own in time. But first I hoped to map my ind and the surrounding isles before attempting such arge-scale project which would have to rely on second-hand knowledge of the locations rather than what I had seen myself. The Long-lived Elves were to the north of Ponente. Their forest was within the Northwest section of the Compass Continent. Their culture if I was describing it in old-world terms was some sort of amalgam of European, Druidic, and Hippy cultures that were bound to their forest. The Great Elvenwood formed the northern border of Ponente and provided a buffer between the two Kingdoms of Ponente and Maestro. Not only were the cultures, traditions andnguages different but they also favoured one form of magic over another. They specialised in Spellsong above the rest. Emeralds known as life stones could be found in their Kingdom and were highly prized by all other countries of the continent who had to import them from their Elvenwood Empire. The Gemstone that had been added to my Runic amulet was a Life Stone and was able to help power the growth the alchemical elixir caused. Using the stored energy within it left me feeling significantly less exhausted after a growth session. Interestingly enough, despite the rtively small area inparison to some of the other human Compass Kingdoms. The Elves called their state an Empire and were supported by many kings. It appeared that every elf with magic and strength was equivalent to a human noble if not called one. This raised some interesting ideas about what we might be able to achieve here at the edges of Ponente. How flexible were social constructs and how were they judged by the system? ¡°Kai stop daydreaming ande and learn how to write it down. Aleera has caught up and is waiting for you.¡± Lady Acacia interrupted my thoughts and directed me to sit at one of the two desks we were now using to work at in our lessons. She had already written out the phrase for us to copy. ¡®This would do wonders for my calligraphy skill.¡¯ I thought as I picked up my quill. Aleera¡¯s quill scratched alongside mine as we attempted to form our letters correctly. ¡°Kai your letters need to curve a little more, branches do not grow straight and neither should your letters. There should be a flow to them.¡± She corrected the flow of my handwriting. ¡°Wonderful work, Aleera.¡± I was sure that she was just looking to praise in equal turns. But it appeared that my more angr printing was a detriment to my Elvish script workAcacia. I bit my tongue and concentrated a little harder. It was time to stop daydreaming and concentrate a little harder. . . . The secondnguage she decided to teach us was Giant. ¡°???? ???????¡± Lady Acacia¡¯s voice sounded almost guttural as she delivered the lines. ¡°???? ???????,¡± I repeated leaning heavily on my skills to get it right. ¡°??? ??? ????¡± We were repeating the same conversation that we had started with in our first Elvish lesson. The difference was seeing as I had picked up thenguage both spoken and written so quickly she had decided that there was no reason we couldn¡¯t attempt to do both at the same time this time around. ¡°?''? ???? ????? ???.¡± I knew what I was saying even if I found the script it was written in was new. At least this time when I wrote the script she would not critique my writing for being too straight. ¡°??? ????¡± Wepleted the question and answers before being handed the script to copy. ???? ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?''? ???? ????? ???. ??? ???? . . . Ding! Giant (Lv1) I quickly picked up the skill and while Aleera practised, thenguage a little more I was once more given a book to read about thenguage and culture of the Giants. The Giants lived to the Northnguage strikingly Nordic in its simrities reminding me of Vikings as she described their culture alongside teaching me theirnguage. They favoured Glyphs over Runes despite or perhaps because of the simrity between them and theirnguage as their main form of magic. If they were to be represented as a ss in some sort of old-world game I would describe them as Barbarians. Strength was the main aspect of their race and country. It was wide open country often encroached upon by the snow and ice that worked its way across it every winter. Topaz stones could be mined from below their tundra and were used if you ever wanted to strengthen an item. . . . Lady Acacia appeared to be working her way around thepass continent in terms of thenguages and their locations. We had started with the Elves in the North West, followed by the Giants to the North. Next came the Dwarves to the North East. Like most fiction I had ever read they lived in the mountains. Unlike any fiction I had read they appeared to speak something close to Russian. Theirnguage sounded a little Russian to my ear although I had never been able to say more than cheers so I had no idea how urate my impression was. But judging by their script and the sound of thenguage which seemed somewhat vic inparison. §¥§à§Ò§â§à§Ö §å§ä§â§à, §Ü§Ñ§Ü §Õ§Ö§Ý§Ñ? §Á §Ó §á§à§â§ñ§Õ§Ü§Ö, §ã§á§Ñ§ã§Ú§Ò§à §Ú §Ó§í? Either way Polyglot made this notoriously difficultnguage a lot easier to learn. Ding! Dwarf (Lv1) Once I had the skill though I was once more given a book to absorb. Luckily it wasn¡¯t in Dwarf. Arge Mountain range that ran between the Northern Realm of the Giants and the rest of the Compass Kingdoms this was the Domain of the Dwarves. They were the creators of the Rune system of magic and the majority of their Domain was in the North Eastern Kingdom of Greco. They mined many gems and metals from below the mountains but the most predominant gem found was the fire opal, the gem of endurance. They were strong believers in the Lodestar Church with many a Dwarf being a Pdin of the faith. This faith in the Lodestar sounded like it was strengthened by the fact they often fought with the base races hidden in the depths of the Lodestone. Their entire domain was far closer, adjoining or breaking into the Lodestone Labyrinth their main foe the Orcs that would drive upwards ever looking for the light of the Lodestar. Reading all of this was a little rming and it was difficult to know how much was true and how much was part of the reasoning or supporting myths of their faith. Either way, it was frightening to think that Orcs lived somewhere below our feet. Hopefully, as we were an ind in the middle of the ocean if there were any it would be deep beneath our feet and any tunnelling they did would lead to the swift demise with the ocean pouring in on top of them. ¡°Lady Acacia,¡± I politely enquired interrupting her tutoring of Aleera in the Dwarfishnguage. ¡°Are there Orcs underground?¡± I voiced genuinely concerned about the idea. ¡°Ah, I had forgotten that that book delves into the reasoning for the Dwarves'' devotion to the Lodestar despite living most of their lives out of its sight. Possibly not a book for small children or at least children who canprehend and extrapte what that might mean for them.¡± She mused to herself more than to me. ANDpletely avoided answering the question. ¡°So about the Orcs?¡± I repeated drawing her back to my fear. Did we need to worry about the tunnels and caves we were building within the ind? I felt like if it was an issue Grandfather or her would have mentioned it by now. That being said, Orcs? ¡°The short answer is that no it is incredibly unlikely that Orcs are beneath our feet digging their way upwards. That problem while not limited to the Kingdom of Greco is predominately found there. The long answer is that while it is incredibly unlikely here if you dig too deep into the Lodestone of the Compass Continent it is not only gems and ore that you might find and there are more than one different base race, not just the orcs and goblins.¡± Phew, nothing to worry about as long as we don¡¯t dig too deep. No, I was not feeling particrly reassured. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t anyone ever told us about them?¡± I asked still rmed by the idea. It was like going out on the open ocean before I had been able to sense my way to the bottom. Suddenly I was no longer secure in whaty beneath my feet. ¡°The base races are not appropriate conversation topics for children, even exceptionally smart and gifted ones. We can talk about them when you are a little older. Enjoy your childhood while you can.¡± She firmly finished this topic of conversation. I was left wondering what else had been hidden from me due to my perceived age. Maybe it was time to take her weapon lessons a little more seriously. Not that I believed I would do amazingly well at a straight-up fight but with a little bit of stealth and my unusual abilities I could certainly give any Orcs who popped up a bit of a surprise. . . . ¡°Good morning children.¡± Lady Acaciamented as we arrived once more for our morning tuition. We still had many other jobs and experiments to do but we were not allowed to bete for our lessons. We may have had other projects but Lady Acacia was keen to make sure that education came first. ¡°Today we will be tackling Pixish. Now the majority of people believe that they cannot talk at all but that is, unfortunately, the result of ignorance. The Pixies'' primary Stat and trait is in Dexterity and as such, they speak incredibly quickly. So quickly that to most it is an intelligible blur exacerbated by the fact that they are significantly smaller than most noble races makes them impossible to understand without stats of at least 100 in both Dexterity, Mind and rity.¡± She started today¡¯s lesson with an exnation rather than just jumping into thenguage itself. ¡°You are not quite there Aleera in terms of the minimum requirements. Nevertheless, there is no reason not to start learning now. Just be aware that we will be speaking a lot slower and lower than most Pixies who are not using an enchantment, rune, glyph or sigil to slow their speech down.¡± She continued. ¡°Are there enchantments, runes, glyphs or sigils to speed you up?¡± I asked excited as always to delve a little deeper into the magic possibilities of this world. ¡°We can discuss those in your other lessons. This currently is Pixish and that is what we will be concentrating on.¡± She refused to answer the question although I suspected the answer was yes. I meant they had Elixirs and Gemstones for the traits surely had to have something for Dexterity. ¡°Focus Kai. While we will not go at the actual pace ofnguage spoken by a Pixie we will be trying to speak as quickly as possible while we practice.¡± She outlined why she would be speaking a little quicker than usual. What then followed was a blur of sound that sounded more like the buzz of a bee or the hum of a motor. It didn¡¯t sound like actual words at all. We were left tilting our heads trying to decipher what we had just heard. Technically with significantly stronger stats, I should have a better chance of understanding itpared to Aleera. But for once we were equally lost. I wondered just how high her dexterity was. ¡°I have a quite high level of dexterity so that is the quickest I can speak.¡± She smiled at ourck of understanding. ¡°We will start a little slower for you guys.¡± ¡°Ohaiyougozaimasu.¡± She said a little slower. ¡°Ohaiyougozaimasu.¡± We hastily repeated. Now that it was slow enough to differentiate the polyglot skill was kicking in and helping me to ¡°Genkidesuka?¡± She hummed. ¡°Genki desu ka?¡± We blurred back. ¡°Genkidesu.¡± She repeated. ¡°Genki desu.¡± We repeated beginning to get the hang of this. I was hopeful that with another eightnguages I would be able to recreate another Tier 4 skill consolidation and the twobined would be worth a Tier 5 skill inmunication. Perhaps I would be able to talk to animals. Just how smart did the dangerous beasts get? I could see from my telepathic search of the sea floor that some of them seemed dangerously smart. Not happy with us only learning the spokennguage she also gave us the phic script to write out. ¤ª¤Ï¤è¤¦¤´¤¶¤¤¤Þ¤¹ ¤ªÔªšÝ¤Ç¤¹¤«? Great work out for my calligraphy skill and it still fed into my Polyglot skill so I was notining. Ding! Pixish (Lv1) The Pixies lived in the Eastern Kingdom of Levante. Or rather beyond the Eastern Kingdom of Levante in the Eastern Isles. Reading the book Lady Acacia had provided and discussing them made me think that someone had been a littlezy whenbelling the local inds with one named Wester Levante. Theirnguage was different again. Almost Japanese in intonation and how the sounds blurred into one another. It made you wonder who was here first, the other noble races or the humans? Humanity was everywhere while the other noble races were found in one location each one with a different culture,nguage and magic. But Humanity had this melting pot of anguage Buss which seemed to draw influences from all of the other races as well as the ability to adapt to each magic system or so Lady Acacia would have us believe. The Pixies were prevalent throughout the kingdom of Levante but their princedoms were the tropical isles to the east which they guarded fiercely from raiders who wouldnd to try and im the ruby tears which could hold the dexterity stat. Isted by the difficulties inmunication they were insr by both nature and policy. Rarely seen, heard or noticed even if they were present helped again by their small stature which helped to keep them hidden. . . . Each new skill andnguage was celebrated but that didn¡¯t stop the lessons though. Our sesses seemed to just drive her to teach us even faster. Ding! Koboldogo (Lv 1) You couldn¡¯t argue with the effectiveness of our tutor. She taught and taught and taught. There was not a moment in or out of lessons that another lesson wasn¡¯t being learnt. The Kobolds lived to the South East in a separate range of fire mountains. Ding! Gnomish (Lv1) The Gnomes are known for their intelligence and lived in south-east east . . . . . . Ding! Beastkin (Lv1) They lived to the south in Tribalmunities that roamed theirnds . . . . . . Ding! Halfling (Lv1) They lived in the Southwest . . . . . . It continued until finally, we had learned all of the Compass Kingdoms'' Noble Races''nguages. ¡°That is all I have to teach you aboutnguages. Not that there is not more to learn. But you can practice it on your own with the books I can provide. You are of course wee to ask any questions you might wish to but I also like my students to develop their independence rather than relying on me for everything. Chapter 107: The myriad mercenary talents of the young master Chapter 107: The myriad mercenary talents of the young master ¡°Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.¡± Nelson Mand Education may be a powerful weapon and many a man has said that your mind is your best weapon, after all, knowledge is power. But sometimes a weapon is just a weapon the important point was whether you knew how to wield it. A point Lady Acacia was determined to teach us. Another day another demonstration and I was sweating. Thrust, step, block, retreat. Any tool held right can be a weapon but Lady Acacia had me demonstrating what I had learnt once more. She believed in baselines and consistent assessments to measure progress. Each time it was a little bit harder and in the case of my mathematics assessments a lot harder. This morning though we were looking at my progress with the knife before we looked at the weapons that she had brought. To gain the skill without a kill it had to be as authentic as possible. Hence her mini armoury of mini-weapons is sized for children. They were swiftly bing less oversized for me as I continued to be allowed to use the elixir. I was growing rapidly in size if not yet in age. At nearly 3 years in this world (I would have been nearly 4 in my old world) I now stood at just over 3 feet in height and just under a meter. I had hopefully caught up to the size I would have been having if I had not grown so slowly due to my long-lived trait. I could run, I could swim, I could climb, I could sail. The list went on and on. And due to my grandfather¡¯s dubious efforts at training me, I was also fairly proficient with a knife. Now though Lady Acacia was having me branch out just a little. Well, it was a lot. Alphabeticallyid out in front of us were the axe, bludgeon, club, dagger, estoc, il, ive, halberd, knife, pike, mace, morning star, quarterstaff, rapier, sword, spear and War Hammer. They were allid out in front of us in pairs to help facilitate us learning the weapon she chose to teach us together. ¡°Before we start with the tools strictly made forbat. I find it best, to begin with, the ones that have more than one use. It gives you so many different opportunities to continue to level them up. Any tool can be a weapon if you hold it right but only a few weapons can be tools too.¡± She started her lecture on weapons and their uses. ¡°As much as it pains me to say it your Grandfather was notpletely incorrect in this.¡± She nodded to Arawn who sat as always just out of most people¡¯s earshot but within sight of us. To be honest he was within his earshot too and probably the reason for her pointed barb of apliment. ¡°A knife can be used forbat but it can be used for so much more from cooking to gutting fish. Every use continues to help you level your skill with it and familiarize yourself with it until it feels natural in your hand, a part of your body.¡± She pointed out the different ways in which we could continue to level the skills even when not sparring or inbat. I suddenly had the image of usden down with all of her weapons in the hopes that carrying them around with us would help to familiarize us with them. ¡°Seeing as you have made such fantastic progress with your knife skill I am hoping that the same will be true for these.¡± She gestured once more at the disy in front of us. ¡°We will be starting with the axe. Both a tool and a weapon. Something that you can use every day from now on. Carry with you at all times and has a multitude of uses outside ofbat. We will work this morning till you have the skill then continue to practice with it every day until you are familiar enough with it that it feels like an extension of your body. Once we have arrived at that point we will be ready to begin your training in the most basic of axe forms.¡± She outlined the training she had nned for us. ¡°Step one, logs.¡± She revealed a pile that she had ced out here earlier but had hidden with a covering. ¡°You will be splitting logs until you have gained the skill. Note that I have chosen smaller ones to start with. Aleera you will split the log into four before passing the remains to your brother to split into smaller kindling.¡± Differentiation at its finest one task feeding into the next. At nearly twice my height and over double my weight. It did not matter that my stats were higher than hers or that I had the traits and perks. Her vessel was bigger ergo her stats could be applied better. But I was quickly catching up as the Elixir¡¯s continued to allow my body elerated growth. ¡°Better get started then,¡± Aleera said before swinging her axe. Waiting as I was for Aleera to have some sess before I could start I asked, ¡°Is this usual training fordies?¡± ¡°Not in the least but I believe in the equality of the sexes young Kai so this far from the capital with nobody to judge me or critique me for my training methods nothing is preventing her from being able to do everything that you can. Besides, it will allow us to develop manicure skills at a faster rate while caring for her hands afterwards. It is not just about building up calluses if you can leverage one skill use into another that is simply basic math and good skill training.¡± She replied. ¡°So I get the manicure skills and pedicure skills too then?¡± I asked. ¡°Don¡¯t be a silly young man. Women must keep some secrets to remain a little mysterious, even if it is only how to keep their hands immactely soft, clean and enchanting. It is hardly a skill for you to learn unless you n on working in a bordello.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a bordello?¡± I asked already suspecting I knew the answer to that question. A little put out by her double standards. ¡°A ce where those who do not listen to their teachers and learn the wrong skills end up. Look you have some firewood to split.¡± she ended the conversation and directed me to the next task. . . . After a month¡¯s training, I was now level 1 or higher in all of the weapons she had onceid out in front of us. While we did not end up carrying all the weapons around with us, wherever we went. We did end up carrying any we might need to use which meant that most days we walked with knife, axe, spear and staff. I looked like a regr LARPER. Running around the ind with my weapons. The only difference was that even those these were child-sized they were real enough weapons. The funniest thing about them though was that each one was sheathed. I had never seen an axe or spear sheath but she had one for each weapon and insisted that we never carry them without them being on at all times outside of lessons. Some former idiot of a pupil had managed to take his ear off with his own axe strapped to his back and Lady Acacia was not going to have it happen under her watch. . . . Thrust, step, block, repeat. ¡°Well done Kai wonderful work.¡± We were working together on our skills. Now that I was a little taller it made it a lot easier for us to train together now that I was no longer bouncing around her ankles but more up to her waist. Rapier was my favourite weapon of them all as it had a lot more reach than my knife but was still light enough that I didn¡¯t notice the weight too early on in our training. ¡°Are we going to consolidate them yet?¡± I asked excitedly. Referring to the possibility of consolidating our weapons skills. Into a higher tier of skill. ¡°No Kai. No consolidation. I have the basic forms for you to practice and your grandfather can certainly help you with their real-world only application. But weapons are not my forte. I am awaiting a little more expert advice on the matter. Normally a noble house would have their own arms master or guardsmen to help their scions train. Indeed, most fathers would certainly be interested in training their children and overseeing their weapons training. However, your father is a sailor and not a warrior. Your Grandfather seems incredibly capable, but not allbat situations can be solved with a knife no matter how much he wishes that to be the case.¡± It seemed that she had be equally aware of his rather simplistic and direct responses to problems. ¡°Besides if you are to enter noble society you will need to wield the weapons that they do.¡± She paused for thought. ¡°Still, I see no reason why he cannot take you out hunting to practice with your weapons if he is willing.¡± She turned to see if Arawn was paying attention and as always he was. He had stood up and was approaching. ¡°Grab your weapons and I¡¯ll take you two across theke.¡± He abruptly spoke as soon as he was within earshot of Aleera, nodded at Lady Acacia and turned. He left quickly, leaving us to rush to grab our things and chase after him. He did not head towards the eastern side of the ind but quickly walked to the west. ¡°Are we not going to Wester first?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°No far more game on the Western side of the ind.¡± He answered as we arrived at his boat. ¡°Right all aboard, that want¡¯s aboard.¡± We jumped in excited but nervous to be using our weapons for the first time in something other than practice, training or y. I had caught a multitude of fish and sea creatures but they generally died after being brought out of the ocean. The asional one needed braining but for the most part, father did that. This would be the first time using a weapon to kill something. It felt a little weird, to be honest. Modern sensibilities are so far removed from the source of our meat. Many a man or woman is vegan by choice. Something that would not be understood here on Wester. Though for the most part, we were Pescatarian by circumstance more than choice. Grandfather caught some of our nerves as we sailed across to the side of the ind we had never really explored except to quickly make our way up to the cliffs for the skydiving lessons that seemed so long ago now. ¡°Look the odds of you catching or killing anything with either your knife or your axe are nil. So we will be attempting to use your spear. But even then the chances of you hitting anything with that either are pretty slim so there is no point to winding yourselves up over something that might be nothing.¡± The more I thought about it the more I realized that we were probably unlikely to get anything on our first trip hunting. When we had taken a walk with our cousins they had used bows and traps to bring back the rabbits that we had eaten. ¡°Look I will find a spot for you to sit downwind of any animals. Circle around and attempt to drive them past you. Aleera you have the height and strength to make a proper cast but Kai''s best bet is to hold onto your spear brace it or duck behind a tree. There is no shame in being sensible. I will dry to flush smaller game towards you but if anythingrger arrives I expect both of you to drop your spears and climb a tree. I will be right behind them and take care of anything unexpected.¡± He outlined the n for the hunt. Once we hadnded he tied us up and had us head downwind setting us up on the edge of a clearing where we would have good sight lines to see what he had managed to flush and the option of whether to face it or step aside. Once we were set up, he walked into the woods before disappearing. ¡°So what now we wait?¡± asked Aleera. ¡°I guess so.¡± Nervous to be out in the unexplored forest. ¡°Wonder what he will flush out.¡± She thought out loud. ¡°I¡¯m hoping it . . .¡± We froze as we felt something dangerous reveal its presence pressing down on our very souls. The quiet forest exploded with movement as birds and beasts took flight from whatever had revealed itself. Its presence disappeared secondster. But the animals kept running. ¡°Should we run?¡± Asked Aleera as birds flew by overhead. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for now. If something too dangerous appears we climb a tree. Hopefully, that was him.¡± I answered keeping my eyes fixed on the other side of the clearing. ¡°Him . . . you mean Grandfather?¡± she turned shocked. ¡°Well, he did say he would flush them towards us he never mentioned how!¡± my voice raised I gestured at the animals that had arrived at the clearing and were fleeing across it. Mice, voles, mole, rabbits, hares, badger, fox and deer all came running across the clearing. Downwind of us, they charged across it unaware of our presence. ¡°Ready?¡± ¡°Ready.¡± Hidden in the bushes we edged forward, ced our spears in the ground and aimed them at where the animals were running toward us. Once out in the clearing, the animals noticed one another and separated in fear of their normal predators as much as the shock that they had received earlier. None of them turned around and headed back to where Grandfather had possibly revealed himself. But this did spread them out as they approached. I pointed at the deer heading our way. Could we get that? It looked like it was headed our way but it was moving quickly. We hurriedly shifted across to block its path as soon as it plunged into the wood on our side of the clearing. Three . . . Two . . One . . . We did not thrust so much as brace the spears and angle them into its chest. We had separated to allow it to run between us and the two spears braced as they were and driven deep into the deer¡¯s chest held it up and impaled between us. We stood there shocked that it had seeded only roused to thought by the . . . Ding! Spear (Lv3) ¡°It worked,¡± Aleera whispered as the mortally wounded deer swiftly passed away. The animals seeing a new threat diverted around us leaving us standing with the trophy of our first hunt. ¡°It worked,¡± I answered a little louder d of thepany of my sister. ¡°Well done.¡± We jumped as Grandfather announced himself behind us. Stupid! I was so stupid why had I not had my HUD activated? It would have helped with the hunt and helped to stop us from being startled by my Grandfather¡¯s return. I swore he could tell when I was using it though as I had never caught him moving at impossible speeds on it which he had to have done to surprise from behind. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d catch anything," He grumped. "Let¡¯s get that dressed and get back home. Your mother will be happy we are having venison tonight." he nodded to us before pulling out his knife to get to work. "Far better than fish." he muttered to himself. Still as little shocked we watched him confidently set to work before we all headed home the boat a little heavier. . . . Later that night, Lady Acacia was having a conversation . . . with a rock. The gemstone with the glyph of calston carved into it glowed as she filled it with all her mana to make the connection. ¡°Are you up for a journey? I have a student for you.¡± she dangled a possibility our in front of the listener. ¡°You know I¡¯m not interested in taking on another disappointment.¡± a gravelly voice replied. ¡°I promise you, you won¡¯t be disappointed.¡± sheughed. ¡°Are they young enough though? Too old and there are too many bad habits to iron out.¡± he sounded vaguely interested. ¡°More than young enough. I haven''t taught them too many bad habits yet." she avoided naming or giving too many details on the student she was discussing. ¡°I¡¯m not a daycare service, I can¡¯t work with an infant, how tall?¡± he asked not yet convinced. ¡°How tall do you need him to be?¡± she inquired. ¡°He¡¯s an elf?¡± the voice asked surprised. ¡°No.¡± short and too the point. ¡°He¡¯s not?¡± he now sounded a little confused. ¡°No.¡± was all he got in return. ¡°I¡¯m not going to be party to another foolish attempt at using that elixir on humans again.¡± the gravely voice grew vexed recalling past events. ¡°That won¡¯t be an issue he has my trait.¡± she divulged enough to seal the deal. ¡°Long-lived? Well, then he needs to be at least 4 feet tall.¡± he answered partially convinced. ¡°Yes, He can certainly be that tall by the time you arrive. But just to give you that extra incentive it is not the only trait he has. He also has yours!¡± she smiled now that had him hooked. ¡°Super senses? He¡¯s a half-elf half beastkin? Can¡¯t say I have worked with one of them before but that is a fine foundation to build upon.¡± He rumbled close to an agreement. ¡°Nope, pure human or so I have been told and so they believe to be true.¡± she raised her hands in defence despite his inability to see them being raised. ¡°Well, they don¡¯t know their own parentage then. But are there no physical signs?¡± He asked perplexed. ¡°None on the parents or the child that I can see. Still, if you do decide to visit I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by his abilities.¡± she grinned imagining his surprise when he arrived. ¡°They sound intriguing but the two traits will only take them so far if they don¡¯t have talent or enthusiasm for what I¡¯m teaching. You sure you haven¡¯t given him any bad habits yet? You know I hate undoing your efforts.¡± He tried to moderate her expectations and split the responsibility. ¡°Of course not! I know when to defer to someone else¡¯s speciality. I have been teaching the most basic lessons just enough to unlock the skills no more. Will youe?¡± she asked a final time. ¡°And if I¡¯m disappointed?¡± he asked. ¡°I willpensate you. But if you''re not, and you won''t be, I expect a sincere thank you and a favour to be called upon at ater date.¡± she bargained. ¡°Very well, I¡¯lle. Where am Iing to?¡± It seemed the voice had decided. ¡°A quaint little town called Wester.¡± she added. ¡°You will have to be a little bit more specific, where in the Compass Kingdoms is Wester?¡± he asked puzzled. ¡°Not so much on earth as where in the sea. We are on the western edge of the Ponentian Archipgo.¡± she exined ¡°That is not a short journey. Are you sure he has my trait?¡± It seemed this was the main reason he was considering this. ¡°Positive. That and more.¡± she affirmed ¡°More? Very well I¡¯lle but you¡¯re paying for my passage there. And paying for a way back again if I¡¯m disappointed, Acacia.¡± he ended the call the glyph growing dark. ¡°You won¡¯t be, old friend.¡± she whispered to the silence she found herself sitting in. Chapter 108: New beginnings Chapter 108: New beginnings "The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all." Josiyah Martin Sailing was going swimmingly I stayed in the boat and no more monsters had appeared. I did not go daily anymore but Father continued to go out on his own every day even if I did not. Although without his sensory son he sometimes failed to bring as much as we had together. He did not seem to mind too much still enjoying the sailing as much as anything else. When I went with him it was nice to kick back and rx away from the stresses of daily lessons with the Lady. As father said, ¡°This is the life, Kai.¡± And I had to agree it was pretty sweet. I even cracked the meridian on my meditation skill level cap on a sailing trip. I managed to do so in the boat while skimming the waves. It seemed that being able to maintain the skill while moving was all that was needed. The magic lessons were going magnificently with new spells being learned each week. We continued to practice the ones we had learned for light, water and growth. But we had added to our repertoire adding both spellcraft and spellsong, for fire, heat, ice and a basic shield spell. They were not overlybative yet in use more utility and basic defensive spells. But as we had been learning in Weapons training any tool can be a weapon if held right and there were obviouslybat applications to the spells we had learned. My core had yet to formpletely but was getting closer topletion with me gaining greater control of the skills. We had practised the fire spellcraft in the water just in case there were any idents and I had been told very firmly that I was not to practice that particr spellcraft without adult supervision. ¡°Magic is not a toy to be trifled with. It takes dedication to practice it to perfection and caution when learning any new spell. Don¡¯t be afraid to take your time to learn it properly, Kai. You have plenty of time.¡± Lady Acacia cautioned and advised. Musically I was loving life. The Virtuoso skill was like cheating. It allowed me to concentrate on the aspects that Lady Acacia wanted me to focus on, mainly how my music affected others. We yed together and were developing a routine that we would be performing for our cousins then if that went well the townter. I was learning the pieces that she was teaching us while continuing to work on my ¡®own¡¯. Mostly that meant trying to recall pieces from my own world and then rebuild them to the point that I could memorise them again. Lady Acacia was suitably impressed by the musical prodigy I presented myself as. Mother found our performances particrly delightful, ¡°That was beautiful Aleera and Kai.¡± So much so that we now had a daily performance after every evening meal for our family. The garden was growing rapidly with the Elendil tree developing into a full-size tree at speed. Aleera with Lady Acacia¡¯s blessing had introduced the idea of the school to our cousins and anyone between the ages of 5 and 10 were now crossing to our ind early in the morning to help out with the various tasks we required under the supervision of Des, Sinis and Wanda. They would then get a lesson from Aleera in arithmetic, reading and writing. I had not yet begun to teach them myself but Lady Acacia was approving of the program, in her words. ¡°Teaching is a wonderful way to learn. It will strengthen her current skills to teach them to others as well as help her soul to grow.¡± The lessons were popr but mainly because of the exotic fruit and vegetables they were able to have for their free lunch. They might have let slip to some of the other children in Wester about the mysterious hidden fruits on the ind because a few people had been asking if their children could attend too. Whether this was for the lessons or the free food was anyone¡¯s guess. Mercurio was due a visit and we would have a surplus of unusual products for him to sell to the nearby inds for a profit. We were quite looking forward to his next visit. Weapons training was tough but oddly fulfilling and we were gradually growing used to the idea of hunting with our spears. Grandfather continued to take us to the eastern forest to hunt. While we continued to practice with our spears if the game was driven towards us. He had also introduced us to the bow and arrow a far more efficient tool for hunting if you were doing it without having the game funnelled towards you. We were getting used to the active part in acquiring our meat and the practice of hunting, killing, dressing and finally skinning our catches was doing wonders for our skill levels. I was also getting better at having my HUD up and running at all times. I took care to remain aware of where Grandfather was at all times but although I could see him moving quickly I never managed to catch him moving as impossibly fast as he must have that first time we went hunting. Unfortunately, with Lady Acacia¡¯s permission, he had taken some of the training beanball bags and enjoyed lobbing them at us without warning on our hunting trips. ¡°No pain no gain,¡± hementated every time he managed to hit us with one often thrown from out of sight. It was infuriating to be concentrating on one thing and then have to dodge another. But at least it was not knives he was throwing. . . . I looked at my status, it was my birthday once more. By age 3 I thought I was doing pretty darn well. It had been an extremely busy end of the year with all the different irons in the fire we had going on. While my stat growth had slowed a little, my physical growth and growth in skill levels had continued unabated. Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Experience: 738,200/ 819,200 Age: 3 years 0 months, 0 weeks, 0 days, 12 hours, 30 minutes Health: 1440/1440 Stamina: 1243/1243 Mana: 1450/1450 Psi: 1450/1450 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength Vitality: 147 +3 Endurance: 127 +3 Strength: 104 +3 Dexterity: 133 +3 Senses: 146 +3 Mind: 147 +4 rity: 122 +1 Magic: 149 +6 Charisma: 65 +4 Luck: 7 Free Points: 40 Tier 1: Swimming (LV51 -> 52) Running (LV51 ->52)Meditation (LV50 ->51) Time Sense (LV50) Breath Control (LV44 ->46) Singing (LV43 ->48) Listening (LV40 ->44) Knots (LV40 ->43) Stitching (LV40 ->43) Climb (LV35 ->40) Draw (LV35 ->39) Diving (LV35 ->40) Sailing (LV35 ->40) Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Trading (LV33) Dodge (LV33 ->40) Knife (LV33 ->40)Drumming (LV31 -> 35) Sneak (LV31) Acting (LV25) Bnce (LV20 ->25) Calligraphy (LV20 ->Lv25)Farming (LV20 ->25) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Throw (LV15 ->20) Lie (LV12) Buss (LV15 ->20)Mathematics (LV15 ->20) Appeal (LV7) Insight (LV6 ->10)Ambidextrous (LV 5 ->10) Glide (Lv5 ->10) Poise (Lv5 ->10) Grace (LV5 ->10) Charm (Lv5 ->10) Composure (Lv5 ->10) Cook (LV3) Silent Step (Lv3 ->5) Deft touch (Lv 3->5) Posture (Lv 3->5) Dance (Lv 3->5) Sprint (Lv 1->5) Painting (Lv1) Elvish (Lv 1->5) Giant (Lv 1->5) Dwarf (Lv 1->5) Pixish (Lv 1 ->5) Gnomish (Lv 1->5) Koboldogo (Lv1 -> Lv5) Beastkin (Lv1 -> Lv5) Halfling (Lv1 -> Lv5) Axe (Lv1 ->4), Baton (Lv1), Club (Lv1), Dagger (Lv1->3), Estoc (Lv1), il (Lv1), ive (Lv1), Halberd (Lv1), Pike(Lv1), Mace (Lv1), Morning star(Lv1), Quarterstaff(Lv1), Rapier(Lv1->5), Sword(Lv1), Spear(Lv1->5) War Hammer (Lv1) Archery (Lv1 ->2) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV41 ->48) Quick reflexes (LV41 ->48) Eavesdrop (LV33 ->39) Memorisation (LV23 ->30) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23 ->30) Rebec (LV17 -> 20) Aulos (LV17 ->20)Linguistics (LV16 ->20) Pain Tolerance (LV20) Stealth (LV20) Cornu (LV15 ->20) Harp (LV14 ->20) Transnt (LV12) Cartography (LV15 ->20) Misdirection (LV9) Haggling (LV6) Order (LV6) Knife Arts (LV7 ->10) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Mind Sense (LV1 ->5) Spellcraft (Lv3 ->10) Spellsong (Lv3 ->10) Martial Arts (LV4) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV44 ->45) Mana Maniption (LV38 ->40)Echolocation (LV35) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Melt (LV11) Deception (LV4) Command (LV4) Tier 4: Material Maniption (Lv21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20) Virtuoso (Lv20 ->25) Polyglot (Lv 12 ->20) Stone shaping (Lv5) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv19) Before I got too distracted poking at my progress I looked out at the family spread out in front of us. The Adals and their children had gathered once more. In the end, it had been decided to extend the circle of trust a little bit further. The family had not been informed of the extent of my stats but they had been informed that I was more than I seemed and that my highest stat was Magic. Either way, we were here to experiment. Now that everyone was on board I had also been continuing to imbibe the elixir of growth drop by drop and I was shooting up. Something was obviously off with my sudden growth which was too great to be concealed. It had been suggested that I have a fake chair built with a smaller dummy that would sit on top while my significantly longer legs hid underneath it but it had not been built yet and everyone here was family. After Luck and Charisma, Strength was still my lowest stat but none of our cousins had either of the first two so we were going to focus on receiving Strength while attempting our little experiment, unlocking Magic for the rest of the extended family. We pledged our oaths to one another. Arise Fabrianna Silverkin, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 strength to me and . . . ¡°I got it! Magic unlocked for me!¡± Fabrianna shouted excited. The first of the Adal¡¯s to gain Magic as a skill. ¡°That¡¯s wonderful Fabrianna.¡± Her father turned to face us, ¡°Thank you.¡± He bowed his head to us. Arge powerful man it seemed strange to see him genuinely genuflect. The system may allow an individual to be many times stronger than they appeared and what I was once used to. However, for the most part, men were still stronger than women. He had been training up his whole family to join him in the smithery but with magic, Fabrianna could now do more than just that. Or if she stayed in the family business she could do more than forge metal with her muscles. If outsiders got wind of our newly unlocked magicians they would find them already bound to a noble house, our house. How much protection that would provide them was yet to be seen but the groundwork at least was in ce. ¡°Tesi should be next.¡± Uncle Karl insisted. Pushing her forward before Lady Acacia or my family could intervene. I looked to my mother for her opinion but she only nodded. We exchanged oaths. Arise, Tessi, Silverwood, Adal of House Silversea. +5 strength and . . . ¡°I have magic too!¡± Tessi squealed in delight. Her proud father rushed forward to sweep her up into a big hug of congrattions as she was carried back to her family. ¡°That will be all for today. The Young Master Silversea will have to work hard to raise his magic stat before he can do so again. Elsewise it won¡¯t be Magic that you are unlocking merely regaining a different stat, possibly already unlocked.¡± The extended family all turned to look at me. ¡°Better get cracking then. We won¡¯t hold you back.¡± Before they gathered to eat from the feast that had been prepared. A celebration of the two new mages joining our n even if they had yet to learn any magic. Now that they knew it was possible every branch of the family were very excited for their children to pledge to us. It may cost them a levels worth of points but if it unlocked magic for them it was more than worth it. In retrospect would it have been worth waiting on the oaths from our older adults, maybe? But what happened had happened. There was no point pining over what ifs. Life moved on. Simply magic in the Silversea family. . . . ¡°You know you''re not the only one who could ept Adal¡¯s oaths of allegiance to unlock their magic stats,¡± Aleera whispered to me after everyone had left the feast to head home. As we had be aware of just how high Grandfather and Lady Acacia¡¯s perception stats were whispering had be our new normal in terms of talking and even then they still probably heard far more than we werefortable with. ¡°But you¡¯re only around 60 points of magic at the moment aren¡¯t you?¡± I whispered back. ¡°It¡¯s not your highest stat.¡± I pointed out the problem. ¡°Yes but . . . I can unlock or rather spend my free points. If I added all my free points to magic. That would take me up to 138 points. Plenty of points to unlock the rest of our cousin''s magical abilities.¡± She argued back. ¡°Are you sure you want to make that decision? You might be sacrificing your cascade and associated perks for them.¡± What she was suggesting was probably worth it for the family but it came at a personal cost for her. ¡°Would it not be worth it? To have another 20 magician¡¯s on the ind. Also, it would help bnce the genders.¡± She pointed out the benefits for the family. ¡°What?¡± I asked a little confused by her point. ¡°You haven¡¯t noticed it being hidden away here half the time and with our particr family dynamic where the mother is stronger than the father but in most normal families the men are stronger than the women.¡± She paused, ¡°Significantly so.¡± ¡°And?¡± Was there a problem? That just seemed the way of thepass kingdoms. ¡°And it puts us at a disadvantage. This would help bnce that.¡± She contended. ¡°I¡¯m confused do you want to do this for the n or the women,¡± I asked, I could see her point after all. ¡°Either, both. Does it matter?¡± she asked a little defensively. ¡°No. Just wait for a little while I can continue to focus on my magic to level it up.¡± I cautioned. ¡°I know and thank you for unlocking the magic for the two girls but you won¡¯t be able to consistently keep it your highest stat if you are learning other things, Kai. Your other stats are growing too.¡± She said. ¡°Maybe yes, maybe no. But wait a while to see how high I can keep my magic before you sacrifice your cascade for what I might be able to achieve given a little time.¡± I hedged. ¡°Girls first.¡± She reiterated. ¡°Finedies first,¡± I replied wise enough to know not to get in the way of something Aleera had fixed her mind upon. But wondering how the rest of the family would feel about her cause and my decision. Chapter 109: Jack of all . . . Chapter 109: Jack of all . . . ¡°A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.¡± Anon I stepped down into the boat tied up to the pier at the edge of my ind. It might technically be my ind but it was home to far more than simply me and trying to evict my Grandfather Arawn Silversword was an exercise in futility. Kaius my father was already in the boat waiting for us and we were soon joined by Aleera my older and sometimes wiser sister. "Ready?" Kaius asked me before undoing their tether and pushing out onto theke with a quick burst of speed from his oar strokes. He quickly shipped them before putting up the sail. "Time for some speed you two." He gestured at us and we knew what to do. Aleera and I both stood up together before weaving our magic to send the wind driving into the sail. We had both learned enough to use either spellcraft or spellsong to do so. But our homegrown skills for the task still far outstripped our fledgling knowledge or rather the amount of time we had practised our new spellcraft and spellsong. Either way, it did not matter and our boat shot across theke to the town waiting on the eastern shore, Wester Town. It was only a minute or twoter that the boat having sped across the surface of theke arrived and docked. "Ready?" Asked Aleera. The question once more aimed at me but from a different source. "Yes, I''m ready," I answered. After the experiment with unlocking their cousins¡¯ magic, it had been decided that the cost of secrecy was not worth hiding my growth from the town anymore. We would not be showing it off on purpose but I would not be hiding anymore and the skills our extended family could offer to teach us were more than worth the risk. We had visited their ces of work before but this time it was to learn and hopefully pick up a skill or two in the process. The phrase ¡®Jack of all trades is a master of none.¡¯ came to mind but what a lot of people never realized was that was only half the saying and the true endingpletely changed its meaning, ¡®but oftentimes better than a master of one.¡¯ I doubted I would be a Jack of All anytime soon but we hoped to pick up a few new skills from our cousins. We set off together through the town heading for our oldest uncle, the cksmith. . . . As we stepped through the door into the smith and we were hit with a wall of heat. Our three cousins Fahroni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne looked up in surprise at the sound of the door closing behind him and his sister. After the initial shock, they sprung to wee us to their ce of work. "Wee, my lord." Fabrianna ttered. "I cannot express how grateful I am to you for unlocking my magic stat." it is a little awkward to have her so effusively grateful. "Kai." Fahroni nodded quietly before being interrupted by the youngest sibling. "When are you going to unlock my magic?" Fabrienne demanded. "When we can," Aleera answered. We were still in disagreement as to who and when we could do that. But I was working hard on my magic practice and skills in the hopes of helping my magic stat continue to grow. "We need to work on our magic to raise our stats before we can do so again." I exined in a little more detail. I offered the exnation in the hopes of calming the smallest member of the Silverkin family as well as stopping my sister from promising something she shouldn¡¯t. Fabrienne still towered over me despite the liberal use of the Elvish growth elixir. But I was catching up! ¡°We were hoping to have a go at smithing,¡± Aleera said. ¡°We would be delighted to show you.¡± Fabrianna answered, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t we, brother.¡± ¡°Well we could take you through the basics, we don¡¯t have anything we have toplete urgently.¡± He thought it through. ¡°Can you unlock my magic now?¡± Fabrienne asked again. ¡°It will take a little longer than that,¡± I answered. ¡°Yes but how long?¡± she asked. ¡°When we know you¡¯ll be the first to know.¡± Imiserated. ¡°Right, well let¡¯s get started.¡± Fahroni gestured for them to head over to the forge. ¡°You both have some form of Hammer Skill correct.¡± He asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Aleera answered for the both of them. ¡°We have War Hammer.¡± ¡°A little martial but it should trante to what we are hoping to do today.¡± He outlined our task. ¡°First step assemble your tools. This here is all you will need to start, hammer, anvil and tongs. These were my first set of tools from when I was five and my father got me started. They should be small enough for you.¡± He handed them over carefully to me hesitantly. It was obvious that they still held sentimental value to him even if they were now too small for hisrge hands. ¡°Second step is to is to build and bank your fire.¡± Fabrienne stepped in eager to exin. We have one main forge in the centre which we work from but Father insisted we get used to practising our own so we have two practice forges in the corner over here.¡± She showed us to the far corners of the room where they had set up some smaller forges than the main forge in the centre of the room. ¡°Can you light it with magic? How do you do that?¡± Aleera answered before I could, ¡°Photia,¡± she spoke and gestured a small fire flung from her hand tond in the kindling before swiftly catching. ¡°Will I be able to do that?¡± Fabrianna asked excitedly. ¡°Yes if you practice hard, but at the moment you might not have enough mana or control to do so yet,¡± Aleera answered. Not to be outdone by my sister I used my skill Ignite and poured enough mana into it to make the mini forge burstpletely into me. Skipping back after my demonstration from the explosion in heat. The whole ce was very hot despite the windows and doors being wide open. ¡°Wow!¡± gasped Fabrienne equally excited. ¡°Then I¡¯ll be able to do that too?¡± ¡°Yes, in time.¡± I doubted there would be any patience demonstrated anytime soon. ¡°Right,¡± coughed Farhoni drawing our attention back to him. ¡°Step one assemble your tools. Step two build your forge up. Step 3 dress appropriately!¡± he pointed out the difference between us and his family. ¡°You¡¯re not wearing anything appropriate at all.¡± His family were all wearing leather aprons, trousers and long-sleeved tops. We on the other hand were not. He then reached into his apron to pull out a pair of heavy leather gloves. ¡°Come on we have an old spare set or two in the house, girls watch the fires we will be back once we are properly kitted out.¡± He led us out of the smithy towards their home next door. ¡°Never leave a fire unattended.¡± He said as we walked across. Before he gave us a word of warning, ¡°Be careful adding any magic to what you are doing until you know what you are doing. Smithing is a dangerous job, fire burns as does metal once you¡¯ve heated it. It is easy to hurt yourself so let¡¯s keep it simple for now, Aleera and Kai.¡± ¡°Yes, cousin.¡± We answered suitably chastened. ¡°It¡¯s exciting too but just keep a calm head on your shoulders.¡± He nodded opening the door to their home. ¡°Wee, wee.¡± Uncle Aaron boomed as we entered. ¡°My favourite nephew and niece are here.¡± ¡°You say that to every cousin, Dad.¡± Fahroni critiqued his father. ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t mean it for them.¡± Heughed back. Before beginning again in all seriousness, ¡°Truly thank you for what you have done for Fabrianna. Farhoni was always going to inherit my forge,¡± he held a hand up to stop his son from interrupting, ¡°that is if he did not go and build his own. But what you have given Fabrianna has given her options I never could. Thank you again. What can we do for you two today?¡± ¡°They wanted to have a go at cksmithing. I thought I¡¯d take them through the basics of heating, holding, hitting and shaping.¡± He exined why we had visited. ¡°But first we need to get them some suitable clothing.¡± ¡°Fahroni will be able to take you through your basic beginner exercises. If you get the skill or develop any talent for it I will be happy to take you further.¡± He praised his son. ¡°But you do need to get dressed properly first.¡± We followed Fahroni into what was clearly his room where he proceeded to pull out old clothes from an even older chest. ¡°These should fit you Aleera and these should fit you, Kai. My very first set of leathers.¡± We put on the clothes over top of our clothes. Mine were ridiculously big but with a little bit of rolling fit well enough in the end. As we walked back through the main room Uncle Aaronughed to see us walking through in the oversized clothing. Aleera¡¯s did not look too bad but I was waddling a little. But at least I was fully protected from the fire, sparks and metal. ¡°Good luck,¡± he raised a ss, ¡°and drink plenty of water.¡± was hisstment as we headed over to the smithy once more. ¡°Have a mug.¡± Fahroni put actions to words filling a mug from a barrel outside the workshop and drinking it before passing it to Aleera and then me. ¡°Smithing is thirsty work.¡± We re-entered the smithy to find Fabrianna and Fabrienne hadid out the tools for us to use next to the two mini forges we would be using. Along with a pair of leather gloves each that we worked our fingers into. ¡°These are where we learned to work.¡± Fabrienne boasted. ¡°And still work for the most part.¡± Fahroni poured a little water over her boasting. Before turning to his two new students. ¡°Let¡¯s reorder those steps a little. Step one get your leathers on. Step two assemble your tools. Step three build your forge, now normally it would take a little longer to build up your fires to be hot enough but if you are careful you can use your magic for this and only this stage. You want the coals to be burning well before you put the metal in.¡± Having received permission from our cousin we applied mana to our forges till they were burning bright, a hot dry heat pushing against our skin. ¡°Good enough, cousins.¡± He stopped us from burning through all the coal too soon. ¡°Now that the fire is going well you need to start the first stage of cksmithing, heating.¡± He handed us a rod of metal each. ¡°ce them in the centre of the fire and watch them. You will have to wait until it is hot enough to hammer. It will begin to glow a warm orange and then you know it is ready to hammer.¡± He exined the next step in the process. It was at this point that I wondered do I need to use a forge. Could I not just pour mana into the metal until it was hot enough to be shaped? Tempted as I was to try it. We had promised our cousin to follow his directions and there was a joy in watching the metal heat in the roaring fire. Maybe an experiment to try outter. Smithing without all the fire and coal would certainly be a lot cleaner although maybe not as magical to me. ¡°The next step is holding with your tongs and hitting. We are going to work on a basic beginner exercise of turning your rod into a bar. Nothing more nothing less. You need to carefully grasp the hot rod with your tongs and move it out of the forge onto the anvil before hitting it with your hammer. Remember it isn¡¯t about how hard you can hit it but how urately always keep in mind what you are trying to make. In this case a block. Have at.¡± He signalled that our rods were hot enough now that they were glowing orange and we pulled them from the forge to begin hammering. Wrapped up as I was and still a lot smaller than everyone else it was awkward to pull the rod out of the forge but this one was half the height of Aleera¡¯s and had been made with the intention of Uncle Aaron¡¯s children getting a head start in forming their skills once their status unlocked at the age of five so I could do so. I carefully pulled the rod out of the forge and ced it on the anvil before using my child-sized hammer to start striking it. ¡°Careful Aleera, take your time. It is not a race.¡± I heard Fabrianna cautioning her while Fahroni watched over me. ¡°That¡¯s enough, put it back to heat up again.¡± He pointed out the cooling rod. It felt like I had only got a few strikes in. ¡°Heat, hold, hammer and shape.¡± He repeated. We continued to heat, hold, hammer and shape, as the rod gradually took the shape of a rectangr bar in front of me. My stats enabled me to achieve more than my years would suggest. ¡°Heat, hold, hammer and shape,¡± I repeated Fahroni¡¯s mantra. The sweat dripped off my brow and ran down my back as I used the tongs to move the former rod, back and forth from the forge. Until, finally, slowly cooling on my anvil, sat a suitably shaped bar of metal. Ding! cksmithing (Lv1) I gave a silent dance for joy in my mind but didn¡¯t let anything show outwardly. My family was fully aware of how quickly I picked up skills my cousins, not so much. ¡°Now you can quench your work. Use the tongs to ce them in the quenching bucket. Don¡¯t drop them otherwise we¡¯ll put you in to fish them out.¡± Heughed. ¡°And if you don¡¯t think I¡¯m serious ask Fabrienne.¡± ¡°It happened the one time.¡± She confirmed the tale crossly with her defence. After we had quenched our bars we put them side by side andpared them. Neither of them were perfect but they were good enough for the system to award me the skill. I would wait tillter to find out if Aleera had managed to get one too. ¡°What do you need the bars for?¡± I asked. It was not immediately obvious what they could be used for. ¡°Nothing,¡± he replied deadpan before he added, ¡°Now you can turn them back into rods again. But have a drink of water first.¡± Rather than groaning we shrugged and started up again. Already used to far more unusual training methods that Lady Acacia or Grandfather had usplete. Though turning our bars of metal into rods once more proved far harder than the initial task. It was significantly more challenging to round the surface equally and draw it out again from the solid cuboid we had both created. Hard enough that the system rewarded me for my efforts with . . . Ding! cksmithing (Lv2) ¡°That will be all for today.¡± Fahroni stopped us from attempting more today. ¡°Stats are wonderful and you bothsted wonderfully but you will have used your muscles in different ways than you usually do and the rebound off the anvil adds to that. Come back in a day or two if you would like another lesson.¡± ¡°Thank you Fahroni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne.¡± We thanked our cousins as we handed back their tools and stepped away from their practice forges. They helped us out of our leathers and after another mug or two of water, we left a little sodden in our sweat-drenched clothing that quickly started to dry in the sun. ¡°Thank you again, ande again soon,¡± Fabrianna called from the doorway ¡°I¡¯m waiting,¡± Fabrienne shouted after us to remind us of her request while Fahronie just raised a hand and nodded goodbye. We waved goodbye and headed back to the family pier. ¡°Did you get the skill?¡± Aleera asked. I nodded in confirmation. ¡°Little monster.¡± She jokinglyined. ¡°Not so little anymore.¡± I stood up tall. ¡°You¡¯ll always be my little brother Kai.¡± She said ruffling my hair before sprinting off but I was only a step behind her. Ding! Running (Lv52) Dashing through the streets I drew level with her. Ding! Sprint (Lv3) I made it to the boat a step ahead of her. Had my vessel finally grown enough to keep up with hers? I raised my hands turning in triumph only to be pushed from behind by my sister into the water. No matter how big my head grew I could always count on her to cut me back down to size. I sat up in the water looked left and right saw that we were alone and shouted, ¡°Nerano!¡± Sitting in a body of water the spell had no difficulty materializing and I had the pleasure of watching my sister¡¯s eyes widen in shock as a torrent of water sted my sister off her feet in return. Chapter 110: Measure twice cut once Chapter 110: Measure twice cut once "When you¡¯re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you¡¯re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You¡¯ll know it¡¯s there so you¡¯re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back.¡± Steve Jobs Uncle Karl was a little bit of a perfectionist. When we went to visit his store, workshop and home to try our hands at carpentry he did not leave it up to his children to take us through it. Instead, he insisted that if we were going to have a go we would follow his instructions to the letter. He even sent his children Joyner, Sayer and Tesi, out to fell and trim a tree to keep them out from underfoot. ¡°If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. You will learn better and quicker if I teach you myself. Besides, I¡¯ll know what you do and don¡¯t know.¡± These were the words he said when we arrived in the morning asking to have a more active role in his family business than our earlier visit. ¡°It is safer for you as well if I know what you can do and what is beyond you yet.¡± He was happy enough to oblige but the criticisms of our efforts at his brothers continued to flow. ¡°My brother should be in charge of training at the Smithy. Not that Fahroni isn¡¯t a fine cksmith mind.¡± He hastened to add lest his criticism of his nephew was repeated. ¡°Right, what do you want to know?¡± He finally asked us once his children had departed. ¡°What do you do and what are the first skills we could learn?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m a carpenter but we are a small town so we do everything.¡± He gestured around his yard at the various piles of lumber. ¡°We cut the trees, season the wood, turn it into beams or nks for housing, boats, barrels, doors, cabs and chests.¡± Around the yard were tree-sized logs, beams, and nks, all stored under cover. ¡°We have a selection of wood we are seasoning but most of what the town needs is made to order. There are things they are going to need again and we make one or two of those when not working on specific orders.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite a range of products,¡± Aleera said. ¡°Well in arger town or city you would get specialization in each area, cooper, framer, joiner, cab maker, shipwright, wheelwright. Here however there isn¡¯t the quantity required to provide enough work for that specialization so they have to make do with me trying my hand at everything.¡± ¡°How do you keep up with everything?¡± I asked ¡°Well, how often do you need a new boat or cart? We don¡¯t have anywhere to go here on Wester so there isn¡¯t too much wear and tear. As for therger stuff like beams for housing, I insist they bring me the trees to work with. Joyner and Sayer can go and pick out the trees they need and then once they have chopped them down to rece the wood I¡¯m going to use I give them some of my prepared beams from my stock. It shortens down the time they have to wait for it while means we don¡¯t have to do everything ourselves.¡± He exined. ¡°So what are we going to do first.¡± ¡°First I¡¯m going to introduce you to the tools we use, then you are going to learn how to measure, mark and cut.¡± Having shown us his yard and the lumber he had built up he took us inside his workshop. ¡°These here are the following, Adze, Augur, Brace, Gouge and Groping Irens, Riving Knife, Twybill, Wymbylle and Gimlet. But what you need to worry about today are the rule, your marker and this saw.¡± He showed us all the tools he had around his workshop before cing what looked like a ruler, an awl and a saw in front of us. I looked at the rule and freaked out a little. I don¡¯t know why I was expecting metric but this looked worse than imperial. ¡°Can you exin the rule?¡± I asked a little concerned. ¡°Right it goes up in nails.¡± ¡°In nails?¡± ¡°Yes, two nails make a thumb, two thumbs make a finger, two fingers make a palm, two palms make a hand, two hands make and three hands make an arm. Simple enough.¡± He demonstrated with his fingers and hands showing how it all added up. ¡°The rule is marked in nails and thumbs.¡± I looked in despair at the rule. ¡°Are there any other forms of measurement?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°No. Don¡¯t it make sense, seems simple enough to me.¡± He answered. ¡°If you don''t have a rule you can pretty much eyeball it using your thumbs, fingers, hands and arms. Of course, I never would but you could mind if you had to.¡± ¡°So an arm is 3 hands, 6 palms, 12 fingers, 24 thumbs or 48 nails?¡± I asked despairingly ¡°There you go not so hard at all is it.¡± He smiled happily not reading the pure fear hidden behind my nk face. ¡°Sometimes when I¡¯m feeling crazy I¡¯ll only measure once, but that is because I have a measurement levelled to 100 so I don¡¯t ever get it wrong. You two on the other hand need to measure twice and cut once.¡± He lectured Aleera andmeI. I was so inventing the metric system. How had I never noticed the measurement system on the ind before? How we had created the tunnels for our pce had been so organic magic bringing our thoughts to reality we had never really discussed or drawn out ns. We had just got on with it. That was going to have to change. But for now, I would try to get my head around the most convoluted and random measuring system I had ever heard of. ¡°Right so here¡¯s your first project a wooden door mat.¡± ¡°A wooden door mat?¡± Aleera asked a little unimpressed. ¡°Aye a door mat, hardly going to have you building a boat or a wheel on your first efforts now are we. You need to gain the measurement skill, cut or saw at the least before I¡¯ll let you anywhere near anything moreplicated than something I¡¯m going to wipe my feet on.¡± He answered gruffly perhaps a little peaked that Aleera¡¯sment could be taken as aint. ¡°So whates first?¡± I asked to break the slight tension developing. ¡°First you need to choose your wood. Second, use the rule to measure an arm''s length. Third, measure it again and mark it. Fourth cut it. Once you have eight pieces cut to the same length I¡¯ll show you the auger and how you can use it to put a hole through them and we will tie them up to make your first piece, a wooden doormat.¡± He firmly outlined the steps before handing us the rules. ¡°Righte and choose your wood.¡± He took us over to a wood bin. ¡°These are all decent enough pieces but for this piece, it doesn¡¯t matter too much so best to let you practice on the offcuts. Which ones are the best?¡± he asked. We looked at the bin of wood wondering what exactly he was asking us to look for. It was filled with odds and ends. ¡°Choose your wood carefully. It doesn¡¯t matter for this piece but it will in the future.¡± These were his final words on the matter. We pulled out pieces making sure that they were the same width as ¡®two thumbs by two thumbs¡¯ ording to the anachronistic rule we were holding in our hands. I was not quite sure what he meant by choosing your wood carefully. Until he insisted, ¡°Look closer.¡± If you concentrated on the pieces using mana sense instead of our eyes it showed that some of them held more than others. Was this what he meant by which ones were best? I pulled out the pieces with the most mana in them and asked, ¡°These?¡± ¡°I can see how you have chosen those pieces of wood they resist the weather well. But that isn¡¯t all there is to choose a piece of wood. You need to look closer at the grain, see if there are knots, ruptures or wanes.¡± Each time he mentioned something to look out for he would point it out in either one of the pieces I was holding or one that Aleera was holding. ¡°Then you need to check to see if there are insect attacks, scars, soft rot or even firm rot. It won¡¯t matter what you are making today but in the future, it will. You need to check the grain to see whether it has a wavy grin or cross grain it is all going to affect the grade of the wood and what you can make with it.¡± We stared at the wood in our hands which was suddenly a lot moreplicated than we first thought. ¡°Pick your pieces but see if you can remember what I¡¯ve just taught you and pick ones with the least knots, scars or pockets.¡± Round three of picking our pieces took a lot longer as we carefully worked our way over each piece looking at not only the mana but the grain of the wood and every inch of it. Uncle Karl did not mind which pieces we choose as long as we could discuss their properties and which parts of it we would avoid using. Next, it was measure, measure again, mark and cut. The entire time Uncle Karl was standing behind us guiding our measurements, and hands to ensure we were cutting in the right ce. Ding! Measurement (Lv1) Despite the esoteric nature of the measurement scale, it seemed the system still counted it and it wasn¡¯t long before I gained the skill and a noticeable improvement in the speed and uracy of my measurement. The improvement in my measuring did not stop my uncle though. He continued to adjust anything and everything he felt was out of ce and we soon had 8 nearly identical wooden ts that required holes drilling in them. ¡°This here is called an auger. One of Aaron¡¯s finer pieces of work. It isn¡¯t too bad having a cksmith for a brother. Kai you might find this a little difficult to use depending on how strong you are but Aleera should be able to cope.¡± He exined. I had been standing on a box for the majority of the morning to reach the top of the table where we had wedged the wood for sawing. Holding the wood in ce we measured, measured and marked before drilling the holes. Thest stage of binding them together with a knot in between was far easier with my high level in knots. ¡°Guess Kaius has taught you a little on that boat of his then.¡± Uncle Karl nodded approvingly of our ropework. ¡°And there you have it. Your first piece of woodwork. If you want toe back and continue there are plenty of jobs to be done.¡± Ding! Carpentry (Lv1) We told him we would be back once we had visited all the uncles. ¡°We¡¯ll don¡¯t bring any of their bad habits here. We each work in our own way and it is best if you remembered that.¡± We left before lunch and before our cousins had managed to return with the tree they had been sent to fell. Oh well, we would see them another time. Tessi herself was very keen toe to the ind for magical lessons from either us or Lady Acacia. . . . Having gained three new skills in thest two days there was no reason not to keep going. The next uncle on our list to visit was Uncle Cephas the Stone Mason. He ran the quarry with his son Ferris and employed others to help out when they needed more stone for building houses or the wall. His daughters ina, Gemma and S worked on the stone as well but from home rather than out at the quarry. Also if they ever found any gemstones in the mining the daughters tended to be the ones to cut and polish them. Interestingly enough they had not developed the technique to create faceted gems but instead created the Cabochon Gem with a t back and rounded top. However, seeing as they don¡¯t have ess to modern machinery it''s no surprise. I¡¯m left wondering whether elsewhere in the world they can create such gemstones. ¡°So you¡¯d like toe along with Ferris and me today?¡± Uncle Cephas asked us. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°Well Aleera can stay here with ina, Gemma and S but you are wee to tag along if you can keep up. We will be heading out in a minute or two. You just caught us before we left.¡± Uncle Cephas answered. ¡°Thanks,¡± I replied. It wasn¡¯t long before we headed out. Both of them were a little surprised at how easily I kept up with them as they headed off to the quarry. ¡°Don¡¯t invest too many points into dexterity boy. We are all hoping that you will be able to unlock magic for the rest of our family as well as your other cousins. All the girls as well as Ferris are keen to be able to wield magic. Aren¡¯t you son?¡± He advised. ¡°Yes Dad, we¡¯d all like to be able to wield it.¡± He agreed with his father. We journeyed on towards the quarry while Uncle Cephas exined what was there. ¡°Mainly we are quarrying out stone for either homes, docks or expanding the town¡¯s wall. But when no one is asking for anything specific we enjoy mining to see if we can¡¯t find any seams of gems or metals.¡± ¡°Are they many?¡± I asked excitedly ¡°No, not a lot but we manage to find enough to keep Aaron busy without importing any iron from further afield and enough stones to keep my daughters working hard polishing them up.¡± He happily informed me. ¡°We¡¯ll show you how we cut stone and you can have a go before we show you the mine.¡± If we were going to go looking through the earth for gems and metals I really needed to work on my sonar skill. Echolocation did a good enough job abovend and under the water but seeing through the earth had always proved challenging for me. Mana sense working far better at it than the images I got from using echolocation. ¡°Nearly there, Kai.¡± Uncle Cephas said. Soon we rounded a corner showing a sizeable portion of the hillside cut away. ¡°So what do you think?¡± Asked Uncle Cephas. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of stone,¡± I answered impressed by how much had been mined out already. ¡°Takes a lot to build the town walls for starters. The inside of them may be rubble or earth or general stones but to build it properly we needed cut stone from here and this is what we have provided.¡± They had a little shed with their tools in a corner of the quarry. Crime on this ind was practically non-existent even if someone did steal something they would not be able to use it in public or sell it to anybody with so few working in each profession it would be obvious when it disappeared as well as when it reappeared. ¡°What do you thinkes first?¡± Uncle Cephas asked. ¡°Measure and cut,¡± I responded with the answer drilled into us so often by Uncle Karl yesterday. ¡°Of course but you don¡¯t have to worry so much about the measuring I¡¯m not my brother Karl. Besides best to aim to get it right but these stones will be in the town wall there is always a little room for error that can be trimmed down on sight when cing them. Not that you shouldn¡¯t try your best anyway. Have you managed to get the measurement skill? Most cousins who work with your Uncle Karl get the skill of hard work and practice or simply the necessity of needing him to stop hovering over everything you are doing.¡± ¡°Was he always as . . ¡° I searched for the right word. ¡°particr?¡± ¡°As far back as I can remember he has been but then he is one of my older brothers so I can¡¯t remember everything. You¡¯d have to ask Aaron but I doubt he was any different before I arrived.¡± He answered. ¡°I¡¯ll show you how it¡¯s done then you can give it a go.¡± He scratched a line in the stone using his rule before marking out points a hand¡¯s distance along them. Then he chiselled and hammered a row of tapered holes into his carefully marked spaces before tapping in wedges in sequence until they were tight. Then he continued to hit them harder and harder in sequence until finally with a crack the rock split. The wedges forced the stone apart rather than him cutting through it. ¡°Ready to give it a go? We need blocks an arm by half an arm.¡± He asked before handing me a set of slightly smaller tools. I measured and marked the cuts out before having a go with the hammer and chisel, it was hard work. I tried. I really did but although my vessel was supporting my sats more and more I was still a little small for this kind of work. I would get there in the end but it was going to take a while. ¡°Would you mind if I used some of my magic?¡± I asked looking at the very shallow progress I had made so far in driving the wedges into the stone. It would not be cracking open anytime soon. ¡°Be my guest. I hope you weren¡¯t expecting to havepleted the block already. Stone takes a lot longer to work with than wood or even metal. At least if you want a finely carved block of masonry rather than a rock.¡± I was no longer sure quite what I had expected but this was taking significantly longer than the other two visits and I seemed to be making less progress despite starting quicker and tackling the task straight away. So I decided to use a little bit of magic. I held the mana in tight along the line that I wished to cut before applying the skill, Melt. The stone ran out from around the block leaving a perfectly shaped block that could be carried off to one side. ¡°Well, that¡¯s just cheating,¡± Ferris eximed looking over at my smoothly carved block of masonry. ¡°You can do the same with skills when you level them up high enough.¡± Uncle Cephas objected. He walked over with a hammer and chisel. Driving them in quickly and promptly probably using some skills to separate a block in a few quick strikes. He had been taking his time to demonstrate the correct technique earlier. "If you have seen enough of the quarry why don''t we look in the mine." he cut short our practice with the stone, but when you can meld stone with your magic what was there to mind? I was looking forward to seeing what I could find in the mine. Chapter 111: Rock Hunting Chapter 111: Rock Hunting ¡°There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stone; it all depends on how you use them.¡± Frederich Nietsche ¡°We started mining here through the side of the quarry because of the discolouration that came through the rock in this area. We weren¡¯t looking for metal at the time. But once we found some your uncle Aaron back by your Grandpa Smit insisted we continue.¡± Uncle Cephas exined as he led us into the rock face. ¡°Uncle Karl provides the lumber needed to prop up the tunnels,¡± Ferris exined as he patted the wooden supports on the way in. ¡°What do you do for . . . light?¡± I asked as Uncle Cephas lit a torch ahead of us. That was not dangerous at all. His torch flickered a little before catching fully. ¡°These are pine resin torches soaked in oil. Theyst a long time.¡± ¡°Are they safe?¡¯ I asked a little worried about taking an open me down into the dark. ¡°Safe enough up here near the exit. Venttion is good and we have driven some shafts to the surface throughout the mine to keep the air flowing. But new areas can be a little dangerous if you¡¯re not careful. But we have been doing this a long time, so you have nothing to worry about.¡± He reassured me as he led us further in. ¡°Now some miners get sick of their jobs because it was just boring. But not me.¡± He paused to wait for augh but all he got was a groan from his son. ¡°You¡¯ll have to be patient with my children, their chips off the old block but they all have their faults.¡± I sniggered at that one. ¡°Don¡¯t encourage him. I¡¯ve heard them all before but you haven¡¯t so if you''re not careful you¡¯re going to end up the entire tour listening to him attempting to be funny.¡± Ferrisined. ¡°What it takes a boulder man to work his way into the depths of the loadstone.¡± He continued. ¡°Are we entering the lodestone?¡± I asked a little worried about what might or might not be living in it. ¡°No far too shallow a mine for that. Plus this is a dead volcano. Any paths that existed to it were destroyed a long time ago if they ever existed in the first ce. Inds such as ours cane forth from the sea itself and any entrances to the Lodestone Labyrinth are beyond rare once venturing out to sea. The entrances have to be naturally formed as even the base races are not about to flood theirnd with the sea above by creating new ones to the bottom of the sea.¡± He exined. ¡°Still worth it to keep an eye out. There are still a few minor monsters that could cause you problems if you fell asleep in here.¡± Ferris added. ¡°Again far and few between.¡± Uncle Cephas moderated his son¡¯s answer. You know the old saying ¨C igneous is bliss.¡± It appeared that he couldn¡¯t help himself with his new captive audience. ¡°I¡¯d really rather know,¡± I said apanied by Ferris¡¯s continued groaning at his Dad¡¯s jokes. ¡°Well, the main problem we have are rockworms but only because they are hunting the same things we are, blue sapphires.¡± He continued to lead us in without a care in the world. ¡°What are rockworms?¡± I asked cautiously. ¡°Worms that eat rocks. It is fairly self-evident from the name. They grow up to an arm in length, tunnel through the stone and like to eat our sapphires when they find one.¡± Ferris exined without resorting to puns. ¡°They blend into the rockface and you don¡¯t notice them much unless they are moving. Also, their skin is rocklike and you¡¯ll need your pickaxe to get through it.¡± He added. These things were sounding worse and worse by the minute. At half my body length they would pose a far greater risk to me than them standing at twice my height. ¡°Are they dangerous?¡± I asked. ¡°Only if you fall asleep. They are not fast but their mouths have a way of dissolving rock either through magic or some sort of saliva. It wouldn¡¯t be good to get it on your skin. But like I said they aren¡¯t particrly fast. Mainly they aren¡¯t interested in us just the sapphires hiding beneath the surface of the rock. The main danger is that they can damage the rock around our tunnels leading to cave-ins so if we see some we kill them.¡± Uncle Cephas lectured. ¡°Anything else down here?¡± I asked a little worried that this was only the beginning of the list. ¡°No that¡¯s it. Not a lot to eat down here other than rocks and if you don¡¯t want them, then there isn¡¯t much point being down here. And we¡¯ve arrived.¡± He gestured at the rock face in front of us. The tunnel had expanded into a small cavern. ¡°This is where we have found the most sapphires so far,¡± Ferris exined pointing out the ces that they had worked on the rock¡¯s surfaces. ¡°Here you go.¡± He said as he handed me a small pick to have a go mining. ¡°Let¡¯s see what you can find.¡± They both separated and headed to their own spots to work over the wall looking for the hint of blue that might suggest a gemstone hidden in the wall somewhere. The torch sent our flickering shadows over the rock in front of us adding to theplexity of the task. Ignoring my sight which due to my supersenses handled the darkness easily I focused on the wall with my skills sense mana. I searched as deep into the rock as I could looking for the blue mana that I had seen in their jewellery. Eventually finding some hidden in the wall. Now I just had to get it out. I raised the pickaxe and swung it at the wall. My strikes were lost in the echoing strikes of my cousin and uncle. Something was satisfying in digging my way deeper to the gemstone I suspectedy just out of sight under the earth¡¯s skin of stone. Strike, crack, pull and chip. I worked my way deeper into the earth ignoring the pieces that fell by the way sure in my knowledge that they did not contain what I was after. The hole I had made was growing deeper and the glow seemed to be growing brighter to my senses. Finally, with ast crack, the gemstone was pulled free of the rock face. Ding! Mining (Lv1) ¡°Uncle Cephas,¡± I called. ¡°I¡¯ve found one.¡± ¡°Of quartz you have!¡± he eximed either delighted to have finally been able to sue that pun or by the fact that I had found my very first gemstone. Ferris came over to see the gemstone I was holding up. ¡°That¡¯s a fine one.¡± He nodded in confirmation of my find. The stone feltrge in my small hands. ¡°Gemma or ina will be able to polish that up nicely for you when we get back if you''re interested.¡± Although the gemstone shone in my mana sense to my eyes it was a dull blue stone. Unpolished and uncut it did little to reflect the light of the torch. ¡°That was fast, a lucky first attempt.¡± Uncle Cephasmented. ¡°Can you do it again?¡± he asked. ¡°I think so,¡± I answered before I started staring into the rock again. Rock had always been harder to see through than anything else. But I was getting better at it as my mana sense continued to level up. Echolocation also gave me a little info from the topyer of stone whenever I tapped it and held my hands to the wall. I continued to push my senses as I worked along the face of the cavern they had been working on. Sense Mana (Lv 42) I might have got lucky with my first find. I got right up to the face of the wall seeing if I could push my sight deeper into the wall. Echolocation (Lv 36) I continued to tap the wall fingers pressed up against it seeing if I could get a sense or feel for any differences in the wall ahead. Ding! Seismic Sense (Lv1) Finally, something gave and my view into the stone expanded abination of Sense Mana, Listening, Echolocation and Detect allowed me to see or feel further into the stone than I had ever managed before. Uncle Cephas and Ferris found my excitement contagious as I rushed over to a new section of stone and said I think there is one here. I was notpletely sure as it was slightly too deep for my mana sense to notice but my Seismic Sense was saying that something was different a foot in from the spot I was pointing at. ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll give it a go.¡± Uncle Cephas said before raising his pickaxe. It only took one swing for him to pull out a sizeable chuck of the wall to shatter on the floor and I rushed forward to find what my mana sense was now shining as bright as day. ¡°Here,¡± I shouted raising another Sapphire in the air. ¡°Wow, that is amazingly lucky.¡± Cried, Ferris. ¡°How are you doing that?¡± he asked. ¡°Well I can see the mana in the gemstones and I¡¯m good at sensing,¡± I exined vaguely. ¡°What about if you did the same thing as you did in the quarry would that work on the stone here?¡± He asked excitedly. ¡°I suppose so,¡± I answered distracted already searching for the next glimmer of a gemstone or the spot that vibrated differently to my Seismic Sense. ¡°I think there is another one here,¡± I answered Ferris. ¡°Would you like to see if I can use my magic?¡± ¡°Cool.¡± Ferris answered, ¡°This is so much quicker with you helping out.¡± I ced my hand on the wall in front of me flooding it with my mana until it had reached deep enough to where I suspected the gemstone rested in a pocket of stone. Flexing my will I used the skill of stone shaping to make the stone flow out of the area. Running out and down the wall leaving another sapphire nestled in the newly created hole in the wall. Mining (Lv2) It appeared that I did not necessarily have to use a pickaxe to level the skill I just needed to find and retrieve the resources I was looking for. It probably helped the levelling up process that the gemstones were so valuable. We spent the rest of the morning pulling out gemstones from the wall. I would point them out then Uncle Cephas, Ferris or I would work at getting them out. We split the stones equally between us. They seemed to be thrilled that they had found so many in a single morning. ¡°This will keep the girls busy for a while.¡± Uncle Cephasmented on all the polishing and cutting the girls would have to do. I thought about introducing different types of cut stones but thought I might not bring that up on my first day working with the Silverstone family. ¡°Well, Kai. That was a productive morning. Probably time to head home. I hope we can see you back here in a bit.¡± Uncle Cephas said as we wound down from our busy search for sapphires. ¡°Your probably a bit young to be thinking about this yet, and your parents probably have their own ns for you, but what do you want to do when you get older?¡± he asked as we turned to leave through the tunnels the torchlight finally beginning to run low. I paused for a moment, considering before answering, ¡°I want to make an impact on the world ¨C I do things for the crater good of humanity.¡± The dead silence in the cave was broken by Uncle Cephas, guffaws ofughter and Ferris¡¯s groans. ¡°I¡¯m doomed. There are two of them now. I¡¯ll be thrown out of house and home only for my cousin to be adopted in my stead.¡± Was Ferris¡¯s theatrical response. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly son. I¡¯d never take you for granite.¡± He reached out to give Ferris a crushing hug which might have been just to hold him in ce for his final punch line, ¡°Iva you too much.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if I was chuckling at the pun or the pain that Ferris seemed to express on hearing it. But then if he had heard them a million times before I could kind of understand. Uncle Cephas still chuckling led us through the tunnels heading home. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked. ¡°I couldn¡¯t help it.¡± I defended my actions. Ferris replied, ¡°It¡¯s okay, but I¡¯d rather not chalk about it anymore.¡± He whispered out of his father¡¯s hearing. . . . We were heading to the exit and nearly cleared it when suddenly a rock fell from the roof andnded on the floor in front of me. I looked up to find a moving column of stone falling towards me. ¡°Look out!¡± cried Ferris as I leapt back. The column of stonended on the floor and coiled before leaping at me one more. I raised my pickaxe to block it only to find it had a mouth that was now biting the pickaxe I had brought between us. I threw it away. The rockworm wrapped itself around the pickaxe as it flew through the air andnded on the ground. I turned around to sprint back into the tunnel away from the monster blocking the exit when there was a st. Uncle Cephas had buried his pickaxe into the beast. Heart thundering, I shuddered, ¡°I thought you said they weren¡¯t dangerous!¡± I eximed. ¡°Well, that one was a fair bit quicker and bigger than usual. Plus, it got the drop on us. Normally they aren¡¯t quite so . . . aggressive. But then you are hauling a month¡¯s worth of sapphires, so I suppose you looked particrly tasty.¡± He theorized. I went to pick up my pickaxe only to be left holding the de and the bottom of the handle the middle part having melted through. Whether the mana or saliva whatever it was it was particrly potent. ¡°I¡¯d like to go home now,¡± I said the adrenaline still rushing through my system. That had been a little closer than I would have liked. ¡°Sure thing. Straight home it is.¡± He answered as he wiped the deceased rockworm of his pickaxe onto the floor. ¡°We don¡¯t normally see one when mining.¡± Ferris consoled me. ¡°But then we did find a fair few more sapphires than normal. Who knows maybe my father is right.¡± The experience put a damper on what had been a hugely sessful morning. We were quiet walking back to the town and through the northern gate. As the Silverstone family said their farewells to Aleera and me, Uncle Cephas took me to the side, ¡°Don¡¯t let it put you off. We¡¯d love you toe back and do a little more quarrying or mining of sapphires with us. We didn¡¯t even get round to showing you the tunnels where the ores are.¡± Uncle Cephas, he said before adding his parting words. ¡°I know it was a joke earlier but if you truly want to make an impact and do things for the greater good of humanity money helps. The sapphires hidden in the stone much like your pearls are just money waiting for you to pick them up.¡± Chapter 112: Mud men Chapter 112: Mud men "I made all my generals out of mud." Napoleon Bonaparte ¡®What did I want to do? Who did I want to be?¡¯ Uncle Cephas question and my answer reverberated around in my head. Taking up my time as I thought about it. I had been quite addicted to making the numbers go up when I first appeared in this world which had all sorts of unexpected consequences, from Grandpa putting me forward for nobility to identally crippling myself. Yes I wanted to have an impact. I wanted to build something better than what we had here in Wester, bring the town and people from medieval town I found myself living in to something closer to my modern sensibilities. Plumbing, water on tap, wind power, water power, maybe even electricity one day. I wanted to build something and have the freedom to do so which seemed to mean that I had to be a Lord in order to defend my and our independence. At the same time this was a new world a literally magical world that I wanted to go out and see as well. But it was a world that filled with sea monsters where we lived on the edge of the map. So to go out there I needed to be stronger or I would be swallowed whole. My mother was happy to have me stay here on the ind and sing for my supper, my father would support me sailing, my sister support the building of a merchant empire while my grandfather just wanted, needed to make me strong. Lady Acacia seemed determined to make me a strong enough lord to decide my own fate. But as a Lord would I have the freedom to travel or indulge my whims. The more responsibilities one had the tighter you were tied sometimes. To thend, to the people to your family restrictions coulde in many forms. Who did I want to be? Did I have to choose? I just needed more time to do all the things I wanted to do. I didn¡¯t want to be limited I wanted to be able to do everything. . . . When we visited Romeo and his children, Rand, Rolf and Raina it was nice to have a break from the mental woolgathering over my future. I mean how many 3 year olds really know what they want to be? If my first mother from my former life was to be believed the first time I went through infancy I wanted to be a knight errant with a magical car solving problems which always had a happy ending but second time around I knew that for the fantasy it was. Visiting the tile making family was a much needed break to the spiral I had found myself orbiting. We failed to pick up any skills for whatever reason but I enjoyed ying in the mud with Uncle Romeo and cousins Rand and Rolf. There was a trick to cutting the y and making their tiles and they were experts at it. They had two versions of tiles. Ones that were baked in the sun and those that they fired in the ovens. One was cheaper than the other and didn¡¯tst quite as long. But the cost for the more expensive was significantly higher as you had to factor in the cost of the trees that they burned in the ovens. As I got to see the process first hand I wondered about the possibilities in improving ovens, were sr or mana powered ovens possible. We were living in a hopefully extinct volcano maybe there was geothermal power that we could tap if we went deep enough. My daydreaming was taken advantage of by Rolf the youngest of Uncle Romeo¡¯s two sons. ¡°Kai.¡± He called out. I turned to get a face full of mud. That was thest time I was leaving my HUD off. Too often I treated life as harmless only toe a cropper when I least expected. Although if you were already expecting it would it really be a surprise. I reached down to gather my own pile of mud. Time to put my throwing skill to work. Uncle Romeo had not called out his son for his behaviour so I assumed the morning¡¯s work was over. The oven¡¯s filled and the tiles alreadyid out for the sun to bake them they would collect them tomorrow. ¡°Rolf, heads up.¡± I lobbed a small ball of mud in a high arch up into the air. He looked up stepping aside to let it miss him by a mile. What he missed was the second mud ball I hadunched as soon as he looked up. It sttered nicely all over his head as he turned to say, ¡°Ha, miss . . .¡± his words cut short by a mouthful of mud. ¡°y dirty games you are going to end up muddy.¡± Randughed at his younger brother. The verbal prod was not a lot but it was enough to unite the two of us younger siblings against him. We took caution to afford spoiling the tiles we had made or go anywhere near Uncle Romeo who by some unspoken rule was not involved in the mud brawl that developed. After ended covered in mud we finally called it a day and headed back to their home. It had not been a bad work out for my skills Throwing, Dodge, Ambidextrous and Quick Reflexes. The three skills had allowed me to hold my own with the two boys who both had a lot more practice at this game than I had and were both significantly older than I was. But the skills that had allowed me to excel at it was the amalgamation that I had used to create my HUD. Mana Sense and Echolocation allowed me to lob the mud ball at them with frightening uracy even when I was out of line of sight and they were unable to urately target me in return. Timing the arcs tond on them while under enemy fire had even given me a surprise level in a skill that had not leveled in forever. Ding! Time sense (Lv51) As much as I was not a fan of Grandfather¡¯s habit of lobbing things at us during training. This morning¡¯s mud fight proved the effectiveness of his training method. Rolf and I had done so well in pining down his older brother that through some unspoken bond of brothers Rolf and switched sides to join his brother in trying to pin me down. My ability to target them from out of line of sight meant that they struggled to keep me pinned down as once I was out of their sight I could keep up a running game of peppering them with mud balls while moving from cover to cover. ¡°That¡¯s enough boys.¡± Uncle Romeo called an end to our impromptu battle. ¡°Aw, Dad. We were about to get him good.¡± Rolf said as he stood up from where they had been creeping to where they thought I was. ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that.¡± Uncle Romeo said sardonically. ¡°Stand up Kai.¡± I stood up from where I had been crawling up behind them. The benefit to my stature was I could hide a lot better than they could behind cover that would never have covered them. Allowing me to circle round behind them without realizing. ¡°Dang it.¡± Rolf grumped as he silently resolved to practice a little more with his brother. Rand snorted at my sess of making my way round behind theirrger figures. I had two balls of mud ready to throw and due to my skill Ambidextrous I was ready to do so with both of them one for each of them. Thankfully they had both pulled their punches with me using smaller mud balls when aiming at me than whenpared with one another and taking care that the balls were more mud than y which would have been painful. Not that it wasn¡¯t anyway. I returned to their home with a few more bruises than I had left with in the morning. . . . Once again Aleera and I had been split up that morning before we headed off. Outside of our family and Uncle Aaron there seemed to be a clear declination of what was considered man¡¯s and woman¡¯s work in what was being passed down to their children. Aleera had stayed back with Raina but it turned out that they had gone to her mother¡¯s to work there. They had made smaller pieces from y in a smaller oven but had zed them and added pigments to bring colour to their work. I hadughed at my sister¡¯s work. It looked much like a primary child¡¯s effort at making a pot. I wondered if it would even hold water. It was a pale imitation of the piece that Raina brought home from working with her mother. ¡°Lucky, we don¡¯t make our money from pottery otherwise we would soon be impoverished.¡± Iughed as Aleera showed us her piece. She scowled at my critique but could hardly refute my point. It was not a beautiful piece unlike the piece that Raina had made. ¡°I¡¯d like to see you do better. At least I don¡¯t look like I spent the day rolling around in mud.¡± She came back with a critique of her own. ¡°Mother is hardly going to love the state of your clothes. Let alone Lady Acacia if she catches you looking like you do.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a piece only a mother would love. The mud was Rolf¡¯s fault,¡± I paused, ¡°and Rand¡¯s.¡± I had not got away scot free in the initial chaos of the great mud battle. I might need to go for a swim on the way back home. It would be hard to get any dirty than I already was and hopefully the water would loosen up the dirt that packed into the clothes I was wearing. ¡°So what are you going to say to Mother about your clothing?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°That Grandfather suggested some y fights with my cousins.¡± I thought out loud always happy to me on my Grandfather any thing that I was going to get into trouble for. I mean he would have approved of the Great Mud Battle and the improvement in my skills. It would have been really nice to get Danger Sense or something simr from it but I guess the mud meant I was never in too much danger. ¡°At least you gave as good as you got judging by the state of their clothes.¡± She replied inmiseration. We sailed our way back home with a little dip at the beginning to allow me to try and get the worst off before attempting to dry it off on the way back to the ind. We had nearly made it home when we were caught. It was all very well having my HUD on keeping me aware of my hidden surroundings when Lady Acacia was sitting at the end of the hall waiting for us anyway and could see us as soon as we could see her when we entered the hall. ¡°Atst the wayward duo returned.¡± She raised an eyebrow taking in the state of our or rather my clothing. ¡°Looking a little the worse for wear.¡± She added. ¡°We cannot have the Lord of the Silversea looking like he has spent the morning rolling with pigs. I was under the illusion that there were no types of domesticated swine on the ind. Have you found some Kai?¡± she asked. Aleera stepped out of the line of fire. ¡°Has your long weekend been productive at least?¡± ¡°Yes, very. I have gained the skills cksmithing, Measurement, Carpentry, Mining and leveled up several other skills.¡± ¡°Gaining skills is always a productive use of your time, but you are aware that the number of nobles who specializing in tradesman crafts are far and few between. They are hardly going to test you on your ability to forge nails, build a door, dig up lump of metal . . . or throw mudballs at one another.¡± She added pointedly. ¡°There¡¯s no reason I can¡¯t excel at both.¡± I defended our use of thest couple of days. ¡°Maybe, maybe not. But you must excel at your magical studies, your martial training, your governance and the arts first and foremost before you look at what your cousins can teach you. Else you will not be able to defend whatever you might maketer on down the line.¡± She argued. ¡°Especially, your magical studies if you hope to increase the number of magicians your house canmand.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s tidy you up a little bit before your mother sees you young master.¡± She said before she opened her mouth once more ¡°Take a big breath now.¡± Was all the warning I had before, "Nerano Katharizo." I found myself enveloped in a ball of water which scoured both me and my clothes clean. "There much better." she said. "Time for lunch. Don''t forget to dry yourself off." Aleera sniggered as I found myself drying myself off for the second time. Chapter 113: Magical Martial Arts + Governance (MMA + G) Chapter 113: Magical Martial Arts + Governance (MMA + G) ¡°It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.¡± Albert Einstein After visiting the oldest four uncles, Aaron, Karl, Cephas and Romeo, the next uncle we were due to visit was Uncle Barric the father of six. However, we were not allowed to do so for the week. Lady Acacia insisted that we excel in our magical studies, martial training, arts and governance before we entertained the idea of picking up any more of our cousins¡¯mon skills. This decision was backed up by our parents after it was mentioned at dinner and we had to concentrate on the four noble areas proscribed by her first and foremost. For our magical studies, we had started building our own grimoires. We were wee to use Lady Acacia¡¯s library to do so but she believed in us building our own. I was being a little ambitious in my efforts at writing a Grimoire choosing a single effect and trying to write down every magical method to create it. For example, the first spell she taught us, was how to create light. Light Creation received its own page then I detailed all of the methods I knew how to create it. First the spellcraft Phos. Second the spellsong B, A, A, and E I used western notation to write the melody down. Including rhythm as well as pitch. Third were the glyphs. Fourth were the Runes. Fifth the Enchantments. Sixth were the Sigils. Each magical method had been written in thenguage of the race that used it predominantly. So the exnation for Spellcraft was written in Buss thepoundnguage of the Compass Kingdoms. The exnation of the Spellsong was written in Elvish, the glyphs were written and exined in thenguage of the Giants, runes were detailed in Dwarf, the enchantments in Pixish, the Sigils in the main tongue of the Beastkin. It was a schrly exercise as much as a magical one and the constant cross-references and checking with Lady Acacia that I had the trantions as much as the exnations correct meant that it was doing wonders for all of the connected skills. Calligraphy, Elvish, Giant, Dwarf, Pixish, Gnomish, Koboldogo, Beastkin, Halfling, Memorisation, Spellcraft, Spellsong and Polyglot as it levelled off the newnguages I practised. Unfortunately, the fact that I had drawn the glyphs, runes, enchantments and sigils rather than carved, etched, sewn and tattooed them meant firstly they were not magical despite being written as urately as possible and secondly that I had yet to gain the skills for them despite beginning to build up an understanding of what they looked like. Hopefully, my work with my extended family would give me the skills to put the variety of my magical knowledge into practice. Although I was unsure where I would get the appropriate instruments and magical materials to do so. Not only had I included thepass kingdoms¡¯ multiple methods for creating light through their magical systems but I had also included my homemade methods for achieving the same through mana maniption and gaining the system skills as well as the biological mana motes we had discovered that worked very efficiently at transforming mana into light. However, I hadn¡¯t stopped there though. This might be my magical grimoire but science was a form of magic in its own right. After all, magic is just another science we don¡¯t understand yet. I had not added this knowledge to the physical form of my grimoire but that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t there in my mind. As a potential security risk, I didn¡¯t want to write down all of my former world¡¯s knowledge or as much of it that I could remember, so I recreated my growing grimoire in my mind fortress but I had also included in my grimoire my understanding of light through physics as well as how to create it through engineering. These exnations though were written in English it was not just a method to encode it in a way no one else would be able to decipher even if they ever were able to prate my mind fortress. It was simply the fact that I did not have the words in the othernguage to describe the processes as I understood them. Sure in time I would hopefully have the vocabry but it was equally possible that it did not exist in thenguage yet not having been invented. On the other hand, I had been caught out by soul sight and I didn¡¯t want to be caught out again so using former worldnguages to do so was not a bad idea in itself. The fact that Lady Acacia could perceive the size of my soul encouraged me to renew and renovate my mind fortress. I might not be able to see my soul yet, but I imagined my false status as being what the world could see if they ever looked at me. Then I imagined that I had buried the rest of my mind fortress out of sight in the soil of my soul. I might not be able to see my soul but that did not mean that I couldn¡¯t affect it. When I asked Lady Acacia if my soul looked any different after my renovations she said that instead of arge imprable oak in the centre of my soul I now had a clearing with a stone b at its centre she called it my soul stone. This conversation and the very fact that she was able to see my status or soulstone as she called it meant that I was finally able to ask something I had been fearing from before I had even entered this world. ¡°Can you see my status then?¡± I asked curious but no longer fearful of her after the months she had spent with our family working to make us the best we can be. ¡°No, Kai. I cannot see your status.¡± She answered. ¡°Even though you can see my soulstone?¡± I asked using her terminology to describe where she saw her status written. ¡°From the outside, I cannot. I can see it is there but not read it. If I invaded your soul I would be able to do so but from the outside, I cannot.¡± She exined in more detail. ¡°From within my soul?¡± ¡°Yes, but I will teach you and your sister mental defence long before you ever leave this ind. Even then it isn¡¯t amon ability or easy to do to anyone even if they did have the skill except for a few social situations.¡± ¡°Social situations does that mean certain people read your status with or without your permission?¡± I asked. ¡°Who can do that and what social situations?¡± ¡°For example, a General can see the general stats of their soldiers to direct them appropriately to the ces where they are needed the most. A captain can likewise see their sailor''s stats to assign them the appropriate roles. Any social situation where there is a strict formal hierarchy will allow the reading of a man¡¯s stats by their superior. This doesn¡¯t apply to an apprentice and their master as no oaths of allegiance or promise to follow orders has been taken.¡± She outlined the social situations and the theory behind the ability to read another¡¯s stats. ¡°Can you hide your stats from your superior?¡± I asked thinking about the false status I had spent so long making and even now covered my soul stone in the centre of my unseen soul. ¡°Most soldiers or sailors would not have the mental stats to be able to do that.¡± She answered sinctly. ¡°But it¡¯s not impossible?¡± I queried for rification. ¡°No it¡¯s not impossible but you would have to have a skill for deception at a tier higher than whichever tier skill they would be using to read you. A deception skill that would work on your very soul not the surface of your vessel. Something that would be an added impossibility for the soldiers and sailors on top of the high mental stats that most would not have.¡± She outlined the difficulties of what I was asking but I was asking for myself not them. ¡°Is there anyone on this ind who can do that?¡± I asked wondering if I had already been read by someone outside our growing family of trust. ¡°This ind is a pioneering ind you had no official mayor other than your Grandpa¡¯s unofficial position. There is no standing army or navy other than your as-needed unofficial militia so there is no one who can read another¡¯s status. None on this ind other than you.¡± She added a little surprise to her ¡°Me? How me?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°As the Lord of the Silversea family, you can call on your Adals to show you their status.¡± She said. ¡°I can?¡± I eximed. I had not noticed anything new when I looked at any of my family. ¡°You will have to develop the skill but it¡¯s possible. With the right skills and training to look beyond the surface of their vessels, to see their status and if you are talented enough see their very soul.¡± She teased me with future possibilities if I studied her lessons properly. It sounded fantastic but there was a fly in the ointment. If I could read my Adal¡¯s stats did that mean that the king would be able to read mine? ¡°What about the King? Can he read his nobles'' stats because they are beholden to him?¡± ¡°Yes, Kai. When you pledge allegiance to him on your twentieth birthday he will be able to read your stats. But enough of this when you have mastered your magic we can start looking at your soul.¡± She ended the conversation and moved us back to what we were supposed to be practising. But as we cycled through the spellcraft and spellsong of the effects we had learnt so far, light, water, growth, fire, heat, ice, mana shield, . . . . . . . . to practice our control, efficiency and speed of casting. I thought to myself, ¡®Unless I have higher mental stats than him and can get a higher tier deception skill that can deceive at the very level of my soul. Something to aim for that¡¯s for sure once I hadpleted Lady Acacia¡¯s course, ¡®How to be a Lord: 101¡¯. . . . That was just our magical studies, the rest of our basic course of nobility had continued equally rapidly. Lady Acacia had decided that working in tandem with Grandfather would be more efficient, two teachers for two students. So, he had been brought off the sidelines where he had been watching our lessons to team teach our weapons training lessons with her. Lady Acacia would coach Aleera while Grandfather would coach me. I was initially a little apprehensive that I might see a resurgence of former training due to thepetition with Lady Acacia, but it seemed her presence alone was enough to moderate his more extreme ideas. Not that stopped him from bringing up examples of his past training and sayings along the lines of, ¡°In my day this is how we did it.¡± From being able topare some of his ideas to hers it was easy to see that he came from a poorer more brutal school than the noble training we were being taken through. A school that seemed to make them or break them and luckily enough for us it had made him rather than breaking him. We would each practice individually with them before engaging in a mock spar with our sibling. Each day it would be a different weapon although Grandfather still favoured knives over all others. We even had whole family mock engagements where Mother, Father, Aleera and I had to defend ourselves against thebined might of Grandfather and Lady Acacia. Father favoured a trident and of all things resembling a Roman diator without his armour but they were his best weapons. He was highly levelled in them from fishing every day as Trident, Spear and Nets were the skills with which he killed so many fish. Mother unsurprisingly with Grandfather as a father as much as her teacher was skilled in knives and could hold her own. Unfortunately, we were soundly trounced by Lady Acacia and Grandfather when they worked together. We did better if they attacked one at a time but also got picked off one at a time until we were all dead. They were not killing us but their weapons were sheathed and covered in paint. We were allowed a minor mark in paint provided it was a non-fatal area and acted appropriately disabled if it was a limb. Any paint on a fatal point of the body meant you were dead and out of the game. The most equal exercise was when it was Grandfather and me against Lady Acacia and Aleera. They showed us what truly skilled opponents were capable of when they engaged one another. While we fended off one another. I was getting faster and faster as I continued to grow with the help of the Elvish elixir of growth. My vessel was finally getting strong enough to disy the stats I had. Keeping my HUD fully activated during our bouts meant that I could flee while preparing to attack aware of exactly where everyone was despite it looking like I couldn¡¯t see them. I had managed to catch out my sister several times this way. I was looking forward to mixing in the magic with the martial. However, that was not to be today. . . . Our impromptu school had also been coopted by Lady Acacia. The tasks we required before teaching were what helped us to level our governance skills. Our cousins would arrive early in the morning and Aleera and I would give them the task for the morning. There were even rumours that other children jealous of the exotic fruit are cousins were getting to eat were also now interested in ditching their Luminary lessons for ours instead. My skills in Order and Command levelled up faster when I was ordering two dozen people what to do rather than just Des, Sinis and Wanda what to do. ¡°This morning you will be picking the grapes. Des will show you where you will each be working.¡± . . . ¡°This morning you will be picking the dates. Sinis will show you where you need to get started.¡± . . . ¡°This morning you will be picking olives. Wanda will show you where you need to go.¡± . . . ¡°This morning you will be picking figs.¡± (And so on.) . . . Our food processing was very weak so far but in the future I hoped to get wine, olive oil, and raisins. We were just testing the methods at the moment with small batches. Once we had the basic processes down then we could attempt to scale them up a little bit. After ordering our cousins a little bit for the levels inmand and order it was time to teach them something. We had looked at the lessons we had learned from Alicia and picked the best ones to teach. Obviously, that was going to be magic. Unfortunately, we only had two students for that so far. My magic was increasing rapidly along with the new spellcraft, spellsong and all the practice I had building my grimoire. But we had yet to unlock anyone else¡¯s magic and everyone else was hardly going to sit around and watch. So we taught the same lessons that we had learned from Lady Acacia, etiquette and how to affect a more noble bearing. We didn¡¯t enforce it as strongly as we had to adhere to it ourselves under her critical eye. But enough that they could begin to affect it themselves. We acted out the manners for feasts in our hidden garden. Practised our pirouettes, and just generally yed at being knights anddies of a Silversea court. For some of them it was simply getting them to eat with their mouth closed, for others, it was the correct use of silverware always starting at the outside and working in. Our cousins picked up enough new skills from our yful teaching that we even gained the skill. Ding! Teaching (Lv 1) The Silversea Court continued with gardening, feasts and dances. It was more a club than a ss but I was left wondering what else we could include, our own privatenguage courtesy of my former world, modern-day mathematics, the sciences and sports. There was so much it was tempting to teach. The question was what knowledge would harm or help them as well as what knowledge would harm or help me if I taught it and it spread beyond our isle. Either way, it was a joy to teach, the system awarded levels merely the icing on the cake. Chapter 114: Too much to do and not enough time Chapter 114: Too much to do and not enough time ¡°Well,¡¯ said Tiffany, ¡®there¡¯s too much to be done and not enough people to do it. ¡¯The smile that Kelda gave her was a strange one. The little woman said, ¡®Do ye let them try? Ye mustn¡¯t be afraid to ask for help. Pride is a good thing, my girl but it will kill you in time.¡± Terry Pratchett I had a problem. There was simply not enough time in the day to do all that I wanted and had to do. The four areas Lady Acacia wanted us to focus on alone took up most of our time. I loved magical studies it was still wondrous to me to watch my will be reality in one form or another. The martial training was tougher but I knew it was important having been caught out often enough. So far luck rather than skill had seen me survive and I was keen to change that. Still, it felt like I had a long way to go before that would be the case. The pursuit of the arts was a nice break from the mental aspects of magical studies and the physical aspects of martial training. It was a wonderful way to break up a session by pulling out an instrument to practice or picking up some pens to draw or paint. But it too took up a lot of time. Then there was the governance aspect of our schooling with the Silversea Court. All in all, those four alone ounted for most of our hours each day. That wasn¡¯t counting the extra-curricr aspects we wanted to achieve such as creating trade products for our growing merchant empire. Salt, pearls, purple, sea silk and the multitude of food products we hoped for all took time to produce. Neither was it counting all the trade skills I hoped to pick up from our cousins, cksmithing, carpentry, masonry, mining, tiling and pottery were all fantastic skills to learn I just didn¡¯t have the time I needed to do all of them. Also, it left little time for me to sing with my mother, sail with my father or hunt with my grandfather. There wasn¡¯t a solution that I could see to theck of time avable. We hadn¡¯t even made it to our other cousins yet and still had to have a go at farming, tanning, ss blowing and all of the other skills they could teach us. Our timetable as it stood was physical and martial training from the second the sun rose for an hour or two while our cousins arose and arrived on our isle. Then we would make our way to our hidden garden for the Silversea Court / School before lunch. Once they left, we would have our magical training up in the garden in the shade of the Elendil tree followed by our musical practice either up there or at home. Before gathering for dinner to discuss our progress and what we hoped to achieve next. . . . ¡°You have a problem. You like to do everything yourself. But you can¡¯t Kai.¡± Lady Acacia had listened to myints, and I had hoped for her to be able to offer me a suitable solution. ¡°But there is so much I want to learn and so much I can do.¡± I sighed. ¡°Focus on your training to be a strong Lord first then take breaks to see what you can pick up. If you spread yourself too thin you will learn nothing well. Moreover, your house will rely on your strength to protect it.¡± She outlined my options. ¡°I wish I could just do everything.¡± I frowned ¡°There is no rush for you to pick up everything. You will have time to learn the other professions you are interested inter on in life.¡± Shemiserated. ¡°But it needs to get started now.¡± I had ns I wanted to put into motion. ns that I wanted to be started now not next decade. ¡°Then delegate.¡± She interrupted. ¡°But then I won¡¯t be the one doing it.¡± My argument was circr even to myself. ¡°Do you have to till the soil, nt the vine, pick the grape, to make the wine? No, you are a Lord, you own thend, you can pay the people you merely need to outline the tasks they have toplete.¡± A sensitive listener might even think that she was a little exasperated. She was right. I did not have to do everything myself to make my vision for our home to be a reality but that didn¡¯t stop me from wanting to do so. The system rewarded me so clearly for my every effort it was difficult not to take each task. My skill Parallel process allowed me to use multiple skills simultaneously to make up my HUD, but what I needed was more than that. I needed another me to do everything I wanted to do. A clone for my magical studies, a clone for my physical training, a clone for the arts, a clone for the governance, and then further clones for sailing, cksmithing, carpentry, masonry, mining, tiling, pottery, farming, and teaching . . . I needed over a dozen clones to do all the tasks I had lined up properly. Unfortunately, the system had yet to grace me with such a skill and I had no idea how to get such a thing. Parallel process came close but was more akin to ying one line of music with the right hand, one line with the left hand, keeping the beat with my feet and singing over the top. Four different tasks to create one single performance. What I needed to be able to do was continue to train my martial skills under Lady Acacia while simultaneously writing my grimoire, building our merchant empire, growing our garden, and the list went on. Maybe there was a skill, maybe there wasn¡¯t but in the meantime, I was going to have to delegate or give things up. Something I wasn¡¯t quite prepared to do yet. We needed more money, more workers, and greater efficiency we needed to work smarter not harder to aplish all we hoped to. The question was how do we do that? . . . The next day someone had a surprise visitor, their arrival was not a surprise merely their timing. ¡°Wee back Mercurio.¡± Grandpa Smit was happy to see his partner in crime return. ¡°How was your journey?¡± ¡°Both better and worse than thest one.¡± He replied. ¡°It was better in the fact that I wasn¡¯t hauling anyone who could tell me to go straight here and then back again which meant I could stop to make significantly more profit at each ind we visited. Worse in what she requested us to bring for her this time. Remind me never to work with children, tutors or animals again.¡± He moaned. ¡°Animals?¡± asked confused ¡°Oh, didn¡¯t she inform you of everything she¡¯s ordered? I have a breeding pair of the following animals: horses, cows, sheep, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, chickens, and pigeons. It is a menagerie of madness I tell you. But one I¡¯m happy to pass on to you at cost no less.¡± He smiled holding out a list of the prices he had acquired the animals at. ¡°At cost?¡± surprised both by the offer and the animals. ¡°Yes, these are all for you and your family.¡± He informed Grandpa Smit. ¡°And I¡¯m not taking them back that¡¯s for sure. It¡¯s going to take the day to clean out the hold and I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s ever going to smell the same.¡± ¡°But, what . . .¡± confused both by the products and the generosity of Mercurio at selling anything at cost. He was interrupted by the animals being led into his courtyard. Therger ones walked in on their own. ¡°How . . .¡± his eyebrows continued to rise as the animals were carted in. The smaller ones were deposited still in crates. While therger ones were tied up around the ce. ¡°We winched them up the side of the cliff with blinkers on. Seemed the quickest and safest way to do it. There was no way we were going to get them up the side of the cliff.¡± He added ¡°You did?¡± he said rhetorically. ¡°Oh and before I forget here are a pair of sea falcons.¡± He said as he handed over thest crate. ¡°Best hunting bird I could find that would actually live by the sea or on an ind like this one.¡± ¡°Sea falcons?¡± Smit asked perplexed. ¡°Well most nobles hunt, and when I say hunt they will do it from horseback or through falconry. That¡¯s what the horses, dogs and birds of prey are for. The rest . . .¡± he paused. ¡°who knows? Maybe she just wants a change in your diet other than fish. Mind you she did insist on the particr breeds and I was given a specific list so I¡¯m sure there is more to it than just that.¡± He borated. Smit shelved the question of the animals to focus on the truly perplexing conundrum. ¡°At cost? You never do anything at cost.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m always happy to help a new noble family establish themselves and I have a vested interest in you continuing to survive. Taxes have been going up in Ponente to help fund the border armies and the Silversea tax staying the same has meant that I can make more of a profit. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that continues and I hope you remember that, Seneschal Silvertongue.¡± He quipped. Someone had clearly informed him of the new nature and names of the Adals. ¡°A rising tide raises all boats,¡± Smit replied obliquely neither promising nor objecting to Mercurio¡¯s suggestion. ¡°But we will remember your contribution.¡± He murmured looking around at his animal-filled courtyard. ¡°Shall we go meet the head of the house? I think you will be surprised by the growth of his progress.¡± . . . We sat in our grand hall to wee our merchant. Aleera and I as the official nobles had the two chairs in the centre at the end of the hall. Father stood behind me while Mother stood behind Aleera. Grandfather stood in front of me to the side while Lady Acacia stood in front of Aleera to the side. Together we weed Mercurio back to our pce. We had continued to improve the ce in his absence when we were afforded the time by Lady Acacia. Mother had woven some more hanging tapestries to bedeck the hall. One for each of the Adal families we had raised. Silvertongue, Silversword, Silverkin, Silverwood, Silverstone, Silverseed, Silversoil, Silverstag, Silverskin and Silverss. Each family had its own Crest and banner to represent their branch of our house. ¡°My . . . lord.¡± Mercurio bowed yet clearly perplexed by my rather early growth spurt. ¡°I hope you are well.¡± ¡°Very, thank you,¡± I replied. Everyone could see that he was confused by my ability to respond and my size. ¡°You have the deeds?¡± Aleera jumped into the conversation diverting his attention away from me. ¡°Yes, mydy. Every coin of profit has been reinvested in purchasing thend of the surrounding inds. The majority of Little Wester and Wester Levante are now yours. However, any further purchasing will be problematic if not prohibitively expensive.¡± He shifted his attention from me to focus on my sister. ¡°Why?¡± she asked sharply. ¡°Your location is no longer a secret.¡± His statement was surrounded by silence as we digested the information before he went on to exin, ¡°Both our pursuit of purchasing the surrounding localities as well as our direct trip here with Lady Acacia have meant that other Lords and Ladies suspect if they have not confirmed the location of the Silversea holdings.¡± He answered. ¡°Even Cadmus has stayed back in Ponente as the Prince and his seneschal believe there is no longer any threat to his wellbeing. That alone suggests that they are aware that others are aware.¡± He added. "I suspect that the Wester Isle lords or even the Eastern Lords of Ponente will be purchasingnd nearby either to stop your expansion or to offer to you in return for political favours or capital." The silence after he informed us was now directed at our tutor, whose actions had possibly precipitated this. ¡°It was a necessary risk.¡± She defended her choice and actions. ¡°Although we will now have to hasten the young noble¡¯s introduction to the people of Wester.¡± She answered the silent re of my grandfather. ¡°You have bought and brought everything I requested?¡± she returned to questioning Mercurio. ¡°Everything on your first list, most on your second and I have made inquiries about the third.¡± He answered leaving us in the dark as to what specifically she had been requesting. ¡°Wonderful, wonderful. We will have to have more private talk to discuss them and I have made some new smaller lists of items we will still require.¡± She seemed ted that he managed to have brought everything on her first list. ¡°What exactly did you ask him to bring?¡± Aleera asked intrigued. ¡°Animals, mydy,¡± Mercurio answered for her. ¡°What animals?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Well, there are horses, cows, sheep, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, chickens, pigeons and two seafalcons.¡± he went into detail. ¡°Why on earth do we need so many different domesticated animals?¡± Aleera asked what everybody was probably thinking. ¡°If I cannot take you to the maind I will bring the maind here.¡± Lady Acacia started strongly. ¡°You both need to learn how to ride for both the skills and the experience. It will be expected of both of you when you visit Ponente. If we do not yet have the resources for our own carriage and the prince does not provide one. You can hardly be seen to be walking through the streets. Besides, it was hardly just animals that I requested he purchased.¡± ¡°Very well, horses I can understand but the rest,¡± Aleera responded. ¡°I havepleted an exhaustive list of the trades, skills, products and livestock of Wester Town and found while it is strong in specific fields such as fishing and pearl diving it is also severelycking in its diversity.¡± she began to exin. ¡°Cows?¡± Mother asked astonished ¡°You don¡¯t have any.¡± Lady Acacia rebutted ¡°We do too.¡± Aleera butted in. ¡°Let me rephrase that you have none of worth. These were selected for their quality of milk and meat they are prime specimens worthy of a noble house. The current selection on the ind leaves a lot to be desired.¡± she derided the few specimens we had on our ind. ¡°I assume it is the same for the sheep, goats and pigs, but what about the cats, dogs, poultry and pigeons?¡± Grandpa Smit asked having entered alongside Mercurio. ¡°Everydy needs their own cat, every lord needs their own hunting dog or dogs. The poultry has been selected for the fineness of their feathers your pillows leave a lot to be desired. The pigeons are a pet project of mine.¡± ¡°You''re not going to use them for the pillows too?¡± he asked. ¡°No. I hope to improve themunication between the isles and thepass kingdoms our news is woefully out of date. They are homing pigeons which correct me if I¡¯m wrong you also left at each isle on your way here, yes Mercurio.¡± ¡°As requested.¡± He answered. ¡°Superb, once the pairs have bred, their chicks will be able to find their way back to each isle. Then Mercurio can move them between isles on his trips. We should be able to ess news from each isle far faster than Mercurio can currently provide us.¡± She exined her little project. "It would have been nice to have been kept abreast of your requests Lady Acacia." Mother softly reprimanded. "How precisely do you n to introduce our Lord and Lady to the Isle?" "Bread and games, pearls and performances," she answered swiftly. "It is time for the Silversea family to make itself known." Chapter 115: Panem et circenses Chapter 115: Panem et circenses ¡°The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease.¡± Marcus Tullius Cicero We were not nning on bing evil but there was a certain Machiavellian thinking behind Lady Acacia¡¯s suggestion. There would possibly be a little bit of uncertainty and unsettlement over the news that we were now a noble house and the owners of the ind. Our family wasrge and responsible for many of the essential trades on the ind. They had also been raised to the half noble status of Adals. This would be the first time that became public knowledge too. It was probably to our benefit that nothing had changed over the months that they had be so but there was always a certain resistance to change and a fear of the unknown. People liked things as they were good or bad because they were familiar with them. ¡°Bread and games, pearls and performances? You wish us to buy our poprity?¡± Grandpa Smit asked stunned by the idea. ¡°Can you think of a better way to introduce the fact that your family own the entirety of the ind and the surrounding inds without engendering a little disgruntlement?¡± She asked in return. ¡°Does it have to be mentioned at all?¡± he put out the idea and policy that the family had been following so far. ¡°Yes. If the nobility is already buying upnd on the surrounding inds towards the rest of the archipgo then it is only a matter of time before their emissaries arrive to visit for one reason or another. By then you will need to be established as the noble house of the ind and preferably be popr with the popce.¡± She answered. ¡°Can you think of any other ideas to help establish your house in the time we have remaining?¡± she questioned. ¡°Sounds fun.¡± Mercurio tried to add a little positivity to the conversation. ¡°What were you thinking in particr?¡± he asked possibly sensing possible profit in the offing. ¡°Introducing a mini version of the Compass Kingdom Games would be a great start. There would bepetitions in archery, athletics, boxing, diving, equestrian racing, fencing, marathon, rowing, sailing, swimming, and wrestling at the very least. There could be different divisions, one for women, one for men even one for children to take part in. The prize for winning first, second and third ce could be a pearl.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot of pearls you are nning on us giving out,¡± Aleera said a little unimpressed with the idea of such an extravagant expense to buy us poprity. Though to be fair the majority of them were my pearls to do with as I pleased. ¡°The cost of nobility. You have to not only be considerably richer than your peers you must also appear to be so. This will be arge change for your inders to get used to.¡± She outlined the hidden costs of joining the nobility. We were already making minor orders to nearly every business in town as part of her belief that we had to have a stake or finger in every business. ¡°You mentioned bread and games. Are you expecting us to feed them as well?¡± Mother asked a little rmed. ¡°A takeaway gesture would be nice but not entirely necessary. Most of the town is aware that you have ess to exotic fruits and vegetables. The children talk about it enough that the rumours are probablyrger than the reality. You don¡¯t need to give it away for free but setting up some stalls for them to be sold at would win you more favours with your public. As well as set up future sales and interest in working here as well. The idea is to introduce Aleera and Kai as the Lord and Lady of Silversea house, Baron and Baroness of Wester Isle with as many positive experiences as possible.¡± She exined her thoughts on a matter that we had yet to fully consider. ¡°Pearls and Performances? The pearls are covered as prizes for the winners. How would the performances work?¡± I asked. ¡°You cannot hide forever. You are special, the sooner the people realise it the better. Open the games with a performance duet between the two of you. Officiate the races, maybe partake in one you are sure to win and hand out the prizes. It would be a perfect way to introduce you and your family as the new Lord and Lady of house Silversea, rulers of Wester.¡± She outlined her n for the next step toward ruling the isles. We sat in silence contemting the ambitious nature of her n. It would be a lot of work to set up in a short amount of time but not impossible. ¡°Excuse me,¡± Mercurio interjected into the silence. ¡°But I thought that the young scion of the Silversea House was Callen Kai Silversea. Have I got that wrong?¡± Despite the conversation with its twists and turns it appeared that my growth and the slip of my name were enough to rekindle his intrigue in me. The nature of the contemtive silence shifted into an awkward one as we considered how to answer the question. Was there an exnation other than the truth? ¡°While Callen is his first name, we call him by his middle name Kai.¡± Aleera attempted to answer truthfully but avoid any deeper exnation. ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Mercurio did not sound convinced. Grandfather seemed to sense his suspicion and as always cutting to the heart of the matter answered gruffly, ¡°He is also the child that your sailor threw off the cliff.¡± ¡°He survived the fall?¡± Mercurio eximed. ¡°He did.¡± Sinct and to the point. ¡°But . . . how?¡± he asked bbergasted. ¡°Magic and a little luck,¡± I answered for myself. ¡°You have magic as well as . . .¡± he turned to Grandpa Smit ¡°charisma?¡± ¡°He has the noble nine stats, vitality, strength, endurance, dexterity, senses, mind, rity, magic and charisma.¡± Grandpa Smit proudly outlined his grandson¡¯s potential. ¡°You lied to me,¡± he used. ¡°Not without cause. You brought an assassin to our shores. The attempt happened before you had even left sight of our cliffs.¡± He defended. ¡°I lied to the prince.¡± He whispered horrified. ¡°Not intentionally.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not sure that he will see it that way.¡± He replied worriedly. ¡°What about everybody else, do they know?¡± ¡°The family yes, the town no,¡± he answered. ¡°So just between us then. Named Callen, called Kai after his older brother. Okay, no need to mention this to the prince.¡± He muttered to himself. ¡°I suppose that makes your height a little more sensible although I have to say you seem to grow in stops and starts.¡± He addressed hisstment to me. ¡°We have Lady Acacia to thank for my most recent growth spurt, Elvish magic and what not.¡± I nodded my head in thanks to our tutor. ¡°And what not.¡± He repeated uninformed but toeing the family line. ¡°I would be happy to stay and help with your inauguration and the games.¡± He quickly moved on. ¡°Provided they won¡¯t be too long in the making. The crew would enjoy a break and a chance to win a pearl or two.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯m sure we could make use of your skills.¡± Mother answered for the family. . . . The next week went by in a whirlwind. Mother and I worked to create an outdoor arena the seating cut into the side of the mountain on our isle. We also created a running track around the shore of our isle. That took up the majority of our time. Aleera was working with Mercurio on the stalls he was delighted to see the extent of our produce and just a little suspicious about how some of it ended up growing here. Grandpa Smit was responsible for the notices to the town detailing the uing games and an announcement that was to be made then. It sounded like everyone would be taking the day off to attend attracted by the idea of free entertainment and the chance topete and win a pearl or two. All of our extended family were roped into helping set it up. The number of people working together meant that we managed to pull it together a lot quicker. . . . Despite all the work we had on our te there was one more skill that Lady Acacia insisted on teaching. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly now Kai just climb up and hold on the horse will do all of the work.¡± She reprimanded. It seemed that the one race she felt I would be able to win was the horse racing due to the horse she had ordered and had us pay for from Mercurio. It was quick. The ck stallion loomed ominously over my small stature. I was surprised that she had not gone for a pure white horse. But when asked about it she said, ¡°You have neither the experience nor the facilities nor the stable hands and grooms yet to keep a pure white horse in the state it would need. I will teach you but for now ck seemed the best choice.¡± Once again she arbitrarily decided on the best course of action for me, my sister and my family. It was difficult to argue with her over her decisions when we didn¡¯t know enough to make an informed one. Still, it would have been nice to have known about what Mercurio would be bringing before he had arrived. We could have created stalls, stables and pens before their arrivals. At the moment the majority of the animals had been spread out amongst our Adals for the moment until we had their amodation sorted out. Bringing me back to the moment and the monster of a horse that towered above me, Grandfather lifted me and sat me in the saddle. ¡°Just hold on tight. You¡¯re light so you will hardly slow the horse down at all.¡± The t racecourse stretched out of sight as it curved around the edge of the ind. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine.¡± He said as he pped my horse on its rear. It raced off with me clutching to the reins and saddle tightly. Lady Acacia as always had ordered a child-sized saddle or already had one here among her belongings. I bounced up and down as I held on for dear life. I had moved at speed before either falling or sailing both of which had been exhrating. The difference here was that it felt like the horse was in charge of our course and speed rather than me. Thankfully the sensible horse stuck to the t course curving round the ind we raced. Ding! Horse riding (Lv1) My riding eased a little as the system gave me a little more control over my motion and the horse''s gait. We slowed from a sprint to gallop to a canter as we continued to make our way around our isle. I even began to enjoy the moment as I felt myself gain a modicum of control over the giant beast beneath me. By the time we hadpleted a circuit, I had enough control to stop at the finish line. ¡°There you go, nothing to be afraid of. I¡¯m sure your Grandfather can show you how to brush him down and stable him appropriately.¡± Lady Acacia stated. ¡°Your race is in the bag there isn¡¯t a horse in the three isles that could match him. The ck stallion was certainly a magnificent animal now that I looked at him without the fear of having to ride him fogging my eyes. He also represented a significant expense. His purchase was like buying a fancy car when all you needed to do was get around town and could do so by walking. ¡°He¡¯ll need a name,¡± Grandfather said as we walked back out of the salt ins where we had raced towards our home. ¡°I¡¯m no good at names but his coat is as ck as the midnight sky so I¡¯ll call him Midnight.¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± Grandfather snorted. ¡°Come on. I¡¯ll show you what to do. Chapter 116: The Silversea Games Chapter 116: The Silversea Games ¡°Equality may be a fiction but nheless one must ept it as a governing principle.¡± BR Ambedkar A few days before thepetition at dinner, ¡°Don¡¯t you think I couldpete against half of the men out there.¡± Mother asked Lady Acacia affronted. Mother could probably break most men over her knee if so inclined. She must have been mulling over the sticking point for a while. ¡°Of course not but it is a matter of dignity, we can hardly have men wrestling with women on disy.¡± She replied. ¡°Furthermore I hope that you as the mother of Lord and Lady Silversea are not consideringpeting. You can hardly hand out the prizes if you are collecting them all.¡± ¡°I was not intending onpetiting.¡± Mother answered quickly as if to cover up the possibility that she had indeed thought about it. ¡°Aside from wrestling then I believe that there should be only two categories for the Silversea Games the locked and the unlocked. Those under 10 who have yet to be able to assign their stats the children and those older than ten who can the teenagers and adults.¡± ¡°And the wrestling?¡± Lady Acacia asked. ¡°If you insist that the wrestlingpetition should be split by gender why not skip thatpetition from the games entirely to keep it based solely on ability rather than create brackets based on gender.¡± She argued back. ¡°Very well,¡± Lady Acacia pursed her lips in displeasure. ¡°That would be eptable I suppose.¡± . . . The preparations were finallyplete and the day had arrived. It was time to open the first Silversea Games. We had outdone ourselves by carving the seating into the mountainside to view the games. For many of the townspeople of Wester, it was their first visit to the Isle at the centre of theke. Grandfather had a reputation for grumpiness within the family, outside of the family he was viewed as hostile bordering on dangerous. The history of this opinion had yet to be exined to me but it meant that no one had ever trespassed on the ind before or after our arrival on it. They arrived by boat from the town, the boats shuffling people back and forth across theke as quickly as they could. I had never realized so many people lived in the town. Our cousins we interspersed among them all. The prizes were prepared. Nail, finger and thumb-sized pearls were strung on a ribbon to award the winners whoever they were. If an individual won enough events they would have enough to make a ne. The organization of the event was not set in stone we had no heats to establish the toppetitors but everybody knew everybody here and knew what they had a shot atpeting for. The event would be called and then anyone who wished topete in it would step forward for it. We had hung up a list of the events for everyone to think about beforehand. People had started arriving early and the events would probably take the whole day. Mercurio looked like he had made out like a bandit setting up stalls for our food as well as ones that had sold, beer, wine, and even cushions to soften our stone seats. But it looked like thest of the people were arriving now. Now was the moment that Lady Acacia had prepared us for had arrived. My Cornu ying had improved greatly under her tuition. But it helped that I had Virtuoso to ensure I made no technical errors anymore. I opened the ceremony on the Cornu with a Reville. The instrument alone was enough to gather everyone¡¯s attention. The music itself kept their eyes fixed on me. Lady Acacia felt conflicted about the fact that I was opening the ceremony myself. On the one hand, it would be good for my music levels and charisma stats. On the other hand, she felt it was not necessarily a Lord''s ce to do so. She nned to teach someone else to do it by the next time we held a set of games for the town. Silence spread through the seated audience that now eagerly awaited the announcement and the games they had all gathered here for. ¡°Pioneers of Wester Isle, we gather here today to celebrate the sess of Wester Town and the inauguration of Lord and Lady Silversea.¡± Lady Acacia did not raise her voice to shout but her voice magically boomed out across the audience. As she spoke Aleera and I stepped forward beside her raised our hands and with whispered words released our magic to create light. It was a clear way to demonstrate that we were no longer meremoners but nobility with magical power. The silence froze as some of the audience stilled with shock at our magical abilities. Lady Acacia continued cheerfully, ¡°To celebrate the rising of the two young scions to Lord and Lady they are putting on the first-ever Silversea Games with prizes to be had for all who win.¡± Our cousins and the other branches of our family strategically ced throughout the arena pped and cheered the announcement, breaking the silence and the rest of the town joined in soon after. Our house had arge family and made up a decent percentage of the poption enough to sway their first impressions of the Silversea House. ¡°First up is the archerypetition. Those whose stats are still locked may step forward.¡± She continued after waiting for the apuse to die down. A few children from the ind lined up to have a go but without stats and the majority of them without skills for archery the first children¡¯s event was over quickly. Fun for the individuals and their parents but there was not a lot to their disy of skill and I was left wondering if I could not have done better myself despite mycking height. ¡°Next is the archerypetition for the unlocked and adults. Anyone who wishes topete please step forward.¡± Two dozen individuals with their bows and arrows stepped forth topete. We had only set up a dozen different targets so there was a little jostling as they stepped forward topete. Even our cousins Chase, Diane, Fianna, Huntly and Rigel werepeting but they were in the second line. It looked like their father had decided to abstain from thepetition today. ¡°Since skills make such a difference to all activities we will be awarding prizes based on three different categories. Speed, uracy and Power of shot. First, up will be speed for three shots. On your mark, Fire!¡± A dozen individuals released their arrows with a plethora of skills being used to speed up their remaining arrows while some just used pure stats and experience to make up for theck of a specific archery-rted Quickdraw skill. Grandfather for once happy to inform revealed the skills he had spotted happening, Quick shot, Flicker shot, Rapid fire, Quick draw, Double shot and . . . Triple shot. The winner of the first dozen clear with the ultimate 3-shot skill, Triple shot. The rest came in closely behind with a sole individual without any archery skillsing inst. ¡°Why not just have the one round of uracy?¡± I whispered to Grandfather. We were on disy our first disy and I was attempting to make a good first impression. ¡°Well if the goblins were storming your walls what would you want most speed, uracy or power?¡± he asked rhetorically. ¡°There is a need for each one but it depends on the situation. You would like every shot to be urate but not at the expense of speed when a mass of enemies are attacking you want as many arrows in the air as possible. But what if they are armoured? Then you either need amazing uracy to target gaps you will have to have the perception to find or the prating power to go through their armour. This may be a game right now but it also helps us to see who would be best at what depending on the situation if it ever turned real. Wester Town has walls for a reason.¡± Our conversation was interrupted by Lady Acacia magically raising her voice once more, ¡°Retrieve your arrows, and await your turn for the round based on uracy.¡± The line collected their arrows before the next line of archers stepped forward. ¡°On your mark, Fire!¡± she dered. Another line of arrows buried themselves into the targets. Grandfather once more listed out the skills pointing out the best to have. While another winner was marked down to be awardedter. ¡°Next up we have uracy. More time will be allowed for this within reason. Take your time and may the best archer win.¡± She stated. It was interesting to see that among the two dozen archers that at least half a dozen women werepeting as well. Moreover, they seemed to be just as quick and urate as the men. The winner of the first round was one of the women with the Triple Shot skill. Grandfather continued to outline the possible skills being used, Precision shot, Target centre, Seek target, and True flight, it was a little harder when they were taking their time and the skill could be any number of ones. He was perhaps unsurprisingly knowledgeable about how to hit a target urately. Having gone through the round for uracy we finished with the final round a test of power. Once again judging by their shots Grandfather made guesses at the skills the two dozen archers might have had. Power strike, Piercing shot, Sprial strike and sometimes he would suggest that the archer was just using pure stats. Each target had a tree trunk stacked up behind it. The strength of their shots was measured by how far into it they could bury their arrows. A few arrows could not stand up to the strength of their shots and unfortunately had to be discounted. There were a few arguments over those but in the end, people agreed to measure the power by the depth into the target their arrow had gone. The winner¡¯s arrow through had managed to go through the target as well as the trunk behind it without disintegrating. That time it was a man. ¡°I¡¯m not saying that a woman cannot be stronger Kai, stats make anything possible. Just look at your mother. She gives your dad a run for his money. But on average and in general, they are working against a natural disadvantage.¡± He continued to discuss thepetitors enjoying the skills disyed. The winners were congratted but prizes were to be awarded at the end of the day, not the start. So Lady Acacia moved on to the next event, athletics. This had been divided up into a sprint, a long distance, long jump, high jump and javelin. The sprint was in front of the seats we had carved while the long-distance race went all the way around the ind to finish in front of us once more. The number of skills Grandfather mentioned seemed less for the running and jumping whenpared to archery, he only suggested a few, double step, quick step, long stride, and double wind. His reasoning as always was, ¡°No kill, no skill. It is easier to pick up skills with archery as you are in the process of gaining a percentage of a creature¡¯s experience. It is harder to pick up the skills through running unless you are actively chasing down an animal on a hunt or using it to flee something that would kill you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve picked up Running and Sprint easily enough,¡± I argued back. ¡°Those are themon skills and you have fast learner to help you level them. You have yet to pick up a higher tier of skill.¡± He dismissed myment. ¡°Children, children, focus.¡± Lady Acacia interrupted us. ¡°We need to record the winners as well as work out the general skill selection of the town. That was right she never suggested anything that didn¡¯t achieve two objectives at the same time or more. The Silversea games were first to introduce us to the ind as their new nobles, second to alleviate any grumbles about our elevation with games, bread, pearls and performances. Third and finally it was to work as an informal and uprehensive survey of the abilities of our future subjects. Grandfather was not just telling me the possible skills for solely my personal interest, they were also being written down to highlight the unaffiliated talent and build ns for how they could best be deployed. Knowledge was power and we needed more of it. For the running, many people just used their pure stats topete and that too was being noted down by Grandfather who was giving rough estimates of their level of dexterity and strength based on how quickly they could start the race, their endurance based on how long they could maintain such a pace, and their vitality based on how quickly they recovered. It was all probably wildly inurate but it did provide a fun guessing game while we watched thepetitors and I would get better at it in time. When it became time for the javelin. The list of skills grew longer again but there was repetition and ovep with the ones already described for archery, Precision throw, Target centre, Seek target, and True flight, a skill he exined could be used however you could. Target centre could be applied to archery, the javelin or even if you were throwing your ss across the room. It might not work as well or as urately with a lopsided mug but it would improve an object¡¯s flight and inform you where you needed to make the throw whether or not you could actually achieve it. After Athletics came boxing. Many of thepetitors had alternated between events. Some of them tackled the archery and then sat out for the races. Others tried everything once but didn¡¯t stick with any of it. They attempted the events they thought they had the best shot at, either through stats or skills. Many of the runners had to sit out the boxing through simple exhaustion from their races. Others recovered enough to give it a go. They managed to get enough time to recover due to the need to have pairs for the fights and a league to work up through. With the boxing taking a while the fencing was started at the same time. Allowing several matches to take ce at the same time. This took us up to lunchtime and a break from thepetition. Everybody seemed excited by thepetition and any concern about the ind''s new nobles seemed to lose out to the chance to win pearls and pride in thepetition. There was even some minor betting taking ce over who people thought would win which Aleera was attempting to make a profit off of using Grandfather¡¯s skills at judging threats and people¡¯s levels, skills and stats. She seemed to be doing okay so far. After lunch to start the afternoon was the only race I would be taking ce in. The equestrian race! There were not enough horses on the isle for a child¡¯s race so Ipeted against the adults. While my Horse riding skill had reached level 7 over the week¡¯s preparations I had yet to gain any other skills for riding which put me at a disadvantage. My advantages though looked big enough to cover that. Firstly my weight was nothingpared to the other 3 riders. Secondly my horse, Midnight was by far the most powerful horse in the lineup. It would be pure stats against whatever skills the other riders might have. ¡°To start this afternoon¡¯s events we have a horse race. Not only that but the young Lord Callen Kai Silversea will also bepeting.¡± Her loud voice boomed across the isle. I found myself sitting astride Midnight at the starting line waiting for the start to be called. To my left sat a Chestnut mare which seemed as excited by Midnight as her rider was excited by the race. ¡°Good luck little lordling.¡± Her rider nodded looking down at me despite the height of my horse. ¡°May the best horse win,¡± I replied quietly confident in my horse. While the rider of a Dunn horse added, ¡°May the best rider win.¡± The final rider of a Grey horse said nothing merely waiting for the race to start. ¡°On my mark, get set, go!¡± We needed no loud noise to signal the start listening to Lady Acacia¡¯s voice. Midnight charged out onto the course. We held the home-field advantage able to practice here every day. We sped through the white salt ts on the ck sand-covered road we had made for the event. I ignored the others not looking behind as I focused on us running the best race we could. We had started well and were leading the way and setting the pace as we rode out of sight of the audience round the corner. We were not though out of earshot of the other riders behind us and I heard one shot, ¡°Second wind.¡± As the Dunn rider began to pull abreast of us. We didn¡¯t attempt to pull ahead. I knew how to maintain our pace and despite the Dunn pulling alongside us, I knew Midnight would have the strength and stamina to elerate in thest stretch. Gradually as we circumnavigated the isle we began to pull ahead again before taking the lead once more. ¡°Keep going Midnight,¡± I ordered as we turned thest corner. Before finally as we reached thest stretch, Imanded, ¡°Sprint Midnight.¡± I held tight as he gave his all we flew over the finish line. Winding up way down past the end of the course. We finally turned to see the other horses thunder over the finish line. The Dunn horse came in second, the Chestnut third while the silent rider came in fourth. ¡°Congrattions, Midnight,¡± Grandfather said as he caught up our reigns and walked us back to our stand from where we had been watching the events. Midnight was carefully walked to cool down and looked after by Des and Sinis once I had made my way off his back. ¡°Congrattions Lord Silversea,¡± Aleera whispered as I returned. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± I asked. ¡°Now that the horse racing isplete the rest of the afternoon will be in or on the water.¡± She answered. Chapter 117: Silversea games part two Chapter 117: Silversea games part two ¡°Competitions is pretty much the essence of everything, it gives humans drive.¡± Ashton Eaton As we watched the divingpetition I looked at my skill progress. Horse riding had levelled higher reaching Lv 10. Arge gain for a single loop around the ind. I wondered how many of thepetitors would also see their levels and stats rise due to the experience gained by the publicpetition for prizes of wealth. Grandfather had often said no kill no skill but waspeting for gains other than life or death equally effective? I would have to talk to the other riderster to see how they gained their skills if Lady Acacia did not already have another training program in mind. Next up was the swimmingpetition. For these, they were taken back out onto theke. The first one back won. It was hard to see who would being first as many of them would disappear under the water or behind the waves. But boy could they swim and they shot through the water towards us. asionally leaving the water to jump over the waves rather than swim under them much like dolphins. Stats were insane in what they allowed the human body to achieve and skill equally so. Grandfather continued to list out possible skills to Aleera and me. ¡°Of course, they have swimming above 75, then there is breath control, double stroke, double kick, not to mention propel. We watched thepetition cheering for their progress but not invested in the results. It would be different when it came to the sailingpetition. Despite Lady Acacia¡¯s request that we notpete, Father had insisted that there would not be a sailingpetition without him to win it. The sailing race much like the horse riding race was to be around the whole ind and they had ced buoys out on theke to prevent them from circling too close to the shore. He was limited to the boat he used for sailing theke rather than the one we used to go to sea. So it would be a match of strength and skills rather than seeing whose boat was the best. It looked like it would be a contested race as the diver¡¯s daughters were out in full force with two of their boats entering into it and they too nned on winning it. Father was at a little bit of a disadvantage in that he had got used to sailing with the pair of us who were always able to bring the wind whenever and wherever he wanted it. However, since Lady Acacia had taken over the majority of our time he had at least gotten used to sailing on his own again. There were 7 boats in the race. Thankfully it was not too many that they needed three gs to do a regatta 5, 4, 1-minute countdown and Lady Acacia¡¯s voice with her magic or skill was loud enough for all of them to hear. ¡°Ready,¡± Sails were raised. ¡°Steady,¡± They started to move out of the starting area. ¡°Sail,¡± The ships surged forward powered more by skills than the wind they shot forward over the line denoted between the g and the marker onnd. This meant that there were no dip starts or need to go round the end g again. We all cheered as they set forth. Father even took the time to wave at us as he shot forward with the rest of the boats. They race forward and were soon out of sight behind the curve of the shore. ¡°Who do you think will win?¡± I asked Aleera. ¡°Father who else.¡± She replied ¡°They all looked fairly equal to me,¡± I answered a little worried. The boats had stormed forward in a pack over the starting line and although they had begun to spread out a little there was not much in it at all as they had disappeared out of sight. ¡°Impossible to say for sure. They all used a skill or two to get going but it depends on how many they have left and how often they can use them.¡± Grandfather joined in on the conversation. Lady Acacia joined us to add her own opinion on the matter. ¡°Win or lose it doesn¡¯t matter. What matters is how the family handles it. If you win, are you gracious in your sess without boasting? If you lose, will you be humble and generous in your loss? This event is all about winning hearts and minds. Look at the people this is the most entertainment they have ever had on this pioneering ind in certainly the children¡¯s lifetimes if not some of their parents too. This is what you have to capitalize on.¡± She outlined the politics of what we were attempting to do. We turned to look at the people rather than searching thegoon for the boats toe around the isle. Everyone appeared excited and engaged in the oue. They were buying food from the stalls Mercurio had helped set up. There was an air of festivity to the whole day. A break from the monotony of life, something new to experience and they appeared to be loving it on the surface. Taking her advice on board we turned back to look for the boats toe into sight. No longer worried about the results we waited expectantly to see what they would be. Only for Lady Acacia to add, ¡°Of course, it would be the cherry on top if your father won by a clear margin.¡± We waited . . . And waited . . . I guessed this must have been what it was like for them when they waited for the horse race to finish. So much of it had been out of their sight but it had all gone by so quickly for me at the time. Finally, we saw two sails appear head to head they were battling it out. One was our father¡¯s the other one of the diver¡¯s daughters. They were racing towards us but seemed to move deceptively slowly due to the distance. They raced closer and closer. Until finally pipped to the post by a body¡¯s length the daughter¡¯s boat passed the finish line. The crowd cheered loudly as the two boats shot across the finish line. We cheered too but it was sad to see that our father had not won the race. ¡°Remember humble and generous in defeat. Show that you enjoy the celebration of the day and that most of all you are not sore losers. There will always be anotherpetition. Especially if you are the ones to be organizing them.¡± Lady Acacia leaned down to talk in our ears. Father could be seen bringing his boat to shore. He shrugged as he walked onto drynd before telling Grandfather. ¡°Next time we are hauling my sea boat up the cliffs and down to theke. I was this close to winning.¡± But he did not seem too down about his loss. ¡°Better luck next time.¡± The diver¡¯s daughter couldn¡¯t help herself from shouting as she returned to her jubnt family. ¡°Better luck, hmph, I¡¯ll have a better boat,¡± he said to Grandfather once more who finally nodded in acquiescence that he would help him haul the boat up the cliffs the next time we help a set of Silversea Games. . . . With thepetition finallypleted it was time to award the prizes. Once more Lady Acacia¡¯s voice rose as the crowd''s hustle and bustle silenced. ¡°Pioneers of Wester Isle, we gathered here today to celebrate the sess of Wester Town and the inauguration of Lord and Lady Silversea. The contests have been a fine demonstration of your stats and skills and they are here to present the prizes.¡± There was loud cheering from the crowd and the winners andpetitors stepped forward to collect their prizes. We handed out the homegrown pearls as prizes. Even the diver¡¯s daughter seemed pleased by the size of the peal she received. Grandpa Smit keen to keep building up the goodwill wasn¡¯t quite yet ready to let go o the sess of today. ¡°First round for eachpetitor is on the house at the Compass Edge Tavern.¡± He shouted to an enormous cheer from the crowd making up for theck of magic through the sheer volume of his shout. The people piled into the boats of the race and a few more that had been shuttling the people across in the morning as everyone made their way back to Wester Town. Many of the people came to congratte my sister and I on our elevation to Lord and Lady. Although just as many congratted Grandpa Smit rather than us on the creation of a new barony so far from the capital of Ponente. Some though were quiet on the matter thinking silence was the best policy for their opinions. Still there was not an angry word said so today at least was a sess. The next day though there were sure to be some heads hurting despite the strength of their owner''s stats. . . . ¡°Well, that went well.¡± Mother said at our evening meal. ¡°Despite your loss dear.¡± ¡°I would have won with my new boat.¡± He deflected the loss. ¡°A bad workman mes his tools.¡± Grandfather couldn¡¯t help the dig at his loss. ¡°You help me carry the boat up next time and we will see who wins.¡± He defended his statement. ¡°Regardless of who won and lost. Thepetition, food, prizes and now drinks meant that the people did not object at all to your inauguration. It was a sessful first introduction to society such as it is.¡± She returned to the main point of the games. ¡°It wasn¡¯t cheap though,¡± Father grumbled although I doubt he actually realised how much it cost and who or rather how we were paying for it all. ¡°You have no taxes, no costs, it was hardly an outrageous sum for a singr event and it should hopefully ignite interest in the products your isle can produce. I would not be surprised if there were several people interested in working for you or at least with you and your branch families after today''s disy. You just need to give them some time to reel them in." She exined. "In fact, while we are waiting for the fish to bite do you think you would be so kind as to take my home pigeons to the nearby inds to begin linking us up a little more?" "I don''t see why not," Father answered always a sucker for sailing or fishing sayings. I wondered if he had ever noticed that. Mother certainly seemed to have employed it for long enough and Lady Acacia seemed to have picked it up fairly quickly. "There are birds ready?" Aleera asked surprised and if I had been questioned myself I would have also had to say that I was surprised too. The pigeons had hardly been here long enough to have hatched. From what I understood of homing pigeons at least in my former life they were required to be born in the ce they were expected to return to. It had something to do with the maic fields of the location in rtion to the north or the south pole but I couldn''t remember better than that without delving into my memories and attempting to recall and reconstruct them better. Maybe it was different in the Compass Kingdoms. All I could do was ask. "How will they know where toe back to?" I asked intrigued adding my question to Aleera''s before Lady Acacia had a chance to respond. "In response to your questions if you will be so polite as to allow me the time to respond before tacking on another one? First to answer Aleera while many of the pigeons that Mercurio brought were indeed full-grown pigeons capable of flying back to the inds he brought them from he also brought me some eggs. The eggs were held in stasis fields and prevented from hatching till they had reached the location they needed to return to. I have hatched them and am looking forward to Mercurio taking the mini beasts out of my hands as soon as possible. However, there is no reason we can''t get the system up and running before he leaves and have your father Kaius take a bird or two to Wester Levante and Little Wester while we wait for Mercurio to set sail." She exined how she had birds ready to fly but paused for a sip of wine before answering my question. "As for your question Kai, we are not entirely sure how the pigeons know which direction to take but they always fly home on the shortest direct bearing from where they are released so it is spected that they too follow the lines of the lodestar. So much so that they are favoured animal of the Lodestar Church due to this." She exined. It made me realise once more that a lot of my thoughts and guesses about the world, while many of them might still be wrong, might be more urate than the prevailing beliefs of the time and ce. Would my knowledge of maism be considered heretical by the Lodestar Church? Something to take into ount before I opened my mouth. We really should visit there sometime just to get an understanding. I was a little confused why we hadn''t been before as a family seeing how there was so little to do on the ind one would have thought that would have been as attractive an outing as our Silversea games at least on a regr weekly basis. "Would you be able to take them tomorrow, Kaius?" She asked once more. "Sure I doubt they will be doing much in town tomorrow, there are not many of them that will be able to stop at having only the one drink." He chuckled at the idea of half the town having a hangover. We had stayed behind to sort out the ind after having so many visitors and had not attended the final celebrations of the day. "Can I go?" I asked keen to see a little more of the world even if it was only the nearest two inds. Chapter 118: The Way to Wester Levante Chapter 118: The Way to Wester Levante ¡°The deep sea is thergest museum on earth, it contains more history than all the museums onndbined, and yet we¡¯re only now prating it.¡± Robert Bard We set sail the next morning. Father was happy to be out at sea with me. I suspected it was mainly due to the wind that I could bring that sent us skipping over the ocean. But I hoped it was also the fact that he hoped to induct me into the family business despite my other talents or at least instil in me a love of the sea rather than simply my ability to call the wind. ¡°We need to sail north first before heading towards Wester Levante,¡± Father stated as we cleared the ind and he leaned on the rudder turning us towards the north. ¡°Why?¡± I asked confused, surely a straight line would be faster but ,there was some sort of obstacle on the open sea we had to avoid, maybe sea monsters or reefs. ¡°There is a strong current flowing south between the two isles and if you head on a straight bearing towards the isle you will end up far further south than where you are hoping to end up. It¡¯s not a problem most days and certainly not for us with you on board but you need to be careful if you are heading into a prevailing wind otherwise you will find yourself swept south of Little Wester if you don¡¯t watch out.¡± He exined. ¡°How far does the current flowing south go?¡± I asked wondering where on the sea you would end up. ¡°I don¡¯t honestly know. I¡¯ve never sailed further than Wester Levante or Little Wester. All I know is that it continues to go south past Little Wester. We will use it when we leave Wester Levante to reach Little Wester and you will see just how fast it can take you if you add the wind to it as well.¡± He shrugged when answering. It was easy to forget that while we might have a more seaworthy boat now but Kaius had grown up on Wester Isle and had not gone much further than that despite being able to sail. I was looking forward to clocking the exploration experience from this. ¡°Righte on Kai, let¡¯s go!¡± he directed me to apply the wind and I did. We spent the majority of the morning heading north before we turned east. He pointed out the current long before we reached it marked as it was by ack of waves on the surface of the sea. We flew towards it before beginning to cross it. ¡°Can you tell how we are moving south as well as east now?¡± he asked me. It was deceptive, I couldn¡¯t. ¡°No.¡± I replied. ¡°Well, we are going to stop in the middle of the current but I can show you just how dangerous this current can be.¡± He said before he dropped off an inted pig¡¯s dder behind us as we traversed east across the current. I watched the dder float behind us for a moment before it gradually started drifting further and further south behind us quickly disappearing out of sight and moving rapidly towards the south. ¡°This whole time I have us angle very slightly toward the north while heading east and we will still move south despite that. The current is strong and deceptively fast, it is always difficult to judge just how far south it will pull you which is why you need to aim north before you even attempt to go east.¡± He repeated. . . . The whole time that we were sailing I had all my senses on full filling in my mental map of the area. Sometimes the sea would be too deep for mana senses or echolocation to see anything more than the dark abyss we were sailing over but now and then I would see fish or even the sea bed rise never to meet us but to at least be within my sight. Eventually, we left the southern current and it was just as we came within sight of Wester Levante that I spotted it. A wreck lying on the bottom of the seabed that had risen enough for me to see. ¡°There¡¯s a wreck beneath us,¡± I told my father breaking thefortable silence we had been sailing in. ¡°A wreck?¡± he asked surprised. ¡°Yes, we areing up on it right now,¡± I replied. ¡°How do you know?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯ve been straining my senses to see as much as I can see and that¡¯s what I¡¯m picking up,¡± I answered. ¡°Right below us now?¡± he asked before adding another question, ¡°How deep?¡± ¡°Not too deep. Both of us could dive that deep.¡± I said excited at the possibility of exploring sunken ships maybe they had treasure on board. ¡°Hmm,¡± he tapped his fingers on the rudder before saying, ¡°Lower the sail.¡± I hurried to obey letting the sail drop as he heaved the anchor over the side. ¡°No reason we can¡¯t take a little look before we deliver those birds.¡± He said smiling at me. It wasn¡¯t long before we were stripped down and ready to dive. Each of us had a rock to help pull us down while he was bringing a rope down with us as well. ¡°Ready?¡± He asked. ¡°Ready,¡± I replied and we stepped off the side of the boat our rocks in our arms. We could dive down that deep without them but the rocks would speed up our descent and give us more time on the wreck to explore before we had to return to the surface to breathe. Breath Control, Diving and swimming would be getting a full workout on this dive. Luckily the wreck was not too deep and there was still light to see by as we descended towards it. I had a little bit of an advantage over my father with mana sense, echolocation along with my super senses. But he had greater experience than me in both swimming and diving and he quickly elerated ahead of me. However, I like to think that I was not far behind him. The wreck as it came into view was a lotrger than ours closer in size to the Swift sailed by Mercurio. It looked like it had once had at least two masts, a hold and a captain¡¯s cabin which is where Father seemed to be headed. I followed excitedly behind him. We arrived at the windows to the captain¡¯s cabin which had been popped out at some point in the life of the ship. A dark cave loomed in front of us. Father gestured at me to ask if I could see into the gloom and I was happy to give him a thumbs up. There was hardly any light in there but abination of my skills and senses meant that I was hardly blind despite the darkness. Handing me the end of the rope he had brought down he gestured once more at the cabin¡¯s quarters suggesting I take a look and tie on anything worth retrieving. As I made my way through the opening I found myself surrounded by wood. The table appeared to be bolted to the floor and anything loose that had once been in here had probably been washed out over the years. I could see a bunk bed, desk, even a cab that looked like it held tes strapped down many things that with more time we could salvage but the prize I aimed for was the box underneath the desk. The small chest had lit up to my mana sense and unless I was terribly mistaken it held gems, pearls and hopefully gold inside it. I tied the rope onto the handle of the chest and pulled twice to get Father to help pull it towards the window. He started dragging it across the floor towards the window. At the window we manhandled it through very grateful that it fit through the window itself we were running out of time. Once out of the ship I bolted for the surface having pushed the strength of my skill Breath Control to the max. As I headed to the top I could see my Father below tying up the chest properly to haul to the surface afterwards. I breached the surface and sucked down lungfuls of fresh air. I was tempted to head back down below but waited for Father to follow me up. ¡°Into the boat.¡± He said when he arose, ¡°Let¡¯s pull it up.¡± He sounded excited. Once we were both safely back in the boat he started to pull up the chest. There was little I could do to help him so I stowed away the rope as he pulled it up. Finally, ity on the bottom of the floor of our boat in front of us. ¡°Care to do the honours Kai.¡± He asked aware from our daily meetings of my more recent spellcraft and spellsong. ¡°Exclidono¡± I whispered in excitement. Our lessons continued apace with Lady Acacia and one of the skills she had taught us was how to unlock the simplest of locks. She had warned us that this wouldn¡¯t work on enchanted, runed, glyphed or otherwise magically enforced locks but for mundane locks would work just fine. If there had even been such magical reinforcements on the chest they had clearly run down over time being submerged under the sea and it opened with a click. As the chest opened my avaricious nature waspletely satisfied. Inside the chest, it was nearly full of gold and silver coins with pouches of gemstones and pearls lying on top. We both burst outughing at our good fortune. Ding! Treasure Sense (Lv 1) ¡°To the Silversea Family!¡± Father raised an imaginary toast. One I could truly appreciate having gained another new skill. ¡°To the Silversea family!¡± I replied as I imagined what else we could salvage from the wreck below us as well as how much the single chest we had recovered could buy us. My new skill seemed to imply that there was more of worth still hidden below the waves. ¡°Want to make another dive?¡± Father asked. ¡°Sure . . .¡± I hesitated. After my mistakes in letting my sensespse, I was running them constantly. The gold had distracted me for a moment but looking into the depths we were no longer alone. An Octopus or mini Kraken, it was hard to tell, had emerged from somewhere and was now sinisterly hidden out of sight behind the wreck. If I was to add emotions to what I could sense using mind sense I would even go as far as to say that it was malevolently looking up at us just waiting for us to dive once more. ¡°No, there¡¯s something down there now. Watching us.¡± I said after hesitating to confirm exactly what I was seeing. ¡°What can you see?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know but there are a lot of legs,¡± I answered. At this distance, it was hard to be urate with my senses but there were definitely a lot of moving parts to it. ¡°Got lucky then we didn¡¯t meet it down there. That could have been nasty. Still best fishing trip yet.¡± He smiled at our sess. ¡°On to Wester Levante, we will just drop off the birds and eggs then head onto Little Wester. It will bete by the time we get back but the current should take us swiftly south.¡± He thought things over out loud. We carefully stowed away our new cargo behind the general odds and ends we carried locking it tightly in a hiddenpartment that grandfather had found on the assassin¡¯s boat then piled everything in front of it. We doubted we would be searched when dropping off a couple of birds but better to be safe than sorry. As much as I wanted to, I would have to wait until returning to Wester Isle before I counted our sunken treasure. We raised our sail and set forth for the ind that was only just visible on the horizon. Chapter 119: Cher Ami Chapter 119: Cher Ami ¡°Cher Ami, A World War I homing pigeon who saved the lives of 194 soldiers by delivering a plea for help despite being shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and having a leg hanging on by a tendon. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal and a small wooden leg for her service.¡± Wikipedia Luckily our journey with the pigeons had been a lot smoother than some I could recall. Especially as they had been ferried by hand to the ind. Unfortunately, despite my excitement to see somewhere new I had been relegated to staying behind with the boat. If we didn¡¯t have a chest of sunken treasure onboard that probably wouldn¡¯t have happened but in retrospect, it did make sense. I could sit with the boat as a small child, I couldn¡¯t take the birds to someone I didn¡¯t know in a town I¡¯d never visited before. Still, there were already a lot of new things I could see even from my ce left behind on the boat as well as our initial approach to the ind. Wester Levante rose from the sea, but it was not walled in like our ind was by towering cliffs. Instead, there were beaches as well as a deep-sea dock we were moored up against. The main town was again on the easternmost point of the ind which meant we had to sail around the ind to get there. But on the way there we saw beaches, unlike our ind which waspletely encircled by cliffs. The next difference was when we arrived at the port itself. It was a deep seaport and walls had been built to enclose it from the sea. Notpletely of course but it meant that as we sailed between what looked like two lighthouses on the ends of the wall, we sailed into suddenly calmer waters with hardly any waves. When Kaius tied our boat up he had to climb simply to get up to the wall which ran around the dock. Arge ocean-bearing ship was docked at the main docking area, so we attempted to stay out of the way on the far side of the harbour from it. ¡°Watch the boat,¡± he said before picking up the birds and eggs. ¡°Next time we visit you cane with me but today stay put.¡± He said as he started along the walkway into the town before pausing to throw back a pouch of copper to me. ¡°In case anyone asks for a docking fee. They shouldn¡¯t as we aren¡¯t unloading anything but if they ask we brought 2 birds and 2 eggs from Wester Isle and I¡¯m handing them over to the Town Mayor.¡± It was difficult not to be envious, but I was nervous just watching our boat with its hidden treasure. I was not sure that I would have been able to leave it behind even if he had allowed me toe. I would have been too worried about someone taking the chest. A chest we hadn¡¯t even had the chance to fully explore. I hoped he¡¯d be quick. Besides, there was plenty to look at. Across the harbour at the main dock, arge ship was taking on provisions the barrels of supplies being rolled or lifted into ce by sailors either precariously rolled up the gangnk or winched into ce. It was fascinating watching what I assumed to be gigantic and heavy barrels being hefted up or rolled along by the sailors without the modern machinery of dockside ports. It was clear that plenty of stats were in y and that the sailors had heavily invested in at least strength and endurance. I watched my father as he crossed through the town¡¯s gates and disappeared within carrying the small crate of birds. Without him to watch I turned my eyes back to rove across the harbour noting the differences between this and our hidden cliffside cove or cave. There were small warehouses on the dock which meant that a constant stream of goods had already been prepared for the ship and stored there. Just as they were taking on provisions they were also selling goods as well. A rather rotund gentleman seemed to be discussing prices with the captain and directing the goods both ways. Either shouting at the sailorsing off to be careful or arguing about the quality of goods received as he inspected them. Outside of the dockside warehouses, berths and jetties, the rest of the port town was hidden behind tall rock walls. Most of the activity was the resupplying of therge ship but while I waited for my father a fishing boat came in and tied up at the jetty closest to the gate. A boy was sent running into town as they started to unload their catch. He soon returned with some men to help carry the fresh fish into the town on their cart, much like how we worked back on our isle. The only difference was they had a lot more help. I sat and waited some more. I was surprised no one hade to say hello. But I suppose I was just a child what adult woulde to talk to me even if they had noticed that I was sitting alone on our boat? It wasn¡¯t until the fishing boat had been unloaded that I finally got to say hello to anyone. Once they had unloaded their fish they pushed off the sand onto the sea before rowing across the harbour. It was not arge harbour and they were soon sliding in next to us to tie up. ¡°New boat, new face.¡± The sailormented as he brought his boat alongside. ¡°Where¡¯s your captain?¡± ¡°My father is just dropping off something for the mayor,¡± I replied. While I didn¡¯t know the man I could hardly avoid responding. ¡°Just the two of you?¡± another face popped up alongside his father¡¯s as he climbed up the wall to finish tying up their boat. ¡°Just me and my father,¡± I replied. I judged the boy to be around 6pass kingdom years old and not too much taller than me. The elixir had continued to help me grow and I could probably pass as a 5-year-old even though I had a while to catch up to that age officially with my body. ¡°Same here,¡± the boy spoke for him and his father. ¡°S¡¯nice boat.¡± The father added. ¡°Not a locally built one. Where did you get it?¡± he asked. ¡°It was my Grandfather¡¯s, but he doesn¡¯t sail much now,¡± I responded. Grandfather had imed it from the assassin as spoils of war but well I didn¡¯t know if Grandfather had ever sailed on the open sea but he must have got to Wester Ilse somehow once upon a time with mother. ¡°Well, we¡¯re going on home, do you want toe in for a bite to eat while you wait for your father?¡± he asked. ¡°No thank you. I was told to wait here and watch the boat.¡± I replied, anxious to be separated from our hidden treasure. ¡°No one is going to steal your boat here. First, they wouldn¡¯t have anywhere to sail it or sell it. Second, it just wouldn¡¯t be done.¡± He attempted to reassure me. ¡°He¡¯ll be back any minute now. It¡¯s okay. Maybe next time we visit. We¡¯re going onto Little Wester today so need to be ready to go as soon as he gets back.¡± I exined. ¡°Fair enough, who¡¯s your father?¡± he asked. ¡°Kaius,¡± I replied. There wasn¡¯t any need to go into detail about how we were the Silversea family or that we had probably bought up the majority of the unimednd on Wester Levante just yet. I would like to get a greater understanding of the town¡¯s dynamics before we made that known if ever. ¡°Smit¡¯s son.¡± He asked for rification. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s Grandpa,¡± I answered. It was a small world or rather we lived on small inds with small poptions and if anyone knew who was who on a different one it was going to be a sailor or merchant who had, actually visited them. ¡°This was your grandpa¡¯s boat?¡± he asked seemingly surprised. ¡°No, it¡¯s my other Grandfather¡¯s boat,¡± I replied equally surprised he was still asking about the boat. But it was a nice boat so guessed he was just interested in where it came from. ¡°I don¡¯t know where he got it from but assume it came to us from the main continent. I don¡¯t think he is originally from the Isle of Wester.¡± ¡°Right, right, makes sense. Shame it came from so far though it is not often you see a runed boat out here used for fishing. Not that it wouldn¡¯t be plenty useful mind.¡± He said the sentences finally exining why he was so interested in the providence of our boat. ¡°S¡¯next time then. Come on Theo.¡± He nodded his head before heading home. Theo scampered on after him in his wake. I settled back into waiting wondering why it was taking Kaius so long to deliver a pair of birds. . . . Kaius POV I had meant for Kai toe along with me when delivering the birds and eggs but the discovery and retrieval of the chest changed those ns. What he was capable of sensing was insane. I must have sailed to Wester Levante at least two dozen times over the years and probably sailed right over the top of the wreck at least half a dozen times without even noticing it was there. We also seemed to run into sea monsters twice as often when Kai was with me, but again it might have been the fact that he was able to sense them long before I could ever see them. Still, the danger was worth it when he could find chests like the one we had hauled up. I wasn¡¯t entirelyfortable leaving him behind on the boat but I would have been even more worried if we had left the boat and hidden treasure on it alone while we wandered into town. Besides this way, I should be quicker as we wouldn¡¯t be looking at everything he wanted to see. I could just imagine him spending an entire day exploring the new town if I let him. I¡¯d left him some copper and a little silver to pay any entrance fee but I fully expected it to be waived by the Mayor the only problem was that it might be charged before he waived it at this rate and I was not there to stop it from happening. I went straight through the town gates, without the cliffs that kept us sheltered from the waves as well as the monsters be they beast or man, they were protected byrge town walls twice the height of ours. It was not surprising considering that Wester Levante had been settled long before our ind, with arger poption and a number of trade routes plying it. The Southern Current meant that anyone going south would stop here for provisions before going south. The problem with the southern current meant that not all merchants considered it worth the hassle to sail north before then heading onto us on Wester Isle. I strode down the main street ending up in front of the Mayor¡¯s home. As their town wasrger and their ind had been settled longer he was officially the Town Mayor. He had an understanding with my father but they didn¡¯t correspond too often. That might change with these birds but they were officially ours rather than his so it would be interesting to see whatpromise Lady Acacia and Smit came to over using them. ¡°Knock, knock.¡± I thumped the door politely but loud enough to get his attention. ¡°Kaius, Kaius, weee on in.¡± he boomed as soon as he opened his door and recognized me. ¡°That¡¯s quite alright I¡¯m just here to drop off something,¡± I replied, keen to get back to the boat. ¡°Well bring them on in then.¡± He replied not giving me the option of handing them to him by turning and walking back into his house leading me into his office. ¡°I¡¯ll just leave them here,¡± I said putting the cage with the birds down on his desk. ¡°But what are they? I haven¡¯t seen you in . . . I forget how long.¡± He continued the conversation. ¡°Messenger birds. The two hatched ones will fly to our ind once they are a littlerger and the two unhatched ones will fly to yours once they have hatched here and know where to return to. I¡¯lle and pick them up in a month or two. You could send one of the birds back to let me know when they are ready.¡± ¡°Ingenious, ingenious.¡± He said as he contemted the birds. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of these but thought they were a little bit expensive when I can usually get a sailor to take any messages I might need to be sent. Wherever did Smit get a hold of them?¡± he asked intrigued. ¡°We have a visiting tutor who brought them,¡± I replied honestly although a little vague. ¡°A travelling tutor? I don¡¯t suppose they will be travelling back our way anytime soon?¡± He asked. ¡°No staying on Wester for a while they have a couple of projects they are hoping toplete,¡± I answered thinking about all the lessons Aleera and Kai had learned as well as the long list of lessons she was still nning on teaching them. ¡°Anyway the birds are a breeding pair, so hopefully you¡¯ll be able to hatch a few more by the time I return. The aim is to build argerwork between the inds to keep them in contact a little more. Mercurio will pick them up to take them further in through the archipgo when he passes by from time to time.¡± The Mayor nodded his head in contemtion. ¡°That¡¯s all the time I have today. Hoping to get on to Little Wester today and back home again before nightfall. The Southern Current will help but it will still be tight.¡± I repeated my need to leave soon and exined my reasoning. ¡°Yes, yes.¡± The Mayor replied. ¡°But I can¡¯t let you leave empty-handed, here take this bottle for you and your father.¡± He pushed a pair of bottles into my hand. ¡°One is an Elvish wine, and the other a Dwarfish Whiskey. I promise to look after the birds well and hopefully have a little flock for you or Mercurio whoever visits first.¡± I finally escaped from his home with him calling, ¡°Pass on my regards to Smit, and doe calling again soon when you have more time.¡± I raised my hand in acknowledgement and strode back towards our boat. It was time to set sail again. Chapter 120: Time to skedaddle Chapter 120: Time to skedaddle ¡°Skedaddle - to depart quickly, hurriedly or to flee¡± Dictionary Although it had felt like a long time during the wait. Once he had finally returned, I realized that it had hardly been any time at all. It was simply the consequence of being somewhere new and unknown. I always found the journey out to somewhere new to be twice as long as the journey home. I thought it was because on the way out everything was new I would second guess the directions I was taking and whether I was going the right way, whereas I knew where I was going and what to expect next on the way back. I could have been watching the countdown on my HUD but watching the seconds tick never sped them up for me. I was tempted to retreat to my mind but being somewhere new and burying my head in my mind was not the best decision to make. ¡°Come on let¡¯s get going,¡± Father said to me as walked quickly along the walkway and rapidly untied the boat before he jumped down into it. The boat rocked on the water as hended, ¡°Did anyonee by asking for money in the end?¡± he asked as he moved across the boat to the helm. ¡°Not in the end. Just a fisherman and his son who tied up next to us.¡± I replied. ¡°They liked the boat,¡± I added proudly. I was happy with the ownership despite the dubious way in which it had been acquired. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s be off.¡± He put the oars out and pulled out into the harbour as I attempted to push us away from the wall. His oars propelled us far further than my push. ¡°Just as well no one turned up, Wester Levante was settled a lot earlier than our ind and they have started to pay their taxes in thest decade. They have a taxman who charges import and export taxes from people who pass through here depending on what they are carrying and selling. Most stay for a little longer than us and have goods to unload or take onboard which means that he doesn¡¯t have to man the port just sally forth when news of a new arrival reaches him. Usually, it wouldn¡¯t be too much, but I don¡¯t want to think what the tax would be on a chest of treasure if he discovered it.¡± He said as he continued to row. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me,¡± I asked suddenly a lot keener to be gone. I checked the people in the port to see if anyone was paying any more attention than they had been but no one seemed to be paying any extra attention to our departure. ¡°I gave you the purse just in case he turned up.¡± He weakly defended himself. ¡°A tax man?¡± I asked for rification. If they were paying taxes to the Mayor who was paying them onto the Prince were we as part owners of Wester Levant through Mercurio¡¯s bargaining entitled to a cut of said taxes or liable for some I thought to myself. ¡°Yep, but not something we have to worry about for a while longer or ever seeing as any taxes imed would end up being paid to you, little lord.¡± Heughed, ¡°One of the benefits of being a pioneer ind. A few of our residents used to live here but moved over when they heard a taxman would be arriving and that Wester was finally being settled, ording to my father.¡± Once away from the wall and as we were heading towards the exit of the harbour he lowered the sails. ¡°Gently now Kai. Just a little bit of wind to get us moving but not too much to draw attention to how you are doing it.¡± He gestured. I realized that for the most part, we did our sailing alone on the open ocean away from any prying eyes. Here though the harbour was busy. None bar the fisherman hade up to say hello but that didn¡¯t mean the others weren¡¯t watching us as we set sail after such a short stop. Therge ship seemed to have finished provisioning and although most of the sailors had disappeared into the town for a break there were still a few idling away on board waiting for their next set of orders from the captain. I ever so slowly raised a little wind just enough to fill the sails but not enough to be immediately obvious it wasn¡¯t natural, and our boat slowly started to head towards the exit of the harbour. It was time for the next leg of our journey. As we were crossing the exit to the harbour I saw a man running frantically down to the dock. He quickly scanned the empty berths and jetties only to then stare out across the harbour towards the sea after our receding stern. He gestured angrily for us to return. I turned to my father who was still concentrating on setting a course through the centre of the gap. ¡°Father there is a man . . .¡± I started. ¡°Eyes front Kai.¡± He ordered and I scampered forward to look over the prow of the boat the order always to keep sharp eyes and senses out for hidden or submerged rocks. ¡°But what about . . .¡± I called back. ¡°I saw no man, especially not a tax man.¡± Heughed out loud. ¡°I¡¯d like to see him get a penny out of the Mayor for the birds.¡± Treating it as a game rather than tax evasion. I didn¡¯t turn back to look at the man again and we soon passed out of sight leaving any trouble we might have caused out of sight and out of mind. We turned southwest aiming for the southern current and Little Wester. As we travelled further south though I did wonder what the tax rules on salvaging sunken treasure might be and reflected that I was happy he never caught up with us for the short while we had been docked. It struck me that man with a job like that would probably have some sort of sense regarding money and I was d we had not tried to test it. I doubted that my deception, misdirection and lie skills would have lived up to the task. Now that we had left the harbour and with my father¡¯s consent I filled the sails and we shot southwest towards where we would find the southern current again. . . . It was not long before we found the Southern Current and this time we were not fighting our way across it but sailing with it. We shot south like a knife through the water. Speeding south faster than we had ever sailed before. ¡°Kai take the helm.¡± Father directed me to hold our helm steady pointing towards the direction we needed to follow. I held the rudder steady keeping to the centre, of the current. With my senses, I could see where fish joining the current would suddenly speed up as they entered it. It meant that even though it was hard to see the width of the current from the surface I still had a good idea of where it was and how to stay in the centre of it. ¡°Hold it steady now.¡± He muttered as he looked at the sun and his map to judge the distance we were rapidly covering. ¡°Are you not sure where the ind is?¡± I asked concerned. ¡°No, we are fine even if we shot past it we would see it to our starboard.¡± He said unbothered by my concern. ¡°Then why am I holding the helm?¡± I asked as I wrestled the boat south. It was not hard for him with his size and weight however for me with myparatively smaller size and weight even though we were running with the wind and pulled along with the current it was challenging to keep us on our course. ¡°The more effort you put into your sailing the better you will be rewarded for it.¡± He half exined his intentions. ¡°I know you have been learning lots of skills with Lady Acacia what with yournguages, etiquette, instruments and weapons but that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t learn lots from me. You live on an ind if you are ever going to travel further afield you will need the skills I can teach you unless you want to be a passenger dependent on someone else¡¯s skills. You are bnced now, we don¡¯t have anything to worry about and despite how young you are, you have built the strength you need for this. We have favourable wind and current and I¡¯m here to catch any mistakes you might make. Let¡¯s see what you can pick up.¡± He enthused keen to give me the skills of a sailor. . . . Half an hour into our speedy journey I heard a Ding! The boat smoothed a little with the chime and on looking within I soon found the reason. ¡°Father I have Tier 2 Cruising (Lv 1)!¡± I shouted excitedly. He was right about the effort in helping me to pick them up. The boat seemed to sail smoother, cutting through the waves with ease rather than being buffeted by them quite so hard. ¡°Congrattions Kai! Keep going. We need to get there and back by nightfall. You manage to do that and you¡¯ll win yourself a pearl from me.¡± He upped the ante and added another challenge. ¡°A pearl, that seems like a poor wager to me.¡± I mean most of the pearls we had were grown by me. ¡°You¡¯d like a richer bet then, how about your half of the treasure?¡± He upped the ante again. ¡°Half? Isn¡¯t it all mine? I mean I found it.¡± I spluttered not having thought that he would care to challenge me for a cut. He was soid back about most things what would he even do with the money, I had a lot of ns that would benefit from a little more. Still, this was his area of expertise he considered the sea his domain of the family. ¡°Aye, you found it. But . . .¡± he held up his hand to stop me from interrupting, ¡°Could you have pulled it up without me?¡± he asked sardonically smiling at me. I thought about how heavy the chest was and whether I could have really pulled it up on my own, probably not. ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not mine.¡± I grumpily replied without answering whether or not I could have got it up to the boat without him. ¡°Well, will you take that bet then?¡± he challenged me teasingly. ¡°Fine,¡± I answered determined to win it even though I knew it was going to be a challenge and the third leg a lot harder than our current smooth and speedy sailing. ¡°Shake on it.¡± He said and leaned over to where I sat on the helm sping hands we did. . . . At the speed we were skimming across the water it did not take us long to get to Little Wester. Probably covering twice the distance that we did between Wester and Wester Levante yet in half the time. As we glided to a halt on the beach that Father had directed us to. I heard a familiar Ding! And looking closer discovered I now had Tier 3 Racing (Lv1). Being in charge of the boat was helping to level my sailing skills rather than passively waiting for it to happen while Father sailed the boat instead. ¡°Super sailing.¡± Gather congratted me when I told him. ¡°I was a lot, lot older than you when I got that one. Although it was using the Southern Current that I got it. Takes a boat so much faster, it is almost cheating gaining the skill through circumstances of our environment rather than skill. However, you haven¡¯t won our wager yet. I will pop ashore quickly hand off the birds and see if you can¡¯t get us back in time.¡± ¡°Well hurry up then,¡± I said handing him the next set of birds and eggs. Pushing them into his hands and practically pushing him out of the boat. I knew thest leg was going to be the hardest without the current everything would feel a lot slower and I was tired from holding the helm on the second leg. He jogged up to the vige of fishing huts and homes. There did not seem to be much on the ind other than that. But appearances could be deceiving and I didn¡¯t have time to explore the ind further than what I could see. Judging by the number of boats,s, and traps selling any fish here would be a challenge but perhaps they would be interested in the salt to help their fishst longer. It was not long before Father returned to the boat. Jogging down across the beach. ¡°There¡¯s not a lot here. Even less than on Wester more a fishing vige than a town.¡± He exined his speed. ¡°Ready to challenge yourself?¡± he asked aware that I was getting tired. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered firmly. I was winning the full chest one way or another. ¡°Great.¡± He started to push the boat back into the water and once he had shoved us out to sea deep enough for our draft he jumped aboard as I once more filled our sails with wind. It was immediately obvious that thisst leg of the journey was going to take longer even with the wind I was providing. We had left the southern current to arrive at the ind but without it, our progress seemed so much slower. . . . We had left Little Wester not long ago but we were making little progress North. I was having to tack back and forth to make progress. At this rate, I was not going to win. ¡°Too bad about that wager.¡± Father falselymiserated. ¡°I¡¯ve not lost yet,¡± I answered stewing. This was going to take some extreme measures if I hoped to win this one. So far I had only used my skill Gale to bring the wind, it was all I had ever needed. Now I needed something stronger. I needed my spellcraft and spellsong. Thankfully Lady Acacia had introduced us to calling the elements. I needed to call them and grow them. I brought the boat around to be heading due north. Our sails grew loose without the wind. I tied the helm into ce. ¡°What are you up to Kai?¡± Father asked confused. ¡°You might want to stay seated for this.¡± I answered before calling on the wind, ¡°Aiera auxano!¡±I called out channelling my mana into the spell. The wind whipped up behind us and started to drive us forward. ¡°Aiera auxano!¡± I called again. The wind grew with each reiteration of spellcraft. ¡°Aiera auxano!¡± I called for thest time my reserves of mana dipping precipitously but the wind driving us north was established now, still growing driving us north faster and faster until we had reached the same speed we were when using the southern current to travel south. ¡°I¡¯m impressed,¡± Father shouted over the waves and the wind. Now I just had to keep up with the mana expenditure which was going to be a challenge despite my trait source for mana as I watched it continue to drop. Still, the wager and the experience of being in charge of the sailboat were doing wonders for my skills. Sailing had finally tripped over to (Lv51) and I could see that Cruising and Racing were both continuing to level along with the experience I was gaining from exploration. I just had to keep it up. . . . Isted an hour. But even I eventually ran out of mana or near enough that it would be painful to use anymore. Lady Acacia had cautioned us to always leave at minimum a margin of 100 mana to prevent us from injuring ourselves. I reckoned we had made it about halfway back. ¡°You gave it your best, shot,¡± Father said as the wind I had been conjuring finally died down. If I had been only blowing myself not an entire boat I could have made it further orsted longer but I was still only an infant after all. ¡°I¡¯m not finished yet,¡± I answered. I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. I pulled out a pouch and unwrapped my amulet. For my core to form properly I couldn¡¯t wear it anymore as it would absorb all my excess mana. Apparently, this is what helped to form the core¡¯s shell or skin. With the amulet absorbing all my excess my core¡¯s shell had never formed properly my body was able to hold the amount that my stats indicated. But the amulet had absorbed all of the excess mana, for years. There was a lot of mana in there. ¡°Now wait . . .¡± he started. But I had already ced the amulet against my chest and depressed the southern rune. The stored mana within the emerald gem poured forth through the rune for air. It pressed me against the helm of the boat while filling out the sails once more. We short north again. ¡°The race isn¡¯t over yet,¡± I shouted over the wind billowing forth. ¡°This is cheating Kai.¡± He shouted back but he wasughing as he did it. ¡°All¡¯s fair in love and war,¡± I shouted back gleefully. I was unsure just how much mana was held within the emerald and did not n on using it all. Just enough to let my mana recover before I could cast my spellcraft again. Ding! Seafaring (Lv 1) The system seemed to approve of my methods awarding me with my third sailing skill of the day. I was using all four skills now. Sailing, Cruising, Racing and Seafaring the skills working in harmony to even the keel, smooth our course and fill our sails. The mana and magic seemed to almost lift the boat out of the water until we were skimming along the top. This was the fastest I had ever been and it was thrilling. We might just make it yet. I raced the sun as it dipped towards the horizon. . . . It was dusk when we finally arrived at the base of the cliffs. ¡°I win,¡± I shouted exhausted when we finally arrived. ¡°Well done, Kai.¡± He smiled proud of my progress. He had felt the improvement of my sailing skills on my frantic race north. Money motivates many a man but treasure has an effect all of its own and I had pushed myself to my limits. I had no strength left to help with anything and he stepped in to tie up the boat and unload our hidden cargo. He ced the chest onto the pallet to winch it up to the top. It was a small chest but it was a heavy one. Kaius was used to using it for the haul of fish that we brought home each time. Although once more he had me sit with the chest on the pallet while he ran to the top of the cliff to then pull us up. I was d for the lift as I waspletely tuckered out. . . . I awoke to find myself being carried on one shoulder the chest on the other. Dark had fallen as we descended into the centre of the ind out of the rays of the setting sun. I noticed that father had walked round to the northern entrance of the town rather than walk through it with our salvaged treasure. I marvelled at his strength to carry both me and the chest for such a distance. I fell asleep again . . . I woke once more as we made our way quietly through our pce to our old rooms in Grandfather¡¯s house. He was cing me on my pallet the chest alongside. ¡°Night, Kai. Sleep well little lord sailor of the sea.¡± He whispered as he left the room. As I patted the chest I had enough energy to sink it into the stone beneath my bed read this was my treasure and I looked forward to counting it in private away from Aleera¡¯s avaricious eyes. I finally fell asleep for thest time still exhausted after a fantastically profitable day in terms of skill progress there was onest little surprise. Ding! Smuggling (Lv 1) Chapter 121: Time to get a job Chapter 121: Time to get a job ¡°You can¡¯t get a job without experience, and you can¡¯t get experience until you have a job. Once you solve that problem you are home free.¡± Jack Buck The next day, I was well chuffed with my smuggling skill and actually being able to salvage treasure from a sea wreck. It inspired me to get back out there and see what else might be lying within sight on the seabed floor. When I asked why there was a wreck so close to Wester Levante and why had it not been salvaged father responded with the following, ¡°While we are on the edge of the knownpass and far from thepass continent we are also on the edge of the southern current. So, to circumnavigate the continent or at least travel from Tramontana to Ostro it can be quicker to sail out towards the western horizon before catching the southern current south which passes through between us and Wester Levante.¡± He exined what a ship might have been doing all the way out here if it was not visiting us or Wester Levante. ¡°It could have been passing us by when it fell afoul of weather, monster or man.¡± ¡°Then why was it not picked clean before we found it?¡± I asked as we had been out of the current and nearly in sight of the ind itself surely someone would have survived to im the boat and salvage it¡¯s remains. Or if not, surely someone would have discovered it before us. I had no idea how to judge the age of a shipwreck, but it hadn¡¯t started to rot through, so it had certainly been at the bottom of the ocean for a while before we discovered it. ¡°Most people can¡¯t see under the water to spot such wrecks.¡± He exined as if it was obvious why no one had discovered it before us. ¡°But why did it sink?¡± I asked. We had not had time to explore the boat fully, but it did not look particrly broken up from what we were able to tell from our very short visit. ¡°The ocean can be a perilous ce for the unprepared. You and I have only ever been fair-weather sailors. If the weather looks bad, we don¡¯t go out. We have never travelled more than half a day¡¯s journey out and turned tail at the slightest sign of monster, man or foul weather. A ship travelling south from Tramontana or Maestro will have spent weeks if not months at sea. A lot of things can go wrong during that time. There could be all manner of reasons it foundered.¡± He added. ¡°Next time we visit you can have a better look, but we won¡¯t be visiting Wester Levante afterwards, we will being straight back to our own ind. No need to risk meeting the tax man twice. Or take the pigeons to Wester Levante and visit the wreck on the way back home.¡± He started muttering to himself nning out the next trip. I was distracted during the day as I couldn¡¯t wait to get back to shift the chest into my hidden tunnels and explore its contents with my own eyes. The day dragged, but we still had our lessons with Lady Acacia, weapons,nguages, etiquette and now that we had horses, horse riding lessons as well. Our days started at sunrise, and we were lucky if they finished with sundown as we also had our own personal projects of pearl farming and growing the wide variety of produce, we had nted. It would have been impossible to do it all without the help of Des and Sinis who continued to step up and help us out with the collection of sea snails, salt and managing our gardens alongside Wanda. We really needed to continue to include more people in our projects if they were ever to run without us. Something that might be more possible after the sess of our first ever Silversea games. . . . ¡°The games were a huge sess. You are viewed favorably among the majority of the inders though it is questionable as to whether this was due to the games or your grandpa¡¯s open bar at the Compass Edge tavern. Still, as a first impression for the young scions of the Silversea family it was a fantastic start.¡± Lady Acacia started discussing the impressions she had gathered yesterday. ¡°That¡¯s not all.¡± chimed in Aleera, ¡°Lots of people were very interested in the fruits we had for sale. Although some of them were more interested in the possibilities of making their own wine more than anything else.¡± ¡°So, what is the next step in your n of turning us into the legitimate master and mistress of the Silversea House?¡± I asked intrigued. I had plenty of ns but over time they seemed to have all be a little jumbled up with me moving from one project to another. It didn¡¯t help that all of my family had been pushing in me in one direction or another since well forever. Mother was happy if I spent my days singing keeping herpany and working on the stone faces of our growing home. Father was happy as long as he got to sail with me more often than not. Aleera was keen to harvest my money-making ideas and had not given up on turning me into a merchant yet. Then there was my grandfather who had pushed for me to be some sort of mage assassin. Then Grandpa who had started the entire ball rolling by attempting to gain me the Charisma stat and making me a Lord. Finally, there was Lady Acacia who seemed to have the most ns of all. ¡°It¡¯s time to get you levelling again.¡± She spoke. ¡°I am it is just taking a very long time.¡± I defended the crawl at which my levelling had been reduced to. After the Silversea Games, travelling between Wester Levante, Little Wester and our own ind as well as finding the sunken treasure I was not far off hitting Level 13. ¡°Kai, you are no longer levelling because firstly the system is exponential. I hasten to add no child generally gets past level 10 in the first ce and that by the age of 10 after unlocking their system at 5. Secondly neither of you haven¡¯t visited the Lodestar Church to give you your first m¨¦tier.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a m¨¦tier?¡± ¡°It is your channel through which the system allows you to continue to level.¡± ¡°Like a ss?¡± I asked remembering the eternal debate of gamers between skills-based games and ss-based games. This reality had always appeared to be based on skills rather than sses. ¡°No Kai it is not a lesson it is a vocation. Most children do not receive their first until they are between the ages of 10 and 15. Once they have worked in the trade they n on pursuing and are prepared tomit to it.¡± ¡°Do you get special skills for choosing your m¨¦tier?¡± I asked excited at what the system might give me for free. Not that I hadn¡¯t worked hard for all the skills I had gained. But who would turn down freebies. ¡°No Kai. It is the other way round the choice of M¨¦tier that you can choose from depends on the skills that you already have. That is why it often takes a couple of years work in the profession before you are able to choose it anyway.¡± She was beginning to sound a little frustrated with my growing list of questions to which the answer seemed to be no each time. ¡°Do you get bonus stats for each m¨¦tier?¡± I asked doubtful the answer would be positive after the failure of my first questions that this would be the case either. ¡°No Kai, Wait.¡± She held a hand up to forestall any other questions I might have had. ¡°You need at least 16 skills to unlock a m¨¦tier. It requires a priest of Church of the Lodestar to unlock them. They do not give you extra skills or stats. They have one purpose and one purpose only to allow the individual to continue to level once they have reached the exponential threshold.¡± She quickly summarized the requirements and purpose of a m¨¦tier before I could interrupt again. ¡°So, 16 Tier one skills that support a single vocation?¡± I asked thinking through the list of skills that I had. I no longer had 16 tier one skills that would support a single vocation unless I wanted to be a soldier with all my weapon skills. ¡°Yes.¡± She answered. ¡°What about 8 Tier 2 skills?¡± Did it have to be tier 1 skills because if I looked at my tier 2 skills and considered those then a few more options opened up for me. Would it be half the number of skills as they were worth twice the amount of experience? ¡°Yes.¡± She replied. Okay could that be extrapted further. ¡°So then 4 Tier 3 skills?¡± Okay this was more feasible. ¡°Yes.¡± She answered. ¡°Would 2 Tier 4 skills work?¡± I could probably get something along the lines of stone mage with two tier 4 skills. Although that was not where I had ever considered ending up. How close did they need to be to support a vocation. ¡°Yes.¡± She anticipated answering before I had even finished asking the question. ¡°Or . . .¡± I hesitated, ¡°1 Tier 5 skill to gain a m¨¦tier.¡± What m¨¦tier would my mind fortress skill give me. But would I have to spend the rest of my life in my mind if I did so I had no intention of doing that again if I could help it. It was fun enough for an hour or two to y in my head, but I liked interacting with the real world more then my own virtual one. ¡°In theory yes although I doubt any child would unlock their first m¨¦tier with one of those. Besides you would not want to.¡± She looked at me questioningly but didn¡¯t verbalize any suspicions. ¡°Why not?¡± I asked not seeing problem, surely the better the tier and skills to unlock the m¨¦tier would result in a better m¨¦tier. Although if its only purpose was to allow the individual to continue levelling then the name of it mattered little. ¡°Because to continue to advance in your m¨¦tier you need to use the skills that you used to get it. You have to actively take part in your vocation to continue to level it and you level overall. Someone who unlocked cksmith as their m¨¦tier then refused to step into a foundry for the rest of their life would never level again without visiting the church again to change their m¨¦tier. Far moremon m¨¦tiers based on the skills you have listed would take ones such as a singer, sailor, merchant, mage. These you would be able to take individually one at a time and continue to level through your daily tasks up to level 10 then switch to the next once you have reached a level of diminishing returns. Hopefully by the time you havepleted these you will have gained enough leadership skills to qualify for a Lordship m¨¦tier.¡± ¡°Why doesn¡¯t Aleera have one already then?¡± I quickly noticed a discrepancy. Surely, she had enough skills and was more the appropriate age. If she had one, then she would be able to earn enough levels quickly toplete her cascade regardless of how many new skills she currently required. ¡°Your parents are not fans of the Church. Have you not noticed that you don¡¯t go each week despite the majority of the poption doing so?¡± she asked. I had never been overly religious in myst life although I went more often as a child, so I had not really noticed how our family did not really attend the Lodestar Church. Then with me being confined to this ind for so long it was not surprising really that I hadn¡¯t noticed in the end. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go?¡± I asked Aleera. ¡°Our other brother my younger your older . . . the one who died in childbirth.¡± She started. ¡°I don¡¯t remember exactly what happened but the priest basically med mother for his death saying that she was unbnced.¡± She quietly exined. I winced. I could imagine how that would not go over well with any grieving mother, particrly my own. I certainly would not want to go back to church if someone said something like that to me. I was surprised she had attempted having me or maybe I was more an ident than a choice. Either way, I wasn¡¯t going to ask my parents that and didn¡¯t want to know. ¡°Ah, that would make sense as to why your parents are so hostile to the Lodestar Church. There are idiots in all institutions it was not any imbnce of her stats that would have been the culprit merely the strength of them.¡± Lady Acacia joined in with our conversation. ¡°Anyway, it is time for the two of you to take up your first m¨¦tier. With or without your parent¡¯s presence I will be taking you to the Church to unlock them. Obviously, it would be best to do so with their blessing, but it isn¡¯t essential. Honestly, thergest hurdle will be due to Kai¡¯s supposed age. A child of his age would not have ess to viewing their status let alone enough skills to qualify for a m¨¦tier. So, you will need another drop or two of Elixir and another inch or two in height. Hopefully, the idiot is still employed as the priest, and we will be able to exaggerate his age and say that it is due to his noble status. However, if he speeds through the early levels of his first m¨¦tier much like he did with his current levelling as a child then we will probably have to take up any secondary m¨¦tiers on different inds at different churches.¡± She started to exin the next steps of her n for us. ¡°Are you only allowed one m¨¦tier at a time?¡± I asked thinking that with my wide range of skills I could possibly have more than one functioning simultaneously. ¡°You get one at a time and the levels acquired get added to your overall level. So, for example if you have 10 levels before gaining your vocation then gain another as 7 as a singer you would be level 17 overall. Then once you reach the point of diminishing returns for your time you return to the church to gain a new metier and continue your levelling.¡± ¡°Can I take up merchant?¡± Aleera asked excited to be able to gain more levels and power through her cascade. ¡°That should not be a problem provided you have sufficient merchant skills to make you eligible for the career.¡± Lady Acacia allowed. ¡°Although you must not neglect your lessons in favour of progressing it too much. ¡°Do the early levels require just a little experience?¡± I asked remembering back to my initial sesses levelling. ¡°It only takes 100 experience to unlock your new metier but then every level afterwards doubles in experience requirements. The first 10 levels are achievable enough but after that it bes exponentially harder especially if you need to be using the skills for the job you have chosen. Remember this experience can only be gained bypleting the job you have chosen. A singer won¡¯t level sailing boats and a sailor won¡¯t level selling salt.¡± ¡°But what about all the different types of experience. Do you just lose that?¡± I asked worried that the hundreds of thousands of experience I had been collecting for mytest level might disappear or the fact that my broad and bnced curriculum of skills and experience gain would be wasted if I was to choose a single Metier. ¡°No that still happens but it will simply be added to your original level which as I said once you go past level 10 it is going to be giving you diminishing returns.¡± She exined. ¡°With your broad base of skills there is no reason why you cannot take a different metier each year level it up to level 10 then move onto another.¡± ¡°How do I know what I can choose from?¡± I asked. ¡°The Lodestone will show you when you touch it officially. But unofficially you can generally work out what your options will be before you ever step foot inside the church. While you need 16 skills they don¡¯t have to be all tier 1. You can have abination of skills so long as they fall under the umbre required. For example, 1 tier 4 skill, 1 tier 3 skill, 1 tier 2 skill and 2 tier 1 skills would also be effective in unlocking a metier.¡± She qualified. I lost myself looking at my status to try and work out my options. ¡°I can give you my suggestions on what is likely to appear but it is simple for you to touch the stone and see.¡± She brought us back to the room. Aleera likewise had been clearly looking at her status in consideration. However with her focus on bing rich it looked like she was also focused on takin the merchant metier. ¡°I have a request though.¡± She stated. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I would like you to both seriously consider taking something musical as your first metier.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°While simply starting her metier is likely to provide sufficient stats for Aleera to hit her cascade. You on the other hand are still unable to assign the stats so need to focus on picking a metier that will continue to help your Charisma level. That is going to be a bard like metier, either musician, drummer, singer or something simr.¡± I considered her advice and nodded in eptance. ¡°That being said something simr for Aleera would also be advised after gaining the first 10 levels in being a merchant less she seem terribly drab when going to the capital.¡± She shrugged her shoulder while telling a bitter truth. ¡°Money has a beauty all of its own.¡± Aleera argued. ¡°I¡¯m not saying no but we will have to wait and see what is offered before Imit to anything.¡± ¡°Of course, of course.¡± Lady Acacia returned. . . . We brought up the next step in our training n during dinner. It did not go over well. ¡°You don¡¯t need a metier yet. You are just a child. If and when you need it you will not be entering that church to do so.¡± Was mother¡¯s visceral answer to our request. ¡°Would you hamper their growth?¡± Lady Acacia asked undeterred by our mother¡¯s response. ¡°No but I do not want them to interact with that man.¡± She underlined her real reason for objecting. ¡°Many houses have their own chapels of the Lodestar church on their own grounds. I¡¯m sure that we will be able to request a recement priest in time and that merely threatening such will allow the children and I ess to the stone of the Lodestar without his presence or interference.¡± She postte a possible work around. ¡°It is time dear.¡± Father intervened. An urrence made all the stronger by its rare urrence. ¡°You don¡¯t have to meet or talk to the man but you are only harming yourself with your insistence on avoided the stone of the Lodestar. We are all due another metier thest couple of years have been exceptional for my growth as I am sure they have been for you too. If we are to face the nobles in a decade we will need the extra levels to stand tall. We cannot allow our injured hearts to be the cause of greater harm in the future.¡± ¡°Very well but he is not to be there.¡± She reiterated. ¡°I¡¯m sure that can be arranged.¡± Lady Acaciamented. ¡°The under priest can arrange things and with sufficient political pressure I doubt the priest will be able to object to the requests of the local lord anddy. Most positions out here on the edge of thepass are filled by one of two types of priest. The first is enthusiastically keen to be spreading the faith to the furthers boundaries of the civilizedpass. The other is posted here as a punishment for minor sins or poor political judgement. With the history you have described so far it isn¡¯t hard to imagine which was the case here.¡± ¡°It will be good to pick a new metier.¡± Grandfather chimed in. ¡°I have outgrown mine as well.¡± He nodded his head to me and I wondered whether the rxing of the blood bound restrictions meant that he had more choice than he had before. . . . A weekter we were stood in front of the Lodestar Church as a family ready to walk in. I was excited to see what awaited us. Not a Chapter, a question Not a Chapter, a question Subscription billing or first day of the month Morning, afternoon or evening, I am 2000 words into the next chapter but better yet I woke up and realised how the rest was going to happen, so I am working on finishing it in the next 24 hours. Hoping to get it done over the next 16 to stay on target with the posting schedule. On a different note a quick question, Patron says, "A simpler way to charge patrons Subscription billing lets you charge new patrons monthly on the same date they joined. This is how patrons already expect to pay, and they¡¯ll no longer be charged twice in their first month when they join after the 1st." True or false? I''ve had a message or two asking me to switch to the subscription billing method are people happy with that? Thoughts Notlimah Chapter 122: New Pathways Chapter 122: New Pathways ¡°In the universe, there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.¡± William ke The archways into the Lodestar Church loomed above us. I couldn¡¯t believe I had never entered here over the course of my life so far. The town was not particrly huge, but I suppose it kind of made sense with my mother¡¯s objection to the individual in charge of the church¡¯s branch here. ¡°Where is the priest?¡± she asked not keen to run into him again. I was not sure whether it was because she feared she would murder the abrasive fellow or for some other reason. ¡°Grandpa Smit is currently entertaining him about the possibility of building a chapel on our ind,¡± Father replied. ¡°Over my dead body.¡± She repliedpletely against the idea of him setting foot on our ind. I wondered whether he had attended the silver sea games or whether he had stayed in Wester Town. ¡°Of course, that ispletely understood. The offer will be made but in the correspondence to the church, it is going to be dependent on the removal of our current priest. It might work it might not. It all depends on how he ended up stationed here in the first ce. Still, the church will be keen to form a favourable rtionship with a new noble house and a shuffle of personnel is a small price to pay for that.¡± Lady Acacia exined their strategy for offering. ¡°Whether they rece the fool. Or we just end up with another fool is another matter altogether. But I wouldn¡¯t get my hopes up too high.¡± Grandfather muttered. ¡°Times a wasting, let us proceed a pace.¡± Lady Acacia dered stepping forward to open the door for us and we entered the church properly. ¡°Under priest Cleo, perfect timing.¡± She said as a man stepped forward to meet us as we entered the church introducing us to the man that would be managing providing us entry and escorting us there. ¡°Wee, wee to the Silversea family.¡± He invited us in giving a small bow the first we had received on Wester Isle from the general popce so far. ¡°May I just say that I truly enjoyed the Silversea Games? How may I help you today?¡± Either he was being particrly obsequious for an inder or he hailed from further afield and knew what noble families would expect as their due. ¡°We would like to see the Wester shard of the Lodestar.¡± Lady Acacia stated as we followed in her wake. ¡°Of course, of course. Would you like to wait for Asravan?¡± He demurred while stalling for time. He was hesitant to deny us while at the same time reluctant to take us straight there. ¡°No that won¡¯t be necessary.¡± She corrected him unwilling to allow a dy. ¡°Perhaps some refreshments before you refine your metier then?¡± He deduced the reason for our visit and again offered an alternative to instantly fulfilling it. ¡°Thank you, but no. We are on something of a schedule today.¡± She informed him redirecting him once more. ¡°Right, right.¡± He seemed to acknowledge that we would not be dyed any longer. ¡°This way then.¡± He stated as he led us deeper into the heart of the church. As we travelled through the main hall I looked up to the ceiling where images of the Anemoi could be seen. The Anemoi were the Gods of eachpass point alongside their mythical beasts and their images decorated the ceiling in carved stone. We reached the inner sanctum of the Lodestar Church and he hesitated to open the door. ¡°Are you sure you wouldn¡¯t like to wait but a moment? I¡¯m sure he will return soon.¡± He had onest attempt at pausing our progress. ¡°While the choice is always your own, he can offer guidance and advice to ensure you choose one best suited to you.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s quite all right. We have discussed Aleera¡¯s choices extensively and ultimately; we would prefer privacy for the selection of our m¨¦tier. Thank you for all your assistance. Please ept a small donation of our appreciation.¡± Lady Acacia said handing a small bag of money to him part thank you part bribe to speed his departure. Also, it was interesting to see that they were avoiding talking about my presencepletely. ¡°Certainly, certainly. All donations to the church are dly received. I will see that you are not disturbed as requested.¡± He pocketed the donation, opened the door to usher us in then closed it behind us once we had filed in. As our family passed into the inner sanctum of the Lodestar Church my gaze was transfixed by the glowing blue stone in front of us. It stood on a pedestal in the centre of the room and illuminated the room with its pale light. It was notrge and we would struggle to touch it all at the same time but there was not necessarily a need for more than a finger to touch apparently. ¡°This is a Lodestar. The rock on which the faith is built. Each church has its own and will provide one whenever they build a new church. It is also how you may choose a metier and continue to level.¡± Lady Acacia briefly outlined the history of the stone. ¡°It is said that they fell from the sky at the beginning of time and have helped all races to progress further in the light of the lodestar. Humans keep them in their churches, elves in their sacred trees, dwarves see them as the hearts of their mountains, to each race they have their own ce of prominence and even worship.¡± She continued to exin. ¡°Now, usually we would do this separately and take time to discuss the options but as time is of the essence if we all move forward to touch the stone there is no rule against or reason not to do it all together.¡± She moved us all forward until we stood on different sides of the stone gathered in a circle with it at our centre. ¡°Alsost but not least, normally Kai you would be unable to choose one until you were at least 10 years old and able to allocate your stats but . . .¡± she hesitated. ¡°When have you ever done anything at the appropriate time before? Let us see how it will react and whether it is possible for you. But do not worry if you cannot.¡± Grandfather, mother, father, Aleera and I, all hesitated to be the first to begin. ¡°Remember to choose wisely. The m¨¦tier must be based on the skills that you already have as well as the skills you n to continue using. You can take a new one next year if necessary but equally, you do not have time to waste so do not.¡± Were herst words to us before by unspoken consent we all reached forward to touch the glowing Lodestar stone. . . . Ding! Level 12! M¨¦tier is avable! The Lodestar had recognized me I was excited to see whether I would be able to choose my m¨¦tier like my sister, who was going to choose merchant. I thought I knew what I would choose but it all depended on what I was offered. Wee, Lord Callen Kai Silversea! Brief, simple and to the point the window somehow filled my vision. It seemed to be going through my status one line at a time. Interestingly enough all my names including my title had been officially recognized by the system. Age . . . Error! Oh, ^%$#! That did not sound good. My finger felt affixed to the stone, I doubted I would be able to abort the process even had I wanted to. Age . . . Physical 44 months infant . . . Soul 720 months adult . . . Physical 44 months infant The Lodestar or system seemed to be having difficulty urately assessing my age and was flickering back and forth between what counted as my physical age and what counted as my soul age. How it could tell the age of my soul especially one without a system was another line of questions I was rapidly developing to distract myself from the worry as I watched the assessment flicker back and forth. Selection made: Age 44 months . . . infant (720 avable) The system seemed to have finally decided to stay with my physical age rather than what it perceived my soul to be. I guessed that this was what happened if you tried to touch a lodestone when you had lived more than one life, which I was assuming was not amon urrence. Unfortunately, the error messages had not finished. Race . . . Error! . . . Trait . . . Error! . . . Attribute . . . Error! Guess the system much like my sister considered me a bit of an oddball. Hopefully, I walked out of this still human rather than a monster. That would be . . . awkward. Race . . . Human . . . Elf . . . Gnome . . . Beastkin . . . Mythic . . . Pixie . . . Dwarf . . . Giant . . . The next line gave me some hope that I would not be walking out a monster. Mythic looked like the most interesting race to be. I guessed that could be from the attribute Source of Mana. Luckily none of the options seemed monstrous although bing part Gnome or Pixie would be particrly annoying if I ended up shrinking in response. Regrettably, it did not look like I had a choice in the matter as the Lodestar continued to cause the system to reassess me. Half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . half . . . Error! Great another error message, 8 halves don¡¯t make a whole. Recalibration required . . . Vitality: 144 -44 Endurance: 127 -27 Strength: 102 -2 Dexterity: 131 -31 Senses: 144 -44 Mind: 145 -45 rity: 122 -22 Magic: 146 -46 Charisma: 63 +37 Luck: 7 +93 The &[emailprotected]#! Those were my hard-earned points. I could feel my body sweating as I stood there locked to the Lodestar. But I was still unable to move. The recalibration had done wonders for my luck stat but I was not feeling very lucky as I watched this happen to me without a choice in the matter. Recalibrationplete. The system liked its base ten if that is what it was reducing or raising me to. Race Arithmos That was new. No one had ever mentioned them to me before. Hopefully, I would still look like me when I was finally released from the Lodestar. The system seemed to have worked its way through its error messages and my new status finally disyed itself in front of me. There were a few changes. Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea Age: 5 years Experience: 0 Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1000/1000 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1000/1000 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 100 Endurance: 100 Strength: 100 Dexterity: 100 Senses: 100 Mind: 100 rity: 100 Magic: 100 Charisma: 100 Luck: 100 Free Points: 171 Okay, there were a lot of changes. It appeared that I had not lost any points in the system¡¯s recalibration of my race, the extra points had been added to my free points to be spentter. But it appeared to have reset me to what it considered an Arithmos¡¯s base set of stats for a 5-year-old child. This sort of made sense considering a ¡®normal¡¯ human child would often first see their stats with a base set of 10 in each stat at the age of 5. Interestingly the system seemed to have taken some of what it felt were my avable months of age and added them to bring me up to 5 years of age. The age from which statuses were supposed to be visible. The most painful part of the process at least mentally was the cost of experience. It had removed my first 11 levels worth of experience in its recalibration. That was over a year¡¯s worth of effort reset in a single moment. I felt like screaming but I was still locked into stillness and silence as the Lodestar had yet to release me. If I was unable to gain a m¨¦tier as nned I think I might just start crying when my body was released. There were however several other positives to my new race. My bonus attributes appeared to have been upgraded to traits and . . . I had two new ones. Charming which I assumed came from my Charisma stat reaching 100 and Lucky which I assumed came from my Luck stat reaching 100. Those alone were hopefully worth the loss in experience and above all this, I was now perfectly bnced. That would be worth its weight in gold moving forward. I had even gained two years which meant two years less of waiting to finally be able to assign my free points and I had not technically lost any of those. It took a while to see all the changes let alone process them, but the system was not finished with me yet. Once it had shown me my new status more words were waiting for me to focus on. Level 12 Child M¨¦tier avable! This is what we had visited the shard of the Lodestar for, to choose a m¨¦tier. Lady Acacia had believed that my level would allow me to choose one and it appeared that she was correct. For most children, they would level without one until they chose their profession then depending on their family or apprenticeship, they would approach the church to get one. There were pros and cons to when they wanted to do so. If they levelled up to Level 5 and then choose a m¨¦tier it meant that they would be able to continue to level up quickly. However, once you had switched m¨¦tier you were unable toe back to it. So, for example, 5 child levels in addition to 5 apprentice levels would allow you to start as a Level 10 in your Journeyman m¨¦tier. However, if you had 10 child levels in addition to 10 apprentice levels you would be able to start as a Level 20 Journeyman on your second m¨¦tier provided it was the same as the first. Therefore, the speed of levelling came at the cost of long-term potential. It was a difficult argument to make when you could always choose an alternative m¨¦tier provided you had enough skills to offer its selection. Then again, for most, skills did note quite as easily as they did for me. At Level 12 both Aleera and I were more than ready for our first m¨¦tier. I could still feel my body I was not divorced from it my hand still felt fixed to the stone in a manner that implied I would be unable to remove it until I had made my choice and there was a lot to choose from. But I was also aware that I had probably spent far longer than the rest of my family holding onto the stone. They were waiting for me. It was time to make a decision. Apprentice Metier avable . . . Singer, Sailor, Merchant, Mage Teacher, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Mapper, Mason, Silversmith Cooper, Carpenter, Linguist, Liar Schr, Student, Mentalist Warrior, Wizard, Ranger, Rogue . . . The list went on. From what I had been told there would not normally be so many options for most people. I doubted my father would have as many to choose from. And, as much as I would have liked to have chosen Wizard or a Silversmith possibly based on the jewellery I had made with the cksmith¡¯s daughters I knew I had to follow Lady Acacia¡¯s advice. I had to choose something that I could continue to level with my existing skills, which would support me in increasing my charisma stats. Or at least this had been Lady Acacia¡¯s n for me. Before I had been reset by the system. Before I had gained a new race. It was so tempting to try something new. But this was not a ss as I knew it from books or video games. It was not a straight jacket that would define me however it would have consequences and restrictions. Ultimately it was a job that would allow me to continue to level up, but to do so I would have to fulfil those conditions. Keep it simple stupid. Lady Acacia had a n for my progression and for once in my life, I was going to follow it. I chose Singer and stepped away from the Lodestar. Chapter 123: Age is just a number Chapter 123: Age is just a number ¡°Always tell only the truth, and all the truth, and do so promptly ¨C right now.¡± A Buckminster Fuller I returned to the world, able to hear and see more than the blue screen reality had hidden behind. There was a new line to my status. Level: 12 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Silversea M¨¦tier: Apprentice Singer Age: 5 years Experience: 0 Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1000/1000 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1000/1000 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 100 Endurance: 100 Strength: 100 Dexterity: 100 Senses: 100 Mind: 100 rity: 100 Magic: 100 Charisma: 100 Luck: 100 Free Points: 171 There was also a certain tension in the room. I had taken significantly longer than everyone else in choosing their professions. There was also a knocking at the door to the sanctum of the Lodestar that Grandfather was casually holding shut. Despite the clear efforts of someone trying to enter they were unable to do so. ¡°Is he finally finished?¡± he asked gruffly. ¡°I¡¯m finished,¡± I answered myself. No one seemed to be staring at me in astonishment more curiosity and possibly exasperation, so I assumed that there were no physical changes despite the changes within, just the fact that I took longer than the rest of them to make my choice. ¡°Aliyah, try to reign in your temper. Better yet Kaius hold onto my daughter. Aleera hold onto Kai just to be sure and Kai make sure you hold your tongue. Let Lady Acacia do the talking and hopefully, we can get out of here without ruffling any more feathers.¡± He said before he flickered, swiftly stepping away from the door and letting m open. While he stood nonchntly a few steps further than would have been possible for him to hold the door closed. A white-haired old man stood in the doorway surprised at its sudden opening. One hand must have been pushing against the door because he stumbled forward into the room as it swung open and the other hand looked like it had been the one that had been rapidly growing closer to thumping on it rather than knocking. ¡°Lady Acacia, what do you mean by this?¡± he demanded once he had managed to stop himself from falling t on his face and stood up straight to face us. He was flushed from exertion, either pushing to get into the inner sanctum or running back to the church it was impossible to tell. ¡°It was time for Lady Aleera to choose her first m¨¦tier so we visited the Lodestar as a family. Is there a problem?¡± she asked as she emphasised Aleera¡¯s status while seeming concerned that something else might be the problem. ¡°It is customary for me to oversee the selection.¡± He stated simply as he struggled to calm his breathing. ¡°Customs are only customs, notws. Most nobility in the capital have their own chapels and so select in the privacy of their family chapel. We are of course nning to build a Lodestar Chapel but at the moment are only on the first step of the process.¡± She exined the reasoning behind our presence. ¡°I am aware. I have just had a meeting with Smit about such ns.¡± He replied. ¡°I would have been happy to help Aleera make the best choice for the future. It is a shame that she did so uninformed of her full options.¡± ¡°I hope you are not implying, Aravan, that I am incapable of guiding a child in her options, young man.¡± She raised he chin further to look down upon him her posture already perfectly straight and tall. ¡°Young . . .¡± He sputtered. ¡°I have been guiding children and adults¡¯ choices for thest five decades.¡± He dered. ¡°How dare you suggest a level of ipetence through inexperience.¡± He continued angrily defensive. ¡°Young Aravan,¡± she emphasized his youth once more. ¡°I neither imply ipetence nor ignorance. That you have read such into my statements is all your own interpretation of my words.¡± She paused to push her hair back behind her ear highlighting the points to them before continuing, ¡°What I am stating is that I have been advising children and adults for thest 10 decades on their choices, including the current Prince of Ponente and am fully capable of enlightening my students of their choices as well as affording them the privacy to do so privately.¡± She added pointedly. Aravan¡¯s eyes flicked to her ears as the realization of Lady Acacia¡¯s race made itself known. Lady Acacia did not advertise her race keeping her hair falling over her ears but she was neither ashamed nor afraid to use it to browbeat Aravan intopliance. ¡°Naturally, I was merely worried that Aleera would not be able to make the best choice for her future.¡± His conciliatory tone was as grating as his initial pretentious insinuation that he should have been present for the selection. ¡°Of course. Now if you have no further objections, we will be departing to discuss Aleera¡¯s progress on the path she has chosen.¡± She stepped forward without waiting for a response. So that whether he was going to reply with a positive or negative response he would still have to step out of the way to let her proceed or he would find himself physically barring her path, which he was clearly not ready to do. Our family silently filed out behind her focused on getting home to discuss our discoveries. Although Grandfather had a huge grin on his face as he passed the old priest. He was on the side of his daughter or there was some other history between the two or just with the church in general. Our family had never been particrly religious. Judging by the frown on priest Arawn¡¯s face as we left with him none the wiser about my recalibration or my sister¡¯s m¨¦tier something else was at y here. . . . We waited to talk until we had finally returned home. As a family, we were perfectly aware, of how stats and skills, could allow you to listen in to many a whispered conversation in town whether the participants wished it or not. ¡°So, were you able to choose a m¨¦tier?¡± Aleera asked me the question I was sure they were all wanting the answer to. ¡°Yes, but there were a fewplications.¡± I gave a forced half smile. I was smiling due to the positive oues while at the same time grimacing about theplications. Also, I was wondering how much to divulge. ¡°Why am I not surprised.¡± Muttered Grandfather as he reached for a drink. He was going to need it although he was the only one who seemed to realise it. ¡°Is everything alright?¡± Mother asked holding father¡¯s hand concern her most evident emotion. ¡°And they were?¡± Lady Acacia inquired quietly but intensely. As if awaiting to hear confirmation of something she already suspected. . . . I hesitated, how much to say, what to say. Keeping any lies in my head straight was going to be impossible with the number of changes that had happened. My eyes stopped searching for an answer and I told the truth. ¡°Well, I¡¯m no longer two.¡± I started with the first error the system had dered although skipped the part where it oscited between the two ages. ¡°What?¡± They asked confused. Not yet realizing the impact that this statement would have upon the system and my status. ¡°Well age is just a number, and the system decided the number for my age should be 5.¡± I jumped to the end result of the system shenanigans avoiding the oscition and talking about my former life. ¡°I¡¯m obviously too mature for my age,¡± I added. ¡°Mature?¡± Aleera askedughing at me. Grandfather just had a drink. While it looked like Father squeezed my mother¡¯s hand. ¡°Rtively speaking.¡± I qualified well aware of all the immature mistakes I still managed to make on a near daily basis despite having lived longer than her or my parents. ¡°This . . . is a first for me, but then most of your status is a first for anyone.¡± Lady Acacia started unsure where this hade from. My family used to onion-likeyer afteryer of surprises and were perhaps less surprised, in that they knew to expect the unexpected. ¡°While I doubt the system made the change due to your maturity it certainly changes the timeline on our training. First off it makes the more physical aspects of it more possible if the system is urately describing your physical nature.¡± She continued a little bemused by the unheard-of change. ¡°That is almost a letdown,¡± Aleera said. ¡°I was expecting more. Although you better not keep doing that otherwise, you will be my older brother rather than my younger one.¡± She said half in jest half in fear. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to be my little sister?¡± I asked a little surprised. I knew that she was my older sister physically but, in many ways, I still considered her my younger sister as I felt I had so much more life experience than her. Even if it was life experience from another world. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Aleera, there¡¯s more so you shouldn¡¯t feel letdown just yet.¡± I grinned imagining what her response would be in a minute. ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to be your little sister,¡± Aleera answered emphatically. ¡°More? What do you mean there is more?¡± Lady Acacia demanded. She had quickly put her confusion at the first change and was focused once more on my answers. ¡°Well, after the system decided to change my age to better reflect my maturity.¡± I smiled at my sister¡¯s response to that statement. ¡°It then checked my traits and decided I was not exactly human.¡± I shrugged. If I was going to tell them about my age change, it only seemed natural that I confessed to the new race as well. ¡°Not human?¡± Father asked concerned although he refused to let go of Mother¡¯s hand who looked decidedly worried. ¡°Are you a half-elf after all?¡± She asked intrigued and possibly excited by the prospect of being proved right. Especially as that had been one of her earlier suspicions. ¡°No, it seemed to want to apply a lot of half statuses to my race due to my traits achieved before the age of five. It flickered between the races before it decided in the end that due to my infant nature and traits, my system required recalibration.¡± I answered honestly. This made as little sense to me as it did to them. ¡°Recalibration?¡± Father asked worriedly, ¡°What¡¯s that mean exactly?¡± ¡°It reset my stats.¡± I dered. ¡°Oh no.¡± mother gasped covering her mouth with her hand fearing the worst. ¡°To the 10 in each stat that all 5-year-olds receive?¡± asked Lady Acacia shocked that I could have possibly lost hundreds of points. ¡°That . . . the lodestar should never remove stats . . . otherwise I would have never . . . ¡± ¡°No, no, no.¡± I interrupted and stopped them from specting any further in fear. ¡°It reset my stats to 100 for each stat. Not just my Vitality but endurance, strength, dexterity, mind, rity, magic, charisma and . . .¡± I hesitated conflicted. I had kept this stat to myself so far but it was impossible to specte or hypothesize on false data ¡°. . .and luck.¡± I added apprehensively. On the one hand, I hatedying my soul bare but on the other hand how much they could help me depended on how honest I was. And honestly, there were so many changes happening here I needed as much help as I could get. ¡°Luck? You have the tenth stat?¡± Lady Acacia demanded furiously. ¡°Um yes,¡± I answered cautiously. I was surprised she had heard of it when it appeared the rest of my family had never heard of it before. ¡°What is the luck stat? Who has that? What does it do?¡± asked Aleera always the first to quiz for the unknown and not yet afraid to appear ignorant in front of her family. ¡°In humans, it is rare beyond belief. Not even the Kings can im to have it. It affects not only yourself like the physical stats or others like the mental stats such as charisma but the inanimate world. It is the stat of heroes causing them to survive their stories or causing them to happen in the first ce. And you have it at 100?¡± she asked to rify the absurdity of the changes to my status. ¡°Um, yes?¡± I answered confused as to whether this was a good thing or not. ¡°What additional attributes did you acquire? She asked. ¡°For Luck one called Lucky. And for Charisma, one called Charming.¡± I answered pleasantly pleased to let someone else worry about what was going on. A burden shared is a burden halved after all. ¡° ¡°Lucky, Charming?¡± She questioned. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And they all were recalibrated to 100,¡± she qualified. ¡°Yes. But . . . the attributes are no longer deemed attributes but traits. I think this is what caused the problem with the Lodestar I think.¡± I outlined the next surprise and my thoughts. ¡°They are traits?¡± she asked. While Grandfather noticed the ¡®no longer¡¯ aspect of my sentence and dove in on that, ¡°All of your attributes?¡± ¡°Yes, all of my attributes were turned into traits at the same time as the system changed my age to 5,¡± I answered firmly. Then when the system could not dere me an elf, or a half-elf due to my extra traits it cycled through all the other races dwarves, gnomes, giants, dwarves etc and half versions of each before it finally reset my status to a . . . new race . . . I am now a level 12 Arithmos.¡± I answered exining everything that had happened to me. I was something else. Something new, an Arithmos. I needed to know what this meant, whether it was for good or for ill. ¡°What does that even mean?¡± Asked Aleera confused. I waited for anyone else in the room to respond. To add rity to my situation but when they sat there in shocked silence I was left to fill the void on my own. ¡°It would appear to be a race that starts age with their stats at 100 ¡ª with a full set of traits, a perfect cascade of 10. That has to be at least 10 times better than the human race! Bow before your all-powerful brother.¡± I hammed it up in an attempt to make like of the situation and twirled for my sister¡¯s benefit. A sister, who was having none of it and promptly rubbed her knuckles on my head to remind me of my ce. The movement seemed to wake my parents from their shock. Reinstall Lady Acacia''sser-like focus and allow my Grandfather to continue drinking his alcoholic beverage. ¡°An Arithmos? Not an Elf or half-elf?¡± Lady Acacia almost sounded disappointed by theck of amon race between us. Even though based on the numbers alone this ¡®new¡¯ race was objectively and subjectively superior. ¡°What is an Arithmos?¡± Mother asked the question Aleera had already asked once more. ¡°My new race at 5 years old at least seems to be 10 times stronger than a human race while retaining the key trait for eachpass kingdom race,¡± I repeated as I shrugged my shoulders in response and we all turned to look at Lady Acacia to see if she had any words of wisdom on nuggets of knowledge to enlighten us with. But . . . she didn¡¯t. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± She replied stunned either by my new status or herck of knowledge. . . . We sat in silence for a moment digesting the new information. But I had already had time to ponder my new predicament and I was not quite yet over revealing every change the system had enforced upon me and I was about to do so when someone else realized something didn¡¯t add up. ¡°But you had over 1000 points spread out between your stats did the system steal the other 200?¡± Aleera asked afraid of what the system could do. ¡°What happened to the rest of your stats?¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t delete them,¡± I answered her immediate fear before extrapting. ¡°It seems that if you earn them you get to keep them. I just need to wait another 5 years to do so. Which is shorter than I was expecting to wait this morning so . . .¡± I was doing a lot of shrugging this morning. ¡°With a perfect cascade of traits and a pure harmony of stats you could assign them wherever you wished when you turn ten.¡± Lady Acacia seemed either humbled or lost in the revtions of this morning. ¡°This did not all happen for free though thest act system did as part of the recalibration process was to take over 800000 points of experience,¡± I whined. Everyone around the table winced at that imagining how long it had taken me to rue all of that. ¡°That¡¯s a lot to take in.¡± Lady Acacia continued to lead the conversation while my family mainly sat in contemtion of the changes I was revealing. ¡°Believe me, it was a lot for me to take in too! That is why it took me so much longer than you lot to exit. It wasn¡¯t that I was taking a long time to make my choice of m¨¦tier. I was unable to choose until the Lodestar deemed my status recalibrated enough to be able to make sense of it. The final choice the system gave me was to choose my metier.¡± . . . ¡°So what did you choose?¡± Aleera realized that despite all the information I had given everyone I had yet to tell them what I had chosen. ¡°Tell me yours and I will tell you mine.¡± I sang to her unabashed at the immaturity of the moment. ¡°Merchant! Now stop stalling.¡± She demanded. ¡°What about Mother and Father? I¡¯ve been answering all your questions all morning.¡± I refused to give up thest little bit of leverage I had without finally gaining a little more knowledge about the rest of my family. ¡°Spellsong Seamstress.¡± Mother answered proudly. ¡°How do you have two words to your metier?¡± Aleera asked ¡°I only have the one.¡± Ever the teacher Lady Acacia answered, ¡°Apprentice Metier are generally a single word describing the profession. As your skills expand and your experience broadens you can take on a journeyman metier which often although not always can consist of two words broadening and deepening your profession.¡± ¡°Father?¡± I asked. ¡°Seafarer Sailor,¡± Father added equally happy with his improvement. ¡°Weren¡¯t you already a Sailor?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes but this is my third metier. I was a fisherman first, then a sailor. Now thanks to working on the open water more often I can im the Seafarer Sailor metier.¡± He described his progression. ¡°Grandfather?¡± I asked intrigued to see if he would answer. We all waited to see if he would answer. We watched as he finished his drink. Then waited a little longer. . . . ¡°I choose Honor Bound Guardian.¡± He quietly answered with the most personal information he had ever given us. ¡°A fine choice.¡± Lady Acaciamented equally quietly and I felt as if there was ayer to the conversation being carried out I was aware of but could not understand. Aleera oblivious asked, ¡°Is that a Master metier?¡± ¡°Yes, but not my first.¡± He answered ambiguously without adding more even Aleera took the hint and did not dig any further. ¡°So . . . Kai. What metier did you take?¡± she returned to questioning me. ¡°Well . . . . . . I took . . . the metier . . . Singer!¡± I drew it out extending Aleera¡¯s frustration at not knowing and enjoying every second of it. ¡°Superb.¡± Lady Acacia sighed in relief at me finally listening to her lessons and advice. ¡°We are ready for the next stage in your education. It is time for you to sing for your supper.¡± Aleeraughed at my predicament until Lady Acacia turned to face the youngdy merchant. ¡°And you my dear will have to pay for it.¡± Chapter 124: Business as usual Chapter 124: Business as usual ¡°Sess is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.¡± R Collier It was morning. Sun shone through the balcony that ran along the eastern wall of our growing mountain hall or pce. The world glowed to my senses in more ways than one. In the end, I had taken up living in my room in the new pce, we all had. Although Grandfather stuck to his old home despite being offered and then given his own suite of rooms in the growing edifice to our house¡¯s power. It was gradually turning into a citadel as much as a pce as it continued to expand and shape the mountain upwards and outwards. Mother continued to carve the expanding pce from the mountain while I continued to shape the stone afterwards. Lady Acacia had finally realized that we were the only two building our grand abode and was both horrified and astounded. Horrified, as this was not what a Lord and his mother should be doing with their free time. Astounded in that she was very impressed with our skills and their effectiveness. She had even offered to oversee the development of the gardens that were being ced alongside the balconies. Giving our rising citadel a softer touch with the mana encouraged gardens she was growing. At this rate, it would one day soon truly be a pce, a fortress and a citadel. It seemed somewhat wasteful to have it only house the eight of us. Life just kept getting busier. But many hands make light work and we had managed to recruit heavily after the Silversea games. Not everyone who had started to work for us did so all day. Often it was a morning or a day here and there, but the extra hands helped immensely. They allowed many new projects to start and let us continue apace with the ones already in hand, even expand them. One of the perks of employment by the Silversea family was a set of rooms on the ind for themselves as well. This was particrly popr with the younger teenagers and adults on the ind who were looking for a little more independence from their parents. It did not hurt though that the rooms all came with the equivalent of indoor lighting, underfloor heating, running water both hot and cold as well as a working indoor toilet. For many, these creatureforts of modern-day living were magical in and of themselves. We had carefully driven down a borehole until we were able to pump cold water down and have hot water shoot back up. We were still working on creating ss windows for everyone as well but they depended on the extended Silversea family and were not yet able to be reproduced by hand as quickly as corridors could be magically carved from stone despite the skills used. As for the rooms they were provided with it was no problem to leave the suites without windows until they had been made. It left the rooms a little dark but that was what the mana motenterns were for. It was no trouble for me to charge them up but we had tasked our cousins who had their magic stat unlocked with the job and they did so every evening before leaving the ind. All of this meant that it was no longer the eight of us here. We employed around two dozen young adults, and they all had a room here. In time all the branches of the family would probably relocate to our ind or at least their younger members would but there was a certain amount of family politics in who would get their own domicile first and where. I had been enjoying drawing my ns for the ind. So much so that I had surprisingly received the skills of sketchingand drafting after making so many. I had many fantastical drawings now that outlined the possible futures of the ind but not all of them were possible. Certainly not all of them at the same time. Aleera tended to harp on about the cost of everything but when you were doing the work yourself there were no construction costs so I did not think that she had much toin about. Most of the costs for the family came from making the bare stone liveable afterwards, wooden doors, ss windows, metal hinges, rugs, bedding, curtains and stone facing, it was all made within the family and at cost on the understanding that in time they too would have a part of it. A home or suite of rooms on the ind. I was even calling it the Silver Citadel although it was still a long way from beingpleted. Lady Acacia had also got her way in employing a maid and butler for mother and father. Both of them were rather perplexed with what to do with them. Cora spent most of her time preparing our meals after setting out mother¡¯s clothes and washing them. She also attended some of our lessons in the cauldron garden. They were the first beyond our extended family, Des, Sinis and Wanda to do so. As part of the ¡®application¡¯ process, we took everybody who offered to work for us, I knew that Cora had been getting on all right as the daughter of a washerwoman but was grateful at the opportunity to do more than just washing in her future. Lady Acacia oversaw her training and had said that once she had the appropriate skills she would reselect her m¨¦tier. But for now what she was doing was still levelling up the old one, Washerwoman. Not one I would have chosen but sometimes circumstances determine our choices. Either way, it was even levelling up quicker now that she was being paid more for the task despite less washing being done. Formerly all her work had been done with her mother who imed the earnings before providing a small allowance. So ultimately, she was very happy with her new job, new pay and new apartment. The Butler Baldrick seemed to be more of a drinking and sailing buddy for my father than a professional butler as far as I remembered them. However, Lady Acacia was also working on that and teaching Cora the proper etiquette to deal with visiting nobles. Alongside Cora, he sorted out my parent¡¯s room and prepared their clothes the traditional jobs of a batman. Not that they had sufficient clothes or even the right type of clothing to starch or press. However, they did now have the equivalent of a master suite for the two of them in the mountain pce. All of this meant that mother had a lot more time to weave decorations for our home as well as carve it from the mountain now that she wasn¡¯t cooking us all breakfast, lunch and dinner or washing our clothes. Though for the most part, we had been sorting ourselves out for lunch. Another difference was that we were now using the main hall for a weekly meal with all of our workers as well as a weekly meal with all of the extended branches of the Silversea family in attendance. Lady Acacia imed this would be good to foster goodwill with our employees as well as good practice forrger events should we be visited. She still had a long list of items that the household required. Cabs, dressers, wardrobes, chests, silverware, fine china, sses, goblets, it felt like the list was endless and would keep our extended family busy for a long time providing it with all. That was if they were allowed to. She had high standards and anything that didn¡¯t meet them would not be on disy if anyone visited. What might be eptable for us in the privacy of our family and the servants did not make it eptable for visitors. As part of our training though she allowed us the use of her extensive collection of household items. They were the basis for the majority of the things our extended family were making us. Each one had been examined in detail by the patriarchs of each branch as well as their families to show them the quality required and what to aim for as well as discuss the different techniques required to make them. There had been a lot of trial and error in attempting to replicate them. But it had done wonders for their levels as they attempted to match the masterwork of the best carpenters, joiners, silversmiths and ssblowers of the capital. It was one more example of how important skills could be. Their initial efforts left a lot to be desired whenparing the quality however as the examples and research gave them something to aim for the system helped them to achieve it. Gradually gaining new skills that were needed as well as levelling up from the importance of providing quality goods for the local lords, us. They weren¡¯t the only ones levelling up their though. With my sister and I focused on different metiers. We had rified our rtionship with a contract and were splitting everything 50:50. It was a short-term loss for me but would hopefully be a long-term gain. I would be the idea man and not-so-silent backer behind her business. But she would bring my ideas to reality and spend more of her time on making them a sess. The most recent of which was attempting to farm decent quantities of Sea silk which we were currently slowly and carefully cultivating. The best bit was that I was leaving it all to her having provided the idea and the original creatures now she was growing my ideas and making them a reality. Unfortunately, our arrangement also meant that I had invested the majority of the treasure that I had found on the sunken wreck into the household. It was paying for the sudden expansion in employment we were offering. This meant that my ideas would continue to grow with or without me and gave me more time to develop my skills and stats in different directions. It also meant that in the future I would be able to travel a little more without ever worrying about running out of money if we continued to be as sessful as we currently were. Salt, pearls and purple were now being collected on a small business level rather than what a single-family even with magic could manage. We were not yet factory levels of production but Des and Sinis had be our managers. However, those were no longer our only or even primary products. The cauldron garden that would be the heart of Silversea Citadel with its Elendil tree was now established and producing more than our family or even extended family could eat. We had reached the point where we could sell our excess to the town who were very happy to receive a more regr change and variety to their diet. We did not yet have a lot to sell so we kept our prices high following the rule of supply and demand it was still eagerly bought. Aleera could not wait for Mercurio to return so that we could spread further afield or rather sell off the ind. Magic had allowed us to raise and establish our crops far faster than the decade that would usually be required to grow fruiting trees or raise well-developed vines. We were now attempting to develop a decent vintage of wine, Lady Acacia was not convinced by our first batch but no one else hadined about our first attempts. All of it had eagerly been bought by the Compass Edge Tavern happy to have some alternative drinks in advance of any merchant visiting and resupplying them. The contract with my sister meant that I received 50 per cent of all current and future profit including any new ideas of mine she developed or any ideas of hers that she used my funds to recreate. As the main shareholder in our family¡¯s development, I was not tied as tightly by the contract and could continue to set up my side deals one of which was working with the Silverstone branch to collect gemstones. I had hoped for a fifty-fifty split there. But they had not gone for it iming that they would find the stones with or without me anyway. However, they were, with a bit of haggling willing to go as high as 30 per cent of the profits. I just had to turn up once a week and paint on the mining face where the gems were and write down how deep into the wall they were. Lady Acacia did not exactly approve of my venture into mining but couldn¡¯t argue against the purse of gems I came home with. It also had not stopped her from approaching me about creating excess tiles for her to sell. I had kept my method for producing them a trade secret and she had not pried respecting my right to a secret or two. She was fascinated with the patterns and believed they would sell well. Lessons innguages, weapons, spellsong and spellcraft continued apace. But I would spend my spare time drawing up future expansions to our home or business ideas such as oils, perfumes, herbs and spices. I had a million and one ideas and kept them written down in journals I kept hidden in the walls. My set of secret tunnels continued to grow alongside the pce corridors and suites. Although I had to erge them to deal with my increasing size. They were no longer impassable for an adult but they would not be able to run along them as I could. But all of this was not my main focus. Just as Aleera had been concentrating on her new metier with me helping provide ideas and funds to create the Silversea Merchant empire. I too had my own metier one for which I had a lot to practice and a lot to perform. I was a singer now and every evening you would find me singing for my supper in the Compass Edge Tavern but at least I was not called little Tommy Tucker. My grandfather or grandpa would more often than not be in the audience watching over me and making sure I returned home safe and sound. The town itself was not quite sure what to make of me. I had been introduced as a lord but here I was entertaining them every evening for a meal that was worth pennies inparison to the pounds of gold I had either dredged up from the ocean floor, sold salt, pearls or purple for and that wasn¡¯t taking into ount all the other little business ideas of mine Aleera was setting up for me. The town saw me as something of a mascot. Their very own lord anddy raised from themoners that they were. We had made no changes added no charges they found no reason to be disgrunteled and with the raising of many of our cousins to Adhals they were cautiously optimistic and hopeful about our prescence. Lady Acacia said that could change with the wind and was keen for us to start employing a guard or two to patrol our ind. But she also recognized the uniqueness of our situation and our ind looking on my reception as favourable but also something that could continue to improve with time and effort. Putting such thoughts aside I rapped on the bar and took my ce atop it, a perfect stage for a child of my stature. I focused on my voice and began to sing. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you tale, Now list to me, With a hey ho, the wind and the rain But the rain it rah every day . . . Each night was a new song to be sung, a new tale to be told, the best bit of entering a new world where entertainment was so limited meant that there was no such thing as copyright or giarism. I passed off all my tales as something read in books brought by Lady Acacia and the people loved them. Half sung, half acted the tavern had never seen such brisk business and I was in need of arger stage. Another business proposition for my sister. Not a Chapter but some artwork Not a Chapter but some artwork How many words do I need for this to post? Chapter 125: Spreading the Light of the Lodestar Chapter 125: Spreading the Light of the Lodestar ¡°Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.¡± Desiderius Erasmus It was morning once more and we had gathered for breakfast. I¡¯d never really thought about it but the morning as the sun rose around 6 in the morning every day and we lost the light every day around 6 in the evening. I guessed this must mean we lived on the celestial equator of the world. The fact that we had 16 months but as near enough as I could tell 24 hours to the day meant that the world must be spinning a little quicker or had a slower orbit around the sun. I was not sure how to work that out exactly. I had learned a lot in my life but how to calcte the paths of the stars andplicated astronomical calctions were not something I had ever looked at before. It was moments like this that I missed having the inte to look up how to do so. Recall helped immensely in remembering esoteric information I had once seen but if I had never looked at it before I had no way of remembering it without working it out for myself once more. My knowledge was enough for me to realise that we must be close to if not directly on the equator and wonder why I had never noticed it before. In retrospect, it also meant that any solstice celebration was no different to any other day with us living perpetually in an eternal equinox on the equator. This fact had never impacted on our lives before. However, the fact that we were the furthest western ind on the edge of the knownpass continent. Added to the fact that we were on the equator meant that for a religion based all on cardinal gods, the light of the lodestar against the darkness of the lodestone meant that Wester Ponente was actually on the path of the pilgrims. Our ce on the path all added up to a surprise visit. Or rather a visit that would be a surprise to some and not so to others. An Archbishop of the Lodestar church was taking a sabbatical to circumnavigate thepass kingdom and had decided to visit our humble ind on his journey before attempting to be raised to either an ordinal or a cardinal. His ascension was not guaranteed especially as there were only the four cardinal positions avable in the whole church. Though there were also four ordinal positions as well but that was not a lot considering that the church covered the entire continent. It was difficult to urately describe the Lodestar church, partly because we had never really attended, but also because it seemed to be a mix of so many different religions to me. As far as I could tell it seemed to be a mix of Catholicism, Mysticism and Buddhism with a ¡®divine¡¯ mandate to protect those who lived in the light of the lodestar from the creatures that mighte out of the dark depths of the lodestone. It focused on helping the people to live bnced lives in the light of the Lodestar. Our only warning of the event was a messenger pigeon that had been sent by the mayor of Wester Levantest week leaving us a short time to prepare for his arrival. If there was any constion in his unexpected and unannounced arrival was that due to the petty politics between our family and the current priest meant our local priest Aravan would bepletely uninformed of the Bishop¡¯s imminent arrival. I took an inordinate amount of glee at imaging his face when the bishop arrived, and it was one of the few pleasures that would hopefully keep my spirits buoyed because his arrival would cause some personal problems for me. Our peaceful morning breakfast with us waited on by Cora and Baldric had been broken by the message Des and Sinis delivered. They had all left to give us privacy for our discussion. They were trusted with a lot even though they were not family, but not everything by a long shot. ¡°The Light of the Lodestar, his four Cardinals and Ordinals will all be able to see your status.¡± Lady Acacia had informed us upon receiving the news that morning. The information once more changed my understanding of the world. I had grown used to the idea that you could not truly know a person¡¯s strengths just by looking at them. It seemed that for some that was not the case. ¡°That is a given, what is questionable is whether this Archbishop will be able to do so too. Some can and some cannot but the fact that he is attempting his Compass Continent Circumnavigation with the hopes of being elevated does not bode well for us.¡± She continued. The message that the pigeon had brought was not long by any length but it had given us the following information. ¡°Bishop Grigori aspiring Cardinal and entourage. Compass circumnavigation on Pilgrim Path, arrival 7 days.¡± But she was not finished. ¡°Generally, half of Archbishops can see or get a sense of your status while maybe a quarter of bishops. I have not brought this up before because nearly all priests have not raised themselves sufficiently high enough in either skills or levels to be able to do so and certainly not Aravan.¡± She said dismissively. ¡°However, as an Archbishop, Grigori could be anywhere between level 30 and level 70 and very possibly has such an ability with or without holding a shard of the Lodestar.¡± She cautioned. ¡°How do you know his approximate level without meeting him?¡± I asked, everyone had been so secretive about their levels. ¡°The traditional progress within the ranks of the Lodestar church is to first take up the m¨¦tier acolyte which is much like a monk. You forsake worldly possessions and leave your old life behind you. Now if you take this route straight out of childhood then . . .¡± she paused, ¡°It is easier to draw out a table for you than to exin.¡± And she quickly drafted a table exining the process of promotion within the church. As part of theity or as a child - up to level 10 As an acolyte ¨C up to level 20 As a deacon ¨C up to level 30 As a priest ¨C up to level 40 As a Bishop ¨C up to level 50 As an Archbishop ¨C up to level 60 As an Ordinal ¨C up to level 70 As a Cardinal ¨C up to level 80 While the Light of the Lodestar is rumoured to be approaching Level 100. ¡°Now you do not have to wait to get to level 10 before taking up a new m¨¦tier but you will not be able to return to your old one. So, the standard advice within the church hierarchy is to aim for level 10 before taking on a new m¨¦tier. There is obviously also politics involved that might not allow you take up or progress your new profession but on average that is their progression. Furthermore, there is no reason that you cannot have a m¨¦tier prior to joining the Lodestar Church as an Acolyte in the first ce. I fully expect him to be around Level 60 and capable of wielding the skill, Inspect, Observe or Analyse. This could be a problem for at least two of you.¡± She looked pointedly at myself and surprisingly enough Grandfather. ¡°I¡¯ll say he¡¯ll take one look at Kai and shout monster.¡± Aleera tried to make light of the situation. ¡°Why would this be a problem for Grandfather?¡± she asked after she noticed Lady Acacia looking at him as much as at me. ¡°For much the same reason.¡± Lady Acacia replied without exining. Grandfather seemed grateful for her silence on the matter. ¡°Why do they even have these skills?¡± she continued to quiz our resident expert on thepass continent. ¡°Ostensibly they have them to be able to help bnce the citizens of thepass continent. In practice, it is an extrayer of power that the church can use to bnce out the power of the nobility. It is harder to be duplicitous when they can see your secrets. It keeps them a little more honest in their dealings. But it is a skill exercised cautiously and judiciously.¡± She answered. ¡°However this far from the continent there are far fewer witnesses to check that he will observe the civilities of the Compass Civilisations.¡± ¡°I doubt the nobles are happy about that check on them. How do Bishops get the skills and can we?¡± Aleera asked intrigued by the possibility of being able to judge a merchant¡¯s levels and skills before she attempted to fleece them. ¡°Indeed, nobles are not generally known to allow an advantage for others that they cannot monopolize for themselves. Ultimately this is the reason for their chapels. It is not an unexpected case of faith in the Lodestar but rather the benefits that a shard can give them in training their scion¡¯s skills. This is the main reason I was hoping to get our own chapel built here although it appears we have need of it far sooner than I suspected.¡± She frowned. Perhaps frustrated that she had not predicted our current predicament sooner and nned appropriately for it. ¡°How would a chapel and a shard help us?¡± Aleera asked confused, though she was not the only one. ¡°The shards are how the bishops gain the skills.¡± She answered sinctly. ¡°What?¡± I asked surprised. We had not received such a skill from visiting the Lodestar although I had faced more than enough changes during myst visit. Lady Acacia took a ratherrge breath before beginning to exin, ¡°When you selected your m¨¦tier, the very first thing that will have happened on touching the shard of the Lodestar will have been a judgement of your essence. An assessment of who you are in the Light of the Lodestar. It was precisely this assessment that caused your recalibration in my opinion, although as I said previously, I have never heard of such a thing happening before. In the light of the Lodestar your traits you were deemed to be no longer merely human. Now a while the Lightnds on us all equally with a shard of the Lodestar you can see much more than our surface reflection, you can see far more of everything, you can see deeper into reality.¡± We all sat in silence listening to her revtions. This it appeared was notmon knowledge, or at least not to those in my family who sat still in rapt attention. ¡°This was the main reason why I wished us to have an uninterrupted and private selection of our m¨¦tiers. While you were all focused on choosing your m¨¦tiers it would have been possible for a priest to use that moment to see your status provided he or she were to be touching both you and the shard of the lodestar at the same time.¡± She finally exined and the reason for her blocking the priest seemed suddenly more sensible than merely catering to the understandable aversion my mother had to the man. ¡°This is also why nobles build their chapels. By having ess to their own shard of the Lodestar they can practice holding both servants and items in contact with the Lodestar until finally through repeated practice they are able to learn to inspect them, ultimately gain the skill and one day use the skill independently without a shard. This is also the same method for how the bishops over time and the many instances of supporting children and adults in the selection of their m¨¦tiers gain the skill.¡± We winced in realization that a Bishop on the edge or bing an Ordinal or Cardinal would have more than likely have the skill. While Mother seemed to have her own epiphany that Aravan would have been able to see our own status¡¯ naked in the light of the Lodestar had he been able to gain ess. It also for me at least was a pleasant surprise that Lady Acacia had respected our own privacy in the matter and had not pushed to see or rather confirm what she had already been told about our statuses. Despite my less thanplete honesty on the matter it was nice not to have been called out on it. However, she was not finished, ¡°The solution would have been to build our own chapel, gain our own shard of the Lodestar for the Silversea house, learn one of the three skills, then and only then would we have been able to attempt to learn either an obfuscation, counterfeit or substitute skill to hide, conceal or falsify your status to the outside observation the Archbishop is probably capable of.¡± She delivered. We sat in silence considering the problem. Aleera and I were too surprised by the new information to be able to think of a way out other than hiding once more. But that was not really an option anymore now that we were Lord and Lady Silversea. Father had settled for squeezing my mother¡¯s hand in support or either her or himself. Even Lady Acacia seemed to be looking up to the ceiling as if searching for inspiration to our situation. In the end, it was Grandfather who broke the silence shrugging, ¡°Seems simple enough to me. We simply have to steal our own shard of the Lodestar, so these two can gain the skill. It is less of a problem for Aleera true but Kai should pick up the skill easily enough and I can just stay out of sight. I mean he can probably pick up the skill in a day if he puts his mind to it I doubt it will take the week it will be before the Archbishop arrives.¡± He said his piece and waited for us to respond. Lady Acacia gasped at his audacity but didn¡¯t decry the idea immediately. Mother looked thoughtful, while Aleera and I looked at one another to check that we had both heard Grandfather suggest we steal the solution. Many of the skills we had learned from him were perhaps a little dubious in their nature and the method in which he had nurtured them, but he had never had us attempt anything more than mild shenanigans. What he was suggesting now was a step further than anything that hade up before, it was crossing a line, it would be straightforward theft. ¡°We¡¯re not stealing from the faith.¡± Father¡¯s objection was surprisingly vehement and he had let go of mother¡¯s hand to make his point. But he was alone in making it. ¡°I¡¯m not saying we have to take the whole thing. A slice of a shard should be enough, right?¡± he turned to Lady Acacia for her to confirm his idea. To which she merely nodded her head perhaps equally surprised that she too was contemting the idea. ¡°We can¡¯t steal for the guardians of the light the defenders of the Lodestone. That would . . . just be wrong.¡± Father seemed to struggle for words and be appalled at what he seemed to consider immoral behaviour on our part. I had never realized that he was so religious. It was not part of what we did as a family but I supposed that if my parent¡¯s objection was more to the current priest rather than the institution then that could exin a stronger held faith by my father than I had noticed or realized. Some beliefs were held more firmly than others. My parents might project a united front for the majority of the time but they were individuals too. ¡°Don¡¯t think of it as stealing Kaius. Think of it as spreading the faith. I will only take a slice and they grow back don¡¯t they? In time Wester Ponente will have two Lodestars instead of one!¡± He justified his solution beyond the solution it might provide us. ¡°This is more than just us . . . the light of the lodestar shelters all of us.¡± Fathe seemed unsure how to argue his position and returned to quoting catechisms. ¡°I¡¯ve sheltered those of us living here far more than this branch of the church ever has.¡± Grandfather muttered under his breath. ¡°I¡¯d consider it fair payment for services rendered.¡± Father unlike Lady Acacia and I could not tell precisely what Grandfather had muttered but knew that he had not convinced anyone by his objection, ¡°Would it really be unharmed Lady Acacia?¡± he turned to her for wisdom on the matter. ¡°The Lodestar would be unharmed by taking a slice off it, indeed this is how new branches of the church are formed.¡± She answered Kaius before adding to Grandfather, ¡°Provided your father-inw is suitably careful in collecting it.¡± Then when she saw the excitement on our mother¡¯s face she continued to caution, ¡°Though collecting and keeping the slice functional is a little moreplicated than Arawn is implying it might be.¡± ¡°What are theplications? Seems simple to me, I take a knife, take a slice of the shard and bring it back here for you to use to learn your skills.¡± Grandfather shrugged. He appeared to be happy to solve yet another situation with the judicious application of a knife. ¡°While I am sure that with the appropriate skills a knife would a suitable enough instrument in removing a slice from the shard of the Lodestar. No, theplication is that when spreading the Light of the Lodestar the shards that are cut to form the seeds of a new Lodestar must be constantly supplied with Mana before being located once more on either a leyline or fount or simply just in an area high in mana density. If the seed of the Lodestar loses mana for even a single moment it bes merely an inert crystal with the Light of the Lodestar lost forever. How do you expect to aplish that?¡± she asked pointedly. ¡°I can be exceptionally quick when required to be. Are you implying that I don¡¯t have enough mana for the task?¡± he asked and it was difficult to tell if he was actually offended or merely ying the part he hade to inhabit after years in the role as the gruff old grandfather. It was Mother who came to mediate between the two. Not that they required particr mediation it was more to continue the conversation and possible prevent any more objections from Father. ¡°Assuming that Grandfather can take a slice of the Lodestar unnoticed and without causing any harm to the original or any people.¡± She cated Kaius and added the qualifier to ensure Grandfather did not go overboard. ¡°Then the next step is keeping it supplied with sufficient mana while it is moved. Yes?¡± she turned to Lady Acacia for confirmation. ¡°Yes.¡± She confirmed. ¡°Then we will apany him in this heist.¡± She added determinedly. ¡°No, no! No that is not going to work.¡± Grandfather objected immediately. The geas might have been removed or ameliorated but a lifetime of protecting her meant that he still preferred her out of harm¡¯s way or at least any harm that he was not directly in control of. ¡°I can get myself in and out unseen and take a slice unnoticed. I am not going to be able to do that if I am dragging the entire Silversea family with me. I could manage maybe one person and that is if I am carrying them but no more than that. I am going to be moving at speed and my skills will only extend so far beyond my body to include my clothes and maybe a packback but that is it.¡± He continued to object. But mother was not to be denied, ¡°Very well then we will wait in the boat ready to supply mana for its journey to the ind while you carry Kai to provide the mana for when it is first removed.¡± The possible threat to our family had galvanized mother into organizing the heist. We were after all still her children and anything that might be a threat to our futures was fiercely fought against. ¡°Putting aside thepletely sacrilegious nature of the act we are contemting. That will still leave us sitting on our ind having to supply mana to our sliver of the Lodestar day in and day out. Where are you nning to ce it? We have no chapel built or area high in mana here.¡± He had not quite given up on convincing us that this was a bad idea. ¡°The Blue grotto would be good. We are constantly spending our mana there in order to raise the pearls wouldn¡¯t there be enough for the slice of the Lodestar to grow too?¡± I asked unsure if that would be enough to keep the light of the Lodestar alive and growing. ¡°No that would not be enough for the seed of the Lodestar to live let alone grow. Remember the majority of your mana is going to the pearls and they keep it to grow. No actually I believe I might have a solution to where it should be ced.¡± She answered seemingly surprised with herself to also be a providing a hiding ce to facilitate our theft. ¡°You do?¡± Aleera asked the question I was sure we were all interested in hearing answered. ¡°The Lodestar Church might cover the Compass Kingdoms. But although wide in its spread and devotion that does not mean that each race celebrates it equally. We have no churches within the Elvish woods but that does not leave us without the Light of the Lodestar. Our shards of the Lodestar are hidden within or below the trees we live on and there is a reason for this.¡± She once more left us in suspense as she took another sip of her morning tea. Aleera despite her levels in etiquette was too frustrated to wait patiently and honestly neither was I. ¡°And?¡± we chimed in together. ¡°And . . .¡± she paused once more before relieving our frustration with an answer. ¡°Your garden is not growing so spectacrly simply due to yourrge infusions of mana and fine fertilizer. Wanda¡¯s skills are helping certainly but the one of the main supports for your garden is the tree. An Elendil tree is not called elf friend for only the leafy shade it provides us or the fine wood we can sing from it. No, the Elendil tree can both absorb and produce mana, it both gives to and takes from its surroundings. Its roots have been digging deeper into the mountain with each passing day searching for the ley lines that run through the earth as well as producing its own mana which due to the nature of the caldera stays within your garden nurturing your fruit, vegetables and herbs with greater growth than they would have achieved with just your infusions of mana.¡± ¡°It is?¡± Aleera asked excitedly. ¡°Of course. I was not merely suggesting you nt it to bring a little piece of home with me.¡± She answered. ¡°There we have a ce to locate the shard. All the elements are there. The Thief and support,¡± she nodded to Grandfather and I, ¡°The ship to sail away in and more support,¡± she gestured to Father, Aleera and herself, ¡°Finally a ce to hide our stolen item?¡± She inquired of Lady Acacia double checking that the tree suggested would suffice. ¡°It will take me a day to sing a heart grotto beneath the Elendil tree but you and Kai could help me in hollowing out some of the stone to speed up the process.¡± She exined the next steps we would need to take. ¡°Then it is decided, we will be stealing our own shard of the Lodestar tomorrow night.¡± Mother dered for the family. Chapter 126: Heist Chapter 126: Heist ¡°A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom.¡± Chris Hedges We were making a theft which would hopefully allow us to lie to a bishop. The slippery slope we were standing on seemed to be most obvious to Father, but we were all aware of it. The difference was that we for the most part seemed to view it as a necessary evil and hopefully not a descent down that slippery slope into the depths of the Lodestone. That being said the idea that we would be putting on a heist of any sort was fairly exciting. Even more so because we would get to watch Grandfather in action. I was reminded of my theft of the pewter in my first months only this was going to be so much better as this time round I had aplices. We even had a getaway driver in my father as much as he was conflicted over our course of action. The heart grotto underneath the Elendil tree had been shaped and grown by Lady Acacia, Aleera, mother and me this morning. Before the normal toils of the day. We had kept everything as normal as possible. Hopefully, our theft would not be noticed but there was no reason to raise any red gs before the attempt. The evening meal was a little stilted with us wanting to discuss the nighttime activities but not being willing to do so in front of Cora or Baldrick. Finally, it was time for everyone to retire Although I found it difficult to fall asleep with the excitement of the nighttime activities ahead of us. When I was always bored or unable to sleep, I retreated into my mind for a little mental exercise. With the number of new skills, I had been learning I had plenty to practice and never enough time to do so. Working through my martial skills in my mental workout room did not result in any new levels or skills but it did help me to familiarize myself with the movements and sequences to that back in reality I would not have to think through each step quite so strenuously. I continued to add books to my library replicating the ones that Lady Acacia had allowed me to peruse so far. I nned on going through all of her books sooner orter. I might not have the inte as reference materials any longer but her library was extensive in exining the known history of the Compass Kingdoms and their interactions. Her reference books on each race were equally fascinating. However, the books I focused on acquiring first were her books on spellcraft, spellsong, runes, glyphs and sigils. While pottering around in my mental fortress, I used my skill parallel process and my psi abilities to keep an eye on what was happening outside of my body. I watched as Cora and Baldric eventually retired for the night and finally fell asleep. Then I waited until I noticed the rest of my family arise once more. From what I had observed they had not fallen asleep either. When Grandfather came to collect us from our rooms I was ready and waiting. ¡°Ready to go?¡± he asked as he opened the door without knocking. ¡°Yes. I replied excitedly. Though I could detect a frown on Lady Acacia''s face either at my excitement or my Grandfather¡¯s failure to knock on my door. Perhaps she had also been a recipient of what she deemed poor manners earlier. ¡°Well then off we go then.¡± He led the way through the dimly lit halls of our maintain home. Father, Mother and Aleera had to follow closely in his footsteps but Lady Acacia and I seemed to be able to see well enough despite the cloud-covered sky which hid the light of the moon. We silently crossed between the salterns until we arrived at the boat. ¡°In you get then.¡± Father sighed still a little sceptical of the morality of our n. His doubts robbed him of the joy of sailing turning it into just another job however he made no more attempts to change our minds. The boat felt smaller with the six of us on board even though we still had plenty of room. Most days I was used to it just being me and him or at most one other. At a gesture, Aleera and I filled the sails used as we were to hismands we set sail silently slipping through the water in the darkness. The only sound we made was the asional creaking of the ropes and the odd wave against our hull. We soon arrived at our old pier for our old house. Des and Sinis had set up shop in our old home providing transport for anyone who still lived in Wester Town to our ind in the morning so we tied up alongside their boat but did not make ourselves known to them. Grandfather and I left my parents sister and tutor in the boat to wait for us while we attempted the theft. Before we left and passed by our old house in the dead of night Grandfather made sure to check I was tightly tied onto his back to allow him to speed through the streets. I was mortally disappointed when he simply strolled the town gates. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to run along the roofs?¡± I hissed in disappointment. ¡°What is more suspicious?¡± he shrugged and I felt myself move up and down with his shoulders. ¡°A man running along the rooftops or a man taking a midnight walk.¡± He asked rhetorically. We calmly walked along North Street before taking the left fork that would lead us to the Lodestar Church and the market square rather than the right which would have led us back to theke. Resigned to thecklustre start to our leg of the theft I rxed against his back wondering why I wasn¡¯t walking seeing that this had been his n. He paused before reaching thest junction which had the corner of the Lodestar on the other side of the crossroads in sight. ¡°Ready?¡± he asked as he paused on the final corner. We were still out of sight from the Church but about to make a move. If it was anything like our casual entrance to the town I would not have been surprised if he walked up to the main door before letting himself in. ¡°Ready,¡± I replied. It was then that I found out exactly why I was strapped to his back. He, we flickered forwards reaching the base of the Lodestar Church¡¯s tower instantly. Without pausing he transitioned his horizontal movement into vertical momentum as he started to step up the wall of the tower . . . and kept going. I had seen people perform parkour before but this was beyond that. Some other skill had to be at y that was allowing him to continue jumping up the vertical wall. I was suddenly regretting my ability to see perfectly well at night as we ascended higher and higher into the nighttime sky. Atst, we stopped rising any higher when we reached the top of the tower. I slowly managed to unclench my fingers from his shirt. I had been significantly higher jumping off the cliffs but I had also had a lot more control over my descent than I had a minute ago ascending. ¡°If there is the option always take the entrance from the roof. You are out of sight for any lockpicking the job might require.¡± He whispered his wisdom. ¡°There also generally aren¡¯t any guard dogs about on the roof and if you leave the door unlocked you leave your exit clear but that is another story for another time.¡± He once more alluded to life before the ind when such acts might have even beenmonce for him. He knelt with me still strapped to his back to pick the lock to the rooftop door. It only took him a couple of seconds to have the door open and we were descending the bell tower with hopefully no one the wiser for our entrance. The tower rose above the sanctum so once we had tiptoed down the flights of stairs it brought us out in the back of the very room we were trying to reach. The Shard of the Lodestar sat glowing in the centre of the room. ¡°Now the trick topleting this theft without being noticed Kai is to take a part that they won¡¯t know is missing.¡± He exined as we moved closer to the shining stone. ¡°See it continues to grow with the mana provided by the congregation as well as that it draws up from the earth. So we need to take a piece from back or better yet from beneath.¡± He said as he unstrapped me and set me next to the plinth. ¡°Do you think you can remove and rece the stone here at the edge of the plinth so that we can take a seed from the Lodestar without it being noticed?¡± He gestured at the back of the octagonal plinth which happened to be the Northeast side judging by its decorations. All the practice carving and shaping the stone on our ind meant that it would not be a problem for me. ¡°Sure,¡± I answered and set to work carefully separating a nk block of stone measuring thumb by thumb. It was challenging working around the carvings that that covered the plinth but not too difficult leaving him plenty of space to make a cut below what would usually be visible and would be covered up once I reced the block of stone I had removed. ¡°Fine work Kai. Nowes the tricky part. I will make the first cut horizontally into the Lodestar, it isn¡¯t truly a crystal as we know them and won¡¯t shatter from the cut. Then once that is done you need to ce your finger against the wedge we are cutting and supply it with mana while Ie down at it from an angle to remove the new seed.¡± He exined what we were going to do. The first cut went without issue. I was soon pressing my finger against the stone happy that I could actually reach the plinth and the Lodestar. ¡°Ready?¡± He asked once more. ¡°Ready,¡± I replied. The second cut went just as smoothly popping out our wedge of the Lodestar into my palm as I continued to feed it my mana. It''s light waxed and waned depending on the amount of mana I was providing it with. Careful not to run out of mana I kept it at just a little over what I would naturally regenerate to hopefully ensure I could keep supplying it until we got back to the boat where mother, Aleera and Lady Acacia could take over supplying it. ¡°Now to tidy up.¡± He said as he took the block of stone I had removed from the plinth and realigned it in the space I had taken it from. Carefully singing the stone back into ce at a whisper. We stepped back together to inspect our work. To us at least it looked like we had never visited. We turned to congratte one another on a job well done when the door rattled. I had been so focused on the process of removing the stone, supplying the mana, and then resealing the plinth I had not noticed what was immediately obvious on my HUD. Two individuals were standing outside the sanctum attempting to enter. We heard a key enter the lock and Grandfather only had time to grab me and flicker into the shadows of the stairway before we heard the key turn and the door open. Underpriest Cleo and Priest Aravan stood in the doorway in their nightwear. ¡°There¡¯s no one here.¡± Aravan grumpily gestured. ¡°You have had me up in the middle of the night of a fool¡¯s errand.¡± ¡°I felt . . .¡± Cleo seemed confused by the fact that no one was there and the Lodestar seemed untouched. ¡°What did you feel? All you said when you woke me not a minute ago was that you were worried about the Lodestar and that we had to check on it. The only reason that I am here is that you no longer have your key now that I have confiscated it and if anything were to happen to the Lodestar it would be both our heads that would roll.¡± It seemed that Cleo letting us in had not passed by without consequence. It also seemed that the under priest if not the priest could somehow sense that someone had been tampering with the Lodestar. That did not bode well for us. I didn¡¯t understand why Grandfather had paused at the bottom of the stairs rather than continue speedily up them but we could move now without being noticed. ¡°I felt . . .¡± he hesitated once more before continuing unsure, ¡°as if the Lodestar was being weakened somehow.¡± He finally answered. Aravan stepped forward to examine the plinth but seemed to find nothing wrong with it despite our removal and recement of the stone surroundings. ¡°It is the same as always.¡± He answered after checking cautiously. ¡°Nothing is missing, there are no cracks in it or minions stepping out of the shadows of the Lodestone to steal it.¡± He continued after his visual check. I was surprised that despite his grumpiness at being woken he stepped forward to check. ¡°You are sure it¡¯s all right?¡± Cleo continued to question worried by whatever it was that he had sensed when we had taken our seed of the Lodestar. I continued to feed it mana while keeping it and its light concealed in my hand while the shadows sheltered us in turn. ¡°There is nothing wrong, you said you were meditating before bed, correct? It is more than likely that you simply slipped into slumber without noticing and were woken by a dream more of a nightmare than truly sensed anything happening. Now that is resolved we can finally return to our sleep.¡± He ushered Cleo to the door without a second nce at the Lodestar. Cleo who was still yet to be convinced said, ¡°I could always stay with the stone for a little bit. It would be good to meditate in the Light of the Lodestar it might help soothe my worries away.¡± He offered to stay behind. ¡°No. We are both leaving the sanctum and locking it behind us. You are sorely mistaken if you think that I will be leaving you with unsupervised ess to the Lodestar without me again.¡± He reprimanded. ¡°I only escorted them in. Providing them with privacy was hardly a capital crime merely a courtesy offered to the new noble family of the ind.¡± He seemed bewildered as to why he was still in trouble over what he viewed as no more than a polite favour. ¡°It might not be a capital crime or against the creed but that does not mean that it was not a foolish step offer without gaining anything in rpense.¡± He pinched the top of his nose as if he couldn¡¯t quiteprehend how Cleo had acted without his permission or at least advice. ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± He asked still conflicted about the state of the Lodestar on top of this disagreement with his senior. ¡°I know, which is the only reason the only consequence of your actions was me removing this key.¡± He raised the key in question. ¡°You were born here and raised here so you are unaware of the general bnce of power in most cities. Furthermore, the rise of the Silverseas is too soon for the majority including you to have noticed the changes.¡± He sounded almost exasperated by the underpriest¡¯s ignorance. ¡°What changes? The games?¡± he asked excited to possibly have the answer although he did notprehend what he was getting at. ¡°They are hardly a bad thing, they were positive all around both the entertainment they provided the watchers or the prizes and levels they gave thepetitors. I heard that severalpetitors even gained a new skill through their races.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about the games or the race. Look . . .¡± he paused pinching the top of his nose and rubbing his eyes before trying to exin once more the realities of the world to someone who had never left the town he had been born in. ¡°Back in Ponente in any major city there is a bnce of interests, of powers if you will, no one, not even the King hasplete control although to be fair he has considerably more power than most. First and foremost is the King and the crown, then there is the Archbishop and the church, the generals and the army, the nobles and the houses, the captains and the guard, the bank and the merchants, the guild and the craftsmen, finally the farmers andndowners.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± he asked not getting what Aravan was driving at. ¡°Here though? The King is too far to matter without some sort of envoy which we do not warrant being a pioneer town and paying no tax, the Silverseas are effectively the King¡¯s representatives being recognized as a new noble house of Ponente. How they managed to do that and survive the bacsh from the nobles I do not know other than to assume that the distance from the court has made it not worth the effort. As for the Church that is just us two and even there our influence is being cut into by this new school of the Silverseas we no longer educate any of their children. There is no army merely a militia that has seen no use at all since Arawn arrived, another member of the Silversea house. As for the Nobles we have none other than the new Adals again branches of the Silverseas. There is no guard but if there was they would be paid for by the Silverseas, indeed Smit is the local bank providing loans when people need them in cases of misfortune or need loans to get them started and independent from their parents. As for the Guilds again, the Silversea family branches cover most of the professions you would find in it. As for the farmers andndowners, there is not a single square meter outside the walls of Wester that is not owned by the Silversea family and let me tell you that was not a pleasant surprise to find out.¡± ¡°They do?¡± ¡°Yes, I requested permission on behalf of the Lodestar Church to build a shrine on the westernmost point of the ind, thepass edge if you will ornd¡¯s end, the limit of human life in the Light of the Lodestar. Imagine my surprise when the response returned stating that I would have to take it up with the localndowner Smit. Ultimately, that was why I returned early from the consultation on building a chapel on their ind. He refused to donate thend in question in rpense for our efforts.¡± ¡°You did not offer to purchase thend?¡± Cleo quietly questioned. ¡°I doubt that he would have epted any offer that we could afford. That is the danger with monopolies they are unlikely to give up any advantage no matter how small.¡± He muttered. ¡°Needing to select new metiers for their children was a small lever that we could have attempted to use to pry forth some small agreement but you lost us that.¡± ¡°You would use the light of the lodestar as a bargaining tool?¡± Cleo asked sounding somewhat disillusioned. ¡°Not a bargaining tool a counterbnce to offset the current power imbnce developing on the ind.¡± He confirmed his position. ¡°Then why the sudden worry about the Lodestar? I doubted you would listen to me before I woke you up and was afraid of your rebuke but you were equally worried.¡± Cleo added. ¡°After the initial fear of some form of base race attack from the depths of the Lodestone had been proven false. I was still worried that the Silverseas might be making a y for it. The church has control over a few shards of the Lodestar in Elvishnds and the next step for most noble families with the support of the church is to create their own chapels with their own shards. We were only just talking about creating one on their ind and I worried that they might be taking matters into their own hands with or without our blessing.¡± ¡°Then you believe me? That the Lodestar truly is weaker than it was this morning.¡± ¡°No. We came, we saw it is the same, no harm hase to the Lodestar and it is time to return to bed.¡± ¡°To bed, should I not stand vigil, to protect it?¡± the concerned under priest asked. ¡°If you are truly worried about harm or threats to the Lodestar you may search the town for anything out of ce but that is that.¡± He answered giving Cleo his marching orders refusing once more to allow him to stay in the room. ¡°No one is to be allowed in without me, not even you alone.¡± He said as he ushered Cleo out of the room locking the door firmly behind him. We continued to stand in silence for a second as we heard their steps depart before Grandfather dashed up the flights of stairs with me under his arm. He had just strapped me onto his back once more when we heard the front door to the church open. ¡°Time to go, Kai, looks like you get to see a rooftop dash after all.¡± He whispered before he leapt from the top of the tower. Wended silently on the round roof of the building opposite. We were out of sight of Cleo whose unease had driven him to circle the church. Before he could arrive at our end of the church Grandfather sprinted along the shingles in darkness and silence magically failing to crack any of them beneath his wait and running along them as if they were as t as a road rather than the steep angles they were. He leapt the next street as we continued our flight out of town and jumped one more to the top of the town wall before running east along it to theke where he quickly climbed down and raced to the boat. The family had been waiting ready to set sail probably anxiously seeing as it had taken us far longer than we had expected. ¡°You have the seed?¡± Asked mother worriedly. ¡°Yes, yes,¡± Grandfather responded as he once more unstrapped me from my back. Once free Aleera and I filled the sail with the wind while handing off the seed of the Lodestar to mother and Lady Acacia to supply with mana. ¡°Needs a little more mana.¡± Lady Acaciamented on its dim glow They must have provided more mana because it began to shine brighter between their sped hands. ¡°Keep it down.¡± Father pointed to the bottom of the boat. ¡°If we are going to steal the Light of the Lodestar could you at least keep it out of sight?¡± Despite his support, he was still conflicted about our theft. It was not long before we were once more back on the ind then climbing up the slope. Mother made it to the ind before she tapped out. ¡°I¡¯m out of mana.¡± Aleera carried it across the salterns before she too ran dry. Lady Acacia carried it a quarter of the way up before she too ran out. ¡°Look give it back to Kai and I will run him up to the top.¡± Grandfather suggested and I took back the seed once more. Yet again I was picked up by my Grandfather and he shed up the slope leaving the others far behind despite their protestations that they would be right behind us. Once within the cone of our mountain I approached the base of the Elendil tree we had carved a set of stone steps to disappear beneath it. The roots left a small entrance for us to pass through. Then in the centre of the heart grotto, the tap root went down. Lady Acacia had sung a pocket into which we were to ce the seed. Unwilling to wait for the others to arrive I ced the seed in the centre of the pocket in the tap root and watched as it began to shine brightly pulling from the tree as it settled in and joined to the root seamlessly. We breathed a sigh of relief at our sessful efforts. ¡°Congrattions on your first heist, boy.¡± Grandfather ruffled my head in satisfaction. ¡°Couldn¡¯t have done it without you, old man,¡± I replied happy that the first stage in fooling the bishop appeared to have beenpleted without a hitch. Now we just had to learn those skills. We waited infortable silence bathed int he blue light of the growing seed of the Lodestar for our family to arrive. Chapter 127: Secret sliver Chapter 127: Secret sliver ¡°Crystals are living beings at the beginning of creation.¡± Nik Te While we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive, I had a thought. The new seed of the Lodestar we had cut from the shard of the Lodestar in the Church¡¯s Sanctum had nevere close to perishing while I had carried it. Somehow using only my natural regeneration of mana I had managed to keep it functional although dim. Admittedly I was lucky to have Source of Mana as a trait but it meant that I regenerated mana significantly faster than my sister, mother and possibly even our tutor. What if I kept a slice for myself? Surely, I could keep it alive so to speak with my mana. It might never grow in size from the amount of mana I was feeding it with, but it would give me a portable Light of the Lodestar that the church was built around. I could carry it around with me all the time. That sounded like a potent power to have on hand. The ability to assess someone¡¯s level maybe even their stats. I could put it into a ring on my hand so that what I touched I could use it to assess. That was the n anyway to develop the skill we would need to fool the bishop we were to spend time muning¡¯ with the Lodestar learning to read the world the way it did us before we could attempt to hide from anyone who else able to read the world, the church. However wouldn¡¯t that process be quicker if I kept it on me the entire time? Excited I turned to Grandfather who was waiting watching to see our families approach now that the seed had been ced in the Elendil tree and appeared to be settling into its new spot. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could cut an extra little bit off for me?¡± I wheedled. ¡°We have a seed. Why do you want your own?¡± he asked. ¡°Just a little side project I¡¯ve thought of,¡± I answered. ¡°I was just thinking that I could make my own ring with it.¡± ¡°A ring?¡± he frowned tapping his knife at his side. ¡°Yes, if we are going to have to spend time here in the tree to attempt to gain the skills. Think how much faster that might go if I held on all the time.¡± I exined my reasoning. ¡°Would it not be best to run it by Lady Acacia first?¡± he asked unconvinced of my suggestion. ¡°A private project for a private man. I¡¯d like to see if this works if we wait I will have four more people I have to convince of my idea. Let me see if I can get it to work. Then if it does we can make more for the rest of the family.¡± I argued. ¡°They wouldn¡¯t have enough mana to keep the Light of the Lodestar alive.¡± He pointed out. ¡°Probably not, no harm in letting me have a go.¡± I hadn¡¯t given up but I was running out of time to convince him before the rest of my family arrived. They would be here soon, then I would have to exin my thoughts to all of them. ¡°I could alwaysmand you to do to it,¡± I grumbled, unhappy that I had promised him I would not add any orders to the life he had led being bound by them. ¡°You could,¡± he admitted, ¡°and I¡¯m grateful that you haven¡¯t.¡± he sighed before asking. ¡°How much do you want?¡± ¡°Just a nail''s worth. Something small that I could fit under a ring or tie to round my skin somewhere. I¡¯m going to have to keep feeding it mana if I am to keep its light alive.¡± I rified, happy I had somewhat convinced him to let me run my experiment. He carefully chiselled a piece from the seed as I supplied it with mana the tiny sliver transferred carefully to under my sleeve where I tied it tight to my arm with a handkerchief. Grandfather helped tie the knot. As he finished it, he whispered, ¡°Careful not to carry too many secrets lest they pull you under, Kai.¡± Then he straightened and exited the grotto to wee the rest of our family. . . . The rest of the family had finally arrived. Aleera ran through the entrance before rxing in relief at the sight of the light of the Lodestar illuminating the grotto. ¡°You made it in time.¡± She affirmed and I never mentioned the little sliver I had taken for myself with the rest of the family on her heels. Mother was next to enter and also happy that the first step in hiding our status from the soon-to-arrive archbishop wasplete. ¡°Honestly serves that smug individual right. I know that an unknown theft is a perfect theft but at the same time, I wish we could somehow have let him know that it had been taken. If only it would not lead right back to us.¡± She also seemed conflicted that her minor revenge on the man was never going to be known. The third person to enter was Lady Acacia who went to check the cement of our seed and ensure it was receiving enough mana from the rtively new Elendil tree that we had helped to grow at the centre of our garden. ¡°It seems to have been transnted perfectly. It is naturally drawing from the mana of the Elendil tree which in turn is drawing from the surroundings and deeper into the lodestone the local ley lines.¡± She turned to Aleera, ¡°The garden might not be as bountiful for a while as it establishes itself but it should soon even itself out.¡± ¡°Was it worth it?¡± Father asked still conflicted about the theft. ¡°Whates next?¡± ¡°First we need a good night¡¯s sleep but then tomorrow their training shall begin.¡± Lady Acacia answered turning to the exit, but we had one more surprise for her. Before nting the tree, prior to hiring Wanda or our cousins visiting the secret garden we had bored up through the mountain creating an inverted tower a well through the heart of the mountain. But once others were visiting we had covered it up and hidden the entrance. When we had been working on the heart grotto we had opened up an entrance to it without her knowledge. It was time to reveal the secret. ¡°There¡¯s a quicker way down then,¡± Aleera said while Mother opened the way leading us through the secret passageway until we were all looking down the well the circr staircase way wound its way down. ¡°The Silverseas, always another silver secret to be found hidden in the depths of the sea. You have one more to add to your collection.¡± Lady Acaciamented on the reveal as we worked our way down to the tunnels that ran through the mountain and joined up with the back of our entrance hall before we once more made our way to bed, no one the wiser for our night time theft of the light. Or my own personal project I had tied tight to my arm and out of sight under my sleeve. . . . Despite the excitement of the night I fell fast asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow. I woke just as suddenly pping my hand to my arm to check by touch that it was still tied tight. Failing to have formed a core properly might have proved challenging for controlling my spellcraft and spellsong but in this instance it was perfect. My body without conscious control naturally produced more mana than I either needed or could hold so it seemed that the excess I was producing was being drained into the seed of the lodestar much as my amulet had done before. My amulet! That was a mana reservoir that would keep the seed alive for as long as I had held it. Years even. The mana reef too if I took it out there would be good if I wanted it to grow not that I wanted to grow mine. I dug through my chest for the amulet I had been asked not to wear to allow my core to form properly. Once it was out it was time to see if my idea would work. I carefully untied the knots holding the seed against my skin, it was harder than when they were tiedst night as I was doing it on my own. In the end, I had to involve my teeth to do it. It was all very awkward and the next time I did this, if there was a next time, I would be strapping it somewhere a lot more essible to both hands like a leg. Eventually, after an excruciatingly nerve-wracking set of maniptions, I was left holding my nail¡¯s worth of Lodestar between my fingers still alight. The amulet was far moreplex than I had once thought. I had now studied the runes on it and it was an incredibly clever piece of jewellery each rotation aligned a different rune allowing the mana reservoir to flow and produce the effect. What I needed to do was ce the seed in what was effectively the off position due north for it to receive mana from the reservoir of the emerald gem. I would not be able to use any of the other effects but then I was not supposed to be wearing it at the moment anyway. I then took a small pot of isinss, it was a type of fish glue Uncle Karl had introduced us to and very carefully attached the tiny seed to my amulet. Taking care in all this to keep supplying it with mana the entire time until it was finally attached and glowing of its own ord from the mana of the emerald in the centre of the amulet. I would have to work on a more permanent piece of jewellery for it but for now, my secret seed was safe and secure although I was going to have to keep it wrapped up tight to hide the light. Time to make my way to breakfast and find out just how we were supposed to use the light of the lodestar to train those skills. Chapter 128: Another layer to reality Chapter 128: Anotheryer to reality ¡°Mark my words. Perception is reality and how someone perceives you is their reality.¡± Chris Murray I left the sliver I¡¯d stolen attached to my amulet in my chest. The amulet would keep the light alive or it wouldn¡¯t. If it did, fantastic! If it didn¡¯t, there was no reason I couldn¡¯t try my idea again. I would just have to be a little sneaky if I wished to keep my attempts private. Breakfast was once more a little stilted with us avoiding talking about the only thing we were thinking about. I was sure that Cora and Baldric probably thought that something was up, either an argument or a disagreement, but I highly doubted they suspected the reality of the situation. ¡°Baldric let Des and Sinis know that we will not be having any of the cousins attending our school today or this week. We have some specialized training toplete in the garden for the foreseeable future.¡± Lady Acaciamanded. Technically they were our butler and maid but she had helped to employ them. Then she had trained them to the appropriate standards of Ponente of which we had no knowledge. Their lessons were as much for them as they were for us. In the end, it meant that they followed hermands as much as they did ours. Our daily schedules had been reorganized so that we could focus on gaining the skills we would need to confound the archbishop should he arrive and visit us. We would not be attempting to teach our cousins while we tried to gain them. Now that we had introduced Lady Acacia to our less polished tunnels and our secret stairway to the garden that was the way we walked after breakfast. It was a lot quicker although the stairs never seemed to end and it was hard to measure progress with the stairs spiralling around and around. ¡°Your family¡¯s architectural efforts continue to astound.¡± Sheplimented as we made our way up the circr stairway. ¡°So many novel styles and ideas.¡± It was difficult to say whether she was probing for greater detail and an exnation of their origin or merelymenting on their originality. We had taken our mana motenterns and they lit up the inverted tower, well. ¡°Kai is always drawing one thing or another, he could probably draw as soon as he could speak if not earlier.¡± Aleera referred to the unusual nature of her younger brother. As much as my rapid progress frustrated her sometimes she was equally proud of my achievements. ¡°I have a lot of ideas.¡± I defended. ¡°But actually, I could sing before I could speak.¡± I quibbled. Singing or at least humming had been a lot easier to pick up than developing my fine motor control or learning another newnguage. It had been impossible to put words to thoughts or things from within the womb. Whereas a melody and its attached sounds had been far simpler to pick up. ¡°I¡¯ve never noticed any of your drawings other than what I have asked for?¡± Lady Acacia questioned where exactly I kept them all. She looked interested in what else I might have imagined. ¡°I packed them away for safekeeping. You have a lot of lessons for us to learn¡± Now that I had my own secret tunnels I had my own little hiding ces throughout the mountain where I might hide a reading spot or a set of books. Some of which I had been drawing in for years. I had never been a normal baby much like I was not a normal child now. Lady Acacia would find no sketches other than the ones she had requested if she went looking through my room. But I had drawn up various ns for the ind. For our furniture, even for the town. Though a fair few of them were conflicting and they would not all work at the same time if attempted. One aspect of the drawing skill I loved was how it built upon what I already had gradually measuring my improvement and giving me hints or help on how to improve until I was drawing far finer than I ever had before. I had drawn sketches of people and ces. I had had designed buildings, canals, and bridges. I had outlined ideas for gliders, bikes and boats. As I worked with my cousins picking up their skills there was no reason I could not inject some of my ideas. Working with Karl on the carpentry I had asked what if we had a de held at an angle and ran it along the wood to create a smooth level cut. While he had initially felt there was no point to the request as he could do that easily enough with his skills, he had humoured me. A weekter he had made a working ne. It was a little thing, not much in the grand scheme of things and arguably he could do just as fine a job with his skills. But he did admit that it helped me and my cousins to produce a finer piece of work. It would be small adjustments like this that would drive our progress. I did not know necessarily how to do or make such things but if I could ask the question or suggest a solution then others would be able to build on those foundations. Taking my ideas further and making them a reality. ¡°Where do you get your inspiration?¡± Lady Acacia asked as we continued to climb the spiral staircase. It appeared that she was not yet ready to let go of the architect of the tower we were climbing. ¡°Nature, animals, dreams. I draw inspiration from everywhere.¡± I answered cautiously. There were some secrets still I had yet to tell. Where did the idea for circr towerse from? We had carved up through the mountain working upwards from the original cave we had found. Naturally, it had formed a circr tunnel boring straight upwards. The staircase we had ultimately added onter. ¡°Old soul indeed.¡± She murmured to herself. ¡°I¡¯m sure otherse up with simr ideas. I mean it is just a tower.¡± I yed down my rtive brilliance. I had never been a genius simply wiser than my physical years. Something the Lodestar itself had noticed. ¡°Yes there are prodigies in music or art, geniuses in mathematics or other academic studies, savants with various weapons, but they tend to develop such a skill in one facet of civilization. You on the other hand are attempting to achieve it for all facets of civilization. Such ack of focus is spreading you thin but despite this, you do a passable effort at keeping up with any of them who focus on only a single one.¡± She replied. We finished the climb in silence, thinking about the past, present or future, mulling over our own thoughts. Finally, we reached the top chose the correct exit and after a short passage to the base of the tree returned to the heart grotto of the Elendil lit by the blue light of the Silversea Lodestar. ¡°It feels a little like home.¡± Shemented as we entered. ¡°You have your own Lodestar in your tree?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°No, I¡¯m not the Elvish Emperor or his vassal Elvish Kings, I¡¯m not royalty. But that is not to say that I have not been able to have ess to such sites.¡± Lady Acacia deflected. There is a bnce in all things and while the Lodestar was needed. Its presence will curtail the growth of the Elendil tree as it continues to reestablish itself.¡± Focused on the task at hand and the desire to keep my abilities to myself. I asked, ¡°So what¡¯s first?¡± ¡°First things first, do not attempt to choose another m¨¦tier, it will lock out your current option and you will be unable to return to it.¡± She stated abruptly. Reminding us that while we may have had 12 levels as a child, we had yet to achieve many levels in our new m¨¦tier. We nodded in understanding. ¡°Second while holding it hold one another¡¯s hands and attempt to assess their strengths and weaknesses. In time you should be able to hone your skills to be able to tell their level and approximate stats but first you need to develop a sense of them.¡± She outlined. ¡°Yes Lady Acacia,¡± we replied. At this point, she revealed a case that she had carried up with her. She opened the case disying a wide assortment of gemstones. They ranged in colour working through the spectrum: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and finally finished with clear and ck stones. ¡°Third the dwarves use this method for training their miners and gem smiths, admittedly they do it the other way around with their students learning the stones first and then testing their knowledge. We will be using it the other way around with you using the light of the Lodestar to learn their names. It is a lot easier to inspect items with a little bit of mana to help light up their existence but no consciousness to defend themselves.¡± She gave us the next step. ¡°How does the mana help?¡± I questioned curiously. While Aleera asked, ¡°How does a consciousness defend . . . why would that make a difference?¡± ¡°The mana gives each item a light of its own. Admittedly nothing like the Light of the Lodestar but think how it is easier to see stars in the night sky. The mana emitted will help you see their tiers and names.¡± She exined to me. ¡°Just as we are hoping to develop the skills to obstruct another¡¯s gaze this is all built on a sentient¡¯s natural tendency to protect itself. By looking at a stone something without sentience it will hopefully be easier to achieve the skill. But because of this, you will always find it significantly harder to assess the abilities of an individual stronger than you. Despite your strengths and abilities, this is still likely to be the case for most adults for you. That doesn¡¯t mean it is impossible just significantly harder to achieve. A gemstone has no sentience and therefore no innate ability to defend itself from the light of the Lodestar.¡± She exined to my sister. As I listened, I thought this might be easier than I thought. I already have a highly levelled skill mana sense as well as all my other sensory skills and the trait super senses. When I used mybined senses I could already sense differing levels of mana in both the pearls and the sapphires our cousins mined I had just never categorized them or split them into levels. Hopefully, this woulde naturally to me. I was hoping that the Lodestar wouldbel what I could already see. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get started then. The longer you are both holding the Lodestar the better.¡± She gestured. ¡°I will be in the garden while you make the attempt. Do not be discouraged if you do not seed straight away. It can take a while to develop.¡± She said then left us alone in the grotto to see what we could achieve. ¡°Ready?¡± I asked Aleera. ¡°Ready.¡± She replied confidently. Holding hands and in unison, we reached forward to touch the shard of Lodestar together. Wee, Lord Callen Kai Silversea! I heard and saw the words once more but this time I was ready and focused. I knew what to expect and concentrated to see if I could hear anything else. I thought maybe I could hear an echo but it was quiet and hard to distinguish possibly more my overactive imagination than reality. Wee, Lady Aleera Silversea! That was all I heard initially. It appeared that we were not to be offered a new m¨¦tier every time we made contact with the Lodestar. Or perhaps it already deduced our intent. The Lodestar was still new to me and magical. Holding hands and touching the Lodestar meant that we did not have a spare hand to pick up the gemstones that Lady Acacia had left behind, leaving us in a temporary predicament. ¡°So . . . how are we going to do this then?¡± Aleera asked looking down at our currently tied-up hands. ¡°Well, first we need to let go of one another but keep touching the Lodestar as apparently, that is what will help us develop the skill. Then start working our way through the stones.¡± I shrugged my answer knowing as little as she did. ¡°Very well. Where shall we start.¡± She asked. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the purple ones,¡± I said letting go of her hand to pick up the stones. ¡°Purple stone number one,¡± I said lifting it out of the box. I could see a note underneath the gem but we were supposed to be using the Light of the Lodestar to work out their names not crib the notes from the box. I held it for a moment searching for anything more that I could see on it or from it while touching the Lodestar. Nothing was immediately visible so I passed it to Aleera after holding it for a minute so that she could hold it while I reached down and picked up purple gemstone number two. Lady Acacia had not been explicit in her instructions and her only caution had been that it could take time. Closing my eyes to remove the distraction of sight I concentrated on using my other senses. Mana sense showed the stone glowing brightly in front of me with its mana. I had always been able to sense the levels of mana held in our pearls or gemstones before. I mainly used it to find them though. I had never really used it to try to grade them before. Purple gemstone two, looked much the same as purple gemstone one, to the eye at least. The difference was in the mana it held. Perhaps they were the same type of stone merely different grades. I focused once more on the stone in my hand then used my mana sense topare it to my sisters. Yes, there was a clear difference between the two of them. The second stone was far stronger than the first, double its strength. But that was not anything more than I would have normally been able to sense on my own. I had just never tried to differentiate between the two before. ¡°Anything?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Nothing more than usual,¡± I replied. ¡°You can see a difference?¡± she asked. ¡°Not visually but to my mana sense there is a difference,¡± Imented. ¡°There is?¡± she asked sounding a little worried. ¡°Yes, this one is stronger than your stone,¡± I replied handing it over for her to inspect. ¡°Once again you can see something I can¡¯t.¡± She sighed. I wondered what level she had managed to get her mana sense to but it wasn¡¯t particrly polite to ask especially if you were pointing out someone¡¯s weaknesses rather than praising their strengths. ¡°Don¡¯t give up try holding both. Now close your eyes, which feels stronger.¡± I suggested. ¡°The second but now I don¡¯t know if that is just because you have told me that was the case.¡± Sheined. ¡°Trust in yourself, trust in your abilities,¡± I tried to reassure her. ¡°It¡¯s difficult to do sometimes when your younger brother can see more, do more and be more years in advance of yourself.¡± She sounded chagrined though I knew she had nothing to be ashamed of. ¡°I¡¯ll always look after you, big sister.¡± I grinned and gave her a hug trying tofort her. I would not hold myself back from learning new skills, skills I needed but I would hopefully inspire her to challenge herself rather than crush her belief in herself. ¡°And I you.¡± She hugged me back fiercely, perhaps squeezing out some of her frustration. ¡°Let¡¯s get back to it.¡± She dered optimistically. . . . We spent the morning working our way through the different stones. Working through the colours of the rainbow. We soon realized that Lady Acacia had a range of ¡®tiers¡¯ in each gem which webelled as such. We also thought that we should be doing the same with our pearls rather than just selling them as deep-sea pearls there was clearly a qualitative difference between them and we should be selling them as such rather than just selling them wholesale. Aleera lit up at the idea that she might be able to charge Mercurio more based on their quality rather than just their quantity. The revtion also left her determined to master the skill of being able to tell their tiers by touch if not by sight. However, we had yet to see or hear any elusive announcement by the Light of the Lodestar. Lady Acacia returned with a light snack foraged from our garden and prepared for us by her hands which was a first. ¡°This is lovely,¡± I said as we ate our repast. ¡°Yes,¡± Aleera added. ¡°Just a little something from my homnd. The Elendil has grown enough to produce some fruit that can be harvested.¡± She said fondly. ¡°It¡¯s delicious,¡± I repeated as I hurriedly swallowed half of the food. Anyone who has ever had siblings or even a partner will recognize the subtle rush to eat half of the food before it is infringed upon. Or maybe that was just my poor manners showing through as was about to bemented on. ¡°Manners maketh man Kai.¡± She critiqued pulling me up on my hasty eating habits. ¡°She is hardly eating any slower,¡± Iined once my mouth was no longer full of food. Pointing at my sister who clearly felt the same subtle pressure that I did and was inhaling the food as nearly as quickly as I had been. She paused before answering, ¡°It is not necessarily the speed that is the problem merely thepleteck of using the provided utensils.¡± Aleera sat there smugly using the aforementioned twin-tined fork. I had assumed they were finger foods and had just started using my fingers. ¡°Any progress towards gaining the skill?¡± she asked interested in our response but not expecting sess so early on in the day. ¡°Not yet,¡± Aleera answered honestly. ¡°We can see the difference in the strength of the stones,¡± I answered unwillingly to admit that we had no progress. ¡°But that is from mana sense more than using the Light of the Lodestar.¡± Aleera qualified ufortable with implying that we were making more progress than we had. ¡°A good first step. Keep trying I will return home to continue Cora¡¯s and Baldric¡¯s training provided they have not disappeared with either your mother or your father.¡± She stated referring to the fact that Baldric spent more time on their father¡¯s boat with him than preparing our home for his return. We nodded goodbye and then returned to standing by the Lodestar. Without the return of Lady Acacia likely to happen any time soon, I raised the stone floor to give us some seating as well as raised the case of gemstones. It was stone so it was not a particrly soft seat but it gave our legs a break for a bit and made it a lot easier to handle the gemstones. ¡°Shall we start again?¡± I asked Aleera. ¡°Yes.¡± She replied determinedly. We were going to get there. . . . Eventually. . . . One day. . . . Soon. . . . Lady Acacia had yet to return perhaps expecting that it would take a while to achieve any results. Leaving usmuning with crystals all day had developed into something of a meditative trance. We would keep our hand on the Lodestar while using our other to touch the stones. I was holding a sapphire and staring at it when I realized there was more than the visual spectrum of blue to it, which was confusing but there it was. I switched back between mana sense, sight and echolocation until I realized that the extra blue I was sensing was not simply a condition of mana sense merging with my sight after looking at stones for so long with so many different senses. Rather the blue was separate to my sight andyered on top of it. Gradually as if my eyes wereing into focus it began to resolve itself. It grew in rity and definition until finally, I could say I was seeing the words Sapphire Tier 2gemstone hanging alongside the gemstone. It was either that or I had lost it and was now seeing hallucinations. This notion was quickly dispelled by the . . . Ding! Inspect (Lv1) I was immediately tempted to shout out about my sess. But then on second thought I passed on the stone to Aleera and continued to pick up the next. There was no harm in dying my announcement. We were going to continue to look at all the stones for a while yet anyway. I was worried that I was gradually or not so gradually inducing learned helplessness in my sister despite her optimism to continue and achieve results on her own. My speedy results had to hurt even if she imed otherwise. There was no harm in my waiting a while. Besides, there were a lot of gemstones still to assess. So I continued with our ritual only now I could see in far greater detail the true nature of the gemstones I was touching. Emerald Tier 3 Citrine Tier 1 Fire Opal Tier 2 Ruby Tier 1 Morganite Tier 1 Diamond Tier 3 Amethyst Tier 3 In time hopefully, I would be able to do it by sight as much as by touch but for now, I was happy with my progress. I was also wise enough to support my sister with her progress through my silence on my sess. We spent the afternoon infortable silence passing a fortune back and forth between us. This method of training a new skill could only be afforded by those with silver spoons in their mouths and hands full of gemstones. We knew we were lucky, but would we have enough time to learn the skill, that was the question. Chapter 129: Blood binds us all Chapter 129: Blood binds us all ¡°The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.¡± Mario Puzo We spent the entire day holding the Lodestar with Aleera attempting to gain the Inspect skill. I continued to practice my skill having already gained it. I also discovered it was not limited to the stones. I could now inspect the tree by touch, the stone under our feet, and all the items that made up my clothing. The mana within the gemstones certainly made it easier to do so but it was not impossible with the other objects. Despite my pleasure at being able to do so, other than the names of the gemstones which I could have guessed, it did not show me anything I did not already know. Still, it was good practice to continue levelling up the skill. The next step would be to do so without touching said objects but I was not there yet. ¡°How has the day progressed?¡± Lady Acacia asked as she arrived to escort us back down to dinner. ¡°We haven¡¯t got the skill yet,¡± Aleera answered for the two of us. I felt a little off at the deception but if I achieved it tomorrow, I could always say I spend the night practising. ¡°It takes time, and we are rushing for the arrival of the Archbishop. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself to achieve it. We will try again tomorrow but ultimately it is Kai who needs the skill far more than you. While your attributes are wonderful, they are not as oundish or eye-catching as his.¡± She exined. Aleera nodded her understanding. Not yet disappointed by the fact that I already had it. ¡°Kai you will need to keep practising. Aleera while don¡¯t you go on ahead while he puts in a little more practice? It is not unheard of for scions to sleep in the light of the Lodestar in their chapels until they have gained the skill. Although admittedly they would be a little older when attempting to do so.¡± ¡°If Kai is going to sleep up here through the night, I don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t too. We can keep each otherpany.¡± She volunteered. ¡°Very well, but you will still need to organize some bedding to be brought up either way. Time to be about it.¡± Lady Acacia capitted to her suggestion while still requiring her to step away to facilitate it. I waved at Aleera as I stood there still holding the Lodestar. Resigned to returning Aleera rolled her eyes and departed to pick up something for us to sleep on. I could form some stone beds, but no one could call stone particrly soft. As she left I wondered whether my attempt with my secret sliver of Lodestar had worked or not. It looked like it would be a little longer before I could return and check up on my experiment. Lady Acacia seemed keen to keep me here while sending my sister away. We watched Aleera depart and stood there in silence for a while longer. ¡°You have stopped testing the gemstones?¡± she pointedly questioned the fact that with Aleera gone I had not resumed my checking of the stones. ¡°Right,¡± I started and picked up the stones once more. Without Aleera to pass them on to I was putting them back into the box before picking up the next. But my skill was not telling me anything new, only their names and their tiers. ¡°So you already have the skill then?¡± Lady Acacia questioned after watching me for a moment. I thought I had kept everything identical to before she had first left but clearly not. ¡°Um, yes?¡± I winced. ¡°How can you tell?¡± I asked intrigued. ¡°First off, your silence when Aleera answered for the two of you, that was unusual to hear you chime in. Second, you are holding the gemstones for a far shorter period of time than when you first did. Either you already have the skill or you have gottenzy in attempting to gain it, something that would be distinctly out of character. Thirdly, you just confirmed my suspicion now. If you wished to avoid answering you should have responded with a question or firm denial if your Lie, deceive or mislead skill is not sufficiently high enough to defeat your questioner¡¯s skills. For example, you could have asked, what makes you think that? This would have deflected the question without having to either confirm or deny my suspicions.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± I sighed out loud a little defeated at the defeat of my deception. Not that I had ever nned on holding onto it for too long. ¡°I am assuming that you did not wish to dispirit your sister.¡± She sighed. ¡°Yes, she tried just as hard as me it did not seem fair that I should be rewarded with the skill first when she was trying just as hard.¡± I knew that she was proud of my sesses, but it had to wear on her. But I could not see a solution other than the multitude of areas I was attempting to focus on meant that I could leave areas she was interested in alone, such as merchanting. As long as she was making me money too did it matter? ¡°Fair? No, I guess not but life is never fair. Circumstance has just as much to do with sess as the effort you make. You have a significant advantage over her with your traits and stats it is to be expected that you would gain the skill first and you should not hobble yourself in attempting to keep up her spirits you will do neither of you two any favours in the long run.¡± She cautioned. ¡°I know it is just difficult, I thought I would wait till tomorrow to tell her I have it,¡± I admitted. ¡°Very well but this should not stop you from attempting to gain the next skill in the tree. Once you have inspect and can do so by touch the next step is to move forward to try and gain observe. It is essentially the same skill but only using the light of the lodestar through sight rather than using the magic of the Lodestar through your sense of touch. ¡°How do I go about doing that then?¡± I asked. ¡°The same way that you have been learning the inspect skill. You keep inspecting the gemstones using the light of the lodestar but this time you need to be attempting to do so before you touch them.¡± ¡°I just need to look at things?¡± I raised my eyebrow ¡°No, you need to observe them.¡± She corrected mynguage. ¡°You need to try to inspect an object without touching it.¡± She reiterated her earlier point. ¡°It will take time but judging by the fact that it took you less than a day to acquire the inspect skill it is not beyond you to learn it. Congrattions on your progress by the way. You managed to achieve it far faster than expected. At this rate, I truly do have some hope that we will be able to construct either an artificial status or at least hide your current one from any Archbishop thates calling.¡± It was not long before Aleear returned huffing and puffing with two bedding rolls. She was so keen to gain the skill that she had also brought up our supper and informed everyone that we would be eating and sleeping up here for the foreseeable future. Cora and Baldric would bring up better amodations tomorrow but would not be able to purchase them before then. We had a quick repast before we continued with our practice. Both of us attempting to gain a skill though the name of it now differed. . . . ¡°What do you mean there is nond for sale?¡± The Archbishop inquired of the tax man on Wester Levante. It had been a passing whim to construct a new pilgrimage shrine to document their passing. But the passing thought was quickly bing a minor vexation. ¡°That currently there is nond for sale outside of the individual plots held by the residents of the town.¡± He repeated what he had already told the Archbishop and stood there clearly ufortable at having to tell a member of the Church no. ¡°What about plots marked for expansion and held by the crown?¡± he asked confused. The town had only recently be part of the Princedom of Ponente as such he had not thought that much of thend would have been bought as far out as it was from the centre of power. ¡°They have already been bought as well.¡± He winced as he continued to repeat what the Archbishop failed to understand through surprise and the novelty of the answer. ¡°All of them?¡± he asked curiously confused. ¡°All of them,¡± he repeated cautiously ¡°Very well. Please could you direct me to the individuals who have bought the plots?¡± He inquired calmly once more. There was no need to let his frustrations colour the man¡¯s impression of him he believed in bnce before everyone both the mighty and messengers with ill news. ¡°That would be the Silversea family.¡± He responded curtly happy to be able to answer the question. ¡°The Silverseas? One family owns all of thends on the western edge of the ind. I was unaware of any majorndowners on the ind otherwise I would have inquired directly with them. Where is their residence?¡± He stated surprised that a single family on this distant ind had sufficient funds to purchase most of it but also please he now had a direction to make his inquiries. ¡°They do not reside on the ind.¡± The taxman hesitatingly responded now that he was back to disappointing the man from the church. ¡°They are a centralpass family from Ponente? That will make the purchase all but impossible in the time I have allocated for this pilgrimage. Is there no other way to get in contact with a supervisor capable of selling thend? Surely the mayor can manage minor matters on their behalf seeing as they are so distant.¡± ¡°They are a lot closer than that and they can be found on Wester Ponente the next ind across and the very edge of the Compass. I believe that the Town Mayor is in contact with them although I do not believe he can make decisions on their behalf.¡± He informed and cautioned. ¡°What an unusual family, I will certainly visit your Mayor to see if this is possible. Then if not I will meet them in person when I arrive on their ind.¡± He stated. ¡°But before I go I would like to see the taxes collected for thest decade the amount taken by the crown and the tithes received by the Church of the Lodestar. There should be enough time for a short audit to check your books are bnced while our ship is provisioned and the spare sail mended.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± the taxman replied pulling out his ledgers. A drop of sweat slid down from his temple. The Archbishop noted his stress and wondered whether it was merely the inspection or if there was something else further out of bnce in the books. . . . The next morning, we awoke a little stiff, the stone beds had been shaped asfortably as possible but there was only so much I could do. The bedding Aleera had brought had also helped but what helped the most was the age of my body. A few stretches had the majority of the kinks pulled out. We had a small breakfast and then started again. ¡°Aleera,¡± I quietly asked, it was just the two of us again, I had to tell her as I needed to focus on attempting to gain the next skill. ¡°I¡¯ve gained the skill,¡± I whispered my sess. ¡°Of course you have.¡± She replied. ¡°Well done Kai. As she said you need it more than I do.¡± She calmly congratted me after her initial exasperation. ¡°Thank you. I was worried that you would be more upset.¡± I quietly continued the conversation. ¡°I¡¯ve always known you were a little bit of a monster. There is no reason for me to be surprised about it now. In fact, if there is a day where you have not done something ridiculous that is the more surprising event.¡± She answered. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m only human, not a little monster.¡± Herment cut. ¡°An Arithmos.¡± I corrected a little hurt. Whenever she had called me a little monster it had always felt like a joke rather than a name she called me. This time I wasn¡¯t so sure. ¡°Yes but not exactly human anymore. I wouldn¡¯t attempt topare my vitality with an elf, my strength with a giant, my endurance with a dwarf. Why should Ipare my skill gain with you when you are no longer human?¡± she dered. ¡°No one has ever heard of an Arithmos how do we even know they are a noble race, not a base race?¡± she asked. I stood there stunned. I had tried to soften the blow by waiting a day but it had made no difference, in the end. It had been a straw too many that had broken the camel''s back. I looked at my sister shocked by the turn in the conversation. ¡°I like to think it means a man of numbers,¡± I replied. ¡°A man of civilization.¡± Numenorean and Superman were already taken. ¡°I¡¯ll give you some space,¡± I said before departing the heart grotto. Her upset was understandable as much as it was hurtful to hear. She would hopefully get the skill soon and be a little less jealous of the speed at which I had acquired it. We all have our good days and our bad. Just needed a little time apart. I returned home the spiral staircase had never felt so long that I was tempted to add a slide as I went to speed things up next time. I returned to my room and dug through my chest to see if my experiment was still alight. Relief shone through me as its light filled the room. It had not died. I ced the amulet around my next once more the light hidden by my chest and clothing and headed for our store room where the pearls were kept. There was no reason to stop practising. The pearls were the perfect product to see if I could gain the observe skill on. They looked the same or simr most of the time despite their differing tiers. Mercurio was in for a shock if he attempted to purchase in bulk at the same price again. I opened a small chest of pearls we had cultivated and started to line them up for separating gathering several other boxes to ce them into once I was done. First I was going to separate them. Then I was going to test my observations with the skill inspect. Rinse and repeat till I gained the skill. I was still standing in the Light of the Lodestar with it pressed against my chest. I spent all morning separating the pearls and attempting to judge their tiers but had no sess. I saw no one all morning but I had not hidden in my secret passages because I was sulking. Just focused on getting the next skill. It was not until lunchtime that I emerged and made my way to the dining room for food. A rather contrite Aleera had returned for food too. But we said nothing to one another as we sat in awkward silence while Cora and Baldric set out the meal. Our mother and Lady Acaia looked on in confusion and suspicion. ¡°What happened?¡± Mother asked me. ¡°Nothing,¡± I replied. Still unsure about what the right thing would be to say to Aleera or how to mention it to the adults without causing the whole problem to worsen. ¡°Nothing?¡± she inquired of Aleera. ¡°Um, . . . frustration at how long the skill was taking to acquire led to some thoughtless and unkind words.¡± Aleera eventually answered. Coming close to apologizing for her earlier outburst. She gave me a sad smile of shame. ¡°Kai?¡± mother checked with me that I was alright. ¡°Like I said it was nothing. We¡¯re family first and foremost no matter how different we are.¡± I extended an olive branch to Aleera. Yes her words had hurt but I could only imagine how difficult it was to watch me gradually overtaking her in everything I did. ¡°Well said,¡± Mother added, ¡°We all threads in the tapestry that makes up this family and love are the ties that bind us.¡± She reminded Aleera and me. We did not pray before our meals but the shift from awkward stilted silence to forgiving eptant quiet inspired the rest of the table to add their pearls of wisdom. ¡°Family is an anchor during rough waters. Hold tight to it.¡± Father nodded his support of my forgiveness to both of us. ¡°Family are like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions and sometimes at different speeds but our roots remain as one.¡± Lady Acacia chimed in with her tree-inspired words. ¡°Blood is thicker than water.¡± Grandfather''s gruff response once more demonstrated his point graphically. . . . When the meal finished we left the parents at the table and Aleera went back with me to my room. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± She told me in the privacy of my room. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I get it.¡± I smiled. ¡°Want to pay me back?¡± I asked. ¡°Sure. What do you want now?¡± she asked unsure if she wanted to offer what I would be asking for. ¡°Just the use of your legs,¡± I answered. . . . ¡°Des, Sinis, Baldric or Cora could have done this.¡± She grumbled a whileter. ¡°Yes, but you did offer.¡± I cheekily replied just a few steps higher than her. She continued to haul the boxes of pearls up the steps in the sack I had found for her. We were back on the same bearing. . . . Chapter 130: Observe Chapter 130: Observe ¡°Observation is like a muscle. It grows stronger with use and atrophies without use. Exercise your observation muscle and you will be a more powerful decoder of the world around you.¡± Joe Navarro All was forgiven on the long climb back up the spiral staircase. Back in the heart grotto of the Elendil tree, we got to work. I exined how I had gained the skill inspect and what Lady Acacia had told me I had to do to get the higher-tier skill observe. I also exined what it told me about the gemstones and their tiers and how when I used it on the pearls we had brought up they too showed different tiers depending on the amount of mana they held. Aleera was most excited about this, particrly the idea that we might be able to get more money for the higher-tier pearls. Then it was back to the business of pooling the pearls then resorting them into appropriate tiers by sight, then by touch. Aleera doggedly pursued her inspect skill. With the light of the lodestar, touching it with one hand and having my own secret sliver touching my chest, my inspect level continued to confirm my selections until finally I once more gained the skill I was aiming for. Ding! Observe (Lv1) Ding! Inspect (Lv5) Deep Sea Pearl Tier 2 I had been able to determine the Pearl¡¯s tier without touching it. Inspect showed the same when I picked it up. This time I didn¡¯t hide it from Aleera. Or rather I couldn¡¯t hide the sudden grin on my face that was easy enough to interpret. ¡°You got observe?¡± she asked raising her eyebrows. ¡°Yes?¡± I hesitated to confirm having been through this once with her already. But she had resigned herself to the fact that I was picking up the skills quicker and the families talk over lunch alongside the guilt she felt from her earlier outburst meant that it did not happen again. ¡°Well done. So what can you see?¡± she asked excitedly while gesturing at herself. I looked at her and focused. It was harder than pulling out the information for the pearl and took longer but eventually, I was able to see . . . Lady Aleera Silversea Lv 14 ¡°I can see your name and level,¡± I answered excited. ¡°Well what does it say?¡± she asked and I repeated what the Light of the Lodestar had told me. No wonder it was viewed as divine when it supposedly fell from the celestial sky and its light revealed us for who we really were. ¡°Amazing. You are going to try it on everyone aren¡¯t you?¡± she quizzed. ¡°Isn¡¯t that an invasion of privacy?¡± I sounded a little bit conflicted. I mean the fact that Archbishops had these abilities was why I had to learn how to do this in such a short amount of time. That being said I was only halfway there. ¡°The only way you are going to level that skill is by practicing it. I wonder what it will tell you about our parents and grandfather. You have to tell me.¡± She stated excitedly. ¡°I hate to foul your rigging but Lady Acacia said that I would have difficulty seeing the information of those significantly higher level than me. I might be able to see their names but I cannot guarantee that I will be able to see their levels. So I wouldn¡¯t get my hopes up.¡± I tried to calm down her expectations. ¡°Right, well still worth a try. Can¡¯t believe you are picking them up so quick.¡± She still sounded amazed but thankfully she did not seem sour about my sess. Although keen to pump me for information about others. If there was one lesson she had learnt about making money was that knowledge was power. She continued to work with the gemstone but tried the pearls as well. I no longer needed to touch anything other than the Lodestone I just needed to look at things. I once more started with my clothing attempting to use Observe rather than Inspect but the fact that I was wearing my clothes meant that Inspect tended to trigger the information before Observe did. I worked my way through the gemstones by sight alone, then the pearls although that was difficult with them all bunched up together making it hard to tell which ones I had already observed and which ones I hadn¡¯t. Then being a little bored by the repetition of things already observed I looked around the grotto for anything else to observe. Interestingly enough apart from the stone walls which were simplybelled Granite the grotto floor with my stone sung patterns wasbelled something different Song Stone I found this astonishing as the lodestar or system or whatever it was we were tapping into recognized the difference between the Granite and the stone I had manipted into my chaldni patterns andbelled it differently. It was fascinating. But not the biggest surprise. Before when I had gained the skill Inspect I had used it on the taproot which held the Lodestar. This time however when I used Observe it gave me a little more information and a surprising piece of information at that. Elendil Tree Lv 4 The tree had a level! How was that even possible? Was it sentient? Sapient? How on earth was it levelling? We had a long list of questions for Lady Acacia when she returned. Aleera was equally baffled but even more determined to get the skills I was disying. ¡°It¡¯s wonderful to see you two getting . . . stop that Kai.¡± She started warmly before she snapped out hermand. Lady Acacia n Lv ?? I attempted to observe her as she entered the grotto. But it appeared she had been able to detect my attempt and my skills level or my actual level was still far too low to get her level. But I had learned that she had a second name. One she had never mentioned to us before. ¡°Sorry.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Just practicing my new skill.¡± I made up an excuse. ¡°Yes, well. While you do need to practice it would have been courteous to ask first.¡± She seemed almost flustered by the fact that I had seen just a little bit more than what she had chosen to reveal to us. ¡°How could you tell I was using the skill?¡± I asked. ¡°There is a sensation a feeling of being observed. For example, facing forward but you can feel someone looking at your back. With time you will be able to notice it and recognise when it is happening to you. Here I will demonstrate.¡± She stared at me but I felt no different. ¡°Kai how are you doing that?¡± she asked sounding perplexed as she continued to stare at me. ¡°Doing what?¡± I asked confused as far as I was aware I was not doing anything. ¡°You are blocking my inspect.¡± She answered. ¡°I am?¡± I asked still confused. ¡°He is?¡± Aleera added equally shocked. ¡°You are.¡± She responded almost cross. ¡°If you already had the skill obfuscate or something simr it would have only been polite to point out we did not need tomit a theft or attempt this rather intense method of training.¡± She finished. Leaving me none the wiser as to what it was that I was doing that blocked her. ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing. Because I¡¯m not doing anything.¡± I argued unaware of anything that I might be doing that was stopping her inspection. I felt her eyes search my face for falsehoods my clothing for enchantments before locking onto my neck. ¡°Kai, are you wearing your amulet again?¡± ¡°Yes . . .?¡± The question was because I wasn¡¯t sure if being truthful was the safest option. ¡°Even though it is siphoning off your excess mana and preventing your body from naturally forming your core.¡± ¡°Yes . . .¡± ¡°Even despite me ordering you not to wear it until your core was formed?¡± ¡°Yes . . .¡± This was seeming fairly stupid. But then again they did not know what I had hidden away on the back of the amulet. ¡°Then take it off then.¡± She finally told me what I needed to do freeing me from the rabbit-like statue I had be in the light of her inquisition. I carefully slipped the amulet into its pouch and then off my neck in an attempt to keep the peace. As well as hide the addition I had made to the amulet. If they saw that I would be answering questions till the cows came home. Her eyes whipped back to me and this time I could sense what she was up to an extra feeling of a third set of eyes staring hard at who I was. The feeling was ufortable but ended a momentter. ¡°Lord Callen Kai Silversea Arithmos Lv 16¡± She revealed what she could see. It was not much more than what I could see looking at Aleera but the extra information was rmingly informative. ¡°Howe I don¡¯t get a race just a name and a level when I look at Aleera¡¯s?¡± I asked avoiding a couple of problems. ¡°Your level and skill level are still too low. The higher you level the skill the greater the amount of information you will be able to divine in the light of the lodestar.¡± She batted aside my question as she focused on what was important to her. ¡°That amulet is truly fascinating. Fascinating, as ast resort and only if you are unable to develop the skills required before the Archbishop arrives may you wear that amulet again. Do I make myself clear?¡± ¡°Yes, Lady Acacia,¡± I answered. Aleera though was still thinking about what it revealed. ¡°Arithmos? How can he cover up that?¡± ¡°If he continues at the pace he is currently achieving skills then the next step is to attempt to understand inspect and observe and use his understanding to attempt to manipte his own status to provide different information. Whether he can achieve this in time is now an academic exercise with the redundancy of the amulet but they are still fine skills to have and would have been part of your education at ater date.¡± She answered. ¡°Actually we had one more question. Why does the Elendil tree have a level?¡± Chapter 131: The Elendil Tree Chapter 131: The Elendil Tree ¡°For a tree to be tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks.¡± Friederich Nietzsche ¡°Ah yes, Level 4 is it? It is growing well.¡± She did not seem surprised by this fact as she patted the roots proud of their progress. ¡°Yes, level 4. How can a tree have a level?¡± Aleera asked the burning question. ¡°Well just as gemstones and . . .¡± she pointed at the pearls I had organized by tiers, ¡°pearls can have tiers, due to their quality, rity and the level of mana they can hold. So too can metals, wood and other crafting materials.¡± She opened her exnation. ¡°Okay we understand that, but this tree has levels,¡± I argued. I know we had not attended the Lodestar Luminary ¨C the school for children ¨C due to our mother¡¯s disagreement with the church but that seemed like something that everyone should know if it was the case. ¡°Well things that can grow such as nts, animals or monsters can also have tiers it¡¯s true but sometimes they can also level. In the end, ites down to a confluence of their intelligence and their mana. If they have sufficient mana they can gain a tier and when they have sufficient intelligence they can also then start to level.¡± ¡°Okay, I understand animals and monsters but a tree? How is the Elendil tree even levelling?¡± I asked. ¡°And what intelligence?¡± ¡°An Elendil is not called an elf friend for nothing, Kai. When I sing it into the shape I wish for I am notmanding or forcing it intopliance. I am asking it to grow in the way in which I wish it to. Most times it will listen to me. I am offering protection for its support but it is a symbiotic rtionship. We spread the trees, guard them, protect them and they shelter and support us.¡± ¡°But where is its brain?¡± I asked confused. ¡°Kai,¡± she said reaching out to hold my hand. ¡°Feel don¡¯t think.¡± And pressed it against the roots of the tree. ¡°This is called the heart grotto for more than one reason. Feel its heart.¡± She whispered while she held my hand still against the root. The root felt cool and smooth against my fingertips I knew the tree was alive but I was missing what she was talking about. I could feel my blood pumping through my fingertips I could feel my pulse but not the trees. ¡°I can¡¯t feel.¡± ¡°Not just touch use all your senses.¡± She admonished. I closed my eyes using mana sense to search for something I could not feel and I could see the green mana of vitality glowing in the roots. Focusing on it I could see it ever so slowly wax and wane like a whale''s heartbeat in and out a few times each minute but oh so slowly. I looked down following the mana into the mountain as far as the roots went down. Watching as the roots pulled in the flickering motes of red mana drawing them up and changing them to green as they continued to grow down into the earth. The pulses, are a form of heartbeat unconnected to the light that beat down on its leaves. Raising my senses higher I could see how the green mana pulsed against the blue light of the lodestar connected and helped it to grow while small motes of blue drifted into the tree in a slow exchange of mana and colour. Now that I could see the pulse I could feel it with my hands the slow flexing of the mana as it wound its way through the tree. I could see it being pulled up from the roots, breathed in from the sky, absorbed from the pool of water, and exchanged with the Lodestar. I had always known the tree was alive but now I could feel it too. ¡°I can feel it,¡± I whispered back. ¡°How can you not say that it is alive then? If we can have a status and level why not an Elendil?¡± she asked rhetorically. I still did not truly understand how the Elendil could be alive or think as we could but I could not deny that it was alive now that I could feel it. She had not answered how it could think or how it could level but she had shown me that it was alive in a way I had never realized. Maybe it is levelled by absorbing mana. Maybe it levelled by growing tall. Who knew? ¡°What about animals and monsters?¡± Aleera asked concerned. ¡°Just as the Elendil is a rare tree that can level so too are animals and monsters that can.¡± She gestured for Aleera to calm down. ¡°As I stated earlier the conditions have to be right. They need to have both mana and some measure of intelligence.¡± ¡°Monsters?¡± I whispered thinking about the couple of times we had been ambushed over the years. The Goblin shark, the eel, the rock worm and the octopi. Had all of them had levels? A level of intelligence? Had they been attempting to level themselves through our deaths or merely attracted to the possibility of fresh food? ¡°There are surprisingly few monsters within the walls of the ind.¡± Lady Acaciamented. ¡°But when the town was first built there will have been some certainly as evidenced by the height and strength of the town walls. I imagine over time the hunters and townspeople have gradually culled their poption until they are no highly levelled animals or monsters left.¡± ¡°What about the ocean?¡± I asked apprehensively. ¡°The waters are wide and the ocean is deep. Animals and monsters of all levels live there.¡± She answered honestly although perhaps I wished that she had not. I was going to have conniptions from my paranoia searching the depths for anything that might be lurking beneath our boat. The only benefit from observe will be knowing quite how deadly the creatures of the deep will be. ¡°That¡¯s hardly reassuring,¡± I muttered. ¡°It was not meant to be. The oceans are dangerous. Theck of human habitation of these isles is not solely the distance from thepass continent. Every year boats are lost making the journey through the waters. Some to weather, some to pirates, but just as many are probably lost to monsters when you consider how skilled their crew and how high levelled sailors can be.¡± She answered. Why were we sailing? I knew father to be cautious but was it really worth the risk when she described the dangers that might be submerged beneath our feet? But then if base races lived in the depths of the Lodestone anyway how was it any different? ¡°I think I¡¯m going to have nightmares.,¡± I added. ¡°Nightmares are not necessary, but knowledge is. As a child, you speak and understand as a child. But you are growing up and going to be an adult before your time. You need to know the dangers of the world.¡± She exined ¡°I¡¯ve got inspect.,¡± Aleera shouted excitedly. While we had been talking Aleera had continued to practice finally unlocking the skill. ¡°Excellent, a pair of prodigies the both of you.¡± Lady Acacia congratted her. ¡°If that is all I will see you for dinner.¡± ¡°What about analyse?¡± I asked. ¡°Keep working on observe but search deeper for more information.¡± She shrugged turning to go. ¡°And what about obfuscate, substitute, or the other skills you mentioned for covering up my status?¡± ¡°Practice, Kai, practice. You have learnt to touch and see,bine the two to change your own.¡± She left me with that cryptic advice as she left once more. Maybe it was like the tree something you had to feel to work out. Aaaaaaaargh. But I was getting there I was getting there. If it was easy it would not be worth it. . . . Meanwhile on Wester Levante, ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± Archbishop Grigori confirmed whileying his hand on the head of the man in front of him his hand shining with the divine blue light of the Lodestar which was the very symbol of his office. Before moving on to the next person in what seemed to be an endless line of townspeople. It felt like the whole town had turned out for blessings when he had offered them as part of his pilgrimage. The local deacon had done his best but had yet to acquire the skill to bless or the power to do so many. He stood to the side providing order to those who arrived in single file through their church alongside his acolyte who handed out a candle as a symbolic representation of the light of the lodestar spreading. It was a beautiful ceremony and he was d that he had brought sufficient pilgrims in his retinue who were also blessing the townspeople to ensure it did not take an unreasonable amount of time toplete. ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± He intoned once more the light shining forth again. It was important to bring bnce to those without it. The people would leave today knowing they walked in the light of the lodestar. It calmed him in return the satisfaction of spreading the faith and supporting the people washing away his frustration in the failure to acquire thend he had hoped to earlier in the week. Despite his position and overtures to the Mayor, the mayor had been unable legally to release thend or approve his petition. Their conversation had given him some understanding of the family that he would have to make an arrangement with. It appeared the Silversea family were as new a family as nobility could be. Raised within thest year or two ording to him. Which in itself was a surprise seeing as how Ponente had prided itself on its body of a hundred lords. He could imagine their raising had ruffled a few feathers. It had not been aplete waste of time though. He had been able to leave his ns for the shrine and the particr location he wished it to be built. The mayor had promised that should permission be sent from the Silversea family he would build it immediately. It was a shame that he would not see it as he was due to continue his circumnavigation but he could rest reassured that it would bepleted in memory of his pilgrimage. Another adult hobbled forward, ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± The light shone forth once more but this time he noted something unbnced. He held his hand down holding her still while he re-read her status using his skills to inspect, observe and analyse to look deeper. Name: M Level: Lv 18 Race: Human Metier: Candlemaker Affliction: Ergot Vitality: 51 Strength: 46 Endurance: 55 Dexterity: 95 Senses: 89 Mind: 42 Amon status for amoner but she was afflicted. It was not immediately obvious from her face or her hands but she had hobbled to meet him. No doubt her feet were the location of the infliction. Such was the case when blessings were few and far between. He wondered how long she had suffered without asking for help. ¡°Do you seek bnce in the light? He asked the ritual question. ¡°I do, your honour.¡± She hopefully answered. ¡°Would you let the light bnce what has be unbnced?¡± he continued. ¡°I would, your honour.¡± She whispered. He silently used his skill cure with a ring of light once more to kill the affliction as his mana filled her and attacked what the light of the lodestar had detected. Then another use of heal and another burst of mana flooded her feet to repair the damage already caused by the Ergot. ¡°Then find your bearings straight once more in the light of the lodestar.¡± He replied after removing her affliction. ¡°Thank you, your honour,¡± she raised her head in wonder, as he lifted his hand, her feet once hobbling cautiously moved more energetically as if nervous to cause themselves more pain. ¡°There is no need to thank me. Thank the Lodestar for falling. Now that your four points are rebnced you should find your feet well when you return home.¡± He murmured. Their conversation had been quiet, but by the end of the day, people would be aware of what had happened. The path of pilgrimage was as much for the people as it was for the priests. The light of the lodestar continued to spread, and good works made for a good reputation. No doubt the tithes given this year would be higher and help to raise the town. A society grows great when old men nt trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. While he had intellectually understood the proverb before his pilgrimage it was humbling to be nting those seeds. Perhaps one day he could return to see the trees they might be. Hopefully, they would be able to heal any other afflictions the people might have before they left but they were also going to have to visit the grain store, and bakery at a minimum to ensure they were purified before departure. It was such a simple skill but at some point in thest decade, the poor woman had been infected so it must not have been cleansed properly. He might have to leave a member of his retinue to continue the work and teaching the current deacon and acolyte if it ended up taking up too much time. A pilgrimage could take as long as it required but he hoped toplete it in this lifetime at least. . . . Back on Wester Everyone was quietly proud of our progress during dinner but we did not discuss it in detail. Other than Lady Acacia informing them that we were making good progress. Even though I had failed to make much more headway on the skill I wished to acquire. After dinner, we decided to spend a night in our beds having made more progress than Lady Acacia had believed possible. Before I went to sleep I ced my secret project back into the chest to keep it out of sight and stop Lady Acacia from having a go at me again I decided to test out mytest skill, Observe. Compass Empire Emblem Amulet of ??? What had I been wearing for the majority of my life and where had Grandfather gotten it from? This did not seem as though it came from the Kingdom of Maestro at all. Chapter 132: An Archbishops wave Chapter 132: An Archbishops wave ¡°When the puzzling problems of life perplex, And dangers threaten and failures vex, May the Angels form in a magic ring And shelter your life from everything.¡± Anon ¡°We are truly grateful for everything that you have done for us.¡± The mayor bowed low as Archbishop Grigori walked down the dock to board his ship, True Bearing. ¡°I was only doing my duty.¡± He replied calmly. Their visit here had taken far more time than he had nned for it. But bncing the town before moving on had been the right thing to do. It had not been the only infection found as he had blessed the town which had led them to the granary and bakery before he felt confident in leaving. ¡°Yes, but we weren¡¯t even aware of the Ergot infection. That could have decimated our food supplies if you had not been here to purify them. We would have had to throw the whole lot out.¡± The mayor continued in his effusive praise. ¡°I¡¯m d I was able to help. I hope you will be able to support the building of the Western point Pilgrimage marker when you receive permission for it.¡± He confidently stated. He was convinced the Silversea family would see no harm in selling such a small plot ofnd or allowing one to be erected in the correct ce if they were unwilling to sell thend. ¡°Of course, it would be my pleasure to.¡± He bowed low once more. ¡°Then it is time to be going.¡± He ended their conversation and stepped onto the gangnk and walked up the to ship¡¯s deck. He turned onest time to address the crowd that had gathered on the dock, ¡°Farewell Wester Levante. May you keep your bearings and ever walk straight in the guiding light of the lodestar.¡± The small crowd bowed their heads in eptance before raising them to see him off. It was a calm and restrained farewell for the man who had helped so many in such a short time but quiet respect for the Archbishop was much preferred over the loud adtion the nobility sometimes demanded of their subjects. ¡°Archbishop we are ready to set sail.¡± The captain arrived at his elbow. ¡°Then let us leave in the Light of the Lodestar.¡± He said raising his hand in a final wave to the townspeople of Wester Levante the blue light of the Lodestar shone forth from the si ring on his right hand. . . . ¡°A kind man the Bishop helped with an Ergot infection and purified our food stores. He left this morning and hopes to build Pilgrimage points on the Western point of our inds.¡± It was a short message but the Mayor attached it to thest bird he had for Wester Ponente before setting it free to fly west. He had not lied when he said that he could notmunicate with the Silverseas or proceed without their permission although it was only half the truth. Tomunicate was to exchange conversation. He could only send messages not receive them. He looked at the half a dozen birds he was raising in the hastily built messenger pigeon coop. They had grown quickly but he had not yet had an opportunity to send them to their new homes. He had not had time to work out how the rise of the new noble family would affect life here on Wester Levante. For the most part, they had been ignored by the nobility and the crown. The church and the faith had more to do with their founding believing in expanding thepass and pushing back the horizon of civilization but other than the odd product or two there had not been a significant amount of interest for many in settling so far away from the capital or trading at such a distance. That might be about to change. Talman, the tax man hade to him sweating buckets after the Archbishop¡¯s impromptu bncing of the books. Luckily everything had been close enough to correct that Archbishop had been understanding of the asional imbnce that crept in through human error. Talman had after an entire day of ounting even levelled up and gained a skill or two under the pressure of such an impromptu and urate audit or so he had said once his hands had stopped shaking from the experience after knocking back an ale or two. It also raised an issue or two that they had not thought of before. The Archbishop had been happy to see a tenth of the profit tithed to the church had been calcted urately and paid for the entirety of the time since the ind¡¯s founding. He had checked over the tenth that had been paid to the crown since the hundred years of tax-free status afforded all pioneer inds had ended was also correctly ounted for. What he had also politely pointed out was that if Wester Levante was to fall within the domain of the new noble house the Silverseas then they too were entitled to a further tenth of the town¡¯s profits. Something that Talman had not considered and or calcted for when assigning the very few public sries his own included and the reserve the town was required to build to pay for public works. Talman was currently writing to the crown for confirmation but with the crafty way in which Smit seemed to have bought the ind out from under them, it seemed likely that the crown would confirm that Wester Levante was within the barony of the Silverseas. Even if they did not technically own the town they did own all the surroundingnd and the fishing rights that went along with them. He privately wondered how far they had managed to purchase but he was only aware of the deeds bought on Wester Levante, not any others and those had only been delivered to him recently by Smit¡¯s son. They had to have cost a pretty penny but were bought directly from the crown so he had beenpletely unaware of the change in ownership. Talman after a night of drinking to calm his nerves was currently attempting to calcte the new tithes and trying to calcte what could arguably be offset against them. It was going to be difficult for him to do that serving three masters but the Archbishop had left satisfied with his honesty and the crown had yet toin. Talman¡¯s true worry was whether the Silverseas would upset his books and the problems that might arise if they were to demand the tithe they were entitled to immediately. Life looked to be changing but that was the nature of life the trick was to keep your bnce. Hence he hoped to keep Smit and his Sons happy with the current situation by informing them of current events in Wester Levante. While Talman bnced the books he hoped that Smit would be sensible as the patriarch of the family in its expansion, one could only hope. . . . ¡°He is on his way. You need to hurry up and get the next tier of the skill.¡± Aleera dered. A pigeon had just flown in to settle on its roost grown out of the Elendil tree. We had been taking a break from the frustration of failing to get the next skill. For me, it was my failure to gain analyse, for Aleera it was her failure to gain observe. The higher tier skills meant that the hurdle to gaining them was just that little bit higher. Lady Acacia had praised us on our ability to gain the skills and the speed at which we had but we had not quite managed to get there. He was going to be here soon. ¡°Well, Aravan is going to be surprised,¡± I replied. ¡°There is no reason for us to know he ising we still have some time before he arrives and once he has there is no reason for us to meet him immediately. Aravan as the local leader of the church and Smit the town leader are the ones who are going to have to deal with him first. That gives us another day or two.¡± I argued back not appreciating the pressure Aleera was applying. She would be fine. She was still human. I technically was not anymore. ¡°Do you even need to get Analyse? Why don¡¯t you go straight for one of the others?¡± she asked me. Hmm, why didn¡¯t I? ¡°Aleera would Inspect me?¡± I asked excited by the idea that had suddenly run through my head. ¡°It would be my pleasure,¡± Aleera answered with a curtsy before escorting me back into the heart grotto with her hand holding mine. With an Archbishop arriving Lady Acacia had insisted we take every opportunity to practice our etiquette and manners. As the first male heir to the Silversea family, I was the head of it even though my sister was older, or the fact that I had parents and grandparents who were higher levelled and more skilled than me. It was the nature of founding a new noble house without them having noble status only the benefit of being Adhals. It did not honestly matter within the family but if we were going to have guests Lady Acacia felt that it would be better to practice rather than forget embarrassingly in front of someone aware of the etiquette required. Leaving the pigeon to find its food, would be a pain to catchter, but for now, we were focused on more immediate problems, we descended into the Grotto. She ced our hands on the shard of the Lodestar growing on the heart root of the Elendil tree and said, ¡°Inspect.¡± She did not need to but was merely politely informing me of the skill¡¯s use. ¡°It says, Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea Level: Lv 16 Race: Arithmos Metier: Singer As we continued to practice even if we had not yet managed to gain the next skill our skill levels for the ones we had already achieved continued to rapidly rise. Helped perhaps by the wide array of items Lady Acacia had loaned us to practice on after we had got the skills and spent a significant amount of time circling through the gemstones. The added challenge of attempting to inspect or observe items without mana made them harder to read but when we were able to do so continued to level up our skills. Aleera could only do it by touching both the shard of the lodestar and me but she was effective at what she could do. She was looking forward to being able to do so by sight and without the light as that was what would enable her to outwit Mercurio once more when he visited. That, and already inspecting all the goods she nned to trade to him so that she gained an urate understanding of their value before attempting to haggle with him. ¡°Still says Arithmos. What are you attempting to do?¡± ¡°Just wait a moment and keep trying to inspect the other items in an attempt to get observe. This might take me a while to work out.¡± I answered before closing my eyes. I delved down into whom I was, entering the skill that was my mind fortress. What had started as a single room had expanded and expanded until it was the fortress that it be. But the core room had remained the same. A representation of who I had been and who I was bing. The tab rasa that I had once yed around with worried that I would be observed and seen for the freak of nature that I feared I would be seen as was up in the observatory where I went next. It was from here that I could see the minds surrounding me. Their very existence, once hidden from my mind by the same fortress that protected my own. The stone b that I used to represent my false self had not been updated in so long that the numbers it held were positively anaemic inparison to reality. They were also set in stone on a b hidden within my observatory. I understood the system better now. Certainly, I did not understand it perfectly but by inspecting and observing the world around me in the light of the lodestar I realised that much like how I had buried my mind in my fortress and been unable to see the minds floating around me the same had been the case for my failed attempt at building my false status. I had buried it too deep within me and while the observatory was certainly closer to where I needed to ce my false status it was still with my mind fortress and protected by it. Hidden from sight by those who would use inspect or observe to see who I was. Could I not use my mind fortress to protect my status? I tried something different. I inspected myself. I was already me so I doubted I needed to do anything but I ced my hand on my hand in the same manner in which I would inspect another. The text floated up. Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea Level: Lv 16 Race: Arithmos Metier: Singer Much as it did with anything else I might inspect or observe. But I was once more outside of my mind. I had trouble looking at the two at the same time. I was interrupted by my sister. ¡°Kai I am happy to hold your hand but if you are not getting anywhere with whatever it is you are trying to do. Then I could also use both hands for inspecting the items.¡± She jokinglyined ¡°Fine, I answered frustrated that I was not quite achieving what I hoped I would be able to do. Mind fortress was a Tier 5 skill it allowed me a mental world within which to y. It was a visual manifestation that allowed me to process my senses and build a hud for the world around me. It could do so much I just needed it to let me do one more thing. Hide my status or better yet project a false one to the world around me. I needed more. I needed both hands or rather both minds! I needed to be able to see both the inner world of my own creation and theyer of reality that the light of the lodestar allowed us to see at the same time. I dashed inside my mind fortress once more. I stopped and absorbed all the parallel processes I had going. I sat in silence but suddenly brimming with energy. The processes had been going on for so long that I had not realised how much mental noise they were creating or the processing power they were taking even if it was in my unconscious thoughts. The world seemed suddenly quieter with my sensory skills muted to only what my body and traits could tell rather than my skills. I observed myself once more. But this time the detail snapped into focus so much quicker and disyed so much more information. Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea Level: Lv 16 Race: Arithmos M¨¦tier: Singer Vitality: 100 Endurance: 100 Strength: 100 Dexterity: 100 Senses: 100 Mind: 100 rity: 100 Magic: 100 Charisma: 100 Luck: 100 Ding! Analyse (Lv1) It had not been long since our theft of the lodestar shard and the recalibration of my numbers and race meant that my stats had not changed. However, the sudden sess in what I had once been attempting to achieve was appreciated. But I wasn¡¯t trying to achieve that now. I had a new idea. I wanted to use my mind fortress to do what I had failed to do, hide or swallow the disyed status from the light of the lodestar. I reached for my mind fortress while holding onto the status I could observe and now analyse. I held onto what I could see while I reached for what I had built in my mind. It felt impossibly difficult to do as if I was trying to look both right and left at the same time. My mental muscles were straining to do things in opposite directions as I attempted to look at who I was from both the outside and from the inside. There was tension to what I was attempting to do as I tried to pull the status I could see into the fortress I had created years ago. It was not easy. The world did not seem to want to let go of knowledge it could see but I was determined. The status wrenched, pulled and finally tore free. I was atst able to push it within my mind fortress. Locked away and unable to be seen by the world my status waspletely hidden. There were a couple of dings as my skill levels updated and wincing through the pain I squinted at thest one. Ding! Status Block (Lv 1) Hopeful of my sess I tried to inspect, and then observe before finally analyse once more but all that it returned were question marks. I had finally managed to hide my status. Name: ? Level: ? Race: ? M¨¦tier: ? Vitality: ? Endurance: ? Strength: ? Dexterity: ? Senses: ? Mind: ? rity: ? Magic: ? Charisma: ? Luck: ? It appeared that the mental anguish I had just put myself through was worth it. My new Tier 4 skill Status Block trumped the Tier 1 skill Inspect, the tier 2 skill Observe and the tier 3 skill Analyse despite its low level and their respectively higher skill levels. I rubbed my head at the migraine that seemed to be splitting my head open. ¡°How about now?¡± I asked wincing. Aleera once more ced her hand on mine and the shard of the Lodestar. Name: ? Level: ? Race: ? Metier: ? ¡°All I get are question marks.¡± She answered me shocked. ¡°How did you manage that?¡± ¡°With a little mental maniption,¡± I answered still rubbing my head. That had been unpleasant. ¡°Lady Acacia will be pleased.¡± She continued, ¡°Perhaps it is time for us to go down seeing as the bishop is more than likely to arrive today we should let the family know he is on his way. Grandpa Smit would appreciate the warning. ¡°Sure,¡± I answered with my eyes shut. The headache was still reverberating around my head. I had achieved enough for today but I was not looking forward to the walk home. I really needed to finish making that slide down the stairs. Although moving anywhere at speed right now was not appealing. . . . Mother was not looking forward to the Archbishops¡¯ visit but Father was still attempting to point out that not every priest was like Aravan. Grandfather¡¯s private tuition of Mother meant that her only experience of the Church was Aravan and his acolyte Cleo. Father though, had been brought up in the town alongside his brothers and attended the Lodestar Luminary regrly to learn his letters and numbers. ¡°He is on his way.¡± We informed them once we had gathered them all. It was time for a quick repast anyway so after requesting Baldric grab us some snacks, we waited for everyone to arrive and then asked them to step out for our private discussion. ¡°Well, then you will need to keep out of sight until then.¡± Mother dered determinedly averse even to the idea of another member of the clergy visiting the ind or meeting her children. ¡°There are not all like Priest Aravan,¡± Father interjected. ¡°That will not be possible. As the highest ranking individual on the ind, he will be expected to wee Archbishop Grigori or at least say hello at some point during his visit.¡± Lady Acacia also remonstrated. ¡°I have a new skill.¡± As enjoyable as it would have been to let them argue over the matter I also enjoyed stopping the argument before it had even begun. ¡°You have analyse?¡± Lady Acacia asked delightedly, proud of my progress before she remembered. ¡°That will not be enough.¡± ¡°I have analyse, as well as . . .¡± I paused to heighten the drama, ¡°Status block!¡± I added grinning. ¡°Status block?¡± she questioned confused before activating her skills andying her hand on my arm to check. I could now sense the extra attention she was paying me with her skill and feel beyond the additional weight on my arm how the pressure of her inspection, observation and analysation bounced off my fortress where I had hidden my status. ¡°Well, that is certainly one way of hiding your status.¡± She answered under the questioning gazes of my parents. Aleera had already attempted multiple times to inspect me on our way back home and she had failed to glean anything new or indeed anything at all. ¡°Although I have never heard of that specific skill it would appear it is sufficiently efficient inpletely blocking inspect or observe skills.¡± She answered the questions in my parent¡¯s gazes. Father sighed contentedly while Mother continued to look less than happy. She did not trust the church. ¡°Once again you have overachieved. You were toe to me once you had achieved Analyse,¡± she chided. ¡°We still have work to do if we are going to attempt to create a suitably believable status page for you and blocking will only highlight the fact that you have something to hide here on the ind so far from civilisation. Still, it will suffice if we are unable to create such a status by the time he arrives.¡± She continued. I ended the skill Block Status in the hopes that would lessen the pain but it did not. ¡°I¡¯m worn out from working at gaining these skills. I¡¯m going to take a nap.¡± I dered my head still sore from mental gymnastics it hadpleted to gain the skill. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Mother asked concerned. ¡°Fine just need a little nap.¡± I waved off her concern and hopped down from my chair. ¡°You¡¯ve done enough for now. Take a break while we prepare for their arrival.¡± Lady Acaciamented as I left the room. I paused to bow to my sister, parents and tutor before exiting the room and stumbling my way back to my bedroom. The pain had yet to abate which did not bode well. Iy down in my bed with my eyes closed and attempted to sleep while I wished I had worked out how to create aspirin or paracetamol. If I recalled correctly I needed to chew willow bark or something simr. It would be worth working that out soon although a different world meant different nts and I doubted I would be finding any willow any time soon. Hopefully, my headache would be gone by the time I woke up. I retreated into my mind fortress where hopefully the pains of my body could be ignored. I appeared in my fortress and the pain disappeared. I took a mental breath enjoying its absence but I was not left alone for long. ¡°Congrattions, Kai.¡± My own voice greeted me from behind. I spun toe face to face with none other than myself. ¡°Call me Callen.¡± My mirror image smiled at my confusion. No Chapter this weekend No Chapter this weekend In truth have been sick for most of December. We started off with two weeks of Covid at the beginning of December We recovered enough to feel okay for Christmas if still tired. However, since Christmas, I have had 3 days of really high temperatures and 5 days of consistent coughing. Leading to currently probably having a chest infection and bruised ribs from my body trying to cough out all the gunk. Needless to say, have not been capable of writing anything. In fact, these are my first typed words in thest 5 days. Hope to resume posting next weekend. Hope you all have a Happy New Year Notlimah Chapter 133: Me, myself and I Chapter 133: Me, myself and I ¡°The best people to work for are me, myself and I.¡± Oscar Wilde ¡°What?¡± I asked astonished staring at myself in what had been the most private of my refuges, my mind. I being Kai if you were as confused as I was. ¡°You missed a notification when gaining analyse.¡± The mental me identifying as Callen smiled, clearly far more aware of what was going on than I was. ¡°They were not just skills levelling up.¡± ¡°I did?¡± I asked again. I did not feel that I was making the best first impression on myself but I was still in shock. This had always been a private space despite the multiple clones I had created to represent and run parallel processing. They had only ever been separate representations of my single mind. A way of focusing on multiple different tasks much like ying ten different fingers on a piano and singing at the same time while watching a conductor and listening to the others in an ensemble. It worked as long as it was moving forward in harmony. This was something different and I didn¡¯t know quite how to react. ¡°Yes,¡± he teased. ¡°The one that said, Ding! Multiple Minds (Lv 1)!¡± ¡°Multiple Minds?¡± I repeated incredulously. ¡°Level 1.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯ve had till now to think it over. I¡¯ll give you a minute he said sitting down in one of the chairs and manifesting a book to write in just as I did. I quickly reviewed what had happened earlier and how I could have missed it focussed as I was on achieving some form of skill to block observation of my status it had not feltfortable holding in my mind the fortress and my status. Locking it within had clearly done more than just give me the skill Status Block. It had split my mind in two. No wonder my head was hurting so much. There were now two of me in here. Callen had closed the book and was waiting for me toe to the same realisation that he had clearlye to significantly earlier. Although his existence alone alongside his ability to operate within my mind while watching from mymand room had obviously made it instantly obvious to him, me, myself, or rather my other self. This was going to be confusing. ¡°So, you are me and I am you?¡± I asked to confirm my thoughts. ¡°As far as I can tell, but try to be more precise in your questioning. I understand you but I doubt many others would.¡± Callen seemed happy enough in existence and unworried about mine but he had as I had thought earlier had longer toe to grips with it. ¡°It might help to go over our status and skills to highlight the changes.¡± He added clearly having already done so. ¡°Though it is to be expected with another Tier 5 skill.¡± ¡°Tier 5?¡± I whispered. No wonder it had hurt. ¡°Take a look and see,¡± Callen suggested waiting for me to reach the same conclusions that he had. ¡°I¡¯ve reorganised them by skill levels. They were quite cluttered and in my humble opinion due for a consolidation provided Lady Acacia agrees.¡± I turned to the wall the core of my existence. My status inscribed now read as follows. It was getting just a little bit longer. Level: 16 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer LV4 Name: Callen Kai Silversea Age: 5 years 0 months 1 week 12 hours 30 minutes 15 seconds Metier Experience: 200/3200 General Experience: 37,400/819,200 Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1000/1000 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1010/1010 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 100 Endurance: 100 Strength: 100 Dexterity: 100 Senses: 100 Mind: 101 +1 rity: 100 Magic: 100 Charisma: 100 Luck: 100 Free Points: 211 (Locked) Skills Tier 1: Swimming (LV52 -> 60) Running (LV52 ->55)Meditation (LV51 ->54)Time Sense (LV51 ->53)Breath Control (LV46 ->51) Singing (LV48 ->50) Diving (LV40 ->50) Sailing (LV40 ->50) Dodge (LV40 ->50) Knots (LV43 ->45) Draw (LV39 - >44) Knife (LV40 ->44)Listening (LV44) Stitching (LV43) Climb (LV40 ->42) Trading (LV33 -> Lv40) Humming (LV34 ->39) Drumming (LV35 -39)Whistling (LV33 ->38) Sneak (LV31 -36) Calligraphy (LV25 ->Lv31)Farming (LV25 ->31)Acting (LV25 ->30)Bnce (LV25 ->30) Throw (LV20 ->26)Buss (LV20 ->25)Mathematics (LV20 ->24)Insight (LV10 ->19)Glide (LV10 ->19) Poise (LV10 ->19) Grace (LV10 ->19) Charm (LV10 ->19) Composure (LV10 ->19) Lie (LV12 ->16)Elvish (LV 5->16) Giant (LV 5->16) Dwarf (LV 5->16) Pixish (LV 5->16) Gnomish (LV 5->16) Koboldogo (LV 5->16) Beastkin (LV 5->16) Halfling (LV 5->16) Appeal (LV7 ->15)Ambidextrous (LV 10 ->15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Silent Step (LV5 ->14) Deft touch (LV5 ->14) Posture (LV5 ->14) Dance (LV5 ->14) Sprint (LV5 ->14) Inspect (LV1 ->10) Riding (LV1 ->10) Rapier(LV5->9) Spear(LV5->7) Painting (LV1 -> Lv5) Axe (LV1 ->4) Baton (LV1 ->4) Club (LV1->4) Dagger (LV1->3) Estoc (LV1->4) il (LV1->4) ive (LV1->4) Halberd (LV1->4) Pike(LV1->4) Mace (LV1->4) Morning star(LV1->4) Quarterstaff(LV1->4) Sword(LV1->4) War Hammer (LV1->4) Archery (LV2 ->4) Cook (LV3) Sketching (LV1 -> 3) Drafting (LV1 ->3) cksmithing (LV1 ->2) Carpentry (LV1 ->2) Mining (LV1 ->2) Teaching (LV1 ->2) Measurement (LV 1) (81 Skills) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV48 ->50) Quick reflexes (LV48 ->50) Eavesdrop (LV39 ->50) Rebec (LV20 -> 31) Aulos (LV20 ->31)Linguistics (LV20 ->31)Cornu (LV20 ->31) Harp (LV20 ->31) Memorisation (LV30) Recall (LV30)Cartography (LV20 ->26) Composition (LV23) Pain Tolerance (LV20 -> 23) Stealth (LV20 ->23)Spellcraft (Lv10 ->19) Spellsong (Lv10 ->19)Order (LV6 ->18) Transnt (LV12) Misdirection (LV9 ->14)Knife Arts (LV10 ->14) Haggling (LV6 ->11)Mind Sense (LV5 ->11) Observe (LV1 ->5) Martial Arts (LV4) Cruising (LV1) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Treasure Sense (LV1) (27 Skills) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV45 ->50) Mana Maniption (LV40 ->50) Gale (LV29 ->50) Echolocation (LV35 -49) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21 ->25) Ignite (LV16 ->25) Melt (LV11 ->25)Command (LV4 ->17) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Deception (LV4 ->11) Analyse (LV1 ->2) Racing (LV1) Smuggling (LV1) Seismic Sense (LV1) (16 Skills) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV 20 ->30) Virtuoso (Lv25 ->30) Polyglot (Lv 20 ->30) Stone shaping (Lv5 -24) Material Maniption (LV21) Mana Drain (LV 20) Seafaring (LV1) Block Status (LV1) (8 skills) Tier 5 Mind fortress (Lv19 ->20) Multiple minds (LV 1) (2 skills) Skill experience: 11700 (131,300 wiped by recalibration) Origin experience: 0 (16,000 wiped by recalibration) Combat experience: 0 (12,000 wiped by recalibration) Craft experience: 0 (14,000 wiped by recalibration) Trade experience: 10,000 (18,000 wiped by recalibration) Popr experience: 19,000 (39,000 wiped by recalibration) Exploring experience: 0 (47,000 wiped by recalibration) Total Experience gain sincest stat check: 286,300 (Wiped by recalibration) Experienced gained since Recalibration 40,700 . . . . ¡°I¡¯ve tried to work out the experience gained and lost from the recalibration but it all gets a little confusing especially with the recalibration wiping it nk. I think it is impossible to work out exactly what got added when and where. But this is the best I could do.¡± Callen excused. ¡°I have been able to go back through our notes on where our skills were but and how they have increased. However other than Inspect, Observe, Analyse and now Multiple minds we have not worked on anything since the heist and we were focused on our singing skills after our first visit to the church.¡± Callen exined the process he had gone through. And there it was, a second tier 5 skill, Multiple Minds. It did not take a lot of brain power to work out what that particr skill was doing. I had inadvertently managed to multiply myself. Or split myself in two. ¡°I think in retrospect we should have possibly avoided using the Mind fortress to seal our status.¡± Callen iterated the conclusion he had arrived at. ¡°I think that either the system or the lodestar, whatever rules or gods that define or control this world objected to what we were attempting to do.¡± He verbalised his thoughts. ¡°Objected?¡± I asked. ¡°Rules or Gods? Those are some ratherrge assumptions.¡± I replied. ¡°Besides we got more than one skill out of it in the end, Status Block and Multiple Minds.¡± ¡°Multiple minds but we only have one body. Are we going to take turns?¡± Callen quizzedically but the humour covered up a deeper darker question. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± I answered. Not particrly keen to return to my body while my head throbbed incessantly. I could do with a break. ¡°So . . . sharing. I wonder what Lady Acacia would see if she looked at us now. One soul with two minds or two souls with one mind?¡± Callen considered. ¡°Let¡¯s not find out just yet. I can always end the skill. In fact, we might need to if my headache continues to increase. I was meant to be having a nap to help alleviate it. However, having met you in here I would not be surprised if the extra mind is the reason for my headache.¡± I cautioned. ¡°It¡¯s that bad?¡± Callen asked. ¡°I think it is responsible for the raise in my pain tolerance so it certainly isn¡¯t pleasant,¡± I replied. ¡°Are you happy for me to check it out?¡± Callen cautiously asked. We had watched enough Sci-fi to be aware of the problems with multiple selves but hopefully, with a system-endorsed skill, and a certain level of sensibility around the matter we could be reasonable enough not to end up mutting one another. ¡°Go ahead. As I said I came in here to get away from the pain.¡± I answered. On the one hand, I wondered whether this was the right decision on the other hand he was me. ¡°I¡¯ll go to themand room,¡± I said as I made my way to the room where I could watch the outside world from the inside. He though closed his eyes and disappeared as if he had never existed although I knew that he was returning to the surface to inhabit the body I viewed as mine. I quickly made it to themand room in time to witness my head buried in my hands. My head clearly still hurt despite which mind was thinking in it. ¡°Yep, this is no fun and certainly stronger than before. I aming back in.¡± He said before he returned to our mind fortress to join me atmand. ¡°It is probably the new skill.¡± He exined his thoughts. ¡°That was not pleasant at all.¡± ¡°We might need to end the skill.¡± I cautiously suggested unsure of how he/me would take it. ¡°Right, right, Time for me to go and let us recover.¡± He quickly suggested refusing to hesitate. ¡°See you around then.¡± He said as he ended the skill and disappeared. It was weird not to be in control of the skill even stranger still was the sudden influx of memories from thest hour that I had not lived or witnessed yet somehow now did. I had memories of him watching from withinmand as we informed our parents. It felt weird to remember something I had done but from another point of view even if it was my own. Too much to think about just now. I returned to the world to find the headache clearing. I would wait until it was gone before attempting the skill again. I would have to build up a tolerance for the skill but this might just solve my troubles with not enough time. I would have to see if I agreed with myself. Time for that nap. The Archbishop would be here soon. Chapter 134: Double trouble Chapter 134: Double trouble ¡°Not double trouble but twice blessed.¡± Anon I awoke refreshed and clear of mind. It probably helped that I had yet to start up any of my parallel processes and that my mind fortress was currently empty of any other versions of me. I returned to the fortress to see what would happen when I tried the skill again. ¡°Multiple Minds,¡± I said suddenly self-conscious now that I knew that I would be judging myself. ¡°Still talking to yourself I see,¡± Callen spoke as he appeared in front of me. I was in my core room once more. ¡°No worse than you are right now,¡± I replied. This was going to take a while to get used to. ¡°What do you remember?¡± ¡°Everything that you do,¡± Callen replied. ¡°I remember ending the skill, merging our minds, you reviewing my memories, while I reviewed yours, then taking a nap.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a relief,¡± I responded. I had been worried that there would be some dissonance or discrepancy between our experience of the skill that would make us different and such difference, could given time, breed resentment. ¡°Yes, we are still the same individual. Just two of them at least for a while. I¡¯m thinking one of us should set up parallel processes for our sensory skills while the other sees how our body is handling it this time around.¡± Callen suggested. The easy thing about talking to yourself is you know what you are going to do next. ¡°Saisho wag guu, jan ken pon!¡± ¡°Aiko desho!¡± ¡°Aiko desho!¡± ¡°Aiko desho!¡± The difficult thing about ying against yourself if it is always a tie. Or maybe not in a moreplicated game but Rock, Scissor, Paper left us with the same choice each time. Despite attempting to out-bluff and outthink one another. ¡°I¡± ll see how our body feels, you set up the HUD.¡± I decided to end the game. Callen had chosen our actions I had chosen who would bepleting them. Seemed fair enough to me and reminded me of my mother, brother and cake. Whoever hadn¡¯t cut the cake got to choose the slice. It meant that you always tried to make it as fair as possible. Leaving my body Ipleted a few sun salutations to stretch out any kinks and warm up my muscles while I waited to see if the headache would start up again. So far so good. As I worked through my positions my ears filled with the quiet rxing music that was sometimes yed to work out too. ¡°Ha.¡± Iughed and finished my routine. ¡°Thought you would find it amusing.¡± A mental voice replied over the top of the music that was ying in my head. ¡°I take it everything feels fine?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I replied out loud. ¡°Think, don¡¯t speak. It would be a bad habit to get into. People might just think we¡¯ve gone crazy.¡± He calmly responded as if giving out Yoga instructions to reach the next level of meditation. I could tell he was teasing. ¡°Haven¡¯t we?¡± I chuckled. ¡°I mean I am talking to voices in my head.¡± ¡°Probably but worth taking advantage of. Come on inside.¡± Callen said but I could imagine him shrugging his shoulders at my response. Iy down on the bed to make sure I did not fall over when concentrating and closed my eyes. I entered the mind fortress to find Callen still setting up themand centre and initiating the skills, ¡°HUD should be up and running now when you next leave. Or we could swap and see how long we can maintain the skill before it starts to hurt.¡± ¡°Worth testing and certainly before the Archbishop arrives. But probably best to meet him as one. We only just got the Block Status skill so probably best to focus on that when he visits.¡± I nodded to myself. ¡°What will you be up to while I am wandering around?¡± Callen asked. ¡°I will watch for a bit then probably keep working on the grimoire in the library. If we can keep this up without it bing too painful we should be able to have the time to n properly. I¡¯ll write a list. Have fun.¡± I said to Callen as he took control. It was weird to see my body stand up and leave the room without sending the impulses myself. Cheekily, I visited the music room to set the parallel processes to y some jazz as we walked along the corridor. ¡°Oi turn it off, I¡¯m trying to think out here.¡± Callen¡¯s voice rumbled through the room. I guessed that was what I sounded to myself. ¡°Fine,¡± I shouted back to myself before moving on to the library. Jazz for me at least was not the easiest thing to read or write to. Time to get some writing done. I was building my Grimoire for spells and magic but I was also building a Skill Compendium and Multiple Minds would make another entry in my Tier 5 section. I did not have a lot to write about it yet but it looked like we were off to a strong start. . . . Callen made his way around their ptial home watching the preparations for the Archbishop¡¯s visit beingpleted even though he was yet to arrive and the servants Lady Acacia had hired were unaware of who would being. From the quiet conversations, he overheard the majority of them felt that it was just another practice run for the family at being Adals. The weekly family events and their follow-up ones for them were very popr and part of their enthusiasm for working for us. Not only did we have hot water on tap, magical lighting and flushing toilets but we also had entertainment. . . . ¡°So this is the Western edge ind of the Ponentian Archipgo.¡± Archbishop Grigorimented as they sailed towards the towering cliffs. The True Bearing had made great time initially but the captain had failed to take into ount the strength of the south-flowing current and they had ended up south of the isle. ¡°Aye, yer honor, Wester Ponente.¡± The helmsman confirmed. Still struggling to send them further north to find the harbour they had been promised existed. ¡°The walls are rather intimidating.¡± Archbishop Grigori said as he looked up towards their tops. ¡°It¡¯s not so much the walls you need to worry about more the rocks at their feet.¡± The helmsman continued to converse. It had been a long journey and Archbishop Grigori had spent many a day and night out here either looking towards the night sky, the horizon or the next ind on his journey. Many a man on their circumnavigation pilgrimage kept to the coastal paths along the edge of the Compass Continent but he had wanted to roam further afield. The isles needed to be visited more often in his opinion to show them the benefits of civilisation and to keep them connected. ¡°And the harbour?¡± he inquired. ¡°Somewhere near here sir. Or at least that is what the map says.¡± The Captain added joining the conversation as he put away his spyss. ¡°They could do with a lighthouse to light the way. But I think it is in the shadow up yonder.¡± He said pointing and passing the spyss to the Archbishop. ¡°Then the Light of the Lodestar can lead us.¡± He raised his hand after checking the location with the spyss. ¡°Beggin your pardon, but it ain¡¯t only mankind that likes the light of the lodestar on the deep dark seas. And this close to the edge of thepass it would not be wise to draw the attention of those beyond the horizon.¡± The helmsman politely cautioned. ¡°If you feel it is not necessary then.¡± Archbishop Grigori sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine finding it once we¡¯re closer.¡± The helmsman nodded gratefully touching his nose as he added, ¡°Trust me nose your honour. Captain put us in the right ce on the map and I¡¯ll guide us safely in.¡± ¡°Very well, I will not distract you anymore.¡± Archbishop Grigori turned and returned to his cabin, formerly the Captain¡¯s room. ¡°All¡¯s well?¡± The captain questioned once the Archbishop had headed below. ¡°Aye but sea monsters be close by I can feel it in my bones no need to tempt them so close to shore.¡± ¡°You can feel it?¡± The captain questioned. ¡°There were a few moments when Deep Danger spiked as we sailed today. More so than normal at least. Either it was one sea monster following us or there was more than one this close to the horizon. After all, off the edge of the map, it says ¡®Here be monsters¡¯¡± His tale and tone grew more serious now that the Archbishop was below. ¡°Just focus on finding the cove to dock in.¡± The captainmanded. ¡°Aye, aye, captain.¡± He affirmed as they turned to scan the folded cliff line they were passing alongside. . . . It waste afternoon when the Archbishop finally arrived on the ind. As much as our Mother wished us to hide away. Aleera and I wanted to see the spectacle and surprise of his unexpected arrival. Only our family knew he wasing. So after watching our employees set up our hall and prepare everything should he choose to visit us today or tomorrow we sailed ourselves over to Wester Town to take in the atmosphere. Callen hadsted only 30 minutes before the pain of two minds trying to work with only one brain drove him to end the skill. This time the pain passed quickly and I sought out Aleera to make our escape. The wonderful fact that being the Lord and Lady meant that we only ever had to avoid Mother, Father and Lady Acacia. Aleera certainly suspected my tunnels but I could neither confirm nor deny their existence. Our shadow of a Grandfather was harder to lose but for the most part, let us do what we wanted and kept out of our sight even if we were still within his. Or he was just wandering the ind up to whatever and we had no idea what. We set up in the market square for the best view of what would be for us the most entertainment to be found on the ind that we had not provided ourselves. ¡°You are sure they will arrive this afternoon?¡± Aleera asked. We had set up a table selling some of our salt, pearls, silk and fruit. The townspeople could not afford the pearls or silk but Aleera like to have some samples out to remind them we had them if they wanted to purchase them. Our sales were predominately salt and fruit. But the Des and Sinis had made such an impact on the salt market that it was barely worth our time selling it. The fruit on the other hand was in much demand and Aleera priced it ordingly. ¡°Yes, it did not take more than half a day to get there when we went,¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they are not here already there boat is surely farrger and quicker than ours.¡± ¡°We could always go up to the cliffs to see,¡± Aleera suggested. ¡°No. We want to witness but not be seen in return.¡± I replied. The townspeople were aware of us and our new status but for them, it had not changed much in their lives. They found more amusement in Aleera¡¯s keen desire to make every penny of profit and my songs and tales in the tavern. I was not singing today though. Still working on Inspect, Observe and Analyse I was roaming the market every time Aleera made a sale. Venturing forth to the tables on either side of ours I would attempt to divine their information without the light of the lodestar helping light the way. It was significantly harder. Plum Apricot Pluot None of the fruit I identified had levels, tiers, or any extra information that I could discern. I was quickly frowned at as I approached seeing as we were in directpetition with the seller¡¯s stall. I turned the direction of my steps to see what else I could find at the market while Aleera haggled back and forth. This far out from thepass continent our options were limited to what we made ourselves and I nodded at all our cousins manning their stalls around the market square. If the Archbishop did not hurry up it would be time to pack up our stall as the market day ended and head on home soon. I had returned to my sister¡¯s stall to help with packing up when they finally arrived. There wasn¡¯t arge crowd with the majority of the townspeople ready to pack up their stalls for the day. So their arrival was as obvious with a hushing of the chatter and trading as the Archbishop¡¯s entourage arrived at the eastern edge of the market. We had set up on the southern corner to get the best view without being between them and the Lodestar Church. Lady Acaia had exined the hierarchy of the church so we watched and tried to work out who was who as they arrived. First, there was the Archbishop who walked at the front of the column but he was apanied by at least one other bishop and they were both nked by two knights of thepass. Walking nearly four abreast they nearly filled the road they entered the square from. As they entered the square we watched as one knight stepped forward to make a path but it wasn¡¯t needed with the surprised townspeople stepping out of the way without prompting. Behind them followed a priest, a deacon and two acolytes who seemed more boys than men. All of them wore a degree of purple that was part of how you could tell the hierarchy apart. The darker the purple the higher the rank. With Archbishop Grigori¡¯s cassock being the closest to ck. They did not march but calmly crossed the square as the townspeople moved out of the way for them. A few of the other children gathered up to follow behind the procession excited by something new and different. We had already boxed up the stall ready to go so Aleera and I joined the back of the group of children hardly standing out at all. We wore a finer weave but we were not wearing our fancy robes, pearls or pendants and looked much like any other child at the market. Before dashing after them we had asked our neighbour¡¯s stall to watch over our wares not that it was likely that they would need watching. This is what we were here to watch. Exiting the western corner of the market square we watched as a knight stepped forward to knock on church doors. They had to wait but a moment before Acolyte Cleo opened the door. His shocked look was worth the wait but it was a shame it wasn¡¯t Priest Aravan who had opened up. We had hoped to see a simr face on his. The children in the group grinned in silence awaiting Cleo¡¯s wee but it seemed that the cat had caught his tongue. ¡°Who is it?¡± Priest Aravan shouted from within the church and out of sight Cleo had only cracked open the door to see who was knocking. ¡°Humble pilgrims.¡± Archbishop Grigori responded loud enough for Aravan to hear within even though he had not yet arrived at the door to wee them. ¡°Penitential pilgrims can find sour at . . .¡± Aravan¡¯s words died in his throat as he opened the door to the look of shock and horror on Cleo¡¯s at his words. ¡°Humble pilgrims we may be but circumnavigational not penitential Priest Aravan. Were you not aware of our arrival?¡± Archbishop filled the silence and covered up the snickering of the other children unaware of what precisely had gone wrong but sensing it nheless. There was a certain perverse pleasure in watching those with authority mess up when you would not have to bear the consequences. It was not so fun when you did or they could turn their anger onto you. ¡°Your excellency.¡± Aravan bowed apologetically in wee. ¡°Wee to our humble house. Your arrival must have outpaced your letter outlining your arrival. Post is few and far between this far out from thepass continent we sit on the edge of the horizon.¡± He quickly backtracked. ¡°And where may we find sour?¡± The knight of thepass questioned dubious of the level of sour they might receive in the Church of the Lodestar at such short notice. ¡°Why here of course.¡± He gestured for them to enter. While hastily pushing a purse into Cleo¡¯s hands and staring pointedly towards the closing market. ¡°This way please.¡± The children, sensing the scene was over, turned to run back to their stalls and inform their parents of Cleo¡¯s imminent arrival and sudden immediate needs. Having packed up we watched as the Knight followed Aravan into the church with his retinue following on behind with the final knight closing the door behind them. I grinned at Aleera, ¡°That was worth the wait.¡± Drama I was not involved in was so hard toe by in a medieval world there was never anything to watch which made each moment of it that much more memorable to watch provided you weren¡¯t in the middle of it. ¡°Did you hear what he started with, penitential? He¡¯ll be kicking himself for months after that poor opening.¡± Aleera added as we strolled back to our stall to head home. ¡°Penitential?¡± I asked questioning a word I knew not. ¡°It is about as opposite as possible from the pilgrimage the Archbishop is making. Penitential means a Pilgrimage of Repentance over some crime. It is a form of atonement for your actions.¡± Aleera exined a word I had yet toe across. ¡°Bet he is regretting that then.¡± I agreed as we reached our stall and started pulling it towards our old home and the northern exit of the market square. We were stopped at the exit by an overburdened Cleo. ¡°Wait, Aleera, Kai. Wait!¡± he called. He had worked his way around the square clockwise from west to east but by the time he reached our empty area, we had already finished packing up and headed north cutting across the square and passing by the market square¡¯s well. We waited as he ran to catch up before we could disappear around the corner out of site. ¡°How much?¡± he asked as he fought to catch a breath from his frantic race around the market grabbing goods. ¡°How much for what?¡± Aleera asked sensing a profit to be made. ¡°For all of it.¡± He gestured at our boxed-up produce. ¡°All of it?¡± I expressed surprise. Did they not have arder in the Lodestar Church? ¡°How much do you have?¡± Aleera pounced on the poor man. ¡°This much.¡± he hefted a bag I doubted he had even counted over to Aleera. ¡°I need it now the cart as well to carry it.¡± He said as he ced the other bags he had already bought on top of it. ¡°Just a minute man, allow a girl time to count it.¡± She said as she tipped the gold church-minted coins with their distinctivepass star markings out onto her palm. It was worth easily ten times what we had left to sell after a day at the market he was not receiving our best. ¡°All of it.¡± She started with her opening ask. Haggling a skill that counted towards her metier. ¡°Done.¡± He quickly agreed, cut her off and reached for the cart. ¡°But just the goods, not the cart.¡± She interrupted as she concentrated on filling the purse back up before Cleo could reconsider the cost he had just paid. It was a pleasure to watch my sister at work. Although it would have been more fun to watch her fleece Aravan instead of Cleo. ¡°Great. Follow me if you want the cart back¡± he said as he grabbed the cart and headed for the northern side entrance to the church walking as quickly as he could. ¡°What¡¯s the rush?¡± I asked as I looked up innocently at his flushed face. ¡°That was an Archbishop and two Knights of the Compass, not to mention a bishop, priest and deacon.¡± He exined. ¡°And?¡± I teasingly asked. ¡°And we have enough food for two. It is hardly going to feed ten is it now?¡± he answered as he worked the cart up the steps into the vestibule and then into the kitchen. We followed to get the cart back as we watched him franticallyying out the goods he had just purchased. Now that he had emptied our cart we began to work it out of the kitchen and through the vestibule. ¡°Thank you, Lord and Lady Silversea,¡± he added finally remembering his etiquette and giving a quick bow to our departure. ¡°It was a pleasure doing business with you.¡± Aleera curtsied in response to his etiquette. ¡°Have fun.¡± I chimed in but he was focused once more onying out a selection of our fruit in an aesthetically pleasing manner on a te to reply as we made our exit. ¡°That was fun.¡± I grinned as we pulled our now empty cart home. We had got close enough to witness the drama without being swept up in it. ¡°And profitable.¡± Aleera hefted the heavy bag of coins. . . . Chapter 135: Mea Culpa Chapter 135: Mea Culpa ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s my fault. How do I make it right?¡± Randy Pausch Cleo carefully entered the church proper carrying tes of refreshments. Aravan had them sat to the side of the nave attempting to improve his rather disastrous first impression. ¡°If I had been aware of your arrival I would have had someone out at the dock to keep watch and wee you here. ¡°You were not aware of our arrival?¡± Archbishop Grigori asked once more sounding somewhat dubious. ¡°No boats are few and far between without a direct charter to visit Wester Ponente. The mail can be held up on any ind of the archipgo it might have reached waiting for another boat to carry it on further and that is if the boat stops at whichever ind it is sitting on.¡± ¡°We have been on Wester Levante for nigh a week. I would have expected some inter-indmunication.¡± Archbishop Grigori sounded perplexed by the inds''ck ofmunication and support. ¡°The waters out here are not so calm and cid as the coastal waters of thepass continent. Nearly all fishermen on this ind prefer to sail within the ind on theke rather than tempt fate sailing the open sea. There is some trade between Wester Ponente, Wester Levante and Little Wester but by andrge, they are more or less self-sufficient and wait for the merchant ships to carry the goods between them.¡± Aravan excused his ignorance once more. ¡°If you would like something to eat while I prepare some rooms for you to rest in. Will you be staying long as part of your pilgrimage?¡± ¡°Do not worry we will take up rooms in the local tavern after our unexpected arrival. You do have one?¡± ¡°Yes, the Compass Edge Tavern has beds and board avable but only the four. Your acolytes are wee to stay here with Acolyte Cleo.¡± Aravan advised. ¡°Very well, the initial n for Wester Ponente was to walk to the westernmost point and ce a simple shrine there before blessing the people and carrying on with our circumnavigation. Three days in total. One for the walk, one for the blessing and one for slippage. In fact, there is a family that I would like to be introduced to as well. That being said that was also the n for ourst ind stop, which ended up taking a week due to variousplications. If the circumnavigation has taught me anything so far it is to hold ns lightly.¡± He exined his hopes. After exining their ns, they returned to eating and soon polished off the fruit. ¡°The fruit was perfect thank you.¡± Bishop Bailie added as thest slice was finished. It had been quickly demolished by the ten of them although Aravan and Cleo refrained from eating. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose there is any more food we have not eaten anything since breakfast.¡± ¡°Certainly,¡± Aravan demurred, ¡°Cleo.¡± Hemanded and Cleo scurried off with the empty tes to refill them. ¡°Now about the introduction . . .¡± Cleo heard as he rushed out of the room. In the kitchen, he realised that if the fruit was not enough he would have to load up significantly more loading a trundle with everything he could hastily grab and quickly filled it with a leg of ham, wheel of cheese loave of bread and everything else had been able to acquire at the market. Pushing the trundle through. ¡°Super.¡± Bishop Bailie opened his arms wide in thanks at the spread being wheeled towards them. ¡°I must say I am pleasantly surprised at the variety of fruit you have avable this far out the selection was far poorer on Wester Levante. Are they homegrown?¡± He asked excited at the possibility of a wider selection of food than what would merely suffice. ¡°Yes, the Silversea family . . .¡± Started Cleo. ¡°The Silversea family? ¡° Archbishop Grigori inquired intrigued. ¡°They are the family I am most keen to meet. Are you aware that they have bought the entirety of Wester Levante?¡± ¡°The entirety?¡± Cleo responded astounded. While Aravan added, ¡°As well as here.¡± Muttering to himself. ¡°What do you mean as well as here?¡± Grigori focused on what would affect his ns the most. Aravan shrugged saying, ¡°They own the entirety of Wester Ponente as well. Everything outside of the town walls. I was aware of their purchases here but not on Wester Levante.¡± ¡°Where are such a young noble family getting the funds for suchrge purchases from the crown? I am surprised that the Crown has sold all their holdings to a single family and so recently, thest year or two, ording to the Mayor of Wester Levante.¡± The Archbishop pondered the political ramifications and questioned how it was possible. ¡°Not all so recent, the majority of their purchases have been over thest seven or 8 decades. The patriarch of the family Smit arrived with more money than sense and bought out most of thends when they were still infested on the founding of the pioneer ind as far as I can tell. It was only thirty years ago that thest of the ind¡¯s monsters were purged and even now the townspeople are only just extending the town beyond the original walls.¡± Aravan continued to exin the history of Wester over his long tenure as the priest. ¡°It is the pearls.¡± Cleo piped in worried about interrupting his seniors. ¡°What pearls?¡± ¡°Deep Sea pearls. They are the main reason besides the church''s mission to expand the horizons of thepass continent that the ind became a pioneer ind in the first ce.¡± Exined Aravan. ¡°The initial harvests paid for the church to be built the settlers to arrive and the town to be founded. Every year there are fewer pearls to be found but that only means that their price continues to rise. Although such pearls are generally found at sea where the danger is far greater in gathering them. They can also be found here within the ind in the s the innergoon.¡± ¡°Ah ha. Perhaps not so recent an action but a n decades in the making then.¡± Bishop Bailie added between mouthfuls of food. ¡°Do we have any wine to wash down these excellent edibles?¡± ¡°Some Silversea wine, Your grace.¡± Cleo poured cups for all. ¡°Silverseand, Silversea food, Silversea wine, Silversea pearls. Is there anything on this ind not produced by them?¡± Bishop Bailie asked as he finished his wine while Archbishop sat silently in contemtion. Purchasingnd from such a vigorous and actively ascending noble family might end up being moreplicated than he hoped. But there was no reason not to try and even more reason to establish good rtions with them while they were still rising rather than after they had already reached the peak of power. ¡°I have a selection of their other products in the kitchen I was rather rushed in my purchases and took everything they had in my haste.¡± Cleo offered. ¡°Well, get them then, young acolyte. Without knowing what they are worth we will not know what to offer.¡± He gestured for Cleo to hurry up once more. Then as he left he turned to his acolytes, priest, deacon and knights of thepass. ¡°If you would see to arranging our amodation in the Compass Edge Tavern then return here we won¡¯t all be sitting around talking now that we have finished eating.¡± He pped his hands. They turned to Archbishop Grigori for confirmation and after his nod of affirmation bowed and left. ¡°Let us wait to see what else Cleo has for us to assess their strengths and we will have to visit tomorrow to judge by the light of the lodestar the depth of their animosity.¡± Archbishop Grigori nned their next steps. ¡°Wee back Acolyte Cleo if you couldy out your collection here.¡± They moved to another table that was empty and clear for him toy down the other unintentional purchases he had made. Aravan spoke up as he started toy them all out. ¡±How much exactly did you spend?¡± shocked to see him continue toy out the entire contents of Aleera¡¯s stall. Sheepishly he replied. ¡°Um, all of it. In my haste, I did not realise how much I had purchased and hope to be able to sell some oft back or to others to recoup some of the cost.¡± He honestly admitted his mistake now it was out in the open. Though perhaps in his private thoughts he had hoped to do so before being found out. ¡°Worry not. You can travel west and still end up north or south of your bearing. It all depends on the tide and the wind. Today circumstance has brought you to the right location even if your initial bearing was off. Take your time to sight your direction more clearly next time.¡± Archbishop Grigori consoled him even though it looked like Priest Aravan was likely to erupt in privateter to chastise him. ¡°Bnce before all Aravan he has brought us what we wished for unasked for and unanticipated. We are grateful. Are we not?¡± ¡°Of course, your excellency.¡± Aravan capitted. Bishop Bailie though was working his way through the selection of items. Under Kai¡¯s suggestion, Aleera now carried an example of all the Silversea wares for them to be ordered even if they were not sold and bought immediately. Not only our immediate family but our extended n as well. There was one sample of everything she sold. ¡±Yes, they are quite proud of them, all Silvers in one way or another I believe. Silvertongue, Silversword, Silverstone, and Silverkin all very symbolic in their imagery.¡± Cleo seemed keen to exin in the hopes that this would somehow ameliorate the punishment he still felt he would receive from Aravan, for spending the entire amount, whether it resulted in a happy ending or not. ¡°Were they raised in the church?¡± Archbishop Grigori questioned. ¡°No, I believe it was a private service. We didn¡¯t officiate.¡± Aravan answered carefully he was running out of rope. ¡°That is not the most surprising aspect of the selection though. Which branch produces this? Bishop Bailie asked as he picked up a piece of cloth. ¡°Most cloth is woven by Aliyah Silversea the mother of the house herself.¡± Aravan once more answered not seeing the particr problem. ¡°It is not the cloth that concerns me but the colour.¡± He looked pointedly at Archbishop Grigori. ¡°Well, that settles it. We simply must see the family at their earliest convenience and before we make our pilgrimage by foot.¡° He dered. ¡°Last time we were unable to build our shrine because they owned thend. This time I would like to get our course plotted first before we depart. Besides, it looks like we will have plenty to discuss.¡± He outlined the n for tomorrow. Priest Aravan sighed before confessing, ¡°There might be aplication with that.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Archbishop inquired perplexed. ¡°We are representatives of the Lodestar Church it would only be polite to introduce ourselves and congratte the Silversea on bing the 101st noble family of Ponente, a historic event.¡± ¡°We are not exactly on best terms at the moment.¡± He finally borated. ¡°Why in the light not?¡± he asked confused as to why the church was not on good terms with the solendlord for the entire ind. ¡°The Mother of the house was as far as I could gather exceptionally high levelled for such a rural town. There wereplications in the birth of their first son. And . . . ¡° He paused awkwardly swallowing. ¡°And . . . my frankness on the matter was not appreciated at the time. We have not spoken since.¡± ¡°You cannot heal?¡± Bishop Bailie asked surprised at Priest Aravan¡¯sck of such a basic and integral part of their duties. ¡°No, this posting was more due to a difference of political opinions I fell afoul of rather than based on my strengths. While I havepleted my time at the seminary to gain my Priest metier I have been unfortunate enough not to unlock any skills of healing through the light of the lodestar or my own personal progress. I was unable to help.¡± He bowed his head in shame and possibly guilt. ¡°Since then her children have been homeschooled rather than attending the Lodestar Luminary.¡± ¡°Their parents are willing to risk their children¡¯s futures over a conflict of opinion. Literacy is the first step in reading the light. How could they not?¡± Bishop Bailie was shocked at the possibility that illiteracy would hold them back. ¡°No that is not the case. The mother did not attend the luminary at all when a child and is still exceptionally high levelled, it did her no harm. Her children are much the same. Despite half of them perishing. The two that remain seem to be prodigies in the making.¡± He deflected. ¡°Perishing as in plural? I thought that the ind was settled.¡± Archbishop Grigori did not look pleased about the change in bearing this conversation was taking or the rocks it was unearthing. ¡°The eldest daughter Aleera is as far as I can tell gifted. The second son died during childbirth, which inadvertently caused our rift. The third son fell to his death. Their fourth and final son Callen looks to be another prodigy based on the speed of his growth and the presence of an Elvish Tutor. But they have kept their children close to their chests much like the sudden ennobling of their entire family. It is impossible to tell for sure. I have not the skills to tell from a distance and was blocked by the Elf from attending their Metier selection.¡± He outlined the difficulties of moving forward. ¡°Quite the conundrum you have conjured Priest Aravan.¡± He addressed the local priest. Cleo listened silently witnessing the wide array of issues his senior had created. ¡°Mea culpa.¡± Priest Aravan bowed his head to the Bishop and Archbishop. ¡°How can I be of service?¡± he awaited his penance and the price of his actions. Archbishop Grigori stood silently considering his options. ¡°Out of sight out of mind, it might be best if Cleo carried our request for an audience with the local lord anddy. We will have to hear their side of the story before it is possible to determine the best service you can provide. . . . ¡°They¡¯re here.¡± We shouted as we ran into the hall. Each branch of the Silversea House had its colours emzoned on the walls of the hall in banners. It had been freshly swept and the patterns of the stone-sung ck floor shone in the light of the mananterns and what light entered the hall through the open doors. ¡°What were you doing over there?¡± Mother shouted at us crossly. ¡°You were told to keep your distance.¡± ¡°We did, we just wished to witness their arrival,¡± Aleera answered. ¡°We made a fine profit off Cleo¡¯s desperation. Sold everything.¡± She grinned. ¡°Some form of witnesses can be important provided they stopped to think and can remember what they saw. Howrge was his entourage and what ranks did they hold?¡± Lady Acacia mediated. ¡°Archbishop Grigori was apanied by 2 knights, 1 bishop, 1 priest, 1 deacon and 2 acolytes judging by the vestments that they wore,¡± I answered sinctly. Livery alongside lineages had been part and parcel of Lady Acaia¡¯s lessons. ¡°What will they do next?¡± She challenged Aleera. It was always good to promptly answer first because then you had longer to think of answers to the questions she was bound to throw at your sibling next. ¡°They needed food which we provided, next will be acquiring amodation, I doubt they can all stay in the Church. Some of them will probably get rooms at the Compass Edge Tavern.¡± Aleera worked through the hierarchy of needs. ¡°Very good, what wille next Kai?¡± she moved on to quizzing me. ¡°Once they feel safe and secure, rested and fed they will move onto rtionships and requests. If they follow the same itinerary as on Wester Levante they will bless and heal the townspeople, meet with the highest official in the town which would be . . . us.¡± ¡°Is there time in the day to do so?¡± she asked forcing us to think through the sequence of events that we could predict. ¡°No.¡± We both replied. ¡°So the request wille by messenger. Once they have food, shelter, safety, security and rtionships. What is the purpose of their trip? What do they hope to aplish?¡± she continued to extrapte. ¡°They are here to circumnavigate thepass,¡± I answered quickly. While Aleera added, ¡°They will make their way to the west of the isle either by walking or sailing.¡± ¡°And will you help or hinder their efforts, what will you get for supporting their pursuits or what can you charge them for your permission? Think carefully about how you would like to approach this and write up your ideas. I expect to have a short essay on your answer by the time their messenger arrives this evening or tomorrow morning.¡± She demanded, ever the proponent of practical lessons in everything that it took to be a sessful scion. We fled the hall before she could raise any more questions or demand any more answers. Chapter 136: Cut me if you can Chapter 136: Cut me if you can ¡°If you want to be a sharp thinker be around sharp people.¡± John C. Maxell Cleo arrived on our indter that day in thepany of Grandpa Smit. He seemed amazed at our grand weing hall and I realised that other than our family and employees, no one from the town had actually ever visited, especially when it was decked out to impress. He did not arrive alone. One other acolyte from the Archbishop¡¯s retinue apanied him. Aware that he wasing we had set up to be ostentatious as possible and had the immediate family arrayed at the end of the hall to wee him. While Baldric announced his entrance. Honestly, it was still a little bit of a game for him to do so. Lady Acacia had given everybody the appropriate lessons in etiquette and the formal statements to be made but without the years of history making them a tradition, they all seemed very arbitrary and almost whimsical in nature. One day they would be our traditions but it all still felt a little like a game for everyone involved. Well, maybe it did not feel like a game for the new arrivals. But perhaps that was half the of the point. To put them slightly on edge. ¡°Announcing Acolyte Cleo and Theo to visit with Lord and Lady Silversea apanied by Seneschal Silvertongue.¡± He beamed as his voice boomed across the empty hall. When we did this for Archbishop Grigori we would have our whole n in attendance but for now, this was not a bad idea to have a practice run on just the two poor acolytes. Acolyte Cleo stumbled not expecting such arge shout or the fact that he was standing right next to where it originated. I could hear well enough across the hall but those with more mundane levels of hearing would have needed the loud introduction to cross the long hall or quieten the Silversea court if we had them in full attendance. ¡°You may approach,¡± Aleera spoke into the silence that filled the hall once the echoes of Baldric¡¯s voice had ended. We were no longer wearing our day-to-day townspeople-styled clothing but our more fancy robes of state a symbol of our noble status alongside our pearl nes. He was here to see our parents more than he was to see us but as we outranked them it was our prerogative to respond or rather tomand their entrance. Cleo hesitatingly stepped forward, unused to such pomp and circumstance which was far removed from the face we had shown him only a few hours ago when we were hustling him for all that he had on him. He finally crossed the floor to stand before us. Our raised dais and chairs left him below us even though we were sat down. I wondered what he made of our performance. Was he surprised or shocked? Or merely entertained at children his juniors were ying such a role. Wester Ponente had never had nobles and he had grown up on Wester Ponente so therefore never experienced them before. Once he arrived in front of us he unrolled a finely embossed scroll to read from, ¡°The Archbishop Grigori as part of his Compass Circumnavigation for Ordinal or Cardinal selection, presents his congrattions to the scions of the new noble house of Silversea. He formally requests an audience with the family to congratte you in person and discuss both the path of pilgrims and other possible joint ventures between the Church of the Lodestar and the Silversea House.¡± Before he then handed it to Grandpa Smit Silvertongue who then handed it on to us. Grandpa seemed inordinately proud of the first piece of official correspondence to be received from the church and from and from an Archbishop no less. While for me, this was just another step forward along the path my new life had taken. For him, it was the culmination of decades of preparation and it showed in his smile as he handed it over. We were no longer only acknowledged by the crown but by the church as well. Whoever would it be next? ¡°It would be our pleasure,¡± Aleera answered despite the less-than-pleased look on our mother¡¯s face. ¡°Tomorrow at noon for lunch?¡± she suggested. We would have to get the great hall table out but it would be worth it to make an awe-inspiring first impression on the Archbishop. ¡°Tomorrow at noon,¡± Cleo confirmed, "It would be our pleasure," and turned walking swiftly back across the hall with Theo. As soon as he had exited the hall with Grandpa Smit, or Seneschal Silvertongue as he enjoyed being called now, we stripped out of our robes to return to our lessons. Now that I had the Tier 4 Block Status skill it was back to the grindstone in regards of our other skills. Lady Acaia felt that it was important to keep trying for the other status skills but there was now no longer any reason not to continue with our academic, physical and etiquette lessons particrly in light of who would be visiting tomorrow. . . . That afternoon though I continued to practice my new skill Multiple Minds as well. While I was working through my physical forms under my Grandfather¡¯s ring eye, Callen was listening to the lessons Lady Acacia was teaching Aleera. Normally when this happened Grandfather would catch mypse in concentration and punish me for it. Now though I could focus on both things at the same time. ¡°Supply and demand. We will be there to watch and support the meeting between you two and the Archbishop tomorrow stepping in if necessary but the fact that his missive was worded as possible joint ventures implies that he has something to offer us on top of what we already know, that he wishes to request the purchase ofnd or at least the permission to build. The question you need to ask yourself is what?¡± ¡°What might an Archbishop need or want from the Silversea House?¡± Aleera asked the rhetorical question. ¡°Precisely,¡± Lady Acacia answered. ¡°Other than thend, our pearls.¡± Aleera jumped to our most profitable product. ¡°Possibly but it should not be too difficult to realise that they are the product that has funded the Silversea expansion. He may ask for some but the church has deeper pockets than the Prince spread out as it is across the entire continent.¡± Lady Acacia agreed but suggested Aleera continue to think deeper. "He may be interested in buying directly from the source but they are not as important to the church as they are to the crown. ¡°Salt?¡± Aleera questioned as if unsure of her answer. ¡°Doubtful.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I doubt they would be interested in your production of salt. While it would weather the journey well and we would not be able to produce it in sufficient quantities for it to matter significantly to them and I doubt they have room on board for it either.¡± She thought it through. ¡°Look around you.¡± Lady Acacia led Aleera through the hoops she had already lined up. Snickering to myself I thought I had the answer. But I was punished for it once more by Grandfather as he rapped my knuckles with the t of his de slipping it past my guard with sheer speed of stats, ¡°Focus, Kai he berated.¡± I had been, but it was clear that he was not to be denied despite my two minds. ¡°You¡¯ve improved a lot but Foes Focus still tells me when you are not paying attention.¡± He chided. Now that was just cheating. I was paying full attention but apparently his stupid skill that had let him know when I was faking being asleep as an infant also told him when Callen was concentrating on something else. ¡°Let me use the left arm, Kai.¡± Callen whispered in my head and I did. Together we drove ourselves forward pushing him harder until as I blocked with my right de Callen focused on the left and snuck in a little prick on his left hand. It was not much but it was the first time we had ever managed to cut him before. "Yes!" I shouted in delight. First blood ever! Grandfather sucked his hand and rose his eyebrow in suspicion. ¡°It looks like you are ready to face two des then.¡± He said as he pulled a second de from his belt. Merde! He had only ever duelled us with one despite our wielding two. ¡°Cut me if you can.¡± he challenged grinning at my falling expression. There was something seriously wrong with the delight he took in training me. ¡°Idiot.¡± I mentally whispered to Callen who had caused this. The irony being that I was effectively calling myself an idiot was not lost on me. I think I had firmly established that even though I was progressing as if a genius I made more than enough stupid mistakes. ¡°What? We need to learn to fight together. Better now than we actually need to.¡± He mentally shrugged back indifferent to the pummeling we were probably about to receive. ¡°Yes, but what is going to happen when our skill runs out.¡± I found myself exasperated with myself. I could only keep the skill running for so long before the pain drove me to end it. ¡°Ready?¡± Grandfather interrupted my internal dialogue or was it a monologue? He could probably tell I was focusing on myself rather than on him. He stepped forward stabbing down with his right de, forcing Callen to block the strike to my neck with my left while I turned and stepped into his body to strike from below with my right. He blocked with his left forcing my arms apart leaving my body open to a hip check which sent me flying backwards andnding painfully on my backside. My prediction of it being a mistake came true only too quickly. ¡°Well done with your arms but do not forget your feet. If you do, I will not hesitate to use mine next time. Strike and retreat, strike and retreat. You will not have the same reach as your opponents for a long time yet. In strength and speed you are quickly catching up but you are not there yet. Well done for aiming for the femoral artery." He said as he tapped where I had attempted to cut on his inside thigh. Being significantly shorter than everyone else meant striking for the chest or the head was still out of reach for me. He criticised andplimented the two sides to his method of teaching although the coinnded critique side up more often than not. He helped me up from the floor. I knew that if you wanted to hone yourself to a fine edge it was best to go against sharp people but sometimes it was painful. ¡°Again?¡± he waited for my confirmation. ¡°Again,¡± I answered resigned. ¡°So much for you helping out,¡± I muttered internally to Callen. ¡°Double me, double the trouble,¡± Callen replied. ¡°Hopefully one day soon it will be to others rather than ourselves.¡± And we turned all of our attention to blocking the two knives our Grandfather wielded. For the rest of the session neither had enough spare attention to listen to Aleera and Lady Acacia. But we presumed she continued to be prepared for tomorrow¡¯s audience. If I wanted to be overlooked, then silence was the best course of action. I could always listen into the conversations. . . . That night as Iy in bed, I activated Multiple Minds once more. I discovered that so far, I could keep it active for about 30 minutes but then it required 6 or 7 hours for my brain and body to recover before I could activate it again. This meant that I could use it when I first got up, once at midday and once in the evening depending on how I managed to time it. I was still working on my inspect and observe skills and the two mind meant that I could observe two items at the same time. I was able to pull up the information of two items at the same time. It was still a little ufortable having the two up at the same time but my brain was gradually getting used to it. I also had my amulet out to use my mini slice of the Lodestar out to help as well. I was really happy to see that his was still surviving. I had taken the opportunity to spend eighty percent of my mana in filling up the amulet every morning and night to ensure itsted as long as possible now that I was not wearing it all the time. I had ns for my secret sliver of the Lodestar and did not want it to die before I was ready to enact them. When I had stretched my brain enough for the night I packed everything away andy down to sleep. Life was good. Chapter 137: Power of Words Chapter 137: Power of Words ¡°The power of words is immense. A well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying army, to change defeat into victory and to save an empire.¡± Emile de Giradin The next morning the sun shone brightly as s a small exodus of people made their way to our ind. The cousins wereing. Much like the day, their families were raised as Adals they were all wearing their finest. With such a number of departures, the townspeople surely knew something was happening. I was almost surprised we did not get a few extras popping across to see what was happening. However, our ind had seen more and more traffic since the Silversea games and the regr employment of staff to maintain our salterns, gardens and mountain citadel, so they must be gradually getting used to it. I was stretching the definition by calling it a citadel now but one day it would be one day. We had arranged to meet up prior to the audience to show them thetest project we had been working on, our amphitheatre. It was not aplete circle but rather a semi-circle cut into the side of the mountain on the southern side of the isle. The Silversea games had highlighted the need for some proper seating and it could seat up to a thousand individuals significantly more than our small town boasted. It would not necessarily be the mostfortable seating as the curved benches were stone but it was a significant development for our town. ¡°You never cease to amaze.¡± Uncle Cephas congratted his sister-inw, my mother. With our ennoblement as well as the advent of magic for our cousins through their pledging it was an open secret within the family as to what exactly we could do with our magic. It was fantastic that we no longer had to hide it due to our noble status. It was a shame that more people did not have it at all when spreading the magic would help humanity to strive so much better. We had yet to wow the townspeople with what we could do. But once they witnessed the amphitheatre our magic would no longer be a rumour for them but a fact. I had various other civil engineering ideas that could bepleted once we were out in the open about it, aqueducts, roads, bridges, reservoirs, canals, and maybe even waterwheels for waterpower. My daydreams were very tempting but we needed to consolidate and above all there had to be a practical purpose to my more whimsical ideas rather than a flight of fancy or an unpractical monument to our architectural capabilities. Grandpa Smit, or rather Seneschal Silvertongue took the stage. ¡°Wee sons, wee daughters, wee grandchildren.¡± He was drawing it out a little bit. ¡°Today is a special day and you are all looking your finest.¡± He referred to their best clothing and the fact that we would be entertaining an Archbishop along with his retinue today. It was a small visit in the grand scheme of thepass kingdoms but for our family, it was our first foray into the political waters and he was determined to wine and dine with the best. ¡°Our employees are currently setting the stage, the Archbishop has been invited for an audience and for lunch. There is no reason we cannotbine the two, business and pleasure. Treat this like any other of our practice meals, eat and be merry but be mindful of the impressions you give. They will be the first impressions of our house so let us make them the best they can be. To the Silverseas!¡± he shouted wildly enthusiastic about what was simply lunch with guests. Albeit powerful guests with both stats, political connections and the entire Lodestar Church standing behind them. The cousins all shouted out their own house names in response. They all started with Silver but then devolved into a mess as each child tried to shout out their branch of the house the loudest. This was a perfect example of uncalled-for chaos and poor nning on the part of my Grandpa. Once the order had been restored. He tried one more with a somewhat redacted cheer. ¡°To the Silvers.¡± And everyone joined in once more without it devolving into chaos this time around. The children mixed as we returned to the hall cheerful and chatting about theirtest projects or news from the town, most of which centred on the visitors to the Lodestar Church. I listened in but walked in my sister¡¯s shadow the children unconsciously arraying themselves around us. Our own miniature Silversea court. As we reached the steps Lady Acacia stood there watching and you could see their skills kicking in as they noticed her supervision. Steps grew smoother and more graceful as they ascended the steps taking care to disy the proper etiquette as we moved forwards. The children stepped into their roles, and two of our older cousins opened the doors for us while Aleera and I led the rest of our cousins and after them the adults into the hall. From the head of the group, it was difficult to tell whether the adults were amused or proud of our progress. A long, long table had been assembled to fill half the hall with stone seats dragged out from side chambers. In time they would need to be carved wood or at least upholstered in some fashion. Our own table was raised up crossed its end and allowed us to see everyone and be seen in return. The ce settings were allid out with our family at the head alongside our grandparents and Lady Acacia with spaces left for the Archbishop and Bishop. Then along the main table, my father¡¯s brothers sat in descending order of age their children between them. I wondered whether we could get a circr table for the next family gathering but was not sure that it would aesthetically fit the dimensions of the hall. Perhaps we could have one in our garden instead for our Silversea court. Our walk and talk had taken up sufficient time that we were not waiting long for the Archbishop and his retinue to arrive, our conversations growing quiet as they were announced. Baldric came into his own enjoying announcing their arrival. His role of herald perhaps outshines his joy of fishing alongside Father. ¡°Wee all to the hall of House Silversea, presenting his excellency Archbishop Grigori, his grace Bishop Bailie, Sir Jacques, Sir Manilo, the right revered Priest Paravan and Priest Aravan, the very revered Deacon Dominic, apanied by Acolytes Cleo, Theo, Hugo, Durgo, and Leo.¡± His voice boomed out over the quiet hall as they entered. Their names had been included in the missive received yesterday so he had been ready and waiting to announce them. Even though Cleo and Theo the acolytes would have described what to expect the surprise at the grandeur of our setting was evident as they arrived. From the outside, the grandeur of the entrance could have been seen as only skin deep but the hall¡¯s interior grew closer in quality and depth apparently to the mountain fortresses of the dwarves. The more senior figures¡¯ surprise was tempered by their experience but it was far more obvious on the faces of the Acolytes, Deacon and Priests. Particrly on Priest Aravan¡¯s face who despite the rumours going around the town about our growing citadel had never actually set foot on the ind before. Even having avoided the entire ind during the Silversea games earlier aware of our mother¡¯s enmity. Archbishop Grigori raised his voice to return, ¡°We thank you for your warm wee. In the light of the lodestar, may we find bnce working together and never lose our bearings in the depths of the lodestone.¡± He formally returned the greeting. Our cousins stood to wee them and show them their seats sat among the family. Lady Acacia had been in charge of the seating but Mother had exercised her fiat to ensure that Priest Aravan was sat below even the other Acolytes at the end of the table and out of her line of sight. It was a petty act but no one objected to her request. The other branches did not hold the same dislike for him so he was included in conversations, but they also respected her wishes withoutment. Archbishop Grigori and Bishop Bailie arrived at the head table to sit alongside our immediate family. The seating arrangements reminded me of a wedding with the exception that we were siblings rather than the bride and groom. But as the heads of the house, we had the central seats. Bracketed by our parents. Mother was on Aleera¡¯s side Father on mine. The next two spaces had been reserved for them with Lady Acacia and mother bracketing Archbishop Grigori and Father and Grandpa bracketing Bishop Bailie with Grandfather sitting at the end of the table ready to intercept any aggressive overtures. If we had another knight they would have been ced opposite again for our protection. In fact, the Knights of the Compass were seated next highest at the head of the next table above Kaius¡¯s older brothers. Once we were all settled. Lady Acacia asked if Archbishop Grigori would like to lead us in the traditional grace before beginning our feast. He stood and opened his hands to the heavens to pray, closing his eyes before giving his address. Praise be to the Almighty Lodestar Fallen from the heavens to shine forth the light of the status In ignorance, we strive for skills, As we struggle with the darkness below. Sin is the path of Idleness, While thy light shows the way to advancement. By your grace, we can level, and by your mercy, you grant us a Metier. We owe our Experience to you, We owe our Stats to you, We owe our Skills to you, In every Stat, we gain, we be closer to you. Forever we look to Your light. Amen Many of our cousins joined in quietly with his words having attended the Lodestar luminary for their basic education at least unlike our own family. He bowed his head in silence for a moment more before sitting once more. Father had mumbled the words as well and I realised from our mother¡¯s silence that her rejection of the faith was far more profound an aspect of her character than I had first realised. Faith for me had once been entirely a personal affair. I believed in God per se but struggled to choose which faith spoke to me most truthfully and had never attempted to push my ideas onto others. I had not realised with our self-inflicted istion from the Church of the Lodestar how predominant and powerful the beliefs of others were. There are different forms of power and soft influence can be just as profound and strong as hard. Seneschal Silvertongue broke the contemtive silence standing to shout, ¡°Please begin, eat, drink and be merry!¡± to a cheer from the children, our cousins, and half the adults. ¡°You favour the Pilot¡¯s Petition?¡± Grandfather asked from the end of the table never afraid to start a conversation or an argument. ¡°Surrounded by sea, so far from civilisation, it seemed the most sensible choice for the asion. You favour another?¡± The Archbishop questioned. Unsurprisingly he answered, ¡°I¡¯ve always been partial to the older original versions, with lines like, ¡®Thy light be spread, the fell beasts dead,¡¯ or ¡®Give us this day the speed and skill to make the kill and expand the horizon ever further.¡¯ This far from the centre of civilisation it is important to remember the old words.¡± He countered. ¡°It is true Wester Ponente stands on the Edge of the World, today. But every year the horizon is pushed back further a little further. It does not always need to be doom and gloom, a little light should shine the way forward for the children in this hall at least. The ind seems safe and settled so far idleness is therger sin and often found when we mere mortals are not pressed so hard by the depths of the lodestone.¡± There seemed to be a deeper context to their conversation but they were quickly interrupted by Grandpa Smit Silvertongue keen to capitalise on his captive audience. As well as possibly breaking up the hostilities before they could begin. ¡°Debate your faithter, enjoy the food now, and perhaps while we are eating enlighten us on your reason for requesting an audience.¡± He motioned for servers to step forward and fill our tes with a wide selection of food. So close to the water, there was a wide selection of seafood avable. We chose from what was offered. As ustomed as I had be to the cuisine I missed having a burger and fries. Another item to add to my unending list of things to work out how to do, grow, import or reinvent. I had already brought a modernity or two but the food was taking even longer still. An unending list of things to do. There was a moment of focused concentration on the task at hand before the conversation started again. Bishop Bailie discussed faith and food with father and grandfather. Archbishop Grigori opted to discuss his hopes for future ventures with the Silverseas with Grandpa, Mother and Lady Acacia. Aleera leaned in and listened to their conversation. I though had a new trick up my sleeve. Activating Multiple Minds meant that I could concentrate on what Archbishop Grigori was working up to asking for, while Callen could listen into what Bishop Bailie was discussing. It was a perfect use of multiple minds with my high senses each ear capable of listening while a different mind focused on keeping track of a specific conversation. No doubt I looked a little lost at the head of the table but I kept myself busy eating while I concentrated on listening in. ¡°First let me personally congratte you, young Aleera, on bing Lady Silversea.¡± He leaned forward to address her directly, ¡°Lady Aliyah you must be very proud of your daughter¡¯s social rise and progress.¡± he continued. ¡°And ever so fortunate to find such an elegant and charming tutor in Lady Acaia.¡± Heplimented Aleera, my mother and our tutor in his opening. ¡°Thank you for thepliment, your excellency. I would not be the Lady I am today without the hard work and sacrifice my family have invested in me. I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to be a scion of House Silversea. It has been a house, decades in the making, despite its recent raising into the peerage of Ponente.¡± Aleera politely thanked in for his praise while humbly stating her sess was not solely her own. It seemed that Lady Acacia¡¯s lessons were being taken to heart. ¡°Well put, indeed. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Some forget to remember that when they squander the wealth of their forefathers,¡± he took in his audience and added, ¡°or their foremothers, struggled so hard to make or even to survive. In fact, I myself am hoping to build on my predecessors¡¯ circumnavigations of thepass and push the path of the pilgrim that little bit further to the edge of thepass once more.¡± He alluded to what we already knew he would be asking for. ¡°An admirable goal.¡± Lady Acacia added. ¡°We too are hoping to continue to build our house.¡± Mother answered gesticting at the magnificent mountain hall we were sitting in. ¡°Marvellous, truly marvellous, your hall would be the envy of many in the capital and the stonework is truly magical. Many in the Church of the Lodestar are also fine builders and some have spent their entire lives learning how to bring out the beauty of stone to best encapste the Light of the Lodestar. Why Priest Paravan has apanied me specifically for that task as a favour to me.¡± He outlined some of the strengths of his retinue. ¡°You hope to build on Wester Ponente?¡± Mother asked pointedly already knowing the answer. ¡°I had hoped to recreate, in miniature at least, something simr to the 32 pirs of thepass continent. I only hoped to leave one on each ind I traversed as part of my Circumnavigation. Markers if you will for those that will one day follow after. Imagine my surprise when on reaching Wester Levante, an ind with no known noble family, I found myself unable to erect my stone markers due to thend already being owned by an unheard-of noble House, House Silversea. It was quite a shock and I imagine it will be much the same here on Wester Ponente and Little Wester as well. It was why I was so keen to arrange an audience with you above and beyond a token gesture or greeting and prior to our pilgrimage around the ind by foot. I was hoping that we mighte to an arrangement on where the markers might be ced and what it might cost to purchase thend.¡± He calmly stated his hopes for the audience. ¡°Aleera would you like to respond?¡± Lady Acacia redirected his attention from our mother to my sister. As a scion of the house although she would have followed her mother it was a great learning opportunity to practice politics safely under the eyes of Lady Acacia and her mother. ¡°Much as you detailed your dream I would like to elucidate my own. I dream of building a strong house that supports and shelters a magical family indebted to no one. As a new house, we have set about securing our physical and financial needs. Our coffers are as now as deep as the sea, and we delve deeper every day. We do not require more money to ensure our security and safety. Our borders are secure, thend is not for sale.¡± Aleera had clearly continued to discuss how to respond to the Archbishop earlier with Lady Acacia when I had been busy paying attention to not getting stabbed. If Archbishop Grigori hesitated at the rebuttaling from a ten-year-old it was only for a moment, ¡°Safety and security cannot be found solely through money andnd. Rtionships dare I say friendships are as equally important in political protecting yourself as developing a force of arms would defend against the depths. You are isted out here, far from the seat of power and without a presence there to protect you, you could do with a friend.¡± He evenly exined as if teaching a seminary. Lady Acacia intervened here, ¡°The Crown itself announced before my departure for Wester Ponente that it considers the Silversea Scions noble children afforded all the protections the House of Lords can provide and has requested their presence on their 20th year. They have a friend or two in the capital.¡± ¡°I¡¯m d to hear it, but I never implied friendship need be a one-way street if you are not interested in selling thend, I would be happy to consider other favours you might value for permission to simply erect them.¡± He calmly replied unaffected by the rebuff and smoothly moving onto his next angle of attack. ¡°What are you offering?¡± Aleera fished. ¡°What do you want?¡± he shrugged. ¡°A favour for your marker.¡± She confirmed. ¡°You have but to ask. I might have to say no but I¡¯m sure we can find something we agree upon.¡± He sounded happy to have arrived at the possibility of negotiation. If not for the sale of thend then for the possibility of cing his markers. Chapter 138: A favour for a favour Chapter 138: A favour for a favour ¡°He who will not grant a favour has no right to ask one.¡± Publilius Syrus Aleera hesitated a second before jumping into the next round of negotiations, ¡°A healer.¡± I coughed surprised. I supposed it made sense but we had not discussed this. As much as I was attempting to stay hidden from the Archbishop''s direct attention it was hard not to be a part of this discussion. ¡°Certainly, healing is hardly a favour. We were nning on blessing the town and its people before we left as part of our duty.¡± He answered a little confused at the rtively minor request when he had been blocked so carefully previously. ¡°Not a temporary one a permanent one. Too long have we been without a healer other than what the sea washed up.¡± She was either referring to the criminally negligent old hag or the Priest neither of whom was originally from Wester Ponente. ¡°Priest Aravan while respected by many has no gift for it and theck of a Church healer has hurt our growing town and on a personal front our family deeply.¡± She exined referring to our history. He paused considering the request and the political ramifications of his answer, ¡°It is true that a pioneer ind should not be without a dedicated healer. It would seem that Aravan¡¯s cement here was a form of political penitence rather than a true and honest expansion of the horizon. It should not have happened. And although I cannot order anyone to stay I can ask it of mypanions. All of whom can heal. I am sure one of them would consider staying to help.¡± He cautiously responded. ¡°If one will stay and teach then we would be willing to allow the Pilgrimage marker to be erected on Wester Levante.¡± Aleera left the decision up to them. If someone stayed then . . . It was a sensible way of working with an organisation as powerful as the church. Also thinking about it we did need a better form of medicine on the ind be it magic or mundane. I knew the basics but not much beyond that. As our isle grew more crowded it would be important to introduce health and safety measures though how one would go about exining them would be a somewhat challenging position from my perceivedck of experience and worldly knowledge. Such improvement could be passed off as part of Elvish culture but then I would have to exin myself to her. It would probably be best to get Grandfather to introduce them as parts of his former life that would help to elevate our family further. ¡°Only Wester Levante?¡± he questioned the singr nature of the ind offered and raised his eyebrow at the implication that there would be further favours he had to trade for each marker. ¡°A marker for a favour,¡± Aleera confirmed his suspicion that she wanted 3 favours for the 3 markers he hoped to ce. ¡°What else would you like?¡± he smiled unoffended and possibly amused at her attempts to extort more from him. Perhaps requesting a suitable priest was not a favour but an expectation. Maybe he had intended to do so anyway even before arriving. Knowledge is power and we knew frighteningly little about the Church of the Lodestar and its ns. Mother interrupted here, ¡°If a healer is staying then we would also like Priest Aravan to leave, to apany you on your circumnavigation.¡± She requested his banishment if we were to be getting someone new. It wasn¡¯t a bad idea for one less observer to watch us. ¡°You would ask him to abandon his post?¡± Archbishop Grigori blinked already aware of the disagreement between the individual and our family. But also happy to overemphasise the request as part of his haggling. ¡°Not abandon but a trade if you will, a priest for a priest. As a family, we have not attended the Lodestar Church while he has been leading it for seven years. If we are going to lead not just House Silversea but Wester Town as well it would be beneficial to lead more visibly. Bishop Bailie seems to be enjoying our cuisine at the least.¡± She pointed out his enjoyment as he continued to attack their feast. ¡°Perhaps he would enjoy a new parish to oversee?¡± She suggested the rather jolly fellow down the end of the table still tucking into his te. ¡°Swapping a Priest for a Bishop is quite the step up for such a small town.¡± He answered before adding once more, ¡°I can but ask him notmand he stay.¡± Not saying no but neither was he saying yes. Again, I was unsure of the method for posting priests or bishops to their new locations, but it appeared that even an Archbishop, at least ording to himself, was unable to just order him around. ¡°While we are currently a small town we n on growingrger. Besides as the majorityndowners of Wester Ponente, Wester Levante and Little Wester, we surely span enough territory to warrant a new diocese. He would not only be the Bishop of Wester Town but something greater.¡± Aleera re-entered the conversation attempting to redraw not only the representation of the church but also their territory to match our expanding ward. Ward of the Western Isles had a nice ring to it and I wondered if we could upgrade our Lady and Lord titles to Duchess and Duke if we bought enoughnd and paid the Prince a big enough bribe. Something to ask Mercurio when he next visited, ¡®How much did a Duchy costpared to a Barony?¡¯ ¡°I will have to discuss it with himter. But I will attempt to be persuasive.¡± He agreed in principle to try and persuade him but who knew whether that would be possible or not? ¡°Then what is the final favour for Little Wester?¡± he asked tentatively sounding a little apprehensive at what Aleera might ask for next. ¡°That when you return to thepass continent you will protect the new diocese of Wester, the Ward of the Western Isles from outside or harmful influence.¡± She demanded her final favour. ¡°Protect is a very broad remit for a single marker.¡± He hedged seeking a reduction and rification of the terms he would be agreeing to. ¡°What did you have in mind and how would you define protect?¡± ¡°You are right we are a new house. There will be people who support our expansion and there will also be people who object to our expansion. As a pioneer ind, our expansion is part of the doctrine of the church. Supporting us is in line with church policy. All we would ask is that you support it and prevent other interests from interfering with our progress or actively working to harm us.¡± She exined what she was asking for. ¡°Are you aware of any specific interests that are aimed this way?¡± he asked for greater information on what precisely he might be aligning himself against. While we were aware of the immediate reaction to our patent of nobility we still did not know who had instigated it and whether or not it was a general order for the annihtion of any new noble or specifically targeted as it happened out here in the middle of nowhere, or maybe simply because it was rted to and working against merchant Mercurio. It would have been useful to question him before his dispatching by Grandfather. But his actions unfortunately had been along the lines of shoot first ask questionster even if he most probably had used a knife to take his shot. ¡°We do not know of any specific parties but ¡®they¡¯ did move against us when we first received the patent of nobility.¡± Aleera alluded to my attempted assassination. ¡°However, since the crown backed our position there have been no overt moves. Nevertheless, Lady Acacia advises that as we expand our spheres of influence we are more and more likely to create aggressive rivals once more,¡± Aleera exined. ¡°When this happens your support alongside the crowns would be most beneficial.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking which spheres of influence are you nning on expanding into?¡± He continued intrigued. He appeared epting of Aleera¡¯sck of knowledge while digging to find the extent of it. And while we were currently unaware of any specific enemies, depending on which spheres of influence we were nning on entering that could change quickly. ¡°Nothing too extreme or vigorous, we only hope to consolidate our house¡¯s position as any new house would. Politically we hope to take greater control in directing the growth of Wester Levante and Little Wester as well as Wester Ponente but we n to move slowly on that front. They, much like our own ind are fiercely independent and unlikely to respond well to directmands.¡± She smiled considering our very careful approach with Wester Town so far. ¡°You will always arrive at better, longersting results if you persuade rather thanmand. If you want to ensure their best efforts convince them it will result in the best oue for them, but that is just one sphere. You mentioned spheres?¡± He cautiously agreed with what she was outlining and encouraged her to continue. ¡°Economically, we hope to trade more regrly within the three inds and even extend further afield. The merchants make far too much off our simple trades that we could organise ourselves. Closer links, quicker travel andmunication should help us all to level faster and develop better products to be sold beyond our house¡¯s current luxury products.¡± She outlined our next steps in building a bigger trade empire. This would not only help our house but all the other families living on the isles. ¡°This is an area I believe we could help more directly with. The church has deep pockets and I am aware of several Silversea exports we might be interested in purchasing for the right price.¡± He seemed particrly interested in this particr area of influence. ¡°We would of course be interested in any offers you have to make but money is not currently a concern for our expanding house. Militarily, though we would wee any advice, weapons or metiers you might be able to provide our house with. Particrly boats which would help not only our trading but also help to begin to build a defence of our inds.¡± Aleera was moving rapidly through many of the ideas we had discussed together. Daydreams really without the power toplete them but she believed in striking while the iron was hot. A customer who came to you was a keen customer. Especially in a world where everything was so distant and far. Not only that but this customer had the power to provide such services. If not immediately then his words would carry equally well in a missive or letter. The Archbishop coughed looking at the other twodies for confirmation of the young scion¡¯s bold ns. They nodded in agreement backing Aleera¡¯s statements, negotiations and demands. ¡°Obscurity and distance defend the Silversea House well for the moment but if they are to expand thepass further and defend their expanding influence some guidance and support will be required either from the Church or other specialists that they can hire. However, so far from the capital, those are few and far between.¡± Lady Acacia exined further supporting Aleera¡¯s requests. ¡°Three markers for three favours, the healer, trade or banishment of Aravan and the friendship of an Archbishop aspiring to be a Cardinal are all eptable to me. They might be ambitious but I feel them appropriate. Military advice, weapons, soldiers and metiers though will cost more than a favour, they will need a material weight to procure them especially permanently or for any length of time. I am very impressed with what you have achieved here and the expansion of thepass is every clergyman¡¯s mission but I cannot do or give you what you hope for free.¡± He stated his position, happy to engage, but warning that there would be a cost for such things. ¡°We have opened an ount in the capital and much of our silver and gold is held in the Compass Bank. You could draw upon that with a letter of permission from ourselves.¡± She stated the simplest method knowing full well that while silver or gold were the simplest methods to pay, they were not the method that the Archbishop would find the most worthwhile or valuable. ¡°Silver and gold are always wee butmon enough. I would require something more specific to our current location. I hear that your deep-sea pearls are perfect for empowering weapons and worth far more than their weight in gold.¡± He directed the conversation to one of the goods that he wished for. ¡°That would possibly put us into conflict with the crown. They have requested to be able to purchase as many as we are willing to sell. If we sold all we had to the church we would lose our current friend in the capital. To do so would simply not be worth it.¡± She exined. This was particrly urate if you considered that it was possibly the crown that was currently preventing any further assassination attempts. ¡°A friend should not cost you another, I would not ask that of you but surely you could sell the church a percentage of them at market value. Seeing as I am present you could cut out the middle man and sell directly to me without me taking a cut for transport.¡± ¡°Provisionally that would be eptable.¡± She answered and we now had three buyers for our pearls, the crown, the church and Mercurio. It was enough to create a bidding war the only problem was that everyone was so far from one another no price could ever be calcted ormunicated immediately. That and how could we ever organise an auction for the best price when they were all spread out so far away? ¡°Wonderful, what about the tiles?¡± He gestured to the decorative stone flooring. Pointing out another product the church might be interested in purchasing. ¡°Again, we already have a contract with the Elves through our Tutor, alongside several noble families in the capital, it would currently be difficult to produce them on any greater scale. Furthermore, the nobility in the capital are paying high prices for exclusivity as much as for novelty. To provide them to the church on such a scale would diminish both greatly. I feel it would be impossible to provide you with sufficient.¡± She exined the situation without mentioning that we were restricted to how many I could make and I already had enough on my te. ¡°You are very well connected in the capital for such a new and distant noble house.¡± He tried a leading statement. ¡°As much as we can be.¡± She answered. Lady Acacia had clearly continued to teach Aleera extensively as this was more than we had discussed previously. ¡°Then why not connect to the church further?¡± He suggested. ¡°What can you give us that we can¡¯t get elsewhere?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°You forget the order of our conversation I am happy with the favours but you are the ones that need to convince me that you have something worth what you are asking for. What do you want? & What can you offer?¡± A percentage of the pearls had brought us halfway there but she was going to have to mention something else to gain hisplete cooperation. ¡°We can offer you purple,¡± Aleera stated. ¡°I hear it is a secret recipe and a monopolised product. So I am sure we should be able to undercut the market price for you.¡± ¡°Indeed, it is rather expensive for a single colour, but it is what it is, and whether through design or tradition the colour now represents us.¡± He plucked at his cassock a purple so dark it was almost ck. ¡°We noticed some of your wares in the street market yesterday. The dye if not the cloth was exceptionally strong.¡± He continued interested in what we were selling. BINGO! A method for unloading the purple that we had spent years collecting. ¡°We would be happy to see you our stock of the dye. For a reasonable rate.¡± She hesitated, ¡°How much do you spend on your purple robes?¡± ¡°I could not say for certain, it has been a long time since I worried about acquisitions. That being said selling to us would save you from putting it out on the open market which in itself forms some protection from the Aurelia Noble family which currently has a monopoly on the colour and protects it vigorously.¡± ¡°So you are not in a position to bargain for it,¡± Aleera asked. ¡°I can offer a percentage of the market rate but could not tell you what it actually costs at the moment.¡± He demurred. ¡°How about 50 per cent of the market rate?¡± They argued back and forth finally settling on 70 per cent of the market value. It would be sold directly to them at under-market value but it would protect us by preventing a conflict with the Aurelia family in the first ce. It was not a bad oue. The profit from selling our stock would be deposited in the Compass bank under our names and added to our ounts or spent on the boats and military might that she hoped to acquire for us. All in all, this was a very profitable audience with the Archbishop and Lady of the house on both sides of the discussion. Meanwhile, I continued to eat and hopefully stay under the radar for a little longer. When the thirty minutes were up my skill ended and Callen¡¯s new memories were returned to me. . . . As Callen¡¯s memories returned I instantly remembered as if I had always known the conversation he had been listening into. ¡°Good day, I¡¯m Bishop Bailie.¡± He introduced himself to father, Grandpa, and Grandfather. ¡°Kaius.¡± Father returned. ¡°Smit Silvertongue,¡± Grandpa replied. ¡°Arawn Silversword,¡± Grandfather added. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of Silver if your other family goes by the same naming tradition.¡± Bishop Bailie chuckled. ¡°We liked to stay on theme,¡± Grandpa affirmed. ¡°Certainly seems to be a lot of silver flowing judging by the quality of this hall, food, decorations and the family in attendance.¡± He agreed. ¡°We have worked hard for what we have.¡± Grandpa Smit replied defensively. ¡°Never said you did not. Simply that it is shining like new silver and surprised you do not have more people interested in your sudden wealth.¡± Bishop Bailie raised his hands in eptance. ¡°Far from the centre of things no one has noticed us yet. In fact, your audience is the first we have had the pleasure of hosting.¡± Grandpa Smit conceded. ¡°A fine audience it is indeed. Far better to be enjoying a fine meal than standing around waiting while the decisions are being made.¡± Bishop Bailie smiled in conciliation. ¡°Why take your pilgrimage now, as a Bishop?¡± Grandfather interrupted from the end of the table directing the question to Bishop Bailie. ¡°Why not?¡± he shrugged his shoulders answering before diving back into the food. ¡°This is delicious.¡± ¡°Most Bishops would wait until they were Archbishops for their finalp around thepass required before applying for an Ordinal or Cardinal position.¡± Grandfather stated pointedly. ¡°Most certainly but I doubt that I will ever be one of those. The positions are limited for starters, and I am unlikely to ever have the political capital to apply for one of them.¡± He answered the unasked question unbothered by the prying nature of my Grandfather. ¡°Oh, why?¡± he asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I came frommon.¡± He said simply. ¡°Bnce before all is the guiding principle of the Church but that does not mean that the ties we had before entering the seminary have no effect. I was no noble before and doubt I will reach higher than Bishop.¡± Before tucking into another dish. He seemed happy with his lot in life despite hitting the ss ceiling of his vocation. ¡°Nothing wrong withing frommon.¡± Grandfather sympathized. ¡°Might mean we cannot climb as high as quickly, but it also means that we have worked to get as high as we have. Nothing was ever given to us so it means we value it more.¡± ¡°That looks to be changing for this family.¡± Hemented on our rapid growth gesturing at the heavilyden family and the extended family filling them. ¡°Changing but not changed. We have all worked hard to get to where we are and will fight just as hard to defend it.¡± Grandfather defended our growth. ¡°The power of money in this case pearls will onlyst as long as the pearls do. I heard that there are diminishing returns each year from theke. What will you do after that?¡± He asked. ¡°I don¡¯t worry about the money so much as the people who mighte and try to take it.¡± He avoided answering what other ns we might have to continue our economic growth but to be fair he had honestly never been overly interested in them. Father joined in to say, ¡°The sea will provide.¡± Very confident in the fact that we continued to find new resources out to sea every time we went. Most recently the treasure chest and the sunken ship that we still had to properly explore and salvage. ¡°An overly optimistic attitude.¡± Bishop Bailie raised his eyebrows. ¡°The sea can take just as much as it gives.¡± ¡°Still the sea is only one sail to the ship of the Silverseas. Each family here represents another line to pull us forward. Only our family has focused so much on the sea but what we have pulled from it has brought us here and we will not turn our back on it now.¡± He defended his optimism. Bishop Bailie nodded his head whether in agreement or disagreement it was hard to tell. Either way, the conversation waited for a moment as the men concentrated on their meal. . . . I looked out over the table in front of me. The whole family seemed to be having a fine time. Our practice had proved provident. No one was unsure they knew what was expected of them. As everyone was confident in their roles it meant that they could enjoy the experience. Each member of the Lodestar church was engaged in conversation with one or two members of the family. I could overhear conversations about the inds that they had travelled through on their way to the western edge of the horizon and where they nned to go next, north. It turned out this was thest quarter of their pilgrimage. A pilgrimage that had taken them 3 years so far and would probably take another year toplete. They were tired from travels and enjoyed the respite each ind offered. The pilgrimage had started in the Northeastern Kingdom of Greco and they had made their way by boat the entire way around thepass continent. Stopping off at the coastal cities, ces of interest and anywhere that could be called the edge of the horizon. It sounded fascinating listening to the different tales of Levante, Scirroco, Ostro, and Libio as well as the more recent isles of the Western Archipgo of Ponente. This was thest trial for Archbishop Grigori before he could be elevated to Ordinal or Cardinal of the Lodestar church. Apparently, the Pilgrimages could take anywhere between 4 to 10 years toplete. So he was attempting to be one of the faster ones while still stopping everywhere he was required to. Part of his pilgrimage was cing markers of his course. It was a new and novel idea and no previous pilgrimage had been so consistent in making their marks. But that was not all the news they brought. They also brought tales of sea monsters, deadly beasts of bothnd and sea, tales of the other races of thepass as well as humanity¡¯s kingdoms it was all fascinating and distracting from conversations of power and influence happening at the head table. But luckily I could now divide my attention and listen in two directions at once. I wondered whether as I levelled up the skill if I would be able to listen in even more directions at the same time or whether I would merely extend the length of time I was able to do so. As I sat back for dessert I considered the dinner a resounding sess. Chapter 139: Blessing for one and all Chapter 139: Blessing for one and all ¡°When we lose one blessing, another is often, most unexpectedly given in its ce.¡± C.S. Lewis The meal ended with promises on both sides and an agreement for them to host us in the Town tomorrow for a blessing of all living there. We were reassured that it would be no trouble to hold and that the service itself was part and parcel ofpleting the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage¡¯s purpose was not only to familiarize the pilgrim with the world they were serving but also to re-establish the links between theity and clergy. In a world without instantmunication, how could the people, in general, have any understanding of their church¡¯s hierarchy if they never visited? Archbishop Grigori hoped that he would be able to confirm the favours requested of him tomorrow. Then hopefully make the journey by foot to the westernmost point of the ind the day after. Finally, after hours of feasting and talking, the Archbishop and his entourage were headed back to the Church of the Lodestar in Wester Town. We all had a lot to talk about. I strained to eavesdrop as we waved away our revered guests from the pier as they rowed out across theke. . . . ¡°How did you enjoy the meal?¡± Archbishop Grigori inquired of Bishop Bailie as they waved farewell, ¡°You seemed to be enjoying yourself.¡± They had a boat to themselves and despite not being sailors the acolytes had picked up enough to row them back to town. ¡°It is the best I have eaten in thest couple of months.¡± He agreed as he too waved farewell before turning to face forwards as well. They were not out of sight by any means but the seats were arranged to face forwards rather than backward. ¡°Enough to tempt you to stay for a while.¡± Grigori inquired as he turned to face forwards on the journey back to the town. ¡°Tempting certainly but we are on thest stretch of the circumnavigation it would be an unnecessary dy for us all after managing to make such good speed around the continent so far.¡± Not quite understanding the thrust of Grigori¡¯s inquiry. ¡°While we have been aiming toplete the circumnavigation in 4 years there are many who take an entire decade toplete it. It would be remiss of us to leave here so soon. Especially when there are so many opportunities to be had here and so many interesting characters to get to know.¡± He replied, not yet asking him to stay, simply sounding him out on the matter. Possibly aware of the ears listening into their conversation in the boat or maybe even beyond it. ¡°If you are looking for someone to stay to make the most of those opportunities I would rmend Sir Manil and Sir Jaques they seemed the most taken with the characters sat at the high table.¡± He referred to the two knights that had been sitting at the long table. He too had noticed how while they engaged in conversation with the older Adals of the Silver family, Adal Silverkin and Silverstone, their main focus had remained on the high table. Nothing was out of the ordinary with that as any physical threats to their personages would have originated from there first. However, usually, they would have traded off watching. This time they had both stared at each member of the high table with a focus they had not seen outside of thepass continents or over the depths of the ocean waters. ¡°Did you see anything particrly interesting about the Silverseas?¡± Archbishop Grigori asked his silentpanions. ¡°Yes.¡± Sir Jacques responded sparsely ever the conversationalist. ¡°Would you care to borate?¡± he waited for a little more than a single-word answer. But it would appear that it was to be disappointed. Thepass knights were a branch of the church but they followed orders from the Ordinals and Cardinals rather than the rank and file. They were here to protect the Archbishop but depending on their rank an Archbishops¡¯ order could be considered as much a request as an order. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t want to spoil the surprise, your excellency.¡± Sir Manil added deferentially although if you knew him well enough you could hear the smile in his voice. ¡°Surprise?¡± Bishop Bailie inquired intrigued by what they might have noticed that he had not. ¡°Is the elf stronger than you?¡± Archbishop Grigori had his own theories on what they had noticed. ¡°It is difficult to say who would win in a fight as she seems more a schr than a warrior but she is certainly higher level than either of us and probably you as well. Interestingly enough though she is not the only one.¡± Sir Jacques finally responded. ¡°Who?¡± Bishop Bailie once more inquired. ¡°As we said we look forward to seeing your surprise.¡± They were nomittal in their answers and avoided giving any more of the game away. ¡°Very well. We will know soon enough tomorrow when weplete the town¡¯s blessing.¡± Archbishop Grigori refused to hang himself up over what he would soon see tomorrow. It would have been the height of rudeness to inspect observe or analyse the seated individuals during an audience. Not to say that such civilities or unspoken rules prevented others from doing it sometimes, but they had a perfectly eptable excuse to use the skills during the blessing tomorrow. It was necessary to target their blessings most effectively and make the most of their mana. It would be criminal to waste it especially when the ind had been without a proper healer for so long. That was a matter that would need to be addressed providing he made it to Ordinal or Cardinal. Pioneernds simply could not be harmed through poor nning or by withholding resources. Priest Aravan should never have been sent here without having the correct skills to support the town. ¡°Anyway, Bishop Bailie other than the food could anything else tempt you to stay a little longer in the location? The ind is in dire need of a skilled healer.¡± Archbishop Grigori lowered his voice to be a little more circumspect considering theirpany, ¡°Priest Aravan should never have been ced here without the necessary skills to support such an isted town. A Bishop such as yourself could do a far finer job than him.¡± The knights probably were still aware of the conversation but the acolytes rowing and the Priests and Deacons on the prow of the boat hopefully remained unaware of thement. It was true but not particrly polite. But once an acolytes tenure wasplete the majority of clergy let their bnce slip focusing on mind and mana so he highly doubted he would be overheard by them. ¡°Are you trying to get rid of me so close to the end of the circumnavigation?¡± Jovially asked aware of what Archbishop Grigori was trying to imply. ¡°Not at all, it is simply that . . .¡± he paused a little awkward about the nature of his request. ¡°The Silverseas as part of their permission for us to erect our stone markers have made some perfectly reasonable requests of their own in return. One of which is for a healer to be permanently stationed here on the ind.¡± He waited patiently to see how the bishop would respond. While he could stay himself he had ns in motion that had necessitated the rtively quick circumnavigation of thepass continent. ¡°There are others that you could make this request of.¡± He referred to the other priest and deacon in their retinue. ¡°This ind and the poption, in particr, is significantly smaller than the diocese you offered me to secure my support and attendance on your trip.¡± He whispered back himself no longer happy to have an audience to their conversation. Even going as far as to enact his confessional skill of silent conversation which enabled them to continue their conversation in a bubble of silence that extended around the two of them. Kai on shore suddenly found himself unable to listen in any further despite being able to see the conversation continuing between the two representatives of the Lodestar Church. . . . Now in privacy, the conversation continued, ¡°While that is true today it might not be tomorrow. The Silversea family own the Wester Levante, Wester Ponente, and Little Wester with their agent currently attempting to purchase morend for them on the inds closer to the Compass Continent. How does Bishop for the Western Isles sound? It would be in line with the Ward of the Western Isles that they are proposing and if their growth continues unabated it will soon be equal to the diocese you were interested in, in both size of territory and wealth.¡± He argued back. ¡°Significantly fewer souls to serve though.¡± Bishop Bailie remonstrated. If experience could be gained through wealth and territory it could also be gained through interaction with others. The fewer the people the fewer the interactions and the less experience he would be able to gain out on the edge of thepass. The less devout nature of the popce also would not help particrly. ¡°True but being ced on the edge of thepass you are that much closer to our mission of expanding the horizon. Not only that but the danger represents a significant gain in experience for the most mundane of matters simply through the risk of your location.¡± The Archbishop continued to remonstrate, unwilling to give up just yet on convincing him. ¡°I would miss my creatureforts.¡± Bishop Bailie had yet to be convinced of the proposal although he did not seem adamantly opposed to it. Maybe merely attempting to gain the most mileage out of the request being made of him. ¡°Creatureforts may be closer than you think. Their hall is only one of their rooms here on the ind. Furthermore, they expressed an interest in building a chapel on the ind and turning the entire ind into a citadel one day. I¡¯m not asking you to stay forever but a 5-year position would keep your circumnavigation pilgrimage within 10 years and the position may be more profitable than you realise. There are several business opportunities that I am hoping to move forward with the Silversea family that would benefit not only the church but you and me as well personally.¡± The Archbishop attempted to sweeten the pot. ¡°What opportunities?¡± he asked as he still sat on the fence and awaited a better offer. ¡°First and foremost, their deep-sea pearls. While Aravan implied that the number of pearls has been decreasing. It would seem that this is not the case with the explosion in growth of the family and their extended family¡¯s wealth. It appears that money is of no concern for the family.¡± The conversation now waspletely in hushed and whispered tones alongside the skill use even raising one hand to rest on their chin and cover their mouths so that even their lips might not be read by the other people on board their boat. ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± He gestured with a re of his fingers on the hand his arm was resting on to continue his exnation. ¡°Their favours could not be bought in coin which implies that the pearls are still being found in significant enough quantities to supply not only the crown of Ponente but a certain percentage could also go to the church.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°Pearls would be nice but a pioneer ind pays no tax, not to the crown or the church and we do not havend to sell them in return this far from the continent.¡± He seemed confused as to how this would benefit us when we had nothing to offer. ¡°There are other things that they would like that I will be looking into providing for them. However, that is not the only opportunity to be had here, as you are well aware.¡± He referred to the colour they had discovered the family possessed the day before. ¡°You mean the dye. That could be a dangerous product to attempt to shift. It might very well pit the Aurelia family against the Silverseas if not the church as well for facilitating the export.¡± Bishop Bailie cautioned. He might note from nobility but a decade or two in the church had still made him wise to the ways of the world. Aware of the monopolies and the lengths the families would go to protect them. They might have been out of touch with the Princedom of Ponente but he doubted the markets would have significantly shifted over thest three years. ¡°I would not be so simple as to be obvious about it. While they have a significant stockpile here, it would hardly be enough to supply the whole church. That being said if I purchased the entirety of it I would be able to donate a portion at each ce I pass by. Never enough to be noticed by the Aurelia family but enough to buy favours from each location I visit. Offering it to them for significantly less than market value will secure me the votes for being raised to Ordinal maybe even Cardinal, and you would be part of that rise by protecting the source here. I would be able to raise you in return at ater date. Or should you do the same when your 5-year term is up, you may very well be able to do the same for yourself?¡± He suggested a path for both of them. ¡°You believe I could reach Archbishop.¡± Bishop Bailie seemed shocked to even consider the possibility. ¡°With my backing, the only difference betweenmon and noble in the church is the depths of your pockets. Wealth in pearls and votes paid for in purple would take you higher than you can rise on your own. I have told the Silverseas that I cannotmand you to stay but I honestly believe it would be in your interests as much as it would be in mine to do so.¡± Archbishop offered something money would be unable to buy his support and the possibility of progression through the ranks of the Lodestar Church. ¡°What would I even do out here?¡± He seemed to be wavering on the possibility now but not quite yet ready tomit. ¡°Other than building a chapel, making a mint, purchasing purple, expanding thepass . . . Well, the family expect you teach.¡± Archbishop Grigori ticked off the list of things he could concentrate on ticking them off one by one on his fingers. ¡°To teach what?¡± He seemed a little exasperated that Archbishop Girgori seemed to consider his answer a foregone conclusion. It was true that the Archbishop could not order him to stay but he could also make leaving and continuing the circumnavigation of thepass continent nigh on impossible should he choose to do so. ¡°I expect anything that they are missing but they mentioned how to heal as the first lesson they would like to learn.¡± He was honestly still surprised that they had asked for so little. He had been ready to haggle the young scion down from impossible requests but everything that she had suggested was both reasonable and the next logical step in improving the pioneer ind. It was impressive to see such insight in someone so young. Although doubtless she was being heavily coached by both mother and tutor who had also joined in with the discussion. Their conversation continued between the two discussing the strengths and weaknesses of staying on Wester Ponente for Bishop Bailie. It was a big favour that he was asking for five years of his life on top of the three he had already given to this circumnavigation. It was a lot to consider. . . . After our feast and farewell, our cousins were allowed to run free around the shore, not so were the adults and us. We returned to the hall and gathered to discuss what we had learned of the world as much as the purpose of the Archbishop and his entourage. Aleera and I huddled close to discuss her requests. ¡°I hope you are happy with what I requested,¡± Aleera asked aware that I had probably been listening in with my eavesdrop skill. ¡°It is our ind after all.¡± Technically it was mine being the first male heir and inheritor of all the estate but for the most part, the ideas she had raised were the majority of my ideas. ¡°Yes, favours are always difficult to trade for equal value. We were missing medicine and a better representative of the church. Better protection for the family on the continent is always worth it. All the wealth in the world is not worth it if you are not alive to enjoy it.¡± I shrugged unsure of what the favours were really worth and what we could have actually asked for but ultimately I was distracted by my other worries and my sister noticed. ¡°Apprehensive about tomorrow¡¯s blessing.¡± She sympathized. ¡°Yes and no. I have the skill to block a status read so I think I¡¯m ready. But who knows the strength of their light, it might shine straight through me. I¡¯ve done as much as I can, and I can¡¯t hide in the darkness forever.¡± I was not sure whom I was trying to convince, her or myself. ¡°A little liturgical Kai. Clearly, faith is catching.¡± She smiled sardonically at me. ¡°Well, it will be our first official entrance into the Lodestar Church. It seems a little more prudent to be getting it right if the whole town is going to be there watching us.¡± I justified both my fears and the importance of the event. ¡°The blessing.¡± We said together. ¡°Apparently, it will heal all your ills.¡± She exined what she had heard of them. But we had never seen one before. Priest Aravan was neither inclined nor skilled enough to provide one. ¡°It will be interesting to see and it is what you have used one of our favours for so hopefully it will be worth it,¡± I said, excited to see another example of magic so different to what we had been learning so far. The light of the lodestar was clearly an integral part of the system, but the magic it enabled seemedpletely different from what we had studied. It seemed so different to spellsong, spellcraft, runes, glyphs or sigils. ¡°They haven¡¯t agreed yet.¡± Aleera cautioned patience before we got our hopes up. ¡°I highly doubt Archbishop Grigori is going to let the opportunity slip away from him. I fully expect them to say yes to every favour you have asked for. He did not be an Archbishop by letting go of a golden ticket.¡± I started strong then mumbled thest sentence as I realised the golden ticket had no meaning to Aleera at all we had no magical chocte factory much to my disappointment. . . . That night Callen and I or rather, I and I discussed today¡¯s sesses. It was not as if the world was bing smaller but the church¡¯s visit made us feel a lot more connected to it all. We continued to practice, Inspect, observe and analyse alongside block status to ensure we were as ready as possible for tomorrow. We had yet to achieve an obfuscation skill but block would work well enough if a little obvious. Hopefully, tomorrow¡¯s service would go smoothly. . . . The next day, we dressed in our best and made our way by boat to the Town meeting up with our extended family before we headed towards the church. It was just as well no food would be provided because it felt like the whole town was turning out for the blessing. As per our new status, a row had been reserved at the very front for us now that we had stepped up as Lord and Lady Silversea there were certain proprieties to be upheld. I was unsure whether sitting in the front row was a good idea. I could only imagine how everyone had been shuffled backwards. But Grandpa Smit Silvertongue insisted that was not the case with our seatsing out of the ones our family already held rather than pushing anyone back towards the entrance of the church. The most noticeable aspect of visiting the church was that we sat side by side on the other aisle of the church. The Diver¡¯s daughters were all sat across the central ails ring frostily at us between the rows of benches. ¡°How long do we need to wait?¡± I asked Aleera But it was Grandpa Smith Silvertongue who answered. ¡°They waited for us as the highest-ranking individuals on the ind to arrive before beginning the service. You will not have to wait long.¡± He informed us and indeed we didn¡¯t. He was right they were soon there. Archbishop Grigori was nked by Bishop Bailie and Priest Paravan. They were followed by the Dean and their acolytes while our Priest Aravan and acolyte followed after. When they arrived at the front everyone was ready to receive their blessings. But it seemed there was to be a sermon and notices first. ¡°Wee people of Wester Ponente to our humble blessing. We hope you will enter this ce under the light of the lodestar and that you will leave refreshed and renewed. Please join us in weing the light of the Lodestar." He intoned the ritual words to open the ceremony. The blue light of the Lodestar shone forth through the open doors of its chamber bathing us in its light. But it was not the only source of light as another source also shone forth from the silver ring on his interlocked fingers that formed the sign of thepass beneath his bowed head. . . . Chapter 140: There is only so much you can hide Chapter 140: There is only so much you can hide ¡°You can hide your identity, but you can¡¯t hide who you are.¡± Dina Madini Once the sermon on bnce, diligence and expanding thepass wasplete. They moved on to the blessing. Despite our privileged position at the front of the church, the family had decided to let the rest of the poption go first. There had been several reasons for the move. First the politics of it. Once the Divers had stood quickly to get there first our holding off gave the impression that we were happy to wait, there was no contest between our two families we had allowed them to go first. Second, it allowed us to watch an Archbishop¡¯s blessing in advance. Third, was a further lesson from Lady Acacia, in that she felt this was the perfect opportunity for Aleera and me to continue to level our Inspect, Observe and Analyse skills on the entirety of Wester Ponente¡¯s poption. Fourth and finally if my status block skill did not work or if there were any otherplications to the blessing we hopefully would have a far smaller audience for whatever might ur. Hopefully preventing the ramifications from spreading any further than our family and the church. It was entertaining to watch the Divers¡¯ daughters quickly regret their posturing but what was most interesting was the fact that it seemed the Archbishop carried his own sliver of the Lodestar within his ring. Whenever he blessed an individual it would light up once more as it had during his opening prayer. I was most intrigued as to how he had managed to do that seeing as it was something I too hoped to do myself. Although it would require the help of my uncle''s metalworking skills to recreate it in one form or another. I knew what the shard of the Lodestar allowed but what would a sliver let you do? I also wondered at the Archbishop¡¯s mana stats and how he was supplying it with enough mana to keep it alive. One difference I had noticed between the shard we had growing in the Elendil¡¯s heart grotto and the sliver I had sliced off was the amount of mana required to keep it happy. The smaller the seed the less mana it required. Maybe that was how a mortal man presumably without the trait of Source of Mana managed to maintain it in a ring on his finger without the light fading. Aleera and I focused on watching the peopleing forth for their blessing many of whom nodded to us as they passed us to reach the Archbishop, either in thanks for our patience or respectfully acknowledging our presence as the new nobles of Wester Ponente. There was a certain pride in the fact that our ind had grown its own set of nobles rather than them being imposed upon us from the outside. Our family was slowly making an impact even if it was only in the lower price of the salt, the variety of products that they could now get regrly or the entertainment we had provided through the Silversea games. We were rapidly bing well known and neither of us quite knew how to respond to it other than to fall back on the lessons that Lady Acacia had taught us, a polite nod back or a quick wave in response to theirs. We continued to watch the people walk on by, inspecting, observing and analysing as we could. Name: Carl Level: 30 Metier: Cooper . . . Name: na Level: 5 Metier: Child . . . Name: Bambi Level: 3 Metier: Child . . . Name: Baran Level: 34 Metier: Butcher . . . Name: Darren Level: 28 Metier: Baker . . . Name: Lumier Level: 17 Metier: Candlestick Maker . . . I learned more of their names and levels in a single morning than I had in my preceding years living on the ind. I tried to file it all away carefully. Callen working at recreating a dossier of who they were and what they looked like within my mind. Taking regr breaks to allow the memories toe flooding back as well as extend the length of time I would be able to keep him manifested. It also supported my learning as I observed their names, and then repeated them to myself afterwards. As we neared the end of the very long line, and my extended family began to make their way up to the Archbishop I allowed myself some more time to focus on what he was saying and the impact it was having on the individuals. . . . Archbishop Grigori POV ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar,¡± I spoke whileying my hand on the head of the woman in front of me. My hand shone with the divine blue light of the Lodestar which was the very symbol of my office. Before moving on to the next person in what seemed to be an endless line of townspeople. For such a small pioneer ind the number of people was surprisinglyrge. After discussing the history of the ind with the priest the original settlers had to fight both sea monsters to get to the ind, then slowly eradicate the ones that had lived in theke alongside dealing with the asional goblin attack on their town. It had been a long hard road of improvement fighting back the wilderness every step of the way until it was finally as tame as it was today. It was impressive but a little dubious their belief that they had removed all monsters from the ind. Monsters always came up from the depths be it the depths of the sea or the depth of the lodestone. Once more the local Priest had failed to acquire the skill to bless or the power to do so many. There were some seriousints to be made about whoever funded and assigned the expansion of thepass to the Western Isles. Someone somewhere had either been woefully ignorant of what they needed or maliciously willful in only sending the bare minimum in support of the town. Either way, it was practically criminal in effect. Whether or not Bishop Bailie epted a posting to the ind I would have to leave a member of my retinue behind either way. Simply to leave a member of the clergy with the correct skills. Priest Aravan was a conundrum. He was intelligent enough to assess the situation and move the pieces to the correct space for expansion but his social skills and higher levelled clergy skills were woefullycking. Despite being stood to the side to provide order to those who arrived he was clearly neither invested in nor interested in the blessings being given. The man needed remedial training but did not seem interested in learning from what was taking ce right in front of his nose. I wiped the frown off my face before a member of the church could begin to fret that it was about them. I would have had to remove him regardless of the Silversea''s request to do so. His acolyte seemed keen enough and continued to hand out candles as a symbolic representation of the light of the lodestar spreading. Despite the worries over the current priest and whether or not the Bishop would stay as part of his deal with the Silverseas, it was still a beautiful ceremony and he enjoyed meeting and greeting the people. ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± I intoned once more the light shining forth again. This was worth the time to bring bnce to those without it. People would leave today knowing they walked in the light of the lodestar. And if everything went as I hoped I would soon be in a significantly stronger position to apply for Cardinal on thepletion of my circumnavigation. It was easy to focus on the positives of the situation when it would hopefully be a win-win situation for all involved. Another adult walked forward, ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± The light shone forth once more but this time I noted something unbnced. I held my hand down holding him still while I re-read his status using his skills to inspect, observe and analyse to look deeper. Name: Lumier Level: Lv 17 Race: Human Metier: Candlemaker Affliction: Burned Vitality: 41 Strength: 36 Endurance: 45 Dexterity: 75 Senses: 69 Mind: 32 Amon status for amoner but he had not been healed properly whenever it had urred if it was still listed as an affliction. Burns were always challenging to heal after the fact. On a closer look, you could see that there was stretched skin over his right hand but for it to appear as an affliction it must be significantly more than simply what he could see and probably covered a significant portion of his arm. ¡°Do you seek bnce in the light? I asked the ritual question. ¡°I do, your honour.¡± He answered without expectation. ¡°Would you let the light bnce what has be unbnced?¡± I continued digging a little deeper into the conversation than I had with the preceding people. This would require some work. ¡°I would, your honour.¡± He answered cautiously optimistic ¡°Do you trust me?¡± I asked equally careful of raising a false hope it would depend on the extent of the burns. ¡°Yes.¡± He answered ¡°Then show me your burns,¡± Imanded ¡°Here and now?¡± he asked rmed. ¡°Provided they do not uncover your modesty then yes.¡± I shrugged modifying mymand. Lumier slipped his top off above his head revealing his right side where burn-scarred skin stretched from his right wrist to his shoulder. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked as I turned over the arm to inspect the skin. ¡°The oil caught alight, and I could either keep my arm safe and sound or my house and family. I choose to keep my house and family my arm got a little toasted in the process.¡± He answered precisely possibly having answered or prepared those words before. The penitent often pleaded their cases when they went by unnoticed. ¡°Bishop Bailie I am going to need your assistance,¡± I asked. This would take the two of us to heal. He had already cured and healed a couple of individuals of various minor problems, and he would be able to support me. ¡°Of course, your excellency.¡± Bishop Bailie was back to being formal in the presence of others. ¡°If you can cover the pain and the removal, I will empower the regeneration.¡± Iid out the n to the bishop. ¡°Hold out your arm,¡± I added to Lumier. Lumier held out his arm, the Bishop held his wrist, ¡°Ready, deaden pain.¡± he said before starting to remove the skin it was a little grisly to watch initially but his efforts were soon followed up afterwards by myself holding my hand over the flesh and bathing it in the light of the lodestar from my ring. ¡°Regenerate.¡± The skin formed once more whole and healthy and we worked our way steadily up the arm until Lumier stood once more unmarked by fire. It was a pleasure to make a difference in his daily life. He would never forget this day. . . . Kai''s POV That was an impressive use of magic and something I hoped to learn if not from Lady Acaia then from the Church if they consented to our trade, in favours. I wondered what its limits were. In a world, without modern medicine, magical healing could be the difference between life and death one day. There was no reason I could not try to replicate both in time. Finally, the entirety of our town had received their blessings and healings before leaving the church with a symbolic light of their own. They would light them when the darkness fell thanks to the church¡¯s work today. But first, it was our turn for our family to get our blessings. We joined the end of the line of our extended family and awaited our turn. ¡°You have your skill up,¡± Aleera asked a little anxiously. ¡°Of course.¡± I nodded in response. Not that I wasn¡¯t anxious myself. The blessing for my Grandfather mother and father went fine although there were a few raised eyebrows. As they received them. Even Aleera seemed to get through the blessing just fine without anything going wrong. Eventually, it was my turn. . . . Archbishop Grigori''s POV It had been a long ceremony by now. The sermon had gone well, it felt well received by everyone and the blessings too and gone well. Between the two of us, we had managed to restore a man¡¯s arm as well as clear up a few fungal infections alongside eliminating a parasite or two. Fleas and Lice were ridiculously easy to remove but particrly cathartic to do so. I liked to expunge them on sight just to stop my skin from crawling. We just now had the Silversea family and its many branches left to bless. They were surprisingly well-levelled for an ind so distant from civilization. Their environmental trials must be making up for theck of challenges from society. When I got to thest five individuals of the central Silversea family, they too were interesting the father Kaius had a Seafarer Sailor as his current metier at level 44 representing his third or fourth metier. That or there had been some sea monster fighting in his past. The mother Aliyah had Spellsong Seamstress as her Metier which was interesting on several levels. She was an aplished mage, self-taught and unbound she would have represented a catch for any noble house if she had not been protected by her children¡¯s nobility and at level 56 she was either on her 5th or 6th metier or again had experienced a colourful history in more ways than one. She was on par with my Bishop at two-thirds of his age. What had they been eating or fighting out here to support such impressive growth? My eyebrows which had been climbing with each sessive blessing found their limit when I reached the Grandfather, Arawn Silversword. He was Level 87! And out-levelled me significantly. This was the true source of confidence in creating a new noble house. Not only that but his metier honour-bound guardian was designed to level off defending it. Which was not to say that he would not be lethal in attack. It also made me somewhat apprehensive about any future negotiations. I had never worried about anything ndestine happening during our trip through the archipgo Sir Manil and Sir Jacques had skills, stats and metiers designed to defend us. This man though, to have risen so high was clearly on his 8th or 9th metier or had lived a life of carnage either here or on the continent to have achieved such heights. I would need to be careful and it was also clear from his raised eyebrow to my two that he was well aware of how much information I had seen. The silver lining to seeing all of that was that his metier described someone bound by honour to defend rather than describing a man made to kill. It was a thin silver lining but I would take it. Although that was just his current metier and did not cover his history. I turned to take in Sir Manil and Sir Jacques''s stances and realized that they had be more focused with each step closer Arawn Silversword had taken towards me. However, I doubted that they would have been sessful with him this close to me. They had been able to sense his level of threat but maybe not actually how high that level of threat was. I watched carefully as Aleera stepped up. After the surprises in the strength of their family members, I was relieved to see that nothing seemed off about her¡ªa little high levelled for her age but nothing outrageous. The merchant was an interesting choice for a Lady to take as her metier but judging by the depth of their pockets it was probably levelling well. Last but not least came Callen Kai Silversea. He was under five so I did not expect to see anything when I observed him it was doubtful that he would have a status yet to see. Yet it was more by habit than an actively deciding to observe that I did and received my final shock of the ceremony. Name:? Level:? Race:? Metier:? If the grandfather had caused my eyebrows to raise this caused my eyes to widen and nostrils to ir. First off, he had to have a status before the age of 5 which was impossible. If what Aravan had said regarding the family and his age, he should not have had a status at all. Second, for an under 5-year-old he was a remarkably well-developed infant yet if he was over 5 which would exin his status then he was remarkably small he was a paradoxical child. Third, regardless of the irregrities regarding his status and age if he had a skill that could block my inspection and observation then did he hold some dwarven or elvish artefact? Nothing was immediately obvious about his personage but how else could an infant a young child have such a skill? It was unheard of. He stepped forward after his sister who he had only just let go off for her to receive her blessing. He bowed his head for his. I raised my hand and ced it on his bowed head. Perhaps Analyse would reveal his true status. ¡°I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.¡± When I ced his hand on the heir to the Silversea house, I was prepared to analyse him I was not prepared for the re of light that flooded the church. The light shone forth from my ring in a manner I had never seen before. This was no simple scion of a new noble house. This was something else entirely. The departing family froze in the light that shone forth. Analyse gave me nothing more than the blocked status that I had already seen. That did not stop my mind from running frantically through the possibilities that could have caused the Lodestar to illuminate him in its light to such an extent. The child was chosen. The child was already blessed. The child was something else . . . a catalyst . . . a source . . . perfectly bnced. The sheer mana he had to be emitting was staggering and unfocused, the seed of the Lodestar I carried in my ring was revelling in it. It was insane. I lifted my hand from his head in shock. A scion this strong, this young, the political ramifications . . . but we were far from any court¡¯s kingdom. They did not know! Or they would already be here. He could be the next Light of the Lodestar, above even the Cardinals with the proper training, skills and stats. We could help him to grow . . . My daydreams were cut short by a cough. I looked down at the prodigy in front of me waiting for myst line. ¡°May you walk straight in the light of the Lodestar.¡± I mumbled and the child moved forward to stand with his family as they left. They had to know. Right? One look at his Grandfather Arawn confirmed it. The statement that followed doubly so. ¡°So much for that attempt.¡± He frowned at Callen Kai Silversea as he joined them who simply shrugged in return a more worldly response than his years belied. "It is what it is old man." He spoke for the first time that I had heard. ¡°I trust that you will keep what you have learned sealed under the privacy of a confessional.¡± Arawn Silversword turned to me and leaned forward, his presence suddenly felt overwhelming. Both Sir Manil and Sir Jacques stepped forwards as if to stop him but I doubted they would be able to if he made a move. ¡°In the light of the lodestar.¡± I nodded still shaken by what I had seen. ¡°And the others.¡± He gestured at my remaining retinue the only people left in the church other than the central Silversea family themselves. ¡°Of course, sealed under the light,¡± I repeated and my retinue repeated. ¡°Under the light of the Lodestar.¡± What had the Light of the Lodestar uncovered and would we leave Wester Ponente alive? It was a sobering fact that I doubted any of us could stop him should he decide to ensure our silence on the matter. Chapter 141: What lies beneath our feet Chapter 141: What lies beneath our feet ¡°Nature has a surer n than mortals can devise.¡± J Morris After the Silversea family left the leaders congregated to discuss what had been illuminated by the light. ¡°That was insane.¡± Bishop Bailie started the conversation too shocked by what he had seen to pause for propriety once the door was closed. The others had been left outside but he could imagine how their conversation would go. Whether this would remain sealed to the confessional under the light was assured but that did not mean that they would not talk about it among themselves. A bnced life was a better life but human nature being what it was it would take their presence to stop them from talking about it. ¡°Who the grandfather or the grandson?¡± Archbishop Grigori attempted to chuckle to relieve the tension that had built up so suddenly at the end of the ceremony. ¡°Both. Although the grandson is more unbelievable than the grandfather. Have you ever seen your ring light up like that before?¡± he asked his eyes wide with disbelief at what the infant had aplished seemingly by ident rather than design. ¡°Yes, but that was through intentionally channelling mana into it. Not I hasten to add through simply touching it during a blessing. Furthermore, you don¡¯t know half of what I¡¯ve seen. We have to be exceedingly careful of the Grandfather he out levels us significantly.¡± He firmly informed Bishop Bailie. ¡°But, as for the Grandson, I simply don¡¯t know what to say or where to start.¡± He muttered to himself. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Bishop Bailie could not imagine what else would be shocking other than his immense amount of mana. It was just as well that he was already a noble or he would be poached by any number of institutions from noble families to the church. Any guild really would be willing to cross a few lines to gain a child with ess to that much mana. ¡°First off he has a status.¡± He ripped the secret open. While the amount of mana he possessed was blindingly obvious the fact that an infant ording to Aravan¡¯s information on the family was of more portent. It would be easier to believe that Aravan was wrong and the family had adopted a dwarf than to reconcile the fact that he had . . . a . . . status . . . already. ¡°What? That¡¯s not possible unless he is older than Aravan told us.¡± He argued shocked anding to a simr conclusion. ¡°That may somehow be true but second he can block me from reading said status.¡± He continued. ¡°I cannot tell his name, level, race or metier let alone his age. I can neither confirm nor corroborate his information.¡± ¡°Then maybe he doesn¡¯t have one.¡± The bishop insisted. ¡°That would make far more sense than him having ess to his status.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s there.¡± His eyebrows still climbed up into his hairline simply thinking about it. ¡°A child without statuses back Name, Age, Child. There are no levels, no race, no metiers that is all that should be disyed. When inspecting him all I got back were question marks. No name, no age, no child status. In fact, as opposed to simply seeing nothing I saw, Name:? Level:? Race:? M¨¦tier:? I couldn¡¯t do that if it was not there. I could not see that if he did not already have a level and . . . ¡± He continued. ¡°A m¨¦tier.¡± ¡°Impossible. It could be an heirloom to block his status from being read.¡± The bishop had not quite given up ying devil¡¯s advocate. ¡°I considered that, but besides his pearls, he wore nothing else, no ring, no amulet. There was no other jewellery to conceal such magic. Other than the pearls which were uncarved and as in as could be. Besides where would an heirloome from they are only just now forming their house they have no history to draw upon. No, the child has the status and skills to block it from being read. Somehow impossible as it may seem.¡± The Archbishop attempted to logically exin the paradox that was the Silversea scion. ¡°But a m¨¦tier? That means not only does the infant have a status, but that he has chosen a m¨¦tier as well. If the parents supported this, are you trying to imply that he also has his first ten levels under his belt? There have been no tales of monsters, human malice or any other natural disasters here. How could that possibly be true? How could he have levelled that quickly without some form of catastrophe?¡± The bishop argued back. ¡°It is a new house. A noble house that has risen quickly enough not to be included in the dispatches we have received on our circumnavigation. It is clear, to me at least, that their rise is not solely supported by their sudden increase in wealth. They have strength in levels as well as wealth.¡± The archbishop postted. ¡°Yes, but to do that as well as this his rise must have been meteoric. What is supporting such growth or elerating its speed?¡± He sounded perplexed as to how this was possible. ¡°If you choose to stay perhaps you will be able to find out. However, that is something to discusster. Third either he intentionally released his mana, or he has failed to form a core yet and is producing an unreasonable amount of mana which is being naturally released. That might ount for the mana leaving so strongly through his head and seemingly uncontrolled.¡± He continued his dissection of all that he thought he had learned from such a short interaction. ¡°Now the mana at least I can agree with. The way your ring lit up was proof without doubt of that. But again, how is this possible? If you have mana, your core formation is something that simply happens long before you are ever able to ess your mana anyway.¡± the bishop conceded this point at least before raising another problem with it. ¡°I do not know. It is enough to make me consider staying to guide him. Imagine what he might be capable of with the backing and teaching of the church behind him.¡± The Archbishop pondered aloud his doubts and thoughts. To say that would be a significant change of ns would be to vastly understate the disruption it would cause but he was considering it. ¡°Will you though?¡± The bishop asked quietly cautious of breaking his superior¡¯s chain of thought. ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± He cut his flight of fancy short. ¡°I have been gone three years already. I will lose my chance if I don¡¯t return within the time I have allotted for the circumnavigation. Remember it is not just aboutpleting a circumnavigation. I also need a cardinal to down for me to rece them. If I am not back in time, I may very well lose my chance. I would just take him with us but . . . I feel his grandfather might object most strenuously to that and we cannot afford or attempt to force the matter, especially so far from the continent.¡± He paused as he considered all his possible paths. ¡°Will you stay for me? I¡¯m sorry to rush you but I need to know now not tomorrow.¡± He asked once more. ¡°We needed to reply today, and they have already left.¡± He remembered his earlier promise to have decided on the exchange of favours and have answered by now. ¡°Yes.¡± The bishop bowed his head. ¡°I will stay. As you said the decision aligns with both what is right as well as what would benefit both the people and myself. This child, his potential and his education are simply a stronger reason to pause my circumnavigation for a while. In return you will help as and when I need it?¡± ¡°Of course, and thank you.¡± He sped hands with him in gratitude. ¡°Guide him well. In time you might be able to guide him to the church but do not make it your aim. He is their first son and the leader of their house it is unlikely that you will be able to change his course. But everyone could do with a little more bnce in their lives. Within reason fulfil all their requests. Go now, let them know that we will fulfil all the requests they have made of us. Including our silence on the matter of the blessing. I will inform Aravan that he is to leave with us. I doubt he will object.¡± Archbishop Grigori turned to enter the room of the Lodestar. ¡°I need to contemte the changes this might cause. Then when you return we will set forth to ce the markers. I know that this will make no difference, but I suddenly feel a sense of urgency.¡± He added. Bishop Bailie nodded his head respectfully and left the Archbishop to his contemtion. He walked past the other priests and acolytes who silenced themselves suspiciously as he walked past. Before leaving the church to follow the Silversea family who were already making their way back to thegoon and waiting for no man. . . . ¡°You knew.¡± Archbishop Grigori used his silent shadow, Sir Jacque. ¡°I suspected,¡± The Knight corrected. ¡°The child¡¯s mana was noticeable at the meal. Not only that but he qualified as a threat to my skill, imagine my shock.¡± He answered sardonically. The Archbishop scoffed at that, but Sir Jacques was not to be denied, ¡°A small one to be sure but a threat nevertheless, with that amount of mana you don¡¯t need to be grown up to wield weapons of war. Any element can be lethal is applied correctly. With tuition from the elf who knows what he is capable of. And in time with such a strong foundation he would make a fine knight or mage.¡± ¡°Well, you had your fun. I hope you will see to it that I am not disturbed.¡± He frostily replied cross at being caught out. ¡°Of course, your excellency.¡± He bowed before leaving. . . . ¡°So that was aplete failure.¡± Grandfather grumped as we returned to the boat. ¡°Not aplete failure we made a pretty impressive impression.¡± Aleera quipped. She had grown ustomed to things blowing up in my face and was disappointed when they did not. She seemed to see it as a counterbnce to the fact that I could do far more than most including her. ¡°That is the opposite of what you were supposed to do.¡± He grumbled. ¡°You couldn¡¯t hold your mana in for just a minute.¡± Heined. ¡°No, you had to light up the whole church.¡± He moaned. ¡°If you lot only knew . . . At least it looked like they were going to seal it under the light and we did not have the whole town in to witness.¡± He turned to his daughter our mother, ¡°This is why we kept to ourselves. Life is so much moreplicated the more people you add to it.¡± ¡°Come on, you don¡¯t mind Kaius now.¡± Mother remonstrated. ¡°Kaius no. It¡¯s just his father, mother, seven brothers, two brothers-inw, two sisters, seven sisters-inw, cousins, nephews and nieces that I have a problem with. You couldn¡¯t have picked a nice orphan to fall in love with could you.¡± He muttered under his breath. While we were heading back to our ind alone our extended family was still nearby and close enough to hear what he muttered if he had said it any louder. The family peeled off as they returned to their homes while we made our way to the pier by our old house to sail home. If we only knew what? I was getting a little tired of Grandfather¡¯sining. I recognized the importance of giving him space and not forcing him to tell me everything especially if I hoped to maintain our friendly working rtionship but I could have done without the cryptic openings if he was not going toplete his sentences. We were interrupted by Bishop Bailie rapidly walking to catch up with us and calling out. ¡°Silverseas.¡± We stopped and turned to wait for him to catch up. ¡°The Archbishop agrees to all your requests and I will stay on Wester Levante to educate the young master and mistress of Silversea House.¡± He opened the conversation by getting straight to the point without referencing what had just happened in the church. ¡°All of them?¡± Mother asked pointedly. ¡°All of them.¡± He calmly replied to mother before he directed hisst question to Aleera. ¡°May we ce the marker tomorrow youngdy?¡± ¡°Yes of course,¡± Aleera leaned into her lessons to respond in a gentile manner. ¡°If you would like to apany us it would be a pleasure to show you our skills at work.¡± He offered us the opportunity to continue to watch them at work. ¡°That¡¯s very kind of you but . . .¡± Aleera started. ¡°We¡¯ll go.¡± I interrupted. The cat was out of the bag in how much I could understand, say and do. I might as make the most of the opportunity. I was interested in seeing their skills in action and whether or not I could crib them off them. Bishop Bailie seemed nice enough and the sooner that we started working on learning some skills for cure, heal, regenerate or even restoration the safer I would feel. If you thought about it except for our sailing trips I had led a very sheltered life. Well apart from the attempted assassination, self-inflicted sky-diving attempts and asional brush with a sea or cave monster. It would be good to interact with someone outside the family for a while. ¡°Excellent, Lord Silversea.¡± He smiled at my eptance. ¡°I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and will pass on your presence to his excellency.¡± He answered including everyone in his smiling before quickly turning to leave. . . . Lady Acacia was less than impressed with my performance when we returned home. ¡°You might as have simply worn your amulet.¡± She had not attended the service and was disappointed that our preparations hade to nought. ¡°I will be going with you on your little outing tomorrow. I will at least be able to keep their proselytising to a minimum and keep them honest about it.¡± I was unsure whether she was most disappointed about the fact that our attempt had failed or the fact that she might need to share some of our time with another tutor and a religious one at that. We had never really discussed elvish religion in our lessons. While the Lodestar Church seemed to be in every kingdom the world over. ¡°I will have to attend as well now for the duration of their visit just in case they think absconding with him would be a quicker and more permanent method for achieving their wishes,¡± Grandfather added. It was difficult to tell if he was objecting to the time it would take out of his day or just general grumpiness. Still, I knew I was safe with him around. After his first mistake, I was surprised he even allowed Kaius to take me out sailing but then I had managed to release him from a wide array of orders that had bound him before. That was all the family had to say on the matter and we would reconvene tomorrow in town to make the journey together to the western most point of the ind. It would have been quicker to meet them on the eastern edge of thegoon for us but we would have just ended up waiting for them there so would be quicker and simpler to meet them in town and then travel across theke together before marching up to the cliffs. It would not surprise me if we ended up cing the marker on or very nearby the ce we had performed our base jumping efforts. . . . What did surprise me though was Callen¡¯sments before I attempted to sleepter that night. ¡°You¡¯ll never guess what happened in the church.¡± Callen teased. I had not noticed the ending of the skill in the quiet conflict between the Archbishop and my Grandfather. ¡°What?¡± I asked almost dreading what other me had managed to do now. Especially after my own recent failure. ¡°We got another m¨¦tier!¡± Callen chuckled with glee. ¡°We did?¡± I asked confused. I had not checked my status, why would I, it had only been a day without much practice at anything. ¡°When?¡± ¡°When the Archbishop¡¯s ring touched our head, we were or at least I was offered a choice by the seed of the lodestar within his ring. So I took it for us.¡± Callen replied. Was that why the light had red? ¡°You did? We did? What did you take for us?¡± I asked equally excited now. ¡°Yes, I did! Next time you look in a mirror you will be looking at a Singer and . . . a Sailor!¡± . . . They sensed it, still tantalizingly out of reach but they were getting closer. It had seemed closer today, for some reason, though they knew it had not moved. This was a secret exodus, a secret hope lest the other races attempted to steal what was theirs. Locked out of the central lodestone they knew it was death to reach upward. The sea was a crushing weight of water that would flood the tunnels whenever they breached the sea floor. But they carefully crept upwards even so despite the risk. Death had given them the skills they needed to, death sense, stopping their shaman anytime their tunnels turned in the wrong direction, there was no fighting the weight of water even though they had evolved to be able to breathe it. The initial explosive forces of the water as it found new tunnels would kill all in them and had with each mistake they made but still they continued to search for a shard that they could call their own. Each tunnel rose and fell to create pockets of air that would stop the water, the tunnels never flowed in a straight line, bending left and right as well as rising up and down. The Lodestonebyrinth was ever-growing, ever deeper and wider as the races within it fought for dominance or to expand to the surface and the light before they were pushed back down again. Their tribe had fought free from servitude only to starve in their freedom rather than being crushed under the weight of very. Daily they questioned the shaman¡¯s wisdom in leading them away westwards deeper than they had ever delved before. Beneath even the sea, but without another option, they could not stray. They could only search and follow that tantalizingly distant scent. Ever westwards. . . . The tangle twisted and turned as they forced their way upwards through the tunnels of rock. Each corridor cost them a member in some manner or another. It was never the same method twice although they did not notice that in their drive ever upward towards the light they could taste on their tongues. Sometimes it would be spike pit that their leaders found themselves pushed into by the fellows behind them. Other times it would be sharp stone carefully carved out of the stone floor camouged in shadow that ripped open their skin leaving them bleeding. The smell and perceived weakness often enough to stimte a feeding frenzy on themselves. A break in their onward drive upwards as they satiated themselves. Now and then the path would appear to disappear and the tangle would pause for a while before in the process of mating, breeding and digging their burrows one or another of them would open up the way again when a false wall fell and they would begin their migration once more ever upwards ever eastwards. Thisst turn though had culled their numbers more than their breeding replenished. There was not a wall, floor or ceiling that did not hide death in one form or another. But the taste of light on their tongues had grown ever stronger. They were nearly there, so close they could taste it. Their sightless eyes searched for something that they had never seen but somehow drove them on. They were getting closer. Day by day. . . . Chapter 142: A fine day for a walk Chapter 142: A fine day for a walk Whether the weather is fine, Or whether the weather is not, Whether the weather is cold, Or whether the weather is hot We¡¯ll weather the weather Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not. Anon The sun rose on a glorious day, the sky was a clear cerulean blue reflected in the mirror-like salterns that now surrounded our mountain home. It was a fine day for walking. We rose and made our way to the town square to meet them but had an unwee surprise when we arrived. The clergy were all ready to go waiting for us but to cross thegoon they had prevailed on another family to fit them all aboard their boats, the Diver¡¯s daughters. With their wealth, they had the finest boats in town and the daughters were only too happy to help them in sailing across thegoon on their mission. Though they were a little perturbed to discover that we had also been invited for the stone markers emcement. Not that they could contest our inclusion because we owned thend, and it was only with our permission that it could be erected in the first ce. It made for a somewhat interesting shuffle as we made for the boats. While it appeared that Archbishop Grigori may have preferred to have travelled with us in our boat, the politics of his requesting the divers meant that he had to travel with them rather than us. This meant that for the boat ride across theke at least we only had our close family and Bishop Bailie to apany us. ¡°It¡¯s a fine day for a sail. Although the temperature may make the climb a little more strenuouster on. What is the best way to get to the westernmost point?¡± The Bishopmented on the weather before questioning our route. A suitably sensible opening and question after the slightly stilted conversation which followed the awkward moment in the square. ¡°A fine day indeed.¡± Lady Acacia replied from her ce in the boat. She had decided toe along as a chaperone for myself and Aleera much like a Victorian governess. We might be beginning to make waves of our own but each one would be observed, measured, judged, and then critiqued once we were home. Aleera joined in the conversation, ¡°We will sail south of our isle then arrive on the east shore of thegoon. Once there we will make our way around the southern border of the eastern wood before making our way up to the cliff tops. It should not take us overly long.¡± She didn¡¯t mention that this was the route that we had once taken to try skydiving or that this was where Grandfather sometimes took us hunting. The woods were notpletely safe as we could attest to but as long as we stayed out of the woods and with Grandfather by our side we had nothing to fear other than perhaps another of his lessons. Grandfather had decided to apany us alongside Lady Acacia and Father although mother had stayed at home possibly to prepare more rooms as it looked like we would be seeing morepany in the not-so-distant future. Father of course insisted on sailing our boat even though any of us could have done the job just as well. Maybe not just as well but it was hardly a life-or-death situation. Indeed, with the weather so fine, it made no difference either way. In fact, I would have enjoyed a chance at the helm but he was not to be denied. ¡°Do you visit this side of the ind often?¡± he asked continuing the conversation. ¡°Not as often as we would like. There is a lot to do in building up our house physically, financially and politically so we have little time to explore.¡± Aleera exined ourck of time to run free and wild. ¡°What do you hope to achieve by cing these markers of yours?¡± she asked intrigued. We had yet to see them covered as they were and were keen to see them unveiled. ¡°Whilst the circumnavigation pilgrimage is currently mainly for the clergy. We hope to inspire the popce with our markers, both the local and the distant. The idea was to create footsteps for people to follow. If we are sessful in inspiring them, you might have a significant increase in the number of people visiting Wester Ponente.¡± He postured for a second, ¡°Wee to the Wester Isles, the very edge of the civilizedpass, past Wester Ponente only the unknown lies. Travel the very edge of thepass to reaffirm your faith and spread the light of the lodestar ever further.¡± He paused after his pitch, ¡°Or something along those lines. A path around the edge of thegoon and one up from the easter shore would not be out of bounds in helping encourage such pilgrimages.¡± He added. ¡°Would you be willing to pay for it?¡± Aleera asked ever the entrepreneurial and sensing either through insight or skill another possible profit to be made. ¡°While the church coffers are deep on the continent, I doubt they are equally so out here unless perhaps you have been adding to them.¡± He questioned with a raised eyebrow while Aleera suddenly found the clouds in the sky fascinating. With a smile, he continued, ¡°I would have to look at the ounts before making any promises. But think that it would be far more wholesome to have it as a challenge for the people of Wester Ponente a vocational and optional task for them to volunteer to help out with.¡± He answered not quite refusing the possibility of some financial remuneration but leaving me with little hope that they would pay for it. This was not necessarily a bad thing as I could see my mother and me being the actual ones to carve out the path around thegoon rather than Aleera. It would not inevitably be challenging but it would be another drain on my already heavily timetabled day. I did not need just another mind but another me as well. However, the bishop seemed keen to draw me into the conversation as well as my sister, ¡°And you Kai what do you think?¡± ¡°About the path, exploring or building the Silversea house?¡± I asked it had been a very open question about possibly anything and everything. ¡°Whichever takes your fancy.¡± He waited patiently to see how I would reply. ¡°I¡¯d like to do all three, a path round theke would bring the other side closer. People do not seem to leave the town much at all. It would be easier to explore if we had one and if we are building up the Silversea house the extra roads will be important in expanding outside of the town.¡± I answered thoughtfully after carefully considering my answer. I thought I had covered everything. ¡°Hmmm.¡± The bishop seemed to be nodding in agreement, but I did not know him well enough to make an opinion. Or at least I did not from using the 5 senses most people had. Luckily though I had more methods to make my judgement with. My day now started with spinning up the multiple minds skill. Apanion even if it was myself made everything go a little bit quicker. There was never any boredom from ack of radio or tv with myself wittering away to me. The first thing that happened whenever I started my multiple mind skills was that Callen restricted by what he could achieve within my mind would always insist on setting up my hud and leaving it running with parallel processing once he was reabsorbed. Hence what I could see when it came to the world around me could be significantly more than most suspected. My supersenses trait meant that I could focus on anything I wished. I had my health, stamina, mana and psi constantly disyed along with mini-maps created by echolocation, seismic sense, mana sense, etc. My sensory area was still small but each mini-map grew a littlerger with each skill level. We had even started including everything I could tell from inspect, observe and analyse so that I could see or at least guess the levels of those surrounding me. But that was not all sense minds meant although it seemed as if the Bishop was agreeing or confirming my thoughts his most obvious emotion in reaction to my thoughts was a surprise. I could not see more than that, but watching people¡¯s emotions shift to my statements or actions was entertaining. ¡°What about you what do you hope to achieve now that you have agreed to stay?¡± Aleera asked inquisitively. ¡°Building the path and getting to know the people of Wester Ponente are my ns to start with but then after that, I would like to bring the inds together a little bit more. Truthfully the distance between you is not that great but from what I can tell there is not a lot of joint progress happening. While I cannot order such cooperation between the three inds that is not to say that I cannot guide and influence it to happen.¡± He outlined some of his ns. ¡°Hopefully with your support and permission.¡± He nodded towards her. It seemed strange to see a grown man asking a child''s permission for his endeavours and it may have been more lip service than actually requesting it, but that was how the world appeared to work. With both sides yed carefully not to alienate the other while they were forming a rtionship. Had I been asked to honestly give my opinion or merely to fulfil the social niceties of engaging the local lord in the conversation? All of our talks were held in front of our grandfather our guardian, Lady Acaia our tutor and Kaius our father. It was foolish to think that they were not listening in and would not be advising uster on. Not that it meant that they were ignored by our passengers. ¡°What is there to do for fun on Wester Ponente?¡± The bishop asked my father. You did not need to be a genius with mind sense to work out what his answer was going to be. ¡°I¡¯m partial to fishing myself.¡± He answered apanied by my grandfather¡¯s groans. ¡°But when what you enjoy is your metier and your job, is it still work if it entertains you? My boat is always open if you would like toe for a sail or two.¡± He offered. Aleera interrupted before he could wax any further on his favourite subject, ¡°We just held the Silversea Games and we have just built an amphitheatre on the southern side of our isle against the mountain. You should be able to see it soon as we pass by." Sure enough, as we passed by you could see the semi-circle tiers cut into the mountain and rising up as it did. ¡°Very impressive.¡± The Bishopplimented as we sailed past. ¡°Looks like it could seat the entirety of Wester Isles.¡± Hemented. ¡°Who performs there? When is the next performance? And what will they be doing?¡± he quickly rattled off a reel of quick questions. ¡°It was only designed to seat the town of Wester,¡± I told him. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised. You can always fit far more people onto a bench than a set of chairs. People will always be happy to move over a little more. You would be stunned by just how many people you can pack into a church and that is on pews. Your seating arrangements look far more spacious than that.¡± He replied confidently before moving back to his questioning, ¡°So when is the next performance?¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t actually decided. It is a new structure and still working on a routine to perform.¡± I replied. ¡°Your performing?¡± He asked astonished either by my statement, my age or my sheer confidence. ¡°Yes,¡± I replied unamused. On the one hand, being underestimated was a distinct advantage. On the other hand, it was a little tiring when people did not take you all that seriously. ¡°He¡¯s really quite good but it would be good for my experience if I joined him in performing as well,¡± Aleera added supportively. ¡°I see.¡± He nodded while looking for confirmation from the adults in the boat. Mind sense showed that he was not quite convinced yet but as always I could see little past the surface emotions. Thankfully Lady Acacia stepped in to support our ims. ¡°The two scions have chosen m¨¦tiers that would benefit significantly from such an event. One will entertain while the other makes a tidy profit, together they will go far.¡± She said proud of her proteges. ¡°M¨¦tiers? Then it is true? The child has a m¨¦tier despite his age?¡± He looked down at me despite us all sitting in the boat. A seated position levelled many a man but there was only so much it could do when bncing a child and an adult in the height of their eye level. ¡°We do.¡± We replied into the silence that had drawn out painfully long as we all waited for Lady Acacia to respond but she did not. ¡°Astounding!¡± Said the bishop. ¡°And unheard of. Is this due to your tutge?¡± He asked Lady Acacia only to receive a silent shake of her head. ¡°To unlock your status so early is in itself alone unprecedented.¡± He reached forward as if to take my hand then realized where he was and sat back against the side of the boat. Rubbing his forehead he continued to verbalise his thoughts, ¡°To be able to ess metiers as well . . . I¡¯m simply speechless.¡± For one supposedly speechless he continued thinking his thoughts out loud for the majority of the journey. It was not until wended on the eastern shore of theke that he finally ended his spection and rejoined his colleagues. Once together he did not bring up anything that we had discussed on the boat and simply slipped back into his position by the Archbishop. I was sure that they would discuss our statementster, to pull them apart for their truths. But for now, we all concentrated on moving swiftly along the edge of the eastern woods. We were arge group and had little to fear on the ind but there was no reason not to walk past as quickly as possible. We were soon ascending the slope to the cliffs thaty at the top. In the distance, I could just make out the town in the distance over the shoulder of our mountain home. ¡°We¡¯re here atst. The very edge of thepass.¡± The archbishop seemed inordinately pleased for travelling just a little bit further west. To us it was just one more part of the cliffs that surrounded our home but to him and his party, it meant significantly more. ¡°Time to spread the light of the lodestar a little further.¡± He gestured for the acolytes to carry their package further forward. It had taken all of them to carry it up here and our pace had been set more by them than by my little legs. Archbishop Grigori ced his right hand bearing his ring down onto the stone top of the cliff edge. ¡°Consecrate.¡± He murmured and the stone rippled. When it stopped apass emblem had been embossed into the cliff top. Each point aligned to the cardinal and ordinal directions a carved octagonal depression in the centre left as a space for the stone marker to be emced. The acolytes removed the sheet covering the plinth they had carried so far. The octagonal stone column had markings on each side but I could not yet decipher their meaning if they even had any. Carefully they raised it upright before setting it into the depression carved for it. Through my mana sense, I felt a flicker of mana as it seemed to settle into thend. Its roots and workings were a mystery to me. ¡°What does it do?¡± I asked. Now that it had been emced I realised that should probably have been a question I should have asked prior to agreeing to its cement. However, when agreeing I had thought it was only a stone marker. I had not realized the magicalponent of it. Perhaps my family had known but did not feel it worth mentioning or maybe they too hand only thought it was a simple stone, not the magical construct it actually was. ¡°For now, nothing. It has only just been sealed into the Lodestone but in time it will be able to call forth the light of the lodestar to warn, direct, call and protect those who need it.¡± He turned and bowed to our family, ¡°The Lodestar Church thanks the Silversea family for your support in extending the bounds of thepass.¡± ¡°Our pleasure,¡± Aleera answered for the two of us. While I wondered whether the favours had been of equal value after all. Chapter 143: Creatures of the deep Chapter 143: Creatures of the deep ¡°You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone, You shall find what you seek and make it own, But despair for your life entombed within stone And fail without friends, To fly home alone.¡± Percy Jackson ¡°Can it not do anything now?¡± Aleera asked intrigued. Surprisingly, when she asked the youngest daughter from the diver¡¯s family scoffed at her question. There was clearly some antagonism between the two beyond the disagreement over the pearls. Lady Acacia stopped Aleera with a look while the girl¡¯s older sister restrained her in return. ¡°Just the light at the moment, Lady Silversea.¡± Archbishop Grigori answered openly unaffected by either the question or the quiet critique. Perhaps his use of the title was a quiet rebuke of the other family¡¯s scorn or a warning. Politics wasplicated if you thought about it too hard or read too much into every situation. ¡°Could you show us?¡± I asked unabashed and unafraid of criticism. If there was one benefit to my open, innocent and still childish face it was the ability to ask whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to. Provided I could maintain my poker-faced ignorance everything was forgiven, overlooked or misunderstood. ¡°Certainly Lord Silversea.¡± He smiled. I did not care if he was making a political point, I quite liked receiving the honorific. Made me feel a foot taller. Although I could hear the rest of my family calling me Little Lord sometime soon, which would likelyst until I was taller than them. We needed to resource more of the Elvish elixir to continue to speed up my growth, or maybe that had resolved with the recalibration of my status. It had not really been enough time to tell yet. ¡°A light to guide the lost.¡± Archbishop Grigori intoned as he pressed on one of the glyphs on the stone column it began to glow. Grandfather grumbled, ¡°Or a lure to every monster from here to the horizon.¡± While the clergy did not respond to his quiet critique I could not help but notice that both knights alongside Lady Acacia seemed to have heard him and judging by their bodynguage possibly agreed with him as well. ¡°That is all for today. Thank you for your support and the time you have spent . . .¡± he was interrupted by a roar from further up the coast. Out of a cave in the cliff face monsters spilt forth. It was a snarling, snapping tangle of eel-like monstrosities that had somehow emerged from the very Lodestone itself. Their sudden swift emergence sent some of them to their doom. The leaders of the tangle were pushed off the cliff ledge by the heaving mass behind them to fall onto the rocks or into the sea below. However, the majority of them turned without falling searching their surroundings before locking onto us and the shining stone in front of us. One of the knights stepped forward to p the stone column turning its light off. We stood frozen as the world paused with bated breath. But then reality snapped back it felt as if as one they moved their focus from the stone to me and they surged forth towards us along the cliff searching for a way to reach the top of the cliff or find a way along it. The tangle of monsters spread out following the path of least resistance but they wereing. Worse still they had yet to stop exiting the cave in the cliff face their numbers still growing by the second. A dozen, a score, a fair few had fallen but a horrible amount had not. ¡°Stand firm.¡± The knight shouted and they arrayed themselves in front of the clergy to protect them. They had all retreated to the edge of the cliff by the miniature monolith. Grandfather though had seen what I had feared. They were no longer targeting the stone marker. They were targeting me. I might not have called them forth but now that they could see me they focused on me once more. It became even clearer once they had reached the top of the cliff and ran along it. We were stood a little distant from the clergy now that they had retreated to surround the stone marker and you could see how their path was now angled ever so slightly away towards us rather than the stone marker. ¡°Kai,¡± He grabbed my head turning it and tearing my eyes away from our approaching doom. ¡°Focus, if you stay here, people will die. They are focused on you but will kill everyone else as well including your father and your sister. I can carry you, but I cannot fight effectively at the same time, and they will catch up eventually.¡± He quickly outlined the problem as they grew ever closer. I fought to look but he held my head firm. ¡°We need to leave, and now, to save you and by saving you draw them away and save your sister.¡± With no time to object to his n, he picked me up and turned to leave giving one parting nod andmand to Lady Acacia, ¡°Protect them.¡± Then we were off. Grandfather was insanely fast when he wanted to be despite his white hair and obvious age his stats still mattered. It even felt as if the distance between the monsters and us was increasing for a moment but then they turned to follow and the chase was on. Looking over his shoulder with nothing to do but hold on I watched as they chased us south. Grandfather did not run down the slope but rather along it. Running down it would help them chase us down just as much as it would help us to speed up. A secondter the monsters had reached where we had stood just a moment before but by that time Lady Acacia had pulled Kaius and Aleera close and buried them beneath a wooden dome. The Knights braced themselves in front of the clergy but were anchored by defending them and did not step forth to meet them. For a second I feared we would be wrong and they would ughter our family and new friends but we were right. Instead of attacking them, they sped past still aiming for us despite the tempting target. I felt a weird mix of relief that we had been correct apanied by an increasing level of terror as it was proven without a doubt that they were somehow targeting me. ¡°Focus, Kai. They are still following and their focus is on you.¡± He shouted firmly to me. The words were not uncalled for I was understandably a little close to panicking. We might have saved our family but how were we going to save ourselves? ¡°What do we do when they catch us?¡± I asked worried but focused as I bounced around while he leapt from rock to rock running upwards now to follow the rise in the cliff edge. ¡°When they catch us we will have to see how well you can fly.¡± He bluntly outlined the next step in the n he had yet to inform me of. ¡°Fly?¡± I asked incredulously. I had no desire to see them dive off the cliff after me. It seemed worryingly likely that some would survive the fall and once in the water I would be a sitting duck. ¡°Not out to sea.¡± He answered my unasked question. ¡°I will throw you ind . . . To theke . . .¡± He was getting out of breath. Age catches up to us all one day and it seemed that stamina was the stat it was sapping. ¡°Reach the boats . . . or attempt to reach our isle . . . I will kill them from behind as they are chasing after you.¡± He paused as we reached the top of a cliff once more. ¡°Ready?¡± he asked. Was I? this seemed like a horrible gamble with no one to rely on but myself. ¡°Ready?¡± I asked back searching for some confirmation that he believed in me. ¡°You¡¯re ready, I will be right behind you.¡± He confirmed. ¡°My life before yours in the light of the Lodestar. This is the best way I promise.¡± We turned to focus on our foes rapidly approaching despite the steep incline. The fact that they hadpletely ignored the instigators of this mess was not lost upon me. But perhaps they had always been there and were just waiting for the opportunity to spring forth. We might never know. I might never have the time to find out. ¡°Ready, now!¡± Grandfather shouted as he threw me into the air. I shot up and ind towards the innergoon. Strength and stats went a long way to increasing my height and distance. Travelling at least 100 ft up in the air. A child is not the easiest thing to throw. But as I went up into the air I had the opportunity to watch the monsters pause as they attempted to track my movement before turning to aim for where I would normally fall. They were now ignoring Grandfather who had . . . disappeared at some point in my flight up. Now it was up to me and me alone. I snapped my mana out into the cloth I was wearing manipting the material to form my medieval flight suit turning my fall into a glide. They continued to follow in my wake as I glided towards thegoon. What if . . . a hundred what ifs ran through my mind but all I could do was stay in the air for as long as possible. Grandfather would do the rest. Already he had started and although I had missed the attack one corpsey along the route they had taken. Then another. I did not have time to test my eyes and could only get a vague sense of him through my mana sense and echolocation but our n seemed to be working. Me leading them ever onward him cleaning them up in my wake. I threw my mana into gale not in an attempt to speed myself up but to slow my descent. It had been a long time since I hadst attempted this and while I was heavier andrger now I also had a few more spells under my belt. ¡°Auxano aera,¡± I shouted the spell finally giving me enough lift to halt my descent. The monsters still charged jumping and snapping in behind me but . . . I was no longer descending and as thend dropped away due to the slope I began to feel a little morefortable in the n. I could do this. But where would I go? Looking back, another corpse was lying in the tangle¡¯s wake, but there were still plenty left to devour me. I could not go to the town the people were unprepared and they would rip right through them. I did not want to let them get to thegoon how would we ever find them again they would decimate the stock of fish it held and if they were fixated on the mana in me possibly the pearl-bearing oyster poption as well. What to do, what to do, where should I lead them now that I was no longer falling but flying? Chapter 144: A merry chase Chapter 144: A merry chase ¡°And I will lead them on a merry chase.¡± Inception/Looper I was flying! I¡¯d managed to fall with style before but now I was no longer falling which was just a little bit important to me seeing as what was still chasing after me below. I had never managed this before but necessity is the mother of many sesses. I had to do it, so I did. This gave me a little bit of time to n. A line of corpsesid out in a line along the course the tangle had taken as they chased me. Grandfather still picked off one every time it fell far enough behind the pack for it to be taken out without him being swarmed. Now that I was not quite so panicked, I could truly appreciate the monstrosity of the creatures. Part eel, part snake, part crocodile they undted quickly across one another as much as the ground a snarling snapping tangle that had terrified me on their first emergence. To be fair they still didn¡¯t make me feel particrly warm and fuzzy. But I could appreciate the evolution of the predatory design from a distance at least. What to do? What to do? Now that my flight was stable, I had time to worry about my destination. I couldn¡¯t lead them to the town. They would wipe out half the town before the gates were even closed. Suddenly our town¡¯s open gate policy, andck of guards or watches, did not seem the smartest decision the town had taken. Understandable seeing as nothing had happened in my living memory but not now. We were going to have to wise up with an entrance to the depths of the Lodestone on the edge of our ind. I couldn¡¯t lead them to theke. They could wipe out any or rather more like all of the species native to it. That was a major source of our food supply for the town not to mention the financial foundations of our Silversea house. Besides, that was just another slower route to the town. We also did not I realized have a wall to stop anythinging out of thegoon. Another oversight in hindsight. I was aware that there had not been a lot of town nning in building Wester Town but perhaps this would provide the impetus for some moving forward. I couldn¡¯t lead them into the forest. We might never find them again if they burrowed into the soil as they had seemingly burrowed out of the earth. It would be best to end them here and today. To keep circling the air teasingly just out of reach. The problem with that was that my mana was not going tost forever. Already I could feel the strain as my mana ticked ever downward my spending of it outpacing my regeneration. What direction did that leave me with? The only direction I could take them that did not end in the imminent demise of our poption was the sea but unlike their initial emergence from the depths of the Lodestone, I doubted that I could force them off the cliff again if they could see iting. Even if I did would that not only dy their return if they survived the fall? My thoughts were cut short by a whistle. I turned once more to fly toward the edge of the ind cliffs while looking for the source of the whistle surprised by what I saw. It was not my grandfather. . . . Disaster had struck as soon as the Archbishop had lit up the stone marker. The clergy had quickly fallen back onto its consecrated ground while the knights arrayed themselves in front of them. The diver¡¯s daughters, who had joined the trip, fell in behind them with their backs to the edge of the cliff they had nowhere to escape to and no time left to run. The monsters wereing. The Moasau eels were a known denizen of the depths but their appearance was usually preceded by a lower-level threat or race running from them to the surface. For them to emerge first meant that this was a new entrance to the Lodestone and that anything coulde forth next. Tearing his eyes away from the threat approaching. He searched for the Silversea scions. It would be a cruel fate to find such future pirs of thepass civilization only for them to be snuffed out in their infancy. Once he found them his eyes struggled toprehend what he was witnessing. The elvish tutor Lady Acacia had formed a wooden dome to protect her and Lady Silversea. That was hardly surprising with the elves¡¯ racial focus and strength in growing and manipting wood. Though the speed at which she hadpleted it showed both a high level of skill and status. What was troubling was the fact that Lord Silversea and his Guardian Grandfather were outside of the dome not inside of it. Worse, they had made a run for it and there was no way in which they could protect them. Splitting the scions, on the one hand, was a wise idea. One would be needed to carry the house if the other fell today. But to think the grandfather thought he could outrun the Moas Eels was either arrogance in the extreme or frantic fear that had decided for him. Although he was moving far faster than a man his age should be able to still move. He had clearly put the majority of his status points into Dexterity but how long would his staminast when moving at such speed? They would see sooner orter whether it had been the right decision. But there was nothing he could do for them now, so he turned back to face the Mosau Eels as they raced towards the group. Their knights would be able to dispatch a fair few of them and were well protected by their armour. Healing them would keep them in the fight longer than any other men, the problem was their positioning. There were no walls for the clergy to shelter behind and no time to build them. The knights were handicapped by attempting to protect them, anchored to a single position rather than being able to wade into the monsters to deal out death and he could not see how they could possibly protect all of them without a few of hispanions and guests falling in the process. Then the Mosau Eels turned just a little. It was subtle at first and easily missed. He had not noticed it when he had deactivated the light but the mosau eels were no longer targeting the stone and the people surrounding it. They were travelling on a different tangent and had changed to a new target, the child, Lord Silversea. He ced a hand on each knight¡¯s shoulder to stop them from stepping forward as the Mosau closed. If they were not engaged, it looked like they would pass right by them. It was not ideal for the lord, but it would give them some time to consider their options and reposition themselves maybe even build some defences. Hopefully, the grandfather knew what he was doing. We could only stare as near death passed us by to chase the two across the cliff tops. They were still running away but the Mosau were still chasing. ¡°They left without us.¡± Said one of the daughters sounding offended at the fact that the grandfather had run away with his grandson even though it seemed to have drawn the monsters away. ¡°Be grateful they did, the Mosau have chased them instead of mauling us.¡± Sir Jacques reprimanded. Before he turned to the Archbishop, ¡°Your excellency, we cannot guarantee your safety attempting to reach the boats. You need to fortify this area. For when they return.¡± ¡°What do you need?¡± The Archbishop asked aware that the grandfather and grandson¡¯s deaths might be the only reason they survive the monster¡¯s return. ¡°A swallow¡¯s nest tower, you need to be out of reach so that we can tackle them head-on without worrying about your safety.¡± Sir Jacques quickly responded. ¡°Preferably with a 10-arm length moat funnelling off to either side of the tower. If they are as aggressive as they were when they emerged a few can end up pushing the rest off the cliff. Just keep it curved, slopping and smooth so they won¡¯t be able to see in time to stop when they run off the edge of the cliff.¡± ¡°Do we have t . . .¡± the Archbishop stopped asking the question. His time would be better spent preparing what had been requested but he could not help but watch with morbid curiosity as Arawn ran out of steam and it looked like the Morau were about to catch up. The poor boy, the least he could do was to watch his demise. ¡°Did he . . .¡± the aborted question much like his earlier one was due to the changing circumstances he found himself watching. Arawn had just thrown his only grandson away from the Morau surely he knew that would only buy him another second or t . . . The child floated in the air gliding forward more than falling down the monsters chasing his shadow that flittered across the ground in front of them. He watched astounded as the boy continued to slide through the air ahead of them always slightly out of reach though they jumped snapped and snarled at his feet. ¡°Your excellency as fascinating as his performance we only have a short while until his mana runs out and they return to finish eating us. Focus on what you have to do while we worry about allies and enemies.¡± Sir Jacques redirected his attention to the problem at hand. It was not just his life at stake but the lives of his followers and guests as well. It would only be a matter of time before they also turned on them. ¡°Bishop Bailie, on me.¡± He shouted drawing him close. ¡°We need to raise a tower to protect the marker and ourselves then create a ditch for our guards to dispatch the threats from the lodestone.¡± The clergy gathered around the two and without questioning ced their hands on their shoulders. ¡°In the light of the Lodestar.¡± They chanted in unison as they funnelled their mana into the two senior members. Around the edge of the consecratedpass emblem walls began to rise the stone taken from the surrounding cliff top forming a growing peninsr or stack as the Archbishop focused on raising the walls while the Bishop focused on providing the stone required while deepening, widening and strengthening the ditch surrounding the tower. It was not their finest piece of work but it would hopefullyst long enough for the Mosau to be dispatched when they inevitably returned. ¡°Your walls are too thin.¡± Their work was interrupted by Lady Acacia¡¯s critique. They had exited the wooden dome its wooden walls following the women as they walked. The wood flowed up and over the stone walls forming an oak-panelled interior that continued to grow in thickness and height as the bishops returned to their endeavours in growing the height of the tower and the depth of the ditch. With each arm¡¯s length in height, they grew the two knights stepped further away from the construction forced by the disappearing stone to do so. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your brother.¡± Druna stepped forward to console Aleera. It seemed the immediate threat of death and the likelihood of her brother¡¯s demise moderated her strident criticism of the Silversea family. They might argue over pearls but disasters of life and death were another matter. ¡°He¡¯ll be okay,¡± Aleera whispered half in belief half in hope. Druna did not dare to contradict her. The girls without a task at hand to upy themselves watched over the growing walls as her grandfather and brother reached the end of his stamina. He had slowed and stopped on another outcropping of stone in the far distance. The monsters still rushing towards them. ¡°Should she be watching?¡± one of the clergy murmured to another not quite crass enough to add the words, ¡®her brother¡¯s death.¡¯ She was rebuked by Lady Acacia, ¡°You should all watch for a second you might find yourselves surprised.¡± Construction paused for a moment as they all watched for the inevitable sh of monster and man. The pause would allow a little mana to regenerate and they would need some in reserve for healing the Compass Knights. They watched with bated breath as the old man lifted his grandson onest time in defiance. Only to see the poor child be thrown towards thegoon in the middle of the ind. Their outrage shifted to disbelief as the child failed to fall. From such a distance he seemed to float above the earth seemingly suspended in the air he slowly slid through the air just out of reach of the snarling snapping tangle that fought beneath him still fixed and focused on devouring him. An artefact or higher-tiered skill was clearly in effect but they had not never seen such a skill or heard of such an effect. Their eyes snapped to Lady Acacia and Lady Silversea in disbelief. But found no disbelief in their eyes, only relief that what they had hoped for appeared to have worked. ¡°That should buy us a little more time. Your ditches need to be deeper and angled like this.¡± She took control of the situation once more her suggestions closer tomands than anything else. ¡°But what about theke and the town.¡± Shouted one of the daughters. ¡°What if he leads them there? They¡¯ll be ughtered.¡± they continued to watch the boy¡¯s flight as he grew closer to both. ¡°He¡¯s a Silversea, not an idiot.¡± Aleera defended her brother hoping against hope that when it mattered most, he would not make a moronic decision. ¡°There! He is turning.¡± She shouted back. ¡°Well, where is he going to take them? His mana won¡¯tst forever?¡± She was back to arguing with Aleera now that no one was in imminent danger of dying. Her sympathy and peace were short and swiftly ended either by fear or habit. Lady Acacia and Archbishop Grigori both began to speak at the same time. ¡°Here . . .¡± ¡°We need to draw . . .¡± Lady Acacia nodded her head to the Archbishop in deference allowing him to take the lead. ¡°The Silversea Scion needs to draw them here.¡± He repeated his position. ¡°We need to defeat them here and now.¡± He dered. ¡°The town is not ready, and we cannot allow them to disperse and start multiplying.¡± ¡°Aleera.¡± Lady Acaciamanded. Without hesitating, Aleera whistled shrilly, the sound cutting through the air powered by several skills. They all watched the child¡¯s course turn toward them. ¡°To your positions.¡±manded the Archbishop. ¡°Any chance of some harpoons or spears?¡± Kaius asked Lady Acacia as the wood continued to thicken on the inside of the tower. ¡°Certainly, how many would you like?¡± she calmly replied reaching into the wooden wall to pull forth a javelin for him. ¡°Us too.¡± One of the daughters added stepping forwards the rest following behind. Meanwhile, the Knights, still outside the tower, stepped behind stone pirs grown to hide their positions outside of the safety of the ditch that encircled the tower. Then it was a waiting game, as they watched warily from the top of their small tower but they knew they would not have to wait very long at all. . . . . As I turned my flight towards the source of the whistle I realized that I was looking at a squat tower on the very edge of the cliff. I could no longer see the stone marker but was sure it was at the centre of the sudden edifice that appeared on the cliff top. There was even a ditch hopefully deep enough to swallow the Mosau Eels running around it. I knew where I needed to go; hopefully, I would get there before my mana or my heart gave out from the pounding pace it was thumping at. Flight, actual flight, took more mana than a simple glide and I was feeling the strain. The spellcraft and spell song we had learned allowed me to use a little more finesse than simple brute strength but I was still running out. I hoped it would be enough to reach them. As I nced behind I could see that the eel-like monstrosities were still hot on my heels. A few more of their corpsesy in our wake which meant that Grandfather unburdened by me was still following my trail even if he was hidden from conventional sight and even my mana sight. I would have to ask him how he managed that as soon as possible. Especially as it seemed that that sense might be the one by which the eel monsters were tracking me. Their eyes were white and unused to the sun. I continued to glide a little lower to conserve my mana which only encouraged them to run faster in an attempt to catch me as I came a little closer. It would not be long before we returned to where this had all begun. Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . I grew ever closer, I could see them standing on the edge of their tower wielding wooden spears that I worried would do little against the monsters following behind. Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Lady Acacia was pointing down at the ditch gesturing for me to lead them into it. I dipped lower closer to the ground trusting her direction despite the increased danger it put me into. If they rushed forwards I was now within their reach. Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . The ditch had a slope leading down into it and on ¡®One¡¯ I shot down the slope at speed before turning along its curve. The monsters followed a second behind me still ignoring the people and the tower with their preference for my blood and bones over theirs. The curve in the ditch meant that I could not see where I was heading so my eyes flickered to my HUD and I finally understood where I was going. Or more importantly where my followers would be ending up. The final turn of the ditch was sharp and a challenge to make but make it I did and the exit to the ditch be immediately obvious to not only myself but the monsters following me. I soared out into the sky again and up as the lead eel-like monsters screeched and shredded the floor with their ws in an attempt to stop their plummet off the cliff top once more. But the rear of the tangle ploughed into them from behind as they tried to halt themselves and they found themselves flying forward and off the cliff to drop to their death on the rocks below. My sharp ascent slowed my forward momentum and I was able to drop safely onto the top of the suddenly grown tower¡¯s rear wall. The clergy and their guests even my father failed to notice my arrival focused as they were on the monsters that had failed to fall. I looked over the edge of the tower to see the two knights barrelling forwards with their shields held high in an attempt to force the few eels left, that had failed to fall, over the edge. Their bodies were pin-cushioned with javelins that Lady Acacia was still pulling out of the wooden walls for the clergy, diver¡¯s daughters and my father to throw. They did not stop fighting though and now that they were no longer sliding forward they were beginning to press back. I tracked the fight as best as I was able to unable to add much more after leading them here. I was tapped for mana and still too small, possibly scared, or probably sensible to risk my unarmoured body attempting to get any closer. I watched in amazement as the Compass Knights bodies seemed to light up with their mana and they managed to force the monsters back another step. They pushed with their shields on one arm while stabbing any monster that managed to slip past them with their other. Their sword arms flickered with mana as they flickered forth to skewer another eel. This was either an application of a skill drawing their mana forth or another form of mana usage that I had yet to see or be taught. Then finally Grandfather arrived. Visible to all he stepped into the ditch behind the two knights and his knives shed out. Every time an eel attempted to squeeze past the two armoured knights another knife would sh forwards burying itself in an eye or brain. The two knights relieved from watching their nks were able to put all their strength and focus into pushing forwards and the final few monsters plummeted to their demise as they were pushed off the cliff. The knights gave a grateful nod of thanks to my grandfather before there was a relieved sigh from all of the clergy and guests as they sank down to the ground. Only the knights, Arawn and Lady Acacia remained standing and vignt and therefore were the first to see me standing on the tower¡¯s edge. ¡°Wee back young lord.¡± Lady Acacia inclined her head to me, apanied by the shocked gasps of the guests as they realized I stood above and behind them. ¡°Remember your entrance should never go unannounced.¡± She added with a smile. Chapter 145: No Longer Hiding Chapter 145: No Longer Hiding ¡°I¡¯m tired of hiding in the shadows. It¡¯s time to be free. It¡¯s time to show the real me. If you don''t like me, that''s your opinion. I am unique. I am me.¡± Mask The thrill of flying, the rush of a near-death experience, the relief of the monster¡¯s demise, and the delight in a n executed perfectly. There were so many ways in which ourst-second dash and return could have gone catastrophically wrong, my body was buzzing with so much adrenaline I could barely stand still when I returned to the top of the tower wall. I felt like standing in a superhero pose I was no longer hiding my magic, but I knew that if I attempted such a thing it would be swiftly deted by Aleera¡¯smentary if not Lady Acacia¡¯s critique as well. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± I bowed with a flourish. Keep it simple stupid. I added a dozen different endings in my head, such as, ¡®to rescue you all¡¯ or ¡®I hope you were not too distressed by my absence.¡¯ But I knew that whatever I came up with could hardly outshine what I had achieved already. Silence was the best policy in terms of maintaining the sess and image I had just achieved. I was no longer a baby beyond belief but the prodigal son or rather a boy prodigy who had just returned in an unbelievable manner. ¡°We are grateful for you leading them on a long enough detour that allowed us to build the defences we required for their defeat Lord Silversea.¡± Archbishop Girgori smoothly replied to my blunt statement. It was safer to keep my answers simpler. That way the other party did all the work and any ttery was given freely rather than self-serving or simple boasting. Everyone seemed to be ingnoring the elephant in the room that the young lord, me, could fly. ¡°It seems the cost of emcing a simple stone marker was far higher than you implied.¡± Aleera must have been thinking along the same lines as I had that perhaps the favours had not been equal after all. Especially if they had been aware that emcing the marker might have had such an effect. ¡°While the timing implies a cause and effect. That is simply not true. For the Moasau eels to have appeared here on an ind they must have been making their way up from the Lodestonebyrinth for a considerable amount of time. The marker merely revealed a problem that you already had.¡± He paused for his position to sink in before finishing with, ¡°Imagine if it had happened without our presence here to rebuff the beasts.¡± It did not take a genius or a prodigy to realise that it could have been a disaster for the town if the beasts hade upon the unsuspecting town in the middle of the night. We really needed to get some sentries scheduled for simple peace of mind. ¡°Thank the light.¡± Our unwanted guests joined in supporting the church whether their position was justified although perhaps it was. However, it was not difficult to predict the position that they would be taken when they returned to the town. They would be supporting the church in their stance that they had merely revealed a problem rather than created one. ¡°A problem that needs to be rectified.¡± Grandfather grumped as he rejoined the group standing within the newly formed tower. For an elderly man who had been ughtering monsters one at a time, he was looking surprisingly fresh. Not a speck of blood marred his clothes, unlike the twopass knights that warily apanied him and wore clothes stained red with the blood and guts of the monsters that they had held back and forced off the top of the cliff. Their shields were still slowly dripping onto the pristine stone flooring of the tower. ¡°Indeed.¡± Archbishop Grigori affirmed. ¡°Compass knights, will you guard this descent into the depths while we return to town to raise a working party to deal with guarding the exit and collecting the corpses?¡± He asked of his two guards. The twopass knights bowed their heads in eptance of their charge, ¡°Yes your excellency.¡± While they might have been outside of the clerical structure of the church some requests took precedence, a threat from the depth of the lodestonebyrinth being one of them. Without the clergy to guard they would be able to fight securely in the knowledge that they only had to defend themselves not another. With an entrance or rather an exit to block they would be able to use that as a choke point and target anything that attempted to emerge onto the ind. It would work as a temporary measure provided nothingrger or more deadly than the Moasau eels emerged, but we would have to work something out as a town regarding the long-term defence of our ind. Things were growing rapidly moreplicated and immediately dangerous. This was not a subtle future danger of how to interact with the Court of Ponente and its 100 lords. This was an immediate and visceral threat of bodily harm and physical demise the monsters were threatening us with and we had no idea how many more of them would spill forth from the very earth beneath our feet. ¡°It seems my departure will be dyed a little longer.¡± The Archbishop addressed us once more. ¡°Will you be apanying us on our return to town?¡± He questioned our family party. ¡°Not just yet.¡± Lady Acacia replied, "We have several lessons to teach Aleera and Callen from this emergence before we return. It is the first urrence they have witnessed with their own eyes. Books can only teach so much; practical experience is preferable.¡± ¡°As you will. We will leave you to your lessons.¡± With that as his final statement, he led the clergy and their ship sailing taxi crew back to the boats moored out of sight around the edge of the Eastern Woods. Once they had descended out of earshot, Lady Acacia, Grandfather¡¯s and mine, she spoke once more, ¡°Well that elerates a few of our timetables. Not that I me you dear.¡± She added thest to me while ring at Grandfather who had once more forced the issue. But to be fair to the old man there had hardly been time for deliberation. Or a lot of options to choose from as far as I could see. ¡°Why are we staying?¡± Aleera asked. While I added, ¡°What is there to learn from this?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s start with the monsters, denizens of the depths, notice their eel-like characteristics their name is the Moasau Eel or some derivative of the family.¡± She led us to the ditch where the monster¡¯s bodies stilly slowly cooling in the shade provided by the stone walls on either side. Unaffected by the gruesome sight she led us to the first corpse and began to lecture, ¡°Notice the gills behind the jawbones here. The species is an amalgam of fish, reptiles and amphibians. They can live onnd or in the water yet have hardened scales which can turn steel sword shes away. The best way to kill them as demonstrated by your grandfather is with stabs or thrusts preferably to the brain through the eyes, mouth or gills behind the jaws. Not an easy opponent to dispatch on an individual basis and they tend to hunt in a pack. Their swarms or tangles, tend to overwhelm a group¡¯s cohesion and devour them one bite at a time. However, they always target the first to bleed and can be led into targeting their own tangles members if you can attack from range and cause them to bleed first at a distance. Without a closer enemy to attack they will turn on the injured member of the tangle before targeting your own team provided they are not already targeting your position. In which case they will seek the sweeter meat over that of their own kind especially if it is mana rich.¡± She added pointedly while looking at me. Mana rich? Is that what they had been after? Surely she or the archbishop had more mana than me and therefore should have been their target? I voiced my confusion. ¡°If they are after mana-rich meat, why didn¡¯t they attack you or the archbishop? Surely you have more than I do.¡± This did not make sense from my admittedly limited understanding. ¡°We might have more but we also shield it better. Because we have consolidated our core we hold our mana within it, within our bodies until we call it forth. Whereas you are still currently without a formed core and still, to their eyes at least shine with mana indicating that you would make a fine feast.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but cross my arms in frustration. How did everyone else just naturally form their mana core whereas I had to wait for mine to form and seal itself properly? Was I going to be a monster ma until it did? Forming my core had just jumped to the top of my priority list. I did not n on bing either a monster lure or monster food. ¡°They eat mana?¡± Aleera asked as she looked at me worried either for me personally or for her golden goose. ¡°They eat meat like all beasts but the richer in mana the better and they will target that over other lesser meat. They need the concentrated mana to build their cores, to evolve, and ultimately gain sapience.¡± Lady Acacia continued to exin as Grandfather stood behind us. ¡°Would you care to demonstrate?¡± She turned to him waving to the corpse she had been using as a teaching resource. ¡°I just finished cleaning my knives.¡± He grumbled as he pulled forth another one. ¡°The cores can form in different ces depending on the species of beast and the manner of mana they have been absorbing. Can you tell your grandfather where to aim Kai?¡± she directed herst question to me. Focusing on sense mana it was easy to see what she was talking about. Their mana still shone in a small gem despite the monster''s death. The pearl-sized light was shining forth from each monster I looked at all of them in slightly different locations although most were still on the head or near enough. As for the monster in front of us, about to experience a dissection, the Moasau eel¡¯s shining stone was located in a small lump that bulged forth in the centre of its forehead. But hidden under the ck scales of the creature it was unnoticeable unless you knew what to look for or had mana sense to highlight its existence. ¡°Here.¡± I pointed it out as I touched its location. The scales were hard and smooth beneath my finger. Grandfather felt out its location before firmly driving his knife in and under it, carefully slipping his fingers into the cut and pulling out what looked like a glowing gemstone. ¡°No wonder they were so hard to cut.¡± He griped as he held up an orange fire opal. ¡°Why would that make them hard to cut?¡± I asked referring to the orange gemstone in his hand. ¡°Based on the colour of the stone it was probably supporting its endurance making its scales exceptionally durable or providing greater stamina.¡± Lady Acacia continued. ¡°The majority of the value in the corpses of the denizens of the deep is in their mana cores or gemstones. Not to say that their scales won¡¯t also be of value but the easiest and most important material to harvest is their gemstones. Can you locate the rest of them?¡± We worked our way through the rest of the bodies umting a selection of stones. Not every creature had one but the majority did and they came in a variety of sizes and colours as well as locations. Sense Mana showed its worth in pinpointing their location each time. ¡°Time to head on home.¡± She informed us relieving my grandfather and me of our rather morbid task. I sighed in relief only for my hopes to be dashed by her next sentence. ¡°But we need to pick up the rest of the gemstones on our way and will need to take back at least one intact body to stir the popce to a sensible course of action. I am surprised they did not take one with them when they went. We will discuss the speech you will need to make on your return.¡± She added referring to the clergy who had departed so much sooner than us and the next step in our political takeover of the ind. As she had drilled into us everything even our problems were opportunities to develop the Silversea house in one manner or another. . . . . Diver¡¯s Daughters POV As they walked down to the boats behind the clergy who were leading the way the subdued daughters spoke among themselves. ¡°This changes everything.¡± The eldest Azzurra quietly spoke to the rest of them. ¡°Why?¡± Druna, the youngest sister, argued back in a whisper. Either youth or ignorance of the changed situation was clouding her judgment. ¡°Because . . .¡± Ada was interrupted before she could exin. ¡°Druna you cannot continue to rile up Aleera. This is no longer the schoolyard rivalry from your time together at the luminary.¡± Cordelia tried to calm both sides being the middle child. ¡°While we may have lost a lot of wealth to the ¡®Silverseas¡¯.¡± The family name sat poorly on her tongue for the price it had cost them. ¡°They may have stopped collecting the remaining pearls in thegoon. But this . . . this is more than that.¡± Ada exined in quiet words as they dropped further behind the men leading them to their boat. ¡°Why?¡± Druna asked confused, ¡°Money equals power. We still have money, still have pearls to sell we are hardly poor.¡± ¡°There are different forms of power and magic is a power all of its own. One that money cannot necessarily buy.¡± Ada added with a frown. Azzurra summed up the situation, ¡°The magical power the Silversea children demonstrated today means that with or without the pearls they would have risen to lead the ind.¡± ¡°Aleera didn¡¯t do anything,¡± Druna muttered still clearly unhappy with the changing situation. Her social standing was slipping or rather it already had and she had not realized it yet. ¡°Her use of mana might not have been as obvious as her brother¡¯s but she was helping Lady Acacia in forming those walls if you watched closely enough. Besides with a tutor like that, what do you think she is teaching them?¡± Ada continued. ¡°I doubt it is only how to sit still and embroider.¡± She ended up thinking back on how impressive Lady Acacia had been inmanding their defence even if she had deferred to the Archbishop at points. ¡°Oh.¡± Druna was temporarily stunned into silence on realizing that despite theck of immediate and obvious effects her former ssmate now wielded a power the nobility considered their privilege. Something she had no way to ess restricted as she was to the sixmon stats barring some fantastical tale from myth and legend. They had been separated by fate now further divided. Cordelia entered the sombre, silence of the sisters considering their position, ¡°In all honesty, their presence alone would have invited nobles toe and im them at some point in the future. At least this way we will know the nobility rising to im the ind.¡± She said still looking on the bright side. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I can see the silver lining in that.¡± Drunained unaware of the pun she was making as they approached the boats the trees looming rmingly on their left after their brush with monsters and death. . . . . Clergy POV While the sisters discussed this morning¡¯s disaster and what it meant for their family socially. The bishops were also discussing the disaster and what it had revealed. Both the facts of the matter as well as the possible past and future of the ind and its inhabitants. ¡°Are they royalty? A bastard birth? Or an illegitimate line?¡± Bishop Bailie wondered out loud. But they were once more walking in a confessional bubble the skill limiting their conversation to the two of them. They felt a little exposed without thefort of thepass knight¡¯s presence. However, in case there were other denizens of the depth ready to emerge they had to leave them there until they could return or send sufficient townsmen to defend the new entrance or rather exit to thebyrinth the monsters called their home. ¡°If they were, surely the sister would have shown that she was simrly talented under the Light of the Lodestar.¡± The archbishop shook his head referring to the blessing that they had provided the town. ¡°I saw no sign of that during the blessing.¡± ¡°But he flew!¡± Bishop Bailie had not quite given up yet his most recent theory. ¡°It might exin some of the other oddities if he was actually a hidden royal scion.¡± ¡°That is hardly the case here. If he was a son of a royal line it would be from the Southern Kingdom of Ostro judging by his talent with the air. Does he look like Ostrian? Does any of his family?¡± he asked exasperated. ¡°Well, no. To speakpletely bluntly he is not ck-skinned or even dark-skinned.¡± Bishop Bailie shrugged as he spoke somewhat impolitically. ¡°Exactly, he¡¯s not Ostrian. Where would you say they are from though?¡± he asked intrigued if he thought the same even though the answer he was thinking of would not exin any better how the child had managed to fly this morning. Lord Silversea was full of surprises despite his young age andck of time to umte them. ¡°If we were judging them by their faces, eyes and hair the mother, daughter and son look like they might hail from Maestro with their green eyes and fair hair. While the father looks Ponentian with his ck hair and blue eyes.¡± Bishop Bailie proved the Archbishop¡¯s point for him. ¡°Exactly not from Ostro and even further north around thepass from the Ostrian Royal Family¡¯s talent with the element of air.¡± He agreed. ¡°But then how do you ount for his talent with the air.¡± The bishop asked exasperated at having his ideas shot down once more before he had finished forming them. ¡°Magic or skill, it simply cannot have been a Royal talent.¡± He had cut the proverbial gordian knot only to find another hiding underneath it. ¡°Magic or a skill. Have you ever heard of an adolescent having such a skill let alone a child?¡± He strode off quickly towards the boat only to return a secondter once he had left the bubble of silence created by the confessional skill. ¡°No, but that does not mean it is impossible as our very own eyes can attest.¡± Of the two of them the Archbishop seemed to be taking this in his stride better despite his smaller physical steps as they approached the docked boats. ¡°Regardless of how Lord Silversea managed it. He will not always be there to lead the monsters astray. The town will have to arrange a rota to guard the exit as well as the town¡¯s wall in the event of another emergence. Our Swallow¡¯s nest tower is a good start to man the exit but it might not be enough. Are you still happy to stay?¡± The archbishop asked to confirm his juniors decision in light of the new circumstances. ¡°I must, to keep them safe if nothing else and hopefully in time Lord Silversea will deign to let me know histest current magic trick.¡± He answered after considering the changes. ¡°Thank you. I would stay if I could myself but I cannot risk missing out on the cardinal position now more than ever. But I can and will send you, at a minimum, reinforcements to defend the town and guard the exit. If possible to privately hire them I will also hire a team to delve the descent. Not all thunderclouds are without rainbows and at the bottom of them and the descent you may well return to the Compass Continent in five years richer than me. So remember me when you do.¡± The conversation finished as they arrived at the boat. By leading the group no one had been able to see their lips move and the confessional bubble had covered up their speech from prying ears and eyes. ¡°Time to go home.¡± The archbishop nodded to thedies who swiftly manned the boat, untied the mooring rope and raised the sail. Chapter 146: On our way home Chapter 146: On our way home ¡°We make a lot of detours but we¡¯re always heading for the same destination.¡± Paulo Coelho Eventually, we collected a mana core or gemstone from each of the monsters and were finally able to return home. Both Lady Acacia and Grandfather had been fairly gleeful in their collection and I was sure they had their uses. We sat on the boat sailing back to the town. It had been decided that we needed to get the walls manned and some of our morebat-capable citizens out to reinforce the two Compass Knights in their vigil. But while we were sailing, I had time to think and time to contemte the changes I even had someone to do it with. ¡°About time!¡± Callen objected as I started using multiple minds once more. I had been so focused on the trials in front of me that I had neglected to use my most powerful skill. ¡°Everything happened very quickly.¡± I defended the fact that I had failed to make full use of my skills in the heat of the moment. ¡°Well next time spin me up first otherwise you are only working at half capacity,¡± I argued with myself. ¡°Fine, fine. I was onlying in to look at the skill improvements and changes to my status.¡± I replied. ¡°It¡¯s looking good, but certainly room for improvement moving forward.¡± He stepped back to watch me go through the announcements. I had some decent gains on my stats because it had only been a week since Ist looked. My skill growth had not increased significantly without the time to practice the skills. Level: 17 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer LV5 Name: Callen Kai Silversea Age: 5 years 0 months 2 weeks 16 hours 20 minutes 30 seconds M¨¦tier Experience: 100/6400 General Experience: 274,694/819,200 Health: 1010/1010 Stamina: 1010/1010 Mana: 1010/1010 Psi: 1020/1020 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 101 +1 Endurance: 101 +1 Strength: 101 +1 Dexterity: 101 +1 Senses: 101 +1 Mind: 102 +1 rity: 101 +1 Magic: 101 +1 Charisma: 101 +1 Luck: 101 +1 Free Points: 221 (Locked) Skills Tier 1: Swimming (LV60) Running (LV55 ->58) Meditation (LV54) Time Sense (LV53 ->55) Breath Control (LV51) Singing (LV50) Diving (LV50) Sailing (LV50) Dodge (LV50) Knots (LV45) Draw (LV44) Knife (LV44 -> 45) Listening (LV44) Stitching (LV43) Climb (LV42) Trading (LV40) Humming (LV39) Drumming (LV39) Whistling (LV38) Sneak (LV36) Calligraphy (LV31) Farming (LV31)Acting (LV30) Bnce (LV30 ->33) Throw (LV26) Buss (LV25) Mathematics (LV24) Insight (LV19) Glide (LV19 ->29) Poise (LV19 ->25) Grace (LV19 ->24) Charm (LV19 ->24) Composure (LV19 ->24) Lie (LV16) Elvish (LV16) Giant (LV16) Dwarf (LV16) Pixish (LV16) Gnomish (LV16) Koboldogo (LV16) Beastkin (LV16) Halfling (LV16) Appeal (LV15) Ambidextrous (LV15) Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15) Silent Step (LV14) Deft touch (LV14) Posture (LV14) Dance (LV14) Sprint (LV14) Inspect (LV10 ->21)Riding (LV10) Rapier(LV9) Spear(LV7) Painting (LV5) Axe (LV4) Baton (LV4) Club (LV4) Dagger (LV3) Estoc (LV4) il (LV4) ive (LV4) Halberd (LV4) Pike(LV4) Mace (LV4) Morning star(LV4) Quarterstaff(LV4) Sword(LV4) War Hammer (LV4) Archery (LV4) Cook (LV3) Sketching (LV3) Drafting (LV3) cksmithing (LV2) Carpentry (LV2) Mining (LV2) Teaching (LV2) Measurement (LV 1) (81 Skills) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV50 -> 51)Quick reflexes (LV50 -> 51) Eavesdrop (LV50) Rebec (LV31) Aulos (LV31) Linguistics (LV31) Cornu (LV31) Harp (LV31) Memorisation (LV30) Recall (LV30) Cartography (LV26) Composition (LV23) Pain Tolerance (LV23) Stealth (LV23) Spellcraft (Lv19 -> 25) Spellsong (Lv19)Order (LV18) Transnt (LV12) Misdirection (LV14) Knife Arts (LV14 -> 15)Haggling (LV11) Mind Sense (LV11) Observe (LV5 -> 10) Martial Arts (LV4) Cruising (LV1) Poison Tolerance (LV1) Treasure Sense (LV1) (27 Skills) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV50 -> 51) Mana Maniption (LV50 -> 51)Gale(LV50 -> 51) Echolocation (LV49) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV25) Ignite (LV25) Melt (LV25) Command (LV17) Freeze (LV11) Bargain (LV11) Deception (LV11) Analyse (LV2 -> 5) Racing (LV1) Smuggling (LV1) Seismic Sense (LV1) (16 Skills) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV30) Virtuoso (LV30) Polyglot (LV30) Stone shaping (LV24) Material Maniption (LV21-> 22)Mana Drain (LV 20) Seafaring (LV1) Block Status(LV1 -> 2) Flight (LV1) (9 skills) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV20) Multiple minds (LV 1 -> 2) (2 skills) Skill experience: 12,900 Origin experience: 0 Combat experience: 143,592 Craft experience: 0 Trade experience: 0 Popr experience: 80,802 Exploring experience: 0 Experience gain sincest stat check: 286,300 (Wiped by recalibration) Experienced gained since Recalibration 40,700 In my Tier 1 skills, it appeared that the dash for our lives had helped my running skill improve. This was an interesting improvement as Grandfather had done all the running for me. It made me wonder how possible it might be to power-level myself with his help. Timing had been everything to achieving what we had. Too early to flee and they might not have taken the bait. Too quick to escape and they might have changed targets. Too soon to arrive back at thepass marker and they might not have followed the bait into the trenches and off the cliff. The system seemed to have rewarded my focus on timing it correctly with a few levels. The most levels gained though since the bishop¡¯s arrival had been in my softer social skills that Lady Acacia had been training us in. Their wee meal had helped them to level the most over thest week. While thergest increase came through the blessing ceremony where I inspected every member of the ind present. Admittedly it was still one of my lower-level skills but it would not be so for long at this rate. Disappointingly, I had not been wielding any weapons against the monsters focused mainly on running away or fleeing by flying. Still, the fact that I had been carrying a knife and prepared to defend myself with it seemed to give me a minor boost in skill. But that had probablye from helping my grandfather cut out the mana stones hidden in each beast. Tier 2 skills though had passed some thresholds, with Sense Mana finally reaching level 51 alongside quick reflexes. Both had seen significant use in the day¡¯s events. As did my spellcraft in keeping me aloft. Observe had increased alongside Inspect but only for half the levels, it is twice as hard to level my tier 2 skills as my tier 1. Likewise with my Tier 3 skills the biggest gain was in finally passing the thresholds for not only my expel mana skill but my mana maniption and gale. All of these skills had been essential to keeping me aloft for so long and not only descending in a stable glide but ascending in true flight. At Tier 4 my material maniption had moved up one but the true gain other than the experience for our brief but terrifying fight was a new tier 4 skill Flight (LV1)! I was ecstatic and could not wait to show off again. To try it out again. Having an extra mind running through multiple minds meant that while I could not fool myself there was no reason not to try. My everyday use of the skill had seen it gain one level and I wondered if it might not have gained another if I had been using it during the flight and fight. The experience I had received oscited from rtively low for the small skill gains I had achieved to fantastically high for thebat I had been an instrumental part of despite not delivering the final blows. I shuddered to think how much my Grandfather had gained from directly ying so many monsters. I could notin about the 143,592 points of experience but was not going to sit there and try and work out how much I had achieved for which animal. With their deaths, their levels, status and skills had disappeared under inspect leaving only their body parts and their tier of monster. Despite their horrifying appearance, speed and ferocity they only appeared to be tier 1 and tier 2 monsters with the asional tier 3. This finally exined the ease with which grandfather had been able to dispatch them. Not that I would be reassured to face what could have devoured me in a single bite. Perhaps with their differing levels, he would not have received so much experience from the fight seeing as he would have been a tougher nut to crack. The otherrge lump of experience seemed to be from my popr experience. Either it had been gained from the wee meal for the clergy, the participation in the church¡¯s blessing service or my performance in today¡¯s fight. I knew which one was the most spectacr but again was unsure which one the system had rewarded the most. All of this experience disappointingly did not me another level. None of it was for singing so it sunk into the general experience and left me wondering whether I should have entered the fight singing for it to be channelled into my M¨¦tier. It also left me wondering about my choice of M¨¦tier. The experience had not been lost but neither had it given me the growth it could have done. I winced at the thought of picking a soldier and jumping up several levels. But perhaps that M¨¦tier would not have worked either seeing as I never actuallynded a blow. It was a question for more experienced minds. But one I needed to ask. . . . By the time we arrived at Wester Town a crowd had already formed in front of the church. Worried and anxious they were awaiting reassurance about what was going on. We could not bring it to them. Grandpa Smit seemed to be organizing some of our family and a few other townspeople on one side of the square while the clergy had gathered in front of the church. Instead, father and grandfather dragged the Moasau Eel to the square to provide hard evidence to support the reality of our situation. As the beast was dragged to the centre of the square worried whispers whipped around the crowd. But before they could grow to demands for information they were stopped by someone stepping forward. ¡°People of Wester Ponente.¡± Archbishop Grigori¡¯s voice boomed out over the crowd silencing them. ¡°I bring news of a new entrance to the depths of the Lodestone.¡± His words confirmed some people¡¯s fears and the worried whispered words began to murmur. ¡°Do not worry, in the light of the lodestar, the beasts have been valiantly defeated by the Compass Knights and the noble Silversea family.¡± He continued quieting them once more and gave credit where credit was due. On the one hand, it might have been good to step forward here and take control but on the other hand, the people had more faith in the church than they did in us, a new and pubically untested Silversea family. Besides if something did go wrong, we would have someone else to share the me with. I mean we had left the town to nt a church marker and returned with a denizen of the depths and poor news. ¡°I will be departing on the morrow to bring this news to the Conve of Cardinals and the Prince of Ponente as soon as possible while continuing my circumnavigation. However, I will not be leaving you alone. Bishop Bailie and Compass Knight Sir Jaques have volunteered to stay and support your defence of Wester Town and Wester Ponente. I urge you toe together in the light of the lodestar to grow a guard to defend the town and sentinels to watch the entrance to the depths. For while the Light of the lodestar leads us all to greatness it also draws forth the denizens of the depths. They are drawn like moths to a me. A me you must guard but in guarding it you will continue to grow. You must be prepared to light them on fire.¡± It seemed that his ns had been eleratedpared to when we hadst spoken. I was still wondering whether this particr problem would have continued to smoulder away without worrying us without the light that the stone marker had brought. The people of the town shifted with each sentence he made. Shifting back in fear and forward in optimism depending on the line he gave. Fear as he told us all that he would be departing on the eve of receiving such shocking news. Then relief as we were informed that not only would we receive a bishop to help with the situation but also a Compass Knight as well! I was left wondering whether Sir Jacque had volunteered or if this was another speak now, actter shenanigan. ¡°If you have skills and or experience that would help in defending both the town and the ind step forward to see Seneschal Smit of the Silversea family. He will ensure that the guard is quickly and efficiently formed and thatpass sentinels can be sent to help guard the depths. I will bless those who volunteer and help those who would choose a new m¨¦tier to face this threat before night falls. Choose well, choose wisely and walk in the Light of the Lodestar.¡± With that he turned and returned to the church with his retinue. His swift departure left the crowd silent for only a moment before people began moving much like an ant¡¯s nest disturbed it was a frenzy of action and talk as people tried to work out what this would mean for them, for the town and how they should respond. Chapter 147: New metiers for everyone Chapter 147: New metiers for everyone The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.¡± Socrates Change hade to the little Town of Wester in more ways than one. Barring our Silversea games which had been on our ind and the bishop¡¯s blessings which had filled the church I had never seen the entirety of the town turned out in the town square. Even on market days it never got this packed. But such gatherings had happened not once but three times in recent weeks, the town was waking up to change. After the Bishop¡¯s announcements, the crowd split into different groups, each headed in a different direction for a different reason. We stood and watched not quite ready yet to return home. Especially if we were to be the bearers of bad news to our mother. The first group were those who returned home. Mainly women and children they quickly dispersed having heard the worst and promptly realised that there was little that they could do about it. There were also some of the elderly going home with them but for the most part, it was those who would be unable to fight either on the wall or at the entrance as they were and were unwilling or unable to consider a change. There were a few boys who were dragged home by their hands or ears not quite ready to listen to the wisdom or fear of their elders. I didn¡¯t doubt that in theing weeks a fair few of them would not find a way to get involved somehow. But for tonight at least they wouldn¡¯t be volunteering anytime soon. The second group were the people already happy with their metiers and were keen to help out. Some of them seemed even eager for the opportunity. They went straight to Seneschal Smit. Here they were organised into forming either the Guard for the town or the Sentinels for the depths, they were not mutually exclusive. However, some metiers and skill sets were better for guarding a wall as opposed to blocking an exit from the lodestone. Everyone knew everyone so it was not long before a skeleton of the guard had formed alongside a group of eight Sentinels setting out to support the Compass Knights guarding the descent into the depths. Perhaps unsurprisingly they were apanied by Grandfather, or rather Arawn Silversword, as he was known now. Between him and the Knights, I was a little less apprehensive of being woken up to find the town surrounded by monsters. The third group were undecided. Listening to their conversations, these groups were discussing what to do and how to help. Either they had the wrong metiers to supportbat or were missing skills they would need to fight. That or the weapons. I could foresee a brisk business in the weapons trade this year. If the weapons were not essential for our defence, we could have made a steep profit off selling some but that would probably be counterproductive. In the end, they too visited our Seneschal as underqualified volunteers suggesting ways in which they could help or asking how they could. It was wonderful to see our towning together in the face of adversity. This left the fourth and final group of people. They were those who had lined up at the church doors. The reason, they had the skills to select another metier and now had the desire to do so. They were the smallest group but the most interesting. Willing to change in light of the new circumstances they were looking to build on their foundations in a different direction. Father and Lady Acacia had been swept up by our Seneschal in organising the guard, the sentinels and now the volunteers. This meant we were free to follow the fourth group to the church to see what they would choose and how it would work. While normally a more private affair the number of people choosing new metiers in light of the crisis meant that all the clergy from the archbishop to our local priest were counselling them in their choices. At the same time, the acolytes organised the small crowd and escorted them to and fro from the Lodestar of Wester Ponente. This also meant that we could listen to their conversations as they happened. ¡°What should I choose?¡± One townsperson asked Archbishop Grigori in a intive whisper. His words were still easily heard by me who had spent an entire lifetime listening in on things that I probably shouldn¡¯t have. The archbishopid his hand on the supplicant¡¯s head and spoke. ¡°I see you have an Archery skill but no other fighting skills other than the knife. Would you choose to support the town as a Guardsman or a Sentinel?¡± ¡°I . . .¡± they hesitated uncertain how to answer. He was not the only one. Many were uncertain having never thought about such choices before. ¡°A guardsman.¡± He finally replied seeming to find confidence in himself now that he had made a decision. ¡°Then Archer is the ss you should choose.¡± He responded having guided them to a choice through questioning rather than dictating one throughmands. ¡°The wall will wee you.¡± ¡°Thank you, your excellency.¡± He made to rise and enter the chamber of the Lodestar. ¡°We are pressed for time, with so many selecting new metiers, I can guide the process from here.¡± Archbishop Grigori stopped him from leaving so soon. ¡°In the light of the lodestar, take your new metier.¡± Hemanded with the blue light spilling forth from his ring and covering the man. He stared at a screen we remembered but only he could see before standing once more with a newfound confidence in his bearing as he bowed to the archbishop. ¡°Thank you, your excellency.¡± ¡°It was a pleasure and my duty.¡± He replied with a smile. ¡°Before you depart could you ask the Seneschal or Lady Acacia for a current list of metiers that those already volunteered have? That will help to guide us in helping your townsmen and women choose the best metier not only for themselves but for the town.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± He answered rushing off toplete the task and returning quickly with a list of metiers. His absence and task though did not halt the flow of people as they visited the clergy for guidance. On the other side of the nave I could overhear Bishop Bailie asking, ¡°What have you been offered before and what skills do you have to support them?¡± Some people be able to select new ones immediately with the guidance of the archbishop. Others discussed their options with the lower ranking members of the church before making their way to the chamber of the Lodestar to finalise their decision and gain their new metier. ¡°Would you choose a new metier?¡± I asked my sister who stood beside me. ¡°Not yet. I have only just started this one. It would be a waste of the progress I have made so far. How about you?¡± she answered and returned my question post haste. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about it,¡± I answered honestly enough. Although she was unaware of all the facts. ¡°But you have hardly had Singer long enough to have levelled it at all.¡± She was aware of how much I had sung, when, where and how much experience I had been gaining. All of this had been discussed with Lady Acacia. It was also the reason we had spent so much time creating the amphitheatre. It had all been created to power level both my singing as well as Aleera¡¯s merchant ss in selling tickets to the asion as well as all of the merchandising and food that would have apanied a performance. We had not created everything yet but with recent developments, I worried we would not be able to perform at all. Everyone would be focused on our defence for a while or at least until they got used to the new level of threat. ¡°True, but I¡¯ve made some progress,¡± I replied defensively. ¡°Not enough to justify a change.¡± She countered ending the conversation. We stood and watched the remainder of the group go through their selection. . . . . ¡°Unfortunately, she does have a point.¡± Callen agreed with her in the secret space of my mind. ¡°It just seems a shame to miss out on all the levels and experience,¡± I replied to my internal mental twin. ¡°Honestly, what are we going to do? How are we going to kill those monsters? We can run away just fine but getting in close and personal seems like a recipe for disaster with our height.¡± He argued. ¡°Fine. But there has to be a way we can use magic to kill them from a distance.¡± I replied unprepared to give up on the experience I might be able to acquire. Therge bump in experience gained from our short flight was a little frighteningly enticing. On top of the rush of adrenaline, I had received. Sure, it had been terrifying at the time but it had all worked out in the end. Much like my first fall off the cliff. Repetition had been the key to skill levels and stat gains. ¡°Very well, but at least consult Lady Acacia and Grandfather before you attempt anything inane. One of them will know how to weaponize an infant but my money is on our grandfather.¡± Callen added. ¡°Okay, time¡¯s up,¡± I confirmed before ending the skill. The pressure had been mounting and I wanted to end it before it became a debilitating headache. . . . ¡°I hesitate to ask Lord and Lady Silversea. But would you like to change your metier?¡± Archbishop Grigori approached and asked now that the remainder of the group had finally left the church the acolytes had left with them to help with the organisation of the people and tasks required. Along with Bishop Bailie, this left just the four of us in the church. ¡°Thank you for the offer but we currently have a n in ce for our progression,¡± Aleera replied intercepting any response I might make. ¡°Clearly.¡± He agreed. ¡°But ns have to be flexible in response to changes in circumstances.¡± Still hopeful for something. ¡°Thank you for the advice and we will take it under advisement but we really must consult with our family before we make any changes.¡± She was nonmittal in her reply. ¡°I¡¯m sure a merchant will be able to make a lot of progress with the new circumstances. But I never got young Kai¡¯s metier.¡± He waited to see if anything would be forting. ¡°You didn¡¯t,¡± she replied in such a manner that it could be taken as either a question or a statement. ¡°No, I did not,¡± I repeated. ¡°I only ask out of hope to guide you.¡± He humbly exined. We had spent enough time going around in a circle avoiding responding and it did not seem too much like a state secret to me. ¡°I¡¯m a singer.¡± I finally put us all out of our misery. ¡°A singer?¡± he asked confused. ¡°Surely not.¡± He added somewhat bbergasted. ¡°But with such high amounts of mana avable surely other options were offered. Why would you choose . . .¡± he stopped critiquing my choice long enough for me to reply. ¡°I¡¯m a new lord. A young Lord, still only a child, there¡¯s no rush. Under Lady Acacia''s advisement, I took the metier. We were hoping to help increase my charisma stat alongside gaining levels. Besides it makes my family happy, Singer for my mother, sailor for my father, merchant for my sister, maybe . . . mage assassin for my grandfather.¡± I finished half joking half serious. ¡°We were due to start performing next month. A talent show if you will. Though whether that will happen now who can tell.¡± ¡°That all sounds very intriguing.¡± He replied and it was difficult to tell from his words how he truly felt. ¡°Thank you?¡± I replied. ¡°You''re wee, once you havepleted your performance, might I suggest skipping the sailor and merchant metier and going straight to the mage metier. It is clear from your blessing and more recently your astounding flight that you have plenty of mana to spare. Singing is a wonderful talent and profession but in times like these you need to consider what will be best not only for yourself but, now that you are a Lord, your subjects too.¡± He could not help but give his advice. ¡°I will consider your advice but as my sister said we will make our choice should we decide to change in consultation with our family,¡± I replied. ¡°Of course, of course.¡± He reigned himself in. ¡°They must be wondering where you have wandered off to. Just remember that the Lodestar Church is always open to the Silversea family and both Bishop Bailie and Compass Knight Sir Jacques will be ready and willing to support you and your family in whatever manner you wish.¡± Despite his probing and unasked for advice, he was keen to end the conversation as amicably as possible. Furthermore, with our favours riding on his support we were equally keen to depart on equally friendly terms. ¡°Your excellency and grace.¡± We nodded our heads together in equality before turning to depart. ¡°Lord and Lady Silversea, may you always walk in the light.¡± They responded by rote and in unison. . . . ¡°Where have you been?¡± Father shouted exasperated. He had pounced on us as soon as we emerged from the church. We both looked at him rather than respond. He had seen us both leave the church so there was hardly any point in responding in the first ce. ¡°Yes, yes. It¡¯s time for us to go home. Your Grandpa has everything in hand here for the town but we need to consider our own home too. Grandfather has gone with the sentinels. So it is high time we made it back to our isle to tell your mother. I know she was not expecting us home anytime soon today but we need to go home sooner rather thanter.¡± He scolded us. It was unusual for him to do so but then today had been an unusual day. He led us back through the town to our boat. The usually quiet town was a hive of activity as people attempted to prepare for what they feared might be oing hordes of monsters. There was little that many could do in the grand scheme of things but being busy seemed to be aying the panic the initial announcement and our production of the beast had caused. ¡°Maybe downy the danger just a little.¡± We raised our eyebrows at that statement in scepticism. ¡°Fine, but can we at least avoid discussing in too much detail your grandfather¡¯s decision to run away with you and then throw you to the eels.¡± Chapter 148: Home Sweet Home Chapter 148: Home Sweet Home ¡°The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better toe back.¡± Wendy Wunder It had been a long day. It was nice to finally be home or at least it had been before we outlined exactly what had transpired that day during what had supposed to have been a peaceful amble to the eastern side of the ind. ¡°You what!?¡± Mother practically screamed at us when we started to exin. ¡°Well . . .¡± Father attempted to cajole her into something closer to a reasonable level of critique. Mother was not handling it very well so far. ¡°Could have happened at any time to anyone,¡± Aleera interjected not ready to admit the disaster it had been even though it could have ultimately gone a lot worse. ¡°Not my fault.¡± I pointed out. I felt it was important to state this as soon as possible. ¡°One at a time from the top.¡± She demanded. ¡°In fact, Lady Acacia if you would do the honour of exining what ridiculous new insanity my family have been up to, I would be most appreciative.¡± Lady Acacia began to exin the day. A summary of our peaceful sail across thegoon, the climb past the eastern woods and the eventual cement of the stone marker. Then the eruption of monsters from the very earth beneath our feet. Although her retelling of the incident seemed to imply it was a less significant affair happening a little further away than perhaps it had. ¡°So, it is Archbishop Grigori¡¯s fault.¡± She needled down on picking someone to me for the catastrophe. ¡°Yes and no.¡± Lady Acacia agreed and defended at the same time. ¡°While emcing the Lodestar marker certainly was the impetus for them charging forth the problem already existed, they merelynced the boil so to speak.¡± ¡°Then what happened? I assume the church at least dealt with the problem seeing as you are all standing here in front of me now.¡± It did not sound as if she would be forgiving the church anytime soon for their most recent actions. But then she still held a significant bias against the church. ¡°Well upon their release they targeted the closest individuals, which was us.¡± She kept her calm in the face of our mother¡¯s anger. It seemed to be going smoother with her retelling the day. Perhaps without all the strings tied between our hearts as family, it was easier to listen rather than jump on top of one of us as we exined. ¡°So how did you survive?¡± Mother asked now invested in the tale Lady Acacia was spinning. ¡°Through distraction and building a strong enough defence to withstand their encroachment.¡± Lady Acacia detailed, though it appeared even she was struggling to think of how exactly to word the flight by foot of my grandfather and the return flight through the air I made in the best possible light. ¡°Did one of thepass knights lead them astray while you built a defence?¡± she asked. ¡°Not exactly.¡± She hesitated, turning to me, the traitor. ¡°Again, not my fault,¡± I added even though I knew it was a losing battle. ¡°What was not your fault.¡± She asked now calm enough to question quietly, she almost seemed supportive, but equally keen to get to the bottom of this. ¡°They seemed a little fixated on me, so Grandfather decided to flee was the simplest and most expedient policy to save us all.¡± I wondered if deciphering the verbosenguage would give me enough time to flee my mother. ¡°He ran away with you . . . and they chased . . . you?¡± she quizzed seemingly short of breath if notprehension. At the same time, I nodded my head in silence. I did not feel that saying ¡®it was not my fault¡¯ was going to particrly help anymore. She started tapping the table either in frustration or anger. ¡°When I get my hands on . . .¡± She took a deep breath to calm herself down clenching her hands to keep them still or to stop them from throttling her significant other even though it was not his fault either. ¡°So, while they were chasing my son and my fool of a father. You built a wall of wood?¡± She went back to questioning Lady Acacia fully aware of her abilities to manipte the material after watching some of our sessions and learning from her. In fact, we were developing a certain elvish taste in our home with the number of pieces of furniture or even decorations that she had provided us with as she required them herself or as part of our training. ¡°The clergy with their mana were able to provide a stronger wall than wood building a tower out of stone to defend both us and the Lodestar marker they had ced. I merely helped to reinforce the walls with my wood.¡± She deferred some of the sess of our defence to the church. ¡°So, let me get this straight. Monsterse forth, my father runs off with Kai and you all build a defensible position while they lead them in a giant circle? I¡¯m basing this on the fact that no monsters ever arrived in town. Then what happened?¡± She was still trying to wrap her head around the mini cmity that had urred. ¡°Well, your father was eventually caught up to, so rather than continue to run back he . . .unched Kai into the sky.¡± It seemed no one not even our somewhat strict and scary tutor liked to be the bearer of bad news. However,unched did seem a lot smoother word to swallow than threw, chucked or yeeted. ¡°He threw Kai into the sky?¡± She repeated her final words a little more forcefully and directly. Not afraid tobel the truth as she heard it. ¡°Yes, I must admit, I¡¯ve never been more surprised to see a child fly. A truly stunning ability. Apparently, though this is not too umon a practice or skill for him. Though I fail to recall being informed about it on my arrival.¡± Undeterred by the vehemence of our mother and even slipping in a little critique about an ability we as a family had failed to mention. ¡°First true flight.¡± I hastened to add, a little proud of the fact that I had finally managed it. ¡°Normally all I can manage is a glide to slow my descent.¡± I humbly defended the fact that we might not have mentioned everything I could do. Though it seemed a littlepulsive to quibble over every little application of the skills I had already told her about. ¡°Precisely, glide not fly. What on earth was he thinking? What did he think you were going to do when you fell to the earth?¡± Mother had yet to give up on her anger at the situation or our grandfather. But to be fair that seemed like a fairly natural state of affairs these days. It sort of simmered under the surface waiting to erupt at the smallest of infractions towards him and this had hardly been a small change to our schedule. ¡°But I did not fall to the earth.¡± I hastened to interrupt her flow. We had been getting on better and better so I was not quite so willing to throw him under the bus to my mother so to speak. Plus I could not think of a better way we could have dealt with them. We had made the best of a bad situation and survived. ¡°I was able to lead them back to the tower and caused most of them to chase me straight of the cliff to their own deaths.¡± Somehow the conversation had reverted back to being told by me rather than led by Lady Acacia. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have been forced into that situation in the first ce. That Archbishop, your grandfather . . .¡± She seemed to grow speechless at the situation for a moment before quietly adding. ¡°You¡¯re still my little baby.¡± She seemed sad to hear that our simple walk had gone so wrong. ¡°I may be little but I am no longer a baby. Call me Little Lord if you must but I am Lord Silversea now.¡± I was finally gaining some independence and self-control over my actions. I was not going to give that up anytime soon despite the reasonable worries of my mother. ¡°I know, I know.¡± She sighed seemingly in eptance but I could foresee that we were going to have simr conversations whenever I sailed too close to the wind for my mother¡¯sfort. I had had all day toe to grips with what had happened. For her, she was hearing it all for the first time. ¡°So what happens now?¡± We went on to discuss the ns of the town, the church and how we would fit into them. Though the most important aspect that I realised was that if we were not returning to the town for mutual self-defence then we would have to start fortifying our ind. The wide-open salterns made for a great killing field but we would need to work out a way to kill from a distance. Some form of crossbow or catapult to shoot with. I had a hundred ideas for pitfalls, trenches and traps but each would take time toplete. Then there were the walls we would have to cut away from the lower slope of our mountain to create walls as well as work out a way to defend the entrances to our mountain home. We spent the evening discussing our options but ultimately went to bed withoutpleting any and I suspected that we all slept uneasily that night. . . . . Meanwhile, in the church the clergy were packing, ¡°Are you really leaving at first light?¡± Bishop Bailie quizzed. ¡°Yes, I cannot hold up my circumnavigation if I have any hope of gaining the seat of a cardinal,¡± Archbishop replied sinctly. ¡°As soon as the Compass Knights return after being relieved by Wester Ponente¡¯s new Sentinels we will depart. Ultimately the quicker we leave the sooner I will be able to send you some more knights to be stationed here.¡± ¡°It just does not leave you looking in the best light.¡± Bishop Bailie pointed out. ¡°I know. But needs must.¡± He unhappily replied. ¡°It will be up to you and Sir Jacques to swing their opinions, particrly those of the Silversea family. I cannot stress how important it is that the church improves its rtionship with the family in particr its two scions.¡± ¡°Have you ever seen anything like that before?¡± Bishop Bailie queried. ¡°Which particr eye-opening event are you asking about?¡± The Archbishop asked. ¡°Any of them, all of them. Did you realise that cing the Lodestar marker would have such an immediate impact?¡± He raised the point that had been worrying him. ¡°Of course not. Has that ever happened before when we have ced the other markers? That was simply bad luck. Not all coincidences are serendipitous.¡± He replied grumpily. ¡°Maybe it has happened we simply haven¡¯t been there to witness it.¡± He argued back. ¡°Nonsense, the project was approved by the conve of cardinals and we have heard nothing untoward from any of the ces we have visited so far. We have been marking the edge of thepass for our entire circumnavigation.¡± He refused to even countenance the possibility. ¡°I will maintain my bearing. But what about them targeting the young Lord Silversea once they emerged or the fact that the boy can fly!¡± he fell into line with the Archbishop¡¯s reasoning before raising the next event. ¡°It has to be his mana.¡± The Archbishop conjectured. ¡°That or a talent. It is impossible to answer definitively with the little lord somehow blocking observe, inspect and appraise. Perhaps in time, he will confide in you. But that will take time and effort.¡± ¡°If he has a talent, then that would make him descended from a royal line.¡± Bishop Bailie had not quite given up his earlier idea. ¡°We have gone over this already. If he had the talent of air, he would have to be from Ostro and he is far too fair to be one of their descendants. No, it has to be the insane amount of mana he has ess to.¡± Unwilling to consider that line of reasoning. ¡°If you look at his mana production to weight ratio. It would be far easier for him to use magic to keep himself aloft. Besides did you not notice how his robe whipped around him forming wings between his arms and legs? I have never seen a man fly like that but an animal, bird or fish with skin, wings or fins now that I have seen, as have you.¡± ¡°Those flying fish were fairly simr in how they glided along the top of the water to evade their hunters.¡± Bishop Bailie agreed. ¡°Just as well he wasn¡¯t being hunted from the air as well as the ground.¡± He thought out loud as he recalled some of what they had witnessed on their circumnavigation. ¡°How do you think the family discovered the method of flight?¡± ¡°They sail perhaps they saw something simr while fishing and the boy thought to try it. I highly doubt his parents would risk him asking him to attempt something so dangerous.¡± The Archbishop replied with what he considered the obvious answer. ¡°Now I should not need to remind you that you are to support the boy in whatever he asks for. Whether he is descended from royalty or not he has the potential to be as powerful in time and if we can help him on his journey as well as support his people with their survival then it will be worth it in the long run. Not just you mind you, when Compass Knight Jaques returns I will prevail on him to be as open as possible maybe even offer a few lessons if the family allows it.¡± ¡°Of course, your excellency.¡± Bishop Bailie bowed somewhat sarcastically. ¡°None of that now.¡± Archbishop Grigori stopped him. ¡°These are notmands, merelymon sense advice. Make of it what you will. Now it is time for me to rest my head it will be a busy day of travelling tomorrow.¡± He added before dismissing him and turning in for the night. . . . . As the sun set on the horizon the world was cast slowly into darkness. The eight newly christened Sentinels of Wester Ponente had reced the two knights who were making their way back to the town by foot around the southern shore of thegoon and were watching the entrance to the depths. ¡°Keep your eyes open.¡± Arawn Silversword cautioned the four volunteers who had been stationed at the exit. ¡°The rest of us will be sleeping in the tower. Send one of you to wake us in four hours and we will relieve you then. The two archers are to remain at a distance, shooting distance mind you and you two with the two shields and spears are to maintain the high ground. Don¡¯t try to be a hero or make it a fair fight. If anythinges out you try to push it off the cliff first only engage inbat if absolutely necessary. The system does not care how you kill them and neither do I. Keep it simple.¡± He lectured the four before returning to the tower where the other four volunteers had alreadyid our rolls to sleep on and amazingly fallen asleep. It would be fine. It was only one night and then they would see about building defences closer to the exit, traps, pitfalls, etc. He could intervene if anything came forth tonight and tomorrow he would set about exploring this new entrance to the depths. It had been a long long time since he had delved deep into the unknown. Not since he had arrived on the ind all those years ago with a newborn babe in his arms. With a new entrance opening up maybe it was time to tell the family what it was he got up to most days. After all, he couldn¡¯t be in two ces at once and it was time for the people of Wester to stand on their own two feet. It might even be good for them. Chapter 149: Fortification Chapter 149: Fortification ¡°Add each day something to fortify you against poverty and death.¡± Seneca the elder We had been working on improving our foundations, growing our wealth and building up a powerbase in terms ofpeting with the Nobility of Ponente. Our preparations and their necessity suddenly took on greater importance when we were faced with threats to our mortality so close to home. I had not slept well and doubted that many on our isle had after the imminent threat to our lives had been revealed yesterday. I wondered how everybody else was coping. ¡°Morning,¡± I grumbled as I met up with my family at the breakfast table. It was likely that our lessons would be put on hold for the foreseeable future. But adversity in itself would probably teach us more valuable life lessons. In addition, the fact that the lessons were potentially life-threatening to both ourselves and our newfound enemies meant that they would be of more potent support to our levelling skills, stats and experience. ¡°Good morning,¡± Aleera replied. Aware of Lady Acacia watching and still expecting her to hold herself properly despite the probableck of sleepst night. While the Singer metier was not the best to deal with this situation, the merchant metier was hardly any better. ¡°Help yourself.¡± Mother insisted and judging by the amount of food prepared she had possibly helped out in the kitchen with our maid and butler despite the frown that this seemed to bring to Lady Acacia''s perfectly sculpted face. The new habits of nobility she was attempting to instil in our family were new and not yet habitual. She had clearly returned to herfort activities which in this case was cooking for her family. Still, you couldn''t beat a home-cooked meal and this was the closest I would be getting to a cooked breakfast in a long time. Father though took the words to heart and was happily filling up his te to break his fast. If there was one aspect of living on our isle that he enjoyed the most it was the wider variety of food it afforded him freshly picked from our hidden garden. ¡°So, ns for today?¡± He asked before tucking into his food. He would fall in line with what we decided he just wanted to know what that decision was. ¡°I think we need to go back,¡± I stated simply, fully aware that this might not be the most popr of decisions. ¡°Back? Why on earth would you go closer to where the monsters mighte spilling forth from.¡± Mother interrupted. ¡°Has yesterday taught you nothing? You are safer staying on our isle.¡± It was clear that our safety was her number one concern. ¡°Are we though? We can make the most difference the closer we are to the exit.¡± I questioned. I was unwilling to be shut down just yet. ¡°Obviously we need to fortify our own home as well but if we can turn the exit into a killing field then that will hopefully keep them contained or at least controlled.¡± "A killing field?" She queried. "A space designed to help us kill them," I answered. This is what I had spent the majority of my wakeful moments working on. Between Callen and I we hade up with a raft of ns to make it perilous. ¡°I¡¯m not happy with the idea of you going up there alone.¡± She argued not quite ready to give up the argument. As well as not admitting that it needed to be done. ¡°I never said I would go alone, ideally it would be all of us. You can shape stone, together we could do so much more than anyone else. With Grandfather to watch over us as we worked maybe even Lady Acacia could add in ayer of defence.¡± I postted looking toward her for support with my idea. I had ideas on how to use her magic as well in the designs I had created. ¡°I can certainly help a little seeing as this is my home too and I hardly wish to see it overrun with vermin or worse base races from the Lodestone.¡± She inclined her head in agreement. Shuddering a little as she said the words base races. We had not gone into a lot of detail about them but just as each noble race had a specific strength so too did each base race. With trolls being the antithesis of elves in every way. Yet they still held vitality as their race''s trait only for them it provided regeneration as opposed to long-lived. Mother sighed in eptance; it was the right choice to make despite how much she did not wish to make it. Ultimately, we would all be safer after fortifying the entrance. ¡°Very well, but let¡¯s be up there and back again sooner rather thanter. There is no reason to spend all day up there. We can be back by lunch or at thetest tea." ¡°Thank you,¡± I said with relief. It still smarted that I had to run everything by my family first. I wished to be more independent. That being said they kept me from making too many mistakes now that they were more aware of my capabilities. ¡°Thank you, Mother,¡± Aleera added, eager to help as well. ¡°Not you. There is nothing that you can do up there. If you want to help, go and see about organising the town with your Grandpa Smit but I see no reason to risk the two of you at the same time.¡± she insisted. ¡°But my magic . . .¡± Aleera started to argue but was again instantly shut down. ¡°No buts youngdy. You may have a modicum of magic but your strengths and metier lie in organising not in building or defending. Stick to your strengths.¡± She stated unwilling to take the two of us up to the eastern edge of the isle at the same time now that she was aware of the dangers. ¡°We will drop you off in town on our way if you would like us to or can I trust you to make your own way?¡± she asked pointedly. ¡°Fine, fine. I can make my own way.¡± She answered frustrated that she would not be apanying us. I kept quiet and small to avoid drawing my sister¡¯s ire. I was simply happy that my mother was letting me go and I saw no reason to help her change her mind. . . . . As Father sailed us across thegoon, we could see that we were not the only ones making our way there. Another eight individuals were walking around the southern edge of thegoon heading towards the tower to relieve the first eight sentinels who had watched the exitst night. I wondered as we made our way across whether it had been a quiet night or if anything had actually happened. In the moment of calm, I enjoyed watching the sunlight shimmer on the ceruleangoon, the small waves glistening in the morning light. On the edge of theke, I could see the dappled emerald green of the tree''s crowns marching their way up to the eastern cliffs. Would such picturesque scenery remain if the Mosau Eels had made it to the water? Or would it still have looked as beautiful with the knowledge of hidden dangers lurking under the water or in the shadows of the trees? The fear was a reminder to spin up my other half and set my senses to their maximum just in case. I watched the floor of thegoon rise ever closer as we headed to the shore through the bottom of the boat. Not with my eyes but with my other senses. Knowing precisely when the water would grow shallow enough to ground us, I was unsurprised when we grounded with a thump running up the shallows. ¡°Great to be back,¡± Callen announced as my mind split in two to process all the data it was receiving. ¡°Keep an eye out,¡± I spoke to myself. ¡°Two sets of eyes will be better than one.¡± The wonderful thing about working with yourself was that you could designate different senses to work with and know exactly what to expect. I could trust myself to keep an eye out even when I might be distracted by dialogue or even just thinking. We made our way up to the eastern tower keeping a sharp lookout as we walked around the eastern woods. I could sense the wildlife around us but it seemed equally shocked by the monsters that had dug their way up yesterday and were keeping quiet and still today. It was not till we arrived at the tower that we saw that they had new reasons to be. ¡°Wee to East point an entrance to the very depths of the Lodestone.¡± Arawn Silversword met us as we climbed up to meet him. Grandfather seemed to be surprisingly cheerful. ¡°As you can see, we had a few visitorsst night.¡± He dramatically revealed the carcasses of some truly giant spiders that were strung out along the path from the cave. ¡°Nasty . . . ¡± he paused considering his audience or rather more importantly the amount of grief he would get from his daughter if he continued in that vein. ¡°They came out around sunrise towards the end of our shift. Not something that you could easily knock off a cliff, what with having eight legs and all, but the archers did a fantastic job taking them out before they could make it off the path to the woods or to the tower which they were aiming for. The marker of the Lodestar Church seems to be working well in drawing their attention.¡± It was tempting to go closer to see exactly what they looked like but I was sure that we would be harvesting their cores momentarily if they had not already been done by him. Though considering my ability in locating them I was fairly sure that he had decided to wait for me to arrive. Although how he knew that I would be arriving was another question. Was I that easy to predict? ¡°You threw Kai to the eels.¡± Mother had stepped forward to jab her finger into his sternum. It seemed that a night¡¯s sleep, morning sail and walk had done little to dull her anger as she continued to push him back a step toward the tower and the edge of the cliff. ¡°Everyone was fine.¡± He defended himself. Bracing himself and stopping her from shoving him any further backward. Though that did not stop her from continuing to prod and poke. ¡°Everyone was fine because you dangled my son like bait above the monsters'' mouths.¡± She shrieked in his face. If this is what she was like today it was just as well that she had not apanied us the day before. ¡°The boy lived, in fact, he soared.¡± He shouted back. ¡°If we had not run you would have lost a husband and a daughter yesterday. I couldn¡¯t guard them all! I had to make a decision.¡± Unrepentant for his actions which he perceived to be the best of two evils. ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you keep running? You didn¡¯t need to throw him.¡± She shouted back equally unforgiving of her father. ¡°And led them where? Theke? The town? How do you think that would have ended? I couldn¡¯t kill an entire tangle carrying a child in my arms. I had no time to prepare and it was the best I could do.¡± He asked exasperated that the sessful diversion and elimination of the denizens of the depths was not being recognised for what it was, a victory without causalities. ¡°When are you going to realise that he is not some soldier you need to train up?¡± She asked exhausted by her own anger and his refusal to repent. The resentment of simr training ran deep. ¡°When you realise that he is not just your son but a Lord and capable of so much more than that.¡± He answered sadly. He was equally exhausted by the circr argument that had grown between them. It was impossible to tell the original cause of their conflict now. Only know that when he said white, she said ck and that the most obvious area they shed upon, was me. ¡°I¡¯m fine, we¡¯re fine.¡± I put myself between them fully aware that they continued to re at one another above my head. ¡°We are here to see what we can do about fortifying the exit. Let''s focus on that." I tried to redirect their attention. ¡°Sounds good I can¡¯t be here every day.¡± He happily epted the new topic of conversation. ¡°I have other ces I need to be. What can you do for here?¡± he asked. ¡°I was thinking walls to start off with. If the monsters are always at a height disadvantage it will help us to kill them without them killing us.¡± I exined my thoughts. ¡°Why not just seal off the tunnel?¡± father asked the obvious question. If they could not get out then there would be no problem at all. ¡°The problem with sealing off an exit is that they will just develop another elsewhere. Only this time you will not know where they are likely to burst from next. They often follow the path of least resistance but if there is no exit at all they will most likely make another.¡± Lady Acacia lectured us all. ¡°Where do you n on putting the walls?¡± Arawn focused on how we would shape the terrain to the town''s advantage. If he was not there to supervise walls would be the next best thing to support them. ¡°First off, we need to create sheer walls on the cliff edge. We do not want to allow them to climb back up if they fall off over the edge. If you would mother?¡± I asked her to focus on this her ability to cut stone straight with her voice was still greater than mine even if she was going to run out of mana far before me. Mother headed off toplete my suggestion. Perhaps happy to distance herself from Grandfather. It did not really matter, whatever got the job done. ¡°Then if we cut away at the cliff creating rising curved steps simr to our amphitheatre but significantly steeper steps that are too high to climb. We will also need to provide a winding exit from the amphitheatre working its way to the East point Tower which will allow us to fire down onto them wherever they may run.¡± I outlined what I hoped to be able to do with my mana to him and Lady Acacia to see if they had any disagreements. But none came. ¡°Would it be possible for you to create some pitfalls and wooden spikes to impale them, Lady Acacia?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°I thought you would never ask. It would be my pleasure.¡± She replied equally happy to have a task to focus on. "This is an opportunity to impress the locals, make the most of it," she suggested. Soon the three of us were working on different aspects of the fortifications. The eight sentinels who had already been there and the eight recements watching us in amazement. This was the first time the townspeople had ever seen us using magic and the fact that we could, would be all over town by this evening. Even if the divers¡¯ daughters had not let the cat out of the bag yesterday over the fact that I could fly! The fact that our family held magic would be everywhere by tomorrow. At least this use of magic would be seen as something done for everyone, not just ourselves. We soon had the initial outline of the fortifications we wished to create and had created enough depth for them that they should give the defenders the advantage as well as funnel the monsters into the kill zones we had created. Hopefully, even if they poured forth in greater numbers than they had arrived in already we would prevail. . . . ¡°Amazing milord. I¡¯ll feel a lot safer keeping watch from up here.¡± One of the archer sentinelsplimented me by using my title for the first time. We were standing on the first ringed wall surrounding the exit. Looking down on where they would spill forth. ¡°This will just be the first ring,¡± I replied. ¡°We can keep working up from here.¡± It was always difficult to charge the tone I needed to set with the people but he seemed equally excited at the progress I had made. . . . ¡°Thank you, Lady Acacia, that should be more than enough spears for me to throw.¡± Another of the new sentinels pronounced his thanks. I was finally noticing the conversation but did not feel guilty for listening in now that it had been called to my attention. ¡°Any chance of some arrows?¡± Another archer asked cheekily. Fully aware of the huge spears she had grown and hadid out beside her. It seemed spears or rather sharpened stakes were easy enough to grow. Arrows though either required more skill mana or were just to think to create in the quantities required. Whichever the case Lady Acacia had not deigned to create any. Though she still deserved a great big thank you for all of the support she had already provided. . . . ¡°That¡¯s a smooth drop.¡± Another praised my mother¡¯s progress. ¡°Never knew you could do magic.¡± He addedmenting on the fact that she had kept it secret all these years her and grandfather had lived in the town or at least on the edge of it. ¡°We were never in a position to let it be known.¡± She answered the unasked question. Even the locals were well enough aware that a child showing such skills was likely to be snapped up at the earliest of opportunities. ¡°Yes, well we are truly grateful that you feelfortable enough to us use it now.¡± He replied gratefully. Some of the townspeople thought that the reason we had be nobles was simply to ess our magic without fear of control. Although another muttered to another, ¡°A siren in more ways than just song.¡± Before he was hushed in turn but not before he had revealed the other side of public opinion. . . . ¡°That¡¯s all for today.¡± Mother dered as she finally ran out of mana. I still had more to spare but had done perhaps twice the amount of work. However, I didn¡¯t wish to push too far today. It was better to have oneyer of defencepleted rather than have more than one iplete. The Sentinels had managed just fine without the defencesst night they should be fine for tonight as well when they now had something so much better to support them. ¡°Time to go home then,¡± Arawn added patting a pocket full of beast cores that had been collected. As we worked, he brought the corpses over one at a time for me to identify as well as tell him where the cores were. It meant that when they were carried back, they would have fewer holes in the materials to be processed but that the family was also able to keep the cores. Which were the most valuable part of the entire corpse. "Time to go." I repeated stunned that the morning had passed so quickly but also that they had kids avable. The eight original sentinels made their way back to town carrying their loads of monster corpses. Meat and materials that would be repurposed into other things. Payment for their civic duties alongside the skill levels, experience and stats they would have received for killing the monsters. Maybe people would even be disappointed when there were no monsters to y but that was a problem for Grandpa Smit to solve. For now, though it was important that they continued toe and stand sentinel over the entrance to the depths. We returned to our ind. It was still light having only spent the morning working on the East point Tower¡¯s defences. Which meant that we could start working on ours too. It was much the same but in reverse. Cutting away at the mountain to form giant smooth walls on par with the ones of Wester Town. This was not a job that could bepleted in an afternoon or a day. But we had made a start. Aleera returned home to say that the archbishop had departed but promised Bishop Bailie and Compass Knight Jacques full attention to our family should we ever require it. He had also taken with him our old Priest Aravan whose departure at least put a smile on our mother¡¯s face. ¡°Good riddance.¡± Was all she had to say on that. We sat down to dinner satisfied that even if we had not yetpleted the defences required, we had made a good start on them. The maid and butler had got into the habit ofying the table setting out the food and retiring to allow us our private conversations. ¡°While we may have revealed more than we would have liked. I judge the benefits to have been outweighed the disadvantages.¡± Lady Acacia toasted the sessful navigation of the archbishop¡¯s visit. ¡°The favours were worth their weight in gold in terms of experience for my ss,¡± Aleera informed us. ¡°Not sure the favours were of equal value considering the monsters they called forth from the Lodestone.¡± Mother disagreed. ¡°It really is a blessing in disguise that we were there for their emergence. It could have ended up far worse for the ind.¡± Lady Acacia stated. ¡°I¡¯m not disagreeing that it could have gone a lot worse just that the costs might outweigh the favours.¡± Mother cautioned. ¡°You even have a changing of the church. Bishop Bailie seems far more agreeable than Aravan ever was. Plus, a Compass Knight of the Lodestar Church is worth his weight in pearls or gold if we can prevail upon him to help train the Town¡¯s Guard and East point¡¯s Sentinels.¡± Lady Acacia extolled the value of the favours gained. ¡°A single entrance to the depths is hardly too high a cost.¡± ¡°About that,¡± Grandfather muttered. ¡°Yes?¡± Lady Acacia arched an eyebrow. ¡°In the light of lodestar and full transparency, there might just happen to be another entrance to depths on the ind.¡± He answered rolling a knife back and forth between his fingers avoiding the sudden stare of every head at the table. ¡°There¡¯s another?¡± she quickly quizzed. ¡°Well, how else do you think we arrived on the ind.¡± He replied. Chapter 150: A lesson in lineage Chapter 150: A lesson in lineage "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana ¡°Well, how else do you think we arrived on the ind?¡± He replied rhetorically. There was stunned silence as everyone digested his rhetorical question before father finally shouted, ¡°By boat like any other normal person.¡± ¡°We didn¡¯te by boat?¡± Mother asked to rify. Taking the time to make sure that she truly understood what it was that he was saying. ¡°No, we came here on foot.¡± He answered simply. It looked like he might finally be about toe clean. Aleera and I sat on the edge of the conversation watching the drama unfold. ¡°I came here through the depths of the Lodestone.¡± She asked to confirm her suspicions despite her disbelief. ¡°Yes.¡± He replied. I had a greater understanding of the situation and could see a little further ahead. I could see where her questions would lead her. My question was how much would he reveal at the end of the day and how much he would try to keep hidden. ¡°We came under the ocean.¡± Her understanding of her world and origins being rewritten by his words. ¡°Yes.¡± He seemed to be resigned to telling her the truth now that he had revealed the existence of another entrance to the depth below the ind. ¡°From the Compass Continent?¡± She checked to see if anything else had been a fabrication. Was she even from the Kingdom of Maestro as he had told her? ¡°Yes.¡± Simple questions returned simple answers. ¡°Then why don¡¯t I remember?¡± she asked confused as to why she had never realised this before. ¡°You were just a babe in arms when we finally arrived. You weren¡¯t just brought through the Lodestone Labyrinth to Wester Ponente you were born in it.¡± He finally added something I knew not. ¡°You said we fled after the fall of the Silverwood family.¡± Still confused about her past. She had always assumed that she had been too young to remember their journey across the ocean. Now it transpired that she was too young to remember the journey under it. ¡°We did but you had yet to be born.¡± He answered. I couldn¡¯t imagine how they could have possibly survived months beneath the earth always travelling west. Although it was now clear that her mother my grandmother at least had not made it out alive. ¡°The Silverwood family?¡± Lady Acacia questioned unaware of our hidden heritage from the Maestro Kingdom. The same Compass Point Kingdom that held the Elven Empire within its borders. Or rather the quadrant held both the Elven Empire in the Forest that filled the majority of the northwestern quadrant. The Human kingdom fills the spaces along the coast and the borders of the forest. Perhaps it was even possible that she knew them or was raised within a week¡¯s or month''s walk of our ancestral estates. Whatever they might have been. ¡°Yes, our family served them before their fall, or at least that is what I was told by him.¡± She pointed back to my grandfather. ¡°Or was that a lie too?¡± ¡°I never lied to you. But there were truths that you did not need to hear that have kept you safe. Allowed you to live a normal life far from strife. One that you have been happy with.¡± he hastened to add. ¡°But why not tell me everything?¡± she pleaded, tired of the half-truths. ¡°It was your mother¡¯s dying wish.¡± He answered brokenly. ¡°She did not want you swept up in the tragedy that was the fall of the Silverwood family.¡± ¡°So, what really happened then? How did we get here? What happened to my mother?¡± She asked. Insistent on finally finding out theplete truth. ¡°The house fell, that much is a fact.¡± Lady Acacia stated surprisingly as she entered the conversation to support Grandfather in his answer. ¡°They were famous for their production of starsilver and lived on the northwestern border of the Elven wood. But their wealth created as many enemies as it made them friends and with the waning of their starsilver seams and decreasing production driving its price higher their house was broken by others. As far as history believes they were wiped out in an unsanctioned and merciless attack three decades ago. Their home was overrun by monsters both human and not. No living heir survived.¡± Her historical ount at least confirmed some of what she had been brought up hearing but now she wanted to hear more. ¡°The house fell and we ran West as far as we could but we were hotly pursued. They wanted no witnesses so we were given no chance to surrender and had no choice but to run. Family, guards, servants and their kin all were hunted and so all scattered to the four winds.¡± He finally started to tell his tale. Theplete story something he had hidden from her for so long. ¡°Who ran with you and why not sail west if you were trying to get as far away as possible?¡± She asked. ¡°Including your mother, there were nine of us. We had no time to prepare we took only what we could grab as we fled. There was no time to do anything but run and entering any fishing vige or port town would have been too dangerous to risk with us unaware of who exactly was targeting the family.¡± He exined. ¡°Then how did we end up here?¡± she asked. ¡°Between Drogheda and Dundalk on the edge of the Elven wood there is an entrance to the depths, the Bech sealed in the mound of Bruna. We were fleeing for our lives and there was simply nowhere left to run. So, we made the descent. Slipping down into the depths without disturbing the monsters two stayed to defend the entrance their deaths and blood drawing forth the trolls which battled our pursuers allowing us to escape into the depths.¡± ¡°Why not head north or south?¡± Lady Acacia asked intrigued. ¡°Even east under the elven woods would have surely been safer than delving west under the very ocean itself?¡± ¡°We were attacked by mainly men but they had brought monsters as well to overrun our defences. We knew we had to flee as far as possible and to seek support from the elves was folly itself. The Silverwood family were not well-liked by them for mining so close to and even asionally under the Elven Wood we would have found no support there. West was our only option and it was what we had beenmanded to do.¡± He finally added the true reason the fact that he had beenmanded. I wondered whether others would have noticed. Bound by blood his oaths had given him no other option but to run ever westward. Had it been the same with the other eightpanions of my grandmother? ¡°Subsequently the seven of you ran westward into the Lodestone Labyrinth. What happened next?¡± Mother asked. ¡°We died. One by one over the weeks and months ourpany grew smaller. We hid and fled no longer from men but from the beasts of the earth. We would escape one territory only to walk into another. First, there were seven, then six, then five, four, three and finally just the two of us. Your mother was magnificent but I was always the least of us. Able to survive through stealth more than might. Then one day two became three but it was not tost. Your mother died down in the depths and I continued to run ever westward hidden in the darkness I carried you until finally, we were able to climb toward the light. We emerged here on Wester Ponente slipping past a goblin tribe to finally reach the surface. I swam to the isle with you and I have been here ever since. All I have ever done is try to keep you safe and make you strong.¡± He summed up what had surely been a traumatic and arduous journey which had very nearly left him as the sole survivor. We sat silently trying to absorb what he had finally after decades of keeping it to himself finally exined. ¡°My mother died down in the depths.¡± Mother whispered. ¡°Yes, I could not carry her and you and still remain hidden. I had to leave her body behind.¡± He exined regretfully. ¡°But you saved me. What was herst wish?¡± she asked almost fearful. ¡°That you live strong and free.¡± He answered. He had finally told her the truth but still not all of it. I wondered whether he would go the final mile. It seemed impossible for him to give up every secret unless forced. Unwilling to say what might cost him his daughter. She sat still in contemtion of everything he had shared. ¡°What was your mother¡¯s name?¡± Lady Acacia asked as if on cue. ¡°Elora.¡± She turned to her grandfather for confirmation. He nodded almost in defeat. He could see where this line of questioning led as well as I. ¡°Then she was Elora Silverwood of Maestro Kingdom." Lady Acacia announced. "Your family line is thest of the Silverwood Line.¡± She answered convinced she was correct and unfortunately, she was right. ¡°Is this true?¡± Mother asked shocked by the revtion on top of all the rest. Grandfather was silent in his affirmation. Failing to deny what he knew to be true. ¡°Thedy of the house escaped with the traditional guard of eight.¡± She added. ¡°They were never heard of again and presumed dead in the depths for they never re-emerged.¡± ¡°You were my mother¡¯s guard?¡± she questioned apprehensively, ¡°The least of them.¡± He humbly answered. ¡°Then you are not . . . my father.¡± She followed the line of reasoning they had revealed to its bitter end. ¡°I am in every way but one.¡± He answered before turning and leaving unwilling to face whatever words she had to say next. He had often been bitter in hisments but now I feared he might be broken by the truth he had kept concealed. Even if he had done it under oath and for her safety. . . . Each one of us had a different reaction to the news. I had already known for the most part the truth of my grandfather¡¯s past if not the details. Father and Aleera sat there in shock while mother put up a hand to stop them and stalked out silently as well. Lady Acacia looked in on the family drama with surprise but was also almost delighted at discovering her suspicions about a noble heritage in our forefathers and in this case foremother was correct. Even if it was not elvish. I did not know whether to run out after my mother or grandfather. But decided in the end it was best to give each one of them a little space for the moment. We were broken from our thoughts by Lady Acacia. ¡°In that deluge of new information, he failed to exin where exactly he exited the depths.¡± She frowned on realising that despite all his honesty over his history he had left her unsatisfied in the knowledge of its location. ¡°I can guess at that,¡± Father added to our surprise. ¡°It was before my time but when the ind was first settled there were goblins on the northern coastline in the mountains there. If he slipped past a tribe of goblins to exit the depths then the entrance must be on the northern teau at the base of the mountains or at the source of the stream.¡± He exined. ¡°They were the reason Wester Town has walls when it was first built.¡± He sat pondering how this new information changed his view of the history of the ind. ¡°Your mother and . . . Arawn,¡± He hesitated to call him Grandfather in light of the secrets that had been uncovered. ¡°Lived on this isle for as long as I can remember but if his story is true, he is also the reason there are no longer any goblins left on the ind. They must have died out with his arrival and the town never searched for the reason why. To hear my father tell of it, it was assumed they wiped themselves out. But I guess that wasn¡¯t the case.¡± ¡°Either way, that is another exit to the depths that must be watched closely if Arawn hasn¡¯t been already.¡± Lady Acacia lectured unaffected to the same extent by the family revtions. ¡°I think that is enough for now. Would you give us some time toe to grips with this Lady Acacia?¡± Father asked politely. ¡°Of course, I have some things of my own to research.¡± She answered equally politely the whole situation was more than a little awkward. After she had left. He said, ¡°I need to find your mother can I trust you two to behave?¡± He asked. ¡°When haven¡¯t we behaved?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°It¡¯s not so much you that I¡¯m worried about.¡± He answered her and then turned to me. ¡°Yes, father I promise to behave.¡± He raised an eyebrow at that, ¡°I won¡¯t leave the ind.¡± I moderated my answer. ¡°Good enough. Give your mother some space toe to grips with this,¡± he said before he turned to go and find her. She might not want him to say anything but whether she wanted him or not he needed to be there to support her in silence if nothing else. That left only the two of us. ¡°You didn¡¯t seem too surprised.¡± Shemented on my reaction or rather myck of one. ¡°We all have secrets.¡± I shrugged aware of the hypocrisy if I were toin about anyone else''s considering my own. ¡°Well, perhaps we shouldn¡¯t have if this is the result of them.¡± She gestured at the empty room. ¡°They can drive us apart if kept too long.¡± she cautioned well aware of my habit to collect them like shiny shells on a beach. I nodded but didn¡¯t reply and we too headed off to our separate tasks. As soon as she was out of sight I slipped into my secret tunnels. I had always seen them as fun. Kept them secret for secrecy¡¯s sake. It was what made them special. Would they drive a wedge between us when they were revealed? I hoped not. But that was something to consider. I set off down my tunnels. It was possible for Grandfather to hide from me but he wasn¡¯t hiding from me right now. Only the rest of the family. Sat in his own secret cubbyhole he was drinking the equivalent of sailor''s rum while staring at the wall. An old man morosely minding his own business while contemting his past and the pitfalls it had created. Exiting my secret tunnel I popped up in his. ¡°How are you feeling old man?¡± Imiserated. Chapter 151: A lesson in forgiveness Chapter 151: A lesson in forgiveness ¡°Forgiveness is not weak. It takes courage to face and ovee powerful emotions.¡± Desmond Tutu ¡°How are you feeling old man?¡± Imiserated. We were all feeling a little raw after Arawn¡¯s confession and I sat with him as he drank in the darkness. Our sensory skills allowed us to know where everything was even if we could not strictly speaking see them. His actions were not the wisest of remedies but understandable and with his level and stats, it was not likely to affect him any time soon. Still not a great habit to pick up, and again with his stats a very expensive one. ¡°Like I lost my only daughter. The wedding was bad enough what with her moving to Wester Town but this . . . I don¡¯t know if she will ever forgive me.¡± He shuddered as he took another shot of rum. From what I could smell, it was not the best of spirits. The problem with high stats and skills meant that you could sense everything in so much more detail including poor cooking and cheap spirits. ¡°Forgiveness is a funny business.¡± I finally answered his unasked question, ¡°It is sometimes easier to forgive strangers than it is our friends. It hurts so much because they are bound so much closer to us.¡± I paused trying to find the right words to say. Despite everything I knew, I did not know how she would decide to react. The problem was that I still knew so much more than she did. Our original heart-to-heart hade at the end of a coerced conversation but it had got a lot of the secrets out of the way. She had not heard everything; he still held a secret that changed everything. ¡°You¡¯ve been her father for so long and now she is no longer sure who you are to her,¡± I exined. ¡°It will take time, but if she will let you, you have to exin why. All you told her was the bare facts. You haven¡¯t exined how you werepelled. You are literally bound to obey by your own blood. She does not know about yourst order. You had no choice. And in the end, she will have to see that. Whether or not she can forgive you only time will tell.¡± I did not know the answer but I knew he was still only halfway there to giving her a true understanding of the actual situation. ¡°Look at me taking advice from a five-year-old.¡± He said sardonically taking another shot. In the short time, I had sat with him he had already had three. I didn¡¯t know how many he had taken before I arrived and stats or not, if he continued, he would be hurtingter in more ways than one. ¡°Hey now, out of the mouths of babes, words of wisdom.¡± I shrugged, quick to quip. Some idioms tranted just fine others I ended up having to exin though not this one. ¡°Be honest you were hardly ever a babe even if you looked like one.¡± He deflected deliberately picking up the wrong end of the stick. ¡°These are my pearls of wisdom, take them or leave them.¡± I bantered back and forth. The more we were talking the less he was drinking and eventually he would face up to the fact that he had to talk with his daughter by adoption if not blood once more. Hopefully, the time apart would allow them to talk with slightly less raw feelings involved. ¡°You know, I loved your grandmother by the end.¡± Or maybe not, he interrupted my musings. ¡°Nothing happened between us but we had been running for so long and in the end, it was only the two of us. We had both lost everything. All we had left was each other and your mother.¡± He reminisced. Maybe the spirits were stronger than I realised. ¡°It seems somehow wrong that I survived and she didn¡¯t. But I¡¯ve done my best. I¡¯ve done my best.¡± He repeated to himself. ¡°It will be alright.¡± I gave up on the logic and humour and gave the man a hug. He didn¡¯t cry but I got the feeling that if he could, he would have. . . . Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Isle, Kaius was sitting holding Aliyah. ¡°How could he never tell me?¡± She asked hurt. ¡°He has always been a private man.¡± He responded knowing there was no correct answer only circumstances to describe the situation. ¡°He always refused to talk about my mother, but never, not once did he imply that I was a Silverwood. Only that we had served the family and fled with its fall.¡± She repeated the facts that he already knew. ¡°Fled with good reason if the house no longer exists ording to Acacia.¡± He reasoned. ¡°But why not tell me?¡± she repeated her earlier question still upset that she had not been trusted with the full truth of where she came from. ¡°You kept your magic a secret from me to remember.¡± He prompted her to recall that Arawn was not the only one who had kept secrets. ¡°He taught me not to stand out. To hide my magic.¡± She replied refusing to take full responsibility for the secrets she had kept, another lie he had asked her to tell. ¡°Again, for good reason. You were always magical to me. But if keeping your magic secret meant I got to keep you all to myself then I have nothing toin about.¡± He smiled sadly. The secret had hurt his heart too but he understood why she had done so. Their new nobility was what protected Aleera and Kai from conscription into another noble family and by extension their mother. Without it what could have happened no one could tell. ¡°Does it really change anything?¡± He asked. ¡°I¡¯m just so cross, I feel betrayed.¡± She tried to exin how she felt. ¡°If you had known, would it have helped anything?¡± he asked. ¡°The two of you would have known but you wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell anyone else. It would have added another degree of fear to your hiding.¡± ¡°It might have given me a level of awareness, a wider knowledge of who I am and where I came from.¡± She struggled to admit that it would not have changed much in the greater scheme of things. They would still have hidden here on Wester Ponente. They would have still hidden her magic and her daughters. ¡°None of us are perfect, he has done the best he could by you, and without him, I would never have met you.¡± Kaius squeezed her tight. The man had and still did on asion terrify him but if he was to be believed he was also responsible for her safe arrival on the ind and he had always been bewitched by her long before she let him love her. ¡°And that is enough for you.¡± She asked still unsure about how she truly felt. ¡°You have always been magical to me with or without your mana. I still remember the first time I ever saw you standing on the shore of this isle. My father had me out sailing on thegoon as a boy he was keen for each son to take up something new. The morning mist was just clearing when you and the shore emerged. When I sailed home to say there was a girl on the isle everyone thought I was seeing things. They knew about the man on the isle, a hermit who had mysteriously arrived on the ind in the middle of the night but no one knew he had a daughter too.¡± ¡°I remember you too.¡± She smiled in remembrance, ¡°He was so cross, that I had been seen. But after that, he started bringing me into town for the weekly market days." ¡°I sailed thegoon as much as I did to catch a sight of you as much as it was to catch the fish.¡± He grinned in recollection. ¡°As dark as your beginning may have been in the depths of the lodestone it has led to something light for all of us.¡± ¡°I love you.¡± She said and finally rxed into his hug sitting on the slope of the mountain soaking up the rays of the sun somewhat closer to being at peace with the situation. . . . . In her room, Lady Acacia poured over the genealogies of various houses until she found the right one. The Silverwood family tree had ended in Elora Silverwood but now that was no longer true. She searched through their genealogy searching for an exnation. Any exnation for her student''s strength. But she couldn¡¯t find one. They were only human even if he himself no longer was. She had been so sure that there would have been some mixing of the races to provide the traits he had managed to collect. Was there truly no physical reason for his development was it truly mind over matter? The fact that he had been able to ess his status from birth was all that had allowed him to reach the heights he had at such a young age. Mind over matter. . . . ¡°Come on, old man,¡± I said to my Grandfather after we had held each other. We didn¡¯tment on what had happened. ¡°Stop killing time,¡± I added as I reached the hidden door to the tunnel. With a rueful chuckle, he stood and followed after me. It didn¡¯t take us long to work our way through our home quickly realising mother was nowhere to be found within it. Neither of us was interested in intruding on Lady Acacia as she worked in her rooms. It looked like Aleera had gone up to the garden without me to help with picking the pearls to harvest. ¡°Come on little Lord.¡± He said as he strode through the hall to face his daughter. I had to run to keep up on my little legs. No longer leading the way now that he had decided to face her response head-on. We checked our dock to make sure that the boats were still there and after that, we started making our way around the ind. There were few ces left that mother could be other than the garden caldera so we were not surprised when we finally found my parents sitting in our new amphitheatre father¡¯s arms wrapped around her looking out over thegoon toward the south. We cautiously approached warily wondering what our mother¡¯s reaction would be to our approach. Grandfather no longer led the way and it was up to me to pull him behind me by his hand. The effort was no more than he let me but it was needed to keep him moving. ¡°Kaius, Aliyah.¡± He finally started the conversation once we had arrived and after standing behind me in silence long enough for it to grow awkward once more. ¡°Arawn,¡± Kaius answered for the two of them with a nod. He knew that he was not the one that he hade to talk to. ¡°Grandfather has one more thing to add to his story.¡± I finally prompted him to start aware that he might stand there silently forever. ¡°What else could you have left to say?¡± Mother asked quietly looking up toward us from where they sat together on the stone benches of the amphitheatre. ¡°An apology and an exnation why.¡± Each word pulled like blood out of a stone. We all waited for him to add more. ¡°Maybe it is better if I show you.¡± He finally said as he opened his shirt baring his chest. There on his chest above his right pectoral was a dark red tattoo carved into his skin in the shape of a tree. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I never told you the truth about your past. I had no choice in how I raised you.¡± ¡°What does that even mean?¡± Kaius asked confused as he stared at his father-inw. ¡°He¡¯s bound,¡± Aliyah whispered. ¡°Bound by what?¡± Kaius asked. ¡°Bound by blood. Oathbound to obey the Silverwood family.¡± She said gaining confidence in her spection as she stared at his tattoo and he failed to correct her. ¡°What were your final orders?¡± She asked her voice almost trembling to hear the words that had defined her fate. ¡°Hurry, take the child. Run as far west as you can. Protect her and raise her strong.¡± He answered resolved. ¡°Your mother wished for you to be raised strong and free from the trappings of politics and power, far from the fall of your house.¡± He seemed relieved to finallye clean of everything. We stood together in silence as everyone reprocessed everything that had happened before. Understood what had happened and why in a different light. This secret reframed her narrative as she understood it. Exined choices he had made and behaviour that had seemed unreasonable at the time. ¡°But for three words, my life would have been different.¡± She said thinking out loud before focusing once more on Grandfather. ¡°Had she but said ¡®Keep her safe¡¯ instead of ¡®raise her strong¡¯ it would have made a world of difference. But so would have knowing why. Why not tell me why?¡± she asked once more. ¡°It would have made no difference and it would not have changed how I was forced to act.¡± He answered calmly once more now that things had finallye to a head. ¡°But I would have understood why. It would have dampened the resentment,¡± she argued. ¡°Would it? Or would it have just created more? Would it not have created some fantasy in your head of what things could have been like if only your house had not fallen? Of what life might be like if you could make your way back? They were words that could not be taken back if uttered. It was too risky to try. Better you hate me for being too hard than risk you running away for a past that no longer existed.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°Always with the secrets. Just tell me the truth and then at least I can understand.¡± She said. ¡°I will,¡± he promised fiercely. ¡°I hesitate to ask this and I might be misunderstanding things but if you are blood bound to obey House Silverwood and Aliyah is effectively thestdy of the house Aliyah Silverwood. Then howe you never obey her?¡± Kaius quizzed. ¡°I am blood bound to obey the Lords of House Silverwood, not the Ladies,¡± Arawn answered honestly. ¡°Then that would make Kai your master, not Aliyah your mistress?¡± Kaius questioned carefully feeling his way toward the answer. ¡°Would you look at the time!¡± I jumped in here. ¡°We need to go and see Aleera. Pick me up and let''s go see how she is doing.¡± I shouted to Arawn. We didn¡¯t need my parents digging any deeper into my secrets. Quick as a sh he scooped me up and started sprinting up the mountain. I felt slightly guilty at themand but happy that they seemed to have reached a new stable equilibrium between the two of them. Even if running away was a little hypocritical of me. ¡°Kai!¡± shouted mother after us. ¡°Get back here.¡± She hollered as Grandfather continued to flee up the mountain with me in his arms. Chapter 152: Sooner or later Chapter 152: Sooner orter ¡°Sooner orter, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.¡± Robert Louis Stevenson ¡°Kai!¡± shouted mother after us. ¡°Get back here.¡± She hollered as we continued to flee up the mountain. I ignored her as Arawn turned to me with a frown on his face. ¡°Really?¡± he questioned. It was difficult to tell if he was amused by my escape or cross at beingmanded. He could hardly be happy with having his free will usurped over what was arguably not a matter of life and death. ¡°What? You know that line of questioning was going to lead to more questions.¡± I shrugged perhaps a little hypocritically. I had just convinced him to tell the truth but here I was still hiding my past life from my parents and actively fleeing from facing the consequences of iting to light. ¡°You convinced me toe and tell them the whole truth, why not have the courage to do it yourself?¡± He quizzed still running up the side of the mountain acting out mystmand. ¡°You needed to tell the truth to fix the bridges you¡¯d burnt. My bridges are still fine.¡± I argued back. ¡°Or at least they were, besides why aren¡¯t you out of breath yet?¡± I quizzed suspicious of his ability to question me while running up the mountain. He had run out of stamina far quickerst time we fled from the tangle and that was running along the contour of the cliff not crossing them in an ascent like this flight. ¡°Who knows?¡± He asked with an evil grin and my suspicions coalesced into certainty. ¡°You were faking it!¡± I shouted at him. ¡°I could have died,¡± I screamed in frustration. How many times was he going to threaten my life for some ephemeral gain in experience? ¡°Well, I had to leave enough in the tank to catch you if you couldn¡¯t stay airborne. How do you think I managed to keep up with them and pick them off one at a time when you were flying back?¡± he asked in turn. ¡°Besides I bet it was good for your skills and experience.¡± He added unrepentantly. He seemed to take great glee in the karma already inflicted. I suddenly felt less guilty aboutmanding him to facilitate my escape despite the fact that I had broken a promise. I gave up arguing with him but he hadn¡¯t given up arguing with me. ¡°You¡¯re only digging yourself a deeper hole the longer you make us run.¡± He pointed out, unfortunately urately. ¡°You had your moment to contemte what you were going to say. Give me mine.¡± I groused. ¡°What do I even say?¡± I asked equally terrified of losing my family to half-truths as he had been only a few hours earlier. Our situations were not the same at all but they did have simrities. ¡°Simple,¡± He shrugged. ¡°One day you told me to do something and I did it despite clearly being against it. Then you worked it out from there.¡± He simplified the question to the most basic answer, a truth that concealed all the circumstances surrounding it. ¡°And then what? I decided not to tell them?¡± I mused considering his answer. That was hardly going to put me in the best light. Then again mother was not exactly impressed with me at the moment anyway. But at least it might be an improvement. ¡°We all know how you like to keep your secrets. It is hardly new! First, there was the secret that you had a status, second, the secret that you could understand and remember everything, third your skills and traits that it took you crippling yourself to finally confess to having them. All of that before you even get to the secret that you are a reincarnated soul from another world. The fact that you couldmand me through a blood oath tattoo is honestly one of your smaller secrets and less yours than mine.¡± He continued seemingly calm enough as he crested the top of the mountain and stepped into the caldera. ¡°There you go there¡¯s Aleera she is doing fine.¡± He said stopping as soon as he came into sight of her and pointing her out working her way around the far side of the cauldron caldera. Then before she could turn and see us his hand whipped forward pressing it against my mouth as he hauled me back out of sight over the top of the ridgeline. My breath left my body as my momentum forward was suddenly checked and my chestpressed as I was pulled in the opposite direction. I did not feel scared he was my grandfather an honour-bound guardian but I was rmed when his whispered voice sounded harshly in my ears. ¡°Now I cannot keep my hand over your mouth for the rest of your life.¡± He said to my widening eyes and ring nostrils as they struggled to inhale enough air from the sudden movement. ¡°But I want you to know that as entertaining as it might have been to skip out on your parents, I did not find the way in which you forced my hand to be very funny.¡± He paused to see if I was listening to what he was saying. I nodded to show that I was. Struggling was futile with the difference in our stats and the size of our vessels but that did not stop my hands froming up to grasp his arm. ¡°Now just to make sure this doesn¡¯t be a habit of yours I would like to list the multiple methods I have thought of to prevent you from doing such a thing. Option one, I protect you from afar. As long as I am out of earshot you cannot tell me what to do. The problem with this is I might not always be there when you need me in time to save you. For example, our recent outing with the clergy could have be aplete disaster if I had been further afield. Would you like me to make that choice?¡± he asked already knowing the answer. I shook my head as much as his hand would allow. It was impossible to say whether he was overreacting but it was obvious he was cross. I had broken my promise. ¡°Option two I seal my ears. A little bit drastic but again if I can¡¯t hear you, you can¡¯tmand me. Again, it will decrease my capabilities to protect you but would be worth it to avoid frivolousmands. You¡¯d also have to exin to your parents why I could no longer hear them. Which again would create addedplications for you. Lady Acacia in particr might find it particrly enlightening.¡± He paused again to see if I was taking this in, I shook my head again signifying that was not an option I wanted him to go with. ¡°Option three I use your blood to break the binding it would destroy my status but I would get to live out the rest of my years unbound and free.¡± He outlined the third nihilistic option. ¡°ying with promises has consequences.¡± He left me with a final lesson. I thought about the third option, that was a scary thought. To break your binding was to break your status, I¡¯d never heard of such a thing. He was our protector the physical force that supported house Silversea from the shadows. Without him, we would be vulnerable to any militant force or even just an individual that any noble house might attack us with. With or without the church''s support I was not sure that we could survive his absence. We needed him in more ways than one. ¡°I¡¯m going to take my hand away now. I hope we are not going to have a repeat of what just happened.¡± He slowly removed his hand. There were a lot of things I could attempt to say but a lot of them would just make things worse. I had crossed a line and all I could do was apologise. ¡°Sorry,¡± I whispered shocked by the speed with which things could change as if the lesson with the Mosau eels had not been recent enough for me to remember. ¡°Right, don¡¯t do it again.¡± Seemingly a lot calmer now that he had said his piece without being interrupted. Although I was fully aware of how quickly that could change. ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± I said shaken. Intellectually I knew that I had never been in any danger, he was ultimately blood bound to protect me. But the jarring stop, the quick manhandling and the intense conversation left my heart pumping fast even though I had been carried the whole way. ¡°You do know that in doing that you just confirmed your father¡¯s answer to his question.¡± He added to make my day that little bit more special. He seemed to delight in life¡¯s small struggles when they were not ones that he had to face. ¡°I know. You made your points very well.¡± I whined. ¡°What will you get up to now?¡± I asked, eager for some time apart to consider what I would say when my parents found me. ¡°I think I will go and check on the northern entrance to the depths. I keep it trapped and clear it out whenever there is any pressure from below on the defences I have created. Honestly, it is the only reason I have been able to keep levelling here on this ind without fishing or crafting.¡± He answered. ¡°It is also the reason I am given the level of respect I am on this ind. They might not know exactly what I do to protect them but in time they connected my appearance to the goblin¡¯s disappearance. It is just not something they like to think about too much.¡± ¡°And my parents? What will you say if you see them?¡± I asked worried about what I could get away with when answering the questions, I was sure would follow when I next met up with them. It was only a matter of time. ¡°Simply that you told me to do something one day and were able to work it out that you couldmand me from that.¡± He replied putting my mind at rest. ¡°That being said you need to think about how you want to address the Troll in the room. It wille out one day when you least expect it. Especially if you are going to insist on your independence and the right to decide your own actions sometimes against the will of your parents.¡± He could not help but through in a final bit of advice. ¡°The elves talk about old souls,¡± I started before pausing, ¡°I thought I would lead with what Lady Acacia has already proposed. I am an old soul with a few memories of a former life. I thought that I could pass off any technological ideas as remembered memories based on dwarfish or gnomish technology.¡± I answered with the idea I had been ruminating on for a while. ¡°It¡¯s your life and your lie.¡± He replied. ¡°But a word of caution,ing hot on the heels of someone who has just had his half-truths uncovered. The truth will out in the end.¡± He turned and started walking down the mountain to his boat that would carry him across thegoon. My brain pondering the food for thought, my body set forward over the crest of the caldera stepping down into it to see Aleera. It would be nice to have a casual conversation without worrying about the consequences. ¡°Aleera, hi!¡± I yelled down into the cauldron caldera and she turned to look up at me. . . . It was nice to hang out with Aleera while we worked a little on our inspect, observe and analyse skills as well as attempting to block them before collecting some of our harvest alongside Des and Sinis who had also joined uster after harvesting enough salt for the morning. Before returning to town with our collection to sell at the market. It was challenging to say what the market might be like today with the whole town preparing to face the depths, create a guard and maintain the sentinels. Then again they might sell out quicker with fewer people able to spend time on producing food the economics of the town was bound to shift through probably not as soon as today. However, the peace was not tost forever, consequences always catch up to you sooner orter. In this case, it was sooner thanter. ¡°Kai!¡± My mother¡¯s voice shouted from the top of the ridgeline. They had not followed straight away seeing as how much we had managed to harvest but it did not look like she had cooled down a lot on her hike up the mountain. Despite clearly waiting a while before heading for this confrontation. We stopped to turn and look at her and father as they started to make their way down the stepped garden. ¡°Where is your grandfather?¡± she asked force of habit keeping her referring to him as her father and my grandfather despite her now knowing the truth to the opposite. ¡°He went to go and look at the northern entrance to the depths.¡± Happy to have an easy question to start but it was about to get a lot harder. Kaius looked proud to have his prediction proved true. That did not stop though from asking, ¡°How long and how often have you beenmanding him to do your bidding?¡± It was the question they had climbed up here to ask rather than wait for dinner. ¡°You what?¡± Aleera asked shocked at this new revtion. ¡°Turns out that a few minor heirlooms were not the only things brought here after the fall of the Silverwood family. Arawn is or at least was my mother¡¯s bodyguard and bound by blood to obey thest lord of the Silverwood family which the magic finds to be little Lord Silversea, your brother.¡± Mother outlined the situation to her. Still clearly unimpressed with me not passing this information on at any time before today. ¡°You could havemanded him to stop at any time during our training?¡± Aleera shot straight to the most useful aspect of this for us. We could have told him to stop at any time. It looked like she was less than impressed with me too. Especially when she moved on to her pet peeve, ¡°That is so unfair. Why not me too?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know then.¡± I defended. ¡°I only found out recently more by ident than by design.¡± I did not add any more to that or answer her final question that it was probably due to the male hierarchy for the Noble houses of Maestro. That would hardly have improved my sister¡¯s ire. Especially as she already unconsciously knew the answer to that one. ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you tell us?¡± Mother asked, still hurt by the secrets that had already been kept from her before today. This was just another one on top of them all. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my secret to tell. It was his.¡± I had thought hard about the best words to use while picking the fruit and vegetables and felt these were the best I could use. Hopefully, they would show that I was not hoarding secrets for myself but protecting another¡¯s. ¡°That¡¯s very . . . grown up of you.¡± Conceded mother. Visibly struggling to argue with what was on the surface a conscientious reason to withhold the truth. If I had ever said anything it would have brought to light the fact that Arawn was not our grandfather far sooner and it had not been my secret to tell. Sess, I thought for myself for a second as I heard her response. Or not, ¡°You just wanted to add another secret to your hoard.¡± Aleera ratted me out. Always quicker to see some of my more self-interested motivations even if she missed the mark on this one she was still correct in that I had ulterior motives for keeping this hidden. ¡°What hoard?¡± Stupid question. Stupid question. When was I going to learn to keep my mouth shut? I had never had a sibling before and something about our rtionship often made me stupidly defensive or defensively stupid. A change of topic would have been a far wiser decision. ¡°Don¡¯t think I haven¡¯t noticed your disappearing acts. I¡¯m not ignorant! You¡¯ve obviously added secret tunnels to the rooms you two are carving from the mountain. Even though I can¡¯t find the entrances.¡± She added annoyed. Once more proving that she was far more observant than she should have been. Then again, a lifetime of looking out for me probably had her predisposed to checking on my whereabouts even though I was a little older and independent now. ¡°Kai?¡± Mother queried once more as a new buried secret was uncovered. ¡°Is that the time?¡± I querulously looked up at the sun, ¡°I should go . . .¡± I started to say. ¡°Not this time young man.¡± Father had stepped forward to pick me up when I had turned to confront my sister. I also no longer had a grandfather to whisk me away.¡°You need to answer your mother. You can¡¯t keep running away from your family every time they ask an ufortable question.¡± ¡°Um, I might or might not have been adding some extra tunnels to our work,¡± I answered. ¡°Just to help me get around mind . . . I have little legs.¡± Theedy helped with my father whoughed at my answer. Not so much with my Mother or Sister. ¡°See!¡± my sister said vindicated. Turn him upside down and I swear secrets would fall out of him like treasure.¡± She told on me to my mother. I started to sweat a little. I was aware that neither father nor I had mentioned publicly our little haul the other day. It seemed father might have agreed with me on that. As he added, ¡°No reason to go quite that far.¡± He smiled jovially as he put me down and patted my head. ¡°No, I guess not, but Kai, at least let us check these tunnels out and make sure they are safe.¡± Mothermented as always more concerned with our safety than anything else. ¡°They are.¡± I defended my extracurricr mining efforts. ¡°Besides they are child-sized, you might have a little difficulty walking through them.¡± ¡°Then show Aleera and your father.¡± She replied. It was subtle her slow transformation under Lady Acacia¡¯s guidance to be more gentile anddylike but with the new news of her heritage, I could see her bing more convinced by the change and assuaged with the truth of it. ¡°Speaking of tunnels. I hear you have added something else to the core tower under the Elendil tree to allow for a speedy descent.¡± She directed us forward as a family under the tree passing through the blue glow of the Silversea Lodestar into the passage behind. ¡°Yes, I call it a slide,¡± I said when we arrived at the spiral staircase and gesticted at the circr slope carved into the wall of the tower. I had made itrge enough even for father in case it was ever needed. ¡°Well, I think it is time for tea.¡± She surprised us all by sitting down and disappearing with a shout into the darkness. The mana motenterns lit up as she speed on by them down the tower highlighting the speed of her descent as we looked over the walls down the well. Ady in truth she might have be but that did not mean she could not have fun. ¡°Last one down is peeling the potatoes,¡± Father said to his distracted children as he too darted onto the slide. More familiar with his wife¡¯s more gregarious side than we were. A short scuffle saw the two of us climbing into the slide at the same time and sliding down together. Screaming as we went it seemed that all had been forgiven if not forgotten. Chapter 153: Life goes on Chapter 153: Life goes on Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.¡± John C. Maxwell Day of departure - Clergy ¡°Are you sure you will be alright with only Sir Manil to guard you?¡± Bishop Bailie worried as he said farewell to Archbishop Grigori. ¡°Yes, we will be fine. It is thest stretch now of our circumnavigation.¡± He declined taking thestpass knight. ¡°You will need him far more than I will.¡± He added. ¡°Thank you, your eminence.¡± Bishop Bailie bowed in relief at holding onto a line of defence when the Lodestone depths were suddenly so much closer than he had been expecting. ¡°Come now it¡¯s our final farewell for who knows how long I think you can give me an embrace after all we have been through.¡± The archbishop said as he raised hispanion for thest couple of years and drew him close for a tight hug that was returned equally strongly. ¡°I will miss your counsel.¡± The bishop smiled as they parted. ¡°Then this shall be yourst. Remember I expect great things. Teach this young lord as much as they will let you. He will make waves when he is older and anything you can do to repair the damage between the Silversea family and the church is worth doing. With Sir Jacques agreement, offer his services to the town to train their town guards and their sentinels as well as to the Silversea family to tutor their scions. Everything else I leave up to you. I will endeavour to get a delegation ofpass knights to man the tower but who knows how long that will take. Let the light of the lodestar guide you.¡± The archbishop said his final words before he stepped away onto the nk to walk up to the ship. ¡°Farewell.¡± They waved to one another. The clergy stood side by side at the boat''s railing watching the dock as they departed. Priest Aravan had packed up and apanied them. It was difficult to tell whether he was happy to be returning to the continent or embarrassed that it was happening at the request of the local noble family. It was clear at least that his feelings were conflicted. Either way, the Silversea family were not there to watch them depart. The entire town was buzzing like an anthill in preparation for whatever mighte forth from below. A few beasts had appeared but they had been easily repulsed so far. But it was enough to keep everyone tense and worried about what might appear next. A surprise visit from the Diver¡¯s daughters were one of the few families toe and see them off but under the circumstances, it was to be expected and they had made their farewells in the town to the people of importance. It was time to turn around and head back to his new home. . . . Day of Departure ¨C Arawn Silversword (Grandfather) Leaving the infuriating little monster behind he headed for the northern entrance into the Lodestone Depths. It was as always impossible for him to quite make up his mind about his ¡®grandson¡¯. He had had in a single morning smoothed out some of the betrayal between him and his ¡®daughter¡¯ yet this was then followed by him breaking his promise over such a small matter. It was both infuriating and perplexing. The child seemed to oscite between making leaps of genius one moment and then ridiculously childish mistakes the next. It had not mattered when he was only affecting himself but as he grew up and into the role of the local lord it would be more and more important for him to be a little more consistent and reliable. Out of sight of anyone that he could sense having sailed north across thegoon, he tied up his boat in a fold of the cliff leaving it out of sight from both the town and the ind before climbing the cliff. It was a short run along the river to the teau the goblins had once defended years ago. There was nothing left of their defences or huts having been pulled down and burnt decades ago. He just needed to check that the traps, pitfalls, spikes and other measures that he had filled the entrance with were still in ce and that they had not been overwhelmed by any changes in the depths after the Mosau eels surprising eruption. Crossing the teau and the stream that crossed it he approached the base of the mountains. Having nted bushes and nts across the cave entrance he lowered theting that held the climbing vines that made it invisible to any who approached. Everything looked quiet so far, nothing had been disturbed. Or if it had they had put it back just how he had left it. Stepping to the left of the tunnel he carefully made his way along the edge of a pitfall with spikes he had concealed in the floor. Another reason he had attempted to conceal the entrance so well was the possibility of the townspeople killing themselves on the way in had they ever discovered it. Though the majority of the spikes had been further into the tunnel in the hopes that even if they had tripped the trap they would not have been immediately impaled on them. Unlike if a goblin or monster had emerged in the opposite direction. Next were a set of spikes that would suddenly rip out of the wall on the left of the tunnel had he remained walking deeper along that wall. With each untripped trap that he passed, he grew more confident in the hopes that despite the Archbishop awakening the Mosau eels who created a new entrance to the Lodestone depths that the original one that he had found all those years ago was undiscovered and undisturbed. He started to make his way deeper. Into the earth, the entrance was no longer a cave or tunnel but a crack and chasm disappearing deep into the earth. No longer with an easy path or simple walls and floor to trap he had created a deadfall of rocks perilously positioned to fall on any carelessly ascending monsters. Still, no new monsters littered his path down into thebyrinth so it had not been discovered yet. The chasm changed into emptyva tubes that he continued to explore outwards from his entrance each one trapped as best he could to halt or hinder any upward movement. It would take him a while to check all the methods of death-dealing he had made. Silently he slipped through the darkness checking each one and delving ever wider and deeper. . . . Day of Departure ¨C Adal Smit Silvertongue Life was suddenly moving so much quicker. Ever since the Silversea games when his grandson and granddaughter had been officially presented as Wester Ponente¡¯s Lord and Lady things had seemed to move so much faster. Firstmunication with the other isles had brought them a little closer, then the archbishop¡¯s arrival, now an entrance to the depths had been revealed. The risk and reward of the Lodestone¡¯s monsters and base races was a sudden shock to the quiet town that had been the town of Wester. People were looking to the church for answers and they were looking to the Silversea n to lead them. As the patriarch of the n even though he was not the leader of the noble branch they hade to him for answers. Some things had been rtively simple in setting up a town guard, the old guard remembered and though they had let things slip without any recent threats to keep them sharp they easily stepped back into the role. The stronger of them were equally interested in bing part of the sentinels. It had not hurt that the very first group of sentinels had returned triumphant from guarding the depths without injury and a wealth of monster parts. It would not be long before people started to push to delve into the depths for more, though that could go either way. With the departure of the Archbishop, the news would soon spread. But he had sent an early warning to the Town Mayor of Wester Levante to give him some warning. This was the only entrance on the three isles and he would be unsurprised if a few individuals hoping for either wealth, skills or levels turned up to test themselves. Foreknown was forearmed. There was little he could do to stop them but they could get as many things into ce as possible before anyone new arrived. They were exempt from Royal Taxes to Ponente but perhaps now was the time to instil a few subtle taxes. It was something to discuss with Grandaughter and Lady Acacia. Not necessarily the locals which would probably not go down well but certainly any visitors. Something to think about. He stopped daydreaming to focus on the most recent petitioner. ¡°We need a wall on thekeside of the town!¡± the woman insisted. ¡°I¡¯m not sure that is a priority right now.¡± He returned thinking about firstly the cost but also the space required on the edge of the town. ¡°If the eels had got into thegoon where would they havee for us from, eh?¡± she argued back undaunted. ¡°There is not much point to the town wall is there then?¡± ¡°I will take your suggestion under advisement but are you prepared to relocate as any wall would require a few homes to be knocked down to have it all the way around the town.¡± He pointed out. ¡°I¡¯m not expecting it to be built on thend. We need it in the water to protect the boats as much as it is to protect ourselves.¡± She argued back. ¡°But surely you see that would be twice as expensive.¡± He pointed out. It was not necessarily that he disagreed but it would certainly take twice as long and require them to work underwater as well. ¡°Well, that is what Nobles are for isn¡¯t it? To foot the bill when it is required. Besides I heard that the Silversea family have magic don¡¯t they between you and the church there should be a way. Regardless of how you do it, we need a fourth wall.¡± She continued undaunted by the depth of her demands and possibly a bit delusional as to how the world generally worked having lived free from lords anddies for so long. ¡°We will see what can be done.¡± He said adding it to a lengthening list of concerns the townspeople were presenting him with. . . . Day of departure - Back on the inner ind ¡°Right, what¡¯s for dinner then?¡± Chapter 154: Moving forward Chapter 154: Moving forward ¡°If you can¡¯t fly, then run, if you can¡¯t run, then walk, if you can¡¯t walk then crawl but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.¡± Martin Luther King JR A weekter, after the initial shock of the monster¡¯s release from the depths of the Lodestone, life settled back to some new form of normalcy. As always there was so much more to do and so little time to do it. There were however severalrge changes for us as a family. Firstly, we had petitioners now. It was no longer Archbishop¡¯s visiting us but the townspeople with requests, concerns and expectations of what we could and would do for them. Thankfully there were not enough for us to have to listen to them every day but there were enough that it took a morning each week for us to answer them all. Thankfully they had often already been brought up to other members of our extended family so we generally knew what people would be asking for before they asked and had answers ready to be revealed but every now and then a surprise slipped through. We sat on our small thrones at the end of the hall as the leader of the sentinels approached our mini-thrones. We did not sit up there alone but we were the only two with seats. Surrounding us stood mother, Lady Acacia, Grandfather and Grandpa. Father refused to spend his morning standing around when he could be doing other things he said. The first petition of the morning was about to start. First up was Sentinels. Their leader was arge man, possibly a former sailor or even pirate judging by the earing and tattoos. He towered over the rest of his group, three somewhat smaller fighters and his height made us appreciate our raised dais all the more. They didn¡¯t waste any time getting to the heart of the matter. ¡°We want all the materials and money from the monsters harvested when they escape.¡± He dered his position. One we had already been aware of our answer already prepared we left it to our Senechal Smit Silvertongue to respond. ¡°As long as Arawn Silversword is there to bail you out, we keep the monster cores. The rest is up to you to transport and bargain with the crafters for your cut of the profits.¡± So he stated our official position. Their problem was that they still needed supervision for a multitude of reasons. Firstly we had to ensure nothing escaped. Secondly, Grandfather had to step in several times to either save or finish off the monsters when they failed to do so. On those asions, they were happy enough with the assistance to give up the monster cores. It was all the other times he could sit back and do nothing that they objected to giving up a significant portion of the profits. ¡°That hardly seems fair when we are doing all the work. Half the time, he sits there doing nothing but napping.¡± He sounded a little aggrieved at theid-back style of observation Arawn favoured. ¡°Do you deny that you have not needed him?¡± Smit avoided taking up the discussion on how exactly they were being protected. The other three sentinels looked a little sheepish, clearly having been saved, retrieved or otherwise kept from harm by our Grandfather¡¯s interventions. ¡°No. But that is hardly the point I¡¯m trying to make.¡± He had not quite given up arguing for the monster cores. ¡°Then until his presence is no longer required this is the cost the Silversea family will be charging for their protection, not only of your individual selves but the town itself. Without it, you are risking not only your own lives but the lives of your friends and family for the sake of a little profit.¡± ¡°It is hardly a little profit.¡± He argued unbowed by the arguments. ¡°Then what price would you put on your parents¡¯ lives?¡± he cuttingly replied. Despite his obviously chequered past it appeared that his family at least lived on the ind. The benefit of having a seneschal was that you did not have to make all the arguments. Merely weigh in on the end decisions. ¡°Again not . . .¡± ¡°Until Adal Silversword believes you ready to stand sentinel alone the ind and town will continue to need reassurance this is not up for debate and the cost will continue to be the cores.¡± He answered unwillingly to budge. ¡°Your Grace?¡± He asked Bishop Bailie, who stood off to the side of the hall. But he refused to be drawn into the request or go against our patriarch¡¯s wishes. ¡°Sir Jacques is willing to supervise the sentinels for the cost of the cores.¡± He towed the family line supporting us in our decision and refusing to undermine the working rtionship we were building. ¡°Your Lord and Lady?¡± He made onest appeal but it all seemed fairly sensible to us and we saw no reason to disagree with what had already been decided. ¡°We concur.¡± We replied in unison. We had practised it under the tutge of Lady Acacia, who was insisting on increasingly formalnguage, especially in formal settings and for good reason. Etiquette Lv1 It was worth the extra time we spent learning the words for the formalnguage. Any experience was good experience, even if it did not always result in instant levels. Next up were the town guards 14 men and women stepped forward to raise their case. ¡°We need to be paid if we are going to do this daily. Volunteering for a day or two was important for the safety of the town but we cannot afford to do so any longer. We have our own lives we need to go back to or we need to get paid.¡± The spokesperson stated his case. He raised an important point. We couldn¡¯t expect people to give up their livelihoods to protect our citizens for no rpense. But at the same time, we would not pay for them from our own pocket. We could not afford another score of individuals on our payroll if they were somehow not making money for us. Our town did not have enough visitors to charge for entrance to pay for them from that. At least not yet. ¡°We know your concerns and will see to some financial remuneration. However, we do not need every gate manned every day and night. Two on each gate takes the fourteen of you however if we just man the northern, southern and one eastern gate as a town we can afford to keep six of you employed every day. Whether you choose to do this full-time or part will be up to you to discuss initially. Although I¡¯m sure, the sentinels could do with extra men and have more immediate remuneration from monster materials.¡± Heid out our official position. They stepped back satisfied that they would be getting paid and to discuss how they wanted to arrange the six positions between the 14 of them. This was not actually all of them, as the rest were still standing guard on the gates. For most of them, it would be easy money for not that much work. That being said if they were ever needed, it might cost them more than they carried in their coin pouch. This brought us to our third petition. ¡°It is all very well putting guards at the gates and manning the walls when the gates are closed but that would not have stopped the Mosau eels from slipping into theke and into the town from the shore.¡± A third petitioner dered. ¡°We need a fourth wall. Otherwise, we are not safe.¡± The town had initially had to defend itself against the animals on thend it had never had to defend itself from the water but now that they had seen the monsters of the deep the townspeople no longer felt sufficiently secure in their defences and wanted another wall. Again we had already been aware of this demand and had drawn up ns, but again we were not going to do this for free. ¡°We have listened to the wishes of the people and will build a fourth western wall for the town.¡± Aleera and I spoke together to general cheers from the small crowd of petitioners. This was also the perfect opportunity to bnce the books. ¡°However, to pay for the wall, we will have to insist on a tithe in line with the tithe to the Lodestar Church.¡± We announced the catch. There was silence in response to our decree. They could hardly be happy about that, but in order to pay for the wall and the guards something had to change. Also, this way ifints arose we could refer them to the petitioner''s requests, and there were likely to beints. A tithe was nothing new, but the people had not paid one to Ponente since reaching the ind. However, they had tithed a tenth to the church. We were requesting the same. For them to start tithing a tenth to the Silverseas in return, we would build the wall they had requested and pay for the town guard. The townspeople started to discuss our promation, while it was not something that they were jumping for joy over they realised the need and it was difficult for them toin over it as it was ostensibly to pay for what they had requested. In reality, it would pay for a significant amount of the wall, but our extended family was going to have to heavily subsidise it with magic from our family, stone from the Silverstone branch, metal brackets from the Silverkin branch, roofing tiles etc. It would take a lot of work, but it would hopefully be worth it¡ªour own mini harbour. . . . The second major change to our daily lives was the church. The new Bishop was a lot more engaged in well everything. He would attend our petitioning session and would often offer advice and support or even alternative options should our ¡®subjects¡¯ find ours not to their liking. Always taking the opportunity to teach the faith. We were not yet attending church on a weekly basis but he would stay behind after petitioning sessions to teach the pair of us. Either the philosophy of bnce in all things or the history of both the Compass Kingdoms and the Lodestar Church. While Mother was still not a fan, Lady Acacia advocated that it was important to better understand the human institutions that covered thepass continent. ¡°The church teaches that eachpass direction has a guardian, the Anemoi, who will appear in times of need. Boreas for the North he guards the human kingdom of Tramontana alongside the giants of the Northern Steppes against the ice giants that might invade south into thepass.¡± ¡°Have you seen him?¡± I asked, intrigued as to whether this was real, mythical or poetic licence on the part of the church. ¡°No, there has been not been an invasion in over a hundred years. Next up we have Kaikias, the guardian of the northeastern Kingdom of Greco. However, the dwarven kingdom runs under the northern mountains. He is thought to have helped push back the orcs into the Lodestone from whence they came.¡± ¡°There might be orcs underneath our ind as well as the Mosau Eels?¡± I asked rmed. ¡°That is unlikely as their domain is below that of the dwarves in the North Eastern part of the continent.¡± He dismissed my burgeoning fear. Before moving back to his lesson about the Anemoi. ¡°Apeliotes is the guardian for the east. The Kingdom of Levante. He holds back the Leviathans.¡± It was difficult to say without travelling or secondary sources what was a myth and what was reality. I mean I had already met an elf and Mosau eels who was I to say what was fact and what was fiction without witnessing it for myself? ¡°Euros is the guardian of the southeastern kingdom of Sciro. He supports the gnomes in their battles against demons.¡± ¡°Demons?¡± I was freaking out a little bit, why was he leaving the western kingdom of Ponente tost. This did not sound so much like history as a horror story. I was beginning to appreciate my mother¡¯s penchant for failing to take us to church. ¡°If you would let me finish we cane back to questionster.¡± He chided. ¡°Notos is the guardian of the southern kingdom of Ostro.¡± ¡°What base race is he holding back?¡± I muttered quietly to myself rather than interrupt. But he heard my mutters and responded anyway. ¡°The Cyclops.¡± He answered before continuing. ¡°Lips is the guardian of the southwest kingdom of Libio turning back Sirens from our shores.¡± Sailing looked like it was bing an increasingly dangerous profession. Hopefully, the Sirens stayed in the southwest much like the other base races he had described. ¡°Zephyros is the guardian of the West. Of your own proud kingdom of Ponente.¡± ¡°And who does he defend us against?¡± I asked worriedly. ¡°Leviathans. The same as in the east obviously.¡± He answered perplexed by myck of general knowledge. Again I had always assumed that when the maps marked off areas as here be sea monsters it was along the lines of medieval maps adding a little colour to their creations and covering up theirck of knowledge. Perhaps this wasn¡¯t the case. ¡°Finally, we have Skiron the guardian of the northwest who defends the human kingdom of Maestro although the Elven Empire takes up the majority of the northwest with their Great Forest. He helps defend against the trolls that sometimes surge forth.¡± After a long pause, I started to speak, ¡°Fact or fiction, I¡¯m struggling to understand which is which.¡± ¡°Ultimately some of this is a matter of faith, Gods, guardians or ascended mortals who can say. We, mere mortals, keep them in our prayers as they hold back the mythical beasts that might devour all of thepass. I will teach you to the best of my ability both what I know and what I believe.¡± He answered. Why are they all men? Where are the female guardians? What beasts? Are they really a threat? Are there no nice mythical beasts? I had a long list of questions to work my way through that he promised to answer in more detailter. Although he did confess that he was not from Ponente but actually from Tramontana. This exined the topaz nature of his eyes and his somewhat Nordic features although he did confess that he had somewhat let himself go from his barbarian heritage since entering the church. The problem he said was all the fine food and not enough fighting. . . . The third major change to our lives was the depths themselves. It was proving highly profitable if a little perilous with monsters emerging every other night from the new entrance. Arawn had confirmed that although there was more movement near the northern exit the goblins he had discovered deep in the depths were not yet aware of the exit and any deaths might lead them quicker to the exit than if we had simply left them alone. The thought of yet more monsters was hardly inspiring but it sounded like this was the world I lived in I had just been unaware of the dangers of the deep. Though we had yet to delve. A variety of monsters had made their way out of the depths. First, it was the Mosau Eels then a huge spider the size of a small car appropriately called a Goliath Spider. I was surprised judging by the size of its corpse that it had been able to squeeze its way out of the exit. Luckily it killed with size rather than poison or speed and had been easily defeated. At least the Sentinels paid for themselves and the town guard counted as volunteered time for the most part. The tithe we were collecting helped to pay for the other half of their time. Still, thergest change to our daily lives was that everyone was a little more militant now. Uncle Aaron the cksmith was doing a brisk business ensuring that everyone now had a weapon to hand. My modern sensibilities worried that with everyone carrying a knife around crime and fights might increase alongside the ensuing deaths but that had not been the case so far. Of course, it helped that we now had an actual magical healer on the ind so perhaps they had but they had been healed up afterwards. On the other hand, our poption was small with everyone knowing everyone else ourmunity was closer and tighter. We did not live in isted bubbles of work and home without tv and the inte to suck out our souls it felt like people engaged with one another a lot more but that might just have been my attempt at romanticising my medieval situation. Either way, there had been no sudden deaths in the town from the openly held weapons. The fourth and final major change to my life was that a few more of my secrets had bemon knowledge among the townspeople. The most magical of which was that they now knew I could fly. The story of our flight by foot from the monsters and then my flight by air returning them to be decimated or led over the edge of the cliff had circted throughout the town. Initially, the rumours may have been spread by the diver¡¯s daughters but when confirmed by the clergy it only raised my myth higher. The benefit to this though was that I could fly back and forth from town. The most important part of this other than the sheer fun of flight was the time it saved me on a daily basis. Need to get to the top of the mountain, fly there. Need to get to church for a lesson from Bishop Bailie, fly there. Need to check on the Sentinels, fly there. Need to escape from the rest of your family for a moment of peace and quiet, flight was a fantastic escape method. Not that I could rmend that one any longer as it would alwayse back to bite you in the buttter. Still, the fact that I was a magical flying boy was no longer a secret and I nned to make the most of it. That and the levelling up of a Tier 4 skill was nothing to be sneezed at, especially when it was so easy to do. Flight (LV1 ¨C> 4) Chapter 155: New Arrival Chapter 155: New Arrival ¡°Make new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold.¡± Joseph Parry New POV This was the back end of beyond. He honestly didn¡¯t know why he had decided to travel so far. He certainly would have never even considered it if it had not been for Lady Acacia¡¯s request and their history. Crossing the southern cardinal kingdom of Ostro had been easy enough, something he had done many times before, but the ordinal kingdom of Libio was challenging for all the wrong reasons; he couldn¡¯t right the world¡¯s wrongs. It never ended well, and he was only one beastkin; without a tribe, army or nation, there was only so much he could do, especially as he was simply passing through. It had not gotten any easier once he had to start travelling by sea to head out to the Ponentian Archipgo. It had taken him months. His destination was the furthest isle west of thepass kingdoms. If he had gone any further, he would have sailed off the edge of the map into the unknown. Not that he could sail at all, forced to rely on whatever vessels would consent to take him further west. That had been the main problem. Beastkin and water rarely mixed. Especially when you had his particr heritage, he had to search hard for a vessel to take him so far, and the one he had found was hardly the most reputable. Still, the journey was almost over. The trip had better be worth it. It was a favour owed but, at the same time, a promising pupil from what she had been able to reveal to him. He looked up at the imposing cliffs. It would be good to stretch his legs once he was finally off the boat. The boat was too small to move at all. He could cross its width and length in a single leap, and he had no desire to leap any further and end up in the water. He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he caught another whiff of the crew. Or rather, the ves that silently worked the ship. Superior senses, while essential for tracking, fighting and daily life among the beastkin tribes of Ostro are not always pleasant to have when trapped on a boat with such foul-smelling humans. very was a sad fact for many in the Southern Kingdoms of the Compass Continent. But the true evil in his mind was the stench they lived in and inflicted on those unfortunate enough to travel with them. Intellectually, he knew it was not their fault, but the fact that this was the only vessel that he had been able to convince to travel this far out from the pirate-cursed Libian waters did not appease the beast within that was almost tempted to damn the water, jump in and swim to shore. In retrospect, he wondered whether it had been worth the time saved sailing directly northwest rather than travelling further up the coast to the Ponentian capital before travelling west through the archipgo to reach the Western Isles. He really should have requested Lady Acacia¡¯s guidance for his travel ns. But he was used to making his way in the world, his pride in his abilitiesrge enough to stub his toe on. In the end, it did not matter. He had finally made it as the ship slid into the harbour at the base of the cliffs. He was ever eager to disembark. The sooner, the better. ¡°This is Wester Ponente?¡± He checked a final time with the ship¡¯s captain. ¡°Aye, Namir.¡± The captain answered. ¡°As I have said, it¡¯s thest known isle west of the world. The western horizon of humanity, if you will.¡± The captain looked more pirate than a merchant, two daggers tattooed into his forearms, apass on his palm, while a cat o nine tails adorned his left bicep. Finally, a rope and grapple wrapped around his torso, although his shirt covered them. The fine clothing was worn for today when he would be making his first impression on the town and a possible attempt to look more merchant than a pirate with Libian sailors. Sometimes there was little difference, and often only depended on the harbour you sailed from. ¡°Is your friend expecting you?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯m long overdue, so expecting might be the wrong word, but she knows I¡¯ming.¡± He answered. ¡°Maybe I will see you in town. Farewell.¡± He said as he leapt to the dock without needing a nk or for the boat to stop rocking with the tide as it made its final approach. He travelled light with one hand on the railing and the other holding his travelling bag. Hended at the base of the stairs and, without looking back, started to quickly make his way up them at a pace that would have had the merchant sprinting but, to him, looked like a light jog despite the nearly verticaldder of stairs that climbed the cliffs. He finally rxed as he left the odoriferous vessel that had been his berth for far too long. . . . . New Captain¡¯s POV ¡°Load up the trade chests.¡± The captain shouted once his dangerous passenger had finally left. The man had been rtively rxedpared to the horror tales he had heard of some solitary beastkin from the tribes of Ostro. Still, he was d to finally rx a little after a lengthy trip at sea where he was no longer the strongest on board. Tiptoeing around the man¡¯s perceived sensibilities had been tiring, and he was looking forward to redefining the discipline on board now that he had left. He watched intently as his insufferably slow ves carried the silk, spices, gold, salt, ivory, beads, ceramics and feathers onto the shore. It was tempting to crack the whip, but he was still unsure whether Namir had left earshot. He could no longer see him as he disappeared up the stairs but that did not mean much to beastkin with those kinds of stats. Namir¡¯s first and only warning on the matter still stuck with him, although the puncture marks left by his ws and long since disappeared. He had regretted only discovering his passenger¡¯s morality after they had left sight of the shore. He was surprised the beast in man form had made it through Libio to the coast in one piece. He would have been quick to tip him overboard with any other passenger, but the beastkin had quickly, without trying, shown why that would have been a bad idea. He was even going as far as to prevent them from returning to the continent without dropping him off at the destination as they had agreed upon. He might not have been able to sail, but that did not mean he couldn¡¯t read the stars or the sun, and he had stayed stubbornly abreast of their direction, speed and heading. A man¡¯s word was his bond; it certainly would not have been worth breaking it if it had seen him dead. As he had for thest month, he was limited to shouting at the ves as they quickened their pace to fulfil his harshly high expectations. The chests were soon unloaded, and it was time to head for this Wester Town. He had never visited before, and he hoped to make a significant profit from his goods. People this far out would pay good money for products they could not buy elsewhere, although he had two concerns. Firstly, they might need more wealth to make it worth selling to them. He could hardly profit if they couldn¡¯t afford what he was selling. Secondly, they would have nothing worth buying, although he hoped that would not be the case. As they had made their way west, he had heard of deep-sea pearls and was keen to pick up as many as possible. They would fetch an eptable price with Libian crafters, and if he could sell them down in Ostro, he expected to receive even higher returns for the greater distance he would be transporting them. ¡°Square everything away and have everything ready for departure for when I get back. We have spent long enough on this venture.¡± Namir had paid exceptionally well for passage in spices and gold, but ¡°Time is money, and I expect us to be ready to go the moment I return.¡± he growled out loud to the first mate before stepping off the boat himself and passed the crates stationed in a line in the middle of the dock. Each chest was ready to be carried by two of his sailors. ¡°Off we go!¡± he shouted once more now that the chests had been unloaded. Without waiting to see if his ves were ready or even following, he set off up the steep staircase, knowing that all of his goods, both material and human, would be following in his footsteps up the fold in the cliff if they knew what was good for them. ¡°Time to make some money.¡± He muttered to himself as he made his way up. ¡°Time to buy and sell some souls.¡± He nced back at the ves bowed under the weights they carried and wondered whether he would need the extra cash from selling them for his purchases. The benefit to enving people was that they were walking, talking resources ready to be converted into the local currency at a moment¡¯s notice. He smiled at the thought of the profit he would make as he pushed his worries to the back of his mind. . . . Oddly enough, the guards'' first challenge in their new jobs was not a monster or rted to the Lodestone depths. Not that they knew it at the time. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± The first guardsman nudged his partner as they stood to watch on the eastern gate, pointing up to the cliff line in the far distance. They were the younger guards because they believed that if there were a surge and breakout from the depths, they would reach the southern or even the northern gates before they reached the eastern. ¡°Just a sailor . . .¡± he paused as the silhouette started bounding its way down the path from the cliffs, rapidly making its way closer. They might not have panicked if the shape had not dropped to all fours as it bounded down the slope to the bottom of the caldera, where the town sat on theke''s edge. ¡°That ain¡¯t any sailor I¡¯ve ever seen. Quick close the gate and ring the bell.¡± They rushed inside and pushed the gates shut before running up to the top of the wall to see if they could see what they feared to be a rapidly approaching monster. ¡°Oi, what¡¯s going on?¡± shouted Aaron Silverkin as he hustled his family in through the side gate. The family had insisted on having a key when the town emphasised that the main entrances would be closed in case of any monsters. One day the wall would extend to include their houses, but for now, the focus was on building a new western border in theke''s shallows to protect the west side of the town. ¡°That¡¯s what we would like to know?¡± Shouted the man leading the extra four guards who were slightly out of breath from running to the eastern gate. The remaining reserve rushed to guard the northern and southern entrances to the town. ¡°There¡¯s . . . somethinging fast from the east.¡± The panicked guard shouted down. At the same time, his slightly calmerpatriot added. ¡°We aren¡¯t sure what ising. The silhouette on the skyline looked human when we first saw it, but then it dropped to all fours and is running down the slope towards us.¡± On hearing this, the guards rushed up to handle the walls retrieving bows and arrows alongside spears to hopefully repel the approaching threat without allowing it to enter the town and cause havoc and harm. ¡°Children to your grandpa¡¯s.¡± Aaron Silverkin shouted, sending them off before joining the guards on the wall. ¡°Where is it then?¡± he asked when reaching the top. ¡°We don¡¯t know. We lost sight of it when we closed the gates and ran to the top of the wall.¡± The young men confessed guiltily. ¡°You¡¯re sure you''re not just seeing things.¡± The reinforcements'' leader asked critically and sceptically, as nothing could be seen on the slope up to the cliff tops. ¡°No! We both saw it. It must have reached the eastern coppices and stopped there.¡± He argued vehemently, denying the usation that they had made this up. ¡°You expect us to believe that it made it to the coppice from the clifftop in the same time it took us to cross half the town.¡± He raised an eyebrow disbelievingly at the thought. ¡°It was moving incredibly quickly.¡± The other eastern gate guard backed up his youngerpatriot. ¡°Then we will see it soon enough.¡± Aaron intervened between the younger eastern guard gates and the older reinforcements though everyone was new to their jobs. They waited with bated breath anxiously for their foe to finally reveal themselves. It would be good to know the truth of what they would have to face rather than relying on vague earlier sightings that implied a beast that had crawled out of the depths of the sea and climbed the cliffs that protected them from most denizens of the depths. With anticlimactic relief, they saw a man leave the eastern coppice on the path that led to the cliffs and the docks at the base of them. He was taller than average, and his features were hidden under a hood, but he was not the rampaging monster they had feared they would be facing. ¡°That¡¯s your monster?¡± the leader of the reinforcements was not impressed at being dragged across town and the frantic fear they had all faced at the idea of a break from the Lodestone depths. ¡° . . . ¡± The two eastern gate guards were forced into silence by their embarrassment but were also stuck for words to exin what they had seen. ¡°Seeing as we are all here now, we can at least give our new arrival a warm wee,¡± Aaron added, defusing the tension between the two sets of guards as the man made his final approach to the town. Raising his open palm in greeting, ¡°Straight bearings to you, I seek the Silverseas.¡± Namir shouted up to them as he pushed back his hood, revealing his features. Chapter 156: A New arrival continued. Chapter 156: A New arrival continued. Aleera and I were at the town market when the bell suddenly rang. It took a second for us to understand what we were hearing. Although the n for monster sightings had been posted in the market square, it had yet to happen. Then we needed to remember which bell was which, although I could quickly tell it wasing from the East. ¡°It¡¯s the eastern gate,¡± I shouted to Aleera over the noise of the people hurriedly packing up and rushing home. We did the same, but once we had packed up, I was keen to see what the threat was rather than just dash on home. With flight, in theory, I should at least be safe enough to run away and knowing what the town was facing would be necessary for deciding how we would face it. ¡°Let¡¯s go to grandpa¡¯s,¡± Aleera shouted at me, confused as to why I was hesitating to follow her. She had already started to pull our cart towards his home. This habit of hers was frustrating for Lady Acacia, who, on the one hand, insisted it was udylike for her to be doing such manualbour but, on the other hand, recognised the limited market that she could sell our goods to and the importance of continuing to level up her skills and metier. In the end, despite her criticism, she turned a blind eye to it, especially as Aleera was adamant she would not be paying someone to pull it for us when it would cut into our profits, at least not yet anyway. ¡°I just want to see what¡¯sing,¡± I shouted as I turned to race toward the church rather than toward my grandpa¡¯s home. ¡°Stop being silly, Kai. You won¡¯t be able to do anything.¡± She paused in her flight. But she didn¡¯t have the spare hands between her destination and her goods to try manhandling me, especially since my growth spurt and the redistribution of my stats in the light of the Lodestar. ¡°I¡¯m just going to nce; then I will join you.¡± Ipromised. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to know what ising rather than cowering in fear of the unknown?¡± I argued. Gritting her teeth, she frowned, ¡°Be safe.¡± Before continuing her flight to our grandpa¡¯s house. I could hear her muttering to herself as she turned away from me. ¡°They¡¯re going to kill me if you are not.¡± I rushed toward the church but did not attempt to enter it, afraid the Bishop would hold me up; I opted to scale the church tower. I needed enough height to fall a little before I could get my flight skill going. Thest time we had broken into the church, I had been carried by Arawn, but that did not mean that I had not thought about it since. I was now tall enough at least to reach the joints between the stones that made up the tower. My endurance was enough to stop my fingers from bleeding as I started to climb the tower. My light body meant that my strength stat had little to pull up, while my dexterity meant I could do all this quickly. A little magic wind kept my body pushed upward and against the wall. With all of those advantages, it wasn¡¯t too challenging to promptly scale the tower. Once at the top, I looked to see if I could see any hordes rushing from the east, but I saw nothing. Intrigued and curious, I decided a short flight to the wall would be in order. Hopefully, curiosity wouldn¡¯t kill this cat. Besides, if we needed to fly to our isle or race to it for reinforcements in the form of Arawn and Lady Acacia, the sooner I found out what was happening, the better. Pulling on my mana, I called the wind and flooded my robe with mana before using the sill material maniption to form the equivalent of a medieval flight suit. My Flight skill helped with my jump smoothing my take-off into a smooth glide before I began to soar. So much different from the freefall; I would need to create enough wind speed for the silk robe held in position by mana to function. Rather than race to the eastern gate which would have had me skimming over the rooftops, I circled upward over the market square while continuing to look for whatever the guards on the east gate had seen. They were no longer ringing the bell but staring eastward, and I could see the reserve guards rushing to the three entrances, most of them making their way to the eastern wall. But I saw no sign of a horde from the depths or even a single monster. Comfortably high in the sky, I widened my circle to travel the circumference of the town. My super senses meant that though smaller in size, I could still clearly see the arrival of my uncle and cousins at the eastern gate and the argument between the two guards and the reinforcements that joined them. I joined them in searching the countryside for whatever had scared them enough to close the gates and ring the bell. With my higher elevation, I could see the figure arrive at the coppice and see for myself the reason behind the guards'' actions. Whatever was approaching the town was doing so on all fours though he was now behind the thicket and, therefore, out of sight from the wall below me. I watched with interest as the creature transitioned from running on all fours to suddenly standing on two. I realised that his lumpy form was not the shape of his body but the addition of a pack back as I watched him readjust his travel bag and stride forward through the coppice along the path toward the town. Under the foliage cover, I could no longer see his progress, but it was not hard to guess his approximate location, and I was unsurprised by his exit from the tree line. Much unlike the town guard, who was startled by the sudden appearance of someone who now looked nearlypletely human in his mannerisms as he strode toward the gate. Rising his hand in greeting and calling out to the guard, I saw him push back his hood, and the reason for his unusual running gait suddenly became clear. He was not human. Not human, elf, giant, dwarf, or pixie; what I believed I was looking at was a beastkin. One that, judging by the tail saying behind him, was feline in nature. I had to have a closer look and started to descend. The distance in height, the speed of movement, and the rushing of the air past my ears made it nigh impossible to hear their conversation as it concluded below me, with them opening the gate to allow him entrance to our town. With a grin, I lined up my descent, released my material maniption and the wind to let my body drop straight down in front of them. I red my mana once more and caught my fall with an upward gust of air, slowing my descent and allowing me tond smoothly in front of them. The guard''s shocked faces were worth the expenditure of my mana. The . . . Ding! Intimidation LV1 . . . just made my smile that much more prominent. I should do that more often. I thought the surprises had yet to finish. Then, with my arrival, the man or beastkin dropped to one knee and bowed his head over his arm resting on his knee. ¡°My lord,¡± the catkin started though merely a cat was not quite right with his ears more circr than pointed. The guards were doubly shocked and perhaps a little embarrassed that they had not greeted me simrly. The whole town was still getting used to the idea that they had a lord, let alone that he was a pint-sized one. The fact that I could do magic and fly had also yet to sink in, with those who had yet to see it still acting somewhat disbelieving about the whole idea. ¡°I seek Lady n. Can you tell me where I might find her?¡± He addressed me over the adults that surrounded him. I noticed Uncle Aaron in the group and addressed him. ¡°I¡¯m sure we could show you the way, Adal Silverkin.¡± I raised my arms like all children everywhere to be picked up. Sure, I could run alongside or in front of everyone, but I would have to run to keep up, which hardly fit with the image of the lord I was trying to portray. While my raised arms were not much better, that was a momentarypse in impression, and once on my uncle''s shoulders, I could look down on everyone as we walked to the town square before turning off toward my grandpa¡¯s house. I did promise to let Aleera know what had happened after all. While the guards left to open the gates and let people know it had been a false rm, we made our way to our Grandpa¡¯s house. ¡°Just a short stop to pick up my sister before we go home and introduce you to Lady n, our tutor,¡± I exined our detour and dy. ¡°Not a monster, just a new arrival,¡± I shouted through the door after knocking as soon as I could hear my family approaching. They opened the door filled with questions that died in their throats as they looked at the silent beastkin apanying us. ¡°He seeks Lady n. Ready to go home?¡± I asked Aleera with a grin at seeing her shock. Seneschal Smit and Adal Silverkin insisted on apanying us as we made our way to the northern dock, where we had our boat moored. Afterpleting my first impression, I maintained my image as an aloof lord. However, it had probably only been intimidating for the guards, not the guest we had apanying us. That did not deter my sister, who was interrogating him on everything from who he was to why, how and who he came here with and what they might have for sale. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Namir.¡± ¡°Where are you from? ¡°The Southern Kingdom of Ostro.¡± ¡°Why did youe to Wester Ponente?" ¡°To see an old friend. And repay a favour." ¡°How did you get to our isle?¡± ¡°On the boat SeaInk. They are a trader out of Libio.¡± ¡°What are they selling?¡± ¡°The usual, gold, ivory, salt, spices, beads, ceramics. I do not know exactly what they have and hope to part with.¡± Their conversation continued in a simr vein. He was happy to be drawn on his travels but was vague about his purpose in visiting Lady Acacia. We had arrived at our boat and were ready to set sail when we had our third surprise of the day. On theke, we could see Arawn sailing closer, probablying to investigate the source of the bells tolling earlier and check up on Aleera and me. But when he saw who was apanying us. Rather than wait for the boat to finish approaching the dock or even wait for us to sail out to him, heunched himself off his boat, having shed from the helm to the prow. Then havingunched himself off his craft, he somehow managed to skip off the surface of the water once, twice, thrice beforending in front of us and between us and the beastkin who had skipped back out of the boat and was now holding hidden daggers which had shed into his hands at the sight of Arawn Silversword approaching and pulling his des. Chapter 157: Standoff Chapter 157: Standoff ¡°Men, in general, judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of touch because everyone can see, but few can test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion.¡± Nol¨° Machiavelli They stood in a silent standoff, neither one of them moving as they assessed the other. I had never seen Arawn so focused before. Finally, they rxed an infinitesimal amount, but neither put away the daggers they were still holding. ¡°Who is your guest?¡± he asked, addressing his question to me, who had been leading the party, but he did so without taking his eyes off the new arrival. At least, that is who I assumed he was addressing. Unfortunately, nobody else bothered to respond, so I was left to speak carefully in the tense atmosphere. ¡°His name is Namir.¡± So far, so good. No explosion of violence. ¡°He is here to see Lady n,¡± I answered for the group. That was all I knew; he had not volunteered much more than that. Did we need to start screening visitors to our town? Holding them for some form of inspection before allowing them in. Seneschal Smit and Adal Silverkin seemed equally surprised by Arawn¡¯s and Namir¡¯s actions. He was staring in shock between the suddenly threatened violence and seeing it unexpectedly bursting forth from our grandfather, who was generally aszy as he could get away with being. They had not been there to face off against the Mosau Eels and had only heard the story second or third hand. It was different seeing it in person. ¡°I¡¯ll escort him to the isle. We will wait for you there. Before going to visit Lady Acacia.¡± He told us, leaving no room for disagreement. He also did not give us the time. ¡°After you, Namir.¡± He gestured to thegoon keeping himself between the beastkin and us as he approached the water¡¯s edge. With a sigh, Namir put away his daggers, braced himself and set off toward the water¡¯s edge and over it. Skipping off the water with each step, he was soon running over the water to the isle in the middle of theke. That looked like a handy skill to have if it was one. However, I wondered how fast your dexterity had to rise to do it off pure stats alone. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in a few minutes,¡± Arawn replied before dashing off after Namir. I noticed that despite Namir putting away his daggers, he had not thought to put away his own. He was also aiming at a slightly different angle tond on the isle sufficient distance away so as not to crowd the beastkin. ¡°I suppose we must pick up his boat on the way then. Seeing as he seems to have forgotten about it.¡± Uncle Aaron pointed out the now drifting boat in the middle of theke that had been left to its own devices, while Arawn had focused solely on the beastkin to the exclusion of all else. So we set sail, heading to the drifting boat. It was unlikely to get smashed on the shore as the water was reasonably calm, but it could get blown anywhere if left to its own devices for the whole day. ¡°We always thought he had swum to the isle when he first appeared all those years ago.¡± Grandpa groaned to himself. ¡°He just ran there.¡± He muttered to himself, re-evaluating our grandfather¡¯s arrival. I realised that while our immediate family were now aware of how he had crawled out of the depths with a baby tied to his back. His arrival to the rest of the elderly members of the town was still a mystery. He had shown up one day. It had been years before the city realised he had a daughter, adopted or not. ¡°We always knew he was the strongest of the town but did not know to what degree.¡± He continued hismentary. Uncle Aaron had a separatement as we made our way across. ¡°Well, judging by Arawn¡¯s reaction, perhaps the guards were not being as silly as we first assumed. Now it seems their response was perfectly justified, even if it was a beastkin monster rather than a beast escaping from the Lodestone depths. ¡°A little practice at ringing and responding to the rm is perchance warranted.¡± Grandpa Smit agreed. ¡°There were certainly a few things that could have run a little smoother. Not least the packing up of the market and everyone returning home. By now, the guard should have reassured them there is nothing to worry about, but perhaps we need an all-clear signal and a call to arms.¡± He thought through how to move forward after the mini panic caused by the bells this morning. Eventually, we sidled up to Arawn¡¯s boat, and Aleera transferred across with Grandpa Smit to sail it back to the isle. This left me and Uncle Aaron to continue on our way. Arawn and Namir were still in a subtle standoff on the ind ahead of us, but they had note to blows yet. As we approached the isle, Aaron shouted, ¡°An exciting morning, eh?¡± starting the conversation again. Aleera and I were filling the sails of our respective boats with wind and making speedy progress toward the isle. It was not quite a race, as we would have driven the boats onto the rocks, but it was close enough for the moment as we sped across the water. ¡°Yes,¡± I shouted back. As exciting as the bells and the new arrival had been, Arawn¡¯s reaction had emphasised the possible seriousness of the matter, and it was a relief to have family taking up the burden and making sure it all worked out okay in the end rather than leaving the weight of it all on my little shoulders. ¡°Impressive entrance.¡± He added, referring to how I had fallen from the sky tond before the guards and him. I grinned unrepentantly, ¡°Well, it was the quickest way to get there.¡± I answered, omitting the fact that I had been watching the whole process of the beastkin¡¯s arrival from above before dropping in. ¡°Why exactly did you think rushing toward the possible monsters would be a good idea?¡± Uncle Aaron asked. ¡°Well, I thought it would be good to know what wasing, and then I could let Grandfather and Lady Acacia know if they were needed,¡± I answered, fully aware that there would have been little I could have done from the air. Instead, I needed to develop some form of ordinance, spells or weapons to use from a distance or height. ¡°You need to be careful chasing monsters or your future. You don¡¯t just represent yourself but our families¡¯ dreams as well.¡± He cautioned. Reminding me that it wasn¡¯t just my close family relying on me to be a Lord in truth, not just name. Our subordinate Adals looked for support from the central Silversea branch just as they supported us. ¡°I will.¡± I agreed seriously. I had no intention of passing away anytime soon. . . . Eventually, we arrived on the isle and with Arawn escorting Namir in front of us, we made our way through the Parthenon-style entrance into our mountain hall. Namir seemed to take the sudden splendour of our architecture for granted, as if such edifices were wholly expected of a Noble family. But, unfortunately, it was only possible to infer a little from this other than that he was used to either interacting with nobles or the towns and cities of thepass kingdoms were far grander than the town of our humble origins. There was no petitioning session today, so the hall stood empty. Father was probably out sailing. Mother might be working on a couple of her projects, and without us to tutor, seeing as we had visited the town to trade meant that Lady Acacia herself could be anywhere between her room and the Elendil tree. ¡°If you would not mind waiting here with us for a moment while Seneschal Smit and Adal Silverkin request her attendance.¡± Grandfather Arawn was being far more formal and careful in his speech than we had ever heard him before. However, it was reciprocated in return. ¡°It would be my pleasure to wait in the Silversea hall. There is so much to feast my eyes upon.¡± He replied, referring to the coats of arms for our Adals on the banners mother had woven or the song ensouled in stone, their patterns decorating the floor. We had even had a little time to add the odd decorations on the columns, but we had mainly stuck with the majestic serenity of simplicity. Encouraging our visitors to understand this great hall was hewn out from the mountain''s core. We even left the odd natural stone surface on a corner or wall to reinforce the original nature of the cavern we had created. Left to our own devices Aleera and I ascended to our seats at the end of the hall. Grandfather Arawn was careful to keep himself between our new visitor and us. We both had projects of our own hidden in the arms of our miniature thrones. Methods for keeping us happy between petitioners or simply doodle pads to help alleviate the boredom. The magic of my doodles now was that they were practised for all the magic I had learned. Each page was filled with glyphs from the giants, enchantments from the elves, runes from the dwarves and sigils from humanity. I spun up my other half to watch Namir while I worked on my fine motor skills and memory as I practised them. We waited silently, but not long before four sets of footsteps reached our ears. My reaction to their approach caused the first glimpse of surprise from the stoic Namir, who had also noticed their arrival but perhaps had not expected me to in turn. First came Mother with Uncle Aaron, who joined us on the dais to stand alongside Aleera and me in my father''s absence. While Arawn still stood on guard at the foot of the stage. He still stood with his knives out despite his empty hands of Namir. ¡°Is it necessary to keep your knives out when he has put them away?¡± I asked, concerned. There was a lot I did not know about etiquette, but that struck me as a poor example of being a weing host. ¡°The metal may be missing, but Namirs ws are still extended. So he is hardly unarmed.¡± He replied without turning to face us. ¡° . . .¡± Aleera and I were speechless as we focused on our guest''s hands, finding that his ws were indeed still partially exposed rather than retracted. ¡°That is simply a fact of life for all members of the Duma Tribe of beastkin. We cannot ever retract them fully. I am certainly not leaving them out to be threatening by choice. I simply hope to meet with Lady Acacia and have her speak on my behalf.¡± He answered our quiet conversation, clearly able to hear it perfectly despite the approach of our mother and Aaron and their own conversation. Speak of the devil, and she shall appear; finally, Lady Acacia descended the stairs to her corridor with Seneschal Silvertongue in tow. A small smile grew on her face as she recognised our visitor. ¡°Splendid, splendid, you finally deigned to grace us with your presence.¡± Then, as she descended the stairs, she dered that he was at least known to her. ¡°It was hardly a short journey. I had returned to my ancestral roaming grounds in the Kingdom of Ostro. It has been over a decade since Ist saw you in person or even travelled as far north as Ponente. There has been plenty to keep me upied with at home.¡± He defended the length of time his trip had taken. ¡°Even though you are familiar with Namir, that does not change the fact that we are not.¡± Arawn interrupted the subtle squabbling. ¡°Would either of you care to enlighten us about who Namir is and what he hoped to achieve by visiting Lady Acaia?¡± While we experienced some relief that he was known to Lady Acaia, at least Grandfather was still focused like aser on the individual in question and his reasoning for being here. He also seemed incredibly unsettled by someone he perceived as a credible threat to our safety. Namir decided to answer his question to the pair of us sitting on the dais. ¡°We met while Ipleted a circumnavigation of thepass in the Kingdom of Maestro. She was able to help me out of a spot of difficulty, and in return, I promised to help her tutor one individual if she ever found a pupil worthy of my time. Perhaps she has; considering the little I have seen of you from your entrance by air and your base sensory stats alone, I am intrigued and even willing to repay the favour. Not all of us will live for centuries more, and it would be pleasant to have a prot¨¦g¨¦ I could be proud of rather than a favour owed dangling above my head.¡± He gave us a little nod of respect as he answered the question. Either paying respect to our position or the inference that we were the pupil''s Lady Acacia had spent her favour on. Lady Acacia added to his statement, exining. ¡°I have taught you much of music, history, literature, mathematics, how to be a Lord and Lady, even my magic. However, I have given you the basic entry-level skills for each weapon. I would choose Namir to take you further in your martial skills. Your skills, while they are many, and indeed magic itself is a weapon, your basic martial skills with real weapons outside of your daggers will need significant development before ever attending the Ponentian Court, where duels can be called for over the littlest slight and called to be settled with the strength of your arm rather than the might of your magic. Lord Silversea requires this education, and I am not the best qualified to give it. This man, Namir, is.¡± Her addition was passionate and powerful in arguing the importance of his instruction. However, Arawn had yet to rx. ¡°This is one tutor that I am not confident I can dispatch without the element of surprise.¡± His brutal honesty was as blunt and refreshing as always. Lady Acaia seemed to silently bristle at the implication that he considered her dispatchable despite her smooth polished face. ¡°Thank you all for your honesty.¡± Aleera started speaking for the two of us. ¡°If Lady Acacia could escort you on a Grand Tour of our home and Isle while we consider our response. We may have to wait for our father to return, but we hope to get an answer back to you before the sun sets.¡± Without much further ado, the Elf and the beastkin departed the hall to explore, and Arawn finally began to rx. . . . Back at the eastern gate Meanwhile, several ves and their enver had finally reached the eastern gate of Wester Town. Despite the steps carved into it, it had been a long climb up the cliff face. Sadly, this was followed by an equally long descent into the inner ind. He was not looking forward to the reverse on their return journey. ¡°Ho the town.¡± The captain raised his hand in greeting his ves, limping after him,den down as they were with his goods. There were not all that the ship held, but certainly enough for a small town, and if he managed to sell more, he could always send them back for more. ¡°Wee, merchant.¡± The gate guards stopped him as he arrived. ¡°Where do you hail from, and what are you selling?¡± they asked as his darker skin tone,pared to theirs alongside his almond-shaped eyes, differentiated him from the average sailor or merchant from Ponente. People travelled, it was true but mainly stuck to their towns, isles or kingdoms. It was rare to see someone from outside them. ¡°We have travelled far and hail from the southwest kingdom of Libio.¡± He answered with a short angled tilt of his head. ¡°I sell only the finest gold, ivory, spices, beads and ceramics wares. Can you point me in the direction of the market square?¡± He asked politely. ¡°Straight ahead, due west, but you will be out of luck today.¡± The younger guard answered. ¡°Why?¡± he asked, confused as it was not toote in the day for some more trading to be done. He had hoped to be back on board his ship by the time night fell. ¡°Well, the market closed for the day after the scare and the rm bells being rung.¡± He answered honestly, even if it was not helpful to the captain with the well-practised experience gained over thest couple of months of sailing with a specific passenger to imagine the problem. ¡°Was it a beastkin?¡± He asked to confirm his suspicions with a sinking feeling. ¡°Yes.¡± The younger gate answered enthusiastically. ¡°He came down from the cliff at such a frightening pace I doubt even the walls would have been able to stop him had he hit them or jumped. We couldn¡¯t tell from the distance that he was a noble race. It is rare to see a beastkin this far west. So, we made the call.¡± Before adding the rhetorical question, ¡°Better safe than sorry, right?¡± The captain sighed, the benefit of which was it could be taken for agreement, disagreement or sheer frustration depending on the listener''s belief. Of course, he was full of anger and frustration, but there was no need to reveal that to the two young guards, who seemed somewhatcking in experience. ¡°And when will the market open next?¡± He asked the follow-up question because that was all that truly mattered. ¡°Tomorrow morning bright and early.¡± They answered that they were happy to help. ¡°Then, could you direct us to the nearest tavern instead?¡± He asked, disappointed that he would have to spend some money in this small town before he could start making some back. Hopefully, the tavern was not as inexperienced as the town¡¯s guards, and he could enjoy his night there. ¡°Same as thest set of instructions straight ahead due west. The Compass Edge Tavern is right on the market square, can¡¯t miss it.¡± They answered with a quick nod in that direction. ¡°Thank you.¡± He answered before leading the way into the town. It was a quaint enough town. Shielded from the sea by the towering cliff walls, it had grown well in the shade of their protection. Thriving well in the shelter, he saw far more prosperity than he might have hoped for on the way to the tavern. It was a sprawling building that had been clearly built in sections but had also clearly imed sufficient and significant space within the town to do so. But whether there was a market for his goods or not was something he would find out tomorrow. First, though, he needed to find out they of thend, seeing as they would spend their night in the tavern. It might be a long night, being a little early in the day to start drinking, but he had skills for that, and hopefully, it would be informative. . . . Back on the Isle We waited for Father to return, but our answer had never really been in doubt. If we needed to enter the court of Ponente, then this was what we needed to do. It looked like it was back to physical training for me. A few years older, a few feet taller, with my family to support me, hopefully, it would be a little less brutal this time. ¡°We ept.¡± Chapter 158: Disappointments Chapter 158: Disappointments ¡°We must ept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.¡± Martin Luther King. Jr. ¡°We ept.¡± Two words made a world of difference to our tutors, both present and future. ¡°In that case, and to alleviate any worries your grandfather may have about my safety around the two scions. I want to pledge my allegiance to House Silversea until you attend court in Ponente.¡± He took a knee in front of us and our seats of power. ¡°I, Namir of the Duma tribe whose ancestralnds lie in the Southern Kingdom of Ostro, swear by the guiding light of the Lodestar and growing horizon of the Compass Kingdoms that I will be an honourable and loyal retainer of the noble house Silversea. I will tutor and guard Callen Kai Silversea and Aleera Silversea to the best of my ability in the weapons of war until they reach the age of adulthood and attend the Court of Lords in Ponente.¡± His pledge was a sign of his sincerity, but most importantly, it was binding until we came of age. There would be no change exchange of stats; we were not elevating his status. But it was a level of insurance and safety backed by the light of the Lodestar. ¡°Arise Namir of the Duma Tribe. We thank you for your pledge and look forward to learning all you have to teach.¡± Surprised but undaunted, we replied. The words for various oaths of allegiances and employment pledges had been drilled into us by Lady Acacia, and we could answer them word for word perfectly in unison. We had a new tutor. ¡°If I may take my leave, I still have much to catch up on with Lady Acacia and your future training regime to begin nning out.¡± Then, with our permission, he rose and was escorted out by Lady Acacia. Our home continued to expand, and we had already created rooms or apartments alongside hers to amodate future guests. It had been an exciting day in more ways than one, but I was happy that everything seemed to have resolved itself peacefully. . . . Lady Acacia and Aleera ¡°It is high time for us to spread the source of our power among our cousins, our magic.¡± Aleera was insistent that this was the best way to bolster the strength of our supporting Adals. I agreed. However, Lady Acacia was unconvinced about forfeiting personal growth to empower others. ¡°I cannot stop you. Seeing you limit your growth, no matter how altruistic you are, is disappointing. Are you sure you wish to do this?¡± she asked again. She had taught us the words, and we could do it with or without her blessing, but she was our tutor and worth convincing if possible or at least politely informing before Aleera allocated her free points to allow her to do this. It would affect her personal growth significantly to ce stats into magic but then receive the physical stats from her cousins in return. ¡°Yes, I am sure. All elves have magic. I am unsure why wouldn¡¯t you encourage this?¡± Aleera seemed confused about where the downside was to elevating our cousins to the same degree that we had been through the fate of our birth. ¡°All elves have magic. They have always had magic. Humans though . . .¡± She paused to consider her words carefully. ¡°For humans to be a mage is to be noble or nearly noble. This is arge change for thempared to Elves, who are all born with it. There is no change to our power levels because they have already stratified. But for humans, those with power are not keen to share or allow others to ess it. This would change that. Finally, oncemoners have magic, or rather have power, they are less likely to allow nobility to lord over them. It will change the dynamic of the rulership of your court, and you have not even formed it yet.¡± She expressed her concerns over the fickle nature of humans and the possible potential forplicationspared to the more conservative and stable heritage she had been brought up with. ¡°The Silversea court is formed in all but name. Our cousins listen and learn from us. They ept our leadership. We are already far ahead of their curve in both stats and skills, no matter where we are along it. This will only solidify their gratitude for the gifts we have given them. I will empower the girls. The boys must wait for Kai to grow up to unlock theirs. Besides, it sounds like they will be busy with this new tutor of Kai¡¯s.¡± ¡°If this is what you have decided, then so be it. The boys will certainly be busy with Namir if I know anything about his training methods. However, do not think for a second youngdy that you too will not benefit from them.¡± She cautioned. ¡°But I thought . . .¡± Aleera started to object before she was overruled. ¡°Just because men tend to end up stronger before and after the application of stats does not mean that a Lady should not be able to defend herself. While you will be chaperoned in court, you may often end up as your only line of defence against the interests of other Lords and Ladies. You have no elder siblings to protect you. It will be up to you.¡± . . . The following day, Namir found me bright and early. ¡°I have been given your baseline from Lady Acacia, but you have grown since then, so we will start with reassessing first.¡± He dered. Excellent, I thought to myself, here we go again. He had found me on the Salt ts working through my morning stretches with Arawn. He had been sticking a little closer than usual since his arrival. ¡°Although most of your training will be directly with me, we do not have knights or soldiers to train with, particrly not at your size or level. So, we must call on your cousins to build an appropriate gauntlet for your training. So, I will need to assess them as well. Once you can outrun, outsmart and outfight your cousins, we will work with the town guards and the sentinels. Before you head to court, I expect you to be able to duel everyone on the ind and win. We will also have to delve to raise your levels and stats. Understood?¡± He outlined his n for me. ¡°Yes, I have been through this before with Lady Acacia,¡± I answered, having alreadypleted a baseline with her and working through various weapons to gain their skills. ¡°What do you mean by a gauntlet?¡± I asked. While Arawn asked as well, ¡°Delve?¡± ¡°Yes, you have gained a lot of skills, but you haven¡¯t had the training to use them at the drop of a coin, let alone the drop of a hair. However, by the time we are finished, you will.¡± He dered. ¡°A gauntlet is a training method of providing the intended recipient with a steadily increasing level of challenge from suitably levelled opponents. To sharpen your skills, you will need a suitable foil. You will level far quicker by beating someone just above your level rather than constantly losing against someone far stronger than yourself. Once you have consistently won against them, we will move on to the next, which is why I must assess and train the house Adals supporting House Silversea, your cousins.¡± He answered my statement and question in detail before turning to my grandfather. ¡°Delve indeed. There is no reason why, with the two of us to ensure their safety, the two scions could not apany us in explorative dives into the depths. It will be essential to level them to a suitable level to attend court.¡± He added, nonplussed by our grandfather¡¯s response. ¡°They are not yet ready. The boy has only just left infancy. They are hardly the effective killers which they would need to be before we can even consider that.¡± He argued for once being the more responsible of the two adults when considering child endangerment. ¡°I am not expecting them to lead the way. At least, the young lord would be carried figuratively and literally in more ways than one. But the experience and, more importantly, the experience gained is vital to give them a stronger start at court.¡± ¡°Why is it so vital?¡± he asked, unconvinced. ¡°Every child of nobility is power levelled in whatever manner or method their house can afford. Children may not be able to see their status until they are five, butmoners are taught that they cannot gain skills before they gain their status and that there is no point in gaining skills and levels before the age of 10 if they cannot assign the stats. This is not true, as your grandson proves, and the other nobles know it.¡± He outlined the status quo while throwing in a little bit of ttery. "He is hardly an average child." he agreed, somewhat mollified. ¡°No, but the other young lords anddies will have had ess to an entire capital¡¯s worth of wisdom and training from as early as they can understand it. They will have been levelled through the power of their parents, social shenanigans of balls and dinners to level social skills, academic skills from their tutors in thenguages and arts, weapons training with their retainers, magic spellcraft and skills, and whatever else their money, power and privilege can purchase them.¡± He paused for breath, but he was not finished. ¡°That will have included hunts both in the light of the lodestar and possibly into the depths of the lodestone. This far from the centre of civilisation, we will have to take advantage of every opportunity, which means taking them into the depths even if we have to carry them ourselves.¡± He finished his justification to both Arawn and me. Nothing was new in what he was arguing, but it seemed strange to have Arawn as the voice of caution in any conversation. It was also a little intimidating, considering he suggested we crawl down into the tunnels the Mosau eels crawled out of. ¡°That is enough exnation for now. Let¡¯s start reassessing your baseline. I have Lady Acacia¡¯s notes, but I expect you to have improved on them.¡± He waved a sheaf of papers he pulled out from a pouch. Back to basics, how disappointing. Not that this wasn¡¯t important, but when would I learn something new? Childishly, I wanted to be able to run on the water too! ¡°Then will you teach me how to run on water?¡± I quizzed. I was still frustrated that I never knew my grandfather could do that. ¡°Firste the base assessments, but then, after that, why not? I can certainly understand the preference to run over it rather than swim through it. Who knows, perhaps you already can but haven¡¯t tried. We will add it to the list of things to assess; with your weight, you would certainly not need to go as fast as us to seed.¡± He replied before pondering my request. My mind blossomed at the thought. Had I not tried simply because my modern mind thought it was impossible, I would need some skill to do so rather than merely using pure stats. How fast would I need to move to run over the water? ¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡± So I threw myself into my assessments, surprising the adults with my enthusiasm. It was not long before I regretted my eagerness, but I had something to look forward to, and I was keen to get the rest of the taskspleted to get to it. . . . Meanwhile, in Wester Town, the merchant was waking . . . Waking up, he was disappointed to find that the floor wasn¡¯t moving with the passage of a ship. He was onnd. He supposed the room was nice enough. But he lived with the motto that he was losing money if he was standing still. This was particrly poignant as any time he was standing still for an entire night; he was paying for the pleasure in a tavern, inn, dock or brothel. It was never cheap wherever he stayed, especially if you had any standards, and as a captain of his ship, he had a status to maintain. Once he had arrived, he sent his ves back to the boat, unwilling to pay for their amodation. Hopefully, the small town he had sailed to the end of the world to find had enough to make his visit worth the while and recap some of the losses he had made on transporting Namir. The fare to break his fast was fine enough, and he soon strolled through the town toward the market. His tired ves were carrying his wares behind him. The town was an odd mix of wealth in terms of the size of the dwellings, the cleanliness of the streets, and poverty considering the rtiveck of permanent shops and services. It did not take him long to reach the market square and for his ves to set up his stall. They were to watch over his wares and engage the customers in conversation but were not allowed to sell; there was no reason to waste experience on levelling a ve when it could go toward levelling himself. He had a quick peruse of the market, looking for those diamonds in the rough that he could turn a tidy profit on from transporting. However, each time he found one delicate fruit, salt, pearls, cloth, or even wine, he received the same answer on asking whether he could purchase in bulk. He would have to talk to House Silversea if he wished to make a more significant purchase than the odd item they were reselling. It was disappointing but not wholly unexpected that a noble family would monopolise the higher-value trade goods or luxury items. It was regretful, but he would have to talk to the family directly if he hoped to move the required quantities. It was frustrating that he would have to request an audience with the Silversea family; they only took petitions on the weekend. Resigned to waiting a little longer to make significant purchases, he passed the day selling a few of his samples, enough to cover his day-to-day costs but needed more to justify the trip''s expense. Still, House Silversea was supposedly a new noble house, so he hoped to make a significant profit when he finally met them. He hoped it would not take too long. Chapter 159: Fight or flight Chapter 159: Fight or flight ¡°Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.¡± W.B. Yeats Our baseline assessment went much the same asst time. It was kind of like going up a grade in school. The new teacher wanted to make their own assessment. We worked our way through the skills of running, swimming, diving, climbing, riding, and every weapon skill. He had an aversion to water so watched the swimming and diving but everything else he apanied me in doing. ¡°You have a lot ofmon skills. But they are calledmon for a reason. The easiest and simplest skills you will be looked down on if this is the extent of your physical skills.¡± ¡°I have a few moremon physical skills Breath Control, Dodge, Listening, Sneak, Bnce, Throw,Poise, Grace, Ambidextrous, Sight, Scent, Detect, Taste, Silent Step, Deft touch, Posture, Dance, Sprint.¡± He tested each and every one before he quizzed me over their levels. ¡°It is surprising that you have developed some sensory skills, but they seem to have been neglectedpared to the rest of the skill levels.¡± He had obviously been forewarned as to the number of skills I held if not the actual ones as he showed no surprise and there was little praise only acknowledgement before moving on to the next test. ¡°Let¡¯s move onto the next level. If you list them we will work through them from there.¡± Quick reflexes had me attempting to snatch items out of his hand or prevent him from doing the same. Eavesdrop meant I was listening to their conversation from a gradually increasing distance until I could no longer do so. The addedplication was that he was talking in beastkin half the time. Pain Tolerance was left at just a level after a quiet conversation with my grandfather. Stealth was practically impossible to win against two sensory specialists, but I tried nheless. Knife Arts and Martial Arts had me fending off either knives or his fists. He was careful to keep his wicked ws out of y. Poison Tolerance also avoided assessment, but again the conversation I eavesdropped in on was along the lines of ¡®something, something you need to run by his mother first¡¯. Namir finally showed some level of being impressed when I showed him my Seismic Sense and how it was able to defeat at least at close range his stealth as I was able to sense the impression of his footfalls. Except for flight, the rest of my skills were either mental or magical, and after a short demonstration of flight, we were finally able to test whether I could run on water or not. ¡°Ready? Namir asked. ¡°Yes?¡± I answered unsurely. I knew I was a lot quicker than the average person, at least back in my world, and hopefully, as light as I was it would take less speed to stay on top of the water. I had heard of a lizard that could dash across the top of the water, but I did not have webbed feet to do that. The difference was I knew this was possible, I had watched both Namir and my grandfather race across the top of the water. I needed to put aside my disbelief and believe it was possible. I just needed to go fast enough. Putting aside my fears, I braced myself to race, to sprint out onto the water. ¡°Then go!¡± Namir shouted themand. I tore off the ground, racing across the levelled stone that slowly dipped into the water. It was aunching ce we had smoothed out for boats to be brought out of the water and it gave me solid footing to build up my speed before I reached the water . . . . . . and kept going. Ding! Dart (Lv1) I was going fast enough. I whooped in glee. I could run on water. Why had I never thought to test this before? Arawn and Namir shed into existence alongside me, guiding me back toward the ind before I ran out of stamina. Once I was once more pointed in the right direction they left me behind clearly morefortable going a little quicker over the water. I pushed myself harder to keep up. Ding! sh Step (Lv1) And promptly facented into the water at speed as my mana dipped, and I missed a step ploughing through the water on my front. I kept myself t and slid onto thending area on my front. Looking up to see my grandfather doubled overughing at my unexpected soaking. Even Namir looked a little perturbed by my acquisition of two skills in a single run. ¡°That was unexpected.¡± He summarised his surprise with which I had gained the skills. ¡°Expect the unexpected with Kai,¡± Arawn replied as he gained control of hisughter. ¡°He is very good at copying something once he has seen it done. Time to go back for lunch, I believe.¡± We walked on home, some of us squelching a little from our waterlogged clothes. I missed my amulet in moments like this but understood the importance of its absence in developing my core. . . . That afternoon, Aleera made her move. Despite recent threats, the cousins still came to the isle for their lessons. In fact, the isle might be a safer space than the town surrounded as we were by another barrier of water. Ever since the threat had been revealed, we had started to work on the walls of the mountain carving away rock to create a step wall to protect our garden. We had not made our way the entire way around and the amphitheatre and Parthenon-style entrance would be two weaknesses we would have to address in the future. However, it was slowlying along. The cousins were keen to be awakened, and in true Silversea Court style, we had neglected to mention the n to our parents. Lady Acacia was there to supervise, and Namir apanied her to the caldera garden. Aleera started by addressing the elephant in the room. ¡°I cannot awaken the magic in you all. But between us, we should be able to in time.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± asked the eldest cousin, already concerned about who would not receive it today. ¡°We are limited in the number of oaths we can receive as Lord and Lady Silversea.¡± She exined. ¡°By having you swear to us separately, we can double the number of you we will be able to unlock magic for. The problem with this, though, is that Kai¡¯s magic stat is not high enough to unlock magic for anyone, and until he is able to assign his free points in 5 years, that will remain the case.¡± The cousins realised what this meant and that some of them would wait five years for the ability. They looked at one another, wondering how she had decided to assign the oaths. ¡°Simply put, I will receive the girls'' oaths and awaken their magic. While the boys will have to wait for Kai to unlock his system fully.¡± She ripped the band-aid off. The young women and younger girls were obviously ecstatic by her decision running to hug her in thanks, but the older ones were wise enough to temper their joy. Still, they approached her to thank her directly, and the cousins found themselves divided by gender. The brothers banded together as their sisters left them to form a group. The boys were more stoic in their disappointment over the dy, but the most understanding statement came from one of the older ones. ¡°A year ago, we would have never even had the option. It¡¯s only a couple of years. We can wait patiently.¡± He reassured the younger male cousins, who were visibly disappointed that they would not be throwing fireballs anytime soon. I stepped forward to reveal our other ns for them and hopefully alleviate some of the disappointment. ¡°While the girls will awaken their magic sooner and take extra lessons alongside Aleera with Lady Acacia, that does not mean we do not have other lessons to learn while we wait for me to grow up a little. Allow me to introduce you to Namir.¡± The beastkin stepped forward from Lady Acacia¡¯s side, where he had been watching the morning¡¯s announcements. He addressed us all. ¡°Magic can be a powerful weapon, but mana runs out far sooner than the strength of your arms. I will train Kai to hold his head high when he visits the capital. To do so, I will also need to train you to challenge him and help him improve. This training should empower your stats and broaden your skills just as much as magic will empower your sisters.¡± Our male cousins looked a little dubious after losing the immediate gratification of having their magic stat unlocked. Namir, though had been informed of our n ahead of time and hade prepared. ¡°I thought we could start with a little demonstration of the importance of your physical stats.¡± He suggested. ¡°Apetition, if you will, to see which will win, mana or might.¡± He ced a series of buckets around the group. ¡°In each bucket is some paint. Red paint for you and white paint here for me he opened a pouch on his belt. The aim of the game is to get some of your red paint on me while I will paint you white. If you are tagged in white, you are dead and out of the game. If I am tagged red, I will be dead and out of the game.¡± Everyone looked around at the buckets before looking inside. Bags, clothes and sticks dyed in red filled them, and everyone after a moment thought, grabbed what they thought would be the most effective. ¡°Who is going first?¡± asked one of the eldest cousins. ¡°It¡¯s all of you versus me.¡± He replied calmly, although a grin was growing on his face. ¡°All of us?¡± asked one of the girls. ¡°The balls can represent spells being thrown; the clothes can be wrapped around any weapons you already have, while the sticks can be daggers. There are no rules other than once you have been tagged, you have to fall down dead. Are you ready?¡± ¡°Even Lady Acacia?¡± the girl questioned. ¡°Even Lady Acacia, how else would I make evident the importance of physical skills over magical.¡± He replied before quickly adding, ¡°Ready, go!¡± Before Lady Acacia could object to joining the game. ¡°I ob . . .¡± was as far as she got before pandemonium broke out. We all rushed to reposition, but he was not focused on us. He shed toward Lady Acacia at a speed I doubted few of us good follow. A wooden wall shed up to bar his path, but it mattered little as he simply scaled iting down practically on top of Lady Acacia and covering her in white. We all froze as we watched a demure and dignified tutor struggle to control her temper with her erstwhile former friend. ¡°You have to pretend to be dead.¡± He exined slowly as if to a child. After staring at him initially in anger at the state of her dress, she finally calmly copsed to the floor with reluctance and a fair amount of exasperation. Once there, she entered the spirit of the game rolling her eyes and crying out, ¡°You got me.¡± Her hand sped to her breast as if mortally wounded. We had frozen in bewilderment at our strict teacher ying up her demise. Fortunately, Namir woke us from our trance with another shout, ¡°Ready, go!¡± Our cousins reacted instinctually with either fight or flight. His position was bombarded with thrown balls of paint from the girls while some of the boys rushed to try and tag him with their sticks. But wherever they threw their paint, he was not there. Their siblings tagged a few of those rushing in in a devolving mess of paint and chaos. The rules stated that it was only if they were hit with white that they had to feign death, and they continued to chase after him shing, even throwing their weapons after him in an attempt to tag him. However, he remained untouched, casually slipping through the gaps and tagging anyone who dared to attack. The other half of our cousins, though, were fleeing. Retreat being the better part of valour and the wiser course of action, I fled with them. We scrambled up the walls and steps of the cauldron garden as he took out the braver members of our extended family. I was no longer the slowest in the group, and my earlier exhibit of running of water inspired me to make full use of my skills, running, sprint, dart and even sh step, quickly outpacing my cousins. I reached the top of the ridge line and turned to find my cousins being mercilessly mowed down with white paint by the monster shing up the incline. His initial victims were sitting up now, watching the unfolding carnage. I took onest look before throwing myself off the ridgeline to make my flight no longer figurative but literal. Out of sight of my cousins, I had a moment''s thought of pride, thinking I had made it before he came swooping down out of the sky, havingunched himself off the ridgeline. ¡°Look out.¡± Shouted Cal as I dived down along the contour of the mountain. Throwing mana into my skills to blow me out of the way. I had started multiple minds as soon as he had outlined thepetition. The extra mind helped me plot my course and prepare my route. It was not enough to stop him from descending past my flying form and flinging three white balls into my curving path. St. St. St. I was out. But at least I was thest. Chapter 160: Legalised theft Chapter 160: Legalised theft ¡°very is theft ¨C theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a ve might have borne.¡± Kevin Bates Captain¡¯s POV The week had dragged on, waiting for the Silverseas to open their home to petitions. Apparently, except for the set of games held on the ind, this was the only time non-family members were allowed on the ind. The stories of individuals being thrown into theke by a grumpy grandfather were unified in their retelling. However, most of the stories were now hearsay rather than recent events. Still, the town¡¯s general opinion of the ind was to stay off it unless you had business there. The Silversea¡¯s extended family, though, were spread throughout the whole town and seemed to be in every industry the town had managed to develop. He had picked up a few deals from some of the supporting families but not what he was truly after, the deep-sea pearls. Gathering information on the town, though, revealed that there had been a small number of significant events in recent days. Firstly, there was the rise of the noble family. On the one hand, the fact that they were a new noble family meant that he could profit significantly from any sales. On the other, the fact that they had managed to rise and had such a broad base of support in the town meant that they could hardly be idiots and easily fleeced. Still, they probably did not have any solid backing being too new to have acquired it. Secondly, there had been a visit by an Archbishop of Tramontana who had, after blessing the whole town, taken the local priest with him yet left a Bishop in his ce. The town was clearly happy with the change and the move up in the world, but it begged the question of what the clergy had seen that supported the change. The town was hardly a highly popted area, and while the deep-sea pearls would be an important trade good, it was only one trade good and not worth cing a Bishop to ensure their ess to the market. Something else was happening here, but he could not for the life of him tell what it was. Thirdly an entrance to the Lodestone had been discovered west of the town. This would likely be big business for the town or lead to its destruction. At the moment, though, it was too soon for any significant profit from the few monsters that had slipped forth. Moreover, it meant that any of the weapons on the ind had already been bought, with any extra ones to be made already ordered with a long waiting list still to be made by the local cksmith. It was infuriating to have made so little progress, but he could not risk selling all his products when holding out for deep-sea pearls. The one silver lining to the whole situation was that he had seen neither hair nor tail of the beastkin Namir, who seemed to have disappeared into the long grass after his explosive and threatening arrival at the town. The townspeople were still talking about it a weekter, and they were still giving some of the guards grief over their actions. Little did they know what he was actually like, and the guards'' actions were truly justified. . . . Finally, it was the petitioning day. He had paid for passage alongside other petitioners on a small boat to the ind. He had even slipped his fellow petitioners a small bribe or two to ensure he would be first in line and make the first petition. He had no desire to be stuck in port a single day longer. If he could sell his goods quickly and they could be picked up as swiftly as possible, he might even be able to set sell today. His samples and ves to carry them took up half of the boat, transporting them across the water. He was tempted to use his skills to get it to move faster, but he was not in charge and had to sit back and watch as the ind, in the centre of theke, shrouded in mist, grew closer. As the boat approached the ind, he looked up to survey it in more detail as it was revealed from the morning haze. The ind was intriguing. Where other noble families might have had contoured gardens and a line of trees to direct visitors to the entrance here, the ind appeared ttened and glistened white in the daylight. The shore was remarkably t, with pools of water reflecting both the mountain and the sky, a ck road leading due west to the base of the mountain. Together they walked along to the entrance of their hall, his ves'' heads bowed as they heaved the chests along in his footsteps. The others in the entourage had clearly visited before, and the striking view was neither impossible nor awe-inspiring to them any longer. Even he found it suitably impressive, especially so far from thepass continent and modern civilisation. It almost looked like ruins from a former time, but apparently, it was only recently constructed. It must have taken some seriously high skills or magic to have carved it from the mountain¡¯s face. Even the mountain¡¯s slope had been carved with sheer walls working their way around, although the natural rock of the mountainy above them, unshaped by human hands. He did not have time to stop and stare, leading the petitioners as he was. However, the walk from the boats through the salterns gave him long enough to take in their majesty. Huge stone doors stood open to wee them into the great hall. Large enough to amodate even northern giants from Tramontana. The ck basalt floor was polished to a fine reflective sheen, but patterns could be glimpsed in the mirror-like floor. He caught a nce at the people lining the hall. The Adal¡¯s banners hanging above their families from columns before his eyes finally fell onto the young lord anddy at the end of the hall. That was not all he saw; he was sad to say. His troublesome passenger, Namir, the beastkin from Ostro, was now standing behind what could only be the young Silversea Lord. That was not all, though. Behind the young Silversea Lady was something else he was surprised to see. Though thedy was not much older than her sibling, surprisingly, she had an elf standing behind her. So far from civilisation, they might be, but with those two advising them, they would not be ripped off anytime soon. Also standing with them were two elderly men, one the Seneschal Smit he had struggled to get hold of this week in town; the other, by process of elimination, must have been the cantankerous grandfather who historically enjoyed throwing visitors into theke. That alone was more than enough high levelled and worldly-wise individuals to dampen his enthusiasm, but there was one more surprise he could see standing to the side. There were not one but three members of the Lodestar church also attending Silversea¡¯s morning petition. A bishop, an acolyte and even apass knight. Facing such intimidating support for the young lord anddy, he realised they would brook no disrespect. He hoped they would still be interested in what he was selling, but he would have to y it straight. So many lords anddies would have left it to their retainers to buy and sell their goods, but evidently, here, they handled it themselves. He bowed low and opened with, ¡°Lord and Lady Silversea, greetings in the light of the Lodestar.¡± Typically he would have left off thest, but in the church''s presence, it was essential to at least be seen as polite though it came across to his cynical self as pious. There seemed to be little light from the lodestar many a night at sea. ¡°Wee to Wester Ponente, Captain Kashif.¡± Lady Silversea, the young girl replied. He had not kept his name hidden, and they had clearly already been informed of who he was. It was not difficult to guess his identity. The tattoos, tanned skin, ck hair and purple eyes made the Libian captain at the head of a small train of ves carrying his trading goods easy to identify. ¡°It is a pleasure to receive your wee,¡± He rose from his bow and gestured for his attendants to move forward and open the chests. ¡°I have travelled from the distant southern kingdom of Ostro through the Libian seas to bring you the finest goods of our two kingdoms.¡± He signalled to the first ve to open the chest, ¡°Silk, of the most luxurious weave, in fabric for your design or the clothing of southern styles.¡± The trunk opened to disy his wares, the lid lifting and the front lowered to create a travelling disy of the textiles aimed toward the nobles on their seats of power. Moving onto the second chest, it too was opened, releasing a series of scents, ¡°Spices, from across thepass continent to bring colour and zest to your cooking.¡± He continued down the line of chests, each being opened to disy the wealth of goods he was offering. ¡°Gold is ready to be shaped or formed into the finest rings and jewellery. Ivory bracelets and nes. Beads of the finest ssware and gemstones. Ceramics of bowls, tes and cups. Feathers to line your linen and fill your pillows.¡± His spiel continued until seven chestsy opened on disy. He had left the chest of salt behind. The price on this ind was already far lower than what he had paid for it. He would make no profit attempting to sell any of it here though he was not averse to picking up more before leaving. The children sat forward in their chairs, clearly interested in the novel and new products he offered. The question was how much they were willing to pay for the goods. ¡°Would you be interested in any of my wares?¡± Captain Kashif asked after they had a moment to take in the wide variety of what he was hauling in his hold. ¡°You have a range of products we would like to purchase.¡± The young Lady Silversea responded, not leaving it up to the Seneschal to conduct the negotiations. He could not abuse that fact under the eyes of so many of her supporters. ¡°And what would you be able to purchase them with? There seems to be little gold or silver circting among the townspeople.¡± Nevertheless, the captain''s enforced stay had not been entirely wasted. He now had a good idea of the local economy and its values. The main problem was that most of the more expensive items and goods were bartered for as much as sold. They might not have had sufficient currency to spend, but they knew what they were worth. The Lady replied, ¡°We have an abundance of Salt to sell if you are interested in trading.¡± ¡°Some salt is always a valuable good, but I already have some to trade with when the price is high, and here it is low. However, I would not say no to an exchange in part. Does your house not offer else?¡± He asked, driving at something else. ¡°If the price here is low, then you stand to make all the greater profit selling it elsewhere.¡± She countered. ¡°Yes, but the tax man always takes his toll on salt sold. In some city-states, it is not worth the ve that carries it after the tax is taken.¡± He argued. ¡°There is no taxation on imports or exports on Wester Ponente; we are a pioneer ind of Ponente. The only tax is to our house and no more than the tithe to the Lodestar Church.¡± She rebutted. ¡°A tenth?¡± Captain Kashif quickly queried, suddenly intrigued by surprise. ¡°A tenth.¡± She confirmed. The cost of the salt in town was suddenly exined. It was untaxed. Salt was taxed everywhere on import and export, but not here, it seemed. He supposed that when the noble house was producing the salt, and they need not pay tax to the Prince of Ponente, there was no point in taxing themselves. He knew that if he could smuggle it ashore, he could make twice the profit without suffering taxes on both ends of its journey. While he was interested in the white gold, it was not what he had hoped to purchase after travelling so far. ¡°Is there nothing else your house could trade me?¡± He asked once more. ¡°We have a few more goods we could trade with you. Unfortunately, our presentation is not quite as practised as your own. But if you look to the left, there is a table of what we can offer for your return trip to thepass continent.¡± As she finished her statement, the seneschal pped, and two servants pulled back a cloth to reveal a table covered in fresh produce. The captain looked left at the bowls filled with fruit, dates, grapes, apples, oranges, pears, and lemons; the list continued. Not only fruit but corn, beans, and other vegetables were also spread out across the table. The captain stood still, taking in the wide variety of options avable. There were even some of the spices he had offered among them. It was startling to see such variety when it was unavable in town, and they were so far from thepass continent where most of these goods were customarily grown. It was utterly unanticipated. ¡°I am sure a more varied diet would be appreciated by both yourself and your crew on your return journey and that such exotic fare would be easily traded wherever else you might stop on your journey back to Libio.¡± She continued to be proud of the wide variety of products and knowledgeable enough to know their value to a ship needing fresh supplies before they departed. ¡°Again, in part, I would be happy to trade some of your produce for part of my goods but only a part. I hoped to find more exclusive goods unavable in Libio or Ostro.¡± He angled for the finer goods he hoped for. ¡°Of course, of course. If you look to your right.¡± And once more, the seneschal pped with Des and Sinis pulling back a cloth to reveal the processed goods. Amphora or wines and spirits we had experimented with in creating. Smoked fish and dried fruit were also ced alongside them. ¡°Once more, in part and after tasting, I am sure I can find a market for them.¡± He re-joined. ¡°However, I was hoping to acquire something I believe you are selling to Ponente, Deep-sea pearls.¡± After revealing all he had to trade, he could profit from each item offered. Nevertheless, the most significant profit was to be had from the pearls, even if the house only had a few of them to deliver. ¡°Ah, yes, our pearls. The silver from the sea alongside the white gold on which our house has been built.¡± She mused while ying with a pearl ne of her own. He has not yet agreed to part with the product despite his aims. ¡°Before we discuss the pearls.¡± She persisted, ¡°I hoped you might indulge me in a short history of our ind.¡± Although frustrated at the dy, Captain Kashif calmly replied, ¡°It would be my pleasure.¡± Keen to keep the child happy regardless of the dy. In the end, he would deal with an adult after the pleasantries were concluded, although he had to admit that she was doing an excellent job leading him around in circles while the prizey within it. ¡°Thest of the Wester Isles to be imed by Ponente, our ind, was settled 75 years ago. It was thest to be settled due to the cliffs that protect us now but originally hindered the exploration of Wester Ponente all those years ago.¡± The child started her story of the ind¡¯s settling. Captain Kashif stood silently in ce, pondering where this story was leading. ¡°It had taken 20 years for the inders of Wester Levante and Little Wester to carve out the stairs and indeed even the cove where you docked before Ponente could send a significant enough force to ensure the ind was safely settled.¡± She highlighted the initial difficulties. He nodded in interest showing that he was listening to her little lesson. Although he was unsure of the lesson she wished to impart. ¡°Our ind is the furthest west the Principality of Ponente had ever reached, and no noble wished to leave for what would effectively be a banishment from court. Moreover, the deep sea pearls had yet to be discovered, so nothing was worth venturing so far out from thepass continent. Only with the encouragement of Lodestar Church to expand the horizon and the desire to add another isle to the principality paid for the expedition.¡± She continued her tale. ¡°Without the wealth of nobles unwilling to support such an expansion, the Prince¡¯s father attempted to recruit from the merchants, but there was no money to be made this far out, and they, too, refused to make an attempt or fund the journey. So finally, he called for themoners and the indentured, offering to cancel their debts for a fresh start on a new ind. Many stepped forward for a new chance and freedom from debt, but still, it was not enough bodies to subdue an untamed ind. Ournd was bought in the blood of our ancestors as much as it was with coin.¡± Captain Kashif had honestly not considered the history of the Isles or their settling. Every kingdom had their own methods of expansion. Some seed, and others fail. It mattered little to the merchant making his way in the world unless he was trapped in the middle of their machinations. ¡°So, in the end, to make up the numbers, he turned to secure ves. He acquired the other half of the settlers with the one product he controlled the tax upon, salt. The nobles and merchants keen to gain their pound of flesh and unhappy with the enforced purchase of their ves demanded their weight in salt for the ves. Thus was born the phrase ¡®not worth his salt¡¯ after the prince''s father''s forced purchase of ves across Ponente to support his expansion of the kingdom.¡± She exined. Captain Kashif had a sinking feeling as he looked not toward the youngdy but at the beastkin, who stood behind the lord with a slight smile. He already knew the beastkin¡¯s stance on very, and he had found a simr soul in Lady Silversea. He had noticed theck of ves in the town but considered that part of being in the Kingdom of Ponente which always had far fewer than the neighbouring kingdom of Libio. Possibly due to the Prince''s fathers¡¯ actions all those years ago; who knew? ¡°My great-grandmother on my father¡¯s side was one of those ves, and we are worth far more than our own weight in salt. As a pioneer ind, we pay no tax and make our own rules, one of which is that there is no very on our ind. Your four attendants are not ves on our ind but free men." she stated,ying out the ind''sw. The ves, untrusting of the statement, looked to him for the truth. The problem was that in the face of the Church, the elf and beastkin, whatever the child said as Lady Silversea, the ruling noble of Wester Ponente, was thew. "However, we are not so uncivilised as to not pay their weight¡¯s worth in salt.¡± She finished and gestured once more. Fourrge bags of salt were brought in to stand by each ve that had apanied him. Despite their fears, they were beginning to process that what was possibly happening was real. He suddenly regretted not allowing them breakfast since departing the ship with their chests this morning or ensuring they had drunk enough water rather than relying on their skills, stats and metier to carry the goods. He could have gotten a few more kilograms of salt from the enforced transaction. ¡°If you wish to purchase our deep sea pearls in exchange for your goods, then you will have to abide by thews of thend. Every ve on your ship is to be given the offer of freedom here on Wester Ponente before we consider your offer for the pearls.¡± ¡°Every ve?¡± He asked, concerned. If every ve decided to live here free instead of returning with him to Libio, he would be running the ship on a skeleton crew, with many of the sailors being forced to take up the ve''s tasks. It would be hard but not impossible. He would even make a profit on the salt. "Every ve." the young Lady Silversea confirmed. "In that case, may I see the pearls." Then, ever pragmatic, Captain Kashif moved on to how to make the most profit out of this. Chapter 161: Equivalent Exchange Chapter 161: Equivalent Exchange ¡°Humankind cannot gain something without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.¡± Hiromu Arakawa Captain Kashif had made a fine showing of his trade goods, but we had already been forewarned. Namir had already described what we could expect to see based on his knowledge of the trade routes in the Kingdom of Ostro and Libio and his time aboard the vessel. He might have been slightly biased from personal experience, but he did not paint a ttering picture of either country regarding the ve trade. Ponente was not perfect by any shape of the imagination, but the ve trade was not quite as prolific within the kingdom, at least ording to him and Lady Acacia. He had also raised the fact that Captain Kashif both dealt in and used ves, so it was no surprise to see who he apanied our morning petition. All of this prior knowledge, or rather insider trading, meant that Aleera had already discussed in detail how to approach the trader when he arrived with Lady Aleera, and much of her side of the conversation had already been scripted between them. She could have delivered it better, and I was sure she would gain a fair few levels from the transactions she offered. But what did this mean for us as a family and an ind? As a family, our excess production of Salt had already lowered its price significantly within the isles. By spending our surplus on ves, it maintained the price of salt for our local market. We also nned to make this a self-perpetuating system of salt for freedom, but it would depend on how quickly our ind could expand economically and the quality of the ves we were sold. A lot depended on their skills and stats on whether this would work out in the long run. Namir had informed us that many sailors aboard the vessel were ves and had been for some of them as long as they could remember. Not only that, but the captain¡¯s employment practices for sailors in Libio looked startlingly simr to being press-ganged into service only backed by the strength of the captain rather than a nation. There was little they could do if they had lower stats on a vessel in the middle of the vast ocean where the captain was as good as a king. This was just how the world worked, even if it was a little worrying. I thanked the Lodestar that this was where I had fallen. I watched with interest as Aleera and Captain Kashif battled back and forth on the details of the trades. Aleera was keen to push for as much as possible without breaking the captain¡¯s ability to make a profit and sail home afterwards. Something he might not be able to do if she pushed too hard or demanded too much. He was hardly a golden goose, but despite having his hands in what I viewed as a despicable trade, we were not nning on killing him. Not because Namir couldn¡¯t have quickly taken care of them but mainly because once we started, we would have to ¡®take care of¡¯ most of the crew. Half of whom were as innocent as the ves. It would be an impossible tangle to pull apart if we tried. There was no way that we, a small ind on the edge of nowhere, could end the ve trade. Especially when the Western Kingdom of Ponente tacitly epted it, and the Southwestern Kingdom and Southern Kingdoms of Ostro actively encouraged it. If a ve could make it to the kingdom of Maestro, they would, with the Church¡¯s help, be able to regain a regr metier. However, that meant they also had to avoid the Elven Wood, where they were more likely to be shot on sight rather than freed. Ostensibly it was not much better further north in the Kingdom of Tramontana with their version of thralls. Regardless of the practices on the Compass Continent as a pioneer ind of humanity expanding thepass, we were not subject to their rules and could write our own but only within reason. By bing a ce where a ve¡¯s freedom could be bought for their weight in salt, we hoped to expand our poption with people who were hopefully happy to receive such an improvement to their fortunes despite it urring so far from civilisation. If each ve freed bought the next ve, it would hopefully cost us nothing to do. Des and Sinis were the first and would have a share in each ve that was bought. They had done most of the work now that the salterns were set up to collect the salt. A pyramid of economics that had us standing at the top. It should be self-perpetuating. Starting with Des and Sinis, now these new four. We were not entirely sure how many ves Captain Kashif had onboard and whether or not his boat could sail with a reduced crew, but we were eager to find out. The man had not objected yet, but that might have been because of the men standing arrayed behind us. If I had been an equivalent distance away from home, I doubted I would have feltfortable standing up in simr shoes against men like my Arawn and Namir. It was also helpful that the Bishop and Compass Knight now attended our petitioning session and stood with us backing our position for all intents and purposes. To have the church onside was another piece of political weight the merchant would be unable to push against. Finally, it looked like their haggling had finished. We were left with a long list of individuals and their approximate weights that we would be looking to buy or purchase their freedom with our salt instead. We would have to rely on some muscles to move that much salt to the ship. As well as create some scale to bnce the weight of the individuals against the weight of our salt. Once all that was finalised, Aleera bought out a box of our pearls. Our ability to analyse their grades was terrific in helping us to calcte their value. We no longer attempted to do it by size, colour or weight, trusting instead the system''s guidance to calcte their value much more precisely. Lady Acacia had informed us of the actual value of our wares. With them being mana sources for enchantments and runes, glyphs etc., they were highly sought after, particrly in kingdoms such as Libio and Ostro, where they were rarer. Our box of pearls should be enough to buy most of his goods¡ªthe rest of the purchasesprised of produce from our cauldron garden at the top of the mountain. Per our agreement with the Archbishop to provide him with Caracol Purple, we removed the dye from all our local goods except those produced for our family and supporting Adals. As everything seemed to be swimmingly, I retreated into my mind fortress to converse with Callen, who I spun up to discuss the list of ves we had received and how we might employ them. ¡°I think harvesting their weight in salt to repay their cost is straightforward enough to start.¡± Callen agreed with my own reasoning. ¡°Then, after that, we have the cauldron garden,¡± I added. As the food continued to flourish with mana and manure, the amount of produce rapidly increased. ¡°Manure collection for another.¡± He pointed out. ¡°And if they don¡¯t want to do manualbour now that they are free?¡± I asked myself. ¡°I think an initial repayment in manualbour would be outstanding. However, after serving as a sailor under that captain, nearly any form of employment would be an improvement. Especially if they are given the option to buy into the value of the next set of ves that arrives should they continue once they have paid back their own weight,¡± We self-justified. ¡°And then after that?¡± we pondered. ¡°It all depends on the skills and stats. But surely, with a world¡¯s worth of knowledge, we can develop some business or enterprise to use their abilities.¡± I thought. ¡°It¡¯s quite exciting. I mean, we areing at it backwards in that we are employing people for jobs we will then have to create rather than having a job to employ people for, but that will hopefully make the job market of Wester that more diverse.¡± we continued to spitball ideas. ¡°Provided they are interested in staying,¡± he cautioned. ¡°Or capable of working. Not all ves are going to be those who were born into it or defaulted on their debts. There are worse reasons for bing a ve.¡± I cautioned. ¡°Fair point. We might need to rethink purchasing freedom for all of them if they serve sentences for crimes greater than theft or defaulting on their debts.¡± I realised this might be a little moreplicated than we initially thought. But there was no reason we should continue to go through with it. We would have to be more selective about whose freedom we would purchase. Returning to the room, I watched with interest as the four former ves realised that the noble family in front of them might be serious about their offer to purchase their freedom from their former owner. Captain Kashif, Aleera, Lady Acacia and Namir had left to discuss the quantities of fresh produce he hoped to buy for his return journey. My entourage and I were still in the hall with the former ves as I focused on them with my mind sense. There was a wide range of intense emotions bleeding from each one. Fear that this was a joke, cautious hope that it was not, and brave to dream of future possibilities. While one dared to dream of somehow returning home to a family, the other three were ecstatically relieved to be freed. They were looking around themselves, wondering what they thought might be their new ce of employment. I inspected them to see what we would be working with and was surprised to see that not only were all of their metiers listed as ve but that their levels were all the same. That struck me as rather curious and questionable. Name: Saava Level: 20 Metier: ve . . . Name: Theodulus Level: 20 Metier: ve . . . Name: Abadun Level: 20 Metier: ve . . . Name: Abda Level: 20 Metier: ve . . . I was happy to have an expert on hand for my questions as well as to use as a cover for my abilities. ¡°Bishop Bailie, the four men we have freed. I was wondering how best to employ them. Can you tell me their names, levels and metiers?¡± I asked. ¡°That is rather personal information. Would you be happy with someone asking for yours?¡± He chided gently. Teaching through questions rather than statements. ¡°No,¡± I answered honestly before addressing the former ves directly. ¡°Could you tell me your names, levels and metiers so we can consider best how to employ you?¡± I asked. I had hoped to move directly into questioning the bishop about why they all had the ve metier and the same level seeing as I already knew the answer to the question I had just asked. Still, as always, I was attempting to keep some of my more unusual abilities out ofmon cirction. If the former ves were surprised by being addressed by a small child, they gave no evidence. Either they were reassured by the other attendants'' expectations that this was normal or conditioned through however many years of very to answer any question quickly when asked. They quickly responded, ¡°My name is Saava. I am level 20, and my metier is that of a ve, my lord.¡± Soon all of them had responded, and I could ask the question I had wanted to start with. ¡°Bishop Bailie, why are they all level 20, and why do they have a ve metier instead of a sailor?¡± I asked, confused. Surely it would make more sense for them to be sailors or some other form of sea-faring metier to gain greater experience. ¡°To restrict them from levelling any further.¡± He answered with a frown. ¡°It is one of the main reasons that very is frowned upon by the Lodestar church. It hinders humanity''s expansion for the benefit of the few.¡± He continued to exin. ¡°How can they ever find bnce when their bearing has been blocked?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I said, confused. ¡°How does it restrict them?¡± ¡°Once the system recognises them as ves, it deems them shackled and unable to spend the experience they acquire as they wish. It is why the metier is so insidious. Their owner can restrict their level and create a ceiling they cannot pass through to prevent them from ever bing dangerous to their owners. It would appear that Captain Kashif chose level 20 as their ceiling, and they levelled until they reached it and then levelled no further.¡± The four former ves nodded along with what the Bishop was exining. It was a horrifying thought. To be caught, captured, enved, and cut off from my growth was a new nightmare for me. But, once again, I thanked fate. I had been sent to this quiet little town on the edge of nowhere. There might not be any magnificent warriors or worldly wizards, but I had been free to explore and level unfettered. ¡°Can you help them now they are free?¡± I asked, concerned. The whole idea behind freeing the ves was that they would add to the ind''s economy. That would not work if they were still functionally ves in the eyes of the system, themselves and the town. ¡°Yes.¡± He answered sinctly. ¡°If you are serious about freeing them with the light of the lodestar, I can unshackle their systems.¡± Phew, ¡°That would be perfect, thank you.¡± I responded, relieved. All was not lost. I wondered what. . . . I started thinking about their skills and how they might be best employed when the Bishop began to move forward and ced his hand on Saava¡¯s now bowed head. ¡°In the light of the Lodestar, let your limits be lifted.¡± He pronounced. I had not realised till now that he had the same or simr ring that the Archbishop had wielded. Its light shone on the man, with a blue light shining underneath his shirt. A quick inspection revealed that the system no longer viewed him as a ve. Name: Saava Level: 20 But Bishop Bailie was not finished, ¡°May your bonds be broken and wounds healed,¡± As if he could hardly believe it, the unconvinced man pulled down his shirt and watched with his own eyes a tattoo on his chest, the ck ink being purged by blue light until it was only a scar, and a momentter, even that too was wiped away by the healing the bishop was filling him with. Now that was a skill worth learning! Chapter 162: Ethical Dilemmas Chapter 162: Ethical Dilemmas ¡°If very is not wrong, nothing is wrong.¡± Abraham Lincoln Eventually, after much argument over costs, prices, and quantities, Captain Kashif and Aleera reached an agreement with our advisors'' support. We were travelling back to his boat with wagons full of salt behind us. A small box of pearls had been traded for the goods he had left behind in our throne room, while the rest of his goods and ves would be sold for the remaining salt, food and pearls we carried toward where he was docked at the bottom of the cliff. While I had been present for most of the negotiations, I had surprisingly managed to keep my mouth shut for most of the time that Captain Kashif was present¡ªno need to give anyone any more intelligence or wild stories to retell who knew where else. The four former ves had also apanied us to help smooth the transaction and transfer of people from one profession to another. Even the Bishop had apanied us to help it go as efficiently as possible. As we travelled, I discussed the ethical dilemma with Aleera. Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it. But at the same time, the majority were not without a point in the case of murder and less savoury crimes. We could not honestly judge who deserved incarceration and were incapable of imprisoning them even if we knew. There were no prisons on our ind, and while the light-fingered individuals were already well known, they hardly ever took more than a coin here or there. There was little point to theft on an isle where you could not escape your users, and everyone knew everyone. I was not na?ve enough to believe it did not exist, but it was not a noticeable problem. Then again, who would be idiotic enough to attempt stealing something from my grandfather anyway. He would probably wee the attempt but deal with it reasonably punitively. If they ever had, they wouldn¡¯t have tried again if they could still do so. I was worried that crime might be a problem with an influx of ex-ves who had be so for all manner of reasons. But we needed to be more concerned about doing the right thing. With the number of high levelledbatants tripling to Arawn, Namir and Sir Jacques, along with an actual town guard and the sentinels, hopefully, any problem cases would soon see the light. If not, that was a bridge to crosster on down the line. ¡°ves line up.¡± Shouted captain Kashif. He seemed eager toplete the transaction or depart the ind. Perhaps it was both. ¡°The Lord and Lady have some questions for you.¡± We had boiled our questions down to name, level and crime. With two observable answers, we hope the bias would confirm the truth of the third answer. It would not be foolproof, but it was the best we coulde up with during our short journey to the dock. Ultimately, we decided to give everyone a chance, even if it was only one. Aleera stepped forward and called out, ¡°We need to know your name, level and the crime for which you were enved.¡± ¡°Step forward and answer.¡± Shouted Captain Kashif. Each one stepped forward to answer our question; names, levels and crimes were reeled off, debt, theft, born into very, and captured. This time around, no one had confessed to murder or rape, but that did not mean that they had not beenmitted. Aleera looked at me to see if the statements matched what I could observe, and they did. We nodded our agreement to Captain Kashif that we would purchase their freedom as already agreed. We had added the caveat in case his entire crew of enved people were thugs, murderers and rapists. By apanying him to the ship together, we prevented him from prepping their answers and hopefully gained slightly more honest ones. He stepped forward once more, gesturing at the piles of goods on the dock and in the hold, ¡°The quicker you load up the ship, the quicker you will be left behind here on Wester Ponente. The Lord and Lady here have offered to purchase your freedom for your weight in salt.¡± The enved people who had been stood in a line at the edge of the boat overlooking the dock froze in confusion. This was obviously different from what they had expected to hear. They perhaps believed that we were after one or two enved people rather than intent on freeing Captain Kashif¡¯s entire stock of them. They looked to our entourage and the four formerly enved people standing there for confirmation. They nodded in agreement. The enthusiasm with which the ves straightened and jumped to work was astounding and probably more significant than they had ever achieved under the threat of whip or worse. Without orders or help, they whipped the goods being transacted off the ship onto the dock, then did the same with the goods we had brought with us vanishing them below the deck. Finally, it came to the salt. Each ve was weighed and then carried an equivalent amount of salt back aboard the ship. Captain Kashif oversaw the weighing to ensure he was not shorted in the exchange. Another benefit to apanying him and keeping his ves in view was that he did not have time to quickly fill them with water to inte their price. Soon the ship was fully loaded, and the freshly formerly enved people now stood in a line on the dock facing their former owner. None of them seemed to believe this was genuinely happening, working silently. Watching cautiously and standing carefully still once it had beenpleted in case one of us changed our mind about the transaction. When dealing in the trade of flesh, everything became a lot more personal for the people being traded, if not for their former owner. They stood unmoving, waiting on tenterhooks, wishing this was not a false hope. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you, Lord and Lady Silversea.¡± Captain Kashif bowed from his ce at the helm of the boat. The number of sailors was dramatically reduced by the number of ves that had been exchanged for salt, but it was enough for them to set sail though it looked like they were working twice as hard without them to get everything ready for their departure. The man was still polite, but he was still within reach of Namir¡¯s de and ws, only a jump away. It made me realise how fragile civility was in a world where strength was king. Were we abusing that right now, maybe? Would it harm us, in turn,ter down the line? Hopefully not, but it could not be guaranteed. The boat began to pull away while the newly freed people milled around in fearful hope that this reality was not some form of a fever dream. We hoped we had made the right decision to purchase their freedom and ultimately let Captain Kashif leave. He was far from home; if he returned to his regr routes, it might be years before he returned from Libio. The worry was whether the repercussions of our decision would reach here sooner than that. Salt for ves was nothing new; they were merchandise like any other product to the Libians. However, the amount that we had paid due to the low cost of salt for us meant that the amount was significantly over market pricepared to the general market. . . . The return journey to town led us to the church. Our goods were carried onto the ind, but we watched as the former ve had their previous metier removed and their bodies healed. The bishop was advising them to think for a while before choosing their next metier, and they went onto the isle in the middle of thegoon with Des and Sinis, their new supervisors. All of them seemed amenable to the idea of producing their weight in salt to clear their debt and more to buy into any other ves that we freed in the future. A new tradition we hoped the sess of which would prove they were worth their weight. At least on the surface, our idea was a sess. Whether we could find jobs for everyone would ultimately determine whether or not we could do this repeatedly. Again our distance from the court and any other inds allowed us some room for manoeuvre and to hopefully get the first batch of former ves settled into their new lives before any more could arrive. If we were unable toe up with sufficient projects to move forward with, then with a bit of luck, the town, with its history where grandparents were former ves, would be able to find a job or two for them in expanding their businesses. We would have to see how it went. ¡°Well, that went as well as could be expected.¡± I sat down to talk with Aleera at the end of the day. ¡°ves freed, salt and products sold, new goods to work with.¡± She replied. ¡°The silk will be worth even more once we dye it purple.¡± I grinned a simple enough procedure that would quadruple the cost of the cloth when we sold it onto the church. We had informed Captain Kashif of our requests for future goods if he ever decided to return to visit us. Namir did not believe it likely as he already had plenty of profitable routes closer to shore along the coast of Libio and Ostro. This trip had been at Namir¡¯s insistence and a significant detour for the captain. However, knowing what we were in the market for and what we had to offer might tempt him back again. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± she asked. ¡°Personal growth, I think, rather than economic. Or at least not quite so actively. Now that you have unlocked magic within our cousin, they can help grow the pearls. The freed ves could support Des and Sinis in collecting manure, salt and farming. I still have many projects to start, but hopefully, with an influx of people, I will only have to point them in the right direction to get the results I am hoping for personally though I have many questions for Namir, the Bishop and the Compass Knight. First and foremost, I want to learn how to heal.¡± I exined my n. ¡°Morning meetings, end-of-day reviews?¡± she asked. ¡°If possible, everything else in between put to personal growth.¡± I agreed. ¡°Take the weekend off?¡± ¡°Maybe just a day.¡± She smiled, knowing I would be too busy for a full two days off and that I would probably spend the day sailing with Father over the reef rather than rxing. For me, sailing with him was a form of rxation, provided we were unbothered by any denizens of the deep. . . . While we were having our little conversation, older, higher levelled heads were also putting themselves together. Lady Acaia, Arawn, Namir, Bishop Bailie and Sir Jaques sat around the table. ¡°What are your intentions toward the boy?¡± Arawn started off the meeting. He had already faced Lady Acaia and Namir and had been reassured that they only wanted the best for the boy. To teach him what they knew. Namir¡¯s knowledge of weapons and war would be good to round out the boy¡¯s experiences. Also, the fact that he had super senses as a beastkin trait meant that he could train him in ways that he could not. The question was, though, what did the church genuinely want? It had been highly unusual to leave the Bishop behind when the archbishop had left. They had promised to take Aravan but could have left a lower levelled clergy member if that was all they were attempting to do. ¡°To teach, no more and no less.¡± Bishop Bailie attempted to convince the guardian. ¡°I have been given special dispensation to teach him as much as he wants.¡± ¡°And there is no cost to this? You have been awfully considerate and helpful in the children¡¯s recent endeavour to free the ves. You are not expecting him to follow in your footsteps and be an acolyte of the Lodestar Church.¡± Arawn quizzed, unconvinced there were no strings attached to the offer. ¡°No, we acknowledge that as Lord Silversea, he is the head of the house, but at the same time, we would like to rebuild or build a better rtionship with the church.¡± Arawn snorted at the fact that up till now, there had existed no rtionship with the church other than a civil distaste for one another. ¡°Regarding the ves, we were happy to help. Both to release their souls from captivity and give their bodies a fresh start on thepass. We did not do that solely for Lord and Lady Silversea so much as for the individuals themselves. Though their actions speak well of their moral qualities.¡± He continued. ¡°Very well, what do you propose.¡± Arawn seemed to havee to ept that he could not keep his ¡®grandchildren¡¯ hidden from the world forever. The light shone too strongly through the pair of them. The waves they would make from today¡¯s events would continue to ripple into the wider world. The more support they could gain from personal skills, stats, tutors, royalty or the church, the better. ¡°We know that Aleera and Kai will attend court in Ponente when theye of age. We hope to help ensure their sess. I hasten to add that it is not merely the ind''s Pearls or Purple that inspire us to act. They both have promise, but the boy, in particr, has potential unheard of, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste so far out from civilisation or harmed by the rtively new status of the Silversea house.¡± He outlined their position. ¡°What we can offer is the Lodestar churches methods in training.¡± The silent Sir Jacques spoke up. ¡°How will that be any better than what we are already offering the family through our tuition?¡± Asked Lady Acacia, somewhat affronted at the idea that her specific schedule was not the most optimum for the child in question. ¡°I do not say that it will be better, but our training methods do have their benefits.¡± He calmly replied. The bishop intervened to redirect her attention, ¡°First of all, with healing.¡± ¡°Does that not take a considerable amount of time to learn?¡± she asked, unconvinced or perhaps unwilling to share her tuition time with another faction now that she had already split it once with Namir to facilitate the children¡¯s weapons training. ¡°Yes, but there are different ways in which the healing might help. First and foremost, I would teach him how to heal others, which would take considerable time.¡± ¡°Less time than you might think,¡± muttered Arawn interrupting the bishop. ¡°However,¡± he countered, ¡°that is not the only lesson I might help him with. By healing him directly to start learning the skill and be familiar with it, I would be able to extend your training practices exponentially.¡± He exined. ¡°This is how we train in the church.¡± Sir Jacques joined in once more. ¡°The clergy practice their healing abilities on us while the knights train their martial abilities. It is an efficient method for training two disparate groups simultaneously and speeding up the progress of both. One group heals while the other hurts. It is a cyclical system that supports each other¡¯s growth.¡± He continued. ¡°Would work well for what I have in mind for them.¡± Namir joined in on the side of the church, shifting the conversation''s bnce. ¡°It would also allow the two of them to attend your hoity-toity lessons fresh in the afternoon, along with any more magic you wish to teach them.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Well, obviously, I would also like to educate him on the state of the world whilst we are practising.¡± The bishop added. ¡°As long as it does not take from the time already assigned to Namir and me, I see no problem.¡± Lady Acacia admitted her thorns receding a little in concession. ¡°It all sounds like a fantastic opportunity to me.¡± Arawn agreed with the overall n. ¡°Just remember I will be watching.¡± ¡°Sir Jacques, do you not have anything to add to the Bishop¡¯s n? Lady Acacia asked, suspicious of his silence. Sir Jacques paused before replying, ¡°Only that this method of training will also be helpful to the boy in him learning how to use his mana to boost his physical attributes. It is, after all, how we train. Pushing our bodies past their limits only to have them healed up afterwards. Once it has happened sufficiently, your body grows ustomed to the mana fixing it, and you can begin to use your mana to do it onmand or in advance of the need.¡± ¡°You hope to teach him those skills as well?¡± Arawn asked, intrigued. ¡°Eventually, as a knight, I can use mana to enhance my strength, dexterity, endurance, and senses. Then, with the Bishop¡¯s help in targeted healing to familiarise him with the feeling, so too will Kai be able to do so. But that is a long way, a way before he needs the next step of training. So, I will wait till then. Hopefully, by then, you will consider dividing their time further, but I do not expect it or need it now.¡± He exined patiently. Lady Acacia¡¯s suspicions were proven correct but not in their timing. ¡°And again, for rification, there will be no expectations of him having to join the church or your order.¡± Arawn once more insisted on confirmation. ¡°No, we only want what is best for the boy,¡± The bishop insisted before the pair of them, facing the scepticism of the other tutors, ended up swearing together. ¡°We only want the best for the Silversea Scions without favour or expectation to join our orders, so we swear by the light of the lodestar.¡± Their reservations answered, and the man, elf, and beastkin sat back in relief. The scions in question slept under the mountain, unaware of the ns being put into ce for their future. Chapter 163: United Front Chapter 163: United Front ¡°We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.¡± J.K. Rowling I awoke to face a united front from my elders. The most surprising fact was that they were all there for breakfast when I entered the room. Of course, it was much earlier than they were usually up, but they got up to catch me before I disappeared for the day; generally, it was just me up first. My traits of vitality and endurance meant that I had even more energy than the usual boundless energy of kids. Lady Acacia seemed to lead the group, but I was startled to see that the bishop andpass knight had joined them at the table. They had got mother and father onboard as they talked happily before my arrival. Mother had thawed somewhat toward the church with the expulsion of Priest Aravan from Wester Ponente, while Father had never been as diametrically opposed as she had been brought up in the faith as he was. ¡°We gathered here this morning to discuss your training program.¡± She started the dialogue. Except for Dad needing time for sailing with me, they had bowed down to Lady Acacia, knowing best when it came to preparing the two of us for court. ¡°I thought that it had already been decided, mornings with Namir and afternoons with yourself,¡± I said. Sure, I had ended up facenting into the water on my first attempt at running over it, but I had also gained two new skills. First, it was working as far as I was concerned. My faulty understanding of physics and how their rules could be bent or outright broken by my mana meant that I would never have thought it possible without their example to emte. ¡°Yes, that was the original n; however, with the Bishop''s and his knight''s support, we have an addition to the daily routine. You will also be working with them midday beforeing onto me.¡± She exined. ¡°Why?¡± I asked, concerned that my already full timetable was getting even busier. As well as surprised that she would give up any of my time to foreign influences that she did not invite. ¡°To heal up.¡± Namir grinned. He was much like Arawn in many worrying ways. However, so far, no particr painful injuries have been inflicted other than bruises to my ego. ¡°To heal up?¡± I raised an eyebrow. Now that had taken me a long time to retrain. Muscles did not always do what I wanted just because I knew how they should move without practising it first. If they were amused at my antics, they did not show it. ¡°To heal up.¡± She confirmed. ¡°The bishop has generously offered to teach you how to heal. The first part of which is experiencing the healing.¡± Lady Acacia exined. ¡°Before then, attempt it yourself. This will allow you to push harder in the morning, learn during midday and turn up to my lessons fresh-faced and bushy-tailed. Do not think that I have not noticed a certain exhaustion when you have been attending my most recent lessons. Etiquette lessons are not something that I will allow you to sleep through.¡± She added critiquing my tendency to doze off or nap through the boring parts of the lessons. I learned a lot faster by doing than by listening. Inwardly I was shouting in excitement. Since my first brush with what passed for health care on this ind, I dreaded getting sick or injuring myself. However, with the bishop''s teaching, I would no longer have to worry about that. Even better, I had not even had to argue,promise or exchange favours to get it. ¡°Looking forward to your lessons, your grace.¡± I bowed respectfully before my curiosity got the better of me. ¡°Will Sir Jacques be there as well?¡± I asked,menting on his current presence at the table. Family and tutors, he was the odd one out. ¡°Where the bishop goes, I go.¡± He rebutted before adding, ¡°But in time, I might have something to teach you as well.¡± He said somewhat evasively. ¡°You have enough to focus on for the moment.¡± He referred to the three tutors I already had. Four if you counted Arawn and his lessons. Six if you count my parents and their skills. There was only so much time in the day. ¡°When do we start?¡± I asked, eager to start the lessons in healing even if I was less keen on the bumps and bruises I would have to acquire to practice receiving the healing. ¡°I see no reason why we cannot start now,¡± Namir said, standing up, keen to continue passing on his legacy to the young prodigy that was myself. ¡°The boys won¡¯t have arrived yet, and we have a significant new number of free men to find positions for.¡± I hedged. This sounded like a reasonably intensive program, and I had yet to finalise how we would best employ them with Aleera. ¡°I¡¯ll give you an hour; then, I expect to see you outside.¡± Namir dered. ¡°Otherwise, I will have toe and find you.¡± He added ominously. I doubted I would enjoy that if he was anything like my Arawn. ¡°Right, right.¡± I grabbed some food and dashed off to find Aleera, Des and Sinis. I might be short on timeing up, and there was no point in wasting it. As I left, I could hear the conversation between the adults starting up once more as they had a leisurely breakfast without me, who rapidly swallowed the food I had only had a moment to pilfer. Once I had woken up Aleera, we rushed through our ns for the extra hands, ensuring everyone would have something to do: idle hands and all. We could diversify and adjust as they got to know them better. It also depended on what metier they hoped to unlock through the light of the Lodestar at church. Then it was back outside to face Namir. However, he was not alone, with Arawn watching nearby, along with the Bishop and Knight. We ran through our morning routine of exercises before my cousins arrived, and it devolved into a melee of skills. Namir started us all with the same assault course he had constructed: running, jumping, swimming and climbing. Bits of it had be surprisingly easy with my skills, so he employed my cousins to make it harder. Each one that failed became another obstacle on the course challenged to block the survivor''s progress. As always, it often became more of a melee event rather than a race. Then it would be back to weapons skills working with different groups on different skills but expecting me to circte among each group. It meant that I was always on the back foot working with less training against my peers who had more. Still, the adversity of the training meant that it was doing wonders for my skills, and my stats or rather my traits, helped me keep up with myrger older cousins. After that came various challenges, from duels to capturing the g, defending the hill or striking the target. Every day he would add another challenge to the repertoire of events while continuing to work on the old. Today though, we had witnesses, so he stuck with the methods we had already tried while expecting more from us when we challenged them. I could not help but eavesdrop a little when passing by. ¡°Thoughts?¡± The bishop asked hispanion. ¡°Green. But making rapid progress under Namir¡¯s supervision.¡± He briefly outlined the abilities and progress of our cousins. The boys were keen to keep this to themselves until their magic was unlocked and they could ess the same lessons as their sisters. ¡°Do you not want to take a more active role?¡± The bishop asked him. ¡°Not yet. Namir can teach this just as well as I can. If not better. Besides, we are waiting for the armour to be made and for him to learn some level of healing before I attempt to teach him anything.¡± ¡°Anyway, our time will be short enough as it is with you attempting to teach him healing. Give him time to learn your lessons first; then, he can attempt mine.¡± He said. I wondered what he was referring to specifically and how his training would be different from what we were going through now. ¡°Yes, well, times are nearly up.¡± He noted the sun¡¯s progression through the sky. It was nearly straight above our heads and signalled the end of the training session and the beginning of lunch to any who managed to beg, borrow or steal food from the kitchens if they had not brought their own. ¡°Children, if you would gather round.¡± He addressed the crowd of cousins standing before him, listening to his every word. It wasn''t easy to tell if they were genuinely interested or simply happy to be taking a break from the morning¡¯s training. Either way, they had always attended church and were naturally a little more respectful than we had been brought up toward the clergy. ¡°Semi-circle line.¡± Namir barked, with us all rapidly falling into line. Rather than find ourselves decorated with another line of paint. Our mothers had been less than pleased at that element of the training and now insisted we were the ones to face getting the colour out of our clothes when we got covered. ¡°Our guest today has a gift for all of you.¡± He paused to build the tension. ¡°Healing.¡± I realised that while I had been forewarned of their ns, the rest had not been. ¡°For all of us?¡± questioned one cousin. ¡°Yes. Now hurry up. Lady Acacia was quite particr that this should not take any time out of her lessons, but while I am healing each of you, I would like Kai here to ce his hands on you as you pass by. Another part of his lessons. And I will teach the whole time, so I expect you to be quiet once we get going.¡± He exined their role in the process. I was pleasantly pleased that I would not have to suffer all the injuries to get used to the process. ¡°For free healing, I think we can keep our mouths shut¡±, theic cousin shouted. However, he was quickly shouted down by another. ¡°You couldn¡¯t keep your mouth shut if your life depended on it.¡± To the chuckles of the remainder. ¡°That¡¯s quite enough, Kai.¡± He gestured for me to join him, working our way down the line. Now that they had lined up, we moved along the line, cing our hands on each one. Again, the bishop wanted me to get a feel for what he was doing while he did it. ¡°In the light of the lodestar. . . he started. While Iid my hands on just as he had, before he began outlining his steps and the skills he utilised to recreate the magical healing miracle, I was startled to release that it was moreplicated than it had looked initially. The system and its skills only solved some problems, and there was a process. ¡°First and foremost, you need to sense their body. Then, I push my mana through my hands and into their body. Note that the higher the level of the individual, the harder it will be to push your mana into their body to find the problems.¡± He outlined the first step. ¡°With practice, this will lead to the skill Diagnosis.¡± Having extended my senses using my mana alongside his, I watched their body to see how they moved and interacted with the extra mana the bishop added. He continued his lesson, ¡°The mana will obviously dissipate with time, but while it is there, I can use it to see if there are any breaks in the flow or any other irregrities to the storage. I am looking for breaks or tears in what should be smooth lines of flow. Having found any breaks or tears like this one here,¡± he gestured to a specific point on a cousin¡¯s leg where he had received a thump in the morning exercises, and a bruise was just nowing up. He calmed the ¡®patient¡¯, exining that it was ¡°Not arge tear by any means, no more than a bruise.¡± Stopping the boy from shifting in concern. Once the issue has been identified, mana can be applied through skills directly to the area needed rather than trying to fix the entire body.¡± He took me carefully through each step as he did them. I wondered why I had never considered medicine an area to practice using my old-world knowledge to gain a skill or two. I was no doctor or even a nurse, but A-level biology, modern hygiene and a first aid course or two was going to a far higher level of understanding than the average townsperson and possibly even more significant than the Bishop¡¯s understanding if he was relying solely on the movement of mana to detect and direct his healing. We gradually worked through our cousins, who moved off to lunch before tackling my bumps and scrapes from the morning training. The practice, or rather the observation of all of my cousins before focusing on me, meant that I had plenty of exercises to help me understand what was happening within my body as he applied the same skills to me. When we finished, it was time to make my way up the hill to the girls'' lessons on magic and more. First, however, the bishop¡¯s lesson left me contemting my moreprehensive knowledge and its applications that I had failed to consider before. Chapter 164: A year later Chapter 164: A yearter ¡°It¡¯s better to live as you will want to have lived, rather than spend your time worrying about the end. You are right here in your story. Don¡¯t skip ahead.¡± S.D. Smith A yearter, the benefit of training under three masters of their trade was shining through with my progress in my status. It had been a hectic year. Although I had jumped to level 25, the benefit of having two metiers meant I could level at twice the pace. Training under the careful gaze of so many watchful adults meant that my progress in skills had continued in a thorough and controlled manner. There had been no sudden bursts of progress from life-threatening situations because they had not been allowed by them to threaten me. ording to the system, I was now recognised as six years of age, which would have been eight years on my old world. So it was no longer a surprise that I could track my progress and see my stats though if anyone from thepass continent had been able to see them, they would have found them suitably hair-raising. Mainly the fact that our family was seen as growing frommon stock despite our rtively new nobility. One of the facts that had emerged over thest year was that the nobility rigged the system further in their favour by pretending, insinuating and frankly lying that skills were not achievable before the age of 5 years of age somoners did not even attempt to teach them to their children beyond what was necessary for their trade. However, this was not the case. I had always known this as being able to measure my progress from a little neonate. What this meant was that most nobles, on awakening their system, would already have a smattering of skills and levels if they were luckymoners on the other hand, not so much. There was also a curve to your progression within the system, and the further ahead you were on it, or rather the earlier you achieved such results, the more you would be rewarded for it. This exined the speed of my natural growth as an infant. I had been so far beyond the natural curve and abilities of an infant. It was superhuman, and the system rewarded me for it. So a median value was reached between what I had been capable of and what my vessel could support. The problem with this was that my natural progress of stats slowed down as I grew closer to the realms of feasibility, and my actual progress drew closer to the progression curve. But only if that child focused on a single aspect, and I still attempted to focus on everything. The timetabling of my time by our tutors meant that I was predominantly focused on noble, military and schrly skills. Still, I was satisfied as I had nearly 300 points to assign and the level of a young adult despite still having another four years to go before I could even redistribute them. I had much to be proud of when I looked at my status. I also had a lot to be grateful for regarding my fast initial growth and the traits I had managed to achieve. Level: 25 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 8 Metier: Sailor Lv 5 Name: Callen Kai Silversea Age: 6 years (Old World 8yrs) General Experience: 785,694/819,200 Health: 1110/1110 Stamina: 1110/1110 Mana: 1110/1010 Psi: 1110/1110 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 111 Endurance: 111 Strength: 111 Dexterity: 111 Senses: 111 Mind: 111 rity: 111 Magic: 111 Charisma: 111 Luck: 111 Free Points: 291 (Locked) Skills Tier 1: Swimming (LV60 - 75) Running (LV58 -> 75) Meditation (LV54 ->75) Time Sense (LV55 ->75) Breath Control (LV51 ->75) Singing (LV50 ->75) Diving (LV50->75) Sailing (LV50->75) Dodge (LV50 ->75) Knots (LV45 ->50) Draw (LV44 ->50) Knife (LV45 ->75) Listening (LV44 -50) Stitching (LV43 ->50) Climb (LV42 -> 50) Trading (LV40 ->75) Humming (LV39 ->50) Drumming (LV39 ->50) Whistling (LV38 ->50) Sneak (LV36->50) Calligraphy (LV31->50) Farming (LV31 ->50) Acting (LV30 ->50) Bnce (LV33 ->50)Throw (LV26 ->50) Buss (LV25 ->40) Mathematics (LV24 ->40) Insight (LV19 ->40) Glide (LV29->40) Poise (LV25 ->40) Grace (LV24 -> 40) Charm (LV24->40) Composure (LV24->40)Lie (LV16->20) Elvish (LV16->20) Giant (LV16->20) Dwarf (LV16->20) Pixish (LV16->20) Gnomish (LV16->20) Koboldogo (LV16->20) Beastkin (LV16->20) Halfling (LV16->20) Appeal (LV15->20) Ambidextrous (LV15->20) Sight (LV15->20) Scent (LV15->20) Detect (LV15->20) Taste (LV15->20) Silent Step (LV14->20) Deft touch (LV14->20) Posture (LV15->20) Dance (LV14->20) Sprint (LV14->20) Inspect (LV21 ->40) Riding (LV10->20) Rapier(LV9->20) Spear(LV7->20) Painting (LV5->20) Axe (LV4->20) Baton (LV4->20) Club (LV4->20) Dagger (LV3->20) Estoc (LV4->20) il (LV4->20) ive (LV4->20) Halberd (LV4->20) Pike(LV4->20) Mace (LV4->20) Morning star(LV4->20) Quarterstaff(LV4->20) Sword(LV4->20) War Hammer (LV4->20) Archery (LV4->20) Cook (LV3->20) Sketching (LV3->20) Drafting (LV3->20) cksmithing (LV2->10) Carpentry (LV2->10) Mining (LV2->10) Teaching (LV2->10) Measurement (LV 1->10) Etiquette (LV 1->20)Art (LV1 -> LV10) Astronomy (LV1 -> LV10) Music (LV1 -> LV10) Calligraphy (LV1 -> LV10) Cartography (LV1 -> LV10) History (LV1 -> LV10) Geography (LV1 -> LV10) Anatomy (LV1 -> LV10) Alchemy (LV1 -> LV10) Literature (LV1 -> LV10) Philosophy (LV1 -> LV10) Politics (LV1 -> LV10) Economics (LV1 -> LV10) Law (LV1 -> LV10) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV51 ->60)Quick reflexes (LV51->60)Eavesdrop (LV50->60) Rebec (LV31 ->50) Aulos (LV31 ->50) Linguistics (LV31->40) Cornu (LV31 ->50) Harp (LV31 ->50) Memorisation (LV30 ->40) Recall (LV30 ->40) Cartography (LV26 ->50) Composition (LV23 ->50) Pain Tolerance (LV23 ->30) Stealth (LV23->30) Spellcraft (Lv25 ->50)Spellsong (Lv19 ->50) Order (LV18 ->40) Transnt (LV12 ->20) Misdirection (LV14 ->20) Knife Arts (LV15->20) Haggling (LV11->20) Mind Sense (LV11->20) Observe (LV10 ->20)Martial Arts (LV4->20) Cruising (LV1->10) Poison Tolerance (LV1->10) Treasure Sense (LV1->5) Intimidation (LV1->5) Dart (Lv 1->10) Heal (Lv1 ->10) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV51->60) Mana Maniption (LV51->60)Gale(LV51->60)Echolocation (LV49 ->60) Absorb Mana (LV30->40) Boil (LV25->50) Ignite (LV25->40) Melt (LV25->40) Command (LV17->40) Freeze (LV11->20) Bargain (LV11->20) Deception (LV11->20) Analyse (LV5->10)Racing (LV1->10) Smuggling (LV1->5) Seismic Sense (LV1->10) sh Step (Lv 1->10) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV30->35) Virtuoso (LV30->35) Polyglot (LV30->35) Stone shaping (LV24->30)Material Maniption (LV22->30)Mana Drain (LV 20->30) Seafaring (LV1->5) Block Status(LV3->5) Flight (LV1 ¨C>15) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV20->21) Multiple minds (LV 2 -> 3) . . . Over the year, my status had be ridiculously bloated. Once more, the benefit of having focused tutors from thepass continent and the church''s backing. With around 100 tier 1 skills, it was time to consolidate and push for higher tier skills. Lady Acacia had seemed insistent that I level eachnguage in turn. So whenever onenguage would fall behind in terms of the speed of its levelling, we would focus on whichever one it was that had fallen behind until it caught up with the others. Elvish (LV20) Giant (LV20) Dwarf (LV20) Pixish (LV20) Gnomish (LV20) Koboldogo (LV20) Beastkin (LV20) Halfling (LV20) After consolidating the skills, I had a second Polyglot skill at level 20. The final step of merging the two polyglot skills gave me the Tier 5 skill Omniglot (Lv28). I had yet to test it out, but I believed this might give me a shot at instantly or near instantly understanding any newnguages or dialects I encountered. Maybe I would even be able to understand animals? That would be an incredible boost. Still, only some of the Tier 1 skills shared enough simrities to synergise and consolidate. Of course, I also had my weapon skills. Knife (Lv75) Axe (LV20) Baton (LV20) Club (LV20) Dagger (LV20) Estoc (LV20) il (LV20) ive (LV20) Halberd (LV20) Pike(LV20) Mace (LV20) Morning star(LV20) Quarterstaff(LV20) Sword(LV20) War Hammer (LV20) Archery (LV20) Namir had insisted that I reach at least level 20 in each skill before I could consider consolidating them. Something about the purity of the skills being necessary for future growth. 16 Tier skills, when merged, gave me 1 tier 5 skill Weapon Prodigy at level 23. Tier 1 skills were just the weapon;bined at Tier two, they became des or blunt weapons; at Tier three, they became the art of the weapon; Tier 4 was the mastery. By the time it reached tier 5, Weapon Prodigy seemed to bebel the system gave the skill. I was no longer fumbling with my weapons or moving from strike to block to counterstrike but dancing with them, and it showed in my spars with my cousins. Namir and Arawn were not the only ones who had been working on my skills list. Or rather,nguages were not the only area that Lady Acacia had us all knuckle down to learn. She had also taught us various subjects so we would note across asplete bumpkins when we reached the capital one day. Or, god forbid, we had a more educated noble visit us here directly. Art (LV10) Astronomy (LV10) Music. (LV10) Calligraphy (LV10) Cartography (LV10) History (LV10) Geography (LV10) Anatomy (LV10) Alchemy (LV10) Mathematics (LV10) Buss (LV10) Literature (LV10) Philosophy (LV10) Politics (LV10) Economics (LV10) Law (LV10) They joined together to make arts, humanities, physical sciences, social science,nguages etc. Ibined all these to gain the Tier 5 Polymath skill at level 10. It was difficult to tell how far ahead of the curve we werepared to our peers on the maind. Whenever our heads got too big, they were quickly punctured with a new area of learning we apparently needed to study. The problem with a tutor who had decades of experience teaching was that she had decades of knowledge to impart, and it had only been just over a year that she had counted us as her pupils. Outside of thebination of mynguage, weapon and academic skills, there were a few other areas that required slightly smallerbinations that I had continued to consolidate first up with my athletic skills. Swimming (LV75) Running (LV75) Breath Control (LV75) Diving (LV75) Dodge (LV75) Climb (LV50) Throw (LV50) Sprint (LV20) Thebination of these led to athletics at Tier Two and a perfect physique at Tier Three before finally gaining me the Tier 4 skill Iron Man at Level 62. It was not the tin man version but the athletic ability topete far beyond the strength and size of my vessel at the level of my cousins, whose ability to assign their stats meant that they still had higher ones than me in specific areas such as strength, endurance or dexterity. It was also my highest levelled tier 4 skill. I was a mini Jedi when I had it up and running. It had taken me the year to work out the benefit of keeping the skills as tier 1 skills and raising them before consolidating them. There were fewer thresholds to pass with the lower-tier skills. By keeping them as tier 1 skills until I reached their third threshold for tier 1, I managed to skip three of the six points I would have faced at tier 4. This was the true benefit of keeping the separate lower tiered skills and levelling them separately. In retrospect, I should have waited to get them to level 100 before doing so. That being said, the simplicity of my status and my higher-tiered skills more than made up for any future difficulties I might face. Next up were a few more of my instrumental skills. I already had the Tier 4 virtuoso, but whenbined, my four Tier 2 skills gave me another option. Rebec (LV31) Aulos (LV31) Cornu (LV31) Harp (LV31) Thebination of them gained me the Tier 4 skill courtly instruments. This, thenbined with Virtuoso, gave me another Tier 5 prodigy skill, Music Prodigy (Lv30) . . . My new skill list was a little simpler but no less impressive, especially with the increase in higher-tier skills. It was unheard of for a six-year-old to have 6 tier 5 skills and frankly considered impossible even by my tutors. Lady Acacia and Namir were now in the know, at least as far as the skills that they had helped me achieve Omniglot (LV25), Polymath (Lv10), Weapon Prodigy (Lv20), Music Prodigy (Lv30) and had been suitably shocked. Still, I had yet to reveal everything to the Bishop and the Compass knight. I spent much less time with the Bishop in our timetable than the other two tutors. Still, I eventually learned the Tier 2 skill of healing with Sir Jacques, waiting for me to gain some experience and technique before he was willing to take me on as a student. Consolidated Skill List Skills Tier 1: Singing (LV75) Sailing (LV75) Trading (LV75) Meditation (LV75) Time Sense (LV75) Knots (LV50) Draw (LV50) Listening (LV50) Stitching (LV50) Humming (LV50) Drumming (LV50) Whistling (LV50) Sneak (LV50) Ambidextrous (LV20)Farming (LV50) Acting (LV50) Bnce (LV50) Insight (LV40) Glide (LV40) Poise (LV40) Grace (LV40) Charm (LV40) Composure (LV40) Lie (LV20) Appeal (LV20) Ambidextrous (LV20) Sight (LV20) Scent (LV20) Detect (LV20) Taste (LV20) Silent Step (LV20) Deft touch (LV20) Posture (LV20) Dance (LV20) Inspect (LV21) Riding (LV20) Cook (LV20) Sketching (LV20) Drafting (LV20) cksmithing (LV10) Carpentry (LV10) Mining (LV10) Teaching (LV10) Measurement (LV 10) Etiquette (LV20) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV60) Quick reflexes (LV60) Eavesdrop (LV60) Linguistics (LV40) Memorisation (LV40) Recall (LV40) Composition (LV40) Pain Tolerance (LV30) Stealth (LV30) Spellcraft(Lv50) Spellsong (Lv50)Order (LV40) Transnt (LV20) Misdirection (LV20) Knife Arts (LV20) Haggling (LV20) Mind Sense (LV20) Observe (LV20) Martial Arts (LV20) Cruising (LV10) Poison Tolerance (LV10) Treasure Sense (LV5) Intimidation (LV5)Dart (Lv 10) Heal (Lv10) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV60) Mana Maniption (LV60)Gale(LV60) Echolocation (LV60) Absorb Mana (LV40) Boil (LV50) Ignite (LV40) Melt (LV40) Command (LV40) Freeze (LV20) Bargain (LV20) Deception (LV20) Analyse (LV10) Racing (LV10) Smuggling (LV5) Seismic Sense (LV10) sh Step (Lv 10) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV35) Stone shaping (LV30) Material Maniption (LV30) Mana Drain (LV 30) Seafaring (LV5) Block Status(LV5) Flight (LV15) Iron Man (LV62) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV21)Multiple minds (LV3) Omniglot (LV25) Polymath (Lv10) Weapon Prodigy (Lv20) Music Prodigy (Lv30) With my higher-tiered skills, I could use the system to beat the lower tiered skills of my cousins. However, it came at a cost. The higher the tier of skill, the greater the resource it needed to function; stamina, mana or psi all were used up quickly now that I had the higher tier skills. This was facilitated by my traits, which allowed me to abuse the higher-tier skills and in time, my vessel continued to grow, and so did my natural strength, endurance, and stamina. I was growing but could not wait to assign my free points. . . . I sat up high in the branches of the Elendil tree. It continued to grow its¡¯ roots, digging deeper into the mountain. It was now my favourite ce to hide away from the world. First, it was reachable without being spotted outside the mountain via our hidden inverted tower. Secondly, I was not visible from the ground, hidden by the leaves and branches. Third, the mana of the tree kept me concealed from any who attempted to search for me that way. Fourthly I could escape with a flight from here without worrying about taking off. Fifth, and finally, I could see the entirety of our domain from up here, the limbs of the tree finally reaching high enough to see over the ridgeline of the mountain before it dropped down into our caldera. The year had been a busy one. The ind looked so different now. We had continued producing all the goods the Silversea family was now famous for. Salt for enved people, Caracol Purple for the church, Pearls fornd and support from the Royal family of Ponente through purchasing all the nearbynd meant that we had driven up prices beyond what they were worth and were now banking the profit in the capital for our eventual arrival. We would not be poor peasants from the country by the time we arrived. Our wide selection of locally grown food was famous throughout the Wester Isles, including our wine''s poprity. However, now we were branching out into more varieties of alcohol. We had already started on the wine a year ago, but now we had various drinks in production vodka, whiskey, brandy, beer, rum, gin and cider. They are not in enough quantity to ship yet, but we were testing their quality, building up a stockpile and letting some of them age. Mercurio would have another revolutionary new luxury product to sell in the capital of Ponente. Each new product was offered to the Prince and solely him for a month or two to build interest and exclusivity. Then once we had gained more royal favour, we would open it up to the nobility and the masses. The biggest surprise to me, though, had been sugar. The white drug had yet to be invented on the Compass continent. As such, it was another secret of the Silversea family. We were producing such a variety of products that no one would be able to tell where exactly it came from, and we had yet to release it at all but just like the salt, we were building up a stockpile of it for the moment when it would be best to release it to the market. But, unfortunately, fortune was fickle, and having too much of it all at once was possible. So we nned to release our products once a year, and if we could time it right, we stood to make a killing with each one. And when I said we. I meant us. The extra level I had managed to gain gave me another mind, meaning I could grab another metier. It was no surprise which one I would pick with such a massive windfall of experience on the horizon in trading. ¡°Hello, Kai, the singer.¡± ¡°Hello, Callen, the sailor.¡± ¡°Hello, Caelus, the merchant.¡± Time to make our mark on the world! Chapter 165: Training Warm up Chapter 165: Training Warm up ¡°Sess isn¡¯t always about greatness. It¡¯s about consistency. Consistent hard work gains sess. Greatness wille.¡± The Rock ¡°97, 98, 99, 100¡± I finished thest press-up. The morning¡¯s warm-ups had grown a little excessive, but the stats, alongside my traits, meant that it was, in the end, just a warm-up. My skills didn¡¯t hurt either, especially the higher-tier ones. ¡°Why not add a little weight?¡± I asked. Now that it was no longer particrly challenging doing them, just time-consuming, I thought that extra weight might be the next step forward. ¡°Do you want to end up stunted like Arawn?¡± Namir critiqued. ¡°You are still growing. We don¡¯t want to harm that growth, slow it down, or damage it. Skill, speed, and strength should only be pushed against your vessel¡¯s weight. Otherwise, you are more likely to break your body than you are to build it.¡± He exined in detail. The limiting factor to my training remained my age and size; my vessel was only so old and big. Still, the warm-up was a breeze with my skills and stats. I felt superhuman and could easily understand the difference between the nobility and themoners if this is how they felt. It would be easy to think ofmoners as lesser people when through wealth, power, skills, and stats, they physically were. My cousins tried to keep me grounded, but I was outpacing their growth, catching up to and overtaking them, especially now that I had consolidated my physical skills into higher tiers. The healing didn¡¯t hurt, either. The near-constant healing for everyone was the only reason I hadn¡¯t left them behind altogether. The bishop moved around, restoring minor injuries before the next warm-up exercise. The greater the effort, the greater the progress, but it still took time to build up the muscles. However, Namir took the avability of healing to mean he never had a reason not to have us working at our best for every exercise. As he had the support of a healer ready and willing to help, he could push us past what was physically safe and have the bishop put us back together again. A group effort meant that we worked hard to pull one another along. ¡°Next,¡± Namir shouted. We switched to sit-ups. It wasn¡¯t quite P90, Insanity, or any other fitness programs I had tried on and off back in my old world. But there was a certain joy to the morning training now that I had consolidated all my skills. My many Tier 1 skills had consolidated into the Tier 4 skill Iron Man at level 62. ¡°97, 98, 99, 100.¡± I finished thest sit-up. As Namir had pointed out, as children, we should only work against our body weight rather than resistance bands or weights, but it was still quite effective. Watching the numbers increase was somehow more addictive and slightly less narcissistic than looking in the mirror to measure our progress. ¡°Next,¡± Namir gave only enough time for us to pass by the bishop before moving on to the next exercise. ¡°97, 98, 99, 100.¡± I finished thest squat. We had not arrived at our numbers overnight, and it had taken us a full year (16 months) to build up to this, gradually building up to what we could now do. We were all little monsters, or at least we would have been in my old world. Here though; this was just a morning warm-up, getting ready before our martial training began. ¡°Next,¡± Namir continued to push us through the exercises. He only held our performances against our own times, numbers, etc. Still, he gave us enough time for a quick brush by the bishop before we headed off on ourp around the ind. I no longer had my Running skill but did not need it with my Iron Man upgrade. I could easily keep up with my cousins, and sprinting across stone and dirt wasn¡¯t too challenging once you could run on water. Honestly, the most difficult issue was keeping my feet from slipping and gaining enough traction to take the corners. I could only utilize the skills Dart and sh Step on the straights, and when we had first started our runs, my slips and falls had meant that I needed the bishop¡¯s healing more than most. Now though, we had created a circr running track along the ind¡¯s shoreline. This allowed everyone to focus on our speed and helped us level our skills faster. Namir was not satisfied with this, though, as he felt it built poor habits. So he insisted that our morning run now included an uphill sprint cross country to the top of our mountain followed by a descent down the other side. As we continued to carve the mountain¡¯s walls, this became increasingly difficult as we ran out of natural rock capable of being climbed and had to go single-file through some of the chokepoints we had left. Then came the descent. It was easy to want to fly on the way down. However, although we were not naked like the Greeks at the Olympics, I was not allowed my purple robe, which I had developed into a basic flight suit. This left me without a way to simply fly down. The skill, Flight, helped me achieve some lengthy glides, but my lightly clothed body left little for the skill to work with. Not everyone could keep up with the pace I was able to set, so depending on their speed, some of my cousins ran around the mountain rather than straight up and over it. They would meet us on the other side where we had started from. Lady Acacia may have decided to share some of our time with Namir, but that did not mean she couldn¡¯t add additional challenges and make the best use of it. The few cousins alongside myself who had gradually grown past the simple race around the isle and now raced up to the top found our female cousins waiting for us there. ¡°Ready, aim, fire.¡± She shouted as we cleared the top of the ridgeline. Our female cousins threw their spells at us, using the spell craft they were learning from her. It added a certain level ofplication to our run that Namir was perfectly happy with. When we skipped the cauldron garden and raced around the outer edge without skylining ourselves at the top, they began waiting for us on the ridgeline instead. After much trial and error, we found it easier to simply crest the ridgeline and meet them within the cauldron. ¡°Nerano b!¡± ¡°Dynamo b!¡± ¡°Phos b!¡± The girls shouted out in a chaos of Spellcraft that covered the garden. After an ident or two with nts, they were now restricted to water, force, or light balls which they threw at us as quickly as possible. Over the year, they had worked up different ways to target the same person from multiple angles. This was where my extra skills came in particrly useful. With my HUD up, Echolocation, Seismic Sense, Sense Mana skills, and Super Senses trait, I always knew where they were waiting to surprise me. The extra minds helped in pointing out the iing dangers. However, having been frustrated in their inability to get me, the girls seemed to have worked this out and now organized themselves into a semi-circr pattern to cover the entire garden and worked together in pairs to take me down as I could easily dodge any single well-ced throw. Nevertheless, I wasn¡¯t wholly defeated by this development, though getting through the gauntlet unscathed now took cheating. My sense skills and Insight finally gave me enough information to sense when they were about to throw, and I developed a new skill, Danger Sense. I could easily detect when they were about to throw and dodge using my Quick Reflexes skill. Frustrated by my increasing ability to avoid their spells, the girls had developed a nket bombing technique of bombing the area I was crossing with as many spells as they could throw, where quantity had a quality all of its own. This seemed to be what finally pushed the Danger Sense skill into existence. It not only worked on their intent to hit me with their Spellcraft but also the sheer chance something would hit me. It also gave me the nudges to spin, pause or leap to evade spells that were lobbed in triplicate in my direction. Descending into the garden, I had discovered that the best defense for this section of the morning warm-up run was a good offense. I would attack, or rather, run at specific individuals. The closer I could get to someone, the more care the girls had to have in throwing their spells lest they hit their own side. Once I was within the semicircle, they had to slow down or hit the other cousins on the other side of the circle. Dart and sh Step were the best skills in getting me through their barricade of bodies. Once I was past them, it was back to sensing where the projectiles would fall to get out of the garden without being knocked over, tagged with light, or generally soaked. As I cleared the ridgeline once more, they gave up on me and turned to tackle my other cousins following in my wake. The benefit to slowing down slightly was being able to hide in the pack, but that had never really worked for me, with Aleera always leading the rest in aiming for me specifically. So I never slowed down any longer. Having cleared the ridgeline, it was time to make my way down. Without my robe, I couldn¡¯t manage upward flight, but the skill still helped my descent, using the wind to let me leap down the side of the mountain. It was instrumental in allowing me to descend the sheer walls we had gradually carved into the ind without following the specific paths or ropedders that were part of the route. Grinning, I graced Namir with a bow when I arrived back at the start. In my former life, I had been rtively fit; but my skills and traits made the morning games against my cousins the most entertaining portion of my day. It was no longer Namir against the lot of us, but my cousins trying to keep up with me, with Namir as referee. The challenge was that they had grown alongside me as well. With everyone¡¯s skill increases and growth, the games grew a little dangerous, but that was what the bishop was here for. His presence meant we could go further, push harder, and do more than would otherwise be allowed. Level: 25 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 8 Metier: Sailor Lv 5 Name: Callen Kai Silversea Age: 6 years (Old world 8yrs) 1 month General Experience: 795,694/819,200 Health: 1110/1110 Stamina: 1110/1110 Mana: 1110/1010 Psi: 1110/1110 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 111 Endurance: 111 Strength: 111 Dexterity: 111 Senses: 111 Mind: 111 rity: 111 Magic: 111 Charisma: 111 Luck: 111 Free Points: 291 (Locked) Skills Tier 1: Singing (LV75) Sailing (LV75) Trading (LV75) Meditation (LV75) Time Sense (LV75) Knots (LV50) Draw (LV50) Listening (LV50) Stitching (LV50) Humming (LV50) Drumming (LV50) Whistling (LV50) Sneak (LV50) Ambidextrous (LV20)Farming (LV50) Acting (LV50) Bnce (LV50->51)Insight (LV40 ->41) Glide (LV40) Poise (LV40 ->41) Grace (LV40->41)Charm (LV40) Composure (LV40) Lie (LV20) Appeal (LV20) Ambidextrous (LV20) Sight (LV20) Scent (LV20) Detect (LV20) Taste (LV20) Silent Step (LV20) Deft touch (LV20) Posture (LV20) Dance (LV20) Inspect (LV21) Riding (LV20) Cook (LV20) Sketching (LV20) Drafting (LV20) cksmithing (LV10) Carpentry (LV10) Mining (LV10) Teaching (LV10) Measurement (LV 10) Etiquette (LV20) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV60) Quick reflexes (LV60) Eavesdrop (LV60) Linguistics (LV40) Memorisation (LV40) Recall (LV40) Composition (LV40) Pain Tolerance (LV30) Stealth (LV30) Spellcraft(Lv50) Spellsong (Lv50)Order (LV40) Transnt (LV20) Misdirection (LV20) Knife Arts (LV20) Haggling (LV20) Mind Sense (LV20->21)Observe (LV20) Martial Arts (LV20) Cruising (LV10) Poison Tolerance (LV10) Treasure Sense (LV5) Intimidation (LV5) Dart (Lv 10->11) Heal (Lv10) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV60) Mana Maniption (LV60)Gale(LV60) Echolocation (LV60) Absorb Mana (LV40) Boil (LV50) Ignite (LV40) Melt (LV40) Command (LV40) Freeze (LV20) Bargain (LV20) Deception (LV20 ->21)Analyse (LV10) Racing (LV10) Smuggling (LV5) Seismic Sense (LV10 ->11)sh Step (Lv 10->11)Danger Sense (Lv 1 ->2) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV35->36) Stone shaping (LV30) Material Maniption (LV30) Mana Drain (LV 30) Seafaring (LV5) Block Status(LV5) Flight (LV15 ->16)Iron Man (LV62->63) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV21)Multiple minds (LV3) Omniglot (LV25) Polymath (Lv10) Weapon Prodigy (Lv20) Music Prodigy (Lv30) Chapter 166: Clash of Captains Chapter 166: sh of Captains ¡°The hallmark of a great captain is the ability to win the toss at the right time.¡± Richie Benaud Through fate or fortune, Captain Mercurio and Kashif had arrived on the same day. Like ships that pass in the night, they had never arrived at the same time before, and we had seen no need to inform them of our other dealings with the other. Both captains had visited at least once or twice over thest year to profit as much as possible from our goods andws. While we, too, made as much progress and profit from theirs as we could. The influx of able-bodied individuals had widened our employment pool and created a bigger market for our products. An incident with Kashif attempting to offload a murderer or two meant that we now had Arawn scare them straight as soon as they stepped off the boat. We believed in freedom for all, but we would not be the dumping ground for the worst of what thepass kingdoms had to offer. With his skills Ear for Deception and Compel Truth, Kashif had not attempted the deception twice and had appeared somewhat horrified at the threat that the skills might be aimed at him if he ever attempted it again. As the crow flies, Mercurio had less distance to travel to us from Ponente. However, his visits were not much more often than Kashif¡¯s due to his habit of stopping at every possible port between the capital and Wester Ponente. Kashif, on the other hand, had further to go but sailed a straighter bearing. Neither, it appeared, had enlightened any others on where they were gaining or selling their products as they were still the only maind merchants that we had seen other than the local merchants who plied the small isles of the outer archipgo with their far smaller ships. Either way, we suspected them to be making money hand over fist with their keen enthusiasm to purchase our products and their return visits. Both seemed startled to see the other. While traffic between the isles had increased, there were still no ships of the same size as theirs plying our waters yet, and it would have been immediately apparent that we had visitors when the second ship sailed into port. The first captain to arrive, Mercurio, had calmly made his way to our ind. Unhurried and unrushed, he waspletely unaware of who was about to follow him. On the other hand, Kashif, upon seeing that he might have somepetition for our wares, had rushed ahead of his crew, goods and ves to attempt topete for our patronage. He had been clearly worried about what he might miss out on if he wasn¡¯t quick enough. So for the second time, we found the poker-faced merchant flustered and disying a level of anxiety he usually managed to keep hidden. That was the sceneid out in front of us right now. Two men bristling with bravado and aiming serious animosity at one another. As the morning meeting opened, I was already wondering whether it might not be smoother sailing to see them separately rather than together. Despite this, for my third metier of merchant and my third multiple mind, Caelus was pointing out the benefits to thempeting with one another to make us their best offers. I had already spoken to Aleera about stepping forward for this meeting and hoped that this new development, along with myself leading the negotiations, would work in my favour for both the skills and the experience I could gain. I looked forward to levelling the metier and gaining attributes quicker once more before it began to slow down again. Taking a calming breath and after checking with Aleera, I gestured for them to approach our dais to make their cases. Little did they know that they would deal with me rather than my sister, though they always included me in their address to be polite. Mercurio bowed after approaching alongside Kashif, who matched him step for step as they marched forward. ¡°Lord and Lady Silversea, the Prince of Ponente sends his best wishes.¡± He greeted while emphasising his rtionship with the kingdom''s royal family we were nominally a part of. ¡°Ie bearing . . .¡± was all he was able to utter. ¡°Greetings Lord and Lady Silversea. May the light of the Lodestar shine upon you. I, too,e bearing spices, ves and silver.¡± Interrupted Kashif, unwilling to let him control the conversation or even start it without disrupting his ns. Without the links to royalty, he settled for additional ttery and blessings from the church, although I doubted he was indeed a religious man at heart. Especially considering the cargo he continued to carry. Immediately our morning session devolved into a confrontation between the two merchants, ¡°Your Lord, do not listen to this pirate and plunderer.¡± Mercurio raised his voice in protest. ¡°You are scraping the barrel even to consider listening to him. His goods are most likely stolen from other vessels if not raided from the coast of thepass continent itself.¡± He continued his diatribe before devolving to prejudicial stereotyping, ¡°Libians are not to be trusted for more than a stab in the back. They are regr raiders of our coastline. A pirate raiding follows every visit.¡± Mercurio objected vociferously to his presence in our hall and his existence. He detailed a list of reasons not to trust him further than we could throw him. However, Kashif was not to be so easily cowed or drowned out. ¡°You need to trim your sails¡¯ if you don¡¯t want to be needing to abandon ship on your way home Ponentian. The Silveseas and I have a deal.¡± He cut across the diatribe while cing his hand on his own cuss. Still, he was careful not to draw it in our presence. Threatening, it may have appeared, but he was not suicidal and had seen some of both Namir and Arawn¡¯s abilities. If he drew that de, he would not actually have time to use it before his hand parted from his arm, whether or not it was still holding the de. ¡°The Silverseas and I have been through thick and thin.¡± Mercurio exaggerated his history with us to his own advantage. He had never suffered from our rtionship, while the same could not be said of us. ¡°I would not expect a Libian to understand and can only assume that you have led them astray somehow.¡± He continued to object to the other¡¯s captain¡¯s presence in our hall. It was a little demeaning that he thought so lowly of our own critical thinking abilities, and I nned on pressing him over this if they ever stopped arguing and let me start the haggling. Still, this information was worth hearing and only strengthened our bargaining position, so I was quite willing to let them continue. However, it appeared someone had had enough, ¡°Captain¡¯s, please.¡± Aleera finally found a space to insert her own words after their shouted protests. She stemmed the tide or the torrent of words spewing forth from their rapidly reddening faces. ¡°We will, of course, honour all our deals,¡± she stopped them cold, and they did not have the prestige or a strong enough position to argue otherwise. They finally stopped shouting before they keeled over from sheer blood pressure. Though that did not stop them from ring at one another, the veins bulging on their foreheads finally began to recede. Still, the words of reprimand from their business partner meant that they were willing to hold their tongues long enough for a civilised discord to begin. ¡°Thank you.¡± Aleera nodded in eptance. ¡°Today, my brother will be leading the trades.¡± She finally introduced the change in the lineup to the two merchants. Mercurio had already faced a younger me, so he seemed far less shocked than Kashif, who had yet to interact with me one-on-one. I had always been surrounded or supported by my family in his interactions. Only adding ament here and there generally through my older sister. ¡°Lord Silversea?¡± Questioned Kashif. ¡°I would never attempt to take advantage of your noble family, but isn¡¯t he a little young to lead the trades?¡± He attempted to politely point out that I was onlying up to his waist. ¡°Nobles are known for their quick development. My brother is no different than any noble you might have encountered on thepass continent.¡± Aleera defended my rights to make the trades. ¡°I will be happy to conduct the business if you would like another battle of wills." ¡°Of course, my lord.¡± Mercurio readily agreed. ¡°You will see the true colour and worth of my goods as always, young master.¡± He alluded to the fact that he had a privileged position as a merchant based on our Wester Ponente. It seemed that Kashif was not entirely finished with disparaging hispetition. ¡°As if a Ponentian could ever show his true colours, your lords. They are all thieves though they dress up as merchants.¡± I wondered if this was cultural disagreements and stereotypes or whether Kashif had a personal history of problems with Ponentian merchants. They were no longer shouting at one another in front of me, but Mercurio was not to be outdone, ¡°And Libians are no more than vers. Base pirates, they make waves wherever they go. No merchant among them is not sailing close to the wind or straight across it. They cannot be trusted.¡± He repeated his earlier line. Still, after my sister¡¯s earlier line, it was now time for me to take control of the conversation if I was going to get anywhere this morning. Standing up for a little more height, I raised my voice, ¡°Enough captains. If you do not have anything to sell, plenty of other petitioners are waiting for our time.¡± My biting words stopped their renewal of hostilities as I indicated toward the people that were still waiting for a moment of our time. They might have managed through bribery to jump ahead but they were still waiting. I was not petty enough to insist that they wait in the order that they arrived when the bribes would enrich the individuals of the ind¡ªprovided that they did notpletely derail the morning''s petitions. They had dragged things on long enough as it was. ¡°What do you have for us today?¡± The surprise of dealing with me if not my sister seemed enough to focus them on the task at hand. . . . I enjoyed the following session. For once, we had two individualspeting for our goods. Not only that, but they seemed determined to undercut one another on what they were willing to sell their products for and outbid one another with almost an auction style when shing for the right to purchase our wares. After a particrly intense bout ofpetitive bargaining between the three of us where Mercurio was able to lower the price to the market value and then continue to lower the price beyond what would normally be profitable, Kashif finally realised that something else was giving the merchant an edge on his offers. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to make a profit off that trade.¡± He argued. ¡°You would be willing to take a loss just to deprive me of goods.¡± ¡°Maybe for a pirate but not for a proper merchant.¡± Mercurio quietly gloated, adding, ¡°I¡¯ll still manage to make a profit.¡± ¡°Your Lordship?¡± Kashif appealed directly to the seat of power both figuratively and literally now that I was once more sat down to deliberate. It was time to dispel some of the illusions Kashif was working under. ¡°Mercurio is our merchant,¡± I exined, to Mercurio¡¯s dismay. ¡°He pays his taxes to you?¡± He questioned to confirm his understanding of the situation. Enlightenment spread across his face as he realised the true situation. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered sinctly. Mercurio had requested this, and we had allowed it as it provided us with a far more regr visit from a Compass continent merchant. Our taxes would see us well ced financially when we appear in the capital rather than poor rural hicks of a noble family." ¡°Then . . . would you consider a second merchant flying under your house banner?¡± he asked without even inquiring what our current deal with Mercurio was. It was evident from the offers he had been making that it was far more generous than any other noble in Ponente and possibly Libio as well. ¡°Lord Silversea.¡± Mercurio hastened to interrupt, ¡°You cannot possibly consider this Libian a suitable representative for your house.¡± He was clearly worried about the idea whether it was the different nationality or the fact that if they were operating under the same regtions, his profits from today¡¯s trading would shrink further. I considered the question as well as the objection. He was not from the Kingdom of Ponente. Would this be an issue? I was not na?ve enough to think that the swarthy Kashif with his cuss and tattoos had not dabbled in piracy, but he had been honest enough in his dealings with us so far despite the rather despicable nature of some of his trade goods. I looked to Aleera for her opinion, but she just shrugged her shoulders, unsure. However, more taxes would always be worth it for our burgeoning estate. ¡°Mercurio raises two points to be considered.¡± I addressed Captain Kashif. ¡°Are you allowed to pledge yourself to a Lord of Ponente?¡± I started with the legality of the possibility. ¡°All captain¡¯s who call the sea their home are free to roam wherever they may. There are many smaller ces where no noble name is needed to dock and trade. For therger ones where it is required, they care little whose name is used. We only require the reassurance that there is a house backing us to prevent general theft and robbery by the port masters.¡± I had not realised the importance of our name in Mercurio¡¯s dealing, but perhaps it was not needed as much in Ponente, where society seemed somewhat more civilised if only from hearsay. ¡°And the pirating?¡± I asked bluntly. ¡°Any good merchant worth his salt follows the profit. My profit lies here with you. Why would I have to resort to bing a pirate to make ends meet? My weapons are solely for self-defence.¡± He unashamedly answered to a quiet scoff from Mercurio, who was unconvinced to the former use of his opponent''s weapons. ¡°That is all very well, but some other lord will be missing his taxes should you switch to sailing under our house name. What repercussions can we expect to see for the use of our name? Who do you currently sail under?¡± ¡°Currently, Emir Ishtul is the house we pay our taxes to in Libio.¡± ¡°And he won¡¯t object to the disappearance of such taxes?¡± I questioned the wisdom of creating more noble opponents, even if they were currently residing an ocean away. ¡°Surely not for a suitable gift of such exotic wares as yours.¡± Captain Kashif hedged. Chapter 167: A merchant has no country Chapter 167: A merchant has no country ¡°If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.¡± Thomas Aquinas. They gave one another a wide berth as they left the hall. Neither was happy to leave until they knew that the other would be leaving at the same time, but they were not willing to get any closer to one another than necessary. I could already tell that I had made a killing in terms of my profits, skills and experience. The version of me called Caelus was mentally rubbing his hands in glee. ¡°Who knew they would be sopetitive?¡± ¡°Thepass kingdoms hardly sound like they are particrly peaceful.¡± Callen shrugged. ¡°Looks like racial along with geographical prejudices are as rampant here as they have been throughout earth¡¯s history.¡± ¡°Whatever the reason, it was certainly profitable.¡± I grinned. We sat inside my mind fortress, having a break from reality as we contemted our gains. We had finally ticked over enough experience to gain a level with our general experience. Not only that but we had started to level our Merchant Metier as well adding a level to Singer and Sailor as well which meant we had nearly 400 points awaiting distribution once the world finally recognised as being old enough to do so. At this rate, we might be able to double our attributes by the day we turned ten (16 years old). I was looking forward to the day. I checked the lockout once more. Status locked 62 months. It would have been nice if, after all this time, the system noticed my maturity and allowed me to allocate my hard-earned stats. Still, it was nearly a hundred months less than the first time I looked so there was that. We returned to my status to enjoy the glow of a very well-rounded character sheet. At level 33 I was stronger than anyone younger than 30 on the ind. Although I did not have full ess to my locked-out strength I more than made up for that with my traits and skills. Maybe it had even been my luck that drew the two merchants here at the same time. That reminded me I needed to test my probabilities again to see how they tranted into games of chance. The house always wins, but what if I was the house? I was not sure about the pros and cons of introducing gambling to the ind and beyond the influence of luck I was unsure of how skills would affect any games of chance. Level: 33 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 9 Metier: Sailor Lv 6 Metier: Merchant Lv 2 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Silversea Age: 6 years (Old world 8yrs) 2 month General Experience: 200 /1,638,400 Health: 1120/1120 Stamina: 1120/1120 Mana: 1120/1120 Psi: 1120/1120 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 112 Endurance: 112 Strength: 112 Dexterity: 112 Senses: 112 Mind: 112 rity: 112 Magic: 112 Charisma: 112 Luck: 112 Free Points: 371 (Locked) . . . Looking deeper into my skills, I enjoyed the condensed version consolidation that had allowed me to form. There were still some skills to consolidate, but I was not in any rush. The longer I left them to grow, the more thresholds they would have passed when I consolidated them into a higher-tier skill. It would be worth the wait. . . . The end of our meeting ran through my mind. ¡°I, too, wish to be a merchant for your house.¡± Captain Kashif bowed low. ¡°You cannot seriously be considering this . . . man to be a Silversea Merchant.¡± Mercurio hesitated, visibly searching for a suitably polite word to use in our presence. ¡°It would be a risk for our house.¡± I hedged looking to Aleera and our advisors for their opinions on the matter. Arawn seemed indifferent, Lady Acacia seemed to be deliberately leaving it up to us, surprisingly it was only Namir who had something to say. ¡°He was honest enough after a gentle reminder. I do not doubt that the ship has seen its fair share of notoriety, but . . .¡± Namir looked pointedly at Kashif. ¡°Provided he remembers both our warnings and our abilities, I believe he would be true to his word.¡± It was hardly a ringing endorsement but honest enough. Aleera deferred to my judgement, and I was left wondering whether this was a wise decision or not. Would it be worth it to take the risk on the man? We were not huge fans of very, but better the devil you knew than the one you didn¡¯t. While he was not exactly a force for good, it didn¡¯t mean that we could use him to create some. ¡°All of life is a risk.¡± Kashif countered, ¡°And to sail the Azimuth Ocean, doubly so.¡± He said, referring to the ocean that surrounded thepass continent as well as the sea encounters with man, monsters or Mer, which could end both journey and ship. ¡°If you want to reach the zenith, you have to take some risks.¡± ¡°You are hardly convincing me.¡± I dodged, not yet convinced enough tomit. I wanted reassurance from the rogue captain before I risked tying our fate to his future, no matter how lightly the ties were made. ¡°Mercurio has been honest enough even if for any merchant, their honesty is only another form of financial spection. Why should we let you sail under the Silversea name? What will it be worth for us?¡± Mercurio began to nod his head in appreciation before he realised that the statement was as much criticism as praise. However, that did not deter him from arguing, ¡°Any pirate can prevaricate the truth and cite the Lore of the Lodestar for his own purpose.¡± He argued still vehemently against hispetitor, gaining a simr standing to his. Would it make any difference to him if another secured simr taxes? Doubtful. Would the taxes we could levy against Captain Kashif be worth the potential conflict it could cause? Possibly. ¡°I would be happy to pay 10% taxes of all profits to your Lordship for the privilege of sailing under your name and ask for nothing more.¡± Captain Kashif started. ¡°40%.¡± We countered, already happy that we would be earning more from Captain Kashif than we had once bargained for from Captain Mercurio. Unsurprisingly, Mercurio was no longer arguing against the Libian, possibly in fear that we might renegotiate his taxes if he continued to cause a scene. ¡°15%¡± ¡°35%¡± ¡°20%¡± ¡°25%¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± We argued back and forth, finally settling on a quarter of profits made by his vessel. It was a win as far as I could tell and over twice what Mercurio was paying us for the pleasure of hispany and escaping the grasping ws of the Ponentian nobility. Hopefully, a quarter of his profits would be enough to ameliorate any damage this new rtionship might cause. ¡°Thank you, Lord Silversea, for the privilege of sailing under the Silversea Crest.¡± Captain Kashif bowed low. ¡°On behalf of the Silverseas, your gratitude is noted. We hope you have, in turn, noted Namir¡¯s earlierments and that no further reminders of eptable behaviour befitting our noble crest are ever needed again.¡± We cautioned the piratical merchant against possibly returning to his former profit-making methods. We now had two ships sailing under the Silversea Crest; we were now a multinational noble family. After that, the meeting finished quickly, as did the petitioning, with me eager and quick to review my own progression. Mercurio made no more waves, clearly worried that if he rocked the boat any further, his taxes might be raised to truly create some equality between the two captains and our house. . . . On board the Swift . . . ¡°That pirate must be part Mer,¡± Mecurio muttered to his first mate after returning from the Hall of the Silverseas. The sales had been made, and they knew their trading partner well enough to trust the goods arriving and leaving were as stated. However, he would be checking them one final time before departure. Looking across the water within the cliff cove they were docked within, his first mate replied, ¡°Looks Libian enough to me from when I saw him. He¡¯s certainly no Siren.¡± He countered, already used to the merchant¡¯s tirades when business or life was not going his way. He missed sailing with Alderman Cadmus. The man had been a poor sailor initially, but his presence had curbed the captain¡¯s bemoaning the turns of fate, be they weather, monsters or man. The captain always performed better with an audience he viewed as his equal. Working for the man meant that he would never be that and was resigned to listening to hisints a little longer while the men unloaded and loaded the Swift. ¡°Well, how else do you exin the charming offensive he managed in the Silversea halls? The man has to have unlocked the Charisma stat to have swindled such good fortune for himself. That, or be part Mer. He¡¯s no noble!¡± If there was one area that the merchant was most bitter about it was the fact that he had yet to be able to unlock the Charisma stat, and it still galled him that selling the patent of nobility had been enough to give an infant the stat. True, it set apart the nobility from themoners, and there was no way he would have been able to survive operating alone without substantial amounts of subterfuge or hidden support had he used the patent of nobility for himself. Besides, he would never have been able to amass enough funds to purchase the patent without the noble family he had worked under finding out and putting 6 feet under or dropping him to the bottom of the Azimuth. ¡°I noticed no gills, no colouring, neither were his hands webbed. If he is part Mer, then it is several generations back. But business makes strange bedfellows of many a man. Especially if beached on unfamiliar shores. What else would you call Wester Ponente than and out of myth and legend where even their lords fly, or so I¡¯m told.¡± The first mate aired some of the things he had noticed himself and heard sincending. ¡°I¡¯m not shipwrecked yet¡ªno need to run your mouth on those rumours. The Silverseas hardly need any more attention on them after the visit by the Lodestar Churchst year. The longer theyst, the greater my profit and your cut of it.¡± Captain Mercurio cautioned. ¡°Right, if we are going to have somepetition, then the sooner we make headway, the sooner we can return and make our next journey. We might need to take a more direct route if we are to keep the majority of the Silversea products for the people of Ponente and not let other nations profit off of them. A merchant might not have a nation, but that doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t want to see the Princedom of Ponente perform poorly.¡± The mercurial Mercurio switched frommenting his future losses to attempting to mitigate them. ¡°At least we are notden to the gunnels this time.¡± The first mate gestured to the other ship that was still being loaded with vast quantities of salt. ¡°We should be ready to set sail soon.¡± ¡°See to it then.¡± Captain Mercuriomanded, turning aft to his cabin to plot a shorter course to the capital. . . . Meanwhile, on board the Safina Captain Kashif was likewise watching wares he would have bought be loaded up onto the Ponentian Merchant¡¯s ship. So much treasure for the plundering made his fingers itch, but there was nothing to be done sailing this far from the Libian coast. He would never outrun any retaliation, especially as full to the brim as his boat became with his own treasure. ves had never made him such a profit before, and that was not counting the other goods he was trading from the southern and southwestern coast of the Compass continent. ¡°Will Emir Ishtul truly let the Safina sail freely so easily?¡± asked his first mate. ¡°For links to a new noble not yet bound into the games of the hundred lords of Ponente, certainly,¡± Captain Kashif casually answered, unconcerned. ¡°The House of Lords in Ponente is finely bnced with the Prince ying the Western Coastal Lords against the Eastern Landlocked Lords. With the possibility of putting a finger on the scale and influencing the policy of Ponente in Libio¡¯s favour or simply improving the current poor rtions, the Emir would do far more to gain such favour under the Caliph''s eyes.¡± A Pirate Captain Kashif might asionally have been, but no idiot was he. The power of politics was worth far more than half of a single merchant¡¯s taxes. However, he had been making a lot more recently. Still, the Emir did not need to know just how profitable his recent trips had been now that he had the Silversea crest to sail under. The only fly in the ointment was that with the Lord¡¯s grandfather present, he had been forced to pay theplete 25% of his profits rather than being able to get away with paying less of the 50% he usually managed to do. ¡°I¡¯m sure the gift from the Silverseas to the Emir will also smooth over any ruffled feelings or pride.¡± The first mate continued. Referring to the rtivelyrge bolt of exquisite golden sea silk apanied by a set of deep-sea pearls. A princely gift indeed and worth enough that Kashif was sorely tempted to fleece the Silverseas for it alone. Still, he was wise enough to know not to kill the goose thatid the golden eggs. A single score now would prove that pompous Ponentian Merchant right and cost him a lifetime of wealth that was only just beginning. He had his pride and a healthy dose of respect or fear for what Namir and Arawn might be capable of if suitably motivated. He would have to y it straight for the foreseeable future. That didn¡¯t mean to say that he could not take out a few pirates of his own if they were foolish enough to attempt to board his vessel if it looked like they could not run. That in itself was a fun enough tactic. He looked over the side of the boat at the markings on the hull disappearing under the water as the mounds of packaged salt on deck rose. They would soon beden up to the gills, and ruse would be a reality. Unable to outrun any pirates in the Libian waters, they would find an unpleasant surprise if they attempted to board his Safina. . . . ¡°Did I make the right decision?¡± I asked Lady Acacia as we watched the Swift disappear over the horizon, and the Safina started to set sail. The Swift was loaded heavily, though lighter than the Safina. With the quicker ship already disappearing over the horizon and their divergent bearing, it was unlikely they would meet for a second time this year on the Azimuth Ocean. Nevertheless, we had ventured forth to ensure that the twopeting captains did not re-enact the conflict between their two countries within our sight, at least. ¡°Time will tell.¡± Lady Acacia prevaricated, allowing me to stew a little longer before answering more openly, ¡°Namir mightck some subtlety, but he is still a good judge of character. Every man is shaped by the society that surrounds him. While rough around the edges by the standards of Ponente, Captain Kashif is not an inherently evil man. Merely one who will chase profit over morals. In the future, the Silversea name will earn him more money than any others, and he will not wish to jeopardise that.¡± ¡°I hope your right,¡± Aleera whispered, worried about whether the gift we had sent would ever end up with its intended Emir. We already had trade links with the Royal family of Ponente, the Lodestar church and now two merchants from the neighbouring kingdoms. It would not hurt to build those rtionships with those a little further afield in Libio and maybe even as far as Ostro. The whole world was our oyster, and we were busily harvesting pearls. Chapter 168: Ripples Chapter 168: Ripples ¡°Consequences were a strange beast, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, more often than not different to those expected.¡± Mitchell Hogan A couple of monthster, in Libio The captain strode into the reception room, ¡°Wee back, courageous Captain Kashif. You seemed to have sailed well though I confess I have not seen much of you at all this year. My vizier is looking forward to catching up with you.¡± Emir Ishtul stood up to greet the captain pulling him close for a strong embrace. It was a power y of sorts. Kashif could not withdraw until he was allowed andcked the strength even to make the attempt. Ruling from his minaret-covered pce, the Emir could forgo endurance in favour of vitality and strength to make a strong first impression on his guests. He also had the benefit of nobility to inte his stats further. Bing a captain had been the biggest boon to his stats since he teaued as an adult. He couldn¡¯t imagine the benefits or the number of individuals it would be possible to receive for being an Emir. Such was life, the rich grew richer while the poor, for the most part, stayed where they were unless they were willing to get their hands dirty and had to fight every step of the way. The Emir wore an indigo silk turban wrapped around his head while gold earrings dangled from each ear. His fingers disyed gem-encrusted rings of every colour, one for each kingdom. Cerulean blue sapphires from Ponente, vibrant green Emeralds from Maestro and Golden yellow citrine from Tramontana. Orange Fire Opals from Greco, Red Rubies from Levante and Pink Spinel from Scirroco. Finally, iridescent diamonds from Ostro and purple amethysts from Libio. It was not impossible to unearth the gemstones in different countries, the world was not so strictly divided, but that is what the countries were famous for. Each finger held a different colour unting the full spectrum of thepass kingdoms and their attributes. The Emir sat back down, confident the captain would follow his movement lead, leaning forward over the table and intecing his fingers as he now waited expectantly for the Captain¡¯s report on his absence for so long. ¡°Oh, honourable Emir, I have sailed far and wide searching for a suitable gift for your eminence. Why only thisst month, I . . .¡± Captain Kashif began. ¡°Stop the sycophancy, Captain. Where have you been? What have you sold? And why might I ask, have you been purchasing so many ves and selling so much salt?¡± The Emir cut short his speech, showing he was not in the mood for flowery ttery. It also showed that he was rtively well informed of recent developments regardless of the captain¡¯s failure to report in person. ¡°The gift might help exin . . .¡± Captain Kashif started once more ¡°The gift cer. I¡¯m awaiting the facts of the matter. Where, what, and why?¡± He questioned suspiciously. Gifts in his mind often came with hidden costs for receiving them. His coastal duchy along the southwestern shores of the Compass kingdoms was close to the border with the militant kingdom of Ponente. He wished to know where precisely his captain had been disappearing to thisst year and what he might have done in his name. Libio already had a history and name for piracy, and he did not need his own linked to it any further than it already was. Captain Kashif hesitated again, but the Emir¡¯s wait was cut short when he deployed his skill. ¡°Tug truth.¡± Captain Kashif was forced into epting that he would not be able to start with the gift and unwillingly started to speak, ¡°I was paid for the direct transportation of a beastkin warrior from Ostro. We travelled from the border of Ostro at the southern edge of Libio to the westernmost pioneer ind of Wester Ponente.¡± ¡°Map.¡± Emir Ishtul snapped his fingers, and a secondter, the appropriate map had been ced in front of him to peruse. ¡°Continue.¡± He gestured while plotting Safina''s course to get there. ¡°When we arrived on the ind, our first stop after a long sail, I had hoped to . . .¡± he began to borate once more but found himself swiftly stopped with a reminder. ¡°Captain,¡± Emir Ishtul raised an eyebrow as he began to deviate from the facts of the matter. ¡°On Wester Ponente, our ves were liberated, and we were rpensed with their weight¡¯s worth of salt.¡± ¡°Ha!¡± The Emirughed, ¡°You might not have realised it, but you are now responsible for a new phrase, Worth his salt, though the salt sellers of the north and ve sellers of the south curse your name in equal measure. Your purchase of ves has driven prices up across the county while selling such salt quantities has equally devalued it in the north. It will bnce out in the end, but your name is not popr in certain circles Captain Kashif. Continue.¡± He directed once more. ¡°The profit on the salt wasrge enough to ensure return trips which I made quickly and quietly in an attempt to avoid losing my new market either to otherpetitors or to their attempts at piracy.¡± He continued his recount of the year. The Emir smiled in agreement, ¡°They have been looking but only to the north and south along the coast. No one suspected that your departure due west was anything more than an attempt at deception, not your actual true bearing.¡± He chuckled at the fact that the truth had protected Captain Kashif more than a deception would have. ¡°Carry on.¡± Captain Kashif hesitated once more, attempting to phrase the next part without angering his former patron. The raised eyebrow of Emir Ishtul reminded him to hurry up, or else the words would once more be pulled from him without his choice. ¡°On myst trip to sell ves for salt and deep sea pearls, I met merchant Mercurio of Ponente and realised he worked for the Lord and Lady Silversea of Wester Ponente. The Lord of Wester Ponente agreed to be my patron and hopes to reimburse the Emir Ishtul with a gift for my departure.¡± He finished as he ced both the sea silk and the set of deep-sea pearls on the table in front of the Emir. The Emir raised his hand for silence as he contemted both the final statement and the gifts he had received. He turned the fine golden silk over, feeling the fine weave and the smoothness of the fabric between his fingers before he picked up deep sea pearls to get a feel for the weight and then stared, seemingly distracted by their opalescent shimmer. ¡°As far as I can recall, Pioneer inds have no Lord or Lady. A ruling forced upon the Western Lords by the Eastern to hinder any growth of their power.¡± He finally began to speak after returning the gifts to the table. ¡°Where have theye from?¡± ¡°I believe they were born on the isle.¡± Captain Kashif answered ¡°Age?¡± The Emir quizzed. ¡°The Lord is still a child, and the Lady not yet an adult.¡± Captain Kashif. ¡°Ah, the hundred and first lord.¡± He mused, seeminglying to a realisation of his own. ¡°They have no ves?¡± he questioned pointedly. ¡°No, all ves are freed on arrival as soon as they set foot on the isle.¡± Captain Kashif answered. ¡°Yet they pay their weight in salt. Is their policy ethical or practical?¡± ¡°Perhaps both. I would not have returned had my ¡®goods¡¯ been stolen.¡± ¡°They wish to acquire a Libian Merchant alongside their Ponentian? That is an odd arrangement.¡± ¡°They seem unfettered by the antagonism of the maind kingdom and are happy to follow the profit. Though the Ponentian argued strongly against my eptance.¡± ¡°I suppose not. They are far from any border shes, and the only visitors who would get that far out are those sailing for their specific wares, the odd pilgrim on a circumnavigation, and only the well-off ones at that. Were they not worried about angering me in agreeing to be your patron? Were you not worried?¡± ¡°I believed and convinced them that the gift would be worth you relinquishing a merchant. You have many more under your house and would not miss one such as myself too much. Besides I believed that you would wee the opportunity to forge new rtionships with a lord anddy of Ponente. Plus, such a trade route would not be blocked by the tariffs of the kingdoms. They are a pioneer ind, and the Lodestar Church backs their freedom from such rules and regtions.¡± Despite the derailment of his nned speech, Captain Kashif finally arrived at what he felt would convince the Emir of the value of his n. Firstly, new rtionships and secondly, potentially worth far more was a route for trade goods into and out of Ponente without taxation and embargoes. The Emir was silent once more as he considered the captain¡¯s arguments. ¡°I would indeed be interested in forging new friendships, and a way around the border shes would benefit all our people. A bold course to have taken but not entirely without reward.¡± ¡°Thank you, your eminence. Will you recognise their patronage and relinquish your own.¡± He asked the most important question and the sole reason for sailing so far south once more. He could have never returned, but without a clean break with the Emir, he would have been dered ouw and pirate before too long, and the southern section of the Azimuth Ocean would have soon be too dangerous for him to sail alone. Once more, the Emir was silent as he calcted the benefits and detriments of epting the captain¡¯s n before finally deciding. ¡°Yes, I will.¡± The Emir replied to Captain Kashif¡¯s relief. ¡°Not only that, but these are princely ¡®gifts¡¯ worth far more than your patronage. I dislike being in debt to a new rtionship and will have to find a suitable gift to exchange.¡± Captain Kashif seemed to rx now that the meat of the matter had been resolved. ¡°That does not mean that you do not need to see my vizier on your way out. You have, I believe, only just begun to sail under their symbol. There is still the matter of your back taxes to pay if you wish to have a foot to step back on deck with before you leave.¡± The Emir reminded the captain of their respective positions and how close he had been sailing to the wind and rocks with his absence from court for so long. Chapter 169: Truth will out Chapter 169: Truth will out ¡°And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the Western isles; and I would be content.¡± Urs Le Guin Meanwhile, within the court of a Hundred Lords After a furtive look up and down the corridor to ensure they were not being eavesdropped on, the finely dressed man quizzed the servant who had found him on his way to the chamber. ¡°Where are these two upstart children and theirmon-born family then?¡± The Eastern Lord questioned acerbically. ¡°We need to ensure they are on the right side of the House of Lords, our side. Or not on the board at all.¡± The man reporting to him answered, ¡°We believe we have located the family on the pioneer ind of Wester Ponente in the Wester Isles. After teasing out the information from some of his crew, there appear to be some significant changes to the isle following or around the time of an Archbishop¡¯s visit. The ind is at the furthest point of his trade route and one of the few ces a lord might appear without being noticed by the other Western Lords and being co-opted by them.¡± ¡°If there is one silver lining in this debacle, it is that at least they were equally unaware of the family''s existence. We need to send our own envoy to get a clearer picture of the situation and act before they can. He might have received a royal decree to ensure his safety, but that does not preclude other possibilities.¡± ¡°Your Lordship?¡± ¡°If they are weak, we can control him. If they are strong, we can buy them; if they are in between, we can apply a mixture of pressure. We will have to leave it up to who we send to choose the right message, but that does not mean we can¡¯t send him several options to choose from. Kidnap, coercion, contracts, ckmail or coin, I don¡¯t care whichever works but get it done.¡± ¡°Of course, your grace, I will see to it immediately.¡± Hisckey replied. Bustling off down the corridor while his employer made his way on toward the House of Lords . . . On the other side of the House of Lords, a simr conversation was going on. ¡°You found them?¡± An equally finely dressed Western lord asked intently. The length of time it had taken to locate the new nobility had been uneptably long. Especially seeing as someone among them already knew, but to be the first to announce their location would be strong circumstantial evidence that they were the one behind the first attempt at assassination, so whoever it was kept their lips sealed. Though spection run rampant that it was the merchant Mercurio¡¯s former patrons. ¡°Yes, your lord. We are sure.¡± The bondsman replied confidently. It had been a long process of elimination, whittling away each coastal town and ind along the merchant¡¯s route. ¡°Well, then. Where are they?¡± He prodded expectantly. ¡°Wester Ponente.¡± He answered without hesitation ¡°The pioneer Isle?¡± His eyes flicked upward as if trying to recall something, anything regarding the ind, its location and surroundings. ¡°Yes.¡± He added confidently. They had finally had confirmation of the family''s existence. ¡°Wester Isles,¡± The Lord had finally remembered the location and the nearby Isles. ¡°Which Lord owns those or has the closest holdings bar the crown?¡± he pondered out loud. ¡°The Baron of Corus is the Lord with the closest Ind.¡± He kept his answers brief and to the point. He had already prepped for any such questions as these before bringing his information forward. ¡°Corus, Favon, Wester Levante . . .¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°We will have to support Baron Corus in expanding his domain to the west if we are to envelop the new lord into our position. Approach the Baron and ensure he is on board with our ns before setting sail to see them through. A vote in the House of Lords is worth the investment if not now then when hees of age. This will have to be brought up among our supporters. It is unlikely that we will be acting alone. See to it, Aeson, that we make the first move and that if anyone else is making any moves on them, their ns are permanently halted.¡± Hemanded before turning toward the House of Lords. This potato was about to get a little hotter to hold. ¡°I will, my lord.¡± He bowed and retreated to find the Baron before arranging funds and passage to the Wester Isles for himself. He would be away from the capital for a while. . . . ¡°The games grow afoot.¡± Seneschal smiled, reading the reports of his servants. However, spies would be a more urate name for the men and women living in the pce''s walls, keeping it running and listening in to every whispered conversation in its corridors. ¡°Game?¡± The Prince asked, lifting his head from studying the border map of the area between his country and Libio. They might be called thepass kingdoms, but the borderline did not follow the bearing southwest without a little fluctuation. The border was not a straight line but made around the features of thend, and on asion, the other races had built their own kingdoms in between them or alongside them. Humanity did not generally worry as much about the other noble races as they did about the abutting human kingdoms. They were far more likely to find themselves at war with them. Plus, the human kingdoms had quickly bound themselves together to repulse them on the few asions that the other noble races had threatened or started a war. Amon enemy made allies of the worst of them. In most years, the base race excursions from the Lodestone provided that enemy to unite them. Still, thisst decade had seen few eruptions of their kind. The tension along the southern border with Libio had only worsened with the growing number of pirates that, for all intents and purposes, were nothing but Libian privateers. ¡°The two sides of the House of Lords, the West and the East, seem to have discovered the location of the Silversea house.¡± His seneschal exined. ¡°Surprised it has only just happened.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Someone surely already knew.¡± not particrly concerned about the development. ¡°Of course, but they could not reveal that without earning your ire. After all, whoever reveals that they know first is the prime suspect in the assassination. Now though more members are aware, people will be able officially to act on the knowledge of something that your promation of protection forced them to wait for before they could act.¡± He continued. ¡°It is all rather entertaining, especially because it provides us with such a splendid distraction for the court.¡± ¡°You are not concerned that allowing the two sides to y such games will form a poor first impression of the house and of me for letting it happen.¡± The prince asked. ¡°If anything, it will be an urate first impression of the court and, realistically, bar stationing soldiers out there to defend against the depths. There is nothing more that you could have done beyond your own original promation. The Silversea family should be grateful enough for your support as it is. Lady Acacia knows how the game is yed and will not be expecting anything more. It is time for the house to stand on its own two feet and make its own way in the world. Your promation will hopefully keep things less than lethal and keep the issue open and distracting until the time that they attend court.¡± He extrapted. ¡°Very well. Now if you could focus on the matter at hand.¡± He reprimanded gently, focusing his seneschal¡¯s attention on the maps spread over the table. ¡°We need . . .¡± . . . . Further south in Libio ¡°I¡¯ve finally found the perfect gift for you to return, Emir.¡± His Vizier advised as he opened a gilded box to present the gift he had found. ¡°A dragonling¡¯s egg?¡± the Emir questioned. ¡°The box is a fine piece of disy work but a dragonling¡¯s egg? They are more pest than predator.¡± He seemed unimpressed with the sapphire blue stone that sat on a bed of velvet within or the idea of sending one as a return present. ¡°This one has the finest pedigree, my liege. Bred for speed and efficiency in hunting, it will make a fine pet for a young noble lord. Consider your potential partner in trade. They are amon-born family, provincial nobles at best and located on the horizon¡¯s edge. Dragonlings might bemon enough in the southern kingdoms of the Compass continent. But beyond Libio, Ostro and Sciro, they are exotic and rare, hard creatures to find and prized all the more for their rarity.¡± He expounded on his idea exining its potential. ¡°Will it even survive further north?¡± somewhat sceptical. ¡°Of course, they stay south more through preference than need, and some have been known to migrate higher north in warmer years. Still, the ind of Wester Ponente is hardly known for its cold climate.¡± He answered unwaveringly. ¡°It¡¯s hardly known at all. Very well, this ought to bnce out the scales a little, and we will have to see how well it is received.¡± He considered the possibility that this might bnce the scales somewhat. Chapter 170: Sweet Tooth Chapter 170: Sweet Tooth ¡°Everybody¡¯s got their poison, and mine is sugar.¡± Derrick Rose Sometime on the ind . . . ¡°Ha, hah!¡± I cackled as I conjured the drug that all parents feared their children would find. I used my mana to heat the morass I was stirring and looked positively malevolent in my method. ¡°You look crazy.¡± Commented Aleera. I had promised her a new product to trade that would sell even better than salt. She had been ecstatic to start with, but my failed attempts and the mess they had caused made her somewhat more hesitant this time. However, she still hoped I woulde through with something new. The trust she had in me was humbling though as often she was confused by my methodology. ¡°What exactly are you hoping to achieve here?¡± she asked. I had been suitably vague about the process and the end product, as I was unsure how to get there without a little trial and error. Now that I was, fingers crossed, a lot closer to sess, I felt a little morefortable in answering her, ¡°Just like we boiled the salt out of the water, I¡¯m boiling the sweet out of the nts.¡± It was a little simplified but then the closest that this world had to chemistry was alchemy and that required more magic than science. It simply did not make sense on many levels from what I had learned from Lady Acacia so far. Neither of us was that well versed in either Alchemy or Science as evidenced by my row of failures. One benefit though, to being a little lord and the pampered scion of the Silversea family was the ability to delegate and the freedom of a child to y. Our employees followed my orders while my family tolerated my experimentation as a child''s exploration. It didn¡¯t hurt that the majority of my more unusual experiments had resulted in profitable products. I was allowed a failure or two, even three or four. First, I enlisted our freemen to help nt and harvest sugar beets. We were running out of space within the cauldron caldera and had started nting around thegoon. Even though we now had a few fields being cultivated with all the final magical preparation taking ce within our hidden halls, I had been able to hide my earlier failures. Once I was sessful sugar and salt would look much the same so no one would be aware of our new production line. We would be able to store them alongside one another, and no one would be the wiser. Now that we had our two trade routes, one from Libio and one from Ponente I was working on forming our own trade triangle between the two countries with Wester Ponente as the linchpin. As far as we were aware the trade between the two countries directly was not exactly smooth with taxes and pirates making a mess of most of it. Still, it was profitable enough that merchants still attempted it. That would be where we came in by adding a third point to the trip they could hopefully trade here without worry and most importantly minimal taxes. It would make a huge difference. If it worked with the two of them, we could open it up to a few others or perhaps Mercurio and Kashif¡¯s profits would be enough for them to expand their own businesses. Alternatively, we could start building our own. We would probably have to create our own anyway if the trade route proved exceedingly profitable and popr we would, in the end, start drawing pirates of our own to ply our waters. Hopefully, Arawn and Namir would prove a suitably strong deterrent, but the world was wide, the oceans deep, and who knew how strong the monsters that swam the depths or sailed above it were? We would have to be cautious in our expansion. I also hoped our little triangle would be a little more ethically honourable than those of my old world but hopefully equally profitable. Enved people were freed for their weight in salt and in the future sugar. Once freed, they were then employed by our house. A few of them had decided to work in the town under others. A very small minority had attempted to create their own businesses, but even then those who had tried that route had taken loans from us to start up and were essentially our house¡¯s subsidiaries and selling under our family''s crest. A noble family''s crest was more important than I had realised a level of protection that was invisible and, in our family''s case, in reality, not all that strong. Yet with our name and crest to sail under, Captain Kashif would soon be able to sail rtively safely within Ponentian waters. Our hope was that in time Mercurio¡¯s icy disposition toward the southern captain might melt a little, and he might be able to achieve a simr trade triangle although he would probably require an introduction to the southern markets by Captain Kashif and possibly even have to be protected by him on sailing in the waters south of the border with Ponente. We were working on being able to produce everything in the triangle, salt, rum, cloth, sugar, etc. Our problem was the quantities we could create. We could only produce a small amountpared to what the continent would be able to produce. It would be enough to ensure our self-sufficiency but not enough to truly dominate the rest of the market if other people caught on and were able to steal our secrets. So, we would be biding our time and waiting until we were stronger or at least had stronger allies. The best we could do was stockpile the stuff prior to entering the market and then hope we would be strong enough to weather the attention it would bring. As far as I could tell from Lady Acacia sugar was neithermon nor known in the circles she had moved in. The elves were more druidic than industrialised, relying on honey to sweeten their foods. As Aleera watched, I transferred some of the syrupy mixture onto a tray and after a short application of cooling using my mana it was ready for her to taste. ¡°Try it. I broke off a thin piece.¡± ¡°After you.¡± She waited to see my reaction before risking her taste buds again. Some of my earlier attempts had not been particrly sessful and were not of much use other than to add to thepost heaps. The moment of truth, I cautiously tasted the product I had with a little luck, hopefully, manufactured properly this time. It was sweet! It was not the fine white crystals I was used to in my old world. But it didn¡¯t matter just yet. These were just the trial runs. In time I would, and before we started to ship it we would get there it was just a matter of time. ¡°It¡¯s sweet. I did it.¡± I crowed to Aleera. . . . Medieval chamber concert . . . It was nothing like a modern-day concert. There were norge speakers. No giant crowds of thousands. We had decided to start smaller than that, and even if I had been more confident, there were two problems with that idea. Firstly there were hardly thousands on our ind toe and listen. Secondly, skills helped significantly, but I had yet to develop speaker skills and was still limited to what I could project from the instruments or my voice. Instead, we had started with all of my family, including the extended one and all of our employees, which was beginning to add up now. Despite knowing everyone it was still a little daunting standing in front of them all. Lady Acacia had taught us a wide range of courtly dances and the songs to apany the set pieces. However, that did not mean I couldn¡¯t have fun when nning our own concert for them. I had taught Aleera some old-world tunes and made arrangements for them. Though it would mean that we had to y percussion as well as sing and y an instrument. We were not quite one-man bands, but we were not far off. Now we just needed to bring the crowd along with us. ¡°First things first, I¡¯m going to say all the words in my head. Second things second, Don¡¯t tell me what I¡¯m going to be I¡¯m the master of my ship, and I¡¯ll sail to wherever I see.¡± The first song was down, and they seemed to be enjoying it even if they found it a little strange to what they were usually used to. Apanied by Aleera, I would bring a revolution to the music of this world. The fantastic thing about my skills was that I could recall so much of what I had heard before, and there was no one to cry foul or decry my giarism when it came to the music. Even better was the bigger the impact we had, the greater experience we got from our performance. Bringing new songs, to everyone was worth that much more in terms of the experience we could gain from them. It was not so scary now that we had gotten started. There was a rush to it, much like free falling or flying. The buzz of performing was euphoric. I grinned at Aleera. ¡°Ready for the next one?¡± She nodded her agreement, equally enthused by the response from the crowd. She had worried that the unusual nature of the songs might stop them from enjoying the unfamiliar songs. But that did not seem to be the case. ¡°I got the eye of the tiger, I am the champion, and you are going to hear me roar.¡± Namir seemed to enjoy that one, he was not a tiger kin, but the simrities were enough to make him smile, a rarity for him. I was looking forward to being a little older with a lower voice, but for the moment, at least, it was going to be a long time until it dropped, so might as well make the most of my higher range. There was no reason that we couldn¡¯t make this a weekly event for our friends and family. As time went on, we could expand our audience, especially if we received any skills to amplify our voices or instruments. ¡°Lately, I¡¯ve been losing sleep, Dreaming about the things that we can be, Old, but I¡¯m not that old, Young, but I¡¯m not that young.¡± Arawn found that entertaining, especially as he was aware of the true dichotomy of my nature I was both old and young while neither at the same time. That was the magic of music and lyrics. In particr, what a piece meant to you differ depending on your perspective, history and opinions. Every melody meant something different to whoever listened to it, depending on how they approached it. ¡°I wish we could turn back time To the good old days, When my mum would sing us to sleep When I was stressed out.¡± Mother smiled at that, remembering all the times she had sung to us before she even knew we were listening. Her voice had been the first evidence that I wasn¡¯t alone, her words vibrating through both my body and soul. Not that the days now were not good. Things had never been better, but as we grew stronger, we facedrger threats things that we had never considered before forming a noble family. Much like anything, there were pros and cons to every situation. ¡°Are you, are you,ing to the tree They strung up a man they say murdered three Strange things have happened here how strange would it be If we met at midnight at the hanging tree.¡± It was not the most cheerful of songs, but it was certainly memorable. Lady Acacia gave a nod to the attempt. It was not entirely inurate Elves had a propensity to guard their borders harshly. However, they were more likely to bury the bodies than hang them up for better fertiliser for their trees that way. Some songs tranted across okay, others needed alteration to fit a little better, while others still would never work without the cultural references that made them make sense. I was also a little restricted to what I could, in theory, understand or have some experience of. That meant that most pop songs and their references were out of reach for another decade or two. That didn¡¯t mean that I couldn¡¯t take their tunes and repurpose them. But there were so many I could use that would be a long time down the line. Time to finish a catchy one and the first solo for my sister. This time I am silent in my apaniment. ¡°I¡¯ve been staring at the edge of the water For as long as I can remember never really knowing why I wish I could be the perfect daughter But Ie back to the water no matter how hard I try." I didn¡¯t change the words, and though my sister sang it, I can¡¯t help but feel that it echoes with my soul more. I want to go travelling. I want to see the world. Yes, it might not be safe, but still, I want to see it for myself. Whatever the future may bring, the concert was a sess. Ding! Ding! Ding! Singing (Lv75 -> 76) Drumming (Lv50 ->51) Music Prodigy (Lv30 ->31) The concert had been enough to push them over their thresholds! . . . Chapter 171: Jack o’ the sea (1) Chapter 171: Jack o¡¯ the sea (1) ¡°Every seaman is not only a navigator but also a merchant and also a soldier too.¡± William Pett Lessons were never really over with the bishop. He believed every moment had a lesson and seemed determined to redeem the Lodestar Church in my mother¡¯s eyes single handily. He sat down with me every day to improve not only my understanding of how to heal the body physically but my understanding of the world, both the physical and the spiritual¡ªthe temporal affairs of each kingdom and the beliefs, deities and attributes they were founded upon. ¡°The Anemoi are the gods of the winds and all the races on thepass continent¡ªa god for eachpass point, the four cardinal kingdoms and the four ordinal kingdoms. The first of the main eight is Njal for the northern Kingdom of Tramontana. He is the giant god and represents the attribute of strength. Working alongside the apex mythic beast, the white wolf Ulf they defend thepass continent against the ice giants of the north, ensuring they never travel further south and freeze the whole world over. It is an ever-flowing battle between them without end. ¡± He started to exin the eight gods of the Lodestar church. ¡°In times of need, you can pray to him and receive a temporary boon of strength. However, it will oftene with amensurate loss of strength afterwards. It will only be awarded if you have prayed often and he finds your cause worthy of a boon.¡± He continued opening up an entire area of reality I was unaware of. How would that even work? How was prayer worth strength, and if so, where did ite from? What if you were found wanting when you asked? ¡°Have you received a boon?¡± I asked, intrigued. Was this indeed a gift from a god or a pseudo-psychological symptom? Or was it even a system-sanctioned reality? It was impossible to know without questioning further. As always, when discussing the church with the bishop, I struggled to differentiate between fact and fiction. The border between the two stretched thin because the fact that I had been reborn on a new with a god-given system made so many of my former assumptions questionable. Formerly I had believed in the Christian god, but he or at least my understanding of him, was more of a hands-off one. He left our lives up to us as a representation of giving us free will. The idea that you could receive an immediate response from a god of thepass kingdoms with tangible benefits was inspiring, worrying, and every other emotion in between. Was my every action being noted and judged by the system? I already knew it saw all that I did in order to give me the experience for it, or was that just automatic, no judgment involved? ¡°I¡¯ve never needed a boon of strength for that; you must ask Sir Jacques.¡± The bishop replied. ¡°But I have been able to call on boons of my own. Now if you save your questions for the end, perhaps I might even answer them before you even have to ask.¡± He answered before suggesting I wait a while before asking any more questions. I nodded my agreement, although my mind was still buzzing with questions. There was so much to unpack in this conversation, and what if I forgot them? ¡°The second god of the Lodestar church is Pavel, the dwarven god of endurance. Aligned with the North Eastern Kingdom of Greco, Pavel fights alongside the apex mythic beast, Zmey Goynych, a rock serpent of the mountains with scales of metal and gemstone. They too guard the northern mountain range that splits thepass continent against any ice giant raids that have managed to slip past Njal and Ulf but they also defend against any of the base races from rising from the depths that hope to enter the ins or tundra.¡± The bishop continued. ¡®How active are they?¡¯ I wanted to ask. However, I kept my mouth shut, waiting for the end of today¡¯s lecture while trying to remember the list of questions growing in my mind. ¡®Could they be petitioned too?¡¯ ¡®Was it possible to receive multiple boons from different gods?¡¯ My inner thoughts did not halt the bishop¡¯s flow of words now that he had gotten started. ¡°The third god of the Lodestar Church is Feng Po Po, the Pixie god of dexterity. He burns out as often as the apex mythic beast of the east, the vermillion phoenix, Fenghuang. However, bonded together, they are also reborn again and again. This is just as well, as they have to battle against the Huodou, demon dogs from the depths who would swallow all fire while also burning humanity back to the age of innocence and beyond. Or worse drag us down to the depths with them. They reside in the Eastern Kingdom of Levante.¡± ¡®Is that for real? What else is hiding in the depths of the Lodestone? How much of this fear-mongering encouraged theity¡¯s trust in the Lodestar church and its gods? How much was it real? The bishop left no room for interruptions as he continued exining the founding texts and beliefs of the church. ¡°The fourth god of the Lodestar Church is Vayu, the Gnomish god of the mind monitoring the southeastern kingdom of Sciro. Deep in the jungles is the apex mythic beast, the elephant Pundarika, a mammoth elephant that dwarves the gnomes and any other whoe close to it. They say an elephant never forgets, and the grudges this one holds help hold back the Rakshasa, crushing them beneath his feet whenever they set to step out of the Lodestone within which they hide.¡± I gave up attempting to catalogue the questions I was squirrelling away in my mind. I would get to themter once he finished delivering his lecture. It would probably be impossible for me to differentiate between fact and fiction without seeing them with my own eyes. But I was growing increasingly grateful for the calm and neglected corner of the world I had found myself born into. ¡°The fifth god of the Lodestar Church is Shango, the beastkin god of senses. He watches over the Southern Kingdom of Ostro. He is a chimaera god with elements of each best kin tribe. The apex mythic beast of the south is the Impundulu, a type of eagle it can call lightning. Together they bring thunder and lightning through the air they control.¡± I would have to check out the church in more detail to see if any artwork depicted these gods. If not, maybe it was time to introduce stained ss windows somehow. The epic battles and scenes he was detailing would provide some sublime artwork if properly detailed. Surely that would be worth some experience and levels. ¡°The sixth god of the Lodestar Church is the halfling god Naseem. God of charisma, he contends against the song of the sirens who would draw all of humanity into the depths of the Azimuth ocean. The apex mythic beast of the southwest is a sea serpent immune to the hypnotising effects of the Siren¡¯s charisma; it dines on them regrly, whenever they threaten to rise the sea and swallow thend whole.¡± That was not worrying at all with the Liberian waters to our south. However, Captain Kashif never mentioned any difficulties. Or at least not yet. Maybe when the trade route grew busier, it would attract trouble. Or perhaps they were simply the cost of doing business and he had not wanted to worry us with them. Though I felt if they had been too terribly bad he would have upsold the difficulty of reaching us in order to inte his prices. ¡°The seventh god of the Lodestar Church is the Neriad God Zael of the sea, representing rity. It is said that he rides a turtle the size of inds beneath the waves keeping at bay the krakens that would pull the inds into the ocean.¡± This was less a lesson, and more a horror story of what could be found beneath every wave and stone but he was not finished yet. ¡°The eighth god of the Lodestar Church is Elven god Era. He represents vitality. It is rumoured to exist deep in the depths of the Elven wood in the Kingdom of Maestro. The apex mythic beast of the northwest is not fauna but flora. The original Elendil tree that has evolved to true sentience. It is the tree of life but is willing to end any intruders for the elves to live safely in its shade.¡± I wondered whether the Bishop was aware we had an sapling maturing at the top of the ind. I was not sure if it hade up in conversation or he had ever visited. . . . The question and answer session that followed was reasonably straightforward. I only feared that I missed a question or two I had meant to ask. But it wouldn¡¯t be the end of the world as he was not going anywhere, and I could always ask him another day. Or at least I hoped so. Who could tell what time would bring? ¡°Question 1. Have you ever seen an Anemoi?¡± I started with the simplest question. Were these gods even real? ¡°Not in living memory have they been seen.¡± Unafraid of the questioning, he answered honestly. ¡°Question 2. Then how do you know they are real?¡± What was this whole belief system based upon? If he had not seen them in person. What was any belief system based on if you really began to question it? ¡°Historical evidence shows the existence of the base races pushing into thepass kingdoms, and many sources detail how the Anemoi stepped forward to push them back. The lodestar church has collected all such evidence cross-referencing it to prove its integrity as much as we can prove anything." He answered unwavering in his belief. ¡°Question 3. What boon did you ask for? Why? And did you receive it?¡± I remembered my earlier question about the validity of such beliefs and whether a boon would work or was even possible. ¡°I asked for the magic to help heal a disastrous mining ident where my mana was not enough to help all who needed it, and relief would be too slow to arrive otherwise. So, yes, I did receive it. It helped me stabilise those who needed it, but it left me without magic for a month and damn near killed me anyway. Still, I would probably have died without it and would not have been able to heal the number of people I did.¡± He seemed proud of his efforts their effects, but still sad they had been insufficient to save everyone. ¡°Question 4. Why do the Anemoi match up to the kingdoms that they represent?¡± It had not escaped my notice that the gods, kingdoms and attributes were suspiciously well-aligned. As if almost designed that way, that did not strike me as particrly natural. ¡°Ah, this is a little like the chicken and the egg conundrum. Which came first?¡± He evaded answering straight away, clearly aware of my sceptism. ¡°I thought you were going to answer my questions? Not ask your own!¡± I was not too fond of redirection. However, I was not going to fall for the misdirection. ¡°I will, to the best of my ability, but there are two different schools of thought to answer this question. The egg theory is that the Anemoi came first, and their race is descended from them. The chicken theory is that the races came first, and the Anemoi arose from them. So who knows who came first?¡± He shrugged, no longer trapped in the paradox such was the power of faith. ¡°But what do you believe?¡± I asked, understanding the two schools of thought but wanting his opinion. ¡°I believe they were here before the advent of the fall of the lodestar, but whether that was as mere mortals or gods, that I believe, is lost to the trials of time.¡± He rified. ¡°Question 5 What do you mean fall of the lodestar?¡± ¡°ording to our belief, there was not always a system, nor was there always a lodestar.¡± He answered. ¡°What was there before? Where did the Lodestare from? Why?¡± I wondered what the world would be like without them. The system was omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. What had the world have been like without it? . . . ¡°Before the Fall of the Lodestar, it is said there was no system. The world was a war ground where base races, beasts and the noble nine races fought for every foot of space. Finally, the eight Anemoi had enough of the war and pulled down a star from the heavens, the Lodestar. Under its guidance and Light, the base races were driven below into the Lodestone while the gods created the eightpass kingdoms. Each kingdom, with its race, was surrounded and separated from one another by the human kingdoms. Those who fought alongside and for the eight noble races. Humanity provided the barrier between the races to ensure no more war.¡± ¡°Does every race believe that?¡± I asked, slightly sceptical about the human-centric version of creation. ¡°Depending on your race, the origin of the world varies. But there is amonality of themes and beliefs enough to support the truth of it.¡± ¡°Is there no war between them?¡± ¡°No, there are border skirmishes between the human kingdoms and excursions from the base races hiding in the lodestone depths, but there has not been anything like the actual age of war again. Especially since the borders were formalised by the bearing roads and circumference wall that holds in the central sand from the sea of storms in the continent¡¯s centre. Even the copse of the emergent Compass Empire merely returned to the eight kingdoms rather than causing an outbreak of war between them.¡± His answers raised more questions than answers. ¡°What are the bearing roads, circumference wall and sand sea of storms?¡± ¡°To answer thest first, the sand sea of storms is a desert that is all that is left of the centre of thepass continent. It was caused by the fall of the Lodestar and was the start of the end of the Age of War. Its fall stopped all war, and in its wake, the system¡¯s rise meant the end of the age. But it also had a cost to the earth itnded on. Thend died, a desert formed from its remains, struck by lightning, it was death to all who crossed it. It hit the sand and slowly grew until the circumference wall finally bound it.¡± Okay. That was not strange at all. I couldn¡¯t begin to guess what truth and fiction were or how the two interweaved. ¡°The circumference wall was grown from the sand to contain it, and the bearing roads were likewise grown from it in turn along the cardinal and ordinal directions, slowly expanding until they reached the coast and stopped. These roads have formed the official borders of eachpass kingdom although the separate kingdoms still sometimes dispute their new borders despite the bearing roads that cut through thend on the way to edge of thepass.¡± ¡°The roads grow?¡± I asked. ¡°How?¡± ¡°We not know it was one of thest acts of the Light of the Lodestar church.¡± ¡°They are man-made?¡± I ask, impressed by the idea of a road that built itself from what he was saying. How was that even possible? Who knew? Magic! Wait for the Light of the Lodestar Church. Was their pope the ultimate road construction worker? ¡°How did the Light make them? And why was it one of thest acts?¡± ¡°The Light, along with the four kings, disappeared at the formation of the Compass Empire. Their disappearance was the main reason for the dissolution of the empire back to its foundingpass kingdoms.¡± ¡°What about the apex mythic beasts? How do we know that they are real? Have you seen them?¡± ¡°Historical ounts prove their existence.¡± ¡°What about the mythic beast of the West? Wouldn¡¯t we have seen a giant turtle, as we are the most western isle out there?¡± If there was one fact that the inders were most proud of, it was the fact that we were the most Western point of the known world. That we were on the edge of thepass; if there were a mythic beast anywhere in the west, surely it would be here where we were. ¡°And where were the Nereids? Did I need to dive deeper? His lectures often left me with more questions than answers. Chapter 172: Sail on the horizon Chapter 172: Sail on the horizon ¡°You got the makings of greatness in you, but you got to take the helm and chart your own course!¡± Long John Silver, Treasure Ind Our ship skipped across the waves, our skills working together to streamline and power our course. It didn¡¯t hurt that we had the wind behind us as I filled the sails with my mana while my father held the helm. Lessons with Lady Acacia had only helped improve my mana control and power. But it was nice to avoid all the expectations once in a while. The problem with being a certified genius for my age was the achievements I was supposed to aplish next. None of my tutors would ept me stalling or teauing when I had much farther to go. It seemed I was supposed to work wonderster in life, and I didn¡¯t want to disappoint them or myself. Father was happy to hijack the lord of thend to act as his onboard motor, and I honestly didn¡¯t object. Our trips were always profitable in more ways than one. ¡°Picking up anything?¡± He asked as we shot along over the waves. ¡°Nothing yet,¡± I answered, not yet disappointed by ourck of any new finds. I had all my sense skills ring to provide me with as detailed a scan of the bottom of the ocean as possible. I was building up a map of the bottom of the sea, but there was so much that it would take me years to search it all urately. The depths of the Azimuth Ocean did not wish to give up its secrets easily or at all, and there were days when we returned without discovering anything new. ¡°Keep looking.¡± He said as he angled our course southward. Whether we found anything or not, we still had toe back with some fresh fish as it was the main excuse for our sailing excursion, and the best ce to find them was the mana reef. So despite our different headings, every time we left the harbour to map the area, we always turned south toward the mana reef unless we were visiting Wester Levante or Little Wester. One thing we had learned over the year was how long I could stay in the water before my mere presence started to pull the monsters from hiding ces. I was a tasty morsel worth moving for and limited to 10 minutes under the water. This was not due to how long I could stay under the water while holding my breath but how long it took for my mana to dissipate through the water and start attracting the mana-hungry monsters. I could swim around slightly longer in the waters of the mana reef as the higher mana content of the area meant it took longer for them to notice me. We had checked. Mana was still as excellent and mysterious a resource as it was when I first felt it after appearing in this world. But I learned much about it through personal experience alongside Lady Acacia¡¯s lectures. It permeated everything. Every creature absorbed and released it, whetherrge or small, as they lived. This was particrly obvious in the mana reef, where you could see healthy areas of coral. The tiny polyps were exceptionally proficient at pulling in the water mana that flows through the ocean, the minuscule amount of earth mana that was initially invisible to my senses till I managed to level up past level 50, and release a green vibrant life mana that draws in so many other lifeforms to take advantage of it. Fish, lobsters, ms, seahorses, sponges and sea turtles were just a few of the myriad creatures that crowded this small section of the vast ocean. We had seeded the mana reef with many traps and markers we needed to check once we reached the reef. Father would check them daily with or without me. Otherwise, we would find our traps destroyed by more giant creatures keen to eat the morsels we had caught. They were happy to fill their stomachs with what had filled our own or at least our wallets. The markers were more for me than for him. Various ms I was checking to see the size of their pearls while still waiting to harvest them. It would be a busy day. . . . Several hourster, after fully harvesting the traps, resetting them and leaving them for Father to check tomorrow, it was time to go home. Taking a different route every time meant that we would sail east before heading north, then west, another bearing mapped on the map I was making of our territorial waters. Technically they would only be our territorial waters once I received the official next rank of the peerage, by bing a viscount, ording to Lady Acacia. Until then, thend was mine, but the sea in between was not. The silver lining to this fact was that as long as I remained the Lord of Wester Ponente rather than the Viscount of the West Isles, I was exempt from taxation due to the pioneer status of the ind. However, as a Viscount of all three, I would suddenly find myself liable for tax. As we turned north, we spotted the sail on the horizon. Facing my father to speak, I suddenly stuttered to a halt. ¡°When we . . .¡± Other than the small fishing boats we spotted sailing near Little Wester or therger ships docked on our ind or Wester Levant, we had never seen a ship at sea. We were too far out from the continent to ever see any traffic. Alerted by shock and staring, Father turned to see what I was looking at in the distance behind us. Holding the helm, he was forever looking forward rather than back, and he cursed as he, too, made out the sail in the distance. ¡°Ready, about!¡± he shouted before tacking and running west. It had been easy sailing south in the morning with the wind behind us, and although it had shifted during the day, it would not make it easy for us to run straight home. ¡°Why are we running?¡± I asked, although I feared I already suspected the answer judging by the cut of their sails. ¡°That isn¡¯t a Ponentian ship, son. It¡¯s a Libecian galley.¡± He cursed once more. The difference between the square-cut sails of Ponente and theteen rigging, triangr sails, of the Libian¡¯s immediately apparent. ¡°It could be Kashif¡¯s. It¡¯s hard to tell from this distance.¡± I suggested, hopefully. Fully aware of the dubious reputation of the average Libian captain. ¡°We will know soon enough.¡± He grimly replied as he applied all his skills to driving our boat faster. ¡°As much wind as you can conjure, Kai.¡± He directed as our ship shot forward, running west as quickly as we could. Soon enough, we did. The ship had abandoned its previous course and turned to follow us toward the edge of the horizon and the unknown. Over the next hour, our problem soon became very apparent. Despite our size, skills, magic and speed. Therger galley was gaining on us. It helped that they had farrger sails, of course, but what was truly driving them forward were their oars. From where we were fleeing, it was impossible to say if sailors or ves were pulling them, but either way, the rowers were pulling them ever closer. Their strength and stamina stats had to be enormous to keep them going after chasing us for so long. ¡°Kai, you have to leave me.¡± My father told me once it became inevitable that we would be caught sooner orter. Although our course had driven us further west, we could not tack to return home without shortening the chase for the Libian galley. ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± I refused. ¡°You can and you will.¡± He said firmly. ¡°I¡¯m just another sailor they will attach to an oar. They won¡¯t kill me, and you can always get your guardians toe and get me. You, though, are something special. They might very well turn tail once they have you on board. Either to sell or ransom for a dukes reward. You can fly; you need to flee.¡± He pulled me close to say his final words as if the force of his arm wrapped around me could impress on me the seriousness of his words. But he was defeated not by my inability to listen to the idea of leaving him behind but by the facts of the situation. We had passed the shortest point of return, and with me fueling our flight over the ocean, I would not have enough mana to make the flight by air now. ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± I repeated. ¡°I don¡¯t have enough mana to make the flight.¡± I had been carefully watching my mana to ration out the bursts for when they were most needed flicking it on and off to help us crest the waves and then letting gravity and the wind drive us downward or forward. ¡°Kai.¡± He cried, disappointed by my answer. I had never let him down before, yet it had never been as vital as now. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving you. I will not, and I cannot.¡± I answered firmly. When we first saw the galley and turned to flee, the thought had fleetingly flittered through my head. But I had banished the idea of leaving my father and refused to contemte an option that had never truly existed. We were in this, whatever it may be, together. ¡°Can you take them?¡± he asked hesitatingly. He was aware of the training I had received and was proud of how well I could best most of my cousins despite being half their size. But games and training were not actual battles. As soon as the surprise of my size and speed was countered, I would quickly find myself squished unless I could stay ahead of them, and how could I do that with my father, a sitting duck? I was not alone. It was impossible. ¡°No,¡± I replied. It would never have worked. And exhausted as we were from running so hard, I hardly had full reserves to fight them with, no matter how quickly they replenished themselves. Furthermore, we had no idea what to expect on board the galley but with a crew capable of pulling forward across the sea after us so quickly; I heavily doubted that they were not fiercelypetent. The sea was wet and wild, and they were brazenly sailing out over the edge of it after us without hesitation or detour. ¡°I didn¡¯t think we could, but I had to ask. Is there anything else you can think of that I am missing?¡± He finally asked after a heavy silence filled with the wind whipping through our hair and the smash of the waves against the hull. The waves had grown more profound as the ocean floor fell further away, out of sight of even my senses. We were sailing over the unknown, and if I was not currently being chased, I doubted I would have ever risked sailing so deep so soon. ¡°Not that I can think of,¡± I answered heavily. Chapter 173: Never give up Chapter 173: Never give up ¡°Never give up, and good luck will find you.¡± Never Ending Story ¡°Other than an act of god, I can think of nothing. Even if such a boon were possible, a boost in a single stat would not be enough to save us,¡± I replied, my head bowed in defeat, not prayer. ¡°Not even your mana?¡± Father raised a dubious eyebrow toward me. He, too, had heard the teachings and tales from the Bishop. But, of all the family, he most enjoyed returning to the weekly services at the Lodestar Church, perhaps finding morefort in the idea of beings more significant than ourselves looking out for those who had to brave its darker depths more frequently. I knew what he was referring to¡ªthe Bishop¡¯s tale of when he had prayed for more mana and ultimately received it toplete his healings. With enough mana, I could fly home, but I did not want to leave my father, and there was no guarantee that my prayer would be well received or, more importantly, answered in time. The Galley was still closing, though I hoped a little more slowly. Perhaps they were finally running out of stamina. The God of Magic was mysterious and hidden; unlike the other aspects of the stat sheet, vitality, strength, endurance, dexterity, senses, mind, rity and charisma, they all had a visible effigy to pray to. But not magic. That was hidden. How would I even direct my prayer, and to whom? ¡°I know that leaps of faith do note easy for you. But for me, your father, if not for yourself, please believe in thepass pantheon and offer them your heart and mind to save your body and soul.¡± Father¡¯s eloquent speech caught me by surprise; if not for myself, then I would make the request for my father. Though I still doubted it would be answered. The Bishop had outlined the ritual for calling on the Anemoi, the pantheon of thepass continent, and I followed his instructions to the letter. I took a knee in each cardinal direction, bowing to the north, east, south, and west before doing the same with northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest in the ordinal directions. The ceremony was made that much more challenging by the rise and fall of the boat alongside fleeing for our freedom and lives. The next step was to centre me in the middle of thepass I made. I hoped that the fact that we were moving would not mess up that finer point of the ritual. Unsurprisingly the Bishop had not mentioned conducting the ceremony on a moving surface, and I had failed to consider the possibility and ask. After a moment of meditation on the bottom of the bouncing boat, I was ready to attempt. Once centred as best I could, considering the circumstances, I made my plea as we continued to flee the galley. ¡°I call to the eight winds of the world. North to South, East to West Anemoi, hear my plea. Njal of the North, lend me your strength, Pavel of the North and East, help me to endure Feng Po Po of the East, speed my steps and guide my hands. Vayu, of the East and South, mould my mind. Shango of the South, open my senses. Naseem of the South and west, smooth my voice. Zael of the West, give me rity of thought. Era of the West and North, give life to my breath.¡± I called out by rote the words I had learned at the Bishop''s side. Then I paused here; most mortal men, my father included, could only call on the eight or even the standard six as their stats restricted them. So I was among the select few who could call on the hidden god¡ªthe god of magic. ¡°I call on the ninth hidden god of magic. whose mana is found on every bearing Of all bearings, both cardinal and ordinal Yet of none, hear my plea.¡± I paused here, trying to decide whether or not to continue. Those were the Eight cardinal and ordinal gods of the Lodestar church, with the hidden god of magic that covered the nine noble stats. But I was different; I had one more stat, Luck. If I had ever needed a moment of luck, it was now. I needed a moment of serendipity, but as I had been called out by my sister before, I was a bag of secrets, and this one was one more that I had been hoarding. No one knew it. I had a tenth stat. If there was a tenth stat, was there a tenth god? If the god of magic was hidden, could not the god of luck be hidden too? Without raising my head or looking at my father, I continued. ¡°And if you are out there, Fate or Fortuna, god or goddess of luck Please hear my prayer.¡± I wished the ritual could have been conducted silently in my head, but I was working with what I had been taught, and this was how the Bishop had instructed me. I had never thought I would need it, and if I did, I would have the luxury of privacy to do so. I did not need to look at my father to sense him sit up straighter and then lean forward with interest as if, by closer proximity, he could pull forth the secrets from me. There would be questionster, I could tell. Stubbornly and hopefully, I continued. ¡°I beg the stats, skills, or circumstances to escape our pursuers and return home safely.¡± I bowed again in each direction, adding two more bows to the lodestar in the sky and the lodestone beneath our feet, hoping to respect both hidden gods. We waited anxiously in suspense, but there was no divine intervention that we could witness. ¡°Anything?¡± Father asked hopefully. There were no lightning strikes on our enemies or swells of monsters to drag them down into the depths. ¡°Nothing,¡± I replied, sensing no sudden swell of strength or mana. On the contrary, my reserves were dropping precipitously low. ¡°God of luck?¡± he questioned, raising an eyebrow. ¡°Later,¡± I promised. I was frantically thinking of a way out. It looked like we were still on our own. Or perhaps not; the moment of meditation or Vayu helped open my mind. I hesitated to attribute it to one god in particr and, in the safety of my mind, thanked them all equally. ¡°If the Anemoi are busy, then there is no reason we can¡¯t make our own luck,¡± I told my father with a fresh burst of enthusiasm as I outlined my ideas. I had more than one. We would have to wait to see if any of them worked. . . . Pirate captain¡¯s perspective. Sinbad smirked as his ship, the Chimera, drew another length closer. Their prey had finally been forced to tack rather than flee over the edge of thepass. A sensible decision and a better choice for survival, even if they would do so as ves rather than as free men. No one knew whaty beyond the edge of thepass. Some felt that the water went on forever, water without end. Others argued that an endless waterfall rose into the sky to the heavens themselves to provide the rain that nourished the world. Others still felt that the water tipped over the edge of thepass continent to fall forever into the depths of the lodestone. Sinbad did not know and did not care. He would rather not find out from personal experience. What he did know was that no one ever returned. They would be sorely disappointed if they had hoped he would turn back before following them over the edge. Still, there was a spasm of relief that his prey had finally turned away from the edge. He would not have to give them up even though they were not the main aim of his venture. They would provide a suitable bonus prize with their capture. He had beenmissioned to catch Kashif. He had nothing against a merchantman making a profit, but that did not mean that others did not, and they had lost too much profit to the waves the man was driving not to search out the source of his wealth andmission him to take a cut of it. A small cabal of offended parties had approached him to make the trip far beyond the waters he usually sailed in search of the ves, salt and pearls they believed were rightfully theirs. Initially, they thought the man had found a trade route to Ponente through the Azimuth Archipgo, avoiding the embargo. However, it turned out his bearing of departure was not a false trail made to fool pursuers but his fundamental approach. His quarry had sailed nearly due west, past the Azimuth Archipgo to the very edge of the world, and he had followed with his merry band of misfits on his vessel, Chimera. He called them misfits because he had more crew than he usually carried on top of the ves pulling away at the oars below. Each cabal member had sent an actor or two to ensure their aims were met. Warrior, Wizard, Rogue, Healer, Seeker, etc. They all stood on his deck, cluttering hismand with their presence and questions, even if one or two had been essential in following Kashif without making him aware for so long. A trackston had been bound onto the hull of his prey before he ever left Libian waters. They were carefully attached to prevent them from damaging the runes needed to sail these seas unmolested by their serpents or worse. It would have been far more essible to sink Kashif than their long pursuit on his trail. Unfortunately, it had taken them far longer than they had believed it would have, and supplies were running low. It was not until earlier this morning that they had spied the fishing boat in the middle of the waters at the horizon''s edge. Thinking they were finally nearing their destination, they changed course to catch them. A mere fishing boat''s speed had been a surprise to all of them. Necessary, maybe if they sailed among the serpents at the edge of the maps but still a shock. It had not stopped them from pursuing them though it had meant that ves had to be pushed to keep up with them. One benefit to his high level and one of the reasons he had been the captain approached for this task was that his ves were all high levelled for vitality, strength and endurance. They were as close to brutes and mutes as he could force them without drawing the ire of the Lodestar church. He was no idiot. He was no danger to him; he could walk rings around them, mental and physical gymnastics they were no longer capable of. Still, it did make them excellent rowers capable of pulling his galley through the waters at speeds quick enough to catch any square sailed brigs of Ponente that dared to travel further south than the archipgo, and they could pull for days when driven hard. These two could only be from the ind; they had passed to the north. he could arrange an equal trade to return them to their family. At least those had been his initial thoughts. However, he might have to rethink trading these two for the ves the cabal had in mind. Judging by their ability to stand up to him and lead his entire crew and ship on a merry dance, they looked like they were worth much more than he had initially believed. The man and halfling mage on the ship in the distance would be worth their weight in gold, not salt, based on the skills they had employed to have stayed ahead of them for so long. Still, it was only a matter of time. They couldn¡¯t run forever. It looked like one of them was even praying. Perhaps the halfling was a cleric, not a mage. That wouldplicate enving them, but it would not be impossible given the right persuasion. It was time to run them down, finally. . . . Returning to Kai''s POV Recognising the futility of fleeing further out to sea but unwilling to give up, we hatched our ns. If, at first, you fail, try and try again. I would not put all of our eggs in one basket if I could help it. Our most significant fear was the unknown. We knew nothing about our pursuers other than the country of origin. That was only an assumption based on the cut of their sails following the simr triangr jib of Captain Kashif¡¯s. For our first n, we tacked to take us home. Unhindered by the wind, the galley drove straight toward us. Conserving my mana, I was no longer filling our sails with air. Instead, I sat beside my father, hand in the water trailing behind the boat as I attempted to pull mana from the water, just like the polyps that built the mana reef. Simrly, I inevitably released my own in return. An exchange of sorts, my blessings and traits added their colours to my mana, giving it the full spectrum of colours though it soon disappeared into the dark depths. The question was whether it would be enough to attract some of the darker denizens from the depths of the sea bed so far below us now that I could no longer sense it to the surface. I knew I was tasty. The question was whether I would be delicious enough to entice a giant monster. With the depths out of my sensory range, I feared that I had no effect and could only hope that the lure I was presenting would be enticing enough to call forth some form of sea monster strong enough to deal with the galley we were closing in on. I left my hand in the water. To anyone watching, it would look like I had given up no longer providing any mana for our sails and relying on the wind alone. But this was only step one of our ns. Gradually we grew closer and closer, our tacking no longer allowing our ship to flee solely away. Every other tack took us back toward the galley, still hot on our heels. Till finally, we grew close enough that they were within range. Sure, it seemed like no monsters had yet to arrive to eat delectable me, but that did not mean they were our only ploy to y. I retreated into my mind before attempting to delve deep into theirs. What did they want? Why were they chasing us? How dangerous were they, and what would they do next? These were the few questions I hoped to have answered with my own unique set of skills, some still unsurprisingly secret. ¡°I hope Namir¡¯s training has not been in vain,¡± Fathermented as we drew closer. ¡°Who are they, and what do they want?¡± he asked me, believing my super senses and their appropriate skills would be all I would use to answer our questions. They would certainly help. But hardly be all that I would use. I focused with all my senses and mind to build a picture of what we would be facing momentarily if the situation did not unexpectedly change. . . . Chapter 174: Power of Perception Chapter 174: Power of Perception ¡°There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.¡± Jim Morrison The lesson Namir had knocked into me the hardest was to focus my senses while maintaining an awareness of sudden changes among the ridiculously wide range of sensory data my stats, traits and skills could provide me. It helped me have the mental stats to process them and the rity to do it quickly. The beastkin¡¯s build was first based around his senses, second dexterity to act on what he had sensed while tied for third and fourth came his mind and the rity he required to make his reflexes instantaneous. Unable to assign my free points, Igged far behind his actual attributes, but my unheard-of traits helped me practice the lessons he had taught me. It did not hurt that I had more than one mind to calcte my options, and I spun them up. Together with Kai, Callen, and Caelus, we worked through my skills, building a HUD that disyed as much information as we could glean from the rapidly approaching enemies. Each mind spun up a different skill and added it to the HUD, buildingyers of information on top of my vision. Retreating to my mental war room, I built the scenario¡ªfirst sight. I attempted to inspect and attach levels to my opponents. Most ves strapped to their oars were hidden from sight by the hull, but from the few on deck, they did not look like they would be a significant threat provided I kept out of their immediate reach. Name: Saava Level: 20 Metier: ve Age: 22 Strongest stat: Endurance Name: Theodulus Level: 20 Metier: ve Age: 24 Strongest stat: Endurance My inspect skill had continued to level over thest year, and I could now understand how much health and stamina they had left. A vital skill when wearing down my cousins and galleys, it appeared. We had worn them down a lot, but they had more stamina left than we had mana, and rowing was not an option for us on our sailboat. What was more interesting, though, was the captain''s levels and his ¡®advisors¡¯ on the ship''s prow. They had left the helm to another sailor to crowd the prow as they ran us down. Not only their levels but their metiers as well were unusual. Name: Sinbad Level: 52 Metier: Merchant Captain Age: 35 Strongest stat: Dexterity Name: Junaid Level: 41 Metier: Warrior Age: 35 Strongest stat: Strength Name: Ramil Level: 43 Metier: Sorceror Age: 31 Strongest stat: Magic Name: Farris Level: 36 Metier: Rogue Age: 35 Strongest stat: Dexterity Name: Haakim Level: 51 Metier: Healer Age: 35 Strongest stat: Mind Name: Bahis Level: 36 Metier: Seeker Age: 35 Strongest stat: Senses Name: Murshad Level: 24 Metier: Cleric Age: 35 Strongest stat: Senses We were outnumbered and out-levelled. Shock and awe would take you far, but I worried it would not take us far enough against the worryingly well-levelled professionals arrayed against us. What on earth they were doing so far from the continent, I did not know, but it did not bode well for my budding kingdom or, more immediately, for myself and my father. We could not negotiate from strength stuck as we were on the open ocean with them between us and a safe dock. I would have one shot at this and have to make it count or pay the consequences. Refusing to get depressed by the details, I continued through my skills. Next up was Time sense. It had been a neglected skill until Namir started having me time the flights of my arrows, stones and spells. Sticks and stones certainly broke bones, but words in this world were equally effective in flinging spells, and he worked hard with me until I had an almost instinctive understanding of when my weapons, whether they be sticks, stones or words,nded. I had tried using countdown clocks to time it, but in the general mayhem thatbat could devolve into a simple single countdown to when I sensedbat wouldmence was simplest, leaving the rest to the instinctive understanding of how it would evolve. We were running out of time, and even my danger sense was beginning to ping as we drew closer to what must have been their own weapons range. I could perceive the increasing danger of their arrival. Still, I could not pinpoint it to a specific individual on the deck from the individuals who must have been discussing our previous actions and organising the events for our immediate capture. I got to confirm that with my next set of skills. Third up was my listening and all the other skills from that tree, eavesdropping and echolocation. They allowed me to see the ves toiling away beneath the deck and behind the hull of the galley. They also allowed me to listen to their conversations despite the distance separating us, and what I heard was less than inspiring. ¡°How much do mage ves go for nowadays?¡± Junaid asked Ramil and Sinbad. It was not a question I wanted to find out the answer to. Someone had also clearly highlighted to the others some of my abilities. Though with block status, I should hopefully have been able to hide the rest of my abilities from them until I shoved them down their throats. We would not be going down without a fight. However, I was still praying that both the denizens of the depths and Anemoi of the Lodestar would swallow or strike them down, respectively. I red my listening skills once more, hoping to hear anything else. But all I heard was the . . . Ding! Sonar (Lv1) Any other time I would have been ecstatic to gain a new skill and have the time to y with it. Unfortunately, that time was not now. I was running out of time and had to focus my stronger skills on the enemies at hand. I abandoned using poise, grace, charm,posure, cruising, and seafaring. At the same time, I strengthened my attempts at Lie and deception. I had to appear as exhausted and run down as possible. They would not fall for a sudden change, so I continued to rx some skills while gradually strengthening others. As well as bracing for what I hoped would be a lethal burst of skills ranging from quick reflexes, stealth, intimidation, dart, sh step, and flight. Alongside my Spellcraft, Weapon prodigy and mana skills. Still, while releasing Mana into the water below me, I continued working on my preparations. Within my mind, I moved to my mediation room, leaving Callen and Caelus to keep track of the rest of the HUD we had created. I focused on my final mind skills. Insight and Mind sense in an attempt to learn their dispositions even as I listened to their conversations regarding us which further voured my opinions. ¡°The sailor looks too old to be broken onto an oar, but he should have plenty of other fine skills to support the Chimera, as he is familiar with sailing these treacherous waters.¡± Commented Sinbad to the Cleric Murshad.¡°You will be able to assist, won¡¯t you?¡± He questioned the cleric. ¡°Of course, but it might be wise to wait until we have found Kashif¡¯s final destination. We are on the very edge of thepass, and it might be reckless to harden the hearts of the locals owning thest safe harbour.¡± He cautioned the captain. Murshad moved from an assumed adversary to a potentially neutral coborator. He moved to the bottom of my threat list. First came the captain, Sinbad, due to his level and focus on dexterity. I was quick but still squishable if caught. I worried he would be able to. Tied in 2nd ce were Ramil and Farris; with magic, Ramil had ranged attacks I might be unable to counter or avoid while close up I feared the synergy of Farris¡¯s rogue skills with his high dexterity. The others were listed as follows, 3rd came Junaid, 4th Bahis, 5th Haakim, before the other sailors and ves. Murshad nownguished inst ce on my list of adversaries. I hoped I wouldn¡¯t have to clear an entire shipload of people because I doubted I could physically or mentally. I would rather win free through finesse using all my skills and guile rather than brute forcing our escape. Listening was still filling in the features of the tapestry, but by using my psi, I hoped to find the threads needed to pull it apart. Insight and mind sensebined gave each character a glow denoting their emotional state. The closer they were to red, the closer they were to act aggressively. Unsurprisingly the warrior was the most enthusiastic about theing conflict¡ªa sense of finally relieving the tedium of a journey without end or excitement. Despite my many sessions browsing the emotional state of my subjects and cousins inbat, even the fish in the sea, I had never been able to move beyond that. My reluctance to reveal my Psi prevented my tutors from weaponising it. A regret I hoped to rectify should I survive what wasing next. Barring the seven minds focused solely on us, the sailors remained ambivalent on our capture, not truly invested in our capture that would give them nothing but cost them another day at sea. While the dimmer minds of the ves were focused solely on each stroke of the oar, maintaining the time and avoiding the harsh whip for any failures. Thest edition to my HUD was to use Sense Mana to look for any fault or weakness in the ship steadily closing in our stern. To my senses, the ship lit up with runes. From studying with Lady Acacia, I could tell that each protected the hull from a different effect. It was shielded from sight, taste and hearing. The hull was waterproof and actively repelled the water it floated in, allowing it to cut through the water with little friction. Unsurprisingly, they managed to keep up with us despite our skills and strength with mana when loaded with such runes. It would be a tough nut to crack, but one I was going to attempt. But first, I had to set the scene for my sneak attack, which involved creating a distraction. We were certainly sailing against the current /watch?v=R4hDcd9fzRk&list=RDMM&index=1) ¡°Legends never die When the world is calling you Can you hear them screaming out your name? Legends never die They be a part of you Every time you bleed for reaching greatness Relentless you survive They never lose hope when everything''s cold And the fighting''s near It''s deep in their bones, they''ll run into smoke When the fire is fierce Oh, pick yourself up, ''cause Legends never die Legends never die When the world is calling you (the world is calling you) Can you hear them screaming out your name? Legends never die They be a part of you (they be a part of you) Every time you bleed for reaching greatness Legends never die¡± Against the Current, League of Legends and MAKO After moving to the boat''s prow, I pulled a fiddle from the storage, facing my audience for a quick bow before starting the subtle strumming that would slowly grow until it filled the air with its sound. Over thest year, our attempts to build a full orchestra have resulted in using magic to fill the most obvious gaps created by nearly no musically gifted individuals residing on our humble ind. Lady Acacia was happy to experiment with building us wooden instruments and then enchanting them. Once yed, this fiddle had been enchanted to continue with or without its musician. Lowering myself out of their sight, I began drumming the rhythm on the hull itself. A little magic ¡®Pulsumno¡¯had the hull vibrating alongside my hits, amplifying the drums to sound far louder than they were once more helped along with my Spellcraft, ¡®Amplificare¡¯. My beats bounced across the waves to the galley following behind. I could tell by the shudder in the rhythm of the oars that I had caught their attention. This was reinforced by the words overheard. ¡°I thought the halfling mage was a cleric, not a bard, based on his prayer earlier,¡± Sinbadined. I was still focused on so much, and the immediate response to my rhythm caught my attention. ¡°Spellcraft and Spellsong both benefit from a little charisma,¡± Ramil answered. ¡°Have them make a final push before he brings anything else into y. He is nearly within my range.¡± He promised. But I was only starting the next stage of our n; the monsters from the depths had yet to appear beneath us. Despite gaining a new skill, Sonar, something still needed to turn up on it. Biting the hand that feeds it was not working for me; it would take my whole body. At least getting wet was also the n''s next step, provided they didn¡¯t swallow me whole as soon as I stepped into the water. I also had to avoid being plucked from the water by the human monsters or vers; as they passed, I needed a distraction, leading to my impromptu performance in the boat''s prow. ¡°Legends never die.¡± I softly began the song, swiftly growing in strength and volume. Hopefully, I would be one after this performance and not another dead idiot¡ªthe difference is often only ever measured by sess. The drumming continued as I applied repetson to the hull. It was another hunting trick of Namir. You can record a sound, conversation, breathing into the stone and activate it far from your side as a diversion or as a lure; it was the magical evolution of a thrown stone. That did not stop me from developing it further, and with Lady Acacia¡¯s help, it could now continue the rhythmic drumming on the hull with or without me. I repeated this once more with my voice with another repetson. I now had instruments, percussion and voice ying independently and out of sight of the enemies behind us on the galley. With my decoy built, it was time to slip into the water and make my move. Leaving them following my father and the sound of my voice, I rolled overboard unseen as he tacked once more. I watched from under the waves as he sailed out of sight, but not out of my senses Now came the tricky part as the galley closed in on my position following in the wake of my father. It was boy against boat! Chapter 175: Jaws of Victory Chapter 175: Jaws of Victory ¡°Humanity must perforce prey upon itself, like monsters of the deep.¡± Lemony Snicket I held my breathfortably as I swam deeper. I would need enough depth to pass below the galley and not be brained by it as it passed overhead. I could not surface alongside either, as that would likely see my head bashed in by the oars propelling it forward. My swimming and iron man skills had never been more needed. Underwaterbat was not my forte, a weakness from training under a beastkin with cheetah-like simrities ¨C he did not like the water, preferring to fight on top rather than below it. With their heavy hitters standing on the prow of their galley, I nned to emerge at their stern and strike them unseen from behind. It would have been wonderful to rip the keel off and the hull open while destroying the rudder, but I still needed words and, more importantly, air to cast my spellcraft and spellsong. While I could manipte my mana well enough to damage it silently, touching the hull as it passed overhead would more likely break my hands rather than the hull and would not be a fair trade. I would have to wait a minute more. Finally, the galley began to pass by overhead, and I swam up, ready to leap out after it. In an action movie, the hero grabs hold and pulls themselves up. But I had no desire to dislocate my shoulder or break my bones. Stats only did so much when faced with the physics of a 50-tonne plus vessel that was a cross between a Greek Trireme with its oars and ram and an Arabic Bagh with its triangr sails. I began to freeze the water beneath me, its discement and density forcing me toward the surface. I needed more than my superb swimming skills to keep up with the boat once it had passed by. I would need other skills for that, and they would need a foothold on the surface to start. My time sense was pulling triple duty watching the long hull pass by overhead, timing the speed of the ice forming, matching my resurfacing with the galley passing overhead, and finally pinging off my sonar and danger sense skill. The sea serpents appeared to be waking up and working their way upward. Finally, as the expanding ice began to shoot me toward the surface, the stern passed by and emerged, dripping from the salty waters. I had no time to spare if I did not want to be seen, though I doubted anyone would be looking back, focused as they were on my fleeing father and the sound of my impromptu concert still zing from our speeding boat. sh step and dart had me sprinting off my ice-made starting block after the receding stern of the galley, away from the serpents still rising to strike myst known spot, the block of ice. I needed to disable the galley before they hit and drew everyone¡¯s attention back toward me. I would not have much time to make my y. Without climbing ws of my own, Namir, whose semi-non-retractable ws were always ready to help him climb or explode into movement, had made me my own. Then he had taught me how to use them, and I was soon stuck limpet-like to the back of the galley. Now came the ethical dilemma. Of course, we wanted to escape; the question was how many people I was prepared to kill to make that happen. Destroying their hull would leave them at the mercy of the sea serpents. Still, at the same time, I needed to disable them enough to prevent them from continuing the chase and give them enough to keep them busy so that they did not bombard us from afar with magic. When they had been attempting to take us alive, they had avoided such bombardment, but if we were likely to escape, they might change their attitude. I set about disabling the runes that kept them hidden from the serpents. Now that I was out of the water, I could see the tangle drifting back down without ever breaching the surface. Only my foot in the water seemed enough to entice them to follow in the invisible galley¡¯s wake. The more runework I disabled with my magic, the more the serpents focused on our fleeing stern. The galley grew steadily more significant in their minds'' eyes as I ripped through the ship''s protections without creating too many holes in the hull. The next step in my n was removing their rudder. Unfortunately, I was going to have to assassinate the man holding it, the helmsman. I could not guarantee the knockout needed to steal their rudder, and I would not have the time to disarm him before my actions drew attention from the prow. I had to be silent, I had to be fast, and I had to get it down now before the tailing serpents struck the ship. The galley had to be floundering before I would risk a short flight back to my father¡¯s boat. Missing a rudder, with their invisibility removed and tangled in sea serpents, I hoped that would be sufficient to stall their pursuit permanently. I slowly crept over the railing, ready to dash forward without thinking; I might not go through with it if I thought about it too hard. I had killed before but never a sapient. The premeditation made it somehow more questionable than simply responding at the moment. Although the fact that he was hunting me helped me to boil it down to the fact that it was either him or me, and unfortunately for him, I chose me. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . I went without thinking about it and without inspecting to learn his name. I did not want to remember it. Then, there came the point in training where actions became reflexes, and at my height, Namir had taught me how to scale a man to take out their femoral or carotid arteries. Their throats, too, if I wanted to keep them quiet. He never saw meing, focused on following my father and the sound of my voice. He did not have time to flinch before my climbing ws ripped open his throat. I did not stop to watch as he copsed, reaching for his ruined throat. Instead, I hustled to the rudder, pulling it out of its housing with judicious use of mana to destroy it before slipping it over the side. They were now rudderless and soon to be swarmed. As the rear man of the galley, his passing had gone unnoticed. I was free to flee the now rudderless, exposed, and soon-to-be entangled galley. However, it was floundering slower than I had expected. Nevertheless, the oars still propelled it forward in the wake of my father''s boat, unrelenting in their pursuit¡ªmomentum alone kept them on course even without the guidance of the rudder. Unwilling to kill them all, particrly the ves I could sense bound to their benches by destroying the hull, I decided to burn the sails to add to the chaos. But I suddenly realised I was out of time when Sinbad turned to shout at the helmsman. He must have noticed he was no longer doing his duty so lively, seeing he was now dead at my feet. ¡°Hard to . . .¡± He froze mid-shout as he saw me standing over his dead helmsman. ¡°You¡¯ll need a bigger boat to catch me,¡± I shouted scornfully, releasing two fireballs to set their sails alight¡ªa parting gift for the pesky pirate. ¡°Catch him.¡± Screamed the captain as I easily eluded Saava and Theodulus as they lumbered toward me. The heavy hitters raced along the deck from the prow to catch me before I disappeared over the ship''s side. But they would be too slow. The sorcerer stayed still, deciding to put out the mes that were now licking the me-retardant sails. I was a step away from clearing the railing andunching myself into flight when the ship shuddered. The sea serpents appeared to have caught up with the meals I had made them aware of. All part of the n, all part of the n, but they were a step too early, and it cost me everything. I stumbled. . . . ¡°Ware serpents.¡± Shouted Sinbad as he continued to close in on me. My stumble had caused me to m into the railing rather than over it. Winded, I turned to face the outraged captain rather than get stabbed in the back. Deflecting a cusses sh with a dagger; he passed me by as he raced to the stern. His ship was more important than a future ve, but he had not given up on gaining mepletely. A serpent was pulling itself up the stern of the boat, and as the water seemed to boil with the twisting coils of the tangle, the ves boiled up out of hold after shipping their oars. They were freed from the benches for the fight as well as armed to fight for their lives rmingly quickly. Sinbad leapt to their head to lead them. Fixated on me, the serpent struck toward me but was forced back by the wall of ves though they lost two in the process, disappearing down through its distended jaws. While the captain couldn¡¯t afford to focus on me as he was marshalling his sailors and ves to face, the growing number of sea serpent heads popping up out of the water. I was not left alone by the heavy hitters who had only been a few steps behind the captain, and I suddenly found myself having to fend off the daggers of the rogue as he reached the back. Deck life had be as chaotic as I had expected. Only I had nned to be somewhere else when it happened. Thest sight I saw was the warrior lopping off the head of the one onboard; there was a surge from danger sense then everything suddenly unexpectedly went dark. Whatever it had been, it had hit me before I could respond. . . . Chapter 176: Feeding Frenzy Chapter 176: Feeding Frenzy ¡°From heresy, frenzy, and jealousy, good Lord, deliver me.¡± Ludovico Ariosto ¡®That could have gone better,¡¯ I thought as I returned to consciousness. I could tell I was bound at the wrist and ankle without opening my eyes. Iy ufortably on a wooden floor with my arms behind my back, and my body felt ufortably hot. My skin almost burned where I was bound. I could not help but hiss at the increasing pain. This must have been what had woken me¡ªthe pain. Spinning up my senses and skills, I reassessed my situation. From the shuddering and shaking of the galley, it did not look like the Libian Pirates had escaped my distraction yet. Sadly neither had I. But at least they had been kind enough to shove me into their hold before continuing to fight the feeding frenzy I had caused. Hopefully, I had not been out of it for too long. It was clear from my senses that the water around the vessel boiled with sea monsters who came to feed. Lopping the head of the first serpent might have seemed sensible at the time, but its flesh and blood had only drawn more to the surface, feasting on it before turning to bite anything that came close. They were ripping one another apart more than they were focusing their attacks on the galley, but their bodies were still buffeting around it. They were happy to snap up a hapless ve or sailor who fell into the water and even attempted to pluck a few bodies off the decks directly, but for the most part, it appeared they were being rebuffed by the heavy hitters who had hit me. With the oars shipped to stop them from being smashed, the galley had to rely on the wind to escape the snapping serpents'' centre. They were further slowed down by their sails being half burned and missing their rudder. It all meant that while they were moving forward somewhat aimlessly, they were not escaping the mess of flesh they were stuck in any time soon. Nearly dead in the water, it had allowed me to be stuffed into the hold alone, and I was keen to make the most of my privacy by escaping before they could focus on me again. First up, I needed to get rid of these manacles. I opened my eyes only to realise that I was blindfolded. That would certainly make things a little more challenging, but it was not like we had not practised for this. The assassination of nobles was the next highest cause of mortality among young nobles, but after that, it was bungled kidnappings. I had been surprised by the statistics expecting it to be duelling or monsters, but no, it turned out that the more physical attempts to strong-arm the families were the second highest cause of death. Therefore Namir insisted we practice it too. It was my cousin''s favourite game; they got to take out the increasingly annoying younger cousin who, legally speaking, lorded over them all. The manacles, though, were new, and I had to get past them before I could put my lessons to use. Why were they burning? They were not even hot to the touch, but I still felt as if my body was burning from where they were pressed against my skin. After checking once more through echolocation that I was alone in this holding cell, I circted my mana to break the manacles, only to find that the mana would not leave my body. Blocked by the bindings, the mana never left my skin, and I realised that was what was causing the pain. I attempted to manipte the mana silently to avoid drawing any attention, but my failure meant I tried my Spellcraft out loud. But again, my mana was blocked from leaving my body. This time my throat was burning in pain. This would do wonders for my pain tolerance if it kept this up. I had always leaked Mana. The failure to form a core had been the soleint by Lady Acacia about my progress and something she put down to being able to ess magic and mana before forming it. Refusing to wear the amulet had been supposed to help the mana core develop, but it never seemed enough. The manacles, though, seemed to be doing by ident what we had attempted to do by design. My mana was being forced to stay within my body. There was no leakage anywhere. Each binding on me pressed my mana back forcibly into my skin. First, there were two around my wrists. Then there were the two around my ankles. But those were not all that they had bound me with. The blindfold pressed in over my eyes, my temples, the cor around my neck, and bands around both arms. Despite returning to face the serpents I had called, I had been securely trussed up. However, hopefully, my quick and hasty incarceration would leave some wiggle room. I was not the halfling they had thought me to be. Nevertheless, they seemed well prepared to handle all manner of man. But their impromptu pressure cooker effect on my mana had results they did not intend. The burning was forming a pressure as my mana waspacted further until it started to develop physical form. This was unreal. Humans did not have physical cores; a more spiritual metaphysical core was held within the body. It was why forming one had been such a challenge for me, as someone who had used my mana before it was created and never managed to get it back into the box. Beasts, on the other hand, , had physical cores. I could not worry about the implications. First, I had to get moving before the ship finally sailed out of the sea monsters, or someone came to check on theirtest prize. I was worth more alive than dead, but I had no desire to get better acquainted with my captors. Ignoring the blinding pain of mana being physically prevented from leaving my body and the pressure of multiple mana cores forming within my skin, I curled up into a ball to bring my hand underneath them and finally have them in front of me. Next up was removing the blindfold, something far more easily achieved with my hands now in front of me. I could only be grateful that they had not gone for the full hogtie, but maybe they thought me out for the count and pressed for time in rebuffing the sea serpents'' attacks. It had been a silver lining to my poor showing. Legend or idiot? I was on the wrong side of the equation, but it wasn¡¯t over until the fatdy sang. With my sight returned to me, I could see the runes on the manacles glowing as they struggled to hold the mana in my body. Perhaps they had never been meant to handle an individual with the trait source of mana. With sense mana, I could feel my mana cores forming, one on each wrist and another on each of my ankles. I even had one forming a crystallised Adam''s apple made from mana at the base of my throat, if you will. I pulled my attention away from my fascination with what I could sense happening within my body. I could look at thatter, but first, I needed a way out of this room and off the boat. The easiest way would be to fly free to my father, who was still sailing cautiously around just outside the reach of so the circle of sea serpents. I would not be putting a toe into the water anytime soon if I could help it. But theck of mana left me limited. I would have to do it with stamina, although that would be a push. To skip on top of the water for so far. Dart pulled on stamina, but sh step drew on my mana. Wait for a second; if the mana never left my body, perhaps that was still avable. But again, the manacles were a problem. The runes were growing painfully bright. If they did not notice the noise, they might soon notice the light I was unwillingly generating. I pulled my trousers, legs and sleeves down over the top of them. There was little I could do about the cor. Would it be worth another prayer? My situation was genuinely desperate now. I started to whisper the words. ¡°I call to the eight winds of the world. North to South, East to West Anemoi, hear my plea. Njal of the North, lend me your strength, Pavel of the North and East, help me to endure Feng Po Po of the East, speed my steps and guide my hands. Vayu, of the East and South, mould my mind. Shango of the South, open my senses. Naseem of the South and West, smooth my voice. Zael of the West, give me rity of thought. Era of the West and North, give life to my breath.¡± I call on the ninth hidden god of magic. From whom all mana is born. I humbly beseech Fortuna, goddess of luck. Please hear my prayer. Please grant me the skills, stats and circumstances to save myself.¡± . . . There was a sudden silence in the world around me. I opened my eyes to find myself in the hall of the gods at the centre of apass etched into the floor. Surrounding me at the point of each direction were the gods of the winds, the Anemoi. Njal, Pavel, Feng Po Po, Vayu, Shango, Naseem, Zael and Era stared at me in disbelief. Judging by their bodynguage, it looked like they had been mid-argument. Despite my own disbelief at what appeared to have happened, I was not one to waste a moment, I began again. ¡°Gods of the Winds, Anemoi, I beg your . . .¡± Feng Po Po swiftly cut me off, ¡°We heard you the first time.¡± My prayer appeared to have been heard if not answered in any form I had hoped for. ¡°Then may I . . .¡± I anxiously began. ¡°No, you may not. We are still deliberating. Who brought him here before we had decided?¡± he quizzed his other gods, ill-tempered at the interruption of a mere mortal. He gestured, and I was trapped in a bubble of silence, although I was still there to witness their interactions. ¡°Decided what?¡± I wished to ask but dared not anger him further. Fortunately, my question was answered by another goddess stepping out from behind a pir. She had nopass direction to stand on but stepped into the middle of the circle with me, unlike the cardinal and ordinal gods who represented the other races. She was or at least looked human to me. She also seemed invisible to others, and they continued their conversation without listening to her as she joined me in the centre. ¡°They are deciding your fate or at least whether or not to favour your plea.¡± She answered my unspoken question. ¡°Ironically, your bnced stats mean that they each have a say in your petition resulting in the stalemate you see before you. What they currently arguing over is whose champion you are. They each already have one, and no one knew about you.¡± She continued as I schooled my face into immobility to hide my shock at being answered. If someone were going to answer my questions, I would do nothing to draw their attention to them and end our question-and-answer session. ¡°Champion?¡± I questioned internally. But she picked up on my thoughts immediately. It seemed ¡°Each one has a champion of their own and a god-given quest to defend the realm in the face of the failure of the Compass Empire.¡± She answered. ¡°Who? What? When? Why? How?¡± I did not need to ask explicitly. She could pick up from my thoughts the true meaning of each question. I was even rewarded with . . . Ding! Telepathy Lv1 ¡°They arrived the same day you did. But with the eight¡¯s permission and attention, they were reformed whole and a little older than you were in the form of their respective god''s races.¡± My mind reeled at the information. I was not alone. There were others out there like me. ¡°Not quite like you. The eight were the focus of summoning their bodies copied and saved at the moment of impact. Your soul slipped through the crack simultaneously, although your body did note with your death. After all, you were the driver. Wee to Kosmos, truck-kun.¡± Stunned, I realised I was never the protagonist of my ¡®cosmic¡¯ reincarnation. I was merely the side character, the method meme by which the eight had arrived. I also realised that my spin-out had not been as bloodless as I had thought. Eight other families would have been broken by that ck ice as much as it had broken my body and mine. Her hand rested on my shoulder in sympathy. ¡°But at least you are not the only one.¡± Her hand and words took a weight off my shoulders. I had always worried that I might have some vital destiny to face. Or worried about the reason for my reincarnation. Dancing around the subject with the bishop had revealed nothing from the texts of the Lodestar Church. However, I suddenly had nothing more to worry about if I was just an extra. The fate of the world did not rest on my shoulders. ¡°That might have been the case before, but they¡¯ve noticed you now.¡± Without mercy, she shot down my sweet relief. ¡°Then what are they arguing about,¡± I mentally queried, worried. Were they going to send me back to earth, erase my existence? Had I unbnced their even number of individuals. I did not want to go or leave this world so quietly without a chance to say goodbye¡ªmy existential crisis of faith was now an existential crisis of my own existence. ¡°Feng Po Po is arguing that you should be his champion as his champion did not transition well to her sudden reduction in size and did notst the week. He has been grumpy about it ever since. The others are arguing that he should not get a second. Because your stats are bnced, no one has precedence. But I could help change that. A small adjustment, if you will, and I will be able to help you escape both here.¡± She gestured to the hall of the gods, ¡°And your predicament when you return.¡± ¡°How?¡± This seemed like the answer to my prayers. ¡°Your system. A little tweak and your free points could be assigned; they cannotin as you have already earned them as long as we keep them ''rtively'' bnced.¡± She grinned. ¡°The cost?¡± I asked, worried about deals with gods. The devil would be in the details. ¡°Nothing binding I am giving you nothing you do not already own, but a favour for your early fortune would not be remiss. After all, you would effectively be my champion alongside theirs.¡± She answered. ¡°I¡¯ll be able to escape.¡± I focused on the immediate threat. ¡°You will have the opportunity, but it will be up to you.¡± she nodded. ¡°And return to my family.¡± Before thinking of the future and my family. ¡°I am the goddess of fortune, not fate. The choice will always be yours,¡± she answered considerately. ¡°And all you want is a favour,¡± I confirmed, contemting my prayer''s cost. ¡°More a favour for a friend, who is currently absent.¡± She deflected. But it looked like the argument might be winding down. I did not have time to ask for every detail. ¡°What will this favour cost me?¡± The thought rose to the front of my mind and she answered it just as she had every other. ¡°Time and effort but nothing you are not willing to spend. I am not asking for your family or your firstborn. You will have to leave your ind in time, but that was always going to happen. This way, I will be by your side when you do. Put your trust in me and your hand in mine; I will not fail you in your hour of need.¡± I wondered why I was hesitating. I had called on the gods to give me the skills, stats and circumstances to set me free, and here they were. I had gained a skill, and she offered me my stats and the circumstances to free me. What was I waiting for? I had avoided making waves in an attempt not to be noticed, but it happened anyway. It was time to act before I lost my freedom to do so. I put my hand in hers. Chapter 177: Man of Action Chapter 177: Man of Action ¡°Men of action are favoured by the goddess of luck.¡± George S son As I ced my hand in hers, we drew the god''s attention, but it was toote. Status Permission granted to Fortuna. With a flicker, my status sheet was brought up and changed. I watched the flickering numbers revelling in the burst of power that flew through me as my status updated. I was reborn anew. I felt twice as fast and robust and could not wait to witness the effects when I returned to reality. Level: 33 -> 42 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 9 -> 11 Metier: Sailor Lv 6 -> 10 Metier: Merchant Lv 2 -> 5 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Silversea Age: 6 years (Old World 8yrs) 4 months General Experience: 321,000 /1,638,400 Health: 1560/1560 Stamina: 1560/1560 Mana: 1560/1560 Psi: 1560/1560 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 112 -> 156 Endurance: 112 -> 156 Strength: 112 -> 156 Dexterity: 112 -> 156 Senses: 112 -> 156 Mind: 112 -> 156 rity: 112 -> 156 Magic: 112 -> 156 Charisma: 112 -> 156 Luck: 112 -> 157 Free Points: 371 -> 441 points reassigned -> 0 ¡°I assigned your locked stats and those received for creating the feeding frenzy.¡± She whispered inside my head. ¡°We did not have time to dy.¡± So she spoke in my mind as she turned to face the other eight gods staring at her suddenly revealed presence. ¡°Fortuna, you favour us with your presence.¡± Feng Po Po was the quickest to notice the new goddesses'' presence and respond the rest joined him in weing her. ¡°I assume you are responsible for the mortal¡¯s early arrival.¡± She inclined her head as if considering the question leaving the answer up to interpretation. ¡°What draws you here?¡± asked Njal, his voice booming from his giant form. ¡°The prayer drew my attention.¡± She calmly answered, turning her head to face them all. I could not help but notice that she had no seat in the circle. We were still at the centre of the eight, meaning we always had at least three gods behind us no matter which direction we faced. ¡°Yes, it drew all of our attention.¡± Answered Vayu. ¡°That began the problem. The quarrelling of the rest kept it going. The Church¡¯s insistent on bnced attributes causes more problems than it solves.¡± ¡°That is not the issue we were discussing.¡± Feng Po Po. ¡°We were discussing champions.¡± ¡°Correct me if I¡¯m wrong, but have you not already chosen your champions for this cycle.¡± The goddess asked. ¡°Yes, but . . .¡± Feng Po Po started to speak. But was interrupted, ¡°All but you.¡± by Zael, who stood behind us. ¡°Then I would like to im him as my champion.¡± She stated. ¡°We already agreed he would be mine,¡± interjected Feng Po Po rmed. ¡°He is a littlerger than your usual champions. Besides, I have precedence. After all, his Zenith is in Luck. Look at his status.¡± She shrugged once more as if the oue had never been in question. The undivided attention of eight gods bore down on my status. My block status did little to halt their inspection. However, I could feel it levelling under pressure as it continued to run. It was rapidly levelling up through the levels as they stared at me and digested the changes in my status. Had they yet to be aware to start with? Block Status Lv5 -> Lv13 -> Lv21 -> Lv 29 -> Lv 37 -> Lv 45 -> Lv 53 -> Lv 61 -> Lv 69 -> Lv 77 -> Lv 85 -> Lv 93 -> Lv Max Tier 4 Block Status Skill evolution -> Tier 5 Enigma Lv1 ¡°What did you do?¡± Feng Po Po shouted. ¡°Who is he?¡± Shango asked. ¡°That is not a child,¡± Njal stated. ¡°He is not even human,¡± Era added. ¡°He was.¡± Objected Fortuna. ¡°Fortune favours the bold.¡± ¡°Or saves the idiots from their blunders.¡± Zael was less impressed. It appeared that while all-powerful, the gods of this world were not all-knowing. My untimely arrival was all down to Fortuna. They had not even inspected me, so wrapped up were they in their deliberations. Or perhaps they had and were feigning ignorance to critique her further. ¡°As you can see, I have the prime stat above all eight of yours. And . . .¡± She stressed halting any Gods interruptions. ¡°I have not chosen a champion for this cycle. It is within my rights. I will be answering his prayer.¡± She stated unequivocally. While it looked like some of them would still like to argue her definition of reality, none spoke up. Instead, each nodded in eptance before disappearing from the hall, some with more reluctance than others, until it was just the two of us standing alone in the Hall of the Gods. ¡°Time is short, and the amount I can interfere with is limited.¡± She stated before I could begin asking questions. ¡°Listen to me first; questions cane second.¡± She forestalled me. ¡°When you return to your body with the increased stats, your cores will be formed in seconds. The mana manacles will not be able to halt their formation; they will bend but not break. However, your current captors will sense the explosion of mana, which will, in all likelihood, put a hole in the side of the boat and instantly be on top of you. You will have seconds to leave before they descend on you without your mana. It would be best if you fled through the side of the boat across the backs of the serpents. Using only your stamina and your Psi.¡± She stated this as if it was the only option. I rubbed my head, nodding as I listened. I could do this until she said psi. After that, I couldn¡¯t . . . ¡°You can.¡± She stopped my thought before it waspleted. ¡°You have already given me the rudder, but remember, luck is blind. You will need to do this blindfolded. You can afford no distractions; let me lead you. After all, this is a blind leap of faith.¡± She had finally finished. ¡°How?¡± I whispered, worried that she was asking the impossible of me. ¡°Follow my lead.¡± She held her hand out once more. Closing my eyes, I ced them in hers. I stepped forward as she led me on, then back, feeling the pressure on her hands to guide me. I had twenty dancing levels, but she soon pressed me to my limit. Led side to side, spun and lifted. I kept my eye closed, following every lead she made as she continued to cycle faster and faster. We were sprinting through steps, twisting side to side while stepping back, then leaping forward, sometimes high, sometimes low. My footing rose and fell as if stepping moving stones, not the cold still stone floor I had stood on previously. I was no longer dancing with a god but a phantom, a golden light that led me ever onward. Throughout the whole of it. I felt my Dance skill levelling. Dance (LV20) -> Lv30 -> Lv40 -> Lv50 -> Lv60 -> Lv70 -> Lv80 -> Lv90 -> Lv100 And as my feet started leaving the uneven floor to step up into the air, I gained a new skill. To keep up with the Goddess as we danced through the sky. Air Stepping (Lv1) -> Lv10 Before we abruptly returned to the stone floor of the Hall of the Gods. ¡°That is all that we have time for.¡± I came to a sudden halt, almost stumbling at the quick dismount from her guidance. Still, her hand in mine again steadied me, no longer a disembodied golden thread in my mind. The skill growth had been insane¡ªthe benefit of dancing with a goddess. ¡°Thank you,¡± I whispered¡ªgenuine gratitude at the guidance and help she had given me. My oue was no longer so bleak with the skills, stats and circumstances she had set up. I could do this. ¡°Yes, you can.¡± She smiled goodbye, and she and the hall of gods disappeared. Reality reasserted itself. I was curled on my side, facing the hull of the boat. A high-pitched whine was emitting itself from the manacles I was bound with. I wondered what would burst first, my eardrums, the manacles or the hull. The pitch rose higher than even I, with my extended range, could hear, although I winced as much at the pressure in my head as the pain they felt burning into my skin. There was a second of blessed silence, then an explosion of force. I was unhurt, being at the very epicentre of it with it pushing out in all directions, but it blew my hands and feet apart, breaking the binding cables. It also left a sizeable hole in the floor, ceiling and wall while the door to my holding cell had blown off. I did not wait for a second more before pulling the blindfold down to hide the feeding frenzy I was about to step out onto. Then, muttering, ¡°Luck is blind,¡± I took a leap of faith as I attempted to follow the golden thread I could feel leading me out of the side of the galley. It was as if I was once more dancing with a partner, stepping forward and back on uneven footing, my air step ring when required, a dart here and there to make leaps into the unknown, alwaysnding securely or if I not and I was sliding down the slippery back of another eel it would be to bounce off in a different direction¡ªalways propelled forward always making my way out of the feeding frenzy that still surrounded the galley. I followed the golden thread trusting my fortune to fate and its guidance. . . . A minute earlier, on deck ¡°It had gone so swimmingly,¡± Cursed the warrior Junaid as he continued to fend off the sea serpents that had not yet given up attempting to get a taste of human flesh rather than their siblings. ¡°You¡¯ll swim in a minute if you don¡¯t keep cutting.¡± Cursed the captain. Despite his new prize, Sinbad was distinctly unhappy about the damage to his ship. The rudder and sail could be reced quickly enough given time, but the runes to his hull work would be a challenge to rece so far from thepass continent and civilisation. He rubbed at his ear in annoyance. The rogue Farris also looked around, ¡°Do you hear that?¡± He asked, right eye twitching at a sound quickly disappearing from range. Ramil was not looking around but somewhat down past his feet through the deck. ¡°We need to . . .¡± Unfortunately, he did not get to finish his sentence when with a thump, the galley rolled to the side with an explosion from the port side. They rushed to the side to see the damage only to see the child jump out of it to his death, though the idiot did not know it as he was still blindfolded. The captain had to admire the bravery of the little mage to take to the water with his mana bound, although it appeared he had managed to break the chains that bound his manacles somehow. ¡°Can you grab him when he hits the water?¡± He asked Ramil; the boy was still falling. If they could get him back in more or less one piece, Haakim should be able to keep him alive. The child was worth a prince''s ransom to the right buyer with his potential. Especially if he was bound to a house at such a young age and his growth was directed to their specifications. He was not even old enough to have unlocked his stats which made his proficiency with magic all that more impressive. But the boy never hit the water. As if choreographed, he stepped down onto a serpent''s head before leaping off it to the right just before another snake struck the first. Then, sliding sideways in the air, he leapt forward in a tumble that had him rolling down the rising back of another serpent to stand up as its tail flicked him further away from the vessel. Captain Sinbad blinked, shocked as if to confirm what his eyes were showing him. The boy waltzed, leapt, pirouetted, even slid backwards down rising serpents as long as it propelled him away, and he did this all blindfolded as if dancing with the serpents. His movements were timed so well. Then he stopped dead, still on nothing but air as one crossed in front of him and another behind. He turned stunned to Ramil. ¡°His mana is bound, no?¡± ¡°The chains are broken, but his mana is still bound. He is positively brimming with it but has not used it.¡± ¡°Then how do you exin that!¡± He shouted, pointing once more as the boy leapt off solid air. Stamina-based skills could do a lot, but they were still bound to physical movements. You needed ess to mana to be walking on air. ¡°I cannot. All I can say is it is not his mana he is using.¡± Ramil frowned, unafraid of the exasperated captain. ¡°Farris, go and get him.¡± He shouted at the rogue, the one person who might be able to keep up with him. ¡°I¡¯m not fool enough to attempt that. I don¡¯t know what skill he is using to achieve that, but it is one I don¡¯t have. Sure, I could run to him, but I''m not sure I could prevent myself from being ripped in two on the way. Again, I¡¯m not confident enough to attempt that.¡± ¡°But the money,¡± He gestured at his damaged boat. ¡°Is not worth that.¡± Farris refused even to attempt. ¡°Ramil?¡± he quizzed. ¡°Too far. And even if he weren¡¯t, the manacles that prevent him from using his own mana would also disrupt any mana I attempted to use on him directly. So any actions I took would more likely end up with him feeding the serpents.¡± ¡°We can''t just let it end like this.¡± He shouted, frustrated, returning to wailing on the serpents that had grown bold in the short time they had spent focusing on their escapee. ¡°I think we will have to,¡± Bahis interjected. ¡°We are hardly in a fit state to chase after them, and he was never the target in the first ce. However, we have passed the ind where we believe Captain Kashif docked. That is our target, lest you forget.¡± . . . Eventually, the golden thread led me to step onto a wooden deck. Echolocation, Seismic and Sense and Sonar informing before I found myself wrapped in my father¡¯s crushing hug, just who this boat belonged to. I reached up to remove the blindfold and hugged him back. ¡°Time to go home?¡± I asked, relieved to have made it out of the feeding frenzy back onto a boat not being battered by monsters, a boat I felt safe on. ¡°Time to go home.¡± He said as he raised the sails. We slowly picked up speed as we finally left our pursuers behind. . . . I sat in silence, contemting the shifts in my understanding of the world and the increases in my status. From a certain angle, it had been a very profitable couple of months despite the disaster that had been today. I could not wait to get the manacles off. Though how we were going to live this down, I did not know. We would end up having Arawn as a babysitter for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, we had pirates to scupper and ves to free. We were not just going to let them get away with that! Level: 42 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 11 Metier: Sailor Lv 10 Metier: Merchant Lv 5 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Silversea Age: 6 years (Old World 8yrs) 4 months General Experience: 321,000 /1,638,400 Health: 1560/1560 Stamina: 1560/1560 Mana: 1560/1560 Psi: 1560/1560 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 156 Endurance: 156 Strength: 156 Dexterity: 156 Senses: 156 Mind: 156 rity: 156 Magic: 156 Charisma: 156 Luck: 157 Free Points: 0 Skills Tier 1: Singing (LV75 -> 79) Sailing (LV75 -> 79) Trading (LV75) Meditation (LV75) Time Sense (LV75 -> 79) Knots (LV50) Draw (LV50) Listening (LV50) Stitching (LV50) Humming (LV50) Drumming (LV50 -> 55) Whistling (LV50) Sneak (LV50->55) Ambidextrous (LV20)Farming (LV50) Acting (LV50 -> 55) Bnce (LV51 -> 54)Insight (LV41-> 45) Glide (LV40 -> 45) Poise (LV41) Grace (LV41) Charm (LV40) Composure (LV40) Lie (LV20 -> 25) Appeal (LV20) Ambidextrous (LV20-> 25) Sight (LV20) Scent (LV20) Detect (LV20) Taste (LV20) Silent Step (LV20 -> 25) Deft touch (LV20) Posture (LV20) Dance (LV20-> Lv100)Inspect (LV21 -> 25)Riding (LV20) Cook (LV20) Sketching (LV20) Drafting (LV20) cksmithing (LV10) Carpentry (LV10) Mining (LV10) Teaching (LV10) Measurement (LV 10) Etiquette (LV20) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV60 -> 63)Quick reflexes (LV60 -> 63)Eavesdrop (LV60-> 63) Linguistics (LV40) Memorisation (LV40) Recall (LV40) Composition (LV40) Pain Tolerance (LV30 -> 35) Stealth (LV30 -> 34)Spellcraft (Lv50 -> 54) Spellsong (Lv50) Order (LV40) Transnt (LV20) Misdirection (LV20 -> 22) Knife Arts (LV20 -> 22) Haggling (LV20) Mind Sense (LV21->25) Observe (LV20 ->25)Martial Arts (LV20 -> 22) Cruising (LV10 -> 16) Poison Tolerance (LV10) Treasure Sense (LV5) Intimidation (LV5 -> 6) Dart (Lv 11 -> 18) Heal (Lv10 -> 13) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV60 -> 62) Mana Maniption (LV60 -> 62)Gale(LV60 -> 63)Echolocation(LV60-> 62) Absorb Mana (LV40) Boil (LV50) Ignite (LV40) Melt (LV40) Command (LV40) Freeze (LV20) Bargain (LV20) Deception (LV21 -> 23)Analyse (LV10 -> 12)Racing (LV10 -> 14) Smuggling (LV5) Seismic Sense (LV11)sh Step (Lv11 ->13) Danger Sense (Lv2 -> 4) Telepathy (Lv1) Tier 4: Parallel Processing (LV36 -> 37) Stone shaping (LV30) Material Maniption (LV30 -> 31)Mana Drain (LV 30) Seafaring (LV5 -> 6) Block Status(LV5 -> LVMAX) Flight (LV16 -> 17) Iron Man (LV63 -> 64)Sonar (Lv1) Air stepping (Lv1 ->10) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV21)Multiple minds (LV3) Omniglot (LV25) Polymath (Lv10) Weapon Prodigy (Lv20->21) Music Prodigy (Lv30->31) Enigma (Lv1) Chapter 178: A Legend, not an idiot! Chapter 178: A Legend, not an idiot! ¡°Sess is all a matter of perspective. It depends on where you start from and where you want to end up.¡± Pat Summitt ¡°There, but for the grace of god, go I,¡± I said as I turned back to look at the galley still besieged by monsters. It did not look like they would sink anytime soon, but with their ship damaged and nearly disabled, it would take a while for them to even attempt to pursue us again. ¡°Gods, Kai.¡± Father corrected. ¡°That was . . . unbelievable.¡± He said, referring to my waltz through the valley of death blindfolded. ¡°A legend, not an idiot. It was an impressive song, Kai. How did you do it?¡± ¡°A new skill or two, a few more stats and the right circumstances.¡± I smiled somewhat chagrined, on the one hand equally impressed at my ability to elude the mess behind us on the other, recognising that I had held onto a god¡¯s hand to do so. The golden thread of fate had faded, Fortuna had let go of my hand. We were on our own once more. ¡°It did not go quite as nned,¡± I admitted my failure to my father. I had, after all, let my arrogance cause my fall. ¡°I should have left after sabotaging their hull and removing their helmsman and rudder, not stayed longer to burn their sails.¡± ¡°All¡¯s well that ends well. We all make mistakes, and it was not a poor n. You¡¯ll do better next time. Now, it''s time to go home.¡± Hemiserated, reminding me that, at the end of the day, he was still my dad. He was there for me, rain or shine, sea serpents or vers. We set sail and headed for home. The Libian galley trespassing aggressively into our seas would not impress the family. But, when adequately prepared, we would have to see what we could do about them. I was almost looking forward to it. The idea of Namir and Arawn blitzing through them warmed my heart. They would not know what hit them. As the outline of our ind grew on the horizon. Father finally asked what had to have been bothering him the entire time. ¡°So . . .¡± He hesitated before continuing, ¡°What exactly happened when you were captured and taken below deck? I had already headed away to make the most of whatever disruption you caused, so I did not see what had happened. When I realised, you had been partially sessful and turned to see your escape, they were already carrying your unconscious body below.¡± He described the turn of events from his perspective. I thought through what had happened. The impossibility of it. The new revtions regarding my past, present and future. The existence of gods and their interference, the rising trials thepass continent would face that had been alluded to. I focused on what had helped me to escape, my prayer and a goddess-given miracle of skills, stats and circumstance. ¡°Well, you know how you always wanted me to take the Church of the Lodestar¡¯s faith more sincerely? You no longer need to worry about myck of faith in the eight. You might say that I had the ultimate religious experience. Consider me convinced. I no longer doubt they exist. I know they do.¡± I outlined my impossible vision of the eight and the guidance I had received with the warnings of what would happen when I awoke and what I would have to face. I demonstrated to my father where my mana cores had formed, lifting the mana manacles I was still bound with to show him the physical cores that had formed. Father listened silently as I talked until I outlined my escape following the Lady of Luck¡¯s lingering presence in the mortal world. ¡°But how? If the manacles still blocked your Mana?¡± He asked, confused as to how I had appeared to walk through the air as much as I had leapt from serpents back to back Ah yes. That. ¡°I have another resource,¡± I answered evasively. My poor habit of hoarding secrets struck again, but he was not epting it this time. He was not to be denied, ¡°Kai, you met the gods, if I can ept that; whatever else it is you are hiding can hardly be as shocking, can it? And if you think your mother, sister or Lady Acacia will ept that flimsy answer, you have another thinging. We might not be savants or geniuses, but we are not idiots.¡± He added crossly, his patience for once finally worn thin enough that he snapped at me. The stress of our flight, attack, capture, and impossible escape over a sea of serpents took him past his breaking point. He had never hit me, but I could see his clenched hands on the rudder he held firmly as he shouted thest four words in frustration at my continued evasive answers. ¡°Um, I have Health, Stamina, Mana and one more, psi.¡± I finally answered, subdued. I could not remember thest time he had shouted at me. Had he ever? ¡°While the mana was blocked, the extra hidden resource psi was not,¡± I exined. ¡°Psi?¡± He asked, confused. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I was unsure if his ignorance was a general ignorance of the world or a more specific ignorance due to our location at the world''s edge. ¡°Think of it as mental energy.¡± I tried to exin. ¡°So, like Mana.¡± He rified. ¡°Yes and no. Mana is made by everyone, sure, but it also permeates the world around us. You can pull on it to make runes and glyphs work. Weave it in different ways, such as Spellsong and enchantments. Psi is different. There is no psi energy floating freely through the world. It only exists within me; it does not appear to be generated by others. I can use it to see beyond myself into others; it is solely a power of the mind, not the world.¡± I tried to exin what I understood about the extra resource I had on my status, but it wasn''t easy to do so as I had never had a teacher. Only my bungling attempts at understanding it. Along with my hesitancy to infringe on my family''s privacy of thoughts. And I fear what might have happened had I tried experimenting with it before today. ¡°You can see into others?¡± he asked, focused on what seemed the most sinister aspect of the resource to me. However, he did not sound overly rmed. ¡°Yes, to an extent.¡± I hedged. ¡°What am I thinking?¡± he asked with a grin and a challenge. Of course, he was not calling me a liar, but unlike my outrageous ims of the gods'' interventions, this was something he could personally test to see if what I was spouting was true. I focused on his thoughts as we sailed ever closer to home. The dearth of minds out on the open sea was a help as I attempted to focus on his and his alone. What was he thinking of all of this? I had never been the son he had expected. I was breaking every baby milestone with every step I took. Dragging his family into the nobility, although that was more his father¡¯s fault than mine. Along with his wife¡¯s secrets that had been hidden even from her, I wondered whether he ever regretted theplexity of knots his life had slowly tangled up with each new achievement or interaction of mine. Still, as I attempted to prate his mind, I only sensed a sense of open wonder and trust as I used Insight. ¡°You are surprised by my statement but willing to trust it,¡± I answered, trying to verbalise his vague emotions. ¡°Close enough. But is that all you can get? If that is the case, you got it from your mother, who also reads minds!¡± heughed at his poor dad''s joke. ¡°Pick a number, any number.¡± I teased in return, making my best street magician impression. ¡°A number?¡± he asked, confused. ¡°Yes, think of a number and hold it in your mind,¡± I exined what I attempted to do. ¡°I¡¯m going to read your mind.¡± I continued in my showman¡¯s voice. While making a mentalist routine out of this was tempting, I knew that keeping it secret beyond the circle of my immediate family and advisors would make me safer. Moving up from my Tier 1 skill, I tried Mind Sense and got the image of a die with the number 4. He was projecting or at least trying to. ¡°4,¡± I said, pleased the image had been so straightforward. Even if there were no words, unlike when the Goddess Fortuna projected into my mind. I was not disappointed. My father, after all, was only mortal. I was even happier when he grinned and said I had it correct. Then, high on the sess of my attempts, the high of open honesty, and the relief of letting go of one more secret, I called out, ¡°Pick another number.¡± Being the joker he thought he was, I did not see a number but the colour blue when I focused on his mind. Thinking about returning the joke tenfold and using my new tier 3 skill, I attempted to project back. You¡¯re thinking of the colour blue. So I thought, verbalised, and then projected my words toward him. I had not had to do so within the hall of the gods, relying on the goddess to understand my thoughts without attempting to project them to her directly. He jumped. Startled at the sudden words appearing in his mind, You¡¯re thinking of the colour blue, ¡°That was you, right? It wasn¡¯t just me imagining it?¡± he asked, astounded. Not quite ready to admit that he was not hearing any voices in his head but my own. ¡°It was my new skill, telepathy,¡± I said out loud. I looked forward to levelling this one. Then, I could bother anyone without anyone else listening to it. I could imagine the fun I could have with it. Even better, they could not bother me unless I paid attention to them. . . . We eventually arrived home from our day¡¯s break, sailing muchter than nned. The sun was setting. We would not have long to get home before we would be travelling in darkness. Usually not a problem, but I could not light the way with my mana still blocked. Not that I needed the light. Today had not been as restful as I had hoped. But it had been different from the day-to-day jobs and lessons. They say a change is as good as a break, but I felt I could do with another one. However, that was not to be the case. Arawn was waiting for us when we docked. ¡°You¡¯rete.¡± He grumpily started the conversation, stepping up from the crate he had been sitting or sleeping on. ¡°We ran into a bit of a dy,¡± I answered, looking to my father for the support I would not find. ¡°vers.¡± He summarised the day¡¯s worth of events into a single word. ¡°I¡¯ll gather the family. How long do we have?¡± he asked, addressing my father rather than me. ¡°Dawn, at the earliest, but more likely, they will arrive closer to noon. It will all depend on how long the feeding frenzysts. But we are the nearest portrge enough to handle their repairs. Little Wester wouldn¡¯t have the resources, and Wester Levante would be further than they wish to risk without runes to hide their presence.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°Feeding frenzy?¡± he raised an eyebrow looking out to the calm sea. "Runes?" ¡°Kai was very effective in distracting them for a while. It¡¯s a long story.¡± He shrugged, dismissing the day¡¯s legendary events with a shrug. ¡°Another tall tale?¡± He smiled at his son-inw. ¡°The tallest; you had to be there to believe it.¡± Heughed. Chapter 179: A lack of reflection Chapter 179: Ack of reflection ¡°Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything useful.¡± Margaret J. Wheatley After a day''s worth of battling the beasts, they finally managed to break free of the feeding frenzy that a demon in the shape of a boy had created somehow. Hismission on this trip would have to be astronomical to make up for the lost money in the form of ves that had helped to keep the feeding frenzy going. This trip turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. First, it had taken far beyond the time he had thought it would when he had argued the price for his original cost of taking themission. Second, the fruitless chase of a sailor and what now appeared to be his son had cost them another two days, along with a dozen ves, two dozen oars, four sailors and a chewed-out hull. He was not happy! It had not been a good day or night. ¡°We must reach the nearest ind as soon as possible, captain.¡± The new helmsman said after cautiously approaching the fuming captain. ¡°What¡¯s the damage?¡± Sinbad demanded, his hands still clenched on the railing lest he used them on the bearer of bad news. ¡°If we stop bailing, we will start sinking. But providing nothing else happens, we should be fine.¡± He answered apprehensively. Captain Sinbad turned to stare at the rising sun, jaw clenched. Everyone was exhausted, attempting to escape the feeding frenzy that shifted with them through the night. ¡°Ramil. What can you do for the hull?¡± he turned to his enforcedpanions. It was time they started pulling their weight. ¡°Not much I can do for the runes or the wood while we are still at sea. I can help a little with bailing, and I will see if I can patch the holes, but I wouldn¡¯t hold out hope or trust my patches in rough sea.¡± He answered honestly. ¡°Right,¡± Sinbad said, thinking it was better than nothing but not by much, ¡°There should bend northeast of us. We passed Wester Ponente in our pursuit; we will make the best speed we can that way.¡± ¡°And Captain Kashif?¡± Asked Junaid, still focused on battling the captain they had not caught sight of for so long. ¡°If he is near here, he will probably have stopped there too. We can only hope that this is hisst destination or that we can pick up his trail there.¡± So Sinbad answered, caring more about putting his galley into port for repairs than catching a man running so far from civilisation. ¡°We¡¯vee too far to give up now,¡± Bahis said. ¡°Not giving up, but the ship has toe first; otherwise, you will swim the rest of the way.¡± He cut him off. He threatened an immediate start to his time in the water if he did not shut his mouth. . . . A subdued ship sailing at the end of its thread finally limped into port on Wester Levante several hourster. It had not been an easy sail, the ves switching on and off between bailing or rowing. The poor sail helped little with the damage it had taken from catching fire earlier. Jury-rigged sails had helped a little more, but they could hardly have honestly said they had made the best time. As they entered the cove-like harbour, they searched to see if the sailor they had met earlier lived on the isle, but his boat was nowhere to be seen. Neither, though was Captain Kashif¡¯s. Still, it was better than they had hoped. They needed time to repair and recover. ¡°Now remember we are here to take over his route, not terrorise the locals.¡± Interjected Haakim. He was hardly the leader due to his high level, but the fact that your lives could end up in his hands gave him greater weight in addition to his levels. It did not hurt that he was not one of the more aggressive members of the observers sent with Sinbad. ¡°You can only skin a cat once but shear a sheep for as long as it lives.¡± Sinbad agreed with Haakim. ¡°We get it. Reconnoitre not raid. The rogue Farris repeated the point summarising their discussions as they approached. ¡°Time to see what we are dealing with.¡± Sinbad led the leaping off the boat onto the dock. The heavy hitters followed, leaving the sailors to the repairs along with the ves as they started the long climb up the cliffs; hopefully, by the time they returned, most of the work would have been done with a list of the materials required. . . . ¡°Surprisingly well-made little town here,¡± Murshad murmured before they descended from the cliff into the caldera taking in the view from the top of the cliff. ¡°They have invested heavily in their defence considering the town''s size.¡± He pointed out the wall protecting the town from thegoon and the new one beginning to encircle the town¡¯s fields and orchards. It would eventually form arge semicircle in line with the cliff edge and thegoon, whose edge had been smooth by man''s hands, into another perfect circle. Or at least it would be when the construction work was finished. ¡°Well, if they are making enough profit to purchase that many ves, they are doing well,¡± Bahis added his coin clipping. ¡°Awfully, well, if they can treat their ves this well. Do you see any of them?¡± He pointed out that there did not seem to be any ves in the small town. They looked once more at the townspeople and realised that maybe this was not the final destination after all. They would have expected to see some working on the wall or walking in the town, and while it would be difficult to tell individuals apart from this distance, the standard loin cloth clothing of a ve was easy to tell apart from others, even from a distance. ¡°We not only need to find the source of the pearls but also a carpenter and seamstress to fix the hull and sails and rece the lost oars.¡± Sinbad stopped the contemtion of the town, redirecting them to the most immediate tasks they needed toplete. They would make no further progress without his ship made whole once more. ¡°We haven¡¯t forgotten.¡± The answer was said by multiple voices, even if it was not told in time or harmony. Despite travelling together for weeks, they were not a team, still only a group of disparate people representing different views and opinions that were only simr enough to send a joint vessel to find out the truth and not simr enough to have formed a joined-up agreement of how best to approach the problem when they eventually found it. . . . It wasn¡¯t long before they saw the town''s gates. ¡°What do they need guards against this far out,¡± Junaidmented on the guards manning the entrance despite theck of traffic or monsters they could see. ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t know, maybe a ship full of raiders,¡± Sinbad asked sardonically, referring to their ship and the option they had to force the issue if this could not be resolved rtively peacefully and calmly with only intimidation as a form of coercion. ¡°Have you ever heard of anyone raiding this far out?¡± Farris questioned. ¡°No, but we are hardly the only pirates in the world. Every kingdom has its ships, and we are hardly the first ones to make this far out based on the size of their town.¡± Sinbad surmised. They stopped talking as they made the final approach to the gate operated by the town guard. ¡°Wee to Wester, Wester Ponente.¡± One of the guards weed them. ¡°Which is it? Wester or Wester Ponente.¡± Quizzed Haakim. ¡°Both the town is Wester, and the ind Wester Ponente.¡± The second guard exined. ¡°What are your names and purpose of visit?¡± They continued. ¡°Is that necessary? We are just here to reprovision.¡± Sinbad asked, surprised at the mild interrogation they were receiving. ¡°One helps us keep a record of visitors. The other helps us help you. You will want the market which is straight ahead for reprovisioning.¡± The first guard exined. ¡°And if we need a carpenter?¡± Sinbad asked, happy for the directions ¡°Names first, please.¡± Reminded the second guard. ¡°Sinbad, Junaid, Ramil, Farris, Haakim, Bahis and Murshad. The carpenter?¡± Sinbad barked out their names. ¡°Thank you. The Silverwoods are at the southern exit of the old town. You can reach them by taking the south exit from the market square and walking to the wall. They are just past it.¡± ¡°The Silverwoods?¡± ¡°Yes, they provide the majority of wood for the town, and you¡¯ll need their help if you need wood for a boat or anything bigger.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Sinbad made to enter only to find his way blocked when they did not move out of the way. ¡°There is also the entrance fee.¡± Guard one exined, holding out his hand patiently. ¡°How much?¡± Growled Sinbad, unimpressed. ¡°Only a copper, each.¡± The second answered. They had the routine down to pat, bouncing the conversation between them. Haakim stepped forward to prevent the situation from escting further, paying the way for the seven of them to enter the town. ¡°Have a nice day.¡± The pair said before stepping back to allow them entry. The group walked out of sight and earshot beforementing on the guards. ¡°A little uppity for such a small town on the edge of the horizon.¡± Junaid sounded as affronted as Sinbad had looked. ¡°It may be small, but is it just me, or do you think a surprising number of people are carrying weapons?¡± The cleric asked as they made their way to the market. ¡°It¡¯s not a surprising number. It¡¯s all of them. They are all carrying weapons.¡± Commented Farris. ¡°What, even the children?¡± Asked the cleric, looking toward a pair that ran past unworried by their presence chasing one another through the streets. ¡°Even the children. Look.¡± He pointed out the different weapons the people were carrying, and they realised that there was not a single person that was not armed. ¡°Presumably, there is a reason they are all carrying a weapon.¡± Ramil mused. ¡°Hopefully, they aren¡¯t particrly against strange sailors,¡± Murshad muttered, worried by the number of arms they had passed by already. ¡°It¡¯s surprising the local lords allow such an open disy of weaponry.¡± ¡°Lord and Lady? This is the middle of nowhere; why would a lord ordy be here?¡± quizzed Junaid. ¡°Well, if not a lord anddy, there are certainly some Adals,¡± Murshad exined. ¡°Silverwoods, that is a family name if ever I¡¯ve heard one. People in Ponente don¡¯te by them without some form of nobility intervening in their lives or being petitioned by them.¡± ¡°Fine, so there are some half-noble families here. Market then, carpenters, we can look for deep sea pearls and ves once we have covered the basics.¡± Sinbad seemed to have cooled from the challenge the guards had given him. Of course, it helped that Haakim had paid the cost of entrance. They had arrived at the market. ¡°Meet back here in an hour. At the Compass Edge, Tavern,¡± He gestured at the tavern on one side of the square.¡± Before striding off toward the carpenters. Hopefully, they could do some rune work, but he doubted it this far out from civilisation. He was not looking forward to the return journey. . . . ¡°You know what we are looking for.¡± Haakim quickly said, ¡°Keep in pairs and try not to make any waves until we have met up in the tavern. Loose lips sink ships, and I would rather it was Captain Kashif¡¯s than our own. So loosen them with a little silver; be generous.¡± He continued before hurrying after the captain to moderate his methods. Junaid, Ramil, Farris, Bahis and Murshad. Stood still for a second before splitting into two groups of the first four andst two. ¡°Best we keep away from all sailors. I don¡¯t want to run into that sailor and his son again. Hopefully, they don¡¯t live here, but I wouldn¡¯t hold my breath.¡± Bahis cautioned, ¡°I¡¯ll keep Murshadpany, and don¡¯t worry about finding us. I¡¯ll find you.¡± He grinned, perhaps happy to be able to use his skills which had to have been growing rusty trapped as they were on a boat in the middle of the Azimuth Ocean. With that, they separated and made their way through the market. Murshad and Bahis made their way to the Church of the Lodestar. To let the local clergy know of his arrival. It was only polite. The other four went to the local stalls to sample the local delicacies and products and hopefully find¡ªa lead from a few lips loosened by t a little silver. . . . Surprisingly, Murshad did not face an acolyte, cleric, vicar or priest. Instead, Wester Ponente had a Bishop. ¡°Your grace.¡± Murshad bowed low, stunned by his presence. ¡°How can I help you?¡± Bishop Bailie asked. ¡°Are youpleting a circumnavigation? I apud your dedication to do so alone.¡± He said, ignoring Bahis as if he knew he was not part of any pilgrimage the man might be making. ¡°Ah no, your grace. I¡¯m sailing at the request of my sponsor. He wanted an objective and unbiased eye to witness a private venture.¡± He answered while withholding as much as he could. He had wanted to find out they of thend from an equal without being interrogated by a superior. ¡°Oh, that is a shame. Well then, how can I help?¡± ¡°I would not want to trouble a Bishop with my humble issues. I am sure I have more pressing matters to attend to.¡± ¡°Nonsense, while I have important matters to attend to, they are not pressing, the poption being significantly smaller than myst congregation.¡± He smiled as ifughing at an inside joke. ¡°I couldn¡¯t possibly. . .¡± he tried once more to avoid discussing the reasons for his travel. But the bishop would not be denied. ¡°I insist. Have a seat.¡± ¡°We were looking for a source of deep-sea pearls, honestly.¡± He answered honestly once he found himself without a polite way to escape his superior. ¡°You will have to take that up with the Silverseas.¡± The bishop responded. ¡°They have a petitioning morning tomorrow if you want an introduction.¡± Thank you. That would be fantastic. Excellent, now I get so few visitors that you have to have some news from the Maind that I have yet to hear. You are from Libio, correct? I ] passed through there rtively recently, but it was over a year ago, and I¡¯m sure something new has happened since then. So please say and have some tea while we chat. . . . ¡°We are busy.¡± Sinbad found himself being rebuffed by the Silverwoods. ¡°But I have good silver,¡± Sinbad shouted. He found the attitude of the carpenter confusing. What kind of crafter or artisan would refuse customers, especially when there had to be so few out here in the middle of nowhere? ¡°Busy,¡± He rebuffed, attempting to continue cutting a log with his son. ¡°With what?¡± Sinbad asked, ignoring that they had not stopped to talk with him and focused more on their current work than attempting to pick up more of it. ¡°Beams braces for the expanding town wall. Beams, braces for the mine, Then there is the carpentry required for the Lord¡¯s expanding mansion; I can assure you I have a long list of demands on my time and wood.¡± He answered, unswayed by the increasing pile of silver Sinbad was promising. ¡°But . . .¡± Sinbad started refusing to ept no as an answer. ¡°If you want to change my schedule, you must take that up with Silverseas. They are in charge of the order of what we are making and what has priority. If you want to change that, you will have to see them.¡° ¡°The Silverseas?¡± he quizzed. ¡°You can petition them tomorrow on the isle in the middle of thegoon.¡± moving to get another log to saw, split and n into nks, their skills making short work of them. "The middle of thegoon?¡± he asked, confused. ¡°We will do that." Intervened Haakim, having already listened to the conversation going around in circles once. "Thank you, and good day." The Silverwoods returned to their work without losing another second. ¡°I cannot believe this." Sinbad expressed his displeasure as they left. ¡°I hope the others are having better luck. . . . ¡°These fruits are fantastic.¡± After polishing off a third, Junaid eximed. ¡° how much for a barrel or ten.?" he asked the seller with a market stall. He had not made it far around the market, happy to buy and sample something from each booth. He would get round to the pearls. Provisions were important, especially adding some variety to the hard stale biscuits they had been reduced to rationing after their longer-than-expected trip. "Well, I can sell you a barrel, but any more than that, you will have to see the Silverseas." The market seller replied. The Silverseas? Again! No matter which stall he tried, it seemed as if all roads led back to the Silverseas if he wished to purchase more than enough for himself and the ship. "Yes. I purchased mine from them for reselling here, but you must see them if you want more than a barrel''s worth. I don''t carry that much." they exined. It had been the same for most of the products sold here. The only things that did not lead back to them were fish and seaweed. Otherwise, it was one Silver family or another, all backed by the Silverseas. . . . ¡°This jewellery is stunning. My wife will love this pearl bracelet. But who would I need to see if I wanted to take back more and make a little profit on the side? I¡¯m no merchant but good of such high quality should be easy to shift. Besides, I could do it with an earring or two." Ramilid on the ttery, finally finding what they were searching for. It might not be the source, but they were certainly getting closer. "Thank you for the praise." the seller nodded their head in eptance. "But you would have to talk to the Silverseas if you wanted greater quantities of Deep Sea Pearls." "Thank you. These will be enough for now." Ramil countered, parting with a small fortune to buy the bracelet but much less than what he could get for it if he ever chose to resell it, before disengaging and heading to the tavern. . . . . . . Silverseas. . . . Silverseas. . . . Silverseas. . . . It was not long before they were all back in the Compass Edge Tavern. ¡°We need to stay the night to see the . . . Silverseas.¡± They joined in unison for the name of the family they had all been referred to. It seemed they ran this town in more than just name. . . . Chapter 180: Night Manoeuvres Chapter 180: Night Manoeuvres ¡°Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.¡± Sun Tzu, The Art of War Sinbad sat between Ramil and Junaid as they were ferried across thegoon to the inner isle. Opposite them, Farris, Haakim and Bahis sat quietly, watching the ind approach. It was white as if carved from salt. A mountain arose in the middle, reaching up high. It was not the strangest ind he had seen on his travels, but it was certainly distinctive, an ind within agoon within an ind. The cliffs that stood between it and the sea were imposing. Murshad had begged off attending, iming he did not need to be there for the inevitable haggling and power ys before a deal was signed in blood if need be. He said he would visit the church and or possibly the pilgrimage site on the west side of the isle. Once theynded, they walked between reflective pools of water lined with what appeared to be salt. The source for some of the wares Captain Kashif was peddling became equally obvious. The Silversea family must be rtively wealthy with salt, pearls and the other products they had noticed in the town market, especially inparison to their neighbours this far out from the Compass continent. The Silverseas would hardly be a threat, but money had its own power, so it was worth being aware of and stepping politely if they wished to take everything they could. ¡°The number of their products is unexpected.¡± Commented Ramil casually as they advanced toward doors carved into the mountain. ¡°We stand to make a lot of money if they can be convinced to take us on as partners instead of Captain Kashif.¡± Sinbad snarled the other captain¡¯s name in displeasure that someone had gotten there first or in pain over the losses he had already taken on this trip. ¡°An unguarded and untaxed entry into Ponente is worth far more than their products if sufficient goods travel through it. But the distance makes it less than ideal.¡± Bahis added. ¡°Might be wiser to keep such thoughts silent. We are being watched even if they cannot hear us yet.¡± Farris cautioned. He gestured ahead to the doors guarded by more of the town guards. Quietly the group approached, falling silent under the stare of the slowly opening doors that made the mountain appear as if it was watching theme closer. ¡°Wee to the Hall of the Silverseas.¡± One guard intoned. ¡°May you walk in the light of the lodestar.¡± They stepped through the doorway. . . . A day earlier The Silversea family disyed many emotions about our flight and my minor incarceration. It helped a lot that it was very short and that I could dance my way out of it. Neither Father nor I filled in all the details as we were stilling to grips with exactly what had happened ourselves. However, we did give a detailed description of the individuals involved, and it was no surprise to find a few of them investigating the market the following day. Whether they knew it or not, they were in more trouble than they could conceive. All our advisors from Lady Acacia, Namir, Arawn, and most stridently, our mother believed that a message had to be sent and a lesson learned in blood if that was what it took to ensure the Libians did not soon forget it. There might have been some ardent patriotism of Ponente being the better country, but ultimately they were vers who had attempted to enve the lord of thend. This would not stand. It did not matter that they were now passing themselves off as merchants merely interested in our deep sea pearls. They would receive a reception they would never forget in this life or the next if they did not bow to their new circumstances when they came to petition us tomorrow morning. All of that led to tonight. While their captain slept in our sleepy little town, his ship was going to get a second visit from yours truly. Only this time, I would not be alone when I arrived or when we left. We were nning to take them for everything they had. If only to solidify our position tomorrow; however, I was not above admitting that there was a small measure of revenge for the terror I had been subjected to yesterday. Waking up alone, chained while I watched as my magic burned me from the inside out was something I would never forget. It was only fair to provide him something simr that they would never forget either. It was all going to start here and now. Namir and Arawn were leading the raid but had all of our older, morebat-focused cousins lined up, ready to initiate our act of piracy. Though it was not called that, with the home advantage, this was a defensive act of the local lord against plundering pirates. It would also be a test and measure the strength of our men. Though if any were found wanting, our tutors had oversight and would act before their captain could realise and return. Fingers crossed, it would note to that. We followed Namir and Arawn¡¯s lead, but they left it up to us to implement the n. It would be a suitable proving ground and beneficial for our skills, stats and levels if they left it up to us. The Silversea court had got together to n our liberation. Months of manoeuvers under our tutor''s eyes and sometimes pointed ws meant that we knew one another¡¯s skills and abilities. The Silversea court was ready to act with both magic and might. One providing cover for the other, we would hit them in the middle of the night once the majority, if not all of the sailors, were asleep unsuspecting. We had watched the ship throughout the day, counting the men, counting the ves, and learning the boatyout as much as we could from afar. I confess to feeling a little excited at the prospect. . . . Later that night . . . ¡°Last chance to ask for help,¡± Namir noted. ¡°We¡¯re ready,¡± I said quietly, confident our n would work. ¡°Not forgetting anything?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°No, we know what we are doing and how we will do it. We should be fine.¡± I repeated as much to convince myself as I was to persuade him. Without another word, we disappeared silently down the stairs into the cove in groups of four, two boys to two girls, though plenty of our cousins were old enough to be men and women. The youngdies would provide magical backup while the two men would provide the martial might to overpower and defend against anything should the magic not take them out immediately. They would also be the ones to haul the sailors out of sight and off the boat afterwards. After months we finally got around to building a holding centre in the expanded town though we had yet to fill it up with anyone. It looked like the unlucky Libian sailors would soon be its earliest guests. However, not all Libbecians were a bad bunch. Upon hearing about our run-in with another galley, Captain Kashif had quickly vacated port, not entirely fleeing north in his haste to swing around to the ind''s northern side. He promised to return after a short trip between Wester Levante and Little Wester. But he had also agreed to stay out of the way for the immediate future, which suited us just fine. Aleera and I led the way with Chase and Diane Silverstag, the hunters of the extended family. We would hopefully take out any of the more wakeful sailors, but as far as we could tell, there would not be any. For once in my life, the n was executed perfectly. The sailors were caught napping. Lady Acacia had provided spells to ensure they stayed that way which the women of our extended n could cast. The men then tied them up; it went off without a hitch. I smiled in satisfaction at a well-executed n and that Namir and Arawn would have nothing toin about. Then came the actual work, the long haul of sailors to the top of the cliff. It was such a pain that we sent a runner back to the town to quietly ask for some guards to assist us with unloading the ver''s galley. If there was one failure of the night, it was the logistics. I had never attempted to transfer half a dozen unconscious bodies before, and it turned out that it was surprisingly tricky, even with the extra stats that everybody had. It did not help that Arawn and Namir found the lesson we were learning painfully funny. ¡°Oh, to be defeated by yet another unconscious sailor, the ignominy.¡± Called out Arawn from where they were watching me struggle. It was not so much the strength required to move the man. I had that now. It was the leverage and the height. No matter how much I attempted to manhandle my unconscious prizes. Parts of them would always end up dragging along the floor. I gently lowered the man I had attempted to haul across the docks. Though my grumpiness toward my erstwhile grandfather dropped might have been a better description. The benefit of being so small was that he did not ¡®drop¡¯ very far. ¡°Could we please have some help shifting the bodies?¡± I finally asked our observers, to my grandfather¡¯s delight. ¡°Why, Kai, we would only be too delighted to help.¡± He grinned as he casually lifted a man with each hand dragging them up. ¡°Where would you like me to take them?¡± he asked facetiously despite knowing full well where I wanted them to go. I was rethinking my policy on how we should have conducted our raid and the impounding of the galley. We wouldn¡¯t have had anyone to carry if we had just killed everyone. ¡°Sailors to the lock-up.¡± I directed the additional people that had been brought to handle the logistics I had forgotten. ¡°The enved to the church.¡± I continued. Directing another group to them. It had been decided that the best way to keep everything under wraps for as long as possible was to keep everyone unconscious until they were freed. We did not want anyone doing anything stupid in theirst moments of very. The Bishop had apanied us to be on hand should people require healing, but after witnessing the raid without bloodshed, he had retreated ahead of us to town. He would have much work to do soon. The ves were now freemen though they didn¡¯t know it yet. As soon as we had carried them onto our ind by ourws, there were no enved people. They would be waking up to this fact in the church tomorrow morning. If they got processed by the Bishop quickly enough, they would meet us on the inner ind. I doubted they would remember me from my time on the galley. I had been there for such a short time. But it was possible. We would all be a little tired tomorrow, but the aim was for all the enved people to be freed by the time their former owner stepped onto the isle. The next stage in the n was stripping the galley of its goods. It had few. It was not a wealthy catch regarding the number of trade goods, the wealth in its hull and the enved people who had powered it. But there were sure to be some treasures in the cabins of the elite that had targeted us. That, though, would have to wait for another day. Tonight we were stripping the ship of everything. We would take stock and restock once the day''s oue was decided. I had ns for that ship and would not let go of it anytime soon. What would happen with its owners was still up to debate, and how they reacted to this turn of events. Like locusts, we descended onto the ship, stripping it bare before retreating for the remainder of the night. We needed to get a good night¡¯s sleep for tomorrow¡¯s performance. . . . The great hall . . . Sinbad led the group alongside Ramil, Junaid, Farris, Haakim and Bahis, all paired up and walked behind them as they entered the hall. Secretly they were impressed that such a remote ind had enticed a stone carver of such artistry to shape the Silversea¡¯s reception hall. The outer fa?ade had been impressive, and the inside did not disappoint. What was surprising was the number of people present and the number of house crests decorating the columns along the hall walls. For such a new noble family, it had a shockinglyrge number of branches, each with its own crest and banner. As they advanced down between what was effectively the Silversea Court, they looked to the family leaders on their dais at the end of the hall. What was immediately striking was the diversity of their advisors, though the Lord and Lady''s chairs were currently empty. To the left and right of where they would hold the petition stood an elf and a beastkin. It was not as if he had never seen such people, he had traded wide and far, but most of them remained in theirnds, and it would have been far more likely for a Neriad to be present than those two. Behind their group followed other petitioners. However, they seemed to be from the town, well known. He could feel the attention focus on them as they drew to the front of the hall. They had arrived 5 minutes before the hour, and the petition would begin as soon as the hour turned. He generally preferred negotiating in a more private setting with a more significant advantage, but that was the trouble with dealing with nobles in their homes. They were entrenched and had the defender''s advantage of allies and numbers. That was not to say that he was not without his advantages. He did not represent a single ship but a cabal of some of northern Libio''s most influential merchants and vers. Sinbad was ted that after a long and tiring journey, they would soon be able to return home. Just onest negotiation to take ce. However, it would have been nice to have scuttled Captain Kashif. This was clearly where he had found the deep sea pearls; perhaps they might cross paths on the way back. A chime sounded, and the great doors behind them began to close as Lord and Lady Silversea emerged without any pomp and circumstance. The pair seemed a little small to be the Lord and Lady. Suddenly, Farris bolted for the closing doors. Shocked, the whole group turned to watch as he attempted to flee the hall. Confused and distracted by his sudden behaviour, they saw him reach the guards to the hall and leap over them. Only to be cut down midair by an old man moving with the speed of youth and demonstrating that they were not the only high levelled individuals in the hall. Farris¡¯s headless body continued through the air tond with a boneless thump on the steps to the hall. The thudding of the doors closing blocked the scandalous sight of their formerrade''s demise. Outraged at the abrupt events they did not understand, the group turned to face the Lord and Lady to demand an answer and were struck dumb. It was the child they had caught. He was the lord, merda! . . . Meanwhile, elsewhere . . . Murshad had enjoyed finding this gem of a town so far from civilisation. It represented what the church of the lodestar should be about. An expanding of the horizon, pushing back the monsters of the deep or delving into it. This town had it all. Sure, it was a little backwards in ces, but it was burgeoning with life and opportunity. People looked and talked optimistically about the future, their expansion, their Lord and Lady. The entrance to the depths was no longer a source of outright fear. It helped that they effectively lived without taxation, and there had been no discharge of monsters from the depths yet. Just a slow, steady exploration of the pathways down and a few escapes that had been quickly cleaned up. He was looking forward to reaching the most western point on the pilgrim¡¯s path of circumnavigation. Not all church members could afford the time or money toplete the circumnavigation in one go. It would feel good to have such a distant pointpleted. First, though, it was time to pay his respects to the local clergy. Yesterday had been a time for gathering information surreptitiously. Today was the time to say hello. He did not need to be there for the negotiations. He was only here because the Cabal had insisted a cleric apany their venture and donated heavily to his senior at the local church. He had not leapt at themand, but he couldn¡¯t deny there were personal benefits to the venture. He strode confidently through the market square, already busy despite the day of the petition with the local Lord and Lady. The fact that a Bishop was here made following the etiquette much more critical. Whether he had arrived by choice or exile, he was still a bishop. He happily entered the Church of the Lodestar, each one home away from home, the familiar incense, the familiar faces . . . Filling the pews were the ves of the ship, and they all turned to face their former owner¡¯srade, merda! . . . Chapter 181: Reparations Chapter 181: Reparations ¡°Reparations can make up for stolen wages, but not stolen dignity and stolen lives.¡± Abhijit Naskar ¡°Merda!¡± One of them muttered. It summed up the situation nicely. They were in deep, deep, do-do. It was nice to see them finally realise it. Small rpense for what they had put us through the chase, the imprisonment, and the flight. The remaining five quickly bunched up, aware of the seriousness of the situation and the fact that they might just not be walking out of there after all. They ced their hands on their weapons but were smart enough not to draw them. While we were not royalty, and stats made a mockery of what exactly counted as a weapon, perhaps we should have an arms policy of leaving them at the door¡ªa thought for the future. We had organised ourselves to face them, with each person having a main target should they force the issue. Namir would take out Sinbad, Lady Acacia would control Ramil, and Arawn would tackle Junaid. He had jumped the gun on taking out Farris, but we had already agreed that should any of them attempt to escape, they were to be taken out by whatever means necessary. I was not convinced that Arawn could not have done it a little less messily or even left the man alive, but it had indeed set the scene. ¡°We meet again.¡± I smiled, channelling my inner viin. I did not want to appear kind, generous or merciful. We were going to take the vers for all they were worth. Their property, people and their very lives if they did not agree to every stiption weid down. ¡°My Lord, we didn¡¯t know.¡± Ramil stepped ahead of Sinbad and began to plead their case¡ªthe sudden obsequiousness off-putting in its instant disy and theplete reversal of his previous persona. ¡°Ignorance of my position or thew of thend is no defence to your crime.¡± I stopped him right there. Before, Aleera continued, unwilling to allow them to reframe the narrative. We had a script, and we were sticking to it. ¡°First, you assaulted Lord Silversea, pursuing him and his father across the open ocean,¡± Aleera started listing their crimes. ¡°Second, you attempted to enve him, binding him in mana manacles, blindfolding him and leaving him the hold of your ship like amon criminal.¡± she listed them off on her fingers. ¡°Third, you brought to our humble home several dozen ves with the intention of leaving with them.¡± She paused. ¡°very is illegal on Wester Ponente.¡± Finally reaching her fourth and final finger, ¡°You have entered our hall without apology, acknowledging your guilt and without offering instant reparations. Your transgressionse at a cost.¡± ¡°My ves are my own, all legally bound and bought.¡± Objected Sinbad to the potential financial cost. ¡°They have not set foot on your ind, and it isn¡¯t illegal to own ves in the Compass Kingdoms or the Azimuth Ocean.¡± Why he was focused on his property instead of his life boggled the mind. A sailor should be morepetent, especially considering the dangerous sea change in his circumstances. ¡°Would it not be possible to start again?¡± Interjected, Haakim. ¡°We have sailed to your distant ind to establish a mutually profitable trading rtionship. We meant no offence and were unaware of whom we dealt with on the open ocean. You flew no crest.¡± ¡°Actions count louder than words, and your actions count against you. Your captain ims his ves were all legally bought and bound when we have direct evidence to the contrary, with you attempting to enve my brother. Your words are not worth the air they are said with.¡± Nevertheless, she refused to back down from our confrontational position. ¡°I have their documentation,¡± Sinbad shouted. It was clear that the loss of his ves would ruin him. He could not sail the ship home without them or trade and carry goods. ¡°Not worth the paper it¡¯s written on if you would seek to enve my brother. Be grateful that you are still breathing, and stop arguing about losses you have no hopes of overturning.¡± ¡°But . . .¡± Sinbad found himself being restrained by his fellows who stood in grim silence. Lady Acacia stepped forward now that the men had stopped arguing against their fate. ¡°First, for assaulting Lord Silversea, the punishment is death or a weregild of 1,500 gold dinar. Second, the punishment for attempted envement and false incarceration of Lord Silversea is death or a wergild of 1,500 gold dinar. Third, their immediate release is required for enving others, and 40 gold dinar for every enved serf as modest reparations for their treatment. Although we acknowledge that no amount of coin canpensate for the loss of dignity and for being stolen from their lives.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t pay that!¡± Sinbad shouted despite the restraints of hispanions. ¡°We are fully aware of that and have already taken steps to liberate the enved, impound your ship and confiscate its cargo to cover the reparations to be made to them and Lord Silversea.¡± She stated. ¡°My ship was taken.¡± He sounded stunned, no longer fighting to break free. ¡°Yes, the former enved are currently being released from their bonds as we speak, while your sailors will be processedter today depending on their crimes.¡± She continued without mercy, impartially delivering the letter of thew. ¡°You are, however, each still significantly short of having sufficient funds to buy your lives, and we do not believe in very here on Wester Ponente.¡± She left their sentence unannounced, the silence deafening as they each realised they would have toe up with 3000 gold or face their imminent demise. They shifted uneasily, and I wondered whether we would have an immediate fight on our hands. They had to realise that even if they managed the dubious task of escaping our hall, they would still have to attempt to get across thegoon through the town to their ship and then off an ind on the edge of the horizon without their crew or enved people. It was impossible, and they realised it. ¡°I demand trial by ordeal,¡± Sinbad shouted into the lengthening silence. ¡°This is the Silversea Court, not the Court of the Lodestar Church. You cannot reduce your fine through suffering.¡± Lady Acacia rebutted his demand. It turned out that some more minor crimes could be paid for by various medieval trials, the trial of cold water, the trial of hot iron etc. But I was not keen to encourage or allow such barbaric practices on our ind. We existed in a legal grey area. Strictly speaking, we were part of international waters until we swore allegiance to Ponente. It was expected that we would when our 100 years of pioneer status finished. However, with most of the poption from there, those were the rules we followed whenever needed, but it was up to us whether or not to follow them or fall into the fold at the end of our pioneering time. The Church of the Lodestar having paid for a significant portion of the expansion and their presence on the ind meant that the people could turn to them for judgement as much as they turned to us with their petitions. ¡°Then trial bybat,¡± Sinbad argued, unwilling to give up and wing to life with his metaphorical fingernails. ¡°Are you insane?¡± Hissed Haakim, ¡°He¡¯ll take you apart in seconds.¡± He added, referring to Arawn Silversword, who had moved up through the hall to stand behind them. ¡°Better with a de in my hand than a noose around my neck,¡± Sinbad replied. He was stepping forward and away from hispanions, whose hands dropped away from holding him back. ¡°Is there any way we could dy or defer payment of reparations?¡± Ramil asked. ¡°You will not be allowed to leave the ind if that is what you are asking, but we see more value in your life than your death.¡± Replied Lady Acacia. ¡°You would be allowed to send a letter requesting reparations through a suitable intermediary and with a certain level of secrecy to maintain our security from military reprisals.¡± Ramil rxed a little in relief that there might be a way out of this. There was no outward impression he had hoped for anymore, but a slight returning tension hinted that perhaps he had. ¡°Not all of us are wealthy enough to leverage that amount of gold or as beloved by our family as a ransom,¡± Junaid said snidely, referring to himself, Haakim and Bahis. ¡°Depending on your debt and abilities, we have a range of payment ns,¡± I attempted to sound professional but was sure I still smirked slightly. ¡°And those are?¡± Junaid asked. . . . In the end, Ramil wrote a ransom letter, which would be rewritten and sent with Captain Kashif on his return. Junaid and Bahis agreed to indenture for life or at least until their 3000 weregilds were raised. They believed they could get out from under the Silverseas if they struck it lucky, delving into the depths of the Lodestone on their weekends. Haakim resigned himself to a new life on the ind, healing. While Captain Sinbad was still determined to attempt to fight his way free. We wondered how it was going with Murshad. . . . In the Church of the Lodestar ¡°Wee back, Murshad.¡± Bishop Bailie boomed with a significant smile. ¡°We have a sizeable swelling of our congregation this morning.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Murshad replied awkwardly before the many enved people sitting free. They made no moves toward him, but he felt ufortable in the free men''s presence. ¡°Yes, very is illegal here on Wester Ponente. However, the Silversea family has a progressive and positive outlook toward life and one they are not afraid to defend.¡± He continued. ¡°Ah, should Ie back at another time?¡± Murshad asked, worried about what might be happening elsewhere. It appeared hispanions were walking into an ambush. If not a physical one, then certainly a political one. They were onlypanions at the request of the cabal that had sent them on this mission, but that didn¡¯t mean he was utterly heartless toward their fate. ¡°Might be best if you stayed the morning within the Church. The crew you sailed with made a poor first impression on the local rulers. You will have some safety here due to the sanctity of the Lodestar church, but I do not believe you will return to the Compass continent anytime soon. Or at least not on the boat that you arrived on anyway.¡± He cautioned, Reading between the lines, Murshad winced, ¡°As a Bishop, could you notpel them to release the ship and the crew?¡± Thinking about resorting to relying on the back of the church to get them out of the predicament they were in. The Bishop nodded in acknowledgement before declining, ¡°We are a long way out from the Compass Continent. It might have been possible had you not assaulted the Lord himself.¡± ¡°The Lord?¡± Murshad questioned, confused. ¡°The boy you attempted to capture.¡± The Bishop rified. ¡°Mierda,¡± Murshad muttered before crossing himself in the four cardinal directions followed by the four ordinal. ¡°Yes, quite. Let¡¯s hope yourpanions are smarter with their words than their actions, or you might find yourself excepting the former enved, the sole remainder of your venture.¡± The Bishop agreed and warned. ¡°Now, seeing as you will be free for the foreseeable future. Why not help me with helping these disadvantaged men adapt and choose some new metiers.¡± He gestured to the waiting crowd still working their way through the room with the shard of the Lodestar. . . . Back on the inner isle, Seven vers came to call, Their followed, a chase, a fight, a fall, Seven vers all told. But stand one beheaded, one sold. Seven vers sailed the sea, Till they were broken over our lord¡¯s knee . . . I stopped ying with the poor lyrics in my mind. Now that I was a Lord, I needed suitable friezes, tapestries or songs to chronicle my progress. Of course, I could try to get my mother to make one. But that was just as good as writing them for me. We were all walking out to the amphitheatre for the final duel of Sinbad the Sailor. A captain no longer without his ship. He had refused the possibility of working off his weregild over timepared to the others. But he had lost far, far more than them. Without a ship, crew or enved people, he had fallen from a captain, the king of his domain, to but another petitioner, and he seemed to have struggled with the fall in his fortune. We had given the option, but he had refused. So we were not going to offer it again. We wanted to be seen as strong. But it seemed strange to be watching a man walking to his death. Farris¡¯s end had been so quick that it had been over before we realised it would happen. This, though, was taking its time. Perhaps he still thought he had a chance against Arawn Silversword. But Namir had won the right after a quick hand battle of wizard, warrior, rogue¡ªthis world¡¯s equivalent of Rock, paper scissors. . . . The two warriors faced each other across a circle of sand. Silent formerpanions and students surrounded them. They studied one another as the watchers waited on the stone steps that climbed the mountain they would be fighting in the shadow of. The mercenary captain was the first to make his move. His curved scimitar whipped forth from the scabbard on his belt as he dashed forward in an attempt to take Namir¡¯s life in the first move. But no matter how fast he was, Namir was quicker and with senses that could probably hear his heart beating; there was no way he had not seen himing. He stepped to the side almost casually, drawing his sword rather than rushing to raise it to meet Sinbad¡¯s de head-on. I did not doubt the oue of this trial bybat. This was an execution. But it did not mean that it couldn¡¯t be a learning experience. Sinbad had missed his first strike, which would have bisected a slower man, but it did not stop him from following after Namir as he attempted a second stab that appeared to flicker twice with a smaller de hidden in his left hand. A slightly quicker man who might have managed to block the first scimitar would have found his chest stabbed by the second de as Sinbad would have barrelled over the top of him. However, Namir had stepped around him, leaving him off bnce, and the second de easy to deflect with a flick of his sword, the second flickering strike nevering near. Instead, he allowed him time to regain footing beforeunching his offensive. It was much like our morning sparring, only this time it was for real with a de that would cut rather than bruise. My cousins could see Namir stepping through the moves he had taught us. Gradually speeding up to apply more and more pressure on the pirate, who progressively realised he had no hope against our martial tutor. We watched as he countered with more and more desperation as he defended himself against the moves with methods we had been taught. The sand was flung by foot and hand, des thrown as he attempted to close with Namir. Then caltrops dropped behind him as he tried to retreat, and we didn¡¯t doubt they were poisoned. Finally, a ship captain, Sinbad, fought like a trapped bilge rat fighting tooth and nail to flee a sinking ship. But Namir allowed him no let up as he continued to press him harder and harder. Cuts began to add up as he slipped his strikes through Sinbad¡¯s guard. Never enough to end the fight but sufficient to demonstrate the deadliness of each strike that he had forced us to learn with blunted wooden weapons, our blows always pulled rather than followed through. Sinbad seemed to despair as every trick of his trade came up empty. There were no lines of red decorating Namir¡¯s fine, coarse fur. His tawny pale fur was unblemished. The ck spots had yet to be joined by lines of blood, and with poisoned caltrops in y, he could not afford them to be. It was difficult not to have a grudging respect for the mercenary captain, if only for his willpower, not his morals, as he refused to give up. The colourful cloth he wore gradually received a crimson shade and dripped in ces where it hung low or was folded. Breathing heavily, his stamina had to be falling quickly, moving as fast as he had been. His health could not be too low; each cut was made to demonstrate a point rather than make a kill. His cuts would heal given time. Namir appeared to be ying with his victim much like a cat could y with its food. But he showed no joy or emotion in the method he was employing. There was a lesson to be learned here, but we couldn¡¯t see what it was yet to have drawn it out so long. Screaming in rage and frustration, he rushed forward at Namir once more. His arm seemed to flicker, his knife stabbing rapidly in multiple shing motions as he attempted to reach the beastkin tutor. It was no longer a double strike but a multitude of them, and Namir leapt backwards out of reach of the rapid follow-up strikes that would have taken him unaware had he remained. As the new skill ended, so did Sinbad¡¯s life, with Namir lunging past the now-falling man. ¡°That is why we do not dance with our enemies.¡± He told his stunned students. The fight had finished so abruptly. ¡°Skills cane at any moment. To those who train for them and those who fight for them. Never leave it to chance to be on the wrong side of that moment. Should they fight hard enough, any man or monster can get a sudden reprieve by the system.¡± Chapter 182: Unexpected Gifts Chapter 182: Unexpected Gifts ¡°Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.¡± Boris Pasternak The letter we held in hand was written and followed our guidelines. Ramil mentioned the failure of their mission, the teams'' demise and his capture without mentioning where our ind was or how they had been defeated. Hopefully, his family, friends and business partners would respond financially, but if they responded militarily, they woulde in blind. It would be something to pass on to Captain Kashif, whose arrival had already been announced before he ever entered our hall. The protocol and procedures of our burgeoning pce sh citadel were growing more structured and routine with each new visit. Captain Kashif bowed low as he presented himself in front of the dais. ¡°I see congrattions are in order - a fine addition to your fleet.¡± He referred to the Libian galley we now had moored in our docks. Currently, without a crew, we could fully trust. It sat empty and out of the water. We were working on incorporating the ship¡¯s crew and former enved into ourmunity before we would attempt to sail the ship. Adversity only sometimes builds character; sometimes, it could twist or break them. Nevertheless, we would try to crew it with an equal amount of family, friends and former sailors when we started to use it to do short legs between our inds while Captain Kashif and Merchant Mecurio were on their more extended trips. ¡°It¡¯s a new acquisition,¡± Aleera replied calmly. ¡°You might be aware of its former owner, Sinbad.¡± She spoke of the deceased pirate who had led the chase across the ocean for a cabal of political and business interests in Libio, unimpressed by the fortune Captain Kashif had found. ¡°I had heard of him,¡± He answered cautiously, unsure of the correct answer to appease his hosts, us. ¡°I¡¯m d my absence could help your negotiations go so well.¡± He answered humbly, putting his absence in the best light. He had been asked to leave Wester Ponente and sail his ship, Safina, to Wester Levante for what was effectively busy work to keep him and his boat out of the way while we dealt with the vers¡¯ arrival and removal. ¡°Yes, well, everything ended well in the end. However, it could have gone significantly worse. They were hunting you, and their presence endangered us. Were you aware you were being followed?¡± So, despite the positive end oue, we were less than happy that Captain Kashif had led them here. ¡°No, of course not.¡± Sounding both shocked and slightly offended that we could even consider the possibility. ¡° I would never deliberately leadpetitors to such a rich source of resources. Sharing with the Ponentian merchant, Mercurio, is enough for me.¡± He candidly replied. ¡°Yes, it would appear you have a trackston onboard or underboard as it is affixed to your hull. They have been using to follow you across the Azimuth ocean.¡± Now that the former crew worked for us, they had told us how they had followed Captain Kashif to find out who and where we were. ¡°Thank you for informing me; I would never have knowingly led anyone here.¡± He informed us deferentially. ¡°You must know that?¡± He checked that we understood. ¡°We ept that you would not do so on purpose, but we trust that you will not allow it to happen again by a failure of security again.¡± She reinforced her point. We had no desire to take on the world and were not ready to do so. We were still relying on obscurity and distance to protect ourselves from interference. Although we grew in personal strength and developed powerful allies, we were far from being untouchable. ¡°Indeed, not. It will not happen again. I promise.¡± He pledged. ¡°In support of your newfound house, let me present you with a friendship gift from Emir Ishtul, my former patron.¡± He bowed low, presenting a jewelled case hastily passed forward from one of the sailors who had apanied him. He no longer walked around on our ind, surrounded by enved people. ¡°He was most impressed with your gifts of fine sea silk and deep sea pearls and hoped to form a more profound, longsting friendship with such a prosperous pioneering ind.¡± He rapidly returned to the charming, smooth-talking merchant now that his metaphorical verbal disadvantage was over, and he was once more sailing smoother conversational seas. ¡°He is not troubled by losing the patronage of your person and your ship?¡± I asked, surprised. We had expected more resistance or cost to effectively coopting a merchant from Libio from his former patron. ¡°He is a wise man willing to look past any possible short-term loss of face in losing the services of a Captain such as myself for the potential long-term profit from a strong rtionship with a newly minted Lord of Ponente. Our two nations have an antagonistic association at best, and any method to bypass both the pirates and tariffs of the militant border lords would be worth its weight in gold, silver, salt and pearls over time.¡± The verbose ttery made me wonder whether his words would somehow be reported or repeated to Emir Ishtul. ¡°What does he want?¡± I asked, cutting to the heart of the matter to the despair of my etiquette teacher, Lady Acacia. The benefit of my youth, at least to outsiders, was that I was already so far beyond expectations that I never broke any more when I was more direct than was possibly polite. ¡°He would also be interested in creating a trade route between Libio and Ponente utilising your unique location and pioneer status to avoid such stifling problems such as the tariffs levelled by both countries.¡± ¡°He wants us to be a den of pirates and smugglers,¡± Aleera stated, singrly unimpressed with the idea after our most recent run-in with the vers that imed to be merely merchants and sailors. ¡°No such den of iniquity. Rather a legal and perfectly eptable trade haven due to your unique status as a pioneer ind.¡± He objected. ¡°Such a trade haven would onlyst as long as our pioneer status still existed.¡± I pointed out. He shrugged, ¡°Nothingsts forever, but hopefully, it willst long enough for both sides currently posturing for a permanent solution to our differences to see the profits avable from a mutually beneficial rtionship.¡± The captain was more intelligent than I would have given him credit for, or perhaps working at a higher level for this Emir Ishtul than we had realised. However, all this political posturing and economic philosophising detracted from what we should have been focusing on, our new gift. The bejewelled box. I reached for it only to be stopped by Arawn picking up the box before us. ¡°Trust but verify.¡± Holding it away from himself, he opened it to show Captain Kashif and then turned the open chest to us, revealing its contents. Had something unholy jumped out, it would have taken out the captain first before being decapitated by my grandfather. But nothing moved. It was an egg. It sat alone in the box, filling the space with its weight. It was smaller than I had expected or somewhat smaller than expected for what I hoped it contained. The smooth, hard surface shone like ck onyx and sat on a red velvet bed. It was polished to a fine shine and drew the light into it as much as it drew my gaze. ¡°A dragon egg?¡± I asked excitedly. ¡°Emir Ishtul felt that the sea silk and deep sea pearls should be returned in kind.¡± Captain Kashif offered. Aleera¡¯s eyebrow rose, and they continued, ¡°He did not like to consider himself indebted.¡± I was too focused on the egg to focus on anything else. A dragon egg! My mind flew in flights of fantasy about what might be possible with a dragon by my side. But my dreams had already been tempered by the academic lessons we covered with Lady Acacia. Although Dragons in the Compass Kingdoms were simr to those I had imagined, their size held them back. Never growing muchrger than a dog, the majority of them remained the size of arge cat. As a result, I would not be a dragon rider anytime soon in the future. Still, it was a dragon egg. I grinned with unabashed excitement. ¡°Thank the Emir for his generous gift.¡± Aleera continued the conversation I had forgotten in my greed and haste to hold the present and inspect its surface. How long would it be till it hatched? ¡°Does the egg require anything to help it hatch?¡± I asked, focused on the young life in my hands hidden behind the ck shimmer of the eggshell. ¡°The egg requires nothing special to hatch. However, a warm environment and a higher mana density help them hatch quicker. Though there is not much difference in the timings between the two.¡± Lady Acacia stepped into educating us before Captain Kashif could reply. Heat and Mana. A few areas might work well on our ind. However, I would not take it to the reef with me. I may need to excavate my own to find a better area under our mountain. ¡°Yes, thank the Emir for his extraordinary gift,¡± I added my tuppence now that the initial surprise and focus had passed. I couldn¡¯t wait for it to hatch. It was like knowing what you were getting for your birthday but not knowing when it would happen! I returned the ransom letter, "If you could see that this makes it back to his family, that would be fantastic." I said abruptly, leaving my chair to pick up the box. It was time to scout the tunnels to find the best ce for my egg. I could leave the politics up to others and scampered off. . . . Note from Notlimah Thanks for reading. Bonus Chapter 183 and 183 continued at /series/338257/singer-sailor-merchant-mage--litrpg-progression--from-the-very-beginning/ Chapter 183: Never rains, but it pours Chapter 183: Never rains, but it pours ¡°Life has many ways of testing a person¡¯s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.¡± Paulo Coelho Our distant location and position of political istion had served us well, but the more significant we grew, the more ripples we made. So it was unsurprising that we had finally drawn physical attention. It was just our luck that the two envoys had arrived at the same time and not muchter than the Libian mercenary merchants. Thankfully they were preceded by Mercurio, who had informed us of the impending disaster. Captain Kashif had not yet left, so some sparks were still flying between the two captains, but neither could be too overt in theirints about the other, with both of them falling foul of the same problem. The fact that they were both, in one way or another, responsible for the uninvited guests who had followed them and intended to take a bite of the apple that was our home. It was just as well that we had managed to deal with them separately. It would have been a disaster to attempt to deal with them simultaneously, so there was that going for the timing of all of this. ¡°Lord and Lady Silversea. It is a pleasure to return to visit your beautiful and prosperous ind.¡± He paused to nod to his contemporary, ¡°Captain Kashif.¡± His ttery and praise were wee, but they made his brusque greeting to Captain Kashif evident that he was less than impressed by the presence of what he considered a pirate. Captain Kashif, though did not rise to the bait. And having recently experienced a true mercenary merchant from Libio, we felt we could tell the difference between the two. ¡°Mercurio, peace under the light; you both work under our patronage. So let¡¯s try to work together a little better. Besides, Captain Kashif bears an offer to create a very profitable trade route between the Emir Ishtul of Libio and the markets of Ponente. Surely that would be enough money to temper your tongue.¡± Aleera cautioned. ¡°Of course, mydy. I am always interested in an honest profit.¡± Mercurio bowed to the Lady he had helped create but still managed a pointed rejoinder. Profit woulde before pride for many a merchant, but it would be nice if both of them managed to cut back on the sniping at each other this time. ¡°If I might have a word in private.¡± He hesitated before asking but asked anyway. The problem with stats and skills was that any whispered conversation in the great hall was not necessarily private to anyone with the strength and interest to listen. However, judging by the look he gave Captain Kashif, it might have been someone specific he was avoiding listening in. No one likes to look less than capable in the presence of apetitor. We were not, however, willing to pander to the merchant. If there was something he needed to say, he needed to inform us of whatever problem was worrying him immediately. We had been surprised enough recently; I gestured impatiently for him to continue. He hesitated before handing us two ornate letters with golden lettering andrge thick red seals stamped with different crests. ¡°I was asked to deliver these. I was also asked to provide the individuals who held their passage so they might give them to you personally. I was able to decline the individuals, if not their letters. They have followed closely on my heels, especially considering the pair of vessels that have shadowed our ship throughout our journey among the Ponentian Archipgo. They cannot be far behind.¡± ¡°How are they following you? I asked, now aware of the dangers of the stones imbued with various properties. ¡°I am unsure, but the magical methods of tracking something asrge as the swift are myriad.¡± He answered. We looked at the letters Smit held on a silver tter before us; we were leaning into our name. Besides, I preferred Silver to Gold; it seemed less shy and gaudy. I wanted us toe across as professional. Regardless, I was noting the two different crests stamped into the wax. One was a sailing ship on the open sea, the other a castle perched on a mountain. Despite never seeing them in person, I instantly knew who these were, thanks to Lady Acacia¡¯s lessons. We would now need to start dealing with the two political parties in the Ponente¡¯s House of a Hundred Lords directly without the buffer of years before our presentation at court or even the support and intervention of the Royal family. It appeared that they had found us or finally made their first move. The sailing ship represented Ponente''s coastal or ind Western lords, while the mountain castle represented the innerndlocked Eastern lords. It was far moreplex than that, but it could be simplified down to that for all intents and purposes, ording to Lady Acacia. At least, this had been our training on the matter so far. Although I was sceptical, she sometimes liked to use broader truths to teach a point, only to go into greater depth and detail with new rules that contradicted the first. There was no doubt that humanity wasplex, and we would have to wait and see how they acted when they arrived. The ball was in their court, and we had to wait for them to make the first move. With some trepidation, I opened the first of the two letters. Dear Lord and Lady of House Silversea, Congrattions on your investment into the nobility of Ponente. I write at the behest of the Western Lords, specifically the Coastal and Ind Lords, whose moiety best aligns with your circumstances and geographical location. I invite you to join your natural ce by our side. We look forward to weing you to our august body, The House of a Hundred Lords, at the debut of your sister Lady Silversea. However, we encourage you to take the opportunity of our envoy to visit your geographical neighbours and peers, as we are ready and willing to support you through the trials and tribtions life can test us with. As the singrly most isted baron family within the Ponentian Archipgo, we would like you to know help is closer than you think should you require it and encourage you to use it. We look forward to helping you meet your peers and hearing from you soon. Lord Larimar High Lord of Solstice City President of the Western Lords of Ponente What struck me straight away was the quality of the penmanship. It looked almost like aputer printed; every repeated letter was identical. Probably not the lord. But someone must have a reasonably high calligraphy skill. While the official tone sounded a little self-righteous and pompous, there did not seem to be anything outwardly outrageous about what he said unless he genuinely expected us to visit his or an ally''s home. That seemed a little foolish, even if only at a surface level. The following letter was much the same but from the Eastern interior lords of Ponente. He expressed warm and weing greetings to the distinguished group known as the Hundred Lords and signed his letter, High Lord Carnelian. I wondered whether they would be changing the name when I arrived. Or whether some poor lord with too little influence would find himself demoted. It seemed suspicious that an envoy for each faction was being sent merely to deliver such simple greetings. Indeed something else was at y. ¡°Their representatives are on their way?¡± I asked, a little intimidated by the idea that the Lords who were probably responsible for my first assassination attempt were on the way to flex their political, economic and possibly military muscle. The King¡¯s promation was worth its weight in gold, but gold did not always make the best shield to defend yourself with. ¡°Most likely, yes. I could deny them passage. We took none on this trip. But I could not stop them from following, especially sailing under the crests that they were.¡± He sadly informed us, referring to the two crests on the letters in ourp. . . . With the two letters in our possession, we knew that we had to prepare for the arrival of the envoys. We called for a council meeting with our close advisors to discuss the situation and develop a progress n. What was different from usual was that we included Merchant Mercurio and Captain Kashif in our deliberations. They were not to determine our policy but inform us of the day-to-day situation within the House of Lords. We were horribly out of touchpared to the instantmunication in my former world. As we gathered in the council chamber, I could see the concern on everyone''s faces. We had been warned that the High Lord Larimar and High Lord Carnelian envoys wereing, and we knew this was not a good sign. These lords were influential figures in the House of a Hundred Lords, and their arrival could only mean trouble. We listened as our advisors spoke, offering their opinions and suggestions. ¡°You don¡¯t need to see them directly. Instead, take a trip to be unavable. I¡¯m sure we can dy them for long enough that they arepelled to return home.¡± Father suggested that we should refuse to see the envoys. ¡°We cannot do that forever, and they are hardly likely to return home without seeing us having travelled so far!¡± Aleera argued, unimpressed with the attempt to avoid the possible confrontation. The majority, though, were resigned to the fact that we should meet with them and hear what they had to say. So, we ultimately decided to meet with the envoys, but only on our terms. We would set the conditions for the meeting and make it clear that we would not be intimidated or bullied despite our rtively new name and position. . . . When the envoys arrived, we greeted them politely and listened as they presented their cases. "Wee, honoured envoy of High Lord Larimar and honoured envoy of High Lord Carnelian. It is an honour to host you both on Wester Ponente. Please, make yourselffortable." Aleera led the opening. The less they knew about me, the better though I was still the focus of their response. "Thank you, Lord and Lady Silversea. Your hospitality is most appreciated. High Lord Larimar has sent me to discuss a matter of great importance with you." The envoy bowed low. However, he looked to our advisors as much as he focused on the two children sitting before him. Not to be outdone, the High Lord Carnelian¡¯s envoy also jumped in, ¡°I would also like to thank the Silverseas for their prompt and apt response to our humble request for an audience. I also hope to discuss matters of great importance and benefit to everyone involved. "I am all ears. What matter does the High Lords of Solstice City wish to discuss?" Aleera replied cordially and politely. ¡°Perhaps we might discuss this further in private.¡± The two envoys mirrored one another in their responses. ¡°Of course,ter perhaps, in private over dinner.¡± Aleera dyed the conversation. It was enough for them to realise they were not the only ones bidding for our family''s attention. With our diverse advisors and the court filled with our Adhal families, Mercurio and Kashif, we were not what they had expected. . . . Later that evening, we asked about their journey over dinner and offered them refreshments. We also inquired about the High Lord''s well-being and expressed our eagerness to hear the purpose of the envoy''s visit. "High Lord Larimar wishes to propose an alliance between our estates. He believes that together, we could achieve great things and bring prosperity to ournds." The envoy for Lord Larimar opened. "An alliance, you say? That is an interesting proposal. But, do we not all pay allegiance to the Prince of Ponente?¡± Aleera countered. ¡°Of course but beneath our overarching loyalty to the crown, there are other considerations to be made, other parties to support.¡± ¡°My brother and I would need to consider it carefully before giving you an answer. May I ask why High Lord Larimar believes that an alliance with our humble ind would be beneficial?" she smiled. Each person danced around the issue at heart and deflected to imply they would need another¡¯s voice to confirm their decisions. The envoy undoubtedly believed it would be our adult advisors rather than the words of a small child like myself. Although for the terms to be binding for our house, they would have to be uttered by myself stuck as we were in a patriarchal society where my words carried more weight than my sisters. "Certainly, my lord anddy.¡± He continued to refer to both of us. ¡°High Lord Larimar believes our estates share manymon goals and interests. We both value trade andmerce, and we both seek to protect ournds from outside threats. By working together, we could pool our resources and achieve more than we ever could on our own." "I see. Those are certainlypelling reasons. I will carefully consider High Lord Larimar''s proposal and give you my answer. In the meantime, please make yourself at home on our humble ind. If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask." Aleera steered us away from Lord Larimar¡¯s envoy to face the next. High Lord Carnelian''s envoy was more direct, strongly suggesting we pledge our loyalty to his lord or face the consequences. We told them both we would need time to consider. The meal finished with our stomachs satisfied but our minds worried. . . . It was exactly what I had feared. The two political factions of the House of a Hundred Lords sought to win our favour and support their respective causes. ordingly, they offered us great incentives, and choosing which side we would align ourselves with was up to us. "What do you think, Kai? Which side should we choose?" Aleera askedter that night. Once the envoys had left, each advisor had something to say, but now it was just us two discussing the future. I sighed heavily, "I don''t know. This is a difficult decision. On the one hand, the Western lords are offering us exclusive ess to their ports and markets and a significant stake in their trade routes. But, on the other hand, the Eastern lords are offering us ess to their rich mineral mines and the chance to be a major supplier of precious metals and gems." She nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I see your point. But we have to think beyond just the immediate gains. We have to consider the long-term consequences of our decision. Which side will be more stable and reliable in the long run? Which side will help us build a stronger, more prosperous future?" I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. "I wish we had more information about their policies and alliances. It''s hard to make an informed decision without knowing more about their ns and strategies." She nodded in agreement. "Yes, that''s true. But we can''t wait forever. We have to make a choice, and soon. The longer we dy, the more impatient they will be, and the greater the risk of alienating them. I trust your judgement, Kai. You have a keen mind and a good sense of strategy. When you are not being an idiot, whatever you decide, I will support you." I smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, sister. I appreciate your trust and support. I will give this matter some more thought and consult with Lady Acacia and Mercurio. With their help, I''m sure we can make the right decision." . . . Ultimately, we decided to remain neutral and avoid the conflict as much as possible. It was not an easy decision, but we felt it was best for our house and people. We knew our decision would have consequences and were prepared to face them. . . . When they returned the next day, Aleera sat at the head of the table alongside me, nked by our advisors. She listened carefully as the envoys from High Lord Larimar and High Lord Carnelian once more presented their cases. "We offer you our lord''s protection and support," the envoy from High Lord Larimar said. "In exchange, we ask for your support within the House of Lords." "And what of High Lord Carnelian?" Aleera asked. "He offers the same," the envoy from High Lord Carnelian replied. "But he promises greater rewards for your allegiance." He referred to the metal and gems we would have ess to should we support their side. Aleera looked to her advisors before speaking. "We appreciate your offers, but we cannot decide without considering all our options. We need time to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each proposal." "We understand your position, Lady Aleera," the envoy from High Lord Larimar said. "But time is of the essence. The contention between our lords will continue unabated, and we need your decision as soon as possible." "If you cannot give us the time to consider the nature of your parties carefully and we remain ignorant of your policies, we cannot offer our allegiance to either of your lords," she said. "But we can offer our neutrality and our desire for peace." The envoys were not pleased but epted Aleera''s decision and left the hall without incident. They had yet to leave the ind. Chapter 184: Dreaming of Dragons Chapter 184: Dreaming of Dragons ¡°If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons.¡± Ilona Andrews Now that the politics had been dealt with, I could focus on my most recent acquisition, the egg. I grinned with excitement as I slowly opened the box. The obsidian egg sat shimmering in the light of my mana motenterns. As I watched with my mana sense, the egg seemed to draw the mana slowly into its depths. The egg seemed immune to my sensory skills, and I could not see through it no matter what skill I attempted it with. This new world had been a constant source of awe and wonder at what it was possible to do with the system, the attributes and the skills. The Kingdoms and Races had each sparked another fresh burst of enthusiasm to devour more of what made this world so special. But this was something else. Who doesn¡¯t dream of dragons? Every fantasy fiction book I had read had a fascination with the species, from Tolkien to Hobbs, McCaffrey, Paolini, Novik, Martin etc. Every author added a different dimension to the imagining of dragons. Now I would have a chance to see one for real, and I could not wait for it to hatch. ording to Lady Acacia, the domesticated version of dragons was a shadow of the creatures of myths and legends. Still capable of breathing fire, they grew in stature to that of arge dog but norger and were incapable of speech or reasoning though much brighter than any other animal. Keeping her warnings to heart, I was not disappointed in the least. I would still have a dragon! Cuddled around the shell, I finally fell asleep. . . . That night as Iy dreaming, it felt like I had been transported back to when I was in the womb. The pressure surrounded me everywhere. Darkness even when my eyes were open. But there were two stark differences to my solitude. The edges of my world were solid. If I pushed or flexed my arms and legs, I could feel my back pressing against a hard curved surface that bowed my body in on itself. Second, there was no heartbeat to keep mepany other than my own. I was utterly alone. Caged by the wall encapsting me, I wanted to break free but somehow knew it was not yet time. But the time woulde, the time woulde. I returned to slumber, my body still growing as I consumed the nutrients trapped within my shell while my heartstone absorbed the world''s mana from without. . . . I was shocked awake by the alien thoughts of my dream. I sat up, quickly dispelling the darkness with my magic. I stared at the egg still wrapped in my arms. Had my dream been my own fanciful thoughts about what it might be to be an egg waiting to hatch, or had they been more urate than any waking effort I had made at using my psi before? I swiftly directed my thoughts inward and outward, searching for the mind I believed I had felt only moments before, but if the mind had been awake only moments before now, ity sleeping now. No conscious thoughts rose to the surface for me to peruse. Thinking about the thoughts I dreamt I¡¯d heard, I added a little mana to the shell, observing as it was wicked away within. It reminded me of how the shard of the Lodestone drew in mana from its surroundings. Although there was no outward physical growth, unlike the shard of the Lodestone, any growth would happen internally hidden within the shell. It took a while for me to calm down after the excitement, but eventually, I fell asleep again after wearing myself out running through my list of Spellcraft and Spellsong. It was like counting sheep but with runes. . . . The next day our regr routine was interrupted again by a written request from Lord Larimar for another meeting. We did not meet more than once a week, but he seemed unwilling to wait that long. Hence the written request for one earlier. Dear Lord and Lady Silversea, I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. I am writing on behalf of Lord Larimar, the esteemed High Lord of the Western Lands. My name is Sir Rnd Ravenswood, and I serve as Lord Larimar''s envoy and trusted representative in matters of diplomacy and negotiation. Lord Larimar has been closely following the recent developments in the House of Lords and has taken a particr interest in your esteemed family''s rising influence and potential. Word of your family''smitment to neutrality and your astute handling of the delicate politicalndscape has reached our ears, and we are intrigued by the possibilities it presents. As you know, the Western Lands have long been aligned with the Coastal Lords, but recent events and shifting dynamics have given rise to a need for reevaluation. Lord Larimar recognises the importance of maintaining a bnced and united front within the House of Lords. He believes that your family''s support, with its reputation for diplomacy and prudence, could significantly enhance the Western Lord''s faction. Such an alliance would be mutually beneficial and create a formidable force capable of influencing policies and safeguarding our collective interests. I cordially request a private meeting to discuss Lord Larimar''s request in more detail and the potential for coboration between our houses. This meeting would provide an opportunity to address any concerns, explore shared objectives, and outline the advantages of joining forces under amon banner. Please inform us of your avability, and I will make all necessary arrangements to ensure afortable and confidential environment for our discussion. Rest assured, discretion and confidentiality will be paramount throughout the process. We eagerly anticipate the possibility of meeting with you and the opportunity to explore the possibilities that lie ahead. Your family''s presence and support would be highly valued and could have asting impact on the future of your noble House. May the winds of diplomacy carry this letter to you swiftly, and may our paths converge harmoniously. Yours sincerely, Sir Rnd Ravenswood Envoy to High Lord Larimar The letter professed a profound desire for another meeting to sway our minds. We had not even finished reading the first letter before another arrived, this time from Lord Carnelian¡¯s envoy. An equally fanciful gold-lettered envelope which detailed much the same. A request to meet again to discuss any concerns we might have supporting his side of the House of Lords. Dear Lord and Lady Silversea, I hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. I am writing on behalf of Lord Carnelian, extending his warm regards and sincere appreciation for your future esteemed presence within the House of Lords. Lord Carnelian has been following your recent actions and decisions with great interest and is impressed by the wisdom and prudence you have disyed thus far. Let me express Lord Carnelian''s deep admiration for the Silversea family''s illustrious history and your esteemed position among the noble houses. He recognises the importance of your neutrality in these turbulent times and acknowledges the challenges you face in maintaining a delicate bnce amidst thepeting powers of the high lords. Lord Carnelian firmly believes that your noble house has the potential to y a pivotal role in shaping the future of our great kingdom. He values your insights, intellect, andmitment to our realm''s well-being. With this conviction, I, Sir Reynard ckthorn, as Lord Carnelian''s envoy, extend an invitation to you, requesting a personal audience at your earliest convenience. Speaking on behalf of Lord Carnelian, I would be honoured to engage in a candid and meaningful discussion with you, exploring areas of mutual interest and potential cooperation. Lord Carnelian is eager to listen to your perspectives, address any concerns you may have, and discuss the possibilities of forging a solid alliance that would benefit the Silversea family and, indeed the entire House of Lords. Please understand that Lord Carnelian''s intentions are sincere and genuine. He seeks not to impose his will upon you but rather to foster a rtionship based on trust, respect, and shared goals. He acknowledges the importance of maintaining your neutrality and assures you that any discussions will be held in the strictest confidence. Should you deem it appropriate, I kindly request you to consider a meeting at your earliest convenience. I am open to any location or format that you find suitable, be it a private audience, a formal gathering, or even an informal exchange of ideas over a leisurely meal. I eagerly await your response, and I remain at your disposal for any queries or rifications you may have. I look forward to the possibility of meeting you and embarking on a journey of cooperation and mutual benefit. With utmost respect, Sir Reynard ckthorn Envoy of High Lord Carnelian It was striking how simr the two letters looked. But they were both asking for the same thing, another chance to change our minds and gain our support when we finally arrived in the capital. We decided to ignore them for now though we were equally sure they would turn up to our petitioning in a week. Through tradition and thews of thend regarding etiquette, we could not bar them from that though the desire to do so was strong in this one. What we could do, though, as part of our attempt to avoid responding to them, was to run away from our problems and when on an ind, run away meant sail away. After my disastrousst outing onboard a ship with my father, we decided to avail ourselves of our Libian merchant and possible former pirate Captain Kashif¡¯s boat. This way, any other ship that might have followed him searching for the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would find more than they expected with us along. It wouldn¡¯t just be myself on board; Arawn and Namir would apany the trip. I pitied the fool who attempted to board this boat. Lady Acacia would be staying behind with my sister Lady Silversea; something about not sending all your eggs to sea in the same basket. She could not avoid responding but could dy any meetings until I returned. It was a flimsy excuse but an eptable one within a patriarchal society where rightly or wrongly, I, the oldest male heir to the Silversea name, had the ultimate authority to bind our house with my decisions. Our, or rather officially her, response was equally flowery. Dear Sir Reynard ckthorn, I appreciate your kind words and the extended invitation on Lord Carnelian''s behalf. Your admiration for our family''s history and position is genuinely humbling, and we value the potential for coboration. However, I regret to inform you that a meeting at this time is not feasible. My brother, Lord Silversea, is currently on a sailing expedition, attending to matters of utmost importance. His absence necessitates my presence here, managing our affairs and responsibilities in his stead. While we understand the significance of your proposal, we must prioritise our family''s welfare and obligations to the realm. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by our unavability. Rest assured that we value the spirit of cooperation and recognise the importance of fostering rtionships within the House of Lords. Should circumstances permit in the future, we would be open to revisiting the possibility of a meeting. Once again, I thank you for your understanding, and I extend my best wishes to Lord Carnelian. May our paths cross at a more opportune time. Yours faithfully, Lady Aleera Silversea That was not the only letter we got to write. We had to do it a second time for the envoy of Lord Larimar. Lady Acacia seemed to delight in correcting our efforts on each letter drumming in new lessons of penmanship and calligraphy with each effort she imed was uneptable. Unfortunately, she insisted I stay for the letter-writing part of our deception, citing that it was a good learning opportunity and valuable experience. She was not wrong, and I gained at least a level or two in my skills from the experience of it. Dear Sir Rnd Ravenswood, I am grateful for your correspondence on behalf of Lord Larimar and your expressed interest in establishing a dialogue between our families. Knowing our reputation and position have captured your attention is heartening. However, I regret to inform you that the possibility of a meeting at this time is not feasible. Lord Silversea, my esteemed brother and the head of our family, is currently absent on a sailing expedition. His participation and presence are vital in any discussions or negotiations involving the Silversea household. I understand the importance of fostering alliances and exploring potential coborations within the House of Lords. While we appreciate Lord Larimar''s intentions, it is imperative that we engage in such matters when all key members of our family are avable to contribute their perspectives and make informed decisions. Please ept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by our unavability. Rest assured that we value the spirit of camaraderie and the potential for fruitful alliances within the realm. Should circumstances permit in the future, we would be delighted to explore avenues of coboration with Lord Larimar and his esteemed faction. Once again, I express my gratitude for your understanding and extend my best regards to Lord Larimar. May our paths cross in more opportune circumstances, where fruitful discussions and agreements can be forged. With utmost respect, Lady Aleera Silversea Still, with my excuse written in ink, it was time to disappear, and we made like the wind vanishing out to sea. With just under a week out at sea, I hoped to find more wrecks to salvage or even bring up. After all, I was on a sailing expedition, and nothing could be of more importance than a treasure-hunting expedition! . . . As Lord Silversea sailed over the open Azimuth Ocean, the two envoys were again meeting in the Compass Edge Tavern andining over a ss of wine. ¡°They are infuriating.¡± Lord Larimar¡¯s envoy Sir Ravenswoodined to hispatriot. "I can''t believe they dare to refuse a meeting. We''ve travelled all this way, and she brushes us off!" ¡°I see you attempted to get a private meeting,¡± Lord Carnelian¡¯s envoy Sir ckthorn smirked. ¡°As if you didn¡¯t try yourself. Don¡¯t y coy with me!¡± Sir Ravenswood replied, unamused and unimpressed. "Indeed, it''s infuriating.¡± He soothed, admitting as much he had tried the same. ¡°We came here with a clear purpose, and now she''s dying us and denying us an audience. It would be far simpler if they choose a side. Then we could return to our lives and the centre of civilisation." "It''s clear she''s using her brother''s absence as an excuse. But I won''t be fooled." Sir Ravenswood drank heavily before pouring himself another ss. They were without servants in their private room, necessary for such conversations. ¡°I¡¯ve checked, and he did indeed set sail with on Libian ship, although I agree it is only the weakest of excuses.¡± Sir ckthorn added. ¡°It is obvious that they have set their minds on a position of neutrality as if that wouldst a second in the capital.¡± Sir Ravenswood shook his head in despair at the naivety of the young Lord and Lady. ¡°Reality does not change because it is ignored. They will learn sooner orter. But for us right now, if we wish to leave this ind, we muste to some form of ord over this.¡± Sir ckthorn offered an olive branch. ¡°What are you saying?¡± Sir Ravenswood queried. ¡°Let them have their neutrality for now.¡± Sir ckthorn shrugged, raising his hands to calm the man before he replied. ¡°Lord Larimar will hardly be pleased with such an answer, and I highly doubt Lord Carnelian would be either.¡± He moderated his response, thinking through the consequences. ¡°It would all be a matter of perspective as long as we both return extolling our ability to prevent the Silverseas from choosing to support their opposing lords directly. Settling for neutrality will be seen as a win.¡± He exined the practical political answer to failing to shift a position. ¡°It would be a hard sell.¡± Sir Ravenswood pointed out. ¡°Harder for me than for you, seeing as Lord Larimar already counts them as part of our political camp through the ind nature of their noble house.¡± ¡°Well, there is no reason the Silverseas should not pay for the privilege of their neutrality.¡± He shrugged again, smiling. . . . Chapter 185: Bringing Riches to the surface Chapter 185: Bringing Riches to the surface ¡°Men really need sea monsters in their personal oceans. An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like apletely dreamless sleep.¡± John Steinbeck Apanied by Arawn, Namir, and Captain Kashif, I embarked on a thrilling treasure-hunting adventure at sea. Our ship sailed across the vast expanse of the Azimuth Ocean, guided by ancient maps and legends that hinted at the location of a long-lost treasure. As the wind filled our sails and the waves crashed against the hull, we eagerly anticipated the excitement ahead. With my sharp wit and strategic mind, I led the expedition with determination and a thirst for discovery. The experienced and cunning aged assassin Arawn provided valuable knowledge in deciphering hidden clues and navigating treacherous waters. Namir, the skilled beastkin warrior, brought his formidable strength and agility, ready to face any dangers that awaited them. And Captain Kashif, with his extensive knowledge of the seas and fearless spirit, steered the ship with expertise, guiding them closer to their destination. Days turned into weeks as they ventured deeper into uncharted territories, encountering thrilling encounters with mythical creatures and oveing treacherous obstacles. Each group member showcased their unique skills and expertise, working together seamlessly. Their perseverance paid off when they finally reached the fabled ind, rumoured to house the long-lost treasure. With excitement coursing through our veins, we disembarked onto the unknown shores, stepping foot in a world untouched by time. Armed with maps,passes, and our unwavering determination, we embarked on an arduous journey through dense jungles, traversing treacherous cliffs and decoding ancient puzzles left behind by long-forgotten civilisations. As we delved deeper into the ind''s heart, we encountered traps, riddles, and guardian creatures that tested our mettle. But with ourbined skills and unwavering resolve, we overcame each obstacle, inching closer to our ultimate goal. Finally, after a perilous and exhrating journey, we stood before the hidden treasure chamber. A moment of awe washed over us as we beheld the glittering riches and artefacts of a bygone era. Our efforts and teamwork brought them to this moment of triumph. We looked down and saw . . . ¡°See anything yet?¡± My borate exposition shattered as my grandfather interrupted my daydreaming. ¡°No, not yet,¡± I answered, exasperated. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you when I do!¡± I answered for the hundredth time. Grandfather was bored sailing with Captain Kashif. He¡¯d never been a massive fan of sailing. So he sat by me rather than rock the boat. He was watching me while I watched the bottom of the ship. Or at least that was what it looked like to anyone passing by. We stayed inside the cabin where it was not quite as obvious precisely what I was doing, but that meant it was twice as dull for my grandfather. I was using my sensory skills to search the seabed for another wreck. s, I had not found another one so far. We got lucky with ourst one. However, I was trying not to think about how that ended. ¡°So . . .¡± he started again after another couple of minutes waiting, ¡°Fancy catching some fish?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± I replied. I knew he would not stop, and I had just realised I was an idiot. What was the point in gaining a tier 5 skill if I never fully used it? ¡°Just give me a second to set up my skill.¡± I stepped into my mind fortress, blinking into themand deck where all my skills were set up to monitor the outside world. ¡°Callen, you¡¯re up,¡± I said, spinning my skills. Another me popped into existence to man the helm. ¡°Hmm, Caelus, you¡¯re up too,¡± I said, bringing up my third personae. There were many skills to look at; hopefully, I wouldn¡¯t miss anything with two sets of eyes looking. Sense Mana, Echolocation, and Sonar allowed me to see the seafloor. Finally, achieving Sonar over thest year meant the sea floor no longer fell out of sight. Mind sense helped me understand any anomalies in my view, helping me efficiently recognise the creatures as alive and separate from the sea floor. Inspect, Observe, and Analysebined; let me give them names and levels. At the same time, Danger Sense pinged whenever they were a threat. The system was ubiquitous even in the depths of the Azimuth Ocean. Time sense Sailing and measurement allowed me to judge our speed and map the distances urately. Draw along with sketching, drafting, and Cartography allowed me to recreate a mental map of the seafloor urately. But the skill that was getting the most incredible workout was Treasure Sense. I had gotten good at spotting pearls in the reefs and sea silk. They were both treasures worth collecting while they were concentrated in a reef. However, we were looking for something other than those right now. We were looking for wrecks and a more significant haul. Happy my inner selves were set up and running, I could devote my time to my father. ¡°Right, I¡¯m ready.¡± I sighed to my grandfather as we headed up to the helm. Captain Kashif weed us onto the deck. ¡°My Lord, any luck?¡± Namir lounged against the railings, looking for any threats I had missed, while Father held the helm. My sensory skills allowed the impossible, but they had far higher attributes for perception, and the curvature of the horizon was the only limit to their sight on the open water other than the weather, or so he told me. Note to self how far was the horizon? Could I work out howrge the world was by working that out? Another puzzle for another day. Or another question to ask Lady Acacia. What wasmon knowledge in thepass kingdoms was an odd mix of both the medieval and the magical. That continued to trip me up, what wasmon knowledge and what was not. ¡°No luck yet,¡± I answered evasively. We had refused to fill in Captain Kashif precisely how we nned to find sunken wrecks on the sea bed. Our initial sess in rediscovering the one we had already seen at least proved to him that this was not apletely pointless venture. Even if it had been entirely terrifying. . . . A day earlier. The Alzena flew across the waves, the wind-filled sails pulling us swiftly towards our goal. We had renamed our ver¡¯s galley the Libian name meaning ¡®longing for freedom¡¯. We recognised where it hade from while hopefully giving hope to any future enved people it encountered. We did not yet have a fully functional crew of our own, so after borrowing Captain Kashif and half his crew from the Safina, we were shaking down a new Silversea crew formed from some of the formerly enved whom we hoped would be, in time, our naval force. We were not yet willing or ready to send them further afield, so they would be circling Wester Ponente, Wester Levante and Little Wester for now. Officially, this was a trial run of that. A prefabricated excuse to dy meeting with the envoys again. But it was also, more importantly, a Treasure hunt. Though the captain was still doubtful, it was possible. ¡°You expect me to believe you can find a sunken ship you¡¯ve never seen on the open ocean.¡± Captain Kashif hadughed at my statement once we had finally set sail on what we had described as a tour of our holdings. ¡°I can, and I have.¡± I insisted, looking up at the pirate captain. ¡°It¡¯s true.¡± My father backed me up. ¡°Already found one.¡± He said as he set the course for the approximate location. ¡°You found a sunken ship in the middle of the Azimuth Ocean?¡± he questioned dubiously. ¡°Just over halfway to Wester Levante.¡± Father nodded, trying to get his bearings as urately as possible and not prove us liars. ¡°How under the light did you manage that?¡± he asked, puzzled. ¡°Loose lips sink ships,¡± I prattled on. But unwilling to divulge my trade secrets. ¡°That doesn¡¯t . . . never mind. But, well, lead on.¡± He gestured at the endless expanse of the sea. . . . Father and I had been there before. But I needed to find it again. It was essential if we hoped to prove a method to my madness: treasure hunting on the open ocean. It might have looked like I was scanning the horizon for signs of submerged riches, but I was watching the seafloor, my stats and skills trained on the depths below our hull. It wasn¡¯t long before my keen mental eyes spotted the decaying remains of the shipwreck we had found once before. ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± I shouted, grinning and signalling to the disbelieving Captain Kashif that we were finally above the sunken shipwreck. ¡°You¡¯re sure.¡± He asked, looking around for anything that might have shown a sunken wreck sitting on the seafloor but finding nothing. Shrugging, Captain Kashif called out instructions to the crew, and in no time at all, the sails were furled and the anchor cast. Then, it was time to begin the salvage operation. Excitement coursed through my veins; we had only attempted to salvage the captain¡¯s chestst time. With a whole crew onboard this time, we would try to loot the hold. First, though, we had to deal with the lurking dangers of the deep. But my skills had improved since thest time, and it was no longer only the two of us. We had a fullplement for the refitted Alzena, not counting Arawn and Namir. We would not be running this time. I could still sense the giant cephalopod lurking in the shipwreck''s hull, quickly measuring 9 ¨C 10 metres. Not only that, but I could hear its hunger as it waited for morsels tempted to test entering the hull looking for food. It was a colossal squid with a mana core and mind of its own, even if the thinking felt cold and mmy, silent in its thoughts except for an oppressive hunger. It also had a level, and at Level 63, we would be baiting it up to the surface to deal with it rather than attempting to face it in its den! ¡°The ship is right below us.¡± I pointed toward the wreck hidden below the water, adding, ¡°But it¡¯s not alone.¡± Lurking within the shadows of the sunken shipwreck, it would have been death to any sailors brave enough to tempt the tentacles coiled in anticipation of unsuspecting prey. But I could see it even as it became aware of our alien presence on the water¡¯s surface. It was time to n. ¡°There¡¯s a sea monster hiding within,¡± I exined to Father, Arawn, Namir and Captain Kashif. ¡°And you expect us to swim down into its open arms?¡± Captain Kashif sarcastically pointed out the futility of that idea. ¡°No, it wille to us.¡± I expanded on my n. ¡°For one reason or another, I¡¯m tantalisingly tasty to sea creatures of the deeps. We can fish it up to the surface with a line and hook using me as bait.¡± I continued bravely. I had seen it work too many times to discount the effect, even if I did not truly understand the reasoning why. No one seemed particrly excited about my idea besides the gleeful violent octogenarians, who thought it was ¡®only par for the course¡¯ and were looking forward to homemade sushi. Quietly the crew and I made their preparations. . . . Heart pounding, I held onto the line as I was slowly lowered down the ship''s side. Boy, I may be, but my Iron Man skill meant I could stay underwater on a single breath for a ridiculously long time now. With a mix of trepidation and anticipation, I entered the water taking ast breath as my head disappeared into the watery depths; my mind watched with intensity the thoughts of the monster hidden below. Would it wake? Would it follow the bait? How long would I have to wait on tenterhooks? I sunk lower and lower, the weights pulling me deeper into the depths and closer to the monster. The shadowy ship slowly loomed into sight. Having dropped deep enough to be enticing yet shallow enough to be quickly hauled to the surface, I allowed my mana to leave my body. The mana core my body had been forced to form when I was bound unconscious in captivity meant that I no longer constantly leaked mana. The vast surplus of mana my trait afforded me was held in my mana core now that it was physical existence rather than a metaphysical one. This would do wonders for my spell casting, but it also meant I was no longer instant shark bait for any sea monster lurking below whenever I dipped a toe in the water. Now I had a choice. It was time to wake the monster. I released my mana, and the effect was instantaneous. I sensed, silent and stealthy within the hull, its tentacles lined with suction cups unfurling as it felt my arrival in its murky domain. I watched as, with sinister grace, it undted through the hull, working its way toward me, keen to trap something that smelt so tasty. With a sh of insight into how appetising I was to entice it out of slumber and its den, I realised I needed to do something aboutpressing or minimising my presence if I ever wanted to swim in the sea again. Suddenly it shot out from below itsir after the sulent morsel that had dared to unt itself above itsir, a sunken ship it had guarded for ages. Its appetite perpetually fulfilled by all the unsuspecting tourists of its home, it was keen to sate it once more. Terrified, I yanked hard on the guide rope, frantically ringing the bell above as I watched my death hurtle its way up towards me. Had this been a bad idea? As the massive cephalopod emerged from the watery shadows into physical sight, I would have found its body awe-inspiring in its size had I not been frozen in fear that they would be too slow to pull me out of reach of its tentacles that, like serpents hungry for prey thrashed up through the water to reach for me. But with a jerk that unfroze me, I shot upwards through the water, out of the jaws of death to the life of light above. I had been attached to the rope at my waist and chest; my foot standing in a loop attached to weights had helped me sink straight and pulled me straight up without breaking anything. And not a moment too soon. The creature rose out of the depths, chasing me up, even out of the water, as I was hauled to the top yardarm of the Alzena. Refusing to give up its prey, its tentacles writhed after me like the mythical Kraken in a deadly whirlpool of death before reality struck. The ancient guardian of the deep, revealed in all its glory, was caught by gravity. Now out of its element, it descended tond half in and half out of the water draped over the deck before it realised its predicament, so focused had it been on ensnaring my mortal morsel. As the shock of its sudden appearance and size ended, the crew rallied to battle the sea beast that dared to swallow their lord whole. Its thrashing limbs made the deck into a sudden dance for survival as they unloaded the weapons upon it. Harpoons, spears, and even swords were thrown and struck as it reached for those who had dared disturb its slumber and tease it with a worm on the end of a hook. Namir and Arawn danced with death. Each took turns lopping another limb off with their weapons as they stepped above and under the failing tentacles that scored the deck with hooks and ripped open flesh whenever it passed by too close. Dodging the deadly blows, they continued striking back with calcted precision as if working calmly in a butcher''s shop, not standing on the heaving deck of a ship threatening to capsize under the enormous weight of this giant beast. The colossal squid¡¯s strength and dexterity were formidable, but it was out of its element, and a hundred cuts it had suffered were draining its vitality as its lifeblood stained the decks blue. I watched, amazed, as the enigmatic creature realised its possible demise and attempted to withdraw its bulk over the ship''s side. But found itself stuck fast. Not every spear and harpoon had pierced, but those that had were tied tight to the other side of the ship; they now pulled tight as they prevented the sea monster from retreating into the depths to lick its wounds. Each slice of metal against flesh was another tick of the clock as its life wound down. The struggle was fierce and intense as it refused to pass silently into the night¡ªa test of wills between the mortals of our newly freed crew and a monster of the deep. The Alzena¡¯s deck became a battleground for freedom and the promised treasure of a future or future of promised treasure. Captain Kashif could be seenughing as he hauled a line tight before moving on to the next one and tying it tighter. Arawn was no longer lopping tentacles but intercepting blows that would have rendered flesh from the bone of the still-fighting crew. ¡°The war is all but won; however, the battle is not yet over. Care to take the killing blow, my lord?¡± asked Namir after leaping up high to join me on the yardarm overlooking the battle on the blue blood-stained deck below. He stood there with me, pointing out how with every blow still falling, the crew learned the patterns and limitations of their adversary, exploiting its weaknesses. Finally, after a long and gruelling battle, I had only observed from high the giant cephalopod was ready to sumb to a final blow. ¡°Ready tond thest blow, my Lord?¡± he asked oddly formally as he handed me a heavy harpoon, over twice my height and weight, while we watched the dying monster from above. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered nervously as I took the weapon. Holding the harpoon, pointing straight down, I stepped off the yardarm into the air. Its point below my feet, I aimed at the giant cephalopod''s eye. I plummeted through the air, heart pounding, as the wind whipped by me. This was not practice any longer. It was real. I clutched tightly to the pole, grip unyielding as I drove it ever downward faster and faster with my falling weight. The battle seemed frozen momentarily as the massive cephalopod¡¯s eye fixated on my falling figure. Its iridescent surface shimmered, iris contracting as I fell point first towards it. I was still on target. A malevolent intelligence swirled within it as it watched its prey turn predator, and its demise fall from the sunlit sky toward it. A final tug and flinch were not movement enough to prevent the weapon from burying itself into it. The sharp tip pierced the creature¡¯s mesmerising eye, the weapon¡¯s weight carrying it ever downwards and plunging through into the brain below. I air-stepped onto its head to avoid following my weapon into the eye as it gave a final thrash of agony. Its remaining tentacles iled wildly for a second before the body realised my decisive strike was its mortal end, and the creature from the depths finally sumbed to its wounds. Stunned silence filled the deck as we all witnessed its end. Then suddenly, recognising reality, the bruised and battered crew cried out as they emerged victorious from the encounter. The once menacing cephalopod¡¯s corpsey bloodied and broken across the blood-drenched deck. An inarticte triumphant roar greeted me as the crew celebrated our victory, grateful to be alive after it emerged from the depths chasing me before it merged into something recognisable. ¡°Silversea!¡± ¡°Silversea!¡± ¡°Silversea!¡± the crew chanted. ¡°Remind me never to go fishing with you again!¡± Captain Kashifughed in delight as they looked over the awe-inspiring mountain of monster flesh they had defeated using me as bait. The adrenaline rush left me. I still stood but felt legless and jittery as it left my system. It had gone as well as it could have, but it had still been incredibly close. ¡°All right, that¡¯s enough. Time to get to work, youzy lot. Stop lollygagging! We¡¯ve got a cephalopod to dress and a ship to salvage.¡± The captain returned to kicking his crew into action. Namir joined me as I moved away from the giant sea monster. ¡°Check your gains.¡± He suggested as we stood in the shadow of the poop deck. I giggled before physically stopping myself before it became hysterical at the thought of the deck''s name as we moved out of the crew''s way. I would have to learn to be more stoic in my victories. ¡°It¡¯s all right, Kai. We¡¯ve got you.¡± Arawn said calmly as he touched my shoulder, grounding me into my body. ¡°Take a moment to collect yourself.¡± I retreated into the depths of my mind to contemte my life choices and see what they had gained me. Chapter 19.1: Fishing for Experience Chapter 19.1: Fishing for Experience ¡°Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.¡± Henry David Thoreau I knew what I was after, and it was not just fish; it was more experience and another skill. The ants had stopped providing experience to level up and had never offered much in the first ce, so I was after something else to catch and shamefully kill. It sounded a little psychopathic if I did not at least acknowledge to myself the primary motivation for my actions. I was doing it for the experience. The ants had been an eptable case of pest control in the house. I could also sweep my victims under the rug without my family noticing or at leastmenting on their little one¡¯s rming habit of squishing them. It was not hard to imagine what their response might be if I started killingrger prey for no reason, and I doubted it would be favourable. It would have been harder to hide the corpses, as I was still mostly restricted to the house. I neededrger prey but also eptable prey to catch and kill for the experience it would give me. My mother ran a tight ship, the ants a temporary and only exception to the rule. There were hardly any mice or rats to kill, and I had neither the speed to catch them nor the skill to craft such traps. I would have to look outside the house for a worthy opponent. One that would not run away but was also small enough for me to tackle. One that would be eptable to kill and that I would have a reason to do so. Possibly for eating? The solution I thought would be a bucket, string and food scraps. It was time to go fishing! The problem, as always, was escaping the house. My prison guard, Aleera, was still on duty to keep me corralled, but hopefully, she could be persuaded or ultimately told to take me outside if I yed my cards right. It was time to deploy my natural baby charm and that persuasive reincarnated spirit. . . . Mother¡¯s POV As an infant, Kai was above and beyond any she had seen before, not that she had much practical experience. She knew that everyone believed their child to be unique, butpared to his cousins, Kai truly was. He disyed an innate and constant curiosity and fascination with the world around him. Of course, all newborns did, but the speed at which he seemed to pick things up was almost rming. Still, it filled her with pride. She knew it was unhealthy topare the two siblings, but it was difficult not to some days. She just had to ensure she was enthusiastic in her praise for how much Aleera helped out. Certainly, Aleera was quick and talented at picking things up, but it sometimes felt like Kai was not learning but simply remembering how to do things. He picked them up that quickly. Only his size and developing body limited his actions as he toddled around. Of course, it made some aspects of raising him a lot easier. Every mother has a special bond with their child, but he could make both her and Kaius understand through gestures and expressions whether he was hungry, thirsty, tired or needed to make a bowel movement. It was not difficult to understand him, even without words. So he was rarely upset through circumstance or the inability tomunicate his desires. In fact, the only time he truly became unruly was when his desires were denied, but that was the case for all children, surely. He just seemed so expressively and loudly cross. Kai was particrly enamoured with the enticing waters of thegoon. Whether it was watching his father leave every morning, standing there by the door, or the water itself now that he had managed to get his feet beneath him, he was drawn to it, much to his father¡¯s delight and my despair. Despite his tender age and my reluctance, his natural charm offensive of waving to his father every morning slowly drew us closer and closer to thegoon¡¯s edge. It started simply enough with a wave of goodbye in the morning that tugged on my heartstrings and made my stoic husband act the fool in returning it. It always made my morning, but somehow unknowingly, Kai managed to drag Aleera and me further and further from the doorway, following his father, until we found ourselves eventually standing on the water¡¯s edge, watching him sail off each morning. Even at such a young age, his enthusiasm for exploring the world was evident in every halting step he took. Tugged by our heartstrings, it was almost impossible to deny him. Finally, by the end of the week, we stood at the water¡¯s edge, and I watched with wonder as his eyes twinkled with excitement. Kai cooed and gurgled as he reached out toward the water. Words wereing closer and closer every day. His tiny hands sshed yfully as if beckoning his parents to grant his wish. His father didn¡¯t help. ¡°Kai is drawn to the water like iron to the Lodestone, a little fisherman.¡± Kaius smiled at his son¡¯s enthusiasm as he threw his bag on board the boat. ¡°Following in his father¡¯s footsteps,¡± he added proudly. ¡°Indeed, he seems worryingly captivated, much like his father.¡± She smiled sardonically. Her star wouldn¡¯t have to deal with temper tantrums once he had sailed away, and she attempted to take Kai back inside. ¡°I find you no less captivating, my love.¡± He leaned in for a farewell kiss attempting to defuse the situation. ¡°There¡¯s no harm in it. Thegoon is safe enough.¡± He quipped as he stepped aboard. ¡°But he¡¯s so young, Kaius. He can barely walk, let alone swim properly?¡± she pointed out to Kaius, fleeing his familial duties even if he was sailing out to catch their supper and earn a living. ¡°Let him explore the shore, I¡¯ll teach him how to swim sooner orter, and he has his sister to look out for him.¡± He shrugged, untying his fishing boat. He felt they had already had this conversation and that the decision had been made. ¡°I can¡¯t help but think thatter would be better.¡± She fretted, knowing the decision would be left up to her. She would also have to deal with the consequences of the decision. ¡°With Aleera keeping a watchful eye, he¡¯ll be fine.¡± He confidently nodded at Aleera as the boat drifted off from the pier. ¡°And I will keep an eye out on them from out there. If I see anything to worry about, I wille sailing back.¡± He reassured. Aleera, understanding her role as the protective older sister, nodded confidently. ¡°I¡¯ll be there every step of the way, Mother, Father. I¡¯ll ensure Kai stays safe as he dips his toes into thegoon.¡± She said proudly. She contemted their son¡¯s eagerness and smiled warmly as she watched him wave goodbye to his father, not yet moving away but now adrift. It often felt like Kai seemed to be watching their conversation with an understanding far beyond his years. But right now, he seemed focused on waving his father goodbye. ¡°Very well, but remember, Aleera, your brother¡¯s safety is your priority. You must keep a close watch.¡± It was what everyone wanted and would keep him out from underfoot so that she could get on with her orders. She had fallen behind recently due to the pregnancy and birth, and they had kept piling up, but it would be hard to have him out of sight. Perhaps she could work outside somehow. Raising the sail, Kaius added, even though he knew his little infant couldn¡¯t understand, ¡°Kai, my little fisherman, listen to your sister and stay within her sight. We trust you both to take care of each other.¡± The pair nodded, one in understanding, the other mimicking his sibling but seemingly grinning in satisfaction. . . . Kai¡¯s POV He was out of the house atst. With my parents¡¯ cautious but loving approval, I was almost ready to embark on my next n to gain experience, fishing. First, though, I needed to find a spot. So, under Aleera¡¯s watchful gaze, I walked along the shore edge, asionally stumbling in the shallows, searching for somewhere deep enough to work but not too deep that my sister instantly hauled me back. Credit where credit is due; buoyed by our parents¡¯ trust, Aleera was impable at preventing me from falling in and drowning and as much as it irked me to keep getting pulled back or lifted, I couldn¡¯t help but love her for it. It¡¯s said that siblings form unbreakable bonds throughout their childhood, and even though my situation was beyond bizarre, I couldn¡¯t help but feel one forming with my older sister. Finally, I found a deeper section along a ledge I could lie on, and even better, it had the dark shadows of fish swimming under it. Now all I needed was a line and bait. A line would be easy enough, seeing as my family appeared to spin them, and bait could be weaselled quickly enough off my father. . . . A dayter, I was ready to throw the towel in. That had been aplete disaster. I had neither the strength, dexterity or range of movement to achieve anything much to the amusement of my sister, who watched all my attempts. I think she initially thought I was only attempting to feed the fish. It wasn¡¯t until my rising frustration became evident that she realised I was trying to catch them. ording to her and my mother, it was only too cute when they regaled my father with the tale on his return to hisughter and my embarrassment. That they found my pouting and angry faces equally amusing only made it worse somehow. I could not even sulk in peace as my every action was watched less. I attempt to toddle off or otherwise injure myself. Refusing to quit my perfect n for progression, it was time to try again with something easier to catch. . . . Once again, we had paddled around thegoon¡¯s edge, looking for another perfect spot. My continued interest and intent on catching something . . . anything was once more passed onto my parents via Aleera. While my mother was still relieved, I was not throwing myself into the water after them. My father was happy to provide us with somes. ¡°The first step to bing a fisherman.¡± He was ted at the idea that I might follow in his footsteps. . . . A dayter, I stood by thegoon; eyes narrowed with intent, I looked into the water and then back at Aleera, my big sister. She smiled in amusement at my determination, her voice soft but protective. ¡°Careful, Kai. Stay close to me. We need to stay safe.¡± It could have been considered condescending, but I took it in the spirit that it was meant and epted it as just anothernguage lesson. More words to learn rather than being talked down to. After all, I was only a baby. So I nodded, excited and pointed my pudgy finger to shapes scuttling under the water. I was finally going to catch something. Yes, they were only crabs, but they were bigger than ants. So, exp, here wee! She chuckled, her voice filled with love and caution. ¡°Yes, Kai. We can catch crabs together, but remember. We must be careful. The water is deep.¡± It was hardly past her ankles but nearly up to my knees. I grinned, my small hand reaching for a. I was tempted to shout, ¡°Crabs, crabs!¡± but I didn¡¯t want those to be my first words. Best to save those for Dada and Mama or maybe Lera. That would make a good nickname for my sister. Although the ¡®l¡¯ sound was proving tricky in my private practice. D and M were much more manageable. So, perhaps I should shorten Aleera even further to simply ¡®Era¡¯. We sshed in the water,ughter bubbling from our lips. Aleera gently guided me, her words filled with encouragement. ¡°Slow, Kai. Quiet. Nets low. Surprise the crabs.¡± She even helped me hold and steady the Father had given us. Would I even get the experience if she was there to hold my hand throughout? I pulled my hand away, insisting on doing it myself. ¡°Steady,¡± she chided, but she didn¡¯t stop me. Instead, she was watching as I attempted to do it for myself. I struck, pulling the up with the crab inside it. I even managed to catch a little minnow with my strike, and she helped me deposit the two of them in the wooden pail we had brought. Ding! Fishing (LV 1) Sess! A new skill. Surely that meant that I had to have achieved somebat experience too. I rushed into my mind to check my progress. Bingo, I¡¯d gained 10 points for the minnow. The crab was still kicking around in the bucket, attempting to crawl out of it, but after flopping around for a while, the minnow had breathed itsst. Level: 9 Name: Kai Experience: 39,010/ 102,400 Age: 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hr 10 min Health: 1020/1020 Stamina: 433/433 Mana: 340/340 Trait: Long-lived Vitality: 102 Endurance: 17 Strength: 17 Dexterity: 17 Senses: 42 Mind: 97 rity: 29 Magic: 34 Free Points: 10 Skills: Time sense (LV 15) Listening (LV 14) Meditation (LV 14) Sense Mana (LV 14) Swimming (LV 14) Eavesdrop (LV 14) Memorisation (LV 14) Echolocation (LV 14) Recall (Lv14) Composition (Lv 14) Mind fortress (Lv 14) Expel Mana (Lv 14) Absorb Mana (Lv 14) Mana Drain (Lv 6) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Humming (Lv 14) Sneak (Lv 10) Whistling (Lv 14) Singing (Lv 14) and Drumming (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 14), Violin (Lv 14), Trombone (Lv 14), Saxophone (Lv 14) Running (Lv 1) Fishing (LV1) Skill experience: 14,300 Origin experience: 10,000 Combat experience: 0 + 10 Crafting experience: 90 . . . Together, we stood in the shallows, my baby noises mixing with Aleera¡¯s guidance. Weughed, our voices a symphony of sibling joy. I was delighted by the sess of my experiment. Aleera, happy to hear meughing, just joined in with my infectious sound. . . . Chapter 186: Reflection Chapter 186: Reflection "In the sacred solitude of self-reflection, the Lodestar illuminates our path to wisdom. It guides us to embrace the power of progression and embark upon a transformative journey where we awaken our souls and unlock the hidden potentials within." On Reflection 2nd bearing Verse 1 The Light of the Lodestar A rush of emotions ran through me. Relief, knowing that we had survived the encounter unscathed. I couldn''t help but feel a surge of triumph, a sense of pride in our ability to ovee such a fearsome opponent. Yet, amidst the relief and triumph, the immense size and power of the creature we had faced left me in awe and a little fear. It served as a reminder of the vastness of the ocean and our own insignificancepared to the level of sea monsters it hid. . . . I retreated into the quiet space of my mind to consider my progress. . . . Level: 45 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 11 Metier: Sailor Lv 10 -> Lv11 Metier: Merchant Lv 5 -> Lv6 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Silversea Age: 6 years (Old World 8yrs) 4 months General Experience: 123,000 /3,276,800 Health: 1587/1570 Stamina: 1576/1576 Mana: 1570/1570 Psi: 1570/1570 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 156 -> 157 Endurance: 156 -> 158 Strength: 156 -> 157 Dexterity: 156 -> 158 Senses: 156 -> 158 Mind: 156 -> 157 rity: 156 -> 158 Magic: 156 -> 157 Charisma: 156 -> 157 Luck: 157 -> 158 Free Points: 30 Skills Tier 1: Dance (LV100) Singing (LV79-> 80) Sailing (LV79-> 83) Trading (LV75-> 77) Meditation (LV75) Time Sense (LV79-> 80)Sneak (LV55->57)Acting (LV 55->56) Drumming (LV55)Whistling (LV50) Farming (LV50) Bnce (LV54 -> 55) Knots (LV50-> 52) Draw (LV50-> 52) Listening (LV50) Stitching (LV50) Humming (LV50) Insight (LV45-> 47) Glide (LV45)Poise (LV41->43) Grace (LV41->43) Charm (LV40->42) Composure (LV40->41) Ambidextrous (LV25 ->29) Silent Step (LV25 ->29) Inspect (LV25 -> 29) Lie (LV25->26)Deft touch (LV20 ->24) Posture (LV20->22) Riding (LV20) Cook (LV20) Sketching (LV20->21) Drafting (LV20->21)Etiquette (LV20) Appeal (LV20) Sight (LV20) Scent (LV20) Detect (LV20) Taste (LV20) Measurement (LV 10 ->15) cksmithing (LV10) Carpentry (LV10) Mining (LV10) Teaching (LV10) Fishing (LV43 ->53) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV63 -> 65)Quick reflexes (LV63 -> 65)Eavesdrop (LV63) Spellcraft (LV54 -> 55) Spellsong (LV50 ->53) Order (LV40 ->44) Linguistics (LV40) Memorisation (LV40) Recall (LV40) Composition (LV40) Pain Tolerance (LV35 ->36) Stealth (LV34 -> 36) Mind Sense (LV25->29)Knife Arts (LV22 -> 25)Misdirection (LV22 -> 23) Haggling (LV20 ->22)Observe (LV20 ->25)Martial Arts (LV20 -> 22) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (LV16 -> 18) Dart (LV 18) Heal (LV13)Poison Tolerance (LV10) Treasure Sense (LV5 ->10)Intimidation (LV6 -> 9) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV62 ->63) Mana Maniption (LV62) Gale (LV63) Echolocation(LV62-> 63) Absorb Mana (LV40) Boil (LV50) Ignite (LV40) Melt (LV40) Command (LV40) Deception (LV23 -> 24)Bargain (LV20 ->21) Freeze (LV20) Racing (LV14 -> 15)Analyse (LV12 -> 13) sh Step (Lv13) Seismic Sense (LV11) Danger Sense (Lv4 -> 7) Smuggling (LV5) Telepathy (Lv1 ->2) Tier 4: Block Status (LVMAX) Iron Man (LV64 -> 65) Parallel Processing (LV37) Material Maniption (LV31) Stone shaping (LV30) Mana Drain (LV 30) Flight (LV17) Sonar (Lv1 ->9) Seafaring (LV6 -> 7) Air stepping (Lv1 ->2) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV21) Multiple minds (LV3) Omniglot (LV25) Weapon Prodigy (Lv21->22) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv10) Enigma (Lv1) I smiled at my progress. My other multiple minds joined me in the room with my status. I stood there silently, taking it in momentarily, while Callen chipped in, ¡°Made the most in Fishing since west checked.¡± ¡°It jumped ten levels with the death of the Cephalopod.¡± The son of a sailor added. ¡°Followed closely by Sonar with eight levels.¡± Grinned Caelus. ¡°Treasure sense did well with five levels.¡± He continued happily, my merchant self always keen to make money. All in all, I had been pretty busy. Contemting my gains helped to distract me from the method I gained them. I felt my body calm. ¡°Now that we have our heads on straight, we could gain a few more levels.¡± Callen pointed out. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, there were a few injuries . . .¡± Caelus chipped in. . . . A few hourster, the cephalopod corpse had been harvested, and the bloody remains washed off the deck. I had failed to gain any skinning or harvesting skills as I had been otherwise engaged. I was the only healer on board, which meant I was in high demand. We had survived the attack with very few injuries considering the monster we had faced, but plenty of people had been injured in the process, if only lightly. Stats would do a lot to keep the infection out, but healing was always preferable. I was limited in my skill, but myrge well of mana, along with the fact that I had hardly used any of it, meant that I had been able to work my way through the crew healing the more serious injuries and leaving only the light, shallow or superficial ones for their own bodies to deal with. Looking at my status, I see those real-world injuries, rather than practice ones, were significantly better at levelling up the skill. Ding! Heal (LV 13 ->17) I was distracted from my navel-gazing by Captain Kashif heading to where I had taken my moment''s respite. ¡°Where too next, Lord Silversea?¡± the man had always been polite, but there was now a level of respect to his words that had not been there before. Battling a giant cephalopod could do that to a man. ¡°On to Wester Levante. We can stop to pick up the mail.¡± I did not borate further, but seeing how our investments pan out would be good. ¡°Any chance of any more treasure on the way?¡± He asked, clearly interested in what I had managed to achieve. While many of the crew had worked on harvesting the Cephalopod, the remaining who were not injured had hauled up the goods left behind on the sunken wreck below. Outside of the Captain¡¯s chest that we had already looted, we had been able to haul up amphorae, some damaged but some still with their seals unbroken and still full of olive oil. We had also salvaged pottery, vases, tes and bowls. Along with some farming tools and weapons, all of which would be extremely useful as our poption grew in bursts and starts to provide them with tools of the trade and weapons to defend themselves with. ¡°We will have to see.¡± I hedged. This was the only wreck we had seen so far, but if we circled the inds, keeping my senses open, who knew what else we might find? . . . With the dys caused by battling the behemoth and hauling up the hoard it had been guarding, we did not make it to Wester Levante till after nightfall. With the harbour closed, we weighed anchor off the ind''s coast, intending tond with first light. We could have managed with my senses, but there was no reason to risk the ship or startle the inders awake. Or so I thought when I fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the waves that night. . . . ¡°Time to wake up.¡± The whispered words made no sense I was roused in the early morning hours when it was still dark. It could not be far past midnight, and a quick look at my internal clock confirmed it. Why was I being woken? ¡°What?¡± I hissed, grumpy and a little bit out of sorts from my rude awakening. I could be a morning person or a night owl. What I did not handle well were changes to my routine. I did not think I would be getting back to sleep after my sudden awakening tonight. ¡°Time for some infiltration training.¡± Namir grinned at me in the dark, his cat-like eyes catching the light. ¡°We¡¯ll give you a minute to get yourself dressed and up top.¡± He disappeared from sight but not from my senses as I made him making his way to the top deck to meet . . . my grandfather, Arawn. Sometimes the two of them took far too much pleasure in their on-the-spur training moments. They were all memorable, and I would have liked to have forgotten a few of them. Hopefully, this one would be more positive than negative. I rushed through dressing and armed myself before cat padding as silently as possible to join the pair above. ¡°Took you long enough.¡± Arawn gave a not-so-silent dig at my tardiness. ¡°I didn¡¯t know we were meeting,¡± I replied. ¡°Why are we meeting?¡± I asked now that we were all gathered, clearly ready for something. ¡°Scouting,¡± Namir answered abruptly. ¡°But we will be there tomorrow,¡± I whined, still slightly disgruntled by my early morning wake-up call. ¡°Besides, it isn¡¯t like we¡¯ve never been there before or don¡¯t know what to expect.¡± ¡°A scout is never surprised because he scouts out the dangers in advance.¡± Namir lectured. ¡°Caution is always warranted when arriving somewhere new.¡± Arawn agreed. ¡°Fine,¡± I sighed. It looked like we were going for a midnight run. ¡°Ready?¡± Namir asked. ¡°Ready,¡± I replied reluctantly. This was never as easy as they made it look on the open sea instead of thegoon. Also, as evidenced today, the monsters below our feet were muchrger out here than thegoon we had grown up next to. I did not want to swim in the dark out here even if I could now keep control of my mana and keep it within my body. ¡°Follow me.¡± Namir motioned before sprinting off the side of the ship. For a beastkin that disliked water, he sure spent a lot of time running over the top of it. I made sure to follow him at full sprint. But I was not going to attempt to copy them tonight. The challenge with the sea was the waves attempting to trip me up as I crested them. I couldn¡¯t count the number of times they had tripped me up, attempting to practice this at home with them. So I cheated, and before I hit the water, I used my mana to fly close behind him as he sprinted along the top of the waves. Arawn followed close behind me, and I was sure he was probably smirking at my method. If there was anything Namir might be envious of, it was my ability not even to put a single foot on the water. Grinning, I overtook him and then circled back behind him again. Frustrated, He shook his head and said, ¡°Take this seriously.¡± I fell into formation, with him ahead and Arawn behind. It took only a few moments before we arrived on Wester Levante. We had arrived further south of the town and would go over the southern wall rather than in through the dock, which was always better guarded. It was a good game flying low to the ground and avoiding pasting myself on anything as I followed in Namir¡¯s footsteps as he transitioned off the water onto the sand, then rock, then soil. As he smoothly made his way up the small cliffs to approach the town from slightly further ind. It wasn¡¯t long before we were sweeping our way over the wall, and for a second, I worried that we might trigger an rm. Still, our arrival went unnoticed as we reached Namir¡¯s favourite perch in town, the Church of the Lodestar¡¯s tall tower, where we could overlook the whole town. ¡°Which one is the mayor¡¯s home?¡± He asked. I easily pointed it out from my father¡¯s descriptions and the fact that I could see our homing pigeons nesting in a coop on the roof. Hidden from view from the street, it was immediately obvious from our current vantage point looking down on the town. ¡°That one.¡± I pointed it out. ¡°Well, let¡¯s go say hello.¡± Hemented. ¡°I thought we were scouting out the town,¡± I asked, confused. ¡°What better method than to ask a native.¡± He grinned. ¡°It¡¯s a little early. I doubt he will be happy to be woken up,¡± I replied, remembering my brutally early wake up less than an hour earlier. ¡°You are his Lord.¡± He answered unwaveringly. ¡°Yes and no,¡± I answered. Through Mercurio and our efforts, the Silversea family now owned all thend outside of the port town on Wester Levante and a fair amount of the free space within it as well. If the mayor ever wished to change anything without knocking anything down, he had to ask us for permission. Politically, even though we owned thend, our Lordship¡¯s estate was currently limited to Wester Ponente, even if practically we did. It would require more paperwork in the capital for our holdings to be requalified as our estate, to include Wester Ponente, Wester Levante and Little Wester. Until then, technically, he was not our mayor but Wester Levante¡¯s. ¡°Either way, he received a bird detailing we would arrive today. It would be remiss of us not to make him aware of our arrival at the most immediate possibility.¡± Arawn seemed to enjoy the idea of waking him up as much as Namir enjoyed waking me up. ¡°See you at the coop,¡± he said before dropping over the side of the building silently. It was with those words that an informal race began to get there. You would have thought that flying a straight line from point A to point B would have allowed me to win. But being able to constantly push off the ground before leaping to the top of the house meant that they could constantly elerate with the strength of their stats. In contrast, I was restricted to how quickly I could fall and then slowed by transitioning that force into forward momentum. They won. Despite losing, I was smiling when I joined them again. ¡°I¡¯ve missed this,¡± I murmured in response to their questioning gazes. ¡°What sneaking through the dark?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°We could always do this more often. ¡°No, being on my own or at least limiting my chaperones to you two. The ship can feel a little crowded, what with everyone watching me all the time.¡± I exined how much pressure I felt under to live up to some unknown Lordly level. The only example we had on how to behave was Lady Acacia, and I sometimes suspected she was asking for far too much from us. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it for tonight, and enjoy the break.¡± Arawn shrugged his shoulders, pulling out a lockpick set. He considered it for a second, then handed it to me. ¡°Like we practised.¡± He added. We often practised with various puzzles and locks to work on building up the dexterity stat. I never actually unlocked the skill for it, though. Perhaps tonight it would be different. With my height, I didn¡¯t have to kneel down to look through the lock. It was already at eye height. I fed the turning tool in, then the pick. Pre-tumbler locks were a lot easier, provided they weren¡¯t magical. A few momentster, I was rewarded with a click as I unlocked the door and the skill. Ding! Lockpicking (Lv1) ¡°Yes,¡± I whispered with exuberant joy meant it was obvious to mypanions that I had unlocked more than just the door. ¡°You got one?¡± Namir asked. ¡°Lockpicking,¡± I smiled. ¡°But it wasn¡¯t harder than many of the locks you have had me work on, so it doesn¡¯t really make sense,¡± I added, a little confused. ¡°Training will only take you so far. It takes a real moment of skullduggery to gain the experience and the official skill, even if you were capable of it long before.¡± Arawn exined, putting his hands out for his tools to be returned. ¡°Right, right,¡± I said, realising that despite the practice we had gone through other than the church heist, I hadn¡¯t ever actually stolen anything and certainly not used any of my skills to do so. Quietly we tiptoed down into the Mayor''s house. We needed no light to show us the way; our senses and skills were more than capable enough for the task. We found the man sleeping alone. Namir wasn¡¯t above some petty theatrics and had me seated in an alcove with amp illuminating me and Arawn standing behind me before he dragged the man awake with a hand over his mouth to prevent his screaming. I watched his fear turn to confusion, thenprehension feeling somewhat viinous in my men''s methods. Still, we were making a point that we were not to be trifled with, talked around or betrayed. Each tutor had a different lesson to teach me, and some were darker than others. ¡°My Lord.¡± The man finally stammered out once Namir¡¯s hand was removed. ¡°You received our bird. You were expecting us today,¡± I replied, leaning into the role my tutors had already formed for me. ¡°Of course, of course.¡± He hastened to agree, attempting to sit up a little straighter as if that would somehow help his bargaining position. ¡°But with the sundown, I was not expecting you tillnd until at least sunrise.¡± ¡°We came a few hours early.¡± I smiled. ¡°Do you like the surprise?¡± I asked, already knowing the answer. ¡°Um . . . well,¡± He struggled to find a politically eptable way of addressing his lord. I¡¯m hardly at my best for so many new faces at such an unexpected hour.¡± He cautiously responded. ¡°To what do I owe the pleasure?¡± he asked. ¡°The Silverseas haven¡¯t heard from you for a while now and thought it might be best to have a private conversation before the young lord formally arrived tomorrow.¡± Arawn continued. ¡°We were less than pleased to be surprised by the arrival of an envoy from each faction. We can only assume they bypassed here altogether.¡± He finished leadingly and looming over the poor man still in his nightshirt, having failed to have left his bed. ¡°Ah yes, that¡¯s right.¡± he dyed awkwardly. ¡°Are there any other possible reasons for taking so long to reply to our visit that we failed to receive a reply before we left?¡± Arawn continued the mildly rming interrogation. He seemed to steel himself before he started, ¡°We¡¯ve had a new investor in the town who is putting me in a difficult spot.¡± ¡°A new investor hardly seems to be a problem,¡± I answered, confused. ¡°A noble investor, Baron Corus, has bought up any empty plots within the town and is making offers on the rest.¡± The man anxiously continued. ¡°Then we should have been informed,¡± I responded a little crossly. This was supposed to be the little kingdom we were building. ¡°He was most persuasive in preventing me from informing any of others.¡± ¡°Were you threatened or bought?¡± Arawn asked tiredly. ¡°Abination of both, he has bought out our debts and made crystal clear the consequences of failing toply. I am under contract and could not send anything to Wester Ponente until the new year.¡± He looked relieved to have finally gotten that off his chest. ¡°Why would Baron Corus suddenly be so interested in Wester Levante?¡± I asked him. ¡°You can ask him yourself tomorrow. He¡¯s here.¡± The man replied. Chapter 187: Conflict Resolution Chapter 187: Conflict Resolution ¡°Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.¡± Ronald Reagan After our midnight conversation with the Mayor, we knew what to expect when we officially arrived today. We swiftly returned under cover of darkness to contemte the information we had discovered. My guards dashed over the water while I glided on above them. This time with the water to slow them down a little, I won the race back to the boat. While they could and did push off the water to run, they could not do it as fast as they could on thend. The night¡¯s revtions summarised that Baron Corus had begun to expand his territory west much as we had attempted to expand ours east. However, he was being much more heavy-handed in his approach. He had sailed west expecting Wester Levante to be ripe for the plucking. He had been unpleasantly surprised to find that despite our rtively recent ennoblement, we had sufficient funds to purchase significant plots ofnd, the rest of the ind. We had not attempted to buy the town, sticking to the far cheapernd surrounding it, before trying to buy up any spare plots within it. We wondered whether he had noticed our efforts even further afield. Cornered by the Baron through the purchase of his debt, the Mayor had found himself in an untenable position and was forced into capitting. We were unsure what exactly to do, but hopefully, some solution would provide itself when we met the man. I was not keen to meet him without a n, but at least we wouldn¡¯t be caught unaware by him, and hopefully, we had some leverage he was unaware of. On the one hand, we really could not afford to be in physical conflict with our closest noble neighbour, but at the same time, we couldn¡¯t allow this to stand. We had ns for the Wester Isles, and we could not allow him to impede them or us. The question was how we could resolve this conflict of interests without it developing into a physical altercation. It was tempting to ask Namir or Arawn to deal with him directly, to make the problem disappear. However, that was a slippery slope to start sliding down so soon in our lordship, with no guarantee of sess. We did not yet know how strong a baron we were dealing with or how strong his retainers were. Mine were ridiculously strong, but maybe they were not alone in their strength. Each house had its secret methods of levelling its scions passed down through the generations, and while we knew I was elerating above and beyond them, I was still at the beginning of my journey. At the end of the day, I was only a child. We also feared he had the backing of one of the factions with the synchronicity of their arrival and his sudden interest in our local real estate. We would need to take it up with the envoys when we returned to Wester Ponente, as unfun as that may be. We had attempted to be as obtuse as possible, but with them possibly infringing on our autonomy, we might need to be a little blunter in our negotiations. . . . The following day, we sailed into port with the first light to find the town slowly waking. A few brave souls in their boats set forth in the early morning to get a full day of fishing in and making the most of the day on the open ocean before the sunset again. We slipped slowly up to thergest dock avable, our movement deceptively quiet and quickly tied up once we were alongside. As a first test run of our new ship and possible crew, it had been a resounding sess so far. Hopefully, this sess would continue on drynd with or without our crew. They could not help us here other than with the sheer intimidation of their presence. There was anotherrge vessel tied up. The distinctive crest of a ship sailing into the setting sun told us it belonged to Baron Corus. At least our liberated Libian vessel was significantlyrger than the Baron¡¯s vessel, which was in our favour. ¡°Wee back, Lord Silversea.¡± A man bowed ingratiatingly as we stepped onto the dock. ¡°I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ve officially met before. My name is Canus .¡± The port tax man was unbelievingly the first to greet us as we arrived on Wester Levante at the crack of dawn. ¡°Good morning, Canus,¡± I said, looking down from my grandfather¡¯s shoulders. It was hard enough to gain respect due to my age, doubly so when I was always looking up to everyone I spoke to. The solution was acquered and gilded pnquin on Arawn¡¯s shoulders. It was a little ostentatious, but it worked and was particrly effective for first impressions and working on the other inds. A little hard to look down on a little lord when you were looking up at them. Grandfather seemed to enjoy the consternation of everyone having to look up at me. With his stats, I doubted he even noticed my weight on his shoulders, and he seemed to take perverse delight in standing so that my conversational opponents found themselves looking up into the sun as well. On our ind of Wester Ponente, it felt a little over the top as I had known everyone since I opened my eyes, and everyone had known me since I started crawling out the front door. Still, it came out for special asions like public performances or the Silversea games. Any other attempt to try to get Arawn to carry me anywhere swiftly resulted in him walking through doorways too low for me to duck or every other branch in town. ¡°Will m¡¯lord bending any goods today?¡± He squinted up toward me. ¡°I cannot help but sense a veritable windfall within.¡± The man looked eager to step on the Alzeena and start calcting due taxes. ¡°No, Canus,¡± I replied, much to the man¡¯s disappointment. ¡°Our goods will be offloaded on Wester Ponente. We are only here to meet the Mayor and catch up on our correspondence.¡± I gestured at the homing pigeons we had brought to carry the mail back towards us once we had left. ¡°Ah,¡± He sighed sadly, visibly restraining himself from boarding our boat now that his excuse had been removed. ¡°In that case, there is a message I¡¯ve been asked to pass along.¡± He said, flourishing a finely embossed envelope. ¡°From a Baron Corus, who is currently inspecting his outlying holdings. I believe he is currently staying at the Old End Tavern. If you want to respond in person, I could deliver a message for you.¡± He offered unctuously. The End of the World, Tavern had been reced by our Compass Edge Inn hence the new name of Old End, much to the disgruntlement of the family that had formerly owned it. However, considering our distance from the Compass Kingdom civilisations, it was still a fine establishment. I looked at the envelope Arawn had intercepted when tax man Canus attempted to hand it to me. He seemed to scan the envelope before a dagger appeared to slice it open, and then he passed up the missive inside for me to read. Lord Silversea, I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to you as Baron Corus of the Azimuth Archipgo, seeking an opportunity to discuss an urgent matter that requires your attention. It hase to my attention that there are certain disputes regarding the ownership and acquisition ofnds near and on Wester Levante. As a man of influence and power, it is imperative for us to meet and address these matters directly. I propose a meeting between us at your earliest convenience to engage in a constructive dialogue and find a mutually beneficial resolution. It is in both our interests to prevent unnecessary conflict and ensure the prosperity of our respective interests in the region. Furthermore, I wish to wee the Silversea name to the halls of nobility and trust that you, being a person of discernment, will see the value in resolving this matter diplomatically rather than resorting to unnecessary confrontations. Please respond to this message at your earliest convenience, indicating your avability and preferred location for the meeting. I look forward to a productive discussion that will contribute to the well-being of our shared interests. Yours sincerely, Baron Corus While the wording seemed flowery enough to read between the lines, it was clear that if the property¡¯s resolution was not handled diplomatically and immediately, it could end in a conflict between our two houses. It shouldn¡¯t have been a surprise that people could and would fight overnd, but it was still a shock to my modern sensibilities. Still, I did not dwell on it too long; Canus was still waiting. ¡°We can see him at his earliest convenience.¡± I responded with the Royal¡¯ we¡¯. Possibly a little nosistic, but seeing as we were making power ys with our words perfectly eptable. ¡°We are off to see the Mayor first and deliver our birds,¡± I added, letting him know where we would be once he had delivered our verbal response. The man scarpered quickly, nearly running in his rush to deliver our message though I doubted the Lord would be up at this ungodly hour. ¡°Come on,¡± Arawn muttered as he lurched into motion, my pnquin rocking back as he started to stride off toward the town centre. A few of the sailors on board the other Lord¡¯s boat stirred to see us walking past, but we did not catch up with tax man Canus who seemed to have disappeared out of sight as soon as I took my eyes off him. We had only just reached the Mayor¡¯s house and were putting down the birds when Canus came running back. Out of breath, despite the short distance he had run. ¡°Baron Corus would happily host you immediately and invites you to join him in breaking his fast.¡± He hastened to tell us as soon as he controlled his breathing. I smiled at Namir, who was walking alongside us. Gathering intelst night had been well worth the interrupted sleep seeing as he was this insistent on meeting us as soon as we set foot off the Alzena. ¡°With such a swift and speedy response, it would be rude of us not to ept such an invite,¡± I replied officially. We had left one ind to avoid the envoys only to find ourselves entrapped into meeting another noble the next ind over. Dancing with the devil, I hoped we had ounted for all the details. We had an invite to breakfast. The hungry crew did not take long to head off for the tavern, eager to sample something other than rations, even though we had only been at sea for the day and barely touched them yet. As the Baron¡¯s guests, etiquette demanded that he pay for our food. I was tempted to call for the entire crew to disembark and enjoy arge meal but unsure of what pressure he would bring to bear I did not wish to antagonise him any more than our house¡¯s existence already had. Arriving at the tavern, at least Arawn remembered not to knock me off on the doorframe, and together with Namir, he led us into the building, clearing the door and each step of the way with prejudice. As far as our senses showed it was safe and secure but we it was also worth the caution when dealing with new nobility. It had been drilled into Aleera and I often enough that the fall of our matriarchal house had been humanity and its noble houses rather than the other noble or base races. . . . My first impression of Baron Corus was that he was a man of imposing stature and a stern countenance, though my stature meant that everyone I met was imposing. I regretted not meeting the man outside and retaining my height advantage. However, it only took a second for Arawn to lift me up again, my pnquin earning, in my opinion, the weight of its gilding at this moment. I did not care if it made me look childish. It meant that I was no longer looking up at the man. It did not look like he had awaited my arrival at the Old End Tavern in Wester Levante for long. His hair was still damp as if freshly washed, but his attire was impable. As I entered the establishment and was lifted up once more, I locked eyes with Baron Corus as he stepped forward to greet me before pausing as he took in my stature. ¡°Lord Silversea?¡± He questioned, almost unsure whether or not to continue to address me. He turned to one of his apanying men, whispering, ¡°I¡¯d heard it was a new house with a young scion, but this is surely ridiculous. Can we trust Canus in this?¡± Thement was not made for our ears, but my high levelled skills, decent stats and ridiculous traits that multiplied them made his whispering pointless. We heard every word. However, we did notment on them and with the unctuous man following close on our heels. Baron Corus soon saw him apanying us and continued, seemingly undaunted, with what was clearly a prepared wee. The man had a good poker face. ¡°Wee to the Old End Tavern. I trust you had a pleasant journey. I must admit I had not been expecting the fortune to meet you so soon.¡± He said as he looked up toward me. First impressions mattered, and attempting to create one of a young prodigious noble with an air of confidence, I responded with a nod. ¡°Thank you, Baron Corus. The journey was uneventful, and I appreciate your early morning hospitality.¡± There was no need to mention the monster or the treasure. If he ever discovered them, they would hopefully only build my legend higher for me that I would consider them merely uneventful moments on our short journey from Wester Ponente to Wester Levante. For a child, my eloquent words seemed to shock him further, if only for a moment more. Perhaps he had been expecting a response from my guardians rather than me. Recovered, Baron Corus motioned towards a table in a quieter corner of the tavern and signalled for Lord Silversea to join him. ¡°Please, have a seat. Allow me to offer you a drink.¡± He seemed to pause, considering what he had just offered. No doubt alcohol was often a social lubricant or tactical poison in politics, but I was so young it could be considered coercion or assault. Thepass kingdoms were advanced enough in Ponente to realise that children should not be drinking. I watched him reevaluate his political manoeuvring as my age continued to trip him up. Smiling, I gave the man an out, ¡°I appreciate the gesture, Baron Corus. Water will suffice for now.¡± And the next dozen years if I understood the local customs well enough. An odd mix of physical abuse and sensible parenting that was aimed at improving your stats, skills and future chances of staying alive. As we settled at the table, a wide selection of repasts was served to break our fast at both of our settings. Namir and Arawn elected to stand to either side of my seat, mirroring the two men standing behind his. I elected to stand on mine to raise my eyes to the Baron¡¯s level as he sat. It would have been nice to continue using the pnquin, but that would have only worked if it was deposited on the table. ¡°Try the bluefin tuna if you would like to be kind to your taste buds, but if you would to level your poison tolerance, I would rmend a bite or two of the blue-spotted puffer fish to apany it. It has a certain kick to it.¡± He suggested and challenged in the same sentence. If there was one benefit to having been brought by a fisherman, it was knowing fish. As suggested, I knew their tastes, textures, and the dangers of eating them raw. The blue spotted puffer fish was much like the Japanese Fugu in that respect. It had to be prepared properly formoners or those with low stats to attempt to eat the dish without potentially deadly consequences. However, ording to Lady Acacia, it had to be equally carefully prepared forpletely the opposite reason for the nobility. They wanted the poison included in the bite sizes and carefully moderated to only provide a single dose of poison to the children of the elite. It was a training tool and not an offence he was offering me. At the same time, it was a test of my skills and stats. A gastronome could sense the type and increasing levels of poison from slice to slice. I was no gourmet, but my sensory skills andmon sense helped steer me to the pieces with the least venom. Unwilling to give him even an inch in the game of upmanship. He politely gave me the first choice and then watched closely as I chose my pieces before choosing his own. Ding! Poison Tolerance (Lv11) As he slowly masticated his significantly stronger poisoned pieces, I could not help but wonder how strong his level of Poison Tolerance must be. The was no reason to wonder forever. I looked closer. Observing, inspecting and analysing to judge his true abilities, much as he was probably sizing me up in return. Though with a high-level block and enigma skill, I doubted that he was getting much more than he could tell from simply looking at me. On the other hand, I learned a snapshot of who I was dealing with. Level: 81 Title: Baron Metier: Merchant Lord Lv 12 Name: Roderick Corus Quirks: Healthy, Strong, Enduring, Appealing, I did not learn as much as I would have hoped or have been able to learn about someone with a lower level than me, but at nearly double my own level, I was happy to see as much as I had been able to. Judging by his quirks, it looked like he had managed some partial cascades before turning ten, but it was neither a full physical nor mental cascade. And a quick check of my status showed me from one of my other minds told me that . . . Inspect LV30! Observe LV 26! Analyse LV14! Despite the pleasant setting and congenial conversation, we were clearly ying for higher stakes if my skill levelling urately represented the battle of wills currently quietly ying out in front of our four witnesses. Enigma LV2! If this is what a single meal with a political opponent could do for your skills, it might be worth conflicting with the envoys a little more often in person. I wondered whether Aleera had made simr gains in her skills after all the interactions she had to have had with them by now. I also wondered what he had been able to glean from me when up against a skill gained against literal gods. I watched his eyes re as the skill levelled and could only hope, not a lot. . . . Hopefully, having made a good first impression, or at least not given him any more ammunition, the conversation turned to the pressing matter at hand. ¡°Lord Silversea, I have called this meeting to discuss the ongoingnd disputes surrounding Wester Levante. It is no secret that you and I have differing interests in this matter. Ah, we had arrived at the meat of the matter after eating only the starter and a short sizing up of one another. Whatever he had learned was not enough to deter him from his course. There was no need to draw this out any longer than necessary. I was bargaining from a position of hidden strength. He knew nothing of me or mine. But the longer our conversation continued, the more likely it might reveal some aspect of my naivety of how this world worked. After all, I had only been in it for a couple of years and hardly at the centre. ¡°Indeed, Baron Corus. I am aware of our conflicting interests. I believe finding a peaceful resolution that benefits all involved is in our best interest.¡± I replied equally verbosely. If there was one aspect of etiquette I found hardest to learn; it was probably this. But we had had enough lectures from Lady Acacia that it was still second nature to sleep into the vernacr. ¡°I am pleased to hear that, Lord Silversea.¡± Though his words said one thing, his face was saying another. Either he was unhappy about my knowledge or the calm and collected manner in which I was facing this, ¡°However, I must be honest and say that I have already acquired a significant portion of the town and aim to expand my holdings further.¡± Heid down the first metaphysical gauntlet. I attempted to maintain a calm demeanour; getting visibly cross would get me nowhere. ¡°Baron Corus, while I understand your ambitions, I must also emphasise the importance of our own. This ind is a natural part of our part of the Azimuth Archipgo. Your ind is far further into the centre of the archipgo whenpared to our far-flung inds. We hardly warrant such foreign investment into what is purely a local matter. I am ready to clear the debts you seem to have bought up in your attempts to im the local property.¡± I outlined our financial strengths and informed him that we were perfectly aware of what he was attempting to do. Baron Corus leaned back in his chair, studying me intently as if he was attempting to divine precisely how deep our foundations were as a family if we could afford to buy out his vested financial interests in the plots ofnd he had purchased the debts for. . . . . Aleera and Merchant Mercurio had made great strides in purchasing the remaining plots ofnd on all the local inds. But she had neglected any loans that families had taken out privately to expand or develop their properties or businesses. Baron Corus hade prepared despite how much the extent of our holdings may have caught him on the back foot. But Baron Corus was not finished by a long shot. Chapter 188: Concluding Negotiations Chapter 188: Concluding Negotiations ¡°The quality of our lives depends not on whether or not we have conflicts, but on how we respond to them.¡± Thomas Crum Baron Corus¡¯s POV An infant! The new Lord Silversea was still a child! I had known it was a new house with a child as its scion, but somehow, I had expected his minders to be in charge of the conversation and his decisions. However, after he was ced in his seat, they watched silently without intervention as he navigated his own course for house Silversea. Worse, he was haggling like a merchant and was clearly capable of charting his way through the battle of words that was politics. He was unafraid of the poisonous appetiser and had the ability and audacity to inspect me and my status. I was not immune to or unaware of his gaze. But my return inspection availed me of nothing, not even his name. Whatever artefact he used was sublime in protecting his personal status. Once more, it gave me pause. In fact, everything about the child in front of me gave me pause. What were they feeding this monster? He was confident to the point of appearing a childish fool or an arrogant idiot, but nothing he said so far led me to believe him to be one. He had been scarily informed of my movements on the ind, considering his boat had docked only earlier this morning, and I had only just started making them. Furthermore, he had neatly deflected my interests in expansion with his own. Worse, he was not wrong about them. I would not even be visiting this far out without the suggestion and pressure the leader of the Western Lords had applied. I would be stretching my finances thinner to do more than block the expansion of the Silverseas and for little to no benefit to my own house other than to curb a new peer¡¯s growth. If the Western Lords had offered to pay for my unnecessary expansion west, I would not have minded, but they, the skinflints, had not. Wester Levante had little to rmend beyond its proximity to the rising house, the Silverseas. Never one to give up easily after sighing internally, I started, ¡°You make a valid point, Lord Silversea. I respect your stance and appreciate your willingness to engage in this dialogue.¡± It was true that I was perhaps overreaching. ¡°Precisely, Baron Corus. I propose exploring possibilities for cooperation andpromise, considering the well-being of all parties involved.¡± The questionable child replied. Whoever had prepped this individual had done a masterful job. I doubted I could have been eloquent or calm if another house had encroached on mynds. ¡°What did you have in mind?¡± I asked, intrigued. The boy believed he had something to offer when I had him over a barrel, legally speaking. ¡°An exchange.¡± He stated, simply failing to borate any further. ¡°Of what?¡± There was nothing, in particr, a new house could have or own that I would be interested in, especially this far out from thepass kingdoms. Anything he had managed to acquire would have visited my ind first unless it was self-produced, and what quantity or quality of the product could his new family possibly offer? ¡°Ofnd.¡± The child smiled like a cat that had got the cream. ¡°Land?¡± I questioned what he could offer me when I was the one that had managed to leverage the debt of others into the possession of the local deeds to a part of the town. It had not been a particrly pretty solution, but it had been highly effective, and it had taken Dexter, my right-hand man, only a short while to effect it. My presence had been unnecessary, only taking my name toplete it with his looming presence pushing it forward. ¡°Yes, you appear to have taken an interest in the real estate market here on Wester Levante. I wondered if I could interest you in something closer to home.¡± He continued. ¡°I beg your pardon?¡± I affected offence rather than the worry that his words implied. What had the spawn of the lodestone managed to acquire that was closer to my home? ¡°I believe House Silversea owns some property on Caurus Ind we nned to use to open a tannery.¡± ¡°Tannery? Where?¡± My worry coalesced into anxiety, reducing my sentences to single words. Those necessary but despicable ces stunk to high heaven. We did not need one on Caurus. There were not the skins nor the hunting industry to support it. I guess he was making a point. ¡°I believe it is upriver of your residence.¡± The demonic child grinned once more. It was galling to realise that, unnoticed, the Silverseas had already bought leverage over me. ¡°That would not be a wise fiscal decision. Caurus has little need for a tannery and too few animals and hunting to support one.¡± I politely pointed out. ¡°Currently, yes, but if we were to introduce cattle to the ind, we should be able to supply ourselves.¡± He shrugged, affecting indifference and posturing that I had failed to convince him. If I were not careful, I would find myself living downwind of a tannery in the middle of a farm. I had not intended to do anything in particr with thend I had forcefully purchased on Wester Levante, and there was no way to leverage it as a direct threat to House Silversea. I was in a weak position and did not appreciate the fact that I had been pushed into it or fallen for such a simple ploy employed by a mere child. But clearly, one with a terrifying tutor. . . . Arawn¡¯s POV Never had a noble interaction been so entertaining. Knowledge was power, and the interloping Baron had been struck down out of the blue by the knowledge we had acquired before the meeting. It was not long before all thend that had been forceable purchased by Baron Corus had been transferred to the Silversea house on the condition that anynds held by the Silverseas on Caurus Ind were handed over in return. They shook on the agreement, and that was that. I had just watched my grandchild in everything, but Blood beat a Lord of Ponente at his own game. All I had to do was loom threateningly in the background, preventing his supporters from thinking they could overturn the board now that he had lost. The boys were promising physical fighters, but they did not have anything on Namir and me, and they knew it. They could only glower in silence as they watched their Baron lose more than a little pride andnd. I couldn¡¯t have been prouder. It was almost a shame that Lady Acacia had not been here to witness it. . . . Namir¡¯s POV To be honest, the entire dialogue was a little pointless and boring. The Baron should have realised instantly that he was outfoxed and capitted immediately. Instead, we had to suffer through an interminable conversation that seemed to go on without end. After dancing around the subjects and agreements long enough, the food grew cold and had to be reced. Still, at least the Baron had offered the child a few levels worth of Poison Resistance at a minimum with his aperitifs. Unfortunately, the nature of politics and the rtionship between their positions meant he was not offered the challenging food. It would have been the only pleasant diversion from this morning¡¯s banality. Back in Ostro, he would have been free to remove the problem permanently. It was a little more problematic here in Ponente and would have involved him taking out the entire crew and any who had interacted with them here on Wester Levante. It would not have been practical. Finally, the Baron and his prot¨¦g¨¦ shook on it, and the deal was concluded. He might not be a true prot¨¦g¨¦ in the fact that the boy had a dozen different tutors, but he was the one who showed the most progress and promise in over a decade. Acacia had honoured her promise to find him one. He could enjoy the boy¡¯s pride in his moment for him alone, if not himself. . . . Kai¡¯s POV After going back and forth on the matter for far longer than necessary, considering that the man felt obligated to reim ownership over his localnd rather than allow us to pollute his evenings with the smell of progress and industry. We finally shook hands, agreeing to return the respectivends on one another¡¯s inds. It was a win for me twice over. I protected our interests in Wester Levante and gained some skills in the progress. Ding! Contract (Lv1) I grinned again. It had been a very productive meeting one way or another. Checking my status, I could see that I had also managed to gain several levels in trading on top of the earlier poison resistance, inspection and blocking skills. Ding! Trading (Lv 77 ->79) Was working with the nobility worth more thanmon merchants? If we had been on friendlier terms, it would have been worth staying longer to find out. But with him feeling possibly slighted by our interactions, it was not worth finding out. It was time to get going before I was caught out somehow. . . . Baron Corus POV I watched the infuriating monster dressed in a child¡¯s skin depart the tavern as he was carried once more on the shoulders of his guardian. The pnquin worked for his small stature in a way that it would not have worked for mine. ¡°Not a word,¡± Imanded, thankful for the private room I had requested for our morning breakfast and conversation. ¡°In fact, I think I could do with a drink.¡± Hopefully, I would not cross paths with the child anytime soon if each crossing would prove as costly as the first. I would report back to the House of Lords that the Silversea encroachment into the Azimuth Archipgo had stopped at Wester Levante and been rebuffed from Caurus. That, at least, was honest. Still, there was no need to go into detail about our actual meeting, and I would need Dexter to look carefully through thend register of each and every ind between here and the capital if they were progressing as quickly as they seemed. The house seemed remarkably financially robust for such a short ascendance. I would leave that pleasant surprise for others toe a cropper upon at their own cost, much like I had. In fact, the knowledge might win me enough bets to recoup my losses for today. I mulled it over as I attempted to drown my sorrows. Asmanded, my own guardians let me do so in silence. Perhaps also speechless over what had urred that morning. Chapter 189: Back to the Hunt Chapter 189: Back to the Hunt "Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.¡± Pirates of the Caribbean I was riding high, literally and metaphorically, as we moved back to the Alzena on Arawn¡¯s shoulders. Having already spoken to the mayor and delivered our homing pigeons, we did not need to talk at length, merely reassure him that it had been taken care of, which it had, we hoped. Our arrangement worked for now; hopefully, he wouldn¡¯t try anything else anytime soon. ¡°Time to get this show on the road.¡± I grinned down at Captain Kashif, who stood at the ship¡¯s railing. He had been absent for our face-off with our neighbouring Lord from the Ponentian Archipgo. There was no need to bring nationalistic tensions into what could have already been an explosive meeting. ¡°Ready to move on, Lord?¡± He asked politely as we started up the nk to board the Alzena. The Captain, ever the pragmatist, followed the money, and if I could replicate our treasure hunt once more, it would be more than worth it. ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s head south to Little Wester before heading on home.¡± I answered as we drew alongside. After our brush with Baron Corus, I felt more confident dealing with the two envoys at home. ¡°I had a few ideas about that.¡± Captain Kashif fell into step with us as we crossed the deck. ¡°I¡¯d like to outline them inside with the map.¡± He opened the door for us to the former captain¡¯s cabin, now mine. Laid out on the ship¡¯s table were a collection of maps from our own to copies of Mercurio¡¯s and copies of his. Each a work of art; they had different nuances and strengths. Ours was smaller in terms of the geographical area it covered and with a fair few acknowledged gaps, but also far more detailed in the areas that we had sailed. For example, my map was able to detail the depths of the Azimuth Ocean, forming a little topographic trail of our trips so far. Mercurio¡¯s maps went into much more detail about each ind of the Azimuth Archipgo between us and the Ponentian capital, with notes about safe sailing routes, tides, times, ports and coves. However, it was far vaguer outside of the corridors he would travel. Captain Kashif¡¯s maps put Mercurio¡¯s and mine to shame, seeing as how he had travelled to the southern tip of Ostro, all along the coast of Libio and out west to us. He pointed out the sailing routes on Mercurio¡¯s maps. ¡°If we are going to look for sunken treasure. We will likely find them around the inds or along these sailing routes.¡± He traced the mostmon safe sailing routes between the inds. ¡°I propose an outward expanding spiral search around each ind and then a search pattern along and parallel to the main trading routes.¡± He demonstrated his route by circling Wester Levante once or twice before heading off to Little Wester, where he repeated the circles before returning home to Wester Ponente, where he repeated the circles, gradually widening the area covered by the Alzena as he filled in the areas on the map I had yet to cover. ¡°If all is well, you could continue this as you start to sail into the Azimuth Archipgo, but it will have to be without me as I have a profit to make and another ship to sail once we get back to Wester Ponente.¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± Father agreed, clearly having already been convinced earlier by Captain Kashif. Under themand of Captain Kashif, we started for the harbour exit and the open ocean. The sun shone triumphantly on our freshly cleaned deck,memorating our victorious morning. Even as the wind and skills filled the sails, stretching tight, it still took time to get a ship of our size moving, especially when the Libian galley was so used to having many rowers to chase down its prey. Seeing as we had yet to pick up any speed, my sudden shoutedment did not cause too much chaos. ¡°Avast!¡± the sailors following their lord''smands halted, the sails ckened, and we stopped making headway, beginning to coast then slow. ¡°Avast? Did you forget something?¡± Captain Kashif queried, a little annoyed to have the little lord countermand him and keen to start hunting again. ¡°I just had a thought. I should send Baron Corus a small constion gift to remember our first meeting. There is no need to go back, but if we pull alongside his ship before we leave the harbour and send one over, that would be the perfect end and resolution to our little confrontation.¡± I exined while ying down the Machiavellian manoeuvres he had attempted. ¡°Very well,¡± Captain Kashif began to agree, resigned to my order when Namir interrupted him. ¡°No need to stop or pull alongside. I can run it across and swiftly catch up to us as long as the gif is not overly big or heavy.¡± He said, referencing his high dexterity ability to run on the water. Equally noted was the fact that Arawn had not offered. ¡°Wonderful.¡± Captain Kashif seemed happy that he would not have to turn around the minute we had embarked on our journey, and with a few more shouts, we were once more headed to the mouth of the harbour. On the other hand, I rushed inside the former captain¡¯s cabin, now mine, to put together a suitable gift basket for Baron Corus. Namir followed me in. I ran around, grabbed an assortment of fruit, wine and other local products, and threw them into a wicker hamper. I did not have enough time to present them neatly, but this should be enough to soothe hurt feelings and enough intrigue to get him to invest in our ind. ¡°This should be enough.¡± I bundled the rapidly made hamper into Namil¡¯s hands. ¡°You have a little more time.¡± Hemented. ¡°Not enough to make it perfect, so twenty per cent of the effort for eighty per cent of the effect is fine with me,¡± I replied. I knew I could spend significantly longer fretting over the correct cement of the presents, wrapping them and surrounding them in cloth, but I did not have enough time or the patience to spend perfecting it. Besides, the hamper needed to leave now. ¡°Here you go,¡± I said, pushing the hamper across the table toward him. He lifted it easily, but there wasn¡¯t a weight problem when walking on the deck. It would only be an issue when he attempted to run on water. The increased weight meant that if you followed old-worldws of physics, you would have to run ever faster to stay on top of the water. I was not sure how much the skill he had would be capable of bending thews of physics through mana or system shenanigans to keep him running across rather than into the water. I followed him out and watched him disappear over the ship''s side. Soon we could all see him sprinting across the harbour water to Baron Corus¡¯s docked ship. It only took him a moment to deposit the hamper of goods from Wester Levante before he departed and returned to us. We were picking up speed as we arrived at the harbour''s mouth, but he quickly caught up and climbed aboard before we braved the more giant waves of the open ocean. Once aboard, the mainsail was dropped, and we finally began to pick up speed. . . . The Alzena circled Wester Levante in an ever-increasing spiral outwards. Should any ship have run aground, it could be near the ind port it was heading to. So that is where we searched. I say we, but really, it was me. I spent my time staring into the sea on the ship¡¯s prow. Any sailors watching me would have thought me half mad, but for the fact that we had found both treasure and monster on our way to Wester Levante. The ship was well organised and ran, leaving little for the sailors onboard to do. At least we were not on a long journey, so for them, it probably felt like a pleasure cruise more than anything they had ever experienced, plenty of food, a clean ship and pay for the first time in their lives. They had little toin about. Even the weather had been perfect for sailing, with steady winds and no storms. With the deck cleaned once already this morning and the sails made fast, I could sense the sailors amusing themselves with games of dice and cards. Interestingly, the Lodestone andpass belief permeated all aspects of life. The familiar suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs were there but reced with apass version. The cards were split between two decks, the Cardinal of North, East, South and West, and the Ordinal deck of NE, SE, SW and NW. They still had kings and queens, but the jacks were lords, and the aces were the champions for each race. At least they were not ying with their gods. That seemed a little sacrilegious and possibly stupid, as they were real. Dice games were much the same, with numbers being numbers, but they also had a fascinating game called Stones. The people, or at least the majority of the people, might not have magic, but through the game called Stones, they pretended that they did. Each stone was marked with a spell they would throw down against one another. Countering one another''s throws. The game of stones was fairly simple. But apparently, the game was ubiquitous across the Compass continent and even yed among the nobility as well. However, ording to Lady Acacia, the difference in the game was that the nobility yed with precious stones and, on asion, powered gemstones that were capable of releasing the spells stored in them. Needless to say, I wanted a set. But all of that was a distraction from what I was here to do. Listening to the seagulls cry, I continued to scan the sandy seafloor searching for anything that might hint at a wreck or some form of hidden or buried treasure. Chapter 190: True Places Chapter 190: True ces ¡°It''s not down on any map; true ces never are.¡± Herman Melville, Moby Dick. Our spiral uncovered nothing new nearby Wester Levante, so we continued to work our way outwards, spiralling further and further out into the vast expanse of the Azimuth Ocean in search of treasure and sunken ships. I say spiral, but we were still relying on the wind over manpower, so it was hardly a perfect curve with a fair few zig-zags from tacking against the wind or following it. It was far easier to hold straight lines than an incrementallyrger curve. Yes, I was taking this trip to evade talking with the Western and Eastern envoys from the House of Lords, but after our sess with Baron Corus, I felt I might have an advantage or two when I returned, so there was no need to be gone for months. A week or two would be more than enough. We headed south to Little Wester before repeating our search pattern. Finally, as we ventured deeper into uncharted waters, my keen senses caught sight of something extraordinary beneath the waves off the southern coast of Little Wester. I had picked up something strange on the seabed floor. ¡°Hold,¡± I shouted. The crew was swift to jump to the repeatedmand of the captain. They loosened the lines causing the sails to p loose in the wind, and as the helmsman followed orders and turned us into the wind, the boat slowed. ¡°You¡¯ve found something?¡± questioned Namir. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Arawn, equally bored if not quite as annoyed by the open ocean as Namir. ¡°Something,¡± I answered vaguely, unsure what my skills were telling me. My treasure skill had pinged, implying there was something of worth down below. But from what I could tell from mana sense and sonar, it appeared to be more of a set of structures than a sunken wreck unless other races regrly sailed rectangr-shaped boxes. Besides, it was not alone; I had picked out more as we had slowed. As far as I could tell, several ¡®house-like¡¯ buildings were on the bottom of the ocean in a circle around a central spire ¡ªa mysterious underwater vige. ¡°You could be a little more specific?¡± Captain Kashif. ¡°It appears to be,¡± I paused, ¡°A vige underwater,¡± I answered cautiously. Was this a good omen or a bad one? There was supposed to be a noble underwater race, the Neriad, which would sometimes trade with the surface in a civilised manner. But then again, there was also supposedly an underwater base race, the Sirens which would happily drag you to a watery grave. Which was this, and how could you tell? "By the tides! An underwater town? There¡¯s one below.¡± Captain Kashif eximed, surprised. ¡°A Neriad outpost here?¡± He seemed excited. ¡°I think so. I''ve never seen anything like it before.¡± I continued to ¡®look¡¯ beneath the water, trying to take in what I could see. It looked like there was a hidden realm beneath the sea, even if this vige was only a small part of it. ¡°How do you know it¡¯s not a Siren¡¯s?¡± ¡°If it had been a Siren¡¯s, they would probably have already tried to pull us under.¡± Captain Kashif snorted. ¡°Far more likely to be a Neriad outpost seeing as we have not been bothered by them.¡± As I continued to stare down into the depths, I focused harder, bringing what I had assumed to be sea creatures into greater focus, realising that they were humanoid. "Hand out the diving apparatus! They won¡¯te up to us unless we have gone down to them." Captain Kashif called out. There were no tanks, no regtors, depth gauges or diveputers. No wetsuits, fins or snorkels either, although they did have masks. But that was the beauty of magic and stats. The huge increase in the sailor''s stamina stat meant that most could hold their breaths for minutes, not seconds. Magterns would provide light in the depths, and it was not rocket science to use rocks to weigh them down and pull them down into the depths. ¡°Why so excited?¡± I asked the Captain as, with excitement and curiosity guiding their actions, a few crew prepared themselves to explore the submerged vige. They stripped down and equipped themselves with magicalnterns, ready to delve into the depths of this enigmatic realm. ¡°The potential profit, Kai,¡± Arawn answered for the captain, who was busy seeing to his own preparations. ¡°The captain is, if anything, a little predictable regarding potential profit.¡± ¡°Aye, you sensed treasure below, right? That means they have something worth trading for below. Are youing, Kai? If you can keep yourself from attracting any more sea monsters, that is.¡± The sailors around him suddenly looked less keen to brave the depths after remembering my ability to draw out the monsters in it. ¡°Yes, that won¡¯t be a problem,¡± I answered confidently. Since I had formed my cores, magical control had be a lot easier for me, and I no longer leaked it to the world around me unless by design. ¡°But will we be able to stay down long enough to do more than say hello?¡± I wondered how Captain Kashif hoped to achieve anything if we had to keep returning to the surface for each breath of air. ¡°Once introductions are made, and they know that we know they are here. I¡¯m sure they will happily deal with us on the surface.¡± He exined. ¡°Will they be happy though if we say hello?¡± I asked. I was unaware that the Neriad had any contact with the people of Little Wester. If they had wanted to interact with humans it would not have been difficult for them to venture forth. ¡°Nothing ventured, nothing gained.¡± Captain Kashif, ever the optimist, dismissed my concerns. ¡°I¡¯ll be with you,¡± Arawn reassured me as he stripped down to join us. I admitted to myself that it was exciting to see a new race just as it had been exciting to see my first elf and my first beastkin. Namir, on the other hand, was not having it. ¡°I¡¯ll be watching from up here. Try not to cause any new problems. I don¡¯t want to have toe in to get you.¡± He said, grumpily refusing to get his fur wet with salt water which he insisted was far worse at getting out of it than us hairless monkeys realised. "Stay close, everyone. Let''s move with caution and observe everything we can. If they aren¡¯t weing, we will back off." Captain Kashif¡¯s enthusiasm for profit outweighed his caution, and he pulled us all along. We all jumped into the water over the ship''s side and descended into the dark depths. As our eyes grew used to the underwater world, and I could see what I could only sense before with the naked eye, we were greeted by an astonishing sight. borate structures made of coral and shells stood tall, with bioluminescent creatures swimming gracefully through the vibrant seaweed gardens. As we dived ever deeper, the vige seemed to be bustling with activity, despite its submerged existence. Limited by the water, we could notmunicate other than to point at the approaching vige as if to say, "Look.¡± I was not limited by the water in the same manner; I could still sense what mypatriots were thinking about as we descended, even if they were not saying it out loud. Captain Kashif was dreaming of riches. Arawn was scanning for threats. I was amazed at the intricate craftsmanship of these structures. It was a testament to the ingenuity and adaptability of these underwater inhabitants. They had to have developed unique ways of living in harmony with the sea. Like Captain Kashif, I wondered whether we would discover treasures and what tradeable goods they might have. As we sank towards the vige, a group of what appeared to be guards swam their way up to meet us. Our arrival was hardly stealthy, but the rest of the vige''s inhabitants hardly seemed bothered by the vessel floating way above their heads. The guards were distinctly blue unless that was just the lighting under the water. Not a dark indigo but a light cerulean, they would blend in with the water if looking down from the surface or with the sky if looking up from the sea bed. They had gills on the sides of their necks, and even though the light was still enough to see by, they had bioluminescent spots that speckled their skins like the stars in the sky. They did not have flippers or tails, though their feet looked webbed, and in their hands, they held tridents. We stopped where we were and waited for them to approach. They soon floated in front of us, eight of them facing Captain Kashi, a few of his crew, Arawn father and I. They spoke, and although it sounded garbled underwater, we could still hear them. ¡°Follow. We have a room with air.¡± He gestured at the central spire of their vige. We continued our descent, surrounded by the guards who swam in circles around us as we slowly descended. I could have swam faster, but there was no reason to leave the perceived safety of the group. Swimming into the base of the hollow structure, we rose into a pocket of air and took seats on the spiral shell-like shelf that wound its way upwards. I looked around to find where the air that filled the ce came from or how it was kept so fresh. The senior guard arrived with someone new in two. An older Neriad inparison to the younger guards. He did not look especially pleased to see us. ¡°What do you want?¡± he asked. Chapter 191: What do you want? Chapter 191: What do you want? ¡°Sess is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.¡± Dale Carnegie ¡°What do you have to offer?¡± Captain Kashif was keen to get to trading. ¡°The first secret of getting what you want is to know what you want.¡± He replied unphased. He turned to Arawn, the eldest of us all. ¡°Why are you here?¡± he ignored Captain Kashifpletely to focus on someone he possibly considered his equal, judging by his age. Arawn shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m just following my grandson to ensure he doesn¡¯t get eaten.¡± Gesturing resignedly toward me. ¡°That happens often?¡± He asked, continuing to ignore Captain Kashif, who was trying to re-enter the conversation and taking a look at me, the child who had apanied adults into this underwater realm. ¡°It¡¯s nearly happened more often than you might think.¡± He answered, sounding put upon as if he had not been the cause of far more trauma than the asional brushes with sea monsters. ¡°Wee to Limumari, Little Lord.¡± He nodded to me, clearly clued in enough to the surface world to realise that the only child who could have swum all the way down to their vige would have been one of the nobility. ¡°Thank you for the wee,¡± I cautiously replied. He seemed less antagonistic when talking to Arawn and me, and I did not want to jeopardise that. Just like Captain Kashif, I could sense the potential profit should we be able to develop a working rtionship with the vige. ¡°My name is Callen Kai Silversea, and we hail from the second ind to the north, Wester Ponente. Wee in peace and hope to trade.¡± ¡°Where are my manners?¡± He asked rhetorically as he smiled, perhaps amused by my courteous response from someone so young, before returning my greetings, ¡°Wee Callen Kai Silversea of Zaravia to Limumari. My name is Huli Albah of La Makan.¡± ¡°Zaravia?¡± I questioned. The Neriad appeared to speak the lingua franca Buss perfectly well for such a slip, so I doubted it was a mistake. ¡°Zaravia is what it used to be called long before Ponente re-colonised it.¡± He exined as if it was obvious. ¡°The world does not always revolve around thepass continent. The Azimuth Ocean that surrounds it covers just a much of the lodestone if not far more.¡± ¡°It was?¡± I asked, confused about the apparent recolonisation of the ind. There had been no mention of a previous name for our ind or any mention of previous upants other than the goblins that had been hunted to extinction after the arrival of human pioneers from Ponente. Neither had Aleera and me, in all our explorations, ever found any signs of former civilisations or cultures. The ind had always seemed pristine and untouched. ¡°It was indeed before the sea erupted in fire, the waters boiled, and theva filled the tunnels to the innergoon, killing most and driving out any who survived.¡± He answered sadly. ¡°Were you there when it happened?¡± I foolishly asked, unthinking of his possible pain, excited to hear a first-hand ount of the disaster. ¡°No, it happened long before my time, but I heard the tale from my grandfather¡¯s lips, who was there when it happened and saw it with his own eyes.¡± He answered admonishingly. I bowed my head in apology, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for your family''s loss. What happened afterwards?¡± He nodded in eptance, ¡°The few survivors fled south to other tribes of Neriad into what the sky dwellers would call Libian waters.¡± He answered. ¡°We hardly live in the sky,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Do you live in the sea?¡± he pointed out in return. There was an awkward pause as we pondered one another¡¯s points. I supposed it was all a matter of perspective. From his point of view, we lived in the sky. From ours, we still lived below it even if we were above the Lodestone and the Azimuth Ocean. Captain Kashif was unafraid to interrupt the lengthening silence, ¡°Wee back to Ponentian waters. Is this a new outpost? Only you are not on any maps that I am aware of.¡± Hemented on the seemingly secret nature of the vige. ¡°New enough, I suppose, but it was not meant to be. We had hoped that the tunnels into Zaravia might have opened with the passage of time, but those who have explored that far north say they are still sealed. With humans having already colonised the ind, renaming it Wester Ponente and building a port, we decided not to contest their ownership. Our tribe may have recovered somewhat, but we are still a remnant of a remnant of what we once were.¡± ¡°You wished to return?¡± I asked, excited about the possibility of new people and trades flooding my ind. ¡°Originally, yes. But now, the majority are happy with where we are. We are settled here now.¡± He answered, reconciled to their reality. ¡°What if we were able to reopen the tunnels for you?¡± I could not help but ask. I was still buzzing about the possibility. ¡°Some would be interested sure, the young and the romantic keen on recapturing the fabled fame of Zaravia. But the majority are happy with what they have here and the homes they have made.¡± He repeated himself as if convincing himself that was the case. ¡°If you sent someone to show me where the tunnels were, I¡¯m sure we could work it out.¡± I continued. Seeing as he was yet to be convinced, I took the liberty of singing a note and hitting a small patch of stone I had already invested with my magic as we talked. The stone sang with the vibrations as the tone was ensouled in stone, the pattern forming on the liquid rock before it solidified again. ¡°I can do it.¡± I boasted. Here, the other guards that had apanied us into the central spire structure leaned forward, interested in what I had done. ¡°Huli, is this truly possible.?¡± One of them whispered as if afraid to speak it any louder less the possibility of it vanishing beyond the surface into the sky and out of their reach. ¡°Perhaps, perhaps.¡± He murmured back to the one who had asked before returning his focus to us. Ignoring Arawn and me, who had possibly offered exactly what they wanted without requesting anything in return, he turned to Captain Kashif, ¡°So, interlopers from above, what exactly do you want?¡± . . . The situation had changed, and despite repeating his words, he was no longer quite so adversarial with the captain. A round of negotiations showed that theycked metal but that they did not want iron but brass or bronze, as anything else would rust away too easily in the salt water. Unsurprisingly they had all manner of fish to offer in return as well as seaweed, but Captain Kashif was after more than just food. My treasure sense had pinged, and he hoped to get a cut of it before we headed for the surface once more. I was less worried about obtaining the material wealth of the tribe and more interested in their people, trades and knowledge. I excused myself as they started to go back over the things that they had already covered in their negotiations, neither onepletely happy with what they had ended up with and still arguing for more. Seeing my disinterest in the ongoing lengthy discussions, Huli allowed one of the guards, Hulio, his son take me out to look at the maps they had gathered of the local area and show me on their map at least where the entrance to Wester Ponente had been in the past. . . . ¡°The stone steps rose up under the cliffs on the ind''s southern side. ¡° Hulio was exining as I poured over the maps. Attempting to memorise everything I could, I had one of my multiple minds hastily copying it onto a new mental map that I could add to my mental collection in my mind fortress. ¡°Why steps? I asked, curious. ¡°They seem unnecessary for a race that swims in a tunnel that is effectively underwater all the time.¡± The entrance was deep enough under the water that the tide would have had no effect other than to raise or lower the level within it, not uncover the entrance. ¡°Thest section here was not underwater.¡± He exined, pointing out how the tunnel rose out of the water but was still deep within the cliff. ¡°It would have acted as a choke point to prevent sea creatures from entering the innergoon. A ce we could have defended better against creatures unable to fight in the air.¡± He then highlighted how the original tunnel dipped below sea level to provide an underwater entrance into thegoon back when the ind was called Zavaria. I said, ¡°I think that the tunnel or other cracks must lead into thegoon again.¡± ¡°Why?¡± he asked excitedly. ¡°The salt,¡± I answered, and Aleera would have understood immediately, but I needed to go into more detail for Hulio. ¡°Thegoon is far too salty not to be connected, considering the freshwater streams that fill it from within the ind. I¡¯ve looked before for a tunnel but never found it. Perhaps with your help this time, I will. I¡¯ve never looked for a tunnel that makes its way into thegoon from the outside, only looked from thegoon out.¡± ¡°My help?¡± he asked to confirm. ¡°Yes, if you are up for a visit,¡± I answered. "What do you want Hulio?" Chapter 192: Hidden Currents Chapter 192: Hidden Currents ¡°The ocean is a storyteller, with secrets hidden in its depths and tales etched in its currents.¡± Anon ¡°No, you¡¯re not going.¡± The Neriad leader Huli had not minded when we were discussing the generalities of someone from his tribe finding the former tunnels of Zaravia but was less keen when it was his son Hulio who was the one volunteering. Thankfully all the deals had already been made with Neriad swimming or floating the goods up to the Alzena. So this was not causing a hup in those alreadypleted talks. The crew and Captain Kashif had already returned, and it was just Arawn, Huli, Hulio and me left for this final family discussion. ¡°I¡¯m not a child any more.¡± He argued. ¡°It¡¯s why we came north. To rediscover some of our heritage and hopefully find some small remnant of what we had lost. You can¡¯t stop me.¡± Hulio turned to leave, finished with the argument but hopefully not with his father. ¡°Wait,¡± I asked him. If they parted while angry with one another, it would hardly bode well for future cooperation. I looked beseechingly at Arawn. I could hardly offer to look after him without my family''s support. Sighing, Arawn stepped up to support me in my statement. ¡°The Silversea family will happily host and look after his welfare while he is with us.¡± I bowed formally to Huli, the leader of this tribe of Neriad. With my family¡¯s backing, looking after him would be no issue, provided the innergoon was a suitable living space for the volunteers. Hopefully, we would find what they were looking for, but if we didn¡¯t, and thegoon was not suitable, we could always bring them back on a return trip. Ultimately, only four of the Neriad decided to join us on our journey home. Huli and three of his friends from the group of eight that had risen to meet us when we first arrived. More could join themter if we could reopen the tunnel into the innergoon. The possibility of tunnels in and out of the innergoon raised some interesting ideas for tidal power generation. It also raised some concerns about some of therger sea beasts attempting to enter our rtively peaceful localgoon if we ever opened up the underwater tunnels. But these would be issues to address once we had discovered the underwater entrance and after we had worked out the feasibility of actually opening them up again. My mother and I could definitely do it but work underwater would add ayer ofplication and take a little more time. Interestingly enough, the four Neriad were perfectly capable of travelling back with us on the ship, though with too long out of the water, their skin would dry and crack. They also preferred sticking to the shade. They were overheating a little in the midday sun without being immersed in water to help them regte their temperatures. Some hastily constructed shelters out of spare sail patches tied up over the stern solved the second problem. The first problem was nothing that could not be alleviated with a little bit of magic. They were the only people I knew who enjoyed being hit with one of my water balls. But that meant they were perfectly willing targets for my magic practice. "B Nerano." "B Nerano." "B Nerano." "B Nerano." I was practising my quick-fire incantations against the happy targets. The Neriad seemed to delight in the magical production of water, and with so much around us, it took less mana than usual to practice it. Less happy were the sailors who had to mop up after us. So whenever they needed another soaking, we did it against the stern railing to ensure the majority of the excess water went over the side. Then it was back to the search for sunken treasure. While Captain Kashif was very happy with the trades he had managed to make with the Neriad, for me, the biggest sess was swapping a copy of our maps with theirs. I now had a detailed underwater map of the local area in exchange for one of the maps I had drawn of our burgeoning barony. I¡¯m sure that given time and experience, I would be able to use future Neriad maps to help predict where we might find sunken ships. But for now, we were sticking with our search pattern. It was just pleasant to have an idea of what would being up next. I also left him with letters of introduction to our local Wester Levante and Little Wester leaders to facilitate future trades. I would let them know by carrier pigeon once I returned so that they would not be surprised should they surface from out of the depthster on. Huli had not been willing to part with a map of the Neruda settlements further south and into Libbecian waters, but he had been happy with sharing his local knowledge with us. Hopefully, he would be happy to share the rest in time. The most exciting new knowledge on these maps was the general topographic information that they held along with the currents that the Neruda used to traverse the ravines and gullies of the underwater realm. Captain Mercurio and Captain Kashif¡¯s maps hinted at their general locations, but with the wind to power their vessels, they were nowhere near as urate. In fact, with this new map of the local currents, I could see several ways in which their journeys could be sped up if they made good use of them. Unfortunately, we were not making the most of these currents as we were still or acting our spiral patterns around the inds and were far more likely to find untouched treasure off the beaten paths of the underwater currents. The most important feature of the map, though, was the more urate locations, levels and territories of the local sea monsters. No longer would the Silversea maps of the local area have that vague ¡®Here be sea monsters¡¯ to represent the unknown dangers of the sea. But add actual ranked danger zones for the sailors. There was a surprising amount around our three isles. But few within them. When I questioned Huli on the difference between the areas, hemented on the rtively shallow nature of our inner local seaspared to the wide-open Azimuth Ocean. Particrlypared to the depths of an abyss, which ran North to South to our west, marking the end of their maps. They had nothing marked past there; for them, it was the equivalent of ¡®here be sea monsters¡¯. I guessed I would not be getting rid of that phrase just yet when it came time to update our maps. We were nearly halfway home when my senses finally found something new. . . . We were to the west of the mana reef. Perhaps I had subconsciously had us avoid it. We were working closely with Captain Kashif, but there was no reason to give him more knowledge than he needed and keeping secrets came naturally to me. The mana reef was a regr hunting ground for my father and me. There was no reason to share it with anyone else just yet. Perhaps in the future with the Neriad, but I¡¯m sure they already knew about it judging by it being marked and mapped on the charts they had traded with me. Besides, without my senses, arger ship might clip the top of the reef and rip open the bottom of the hull like the ship sitting on the sea floor below us. For a fleeting second, I considered the possibility of the envoys having simr problems on their return journeys. But the thought was soon sunk by the moral cost such a decision would take, particrly by the loss of life of so many sailors and the boats themselves. Though perhaps they would be salvageable. This wreck seemed to be a more recent addition to the seafloor as no sea monsters appeared to have taken up residence just yet. Furthermore, with it hopefully being under the water for not too long or being too deep, we could float the whole hull and sail it home to salvage what we could of the hull, either refitting it or taking it apart for parts. ¡°Hold.¡± I cried out to the captain. The helmsman used to mymands by now didn¡¯t wait for the captain to repeat mymand, and the crew, too, was already fast at workying off the sails. This had to be providing a significant amount of experience for my Sailor metier. ¡°Another vige?¡± questioned Namir regretfully. He was looking forward to putting his two feet on drynd again. The vige had been a long dy without any monsters to have made it interesting for him. ¡°Another sunken ship?¡± Captain Kashif asked, excited at the idea of more profit. ¡°Looks like it.¡± I didn¡¯t raise the suggestion of treasure as my sense for it was not pinging. Should the hull be salvageable, it might be its most profitable aspect. ¡°Empty or inhabited?¡± Arawn asked the pertinent question. ¡°As far as I can tell, uninhabited,¡± I answered, uninhibited. ¡°You can tell from up here?¡± questioned Hulio, surprised by the confidence in my answer. ¡°I¡¯ve spent a long time looking carefully at the world with all my senses wide open. The world and system have rewarded me for it with special skills.¡± I was a little vague in the method and the manner in which I gained the skills. However, if we were going to be working closely with the Neriad on our underwater exploration, there was no point in keeping them in the dark as to my underwater abilities. If I said there was something, I needed them to believe it. ¡°Amazing. No wonder you discovered our vige.¡± Huliomented, and I realised that they maybe had more than one reason for apanying us home. As beneficial as a positive rtionship would be to both of ourmunities, an adversarial rtionship would probably end up far worse when we could easily sail above their homes and they would struggle to reach ours. ¡°Treasure?¡± Captain Kashif was keen to focus on the most important aspect of treasure hunting. While we kept most of the haul that we were finding, a significant portion of it went to paying Kashif for anything extra that we were after and could not yet be produced on Wester Levante or our two neighbouring isles. ¡°I think so.¡± The skill was not strongly pinging, so there would not be any great wealth to be hauled up. I turned to Arawn, ¡°Ready?¡± ¡°I guess.¡± He sounded put upon as if he had not spent the morning lounging on the deck. ¡°Would you like to apany us?¡± I asked our four new friends. ¡°dly.¡± Hulio gestured to the heat and wind of the open air. We dived into the cerulean waters, swiftly swimming into its depths. The Neriad eclipsed us in skill and beauty under the water. Made to move underwater rather than simply powering through it with the strength of stats. Not that they didn¡¯t do that, either. Their entire lives were spent underwater, and they had built the muscles for moving through it. The webbed toes and hands did not hurt either as they propelled themselves down toward the wreck far faster than I could while Arawn kept pace with me. Hulio¡¯s POV Humanities spawn were different indeed to what I had heard from his father. The child Kai, the local Silversea lord, moved no worse than one of our own children and had to have his swimming skill above the 50s to descend as quickly as he was. Born underwater and having spent every minute of every day below it, the skill - swimming, was one that came easily to all Neriad. Supposedly not so with humans. The number of drowned sailors was a testament to that though it probably did not help that they could not breathe underwater. Easily charmed by Sirens, they would follow them ever deeper to their deaths before they ever thought of attempting to breathe, or so he had been told. He¡¯d never seen it for himself. Whenever they came across a Siren, it was a battle to the death. They had never watched them without engaging them, and this was the reason for the lengthy tridents he and his friends carried down to the wreck on the sea bed. A wreck that the Lord had somehow unseeingly sensed below the waters as they glided above them at speed. That sensory skill was worryingly effective. For sure enough, the wreck was only nowing into sight below them. It was not immediately obvious as the sea floor here was notpletely t sandbanks, but the wreck had settled into a shallow rocky gully in the seafloor. It was easy to miss without the t sands for the hull to stand out against. It wasfortably nestled within the trifling trench that led to the west. What were the odds of it falling out of the line of sight? So close to their outpost, they would have discovered it for themselves sooner orter, but the depression had hidden it from them until this lucky little Lord simply sailed over it and pointed it out. Slowing as he approached the wreck, the boy may have said it was empty, but that was no reason to through caution to the wind. Nearly every cautionary Neriad tale began with some overexcited pup poking his head into something unknown. The trident went first as he cautiously leaned into the hole in the hull, legs poised to push him back out of the hole should anything leap out at him. His darksight skill triggered as he needed it to make out the details within the hold. No sea creatures seemed to have made the hold their home. He slowly made his way in, his friend guarding his back while two more stationed themselves outside the standard formation for four Neriad exploring a new site or cave. They needed to defend from both within and without, depending on whether what they disturbed was in or out at the time. He could see bars of corroded metal stacked in the hold. They were useless to the Neriad, notsting any length of time before whatever they were made into fell apart to the power of the sea. The only metals thatsted any length of time were bronze, silver, gold and mithril. Any unranked swords, shields or armour wasted away quickly enough whenever they ended up in the water. But perhaps the corroded metal could be reused above sea somehow. The hold was suddenly thrown in sharp relief as light intruded, forcing the darkness to flee. The child and his grandfather had appeared. The first casting his own magical ball of light, the other carrying a lightstone, though if the private talk his father had with him before leaving, he doubted he needed the rune-carved stone he carried to sense whaty in the darkness. He was impressed at how long the child could hold his breath underwater. He was thinking that he was not leaving a lot of time for the return journey when he was cautioned to step back from the two. Unoffended, he flitted out of the hold with a flick of his hands and feet, wondering what the child could be up to now. Kai¡¯s POV Reaching the hold through the hole in the side, the rtively recent nature of the wreck meant that the ship seemed suitably salvageable. The wooden hull seemed sound enough to float it should I be able to patch the gap and sort out the buoyancy issues of discing several tonnes of water. I had spent a lot of time since ourst wreck diving experience trying to work out a more efficient method of raising the goods to the surface and decided that it may be best to bring the whole hull up next time. n in ce, I was ready to get started. I gestured to Huli and his friend to clear the area before I started to get to work. It was time to get to business. Having formed my core, I was no longer restricted from carrying my amulet, and it had both the runes and the mana to get this done. First, I took a small seed from the pouch I had carried all the way down here. My lungs were beginning to feel a little tight, so I had less time than I would have liked to get this down. Step one of raising the ship was patching the hull. I held the seed against the hull while I released my mana, blessing my tutor Aleera for finally teaching us chantless casting for our spell crafting. Otherwise, doing this underwater would have proved a little more problematic. The secret to doing this in saltwater was the seed we were using. The salt-tolerant mangrove tree, also called a halophyte, meant that this particr tree I was growing to patch the hull needed only sunlight and mana to grow surrounded as it was by ocean water. My mana zed forth, filling the seed with light and life as it grew to fill the hole in the boat''s hull. Humans did not use this technique in their boat building, but if ever Elves found the need to sail the rivers or seas, they did it in living boats that were grown and shaped by one of their Spellsong Wizards. This was more of a patch than a boat, but it would be enough to keep it on the surface if I could disce the water and float the ship. The patch filled my lungs were beginning to feel ufortably tight. But this should at least relieve that problem. Pressing the amulet and releasing a small portion of the mana held within its emerald gem. It burst forth into the form of a sphere of air surrounding me and pushing back the depths of the water. The water pressure kept the bubble much smaller than I was used to, but another press of the amulet extended the bubble of air in size so that Arawn could step into it. Hulio floated outside our bubble of air, shocked by the sudden developments. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± Arawn asked, unperturbed by another novel approach to carpentry. ¡°Aww, I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm, old man.¡± I chided. ¡°Wow, Lord Silversea. You never cease to amaze your humble servant with your novel approaches to life. Happy?¡± he asked sardonically. ¡°Well, not really, now that I had to ask for it.¡± I pointed out, scuffing a foot in chagrin. ¡°You¡¯ll have to settle for impressing Hulio.¡± He pointed at the apanying Neriad who still looked amazed. ¡°Now, before you waste the rest of the collected mana. What¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Same again,¡± I suggested stepping forward and forcing the water back out of the hold while leaving air behind us. Hulio and his friend swam out of the ship ahead of our advance. We worked our way through the bottom of the hold, sealing each room behind us before moving forward and up. The ship was beginning to shift on the sea floor, and I felt it would only be a moment or two before it was enough to start rising up toward the surface. ¡°Very impressive Kai.¡± Arawn finally said as the boat started to rise. ¡°But have you forgotten something?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. A few more rooms and I should have disced enough water for the buoyancy from the air to take us up to the surface.¡± I answered, frowning. It was starting to work as the ship suddenly lurched upward with another sealed room behind us. ¡°No, that seems to be working well enough.¡± He said as he consciously stepped to the side of the room, leaving me in the middle of the open room. ¡°What then?¡± I asked, confused. He waited for a second before answering, ¡°This.¡± Stepping up onto the wall that had now be the floor, then the ceiling as the ship rolledpletely over. Leaving me to slide precariously to one side and then up the wall in quickening steps before finallying to stand on the ceiling with him as the boat continued to elerate upward to the surface. Hitting the surface at speed, we left the floor for a second as the ship stopped rising, but our momentum kept us moving up. ¡°You could have warned me.¡± I grumped when we finally settled. ¡°Where¡¯s the fun in that?¡± he smiled. Chapter 193: Ballast Chapter 193: Bast "Time and tide wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water bast, we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide. Less judgement than wit is more sail bast.¡± Mark Twain ¡°If you had filled the upper deck, it might have risen straight up without rolling.¡± Arawn helpfully pointed out after the fact as we stood on the ceiling in the upturned hull. ¡°The whole point of having bast is keeping the ship upright in stormy weather. You removed it.¡± He chuckled. ¡°Thank you for pointing that out,¡± I replied a little sardonically. ¡°But we have reached the surface.¡± I pointed out the sess of raising the ship. ¡°Something I would have achieved with or without your help and not something most of the rest of the crew could have done on their own.¡± ¡°Yes, but how are you going to sail this home upside down?¡± He was not finished bursting my balloon. ¡°Obviously, I¡¯m not finished. Let¡¯s go see the crew about our next steps.¡± I avoided answering while furiously thinking through exactly how I would achieve that. My grandfather and I swam out of the upturned hull. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the criticism I received. When I reached the surface, I had to suffer some more. . . . ¡°A little advance warning would have been nice. You nearly hit the ship when it came up!¡± Captain Kashif called down when we surfaced between the two ships, one right way up, the other upside down. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure it would work,¡± I muttered as we mbered onto the deck a little bedraggled. ¡°Well, it worked. You¡¯ve raised a sunken wreck. Did you intend for it to be the wrong way up?¡± he asked, raising an eyebrow. ¡°Everybody¡¯s a critic,¡± I mumbled under my breath before continuing. ¡°I have a solution, but we will have to tow it home either way as it has no sails or rigging left. Would it make much difference to tow it home upside down?¡± ¡°Do you need to ask?¡± he returned. ¡°If ships were made to sail upside down, you would see a lot more doing it. The mast would likely catch at some point and snap clear off, which is saying nothing for the increased drag. It would be like pulling an anchor along. ¡°Fine, like I said, I have a solution.¡± I¡¯d been brainstorming possible ns since Arawn had pointed it out. I thought I had a suitable fix. ¡°Care to run it by an experienced Captain before you decide to experiment again on the turtled hull?¡± ¡°Ice.¡± I dered. ¡°Ice?¡± He questioned. ¡°I will grow an iceberg attached to one side of the top deck under the water. Eventually, the ice will float the hull up sideways in the water. Then if I enter the hull from the half out of the water and start to fill the bast with water, it should right itself, and I can melt the ice.¡± ¡°Fair enough as a n goes if you were on your own. But you are not.¡± He pointed out. ¡°You do not need to do everything yourself. You have a crew use them. We will get the ropes and winches out, attach them to the deck once it is halfway there, and help winch it the rest of the way.¡± He decided to adapt my n and ensure everyone had a part in it. ¡°In fact, it would probably help if some of the crew swam over and shifted all the goods to one side of the hull. That would help to pull down one side while your ice pushed up the other.¡± He called out a few orders to put my n into motion. It was time to get wet again, but it would be a little colder this time. . . . The Neriad joined me, watching with interest as I headed to one side of the upside-down underwater deck. Though there was little they could do to help me, they kept mepany. The amulet made it easy for me to start freezing one side of the deck, gradually building a slowly spreading iceberg frozen to the deck. I was unsure of the exact calctions required to make Archimede''s principle work, something about buoyant force being equal to the weight of the fluid that the body disces. But I knew that if I pushed sufficient mana into the solution, eventually, it would work. Mana over mind, much like brawn over brain. I knew the saying went the other way around, but I wanted a quick solution to correct my mistake rather than have everybody waiting around for me to think it through. The main problem was keeping warm enough next to the growing iceberg. The swarming sailors had finished rearranging the formerly sunken ship''s hold long before my iceberg provided enough buoyant force to lift the boat up onto its side. The Neriad kept mepany throughout, watching with wide eyes as the increasinglyrge iceberg formed. Ready for the final step, they helped the sailors attach the ropes along the hull and set them up for winching. With everything under tension, I returned to the hold to add water bast while Arawn helped by slicing off the iceberg as the deck rose up and finally left the water. Reaching a tipping point, the hull settled once more upright on the sea¡¯s surface. I could imagine our galley rocking back to level and the ropes falling ck. I emerged from the hold, under the tattered remnants of the ship¡¯s sails, to a huge cheer from the crew. ¡°Lord Silversea, Lord of the sea, Lord Silversea.¡± They cried. A little grandiose, but I was proud of raising the wreck, and the crew would get a cut of the spoils on our return. ¡°Don¡¯t let it get to your head. Lady Acacia could have achieved something simr, even Aleera, given time, and they might not have turned it upside down in the process.¡± Arawn was always there to keep my head from growing toorge. ¡°I know.¡± I had already thought of a few ways in which I could have improved my floatation. ¡°Maybe next time.¡± Treasure found political borders defended, new allies found, and a new addition to our slowly growing fleet. It was time to return home. ¡°Let¡¯s go home,¡± I announced to another cheer from the crew, all ready to return. . . . It was not quite as straightforward as that, though. The wreck was tied off to our stern, and makeshift sails were strung up to rece the tattered remnants of its own. We sailed straight home along the trade route we always took. I was too tired to try and find another wreck. But it was not a quick flight skimming across the waves but a slow andboured slog as we pulled another ship behind us. We even had to put some of the sailors on the oars when the wind turned against us. I rested in the ship''s cabin the rest of the way home. In contrast, the crew toiled and rowed us ever northward. When we returned, I would have to face the two envoys if they were still camping out at our home, and I needed some time to reflect and n our next move. Maybe they had given up and returned themselves, but while I hoped for the best, I nned for the worst and fully expected them to be waiting for our arrival and the ind¡¯s port. . . . Chapter 194: Waiting in the Wings Chapter 194: Waiting in the Wings ¡°To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.¡± Rosabeth Moss Kanter Lord Larimar¡¯s envoy Sir Rnd Ravenswood stood on the cliff. Topped with silver hair and piercing blue eyes, the towering man stood watching and waiting for the wayward Lord Silversea to return. Lady Silversea may have felt herself clever in attempting to block by using the child¡¯s name. However, using the child this way was a double-edged sword, especially if he could get to the boy alone or at least unattended by his political advisors. There was littlemon sailors could do to stop him from getting a word or two in with the boy when he returned. All it would take would be an agreement or two, and he could work upward from that. Besides, it was not their only iron in the fire. Baron Corus should have started making inroads into curtailing the Silversea family''s expansion further afield. It had been surprisingly swift considering their rtively recent ennoblement. The question was where the money wasing from. It would be a small favour to help fix the situation with Baron Corus. Naturally, the boy would have to apany him to do so, with a retinue, of course. He was pulled from his thoughts by the sail on the horizon. Today may be the lucky day that he could leave these far-flung shores. It was far past the time he should have returned, and that was not including how long the return journey would take. . . . . When the ship finally arrived, the sailors toiled to bring a vast array of goods to the top of the cliff. They represented far more than could have been bought or bartered for from the local inds. Another source of ie perhaps would exin the surprising amount of wealth the Silversea family seemed tomand. But who, how and where they were being supplied from remained a mystery. Still as enlightening as this information was, the sole reason he had stood vigil for never arrived. All manner of goods, sailors and men may have departed the ship in the hidden harbour. But the little lord he was waiting for never left it. Dispirited and somewhat perplexed by the little Lord¡¯s seeming disappearance, Rnd left a servant to watch the slowly multiplying ships in the harbour. There was not enough room for any more. The two ships of the envoys stood still alongside the Ponentian merchant and the Libian pirate¡¯s vessels. With the return of the former ver¡¯s ship, the space was positively crowded. It was costing the captain¡¯s a fortune in lost time, but at least they had managed to pick up a substantial amount of goods to profit from on the way home. He had failed to get ahead of his counterpart, but there was no reason not to rub his face in it anyway, and he knew that fine food awaited him back in the Compass Edge Tavern. It was time to return. As he descended into the Town of Wester, he wondered where they had hidden the little lord this time. Had he been left on Wester Levante or Little Wester if he was not on the ship? He did not have enough resources to deploy to all three inds in the benightedly named cluster of inds. Had the pioneers or nners had no better inspiration for what to name them? It was pathetic. As well as illuminating foolish aspirations of grandeur for their future. This was no Ponente westerly or not. Later that evening in the Compass Edge Tavern . . . Lord Carnelian¡¯s envoy Sir Reynard ckthorn POV After a month here on the ind, he hade to realise that neutrality would be a win for the Eastern Lords. Or at least that is how he would frame it to Lord Carnelian on his return. Keeping House Silversea out of the Western Lords camp would qualify as a win when House Silversea was so naturally aligned with the Western Coastal Lords. That and the fact that the house offered an unrivalled opportunity for their trade rtionships. If they supported the young fledging house with goods from the continent, they could expand out of the domestic market to supply the coast of Ponente, Libio and possibly even further afield, Maestro and Ostro. Sir Rnd had yet to arrive, which was disconcerting in and of itself. Moreover, it was frustrating to both mind and body. His mind, because having set his bearing, he was ready to forge forward in the course and convince the opposing envoy that a neutralitypromise would be the best oue for both sides of the House of Lords and the quickest way for them to get off the ind. His body, simply because he was bloody hungry. Finally, his tardy twin traveller deigned to grace him with his presence. ¡°Yourte.¡± Sir Reynard began. Time had ustomed them to one another, and frustration with their situation dulled their manners. ¡°I was engaged in an evening stroll.¡± Sir Rnd rebutted, unruffled by the hostility. What was a little sniping between acquaintances? Besides, he knew something his opponent did not. ¡°See something more interesting than arriving punctually to your dining engagements.¡± Sir Reynard rejoined, not quite ready to relent. ¡°You might say that. More to the point, we are hardly in the capital. I offend no one of notice by myteness.¡± Sir Rnd shrugged, implying that something was worth more time than his opposing envoy could be considered an insult if it were not true. His skills told him he had seen something of interest. ¡°Well?¡± He questioned as he conceded the point in their pissing match. Sir Reynard doubted Sir Rnd would pass the point of no return and actually delve into public criticalments against himself. Whatever he had seen must have been worth the dy. ¡°The Silversea¡¯s ship returned.¡± He kept his bombshell as short and sweet as possible. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you are not rubbing your hands in glee at getting to him first.¡± They both knew the most expedient path forwards would be through the boy. ¡°He wasn¡¯t on it.¡± Sir Rnd shrugged, losing nothing in letting the man know. ¡°He wasn¡¯t? Then where . . .¡± He wondered. ¡°Your guess is as good as mine. Wester Levante or Little Wester? There is little elsewhere he could be this far out along the Ponentian Archipgo. There is nothing else out here.¡± Sir Rnd added, resigned to waiting further in the game Lady Aleera was ying. ¡°It¡¯s intolerable when I consider what I could be achieving and levelling back in the capital. There is nought out here but pirates, vers and fish.¡± ¡°If you wish to return sooner rather thanter, there is a solution that doesn¡¯t even require the boy.¡± He suggested. ¡°And that is?¡± It seemed like boredom and theck of levelling opportunities drew the two envoys closer than their respective Lords, and disagreements kept them apart. ¡°Apromise.¡± He suggested. ¡°Apromise?¡± he queried. ¡°Yes, apromise of neutrality in terms of the Silverseas, their alignment, trade and . . .¡± He paused before adding, ¡°Their expansion,¡± ¡°Ah, you were aware of that.¡± He smiled unoffended at having been caught. It was, after all, only a game and this far out from the capital, these were low stakes that they were ying for¡ªmore a matter of pride than anything else and not theirs but their lords. ¡°Baron Corus is hardly the most subtle of individuals. There were days we were behind you and days we were ahead. But I did notice his movement as soon as you had left his isle. As far as I know, he followed behind shortly after us. As the closest significantndholder, it is no surprise that you have suggested he expand his holdings. If the Eastern block of the House of Lords had any assets of note in the archipgo, I would have probably deployed them simrly.¡± He did not know for sure, but he knew enough to infer the truth or at least a close enough approximation of it. ¡°Neutrality? That seems a greater win for you than it does for me. After all, the Silverseas naturally fall within our aligned houses. There is nothing to benefit me in this proposal other than a swift return to the capital.¡± ¡°Is that not what you are after?¡± He asked, resigned to the request that would soon be following. Give them a drop, and they¡¯ll take the whole bucket. ¡°Of course, but not enough to concede the game and call it a draw.¡± Sir Rnd demurred, having taken advantage of their conversation. ¡°What would it take?¡± he asked stoically. ¡°A loan.¡± Sir Rnd shrugged casually. ¡°How much?¡± He asked, already apprehensive of the cost. ¡°Not of money but of your vessel.¡± As if that somehow made his request any more ptable. ¡°Such a small advantage is not worth a vessel. Besides, I would have no way back should you default on the loan.¡± He was keen to return and gain the promise of neutrality but not at the cost of his return trip. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t even have to loan it to me specifically. Simply allow me to assign it a short task toplete.¡± Sir Rnd remonstrated. ¡°A task?¡± he questioned, still less than keen. ¡°To sail my man to Little Wester for me while I head to Wester Levante.¡± Sir Rnd attempted to make it seem of little import. But both knew trivialities would not move him despite his boredom. ¡°You would leave me all alone without civilisedpany?¡± He embellished as ifck of educatedpany for an evening meal or two was reason alone to refuse. ¡°Only for a day, two at the utmost. If the matter is not resolved by then, I will bow to thepromise of neutrality.¡± Sir Rnd started before he was interrupted. ¡°On the light of the lodestone?¡± He interrupted. ¡°On the light of the lodestone, if you really need such reassurance, I will return within 48 hours of departure and ept thepromise of neutrality.¡± ¡°Very well then, to your swift return.¡± He epted Sir Rnd¡¯s proposal. ¡°I¡¯ll send word to my vessel first light to amodate your man.¡± The matter was resolved, and the two men moved on to lighter topics of conversation while they enjoyed their evening meal. . . . Kai¡¯s POV I wondered what my family would think when the ship returned without me. But the chance to find the former entrance to Zavaria while avoiding the two envoys seemed too good a chance to pass up. We had split from our newly repurposed ver¡¯s galley on our barely seaworthy wreck and headed to the southernmost point of the ind under the cover of darkness. Arawn appreciated the dagger and cloak nature of our return. While Namir was simply happy he could run home across the waves should the ship sink beneath his feet. He was far happier now the looming cliffs of Wester Levante were within sight. We would explore the depths in the morning. To stay ahead of the machinations of the House of Lords, I would have to make my own moves ande up with new ideas and innovations rather than hope that the shroud of obscurity and irrelevance would be enough to protect us from them. We were quickly growing in both power and importance. Our fame would only swell with the envoys'' return to the capital. We needed to stay ahead of it all. Chapter 195: More than one way in Chapter 195: More than one way in ¡°Still round the corner, there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.¡± J.R.R. Tolkien As the morning sun filled our sails, we approached the southern side of the aisle, hoping to find a new road or secret entrance to Wester Ponente. We had anchored below the horizon from Wester Ponente, so we had to start our approach in the middle of the night to arrive at the ind with the morning light. I had never explored the outside of Wester Ponente after the tendency of goblin sharks to find themselves drawn to me anytime I dared to put a toe in the water. Now that my mana cores had finally formed, I was able to stop my mana from leaking out. It was hopefully safe for me to swim, or at least safer for me to swim with sharks. Maybe it was time to explore, especially with the underwater guides that I had in Hulio and his friends. ¡°Ready?¡± Arawn asked. Namir would not be joining us. Instead, he would climb the cliff alongside the water cascading down the southern falls. He was just waiting to see us disappear into the depths before returning to the family to let them know what we were up to this time. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we cannot find another way in.¡± I nodded, resolved. ¡°We¡¯ll see you on the other side then.¡± Captain Kashif optimistically stated. The newly risen wreck, I had been tempted to call the Phoenix due to its reborn nature, would be sailing back to port without us. If we found our way in, then that is how we would return. If not, the Neriad would swim to our port while Arawn and I would climb the cliffs. However, I might leave him and fly up once I got enough height to stay airborne. The six of us stood on the railing and jumped together. While my senses and skills meant that diving into the deep was not quite as terrifying as I might have once found it. I still found it daunting to delve into the depths where the sea monsters coulde from any angle at incredible speeds. I was Olympic-fastpared to my own world and able to keep it up for far longer due to my stamina, but the Neriad still swam in circles around me. I cheated swimming under the southern falls, using the power of the waterfall to push me ever deeper. As I fell behind the Neriad by unspoken agreement, they paired off and returned to Arawn and me to help pull us ever deeper. With the two of them pulling, we were able to speed up further. The pair of them undting on either side of me. It was at the limits of the sunlight zone that they came into sensory range. I strained my eyes and saw the glint of gold. Diving deeper and drawing closer to the glint, I saw two golden crowns atop two gigantic statues of Neriad. Impressive stone tridents crossed between them. They stood guard against the southern sea of the Azimuth Ocean. Arge triangr pointed entrance below their crossed des was filled with a solidified river ofva. It spilt out in an underwater bridge descending into the twilight zone to the seafloor far below. We had found the former entrance to Zavaria. It felt a little like discovering Antis. The idea of discovering a civilisation that had disappeared into the depths of the sea in a single day and night of misfortune. It was awesome. Seeing the underwater statues guarding the entrance into what the Neriad had once called Zavaria, was humbling and nearly took my breath away. The giant statues of two Neriad warriors guarded the former entrance to the isle, and they stood unmarred by time on either side of gigantic open rune-carved bronze doors. The entrance would have been in perfect repair if not for the plume of hardenedva that spilt forth from the open entrance to the former city or Zavaria. Hundreds of yearster, you could see how theva must have burst forth out of the inner volcano, chasing the surviving Neriad out of their home and filling the huge tunnel behind them as they fled. Watching the Neriad surrounding me, there was a mix of emotions flitting across their faces, from excitement of rediscovering the ancestral home of their forefathers to despair of ever being able to reenter through the wall of near-solid stone that now barred their path. It left little to the imagination about what had happened to the rest of the city and exined why we had never encountered any ruins before. They had to be buried beneath hundreds of feet ofva. The innergoon was far shallower than it must once have been when listening to their descriptions of what once used to exist. It was time to see exactly how solid the wall ofva blocking the entrance was. We approached the coldva to see just what my magic could do. Iid my hands on the wall in front of us. Using my seismic sense, I could tell that theva was not anywhere as solid as it looked from the outside. While the Lava had solidified on hitting the cold water forming a solid crust, theva must have kept flowing to form the bridge below us and its column-like supports. It did not take a lot of mana and stone shaping to clear the apex of the triangr door leaving a gaprge enough for the Neriad, Arawn, and I to swim through. Inside, what once would have perhaps been a carefully carved entrance was now a circrva tunnel leading on under the cliff walls. My sonar skill showed that it followed a near-straight line toward thegoon and our home''s centre. The question was where did ite up. solution. It was a simple matter to form air from the amulet and form a ball around Arawn and Rather than rise to the surface for a fresh breath of air, Magic was, of course, the I. Funnily enough, as I formed the bubble of air Arawn fell out of it. Without the water pressure, it took me air stepping to stay within the centre of the bubble. Arawn¡¯s head bobbed up from below as he trod water to keep his head up within it. The other Neriad took advantage of the ball of air to converse with us. Each one poking their head in from a different angle above and below me. ¡°We found it,¡± Hulio eximed excitedly. ¡°It survived.¡± ¡°The exit, at least.¡± I cautioned. ¡°The inside, though, is not what would have once existed when the Neriad called this Zavaria. All that I can sense is ava tunnel leading to the centre of the ind.¡± It seemed like the volcano had left little unburied. ¡°Still, the statues alone show how wealthy we once were. Surely something survived.¡± He argued. I hesitated to agree; whatever had once existed, we certainly had found nothing of it in our admittedly shallow exploration of thegoon and ind. Perhaps it was merely buried a little deeper. ¡°Enough chit-chat. We seem to have drawn some attention. Let¡¯s continue the conversation inside, and don¡¯t forget to seal it after us.¡± Arawn interrupted our thoughts, pointing to the surface where an eerily familiar silhouette was rapidly growingrger as it dived down towards us, its shadow growing to cover us all. We hastily slipped through the small entrance I had made as the oversized goblin shark dove toward us. It rammed its head into the hole even as we turned to face our attacker. The Neriad¡¯s tridents shed forward to impale its trapped head from above, below, and on both sides. They automatically seemed to have positioned themselves around me, allowing them the perfect angles to strike while it aimed for me. The goblin shark''s body thrashed, not having realised it was already dead. Arawn slipped forward, burying his sword through its eye and into its brain, halting the body finally stilling and slowly slipping back out of the entrance, its dead weight pulling it out. But the damage had been done. More than half a dozen sea monsters were descending to feast on the carcass of the goblin shark. While we had taken care of one easily enough, I doubted we could do the same with all of them and having witnessed a feeding frenzy before had no desire to be trapped in one of my own making, especially underwater. I hastily moulded the stone into shape with as little mana as possible, hoping it would not be noticedpared to the giant bleeding carcass drifting upward. This blocked our exit and left us in darkness. We would not be leaving that way anytime soon. It seemed that even though I was no longer leaking mana, my excessive use of it in creating an air bubble was equally enticing. That or goblin sharks had incredibly sensitive senses when it came to mana use. I blinked as the darkness surrounded us. Maybe it would have been better to have made a break for the surface, but that would have left the Neriad to face them alone, and there was no guarantee that we would have made it unscathed. Still, it left us with only one option to move forward and attempt to find or make an entrance into thegoon. As my eyes grew used to the darkness, I realised it was iplete where I had opened the tunnel at the apex of the triangle. Green Mana motes had flocked to feast on the excess mana, leaving a subtle glow on the wall that I had just sealed behind us When their glow began to fade, I saw they were not the only thing glowing in the darkness. Thin lines of blue seemed to ascend from the floor of the tunnel, floating up halfway toward the ceiling. The remaining mana having faded from the stone, the mana motes seemed to be attracted to the blue bioluminescence only to fizzle out whenever they touched them. I found myself pulled out of my musings metaphorically and physically as the Neriad pulled Arawn and me forward, floating above the bioluminescent lines that looked almost a little like grass. While we had discovered a fascinating ecological niche, I did not have time to watch with patience what would happen to the dying mana motes. Our time was running out if we wanted to find the exit before our air ran out, and after the failure of my first attempt, I was less than keen to create more air down here with magic. Who knew what else that might attract? The Neriad travelled slower than they had out in the open Ocean. They seemed to be taking things carefully. Cautious, they avoided anything glowing. They stuck to the ceiling of the underwaterva tube or the sides where there seemed to be less natural luminescence. Though not always. Our presence startled a small school of shlight fish who darted ahead of us into the waiting arms of glowing blue crystal jellyfish. Their death spasms helpfully pointed out the poisonous nature of the jellyfish floating on the right-hand side of the tunnel. We switched to the left, safely passing the stationary floating death. They seemed to be happy to bob about with a fresh meal entangled in their stinging cells and tentacles. We had travelled further than I had ever travelled underwater before, but I was beginning to run out of air. Unfortunately, as far as my senses could tell, we were still a significant distance from the centre of the ind. The somewhat poisonous nature of the hidden ecology within the underwater tunnel made me hesitant to try another air bubble. I did not want to find us surrounded by the floating glowing crystal jellyfish or suddenly find the glowing blue grass-like carpet of the tunnele alive and swarm us. I did not know what would happen, and we had nowhere else to escape to other than ahead or behind us. I pulled hard on Hulio¡¯s hand, halting our group. Not wanting to speak lest it attract some other unknown danger, I pointed at my throat and up, miming my need for air soon. I could go for a little longer, but I doubted it would be long enough to reach the middle of the ind and itsgoon. I touched the ceiling above using seismic sense to see if we were any closer to the surface. But we weren¡¯t. Arawn and his pair of Neriad joined us. Immediately understanding my predicament. We turned to Arawn. He gestured that he was fine for now but would also soon need a breath of air. I could think of two options. First, same as the first time, we take our chances with whatever else my mana might awaken. Second, much the same as the first, but this time we attempt it on the roof of the tunnel after shaping a breathing bubble pocket in the stone. That way, at least we would be out of the water on a defensible shelf should we awaken anything, and standing out of the water, the majority of the threats, such as the glowing blue crystal jellyfish, would be significantly less threatening. While I had thought through my options, Hulio had pulled a te from his pocket. While it was possible to talk underwater, it was not if you were trying to conserve your oxygen and talking would only waste it. Regardless, we did not really have time for us to discuss our options independent of our high dexterity stats; a written conversation was still going to be a lot slower than a spoken one. We did not have time for it. I reached for the ceiling again after gesturing how I could mould it into what I thought would work best when Hulio motioned for me to wait for a second. In the blue glow of the cavernous tunnel, he wrote two words on his te, ¡°Wylde Glei.¡± Confused, I gestured with my hands to show I had no clue what he was talking about. But Arawn seemed to understand, pointing to Hulio as if expecting him to produce whatever Wylde Glei was. Instead, he added, ¡°Help Breath. Neriad''s secret! Keep?¡± Without thinking, we both nodded in agreement. It appeared he was more worried about what our mana might attract than breaking any secrecy. Or perhaps they had always intended to trade it if they had it on them in our hour of need. He produced two sealed ¡®pills¡¯ which he handed over¡ªthen started writing again. ¡°Hold in mouth. Bite open. Inhale the elixir. Breathe Seawater.¡± He wanted me to do what??? That seemed like a recipe for disaster and one where my convulsing body would struggle to create the air bubble needed for me even to attempt to empty my lungs again. Though that raised a passing question if water had 20 times less oxygen than air, what stat did I need to increase to allow underwater breathing? Strength to allow the alveoli to pull oxygen out of the water or endurance to allow the body to function on less oxygen? No one had ever mentioned it was possible to breathe underwater, but now supposedly this, wylde glei would allow us to? Hisst two words, ¡°Trust me.¡± Left little else for me to do. But it seemed to be enough for Arawn, who took a ¡®pill¡¯. I watched in apprehension as he filled his mouth with air, bit and inhaled the elixir. Was that it? He didn¡¯t turn blue or convulse. But that was the easy part. It was going to be harder than that to breathe in water and possibly a lot more painful, even if it did work. I readied my mana to create a pocket in the stone and an air bubble in case this didn¡¯t work. I watched him breathe in the seawater . . . Chapter 196: Breath of Life Chapter 196: Breath of Life ¡°How inappropriate to call this Earth when it is so clearly Ocean.¡± Arthur C. rke In the underwater tunnel, lit by the bioluminescence of the creatures living there, Arawn grimaced for a second at the ufortable intrusion of the seawater, but a secondter, he was breathing in and outfortably underwater. The miracle elixir gave him the ability to breathe without worry underwater. Something I desperately needed if the levelling of Iron Man was anything to go by. We had been swimming underwater for a long, long way now. Ding! Iron Man (Lv66) ¡°Your turn.¡± Hulio wrote before he gestured to my own pill of Wlyde Glei. Without waiting any further, I bit it open in my mouth and inhaled the contents. The astringent nature of the elixir caused me to cough and reflexively inhale the seawater in an attempt to soothe my throat. It did nothing of the sort and burned a little as it went down, sort of like breathing in alcoholic fumes, and I had to fight against the fear that I had just killed myself once again. But once the initial difort and panic had passed, I could still breathe, though in a different manner. The water was a lot thicker than air, I could feel it moving in and out far more readily, but as I grew used to it, I marvelled at the ability to breathe underwater. Ding! Underwater Breathing (Lv1) It opened up so much more of the world to explore once I was at a little higher level. Would it just take time to level it up? Or was it a matter of depth and pressure? Would I retain this ability now that it was on my status, or would it require another pill? Questions for another time. ¡°Continue.¡± Hulio wrote, keen to get back to exploring the tunnel further into Wester Levante. That was, after all, the main reason they had decided to apany us, and they were far more suited to exploring the tunnel with or without us. We nodded in response, still wondering at the ability to breathe underwater. We carefully picked our way through the tunnel''s ecological niche. Pausing to allow various predators to float or swim on by, never attempting to fight our way through. Eventually, we came to the end of the tunnel or at least what remained of it. From sight alone, it was impossible to say whether this was the end, but I was not limited to just my sight. Reaching out with my other senses, I explored the stone around me and was able to sense a thinning in the stone above our heads and the existence of water above that. It appeared that we had finally gone far enough to reach the internalgoon of Wester Ponente. My skills also showed some of the cracks in the floor bed of thegoon that led down to the tunnel we were in. None of them wererge enough for more than the water to exchange between thegoon and the sea. However, with a little moulding, I should be able to open them up enough to let us loose into the innergoon. Finding our way to a small inner grotto in the tunnel wall, some pocket bubble in theva tunnel, I carefully shifted the stone open enough to let us out. As I did so, I meticulously kept my mana constrained to the stone rather than leaking into the water. Even so, enough leaked to cause the crystal blue jellyfish to start drifting in our direction. Eager to feast on whatever was releasing the mana. The Neriad kept them back from us at the end of their tridents. Puncturing the few that insisted on attempting to draw closer. Their corpses floated for a second before being feasted upon by their surviving brethren. The stings on the dead tentacles failed to prevent them from pulling them apart to be just another morsel. With the distraction of fresh food in front of them, they lost interest in me, or I grew better at restraining my mana. At longst, the tunnel upward wasrge enough for all of us to escape into thegoon as we headed up to the light at the end of the tunnel. Ding! Stone shaping (LV31) I took care to seal it behind us. I did not want to let the blue crystal jellyfish loose into the innergoon. I could imagine the ecological damage they would bring to our fishing ground and the death they could cause to unsuspecting fishermen long used to what to expect. With a cough and gasp, we breached the surface of thegoon, clearing our lungs of seawater and taking our first breath of fresh air since we entered the tunnel. ¡°We found the tunnel, but where is the rest of Zavaria?¡± Hulio asked, confused. He had clearly been expecting more after discovering the statues at the tunnel¡¯s entrance untouched by the flow ofva. ¡°Buried,¡± I responded. I had never sensed the stone beneath thegoon floor, only using sonar to map the area. I never looked below the water. Having now searched upward from beneath thegoon, I noticed that thegoon floor was a veneer ofva on top of a hidden underwater city. Much like the buried city of Pompeii, I could only imagine how the Neriad had fled their city only for pyrostic flows to cover it behind them and block their return. ¡°Nothing remains?¡± Hulio asked, disappointed. I could imagine how he thought the rediscovering of Zavaria would have gone. ¡°It remains. It is just covered. Let me show you.¡± I answered It would take time, but not all was lost at all. We dove back down to arge outcropping of rock protruding a little from thegoon floor. Standing atop what I now knew was a building, I slowly revealed it to them. Less worried about releasing my mana in the tamer waters of my home ind. A foot, two feet, three feet of stone below my feet rolled back to reveal the roof of an underwater dwelling. Walking around its perimeter, I revealed more and more of the building below, preserved by the stone that had entombed it. By the time I hadpleted a circuit of the stone roof, I had revealed the upper floor of a building still half buried into thegoon floor. Still able to breathe underwater, we took our time to explore the upper and still buried lower floor. There was nowhere for the stone to flow that still covered the lower floor. It would take significant excavation to truly reveal the city we now knewy beneath our waters. The Neriad looked out across thegoon floor, imagining what might be hidden under the stoneyer andgoon floor. I was wondering too. The stone house we had uncovered was hardly filled with riches, but we had found a coin or two, and I could imagine that multiplied a hundred or a thousand times over across thegoon floor. Riches were buried in stone, just waiting to be uncovered. They once belonged to the Neriad, but they couldn¡¯t recover them without me; it was my ind. Fifty per cent of everything recovered seemed fair to me. Arawn pointed upward. It was time to go home and let them know what we had been up to. . . . ¡°Thank you.¡± Hulio¡¯s first words were as we emerged from the water on the westward side of our innergoon isle. I gave him a quick, quiet nod in return, I doubted that the two envoys would have noticed our arrival anywhere, but there was no reason to tempt fate, and I wished to conceal the new immigrant Neriad from any prying eyes. They would not double our numbers, but given time, they would make up a significant portion of our poption once they were invited in and the underwater tunnel cleared of the more lethal apex creatures. ¡°This way.¡± I led us in swimming back to shore triumphantly. . . . ¡°Took your time.¡± Aleera¡¯s grumpiness hardly hid her joy at seeing us return. They had already been warned of our arrival by Namir, who stood silently behind her shoulder. We had worked our way into our ptial home through Arawn¡¯s old home and the tunnel that led through the mountain. I continued to search the stone for any other hidden building. Still, the mountain we called our home seemed to be purely volcanic in creation, probably the very volcano that ended the Neriad city of Zavaria. There was nothing new to sense that I had missed before. Zavariay solely at the bottom of thegoon. Obviously, the ancient Neriad saw no reason to expand above the water line in earlier times. ¡°We were fairly busy.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Discovered an ancient city, started rtions with a new race, raised a sunken wreck to add to our fleet, and repelled the rapacious efforts of the local baron. You know, the usual.¡± I smiled deprecatingly as if this was just an ordinary couple of weeks in my life. Sometimes they were. ¡°How¡¯s business going here?¡± I asked in return. ¡°I think they are about to break.¡± She smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t think that they can afford to spend much more time here. They are running out of funds.¡± In our absence, thedies of the house had instituted an incrementally rising tax for our tourists. Every day the prices rose for them. They had been restricted to staying on board their ships simply to save on costs, and their sailors were catching fish to stretch out their stores. If it went on for much longer, they would struggle to restock for their return journey. With our backing, the townspeople had made a game of gouging the most outrageous prices for anything and everything they could get away with for anyone not resident on the ind. They were experiencing a cost of living crisis. But they always had the option of sailing away. . . . . Chapter 197: A Shell Game Chapter 197: A Shell Game ¡°I consider no man to be a magician unless he can perform the cups and balls.¡± Houdini Lord Larimar¡¯s envoy, Sir Rnd Ravenswood, stalked back and forth in anger across his small captain¡¯s cabin. There was not enough distance to get into his stride, leaving him frustrated, much like this entire debacle. The child had left Wester Ponente, but he was not on Wester Levante or Little Wester like some sort of shell game; the pea had disappeared. This was impossible when the sole ship of the Silverseas was the former Libian galley. While they had ess to the Ponentian Merchant Mercurio¡¯s boat and the Libian Merchant¡¯s Kashif, both had only recently left, and he had not been on board. It did not make sense to send the child further out of reach to keep him from talking to him, and what would they have sent him on? It simply made no sense. He had finally concluded that it was time to cut their losses and return home with neutrality alone if that was all they could manage when to some excitement, he heard the lookout call out, ¡°Sail astern.¡± These waters were hardly patrolled regrly, and any sail could have heralded pirates or vers as much as they could have been merchants. It was a surprise that the locals did not have a regr lookout. They must not have been bothered by raiders recently; otherwise, they would. Still, he hoped that whoever they were, perhaps they would also have a young wayward lord on board. Eagerly he headed to the deck to see if this was the case. He saw his counterpart striding forth from his cabin in a mirror image of his motions. Due to the ludicrously rising prices of Wester Ponente, they took turns dining on one another¡¯s ships during the evening. They knew they were being deliberately targeted but could do little about it. Despite their different positions within the House of Lords, they faced the identical problem here on Wester Levante. A Lord who refused to be present, a sister who declined to be bound without her brother¡®s presence and a group of advisors slowly, diplomatically pushing them off the ind. It was infuriating. Still, that was how the game was yed, and this far out from civilisation, they were limited in the pressure they could bring to bear. Still, they would remember the slight for what it was and return it tenfold should the exasperating duo ever survive to their majority and present themselves to the House of Lords. These insults would not be forgotten any time soon. They would have even raised their hats to the sessful obstruction should they have been able to witness it from the outside rather than having to experience it first-hand. Without the pressure from above to have achieved something, they would have long left as their positions seemed unresolved and untenable. The sail finally drew into sight, and what a sail it was. They might have once been majestic and proud, but now it was a patchwork canvas. Most of it seemed to be heavily weathered, while what looked like fresh canvas patches had been carefully woven into the fabric to cover what must have been giant holes. If the ship had been a pirate in the past, he doubted it was one now. It needed some repairs. It was unlikely, but maybe the lord was on board. He turned to see what his counterpart thought. Sir Reynard ckthorn appeared to be thinking simrly and was already striding off his boat at the dock, even though it would still be a while before the ship docked. Having lost the first foot in posturing, there was no need to wait; he found himself departing his vessel to meet the man where the ship would dock. ¡°Good morning.¡± They were not religious enough to discuss the quality of their bearings this early morning or without enough suitable alcoholic lubrication. ¡°How are you faring?¡± ¡°Well, enough. All things considered. These prices are ridiculous.¡± ¡°Ridiculous or not, they seem effective in pricing us out of town.¡± Having exceeded the cash provided, they were now eating into their personal coffers. ¡°What surprises me most about them is that all the town seems willing to y along with the price gouging. Sure, it is worth it to the individuals who sell us their wares at such exorbitant prices, but those who don¡¯t are missing out on a fortune.¡± ¡°The Silverseas must bepensating them somehow. The wealth of such a fledgling noble family is staggering.¡± ¡°I doubt either of our lords would be so willing to part with their coin just to see two representatives hasten their departure.¡± ¡°Ah, so you are thinking of leaving?¡± ¡°Are you not?¡± This was the problem of the matter. Whoever left first would leave the other behind to possibly change the oue of the talk, especially without a contract or treaty in writing. And even then, such pieces of paper could still be broken. ¡°Just waiting for you.¡± ¡°I find myself in the same position.¡± ¡°Well, we coulde to a gentleman¡¯s arrangement. Where we both agree to depart at the same time.¡± ¡°Only to have you turn around when out of sight on the first night?¡± ¡°How dare you imply . . .¡± ¡°I dare nothing of the sort. I¡¯ve seen you in action before. Do you deny acting that way before?¡± ¡°How about we sail together? Then I could appreciate the conversation if not thepany.¡± ¡°Sail together? How far?¡± ¡°A week?¡± ¡°Or at least until we are out of this section of the archipgo.¡± ¡°A convoy then.¡± ¡°Better safety in numbers.¡± I was unhappy to hear that any Libian pirate or ver vessel had made it this far out. Wherever the Royal Navy is, it is not here. ¡°Onest venture to the inner isle, then. Provided the young lord is not board.¡± He gestured at the approaching ship. Now that it was closer looked like it must have spent at least half its life under the water rather than above it. With barnacles climbing up far above the water line. ¡°Onest time, then.¡± Watching the sailors disembark, it was clear that the Lord was not on board. Although he suspected he recognised a few of the sailors. Stopping one and tossing him a coin for the question, he asked, ¡°Where do you hail from?¡± ¡°The bottom of the deep.¡± The sailor smirked at his response rubbing his finger and thumb to ask for more. ¡°The bottom of the deep?¡± He queried, not understanding the joke or appreciating the humour he had to pay for. He reluctantly handed over another coin. ¡°Lord Silversea raised the wreck.¡± The sailor exined proudly. ¡°The child raised the wreck?¡± he asked, baffled as he added another ¡°Aye . . .¡± the sailor started to add as he reached for the third coin before he was hauled ind by his neck. Grappled into silence by an unappreciativepatriot objecting to talking about the little lord. ¡°Then where is he?¡± He demanded, confused as to the whereabouts of the continuously disappearing lord. The manughingly responded as he hauled his fellow sailor away, ¡°The bottom of the deep.¡± Leaving the two confused envoys standing by the well-weathered ship, still waiting for a Lord who failed to appear. . . . ¡°Did that make any sense to you?¡± He asked his fellow envoy once the returning sailors had finally dispersed. No other sailors had cared to give them the time of day or give up any further information. ¡°No, but I think we need to seriously reconsider the capabilities of the Little Lord and who is hiding behind whom.¡± He referred to their current predicament. ¡°The Little Lord is hiding behind the Young Lady rather than the other way round?¡± He sardonically suggested with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Can you think of any other way his words could be taken?¡± ¡°As the nonsense that they are. The Lord is a child, barely more than an infant. Without training, what could he possibly be able to aplish at such an early age before he had even unlocked his status?¡± ¡°You dismiss Lady Acacia at your peril. She has tutored princes and dukes in her days at the capital. Who isn¡¯t to say there isn¡¯t something exceptional about him to draw her out here.¡± ¡°I heard a royal decree forced her this far from civilisation.¡± ¡°I doubt a decree could have forced her to do anything. Something else is at y here. He may be far more than he appeared to be at first nce.¡± They both thought back to the times they had seen him. Umonly quiet at every meeting, they had put it down to good training by Lady Acacia to keep calm and let his elders make the decisions for his house. Which house would allow a child to be in control of deciding its fate? The elderly Seneschal Smit Silvertongue and his family had saved and scraped for decades to afford the poisoned chalice that had been a writ of nobility. The Silverseas had been lucky that their continued existence aligned with the Royal family¡¯s ns for the House of Lords. ¡°Onest visit to the young Lady Silversea before we depart then. The cost of acquiring allegiance to our side of the House of Lords is bing too costly to my purse to continue to pursue.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± They turned to ascend the stairs in silence as they contemted their shifting understanding of what was possibly at y. . . . Kai¡¯s POV We had just finished regaling our family with the expanding fortunes of the Silversea family when we received another request for an audience from the visiting envoys. It was unusual timing as they had not waited for the weekend¡¯s morning audience, but if the letter our butler had opened was to be believed, it was only because they had run out of time and money and nned to leave with the evening tide. ¡°Very well, onest meeting,¡± I sighed. ¡°But then, at least they will be out of our hair.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lock in your bearings until they have sailed out of sight.¡± Cautioned Lady Acacia. ¡°And even then, be prepared for the winds of fate to change.¡± . . . After arriving and setting up the hall for an audience, the two envoys entered alone. It was just our immediate family, Lady Acacia and Namir, for this audience. Our extended n were all busy with work in the town, and the Silver Court of our cousins had been in abeyance with my absence. They walked the long hall to stand in front of us, seated on our thrones at the head of the hall. ¡°Greetings Lord and Lady Silversea, may you live in the light of the lodestar. It is a pleasure to see you return from your fishing trip; we trust it was rxing. Thank you for seeing us so promptly. We are sorry to depart so soon without achieving a more formal official rtionship between our parties and your house. But circumstances call us home.¡± Sir Ravenswood spoke for the envoys, and while he spoke to both of us, they seemed surprisingly fixated on my face above my sisters. ¡°What can we do for you before your departure?¡± Aleera moved the conversation along. ¡°Before we depart, we hoped to ask, onest time, whether you had reconsidered supporting either of our houses in the House of Lords and if not, why?¡± He asked without expecting an answer from the pair of them. While each High Lord offered a lot, both came withplications the Silversea House did not wish to face. ¡°The truth of the matter is trust. We do not trust either side of the House of Lords to ensure our safety should we openly support them. Furthermore, we still suspect that a noble family within it ordered our families'' early removal when we first received our writ of nobility. We do not doubt that without the King¡¯s deration requiring our unharmed presence in his court, we would have faced more attempts over the years like the one that imed our brother¡¯s life.¡± Aleera paused to let that sink in. ¡°We will agree to neutrality but only that. We are happy to trade with both sides of the House of Lords on fair and respectful terms, but we refuse to invite further attacks from either side by aligning with one or the other of you until we have met the King and asked his opinion on the matter.¡± I pulled on her sleeve to remind her. ¡°Furthermore, we do not appreciate the pressure you exerted on us, Sir Ravenswood, by encouraging Baron Corus to curtail our expansion. If you ever hope to receive our friendship, we advise you not to attempt that again.¡± She continued. I had told everyone what he had been attempting on Wester Levante. ¡°I stand corrected.¡± Sir Ravenswood attempted to quell her ire though he made no apology for the attempt. ¡°If neutrality is all that can be gained before we leave, could we have that in writing . . .¡± Sir ckthorn was interrupted by Lady Acacia stepping forward with three copies of a neutrality document she had prepared earlier. ¡°You can if you sign here.¡± She stated. Both envoys took their time perusing the document without hesitation before signing it. They had spent enough time on the isle and were ready to leave. We had already signed the copies leaving one for each of the three parties. ¡°This will not be binding without ratification by our Lords.¡± Sir Ravenswood cautioned. ¡°We know. It¡¯s enough to start.¡± Aleera smiled at finally sending the interlopers packing. ¡°Farewell, Lady, Lord.¡± They bowed in unison and left neither with what they hoped to gain but enough to save their skins from a failed mission. . . . Chapter 198: Year 6 and 3/4 Chapter 198: Year 6 and 3/4 ¡°What you discover about life¡¯s shell game is that it¡¯s hardest to follow the pea when you¡¯re the pea.¡± Robert Breault As we watched the two envoys set sail together, I mused that the pea that was the hardest to follow in the shell game of your own life; was yourself. I had so many irons in the fire that most of them had cooled, and I had lost myself in the morass. I was still moving forward but had lost the drive and focus along the way. My little kingdom grew day by day, but it would do that with or without my input now that our revenue streams were secure and our poption continued to expand. Sure, I could continue to add strings to the Silversea bow, but it felt like my personal progress had slowed despite my bloated status. We returned to town. As we descended the slope toward the slowly expanding town walls, I realised it would have been my ninth birthday today if time was measured like on my former earth. It was no longer unusual that I could read and write, expected even as a young noble lord. I still excelled in a multitude of subjects beyond my years. However, Lady Acacia had insisted it was time I switched out of my Singer metier into something more appropriate for my station in life. Lords were not Singers; they had magic, and most would im the metier Mage¡ªjust another way to separate the haves from the have-nots. ¡°Why the hesitation, Kai? At level 11, you will gain little more from the Singer metier without dedicating your life to it or evolving it further.¡± She exined as we headed to the Church of the Lodestar. Perfect points to be making, but I would hold onto it if I could. I just needed a little luck when I finally reached the Lodestar. ¡°I like singing,¡± I replied. ¡°And you do so beautifully, but your house will need to rely on far more than just your voice. There are many who see might and right. Ultimately magic is might.¡± She refused to allow my reluctance to dy us further as she walked the pair of us up the steps. Bargaining with Mercurio, Kashif and the two envoys had pushed Aleera up to level 10 in her Merchant metier, and she would be joining me in ressifying as a mage¡ªthe n to level this and possibly another before pickingdy for her debut in the capital. The bishop met us at the door, wisdom or a cleric warning him of ouring. ¡°Wee, picking another metier for the young Lord and Lady?¡± he smiled pleasantly. He was as involved in our training as Lady Acacia. ¡°It¡¯s past time. Singer has stalled at level 11 without arger crowd or significantly more time devoted to it. It is unlikely to level much further.¡± Lady Acacia answered for me. ¡°Likewise, Merchant for Aleera is unlikely to make any more quick progress now that the envoys and merchants have left us for a while. It is time for them to take Mage.¡± ¡°Follow me, then.¡± The bishop happily led us into the church and the room holding the Lodestar. Interestingly enough, through his lectures, he had told me that this was not strictly necessary. He could offer the light of the lodestar and the metier selection through a touch of his hand. Not strictly his hand but the ring with a shard of a lodestar sealed within it. It allowed them to carry the light with them wherever they went. I wanted one and was sure that with a bit of experimentation, I could probably, possibly, make my own. The challenge was the mithril needed to make it out of. But that is what merchants were for, and I had already made my requests. We stepped into the room of the Lodestar standing on its altar, and made our way to it. ¡°Ladies first,¡± I let Aleera take the lead rather than rushing forward. She smiled. What could I say? I was finally growing up a little. We all watched as she closed her eyes andid her hand on the stone. A secondter, she was opening them and smiling. It would take little to level up the first couple of mage levels, especially with the spellcraft, Spellsong, glyphs, runes and sigils we had already studied. It was my turn. At least with my mana contained in my cores, I would no longer light up the whole building by touching it. Closing my eyes and crossing my fingers for good luck, I ced my palms on the stone. Immediately the world fell away. Wee, Lord Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea! Yes! Fourth name, fourth metier avable. I wouldn¡¯t have to give up Singer just yet. Brief, simple and to the point, the window somehow filled my vision. It seemed to be going through my status one line at a time, likest time. That was lucky timing with the extra name. ¡°You deserved it.¡± I jumped at the unexpected voice beside me. It looked like the gods or at least one of them, were watching. ¡°Can they hear you?¡± I whispered harshly in response opening my eyes only to find myself standing inside my metal fortress without entering the skill. Crazy wouldn¡¯t be a good look. However, talking to gods might be a step up in the Bishop¡¯s book. At least in my mind, they wouldn¡¯t be seeing it. ¡°Of course not. The temporal bubble we are in will be but a flicker for them if they can even notice it. So much simpler to meet in your soul when you are touching the light.¡± She replied. ¡°My soul? This is my mind.¡± I pointed out. ¡°Yes, and I love what you have done with the ce.¡± She mentally flickered through the rooms that made up my Fiboni expanding spiral of a fortress. ¡°But it is only a mental construct to make sense of your soul to your mind. Did you really believe that the developing brain of a fetus had enough space to house half of this?¡± She moved us both outside of the mental fortress to the observatory-likearium I used to help me see the minds of others. I couldn¡¯t see the minds of others at the moment so bright the light of the sky. It looked like Fortuna surrounded me, or her presence overwhelmed all others. She didn¡¯t give me an opportunity to respond. ¡°But no, we are meeting in your soul. Here let¡¯s change your perspective.¡± She lifted me up into the sky, and with a metaphysical wrench, I was now looking down on my soul. A mere marble she held in her hand. This was disconcerting, my disembodied perspective zoomed closer, and I could see my mind fortress, a mental construct within my soul. A mountain fortress in the sea of experience that made up my soul. I felt it flexing and straining as two more skills were added to my soul. Ding! Sense Soul Lv1 Ding! Astral Projection Lv 1 The light of the lodestar, the system informed me of my progress. I could sense the skills forming alongside the notice. ¡°And back we go.¡± She stopped me from contemting myself any further, and I found myself back on the edge of my mind fortress; only now could I see how my soul surrounded and supported it. She stood beside me. ¡°About that favour.¡± . . . Here was the other shoe dropping now that I was safely home. ¡°It¡¯s nothing too onerous.¡± She started as if already anticipating my objections. ¡°What do I need to do?¡± I asked apprehensively. I had not made a deal with a devil, but I was not yet sure that a deal with a god was much better. ¡°Just a bit of sightseeing.¡± She smiled, happy I was listening. ¡°Follow in the Archbishop''s footsteps, so to speak.¡± ¡°A circumnavigation of the entirepass kingdoms?¡± my eyebrows rose. Despite my interest in seeing more of the world, that was hardly a little favour. ¡°No need to sound so rmed. I¡¯m not expecting you to start right this instant. You don¡¯t have to travel alone.¡± She carried on as if this would not be the trip of a lifetime. ¡°Why not ask a member of the church? They¡¯d be happy to circumnavigate the kingdoms in your honour.¡± I pointed out. A party had only just passed through. However, that had been the first in my lifetime here on Wester Ponente. She thought for a second before replying, unconvinced by my argument. ¡°You¡¯re wee to travel with them if you¡¯d like. But no, it needs to be you. Was your life and freedom not worth the chance to see the world?¡± ¡°Of course it was,¡± I remembered the dire straights I had found myself in and how she had helped me to escape them. ¡°When do I need to leave?¡± I asked resigned. ¡°10 seems an auspicious number. So in 3 ? years from now.¡± She answered as if picking a random number. ¡°The year people unlock their status?¡± I asked. ¡°You will always stand out if you don¡¯t keep your head down. But at least at that age, you will be officially old enough to have assigned your free points.¡± She answered. ¡°Now, would you like to unlock magic or luck for your cousins?¡± she pivoted from her earlier point, offering something new as if in rpense. ¡°Magic,¡± I answered determinedly. Maybe we would finally even out the scales. ¡°Fair enough, not everyone likes to rely on me. I¡¯ve assigned your free points to make you my lucky prime. But that is as far as I can bend the rules. My time with you is up.¡± ¡°Thank you?¡± ¡°But I can give you a little time to check out your status before you return. Remember 3 ? years. I expect you to be ready.¡± . . . Time to focus on myself, I delved inside. Level: 49 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 11 M¨¦tier: Sailor Lv 11 -> Lv12 M¨¦tier: Merchant Lv 6 -> Lv8 M¨¦tier: Mage Lv 1 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 6 years 12 months 0 days (Old World 9 years) General Experience: 123,000 /3,276,800 Health: 1600/1600 Stamina: 1600/1600 Mana: 1900/1900 Psi: 1600/1600 Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 157 -> 163 Endurance: 158 -> 163 Strength: 157 -> 163 Dexterity: 158 -> 163 Senses: 158 -> 163 Mind: 157 -> 163 rity: 158 -> 163 Magic: 157 -> 193 Charisma: 157 -> 163 Luck: 158 -> 163 Free Points: 60 assigned 10 unassigned Skills Tier 1: Dance (LV100) Sailing (LV83-> 87) Singing (LV80 ->83) Trading (LV77-> 82) Meditation (LV75->82)Time Sense (LV80-> 82)Bnce (LV55 -> 60) Fishing (LV43 ->58) Sneak (LV57)Acting (LV 56)Drumming (LV55) Whistling (LV50) Farming (LV50) Knots (LV52 ->55)Draw (LV52) Listening (LV50) Stitching (LV50) Humming (LV50) Insight (LV47 ->50) Glide (LV45)Poise (LV43) Grace (LV43) Charm (LV42) Composure (LV41) Ambidextrous (LV29 ->36) Silent Step (LV29->32) Inspect (LV29 -> 31) Sketching (LV21->27) Drafting (LV21->26)Lie (LV26)Deft touch (LV24) Posture (LV22)Riding (LV20) Cook (LV20) Etiquette (LV20) Appeal (LV20) Sight (LV20) Scent (LV20) Detect (LV20) Taste (LV20) Measurement (LV 15 ->19) cksmithing (LV10) Carpentry (LV10) Mining (LV10) Teaching (LV10) Underwater breathing (Lv1) Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV65 -> 68)Quick reflexes (LV65 -> 72) Eavesdrop (LV63)Spellcraft (LV55 -> 59) Spellsong (LV53 ->55) Order (LV44 ->49) Linguistics (LV40) Memorisation (LV40) Recall (LV40) Composition (LV40) Pain Tolerance (LV36 ->38) Stealth (LV36 -> 39) Mind Sense (LV29->35)Knife Arts (LV25 -> 29)Misdirection (LV23 -> 26) Haggling (LV22 ->25)Observe (LV25 -> 26)Martial Arts (LV22 -> 25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (LV18 -> 21)Dart (LV 18 ->25) Heal (LV13->16)Poison Tolerance (LV10 -> 11)Treasure Sense (LV10 ->17)Intimidation (LV9 -> 12) Tier 3: Expel Mana (LV63 ->64)Mana Maniption (LV62->63) Gale (LV63) Echolocation(LV63-> 65) Absorb Mana (LV40 ->42) Boil (LV50) Ignite (LV40) Melt (LV40) Command (LV40) Deception (LV24 -> 26)Bargain (LV21 ->23) Freeze (LV20) Racing (LV15 -> 17)Analyse (LV13 -> 15)sh Step (Lv13 -> 15) Seismic Sense (LV11) Danger Sense (Lv7 -> 10) Smuggling (LV5) Telepathy (Lv2 ->5) Tier 4: Block Status (LV100) Iron Man (LV64 -> 66)Parallel Processing (LV37->40) Material Maniption (LV31->33) Stone shaping (LV30->33) Mana Drain (LV 30) Flight (LV17->20)Sonar (Lv9 ->19) Seafaring (LV7 -> 11) Air stepping (Lv2 ->7) Contract (Lv1 ¨C> 5) Tier 5: Mind fortress (LV21->25) Multiple minds (LV3 -> 4) Omniglot (LV25) Weapon Prodigy (Lv22->23)Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv10) Enigma (Lv1) Astral Projection (Lv1) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv1) I had time to go through my progress and status before opening my eyes to my smiling, supportive family. But I was distracted by my conversation with the Goddess Fortuna. I would have to leave in 3 ? years?I was her lucky prime? Chapter 199: Hatching Chapter 199: Hatching ¡°It simply isn¡¯t an adventure worth telling if there aren¡¯t any dragons.¡± J.R.R. Tolkien ¡°B Nerano.¡± I went through the motions without really paying attention to the ss. Most of the spells came automatically. With everything finally taken care of . . . Who was I kidding? There were still a million and one things to n and execute, but with the envoys having departed and the Neriad settled, it was time to focus on my pet project. My Dragon egg! ¡°Are you listening?¡± Aleera could worry about refitting the two Silversea Ships, literally growing our navy with Lady Acacia, opening the southern hidden tunnel from the uncovered ancient underwater city with the Neriad, establishing the trade triangle with Mercurio and Kashif, building up our trade empire with Des and Sinis, and probably a hundred and one other things I had forgotten like the indentured adventurers and sailors. I rapidly fired through the rest of the spells we were being asked to master on autopilot. ¡°If you are not going to pay attention, you might as well go.¡± Time for some personal growth, and what could be more important than attempting to hatch a dragon egg? Especially if I was going to have to depart on a god given quest sooner orter. I finally finished thest spell. The others would take much longer to eek them out, carefully guarding their diminishing mana pools. I didn¡¯t have that problem, at least not for these lessons. ¡°Off you go then.¡± Lady Acacia was not even fighting me on this. A mythic creature, even if one much diminished from its former lineage, was a perfectpanion for a lordly mage. Sure, we had a lot of mage lessons to go, but I was allowed out of studies if it was for the express purpose of attempting to hatch a dragon. No one else was getting out of ss. Especially the boys who had only just gotten into it. ¡°Teacher¡¯s pet.¡± The ss of the Silver Court had expanded exponentially, with me being able to unlock the magic for all my male cousins. The girls had a head start, but the boys werepetitively trying to catch up. It was pleasant to escape from the suddenlypetitive nature of the sses. I liked to win, but some did not want to lose even though it wasn¡¯t apetitionpared to me and my progress. ¡° . . . ¡± The ss soon fell out of even my earshot. Not that I had been listening all that hard in the first ce. I retreated through my small secret tunnels to my hiddenir at the base of the extinct volcano we called our home. I would be a proper fantastical bond viin with a dragon to threateningly stroke as I contemted supplicants or would-be heroes on my Silversea Throne. The obsidian egg still shimmered in the mana motentern as I lifted the lid on the chest that had kept it safe while I had been sailing. I had thought of a couple of ns to help the egg hatch sooner rather thanter, and they all made the most of the mana I had on hand. First Source of Mana meant I could gift it my own every night before bed, and it would be recovered by morning. Secondly, there was the amulet. How much of that mana could I release to help it grow? Thirdly there was the secret seed itself no longer a seed, the third secret shard of the Lodestone on Wester Levante. What can I achieve with that? . . . ¡°It will hatch in its own time.¡± Bishop preached patience. He was generally just happy about the improving rtionship with our family, my mother included. A different clergyman was helping to heal what the former had broken, a small measure of her faith. Father¡¯s solement on eggs had something to do with sailing, but it wasn¡¯t constructive. Some folklore about tiny witches. It sounded like nonsense, but in this world, who knew? ¡°Never leave your egg-shells unbroken in a cup; always smash them up. For witches find them and sail to sea, to make misery for sailors like me.¡± ¡°Focus on your lesson first. Then you can go and look.¡± Bargained Lady Acacia during most of my lessons. The problem was that I did not know how long I would have to wait. ¡°Don¡¯t waste your time waiting. What will be will be.¡± Were Sir Jaques''s words. ¡°Keep training.¡± Arawn, Namir, and Sir Jacques, between the three of them, I was gaining a very well-rounded military training program. With the Bishop on hand to heal me anytime they pushed me too hard. Aleera, though had noted my fixation on the Dragon Egg above other pressing concerns. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Kai?¡± She had asked privately. ¡°What are you worrying about? You don¡¯t have to interact with them if you don¡¯t want to.¡± She said, concerned I was morosely worrying about them. But it wasn¡¯t that. I had not mentioned my meeting with the Goddess Fortuna to my family. I did not know what to say, to be honest. ¡®Hey guys, I¡¯ve been asked to see the world by the ninth god of luck.¡¯ It never sounded quite right in my head. The truth was that we would all leave the ind around the right time for my sister''s debutante in the capital. So I would get to do an eighth-of-the-world tour with my family. I hadn¡¯t told them yet, but I had started preparing. Working with Lady Acacia and the Elendil tree, I attempted to recreate single-man sailing boats. Trying to work out the most efficient design before I scaled it up for a small crew. I also trialled growing some glider frames. Magic and the Elendil tree meant I could grow them ridiculously thin and reinforce them with magic. While I could already fly, I hoped to create something that could glide in through the air to save on my mana expenditure for longer journeys. Dive into the water to hide from airborne monsters and even sail on the sea to arrive at towns in a somewhat less conspicuous manner. It was another pet project I was working on while I waited for this egg to hatch. I continued to doodle my designs with one hand. In contrast, the other continued to offer up mana to the bottomless egg that continued to inhale everything I could offer it alongside the local mana it was drawing in. Any day now. Any day . . . Crack! A fracture line ran up the outside of the shell . . . The dragon egg trembled and shook. The air crackled with a surge of magic as the shell cracked, revealing a glimpse of the magnificent creature within. It was only an eye, but it watched the world with interest as the cracks spread with each passing moment, and the once-secluded chamber resonated with the sounds of life emerging. Finally, the dragon egg shattered entirely in a burst of brilliance, unveiling a midnight ck dragon hatchling. The dragonling''s scales shimmered like precious gemstones, reflecting the light in a breathtaking disy of iridescence as the obsidian scales caught the light of the mana motenterns. Its eyes sparkled with intelligence and curiosity, and a gentle, otherworldly aura surrounded the majestic minuscule creature. It was tiny, just like he had been when he entered this world. I was ecstatic and extended a hand towards the hatchling. The dragonling nuzzled its tiny head against my palm as if recognising the mana it had absorbed and its producer, me. ording to Lady Acacia, the bond between man and beast was instant, already formed within the egg. It would recognise the mana of the one that had sheltered it and fed it. The dragonling spread its delicate wings and let out a soft, musical chirp, a song celebrating its newfound existence. As if guided by an ancient instinct, it took its first wobbly steps, exploring the world with innocent curiosity. It fitted into the palm of my hand and was as light as a small bird. I smiled as I watched them turn and attack the egg they had emerged from. As the baby dragonling devoured the mana-rich egg that had finally released them, specks of white pulsed across the dragonling''s back and wings like a miniature night sky constetion. ¡°I name you Nyx.¡± I grinned from ear to ear. In contrast, the dragonling ignored me and continued to feast on its eggshell. As soon as it had finished, it focused once more on me, seeming to inhale the mana I was still sending. Pacing in my hands, it settled to sleep, only awakening whenever I stopped supplying mana to absorb. I was still grinning from ear to ear. I carried it upstairs through my secret tunnels to show my family. This was awesome. Chapter 200: First impressions Chapter 200: First impressions ¡°But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.¡± Urs K.Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea I rushed up through my tunnels. Having lost track of time in myir, I found the Silversea family all at dinner. Namir and Lady Acacia, as usual, joined us as part of our growing house. It was notpletely unheard of for me to be unable to find when I let time get away from me. With Nyx asleep, it was not immediately apparent why I had rushed to see them until I opened my palms to reveal the sleeping dragonling. ¡°She hatched.¡± My whispered words woke the sleeping dragonling. At least, I was assuming the dragonling was a she. I hadn¡¯t noticed anything hanging below, but I supposed she had only just been born. Maybe it was too early to tell. The tiny baby dragonling stood tall despite her miniature height, her ck scales shimmering with a myriad of colours and the white constetion of stars scattered across her scales. ¡°A dragon! It¡¯s a real dragon!¡± Lady Aleera eximed, her eyes wide with awe. ¡°A dragonling, Aleera.¡± Lady Acacia corrected. But I wasn¡¯t bothered by the terminology. My face broke into a wide smile as I took in the sight of the magnificent creature. ¡°We did it! The egg hatched, and I have a dragonling!¡± my enthusiasm matched my sisters. Arawn, ever stoic, couldn¡¯t help but crack a slight grin, his pride evident in his eyes. ¡°Congrattions. You are now the proud owner of a dragonling,¡± he said, nodding approvingly. ¡°What next?¡± Together, the Silversea family surrounded me and my young dragonling, revelling in the momentous event that had unfolded before them. As the dragon nuzzled against me, a sense of connection washed over me, along with a feeling of hunger. ¡°Wee to our family,¡± I said, ¡°We will protect you, and you will be a part of our legacy.¡± I fed him a little more mana. ¡°She¡¯s fairly hungry.¡± ¡°For more than just mana. She will need real food to grow. But don¡¯t get your hopes up. Dragonlings are notoriously difficult to grow.¡± Lady Acacia interrupted, offering a te of small, carefully cut pieces of fish. It took seconds for the dragonling to devour them all. The Silversea family all rushed to offer the dragonling more morsels, and the mythical creature was soon stumbling between tes, food drunk. She returned to me and my mana before falling asleep. It looked like we would have a new bedtime routine. ¡°Have you thought of a name?¡± Namir asked. ¡°I was thinking of naming her Nyx,¡± I replied. ¡°She reminds me of the night sky,¡± I added, tracing the white specks that looked like a nighttime constetion covering her back and wings¡ªmarvelling at how warm her scales were beneath my fingers. ¡°A lovely name for a lovely specimen.¡± Lady Acacia graciously granted her approval. ¡°Nyx.¡± Whispered Aleera agreeing. . . . Lady Acacia had a book on dragonling care. There seemed to be one of each colour, like thepass kingdoms, azure, emerald, gold, amber, scarlet, fuchsia, violet, and sapphire, but also ck and white. They respected no country¡¯s borders but were found predominantly in the warmer southern kingdoms of Libbecio, Ostro and Scirroco. Like the Royal Families, they were associated with what thepass kingdoms understood to be elements of water, wood, earth, metal, fire, lightning, air and ice. At the same time, the ck dragonlings were associated with dark and white dragonlings with light. Nyx was already slightly unusual in the star-like markings that decorated her skin. But other than them, she seemed like a typical ck dragonling. Starting at the size of a closed fist, I could easily hold her sleeping body in the palms of my hands. She was remarkably light, and most of her weight could be ounted for by the food in her protruding stomach¡ªeasy prey for any higher levelled birds, beasts or monsters. The curious hatchling would have to be protected from anything that might swallow her whole. Hatchlings were known for their insatiable appetite, and if they survived to reach their adult size, around the size of arge cat, they were a terror to the local rodent poption. But also capable of holding their own against cats, dogs and birds of prey, happy to fight on the ground or in the air. If trained well, they could be used for hunting small game by lords anddies alike. However, their sharp ws and prickly personalities meant that you needed a suitably thick saddle seat to prevent them from panicking the horses. Over the next week or so, she soon became the most popr mascot of our n, and with so many cousins to beg from, she never went hungry, although she always came back to me for my mana. Monster or mythic alike, I was tasty. She was so popr that we were seriously contemting reworking our crest. A small ck dragon on a white mountain represents our salt, in the blue sea representing our location and trading on a pearlescent background. I thought it would look quite good, but we were waiting to see howrge she would get before attempting to capture her image. . . . At night, she would sleep at the head of my bed. I listened to her thoughts, but there was little more to discern besides hunger, excitement, recognition and satiation. After all she was still only an infant,t. She was afraid of nothing, which had caused a couple of close calls. Still, she always luckily survived with but a momentary annoyance of the inconvenience of having to move out of the way of something farrger than herself. She would eat everything. She would swallow anything small enough to fit past her jaws, including, rmingly, our precious pearls. We now had a door and a lock on the tunnel entrance to our cave, where we did our farming, selecting and seeding process of the pearls. Who would have thought that a pet would be the reason for us to have to institute security She was still happy to gnaw on anything she could not swallow whole. Nothing was sacred, and I spent most of my time training her in an attempt to get her to stop. While I disagreed fundamentally with the opinion, I now understood how some unenlightened fools could consider dragonlings little more than rats with wings; she was that destructive. Flight lessons, though, were going far better. Living in a mountain and able to demonstrate, we started our flight lessons attempting to glide down from the inner caldera towards the Elendil tree until she was able to glide back and forth between the ridgeline and the tree with me. Then we extended our flights to our inner isle of thegoon. Finally, making the trip to Wester Town. We, or rather she, is now banned from venturing into Wester Town again by request of Seneschal Silvertongue, who, as well as acting as my Seneschal, is now officially the town mayor. It was not as if I had not paid for the products consumed, but I could understand why the townspeople were less than keen on a repeat of the flying cmity that she was to the local marketce in the town square. We noticed that the more mana the food she ate held, the longer she wouldst without hunting or rooting about for more. With our two vessels ready for sailing, they now patrolled between Wester Ponente, Wester Levante and Little Wester, stopping at the mana reef to fill up on fresh fish rich in mana. Feeding my hatchling was not their only purpose; shaking down their crews and shepherding some of the Neriad back along the way was also part of it. The underwater excavation continued revealing more and more of the buried city while providing more volcanic rock for anything else we might care to construct, from expanding the city¡¯s walls and building up thegoon wall to a circr road around the innergoon. The Lagoon Road headed south from Wester Town to make travel to the entrance to the Lodestone quicker and easier to reinforce, but eventually, it would work its way around the wholegoon. Life and kingdom building seemed smooth sailing now that the envoys had left and the former Libian mercenary merchants had been dealt with. Even the indentured adventurers helped delve into the Lodestone or teach my cousins and me under the guidance of Lady Acacia. The only real problem was the increased need for housing required to house our expanding poption. Still, seeing as we owned most of the ind, even that was another opportunity. All in all, things were looking up. Chapter 201: Coming Clean Chapter 201: Coming Clean ¡°If you tell the truth, you don¡¯t have to remember anything.¡± Mark Twain Life was going well; trade was continuing to grow between the three inds of Wester. Pearls, salt and purple were still our chief exports to the wider world through Mercurio, Kashif and the Church. But within our local inds, we were now producing enough staples and fruit that fish was no longer the sole meal everyone ate. We continued diversifying by developing our lines of wine and now spirits. As well as building up a stock of sugar and sea silk. The sugar was an internal product for now, lest we draw too much attention. Still, the easy energy it offered, along with a healthy and varied diet, had allowed the formerly enved to rebound from their captivity well and have the energy to work hard building their new lives and our town. The town continued to grow from the influx of the formerly enved. They expanded the town¡¯s walls and primarily worked for the Silversea family and our expanded n, but nearly every house had taken on one or more workers. They were producing a surge in productivity across all the ind¡¯s industries. Not all of them were men, but with our recent acquisition of the ver''s ship, the numbers had certainly shifted in that direction. A few more Neriad had entered thegoon, and they were predominantly female, seeking the safety of an internal sea. Hopefully, things would sort themselves out over time. But the disparity to Mercurio on his next visit would be worth mentioning. We might need to be more discerning in who we ept. Any freed person was a life saved from very, but still, we had not self-selected till now, only avoiding those enved for cardinal sins. The few that had arrived with past transgressions either had been honest about their crimes or had been caught out by Arawn¡¯s interrogations of every new visitor to the ind. Depending on the severity of their crimes and their skills, they were funnelled into mining, logging or delving into the depths of the Lodestone. It was the least elegant of solutions to their arrival on our ind but the most practical if we were to avoid executing people; we had no proper way of offering a fair trial. They might lie to themselves when they dered their innocence of the crimes they had been enved for, but if they believed it strongly enough or were outright delusional, it was possible to fool Arawn¡¯s skill. The system was not infallible, or at least our human perception made it so. At least the delves into the Lodestone were well organised and supported by our indentured adventurers, keen to buy out their forgiveness for their past transgressions. They were actively exploring, mining and farming the resources avable there. Every day they delved a little deeper, charting and mapping the route ever downwards to the core of the world. It was not entirely without incident, injury, and the asional death, but having a Bishop who could heal helped to prevent too many. The monster cores and parts they hauled upwards were creating a burgeoning industry that Mercurio and Kashif were only too eager to haggle over who could sell them on. They had even procured a few more species of fruit, vegetables and grains alongside the odd animal when they visited to expand the small gic pool of the herds we were attempting to build. . . . All in all, life was going well. But if I were going to make my way around the world any time soon, I would need some help. Not to mention simply disappearing wouldpletely freak out my entire family and n. I liked to think that even our advisors would be sad to see me go. Furthermore, how would they react and respond? I could see them searching the local area for me as far as the Wester Isles. But with the support of the Bishop and the Lodestar Church, they wouldn¡¯t be limited to only the Ponentian Archipgo. My trip would hardly go any smoother if I had to spend my time avoiding being hunted as a wayward runaway lord and being returned to my family through the church or, worse, being held as a captive to ckmail my family into supporting whichever side of the House of Lords that found me first. No, if I was going to do this right. I couldn¡¯t just leave a note exining my disappearance. And why they didn''t need toe running after me. I would have to convince them of my sanity, rationality and reasoning for embarking on such a long and arduous journey. Sure, it would be less hazardous for me than for most due to my magic and skills, but it was not as if I could hop on a ne and go from airport to airport. No matter how you looked at it, I was also a little younger than your usual young adventurer. This would take some significant nning in a medieval world, even one with magic. Probably my first and best supporter in this endeavour were the clergymen of the Lodestar church. Bishop Bailie had already nearlypleted his circumnavigation. I understood that he only had a quarter left toplete. He could certainly exin the risks and dangers of each ce they had visited after their years travelling around the world. He would also probably be the best to support a god-given pilgrimage of the world, even if a goddess rather than a god gave it to me. Maybe he could even apany me for some of it. After all, he had neverpleted his, and his presence on our isle was only at our family''s request. If I were going to do this, I would start with him. Or maybe not . . . How do I exin the goddess of luck interfering or rescuing me from my untimely demise? Was the goddess Fortuna part of the church but just hidden from weekly worship? No, it would probably be safer to start closer to home. I would start with my family and get their opinion on involving him before I attempted to involve anyone else. But how to tell them and what to say to them? I had been through this before when I had crippled myself due to excessive self-improvement to the point of crippling myself through my rity. It had gone well enoughst time, meaning they hadn¡¯t abandoned me but epted my unusual stats. I had practised doing this before I could do it again. But I had only done so through necessity and a little force. This time I would choose to do so without an immediate reason orpulsion. Did this mean I might be growing up a little? They were used to the unexpected with me by now. This would be no different. The only difference being my secrets were not being pulled from me but freely given. I had to admit that I perversely enjoyed knowing something others did not. But it was time to let that go. They loved me, they epted me it would be okay. . . . That evening, I wondered whether I could go through with this. But I had called everyone together. It was time. I sat down for the family meeting; I called to facilitate the discussion. I wondered once more whether the fact that I had decided to talk this through with them before being forced meant I was developing my character. Was I finally bing more trusting of the ones who loved me, faults and all? Stop fretting and get on with it, I told myself once more. ¡°Thank you for joining me,¡± I anxiously nodded at Father, Mother, Aleera and Arawn. I had decided to talk this through with them first. We were meeting in our luncheon room rather than therge hall. No servants save ourselves. ¡°We have some things to discuss.¡± ¡°What is it now?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Business is going well, production is increasing, and products are diversifying; the formerly enved people are settling in, there have been no breakouts from the depths of the Lodestone, the town continues to expand, our citadel continues to be carved from the mountain, the Silversea fleet is continuing to grow, we have our neutrality with the House of lords, and the Neriad are settling in nicely, and their former city continues to be uncovered. We have our Silversea court and our lessons. You have your personal magic projects you are working on with Lady Acacia, your clerical studies with Bishop Bailie, and your martial training with Arawn, Namir and Sir Jacques. Isn¡¯t that enough tes to keep spinning in the air? Can you afford to add any more?¡± She asked, exasperated. Most times, I had gathered us all it was to add another project to our to-do list, and when she listed it out like that, it did seem a lot. Luckily Nyx took that moment to pounce on her portion of the snacks I had provided for our family meeting. The littleedic moment broke the escting tension. Father and Mother said nothing, only waiting for me to let them know what I wanted to tell them. They had always been incredibly patient with me. Something I suddenly appreciated all the more when I had the epiphany of realising it. ¡°Mother, Father?¡± I asked to see if they had anything to add. ¡°When you are ready.¡± They gave me the space to frame my words properly rather than attempt to rush through them to defend or deflect my sibling''s usations. At the same time, Arawn knew more than most. His silence seemed to support my decision toe clean. ¡°To escape the mercenary ver, Sinbad, there was a cost.¡± I started. I decided to start with the most recent evasion of the truth and work my way backwards. ¡°A cost?¡± Mother asked, concerned. ¡°As we fled for our lives from the ver¡¯s ship. I prayed.¡± Father nodded as he remembered the final moments of our flight from the mercenary merchants before I slipped into the sea. ¡°To put it simply, my prayers were answered.¡± There was a shocked gasp as I gave them space to understand what I was saying. ¡°By the gods?¡± Aleera whispered, worried. Our little ind had its struggles, but they were all rtively smallpared to the wheeling and dealing of the countries, noble races, gods and their champions on thepass continent defending it from the base races of the Lodestone. Lady Acacia informed us of the continent''s history and, when the merchants arrived, the most recent cmities and crises. But much like the news in my former world, it was all so far away as to have little impact on how we lived our lives. While rather than asking the obvious mother focused on how this might affect me now. ¡°Your prayers were answered.¡± Mother questioned. ¡° How?¡± ¡°Father saw my escape from the ship. Through a hole in its side, still, mana bound and blindfolded, I was able to dance through the sky.¡± I stated without arrogance, just honesty. They all nodded as they had heard all of this before. Though I had always glossed over the sess of my escape before saying I had gotten lucky, now I would be going into more detail. ¡°You said you were lucky,¡± Aleera answered for all of them as if attempting to ameliorate the support of the Compass Kingdom Gods. ¡°I was. Luck gave me the opportunity and guided my feet in their escape.¡± I paused here for my statement to sink in. ¡°Luck?¡± Mother asked. ¡°Not the Southern God of the Beastkin or the Western God of the Pixies?¡± ¡°No, Luck or rather Fortuna held my hand and guided my steps.¡± Recalling the glowing golden lines of fortune, I had danced along to avoid the teeth of the tangle of sea monsters. ¡°How?¡± she asked, not disbelieving, simply trying to wrap her head around what she had thought she understood of my momentary capture by the vers. ¡°I thought you used your magic, your trait supporting your quick recovery.¡± ¡°My trait, Source of Mana, did indeed wake me up from being unconscious with pain as my mana cores were formed under the suppression of being mana bound, but before my bonds were broken, my mana was still sealed. I could not use it to escape, and its use would have only called more of the monsters to me. No . . . as Iy bound and feeling quite the idiot . . .¡± I paused to admit, if only to myself, how terribly it could have gone. ¡°I prayed once more, and this time my prayer was answered.¡± The family sat still in silence, absorbing a mortal¡¯s tale of his brush with the gods of thepass kingdoms. The silence was broken by Aleera¡¯s demanding tone, ¡°And then?¡± ¡°I appeared in the hall of the gods. Just like the church of the Lodestar describes. The Anemoi were seated around apass and were discussing my fate.¡± ¡°They are real?¡± Mother asked my story conflicting with her anger at the church for failing her in her time of need. ¡°They are,¡± I replied as Father hugged her. He had never doubted their existence being the more religious of the family. ¡°The sea cares not for those who sail its surface. It simply is.¡± Hemented. ¡°What drew their attention?¡± ¡°One felt that I would make a good champion for them after their former champion¡¯s demise,¡± I exined Feng Po Po¡¯s interest. ¡°But my bnced stats meant I could represent any of the eight Anemoi of the Compass Kingdoms.¡± I was careful not to disparage their discussion. Who knew who might be listening to our conversation despite the precautions I had taken in soundproofing the room we were meeting and eating in? They had not seemed all-knowing, but they had seemed all-powerfulpared to us. ¡°A champion?¡± Aleera asked, and I was able to exin, having quizzed Bishop Bailie since my safe return. ¡°Each God is allowed a mortal to act on thepass continent to defend the realm against the base races and save the people in the face of cmity,¡± I exined what I had taken from his exnations. ¡°Seven are spread throughout thepass continent between the eight kingdoms, and I could have reced the eighth one that perished.¡± ¡°Could have?¡± Mother jumped in, recognising that my wording implied I was not one of their champions after all. ¡°There was a hidden ninth goddess there watching. The Goddess of luck, Fortuna. While they discussed my fate and future, she offered me another option, a favour for a favour.¡± ¡°What was the favour?¡± Arawn asked, leaning forward, fully invested in my reveal. It had probably gone in apletely different direction than he had expected. ¡°My escape from the hold, but there were a few steps to do that. First, she released my locked points. And assigned them for me equally across my ten stats. ¡° ¡°She assigned your points!¡± Aleera eximed. ¡°How is that fair at all!¡± She was understandably upset, losing her lead on me overnight without realising it. The only thing holding me back from surpassing her was my age and the fact that the system was supposed to be locked until I hit my majority. I grinned, enjoying the fact that she now knew the fact that I was stronger than her. I hadn¡¯t hidden it on purpose, but I had held back to prevent too many questions. ¡°How high?¡± She demanded unrepenting of breaking the social norms of how rude it was to question another about their stats, especially in front of others. ¡°She kept me bnced, but my average stat hit 163 across the board when I unlocked my mage metier.¡± I smiled, ¡°She called me her lucky prime.¡± ¡°You saw the goddess again?¡± asked Mother. ¡°Yes, the shard of the lodestar seemed to open up a channel for us to talk,¡± I exined my reasoning. ¡°We cane back to thatter.¡± Arawn interrupted. ¡°Stop jumping around in your storytelling.¡± Hemanded before recapping the events. ¡°You prayed, appeared in the hall of the gods, met the goddess Fortuna who offered a favour for a favour, then unlocked and assigned your stats. What happened next?!¡± Arawn resented the interruptions my sister had caused and preferred the questions to arrive at the end of the story, not in the middle of it. ¡°Well, once she had assigned me equally across the ball ten of my stats, she gave my luck one more which meant that when we returned to the hall of the gods, her words took precedence over the others. I am now nominally her champion, although she refers to me as her lucky prime.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a champion?¡± Aleera asked, unafraid of Arawn¡¯s disproving stare ¡°I suppose,¡± I answered. I did not feel like a champion, and the way she had phrased it as a favour for a favour made it feel somehow less imposing. ¡°One of the eight champions?¡± She kept drilling. ¡°No, I guess I am the hidden ninth?¡± I answered, unsure whether there was also a hidden tenth god of magic and a corresponding hidden champion for them. ¡°Aleera, stop interrupting. What happened next?¡± Arawn attempted to redirect the conversation back to the tale I had started. ¡°The gods challenged her im, but when they inspected me, they found it true. Also, their inspection levelled my block status skill until it hit 100. Then I received another called enigma.¡± I smiled, proud of my progress, even if it had been divinely inspired. It had not been easy holding my skill up against them, even if it did ultimately do little to stop their inspection. ¡°Hah, the child with a locked system has somehow achieved an evolved skill,¡± Arawn smirked, finally giving up upon restraining questions andments for the end of the story. ¡°An evolved skill?¡± Aleera chimed in, and this time Arawn answered instead of me. ¡°An evolved skill happens when you manage to level a skill to 100. Not something that normally happens until you are decades older, and one of the benefits of keeping your skills separate rather than consolidating them up to a higher tier.¡± I winced internally, but with the hundreds of skills I had, merging and consolidating them was a far quicker and more practical method to reach higher-tiered skills for me. ¡°Then what happened?¡± Father took over the role of keeping us going on track. ¡°Well, the other gods left, and then we danced.¡± I winced, realising how ridiculous this story sounded, fully anticipating Aleera¡¯s criticism. ¡°Danced?¡± she sounded somewhat sceptical. ¡°Yes, we danced together with my eyes closed following a golden thread and levelled my dancing skill up to 100.¡± No more dance lessons were needed for me. ¡°Two evolved skills?¡± Arawn focused on skill progression. ¡°I gained Air stepping,¡± I confirmed, although I didn¡¯t remember the system stating it was evolving. ¡°Well, Lady Acacia should be happy about that, at least.¡± Mother added, seeing as we were all adding our opinions now. ¡°And then?¡± Father continued. ¡°Then I was returned to the ship¡¯s hold,¡± I answered. ¡°Did you ever leave, though?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°If a god could take you and return you anywhere, why not return you safely aboard your father¡¯s boat.¡± ¡°Real or not, I returned to my body, just as my chains were broken by my mana cores forming along with the side of the boat I was chained to. I followed the golden thread out of the hall in the wall and danced blindfolded to my father across the backs of sea monsters.¡± I exined what had happened next. ¡°When you described this,¡± Mother looked pointedly at Father, ¡°It didn¡¯t sound nearly so dangerous.¡± Before turning her ire on me, ¡°And the cost? What is the favour you need to repay?¡± ¡°Well, the second time we met when I gained my new metier mage. . .¡± I started. ¡°We didn¡¯t see anything.¡± Aleera objected. ¡°And we were there.¡± ¡°That proves it, then. His human form remains in the mortal world while his spirit ascends to the hall of gods.¡± Arawn seemed happy to have his point proven. ¡°I didn¡¯t go back to the Hall of the Gods, though I did get a new view of my soul and status,¡± I replied, remembering my external view of myself. ¡°That is when she asked for the favour to be returned?¡± Mother questioned. ¡°What is it?¡± she asked, worried. ¡°For me to go on a pilgrimage, to circumnavigate thepass kingdoms,¡± I answered anxiously. How would my family take the news? It hadn¡¯t seemed too bad a favour to ask for my freedom from envement. ¡°Do you have to leave now?¡± Aleera asked while my parents sat in silence, digesting the news. ¡°Not straight away, but when I turn ten,¡± I answered, facing my parents and waiting for a response to my announcement. ¡°Ten? But that is only three years away. You would be barely out of childhood.¡± Mother seemed shocked and saddened that it would be so soon. ¡°It¡¯s the day my childhood ends, and honestly, with my a hundred skills and stats already above 150, can you still consider me a child even now?¡± I asked. ¡°No, I suppose not.¡± She smiled sadly. ¡°I¡¯m delighted that you survived and that you escaped. But why you? Why did she choose you to be a champion? Couldn¡¯t she have just saved your life without asking for a favour? It seems like a ratherrge request for someone so young.¡± ¡°Maybe, who knows? But I think I was chosen because I remember another life . . . a life on a different . . . a called Earth.¡± Chapter 202: Baring your soul Chapter 202: Baring your soul Optional Music - /watch?v=mJ_fkw5j-t0&list=PLsOmb1C5jfLPAq9h3qEiCxAO4xdnMbfew&index=6 ¡°You have so manyyers that you can peel away a few, and everyone¡¯s so shocked or impressed that you¡¯re baring your soul, while to you, it¡¯s nothing because you know you¡¯ve twenty moreyers to go.¡± Craig Thompson ¡°Finally,¡± Arawn sub vocalised as he sighed in relief at my statement. Without my stats in senses and sensory skills, hisment went unheard by my Father, Mother and sister. I could understand his point. I had bound him to keep my secrets for years now. Not that he didn¡¯t have plenty of practice keeping his own secrets for years. Still, it must be nice for us all to be on the same page for once. The rest of the family all focused on different aspects of my reveal. Mother, ¡°Another life?¡± Father, ¡°Another?¡± Aleera, ¡°Earth?¡± It would be a lot to unpack. I started with the first question. ¡°I remember living another life,¡± I answered. ¡°So Lady Acacia was correct; you have an old soul.¡± Mother asked. Did this change how she saw me? ¡°Yes, I guess so.¡± However, I didn¡¯t think Lady Acacia expected old souls to remember as much of their former life as I did, merely excel at skills from their former lives. I hadn¡¯t only excelled at the skills I had from my former life, but my early ess to the system had allowed me to interact with it from day one and achieve extraordinary traits and skills by being so far ahead of the curve. It looked like I might have been the only one to have ever done so. ¡°Another? What is a?¡± Father quizzed. ¡°Well,¡± This might not be fun. ¡°A is what we live on but refers to the whole ball, kind of like the heavenly bodies you can see in the sky sometimes that are not stars,¡± I answered. ¡°A ball? Why don¡¯t you fall off, or do you live on the top? Why don¡¯t the seas run away.¡± Father asked, confused. The infamous t earth theory was alive and well for both the Lodestar Church and the Compass Continents. But rather than a square, they subscribed to the circle theory in line with their approximately circrpass continent. They believed thepass continent was a floating maic continent that floated in the Azimuth Sea held in the bowl of the gods. A magical invisible globe that contained the world. At least they didn¡¯t believe it rested on the back of four elephants riding a giant turtle swimming through the cosmos. However, I thought that maybe in a world with Magic, what they believed wasn¡¯t entirely out of the realm of possibilities though I doubted it. Something to ask Fortuna if or rather when I saw her again. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. Not really sure where to start unpacking that answer. Gravity, the sr system, the concepts and the space involved were huge things to try andprehend. ¡°Yes, you didn¡¯t fall off, or yes, you lived on the top?¡± He questioned, still stuck on the practicalities of living on a globe. ¡°That¡¯s not what is important right now. It was a world without magic. It was a world without a system.¡± Every sentence I said only dug the hole of misunderstandings deeper. This was not quite how I envisioned this conversation going. At least they were not questioning my sanity or who I really was. ¡°Then how did you survive without magic, skills and stats?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°There were no monsters, only mankind,¡± I answered. Remembering that it was hardly a utopia. We managed to kill ourselves off plenty, even without monsters from the depths of the Lodestone or the ocean. ¡°No noble races?¡± she continued, confused by the very idea of a world without the diversity of thepass kingdoms. ¡°They only existed in stories,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe they existed at some point in history, but if so, they were no more than myth or legend in my time.¡± ¡°Well, this helps to exin a lot.¡± She smiled in relief. ¡°And . . .¡± She turned to the rest of the family. ¡°It means he isn¡¯t any better than me at all. In fact, this sort of makes him my older brother if you really think about it.¡± Aleera jumped on the exnation for me exceeding her in every attribute before I had officially unlocked my status. She was no longer slower or weaker than me if she was actually younger than me, despite all physical evidence to the contrary. ¡°How did you end up here?¡± Father asked. ¡°I don¡¯t really know exactly. One day I was driving a truck when . . .¡± I started but was interrupted by my sister again. ¡°What¡¯s a truck?¡± she asked. This was going to take forever. The questions would never end. ¡°A sort of magic cart without horses that moves on its own.¡± I simplified it as much as possible in an attempt to move on with what Father had asked me. ¡°But you said you didn¡¯t have any magic.¡± She pointed out. ¡°We didn¡¯t,¡± I answered, exasperated. ¡°Then how were you driving the cart?¡± she continued to question. ¡°A sort of magic? I asked as if that would be an eptable answer. ¡°But you said . . .¡± It was my turn to interrupt her, ¡°We call it technology. And it functions on the rules that make the world work.¡± ¡°So magic?¡± she couldn¡¯t quite wrap her head around the difference, but we didn¡¯t study science here. There was no physics, biology or chemistry to exin the rules of reality. It didn¡¯t help that reality was a little more flexible here, with us holding the power to bend it to our will through the use of mana. ¡°No, look,¡± I said, a little exasperated by the argument and the semantics. With magic, I heated the water in my cup until it was boiling. Then took a silk scarf and held it over the top of the boiling water. The steam rising from the cup lifted the scarf and made it move as it rose. ¡°That¡¯s magic. Aleera bluntly pointed out. Unconvinced by the demonstration when she could see me adding mana to the water to heat it. ¡°The heat is made from magic, but the scarf is moving in the rising non-magical steam. I¡¯m not making it move with magic.¡± ¡°Technology must be very weak then,¡± Aleera said, considering the pathetic fluttering of the silken scarf. ¡°Yes and no. It''s just different. But that principle of heat causing things to expand is what created the first steam engines.¡± I winced as I used another unexinable piece of terminology. ¡°A steam engine?¡± she jumped on the new word. ¡°Look, it doesn¡¯t matter. I was driving a magic cart when I crashed and died.¡± I summarised my ending as quickly and simply as I could. ¡°You died.¡± Mother asked, concerned about my well-being as always. ¡°I think so. At least, that is what I remember. Then suddenly, I was here, a new life, a newborn learning everything for the first time. An old soul in an infant.¡± I avoided mentioning remembering my time in the womb no need to make it any more awkward than it needed to be. ¡°You were aware from day one.¡± She asked, reflecting on earlier conversations where I had said I had always been able to see my system. ¡°Aware, yes, but I didn¡¯t speak ournguage then. I had to learn.¡± I might have understood fa more than most infants, but it was still like waking up in a foreignnd with no knowledge of thenguage. I had to learn everything from scratch. Great for levelling skills but slower than if I had had a teacher to tutor me. ¡°What do you mean you didn¡¯t speak thenguage?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Whatnguage did you speak?¡± Probably thinking back to my first words, which to them would have sounded like nonsensical babbling. ¡°Much like how we have learned Elvish and Dwarvish. Thenguages of a different world were different.¡± I answered, resigned to responding to her questions. The fastest way to move forward with my tale was to blitz through them. ¡°What were they called?¡± she asked with insatiable curiosity. ¡°English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German.¡± I listed the firstnguage skills the system had given me before I could ever learn any Buss. ¡°You spoke fivenguages. Were you a schr or a noble? Why would you be driving a magic cart?¡± It was really interesting what she was choosing to focus on. ¡°No, just amon man,¡± I answered. ¡°Then why did you speak fivenguages?¡± she asked. ¡°School.¡± A single word that epassed so much more. An entire education system that was again tooplex to summarise in a single sentence. ¡°The Luminary doesn¡¯t teach you that manynguages unless you are a merchant, noble or schr with private tutors.¡± She disagreed based on her experience of education. There was more than just cultural dissonance here. Could one suffer fromary dissonance? I guessed so. I tried to exin, ¡°Remember, my world didn¡¯t have magic; it didn¡¯t have a system or monsters. It was different in so many different ways. Our education system started when we were five years old and continued for 13 years. Some stayed in school for sixteen years, others twenty or more. It depended on a lot of different factors.¡± ¡°Not so different from here. Sounds like you were a schr to me.¡± She argued. ¡°Five in my former world would have been three and ? years here, and some started as early as three. And this wasn¡¯t just me. No, everyone did that.¡± I tried to exin universal education. ¡°Everyone did that?¡± She asked disbelievingly. ¡°Well, maybe not everyone, but most, many did.¡± The problem with speaking in generalities was that they were not always true. Something Arawn was bound to pick up on. At least Aleera didn¡¯t have that skill yet. But now wasn¡¯t the time to go into detail about the inequalities of my former world. ¡°Well, I suppose if you stayed in education for that long, they had to teach you something. If you aren''t learning any magic, reading, writing, and arithmetic, only take so long to teach.¡± She suggested the reason I knew fivenguages. Again I was not going to go into detail about the education system, its strengths or its weaknesses. ¡°That¡¯s how I knew how to make salt, how I knew how to make purple and sugar. These weren¡¯t new discoveries of my own but attempts to rediscover methods for half-remembered realities from the history of my world.¡± I exined. ¡°So you are not a genius inventor.¡± She argued. ¡°Well, I like to think I¡¯m more clever than most, but no the financial sess of House Silversea is built on what I can remember,¡± I confessed. ¡°And the music?¡± she quizzed. ¡°The same. They are songs that I can recall from my former life. In fact, my main problem is trying to get the words to fit into Buss rather than English, which is thenguage most of the ones I can remember are written in.¡± The problem with telling the truth or revealing the trick to the magic meant it wasn¡¯t quite so special anymore. ¡°What does it sound like?¡± she asked, intrigued. ¡°What English?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Um,¡± I picked up the bass rebec. I had managed to convince Lady Acacia to have made for me. The instrument was in the corner of the room ready for practice in the great hall. It was not quite yet a cello, but it was close enough. I liked the opening of this song, and it would work with both the bass rebec and the subject of telling them my secrets. Maybe one day I would be able to make the music with lightning, but for now, the bass rebec would have to do. optional music - /watch?v=EmLcX4sklgk ¡°Tell me what you want to hear Something that will light those ears I¡¯m sick of all the insincere So I¡¯m gonna give all my secrets away This time Don¡¯t need another perfect lie Don¡¯t care if critics ever jump in line I¡¯m gonna give all my secrets away.¡± ¡°It sounds lovely, but what do the words mean?¡± Mother asked. ¡°That I¡¯m going to give all my secrets away.¡± He smiled, embarrassed that I had been called on it so soon. ¡°Somehow, I doubt that. ¡° Aleera said. ¡°Well, there are a few more, but mainly there are not secrets so much as knowledge of another world of technology rather than magic,¡± I answered. ¡°A whole world of knowledge.¡± Aleera sounded ecstatic at the leverage this might give our blossoming house. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t remember it all.¡± I cautioned. ¡°But, try to think of technology as another system of magic.¡± I decided to exin it, remembering the way rke had described it, ¡®Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.¡¯ ¡°To make light, you can burn wood or a candle; you can use spellcraft of the humans, Spellsong of the elves, glyphs of the giants, runes of the dwarves, etc. Or you can use technology to make metal glow incandescent.¡± I tried to exin. ¡°My former world had a wealth of knowledge about just about everything other than that rted to the mana of this world.¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to see that. What about water? What are the otherworldly secrets of water?¡± She asked, teasing. ¡°That it is a liquid,¡± I replied deadpanned. ¡°We know that!¡± she replied, unimpressed. ¡°That it is made up of two gases.¡± I grinned. But something got lost in the trantion from English to Buss. ¡°What is a gas?¡± ¡°An element of the air.¡± It was difficult to describe this without the correct terminology, Buss had a lot of the words, but they were used slightly differently or for different purposes. ¡°If it were made of air, it would be air, or gas as you called it.¡± She said, frowning. ¡°Yes and no. The elements of air are bound together. If you heat water, it will be a gas again, like steam, but they be a liquid at room temperature. If you cool them further, they freeze into a solid. However, if you are able to separate the two elements when in their liquidbination, they will appear as a gas once more.¡± Not a perfect exnation by any means. ¡°Sounds like magic to me.¡± She pointed out. ¡°But it''s not. This is what would happen outside in nature with or without magic.¡± I argued. ¡°Fine.¡± She answered, not yet convinced. ¡°If you two have finished arguing with one another. Other than an entire world of secrets you are still keeping, what else have you to confess to?¡± Mother stopped our sibling spat. ¡°I stole the pewterware as an infant,¡± I added hastily. Might as well get everything off my chest while I was at it. ¡°I knew it.¡± ¡°That was expensive stuff.¡± ¡°Why on earth would you do that?¡± ¡°I seriously doubt that some cutlery theft is the extent of omissions.¡± They all had different opinions about that revtion. Moving on . . . What else did I have to confess to? Oh yeah. ¡°There might be a few skills I haven¡¯t mentioned.¡± ¡°After what you have already told us, a few secret skills hardly seem earth-shaking information,¡± Fathermented. ¡°They are Tier 5 skills.¡± I shrugged. This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be as I watched their facial expressions flicker through a range of different emotions from each revtion. Chapter 203: Spilling Secrets Chapter 203: Spilling Secrets ¡°Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.¡± Elizabeth I In for a penny in for a pound, if I wasing clean, I might as wellepletely clean. They had supported me this far. Why not the whole distance? So far, I had covered my meeting with Fortuna and the fact that I remembered a life in a different world without magic. Next up were my Tier 5 skills. While my internal monologue distracted me from the current moment, life moved on with or without my attention. ¡°Remember, he could talk for months before he let us know. On top of that, he had unlocked his system early. He also gained traits and stats high enough to unbnce himself, only confessing when he messed it all up. It¡¯s Kai, he¡¯s bound to have kept something back.¡± Aleera was pointing out, arguing. It seemed I had a reputation. ¡°Well, there are a couple of skills,¡± I confirmed what I had already said. ¡°See, I told you so.¡± She indignantly crowed. ¡°When I let you know about my skills, I only told you about my tier 1,2,3 and 4 skills.¡± Thinking at the time that anything higher was even more outrageous. ¡°I actually have some tier 5 skills.¡± ¡°Ta-dah!¡± Aleera gestured hysterically. ¡°Even if he isn¡¯t a genius schr, a savant merchant, or a musical prodigy, due to his otherworldly knowledge, he still has kingly skills.¡± She said, referencing themon, knight, lord, duke, and king reference system for skills. ¡°What¡¯s next, a godly one?¡± What could I say? It was a habit, not to mention everything, and I had only just received the soul stuff. I still knew next to nothing about it. ¡°I¡¯m almost disappointed in your martial skills,¡± Arawn added sardonically. ¡°It feels like you haven¡¯t truly applied yourself.¡± ¡°Well, I never picked up a dagger or sword till I arrived here.¡± I justified my initial inexperience with the more lethal skills. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a violent world, or rather where I lived wasn¡¯t. You did not need to be particrly proficient in violence.¡± I defended my slow, inparison, but still explosive growth. ¡°So, skills.¡± Arawn prodded. ¡°How about you start at the top again.¡± I paused before answering, ¡°It might be better if I just listed my status, starting at the top.¡± I spoke. Realising that this would also only raise more questions. But not quite sure how close their guesses were to the actual truth of the matter. Level: 49 Title: Lord M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 11 M¨¦tier: Sailor Lv 12 M¨¦tier: Merchant Lv 8 M¨¦tier: Mage Lv 1 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° It seemed I had finally struck them dumb. They sat in silence, digesting the first seven lines of my status. There was a lot to unpack there, even though they knew to expect the unexpected by now. ¡° . . . ¡° Aleera opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I couldn¡¯t help but grin at her goldfish impression. ¡°Why do you have four names?¡± Mother asked. More than anyone else, she seemed concerned about how this affected me and who I would be. ¡°At least Sailor is the highest.¡± Joked Father, trying to lighten the moment. He even nodded appreciatively of my progress in what was his starting metier. ¡°How do you have four m¨¦tiers?¡± Arawn asked. Instantly seeing the military applications of multiple professions and the benefits it would have to level quicker than anyone else. Before Aleera was finally able toin, ¡°Really, Level 49! That¡¯s ridiculous. You shouldn¡¯t even be able to assign your stats yet!¡± Her small triumph in learning that I was actually her older brother was undermined by the impossibility of her catching up anytime soon. Perhaps she would calm down again when she realised how many extra years I had on her. ¡°To answer Mother and Arawn with a single answer, a skill called multiple minds,¡± I answered. ¡°It seems to allow me multiple personalities that the system is happy to reward with separate a m¨¦tier.¡± I tried to exin. ¡°Those are the extra names?¡± Mother asked. ¡°Just other ways to refer to yourself.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I answered simply. ¡°How is that fair?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Well, it is a Tier 5 skill,¡± I answered. ¡°Would you like me to continue?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure I do,¡± Aleera answered, almost sulking, but was overruled by my parents nodding supportively and Arawn looking positively gleeful to finally see into my skull what I was truly capable of. Age: 6 years 12 months 3 days General Experience: 123,456 /3,276,800 Health: 1630/1630 Stamina: 1630/1630 Mana: 1930/1930 Psi: 1630/1630 ¡°Psi isn¡¯t even a recognised resource.¡± Aleera pointed out acting far more put out than I suspected she actually was. ¡°Psi?¡± Father asked, confused. ¡°Psi as in Psionic?¡± Mother questioned, a little better educated. ¡°It¡¯s an assassin¡¯s tool. Undetectable by mana wielders. It can bypass a lot of magical defences. You¡¯ve been holding out on me, Kai.¡± Arawn was quick to see the violent applications of an extra resource. ¡°You¡¯ve been fighting like a man with a blindfold on. It¡¯s time to take it off and see what you can do with your eyes open.¡± He sounded positively gleeful. It was true that I had never truly capitalised on what Psi might be capable of. Partly from theck of a proper instructor, partly from fear of how I would be perceived and the slippery slope the power seemed to offer. I had already been outrageous enough, I had felt. Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 163 Endurance: 163 Strength: 163 Dexterity: 163 Senses: 163 Mind: 163 rity: 163 Magic: 193 Charisma: 163 Luck: 163 Free Points: 10 ¡°Well, at least those haven¡¯t changed.¡± Aleera interrupted. ¡°Hush now, Aleera.¡± Mother chided. ¡°Yes, want to see how his skills stack up,¡± Father added. ¡°Come on Kai.¡± Arawn added. ¡°Stop drawing it out.¡± Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv87) Singing (Lv83) Trading (Lv82)Meditation (Lv82)Time Sense (Lv82) Bnce (Lv60) Fishing (Lv58)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv50) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv52) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv50)Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv36) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (Lv31)Sketching (Lv27) Drafting (Lv26) Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv20) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv19) cksmithing (Lv10) Carpentry (Lv10) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10) Underwater breathing (Lv1) . . . ¡°Howe Dancing is the highest?¡± Fatherined, seemingly having forgotten my exnation that it had been power levelled by dancing with a god. ¡°You¡¯re just miffed that his Sailing skill isn¡¯t his highest.¡± Commented mother. ¡°Does Lady Acacia know you updated skill list and levels?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°She doesn¡¯t keep asking for updated skills levels.¡± Aleera answered for the pair of us. . . . Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv72) Sense Mana (Lv68)Eavesdrop (Lv63)Spellcraft (Lv59) Spellsong (Lv55) Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv40) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Pain Tolerance (Lv38) Stealth (Lv39) Mind Sense (Lv35)Knife Arts (Lv29)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv26)Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv21) Dart (Lv25) Heal (Lv16)Poison Tolerance (Lv11) Treasure Sense (Lv17)Intimidation (Lv12) . . . ¡°Congrattions on your Spellcraft and Spellsong.¡± Mothermented. ¡°Is mind sense your only Psi skill?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°We¡¯ll get there,¡± I answered,mitted to continuing with the skill run down. . . . Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv65)Expel Mana (Lv64)Mana Maniption (Lv63) Gale (LV63) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Boil (Lv50) Ignite (Lv40) Melt (Lv40) Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26)Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv17)Analyse (Lv15)sh Step (Lv15)Seismic Sense (Lv11)Danger Sense (Lv10) Smuggling (LV5) Telepathy (Lv5) . . . ¡°Ah, there is another Psi skill, Telepathy,¡± Arawn added. ¡°How does that work?¡± ¡°Like this,¡± I spoke into all their minds at the same time. ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° Talking with a goddess had its benefits, and whenever she spoke to me, it had been from within my mind, soul etc. My Telepathy had improved, but without the skill themselves, I could not yet listen to all of them at the same time. ¡°But I find it hard to listen to all of you at the same time.¡± I tried to reassure their rambling thoughts. ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° ¡° . . . ¡° Nothing was said aloud, but in their minds, when I focused on each one individually, I could hear them calling out my name, ¡®Kai,¡¯ and a variation of ¡®Can you hear me?¡¯ ¡°Well, that skill wille in useful.¡± Arawn shrugged the pragmatist ever. ¡°Keep going.¡± ¡°Are we not going to talk over the fact that he can talk to us in our minds and possibly hear our thoughts?¡± Asked Aleera. ¡°How is any of this remotely fair?¡± ¡°The world isn¡¯t fair. There are individuals who could destroy not only every individual on the ind but the town itself and possibly even the ind, given the right circumstances and the interest and determination to do so. At least this way, our family will have an advantage they do not.¡± Arawn pointed out the inequalities of a system that could empower all to an enormous extent, although not always equally. ¡°It¡¯s not a high-level skill.¡± I pointed out. ¡°I haven¡¯t used it a lot.¡± Trying to reassure them. ¡°But you should, Kai.¡± Mother agreed with Arawn. ¡°It¡¯s a Lordly skill and an easily hidden one at that. The other houses will have their own secret strengths. We need to live up to our own.¡± She reassured and advised in equal measure. . . . Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv66)Parallel Processing (Lv40) Material Maniption (Lv33) Stone shaping (Lv33) Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv20) Sonar (Lv19) Seafaring (Lv11) Air stepping (Lv7) Contract (Lv5) . . . ¡°Another 100 level skill?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°You try blocking the inspections skills of the gods and see if you don¡¯t end up levelling it.¡± I replied. ¡°Iron Man?¡± questioned Arawn. ¡°It¡¯s my consolidation skill of some of my physical skills,¡± I exined how I had synergised eight physical skills to build it. ¡°And Air Stepping?¡± he continued to dissect my skill list. ¡°A Psi skill. It doesn¡¯t take mana for me to use, unlike flight,¡± I answered. ¡°It also allows me to easily ascend into the air as well asnd a lot easier¡± ¡°Right, moving on. What¡¯s next?¡± . . . Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv25) Multiple minds (Lv4) Omniglot (Lv25) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv10) Enigma (Lv1) . . . ¡°So Mind Fortress sounds Psi rted again, a defensive skill?¡± Arawn asked. ¡°I suppose so, but I only ever used it to retreat into my mind and practice my skills or pass away the time when trapped by a body that wouldn¡¯t do what I remember it could do,¡± I answered. ¡°The other thing that it did was prevent me from seeing outside of my brain as it kept everything that I could do contained.¡± ¡°Skills sometimes have downsides. It¡¯s always worth talking through their applications or at least thinking through all their applications.¡± Arawn answered my subtle self-criticism. ¡°Multiple Minds?¡± Asked Mother. ¡°They are me, just each with a different focus in life. Kai the Singer, Callen the Sailor, Caelus the Merchant and Kasai the Mage. Or at least that is how the system seems to see me or rather us.¡± I tried to exin. ¡°Take care not to lose yourself inside.¡± She gave me a hug pulling me tight. ¡°Remember who you are and who your family are.¡± ¡°The skill doesn¡¯tst for too long, and they just fade back into me when the skill finishes.¡± I attempted to reassure her. ¡°Sounds like another mental Psi skill. Creating mental clones to carry out your will.¡± Arawn started, then had a moment of epiphany. ¡°You¡¯ve used this when fighting me, haven¡¯t you.¡± He demanded the truth. ¡°Well, only to try and get an edge.¡± I made excuses. ¡°Well done, it worked at least once or twice, and exins how you were able to cut me despite your martial skill levels being so much lower than my own.¡± He continued unoffended by my skill use to cheat a win against him. ¡°Omniglot, Weapon Prodigy, Music Prodigy and Polymath?¡± Aleera asked. ¡°Skill consolidations.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Skill consolidations? That means they represent 16 . . . 32 . . . 48 . . . 64 separate skills?¡± ¡°Well, mynguage, musical, martial and academic skills are obviously missing from my skill lists,¡± I answered. ¡°Did you get any benefits from consolidating them?¡± Father asked, intrigued, quietly stepping around the fact that I had actually been able to. ¡°Or any constraints?¡± Arawn added. ¡°They are harder to level now that they are tier 5 skills as opposed to lower tier skills, but I believe I¡¯ve got something extra for each one. They are greater than the sum of their parts. Polymath blends well with all my other memory or learning and teaching skills. Lady Acaica¡¯s lessons used to feel more challenging but seem so much simpler nowadays, or rather since I gained the skill.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to tell her that.¡± Aleera dobbed me in. Or rather, she would if I couldn¡¯t convince her otherwise. ¡°Aleeeeeera,¡± I whined. Although my portrayal of a petnt child was a little less epted by my family now that they knew just how much I remembered and how many lives I¡¯d lived. ¡°Cut it out, Kai.¡± Father reproved. ¡°What? It isn¡¯t as if you need another advantage.¡± And I bowed my head in silent eptance that I wouldn¡¯t be able to argue my way out of that point. ¡°If Aleera didn¡¯t, I would tell her that you¡¯re finding her lessons a little too easy,¡± Arawn added his feather to the scale. ¡°Weapon Prodigy, Music Prodigy?¡± ¡°Same, really. Harder to level up, but I can pick up any instrument now and apply all my other skills to it, even if I¡¯ve never yed it before. The same goes for any weapon.¡± I grinned. They hadn¡¯t noticed as he had trained me on all the different weapons skills and all the weapons we had long before I got the trait. However, with the influx of weapons from the mercenary merchant¡¯s vessel, I had been able to test the theory on some of the more eclectic weapons we had never held on the ind before. ¡°As for Omniglot, I believe it will be the same. Should Ie across anothernguage, I know not. I hope that I will be able to decipher it quickly.¡± ¡°Well, that is certainly a lot to think about.¡± Mother called the meeting to an end. ¡°Why don¡¯t we sleep on it for tonight.¡± All that talking had taken uste into the night. It was time to go to sleep. ¡°Was that everything?¡± Aleera whispered as we left to head to bed. ¡°More or less,¡± I whispered back in response. Chapter 204: Unburdened Chapter 204: Unburdened ¡°Remove the emotional and physical clutter from your life so you can soar.¡± Judith Orloff I¡¯d told them. . . I¡¯d told them it all, yet it made no difference. . . I was still loved despite remembering a past life. The concern and fear that I would be cast out of the family or hunted down and killed were wasted worries. It is sometimes said, ¡®It¡¯s not paranoia if they are actually out to get you,¡¯ but in this case, with my family at least, they weren¡¯t. Judging from what I was picking up, the Psi skills were probably more troubling to them than the memories of another life. However, Aleera seemed most annoyed by the multiple metiers. As a family, it was decided to inform our advisors of the divine quest and the expanded skill list but keep hidden the otherworldly knowledge as a Silversea Secret and the multiple metiers as my ace in the hole. After simr scenes with each advisor, much like with my family and some time to digest and re-evaluate their thoughts, they were ready to impart or instead revise in light of the new information their advice. . . . From the Church ¡°Well, you are going to need to get stronger.¡± Sir Jacques put it simply. ¡°It can be dangerous to travel between towns bynd, sea or air.¡± Hemented, acknowledging that I might make the journey differently to others. While the Bishop had a slightly more political position. ¡°The best armour for this journey is that of the Church. A noble family may be respected within a single country, although in Ponente, you may still find half of them arrayed against you, depending on how Aleera¡¯s debut proceeds. But if you were a member of the church, then that protection will follow you throughout your journey across far more than a single country.¡± He advised. ¡°But I don¡¯t want to pledge allegiance to the eight Anemoi of the church. I have another Patron,¡± I answered, referring to the Goddess Fortuna. ¡°While we acknowledge them as gods, it is more the Light of the Lodestar that gives us the system and allows us to level that is the prime tenant of the church. Following Fortuna does not bar you from being a member.¡± He tried to convince me. ¡°While I acknowledge the benefits being a man of the church would provide me and my quest. I have a home and enjoy my freedom to make my own ns for my house.¡± I politely refused the offer. But the Bishop was not finished with his offers, ¡°Alternatively, as a squire of Pdin Sir Jacques, the only oath you would need to make would be one of integrity, honesty and a pledge to walk in the light of the Lodestar.¡± ¡°As a squire, wouldn¡¯t Sir Jacques have to apany me on my journey?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t think they allowed squires to make unapanied journeys around the world. ¡°Well, yes.¡± He admitted. Whether it was concerning my well-being or a wish to continue his oversight over my growth, I couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°He could support your sess as he apanied you.¡± ¡°He would slow me down,¡± I objected. ¡°Hardly . . .¡± he refuted. ¡°I can fly. Can he?¡± While stats made a vast difference, flight was a game changer in terms of the speed of travel. But the Bishop had not given up just yet. ¡°A church messenger, then. No need to pledge allegiance. Or wait for others to apany you. You would be able to travel between towns under our banner and protection at whatever speed you are able to. But flight might not be the best method if you wish to remain inconspicuous.¡± ¡°Or the safest.¡± Added Sir Jacques. ¡°Safest?¡± I asked. ¡°You live in the middle of the ocean. The few inds nearby have been colonised, and if there were any flying monsters, they have long been eaten by those of the deep, or their nesting grounds have been destroyed by the pioneers. You have yet to face a flying monster. Onnd, however, they are not quite so rare.¡± He cautioned. Great. I muttered internally to myself. ¡°Regardless of what you decide to do. We will aid you in any way we can. After all, it is a god given quest and our duty to support you.¡± He paused. ¡°We only want what is best for you, the Silverseas, and the ind.¡± I nodded in understanding. They had been eminently patient and supportive of our political positions, economic growth and our personal progress. I was not going to ignore their advice or refuse their support if it would smooth my journey. ¡°Would you tell me about your trip?¡± ¡°Well . . . ¡± . . . From Lady Acacia ¡°This might be a quest, but there is no reason for it not to align with House Silversea''s goals.¡± She said after time to reflect. ¡°How so?¡± I asked. ¡°Visit each ind and Silversea holding through the Azimuth Archipgo in the Cyan Sea as you head to the capital of Ponente for starters.¡± She said, ¡°Be there for your sister¡¯s debut. Support her through her eptance as a Noble Lady.¡± ¡°Support her?¡± ¡°We are not just practising for yourself. To leave her debut partner in the hands of any other house would leave us vulnerable to whomever we had to ask for help from.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± ¡°Yes, despite your high level in dance, that doesn¡¯t mean you haven¡¯t gotten out of your instruction. You will need to learn several dances with her to support her through them. Admittedly your height is a little bit of an issue, but if you can waltz through the air, I see no reason that you cannot do so at the correct height to apany her without making her look like an ogre leading a child.¡± ¡°OK.¡± I had hoped that having reached the highest level. I would be able to skip the dance lessons now. ¡°You will be expected to apany her vocal and instrumental recital. It would be eptable for me to apany her for either of those, but it looks better for the house if they can provide their apanist rather than rely on their tutor.¡± She continued to exin. ¡°Right.¡± I enjoyed ying but like to do so without the pressure a political performance would apply. She had clearly put some thought into how this was going to go. ¡°Even leave with us to return home. There will no doubt be much interest in our burgeoning house after her performance, and it might be best if all concerned consider you to have returned home with us. However, once out of our sight fromnd under the cover of darkness, you could begin your journey north.¡± ¡°Why north?¡± ¡°You have a unique opportunity to assess new markets and build new interest in Silversea products. You already have trade links West and South with Ponente and Libio. But under the protection of being a church messenger, you can deliver samples and letters from house Silversea expressing a desire to trade once you have passed on whatever messages the church would have you deliver. Messages for each church and town north as you go, but on crossing the border into Maestro, you also have the opportunity to visit the Elven kingdom. If you bear my seal, they will trade with you and should be able to provide you with finer clothing, weapons and food than you can imagine. More I cannot say.¡± ¡°North it is then.¡± I shrugged, not particrly hung up on the direction in which I circumnavigated the Compass Continent. ¡°It would even be worth visiting the Silverwood holdings of old. Arawn could meet you there. If he travelled separately north from the capital and went directly there.¡± She added as if only thinking of the suggestion when it was already nned far in advance. ¡°It¡¯s an option,¡± I admitted. However, it did not necessarily seem wise to wake up whoever destroyed the Silverwood family all those years ago. Let sleeping tigers lie. ¡°Have you considered your method of travel?¡± she quizzed. ¡°Well, I was thinking of growing my own boat from scratch.¡± I started. . . . From Arawn ¡°I¡¯m going with you one way or another.¡± He stated simply. The words whispered as he drew back his arrow. ¡°Even if you can¡¯t keep up,¡± I smirked. Pulling back my own arrow. We were hunting the western woods and would have venison for dinner. Releasing our shots together, we simultaneously took the deer in the neck and eye. I was improving, but I was not as good as him yet. We headed out from behind the bushes and trees, entering the small clearing where the deery already dead. ¡°I¡¯ve given my life to this family ten times over. I won¡¯t see the line end because you decided to waltz off into the sunset alone.¡± He argued as we approached the animal for dressing. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s time for you to retire.¡± I joked. The jokended t in a world that had no such concept as retirement. ¡°I¡¯m bound by blood and oath to protect you.¡± He repeated his mantra, a central part of who he was and how he functioned, even when it wasn¡¯t immediately obvious. Knives out. He gestured where I needed to cut to begin dressing the animal. Despite my progress, every moment was still a teaching moment for him. ¡°I release you from your oaths.¡± I started watching the shudder as they released him. He no longer held any secrets of mine that my family did not know. There was no straightening of his back, no change in his posture. I wondered whether this showed that he no longer felt bound by his oaths. ¡°If you think that will stop me from apanying you, you are far more delusional than your family thinks.¡± He smirked back. Taking advantage of my hesitation to take control of quartering the animal. ¡°And don¡¯t think that I am alone in this. Namir is not going to want to lose his prize pupil either.¡± He grinned as he continued working on the animal, and I realised he was probably right. No one was saying no to my quest, but neither were they saying yes to the idea of me riding off into the sunset alone. They all believed that I would be safer apanied and were nning on how to make that happen one way or another. We returned home carrying the meat. . . . From Namir ¡°You''re not ready yet.¡± Namir objected to the idea of my solo trek around the world. We stood facing one another, rapiers extended. ¡°I can beat all my cousins.¡± I pointed out, leaping forward at the same time as I thrust. The rapier¡¯s point closed in on him. He leapt back, flicking his up to deflect my strike, ¡°Can you beat me? Because you will be facing monsters like me, humanoid or otherwise not your cousins, in the wilderness between towns and cities.¡± He pressed forward, suddenly driving me back. ¡°I¡¯m not nning on seeking out monsters,¡± I argued, defensively dancing back from the beastkin. The extra levels in dancing came in useful as I continued to evade his aggressive footwork and rapid strikes. ¡°And all your ns work out wonderfully, yes?¡± He asked, unimpressed at my naivety. He suddenlyunched blunted, throwing daggers from his left hand, one too many to avoid, I got caught, and it drove the breath out of me. Allowing him to catch, trip and disarm me in my moment of distraction. ¡°Those aren¡¯t yours,¡± Iined from my seat on the floor as I recognised my grandfather¡¯s throwing daggers. Even if, this time, it was Namir wielding them. ¡°We will start delving to see just how well your ns and preparations work out in the face of reality.¡± He lifted me up and returned my rapier. ¡°Fine.¡± I wasn¡¯t against more training, but it didn¡¯t feel particrly pleasant to be told that you were not ready yet when you thought you were. ¡°Good; I¡¯ll see you and your sister ready to face the world.¡± . . . From Father ¡°If you are really nning on this circumnavigation, you will need to get some solo sails under your belt.¡± He said as he cast a line out on thegoon. With Neriad steadily immigrating from the depths, we had to zone areas for fishing, lest we cause harm by identally hooking the new guests to our ind. We were fishing north of the inner isle today. The zoning had been the most contentious issue of immigration with the inders in Wester Town. Otherwise, they had been happy to explore new wares and have new customers to sell their wares to. ¡°I¡¯m not asking to go tomorrow,¡± I answered him. ¡°I¡¯m happy to demonstrate I can sail solo between the isles.¡± ¡°You might be, and I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re not capable, but let¡¯s build up to that ok. You manage to find far more than your fair share of sea monsters and pirates than any other sailor I know.¡± He cautioned. As we spent the evening fishing, we nned out a route and a sailing trip where we would both have our own boats to captain. I just had to grow mine first. Chapter 205: Building a Boat Chapter 205: Building a Boat ¡°If you want to build a ship, don¡¯t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the word and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.¡± Antoine de saint exupery . . . ¡®I¡¯m building a boat¡¯ was simpler said than done. Growing a boat was even more challenging, even if I was cheating and using magic to do so. In theory, there would be a lot of advantages to growing it from a single piece of wood. But holding the magic together to get it to grow correctly was incredibly challenging and time-consuming. An Elendil tree and its wood would happily grow in any specific direction and way that you wished it to should you be able tomune with it, as Lady Acacia had taught us how to do that. Spellsong and mana maniption allowed me toy down the lines I wished the wood to grow along, and along them, it grew like magic. Watching the wood follow the glowing green lines visible only in my mana sight was still otherworldly. Like drawing lines of light on aputer to design, I imagined, created, and fed the lines with my mana as the wood grew along them, my magic turning fantasy into reality. Once grown, it was solid, physical and real, no longer only a mental construct in my head. Elendil wood was simr, if not better, to teak wood as far as I could tell. It was a very dense, hard and strong wood that would form a fantastic boat if I could get everything correct. The important part being, I could get everything correct. . . My first attempt at growing one was . . . A spectacr failure! It looked like a boat, and it floated like a boat, but while it looked like a modern, sleek racing monohull on the outside, it left a lot to be desired, ording to my father, on the inside, and that did not take into ount how it actually handled on the water. My hull had been too thick, and I had failed to include any bulkheads. Which meant I was relying on my magical hardwood a little too much. Also, I fused the rudder to the stern and the keel board to the hull. Not my finest moment. Boats had moving parts for a reason, and mine didn¡¯t move. That didn¡¯t mean that I couldn¡¯t continue to experiment in my mind fortress with ns and attempts. Maybe once I had achieved a decent monohull, I could try a multihull or maybe even foils. But rather than continue via trial and error, it was time to watch a master at work. In the end, I had to watch my uncle build one first to understand what I was attempting to do before I could grow my own. It was not aplete waste of time, though. The practice andpletion of my first sailing vessel. Gave me several levels and even a few new skills. Ironically the first to level was Farming (Lv50 ->59) It turned out that growing wood, even if it wasn¡¯t to eat, was important enough to start levelling the skill. Especially if it was a significant amount, which I was. Even though it was a small boat, the amount of wood wasrge. One of the problems with growing a boat in the caldera was getting it down to the water afterwards, and the heavy wood had required several of our n members and uncles to shift it down there. Draw (Lv52 -> 58) I was doing a lot of drawing in an attempt toy it out correctly. Getting the right sweeping lines of modern ships was challenging withoutputers to provide the correct forme and drawing tools. Despite my errors, I created many beautiful drawings to recreate the boat I wanted. Sketching (Lv27 -> 35) I had more than one skill rted to drawing. It was time they levelled up, and seeing as they were all only tier 1 skills, maybe it was worth consolidating them into a tier 2. Where the line between the two skills was difficult to judge, but the system continued to do so. Drafting (Lv26 -> 34) They were the same but different. Different focuses on the development of the skills. They ovepped one another. I drafted, sketched and must have drawn a hundred different dream boats. Struggling to find the one that would hopefully work the best. I had settled on starting with a monohull. Measurement (Lv19 -> 28) Always measuring twice before cutting was not necessarily applicable in this situation. However, I still did a lot of measurement to ensure it grew in the correct directions and to the correct dimensions. The levels up in the skill showed this. cksmithing (Lv10 ->11) I even gained a single-level making a few of the metal parts. However, I was not nning on dding the hull in metal just yet or maybe never, depending on how well the Elendil wood held up over time in the water. Carpentry (Lv10 ¨C> 20) It helped that I built aplete boat, even if it was not fully functional at first; the synchronistic nature of crafting meant that a single project could level far more skills than a single fight might. Though this project, in particr, was taking far longer than a single fight. The carpentry was more akin to gardening than what my uncle had achieved. The second time around, he watched and was amazed by my magical method as I had been by the magic nature of his high skills and their use. Sense Mana (Lv68 ->75) The process meant that I was constantly using sense mana to make of what I was working on. Directing my mana to form the lines required and encouraging the wood to grow along them. The lines were a little more organic and curved, but I was reminded of early Tron ¡®esk cinematography and the films. The way the wood flowed slowly along the lines in my sight was mesmerising, if slow and continually taxing. At least with a material that was alive and still growing, it did not need to bepleted in a single session. Spellcraft (Lv59 ¨C 63) While I was predominantly using Spellsong to sing the wood into shape, it was not the only magical skill I was using. Especially when workingte into the night, the asional light spells to help my supporters added up. I had far more mana than most despite the majority of it disappearing into the Elendil tree to support its growth along the lines I wanted. Spellsong (Lv55 ¨C 63) The fact that I used it so much did mean that the elvish spell skill caught up to my more traditionally human method of magic. Singing to a tree was one of the more unusual activities that I had attempted recently, but it was difficult to argue with the results, no matter how silly I may have looked or sounded. Obviously, my tier 3 skills, Expel Mana (Lv64 -> 70) and Mana Maniption (Lv63 ->69), also saw explosive growth, and despite their higher tier seeing as that was the majority of what I was up to, they continued to level. But they were not the only higher-tier skills to increase. The level of thinking it took to hold it all in my head has the mana and wood flowed saw, Parallel Processing (Lv40 -> 50) jump up alongside Material Maniption (Lv33 ¨C Lv40) even though it was moving significantly slower than cloth when I worked on moulding a glider shape out of my clothing it still counted as a form of material maniption with my mana. I also gained a new Tier 4 Skill - Magic Carving (Lv1 ¨C 5) In my attempts to separate the various moving parts required to make it functional in the water, I had to carve into the wood to separate the pieces before reattaching them. The easiest way to do this had been to use my magic rather than any tools. I now had magic carving, which would prove incredibly useful in designing my next boat. I could smooth out mistakes in the growth of the wood as well as cut away parts that were fused together when they should have been separate. It was wonderfully fun to work with the wood when it responded to the simplest touch forming shapes beneath my hands or falling away where I needed it thinner. That was not the end of my skill growth, even my Tier 5 skills levelling from the project. Mind fortress (Lv25 ->26) This was where the majority of my nning took ce. Attempting to n, build and form the hull there, believe it or not, prevented me from making a few more major blunders. Though my ideas did not always hold up to the constraints of reality when reproduced in real life as opposed to in my mind. Multiple minds (Lv4 ->5) Each mini-me had a different opinion and design that they wanted to be included in the overall production in reality. Callen, the Sailor, seemed focused on how fast we would be able to make the boat. His designs rapidly escted towards modern-day sailing ships'' catamaran and foil versions. Caelus the Merchant mainly pointed out the importance of requiring a certain amount of space for provisions for consumption or selling, although the emphasis was on what and where we would be able to sell them. Therefore, what type of goods would we be able to carry and whether or not we should have arger hold simply for cargo? Kasai the Mage seemed most intrigued by modern-day technology''s possible magical mechanical applications. The problem was that most of them needed metal to take the stresses we nned on adding. One day that might be a reality. Alternatively, magically reinforced Elendil wood might be able to hold up to the stresses, but that would require further testing. Thankfully my mind had not grown any more crowded with the extra level. Polymath (Lv10 ->14) My second attempt was a lot better. With the hull half the thickness, it was already significantly lighter, ording to my cousins who carried it down to the water for me, than thest one. However, seeing as I had included the bulkheads this time, it was even stronger despite requiring less wood to grow it. I also had my first version to cannibalise, providing any extra wood required. Once I had proven the viability of my hull and its nature, I had to recreate the sails. Sails in my former world had gone through a variety of permutations. Currently, in the Compass Kingdoms, while Ponente favoured the square sails of medieval times, the Libian favoured the more scalene triangr Arabic sails, which Egypt might be remembered for. Mine would be a little more modern, still triangr but more upright. This would have caused endless arguments with my father had I not been able to use my trump argument of this is what they looked like in my old world. He wasn¡¯t a traditionalist by any means, but he did like using what he already knew worked. I added more than one and had the option of a box kite tounch upwards for extra thrust when sailing with the wind. I was exceptionally proud of my design; obviously, only the best material would do. Our sea silk was an exceptionally strong and light material meaning that despite therge area covered, it still weighed remarkably little. It also offered a wonderful material to use should I get my glider designs off the ground. . . . Of course, if you are building a magical boat, it has to be truly magical. I might not be able to truly understand how the runes functioned on the former assassin¡¯s boat, but with my senses and Lady Acacia¡¯s guidance, we were able to see, copy and recreate them on my own. In fact, the size of my boat was mainly based on the size of the assassin¡¯s boat due to precisely that reason. It didn¡¯t hurt that it gave me a new skill to go alongside my Magic Carving. Rune Carving (Lv1 -> 3) The magic additions to the boat included a rune for invisibility, a rune for speed, a rune for wind, and buoyancy alongside a shield should we ever be forced to fight for our lives. Magic mana motenterns, my own creation, filled the interior with light enough to see by. Reducing the need for fire onboard a wooden boat. But that was not all, though. The second set of sails included Lady Acacia¡¯s enchantments embroidered into the sea silk sailcloth. Reminiscent of Irish Celtic knotwork, the spell forms wound their way around one another in unending knotwork, providing durability and strength to the sails. They would not rip or tear even in the strongest of hurricanes or burn from enemy fire, even self-repair themselves should they be actively cut or pierced by weapons or monsters. She also insisted on providing Elvish embroidered enchantments for my sea silk clothing, making me look more like an exiled Elvish prince aboard his Elvish ship rather than a feudal baron from the princedom of Ponente. I didn¡¯t mind too much when the clothing was enchanted to stayfortably cool in hot weather, weingly warm in cold weather and throughout all weather, whether hot or cold, bone dry. They did not work if I went swimming, but as soon as I emerged from the water, with the exception of my hair, I would find myself dry again. A wonder of a world with a system and well . . . magic. . . . This was obviously only my second attempt, but everyone else was also putting forward their efforts that they would like to be included. From the Church of the Lodestar, I received their most recent efforts in cartography. Maps that spanned the world. Suddenly the Wester Isles, a small cluster in the Azure section of the Azimuth Archipgo, seemed so much tinnier inparison to the rest of the wide world. It was easy to see how the House of Lords in Ponente were more worried about my vote''s political weight than any economic impact my small fiefdom might have on the kingdom. While Mother had outfitted the sails and rope for the rigging, my Father provided all the other bits and bobs a medieval man needed for sailing, from hooks to lines to buckets. There were a surprising number of odds and ends that were required. When I grew my final ship, I would grow these as well, but for now, this would be enough for my first solo trip around the isles. Arawn, as always, insisted on a properplement of weapons, never mind that I could use magic. Arawn and Namir insisted that metalsted longer while mana might run out. I had two of everything. From swords to shields, bows and quivers, I was fully equipped. I would not be taking any pirates anytime soon, but I could hopefully fend off a boarding party. However, running would always be preferable to full-scale naval warfare when sailing solo. . . . Conversation at dinner sometimes returned to persuading them, mainly my mother, although Aleera was simrly rmed at the possible departure of her font of new mercenary ideas. ¡°You¡¯re building a boat. You¡¯re going to sail away from us. It¡¯s inevitable.¡± ¡°Not forever.¡± I pointed out. ¡°For long enough. Our job is to build a boat strong enough that will allow you to sail back to us safely.¡± . . . After several test runs on the innergoon to work out the kinks, when the day arrived for my first solo trip to Wester Levante, Little Wester and back to Wester Ponente, I was almost unsurprised that our repurposed ver would apany me on my first ¡®solo¡¯ trip. ¡°What you didn¡¯t expect to sailpletely alone on your first solo trip.¡± That seemed to be the resounding opinion of my family and advisors. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t sailed a boat solo before,¡± I answered, exasperated. ¡°Yes, but I was always there to help out if necessary and catch any mistakes before they happened.¡± Father objected and had the entire family and a crewed vessel to back him up. I would not be departing alone. ¡°Well, may the best boat win.¡± I challenged, chagrined. We would have to see if he could keep up with my modern marvel of nautical engineering. Chapter 206: Solo Sail Chapter 206: Solo Sail ¡°You haven¡¯t lived if you haven¡¯t sailed.¡± David Sedaris I sailed apanied by Nyx, followed by my father and a ship full of the former enved, now sailors under the Silversea House banner, toward Wester Levante. I continued to map the sea floor but failed to find anything new. Faced with the daunting task of sailing the ship alone, I did not have time to make the map while holding the helm but reassigned it to a mental me to take care of within my mind. It would be something I needed to trace out into realityter. Nyx was fascinated by everything new. Like a cat, she poked her head into everything not tightly sealed. Like a child, she climbed everything she could without fear of falling. She would spend her time flitting to and fro, from the deck to the mast, the rigging, then short little flights back to the deck again. However, there were a few ces she liked to linger. The prow of the boat, the tip of the mast and my shoulder, her tail hooked around my neck to keep her steady. We leaned into the wind in an attempt to race ahead of my father. I wondered who would tire faster, my mana or their sailors'' stamina. Our skillspeted against one another, their advantage in the number of sailors and skills avable to them. I might be able to fly faster, but I would not yet be able to fly all the way between the isles before running out of mana. I was working on a prototype glider that might help me to do that. More science and less magic might pave the way for daily flights between our isles, not only by me but by others as well. Still, for longer distance journeys, the circumnavigation in particr, I would need my boat for as far as it would carry me. It would not only be the method but also my home. Allowing me to carry with me not only food, water and clothing but also shelter, safety and security. I might be more than the mere mortal I was in my former world, but I wasn¡¯t immortal. At least not yet. I still needed to eat and sleep, and ording to the maps the Bishop had provided, there might be a way to ice sail across the northern edge of Tramontana, which it was bordered by the endless Ice of the North. Still, I wasn¡¯t there yet. It was time to see if they could keep up with the rune-covered boat. I activated the rune for buoyancy. It was not strictly needed, but the rising of the hull meant there was less drag in the water. Next, I activated the rune for speed. As far as I could tell, this rune did not actually make an inanimate object move any quicker on its own but appeared to reduce friction somehow further so that items would slide quicker and faster. With the two runesbined, there was a noticeable jump in our speed. Nyx¡¯s ws dug into the leather shoulder pad I wore to protect my skin as our boat leapt forward. Next came the rune for wind. I hunkered down before activating it. The wind began to whistle in from behind, funnelled into the already full sails. The ship shot forward, beginning to bounce across the top of the waves rather than sailing through them. It was exhrating. I just needed to hold on and not mess up as we leapt ahead of our followers. Their shouted exmations vanished behind us, and though I knew they would now be racing to catch up, I focused solely on keeping the ship skipping across the waves in front of me rather than crashing and capsizing. We left them in our wake. Wahoo! Even Nyx seemed to te in the sudden jump in speed. A shrill trill loosed from her mouth as I felt her excitement rise. Her wings tucked in tight to her body, she held on tight. It was hard to argue with her. This was fun. . . . We made it to Wester Levante in record time. I doubted Namir could have made it any faster, even had he been able to sprint the entire distance onnd. Still, slowing down and arriving at the dock was a relief. The juddering and jarring boat as we bounced over the waves had be draining in its own way. The constant focus required to make sure the boat did not capsize was equally exhausting. I had never managed to lose sight of my father¡¯s shippletely. It never fell below the horizon but it would be a while before they arrived. In my Elvish embroidered finery and a ck shimmering dragonling sitting on my shoulder, despite my size, it was clear I was someone of influence as I stepped down onto the dock to a warm wee, ¡®Vestis virum facit.¡¯ ¡°Greetings, my Lord. How may I help?¡± I was greeted by a man bowing. There were no questions regarding how much I might owe in taxes today. ¡°Nothing, thank you for asking; I¡¯m merely here for a spot of lunch.¡± I smiled at the idea of visiting Wester Levante solely for some food. I would also consult with the mayor of the town before I left. ¡°I could apany you to see to your needs.¡± He offered, keen to ingratiate himself in mypany. ¡°No, if you would wait to let my father know where I went.¡± That would be most helpful. Thank you.¡± I replied. Good manners cost nothing, and I wished to cultivate the perfect public persona where and when possible. Still, I wanted to avoid unnecessarypany. The lessons might have been a little boring in ces and mainlymon sense or decency, but that didn¡¯t mean that I shouldn¡¯t apply them. I had made good time; it wasn¡¯t even noon yet. I strolled forward along the dock toward the town. Confident and enjoying the win. I needed to give them enough time to catch up, at least before I departed again, or I would be hearing from all of my advisors in more detail than I cared to. My clothing set me apart, and despite my short stature, I found it easy to move through the crowded streets, people noticing my presence and stepping aside for me. I was their Lord after all our property purchases. However, those who had not watched me grow up were a little more intimidated by myth and rumour than the reality of watching me grow up and run around the town. Though with my age and recent ascension, the local people knew me well enough even though they had never seen me. The dragonling sitting on my shoulder probably also helped to give me away. But that was a new development, so it hadn''t entered the stories told just yet. If I were ever going to travel a little more incognito, I would need a cloak to cover my finer clothing. Or rather, alternative travel clothes with a fine set packed away to pull out if I ever had to impress others with my actual political position. There were pros and cons to both positions. I would also have to have Nyx keep out of sight or fly on ahead. We would have to see what worked best. I made my way back to the tavern we had eaten in before. I enjoyed the freedom from constant supervision, the advice that followed my every step, and the asional criticism on improving each one. I was alone, and I liked it. Finding the space and solitude from criticism and demands rxing and relieving. ¡°What will you be having, my lord?¡± I was asked as I sat down for my celebratory meal nervously by the owner of the establishment, who was warily watching the dragon sitting on my shoulder, staring intensely at all the food options avable. . . . I was just finishing my meal when Arawn and Namir stormed up. Nyxzily looked up, her stomach bulging from polishing off far more of the meals than myself. "Gentleman," I started but never finished . . . ¡°You never managed to go that fast on thegoon,¡± Arawn demanded on arriving stiffly at my table. ¡°Well,¡± I grinned. ¡°Thegoon is only so big.¡± I countered. I had tested each and every rune before on thegoon but never all of them at the same time, which meant that my speed had caught them by surprise. ¡°I did wait, though, ready for the next leg of our trip?¡± I gleefully asked. ¡°They are unloading all extraneous supplies as we speak,¡± Namir replied. ¡°Your father requests a head start before you sail to Little Wester.¡± ¡°If I must.¡± I nodded in understanding. ¡°And one of us will be apanying you.¡± Arawn continued. ¡°That¡¯s not what we agreed to,¡± I argued. ¡°This was to be my solo sail!¡± ¡°That was before we saw the speeds you would get up to. If that thing capsizes, you will be dead before we reach you.¡± He argued back just as fiercely. ¡°I¡¯m not so fragile any more; my stats will protect me.¡± ¡°You may not break on hitting the water, but that doesn¡¯t mean you will retain consciousness. One of us will apany you. ¡° He refused to back down as he referred to either himself or Namir. ¡°Fine,¡± I admitted defeat. I would not be getting past him, especially if I was attempting to sail away. ¡°Good.¡± He red. ¡°I choose Namir.¡± I red back. It was as much revenge as I could get. Namir would hate the journey, and Arawn would be frustrated he wouldn¡¯t be apanying me. ¡°Now, just a . . . ¡± ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I must see the mayor before departing.¡± I stepped around him, restrained as he was by the fact that we were having this conversation in public. This would be as far as he could go with intimidation at changing my mind. . . . The meeting with the mayor was quickly over. Messages and reports flowing through Wester Levante soon to be heading back to Wester Ponente. As far as it looked, everything seemed to be expanding swimmingly, but the numbers and figures would be something to consider more carefullyter once I had returned to work with Aleera and Lady Acacia. It was enough to confirm the catspaw of a baron had not returned and was no longer making any moves toward our properties and businesses. I strolled down to the dock to find the crew and my father already long gone. Only Namir was waiting alone on the pier. ¡°He said it was to give himself a fighting chance,¡± Namir said as he stood. ¡°Well, shall we put that to the test?¡± Chapter 207: Rough Waters Chapter 207: Rough Waters"Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm waters, every ship has a good captain.¡± Swedish Proverb It¡¯s said a smooth sea never made a skilful sailor. This morning¡¯s sail had been smooth and speedy. But as we headed south to Little Wester, the weather turned. Luckily, despite his early start, we had already caught up to my father before the weather turned too wild, and we were not too far behind now. However, the rougher water put an end to some of my speed. Rather than utilising the buoyancy rune, I let the ship sit lower in the water to keep a more even keel on the more giant waves. If we had continued to attempt to bounce off the top of the waves, we would havee a cropper and capsized sooner orter. ¡°There may be trouble ahead.¡± Namir pointed at a wall of clouds rushing in from the north and the west, filling the sky. He was not enjoying the smaller, speedier boat. Closer to the water and driven by the rising wind, we rose and fell with the waves far more violently than therge ship pounding through the waves not too far ahead. ¡°But while there¡¯s moonlight and music . . .¡± I muttered under my breath, staring worryingly at the sky. We might need to turn east and run from the storm if we didn¡¯t make it to Little Wester in time. The weather had turned incredibly quickly. ¡°What¡¯s that? There¡¯s no moonlight, and you¡¯re not ying anything.¡± He argued. Nevertheless, the sky had darkened enough to count as dusk despite it being the middle of the day, and the morning had gone so well. ¡°Nothing, let¡¯s face the music and dance.¡± This storm had rolled in unexpectedly quickly and was worryingly drawing closer with every passing minute as we fled south before it. The waves grew in height by the second as we rose and fell higher and deeper with each passing moment. ¡°That would be far easier to do on drynd.¡± He grunted, not recognising the lyrics he had started. It was difficult to tell whether the storm was travelling south or east as it filled both the north and west horizons. The winds that had powered us forward this morning now caused the sea to swell, rise, and fall. The mountains of saltwater grew ever more tempestuous as we attempted to make it to Little Wester. Wester Ponente or even returning to Wester Levante was no longer an option. Between waves, when we could see the other ship, we could see the sailors striving to power their boat ever forward while we hunkered down and rose every mountain and fell down every valley as the waves grew wilder. ¡°This is why I hate sailing.¡± Shouted Namir over the top of the suddenly screaming wind. ¡°It¡¯s not natural to be at the wind and weather''s mercy.¡± ¡°Most men are.¡± I countered, holding tight to theshed wheel as we drove through the approaching wave. The water soaked us to the skin. Nyx was firmly wrapped in my clothing, only her head poking out. ¡°I haven¡¯t been worried about the rain or the wind since I passed Level 50 decades ago. Only on the open ocean do I have to worry about them.¡± He added. I was beginning to grow worried myself. We might not makendfall at Little Wester at all at this rate. The storm had turned, and we were now catching a different edge. The winds were no longer driving us south but had curled to the west, forcing us bit by bit westward with it despite my best efforts to head due south. My father¡¯s ship was better able, with their oars, to continue heading towards Little Wester, but we were slowly but surely being driven further West despite my best efforts to keep us running south across the wind. Magic could work wonders, but I needed a way to keep us heading south, and there was no rune on board to do that against the forces of nature driving us before them. It was time to make a difficult decision. ¡°We . . .¡± I shouted before being stopped by a crashing wave washing the deck and my words away. ¡°Need to turn west then north!¡± I finished calling in my difficult and possibly dangerous decision. ¡°But we are nearly there.¡± Namir bellowed back as he pointed to the Ind, Little Wester, that had only just that seconde into sight. ¡°We won¡¯t make it,¡± I screamed in frustration. I could read the wind and water well enough to see that we were slowly but surely going to be driven too far west. By the time we reached the ind, we would be far too west of it. I knew of nonds further west or south of little Wester. The closest ind I knew of, and our best home, was to attempt to make for home. My father¡¯s ship still managed to plough forward towards Little Wester. Still, I could imagine my father looking worriedly across the water at us as our position continued to angle further and further, off course. They had apanied us to protect me from vers or sea monsters should we have run across them, but there was little they could do against the power of the sea or acts of god, and this is what it felt like. The sudden change in circumstances, the abrupt shift in the weather and the now wild winds and stormy sea that was threatening to sink us as much as it was driving us wildly off course. ¡°This is why I hate sailing!¡± Namir howled to the sky. There might be a story behind his dislike of the sea beyond his nature of a cat-based beastkin or our current circumstance. ¡°Why not keep trying? It¡¯s not much further,¡± he argued in between waves. But he was clutching at straws, and he knew it. ¡°We are only going to be driven further west,¡± I screamed. ¡°Can you run?¡± I asked hopefully despite the towering mountains of water between us and the ind or my father''s ship, which had disappeared behind another mountain of water. No longer happy with only pelting us with water, the heavens started to flicker and crackle with lightning as the storm''s centre caught up to our fleeing vessel. It flickered and shed across the towering ck cumulonimbus stacked behind us. At the same time, the arcus clouds had already raced far ahead of us. ¡°No, it needs to be significantly tter than that. Can¡¯t you fly there?¡± He countered. I hadn¡¯t thought that he could. I imagined he could make it up the wave well enough, but he would run out of water to run on at the top, anding down too hard on the water would break his momentum or bury him in the depths. ¡°In this wind,¡± I yelled as the sails strained and creaked in the wind. ¡°No!¡± The wind would sweep me further out ahead as soon as Iunched myself. Despite the shorter distance, there would be no way of controlling my flight to reach Little Wester or even my father''s boat. Not that we could see it any longer. I would be driven wherever the wind went without any choice. ¡°Together then.¡± Namir finally agreed with my decision, and we turned to flee ahead of the storm, no longer attempting tond on Little Wester and turning our backs on my father as they continued to head to Little Wester and, with a bit of luck, would make it. We though, we were driven west ahead of the thunderstorm. The booming and sting thunder arrived closer and closer to the lightning-enmed ck sky. We raced across the wild waves as the savage sea attempted to swallow us whole. Thunder detonated in the sky as the lightningnded nearly on us. I no longer knew how long we had raced ahead of the storm; it could have been only minutes, but it felt like hours. Despite our attempts, the storm swallowed us whole. . . . Father¡¯s POV ¡°You cannot follow them even if you could find them,¡± Arawn argued with his son-inw as he held him back from the helm. Moments earlier, the lookout had noticed the smaller ship abandon, even attempting tond on Little Wester. They were now running ahead of the storm West of the ind and, ording to the lookout, even attempting to head north. It was a bold decision. "Then what are we even here for," Father screamed back into his father-inw''s face. Frantic and frustrated at failing to protect his son from the wind and the waves. "To save a hundred men relying on usnding at Little Wester." He shouted loudly if calmly. It was still going to be tough pushing through to Little Wester without worrying about tracking Kai down. The rowers continued to pull hard, the task growing harder as the wind shifted and threatened to throw them west of Little Wester. "Don''t count him out just yet." Arawn reassured the man hugging him tight. "He''se back from worse, and he''lle back again. At least this time, he has a boat andpany when thrown out to sea." Possible Third Book Cover Possible Third Book Cover Trying tomunicate a cover idea to an artist is a skill all of its own. So that you know, I am not sure I seeded here. The Ceppod is far more sinister-looking than I had intended. Removing the head and leaving the tentacles might work better. That being said, I paid for it with money earned from Patreon, so it was only fair to share. Thoughts? Any artists out there who have read SSMM and have ideas of their own? Chapter 208: Eye of the Storm Chapter 208: Eye of the Storm ¡°When you are in the eye of the storm, you are often not aware of the whish around you.¡± Hugh Bonneville Suddenly, Namir and I broke through the darkness into the sunlight. Looking up, I could see a clear sky above us, but we were surrounded on all sides by walls of ominous dark clouds whirling around the clear patch we had broken through into. The eye of the storm. Onnd, the centre of the eye might have been the calmest part of the storm with clear skies, no rain or wind, but out on the open Azimuth ocean, the eye of the storm was still just as deadly as the eyewall we had unwittingly broken through. The winds no longer whipped past us, threatening to rip our sails and mast from the boat despite their runes and craftmanship. However, the stormy sea was hardly calm. In fact, the waves had only grown higher, and the mammoth mountains crashed into us from all directions. No longer driven in a single direction by the wind, they were wild and unpredictable. ¡°We¡¯ve broken through into the eye of the storm,¡± I eximed, amazed as we rose another mountain. ¡°What?¡± Namir asked before we began to fall again. ¡°The centre of the storm,¡± I shouted, pressing up against the steady downward wind that tried to tten us to our feet. We were firmly tied to stanchions to ensure we were not swept overboard by the waves or wind when we were swallowed by the hurricane-level storm. ¡°Sailing sucks.¡± He shouted before we hit the trough, the boat shuddering with the impact before we started climbing the next wave. It was hard to argue with him with the situation as it was. My skills were getting a serious workout as I attempted to keep us rising forward up the waves rather than getting turned and rolling. Magic was finally able toe into y again. With the steady downwind as opposed to the gale force it had been before, I was able to add wind in the direction I wanted and between that and the helm, I was able to keep us focused in the right direction to climb the waves rather than be rolled by them. We were both soaked to the skin or sodden to the skin in Namir¡¯s case. It could hardly have been particrly pleasant with bothyers of fur wet. Aleera¡¯s elvish embroidered clothing was getting a thorough workout repelling the water we had beenshed with from every direction. Still, with no rain falling right now, it was worth a little warmth to rid us of the chill. ¡°It¡¯s a little rough,¡± Iughed, touching my amulet to release a wave of heat and air to dry our clothes and ourselves out as we rode another wave up towards the sky. Beyond the very real fear of a catastrophic failure and capsizing, there was a thrill to the adrenaline rush of a rollercoaster we were riding. ¡°Don¡¯t waste your mana on a little water.¡± Namir cautioned. However, he looked a lot happier to be dry rather than soaking wet. ¡°We will probably need all of it if we are hoping to get out of this alive.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the n?¡± I asked as we began to fall again. It was difficult to have a clear conversation when we continued to be thrown between sea and sky, but at least the downward wind andck of rain were consistent enough to allow it. ¡°We move north as nned.¡± He stated unaware of the change in our circumstances. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that will work any longer,¡± I said worriedly. Despite his super senses, I could see more through my magic and mybination of skills than he could out on the open water. ¡°Why not?¡± he asked, already sensing a possible problem by the tone of my voice. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure where we are any longer,¡± I exined. ¡°South of Wester Ponente, West of Little Wester.¡± He attempted to confirm. ¡°Maybe, maybe not. The storm was moving incredibly quickly, and now we are caught up in its centre. It was turning west when it caught us, but since then. . .¡± I hesitated to continue. Without the sun to judge our position by, surrounded by the walls of ominous clouds reaching for the heavens, we had been turned around again and again. However, I had skills to help me know where I had been even if I no longer knew where that was in rtion to where I was exactly. I pulled out my lodestonepass to try and exin. ¡°We are already heading north far faster than expected.¡± ¡°How can you tell?¡± Namir asked, confused by the same problems any mortal would have had if they had been attempting to work out which direction we had been going in and where we were. ¡°The movement of the sea floor,¡± I answered. It would have been difficult to keep track of my position if I had only had a one-track mind, but I had four. They had done their best to keep track of our location during the chaos of a storm-tossed boat, but eventually, the skill had run out, and I was on my own again. Still, before they passed, they had updated my internal map of the seafloor to show the strange path we had taken. The storm had caught soon after we had turned north from Little Wester, and while the outer winds of the hurricane had indeed driven us deeper west, they had also helped to power us further north as well. The problem was that we had been driven far out of the area I had already mapped between the isles with my father. All I could tell was the directions we had been driven first westward beyond the abyss-like trench I had sensed the edge of before. The seafloor had dropped out of sight as it disappeared beyond the range of my senses. Then once the storm had caught us, I could see from the loadstonepass along with the asional trench wall shes that we were swiftly being sped northward by the center of the cyclone as it took us northward. ¡°That¡¯s good, then?¡± He asked. It had been the n, after all. ¡°Not exactly.¡± I winced. ¡°I think we¡¯ve already overshot Wester Ponente by a long shot,¡± I exined. ¡°Already?¡± he quizzed ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve gone beyond the horizon and seem to be being dragged northward by current as much as by the storm,¡± I exined. ¡°This is why I hate sailing.¡± He shouted as we rose up into the sky again. ¡°The storm should wear itself out sooner orter,¡± I shouted back. ¡°Not if it is taking us where I think it is.¡± He worryingly replied. ¡°Where¡¯s that?¡± ¡°The Sea of Storms.¡± Chapter 209: All things pass in time Chapter 209: All things pass in time Ambience music for reading the chapter /watch?v=RhvyGiJs120 ¡°Tough times neverst, but tough people do.¡± Robert H Schuller An unknown number of dayster, or at least it would have been without the system, Time Sense had kept track even if I had not, but that was not my first thought as I regained consciousness. Where was I? How was I alive? I could feel the bitter cold and hear the wind whistling as I was carried somewhere. My eyes opened and stared as I found myself being carried across a white frozen hell. No snow fell, and the sky was clear for the first time that I could remember in so long, but the endless ice stretched on for as far as I could see. The only break in the white monotony was the shapes the ice had been carved into by the wind and a cliff edge leading to the sea where icebergs floated cold and silent on the watery horizon. Otherwise, it was t and deste. The storm had carried us to the utter north, until it must have finally dashed our small vessel into the walls of endless ice. All that was known of the North beyond the Compass Kingdom of Tramontana was that it went on forever and that no one had ever returned from attempting to cross it to find out what was on the other side. I doubted it went on forever, but who knew? My bruised and battered body bounced ever onward as my memories of our final flight came back to me in shes. For days and days, the runes on our boat had held, keeping us afloat and in one piece as I spent my mana holding our ship together. The hurricane we had found ourselves trapped within never let up and never stopped attempting to take us to the bottom of the sea. Thest thing I remembered was watching the walls grow ever closer while strapped to Namir before the walls of white rushed toward us and they were all I could see. We had survived, even if the boat had not. I was freezing despite how tightly I was wrapped. My front and face felt warm pressed up against Namir¡¯s back, his body a warm furnace as it ran across the ice, not in a sprint that would burn out but a long-distance lope that he must have been carrying on for as long as I had been unconscious. My back, though, felt as frozen as the wastnds with no warmth to keep it warm. I could do something about that. I tried to activate my medallion only to find myself shocked by the fact that it was drained. Never had I managed to do that in all of my years of it eating my excess mana. Namir slowed as he felt my movement bleeding off his speed beforeing to aplete stop. ¡°Wee back.¡± He said as he unwrapped me to ce me in front of him. Despite his stats and mine, he was wrapped as warmly as I had been. Though he at least had stopped in the lee of an outcropping of ice that sheltered us a little from the unforgiving icy winds. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked as I fed my own mana into the medallion to create a bubble of warmth around us. It slowly heated me, but the warmth was soon whipped away if I let up on the mana. ¡°The storm smashed us against the endless ice of the north.¡± He smiled sardonically, ¡°So much for a short sailing trip.¡± His hatred for the open ocean and sailing in particr fully justified by our recent adventure. ¡°But how did we survive?¡± I asked, confused. My memories of the final moments were fragmented and iplete. I couldn¡¯t remember exactly what had happened or even why I couldn¡¯t remember it had all ended so abruptly. ¡°The storm and currents drove us here to the northern edge of the Compass Kingdoms. Unable to avoid the collision, we at least luckily managed to hit the wall at the crest of a wave rather than at the bottom. The boat imploded on impact, but we had long ago tied ourselves together to prevent ourselves from being separated by the waves.¡± I remembered how, as my strength waned, he had be your arms and legs for sailing. He even gained a skill for it, not that he would ever likely use that one again. I also remembered how we had tied ourselves together and to the boat to prevent either of us from disappearing into the depths. ¡°But if the boat broke itself on the walls, how . . . ?¡± I questioned. The Endless Ice Wall of the North had been hundreds of feet high where we met it. ¡°Because as we hit, I finally had some solid . . . well, semi-solidnd beneath my feet to work with.¡± He answered. ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy, but I was able to scale the ice wall as the storm dashed itself on it.¡± He showed his left hand to demonstrate the difficulty, and I noticed his left paw was missing two of its ws. I widened my eyes in acknowledgement of the nightmare that climbing the endless ice wall of the north must have been with the wind attempting to whip us off it. ¡°And me?¡± I asked, confused. I would expect myself to remember such a harrowing escape. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice until well after we cleared the top.¡± He said, touching the back of his head. My hand reached up. I felt the back of my head wincing as I touched a lump the size of an egg under my matted, frozen hair. ¡°You¡¯re lucky you¡¯re part dwarf.¡± He said, referring to the racial dwarven trait I had achieved. ¡°Most heads would have cracked with the impact. Mine would have if I had simr stats to yours.¡± ¡°Lucky I have such a thick skull,¡± I replied, still wincing as I traced the size of the lump. ¡°What happened next?¡± I asked. ¡°When we reached the top, I had to concentrate on putting some distance between us and the cliff edge the storm was attempting to tear down.¡± He pointed to the jagged nature of the cliff edge, and I could imagine how the storm would have rent and torn at the cliff as it passed over it. ¡°The winds were trying to rip us off, and it was not until the storm had passed on that I realised that you had been injured, though I feared as much with your silence. All I could do was fight on.¡± He described his battle with the elements at the end of the world. ¡°Then what?¡± ¡°We toughed it out, I buried us in the snow while the storm passed. Since then, I have been heading east with you. Who knows how far west we were taken, but eventually, we will have to hit the Compass Kingdom of Tramontana. We just need to keep the coastline to our right and run to the rising sun.¡± ¡°How long has it been?¡± I asked. ¡°Since wended . . .¡± He paused after optimistically describing our arrival as if counting, ¡°It¡¯s been five days.¡± ¡°How am I still alive?¡± I queried why I had not frozen to death despite being carried. ¡°The amulet.¡± He answered. ¡°When you didn¡¯t wake up when the storm passed, I activated the heating option. It has been keeping you warm ever since whenever we moved further east. It ran out of mana this morning.¡± He exined as it suddenly made sense why I found it drained on waking. The bitter cold was probably what had finally woken me from my stupor. ¡°What next?¡± I asked. ¡°If you are awake and up for using some mana, it might be nice to get out of this wind,¡± He gestured to the outcropping we were sheltering in the lee from the ever-present whistling of the wind. ¡°Of course,¡± I said as I began to cut into the ice with my mana, forming a small shelter from the elements. We sealed ourselves inside while I continued to expand our temporary amodation, building two berths to lie down. ¡°Food and sleep for me.¡± Namir seemingly had used up all his words to exin our situation, and now that he had shelter, his weariness appeared to catch up with him. Still wrapped around my neck was the adventurer¡¯s locket Lady Acacia had given us those years ago. The Alchemical miracle was still hidden within. I opened it up and spilt a little yellow powder out into an ice bowl I had formed. All it required was water and mana, both of which I was able to apply in abundance. The food grew as it formed to fill the bowl. ¡°I hate this stuff, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.¡± Namir groused as he started to eat the food provided ravenously, and as he did, I recognised my own hunger and made a bowl for myself. With a belly full of food and my body finally arming up in the safety of the shelter, I began to feel a little more human, though it took some time to banish the chill from my bones. ¡°Can you keep watch?¡± Were Namir¡¯sst words before he swiftly sumbed to sleep. Standing guard over hisatose body, I stretched my senses out across the deste wastes as I sat and contemted our situation. Only to discover that they were not so empty after all. Chapter 210: Catching Dinner Chapter 210: Catching Dinner ¡°If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.¡± Confucius The first thing my senses picked up were the mana signature, and the presence of Nyx huddled within Namir¡¯s robe as his chest rose and fell. He must have taken to carrying her while I was unconscious. My senseless body would have been unable to protect her as it bounced up and down on his back if she had been ced between us. She slept soundly through our conversation and continued to do so now that it was only me awake. She had to find it significantly colder than us due to her younger age and smaller statspared to what Namir and I were working with, and I was still chilled to the bone. I wondered how tired Namir actually was, I didn¡¯t think that I had ever actually caught him asleep before, so he undoubtedly needed a lot less of it than I did. My hand rose to check the lump on my skull, and I once more felt grateful for my lucky escape from our brush with death. Had that been only down to Namir¡¯s skills in fleeing or an actual intervention by the Goddess of Luck? It was impossible to say, especially as I couldn¡¯t remember it. I sat and meditated for a moment to raise my mana while I started to Heal myself. I worked better on others than myself but had plenty of practice with my cousins and ourbat games to fix a few bumps and bruises. I carefully lowered the swelling and started to heal the inmed flesh around it. I slowly sealed the wound and went deeper to find a hairline fracture in my skull, which I cautiously healed away. At least my stats had saved my skull from being caved in and cracked open. Once healed, I spread my senses further and further out, I noticed that it was not only the snow that was white, but the mana, too, was far whiter than I was used to out on the open ocean. It seemed the freezing effects of the north somehow bleached the predominantly blue water-aspected mana. So that even using my mana sense, the world around me was devoid of much of the colour I normally saw. Mana sense, Echolocation, and Seismic Sense all build up ayered picture of our surroundings. Echolocation created a detailed line map of my close surroundings that my mana sense then filled in, usually with a variety of colours. Then, Seismic sense continued the effect deep into the ice all around us. I soon discovered that the ice shelf was not quite as deste as it looked on first inspection. Nearby, I could sense a family of what appeared to be arctic hares burrowed a few feet beneath the surface of the snow. They looked like lunch, and a quick check with inspection proved they were low-levelled enough to prove no danger to me. But first, I had to check therger area to ensure that we ourselves were not being targeted. Channelling my senses in a single direction rather than the full 360 degrees allowed me to extend my senses tenfold. The image was not as immediate as my instant sense of my surroundings, but I soon found somerger creatures along with a few more hares. However, neither the winter wolves huddled up in their den to the west, nor the solitary pr bear on the far reaches of my senses to the north were making any move towards us. For now, at least, we seemed safe enough from the elements, terrain and its inhabitants. Checking my sleepingpanion and saviour once more, I opened up an exit before sealing it behind me as I stepped out into the bitter cold once more. We were not dressed for the weather, but magic made it bearable as my amulet continued to heat the air surrounding me. The importance of support skills and spells had been drilled into me often enough by my tutors. What Icked in clothing and supplies, I should be able to make do through my skills, spells, and stats. Especially with Namir to back me up. That being said, I had yet to warm up truly and with the whistling wind once more wrapped around me, I was still cold and hungry when I arrived above the sleeping Arctic hare family. The Sr had taken the edge off my hunger, but real meat would taste a thousand times better and provide some much-needed fur to begin dressing ourselves a little bit better for the Arctic weather. I did not have the luxury to leave a single one alive. All of them would be needed. I triggered Insight to see that they were all happily sleeping, unaware of the death that was about to descend on them. I readied my knives but aimed to end them all with magic before my Knife Art skill, or they were needed. Seismic sensestruggled to work as well with frozen water, but it was enough to highlight the warren¡¯s exits, and I had them covered. The entire time I stood there, I was careful not to actively target them with any aggressive skills or even thoughts lest an herbivore hare have had the luck to develop their own version of danger sense. Still, my Telepathy showed they were unaware of my presence and blissfully sleeping. I aimed to use misdirection, deception and intimidation to force them to flee from one exit and out the other. That was if my initial burst did not kill them on the spot. n made it was time to begin. Shock and awe or rather shock to death. I remembered reading that it was possible to shock a rabbit to death. I saw no reason, with their low levels, that I couldn¡¯t do the same to the family of Artic Hares below me. The benefit to this method of hunting hares, at least, was that I was still not targeting them directly. Without that directed intent, hopefully, any danger sense they might have would have nothing to work off. Besides, the fewer holes I put into their pelts, the better clothing they would make! ¡°B Skouzou¡± I whispered, the spellcraft forming instantly with the words and whipping its way into warren. A quiet shriek filled the air a secondter, but I had already copsed the first exit and underneath the ground when that spell released. It would have been an ear-shattering screech. From my mana sense, I could tell that it had done its work nearly perfectly. It was not arge family; four members dropped dead instantly: the mother and the three offspring. The father, though, was evenrger than the alreadyrge hares, and despite him bleeding from his ruptured eardrums, he had enough sense to race for the exit I had left clear. A thrown knife nailed him to the hard ice below as he emerged, and I walked over to finish the job with a quick slice of his neck. At just under a meter long, the male hare wasn¡¯t much smaller than me, though considerably lighter. It would take me a little longer to dig out the rest of the family, but it was not a bad first hunt in the frozen wastnd they called the north¡ªtime to get to work. Dinner wouldn''t make itself. Chapter 211: Taking Stock Chapter 211: Taking Stock ¡°Hunger is the best sauce in the world,¡± Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes Namir¡¯s POV I awoke to the smell of roasting rabbit, or rather, I was awoken by the squirming of Nyx attempting to escape my clothing and attack the roasting rabbit. Rather than risk myself or, more importantly, in this weather and our current climate, my clothes being torn up in the process, I hurriedly released her. She shot forward with a jump and short flight to settle on Kai¡¯s shoulder. He stood over a small fire pit where a ratherrge rabbit was roasting. Eagerly urging him onward to give her a piece, which he happily did. The smell of the roasting rabbit seemed to have distracted her from the offal pile in the room''s corner. Kai ced her down in front of it, and despite her preference for the roasted meat, the starving dragonling quickly attacked the remains. She had been growing increasingly lethargic without a proper supply of protein, and with our shipwreck, we had lost all our supplies. ¡°Morning,¡± I muttered, pleased to have seen he had solved another one of our problems. A decent mage made every hunt easier; if they could keep up, that was. I preferred to hunt alone with proper supplies, as they rarely could. Still, it was difficult to argue against thefort they could bring. Kai had only been awake for a day, but in that time, he had solved the issues of shelter, food and water. It even looked like he was in the process of solving the problem of our current clothing. The child was impressive, no matter how you looked at it. I knew no child of his age no matter their race, who could have coped as well with what we had just gone through and still be functioning so well. Even a beastkin would have struggled to return with so many catches from a single hunt so soon and with so few supplies to actually hunt with. Four enormous rabbits hung stripped of their skin from the ceiling, but that wasn¡¯t all that they were missing. Looking closer, he could see that each tendon from all the rabbits had been removed. It was not difficult to guess what they would be spending today doing. Beastkin cubs would often be given the task of making the most from every meal, but it had been years since he had bothered to do so. ¡°Morning, Namir,¡± Kai said as he carried a rabbit leg forward. ¡°Thanks for saving my life.¡± ¡°Only doing my duty,¡± I answered. As a retainer of House Silversea, that was the appropriate answer, but I would have done the same with or without that obligation. The child was special. ¡°Pass me the tendons,¡± I said as soon as I had broken my fast. He had clearly dried them with mana, but some jobs were easier with ws, not to mention my stats. Running my ws down the tendons I was soon stripping them into fibres we would be able to turn into strings we could use to bind the furs to ourselves. ¡°What are we making first with the rabbits?¡± I asked. ¡°Hats. Your stats might keep you warm enough, but without my mana to warm me up, I¡¯m going to freeze quickly enough and who knows what else I might need to use it for.¡± He continued to cook the remaining meat, sharing it out between Nyx, me and himself. ¡°Hats?¡± They were not what I thought we would be aiming for, ¡°Not a cloak?¡± ¡°No hats, mittens and boots first. Covering the extremities first, they are the most likely to freeze first. Our clothes are not exactly warm enough, but at least the rest of our bodies are covered. Oh, and they are called Arctic Hares, at least ording to inspect.¡± He exined. ¡°Hmph.¡± I had never made it this far north and never needed much clothing working predominantly across the southern kingdoms. ¡°Besides, if you are up for a hunt, there are some wolves to our west. They would berge enough to make trousers, tunic and coat.¡± He added. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I knew as I ran I had crossed multiple groups hunting areas marked by their scents. However, I had been avoiding conflict, skirting them where possible, or racing across them when not. Never knowing quite how strong the opponent was or howrge the group was. Kai, with his sensing abilities, had obviously located some, and with a base to work from, it was worth spending a day or two to recover and resupply before attempting to make it to Giant Country and Tramontana. ¡°After lunch.¡± I agreed. ¡°And maybe after Nyx is back on her feet.¡± Iughed at our little mascot''s belly protruding as shey on her side in an attempt to digest some of what she had wolfed down. . . . Kai¡¯s POV We leftter than we had nned for our next hunt. But suitably outfitted with a fashionable hat. Who was I kidding they looked ridiculous but they were keeping our heads warm. Or would have if I had been able to convince Namir to wear his. He argued his stats and his own fur would keep him warm enough but I was sure I had seen him shivering as we left our shelter and stepped back out into the icy winds of the endless ice. No storms onnd for as far as the eye could see but our close proximity to the sea of storms that we had sailed through and the openndscape seemed to ensure that whistling winds never stopped blowing. Without tannins to treat the fur my hat was going to dry a little rigid so I had worked quickly to get a sort of triangle hat. It looked a little ridiculous with the fur on the inside but maybe in time and after catching a few more hares I would be able to had an outter to improve the look and potential camouge returning it to white. Namir had insisted I work on covering myself first so I had some fur wraps for both my hands and feet. I would not go as far to call them boots or mittens yet but perhaps in time with a little more work they might get there. ¡°Which way are the wolves?¡± Namir asked. I pointed, ¡°That way.¡± With wolves being primarily nocturnal hunters, our own hunt of them would be worth it for two reasons. Firstly we needed more meat and fur, secondly, if we cleared out the pack before night fell they would not be tracking us down during the dark. It was freezing despite my efforts at dressing myself and regardless of the mana drain I activated the amulet to keep the bitter cold at bay. The fact that Namir soon offered to carry me proved to me at least that he too was feeling the cold as he enjoyed the warm area surrounding me. ¡°How many?¡± He asked as we approached their den. ¡°Four,¡± I answered. It looked like another family. I idly wondered whether removing the wolves would help the Arctic Hares to flourish. ¡°Levels?¡± he continued to question. ¡°Low enough.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Be precise.¡± He critiqued. ¡°Levels 5, 6, 9 and 10,¡± I answered. The inspecting back as Arctic Wolves.¡± ¡°Still first tier, good.¡± He smiled. ¡°Well, care to demonstrate your skills.¡± He gestured for me to take the field and lead the hunt. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of any that escape your efforts.¡± This was arge step up from the Hares. The den only had a single exit, so I did not need to block anything else off. Also, I doubted a sound alone would be enough to deal with any of them. I ran through the same steps as I had with the Hares, checking things over. Then I continued toyer up my defence for when they inevitably woulde screaming at me. As effective as throwing fire might be at killing them, that would also ruin the pelts we hoped to gain from this. Finally ready,¡± I signalled Namir. ¡°You might want to cover your ears for the first salvo,¡± I suggested. ¡°B Skouzou¡± was the first spell that I sent down into their den, but it was quickly followed by ¡°B fos¡± It would hopefully be as effective as a sh bang on the poor wolves. Woken by the shriek, they would hopefully be blinded by the light. They stumbled out of their den, highly disorientated even if my first two spells did not kill them. The next spells hopefully would. With the weather and environmental mana supporting their formation, my ice spear spell formed beautifully and without hesitation. Launching themselves at the stunned family. ¡°Pago dori!¡± ¡°Pago dori!¡± ¡°Pago dori!¡± ¡°Pago dori!¡± The first two fell to my ice spears, still stumbling as they were from the disorientation of ruptured ear drums. The other two were rapidly recovering and threw themselves toward me across the open snow, regardless of the spear they were impaled with. But I had not left myself defenceless. Their bodies broke through the thinyer of ice I had surrounded myself with to cover up the trench I had magically excavated and impaled themselves on the ice spears I had buried beneath it. ¡°A few more holes thanst time,¡± Namirmented on my sess. ¡°But good enough. How are you going to get them back?¡± ¡°On this.¡± I started working on building a simple sledge out of ice. We had no rope, so we would have to push it, and it would hardlyst for very long if we picked up any speed, but for the short journey back, it would work effectively enough. Our day¡¯s hunt over; we loaded up the four wolves and set out for home. It was time to return before dark fell. . . . Safe and secure in our little shelter, we took stock of our improved circumstances. "So what next?" Chapter 212: Clothes Maketh the man Chapter 212: Clothes Maketh the man ¡°Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.¡± Mark Twain Now fully clothed in wolf and hare fur, I wondered what people would make of me. I think we would be making some interesting first impressions when we eventually made it back to civilisation if we made it back to thepass kingdoms. The clothing was fairly rudimentary, but it was functional enough for us to begin travelling again. It was going to be a long walk. There were a couple of reasons I wasn¡¯t attempting to fly. I could have warmth or flight, but I couldn¡¯t have both. It was one or the other, really in terms of mana. I could manage a short flight here and there, but attempting to keep myself warm while flying rapidly drained my mana even more. Furthermore, that wasn¡¯t taking into ount the howling winds that threatened to wrench me off course and drive me further north the only time I had attempted a short flight. It looked like we would be walking our way off the ice. Nyx was much the same and still kept safe within our clothing. Whenever we ventured forth, she chilled quickly, and flight was equally, if notpletely, impossible for her. Namir did not ept my efforts at clothing until after the Arctic Bear but insisted I cover myself first. We had turned the wolves'' skins into decent boots, trousers, coats and gloves. There was even enough to create a cloak and have fur on the outside of the clothing as well as the inside. I was truly well-insted and no longer looked quite as ridiculous as I first had. I was not going to win any awards for my fashion attempt, but the wolf and hare fur helped me blend in nicely with the ground we would attempt to traverse. The Arctic Bear, however, did not go quite as smoothly as my first two attempts at hunting, mainly because it came after us instead of waiting its turn. I had taken to rotating my senses in a steady arc around me to give greater depth to the distance I could cover, and it was with worry that I noticed the bear had left its own den and headed to where the wolves once lived. ¡°Namir, the bear is on the move,¡± I mentioned describing his movements. ¡°Might be worth creating a few defences then or at least an escape tunnel.¡± He said. ¡°Why would we be in any danger?¡± I asked, not understanding why it moving to where the wolves were would be any problem for us. ¡°We were not exactly subtle in our defeat of the wolves.¡± He warned. ¡°The track back? You think it would follow that?¡± I asked, concerned. ¡°It might, it might not. We were just passing through, but it seems to be thergest animal present, so it would consider itself the apex predator. With the wolves gone, it might feel challenged enough to attempt to drive us out of its territory.¡± Namir exined the possibilities. At this distance, I could not tell its level, but as it seemed to be turning to follow our track back to our own shelter from scouting out the empty wolf den it looked like it would soon be close enough for me to tell. I interrupted my preparations to inform Namir of the change in direction, ¡°It¡¯s turned east and is heading in our direction.¡± ¡°How is the tunneling along?¡± He asked. I quickly bored through the ice to create a rear exit from our shelter. Dragging our supplies along with me as I went. ¡°Nearly there,¡± I shouted back. ¡°Don¡¯t go all the way through.¡± He cautioned. ¡°We might not need it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s level 24,¡± I replied. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Or we might. Make me a spear or two, and I will face it out there before it reaches us.¡± He requested. A spear or twoter, he left along our tracks toward the wolves'' den. With the deste nature of the endless ice, we had not taken the time to hide our tracks. A mistake we would need to remedy the next time we stopped. Or perhaps Namir had been looking forward to facing whatever we might have lured toward ourselves. Having finished with the escape tunnel I exited our shelter to watch the sh. The bear didn¡¯t know what hit him, literally. With insight running, I could sense its confusion as two spears sailed out of the icy panorama to strike both thighs. It was not enough to cripple the beast but plenty enough to enrage it. Namir stood up and gave it a target. Without hesitation, it began to run after him and toward me! I was confused as I had watched Namir in action before and expected him to simply slit the jugr. But no, it was allowing the monster to head on after him. ¡°Care to have a go?¡± He shouted as he raced toward me. At ten times my size and weight, I did not feel particrly inclined to engage in close-upbat with knives that would barely be the size of toothpicks to the beast barrelling down on top of us. ¡°No, thank you!¡± I screamed, throwing ice spears and spells at the unstoppable mass of meat heading straight toward us. It was not stopping. It appeared unstoppable. I prepared myself to flee if my defences did not hold. I was quick and made the exit tunnel significantly smaller than the bear. It would struggle if not find it impossible to force its way through it while I would be able to run all the way down it. I tucked Nyx away within my clothes. I would need both hands free, just in case. Finally, it reached my hidden trench just outside our front entrance and, just like the wolves, it broke through with a sickening squelch as its own body weight drove the ice spears deeper through its body than I ever could have. Namir calmly stepped forward and dropped down into the ditch, carefullynding on its back before reaching round the bellowing bear to slit its throat, killing it nearly instantly. I turned to the unconcerned Namir, who had leapt up to stand next to me. ¡°Did we have to leave it to thest moment?¡± I asked, incredulous that he would have had any difficulty dealing with the beast a little further from our front door. ¡°Did you want to carry that all the way back?¡± he asked. ¡°This way, we don¡¯t have to move it. If you throw up an ice wall or two and a roof, we can work on it here without having to move anything.¡± He grinned at my silence, ¡°Cat got your tongue?¡± It was kind of hard to argue against his logic, ¡°A warning would have been nice.¡± I responded somewhat icily annoyed by my momentary fear and his smug face as he thought he was the cat¡¯s whiskers. . . . I threw up some ice walls, and we got to work. We had be far more proficient at skinning and harvesting the required materials by this point. It had also taken significantly longer to work on the bear¡¯s hide but with it, we were able to finish creating enough clothing for the pair of us. Namir was also happy enough with our work to wear our attempts. We also now had enough meatbined with the mana-intensive sr food to round out our diet and head off. We wasted nothing, and everything was packed away, ready to set out. Nyx polished off anything too small or squishy to make use of. There was just onest thing to take care of, and that was how we were going to carry all of this. Namir had carried me just fine for the days I had been unconscious, but with meat, fur and bone knives to carry as well, it would be an awkward load for him to carry it all. The solution . . . a sledge! I had a lot of practice with growing boats from the elvish seeds I had been gifted by Lady Acacia. Now, I just had to do the same but to create a sled with the added challenge of doing so without any soil and in subfreezing temperatures too. It was not an easy or pleasant process. I nted my seeds in all that remained of the offal and bear, adding to that a mixture of my magically created mana-infused sr and dug up all our faecal matter to provide sufficient soil-like nutrients for the tree''s growth. As I said, it was not pleasant, and the day I spent doing this, Namir decided to scout out the route ahead and patrol the territory he believed the bear and wolves had previously roamed in order to avoid the lovely aroma. The aroma grew worse as I heated the area to provide a better temperature for the tree to grow, then began feeding it my mana and singing to grow the tree into the appropriate shape as it grew from the warming blood and waste-soaked ice mix. I modelled my attempt at a sledge on my memories of an Inuit sledge called a Qamutiik. We would not have the dogs to pull us, but I did have Namir to pull Nyx and me. Then if we reached downward slopes, he could step up behind to help steer the sled rather than being run over. It would also have enough space for our meat, fur and bones. Also, if we ever did reach civilisation, we would look a little less weird pushing a sledge saying that we had lost our dogs rather than saying we had been shipwrecked on the endless ice and walked our way all the way across it. Besides, who knew? Maybe we would find some more wolves we could train up on our journey. Chapter 224: Homecoming Chapter 224: Homing ¡°Every traveller has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.¡± Charles Dickens Namir had called it. Our journey back to the Thorpe was interrupted repeatedly by various critters keen to im our meat and bones. The four giants handled most of the fighting, d for the extra warning I could provide. But I was always ready to help if needed now that they knew about my magic. It made me realise how lucky we had been when wended on the endless ice to only be troubled by the smallest foes, the wolves and bears. Their magical evolutions were rtively tame inparison to others. Now, when we passed them by, hares, wolves, and bears were left alone, provided they did not attack us, and with Namir scouting our route, we could avoid or pass through the fringes of their territories. He only returned from ranging to check with Bjorn that he was still going in the right direction. By andrge, he was. Bjorn had taken to carrying me directly in a sling across his chest now that our sledge had been destroyed. Nyx nestled on my front, but he said he could not feel the extra weight at all, and with the resistance to ice and coldbined, it was no longer so painful or life-threatening to be out from under the furs which we left within the giant spatial vault. Nyx had even had some of the elixir herself to aid her in surviving the arctic temperatures. She flew for small stretches but always returned to the warmth of my embrace. The giants had refused to allow her to stay inside the vault while we travelled for fear of what she might do unsupervised for an entire day. Despite her enthusiasm to stay inside and the challenge of catching her, we dragged her out before the day began, and the vault was sealed once more. Still, it wasn¡¯t long before we encountered something other than Wyrms. It was a nest of spiders. ¡°Hold,¡± I said. The Giants used to me sensing things in advance instantly held still in preparation. ¡°What do you sense?¡± Eryk asked anxiously; thest clew of Ice Wyrms had taken a bite out of his thigh. The giants had been suitably impressed by my ability to heal. Another string to my bow Ragnar hadmented. But Erik, in particr, was a little more cautious afterwards now that he had been blooded. ¡°A nest of spiders,¡± I answered. ¡°Namir¡¯s height down under the snowbank over there.¡± I pointed out the small rise we were passing to the left. ¡°You never cease to impress.¡± Bjorn grinned. ¡°How many?¡± ¡°Hundreds.¡± And there were. Hundreds of the little blighters were crawling all over one another under the ice. I¡¯d stopped us as soon as I noticed them as I wasn¡¯t sure what they were going to do next. ¡°Good, good.¡± Bjorn unexpectedly added ¡°Good?¡± I asked, failing to see what was so special about this fact. If they could see what I could, I doubt he would have been so happy. ¡°Well, if there are still hundreds left, they won¡¯t have gotten too big yet. The spiderlings eat one another and rise in levels, poison, magic and skills if left long enough for them to cannibalise the rest of them.¡± I inspected the spiderlings, ¡®Artic Wolf Spyder,¡¯ I could sense and saw that most of them were around Level 1, 2, or 3. As I watched, one attacked and killed the other, jumping in levels from 3 to 4 before it settled down to eat the spoils of victory. If one killed and ate all of them, I could see how it might quickly jump up in the size of the threat it posed to the Thorpe. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ragnar disagreed. ¡°I prefer killing one higher levelled Ice Spyder from a distance rather than tackling a heaving mass of them. Their bites are not nice.¡± ¡°Bites?¡± I quizzed before being interrupted. ¡°That¡¯s just because you prefer to kill everything from a distance.¡± Ivar countered before answering my question. ¡°Ice poison, it freezes your blood as it spreads. Your muscles will cut themselves open, provided it doesn¡¯t get you in a vein. Gruesome little blighters despite their size.¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Bjorn interrupted the horror story, ¡°Ah, but you''re forgetting our secret weapon here, Kai.¡± ¡°What me?¡± I had no desire to get bitten at all. I think I was beginning to agree with Ragnar on this one. ¡°Well, just like the Ice Wyrms, Ice Spyders despise heat; if we crack the nest open and you st it with fire, they will be a quick, clean problem to solve.¡± He smiled. ¡°Can they swim?¡± I asked. Let¡¯s not crack the nest open at all but boil them alive. ¡°Never seen one swim before.¡± Bjorn pondered. ¡°I¡¯d rather not allow them to bite anyone,¡± I exined, shuddering. (Reminded of my first encounter with a spider.) ¡°If there are hundreds, I doubt they¡¯d have the strength to prate your skin. Especially if they are still under level 10, and if there are hundreds, they¡¯d have to be; otherwise, they would have broken out of the nest by now.¡± Bjorn tried to reassure me, but after listening to Ivar, I would not take any chances. I unstrapped myself from Bjorn and stepped into the air until I had a good angle down at the nest before releasing my mana in a wave of heat. It was a little harder from a distance, but I employed the same sequence of magic that I had against the wyrms we had encountered. Starting with boil I reduced the nest to a boiling bubbling pit of death. This was followed by a st of fire that chargrilled any spiders smart enough to use their sibling as boats to jump to safety. I could feel a rush of experience as the mini-monsters died in droves. I kept it up until I could no longer sense any alive. ¡°Perfect.¡± Bjorn smiled as I returned to the ground. ¡°Time for lunch, anyone?¡± ¡°What you can eat them?¡± I asked a little appalled. Though I had got over my disgust early with the Wyrms I suppose it shouldn¡¯t have surprised me. ¡°Waste not, want not. They are actually surprisingly tasty if tiny mouthfuls.¡± Ivar continued as he fished out a little to scoop them out of the boiling pothole. ¡°Remind me a little of shrimp.¡± Added Ragnar. ¡°Besides, you have already cooked them.¡± As he sat down alongside Ivar. ¡°What about the poison?¡± I asked, slowly losing my position. ¡°Denatured by the heat,¡± Bjorn replied, joining the circle with Eryk. Even Namir returned for the impromptu feast, and after watching everyone eat one, I tried one, and to my surprise, they were very much like shrimp. ¡°No cores?¡± I asked, expecting at least one or two. ¡°At this size, they haven¡¯t grown big enough to develop them. As I said, the spiderlings are cannibalistic by nature. By the time the nest had eaten itself down to tens of them, then you might have found a few cores, but the spiders would have likely broken their way out from the nest and spread.¡± ¡°Why are there so many?¡± I asked, surprised by the number of beasts we seemed toe across as we trekked in toward the Thorpe. ¡°Spiderlings? A way for one or two of them to evolve into a stronger magical beast. Even if it is a lousy survival rate for the individual spiderlings, it is better for the species.¡± He answered a question but not the one I was driving at. ¡°No, not spiderlings in particr. But the more magical beasts we encounter, the closer we get to your Thorpe.¡± I redirected. ¡°Ah, yes . . .¡± He paused before answering, ¡°They are drawn to it.¡± He answered yet did not quite exin. ¡°Drawn to what?¡± I asked. ¡°The Light of the Lodestar.¡± He replied. ¡°The Thorpe has a church?¡± I asked, surprised. Bishop Bailie had never mentioned the Giants in his teachings about the church''sity. It seemed predominantly a human-centric religion. ¡°Not like humans, no.¡± He answered. ¡°Or at least we do not deify it in the same manner, but we have a shard of the Lodestar, and they are drawn to it even if they don¡¯t know it. The closer you get to the Thorpe, the more magical beasts you will likely find.¡± He exined his answer in greater detail. ¡°So no church then.¡± I rified. ¡°No. Actually, we use it as a lure in the centre of the Thorpe. Metal-tipped spikes surround it to prevent the beasts from reaching it. Though sometimes it pulls in beasts, we would rather it didn¡¯t like the Lodestone Wyrm. That was a disaster. Still, they stopped it before it became a cmity, so it was not aplete failure.¡± Eryk joined the conversation. ¡°How so? I asked Eryk. But Bjorn answered, ¡°Just like how the Shard allows us to improve. The same goes for the magical beasts. It offers them evolutions based on their history and experience. I dread to think what a Tier 5 Lodestone Wyrm might have been able to be had it reached it.¡± He shuddered in remembered dread. ¡°They evolve?¡± That sounded somewhat rming, imagining the Ice Wyrms as something more dangerous. ¡°Up tiers, new species, or skills. It can shift the bnce of power instantly.¡± He continued. ¡°That¡¯s why our job to track and clear out the endless ice is so important. A good hunter means the warrior is never needed.¡± The church had failed to mention that in their lessons to children. Only that beasts were drawn to them; our duty was to protect them. It was essential to protect them if that was what happened when they reached them. We ate until we could eat no longer, and the remainder of the spiderlings were bagged up to take home. ¡°Nearly there now,¡± Bjorn added as we set off once more. ¡°If we push it a little we should get there before dark.¡± And so we did. Chapter 213: Sledging Chapter 213: Sledging If you like to sled you have to like to drag the sledge. Russian Proverb Namir was less than enthused when it was time to set out on the sledge. I had carefully packed it, tied the rope to it, and now sitting expectantly on top of it, waiting to go. Nyx had already taken the ce of pride on the tip. I felt that she would soon be retreating into our clothes once the whistling wind whipped the heat out of the air, but for now, I let her sit there happily. She''d see soon enough. You expect me to pull this? he asked unimpressed. Yes, its hardly heavier than me and the stuff; it will be a lot easier on the downhill, I exined my thoughts and realised we had not exactly discussed how I envisioned the next part of our trip. It''s not the weight that I object to. He stated. But you already carried me once. I dont quite see the issue. I argued, confused as to what the sticking point was. You were unconscious and are no older than a cub. He said as if that exined everything. Whats the difference? I asked. You were not conscious and needed help. He exined as if that rationalised why he did not want to pull the sledge now. And? I asked cocking my head in confusion. This was supposed to be a sess. I had worked hard to create a method with which to carry our belongings. It is not you specifically, but our history. He tried to exin. Our history? What you and me? I asked for rification but had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going now. The history of humanity and beastkin. He added. Ah. So Nyx would be fine. I would have to leave it up to him to exin the stumbling block we had just tripped over. "Nyx will be fine, but she will retreat soon enough in the cold. Look, Beastkin from Ostro are often enved by others, particrly humans who emphasise their beast-like traits. Now I know you do not see me that way, but asking me to pull the sledge would be no better than treating me like a dog. He objected to my beautiful solution with a cultural sh I had not seening. Ah . . . and if I wasnt sat on it? I tried to work my way around the problem. "You are happy to pull our supplies." Yes, that is fine. He answered sinctly, realising the awkwardness of his position. What if I was unconscious? I searched for the difference between carrying me unconscious across the endless ice and pulling me on a sledge. That, too, would be fine. He said after a moments thought. I tried to drill down to his specific problem with my beautiful hand-grown sledge I had spent so many hoursbouring over. What if you pushed it instead? I asked, trying to flip the propulsion around to the other side. That would be fine. He answered, leaving me confused. I felt like we were going round in circles. I thought it would be easier to pull the sledge than push it, and we had worked hard to make a sufficiently long enough and strong enough tendon rope and harness. But if pushing it worked, pushing it would have to be. The harness! What if it was just a rope without a harness? I asked. I had created the harness to allow him to keep his arms and hands-free, but maybe that was the problem. Maybe it was too much like a leash for him to allow. Hmmm, he seemed more willing to consider this but still not keen. Fine, fine, I answered, frustrated that we were already stumbling at the first step. Never mind, I removed a pair of branches I had worked on shaping while making the sledge before strapping them to my feet. Daylight is a wasting, I said as I headed off on my homegrown skis. They were not perfect, but they would help me to keep up a little better to the beast kin who would just power through theyers of snow. I didnt need to look behind to sense that he had picked up the rope and was pulling all our worldly belongings behind us as I glided forward at speed in my cross-country skiing. Nyx screeched in delight as she began to be pulled along. Her screeches soon turned to shrieks ofint as the cold kicked in, flying ahead totch onto Namir and insist on being hidden away within his clothing. Obviously, he was warmer than I was or simply closer to her than the distance she would have had to travel to reach me. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. We continued moving east toward the Compass Kingdom continent for a while. Namir, now running to keep up with the sledge, pulled behind him. Eventually, he began to run alongside me. The sledge still pulled behind him as he easily kept up with me. It''s nothing personal. He assured me as he drew alongside. I get it, I get it. Even though I did not exactly. The closest I had ever got to very was my brief experience on the vers boat. Any that hadnded on our isle had promptly been freed. I had not had to see it day in and day out in anymunity. We continued to run, ski and sledge our way across the ice. Even Namir enjoyed the sledge for the downhill sections, and those, too, I could race ahead on my skis, coasting far further than the sledge did with my lighter weight. Look, He said, noticing my gging speed as we climbed once more to another ridgeline. We tried to follow the valleys rather than crossing them as long as we were moving west, but on asion, there would be no other way west than to traverse them. When you run out of steam and need to rest or sleep, I will happily ce you among our supplies and pull you alongside them. I feel incredibly ufortable pulling you while you are awake, directing the sledge like some sort of ve master. He finally exined. Okay, I answered, breathing heavily as we climbed. The skis might help me move quicker over the snow, but they felt heavy to me and had only grown heavier. How about now? I asked, keen to go back to the original n. Fine, if you let me put you to sleep. He said awkwardly. Put me to sleep? I asked, astounded. It will only take a second. He answered unabashedly. Fine, fine, I answered, disgruntled. It had been an exhausting day, and I was more than ready to take a nap. Before suddenly, without warning, the whole world was turned ck. . . . I awoke to find myself well-rested and staring at a stone ceiling atop the sledge I had created. Nyx was curled up on my chest, happily absorbing any excess mana from my body, while Namir looked to be making a small fire out of extra wood I had grown in expectation of precisely this need. It looked like Namir had been too conflicted to awaken me when we arrived. Thank you, I said as I sat up. You are wee. He replied stiffly, nodding. I silently set about sealing the cave entrance with stone and building us a pair of berths on either wall. Once sealed, I set up light and warmth spells with my mana. Removing the need for the fire. However, the smoke would add some small vour to the meat we had brought with us. Mages make the best travellingpanions if they can keep up. Hemented with forced cheerfulness on the improvements I had made to our temporary dwelling. Attempting to move past the awkwardness and back to the morefortable conversation and silence we had grown to enjoy after surviving our crash. Do we know where we are yet? I asked, referring to the endless ice that did not seem to have changed at all on our arrival in our new temporary home. Not really. He answered, But we should get there sooner orter as long as we keep running east and following the coastline. And then? We turn south. Im not going to lie. It will be a long journey. But eventually, I will get you back home to Wester Ponente. We are in a lot better position than we were a couple of days ago. . . . It took a couple of days of running at my slower pace for Namir to relent and pull me permanently on the sleigh. Cultural baggage was overridden by necessity and possibly boredom at our slow speed. He taught as he ran, pointing out the best paths, discussing our past hunts, and a plethora of vegetation that was edible elsewhere, but the problem with the endless ice was that there was little to no vegetation to point out. Constantly moving meant that we couldnt spar till the evening, but then we would generally be busy dressing recent kills or preparing our temporary shelters. Still, this was doing wonders for some of my neglected craftsman skills. I was even gaining a few new ones. The lower levels came easily from the constant use and the importance of the tasks now sustaining our lives. Tier 1 Hunting(Lv1 - 5) Skinning (Lv1 - 5) Skiing (Lv1 - 5) I had even gained a new tolerance to apany my Pain and Poison tolerance. Tier 2 Cold Tolerance(Lv1 - 3) Our pace increased; we were making good time across the endless ice, only pausing to hunt when we literally ran across burrows, dens or nests. We avoided therger bears and wolves simply due to the time it would take to process them rather than a fear of facing them. We were self-sufficient enough to keep going by now. Still, when challenged, we defended ourselves, so we were staying a little longer at our current ice cave. An Arctic bear had found us only to take offence at our presence. They were terribly territorial and had fought to the death rather than flee at the first injury. It was going to take a while to process the fur, meat and bones. Still, another bear fur nket would be nice to cover up the sledge as we ran. I might even be able to stop powering the amulet for heat. As we were working on turning tendons into string and rope for repairs and further supplies I noticed something new. We havepany. I cautioned Namir. Who and how many? He questioned bluntly and to the point. I paused, trying to focus in on what my constant scans had shown me and make sense of it. There was a group moving west and would pass within easy sight of us. There appeared to be four ridiculouslyrge humans, each pulling their own sledges. Four . . . I hesitated, . . . giants. I knew they existed theoretically but had never seen them with my own senses. Giants? Ice or Human? He asked, and I realised that there were more than the nine noble races. Um. I couldnt tell, at least not from this distance and by the time I could, they would be able to see us. Right. He made up his mind. Cover the camp in ice and hide here. I will face them on their path. If they are hostile, I will lead them away. If they are friendly, we will say hello. Follow my lead. I hastily covered the camp in ice, covering up the grisly remains of our work on the bear that had attacked us and the blood-stained snow. It was not perfectly camouged against the endless ice, not quite following the wind-carved ice around us, but it was the best I could do on such short notice. At least it matched our surroundings in colour now. Namir was already loping away from our temporary dwelling to the nearest ridgeline. A ridgeline the four giants would be crossing any second now. With ast look with my naked eyes, I closed the ice above myself, sealing myself within the ice cave we had created. Now with my senses, I watched as they crossed the ridgeline and stopped on spotting Namir. It was up to him now. Chapter 214: Coming to terms Chapter 214: Coming to terms Time doesnt always heal all wounds. A.J. Darkholme A sombre crew slowly made their way home to Wester Ponente. They had unwillingly watched their little lord swallowed by the storm that had so nearly taken their own lives. No matter how many times he had managed a miraculous escape or victory before, it was difficult not to think the worst when it came to his fate. His father, Kaius, seemed to be beside himself that he had not been on board with his son when the storm struck. He often cursed the fact that he had been aboard the former vers ship rather than his sons. It was with heavy hearts that the former ves, now sailors who owed their very freedoms to the Silversea family and its little Lord, returned home to face the ind, the town and his family without him. The journey back was not helped by the damage to their vessel. Unlike Kais little speedboat, their ship had not been enchanted from the point of the prow to the rear of the rudder. Their sail had ripped and required patching, parts of the rigging were missing and the hull would require a full workover with caulking and tarring once they returned home. It wasnt your fault. Arawn pointed out one of the few individuals capable of doing so without receiving their captains fury or coping with it should he have unleashed it. Then whose was it? Kaius was unrelenting in his self-punishment. It did not take a genius to see that he somehow felt responsible for both the sea and the storm. Speaking from experience and having watched him disappear over the edge of a cliff without warning, he is far more resilient than you give him credit for. Last time he had nothing but his wits to save himself with. The sea has swallowed him whole before and spat him right back out again. We cannot give up on him. Arawn seemed to be optimistically confident in his grandchilds ability to survive whatever the world might throw at him. I hope you are right. Kaius couldnt help but fear the worse and the ship and crew slipped back into silence as they slowly worked their way home. Kaius POV Returning home without his son was a bitter feeling of burned ashes, but not one he hadnt felt before. When Arawn had returned to tell them of Kais death, it had been the same. For the whole family, alongside disbelief that someone would throw a child off a cliff. However, he had not been there. There had been no way to refute what his father-inw and daughter had told him despite theck of a body. However, this time, he had some small fragile hope. They had not seen his sons ship sink. Sure the storm had whipped them out further west before moving north, but Kai had done this before,ing back from the dead. He could do it again. His thoughts went around in circles, what could he have done differently, how could he have prevented this? He turned to prayer. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. But no one answered. Despite the silence, he still almost half expected to sail home to find him already sitting there at the top of the cliff, to wee them home. But he wasnt. It was with sinking stone hearts that they returned home with the sad news. Kai was missing, but hopefully not dead. Arawns POV The thought that he should have been onboard kept running through his head. Namir had gone with him to keep him safe from sea monsters, but what could he do against the sea and sky itself? The storm that had swept them all up hade out of nowhere. Powered by muscles as much as by the wind, their boat had managed to make it to Little Wester, not so his grandson and his small sailboat. Not that he could have done much more than Namir facing such circumstances. Still, he would have stuck with him through thick and thin. In the wrong ce at the wrong time he couldnt Aliyah was going to be distraught. Aleera would be beside herself. He knew that he hadnt been the best father or even grandfather, but things had been getting better; with the oaths rxed and removed, he had been able to recreate his rtionships. Building better foundations for them. It was not easy, and it was taking time, but things were improving. He was not going to write off Kai too soon. He had been fooled before. They would have to wait and see. The question was whether or not others would. Aleeras POV Hes dead? She quizzed Arawn. We dont know, we didnt see him die. Officially he is missing. He was swept out to sea and then to the north with Namir. But then again, hes done this before ande back from it. We shouldnt write him off just yet. Arawn answered cautiously, optimistic. Hell be fine. Aliyah insisted. Hes alive, I know it. Her mother was unwilling or incapable of giving up on her son so soon. So we carry on, as nned? She looked for support from both her parents and Lady Acacia. Without Kai present, she would officially be head of the household. She would no longer have her brother as a foil to cate and defend herself and her house from others. As nned, without pause. Hell be back soon enough and expect us to have moved forward rather than waiting for him to return. Aliyah answered a little too frically. Aliyah did not live for her children, but they did mean the world to her, and currently, her world was a little cracked as she contemted life without her little lord, if only for a few days, weeks, or months. Hell return. She repeated as if to reassure herself of that fact. Without knowing how long it would be until he returned, Aleera realised to herself that it was time to move on to the next phase of expansion for the Silversea House. They could not afford to wait for him indefinitely, and ready or not, they needed to move forward with their ns, even if it would be up to her and her alone to implement them. At least he had left books and ns behind for her to hand out to the various branches of House Silversea. They would be able to move on without him. Lady Acacias POV Lady Acacia looked on at the family meeting from the outside. The only retainer included in their small gathering. It had not been a pleasant affair, and from where she was sitting, it did not look overly optimistic about the childs chances. A small child at that, and his retainer Namir, who admittedly was a bit of a monster and one of her few friends left, but still. There was only so much and monster could do in these circumstances. This was the Azimuth Ocean they were talking about, after all and a storm that, by all ounts, had nearly stripped the sails of the ships off and whipped them into the ocean. She just couldnt see exactly how it was they were supposed to have survived. Namir hated sailing, and for the first time, she understood why. Theck of control of your fate was frightening. Her fist closed tightly on the small stone in her hand. She didnt want to give anyone false hope. But if he was alive and he had a hope of returning with Kai then Namir would be able to let her know. Namir did you survive the storm? she sent into the aether. Chapter 215: Friend or Foe Chapter 215: Friend or Foe Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first. Steve Irwin The giants paused on the ridgeline, looking down at Namir. Cleary surprised to see someone in their way. After only a moments confusion and a look between the four of them, they hailed Namir. Heil og sl. Their leader shouted down from the ridgeline, his voice as deep as his chest was wide. The words effectively meant good health in giant, and it was a cheerful enough opening. It also heavily implied that these were the Noble race of Giants that had their own Kingdom rather than the Ice Giants that would rather eat us than talk to us. We were off to a promising start. Hello. Shouted Namir back, and I suddenly realised a possible problem with Namir choosing to be the first to interact with them. I was not sure that he actually spoke Giant at all. The northern kingdom and the giants were as far as was humanely possible from the beast kin tribes of the southern kingdom of Ostro. Luckily, it appeared that at least one of the giants spoke the Compass Continent''smonnguage, Buss. Hello. He replied, his voice booming across the open ice fields. Are you well? He questioned. I only ask because I do not think we have evere across any beastkin so deep into the endless icefields of the north. He exined his curiosity. Well enough. Answered Namir, although it was obvious that for him to be surviving this far out, he had to have hidden his supplies or be ridiculously high levelled enough that theck of food and warmth meant little to him. Though I would be grateful for any directions you might be able to give me back to civilisation. He still maintained his distance from them, though they had not attempted to close the distance by descending from the ridgeline. There was a danger to any new friends we made. While most might be stronger than me, would they be stronger than Namir? It was, after all, why he was meeting them alone. We would be happy to help direct you to the nearest Thorpe (Vige). But you are still far west of our settlednds and far north of the human Kingdom of Tramontana. His deep voice rumbled. Any directions would be useful if only to tell me how far I still need to go. Thank you. Namir continued. Things seemed to be ying out positively. Like we said, a week or twos travel at our speed. But the chances of you finding our settlement are small without our guidance. He cautioned. Dubious of Namir finding his way without support. Its hidden? He questioned. Not so much hidden as in there are fewndmarks to guide you to its location out on the endless ice. He exined. When are you returning home? Namir asked. Trying to work out whether it was worth attempting to find it without them. Soon, soon. He replied. You are wee to return with us. He offered warmly. Thank you. Namir answered and then as ifing to a conclusion continued. We might just take you up on that. We? He looked around for the rest of us. Kai, he called and I popped my head out of the ice cave I had created. Unsure exactly where he was going with this. That was hardly a slip of the tongue. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. A little cub as well as a little cat, your tale grows stranger by the second. He boomed surprised by my reveal across the other side of the vale. I stepped out of the cave and slid down the slope on my skis to join Namir. My grandson. He replied. Grandson? What was it with old men and false family rtions? I didnt look anything like him, not to mention that I wasnt beastkin by any stretch of the imagination. Grandson? the leader of the giants questioned, clearly noting the differences in our racial traits. A quarter cast, but he carries the racial trait. He answered as if that exined everything. Ah, you do not need to worry about any racial purity nonsense. My son is three-quarter cast and his mother half cast but all the stronger for it. He said as the smaller of the four stepped forward. It was hardly as if he was small and would have still towered over Namir, but he was certainly smaller inparison to the other three. Not all are so open-minded. Namir nodded in agreement. At the same time, hinting at a possible reason for us being so far north. We cant help who we love, and the fact that a half-cast can carry two traits proves the system does not mind. The humans who object are more jealous than rational in their objections, mainly because they receive no racial trait to start with. He smiled at the small-minded nature of the humans that were borncking any racial traits at all. In that case, we would be happy to join you on your return, Namir stated. Good. Would you like to join us now or on our return this evening? We can cut our patrol short. He asked. We should be ready to go by the time you return. What are you patrolling for? Just taking stock, culling or noting any beasts that are growing too quickly. We watch out for any incursions from the Loadstone or Endless Ice and try to break them before they be too big. He answered calmly. Well see you this evening then. The four of them strode across the valley, their long strides quickly eating up the distance and powering through the snow drifts when any barred their way. We waved farewell as they quickly crested the other ridgeline and disappeared out of sight. With them out of sight and, more importantly, earshot, I turned to Namir. We are going with them? Yes, Weve been lucky so far travelling through the ice with no knowledge of what we might be facing, but luck has a habit of running out. I, for one, would like to know what it is we might be facing and preferably do it with someone standing by our sides. He exined his rationale for changing our ns. Besides, this is a simple enough entrance into civilisation. The Thorpe sounds small enough. And they were not offended by your being my grandson. He continued. Was that really necessary? Why mention it at all? I asked. Well, firstly, why else would I be travelling with a human? Im certainly not your ve, and there would be few other reasons to find a beast kin travelling with a single human child. Secondly, they are not idiots. For you to be able to keep up with us tomorrow, you will need to have some simr traits to exin how you are going to be able to keep up with us. You know you could always pull me on the sledge. I grinned. Look, weve been through. . . . He started. Yes, but now Im part beastkin and your blood, that means it''s fine now. I grinned ecstatically. He was trapped in lies of his own making. I was looking forward to getting a free ride out of this. Yes, well, maybe when you are exhausted, but not before. He backtracked. Our story is going to be that you were born out of wedlock to a beastkin ve, my daughter and that I was able to rescue you but not my daughter, who died during birth from one of the coastal towns in Ponente. We fled out to sea but were swept up in a storm and shipwrecked here. We are going to be working our way south to Ostro together back to our tribal grounds but would appreciate any support in getting there. You will have to stop using your magic quite so freely for the time being, but this is a good opportunity to be practicing your beastkin skills. Im not giving up my spells, I argued, unwilling to lose the warmth they provided despite the growing levels of cold tolerance. Ill work on whichever other skills you want me to. But Im not giving them up. I continued, determined. Fine, that cane from your human heritage, but try to tone it down a little. It will onlyplicate the story as it will imply your father was a noble. He hesitated, thinking it through. Still, that would work as you would be illegible to inherit with your mixed race in Ponente. And any irregrities can be exined by a bastard upbringing. He extrapted, falling in with the idea. Just try to stay within the realms of possibility, Kai. He pleaded. Chapter 216: To New Friends Chapter 216: To New Friends Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. C.S. Lewis In the end, the giants did not return till the next morning. Still, it allowed us time to process the bears carcass, preserve the meat as best we could, cure the hide, and clean the fur to add anotheryer to our sledge. Magic made many impossibilities possible, and I couldnt quite imagine how challenging our stranding would have been without it. The main problem was carrying all that we had managed to acquire. The sledge was piled high. We were awake and waiting when they finally crested the ridgeline and descended to where they had first met us. Treading with speed and purpose, their long strides soon ate up the distance, the snow no impediment to their progress. It was going to be a challenge to keep up if they kept up that speed all the way home. It already took me two steps to every one of Namirs. With their stride length, I would have to take at least four, maybe even five, to keep up. Namir would be pulling me on the sledge sooner rather thanter. I wondered whether they would be more amenable than he was. I was all for training, but it was freezing and I could only run so fast for so long despite my excessive stats and traits. Ver heill ok Saell. The leaders voice boomed out as he approached once more. I apologise for the dy. There were unexpected dys due to unusual movements. He opened. Im d to see that you waited for our return. Unexpected movements? Namir quizzed. Of some of the more stationary beasts. Their territories are shifting. He exined their dy. Do you keep track of animals locations? I asked. That seemed to be a little bit of an impossible task without modern technology and tracking devices. Not the animals. They pass and move too quickly to keep more than a cursory note of their haunts and migrations. No, the ones we have to watch for are the magical beasts that have developed cores and abilities. They tend to stick to the locations that allowed them to rise to prominence, but some of them seem to be shifting. Hemented. I worried that our arrival somehow triggered it, but he did not seem to think we were the cause of anything untoward. Or at least he did not mention it. Regardless. We are here now and keen to return home after our patrol. This will have been a couple of weeks for us, and we are all missing our hearths. His voice boomed. Are you ready to set forth? I hope that you can keep up. In fact, let us pull that contraption of yours. He said as he knelt down to the sledge, attaching a rope to the bone ring at the front of our sledge and fixing it to the back of his belt, without asking. There, that should help you keep up with us. He said almost patronisingly of our diminutive stature. Yes. I grinned in excitement. I was going to get pulled after all. I had noints. Not so fast. Namir lifted me up out of the sledge. Seemingly disgruntled by the somewhat condescending manner in which the giants leader had taken control of our supplies and the group. Youll harm your progress to rely on others for your rescue. He pointed out to me. We rescued ourselves. This is just making my life a little easier. I argued back. The system measures all. He countered. Until we reach their vige, you should make the most of the experience and pull your weight for as long as possible. I turned to the giant for support. Dont look at me. Your kin can train you better than I can. he avoided taking any responsibility for resolving our family dispute. If he thinks you can keep up, then who am I to argue otherwise. He shrugged disbelievingly. Keep up for as long as you can. He smiled at Namir. epting the challenge, Namir surged forward ahead of the group, and I could see the giant reassessing at least one of our abilities to keep up with their group. Hah, He chuckled as he stepped forward after him. Give it your best. The son said supportively as his father set out after Namir, soon drawing alongside him; seeing as he was waiting for him on the ridgeline, not knowing our direction, but they did not race ahead once they aligned. They made an odd pair of walkers, the giant and the beastkin. I was sure I looked even more distinctively different with my walkingpanion, the giant and the human child. Despite his smaller staturepared to his father, he still towered above me even more than the giant leader did to Namir. I was running in order to keep up with his sons steady plod. My stats kept me from being out of breath, but I could tell this would be a long day. The final two giants brought up the rear. Silently watching our rear trail and scanning the sides for any unexpected dangers. You know you never told us your names, Imented to the giant leaders son. Neither did you, Kai. He replied haltingly, and I recalled Namir giving my name away when he called for me to step forth. You have me at a disadvantage then. I pointed out. Yes, we do. He replied simply as he grinned in return, either at the fact that I was running to keep up with his steady strides or at the fact that he was still continuing to obfuscate their names from us. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Greetings, oh northern giant of the endless ice. My name is Kai, and my guardian is Namir. May I have the honour of knowing the names of mypanions as we race across the endless ice of Tramontana? I flexed a few of the social skills I had been forced to learn under the direction of Lady Acacia. Mypanion stumbled as the silliness of the situation, my skills hit him or as he attempted to understand my verbose vernacr either way, he replied. My name is Erik Bjrnson, Son of Bjrn. He gestured at the giant leading alongside Namir. Trailing us is Ivar, He looked over his left shoulder at the giant following behind us on our left. And Ragnar. He looked at the giant behind to the right of our trail. A pleasure to meet you. I bowed my head truly in acknowledgement of that fact. I was looking forward to seeing more of their nations customs, skills and, most importantly, magic. Lady Acacia had been able to teach us Elvish Spellsong, Humanities spellcraft, and the most basic Dwarvish runes we had been able to lift from the ships we had pilfered. The stone glyphs of the giants had been something she had been unable to impart. A pleasure to meet you, too. He cautiously replied, testing the words as he said them clearly, unused to conversing too much in Buss. It may be themon tongue for the central kingdoms of thepass continents, but we were traversing its edges, and it showed if only in the limited vocabry of ourpanions. Before they had returned, Namir had suggested that we keep the fact that I could speak the giant tongue hidden a little longer until we knew whether we could trust the sincerity of our giant guides. Where are we heading? I asked, then added Going? as he seemed to struggle to understand the first questions verb. Home. He replied simply. I would struggle to draw much out of him without revealing my ability to speak his own tongue. But I was not quite ready to give up just yet. "Your father is a giant, your mother?" I asked, referring to the earlier conversation by his dad. "My mother is a giant too." He replied a little defensively. His father had said it didn''t matter, but maybe it did, despite his assurance. "Yes, but you are smaller than the others." I probed, possibly a little insensitively. He was younger, it was true, but also noticeably shorterpared to his father despite the fact that he towered over the two of us. "And your mother?" I turned the question around. "Half beastkin, half-elf," I answered unashamedly. If we were going to lean into Namir''s idea of what my imaginary genealogy might be, I might as well make the most of it in exining my rather unusual collection of racial traits. "Half and half?" He questioned, raising his eyebrows, surprised. "But you look human." "Yes, my father." I grimaced, remembering the role I was supposed to be ying. "Not the best father." my frown elicited sympathy from the young giant. "Me too." He replied inmiseration, I raised my brow in surprise and he seemed to realise that he had implied his father was equally ''not nice.'' "No, no. Me too. My mother is half-giant, half-dwarf." He exined away his smaller thatparison stature. At the same time, seeming to emphasise our simrities. "Thanks." I smiled, and he nodded in our mutual understanding and somewhat simr situations. I struggled to see how that could havee about. But it wasn''t something I could politely raise in conversation with her son, especially with his limited vocabry. Nevertheless, I hadid the groundwork for our story, so I put my head down and ran alongside them. How long would I be able to keep this up? They continued to stride forward across the deste, icy wastnd while I slid across the top of it. I would have to find out. . . . I made it up until they called a break for lunch, surprising their leader Bjrn and possibly even Namir with my ability to keep going despite my small stature and the number of steps I had to take for each of their strides. The only things that allowed me to keep going alongside them besides my high stats and supplementary traits were my skis and the ability to slide over the snow rather than plough through it. The breaks at the ends of the downhills, as well as being able to glide forward and catch up with Bjrn and Namir were always wee whenever they came. The giants seemed to be fascinated with the idea of my skis. The sledge made sense to them, and they had seen its like before, but the skis were something novel and new. I was notpletely sure that they would work as well for them as they did for me. After all, they were significantly heavier than I was and would require something suitably strong enough to stand up to the punishment they would receive underneath a giants foot. I could see many of them snapping in the future and or not being viable due to their extreme weight. Giants might have the racial trait strength on their status, but it certainly had added both size and weight to their physique. As we sat in the lee of a stone outcropping eating a hast lunch, Namir was quizzed about my ability to keep up. Quarter cast, you say? I would have expected him to need to be carried by now despite the unusual contraptions strapped to his feet he is using to slide over the snow. He clearly carries more than one trait and even then . . . Bjrn asked Namir ignoring me in favour of conversing with who he viewed as the adult and leader of our group. But even then he paused before using me of anything outright. As my daughters son, I know he carries super senses and vitality. A dalliance with an elf in my younger years, far from home. One of many reasons I was unaware of her existence, capture and his existence until it was toote. As for the rest, . . . He shrugged. Turning to me continued, It could be any realm of possibility. Hmmm, Bjrn pondered. But whatever it was he kept to himself. I took the hint. I was clearly operating outside of the realms of possibility, even if it was Namirs idea to start off with and only with my physical attributes. Can I have a lift after lunch? I asked. Yes of course, his rumbling voice warmly answered. After eating, I buried into the bearskin rugs and wolf pelts wrapping our sledge, it was weingly warm and terribly tempting to fall asleep as the sledge was pulled across the icy wastnds. Nyx, though was not willing to let me sleep until she managed to arrange herself on top of me to her liking. She had been hiding out in the sledge as it was the warmest ce besides within my clothes. I had been avoiding using my magic too much in front of the others. It had made this mornings trek a little colder than I had been used to. Nyx rapidly realised that the sledge was the warmest ce to be and retreated there before the giants had even appeared when my normal bubble of warmth was not forting. Now nestled together, she endeavoured to find the warmest spot above my chest and enjoying the warmth, I, too, pulled the pelts over my head and snuggled down to sleep to the rhythmic rocking of the sledge sliding over the waves carved into the ice and snow by the wind of the endless ice. With nothing else to upy my mind and exhausted from the mornings trek I sumbed to the warmth and weed the senseless slumber. Chapter 217: Instrospection Chapter 217: Instrospection Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Aristotle I did not spend the whole afternoon sleeping away as we were pulled across the endless ice. Although I did feel significantly safer with the four giants around. No, once I awoke, rather than alerting them to that fact and having to spend the rest of the afternoon slugging across thendscape on my skis I got down to some internal tidying up while I was wrapped up warm within the pelts and hidden from the icy wind and asional flurries of snow. It was easy to understand why Nyx had spent the majority of her time wrapped up and away from it all. If she was a little older I would be tempted to kick her out to gain the cold resistance but as it was I did not wish to risk harming her in any way. Regardless, it was time for a little introspection. Time to take a detailed look at my status that I had neglected following up on all the changes that had urred through our adventures since leaving Wester Ponente. First up was the jump in levels. Life and death situations along with my near-constant use of magic to hold the boat together through the storm and then to keep us alive had levelled that metier the most. But all of them had seen some progress since I hadst revealed my levels to my family for the first time. Still, 11 new levels were nothing to sneeze at, taking me to level 60 and providing me with another 120 free points that I could perhaps convince the Goddess of Luck to allocate for me at some point, or I would just have to wait a little longer. I was, after all, growing up and getting ever closer to the time that I could assign the points myself. In fact, I was nearly 7 (9 years 4 months) I was no longer such an infant if still only a child by both my former and current worlds standards. It was interesting to note that I was still a lord despite my departure from the Wester Isles, I had not been expecting it to disappear, but it was nice to note that it had not. Level: 49 ->60 Title: Lord Mtier: Singer Lv 11 ->12 Mtier: Sailor Lv 12 ->13 Mtier: Merchant Lv 8 ->11 Mtier: Mage Lv 1 ->7 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 6 years 12 months 3 days -> 6 years 15 months 2 weeks 5 days. Despite the wealth of experience I had received or rather experienced, I realised that this was as far as my current metiers could take me. It was time for a change. Luckily, I had not left home without a method. Still, I would get to that once I had dealt with the remainder of my internal audit and reassessed the best ways forward. I had earned a wealth of experience and my natural growth had continued to push up my stats in line with the gradual growth of my vessel. The nightmare nature of battling the storm had certainly helped with my vitality, endurance, strength and dexterity. While staying aware of our surroundings and their dangers continued to help my senses grow. Mind, rity and Magic had grown from the constant stress of holding our boat together with magic and dealing with the multiple stress points and fractures before its demise on the cliffs of endless ice. However, it looked like it had fallen or failed to rise as much that was just due to the sacrifice in magic stats of unlocking my male cousins to their magical abilities as we had done with Aleera to our female cousins prior to my departure. Magic was such a force multiplier for our family that the sacrifice was well worth the personal cost. Besides, as always in a feudal system, standing on top of the pyramid, I had gained more than I lost in terms of physical attributes from my cousins. In fact, Charisma had risen the least, with no stats to be gained from any of my formermon cousins and suffering the cost of istionism on Wester Ponente with few to no social engagements. Luckily, luck had continued to rise, and I attributed that to Namir''s and my unbelievable survival. The unbnced nature of my stats bothered me in a way that they never had before. I couldnt quite exin why but I supposed it added more character to the soul that my status quantified. That said, I was looking forward to the day when I could assign my free points and bring myself back into alignment. General Experience: 1,234,567 /3,276,800 Health: 1630 -> 1790 Stamina: 1630 -> 1793 Mana: 1930 -> 1840 Psi: 1630 -> 1770 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 163 -> 179 Endurance: 163 -> 182 Strength: 163 -> 177 Dexterity: 163 -> 181 Senses: 163 -> 178 Mind: 163 -> 177 rity: 163 -> 178 Magic: 193 -> 184 Charisma: 163 -> 165 Luck: 163 -> 169 Free Points: 10 ->120 Our adventure had seen explosive growth in some skills while othersnguished throughck of use. With 100 as the skill level cap for each tier, my extra sailing experience was funnelled into my other sailing skills once my original tier 1 sailing skill hit the cap. I wasnt sure that cruising would be the normal name to describe our flight north in the centre of a cyclone, but we had certainly covered a lot of ground. I couldnt argue with the growth in racing and seafaring as we have truly travelled the world now. The rest of the growth in my skills arose from the work building the boat that had so nearly survived the storm and our survival efforts here in this hospitablend at the northern end of the world. Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv87->100)Singing (Lv83 ->84)Trading (Lv82->83)Meditation (Lv82 ->85) Time Sense (Lv82 ->84) Bnce (Lv60 ->75) Fishing (Lv58 ->60) Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55) Draw (Lv58) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv50)Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41) Ambidextrous (Lv36 ->40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (Lv31 ->37)Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34) Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv20 ->26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28)Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11)Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10) Underwater breathing (Lv1 ->6)Hunting(Lv1 -> 5) Skinning (Lv1 -> 5) Skiing (Lv1 -> 5) If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv72 ->79)Sense Mana (Lv75)Eavesdrop (Lv63) Spellcraft (Lv63) Spellsong (Lv63) Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv40) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Pain Tolerance (Lv38 ->39)Stealth (Lv39 ->40)Mind Sense (Lv35 ->36) Knife Arts (Lv29 ->33) Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv26 ->29) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv21 -> 49) Dart (Lv25) Heal (Lv16 ->18) Poison Tolerance (Lv11) Treasure Sense (Lv17)Intimidation (Lv12) Cold Tolerance(Lv1 -> 3) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv65 ->69) Expel Mana (Lv70) Mana Maniption (Lv69)Gale (LV63->68)Absorb Mana (Lv42) Boil (Lv50->53) Ignite (Lv40 ->44) Melt (Lv40 ->44) Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv17 ->34) Analyse (Lv15 ->17) sh Step (Lv15) Seismic Sense (Lv11->14) Danger Sense (Lv10 ->12) Smuggling (LV5) Telepathy (Lv5) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv66 ->69) Parallel Processing (Lv50)Material Maniption (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv33) Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv20) Sonar (Lv19 -25)Seafaring (Lv11 ->22) Air stepping (Lv7) Contract (Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5) Rune Carving (Lv3) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv26)Multiple minds (Lv5) Omniglot (Lv25) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv14)Enigma (Lv1) Astral Projection (Lv1) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv1) Believe it or not, I had gotten used to my status after nearly 7 years. It was a part of my reality, something that I could go days without checkingpared to when I had first arrived in this world and checked it on a daily or even hourly schedule with an addiction that was simr to any phone I had ever had, just to see if I had made any progress that I might have just missed the notification for. Havinge to grips with my progress, the second thing I needed to check was my internal world. This had two aspects to it: my Mind Fortress, and the Soul it rested in. Thergest change to my mind fortress was my map room. There might be gaps to it, but I had significantly expanded my understanding of the world, and Callen had mapped it ordingly. It was not perfect, but my sensory skills allowed a highly detailed map of the sea floor when it was within reach of my skills and the ability to sense time meant that even the gaps between what was known and what was unknown were reasonably urate and I could trace our path through the sea all the way north to the endless ice. Seeing how far the storm had taken us before smashing us against the cliffs was a little terrifying. It would be a long journey home. Every mind was busy keeping note of our progress and continuing to build, popte and update the map of our surroundings. Carry on Callen. I gave him a mock salute before working my way to the others. Without a ship to sail he seemed to be enjoying the mapping nature of our explorations. Caelus was in the observatory, studying the minds travelling around us. All the information gathered was sent back to themand deck to view it all from but it seemed like my minds liked to wander. We would go to the separate spaces to concentrate on our tasks. Bjorns Level was still above where I could inspect up to. However, I was able to observe a title to his name. He was a Jarl. It was the same with Namir, so I could not bepletely sure who was the strongest. The rest of our newpanions, though were within my skills and abilities to assess. Ivar was level 72, Ragnar was level 64, and Erik was level 34. He seemed a lot lower inparison to the rest of the group but if he was the Jarls son, then it made sense for them to be out here in the wilderness levelling him up to take his ce as chief on his fathers passing. Kyrus is sitting in our soul. If youre looking for him. Caelusmented on my arrival. Taking a break from staring up at the stars in the sky that represented the minds around us and nodding to the outside of the observatory and the rest of our soul. Thanks. I replied and made the subtle shift of stepping out from my mental mind fortress into my soul. Now that I had soul sense I could see my soul wrapping around my mental fortress manifesting as a mountain it rested upon in a sea of experience. Kryus was sat down the slope wrapped up warm against the cold winds that somehow seemed to prate from reality even into our inner world. Its the environmental mana. He pointed out the asional ice forming in the sea of our experience. It reaches us even in here. Still, it has been helpful in understanding how our Cold Resistance formed. He added. How did it help? I asked. The knowledge woulde naturally when reabsorbing my minds at the skills end but sometimes it was helpful to talk things through to consolidate my understanding of the knowledge. It isnt just a resistance to the physical temperature that helped to form it but a resistance to the mana type as well. He exined. The temperature is so low it vours the ambient mana or the mana type causes the extreme low temperatures. Either way while our body is affected by the temperature and mana our soul also appears to be coloured by the ice mana. He postted. I nodded my head in agreement at what seemed to have happened. Okay, but other than sensing our soul, why are you out here? I was just contemting what else might be possible with Astral Projection. He answered. Meeting the Gods and Fortuna all happened instantaneously. Our body didnt disappear but our soul was able to traverse instantly to wherever it was that they were. Mightnt it be possible for us to do something simr independently. Fortuna took us outside of ourselves so it is certainly possible. But not sure how far we would be able to go on our own. Ive already checked and we can make it to Namir and back. He . . . I started. He didnt notice my presence. He interrupted stopping me in my thoughts. What Im wondering is whether we can make it to Wester Ponente and back. He ruminated, exining why he was waiting for me on edge of our soul sea. Want to find out? he asked. Chapter 218: No Time Like the Present Chapter 218: No Time Like the Present There and Back Again, by Bilbo Baggins. Tolkien When? I asked No time the present, Kyrus replied Okay, how do we do this? I asked just for rification before we jumped off into the unknown. I wanted to know if it was possible, but was it worth the risk? Simple enough. He said. I felt the skill activating and saw his physical representation float off over the sea, angling up to shoot into the sky to one of the stars that represented Namir floating overhead. I followed along. Ding! Astral Projection (Lv2) I soon joined him floating outside of Namirs soul. Now what? Next, we need to go a little further. He replied. It was the understatement of the year if ever Id heard one. But there is something I wanted to double-check first. Close your eyes. I closed my metaphysical eyes. Kyrus then spun my astral projection around horizontally and vertically until I hadpletely lost all sense of what was left or right or up or down before finally stopping me. Okay, without opening your eyes, point back to our mortal vessel, our body. Hemanded. Even with my eyes closed, it was easy to point back to where my body, mind and soul rested. An invisible bond pulled me back towards my mortal vessel to my heart. I opened my eyes to check, and sure enough, I was pointing back towards the world that made up my soul. My mind fortress sitting proudly atop its mountain in the sea of experience I had earned over my short lifetime here in the Compass Kingdoms. Ding! Sense Soul (Lv2) Yes, we said together in sess. I was gratified at the systems recognition of our progress. Right. Next, close your eyes and search for a simr tug, a simr pull on our soul. He quietlymanded. Ill do the same with my eyes closed as well. Floating in the ether between souls together, we closed our eyes and searched for a soul with a simr tug. The individual that our lives had ovepped with for the longest time. The woman whose very soul had unknowingly sheltered our own when we first arrived scared and confused. The woman who weed us into this world, our mother. It wasnt the same frequency nor the pull as strong, but I could feel it: a string that tied my heart to anothers, a string that tied our two souls together, that bound us to our mother despite the distance. Convinced, I said, Ive found her. and opened my eyes to find Kyrus pointing in the same direction. In reality, it would have been south, but in the soul realm, it was merely another vector we somehow knew would end up arriving at our mothers soul. Besides, was it truly south if you considered the earths curvature? Would the soul stop at the lodestone or bore straight through it? How did you measure every vector in a sphere? It was so much simpler thinking about the 360 degrees on apass face. Ready to risk the jump? He asked. I nodded. I was not wholly convinced, but I missed them, I missed my family, and I wanted them to know I was well as much as I wanted to see that they were okay, too. Ready to go home if only to be a fly on the outer wall of her soul. He confirmed as he motioned to the soul of Namir, who we still stood next to, floating in the void between soul stars. Weunched ourselves along the vector together. The star-studded sky of souls elongated to sh past us as we flew to our destination almost instantaneously. As I bathed in the warmth of my mothers soul, I knew I was home in spirit. Even if I was not home in mind or body, I was home in terms of my soul. Comforted, I rxed in the warmth of her presence. How long had it been since I had a good hug? Namir was not one for casual touch, and now I found myself curled up tight against the warmth of my mothers soul. Ding! Astral Projection (Lv3) It reminded me of when I had first arrived, confused and alone but still somehow feeling protected and held. Alone no longer . . . I paused quickly, surveying my surroundings. I was alone. Kyrus had not made the jump. He might have left with me, but he had not arrived. Frightened, I quickly felt for my mortal vessel but found the vector home still as strong as I had left it. I could make it back; distance did not seem to matter too much to the soul. I was sure I could make it. But where my clone had disappeared to, I knew not. Hopefully, I would find him where I left him when I returned. But I wasnt quite ready to do that just yet. There was something I needed to do first. Slowly, I calmed, helped by feeling so close to my mother. I might be frustrated at times by her protection, but I always felt loved, and I had grown to love her in return. How could I not? Hugging her soul tight, I whispered. Im okay. I watched as her soul shone, hopefully, a little brighter in response to my words. Could I do more than that? Couldnt I use a different skill to reach her mind? Concentrating, I used Mind Sense to look within the soul to find the mind and tried to avoid the brightness that was her soul. Ding! Mind Sense (Lv37) If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I found her mind within the glow that was her soul. Im okay, I said, thrilled to be able tomunicate to reassure her that I was alright. Ding! Telepathy (Lv6) We made it. I grinned. I might be at the northern end of the world but I was only a hop, skip and a jump from home. Mentally, at least, I was only a thought away. Kai? she asked, shocked, and I could sense that she had flinched at hearing my voice in her head. Youre alive! How? Where? How? her internal thoughts bounced back and forth between delight, shock and amazement. We survived the storm, though it blew us off the maps until we finally hit the endless ice on the worlds edge, I exined. When will you return? she asked excitedly. I hated to dampen her joy, but she immediately sensed my hesitation. Whats wrong? she quizzed worriedly. We wont be sailing back just yet. We were shipwrecked on the ice and the ship sank. It was all I nned to say, but my mind jumped ahead, the thoughts conveyed faster than words. Namir carried me for a few days before I regained consciousness. I had not nned to worry her, but my thoughts ran ahead of me. It took us a couple of days to get our feet under us and head east along the coastline. But you are okay now? She quickly asked for reassurance. Yes, weve met some giants and are returning to their Thorpe. Then, we hope to turn south and reach Tramontana. After that, we will reassess the fastest way home. I exined. Were fine. I tried to reassure her but was unsure exactly how sessful I was. Good, good. She replied, and I could sense that she was still relieved by my survival and shocked by my ability to reveal it. I didnt want you to worry, but I didnt know that I could do this before now. I tried to exin I had only juste across this method bybining skills. How are you even . . . she began the thought before I interrupted. My telepathy skill. I grinned internally at her confoundment. Feeling another sh of achievement at another update from the system. Ding! Telepathy (Lv7) Long-range conversations were worth the experience, although I would never have found her without some form of soul sense and astral projection to make the initial connection. Did everyone else make it back in one piece? I asked. Yes, they could sail back to Wester Ponente once the storm had passed and they made a few repairs. She filled me in on the details. Father? I questioned. Father is fine, other than beating himself up for not being on board with you. Arawn is much the same. She replied, and I could sense her smiling along with the words. Im fine now that I know that you are alive. They will be, too, once I tell them. She added. Your sister seems to have taken your absence personally but has not been willing to give you up for dead, having been fooled once before. She was most adamant that you would return sooner orter. Tell them I love them too. I grinned heart warmed by what I was hearing. I was missed, and they loved me. You might not once you hear what she has been up to. Taking advantage of your absence, she has found your secret stash of otherworldly suggestions for our cousins, the Adal houses supporting the Silverseas, and has handed them out. She stated. I paused . . . She what?! She is continuing with some of your more ambitious ideas for the ind. Mother was proud of her childs achievements even if that child was not me, and the waves she made were from my work. They were mine to suggest. I had not even finished working out which would work best. I whined. I had only been speaking to her briefly, but I had already been reduced to a childining about my older sister jumping the gun and taking my toys away. She was not willing to wait on your undetermined return to continue to move forward with your ns. Dont make a thing out of this when you talk to her. She scolded. My silence said more than a thousand words. Kai! she reprimanded. Yes, mother. I feel Im running out of Psi. Part excuse, part reality there was no such thing as a crackly call to end the line. Ill call back when I can. I finished the conversation but waited long enough to hear her final words. I love you. She whispered. But the words sounded loud and clear in her mind. I love you too, I replied before jumping back along the vector to my vessel. . . . When I returned, I needed to check a couple of things. I hadnt been lying when I said I could feel myself running out of Psi. My reserves were exceedingly low, with only 550 / 1770 Psi left. I had burned through over 1000 on that short, long-range telephone conversation, and unlike my mana, I did not have a trait to reproduce it rapidly. But this was not the first thing that I checked. Once I had returned to my soul, I searched my soul and mind fortress for any of my multiple minds and found them all absent. A short activation and deactivation of the skill showed they were all still avable, but something about sending my soul via astral projection halfway around the world had cut the skill straight off. With the activation and deactivation of the skill, I could remember working on different things only to have my memories abruptly end as I jumped from just outside my soul to where my mother resided in the soulscape with Kyrus. We concluded that up to four multiple minds could act independently within my mind, soul and even just outside. But jump too far, and my soul would only support a single consciousness. Maybe in time, I would work out a workaround, but for now, it was enough to be able to talk to home. However, how would I let Namir know that I knew they were all okay and they knew the same about us? I did not know, seeing as we were surrounded by admittedly friendly giants but stranger giants nheless. Doh. I thought to myself. A momentter, I was speeding across the soul space to knock on Namirs soul and using my mental skills to talk in his mind. May you always walk in the light, Namir. I intoned. As I spoke to Namir, I couldnt help but affect a deep voice. I wondered whether I could get him to believe in the divine. What is it, Kai? He quizzed internally, clearly unimpressed with my efforts and failing to fall for them. How did you know it was me? I asked. Who else would it be? He sardonically replied. God? You are not a god. He replied unmoved. I paused for a moment before moving on. Mother knows we are alive and will tell the others. I exined, breaking the radio silence despite failing to convince him of anything. How? He asked in his head. Same as this, I replied. You can reach that far? He sounded amazed for the first time. Yes? Was that a question, and if so, Id already answered it. Impressive. He seemed to think for a second before giving me his own news. A message from Lady Acacia arrived asking that very question while you were asleep. He added. A message? How? I asked, equally impressed that they had managed to contact us without my magic to do so. A calston. The same stone that called me to tell me she had finally found a student for me. He replied. It is not the quickest of ways to get in contact. You could have got in contact with them all this time? I sounded a little hurt, even to myself. What would I have said? We didnt know where we were, whether or not we would make it back to thepass kingdoms or whether it was even possible. Until now, any hope I could have given them would have been false. Now, at least, we know roughly where we are and have a n on how to get home. Fair enough, I replied. Time to wake up. Hemented. Bjrn is pulling up. He added, and I noticed the sledge sliding to a stop. Chapter 219: Casually breaking the realms of space and time Chapter 219: Casually breaking the realms of space and time "In essence, String Theory describes space and time, matter and energy, gravity and light, indeed all of Gods creation . . . as music. Roy H William As we pulled up for the day, I had not expected to watch the seemingly nomadic and Stone Age giants break my understanding of space and magic. I had yet to process precisely how little stuff they were hauling with thempared to Namir and me. Especially not when considering how much people of their stature would have to eat and drink to stave off starvation, let alone exert themselves in the sub-zero temperatures of the endless ice. They only had a small backpack each, which was vanishingly tinypared to their size and even their primary weapons. I assumed they were catching prey to supplement their meals, but we had spent an entire day walking, so they had little opportunity. So I was left wondering whether there was a racial ability that they acquired to support their super strength somehow. For example, the Dwarf''s durability allowed them to go for days on fewer rations or for their bodies tost much longer. I would have been starving without having the supply of jerky I had been quietly snacking on under the beast fur mantle that had kept Nyx and me so warm as we traversed the endless ice. The wind may have whipped up snow flurries, but the sky had been remarkably clear of precipitation since the storm stranded us here at the northern edge of the world. Anyway, I had long since poked my head out of the top of the pelts to watch the snow-coveredndscape pass us by. Namir, formerly ranged ahead and around us, had not struggled to keep up with the giants long, steady strides across the open ice fields. I could sense him even if I could see him with my constant sensory sweeps returning now, so I was not worried when he was not immediately visible to such a simple sense as sight alone. He would be here soon enough once he had seen we had actually stopped especially as he had already warned me of our slowing. Awake, are we? Bjorn asked as I emerged. The jolly giant stretched out his back from pulling the sledge for so long. But I suspected it was more a ploy for sympathy than an actual necessity with his size and stats. "Thanks for pulling me today," I nodded in thanks. I''ve been awake for a little while now, I replied, thanking him. I sensed we were slowing down and decided to pop out for dinner. Hungry are we? heughed at the flight of Nyx who had also popped out at hearing the magical word dinner despite the freezing cold. Just a little, I answered politely, not mentioning the jerky Nyx and I had already demolished. They had been running for most of the day while I had my nap and made my mental and spiritual excursions, not that they knew of those. Nyx, not noticing any food immediately avable, had disappeared back under the bear fur rug after I had rebuffed her freezing feet from skittering inside my clothes. Hmm, it has been a while since we broke our fast. Time to do so again. He added, approaching the craggy rock face we had pulled up alongside and cing one hand against the wall. Without warning or fanfare, I watched as the rock seemed to vibrate, shards falling off it until he was left with a t, vertical face. I could sense how his mana was being pulsed into the rockface, and his brow furrowed in concentration as the mana took shape and a stone glyph of the giant magicalnguage formed on the smooth vertical face. Then, casually, he reached into one of hisrge pouches on his waist and pulled out what appeared to be arge beast core that he ced against the centre of the stone glyph he had created. Might want to stand back a little here. He grinned as he turned back to watch my face at the outpouring of magic. I had been watching intently but doubted I looked too shocked or surprised as I had been able to watch the entire event unfolding with my magical senses. He seemed a little disappointed. I jumped back just in case the warning was necessary. However, Erik chuckled at my rm, and I suspected I was being yed with. Its time for dinner he said. Then, he ced his hand on the beast''s core, pressing it into the stone. Without warning, an enormous doorway sized for giants appeared on the solid stone oveying the stone glyph, the beast''s core embedded in what appeared to be a door handle. The instant appearance was far more shocking than his previous efforts, and he smiled at my confusion. I had been able to sense his previous magic forming anding to fruition. This, though, had caught me off-guard. The magic snapped into ce instantly from the core rather than Bjorn. He then opened the door to reveal an enormous house-sized room with four giant beds along the walls and a giant table in the centreden with food. It was an exceptional magic trick the like of which I had never seen before. What? How? I quizzed, taken aback by the impossibility of what I was seeing. Sure, magic made many impossibilities possible, but I had never seen thews of space and time broken so casually before. The food was still steaming hot in ces. What appeared to be an entire fish was cooked as if freshly grilled in the centre of the table. I turned to the rest of the giants to see if they were equally amazed, but other than a couple of chuckles at my expense, they continued to build what looked like walls of snow and ice around our temporary campsite. A courtyard around or entry but wall that would keep our magical door out of sight should anyone be searching for it. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The only one to pause was when Namir returned to our temporary base. Food, Kai. He answered, still grinning at my bafflement. He was focused on his tummy rather than the magic of the moment. Perhaps he had seen the like before but somehow this had been missed from our lessons. Maybe it was peculiar to the giants and their stone magic? Yes, but how? The food wasnt what was confusing me. It was the ability of the giants to have a spatially hidden home that was breaking my mind. Could I have one? Was it somehow connected to the beast core, or was that simply powering it? It couldnt have been hollowed out of the stone as it came equipped with beds, tables and food. Wee to our home away from home. He avoided answering the question and stepped inside, gesturing for me to follow him. You didnt think we would travel so far from home with so little. He motioned to the rtively small backpacks now lined up against the inside wall of the stone home as they continued to through up ice walls around the entrance. No, I mean, I thought you must have a trait or skill that allowed you to go without food or that we would be hunting more regrly, I replied. No need. He answered abruptly before continuing, We hunt but the truth is that there is not a wide variety of food on the endless ice or enough quantity to support a people of our size. No, most of our foodes from the sea. He pointed to the steaming grilled fish across the table, awaiting us to sit and eat them as well as to arder I had missed before entering to the side of the entryway which appeared fully stocked with all manner of sea food. Yes, but how? I was repeating myself, but I had to know. What exactly do you want to know? He asked. The space. Where did ite from? How did you create it? How do you carry it? Why form the stone glyph? What did the beast core do? Slow down, slow down. He continued to chuckle at my explosion of questions. I had seemingly been silent all day long and now I was suddenly badgering him for answers. This is a vault. He stated. It is formed, created and stored in the beast core all I have done is release it or rather open it to allow us entry. But how? I quizzed. Every magical monster or beast that develops a magical power has that skill or magic imprinted on the core it grows inside. The higher the level of beast the most likely the higher the level of skill or magical imprint its core will hold. Every beast? Every beast. What kind of magical beast holds cores with the imprints of vaults? I asked, enthused. Other than the desire to have my own home away from home, the difference it would make to logistics, especially those carried by sea, would be insane. The hunt of Lodestone Wyrm provided this core. A Lodestone Wyrm? I asked, confused. I had never heard of such beasts before, but seeing as I now knew they could hold magical gifts, I was keen to learn as much as possible in order to grab them. They are gigantic worms their diameter the size of this room. He pointed to the space surrounding us. They tunnel through the Lodestone below our feet, and much of the passageways linking us to the depths were created by them tunnelling through the Lodestone. How do they move through solid stone? I asked. Thats their magical power or gift. Their core allows them to store vast quantities of stone in their vaults. Simply swallowing stone out of existence as much as they burrow their way through it. And you killed one? I asked. How did you even go about finding such a monster within the earth, let alone kill it? A long time ago. He calmlymented. How? The same way you would kill any magical beast with a hunt. A carefully nned hunt with both lures and traps. He grinned enjoying boasting about his sess. Erik havingpleted the snow walls outside and having entered the room, was not quite so willing to suffer through what was clearly a lengthy and often repeated tale, burst his bubble. The worm was threatening the foundations of our Thorpe and was lured onto the surface with a suitablyrge source of mana. Once the majority of the beast was out of the earth, the entire vige descended on it, cutting it in two before it could retreat. He quickly retold what would clearly have been an hour-long story in seconds. Or something along those lines, Bjorn muttered, pouring himself what must have been a but a pint to a giant, but to any human or beastkin looked more like a gallon of ale in constion of having his storytelling cut short. Judging by the size of the tale and the Lodestone Wyrm within it, I would have thought the beast core would have been bigger, I said, thinking back to the size of the core he had ced on the stone face. It was, Erik replied. But the vige worked it into smaller sections to allow many vaults to be created out of the single beast core. You can create more vaults from the original core? All the fragments of the core hold the same imprint, the same skill or spell. The size is much smaller than the original, but the vige found it far more effective to have multiple smaller vaults rather than a singrlyrge one. He continued. "It was also a lot easier to reward everyone who had put in the effort to put down the beast as well aspensate those whose homes had copsed when we were able to separate them into smaller cores rather than keeping it as a prize too precious for any of us to have been able to have afforded it." Are any for sale? I asked excitedly. Most families of hunt keep them as their prized possession, but you might be able to convince someone to part with one if you had enough money. He shrugged. Do you have any money? Not on me, per se. I paused, realising that contrary to usual, I was currently rtively poor considering everything. I just needed to find something I could supply that they were equally poor in. The difficulty was that it would be down to what only Namir and I could supply which added a certain level ofplication. Bjorn reintroduced himself into the conversation his son had shanghaied. No one is likely to sell you one due to the magical nature of the family heirloom, but you are wee to have a look at ours as we travel tomorrow. Now, time to feast. He passed around the tes he had made up while we had been chatting. Bjorn, Erik, Namir, Ragnar and I sat down to eat while Ivar kept watch outside the hidden home on the top of the temporary ice walls they had created. So, how long do you think it will take us to reach your Thorpe? Namir asked, changing the topic. The conversation continued on more mundane matters between the adults but my mind was stuck on the possibilities of what having my own vault avable to me might mean to myself and my family should I ever be able to get one or more home. Chapter 220: The inspiration of infinity Chapter 220: The inspiration of infinity If people looked at the stars each night, theyd live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realise that there are more important things than what people do all day. Bill Watterson Dinner was a pleasant affair, discussing their patrol so far and projected journey home with us. It turned out we wouldnt take too long to reach their Thorpe, just a couple more days at the speed we were travelling, provided we ran into no other surprises. They ranged far and wide to ensure no encroachments on their territory from dwellers of the depths, Ice Giants or other magical monsters. Beasts could develop powers in the most intriguing and potentially lethal ways, and an early warning of what their Thorpe might have to face was always worth it if they could not nip it in the bud at the source. They did not have a bed specifically for us. However, with the core embedded in the wall and the vault opened, Bjorn insisted on having someone on watch during the night to prevent its closure. His reasoning was that you could trap people within one, and he did not wish it to happen to us. Namir offered to take the first watch, which was gratefully epted. They appeared to have developed a wary respect for the beastkin after he kept up with todays pace and the broad spectrum of animals we had hunted since arriving on the endless ice. When Namirs first watch ended, the other giants would take their turns keeping watch, even Erik. We would then be able to take advantage of the empty bed while the watch continued. Seen as a child, doubly so due to my size, they meant for me to get a whole night''s sleep. Nevertheless, I was not sleepy after my naps, and my mind was still running in circles about the possibilities provided by a magical spatial vault. So I stayed up with Namir for the first watch and watched as the stars came out to fill the night sky. The air was still ice cold, but I felt well insted with all theyers of fur we had umted. As Iy on my back under the furs on the sledge, I looked up at the vast open sky with ice, the onlypanion along the horizon I could see. It was a panoramic sky view of star constetions for my perusal while Namir ostensibly kept watch for us. Nyx the traitor had opted to curl up in the spatial vault with the giants after they had delighted in feeding her till her stomach bulged and bloated. She had been incredibly taken with some parts of the meal while hardly touching others. ording to the giants, she had expensive tastes, only taking the most expensive morsels, not that they minded her voracious appetitepared to her size. She was still tiny inparison to themselves. While Namir kept the official watch, I contributed more than my fair share with my sensory skills. However, I was in no hurry to mention a full list of my abilities to our newfound friends. They had been incredibly generous with their time, food and shelter, but I had always preferred to keep my cards close to my chest, and Namir had outright lied when describing our rtionship. Turning my eyes away from the heavens, I contemted the closer paradox of space and time, the spatial vault. The door to the spatial vault was currently closed. The cynical side of me pondered the possibility of escaping with the giants trapped within to the south, but that would be a poor return on their hospitability, and it would still leave us with four pissed-off giants when they were finally realised. They had enough food and water tost for weeks, if not months. Besides, it was the giants themselves who hadmented that it was possible to be locked within a spatial vault. Perhaps this was a test of ourselves and our ethics. These were just a few thoughts running through my head as I returned to looking up at the star-filled sky. With the door still sealed and us both suffering from super senses as a trait, it was simple enough to whisper my thoughts and sights to Namir. Nothing else but for us, Imented on the nk fields of view, reaching as far as my senses could. It could be taken many ways, but the years with Namir meant that I knew he would instantly understand that I was referring to the deeper but narrower scans I could make with my senses and sensory skills. The sky, though, is beautiful tonight. I couldnt quite wrap my head around how open and star-filled it was. Exquisite, Namir replied, raising an eyebrow as he caught me once more staring at the beast core imprinted with the spatial vault spell of the Lodestone Wyrm and raising an eyebrow at my focus. What? They are. I insisted on searching for any names of the constetions my memory might reveal in an effort to keep my brain busy and fingers from straying to the door once more. Bjorn said it would be fine to look. Namir shrugged, knowing I would be unable to focus on the outward part of our watch if I couldnt stare into the depths of the beast''s core in the hopes of learning the secret of its imprinted spell. Grateful for the reassurance, to indulge my curiosity, I left the warm embrace of the fur nkets to stand in front of the smooth stone wall, a giants stone glyph its only decoration, the carefully carved giant wooden door embedded in it and the imprinted beast core embedded in that. I failed to see how exactly anyone would be able to hold that door closed against four giants without bringing the entire mountain down on top of them. As I approached the embedded beast core, I was still wrapped well to retain my own body heat now that I had left the sledge. I couldnt help but recall something Albert Einstein had once said, Time and space are not conditions of existence. Time and space is a model for thinking. Could I adjust my thinking to somehow make a magical spatial vault of my own? I hoped so. I stretched forth my senses, hoping it might pull my mind along with them to be able to twist the fabric of reality to form my own spatial vault. Starting with my lower-tiered skills, Inspect (Lv37 ->40) returned nothing I did not already know from the conversation with the giants, simply stating: Lodestone Wyrm Beast Core However, the jump in levels meant that this item was worth far more than most items I had inspected before. It was definitely higher than a tier 2 item, possibly even a tier 4. It was my other sensory skills that started returning a variety of extra results andplications to what I couldprehend. Sense Mana(Lv75) showed the mana circting within the beast core, but where it met the stone or rather the opening to the spatial vault, it disappeared into a void I could not prate. The mana had to be feeding back into itself somehow, as it did not seem to be dissipating at the speed it should be without it somehow returning to continue the circuit. I could not even see through to the mana of the stone behind it. It was a nk face to my mana sense something I had nevere across before. Mind sense (Lv37) was simrly confused but slightly more efficient at prating the pocket space. It revealed the minds within, but they seemed muted, as if only half there, but they were still noticeably present enough for my skills totch on to them. Moving up a tier, Observe (Lv29 ->31) returned with an extra line of information: Lodestone Wyrm Beast Core - Tier 5. That had to have been a gigantic monster to reach that tier. No wonder it had threatened the foundations of their Thorpe. Though I supposed Giants themselves were hardly small, and if the entire vige joined together to hunt the beast, I couldnt imagine many monsters surviving, considering the size of our travellingpanions. Curiously, Echolocation revealed the space within, which was incredibly confusing, with a secondary imageyered on top of or beneath the first as if it was a mirage or illusion you could see through. That wasnt so much as being able to sense through it but the fact that the echolocation allowed me to pierce the door and see the space inside while also allowing me to see around it. It appeared that sound, much like light, made use of the passageway to pass freely, whereas the mana maintaining the space had a more convoluted passage. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. Unsurprisingly, it triggered my Treasure Sense (Lv17), though I doubted the skill would enable me to find any beast cores that would not have already been eaten by either their attackers or monsters scavenging for them. They would be the most important part of the meal from any deceased monster and represent a leap in power should the beast be able to swallow and incorporate the power as their own. Seismic sense, though, only showed the stone, not the hidden spatial pocket concealed in the stone. It simply didnt exist. It appeared the spatial pocketpletely inhibited the vibrations unless carried by the air. No vibrations emanated from within into the stone to be sensed by my feet. However, Sense Soul (Lv2) was unimpeded by the space, showing me souls existing within or imposed deep in the stone cliff wall upon which Bjorn had ced his spatial vault. That was as much as I could see so to speak, but I wasnt going to give up just yet. I had once pulled more information out of something through touch, though, and I ced my right hand on the core and attempted to do the same again. Analyse levelled (Lv17 ->18) and returned another level of information for me. Lodestone Wyrm Beast Core Tier 5 Spatial Imprint - Vault I grinned for a second at delving deeper into reality before the mana in the beast core came alive at my touch and shed. It formed an instant connection to the mana core in my right wrist under the leather wrist guard I wore to cover up the consequences of my temporary envement. I had touched the core with. The world twisted and lurched. I lost my bnce, nearly falling. I stepped back to catch myself as my senses stabilised, to find myself supported by a hand on my shoulder, ws carefully keeping me upright. Namir had leapt forward to support me in my momentary dibobtion. I felt a change in my perception. Sense Mana jumped significantly (Lv75 ->79), and now, much like with echolocation, I could sense the dualyer of reality, a bubble of space imposed on top of, next to, or inside reality. Kai? Are you okay? The pressure of Namirs ws gently pressing through my clothing reminded me that I was not alone. Yes, Im fine. Did you see anything shift? I asked, worried that I might have somehow damaged the spatial vault in the process of attempting to understand it. Noting moved, you simply stumbled, Namir replied, still visibly worried by my loss of bnce. What happened? He asked. Im not sure, I replied, still suspicious but seeking confirmation. I unwrapped my right wrist guard to reveal one of the unprecedented physical mana cores that had formed under the pressure of mana manacles and stared at the change. It had formerly been an uncoloured crystal clear core like the others I had formed. Now it was not. It had transformed to be the equal of the beast core embedded in the giant''s door to their spatial vault. Now obsidian ck, it seemed to suck in light like the ck vastness of space. Namir and I stared at it in silent contemtion of the change. Cover it up. Namir hissed, his ws flexing in frustration before calming and helping me quickly rewrap my wrist with the leather wrist guard binding. Its never straightforward with you, is it, Kai. He sighed. Check your status. Then talk in here. He added, tapping his head. I dived inside to see what had changed. Level: 61 Title: Lord Mtier: Singer Lv 12 Mtier: Sailor Lv 13 Mtier: Merchant Lv 11 Mtier: Mage Lv 7 -> 8 Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 6 years 15 months 2 weeks 6 days. General Experience: 1,746,000 /3,276,800 Health: 1790/1790 Stamina: 1793/1793 Mana: 1900/1900 Psi: 1800/1800 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 179 Endurance: 182 Strength: 177 Dexterity: 181 Senses: 178 ->180 Mind: 177 ->180 rity: 178 Magic: 184 ->190 Charisma: 165 Luck: 169 -> 170 Free Points: 130 Skills Tier 1:Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83)Meditation (Lv85)Time Sense (Lv84) Bnce (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv58) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv50)Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (Lv37->40) Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10) Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv 5) Skinning (Lv 5) Skiing (Lv5) Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv79) Sense Mana (Lv75) Eavesdrop (Lv63)Spellcraft (Lv63)Spellsong (Lv63)Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv40) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Pain Tolerance (Lv39) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv36 -> 37) Knife Arts (Lv33)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv29->31) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv25) Heal (Lv18)Poison Tolerance (Lv11) Treasure Sense (Lv17)Intimidation (Lv12) Cold Tolerance (Lv3) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv69)Expel Mana (Lv70)Mana Maniption (Lv69) Gale (LV68) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Boil (Lv53) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34) Analyse (Lv17 ->18) sh Step (Lv15) Seismic Sense (Lv14)Danger Sense (Lv12) Smuggling (LV5) Telepathy (Lv5 -> 7) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv69)Parallel Processing (Lv50) Material Maniption (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv33) Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv20) Sonar (Lv25) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv7) Contract (Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5) Rune Carving (Lv3) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv26) Multiple minds (Lv5) Omniglot (Lv25) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv14) Enigma (Lv1) Astral Projection (Lv1-> 3) Spatial Vault (Lv1) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv1->2) Just a few changes, then! Today, had been profitable in more ways than one. I had been aware of the skills levelling but had missed the addition of another new Tier 5 skill in the confusion of receiving it. I now had a Tier 5 skill, Spatial Vault (Lv1) I had just copied, or rather one of my physical mana cores had managed to copy, the spatial imprint vault from the Lodestone Wyrms beast core. Without hesitation and very much aware of Namirs impatient presence, I projected. I have a new skill. My mental voice was grinning and probably carried overtones of smugness. It was incredibly challenging to be suitably humble with the bare honesty of projected thoughts that carried as much the feelings behind the words as the words themselves. Tier? Came Namirs acerbic reply. Five. I couldnt wipe the grin off my face or out of my mental voice. Name? was Namirs caustic internal question. Spatial vault. I stared silently as my mental voice filled his head. He closed his eyes in contemtion, but seeing as we were talking in his head, I could still hear his thoughts as they kept running. Of course. It''s not enough that he picks up the skills of the noble races like shells on the seashore, but he can also pick up the magical powers of the denizens of the depths like the pearls he can sense on the sea floor. He opened his eyes to look at me, staring at him, Kai, out! his mental voice rang out before he followed it with words, Give me a moment. He said, holding his hand up for a pause in our mentalmunication. He took a few calming breaths before tapping his head again, inviting me to return. So, moving on. Exactly how big is your spatial vault? He asked resignedly. Chapter 221: Size matters not Chapter 221: Size matters not Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Jedi Master Yoda So, moving on. Exactly how big is your spatial vault? He mentally queried, resigned to another expansion of his mental horizons in understanding reality rted to his unique and revolutionary charge. Theres only one way to find out, I responded telepathically, then grinned, activating the skill. The knowledge was intrinsic to the skill I received from the Lodestone Wyrms beast core. An invisible portal opened in front of where I had raised my arm, a ck void of space undefined. We both peered inside. But without a floor or walls to define the dimensions, no light that entered was reflected. Im not exactly sure, I answered as I looked at the equally perplexed Namir. I reached forward to put my hand in. However, Namir, never one to wait for answers he could discover on his own, had already thrown a snowball into the space before my hand could reach in. We watched the snow stter against an invisible wall approximately 10 ft deep. A few more snowballs revealed that my spatial vault was a cube approximately 10 feet deep, 10 feet wide, and 10 feet high. Our experiments with inanimate matter werepleted; it was time to test it with a live subject. Namir stepped through the portal onto the snow-strewn floor. Ding! Spatial Vault (Lv1 ->2) He paced the dimensions, confirming what we had already worked out and lightly jumping to touch the ceiling. There was a weight to the skill nowa pressure from holding Namir within it. Unknowingly, I had created a smaller door-sized entry portal to my spatial vault, and with the levelling came the understanding or idea that the entry portals size was malleable. I decided to change that by expanding it and shrinking it to fit my needs, which were significantly smaller. Kai, Namirmented, unimpressed by the small aperture he would have to squeeze through to escape. Lets not experiment with the new skill while I am within it. He added dryly. I nodded in response, returning it to what it was when we started. Not asrge as the giants. But nothing to turn your nose up at considering the tier of the skill, the impossibility of gaining it and the fact that you only have it at level 1. He answered, facing me once more. Try closing it . . . He started before stopping. Lets test that with an animal first. I am no magician, but it would be wiser to test that function on something else first. Next question, can you step inside your own vault? He asked as he departed the vault through the portal. I shrugged and stepped forward into the space. Ding! Spatial Vault (Lv1 ->3) The levelling surprised me, but the early levels in any skill were always the easiest to obtain. Novel uses of the skills helped to propel them higher. Every action we had taken so far had been another new use of the skill. Stable, the ck void supported me, though I found it terribly disconcerting. I would have to add a veneer of stone or wood to help differentiate the spatial vault from the void I appeared to be in and outline the dimensions, including where the walls and corners were. It was difficult to describe theck of existence the space seemed to exist within. I had not noticed it in the Giants Vault, dressed as it was in stone flooring and walls. Kai? Namir called out loud rather than within his mind. His need overpowering our desire for secrecy. I turned around to reply, only to see Namirs startled gaze searching the space I had entered, his wed hand reaching forward as if to grab me back from within a vault he could no longer find. Yes? I asked, but even with his supersenses, he did not seem to hear and rather than raise his heartbeat higher, I stepped back through the portal returning to the world of the Compass Kingdoms. You disappeared. He eximed as I returned to reality. The portal? I asked. Everything, there was no portal, no space, no light or sound escaped. It was as if you had disappeared. He quickly exined his understandable fear that if I had disappeared, I might not being back. It was still there, and I could see and hear you when I turned around, I exined. Unshaken by the surprise, I had not even seen or experienced, at least not from this perspective within the vault. Thest test is to ce an item within the vault, reduce the portal entry size to the size of the item and then reach in and take it. He detailed abination of all previous tests and handed me a well-formed snowball to test it on. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I closed my eyes to concentrate. The skill allowed me to understand my space and orientate it to be ced wherever I needed it. The entry portal likewise could be positioned wherever I wished it rtive to the spatial vault. If I wanted to open it up on the side of the wall halfway up, that was a possibility. However I could also ce the portal to the floor of the spatial vault in the air so that I was cing the snowball on the floor forter retrieval. Eyes still closed to help me manipte the extrayer to reality I opened a portal sized for only the snowball in my hand and ced it within. I opened my eyes to witness the action and finalpletion. The snowball and my hand disappeared instantly before my hand returned empty. It was not quite instant materialisation, but close enough. I would have to build shelving along with the stone and wood veneer I nned to allow me to pull out the number of items I nned on cing within the spatial vault. Or if I pretended to ce the opening within a bag, I would now have my own bag of holding. This was awesome! But time it had been passing us by. Enough experimentation for this evening, perhaps. I pointed out. Our time on watch would soon be ending, and there was no surprise to be had from another ace in my deck if it was not kept secret. We sat in silence, contemting the possibilities while we waited to be relieved. Once we had left the giants behind, I could ce the sledge in it for one. But there were so many more possibilities if I was a little more adventurous with its use. . . . Ding! Telepathy (Lv7 ->8) . . . At least the mental conversation was worth another level. . . . It was not muchter that we were relieved from our watch by Bjorn. Namir and I shared Bjorns bed topping and tailing when he exchanged with us for the watch. I was soon asleep despite the excitement, though I woke when he returned and watched as he took Ivars bed, who reced him. I assume the rest swapped between theirs as they each woke the next giant in rotation, but I slept through it. Revelling in the warmth and the instion from the never-ending wind of the endless ice the giants vault provided, I had a lovely sleep. We left early in the morning after breaking our fast, the giants keen to make it home as soon as possible. . . . We walked across an emptynd, a desert, despite the abundant water locked in ice. The temperature kept it locked away. The only liquid water was the sweat on our backs as Namir made me run to keep up with the group. There would not be time for soul gazing while I struggled to keep up with therger giants and higher-level adult beast kin. Where exactly are we heading, I asked, looking to the horizon to see if I could see where exactly it was we were heading. Perhaps the view was better from their elevation, but I could see nothing more than what we had been passing for a while now. Somewhere only we know. Erik smiled in response. That might have been the case before they met me, but I was busy mapping my surroundings with as many sensory skills as possible and re-creating a mental map of our passage. I might not know where we were going, but I knew where we had been, and eventually, the two would join up. Im getting tired, I exined honestly. My little legs had to do ten paces to their one. It was impossible to keep up this pace forever, no matter my stats in vitality and endurance or my skills focused on running. I watched my stamina continue its steady march downward. Although the repetitive dings from our training or rather traversing these artic conditions offered a small warming of my soul despite the freezing of my body. . . . Dart (Lv25 ->26) . . . Ding! Cold Tolerance (Lv3 -> 4) . . . Ding! sh Step (Lv15 ->16) . . . Ding! Iron Man (Lv69 ->70) . . . Ding! Air stepping (Lv7 ->8) I had been surreptitiously using the skills to keep up with them for as long as possible, but I was running out of stamina and psi to smooth my course. Whats your home like? I asked. The Thorpe is dug down into the stone and ice inyers. Thats why you wont see it on the horizon. We have even grown a few hardy nts protected from the icy winds and warmed by hot waters from the depths of the lodestone. Erik continued to exin what we had to look forward to. It sounded almost like an oasis of warmth within the wintry wastnd that was the endless ice. Eventually, Bjorn took pity on my struggling form and offered me a ride again in the sleigh to my Grandfathers objections. He can still keep up. Namir was never one to skip a step for the sake of training. Surprisingly, maybe. Bjorn seemed surprised by the possibility. But he is still a child. It''s his choice. He adds so little weight at all, I notice it not. Unabashedly, I jumped at the chance to escape the freezing cold and leapt onto our sledge Bjorn was pulling. I had other things I could do. Ding! Cold Tolerance (Lv4 -> 5) A short shaketer to shed as much of the snow I could, and I was snuggled down into the furs, kept warm by Nyxs presence. She was less than keen at the arrival of my cold and swiftly dampening form as the remains of snow I had failed to shake from my encrusted clothing began to melt. A surreptitious use of my mana soon silenced her snarlingints with a st of heat that had her snuggling up to me in contentment, the water quickly drying away. The heat trapped by the furs, I wriggled around to getfortable as the feeling returned to my extremities. Nyx, keep guard. I smiled as I handed her some more jerky. Everpliant for food, she took up residence on my chest, her head snaking down to nestle in along my cor bones, her head resting above one of my mana cores. Idly, I wondered whether it would be possible to open a portal to my spatial vault to allow her somewhere to y, but I thought better of experimenting with that idea on a moving vehicle, no matter how slow. I could easily imagine the portal opening only to be left behind or, worse, it somehow slicing through the sledge as it remained stationary. Another idea to test outter when on watch if we did not make it to the Thorpe this evening. What I could do was go for a walk. An astral one. . . . Chapter 222: Long distance Chapter 222: Long distance Even if were apart. Ill always be with you. Winnie the Pooh Once settled, I activated the skill to soar into the ether. Then, I turned to follow the frequency of the string that tied my heart to my mother''s. I shot along the vector through the void; soul stars streamed past me before I found myself bathing in the warmth of my mothers soul once more. My time was short; this time, I searched for my sisters soul. It was not far from my mothers, and mental fingers steepled in anticipation, I approached a soul fundamentally very simr to mine. Formed with the same nurture of my parents, we shared a lot of simrities. Concentrating, I used Mind Sense to look within her soul to find the mind I wanted tomunicate with. Telepathically, I transmitted. This is the voice of the Mysterons. We know you can hear us, Earth Woman. I failed to pull it offpletely and couldnt help butugh before I reached the end of my monologue. I momentarily wondered how I could attempt to leave circles of light floating around in reality, but I was instantly interrupted. KAI! She practically shouted in her mental voice the emotions apanying the single word, a mix of surprise and joy. Yes? I grinned. Sure that my smugness, along with my happiness in her voice, was also conveyed. Mother told me youd survived, but I never doubted you would do so again. Thank the gods. Despite her words, I could sense the relief beneath them. I could tell she was reassured to hear my voice, even if it was only within her head. She told me youve raided my journals, I replied, disliking how she had looted my stuff at the first opportunity. Considering her words, Im sure my anger was equally well transferred. Well, it was possible that you might not be returning too soon even if you werent dead. She defended herself. We couldnt wait forever. Besides, Mother said it would be a while before you returned, so I wasnt exactly wrong, was I? She exined her reasoning. Yes, but . . . It was my stuff, my secrets from another world. I wasnt precisely a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination, but I liked to collect resources, and everything was in its ce. Technically, they werent my discoveries or knowledge; I was merely the recipient of another worlds ideas. But knowledge was power, and it wasn''t easy to not feel that she had somehow usurped mine. I needed to remember a rising tide rose all boats. It was not me against the world; I had my family. What was done was done. They werent exactly easy to get to. She grumped, continuing. Those tunnels are a little on the tight side. Well, they were made for me, not you, I said, imagining her ducking her head along them. At least she wouldnt have to walk doubled over. I should erge them to amodate my growing frame when I return. Youve handed out stage one to our cousins, then? Yes. She answered, epting my grudging forgiveness. What did they think? I looked forward to watching their faces as they received the gifts I had prepared. They were excited to try out some of the ideas. We had many ideas but not the practical knowledge to realise them. We outlined different technologies that helped my world and handed them to the appropriate Adal Household supporting the Silvereseas. How did you exin the knowledge? I asked. Silversea secrets. She sinctly replied. They epted that? I asked sceptically. I alluded that the knowledge came from the elves through Lady Acacia. There had been many changes since she arrived on the ind, although most hade from me. She was a suitably rational shield to hide behind. Besides, she had brought her gifts of knowledge and the Elendil tree itself. I look forward to seeing the changes when I return. When you return? Not if? She teased. Weve found a patrol of giants escorting us back to their Thorp. Once there, we hope to head south through the Northern mountains or along the coast, whichever is easier. I reassured. How long? she questioned. But beneath the words were the worry that I would not be able to return before she had to present herself to the capital. Who knows, but we will surely be back before then. I checked my PSI, Running low on resources for this call. Just wanted to check in. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the vition. Thank you. Next time, speak to Dad and Arawn. They both felt terrible watching you get swept up into the storm. They dont talk about it, but you can tell. Will do, I replied. Ive time to now if I do it quickly. Till next time, big sister. Till next time, big brother. She replied. . . . Ding! Astral Projection (Lv4 ->5) . . . Ding! Mind Sense (Lv37 ->38) . . . Ding! Telepathy (Lv7 ->8) Withdrawing from my sister''s mind, I searched for my fathers soul. Finding it nearby but isted. He was fishing and drawing close to the soul through the void I reached in with telepathy and mind sense to see his mind stewing in self-recrimination and regret. Im alright, Dad. Kai. Thank goodness. He replied. Your mother said but . . . What he left unsaid but not unthought was the fear that she was merely imagining things. Im safe and sound, I repeated. The sea giveth and the sea taketh. Its given us so much I was worried that the bill hade due as I watched the pair of you disappear into the storm. We survived. Not many a man or boy could say that faced with such a storm. They tell me you made it as far north as you can sail. Yes, now we sail a sea of ice instead. Not having time to exin the giants or the sledge, I was running low on resources. I was talking to Aleera first, so I am running out, but I wanted to let you know I was alright, I replied. Take care, fair winds and smooth sailing. You too. I ended the conversation, rushing back through the void. The soul stars shed past me as I raced back to my body before running out of resources. . . . It took me a second to reorientate once I returned to my body. I kept my eyes closed to assess my situation before opening them in rm. How had they missed them? I burst forth from myyers of fur, flinging Nyx into the sky. Cold or not, she would be safer there. Wyrms! I screamed. The giants froze before jumping towards the sledge andnding heavily in a circle around us. Namir was out of the encirclement of the rising beasts, which is probably why he missed them when passing through ahead of us, but he turned back to race toward us at my shout. Where? Bjorn demanded, not bothering to ask how I knew or even question it. Time was of the essence. There, there, there, and there. I frantically pointed out the directions they were approaching from unseen and unnoticed. Not a ripple of their passing showed on the endless ice despite their speed in passing through it unimpeded. When? was the next question demanded. He didnt need to ask where they were heading for. All of them seemed to be targeting the sledge I was sitting on. Whether it was because it would be thergest moving object or the fact that Nyx and I had been sat on it, I knew not. Perhaps it was because the giants had allnded so loudly around it. No time to say, If they dont slow, I quickly fired the answer, 8 seconds. Three of them unslung their weapons, pointing them at the ground. I wasnt waiting for a response and was ready tounch myself into the sky when Bjorn did it for me. Quick as a sh, he grabbed me off the top of the sledge and flung me toward Namir, who was still running back to us. My stats and traits gave me the time to focus. When I concentrated on activating my skills, I could turn in the air and watch as the disaster unfolded. There was no way for me to hit the wyrms without hitting the giants and no way to remove them, either from where they would emerge. They would be on their own for the opening strike of the battle, but I had no desire to leave our new friends behind to die while I flew off to safety. Four arose to eat us all, but there were six of us. Seven if you counted Nyx, which I didnt, but still. Then, as if they had practised it, the four giants leapt out of the circle of rising wyrms just as they emerged from the ice in an explosion of snow as they rose to feast on the rapidly destroyed sledge. They appeared, thrashing and snapping their maws on the frame of the sledge, four white ice wyrms. Theck of blood did not deter them from ripping the sledge apart between them. But it did distract them enough not to notice as the four giants jumped back into the fray. Bjorn and Erikid into a wyrm, each with pairs of axes on their belts. They looked smaller in their hands but still would have been gigantic war axes if wielded by humans, elves or dwarfs. Ivar and Ragnar attacked slightly further out, one with a spear and the other with his human-sized bow. Peppering their hides with arrows, he continued to step back. Focused on their foes, none of the giants noticed that I was now hovering above their heads outside of the melee and out of range of all. The air step allowed me to stand still rather than race through the air. Three ice wyrms could tell who their foes were and turned on them with piercing shrieks. One, however, did not. Despite being peppered with arrows, the fourth and final one seemed to ignore the irritation and turned to attack the closerbatant, Erik. Ragnar had not leapt in close, preferring to release his arrows further away. He cursed in giant as he realised his mistake but would not be in time to intervene. Namir was still too far to distract the wyrm, and the arrows were not making enough impact to halt the beasts turn. With Bjorn and Erik facing their snapping attacks, it was up to me to make the difference. B fotia, I shouted,unching a ball of fire at the turning Wyrm. Where the arrows had prated, my ball of fire made a more significant impression, causing the Ice Wyrm to scream in fury as the ice covering its hide and even its flesh melted. Furious, it turned to face the direction it hade from. Finding only the archer, itunched toward him and away from Erik. Who unknowingly continued to battle his own beast. The giant''s strength allowed their axes to carve their way through Wyrm''s flesh with ease, and their size allowed them to meet them in melee, provided they managed to avoid their snapping maws. Even the ice that almost seemed to steam off the wyrms failed to harm the giants wrapped as they were in various fur pelts. It wouldnt be long before Bjorn, Erik, and Ivar ended the sudden clew of worms writhing in pain from their wounds. Though maddened beyond belief, there was one that was racing toward Ivar, and the arrows would not stop the beast in time. There was only one problem. I was out of psi. Chapter 223: Out of Psi but not out of Mana Chapter 223: Out of Psi but not out of Mana Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource. John F Kennedy It had run out without me noticing; suddenly, nothing was holding me up. Failing to transition to flight from stationary with my clothes still wrapped tightly around me, I fell,nding lightly on the ice. The moment my feet hit the ice, the Wyrm somehow sensed the source of its pains and turned to face me. It seemed so much smaller from up in the air, especiallypared to the giants physique. Up close and from the ground, it seemed so muchrger. I could run, and I might make it to Namir in time. Then again, I might not. I had seen how fast the beasts were above and below the ground. I might be out of psi, but I was not out of mana. And given my traits and stats, I had time to think despite my impending doom. Seeing as they seemed to sense through vibrations and some form of heat sense, the time for deception and all of those rted skills had passed. Unarmed, my martial skills would not avail me here; going up against a Wyrm with my fists and feet alone would be futile. However, quick reflexes and Iron Man would hopefully keep me out of its maw in the first ce. It was time to focus on sheer magical might. Boil instantly liquefied the ice in front of me with the mana I pumped into it, creating a trench of boiling water despite the ice mana fighting against the heating of the endless ice. Panicking, the Ice Wyrm pulled up sharply in its charge, hesitating to cross the ufortable heat which would have fiercely burned its already melted flesh. However, I still had more to do. The worm was stopped but not defeated. Worse, it was not standing still. Hissing, the Ice Wyrm opened its maw only for ice to pour out and start cooling the boiling water. Rather than battle a monster over mana, I switched to something else. Fotia. The spellcraft called me into existence, but rather than throwing it in a ball, I called on the skill Gale to pull air behind me, funnelling the fire directly across the boiling trench into the face of the Ice Wyrm. Too much air would put the fire out, but that meant I had to add more mana to my spellcraft. A tornado of fire drilled into the beast''s open maw and killed it nearly instantly. Exhausted by the extensive use of psi and mana, I sat heavily in the now rtively temperate endless ice. Nyxnded gently beside me before stepping forward to inhale the steam billowing up from the slowly cooling water trench. Luxuriating in the heat, I could tell she was tempted to slip into it. Well, that happened. Remarked Namir, pulling up behind me. Are you even capable of being subtle? What else did you expect me to do? I asked, torn. Run. He replied. Would I have made it? I asked. His silence showed his contemtion. Beforeing down with, If you hadnt stopped midair to watch the fight then intervene, you wouldnt have had to find out. Bjorn threw you right at the snowbank over there. You would have been fine. Having dispatched their foes, the giants approached us and regarded us and the melted Ice Wyrm from the other side of the trench of bubbling water. While it had halted an Ice Wyrm in its mad dash, it would not stop them from jumping or walking around. Looking up from the melted remains of the Ice Wyrm, Hes a mage? At his age? Bjorn asked in confirmation. Yes, Namir replied, tense, with his hand resting on my shoulder. No wonder you had to run out to sea. Hemented. You are always wee to stay, but we wont make you. He tried to reassure Namir. That being said, a little heat for the hearth at night would be appreciated. He offered an open smile. And ording to Ragnar, you saved my son from being struck in the back, so Im more than a little grateful to you. Same terms as before then, to your Thorpe, then south to Tramontana, Namir questioned. Same terms. Bjorn answered, Although theres not much point to pulling the sledge now that it has been smashed to smithereens. We might as well stop here for the day to gralloch the beasts. You can eat wyrm? I asked, somewhat appalled. Theres not a lot to eat on the endless ice. Ice Wyrms are perfectly edible if cooked properly. Though thats not all they get dressed for, watch. He pulled up the half-cooked wyrm and carefully slipped his hand down its maw before pulling a gleaming white-blue beast core out from within. Here its yours. He said, tossing it to me. I caught it, feeling the ice aspected mana residing within. It did not take a genius to guess what skill might be trapped within it. But I looked with my skills anyway to check The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Ice Wyrm Beast Core Tier 2 Ice Mana Aspected - Blizzard Useless in the endless ice, I could imagine this would sell for a high price in the central desert or the Southern Kingdom of Ostro. Even nobles of temperate kingdoms would pay a pretty penny for an ice cab on demand. Whats it worth? I asked, interested in his opinion and what they did with the cores. They were too well practised at dispatching the beasts for this to be a one-off event. To you, a cold resistance. He calmlymented. How? I envisioned some equipment with it used up in the making. Just a basic elixir, the beast core crushed mixed with ice water and swallowed should give you the basic resistance. The resistance is the only way we can face the Ice Giants and prevent them froming further south and extending the endless ice ever outward. He shrugged as he returned to stripping the Ice Wyrm of its guts. The other four giants had returned to their foes and were also stripping theirs. Erik also wandered over with his own core and offered it to me. Thanks for watching my back. He added as he handed it over. With the Wyrms stripped of their guts and cores, Bjorn opened up their Vault to process the meat and make camp for the evening. Come and heat the hearth, and I will show you how to process the core. He said. Namir was being a little more watchful now they were a little more aware of what I was capable of, but alone in the middle of nowhere, there was no point withholding the heat. Nyx, in particr, was keen for me to begin. The trench of boiling water had quickly cooled and was in the process of freezing back over without mana to maintain it. She came skimming in through the open doorway to ce herself next to the stones I was heating. They didnt have traditional logs of fire to burn. Instead, underneath each bed were stones you could heat once the frame was raised. At the same time, I spent my time sinking my mana into the rocks underneath each bed. Bjorn was busy crushing the Ice Wyrm beast cores in a pestle and mortar. Ragnar and Ivar offered theirs in thanks for the early warning and help when the arrows failed to draw the Ice Wyrm toward him. It meant I would be gaining more than one dose, and Bjorn suggested I share one with Namir. With the room slowly heating up, I could strip back some of the furs I was covered in and concentrate on salvaging what I could of our sledge. Part of the family, so to speak now. Namir and I had a berth to share, and our jerky, bones, furs, etc, could be piled up there. The wood, though I concentrated on melding it together, I had ns on how I could use it in my spatial vault, and if the sledge was going to draw any more Wyrms, we could do without it tomorrow. Seeing me work with the wood, Half-blood, indeed. He cordiallymented. Maybe a little elf alongside the beastkin, seeing how well you work with wood. I didnt disabuse him of the notion. But I would have to wait until we had somewhere private before I could ce the wood with my vault. At that moment, I imagined creating a stone floor with wood panelling and shelves for the walls, leaving the vaults roof open to the open void. A little dissimr to the giant vault they used as a home base, I hoped to use mine for more than just a waystation. Elixirs up, Bjornmented, bringing over what to me was a colossal sk but, to them, probably the most miniature cup they had. The Elixir glowed a pale white with hints of blue to it. Not too dissimr to the elvish growth elixir I had been given so long ago. Had I been drinking a mixture of troll and gods, I knew what else for far longer than I realised. Bottoms up. I held the sk cautiously before following the instructions. Mana sight showed me how brightly it glowed in more than one sense. Tipping it up, the icy cold liquid ran down my throat, and I stared with fascination as the mana spread outward from my stomach. It started off freezing cold, but I watched it spread throughout my body, bringing an increasing warmth with it. Until the cold no longer felt cold at all and was pleasantly warm. Ding! Ice resistance (Lv 1) . . . Ding! Ice resistance (Lv 2) . . . Ding! Ice resistance (Lv 3) . . . It feels so warm now. I smiled at the result and the new addition to my status. Thats just the first one. He grinned at my happiness. Weve all had a lot over the years. This exined why they werent so bothered by the cold on their trek across the endless ice or they never bothered to heat the vault to a morefortable temperature. Best to let it settle, though. Ill make up another when you''re ready. This ones for Namir. He passed over the second before he returned to butchering the Wyrms carcass now that they were all inside. I was tempted to try to steal or copy the spell from one of the beast cores and add it to my own. But Blizzard was only a Tier 2 skill, and I only had four remaining slots for stealing spells. I wanted to save them for the best spell imprints I could find. At Tier 5, the spatial vault was insane. I couldnt guarantee I would find something simr, but I was reasonably sure I could find something better than the Tier 2 blizzard. The Ice resistance would be far more helpful to me, especially as we still had a way to go. Having heated all the stones, I went out to join Namir and see if I could tell the difference. Nyx decided to stay curled up on the heated stones. Namir had already informally started his first watch, and without a Wyrm to dismember, he was the only adult avable. He stood a little distant from the entrance, and with the giants busy working on the Wyrms, they had yet to build the usual ice walls and courtyard. Bjorn said this ones for you, I said as I handed over his to his cloaked form. Itll be worth it if it takes the chill of this. He wasnt hunched over, but it still looked like he was trying to retain warmth. However, I noticed the difference when I stepped out onto the open ice ins. Before, the wind and ice had been bitingly cold on my extremities, particrly the top of my nose, where it was uncovered enough to allow me to see now it was only freezingly cold. That didnt seem to be much of a difference, but it was. The pain of the ice had been removed. Bottoms up. I prompted him to get it over with and watched as he downed the elixir. He shook and shivered, Thats freezing. He shuddered, and I realised I had at least taken mine inside, which was nice and warm. You can step inside for a moment to warm up if you would like. I can keep watch. I suggested. No, its alright. I can feel it beginning to work. He stoically answered. Besides, how much mana do you have left? Good point, I replied. Well, now that some of your secrets have already been revealed, theres no harm in giving you a knife for next time. He unbuckled a belt and a knife. Next time? I asked. I doubt there were only four Ice Wyrms on the endless ice. He gave a catlike grin. Chapter 225: A private space in more ways than one Chapter 225: A private space in more ways than one I just think everyone needs their own private space. Dick Van Dyke The Thorpe wasid out much like describeda giant pit carved into the ice like some circr strip mine. Gigantic steps lead ever downward, with homes carved into the outer ice wall on eachyer. An enormous monstrosity of stone and steel was suspended in the centre of the clearing where no beast could easily reach it. The only item Bjorn had failed to mention in his description were the colossal pure white Gyrfalcons roosting on top of it. The massive birds of prey were asrge as me, if not even asrge as Namir himself. Bjorn had already unstrapped me, and I stopped on the edge, staring across the carved city, taking it all in. It seemed city-sized for me, but if the residents were giants, I guessed it might be closer to a town for them. We need to report, but we can get you settled into the visitors rooms before we go. Bjorn interrupted my gaze. In fact, Erik can do that. Here you go. He handed over the remains of our sledge and rations, all bundled up to Erik, then turned and headed to the northern side of the Thorpe. Burdened with our belongings filling both arms, Erik led us to the southern side of the Thorpe. This way, Namir and Kai. He said. Guests usually arrive from the south, and we dont expect them to camp above the escarpment. There was no path to the south, but any road would have been covered in ice soon enough. There were, however, a series of storage rooms and visitors rooms avable on the southern side of the Thorpe for any merchant brave enough to have ventured this far north. We dont get a lot of visitors, but if they do ever arrive, we try to make sure they survive and with a positive enough impression to return. He showed us the giant rooms avable with the smaller sections portioned off for smaller visitors than giants. They are perfect, thank you, Namir said as Erik deposited our belongings in the middle of therger room''s floor. If you need anything, just ask for me. But Im sure that you would like some time to unwind. I know I do. Erik pointed out the living area, bedrooms and, most importantly, washrooms before departing. We said farewell and let him leave before nning our next moves. Ill scout out the Thorpe. We are hardly wealthy, but with your skills, Im sure there will be a space in the market. If not, I will join the hunters in patrolling the Thorpe to build supplies for our journey south. What will you be up to? Namir stated. After a quick wash, now that I have a little privacy, I was going to work on my spatial vault then depending on what you discover, I have a couple of options, I replied as I considered the mess of a bundle that represented our worldly belongings and future ns. Namir headed out, and I stepped into the smaller room before raising my right arm and opening a doorway for myself. Passing through it, I was now sealed in my secret vault. Realising I had forgotten something, I stepped back out to work on hauling the remains of our sledge inside, then stopped. It would not be enough, and where would I say the wood had disappeared off to? I might as well start from scratch again with the wood. What I could do was create a stoneminate first. I re-entered my spatial vault, keeping one foot in and one foot out. I used Shape Stone to syphon some stone from our dwelling, making the room a sliver deeper to coat the floor of my spatial vault with stone. Ding! Spatial Vault (Lv3 ->4) The next step was to create the wooden shelf walls to allow me what would effectively be an inventory of goods at my fingertips. This meant I had to grow four more trees, which meant more mana-infused sr for them to use as nutrients. Each seed was nted in a different corner of what I discovered was now a 14-foot by 14-foot room. It had been growing when I was not watching. I was gaining a foot of space with each level up of the skill. It was also now 14 feet high, which was a little excessive in size for me but would still not allow a giant enough headroom to stand, seeing as they towered over everyone, standing between 16 to 18 feet tall. They were behemoths and represented what the strength stat could do when in alignment with the vessel. Which came first, the stat, trait or species? Who could say? Elvish Spellsong helped the four trees to grow rapidly, and unlike when singing the sledge into shape, I allowed them to keep their leaves on their upper branches, forming a mini canopy across the roof of the vault that would not prevent anyone from falling in should I open a portal entrance to the vault beneath them. I then grew three walls of shelves along the sides and backs until I had enough space to ce all the goods we had collected so far. Not forgetting to create berths to sleep in as well. I would leave open the front of the room for now. In time, I would include all the resources we had umted and the remains of the sledge, and should we ever be asked where they disappeared, I hoped to allude to the fact that someone had sold us a spatial vault for our travels back to thepass kingdoms. But that would take time to be usible. For now, this was best. The front wall as the main entrance I leftpletely free from branches or shelves as I would need the full open entrance if some of my ns came to fruition. The sledge had worked well enough, but I knew that I could do better than that with a little time and safety to n it out properly. Finally happy with all that I had achieved in my spatial vault I carved the runes for light and left Nyx to enjoy the private space alone before sealing it up. It was nap time. If anyone asked, Nyx would be out exploring. But I did not n to let her do that alone, what with those gigantic birds of prey hovering around. Ding! Spatial Vault (Lv4 ->5) Seeing the increase in level I realised I would have to move three of those corner posts, but that shouldnt be too difficult, seeing as the wood was still living, supported by the light-giving runes and nurtured by another batch of mana-infused sr. I practiced peeking into the space and being able to pull out items at will, making them appear as if by magic in my hands. Not happy with pulling a rabbit out of a hat, I could now pull a dragon out of mine. However, she bristled in indignation at leaving the warmer world of my spatial vault, only settling down once partly wrapped around my neck and wrapped up in my arms. She was easily appeased with warmth and mana, both of which she could get more of the closer and tighter she was wrapped around me. Looking outside, I could see I had spent the rest of the day working away. I wondered who would return first: Namir, Bjorn or Erik. Either way, I wanted to start my next project with Namir ready to watch over me. I had been able toplete the remodelling of my spatial vault without risking discovery. My senses were enough to warn me of anyone visiting. The privacy of the washroom was an extrayer of defence above the hidden cultural rules of our guest quarters. But what I nned to do next would be riskier, riskier but necessary, and I wanted a witness or at least a defender. . . . In the end, it was Namir who made it back first. He opened with, Friendly ce for such an inhospitable location, much like your own home. My own home was anywhere near as lethal as this ce, I argued. Maybe, maybe not, but they are both on the edge of the known world. The horizon of thepass kingdoms. Anyway, quite a friendly ce, really. The Thorpe? I asked, struggling to see the simrities with my own home. The people. They are very open about what they have to offer and what they want, but then we are only two and incredibly isted. They have nothing to fear from us. He shrugged. Was this how he felt about Wester Ponente? Isted? What did you find out? I asked, moving past my concerns about his feelings. The Shard of the Lodestar lures most of the protein for them to harvest. Saves them trawling the tundra for food. A thought for when we return to Wester Ponente. He considered. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The beastse up on their own. We dont need to encourage them to do it any faster. I answered, unconvinced. Anyway, for variety, they grow various nts on the remains of what they cannot harvest. Once a year, they also have a drive culling where they stock up on seafood. He continued rying what he had learned. What is a drive culling? I asked, already suspecting the answer. Considering the history of my former and current world. They have stone ships that frighten and drive the fish ashore where they catch and kill them. He replied, adding, The next one will be soon. Its a popr method for raising their childrens levels. It''s a little less dangerous than the regr patrols. Erik will havepleted one before being allowed to travel with his father. Again, this is something to consider for your cousins and yourself when we return. There is plenty of ocean and coastline to drive them onto. Again, I would worry that we would bite off something bigger than we could chew. Food and levelling. Anything else? It was all very well building ns for our return but we had to get there first. Stone magic. The Veivisiers are stone wizards capable of powerful defensive magic. There are a couple here. With their leader leading the Thorpe. They carry stone staffs and carve glyphs into the stone walls and monoliths. They are also the ones capable of turning the beast cores into practical products capable of replicating the skills. It is said they guard the Endless Ice, preventing the Ice Giants from moving further south and bringing the ice with them, or so they say. But that might just be propaganda. Either way, they are also responsible for the Gyrfalcons you saw resting on the shard of the Lodestar defences. How do they do that exactly? I questioned. Which? Guard the endless ice or create giant Gyrfalcons? Both. Regarding the Gyrfalcons, Im not sure but as to guarding the endless ice, ording to what I could gather, the border of the endless ice is actually a line of Monoliths above the snow melt trench built and maintained by the Giants. The endless ice still moves south but melts when it hits the monolithic line. The snowmelt runoff travels along the Tramontana ice defence duct to the western and eastern oceans. If we had a boat, it would be a quick way back to the ocean. He added, bemoaning the loss of our ship. Beasts, hunting, farming, stone wizardry and glyphs. That aside, how can we raise funds for our journey home? This was all fascinating, but we needed to put a n together to get going home. Honestly, hunting on their patrols or doing our own is probably the most efficient way to raise capital. Your sensory skills would give us an edge in locating them, and it sounds like they try to keep the local area free of them despite their propensity to surge ever inward to the centre of the Thorpe. Plus, with your spatial vault, we can bring the entire carcasses back or at least store them for me to dissemble here while you work on something else. Anything else? I asked hopeful to spend some time stationary rather than running around in expanding circles around the Thorpe. Actually, there are one or two other areas of yours capable of raising funds: first your healing. They dont have a Church of the Lodestar, and as far as I can tell, while the stone glyphs are powerful, they are not aimed primarily at healing. Most of them look healthy enough, but if you let it know that you were an acolyte of the Church of Lodestar in training and could heal, I wouldnt be surprised if there was a long line of them hoping to cure the small ailments we all umte. It would be difficult to know what each would be worth charging for, but sometimes there is no price on good health. I nodded in agreement. The first act of the Bishop on his arrival had been to heal those in need. It had probably helped to increase donations to the church, but I was not trying to build one, so I could hopefully receive the funds a little bit more directly. Second, your magic, what exactly they might need for their homes, jobs or simply to essorise will be up to you to work out but you seem to have found plenty of markets to work your way into or open up in Wester Ponente. I have no doubt that you will be able to do the same here, given some time. Just as long as it doesnt take too long. Do you know if they have any convoys heading south or if they are expecting any merchants anytime soon? Definitely not any before the drive culling seemed to be the general opinion. He let me know what he had learned, but then it was my turn, How did the rest of your day go? Was it productive? Would you care to take a look? I said, opening up my own spatial vault. Namir looked in. Im impressed. Our own home away from home. He said, noting the sleeping berths I had built into the back wall. Is it a little bigger than it wasst time or is that just the walls helping to define it? No, its a littlerger thanst time, 15 feet by 15 feet now. It was 14 feet by 14 feet when I started. Still it is not yet anywhere near asrge as Bjorns, but not bad for my first week of effort. I grinned a little smugly. He snorted, Certainly enough to carry what we need to survive if we have to travel south alone. Ive got a couple of ideas about how to do that. I grinned. Im sure you do, but first, we must fill it. Starting tomorrow, that is I hear Erik approaching. Reminding me that we both had superior senses. Erik soon arrived and knocked on our door to invite us out for dinner. . . . Meanwhile, elsewhere within the Thorpe, Bjorn returned to report back on his teams patrol. If Namir and Kai had been present, they would have been impressed to see a giant evenrger than Bjorn sitting on a throne of stone. A stone staff leaned alongside the throne covered in glyphs and radiating power. A single Gyrfalcon had been roosting on the other side but was now devouring the bribe of spiderlings Bjorn had offered on his arrival. The gesture would earn no leniency or favours, but all knew the Thorpes Vievisier doted in on him more than he would have his own son if hed had one. The beast was a white morph with ck markings and the progenitor of the tower of gyrfalcons that stood guard over the shard of the lodestar. Hed swallowed more resources than most hunters, but the White Morph line of Giant Gyrfalcons was worth their weight in gold for each one that bred true. Stamfar, the Vievisiers personal Gyrfalcon, perched happily alongside the throne, crunching his way through therge sack of spiderlings they had recovered. Everything was devoured. Vlur, the western patrol returns. The ice is endless but free from incursion. The weather was less than pleasant. Bjorn inclined his head to his chief. We cleared six different clews of Ice Wyrms. Two packs of Ice Wolves have perished along our route as well as one Ice Bear. On our return, we also cleared a nest of Artic Wolf Spiderlings that was well within reach of the Thorpe. A few packs and beasts have shifted their territories where the travellers first arrived. Bjorn reported. I saw their arrival. Their story? Vlurmented. A rescue of his grandson fleeing pursuit from Maestro, they risked the open ocean and fell foul of the sea of storms being driven north. Bjorn tried to summarise what he had been told in a single sentence. A pure beastkin that far north from Ostro, he a catkin, took to the water to flee? Vlur raised an eyebrow in disbelief. We tracked their path back to where they first arrived. Nothing remained of a ship that we could see, and to survive climbing the cliffs after being driven into them was impressive enough of a feat to start off with. But then they survived with nothing for at least a week before we found them. Everything that he had found supported what he had been told. So a beastkin and his grandson? he attempted to confirm. Yes, a beastkin and his half-blood grandson, He went into greater detail before expounding further, Although what bloods I could not say for sure. He has beastkin senses beyond any Ive ever encountered. The child identified the nest of Arctic Wolf Spiderlings Stamfar is currently feasting on. He did it from ten paces north, and the nest itself was at least two paces deep in the ice. We would have never discovered it until it cracked open under their size or skills. Why not for sure then, after witnessing his superior senses. He asked, confused. Two reasons; first, his grandfather overlooked the spiderlings when he did not. Second, his magic at his age is beyond belief. Bjorn recalled the sudden mes. On two separate asions, we watched him kill and cook Wyrms and Spyders with roaring mes cast without glyphs but words alone. He has some proficiency in human spellcraft and is the reason why Stamfar is feasting so well today. We would have had to crush the pests to eradicate them. He boiled them alive. He tried to convey the sheer power packed into the tiny pint-sized human. How old is he? Vlur asked, suddenly interested either in his magic or his age. He never said, but at that size, for him to be anything other than a child, he would have to be part elf and beastkin, but looking at his face, he is also human. So part human, elf, beastkin at the minimum. He exined some of the thoughts that had been running through his head as he observed his travellingpanions. At the minimum? As if that isnt enough already. Not all are so enamoured of different species, Bjorn. Vlur gave a subtle warning to his subordinate. Ignoring the subtle barb, Bjorn continued, Despite his size and whatever his age may be, he kept up for far longer than should have been feasible. I carried him when and where possible, but his grandfather insisted he run at the beginning of each day despite him having to take ten steps to each of ours. Erik would have struggled to do something simr were he an equal size, yet he has both a giants strength and a Dvergs stamina. Furthermore, he was even able to heal Erik. It was not spellcraft or a glyph but some form of healing skill, which, if hes human, implies some form of training from the Church of the Lodestar. I can see why the beastkin felt it necessary to flee to the sea. If he were my son, bastard or not, half-blood or not, I would want to keep control of him. He has a lot of potential. An intriguing individual, superior senses, offensive magic,sting stamina, and a form of healing. I will have to inspect him in person then. Chapter 226: New fields of work Chapter 226: New fields of work It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are. E.E. Cummings Dinner was a pleasant affair. We could eat a selection of foods rather than sticking to the simple fare we had subsisted on as we trekked across the endless ice. There still was not as much variety as I had be ustomed to on Wester Ponente, but I was passing as a half-blood bastard. I could hardlyin if it were not up to my Lordly standards. Enjoying the food? Erik asked, interrupting my contemtion. Yes, its fantastic. Especially the fact that with the cooking and spices, I could no longer tell which type of ice insect beast I was devouring. It all tasted delicious. Wheres Bjorn? Probably still reporting. The spoils had to be handed over to the process workers before he could go and report to the Thorpes Leader. Who exactly is the leader? I asked. The Chief Vievisier. He repeated what Namir had told me but failed to add any more detail. A stone wizard? I asked. In themon tongue, yes. Though I wouldnt call that to his face. He cautioned. Here theye now. Bjorn? I asked, turning to see him approaching with another giant who dwarfed him. Is that the Chief Vievisier? Seeing him walking with a stone staff the height of a giraffe made it not too difficult to guess. It was a miracle the staff did not copse in on itself. Maybe it had a metal core. It was a mini monolith covered in glyphs, yet he easily hefted it around. nting it on the ground with every other step. It was difficult to tell if it produced any vibrations of its ownpared to the giant it apanied. They approached the restaurant we were eating at, looking for us and heading straight toward our table. We rose to meet them. But I should have stood on the table to get closer, considering how they towered over us. Even if I had, he would still have looked down at Namir and me. I wondered if they noticed half of what happened down around their feet. It was like we were children running around their legs, and I couldn''t say I liked it. It felt like I had only just stopped running around people''s ankles, and here I was doing it again, even if it was a different species this time. Wee to Kaldr Travellers. I am Volur, the Chieftan of this Thorpe. Bjorn talks highly of your contributions to the hunt. Productive passersby are always wee to stay as long as they want. His voice boomed as he gave a sweeping gesture covering the entirety of the Thorpe. His pitch was even deeper and rumbling than Bjorn''s. Thank you, Chief, for the warm wee, Namir replied carefully. However, we only hope to reprovision before heading south for warmer climates where we are wee. You are wee here. There is no bad history with half-bloods here. Bjorn, Varvara (Eriks mother), and Erik are testaments to that. Besides, Bjorn speaks well of your sensory skills. I am sure we could help provision you for a couple of patrols clearing out the pests from the local area. He appeared to agree with our ns. We would be happy to help. Namir politely agreed. Possibly the only way to talk to a being that towered so high above you that he could literally step on you if he so desired. Perhaps a patrol in each cardinal direction to ensure we have not missed anything. He raised a hand, stopping Namir before he could begin. You would not need to go anywhere near as far as thest patrol. Merely ensure the local areas are safe and secure. He then turned to focus on me. I felt his attention weigh heavily on me. It was difficult not to when I had to crane my neck to look up at him. He seemed to be confused at first as he stared down at me as if puzzled by how small my stature was for what were surely some tall tales told by Bjorn. Although Ding! Enigma (Lv2) highlighted a different issue he might be having with me. I frowned in return, keeping the smirk inside for once; I did not want to be stepped upon. Angering him would gain me nothing and I had apparently already managed to keep my status hidden or so I hoped. He moved on from his confusion; even if hecked confirmation from his inspection, he still had the report about our arrival and travels with Bjorn. I hear you can also hunt using magic, but beyond that, you can also heal to some extent. Im sure a few of us giants would appreciate a touch from someone so blessed by the Lodestar if you would be so kind. We do not often leave the Thorpe for healing; we tend to stand out among the cities of man. Furthermore, we are a little too far north for the human Church of the Lodestar, but still, we recognise the Lodestars importance to all of the Noble races and defend ours responsibly as the Churches ts teach. He seemed convinced that I was perhaps more religious than I was or that I had been taught by the church my healing skills. Not that he was wrong. Healing had not existed on our isle until Bishop Bailie arrived. Are many injured? I asked, not noticing any significant wounds on our walk to the restaurant. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. Defending the northern borders and the heart of our Thorpe is not without its risks. I doubt that there is a hunter or warrior without some scar to remind them of past battles or the mistakes they made in them. We care for them as best we can, but some wounds linger worse than others. If mana is an issue, for one so young. . . He paused here as if expecting me to boast of my age, but when I did not, he continued, . . . I or my apprentices would be happy to help out with the mana drain to help our people. I would be happy to help heal those who need it for suitable supplies to travel south. I respectfully replied. While keen to gain as much for what was a highly rare and desirable skill and service for his people. Between the hunting and healing, youll earn more than you can carry. He cautioned against my avariciousness. Little did he know just how much we might be able to carry with us. I was already plotting our escape south once we had sufficient resources to survive the journey. In the light of the Wyrm attacks, speed would be our ally. If we could pass through their territories without them noticing or before they could react, that would be best rather than battling our way ever onward. Thank you for your kind offers. Namir redirected his attention to him. We look forward to taking you up on them once we are settled in. Wonderful, wonderful. Find Bjorn when you are ready to go on a local patrol, Namir, or me if you require mana for healing Kai. I will leave you to your meal. Were his parting words to us but he also left Bjorn behind with us as well. If you have finished eating, wed love to wee you home to meet my wife, Varvara and have an aperitif. She would love to see the one who helped heal Erik. Bjorn exined. A scar would have been nice, Erik mumbled. It had been his first patrol with his father, and the scars of a sessful patrol were part of the rite of passage. He was now an official hunter. No, it wouldnt. Bjorn refused to let that slide. Anyway, I didnt see you objecting at the time! Reminding him of the time and how grateful he had been to have his wounds sealed, healed and the pain end. Wed love to join you. Unusually aware of the social niceties, Namir interrupted the awkward moment. I had not realised that Erik could be sore over scars or theck of them. Reminding me that he was the younger of the four giants we had got to know. Great. The meals on me. Bjorn quickly moved on, avoiding his sons immaturity, paid for the meal, and led us to his home. . . . We soon arrived at the Bjorns household. I was expecting a dwarf wife based on her sons double racial traits, but I had forgotten that she was half-cast and she was human sized if a little tall. How that worked out logistically, I was not sure I wished to know, but it had judging by the existence of Erik, who already stood head and shoulders above his mother. Wee. She beamed at our arrival. Smiling at my surprise, You were expecting someone shorter? No, not at all. I lied. Thank you for inviting us. Not at all, She mimicked. It was the least I could do for the individual who helped bring my son home whole. She smiled, pulling me in for a hug. Bjorn mentioned something to drink, Namir attempted to move the conversation on and get us over the threshold, possibly without being enveloped in another wee hug. Of course, of course. Come on in. She stepped out of the way, leading us toward their hearth, and Namir could slip in without her intruding on his personal space. No logs burned; instead, a series ofrge rocks with stone glyphs filled the base of the chimney. The area was clearly used for cooking. Having seen the glyphs on our journey and tour of the Thorpe, I was not surprised. What was surprising, though, were the metal runes she must have been working on when we arrived. Works in progress, she pushed them aside after noticing my interest. You craft dwarven runes, I asked, surprised once more. Why was I expecting a dwarf on the one hand, yet not expecting some proficiency with runes? Perhaps it was the fact that I had seen few to no runes decorating the Giants Thorpe. Well, I am half dwarf, after all. Its part of my heritage. She answered unabashedly. Im surprised. I thought Giants stuck to their Stone Glyphs rather than worked with metal runes. Each race seemed inordinately proud and possessive of their own magics. There is no reason they cant coexist. Find the best magic for the job. She argued. I agreepletely. I opened my outer fur pelts to reveal the elvish robes beneath them to demonstrate what I carried with me and how I agreed with herpletely. Elvish enchantments? She quizzed. Yes, my tutor . . . I started before I was stopped. Kai. Namir interrupted, cautioning quietly. The rest of ourpany might not have noticed his quietments without superior senses, but my sudden silence was noted. What do they do? Varvara asked, leaning in closer, ignoring Namirs sudden warning and encouraging me to continue. I think . . . They are the only reason Im alive, I reflected on our arrival and the time before I could cover them up with furs. They keep me cool in hot weather . . . Sheughed at the absurdity of that being required on the endless ice. And weingly warm in cold weather, and whether the weather is hot or cold, I stay dry within them. Which was equally important She stoppedughing, Now those are some useful Elvish Enchantments. Find the best fit for the job. You couldnt do that with stone glyphs or metal runes unless you were nning on general climate control or were wearing metal armour. She continued. Stone glyphs are fantastic for longer term permanent barriers, changes to the climate, defences, offences, etc. But if you wish to work on a closer, more intimate form of magic, Runes are the way forward. They are so much smaller, and you can fit many more on smaller items you can hold orrger items you can actually move. I nodded, remembering my work with the simplest runes on my second ship. That had been a beauty. I know a few runes. Our boat had runes for invisibility, speed, wind, buoyancy, and a shield should we be forced to fight. Im surprised it sunk with such magical protections. Object meets immovable coastline. I dont remember, but without my mana to hold the ship together, it sounded like the ship. Concertinered when it crushed against the cliffs of endless ice. We will have to swap runes and exchange ideas. What do you have to offer? I asked, intrigued. Plenty, more than you by the sound of it. I did not always live here. I was too tall to fit in the Dwarven domains; I could just about pass for humans but could not stomach some of the human-central approaches of the humanist policy in Tramontana. I moved on to the next kingdom over and ended up here. What are you looking for? She asked. What do you have? I asked once more. . . . Chapter 227: A productive night Chapter 227: A productive night Productivity is being able to do things you were never able to do before. Franz Kafka After an entertaining evening discussing magic with Varvara and her family, we returned to our guest home. I would return to work with Varvara on my runes regardless of whether I hunted or healed knowledge was my drug of choice. Regarding that, it was time to take my next steps. There was a reason I had dyed. Thest time I tried to shift my core metier, it cost me more time than I expected. Youll watch over me. I checked with Namir. Of course. He replied. Then I went to lie down. I took my Mithril earring off. It was a private project of mine that held a secret. Inspired by the Bishops Loderstar ring, I had made my own personal link to the light out of my secret sliver of the Lodestar. A ring would have been too obvious, but an earring, well I was following in my fathers footsteps. Besides, it had the elvish enchantment for notice me not woven through its outer surface. The Celtic knotwork was a mithril cover that twisted off to reveal the blue luminescence of the lodestar beneath it. My mana had kept it alive the mithril allowing it to pass through freely embedded in my skin it drew on my general cirction much like my physical cores pulling what they needed. It was time to switch out the singer metier; I had outgrown it. Wee, Lord Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea! The weing window opened once more and filled my vision. It was going through my status one line at a time. Age . . . Error! This is why I had held off messing with my metiers for so long, only briefly adding a new one with a multiple mind. Something about the newness of my multiple minds not triggering the initial error when I first attempted this. The error it had found before as it detected the difference between my physical vessel and my metaphysical soul. Age . . . Physical 111 months child . . . Soul 787 months adult . . . Age . . . Physical 111 months child . . . Soul 787 months . . . Age . . . $%&^* Compromising age calibration . . . Harmonising variance. . . Modting . . . Age: 10 years old (160 months) Arithmos Adolescence Achieved Free points avable for distribution: 150 Id missed my seventh birthday! I had not been expecting a party or presents, but it would have been nice to mark the turning of time. Although technically, at least ording to the system, I was now 10! That was going to have an impact. I could finally assign my free stats. However, it appeared that the initialisation and system checking still needed to make a few more changes. Giant blood detected . . . Ergement of vessel engaged . . . Avable resources detected Health, Stamina, Mana . . . (Experience) Resources consumed to facilitate changes . . . Vessel Growth enabled . . . Vessel growing . . . Grown . . . . . . Despite being as focused as I was on my internal world and the system initialisation, I still felt shooting pains up and down my body as it was pushed past and through its natural limits. The physical sensations showed my clothing to be tight and constricting now that Id grown up! Or rather, Id been grown! I was used to the system messing with my age, but it had never messed with my vessel before. Exactly how big was I? When did the foreign giant blood enter my system, and how? Had I turned into a giant? Who exactly was I? The system, perhaps picking up on my panicked thoughts, summarised the recent changes. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Lord Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 10 years (160 months) Race: Arithmos (Adolescent) Height: 5 feet 9 inches That was going to be difficult to exin, but I heaved a sigh of relief. I was still human or as close to it as I had been. Not ridiculously tall either, but not bad, considering I was still only a 10-year-old (13 and a half in old world years). In a Thorpe of Giants, I would still look like a child, but I was catching up to Namir, and I was confident that I would stand over 6 feet tall when fully grown. I was now my big sisters big brother in more ways than one. I would have to be careful connecting to the lodestar again lest I became her legal big brother in terms of age as well. The system, however, still had not finished with its changes to my mortal vessel. It continued to work through the lines of information my status held. Multiple tolerances detected . . . Transformed into passive resistances . . . Resistances: Cold (Lv5), Ice (Lv3), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11) So that was an optionsomething to train upter. The giants clearly had high tolerances of resistance to the cold, seeing how they strode around in furs that did notpletely cover them. Unlike myself, who went bundled up in an inneryer of enchanted elvish robes and an outeryer of whatever I could cobble up from artic bear, wolf or hare fur. The System finally arrived at what I hade here to do. Please confirm your choices of metier: Singer, Sailor, Merchant, Mage . . . The list of possible metiers was longer than my arm. But the four above had taken me as far as they could within the limits of exponential experience required to level them any further. It was time to trade out and trade up for some more suitable metiers for my location, journey and dreams. What would my skills support? What might I have to do? Where did I need to go? Who did I want to be? . . . I spent forever looking at my options and debating my choices. There were some difficult decisions to considera certain level of soul-searching. Eventually, I made my decision. I chose the metiers and assigned my stats. Iy there enjoying the rush as my stats jumped ten per cent nearly across the board, the bounce in vitality relieving some of the pains of such a quick growth spurt. Now, it was time to face the world or rather Namir. I was sure he would have some opinions. I opened my eyes. Well, youve gone and done it now, havent you. Muttered Namir as hemented on the new me. Status Level: 63 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 10 Years 0 months 0 days Mtier: Singer Lv 12 -> Hunter (Lv0) Mtier: Sailor Lv 13 -> Healer (Lv0) Mtier: Merchant Lv 11 -> Psion (Lv0) Mtier: Mage Lv 8 -> Lv10 -> Sage (Lv0) General Experience: 1,246,000 /3,276,800 Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 179 -> 200 Endurance: 182 -> 200 Strength: 177 -> 200 Dexterity: 181 -> 200 Senses: 180 -> 200 Mind: 180 -> 200 rity: 178 -> 180 Magic: 190 -> 200 Charisma: 165 -> 180 Luck: 170 -> 180 Free Points: 150 -> 2 Resistances: Cold (Lv5), Ice (Lv3), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11) Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83)Meditation (Lv85)Time Sense (Lv84) Bnce (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv58) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv50 ->51) Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV40 ->42) Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28)Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10) Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv 5 ->10)Skinning (Lv 5->7)Skiing (Lv5->7) Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv79 ->80)Sense Mana (Lv75 ->77)Spellcraft (Lv63 ->65) Spellsong (Lv63 ->65)Eavesdrop (Lv63)Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv40->41) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv37->38) Knife Arts (Lv33)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv31 ->32) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv25 ->26)Heal (Lv18 ->21) Treasure Sense (Lv17)Intimidation (Lv12) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv69 ->72)Expel Mana (Lv70 ->71)Mana Maniption (Lv69 ->70) Gale (LV68 ->70) Boil (Lv53 ->59) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34) Analyse (Lv18 ->19) sh Step (Lv15 ->16)Seismic Sense (Lv14 ->15)Danger Sense (Lv12 ->13) Smuggling (LV5 ->6)Telepathy (Lv7->8) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv69 ->70) Parallel Processing (Lv50) Material Maniption (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv33->35) Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv20 ->22) Sonar (Lv25) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv7 ->8) Contract (Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5) Rune Carving (Lv3) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv25 ->26) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv14) Astral Projection (Lv3 ->5) Spatial Vault (Lv1 ->5) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv1 ->2) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv2) Chapter 228: Hunter, Healer, Psion, Sage Chapter 228: Hunter, Healer, Psion, Sage Raising children is an uncertain thing; sess is reached only after a life of battle and worry. Democritus Namir POV Watching over the little lord as he fiddled with his ear was momentarily confusing till he revealed the earring. Some elvish sorcery had kept it concealed or, if not hidden, unnoticed even by me. I did not know why I was surprised to see a sliver of the lodestar nestled within the hollow earing now that the enchanted elvish cover had been removed. Some of us took decades to grow in levels to develop our metier fully. Others would flit between them, picking the easy, low-hanging fruit to grow in strength. There were benefits to both methods. It was challenging to level your skills when flitting between metiers like a butterfly. Kai worked at a different speed, his progress starting five years ahead of schedule. His progress scaled by a factor of four with his multiple metiers. It had been perversely pleasant to assume that his absence from a Lodestar would have slowed his progress for a month or two. He had assumed it would only be a short while before he asked the Vievisier for ess to the Thorpes Lodestar. But no, he had bought his own. Why not? Had that drawn the attacks? His mana was not supposed to be leaking any longer, but would the sliver have had a simr effect despite the elvish enchantment? He was resigned to some form of insane new revtion. He settled in for the wait. At least you knew that more curve balls would being now. Listening to Arawnsints about the boy made much more sense now that he got to experience them in person. Kaiy down. Namir could imagine the process of choosing a new metier was being offered up now. Yet that is not what he witnessed. Suddenly, the boys body seized. Rigid as a rod, it rxed for a second before it began to . . . grow. The trousers were the first to start riding up now elongating legs. Next, the tunic started to slide up the torso. Worried, Namir undid it before it could cut into his own ribs as the boys chest began to swell. He ced a hand on the boy''s swelling head. Watching in amazement, a young man appeared from the boy in mere moments. That had to have put a huge strain on his body. His training skill, Remaining resourcesshowed Kais health, stamina, mana and psi rapidly depleted. He rushed to dig out a health elixir. Who died on touching a Lodestar? But in the end, it wasnt needed. Although he did note that the physical cores that represented and stored the boy . . . the young mans metaphysical mana had shrunk in the process or perhaps stayed the same size but now looked smaller inparison against therger palms, wrists and arms of Lord Kai. What had Bjorn and Varvara been feeding us? Even still, the boy did not wake up. So he continued to wait. . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . . . . Finally, the boy stirred. . . . Kais POV Well, youve gone and done it now, havent you. Muttered Namir as hemented on the new me. Care to exin your growth? I sat up, finding my new perspective a little higher than I was used to. I swung my legs over the side of the bed. They hit the floor sooner than expected. I was awkwardly disorientated in my movements. I lifted my hands to my face seeing the difference in size ignoring him for a second as I took everything in. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. Before finally answering him, My soul and vessel are still in the process of limatising. I summarised the dialogue of the system. I think Im a man; my soul knows that, but my body has yet to grow up that much. The system tripped over the discrepancy when I touched the Lodestar to change my main metier rather than simply adding an extra using multiple minds. Ageing me seems to be its go-to solution. Last time, it aged me to the system''s starting point for most children: five years old. This time, it aged me to the unlocking age; Im ten now. Happy Birthday! But that doesnt exin the growth. He growled gesturing at the most obvious difference from a few moments ago. An addedplication. There appeared to be some giant blood in my vessel when the system was assessing me. It included that fact in the assessment and aging. Giant blood? he rose an eyebrow. Apparently. I shrugged. Thats what triggered the growth that followed along with my age. I think. I had some suspicions about where that blood might havee from, considering what we had been imbibing earlier, but I was surprised that they had failed to mention it. You think? He questioned unimpressed. Do you know any better than me? It isnt like the systemes with a manual or helpdesk. I bemoaned theck of a manual to min-max my results without a little trial and error. No, I guess not. But how are you going to exin this to our hosts? He pointed out. That was the question. I assumed that most individuals did not suddenly shoot up over nice. Hiding for a year or two was not really an option. I could sneak out of the vige but that would leave me in the middle of nowhere in what had to be the most inhospitable area of thepass kingdoms I had the pleasure ever to visit. Breaking free of a curse or debuff. I hedged. That could be part of it, I suppose. Namir sounded unsure. Something to keep youpliant by the humans while making use of your mana and healing, maybe. He pondered. But even if the most unobservant host did not notice the jump in your stats, your height is impossible to hide. You can tell my stats have jumped? I asked, getting distracted from the height issue. If you are ten, I cant see you waiting to y with your system. Besides, despite your hesitation over your new size, I can judge a pupil''s strength and speed fairly urately, and you are moving quicker than before. I would have to see a spar to judge your strength and stamina but . . . Ive gained a couple of years and a tenth toward most of my stats, I exined sparsely. What if we dont exin it at all? As in, I went to sleep and woke up taller. We think something my family did to me has finally worn off. Maybe its something I ate? Silence is sometimes the best policy. He shrugged in return. I thought honesty was the best policy, I replied. In your case? both eyebrows raised at that. Certainly should be with me, though. Did you forget something if you are being fully transparent? He quizzed, used to the fact that I would require further prompting to reveal all. Anything else you changed? Ah, yes, I answered, looking to the ceiling. Ive also moved on from my child metiers. I am no longer a singer, a sailor, a merchant or a mage. I continued to draw it out. Your mother, father, sister and tutor might be slightly displeased. But they are not here, and I am not offended. What did you choose to rece them? He drilled down. Based on the requests our hosts had of us. I chose Hunter as my first choice. I started with the simplest one. Good, good, I can work with that. He nodded in approval. Patrolling with the Giants will give you many opportunities and some new skills to learn as well as level up your appropriate ones to help level the metier. If that is all we are being asked to do. Then I should be able to pick up the first levels fairly quickly. I agreed. Maybe Ivar can lend me a bow. Youll be lucky to find one in your size, although I suppose your size is a littlerger now, and with the stats behind you, it might not be an impossibility. He mused. Your second choice? Healer. Bishop Bailie will be happy to hear that his teachings are finally prating your skull. He is still daydreaming of you entering the church at some point. If not as a career, then at least as an acolyte on your circumnavigation. His positivity toward my choices was refreshing. How about your third choice? Psion. Psion? He asked, sounding less confident about this choice. Im assuming that has to do with your mana less methods of magic. Yes, these are the skills that use Psi. I havent pushed as hard as I could have with those skills. The permanent reminder might prod me to try a little harder. Very well. He raised his hands as if stating it was up to me, which it ultimately was. And your fourth and final choice? Sage. A schr? Of sorts. I hope to be a little wiser, but it lends itself to learning and teaching. I aim to pick a fair amount of knowledge about glyphs and runes before we leave, and if the system is all-epassing, it might just catch that the knowledge Aleera is currently stealing and handing out freely to my cousins also represents my hard work and worth some experience. Iined, knowing that there was little I could do about it. All in all, a very well-rounded individual. Im surprised you did not choose Smith for all your tinkering. There are only so many hours in the day, and four directions seemed more than enough to pull me apart. I demurred. Maybe next time. Next time. He snorted. Chapter 229: When Fortune Fails Chapter 229: When Fortune Fails ¡°Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.¡± William Shakespeare. Fortune also dashes them asunder. It all depends on how Lady Luck is feeling. Sleep did note easily; I had too much energy. I also had too many yrooms¡ªthe Sea of Souls, my Soul, Mind Fortress, and Spatial Vault. I could go to so many different ces without ever leaving my room, and Namir would never know. Yet when sleep finally imed me, I had a rude awakening. ¡°I am not pleased.¡± Lady Luck resembled our current hosts as she disyed her displeasure with me. She towered above me in the void between souls. I felt even smaller inparison despite the increase in my physical size. ¡°You are my champion; how could you let your luck slip.¡± She critiqued my stat distribution. ¡°At least no single stat holds the highest position. But when it does, it should be Luck. In fact,¡± she continued, ¡°I think I will have to insist that the next three levels of free points are added specifically to your luck stat.¡± she stated. ¡°Body and mind seemed more impactful seeing where I currently find myself.¡± I defended my choices. I would need both the physical stats for hunting and the mental stats for healing. ¡°Impactful? How many children do you think survive the sea of storms? Or being shipwrecked on the endless ice? How much evidence do you need to highlight the impact of luck.¡± She seemed almost angry at my hubris in myself orck of belief. ¡°We were a mile short ofnding on Little Wester. Where was the luck then?¡± I asked, cross at what I felt had been some godly machinations to remove me from my home. ¡°Luck can help you survive your choices, but it cannot change the ones you make.¡± She frowned as if that was obvious. ¡°So you had nothing to do with my removal from my home.¡± I frowned in return. ¡°Not me.¡± She answered hopefully honestly; none of my skills spoke to me in disagreement. But then she was a god. ¡°Sometimes bad weather simply is bad weather. There is no hand guiding it from above. I was happy to wait for you to depart on your circumnavigation at your own speed. With Long-Lived, you have time on your side. However, I can see that you have grown up slightly in terms of age. Hopefully, you can do so in terms of temperament as well and honour our bargain.¡± ¡°About that. . . ¡° I hesitated. ¡°I was expecting a little more time and possibly preparation before I turned 10.¡± ¡°We y the cards we are dealt. You did make a deal with a god, after all.¡± She did not seem willing to consider a deferral. If not pleased that her horse hade in early. ¡°Yes, but I have nothing.¡± I bemoaned my change in fortune from Lord to beggar living of Giant''s generosity. ¡°You have your stats and your skills. You are hardly without anything.¡± She raised an eyebrow at my humility. ¡°Yes, but . . .¡± I wouldn¡¯t be convincing her anytime soon especially when she interrupted me. ¡°Enough. You agreed a favour for a favour. It is time to repay the favour.¡± She cut me short. Uwfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°A circumnavigation, in your honour,¡± I confirmed, gently genuflecting. ¡°Perfect.¡± She pped her hands. ¡°It is wonderful to hear that you are willing to undertake this ¡®quest¡¯ for me.¡± She smiled suddenly, radiantly happy that her wishes were being followed. ¡°Why me?¡± I asked onest time. ¡°Why not you.¡± She replied, undaunted now that I had epted this was happening. ¡°I mean, why not a Cardinal or Archbishop of the Lodestar Church,¡± I suggested. ¡°They are a little fixed in their dogma; they have their great eight, each with a cardinal or ordinal direction, but I am everywhere and nowhere. Where would I fit in their pantheon? Or understanding of the world? Besides, you needed the favour, and you have the flexibility of thought and skills to make this work.¡± She replied, piqued. ¡°You were also the only outworlder unattached and avable.¡± She seemed to mutter thest to herself. But as a goddess, I doubted she was unaware that I would catch it. ¡°Very well, can I at least have a month to ready myself for the journey?¡± I would need that long to get my feet under me. ¡°Of course, of course,¡± she cated before reminding me, ¡°One month only, though.¡± ¡°What exactly do I have to do?¡± It was a circumnavigation which would be arduous enough, but I did not believe that was all I would be required to do. ¡°Circumnavigate thepass kingdoms and leave a little memento behind wherever you travel.¡± ¡°A memento? Don¡¯t you usually pick up a memento rather than leave them behind?¡± ¡°Call it what you will, a token or two.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Any token in particr?¡± irked by her suddenly yful tone. ¡°Why, yes. I have one in mind.¡± She smiled. ¡°Care to share?¡± I asked. ¡°I thought you¡¯d never ask.¡± She said as she shrunk until she was once more a simr size to myself. ¡°Let me guide your hands,¡± I watched as a stone statue was formed through me, shaped and carved in meticulous detail. The only distraction were the skills that appeared while she worked. Ding! Stone Carving (Lv1) The stone was shaped without a hammer or chisel but with fingers alone until it depicted the goddess of luck. As the statue, she stood gracefully with one foot slightly forward, confident and poised. Her body was draped in flowing robes that cascaded elegantly down to the ground. Her head was adorned with a delicate crown ofurel leaves. She looked down with a slight smile as if willing you to test your luck. While in her right hand, she held a cornucopia overflowing with gold and gems, in the left, she held an orb encapsting a thunderous cloud of misfortune over a stormy sea. You could win either, and I wondered once more about her innocence in the storm that brought me here. The statue''s base was wrapped in relief of games of chance, dice, ying cards, races, weather, wealth, and corn fields, all representations of good fortune. But below them, much like the lodestone beneath our feet, were depictions of adversity and the costs it could bring. She withdrew her presence from my hands, and I contemted her creation. ¡°A token in every ce I go.¡± ¡°Or two. You¡¯ll have to practice.¡± ¡°Another statue?¡± ¡°Are you ready?¡± she asked before her presence enveloped my hands once more. This time, a hooded figure emerged from the stone cloaked in a flowing robe that hid his face. Runes, Glyphs, Sigils, Enchantments and other arcane symbols adorned the robe ced in patterns resembling the constetions of the heavens. His legs were apart in a stable stance, while their right arm was outstretched as if caught in the midst of casting a spell, life blooming in his hand. The left arm held a wooden staff crowned in a shard of the Lodestar nted which seemed both his sword and shield. Circling the base, arcane symbols continued round and round without end as if they both flowed off the figure into the stone while being drawn up from the Lodestone itself. The enigmatic statue seemed to hint at and hide the secrets of the arcane. As I regained control of my hands and contemted our work. My musings were cut short. ¡°I think that is enough for today. I look forward to watching your travels. Try not to keep me waiting too long.¡± She said as she faded from my dream. I awoke with a start to discover the figments of my dreams formed into reality. The two statues stood on my bedside table side by side. Quickly, I stashed them away in my vault. Sleep banished, I contemted my quest. She never specified exactly which way round I had toplete my circumnavigation only that I had toplete one. And from the top of the world, what was to stop me from heading west and visiting my home on the way? Either way it was going to be a busy month. Chapter 230: Working Hard Chapter 230: Working Hard ¡°By working, one can bend fortune. She is fond of crafty men.¡± Gustave ubert ¡°Wakey, wakey.¡± I was woken by Namir chomping at the bit. ¡°Time to put your sensory skills to the test.¡± I groaned as I rolled out of bed. The midnight statue-making session had taken it out of me. Namir was freakishly happy to be up and about. ¡°Rather than four different patrols, we will spiral outward from the Thorpe until we find something. Then call it in, wait for a second patrol and kill them.¡± Perhaps having a base to hunt from appealed more than trekking across the frozen wastes. Either way, I was on a deadline, so I might as well be up and about it. After my morning ablutions, we were ready to go. Bjorn andpany had met at ours to head out. After my recent growth, it was time for my reintroduction to the patrol group. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Woe?¡± ¡°Kai?¡± There were a few confused faces as we stepped outside to meet them. It was perhaps less noticeable from a greater height, but my height increase was still apparent either way. I now reached Namir¡¯s shoulder as I stood beside him in our doorway.¡°What happened?¡± Erik quizzed, asking the question that they were all wondering. ¡°I grew up.¡± Sticking to the simplest of answers. Truthfully, it failed to really exin the situation but they attempted to add the extra details themselves. ¡°It was your birthday?¡± ¡°You unlocked?¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you mention it?¡± ¡°Congrattions on your birthday,¡± Bjorn added. ¡°Most of us do not see such pronounced gains overnight on unlocking.¡± He continued. ¡°Are you alright?¡± He asked, concerned that I might not be up for a patrol so soon after such extensive changes. ¡°I think so,¡± I answered. I had noticed the improvement to my responses but it was not so excessive that I would find it difficult to control. ¡°You think so?¡± He asked for confirmation. ¡°Well, I am 10 now and assigned my stats. So I¡¯m feeling a little different to yesterday. That or it was something I ate.¡± I added chuckling for effect. But seriously I was wondering whether they might have fed me something unusual seeing as the system had picked up giant blood within my vessel. Namir continued with the story we had concocted to cover up the reasons for my height and age jump. ¡°We think his father had him under a curse, contract or debuff and that by turning ten it has broken or lifted it.¡± But as he did I could not help notice how they looked at one another after my statement that it might have been something I¡¯d eaten. Even Namir noticed and his version of events trailed off. ¡°I was as surprised to see him grow so much overnight as you. However, he seems to be alright and feels stronger than ever with his extra stats . . .¡± After watching their faces, ¡°Was it something I ate?¡± I asked directly. Namir stepped forward suddenly, a little more vignt, and a little tension leaked into their friendly faces. ¡°Not ate, so much as drank.¡± Erik suggested before being stopped by his father. ¡°Erik!¡± Bjorn cut him off. ¡°What? It is a possible cause for his growth.¡± Erik defended his suggestion. ¡°The elixirs have never caused such an extreme reaction before.¡± Bjorn raised his hands catingly as he turned to us to exin. ¡°I didn¡¯t mention it before because some people do not care for it and you needed it.¡± ¡°Needed what?¡± I asked, confused. ¡°Ice resistance. You are . . . I mean, you were so small, and it was simply to help you out.¡± ¡°Ahh, the elixir,¡± I eximed, finally understanding. ¡°What exactly is it made of?¡± I questioned. ¡°As said, the ice wyrm core and ice water . . . and a drop or two of giant¡¯s blood to help bind the reagents.¡± He exined. ¡°Before we knew about your magic, I could feel your shivering and knew you needed the resistance, so I didn¡¯t want you to refuse without experiencing the effects.¡± He exined his reasoning. ¡°I¡¯ve never known of, or heard of it having such an immediate and obvious side effect.¡± He gestured at my increase in height. ¡°But perhaps that is simply because most giants fighting in the north will take them in childhood when we already grow impressively fast that it is not noticed.¡± He continued his exnation. ¡°Or it has not been taken so close the system unlocks. Who knows?¡± ¡°Thank you for your concern, but the full picture would be appreciated next time.¡± I replied. Now that we knew, Namir repeated, ¡°He seems to be alright and feels stronger than ever, so we should be fine to go.¡± ¡°Take care not to push yourself too quick or hard today.¡± Ivar cautioned. ¡°Jumping in stats can be hazardous for your health even if the injuries are self-inflicted.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try my best not to trip up too often.¡± I grinned. With only a ten per cent boost of already inted stats, I was not too worried about keeping control of myself. ¡°Now that we¡¯ve discussed the Ice Giant in the Thorpe. It''s time to get going. It will be the same as before,¡± Bjorn stated, moving the conversation along. ¡°Namir up front, Kai in the middle with me, Erik to our right, Ivar to our left and Ragnar to our rear. Any questions?¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. ¡°Remind me why are we heading out again so soon?¡± Ragnar requested. ¡°We¡¯ve only just got back! I¡¯ve got other responsibilities too.¡± ¡°The spiderling nest should not have happened so close to our Thorpe. The fact that Kai could pick it up with his skills was fortuitous. With that in mind, we have been asked by Volur to ensure that no other critters have managed to get that close.¡± Bjorn exined, shutting down any furtherints about heading back out so soon. ¡°Any other pertinent questions?¡± ¡°Just two. First off, does anyone have a small bow?¡± I raised my hand. They turned to look at me once more. ¡°Now that I am a little taller, I was hoping that I might be able to use one. Maybe a child¡¯s bow or a short bow?¡± ¡°I might have one that is small enough, but it will still berge for you,¡± Ragnarmented. ¡°What do you need a bow for when you have magic?¡± Erik asked. He had been a little awed by what I had been able to aplish. ¡°For when my mana runs out,¡± I exined. But then, seeing as it was Erik, I continued. ¡°I like to get new skills and level them up.¡± I was thinking of my Hunter metier and all the levels I could get out of it. ¡°As you should.¡± Bjorn agreed readily. ¡°And we are going hunting; it seems silly to do so without a weapon, even if I can use magic as mine.¡± I continued. ¡°The better prepared are less often taken unaware.¡± Ragnar quoted what seemed to be a giant saying. ¡°If we swing by mine, we can pick it up as we leave the Thorpe. In fact, I have knife you could use as a sword as well if both magic and bow fail.¡± We headed round the Thorpe from the south to the east where Ragnar lived. Asking us to wait, he popped into his home and soon returned with a bow, a quiver of arrows and what was for him, a small knife. ¡°Hope it is useable he said, passing it over.¡± What was for him a short child¡¯s bow I could just about wield the knife though . . . Even attempting to use it as a sword the handle was just too thick to hold. If I wanted a knife, I was going to have tomission one. ¡°Varvara can make you one.¡± Bjorn interjected, noticing my disappointment with the knife along with the impracticality. ¡°She would be happy to return the favour of returning her son home happy and healthy.¡± He added. ¡°Thanks.¡± I nodded my head in eptance. ¡°Second question?¡± Bjorn asked. Remembering that I had said I had more than one. ¡°How are we distributing the spoils?¡± I asked. ¡°The spoils?¡± Bjorn questioned. ¡°Well we are trying to gather as many resources as we can so that we can head south before the month is up. So . . .¡± I elongated the word wheedling a little. ¡°I was hoping we could im as much as possible of what we might find.¡± I exined our aims. ¡°An equal split.¡± He shrugged. ¡°But you wouldn¡¯t be finding these beasts without my help.¡± I objected. ¡°I doubt that there are too many beasts to be found anyway. This is to appease Volur.¡± He argued back. ¡°Then our time is all the more valuable and should not be wasted on something so pointless,¡± I argued. ¡°It¡¯s not pointless it is for the safety of the Thorpe.¡± He sounded disgruntled. But I was trying to make a point, ¡°A Thorpe we do not hail from and one we hope to leave sooner rather thanter.¡± ¡°You would refuse to help?¡± He asked, sounding offended. ¡°No, simply requesting fair pay for my senses,¡± I replied calmly trying to defuse his anger but still gain the most from our time. I could possibly be making far more to fund our trip south with my mana within the Thorpe than tracing the circumference of their territory repeatedly for days on end until they were satisfied that we had ensured there were no hidden nests of monsters. ¡°Fine, how would you like to distribute the spoils?¡± He questioned fiercely ¡°50:50 for the monsters.¡± I started . . . ¡°That¡¯s what I said.¡± Bjorn interrupted. ¡°But we get all the cores; anything else we might find is ours.¡± I continued before he could interrupt me again. ¡°Fine.¡± He answered, seemingly uninterested in the result, only that we actually headed out. ¡°All right,¡± He said, rolling his eyes, ¡°Now that is settled, it is high time to head out.¡± We strode east until the Thorpe was on the edge of my senses before we turned to circle it clockwise. I ramped up my skills, noting that my resistances required no effort at all to take the edge off the biting cold. In fact, leaving the Thorpe meant that they had begun to level once more. Cold (Lv5 -> 6) Ice (Lv3 -> 4) It did not hurt that we were surrounded by cold and ice. This fact, though, did hinder my use of the skill Seismic. Without stone, it was not nearly as effective. However, Sonar seemed to make up the difference along with Sense Mana, Mind sense and Eavesdropping. Still, none of those senses were the first to bring back the hint of anything to me. No, the first skill to draw my attention was actually Treasure Sense. ¡°Hold,¡± I called out, everyone pausing in preparation for a fight. ¡°No, no.¡± I exined, ¡°No threat, but something under the snow; give me a moment.¡± I asked before I slid my skis across to where the skill told me to dig. Bjorn might carry meter or maybe not considering my increase in size, but for the moment, I was keeping up on my skis. I began realising my mana into the snow beneath me, drilling or instead melting a hole straight down to what I sensed. Holeplete. I jumped down into it, disappearing into the snow. It took me a second to pick up the items I¡¯d uncovered and leap out of the hole. The extra stats helped propel me upward my entire height. ¡°What did you find?¡± Erik asked, having been drawn into the spectacle of me disappearing. Namir still stood ahead, trusting me to call him if needed. ¡°Nothing much,¡± I shrugged, hefting what looked to be a pouch full of gold, a ratherrge mug and a fire-starting kit with a bundle of kindling. ¡°Nothing much?¡± He objected as he stared at the pouch of gold. Bjorn was silent as he realised why I had requested the rights to anything else we might find. While Ivar and Ragnar chuckled outloud at finally realising why I had requested everything else we might find. ¡°Well, we should be able to buy those supplies to travel south sooner rather thanter. But it also looks like I might be tidying up some of the rubbish around your Thorpe simultaneously.¡± I cated. ¡°That¡¯s hardly rubbish.¡± Erik objected. ¡°This time, maybe.¡± I shrugged, knowing I had perhaps gotten lucky with my first discovery. Time proved me correct as we circled the Thorpe. We discovered no new monster nests within sight of the Thorpe, but I found a few other items, and the giant¡¯s packs were filled with my salvage from the first patrol around the Thorpe. Not every discovery had revealed gold; in fact, most had not. However, we had umted a wide range of travelling supplies that had been abandoned or lost in one snowstorm or the other and then buried beneath the snow for me to find. ¡°One patrol a day.¡± I reminded them we reached our starting point. ¡°One a day.¡± Bjorn agreed as we headed on home. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to find so much and yet so little simultaneously.¡± Hemented. ¡°Where do you want this lot?¡± He gestured to the bags of lost property they were carrying for me. ¡°Back home,¡± I answered. I would go through it all working out what I could use to build up supplies for our trip south and what I would attempt to sell. ¡°When¡¯s the market open?¡± I asked as we returned home. ¡°It doesn¡¯t close.¡± Ivar grinned. ¡°Thirdyer down.¡± He pointed down into the Thorpe. ¡°Have fun.¡± ¡°Same time tomorrow?¡± I asked as they prepared to leave after depositing my goods. ¡°Same time.¡± They nodded. Grinning I entered our home to review my gains. Chapter 231: Physical and metaphysical gains Chapter 231: Physical and metaphysical gains ¡°A sound man is good at salvage, at seeing nothing is lost.¡± Laozi We had uncovered a lot when it was all unpacked and spread around. We even had some money to do some shopping with. ¡°Were you expecting to find so much?¡± Namir asked. ¡°Honestly, no,¡± I replied. ¡°But I hoped for a little, and look what we found,¡± I said, pulling forth a cloak that had once been discarded or lost. ¡°Plenty to trade with or repurpose,¡± I said as I started stacking it onto shelves within my vault. My skill opened up small portals in the correct ce to ce them into. ¡°This will take me a while. Do you think you could go and make a price list for everything we will need to head off while I put everything away?¡± I asked Namir. ¡°Sure, it gives me something to do.¡± He replied. Happy to leave the logistics of scavenging and salvaging to me. I carried on practising using the skill and rearranging our new items within my vault. Spatial Vault (Lv5 ->6)The Tier 5 skill was increasing rapidly. Is that due to how much stuff I was filling it up with or how I manipted the openings and their cements regarding the vault? Either way, I had to move those corner trees again. Growing them with mana and shifting them back into the new corners of the cube vault that now stood at 16 feet by 16 feet. My vault was now equivalent to two car parking spaces¡ªspace enough to get started on my special project once I had the time to grow it. Once everything was squared away, Namir was still not back, so I settled in for some internal reflection. It had only been a day, but it was enough with the ressification of my metiers to move me up in the world. The lower levels always came the quickest. Even though we had not hunted animals, it seemed that several of my skills had levelled up. Draw (Lv58 ->59) Hunting (Lv10->11) Skiing (Lv7->8) Treasure Sense (Lv17->18) Sense Mana (Lv77->78) Echolocation(Lv72->73) Seismic Sense (Lv15->16) I had even gained a new skill, Tracking (Lv1), probably for finding or instead tracking down so many wayward items. It seemed to be enough to trigger a level or two for my new Hunter Metier. I added the free points into Luck along with the 2 extra fromst time to appease the Goddess Fortuna. There was no point in a mortal fighting with a god. I would need to be a lot stronger before I could even consider contending hermands. The surprise, though, was that the second level was not from Hunter at all. But it was actually Sage that had also levelled up. Looking closer at my status, it was due to specific skills like increasing despite myck of tutoring. Teaching (Lv10 ->15) Polymath (Lv14 ->15) If that wasn¡¯t a surprise enough, I also had several new skills. That made no sense at all, considering the day I had hunting or, rather, patrolling the Thorpe. Brewing (Lv1) ssmithing (Lv1) Alchemy (Lv1) Tailoring (Lv1) Pottery(Lv1) Rather than indulge in internal conversations with my other selves, this was worth a soul call home to discover precisely what was happening on Wester Ponente and where the skill levels and experience came from. Status Level: 63 -> 65 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 10 Years 0 months 1 day M¨¦tier: Singer Lv 12 -> Hunter (Lv0 ->1) M¨¦tier: Sailor Lv 13 -> Healer (Lv0) M¨¦tier: Merchant Lv 11 -> Psion (Lv0) M¨¦tier: Mage Lv 8 -> Lv10 -> Sage (Lv0 ->1) General Experience: 1,357,000 /3,276,800 Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 200 The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Endurance: 200 Strength: 200 Dexterity: 200 Senses: 200 Mind: 200 rity: 180 Magic: 200 Charisma: 180 Luck: 180 -> 202 Free Points: 0 Resistances: Cold (Lv5 ->6), Ice (Lv3->4), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11) Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83)Meditation (Lv85)Time Sense (Lv84) Bnce (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55) Draw (Lv58 ->59)Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv51)Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV42)Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv10 ->15) Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv10->11) Skinning (Lv7) Skiing (Lv7-8) Tracking (Lv1) Brewing (Lv1) ssmithing (Lv1) Alchemy (Lv1) Tailoring (Lv1) Pottery(Lv1) Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv80) Sense Mana (Lv77->78) Spellcraft (Lv65) Spellsong (Lv65) Eavesdrop (Lv63)Order (Lv49) Linguistics (Lv41) Memorisation (Lv40) Recall (Lv40) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv38)Knife Arts (Lv33)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25) Observe (Lv32)Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv26)Heal (Lv21)Treasure Sense (Lv17->18) Intimidation (Lv12) Stone Carving (Lv1) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv72->73) Expel Mana (Lv71)Mana Maniption (Lv70) Gale (LV70) Boil (Lv59)Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23)Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34)Analyse (Lv19) sh Step (Lv16) Seismic Sense (Lv15->16) Danger Sense (Lv13) Smuggling (LV6)Telepathy (Lv8) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv70)Parallel Processing (Lv50) Material Maniption (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv35 ->36)Mana Drain (Lv30) Flight (Lv22) Sonar (Lv25) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv8)Contract(Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5) Rune Carving (Lv3) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv26)Weapon Prodigy (Lv23) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv14 ->15) Astral Projection (Lv5) Spatial Vault (Lv5->6) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv2) [Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Calling Lady Aleera Silversea] [What is it, Kai? It¡¯s lovely to hear from you, but I¡¯m very busy.] [Aleera, sister, dear. Why do I have several new skills?] [Ah, right. Well, we¡¯ve cracked the chemistry. Did I pronounce that right?] [Yes, but what do you mean you¡¯ve cracked the chemistry?] [The books and ns you had, we¡¯ve been working on deciphering them and putting them into practice. We now have rice wine, shochu, vodka, and whiskey on the go. The first attempts were tasted today. They could do some work, but Uncle Barric and our cousins Ashby, Busby, Kelby, Rigby, Selby and Welby have all unlocked the Brewing skill. Is that what you are talking about?] [That exins the level in Brewing, but I also have a level in sssmithing, Alchemy, Tailoring, and Pottery] [Well, they probably alle from the chemistry we have helped add to their professions. Romeo and his children, Rand, Rolf, and Raina, have all been experimenting with creating vases alongside their tiles now. Your guidebook discusses different zes they are experimenting to try to recreate. That probably ounts for the Pottery.] [Go on.] I grumbled. [Auntie Sharina is adding the chemicals we have managed to produce to ss to create different colours. It is all very exciting. Obviously, the Alchemy is from our experimentation to produce the individual chemicals. Lady Acacia is quite vexed with you for holding out on so much esoteric but essential information for building business. Apparently, half of what you have revealed in your guidebooks are secrets guilds restrict to their members. With arge influx of ves, we can im this knowledge came from elsewhere should we ever be questioned. But we will focus on uplifting our own little barony before we look to export too much to others.] [Carry on] [Tailoring, though, will be from Mother. She loves creatingce. Obviously, she is cheatingpared to your description of how time-consuming it can be to make by using magic. Still, she is enjoying adding it to her pieces, and Lady Acacia thinks it will be all the rage for when I debut if we time the release of it correctly.] [Wondeful.] [With the poption explosion here, we will use most of our products internally, but at the same time, we will have many new products. When Mercurio and Kashif return, we will make a fortune carefully introducing new products in limited amounts to the world. Everyone has a lot of questions, of course, but you really should have done this sooner.] [I did not want to introduce too much too soon.] [Well, we have plenty of manpower and a wide range of new industries to employ them in now.] [I¡¯m d I could be of service even in my absence] [No reason to sound so sour. The system rewards you with experience and skills for the progress made, even though you are not even here. Honestly, what do you have toin about.] [It would have been nice to have been consulted before the changes were rolled out.] [Well, in that case, I am warning you that next time you call, you might also have a level in stonemasonry and tinkering as Uncle Cephas is currently contemting creating an aqueduct to provide running water for the town based on your designs. In addition, Uncle Aaron and Uncle Cal are looking at recreating a Windmill and a Waterwheel again based on the designs you wrote.] Giving up on putting the genie back in the bottle, I asked [How are the family?] [Happy you are alive, proud of your ideas, vexed you did not share them sooner in person, wishing you were here. I wish you were here.] [I¡¯m working on it. I think we will be here a month to build up some supplies but I am working on it.] [Love you, Kai, but I really need to go. I¡¯m meeting with Des and Sinis about the Lakeshore road and former ve abodes with Mother any minute now. Be safe ande home soon.] [Give mother and father a big hug from me. I will get to work on getting those supplies] Questions answered, I ended our conversation and returned to my vessel. A pang of homesickness rolled through my body, or maybe it was just anxiety at them moving on with my ideas without my control and without me to witness them. I did not know, but it was time to get to work. Healing, anyone? Chapter 232: Finding a Market Chapter 232: Finding a Market "Primum non nocere: First, Do no harm.¡± Hippocratic Oath It was simple enough to grab an empty table and awning. Bjorn had let them know that I might be setting up a stall, and one had been left empty for me. I was told it was for travelling traders, but none were here, so it was free. It was no difficulty setting it up now that I was taller. But it looked a little bare without any goods to ce on top of the shelf-like table at the back of it. Without trinkets to arrange and no curtains or silks to decorate my empty stall, it looked a little barrenpared to my neighbours'' stalls. That in itself could draw attention, but I felt I needed something more than that. The only items I could currently be proud of disying were the two statues I had created under the guidance of the goddess. A quick maniption of the spatial vault openings had the two statues sitting in the two corners of my stall. They were not for sale, but the artistic nature of the two statues would hopefully draw some interest. The final centrepiece of my empty stall was my littlepanion. Having gained a few levels in resistance, Nyx had apanied me and drew even more attention than simply my small stature or the two statues. Despite her resistance levels, she insisted on me heating the area with my amulet. It was not a significant drain, and the awnings provided to the market area helped hold in the heat a little. There was certainly a significant difference when sheltered by the sunken walls of the Thorpepared to being out on the open, endless ice where the heat had been endlessly whipped away. It was still cold but not as freezing as being out on the open ins of ice sunken as we were below ground level. Admittedly, my stall was still barepared to the other giants¡¯ stalls, but I was novel and new, which would hopefully draw more of them walking around going about their business. Ultimately, I decided I needed to stand on top of my table to bring myself closer to their level. Even then, they would still be looking down on me. But at least I was not running around their ankles. When I stood on my soapbox, I¡¯m sure I looked strange to the other giants. Hopefully, it was eye-catching enough to draw some interest. We were the outsiders here, and it was not hard to remember when everyone else towered over us. Soon enough, an elderly giant stopped by, if only to enjoy the warmth of my stall; with no goods obviously for sale, the first question was obvious. ¡°What are you selling?¡± he asked, looking curiously at Nyx, who was ring her wings at his approach and casting a quick nce at the two statues on either end of the stall. ¡°No goods for sale yet; we¡¯ve just arrived,¡± I said sadly, but also let him know that Nyx or the statues were not for sale. Once, I had a measure of the market and what we had found. I hoped to have some goods for sale. ¡°However, instead, I have a service I can offer,¡± I stated before he could lose interest and leave. ¡°Trained by the Church of the Lodestar, I am proficient in healing. Are there any aches and pains I could help you with?¡± Stats and magic could cure many ails, but sometimes, there was little to be done about ageing despite the magic of my new world. It was a safe offer to make considering my potential customer. ¡°Trained? You¡¯re a little young to be a priest? An acolyte of the Compass Centric Church?¡± He questioned, sounding doubtful either of someone so young or so small. Even though I was not so small anymore. Stature was always rtive, and despite my increase in size, I still looked obviously young. Although less unbelievable than I had looked only a few days earlier. ¡°Family friends with the local Bishop,¡± I exined. ¡°He took an interest in my training; I have the mana, skill and ability to heal mostmon woes you might face,¡± I answered. Bishop Bailie had cured most ailments on the ind, but I had watched and asionally helped on top of the training we had done with my cousins. My understanding of biology and anatomy helped to reduce the casting costs vastly. ¡°How much?¡± He asked, intrigued, but he wasn¡¯t biting yet. I wondered what his problem might be: an old wound or old age. ¡°How much would it be worth it to live without pain? Many would pay a premium for that.¡± I countered. I was unsure what things were truly worth on the edge of civilisation. Some things would be easy toe by. Others would be far harder. It might be worth far more than I might charge. If I left it up to him, I would at least gain goodwill alongside some good word of mouth. I could always slowly raise the prices as I gained in poprity. ¡°How much would I get for a silver?¡± He asked. ¡°What ails you?¡± I replied, as there was nothing immediately evident with the giant. ¡°My knees.¡± He started. ¡°No matter how high my cold and ice resistance get, they still ache most mornings before I get moving. It would be nice to get up in the morning without feeling them grind in pain.¡± He exined. It sounded like arthritis, maybe, or tendonitis. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me that giant¡¯s joints wore out a little quicker at their size. They had to be dealing with a lot more weight. However, I was surprised that stats did not heal the issue or were not more robust to start off with. ¡°Do they not heal themselves when you add vitality with new levels?¡± I asked to check. ¡°Aye, for a while, but it returns in the end. At my age and level, it is not as easy as it once was to keep levelling up, youngd.¡± He advised as he handed over a silver coin the size of four standard silver coins. I guessed that human money would have been challenging to deal with in giant hands¡ªan exciting form of intion where their coins were worth more simply due to their size. I had only been expecting a single silver coin, and I was gaining four. I palmed it into my spatial vault to inspect itter. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Well, let''s look then,¡± I said, jumping from the table. I did not have a seat for the giant, but that did not matter; he could use the table to lean against. He stood still as I approached and touched his right knee. Sure enough, I could sense the inmmation around the joint; whether it was the tendons or the cartge that was causing the problem was not immediately apparent, but a general heal should sort the problem regardless. I vocalised the skill to let the giant know I was tending to his knee. ¡°Heal.¡± The skill guided my mana into the inmmation, and I watched it go down. As I continued to supply the mana, the tendons grew healthy while the cartge smoothed over once more. ¡°There,¡± I said as the spellpleted the mana, unable to find any more damage to heal in his right knee. He flexed his leg, pleasantly surprised by the cure''s efficiency or efficacy. ¡°Amazing.¡± He said as he continued to move his leg around. ¡°I can¡¯t feel it at all. What about the other knee?¡± He asked enthusiastically. ¡°Well, would that be worth a second silver?¡± I asked cheekily. There was no reason not to see if I couldn¡¯t get another, seeing as he was so pleased with the results of his first healing. Heughed at my brazenness, ¡°Takes guts to ask that of your elder and me.¡± He stared at me in amusement, emphasising our size difference. ¡°Before I would have said no, but . . .¡± He moved his knee once more. ¡°I cannot argue with the effects. Yes, that would certainly be worth another silver.¡± He said as he handed over another silver coin. I again palmed away into my spatial vault. It took me only a moment to work on his other knee. His silent grin was a sure sign of the sess of the treatment, even if I could not sense the damage repairing itself within the joint. ¡°Worth every penny.¡± He nodded gratefully as he squatted down to my level. ¡°They haven¡¯t felt this good for twenty years. You need a sign for your stall. I¡¯ll send my son round to fix you up with one.¡± He nodded, then strode off his strides longer as if testing out theck of pain. I solved a couple more issues for passers-by: a few sore joints, a cataract or two, and a cough that they had been unable to shift. There were no open wounds needing healed, life in the Thorpe seemed fundamentally safe despite existing at the ends of the earth. However, the healing was enough for my skill and metier to improve. Whether it was the number of healings or the novelty of healing a different race, I would notin. Ding! Heal (Lv21 -> 22) Ding! Healer (Lv0 -> Lv1) I added the free points gained by levelling up my metier to Charisma, seeing as I would need that more with selling my wares. Everyone had been friendly enough, but a little more Charisma couldn¡¯t hurt. Charisma: 180 -> 190 Most of my visitors chatted for a second or two to wee me to the Thorpe and wish me luck when I mentioned that I hoped to have some goods for sale soon if they were not interested in the healing I was offering. What gained the most interest, though, were the two statues I had created. A pair of potential customers questioned the imagery. The representation of Fortuna still stood gracefully, her body draped in flowing robes, and her head was adorned with a delicate crown ofurel leaves. The giants initially took her to be a spirit of healing until they looked closer and saw she held a cornucopia overflowing with gold and gems and an orb encapsting a thunderous cloud of misfortune over a stormy sea. Then, of course, there were the images around the base. ¡°Not a spirit of healing?¡± one asked after looking closer. ¡°S¡¯not Njal or Era.¡± The other said his thoughts aloud. ¡°I would have thought you would have one of Era considering your healing.¡± He continued discussing the Northern and Northwestern gods. ¡°The statue represents Fortuna,¡± I exined. ¡°Fortuna?¡± They asked. ¡°Not one of the great eight.¡± Theymented. Referencing the eight Anemoi, each representing the cardinal and ordinal directions, represents a different stat''s strength. ¡°She . . .¡± I emphasised that it ¡°Represents the goddess of luck and fortune.¡± Considering my current location, I would not be singing her praises too strongly, but only a fool was too disrespectful of the gods. ¡°Good or ill?¡± The first asked, raising his eyebrows. We had already discussed my shipwreck on the endless ice. ¡°Both, I suppose,¡± I answered. ¡°The storm was not great fortune, but we were lucky to survive it.¡± I continued. ¡°And this one?¡± Asked the other, referring to the hooded figure in a flowing robe adorned with Runes, Glyphs, Sigils, Enchantments and other arcane symbols like the constetions of the heavens. His wooden staff, crowned in a shard of the Lodestar, was nted in front of him. ¡°No name, but I like to think honouring the system and magic might favour me in return,¡± I exined. Fortuna had never explicitly specified exactly who the second statue was supposed to represent. ¡°Neither seems to strictly support healing.¡± The first onemented. ¡°Well, I¡¯m more than just a healer.¡± I smiled. ¡°Only this morning, I went on patrol with Bjorn, hunting. This afternoon, I¡¯m healing. There is more than one string to my bow.¡± I grinned. ¡°Who knows what this evening will bring.¡± I shrugged wondering when the Veivisier would catch up with me. ¡°Regardless of who they represent, I would be interested in a statue of my friend here if this is what you are capable of.¡± He continued. ¡°I¡¯ll take one too of this lump.¡± His friend added. ¡°If you can provide the stone, that shouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± I said as I looked at the pair before me, taking a mental image of who they were. ¡°What would you like to be wearing, carrying or doing in the statues?¡± I asked. ¡°As we are is fine.¡± The first replied. ¡°And the cost?¡± I asked. ¡°10 silvers sound fair?¡± He asked. ¡°Sure,¡± I answered. This would take more time and mana than the healing had, but perhaps I had undercharged for the healing. I viewed it as another way of creating goodwill and advertising my services. I could always raise my prices depending on how popr they were. ¡°We will be back with the stone.¡± They said before leaving. The first elderly gentlegiant¡¯s son soon returned with a sign for my stall and words of gratitude. ¡°He¡¯s beenining about his knees for a decade. I''m not sure who is the most grateful for your healing. Him or us now that we won¡¯t have to listen to it anymore. Thank you.¡± He chatted as he set up the sign for me. Business was picking up. Then Namir returned with a long list of supplies and their prices. It was time to go shopping. Chapter 233: First Fortnight Chapter 233: First Fortnight ¡°There¡¯s always another level up. There¡¯s always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, morepassion, more to shed, more to grow.¡± Elizabeth Gilbert The first fortnight went by quickly. I had soon grown ustomed to my new size. What I missed most from my childhood, though, were my elvish robes, which no longer fit properly. Still, the enchantments on them were the most crucial part of the clothing, so I had carefully cut the clothes open along the seams to preserve the enchantments on them, then patched them into the new clothes I had made for myself. They made for an unusual undeyer beneath my Arctic wolf and bear pelts, but they were still more than worth it when wandering the endless ice. The days were simple and straightforward but busy with the number of activities we attempted to cram into them. Namir and I hunted in the morning with our team progressing further and further afield from the Thorpe. Most days, I could find some treasure and an animal or two. The hunts kept usfortable as we continued to expand our wallets for our departure. With us collecting so many lost knickknacks, actual items of worth, and the corpses of the monsters we had hunted, it soon became necessary to reveal my ess to some spatial storage, lest we leave such uncovered resources behind or be forced to carry more than wasfortable. As always, the best or rather most entertaining way to reveal a secret or two was with a studied nonchnce. It was with great pleasure that I demonstrated my ability one morning out on the endless ice after killing another clew of Ice Wyrms. The giants had set about harvesting their half of the tangle after removing the cores and gifting them to us. Bjorn had possibly left the two of them to us to harvest out on the endless ice without help to express some of his frustration over our previous agreement that anything else I might find would be mine. Maybe there had been some pressure from above after our first sessful patrol and the hidden little treasures I had been able to bring back with me. Either way, it wasn¡¯t going to be an issue for me. Opening a portal below the beasts, they disappeared into my spatial vault. Leaving Namir and I standing idly by as Bjorn and Eryk continued to harvest theirs while Ivar and Ragnar kept watch. It took them a moment to notice. But then, much like with my sudden increase in height, the exmations and questions soon followed.¡°What?¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°You have a spatial beastcore?¡± ¡°When?¡± ¡°How did you afford that?¡± ¡°But there are no stone glyphs.¡± Bjorn objected to the disappeared corpses of our most recent foes without a stone surface on which to open the vault''s door. ¡°There is more to magic than stone glyphs.¡± I avoided answering exactly how I had managed to do it and pointing out that I was only just now learning much about the stone magic of the giants. Eryk quickly recovered, ¡°Can you store ours too?¡± He cheekily asked. Unsurprisingly, his father started to object, ¡°That¡¯s not necessary . . . ¡± ¡°It would be my pleasure.¡± I interrupted, cing my hand on the corpse and opening the portal below it to make it disappear. I was getting better and better at getting the vault to snap open and close and to size the portal to the size of the item I was storing. Soon enough, it would hopefully look like the items instantly vanished, but I was not quite there yet. Bjorn knelt to stare at where the corpse had disappeared once more, this time in front of his eyes. He snorted in disbelief. ¡°Well, we will be able to cover more ground quicker, seeing as we won¡¯t be stopping to harvest the worthwhile harvests.¡± That was all he had to say on the matter. He never pried any further, simply epting my ability and the help it gave them. I always returned their share of the hunt when we returned to the Thorpe, asionally returning them at the butchers themselves to speed the harvesting process and relieve ourselves from the mess. The butchers were happy to dress the corpses for a cut of the meat, especially from fresh ones like the ones I could produce, and my spatial vault quickly filled up with suitably salted, smoked and dried meats for the journey south. Wyrm jerky, hmmm. It was not only ourrder that filled up but also our resistances. Ice Wyrms cores continued to help level my Ice resistance, and alongside my cold resistance, the endless ice was no longer so bitterly cold to me and Namir. Even Nyx had developed a strong enough ice resistance to keep uspany longer, although she still steered clear of the Gyrfalcon¡¯s roosting in the Thorpe. She stuck close to me. within the Thorpe but was beginning to range a little further afield when we were out on our patrols. I enjoyed learning Archery from Ragnar. Weapon Prodigy meant that my umted experience went to slowly moving that skill forward, but I had been able to pick up some new archery-specific skills that Ragnar had demonstrated: Precision shot, Piercing Shot, and Rapid Fire. This had made him inordinately proud of his teaching ability. Namir didn¡¯t try to disabuse him of his pride by pointing out how quickly I had always gained and levelled skills, but Bjorn did look a little suspicious at the pace of my progress. However, the skills were soon to be needed. One ice-dwelling magical monster exined the abundance of Gyrfalcons in the Thorpe. They also were the perfect target for my newly developed archery skills and highlighted the importance of Ragnar on the hunting team, Tundra Terrors. They were predatory birds with razor-sharp talons and the magical ability to call forth ice darts they would shower their targets with as they dived bombed them to cut them up in person. Our first meeting came a little too close to disaster. I had be focused on looking down and out rather than up in my search for monsters and treasures. They came from above and at speed. In fact, Namir was the first to spot them as he still ranged ahead of our group, as always. ¡°KAI, Heads UP!¡± His voice shouted, startling me out of a sensory daze. Raising my head to look at Namir and then higher up as I saw him pointing above us. Directing my senses up, I saw the sudden ice storm falling toward us with a hunting pair of Tundra Terrors diving behind their magically made lethal hailstorm. They must have been circling high above my sensory envelope for me to have missed them. My thoughts fled to Nyx. Would she be okay? Land monsters had never threatened her with her ability to flee beyond their reach but these she would have no such escape from. Nyx, though, was outside of their falling ice and smartly abandoned us. She headed out from where it would fall to Namir for protection rather than returning to us. Now that I knew she was safe, it was time to focus on myself. I prepared to send a burst of heat up and melt the ice daggers attempting to pin us to the earth, but I did not have time before Bjorn yelled, ¡°Shields up!¡± The four of them rapidly raised their circr shields above their heads as they dropped to their knees in practised motions. I stood next to Bjorn and was covered by his shield as the hail of ice darts hit hard. Half his size, I did not even need to drop to my knees as I pulled my bow and arrow, aiming and shooting despite the hail of ice that my senses allowed me to see through without risking putting my head out into the falling icy death. I watched as the Tundra Terrors found four perfectly healthy giants beneath them when they had perhaps expected ice-filled wounded warriors that they could finish off with their razor-sharp talons and render them corpses to pick over at their leisure. They aborted their dive, perhaps to look elsewhere for easier prey. However, Ragnar and I would not let them leave at their leisure and let loose a pair of arrows that could not fail to miss at this proximity, with them losing speed to break their fall and angle away from us. Abination of Precision shots and Piercing shots buried our shafts solidly into their breasts and brought them crashing down to the ice, if not dead, mortally wounded. As Magical monsters they relied on ambushing their prey and their magic to down their foes instantly, not engage in battles with them, and they soon sumbed to their wounds. ¡°Well handled.¡± Bjorn nodded in eptance of a job well done. As we approached their departed forms, Eryk asked, ¡°Why not use your magic?¡± ¡°Practicing my archery.¡± I smiled, pleased with the sessful shot at speed. It was remarkably moreplex to hit a bird on the wing than to hit a deer standing still all those lessons ago on Wester Ponente. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you notice them sooner?¡± Bjorn asked,aaa reminding me that I had failed to notice them in time. ¡°They were out of my sensory range, and I have been concentrating on unearthing the monsters hidden in the ice,¡± I exined. Bjorn nodded, thinking before stating, ¡°Ragnar, remember to keep watch above.¡± ¡°Will do.¡± He replied, slightly chagrined. It seemed that they had grown a little toofortable with me looking out for them and possibly neglected their usual roles in the hunting quad that they were. ¡°We must not growx with Kai searching the snow for us. Eyes up and out.¡± Hemanded firmly as we set forth once more. . . . The afternoons I would spend plying my healing skills at the local market stall. These were the skills that were earning us the most healing away from the local aches and pains. A life from pain is almost without price, and they were generous in their contributions, recognising the value of my skills. Namir would man the stall while I was healing; when not healing, I would sell off our excess finds from our treasure hunting alongside statues, as requested by Fortuna. We now had a money chest, and its value was increasing daily. My statues had be popr due to their novelty and, dare I say it, my skill. The giants had taken to requesting personal statues of themselves in various poses for friends and family, which they bought alongside statues of my patron and her enigmatic friend. Some had even requested a statue or two of myself and Namir. While not having been here long, we, too, were a novelty and, dare I say it, a little bit interesting. They came for the conversation as much as they came for the healing, statues and general goods I could supply. But every day, the stall grew busier and busier. My new metiers, Hunter and Healer, had continued to level in response to the repeated use of the skills in line with their focus. They were not the only skills and metiers to be levelling, though¡ªthe evenings I spent with V?lur, the Chief Vievisier. In return for hunting and clearing out the local area around the Thorpe, he was giving me lessons in their stone wizardry and glyphs to repay us after it was quickly realised that we had procured more than we needed to supply just ourselves on our journey south. Not that I was not still hoarding trade goods and supplies to take south in my spatial vault. . . . I was too small to haul around a mini monolith like V?lur could. But with my stone shaping, I was exceptionally well suited to shaping the glyphs on the walls, testing them, then wiping the stone bs clean to learn another. V?lur was most impressed with my ability to wipe them clean again. ¡°When I learned each practice glyph required me to source another stone. I must have spent more of my apprenticeship hauling stone back to my master as I did carving the glyphs in them.¡± He rumbled enviously as he watched me wipe my work away. ¡°You¡¯re a good teacher, chief.¡± I hedged with ttery. I wasn''t sure how to appease him. I had no intention of pulling stone around if I could help it. ¡°You¡¯re a quick student.¡± He replied. ¡°Well worth the time to teach. Even if you were not helping our Thorpe fortify our borders.¡± He nodded in acknowledgement. There was a lot to learn, and I had only just scratched the surface of what we had covered so far. . . . V?lur was not my only teacher. I alternated my evenings to work with Bjorn¡¯s wife, Varvara, who was also helping me to work on my runes. ¡°You can¡¯t be carving your runes in wood, boy.¡± She objected when I first brought out the runes I had to trade. ¡°Metal is the only way to go. You get better efficiency; theyst longer and have stronger effects.¡± She had been vocal in herints when I brought a selection of the runes I knew carved into wood grown within my spatial vault. ¡°It¡¯s all I had to work with,¡± I answered,cking a foundry, ingots of metal and the tools to work them into runes. ¡°Even stone would have been better. I know you are working with V?lur. But never mind, that is why you havee to me,¡± Vavara gestured generously to her forge. ¡°Let''s get started on etching these into metal. Then I can truly judge their worth.¡± She said. The daily increase in my knowledge of glyphs and runes from my giant and part dwarven teacher pushed my magical and knowledge-based skills higher, levelling my Sage Metier in turn. . . . The only metier I worked on privately was that of my Psion. Late-night calls home to my family had that continuing to level. However, the increases continued dropping as I failed to gain as much experience for the repeated trips through the sea of souls. I did not risk venturing further afield happy to simply be able to shoot straight through to the receiving member of my family¡¯s soul. Brewing (Lv1 ->2) ssmithing (Lv1 ->2) Alchemy (Lv1 ->2) Tailoring (Lv1 ->2) Pottery(Lv1 ->2) Masonry (Lv1) Engineering (Lv1) The progress of certain skills seemed to show that life on the ind was still moving apace. However, the family seemed to have discussed what they would and would not be telling me in advance, and I could tell that they were holding some things back to surprise me with on my return. But what they did tell me was impressive enough as it was. . . . Improving my Psion skills and levels was not my only private personal project. My spatial vault continued to grow as it levelled and I filled it full of the trade goods, supplies and raw materials. After some trial and experimentation, my spatial vault expanded centrally with each level up, meaning that I no longer had to move the corner trees with each expansion and extend the branches between them along the left, right and rear walls. The front wall I kept open to allow an entry for the other personal project in the works. With Spatial Vault hitting level 10, each side of the cube was now 20ft by 20ft, which gave me four times the area to work with and lots of height for my corner trees to grow up to a reasonably decent heightpared to the ten-foot saplings they started as. It was more space than I needed or knew what to do with. But I now had a ridiculous amount of shelving. . . . My dreams had not been interrupted since I started doing Fortuna¡¯s bidding with the statues. She must have been pleased or at least satisfied with my progress. It probably did not hurt that luck was now ascendant once more across my attributes. The one stat that I could not improve through training meant that I would have to continue to add to it in order to keep it higher than my others. A stat - utory tax to disy my devotion. Though I am sure that Fortuna could sense our rtionship was more of a transactional based rtionship rather than one based on faith. With half of my allotted time for preparationplete my departure date was looming closer and closer. It seemed a shame to leave when I was making such swift progress. However, statue sales were beginning to slip, at least the ones of Fortuna and her friend. I was still making them and I was beginning to have shelves of them filling my spatial vault. I would notck for statues to leave behind on our circumnavigation. So, stone carving continued to level up. I ced another statue on a shelf within my spatial vault. I was making a lot of progress. Thinking about sweet progress, it was worth looking at my status when the easy levels were rolling in once more. Status Level: 65 -> 70 Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 10 Years 0 months 15 days M¨¦tier: Hunter (Lv1 ->2) M¨¦tier: Healer (Lv0 ->2) M¨¦tier: Psion (Lv0 ->1) M¨¦tier: Sage (Lv0 ->2) General Experience: 1,357,000 /3,276,800 Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 200 Endurance: 200 Strength: 200 Dexterity: 200 Senses: 200 Mind: 200 rity: 180 ->200 Magic: 200 Charisma: 180 -> 200 Luck: 202 Free Points: 10 Resistances: Cold (Lv6->10), Ice (Lv4->8), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11) Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83 ->84) Meditation (Lv85)Time Sense (Lv84) Bnce (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv59) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv51->52) Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42 ->43) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV42->43) Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv15 ->19)Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv11 ->14) Skinning (Lv7->10) Skiing (Lv8 ->10) Tracking (Lv1 ->4) Brewing (Lv1 ->2) ssmithing (Lv1 ->2) Alchemy (Lv1 ->2) Tailoring (Lv1 ->2) Pottery(Lv1 ->2)Precision shot (Lv1 ->2) Masonry (Lv1) Engineering (Lv1) Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv80 ->81) Sense Mana (Lv78 ->79) Spellcraft (Lv65->66) Spellsong (Lv65->66) Eavesdrop (Lv63) Order (Lv49->50)Linguistics (Lv41->42)Memorisation (Lv40->41)Recall (Lv40->41) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv38->39) Observe (Lv32->33) Knife Arts (Lv33)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25->26) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv26->27) Heal (Lv21->28) Treasure Sense (Lv18) Intimidation (Lv12) Stone Carving (Lv1->5)Piercing Shot (Lv1) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv73->75) Expel Mana (Lv71->72) Mana Maniption (Lv70->71)Gale (LV70->71)Boil (Lv59->60) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23) Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34)Analyse (Lv19->20)sh Step (Lv16->17) Seismic Sense (Lv16-17) Danger Sense (Lv13->14)Telepathy (Lv8 ->10) Smuggling (LV6->7)Rapid Fire (Lv1) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv70->71) Parallel Processing (Lv50 ->51) Material Maniption (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv36->37) Mana Drain (Lv30) Sonar (Lv25 ->26)Flight (Lv22->23) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv8 ->10) Contract(Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5 ->6) Rune Carving (Lv3 ->5) Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv26 ->27) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23 ->24) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv15)Spatial Vault (Lv6->10) Astral Projection (Lv5 ->9) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv2 ->3) Chapter 234: Neighbours come knocking Chapter 234: Neighbourse knocking ¡°It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calctions if you live near one.¡± J.R.R. Tolkien Everything about the Thorpe was built defensively. The giants did not live near dragons, but they did live near ice giants, or at least they were the first neighbours they would knock on when they moved south. The heart of the Thorpe the Lodestar was surrounded by spikes protruding outward, but not only that but the entire edifice was dropped below the line of sight from the Endless Ice. You would only find Thorpe if you knew it was there. Eachyer descended down a step towards its central area. The firstyer was empty of homes or shops, merely a road outside Thorpe that giants could travel around without being seen from the Endless Ice. The secondyer down was predominately homes. The thirdyer was where the merchants and craftsmen gathered, sheltered from the icy winds; healing and selling had gone smoothly this past week. The patrols, though, had finally shown something rming. We had travelled Eastward, Southward, Westward and Northward, clearing the surrounding areas of any monsters that might have migrated closer to the Lodestar without their hunters noticing. We defanged a few growing threats they knew nothing about and generally secured the area for the giants so much that we were now expanding outward and acting like a regr patrol rather than sensing threats close to home. However, we discovered the most rming tracks on ourtest Northward journey. If you had thought giants wererge, then the tracks we discovered were that of titans. ¡°Ice giant.¡± Bjorn cursed when we came across them. ¡°Ice giant?¡± I questioned. ¡°Ice giants. A base race of giants twice our size incapable of speech but capable of demonstrating their anger at anything they might find on the surface. They wander the ice alone, thank the lodestar, as a single one of them is enough to devastate a Thorpe, and there appears to be one nearby.¡± He pointed at the tracks. If the giants stood at twice a man¡¯s height, the Ice Giants must have been four or five times as tall, judging by the length of their stride and the space between their footprints.¡°Namir, Eryk, Kai, you must bring the news back to the Thorpe as quickly as possible.¡± He singled out the pair of us and his son. ¡°Ragnar, Ivar and I will track the monster westward, hoping it departs our territory without noticing our Thorpe.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to hunt it down?¡± I asked, surprised. I would have thought they would have jumped at the opportunity to harvest an Ice Giant¡¯s core. I did not know what magic it¡¯s core might hold, but it would berge based simply on the size of the monster. ¡°Not if we can help it,¡± Bjorn answered. ¡°They are not foes you want to take lightly. Twice our size, they are probably four times as strong. None can face one alone. Even with a group of four, you will most likely be knocking at death''s door. With a chilling ice aura, they can instantly freeze anyone without a resistance. They are a walking natural disaster that leaves only destruction in their wake.¡± ¡°An ice aura?¡± I asked. The endless ice looked as barren as ever and hardly destroyed despite their passing, I thought to myself. ¡°Everything they touch freezes.¡± He exined. Noticing my questioning look, he continued. ¡°Part elemental ice, part beast, they roam the endless ice and devour all they find. It only looks less like a trail of destruction because there was nothing for them to find and feast on here.¡± He paused, considering the tracks and whether or not they woulde close to the Thorpe. ¡°Enough talk. It''s time to get moving. Erik, you know what you need to do.¡± Namir, worried by the talk, did not hesitate to pick me up as he loped back to the Thorpe Erik, running as fast as he could in our wake. It seemed living with one another and the need to report trumped his desire not to carry me around. I would have been able to keep up for a while at least, but here, speed was of the essence. ¡°Do we need to worry?¡± I asked him as we ran. ¡°Of the Ice giant? Maybe. Might be time to leave.¡± Hemented as we drew ahead of Erik. ¡°Would the core not be worth it.¡± I answered thinking about the power of the Lodestone Wyrm¡¯s core and everything that it had been carved up into. Would the Ice giant¡¯s core not be equally worthwhile. ¡°You have to be alive to enjoy them. If Bjorn is as worried as he seems it might be best to depart earlier than nned.¡± We skidded into the Thorpe not slowing down other than to shout ¡°Ice Giant.¡± as we raced to Volur. The effect of our words was instantaneous with the Giants quickly closing up shop. A surprisingly quiet ripple of action that flowed around the Thorpe. There were no loud rms but a simple quick packing up and barrelling of everything away. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Then we were standing outside of Volur¡¯s door knocking hard. ¡°Namir, Kai.¡± Volur only took at a single look at the suddenly bustling Thorpe and at Eryk cresting the ridgeline to the Thorpe to realise the truth. ¡°Ice giants?¡± ¡°Yes though just the one.¡± Namir answered for the pair of us. ¡°Bjorn sent us back to inform the Thorpe while he tracked the beast.¡± Namir exined. ¡°Where?¡± he quizzed. ¡°North.¡± We replied. ¡°Stamfar.¡± The Vievisier called out. The Gyrfalcon raised his sleepy head reluctantly but on seeing the seriousness of the situation quickly roused himself taking off into the sky with the normally solitary hunters rising up in a circling cauldron of falcons behind him and taking to the sky before heading northward after Stamfar. ¡°That should give us a little more warning on when he might arrive if he is headed this way.¡± Veivisier answered our questioning look. ¡°Which way were the tracks headed?¡± ¡°Westward,¡± I answered for the pair of us. ¡°Then there is hope that he might miss us yet.¡± He mused to himself before turning to one of his students who had approached us andmanded. ¡°We will have to mobilise the Thorpe to hunt him down and ready the rest to retreat with the Lodestar should we be defeated. There is much to do.¡± He turned to Namir. ¡°What are your ns? We could always use another warrior, and Kai is wee to retreat with the children and women south.¡± ¡°Alone, I would wee the hunt, but apanied as I am, my first priority is his safety. We will retreat together south with the rest of the Thorpe if that would help. If not, we will aim to depart sooner thanter.¡± He answered firmly. I found myself surprised nheless. Did I want to fight? Or did I expect him to choose to do so? ¡°Very well.¡± The Veivisier answered curtly. ¡°Your presence would be appreciated protecting the children and women as they walk southward. It will mean one more warrior for the hunt.¡± He nodded his head in understanding, even if he was not happy with the decision. ¡°Come, Kai,¡± Namir said as he turned to leave, though the words were unnecessary as I realised he had never actually put me down. As we left earshot, I asked, ¡°We¡¯re not staying.¡± ¡°No,¡± ¡°I¡¯m more... . mature than I look; we could fight.¡± I started aware we were walking through the Thorpe back to our rooms. ¡°We could . . . we could also die. You are more vulnerable than you realise. Despite the increase in size of your vessel.¡± He insisted. ¡°I have my resistances,¡± I argued. We had continued picking them up, and the arctic ice no longer felt quite so biting or cold, merely a little chilly. ¡°So do all giants living this far north. You heard Bjorn, the Ice Giant freezes all on touching them. They are forces of nature. You do not try to fight the weather you bunker down or run ahead of it.¡± He seemed to prefer fleeing to facing it. ¡°This isn¡¯t the storm.¡± I disagreed. ¡°They are standing up against it. We could help.¡± I continued. If the creature were one of ice, fire would be a potent weapon against it. ¡°We might be able to help. But this is not a fight I would choose for you.¡± He seemed unwavering in his decision. ¡°Let¡¯s pack up and get ready to leave. I¡¯m no merchant but even I know that people will be burying or selling off their stock for the trek south. A cunning cat could make a killing on picking up what they will be tempted to leave behind.¡± He attempted to distract me. By now, we had returned to our base, and a quick flickering of my spatial vault opening and closing in different locations had cleared our stuff away. ¡°You are getting pretty proficient at that.¡± Heplimented. ¡°Time to check out the merchants before there goods arepletely packed or sealed away.¡± I returned. A quick rush around the market gave us a few extra resources at a good price, but the majority of the Giant Merchants had their own spatial vaults and so stored their goods safely away. Still, it was worth the quick run around. Varvara and Eryk found us not long after that. ¡°I¡¯m to travel south with the children.¡± Eryk moaned as soon as he saw us. ¡°Same,¡± I replied while Varvara smiled at Namir in understanding. ¡°When do they n to depart?¡± Namir asked. ¡°As soon as we can.¡± Varvara pointed to some giants who were already heading over the southern skyline of the Thorpe. ¡°Ready when you are,¡± I replied sad to be saying goodbye to the Thorpe even if it was only a few days early. ¡°You can ride with us if you¡¯d like,¡± I said as we headed up to the southern skyline after those who had already started to leave. ¡°Ride?¡± asked Eryk. ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t only been working on my runes and glyphs.¡± I grinned at Varvara who might be able to guess what I had been up to. ¡°The runed runners?¡± Varvara asked excitedly. ¡°The runners,¡± I replied. Varvara had helped me with one of my projects and it was finally going to see the light of day. I had been saving it for our departure but now seemed to be a good enough time. ¡°What are they talking about?¡± Eryk asked Namir. ¡°I¡¯ve found it¡¯s best to wait and see,¡± Namir replied tiredly as we marched over the top of the skyline and joined the others fleeing south. ¡°Just need to get out of the crowd a little.¡± I motioned us to move further westward out of the line of giants striding up and out. ¡°Where is everyone heading anyway?¡± I asked, watching as they quickly marched south in a line stretching all the way to the horizon. Their strides taking the women and children south far quicker than I could ever have imagined. A few patrols ranged on either side of the exodus, and I assumed one also ranged out further ahead. ¡°To Tramontana. The kingdom will wee the warning even if they do not appreciate the news. By supporting us in our time of need, they save having to patrol the endless ice and wee our warriors in facing the ice giants should we fail to end the threat here and now.¡± Vavara exined. ¡°Now, will you reveal your little surprise, or will we have to wait any longer?¡± I fully opened the spatial vault doors to the muttering of Varvara and Eryk. They knew I had a spatial vault, but neither realised howrge it had grown over our time on the Endless Ice. I had taken advantage of the increasing width, depth and height of my core-based skill to build us an ice boat for our journey south, and now I revealed it in all its glory. ¡°What is that?¡± Eryk asked as Namir nodded nonchntly in understanding and started to pull my new ship out of the spatial vault entrance. ¡°Our transport south.¡± I smiled. P.S. This is a hundred-year-old ice boat. /watch?app=desktop&v=2DQ5HdXNGU0 Chapter 235: Exodus south Chapter 235: Exodus south
¡°KEEP CALM
and
CARRY ON¡±
Unpublished Ministry of Information UK
¡°All aboard, all aboard.¡± I gestured to the seating cements for Eryk, Varvara and Namir, saving the steering and sailing seat for myself. ¡°Here we go again,¡± Namir muttered as the ship slid onto the ice. ¡°At least we are sailing onnd this time.¡± ¡°Why? What happenedst time?¡± Eryk asked, concerned. ¡°Nothing that could have been predicted,¡± I answered.While Namir opined, ¡°You don¡¯t want to know.¡± ¡°Was it that bad?¡± Eryk asked anxiously. ¡°Well, we ended up here.¡± Namir pointed out. ¡°It was not all that bad,¡± I lied through my teeth. ¡°We went from the one horizon of the Compass Kingdoms to another.¡± He argued back. ¡°It will be different this time.¡± I refused to give up my love of sailing. ¡°We have clear skies and a fair wind.¡± I gestured around us to the scenic setting we found ourselves in. It would be fun to sail again, even if it were on the ice. It didn¡¯t matter that Namir looked less than pleased even though we were doing it onnd. But for me, the absence of a storm would make it a sheer joy. Despite their head start, I knew it would not take us long to overtake the straggling line south. ¡°How do you have such arge spatial vault? Bjorn thought that you had traded for one, but that is neither one of ours nor an example of stone magic.¡± Varvaramented on as my spatial vault closed. ¡°I¡¯ve learned a lot of magic from many teachers,¡± I hedged. ¡°It¡¯s an adaption of what I¡¯ve witnessed here in the Thorpe and my own magic,¡± I exined before changing the subject. ¡°But what do you think of our transport south?¡± I asked, excited to hear her opinion. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like it before,¡± Varvaramented on my ice boat. Her metal runners had been affixed over the wooden runners to help remove the amount of mana it would have cost me to maintain them with wood alone. We had worked on them together, but I had never shown her the entire vessel. Their runes were designed to make them frictionless, alongside runes for durability and strength which would hopefully help this vessel tost longer than myst. ¡°You like it?¡± I asked Fishing for apliment. ¡°I look forward to seeing how she sails.¡± She answered. ¡°It is always a pleasure to see my runes working in practice.¡± ¡°How?¡± Asked Eryk, distracted and impressed by the size of the vessel. It wasn¡¯trge inparison to the size of giants, but I had made itrge enough to amodate one or two of them in case we ended up withpanions on our trip south. ¡°I used the remains of our sledge and grew some more.¡± I patted the side of my ship. It was another beauty, in my humble opinion. My skills allowed me to incorporate the old wood into the new vessel shaping it anew. Truthfully, creating the sails for the ship had been the hardest part of the process. In the end, it had been easier to acquire them through trade with the northern giants. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°It¡¯s like your skis?¡± He asked, trying topare the two in his mind. ¡°More or less,¡± I answered. ¡°But this time, the wind will power it, not me.¡± If there was one thing the endless ice had in abundance, it was ice and wind. Often driving southward from the north, it would be perfect for our departure from the Thorpe. The ice was not perfectly t but smooth enough for sailing. By now, the majority of giants had left the Thorpe. The remaining hunters, warriors and wizards were preparing to hunt or defend against the Ice Giant. Enormous pikes and caltrops were being pulled up from ice until the Thorpe looked like a gigantic flower with vicious stone petals protruding outward to protect the spiky central star that the shard of the Lodestar hid within. It looked more than intimidating; it looked imprable. But still, they continued to prepare. ¡°Is the exodus really necessary?¡± I asked, considering their preparations. ¡°You can never be too careful,¡± Varvara replied for the pair. ¡°It all depends on its level. Ice Giants are forces of nature except targeting themselves on your home. A storm will blow over and pass by. An Ice Giant will focus and pound on the Thorpe until only one of them is left standing, the Thorpe or the Ice Giant.¡± She said sadly. ¡°Hopefully, this won¡¯t be needed, but it is the best thing we can do until we have sighted and confirmed its level. If we waited any longer, it might be toote for those who need to, to flee to safety.¡± ¡°Very well, off we go then.¡± I got down to the sailing business, even if it was on the ground. Our sails unfurled, and we made quick progress along the line and would be soon at the head of the exodus. Rich in the wealth of their spatial vaults the giants were equally covering an impressive distance heading south unencumbered, but we were still making better time. Indeed, we were halfway along the line, the Thorpe falling far behind us when we saw a gyrfalcon diving toward us out of the sky. ¡°Run.¡± It screamed as it soared along the line. The exodus of giants lurched into a lope as they tried to put more distance between them and their Thorpe. But we continued to sail past them despite the increase in their speed. ¡°Gyrfalcon¡¯s can talk?¡± I asked, shocked and confused. ¡°No, it¡¯s carrying a runed stone,¡± Varvara exined. ¡°I made them for the falcons to carry for the Vievisier tomunicate with patrols when needed.¡± She continued as she pulled her own out of a pocket. ¡°I can make them function yet still small enough for a gyrfalcon to carry.¡± She held it up in the light before powering it up and addressing it directly. ¡°Volur, what is going on?¡± She demanded. It made sense that the creator of the runed stones would have one of their own and a direct line to Volur. ¡°Stamfar found the Ice Giant. It¡¯s spiralling.¡± He answered shortly as if that exined everything. ¡°What does he mean spiralling?¡± I asked Eryk in a whisper. I had let the sails grow ck while we concentrated on working out what was happening. ¡°Spiralling means it has consciously or subconsciously locked into the Thorpe and its Lodestar. It will spiral ever closer into the centre until it finds the Lodestar, regardless of what awaits. But that doesn¡¯t mean it won¡¯t stop for snacks or bouts of destruction on its way.¡± He whispered as his mother demanded more of an update and where her beloved Bjorn was. Listening to their conversation, Volur demanded, ¡°You all need to run, or it might catch you. It is already heading east, south of the Thorpe. It¡¯s only a matter of time before it sights the exodus and pursues it either south and snaps you all up before returning or north and faces us.¡± ¡°And Bjorn?¡± she asked. ¡°He has yet to catch up to it at all. At this rate, you are more likely to see it than he is. You have to run and make everyone else run faster, too.¡± He continued, and I realised that he relied on the gyrfalcon to carry his voice but could not actually see us. ¡°Namir, Kai, Eryk and I should be able to escape easily enough. The boy not only knows his runes, glyphs, Spellsong and spellcraft but is a dab hand at crafting itself. He has created and ship that is sailing us swiftly past the long exodus line.¡± She exined. Volur must have missed our departure, focused on preparing the Thorpe. ¡°Then tell them to turn southwest and walk out of its sight before it catches you all.¡± He implored. ¡°It ising.¡± His booming voice echoed out of the Gyrfalcon¡¯s runed stone in turn, ¡°Head South West. The Ice Giant is now walking westward south of the Thorpe and is spiralling ever inward. Run in the Light of the Lodestar with all speed.¡± The line of giants on their exodus shifted so that they were now moving as far west as they were south. But I did not see how that would make much of a difference with the line as long as it was and listening to the worry in Volur¡¯s voice. He was still preparing the Thorpe defensively for the arrival of the Ice Giant, and with the Gyrfalcons locating the beast, the hunting parties had not been sent out in anticipation of a soon arrival. ¡°What level?¡± asked Namir, focusing as always on the pertinent information. ¡°Level 99.¡± Volur¡¯s voice answered Namir¡¯s sharp question. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound too impossible to defeat.¡± I optimistically suggested. ¡°The base races do not have sses,¡± cautioned Namir. ¡°That is 99 levels of pure power, not system sophistry, and that is not taking into ount the ice giant¡¯s racial traits, the size of his vessel or any other skills and magical abilities they might have acquired.¡± He critiqued my optimism and naivety. ¡°If the northern giants have reason to flee, so do we.¡± He pointed out. After that inspiring thought, we set sail once more. This time, westward as the line shifted to flee from the encroaching Ice Giant. ¡°Hopefully it will turn north before it notices us.¡± Commented Varvara as we sped along the line of loping giants. ¡°And if it doesn¡¯t?¡± I asked, worried. I might not know them well, but I hade to like the northern giants and did not want to leave them behind to die should we be spotted too soon or at all. ¡°Then we pray to Njal that his strength will see us through.¡± She answered calmly but could not hide her anxiety from my other senses. She was worried not just about her husband Bjorn, who was tracking the beast down, but about her son¡¯s life and her own. Sometimes too much information was too much information no matter that knowledge was power. I did not always want to know. The first sign that things were going to go wrong was the increasing number of Gyrfalcons in the sky. Then it¡¯s head crested the horizon. Moving West Ward. It was going to cross the line of giants heading south on their exodus. What it would do then was anyone¡¯s guess, but it did not sound like it would be good. Chapter 236: A giant among giants. Chapter 236: A giant among giants. ¡°If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.¡± Isaac Newton The Ice Giant¡¯s head rose over the horizon. It was colossal. Grey and white with hints of blue, it was impossible to tell what was elemental ice and what was giant flesh. Somehow, it felt that the footprints it had left behind did not honestly do its actual size justice. Even from so far away, it felt as if it was ring down at the giants that dared to despoil his endless white domain with their presence. It was also moving quickly toward the straggling line of giants escaping the Thorpe. It looked like the exodus was about to end in the worst way. They were not going to make it. He had seen them and was now altering its path south toward them rather than aiming for the Thorpe or simply striding westward. Now, despite the ground shaking at its approach and my heart trembling in sheer sympathetic shock at seeing the behemoth rapidly striding across thendscape. There are two possible attitudes when facing a giant. One is to say, ¡®It¡¯s so big there¡¯s nothing I can do.¡¯ The other is to say, ¡®It¡¯s so big. I can¡¯t miss it.¡¯ The worry was that even if we didn¡¯t miss it, there wasn¡¯t much that we could do that would have any impact on something so ginormous. ¡°It¡¯s time to run, Kai.¡± Namir calmlymented as we continued to sail past the giants, now breaking into a run all along the line. ¡°We can¡¯t leave them.¡± I objected even as we sailed past them. I pulled over to argue. It felt cowardly to leave them to their fate without trying something. They were not all friends, but even so, it just felt wrong to sail on by. None attempted to board us; we were already packed with a boy, beastkin and two giants. ¡°We can. What are you going to aplish against that?¡± He pointed at the Ice Giant that was growing inexorably closer. ¡°Something, anything,¡± I shouted. ¡°How can we just run?¡± I had noticed that the giants of the Thorpe had sallied forth, but it was doubtful that they would be able to reach the ice giant before it reached the end of the line, and at his size, he would be able to step on and possibly swallow any giant it didn¡¯t freeze with its passing. ¡°You don¡¯t try to fight the storm. You sail away from it.¡± Namir kept calm despite the approaching titan.¡°It¡¯s not a storm, it¡¯s a monster.¡± This was not a mindless storm it could redirected. ¡°At that size, it¡¯s a force of nature.¡± He pointed out the swirling eddies of ice it generated as it passed, little snow flurries forming out of the air and settling in its wake. It was its own little weather system. ¡°I¡¯m not suggesting we fight it head-on, but we could lead it away from the rest of the giants,¡± I answered, thinking through our options. ¡°Lead it away?¡± His face was expressive in his doubt. ¡°The ship is faster than he is,¡± I answered, judging the speed by which it was travelling and what we would be able to reach once I applied my skills alongside the ship¡¯s natural speed. ¡°Lead it where?¡± He humoured me. ¡°Toward the Thorpe, away from the exodus,¡± I answered already nning it out. ¡°What then?¡± He asked. ¡°Then the rest of the giants can take over the fight,¡± I suggested acknowledging that it was not a bright idea to take on an Ice Giant head on. Namir contemted the idea in silence while I turned to Eryk and Varvara to gauge their impressions of the idea. We would have to all be on board figuratively and literally with my idea if we were to attempt it. That or they would have to get off here and now. ¡°You are who you choose to be,¡± Varvara answered my silent question. ¡°What can we do to help?¡± ¡°We¡¯re with you.¡± Eryk brashly answered. ¡°Even if you want to lead it away, what makes you think you will be able to distract it or that it will follow you?¡± Namir asked, considering the approaching disaster and the long line of giants fleeing. ¡°Monsters have always found me particrly delicious.¡± I reminded him. ¡°If we are a little closer than the others and I red my mana, I¡¯m sure we will be able to tempt him to try. We only need to turn him toward the Thorpe. Hopefully, Volur and his apprentices will be able to do the rest.¡± ¡°If it looks like we are failing for whatever reason. I¡¯m picking you up and fleeing.¡± He grumbled his assent. With the group¡¯s agreement, I filled the sails with wind and turned our little ice ship around to sail back the way we came along the line of fleeing giants. ring my mana rather than letting it collect in my core it was not immediately obvious whether it was working as we were already midway along the line of fleeing giants. However, soon enough we noticed a shift in his trajectory. He was turning toward the back of the line. ¡°It¡¯s working!¡± Eryk shouted excited. ¡°That¡¯s not necessarily a good thing,¡± Namirmented sardonically. ¡°Have you noticed? He¡¯s speeding up.¡± Sure enough, the Ice Giant was no longer marching steadily toward the fleeing giants but was beginning to walk a little quicker. ¡°Can we sail any faster?¡± Varvara asked pointedly. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered a little hesitantly. I had not really nned on the beast speeding up. Simple enough mistake to make but one with potentially huge implications. It was now a race to the Thorpe the Ice Giant clearly focused far more on us than the line of giants which we had now left behind. The beast was still angling to cut us off before we reached it. We raced across the endless ice. Cutting across it quicker and quicker as I pushed more mana into the spells, powering us over it. Seeing their rtives safely fleeing, the warriors and hunters had halted their charge toward us and were retreating to Thorpe¡¯s temporarily created stone-spiked wall to face the Ice Giant when we brought them to him. We had not had time tomunicate our n in our focus to gain the Ice Giant¡¯s attention. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Now we had its attention there was nothing else to do other than concentrate on making it to the stone spikes and not crashing before we made it to them. It was going to be close. Seeing his prey getting closer to escaping into the spiky stone Thorpe, he had increased his speed once more, his steps sending shuddering cracks splintering through the ice as we attempted to race ahead of both them and him. I stopped broadcasting my position by releasing my mana but it did little to deter him. He was fixed on chasing us now. ¡°Volur says to aim for the centre,¡± Varvara shouted, somehowmunicating with him through her rune stones despite the breakneck ride across the ice. ¡°There¡¯s no entrance,¡± I screamed out, holding our course to the east of the Thorpe. ¡°He¡¯ll make one,¡± Varvara replied above the whipping wind she said pointing to the central stones that even now were being lowered to allow our entrance. ¡°Faster, Kai.¡± Namir encouraged loudly. While, Eryk shouted, ¡°He¡¯s gaining.¡± I risked a look back and wished I hadn¡¯t. The Ice Giant loomed above us, his shadow reaching out across the ice to catch us even though he had not yet managed to. I had my other senses I did not need to use my eyes to see how close he was to catching us. The sight only made the fear more profound. But fear is nothing more than an ice giant in your mind, freezing your body. It was time to conquer it both inside and out. Either way, there was little more mana I could apply to the spells, propelling us forward. They would have to be enough. Falling into his shadow as it overtook us, we blitzed across the final stretch, we screamed across the ice as the temperature fell, with the blocking of the sun to the opening Volur had created for us and Ice Giant hard on our heels. ¡°We¡¯re going to make it.¡± Eryk shouted as if that would convince reality of our situation. The ice ship was now bouncing a little with each step it took toward us. How close was it? Would we make it? I couldn¡¯t risk another look with my eyes, but I could feel the temperature fall further as ice began to form along the ship''s lines. It would have been beautiful if I¡¯d had time to stare. Close enough to see the whites of the giant''s eyes ahead of us, I was shocked when the stone spikes of the Thorpe in front of us suddenly erupted. Launching themselves toward the Ice Giant, we flew underneath them as they shot into the air above and behind us. We were so close to crossing the line of stones when the Giant roared in pain. I watched with my senses as the stones found their mark. But the Ice Giants¡¯ retribution was instant in its effect. The roar of pain carried ice mana within it, and flinch as I might when I sensed the release of the wave; there was little I could do to stop the ripple ripping instantly across the ice, catching our small ship before it could enter the ring of stones. It found itself speared by ice and stopped instantly from crossing thest metres into safety. But where the ice ship failed to take us into the Thorpe, our momentum had other ideas. Launched through the air by the sudden stop of our vessel we found ourselves flying through the air toward the dubious safety of the Thorpe. There was little I could do for Varvara and Eryk. They crashed to the ground and then slid through the opening. Namir, of course,nded on his feet and sprinted alongside them, sliding through the gap in the stones. I, though, was made for flying, and rather thane down hard on the ice, I kept my momentum going, soaring over the entrance and up toward the central metal and stone monstrosity that housed the Thorpe¡¯s shard of the Lodestar. Finally, out of reach, I turned to face what we had brought to knock on the giant''s door and saw the first casualty, my ice ship. In frustration at our escape, the Ice Giant had crushed it beneath its feet. Without my mana leaking, it was no longer focused on me, and it was kicking over the spiked stones that prevented it from marching straight into the Thorpe. Stones were still beingunched from around the circle at him, but it did not look like they were having the impact one could have hoped for. I could see where the stones had struck and stuck, but they were being forced out by ice that flowed from his wounds. The ice quickly sealed up any gaps or vulnerabilities in his skin. I felt a giant approach me from within the tower of the Lodestar. Volur appeared soon enough alongside me with his stone staff and Stamfar the Gryfalcon. ¡°Thank you for your efforts.¡± He nodded his head to me as we watched the Ice Giant kick over their defences. ¡°It was the least I could do,¡± I answered, breathing hard; the flight across ice and sky had left me breathless. Not helped by the rapidly falling temperature across the battlefield, I found my breath catching with each cold breath. ¡°It was more than many would do.¡± He smiled sadly as he attached a core to the cor Stamfar wore. ¡°The shard of the Lodestar?¡± I asked. ¡°Stored within, yes. It''s only a matter of time before the Thorpe falls, and it cannot have it.¡± He answered grimly. ¡°Stamfar will carry it south and out of its reach. Would you apany him, seeing as you can fly?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t possibly keep up with a Gyrfalcon. Besides, I have an idea I¡¯d like to try before I admit defeat and depart.¡± There is no one giant step to felling a giant, at least not when you are my size, there were however a lot of little steps that might make it possible. After all my brain was my sleeping giant. ¡°Could you tell Namir that before he catches me?¡± I said to him as I watched Namir racing across the Thorpe to the central tower. Shouting, ¡°Kai!¡± he would not be happy with me when he finally caught up. Flying ahead had allowed me time to set up something I hoped might just end this beast. ¡°Tell him what?¡± He asked. ¡°That I choose to try this,¡± I answered determinedly ¡°Of course. If I survive, I will pass on your message.¡± He ¡°Good luck to you both.¡± He said as heunched Stamfar into the air, and I stepped off the tower to sweep up into the sky. ¡°You too,¡± I shouted as we quickly rose, fleeing the Ice Giants¡¯ iling arms and upward roars, ice spearsunched upward in an explosion of sound as he realised both prizes were flying away. My senses told me where they wereing from, and unlike an ice boat, I was able to spin and twist myself between them, rising ever higher as they began to fall away beneath me. Volur was not inactive in our absence and the huge spikes that made up the central metal and stone-spiked monstrosity began tounch themselves at the Ice Giant as it started to step over the destroyed outeryers of the Thorpes defences. Distracted by the new threat, the ice stopped flying as it renewed its march to the centre of the Thorpe. Stamfar headed south but I stopped high above the Ice Giant out of his reach. There was something I wanted to try, and if he was not going to be running around while he trashed the Thorpe, it was an idea that might just work. Opening up my spatial vault high in the sky, I stepped inside. I had no new weapons, nothing the size of which would impact the ice giant, but I had physics and a vault filled with raw materials I had been bartering for thest month to work with. I had never attempted this before, but safe within my spatial vault, I had the opportunity to try. It would take a lot of mana, but there was no reason I couldn¡¯t forge my own weapon of the raw materials. It just wouldn¡¯t look like one. But if it worked, no one was going toin. With a quick flex of stone shaping, I formed a stone crucible the size of a small room in the centre of my spatial vault. Next, I hurriedly stacked all the iron ingots I had traded for. A huge burst of all my mana and the metal melted. I had the skills for it. The temperature shot up in my sealed room. I would only get one shot at this. I would need to get it right. I opened the vault. And let the molten metal F A L L . . . It pooled briefly on the Ice giant''s shoulder before melting its way in despite the ice aura billowing off him. I snapped the vault shut, leaving only the smallest of apertures open, facing upward to allow my senses out. Practising with my spatial vault and my senses had shown me if I kept the smallest of apertures open, I could still sense everything happening outside without being at risk. In theory, I knew what would happen next, and I was not disappointed. The Ice giant exploded! The bigger they are, the harder they fall. His remains, both standing and flying, crashed to the ground. What he had not already destroyed on his way into the Thorpe was thrashed by his obliteration. Exhausted, I copsed on my back. I had done it; I had killed the giant. Chapter 237: Cost of conflict Chapter 237: Cost of conflict ¡°Battles are never the end of war; for the dead must be buried and the cost of the conflict must be paid.¡± James A Garfield Lying exhausted on my spatial vault floor, Iughed as I had finally lived up to my former name. I was now Jack, the Ice Giant Killer. I couldn¡¯t help but grin at the idea despite the devastation the beast had caused. Undoubtedly, the system would reward me for my sess. I could not wait anymore to look. Letting my health, stamina and mana recover, I looked at my status. Felling the Ice Giant had given me a giant jump to my status despite the short time since I hadst looked. It had been the mother of all hunts, enough experience for five whole levels in Hunter alone. But it was not the only metier to increase since myst check. All the others had if only by one, which put me up to level 78 and gave me 90 free points to assign. I had been lucky in that the iron had not had too far to fall from my spatial vault through the aura and freezing touch of the ice giant beforending; otherwise, he would have only been spiked with a rapidly cooling pir of iron rather than been exploded from within. Whether that was luck or good nning, I would not argue with the results. I had been constantly healing myself throughout the flight to fight off the chill of the Ice Giant¡¯s aura, which whittled away at my health despite my resistance to cold and ice, which had both doubled during the duration of the conflict. I even had a bonus level to my pain resistance from experiencing my extremities slowly freezing off. Then there were the skills and their increases. I delved deeper into the increases, slowly working my way through the system''s new recognition of my growth. Status Level: 70 ->78Title: Lord Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea Age: 10 Years 0 months 25 days M¨¦tier: Hunter (Lv2 ->7) M¨¦tier: Healer (Lv2 ->3) M¨¦tier: Psion (Lv1 ->2) M¨¦tier: Sage (Lv2 ->3) General Experience: 2,345,678 /3,276,800 Health: 1415/2000 Stamina: 1265/2000 Mana: 141/2000 Psi: 1568/2000 Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky Vitality: 200 Endurance: 200 Strength: 200 Dexterity: 200 Senses: 200 Mind: 200 rity: 200 Magic: 200 Charisma: 200 Luck: 202 Free Points: 10 ->90 Resistances: Cold (Lv10->20) Ice (Lv8->16) Pain (Lv39->40) Poison (Lv11) Skills Tier 1: Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv84->87) Meditation (Lv85) Time Sense (Lv84->87) Bnce (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv59) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv52->53) Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv43)Composure (Lv41) Ambidextrous (Lv40->42) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV43->44) Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22) Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28->30) Hunting (Lv14->23) Carpentry (Lv20) cksmithing (Lv11->19) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv19) Skiing (Lv10->19) Tracking (Lv4->8) Precision shot (Lv2->8) Underwater breathing (Lv6) Brewing (Lv2->3) ssmithing (Lv2->3) Alchemy (Lv2->3) Tailoring (Lv2->3) Pottery(Lv2->3)Masonry (Lv1->3) Engineering (Lv1->3) Tier 2: Quick reflexes (Lv81->88) Sense Mana (Lv79->82) Spellcraft (Lv66->69) Spellsong (Lv66->69) Eavesdrop (Lv63)Cruising (Lv49->50) Order (Lv50) Linguistics (Lv42->43)Memorisation (Lv41->42) Recall (Lv41->42)Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv39->40) Observe (Lv33->35) Knife Arts (Lv33) Haggling (Lv26->31) Dart (Lv27->30) Heal (Lv28->30) Misdirection (Lv26) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transnt (LV20) Treasure Sense (Lv18->20)Intimidation (Lv12->20)Stone Carving (Lv5->11)Piercing Shot (Lv1->4) Perfect Timing (Lv1) Tier 3: Echolocation(Lv75->76) Expel Mana (Lv72->75) Mana Maniption (Lv71->74)Gale (LV71->74)Boil (Lv60->69) Melt (Lv44->55) Ignite (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23->25) Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34) Analyse (Lv20->24)sh Step (Lv17->20) Seismic Sense (Lv17->19) Danger Sense (Lv14->19)Telepathy (Lv10->14) Smuggling (LV7->13)Rapid Fire (Lv1->2) Tier 4: Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv71->73) Parallel Processing (Lv51 ->54)Material Maniption (Lv40->44)Stone shaping (Lv37->42) Mana Drain (Lv30) Sonar (Lv26 ->29)Flight (Lv23->29) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv10 ->16) Contract(Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv6 ->8) Rune Carving (Lv5 ->7) Tier 5: Music Prodigy (Lv31) Omniglot (Lv27 ->28) Mind fortress (Lv26 ->27)Weapon Prodigy (Lv24 ->25)Polymath (Lv15->16)Spatial Vault (Lv10->14) Astral Projection (Lv9 ->11) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv3 ->4) A lot of skill had increased over thest week and today¡¯s battle. I even had a new Tier 2 skill, Perfect Timing (Lv1), perhaps a reward for the lucky shot that had ended the battle and the Ice Giant¡¯s life. It was time to depart my little oasis of peace and exit the spatial fault to witness the beasts fall. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. . . . and fall it had. I stepped out into an Arctic apocalypse. The short time it had taken me to recover enough mana from calming my overworked mana channels meant that the giants were only emerging from their hiding ces to contemte the near-utter destruction of their Thorpe. We had won the battle, but not without cost. . . . Stepping out of the sky using Psi rather than mana, which would rub my mana meridians raw, I closed the spatial vault and leapt down to where a stunned Eryk was slowly approaching parts of the corpse. ¡°Why¡¯d you stay so close?¡± I asked pointedly, looking at a solid giant statue that was frozen in the act of fleeing the Thorpe. His Ice and Cold resistance clearly failed to cope with the close proximity to the Ice Giant, or perhaps he had been caught with a kick or touch before the monster fell. ¡°If you want to kill ice giants, hang around an ice giant killer. It rubs off.¡± He shrugged disarmingly. ¡°You didn¡¯t know I¡¯d seed.¡± I pointed out. Wait a minute . . . ¡°You got experience for that?¡± I asked, surprised. ¡°Well, I helped too, didn¡¯t I?¡± Eryk started. I raised an eyebrow; that was an incredibly optimistic point of view. ¡°Or at least I survived the battle.¡± He, too, looked at the frozen giant. ¡°Did you know him?¡± I asked. ¡°Gervir, he is . . . was a tinker, not a warrior or hunter.¡± He answered sadly, and I noticed Eryk¡¯s fingers, too, looked a little frozen. ¡°I can help with that.¡± I pointed to his hands. ¡°Thanks, Kai.¡± He said as he offered his hands out for healing. A burst of heat melted the frozen fingers alongside a touch of healing the damaged vessels as they thawed, and his fingers were as good as new. ¡°Is there anything you can do for Gervir?¡± He cautiously asked optimistically, hopeful beyond belief. I studied the frozen corpse and wondered. The giant gave no sign of life, his face frozen in a rictus of pain as he fled. But this was a world with a system, a world with magic. Could there possibly be a way? Inspect Gervir Frozen Giant Observe Level 89 Tinker Gervir Frozen Giant Walking up to the frozen giant, I touched him to see if I could do anything for him. Or if it really was over. Magic could do a lot, but I¡¯d never heard of it healing death. Analyse Level 89 Tinker Gervir Frozen Giant Health: 240/3140 Stamina: 330/3260 Trait: Supreme Strength He was not dead! He was still frozen but still had a sliver of health left. Could he be revived? The problem with cryogenics was the damage ice caused to cells as their crystals formed, but if, with magic, you could heal the damage, could the process be reversed? Even as I pondered the problem, his health and stamina continued to tick downward. Health: 239/3140 Stamina: 329/3260 If he were not dead yet, he would be soon. ¡°Yes, no, maybe?¡± I finally answered Eryk. ¡°What do you mean?¡± he asked, as confused by my answer as I was. ¡°He¡¯s not dead yet.¡± I finally exined. ¡°In theory, it might be possible to revive him. But I¡¯m not even sure where to start.¡± Health: 237/3140 Stamina: 327/3260 ¡°What do you need to do?¡± Volur had approached Eryk, Gervir and I, and overhead as we contemted the possibility. ¡°He needs to be thawed without damaging his body.¡± I started to exin. ¡°And then?¡± He gestured for a stone wizard student to join him. Health: 235/3140 Stamina: 325/3260 ¡°His brain needs to be unfrozen and healed as it happens. His blood needs to be melted and pumped. His heart needs to be started, and he needs to have us breathe for him until his own breathing starts again.¡± Ipleted myplicated list in front of them all. Health: 233/3140 Stamina: 323/3260 ¡°Tell us what to do,¡± Volur demanded, solely focused on the possibility of saving one of his vigers. ¡°A cool bath that is gradually heated to body temperature.¡± I started with the simplest task they couldplete for me. Health: 231/3140 Stamina: 321/3260 His stone staff quickly aplished it, and magic quickly shaped stone to form a stone bath deep enough for Gervir, who was carefullyid into it by two of his students. Ice quickly melted and formed a warming water bath to defrost him. Health: 229/3140 Stamina: 318/3260 ¡°Then I will need you to supply me with mana.¡± I ced myself at the head of the bath and Giant, then ced hands on either side of his partially submerged head in an attempt to heal the damage as his head slowly thawed from without and within. As I focused inward, I was aware of his health continuing to tick downward even as I started to heal the damage to the brain. Health: 217/3140 Stamina: 313/3260 ¡°Mana, I need mana,¡± I said aloud as I focused all my senses on the brain matter and how to heal it. Health: 215/3140 Stamina: 311/3260 A brain was infinitelyplex, and I could not guarantee that the Gervir who hopefully woke up would be the same as the one that froze, but I had a couple of advantages over Bishop Bailie, who had taught me how to heal. Health: 214/3140 Stamina: 311/3260 Firstly, my former world knowledge was painstakingly recreated from sights I had seen alongside courses I had taken in biology of what exactly made up theteral surfaces and ventricles of the brain. I knew what it was supposed to look like. Health: 212/3140 Stamina: 310/3260 Secondly, my senses, I had both sonar and mana sense. They allowed me to see into the brain as I was healing it without cutting it open. They ensured I could see that all the ice mana was pushed out, healing the tissues as they warmed. Health: 210/3140 Stamina: 309/3260 Thirdly, I was not alone. Volur, alongside two of his apprentices, stood behind me, hands ced on my shoulders, funnelling the mana I needed into me even as my resources continued to dip lower and lower. Health: 208/3140 Stamina: 307/3260 Slowly, carefully, we thawed out Gervir, healing the damage as we forced the ice to retreat and melt his frozen flesh, gradually heating his cold blood to room temperature and then higher as the bath raised his temperature to reach what it should have been finally. Health: 206/3140 Stamina: 305/3260 It was a race against time, but eventually, Gervir¡¯s healedatose bodyy resting in a warm bath of water. Still, he was not awake yet, and any damage that might have been avoided from him being frozen returned without him able to supply oxygen to his brain as his heart had yet to start beating and no one was yet breathing for him. Health: 204/3140 Stamina: 303/3260 ¡°Why isn¡¯t he awakening?¡± Eryk asked the question. He had witnessed the whole process, and apart from theck of breathing or heart beating, the body now looked hale and healthy as if it was only sleeping. Health: 201/3140 Stamina: 301/3260 ¡°We need to start his heart beating and get him breathing.¡± I motioned for them to lift the body out of the water, and he wasid t on the top of a b of warm stone. ¡°I cannot do this part,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯m too small,¡± I exined. ¡°What do we need to do?¡± Volur jumped in. ¡°You need to gently tip his head back to open his airway.¡± They did. ¡°Next chestpressions, ce your hands here and push twice a second.¡± I showed them where to ce their hands. ¡°After thirty chestpressions, you need to pinch his nose and blow your breath into his mouth twice before resuming chestpressions.¡± It was not a perfect exnation or demonstration, but it was enough for them to get the blood flowing again within Gervir and hopefully enough to get the oxygen to his brain. I watched anxiously with my senses to see if it was working. . . . Health: 200/3140 Stamina: 300/3260 . . . Health: 200/3140 Stamina: 300/3260 . . . Health: 200/3140 Stamina: 300/3260 . . . It was enough to stop his health from decreasing. But it was not yet enough to get his heart to start or for him to wake up. ¡°He¡¯s not dying anymore.¡± Volur encouraged his students, who continued thepressions and breathes. ¡°But he isn¡¯t living yet either,¡± I muttered to myself. There was onest thing I could try, but I was not sure if this would help or harm. There was only one way to find out. ¡°Step back.¡± I cautioned before stepping forward and cing my hand on his chest. This might hurt a little bit. ¡°Keravno,¡± I said as a tiny bolt of lightning enthused Gervir¡¯s chest, his body convulsing with the electricity contracting his flesh. There was a shocked silence from my onlookers, then a sudden massive gasp of breath from Gervir as he began to breathe independently. His eyes shed open, and sitting up unexpectedly as he grasped his chest. ¡°What happened?¡± he gulped. I sat down, exhausted once more. The others could exin. Chapter 238: Windfall of Wealth Chapter 238: Windfall of Wealth ¡°The windfall of great riches can, if mismanaged, make things worse, not better, for the recipients.¡± Michael Mandelbaum My medical duties were not finished with Gervir. Fascinated and astounded by the possibility of reviving giants frozen in the battle against the ice giant, the hunters and warriors gathered any entirely or partially frozen fighters and brought them to me, forming a long line. Volur and his students continued to provide me with mana as I worked my way through the line. In the end, we were able to revive half a dozen frozen giants, but the revival was not always perfect. I lost two. I did not get to them in time, or they did not have enough resistance against the ice and cold of the cmity. They perished before they were ever brought to me. It was tough watching their friend¡¯s hopeful faces turn to despair. It was incredibly tough when others had survived and were jubntly rejoicing their return to living from their frozen state. Fingers, toes and noses were the mostmon injuries; provided they were still attached, I could thaw and heal them, returning them to full use. I had been unable to return those that had been frozen and shattered. Simply healing the wounds left over, I could not regrow flesh. At least not with my skills as they currently stand; I could perhaps work out a way in time. However, that time was not today. In fact, the most challenging injuries to heal were those I caused. Not me directly, but the exploding Ice Giant had flung molten metal throughout the Thorpe, and where it had hit the Giants, it had often burned its way in. There, we had to dig out the offending sshes of metal before attempting to heal the area, which had been the mostplex injury to heal correctly with the molten metal cauterising the wounds they created. They had to be cut open in order for them to heal properly. I had not charged a penny for the healing, seeing it as simply a cost of the conflict, but that did not mean I was not hugely appreciated with offers of favours and gifts given with each healing. The one benefit to being surrounded by healthy giants and giants waiting to be healed was that Namir could not get hold of me just yet. However, I could see him silently prowling around the group agitatedly. I could tell he would have words with me when we were alone. Focused as we were on healing the injured, I was surprised to see Stamfar return to Volur ahead of the returning refugees who had fled the Ice Giant¡¯s approach. It appeared that he had witnessed the Giant fall and brought them back rather than fleeing south to Tramontana, which meant the Thorpe still had its Shard of the Lodestar. Stamfar did not return alone but was apanied by Nyx, who, after enough ice wyrm cores, could now spend time out and about on the endless ice, although she still preferred warmer temperatures. I had lost track of her in the flight, battle, explosion and healing afterwards. I was relieved to see her safe and sound. With thest of the wounded warriors seen, I watched as the returning giants took in their destroyed Thorpe and the remains of the Ice Giant standing in the centre or scattered around it. They seemed to face the destruction of their home stoically and grateful that the majority of giants had survived the attack.¡°It could have been a lot worse,¡± Volurmented as I considered the destruction surrounding us and the returning giants. ¡°Will you move or rebuild?¡± I asked, intrigued as to whether the exodus would be a permanent but more organised process. ¡°Rebuild, of course. It looks worse than it actually is. With most of the Thorpe dug into the Dell, all we have to do is unearth it again.¡± He smiled before turning to me with a question he had clearly been dying to ask. ¡°How did you kill it?¡± ¡°Especially so spectacrly?¡± Namir added sardonically, slipping into the conversation now that the remaining warriors, hunters and giants had departed to start restoring their Thorpe and their lives. It was just Volur, Namir, Varvara, Eryk and I now. ¡°A practical application of theoretical science,¡± I answered. ¡°What?¡± Eryk asked. ¡°The Ice Giant was healing its wounds with ice.¡± I started to exin. ¡°If you heat ice quickly enough, it melts, turning into water, then steam and expands with each change in state.¡± I continued. ¡°By both injuring it and heating the ice, it was attempting to heal itself with its body exploded from the pressure of the ever-expanding steam within it.¡± I summarised my understanding of what I had hoped and gambled on happening. ¡°Did you know it would work?¡± he asked ¡°I hoped,¡± I said, carefully watching Namir. This was not exactly what we had agreed upon before returning to help the vige. ¡°Well, we are all truly grateful it did.¡± Volur bowed low before being joined by Varvara and Eryk. ¡°You will always be wee on the Endless Ice.¡± ¡°I¡¯m d you feel that way. Because if you recall, our original agreement was that I get to keep what I kill. I was just wondering where is the core?¡± I asked, happy to have asserted my right to it. ¡°Probably somewhere in there.¡± Volur huffed. ¡°If you did not destroy it outright with your practical application of . . . theoretical science.¡± He had been listening. We trawled through the more prominent remains until. Finally, we discovered it behind what remained of the Ice Giant¡¯s ribcage¡ªtucked in behind what would have been its sternum. The enormous core continued to send out chilling waves of mana, the main reason we had been able to find it so quickly. All of the remains were frozen to some degree or other, but these were particrly so. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the vition. ¡°Your prize, little hero.¡± Volur did not hesitate to offer me the spoils of the battle. Though at twice my size and weight, I would not be walking off with it anytime soon. Still, I was not without my own tricks. "Of course, thank you." I opened a door to my spatial vault below it, and it fell through. I would deal with thatter when I did not have an audience to watch what I thought might just happen when I did. ¡°Ice is worthless here where it is endless. But should you take it further south, its value will skyrocket the further south you travel. I am sure the Southern Lords of Ostro would pay a king''s ransom for the ability to cool their castles. Even in Tramotana, Maestro and Ponente, ice can be a precious core to have in keeping provisions stored for longer. His words awoke me to the thought of creating my own walk-in freezer in my spatial vault. Time continued to pass in there, and if I could freeze provisions, they would keep them far longer than most medieval forms of storing wouldst without a significant amount of time preparing them. I nodded my thanks for the advice, even if it was only a reminder of what I already knew but had forgotten. It was at this point that our hunting crew finally returned. Running over the ridgeline, they stopped and stared at the fallen Ice Giant. Bjorn broke the silence with, ¡°What did we miss?¡± Varvara and Erykughed and rushed to wee him home while Namir and I headed off to our guest quarters. . . . ¡°You got lucky.¡± Namir started as soon as we had entered our private space out of eyesight and earshot of the other giants. ¡°That stunt was not what we agreed to when I said we could return to run interference.¡± ¡°Yes and no.¡± I waffled. No one likes to be told off or have their failings pointed out. ¡°Yes?¡± Raising an eyebrow at my audacity. ¡°We ran until we were caught,¡± I argued. ¡°None of us expected him to be able to move quite so quickly. But even then, I was ready to flee to fly away.¡± ¡°But you didn¡¯t.¡± He pointed out the fact that even though I started to fly away, I had not left very far at all. ¡°I was fleeing with Stamfar. It was onest trick before I left. I was out of reach. I was safely stored away in my spatial vault.¡± I argued. ¡°If it hadn¡¯t worked, I would have fled south with Stamfar.¡± ¡°Kai, your family is relying on me to see you safely home.¡± He stated. ¡°How can I do that if you continually throw yourself in harm¡¯s way?¡± He questioned. ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± I argued. It honestly was a series of unfortunate circumstances. ¡°The storm.¡± He continued. ¡°Unavoidable.¡± We did not have an option. ¡°The monster hunts.¡± Reminding me of the time I¡¯d paused mid-air. ¡°Calcted risks for high rewards and approved of by you.¡± I pointed out that he had been happy enough to support my hunting with the patrol. ¡°The Ice Giant?¡± Three for three, they set an rming tendency that was difficult to argue. ¡°A moral imperative to do the right thing and system approved judging by the jump in attributes and skill levels,¡± I argued. But looking at them all together we were certainly running into many more dangers than we ever had on our little ind. ¡°Just . . .¡± He seemed almost to give up. ¡°Can we take it down a notch on our return journey?¡± He pleaded. ¡°Yes? It¡¯s not like I knew there would be an Ice Giant.¡± That honestly was not my fault, none of them had been really. ¡°No. But you can choose to run away from it next time rather than toward it.¡± He tried to convince me. ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± I conceded, and we left it at that. . . . Having found it expanded again with the levelling of my skill ¡®spatial vault¡¯, I had space for the extra room I had created to store the core. I did not want it freezing my Elvish trees to death. The room would one day be a walk-in freezer, but it only held the Ice Giant¡¯s core for the moment. It was a tempting core to touch¡ªa level 99 Ice Giant¡¯s Ice Core. I remembered what had happened when I touched a mere fragment of the Loadstone Wyrm¡¯s core. Would the same thing happen here? This was the whole thing; I practised my skills, inspected and observed without touching. Inspect Ice Giant Beast Core Tier 6 Elemental Imprint Ice Aura . . . Observe Ice Giant Beast Core Tier 6 Elemental Imprint Ice Aura Elemental Imprint Ice Immunity . . . On the one hand, an Ice Aura did not seem to be worth one of my few remaining slots; on the other, I had seen how devastating it could be if levelled up suitably strongly. The ability to freeze your enemies with a single touch would be worth it. Ice immunity, though, would be well worth a slot. Especially if I ever entered the endless Ice again. Toplete the circumnavigation, I would have to end up doing it. That skill or resistance alone would make the endless ice a walk in the park when the environmental factors no longer threatened to kill me with every step. Remembering my disorientation from thest time, I sat down to meditate as I pressed my hand against the core and used Analyse to gain as much insight as possible and hopefully continue to level up the skill. Analyse Ice Giant Beast Core Tier 6 Elemental Imprint Ice Aura Elemental Imprint Ice Immunity Elemental Imprint Ice Creation Expecting the connection this time. I was not surprised when it came alive at my touch. Still, I was shocked by the number of elemental imprints within the core. Was that because it was an intact core? Or had the Ice Giant simply gained a lot of skills? A sh of ice spilt forth from me as I sat there, my arm frozen to the core, but it no longer hurt. In fact, despite the plummeting temperature of the room and ice racing across the walls, I was actually veryfortable. It only took one look at my status to confirm what I already expected. Cold (Lv10->20) & Ice (Lv8->16) -> Merged/Absorbed -> Ice Immunity I breathed out ice crystals forming and falling as my breath left my body, but my lips, tongue, and teeth felt nothing of the biting cold despite the evidence forming right before my eyes. Looking inward, I could see the gains carved into my status by the system as a mental list of my body''s physical changes. I had lost two tolerances/resistances but had been given something better: Ice Immunity. I no longer needed to fear the cold. It could no longer kill me alone. Or at least not without some guidance. Furthermore, the Elemental Imprints had been added to my Status. I now had an Aura Skill and a creation skill. My Tier 5 skills were beginning to be quite respectable, and Ice Creation was a Tier 6 skill. I hoped I did not start bleeding Ice like the Ice Giant, which would hardly be conspicuous. Tier 5: Music Prodigy (Lv31) Omniglot (Lv28) Mind fortress (Lv27)Weapon Prodigy (Lv25)Polymath (Lv16)Spatial Vault (Lv14) Astral Projection (Lv11) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2) Ice Aura (Lv1) Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv2), Ice Creation (Lv1) As I returned to the reality of my spatial vault, Nyx, who had unexpectedly entered while I was focused on the core, excitedly jumped toward it. ¡°Nyx, no!¡± Was all I had to shout before she was wing at the core, scratching a chip off it, and as I reached to pluck her away, swallowed it. I held her, wondering what the consequences would be. Her body fell limp in my arms. Chapter 239: A Royal Talent Chapter 239: A Royal Talent ¡°Cowards never won heaven. Do not im that you are begotten of God and you have His royal blood running in your veins unless you can prove your lineage by His heroic spirit: to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils.¡± William Gurnall ¡°What new ridiculous did you manage this time?¡± Namir quizzed me when I emerged from my spatial vault. ¡°Why do you think I did something?¡± I asked defensively, still smirking a little at my sess. Those were some fine new skills at significantly high tiers, and I would never be cold again! ¡°The grin stered across your face. You are hardly subtle when you have seeded at something,¡± he pointed out, already resigned to the results even before hearing them. ¡°Well, if you must know . . .¡± I started before being interrupted. ¡°And what¡¯s happened to Nyx?¡± He had noticed the sleeping dragonling seemingly steaming as I carried her in my arms. She was not steaming precisely, but some mix of the temperatures within the vault seemed to be creating a flow of vapours from her slumbering form. It was either that, or it was somehow caused by some weird interaction with my own newly acquired aura skill. ¡°She may have bitten off more than she could chew.¡± I chuckled at my own joke and shrugged, shifting the sleeping dragonling within my arms. She was definitely getting bigger and heavier since she first hatched. However, Lady Acacia had assured me that she would remain rtively small and simr in size to a cat or small dog. ¡°I¡¯m sure she will be fine once she has slept it off.¡± The small cores she had been crunching on before seemed to help rather than hinder her growth. Hopefully, this one would do the same. ¡°Kai? Why is she steaming? No . . . Why are you?¡± Namir, sensitive to changes, had already noticed the differences. ¡°Your cold. What did you do?¡± he asked, concerned. I did not feel cold at all, warm even. At what point did my warmth end and my aura begin? That could be troublesome. I attempted to turn the skill off and thought myself sessful. Again it was difficult to tell when the ice and cold no longer affected me.¡°Well . . .¡± I paused before exining, ¡°You know how I replicated the Spatial Vault Skill by copying the imprint left on the remnants of the Lodestone Wyrm¡¯s core? Something simr happened with the Ice Giant¡¯s core.¡± I calmlymented on my cool new ice powers. ¡°What skill did you get this time?¡± he asked with long-suffering patience. He could see where this was going. ¡°Well . . .¡± Ripping the band-aid off, I started to answer all three. ¡°Ice Immunity . . .¡± but found myself being interrupted once more. ¡°That¡¯s not a skill, Kai,¡± he used. ¡°It''s bloody useful but not a skill,¡± he muttered, shuddering as if still cold. ¡°No, it''s not, but touching the core caused my Cold and Ice resistances to be merged into the new Ice Immunity. But I did get a skill . . . or rather two as well.¡± I was still grinning. I couldn¡¯t wait to y with my new skills. Besides, it was always fun to shock him into silence. It had be a fun habit. ¡° . . . ¡± But we had things to do, so I didn¡¯t wait too long. ¡°I gained the skills Ice Aura and Ice Creation,¡± I said, flexing the new skills, sending ice skittering across the room from me and forming a ball within my hand. It was much easier than spellcraft and spellsong, the ice forming for much less effort and mana than usual. After shivering at the wave of cold, Namir closed his eyes, kneading his temples with the pads of his paws. It looked like I had given him a headache. Eventually, he spoke snappily, ¡°You idiot, Kai. That¡¯s a Royal Talent.¡± ¡°A what?¡± I asked, confused for a second before I made the link, but he was already lecturing. ¡°Elemental creation is seen as a sign of royal blood. If your skill is ever known, you will be considered an illegitimate royal bastard.¡± Heined. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°But I could already form ice using mana,¡± Iined. ¡°Lady Acacia taught us all how to create water from the air with Mana.¡± But even as I argued, I had already felt the difference, one he now borated on in detail. ¡°There is a qualitative and quantitative difference between manipting mana to create simr effects to the Royal Families and actually being able to do the same. They all have a Kingly skill, a Tier 5 skill, a royal talent, and an element''s creation and or maniption. You effectively dere yourself a Royal if you use the skill openly.¡± ¡°But you know. . .¡± I started. ¡°It won¡¯t matter. With Ice creation care to think what the other Ponentian noble families will think?¡± he continued further expanding the problem. ¡°Not really . . .¡± Annoyed he was spoiling my moment of sess. ¡°That you are a bastard of the Libio Royal Family.¡± He said this, as always, without tact or subtlety. ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem too bad,¡± I said, remembering we had links with Libio through the Caliph who had gifted me Nyx¡¯s egg. ¡°Why do you think such enmity exists between Ponente and Libio?¡± he added, unrelenting in his deting of my moment. ¡°Competition over resources and the raiding their ships do to get them.¡± This summarised my understanding of the Cold War-style conflict currently being yed out by their merchants, brigands, privateers and pirates. ¡°Yes . . . but look, they effectively have the same element: water or Ice. It sounds pointless, but half of the conflict is over which application of it is the best. Using ice with such ease and skill will not go down well in Ponente.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t show it then,¡± I argued. He rolled his eyes in exaggeration, ¡°Let¡¯s stop for a second and see how many secrets you have managed to keep hidden over our time on the endless ice shall we?¡± ¡°Well, we don¡¯t need to go into detail.¡± I looked everywhere but at his piercing blue eyes. ¡°You hardly have a spotless record, and can you honestly say you will live your life with one hand tied behind your back? When you need it, you will use it. I¡¯m just trying to impress on you the consequences.¡± He settled into silence as we contemted the changes. . . . ¡°I already live like that in the hopes of not upsetting the apple cart, and this will be no different. But thank you, for your honesty about what we will have to face.¡± I said my mood was moderated by the breaking of another social barrier. ¡°The skills are fantastic,¡± hemiserated. Just take some time to grow into them, your stats and your traits. There is no rush.¡± And we left it at that. . . . There was no rush other than the deadline the Goddess Fortuna had given us. It was time to head south, and with my immunity to the ice, it was no longer impossible to fly. The only limit was the extent of my mana, which was just as well, considering the destruction of my second vehicle on the endless ice by the Ice Giant left us without swift transportation once more. I had even convinced Namir that it would be a fair trade if I carried him and Nyx in my spatial vault for a short flight, and then he returned the favour by carrying me. In this manner, I hoped to make impressive speed south when we left. Fully provisioned and with plenty of goods to sell on the way we were finally ready to leave. . . . ¡°We¡¯ll miss you,¡± Eryk said, giving me a hug before stepping back to join the vige that had gathered to see us off. ¡°It¡¯s been exciting.¡± I grinned in return. The endless ice had been perilously dangerous, but the system had rewarded me equally in return for the danger. I was leaving with several new skills, levels and resistances. ¡°We might not have nned our visit but I¡¯m happy we came,¡± I added, referring to our shipwreck of an arrival. ¡°You will always be wee to return and continue your training. We cannot thank you enough for defending our home. Farvel and godspeed.¡± With a wave and his warm words echoing in my ears, I leapt into the air, climbing as Nyx circled around me as I rose. No longer affected by the ice, she had gained the same immunity as me. I turned south and headed for the horizon with the sun high above I watched with excitement as our shadows raced across the ice below me following the footsteps of the former exodus of giants. Startled by a screech, I saw Stamfar¡¯s shadow join ours as he escorted us ever southward. It seemed Volur would apany us further south in the shape of his Gyrfalcon before truly saying farewell through the runed stone I could see it still carrying. . . . We flew south until my mana reached a third, and then I skipped across the sky with Psi to reach the ground and the next ridgeline. The Thorpe had long been left behind us, and it was time to switch over. ¡°A word before you release Namir, Kai.¡± Volur¡¯s voice from the runed stone stopped me from opening the vault immediately as wended. ¡°I know Namir hopes to return you both home safe and sound, but if, for whatever reason, the journey proves impossible or you need a safe haven, you are always wee to return. I know humans are not always kind to half-bloods. You will always be wee here.¡± I felt suddenly guilty about the story we had weaved when we first arrived. Now, the lies stood between us. I stumbled over my tongue before answering. ¡°I know I¡¯ll be safe with him, and we will make it home.¡± I hedged. ¡°We¡¯ll send word one day of our safe arrival.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure we will hear from you again, Kai. You are already a little legend in our humble Thorpe. Farvel and Godspeed.¡± He said through the runed stone once more before Stamfar took flight returning north to home. I opened my spatial vault for Namir to carry us on the next leg of our journey. Chapter 240: Namir’s Leg Chapter 240: Namir¡¯s Leg ¡°Life isn¡¯t a race. It¡¯s a ry.¡± Dick Gregory ¡°Where are we?¡± Were the first words out of Namir¡¯s mouth. While I could keep the spatial vault open enough to look out of using my expanded senses, it was far more straightforward to close it when I was not within, and Namir did not have ess to the same skills I had. He had been confined for the entire flight south so far and was happy to be no longer contained as he had missed everything that had passed as we crossed the endless ice. ¡°An hour south,¡± I quickly answered. Tracking the time was easy, but tracking the distance was a little more challenging withoutparing it against the mental map I was making. ¡°I think we covered around 50 miles,¡± I estimated as I made theparison. ¡°A day¡¯s travel for amon man in an hour.¡± He sounded impressed. ¡°I¡¯ll have to push hard to match it.¡± He seemed excited at the challenge. ¡°Any problems?¡± He asked as he cracked his neck and took in our surroundings. ¡°No, we kept low enough not to draw too much attention, and Stamfar apanied us south, making us a harder target,¡± I exined. ¡°Are you happy to take over?¡± ¡°Yes, it will give me a chance to stretch my legs,¡± Namir answered, bouncing on his feet. He generally seemed happy toze around when I trained, but I guessed there was a difference betweenzing around with the freedom to leave and being trapped within my spatial vault. ¡°How exactly will this work, then?¡± he quizzed.¡°I¡¯ve anchored the spatial vault¡¯s entrance to this,¡± I said as I removed the runed mithril ne that Varvara had forged for me before we had left the Thorpe from around my neck and proffered it to him. The tiny runes etched into the surface acted much like how the giants used their stone glyphs to hold open the entrance when they used their versions of the Lodestone Wyrm¡¯s cores, allowing me to anchor the entrance to a moving object. This would allow the spatial vault to be carried by Namir with me within it while I meditated and regained my mana for another flight. In this manner, we would leapfrog our way south in a ry until we found the next vige where we could rest and review our progress with hopefully updated maps and a new direction to head in. Namir held the ne before him while I expanded the entrance again, allowing Nyx and me to enter my spatial vault for the next leg of our journey. Namir waited for me to close the entrance to the size of the ne¡¯s central pendant before he ced it around his neck. Our view shrunk to a peephole from which we could view the world. But that did not stop my senses from looking out from within. ¡°Ready when you are,¡± I shouted, my voice emerging from the pendant around his neck. Namir shifted in surprise before setting off as if he had not been surprised¡ªour view bounced as he started to lope ever southward. Once he had started moving, he replied, ¡°And here I thought I¡¯d have a quiet run south without your smart mouth.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to your run, then,¡± I answered before turning away from the tiny exit to the outside world. To be honest, the way the view was bouncing all over the ce as he dashed south was a little disconcerting. I looked away from the exit at my internal space before I contemted the experiments I hoped to test out within the spatial vault. . . . Focusing on my space, I recreated what I had once imagined¡ªthe extra volume gained from the increase in my skill was particrly useful. At Lv15, it was now over double what it had started at. At 25 feet by 25 feet, I now had 625 square feet. Not only that, I also had 25 feet in height, width, and depth. It wasrge enough to build a tiny home within and even add a second floor with separate bedrooms for myself and Namir. It was tempting, but I preferred my open-n design. I kept the four trees in their corners, using their branches for the shelves along the four walls. Still, with the height, I had split the space into a 5ft basement with the ice core and our supplies, some now frozen, adding a stoneyer and earthyer above to help inste and reduce the mana cost of heating my space and keeping the trees alive. I was attempting a little horticulture with the few nts the giants had avable, which I would expand on in time. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The giants had gifted me many resources, which Namir had stacked 5ft high in the basement for me. But along the back wall, I had my workstations for cksmithing, wood singing, stone shaping, and rune carving. I had grown us some sleeping tforms 10ft up in each of the rear corners on the trees. It looked like Namir had settled into his I could see his w marks on his side. I had left the front of the spatial vault open in the hopes of regrowing-building another ship for the sea, ice or sky. But for now, I settled down into a cross-legged pose on thewn I had grown in the middle of my spatial vault and, closing my eyes, I started to meditate. The quicker I recovered my mana, the quicker I could take over from Namir, and the faster we would make it home. . . . Namir¡¯s POV It was nice to run freely. Now that he had developed a tolerable tolerance to the cold the endless ice was not too dissimr to the open savannah of Ostro. The open space stretched for miles and miles in every direction. It almost felt safer as he could see for miles in every direction, although after hunting with the giants, he knew the emptiness of the endless ice was a deception in and of itself. Beasts could erupt from beneath his feet, but moving as swiftly as he was, he doubted any would be able to catch him before he would have moved out of their range. He settled into a long lope and enjoyed just running for a time as he contemted his student, ward and charge. The boy continued to defy expectations, continuallynding on his feet. He seemed more catlike than human in that regard. He also didn¡¯t doubt they would leave a trail of consequences as they travelled south. He put on a burst of speed to evade the Icewyrm erupting now behind him before settling back into a long loping run that he knew he could maintain for hours on end. It was tempting to stop and deal with the tangle that had been drawn to the surface, but his aim was to make it south as quickly as possible without any more interruptions. Besides, the IceWyrms were quickly set upon by wild Arctic Gyrfalcons that had spotted their eruptions from the surface of the ice. They had been following Namir for a while now, happy to dive on anything that stirred in the beastkin¡¯s wake¡ªboth the ambush predators and the prey that were startled by his approach. The Artic Hares had only survived if they managed to find a burrow before the wild Arctic Gyrfalcons dove. With the wide open spaces, icy arctic conditions, and theck of visible resources for hunting or foraging, he was unsurprised when he ran for an hour without spotting a single sapient of the noble races and grateful that he had not crossed paths with any denizen of the depths or base race creatures. Thankfully, the Ice Giants'' march south seemed to have been an isted incident. The asional bear had only lifted its head in interest as he passed by before returning to its own journey. A second hour of running followed before he spotted a suitably defensive stone outcropping for a break. Climbing the tor gave him a fantastic view over the terrain he had traversed and the ground still to cover. A pack of Arctic wolves had shadowed his journey south, taking up where the Gyrfalcons had left off. Their pelts would be worth a pretty penny, but they had hoped to reach some form of civilisation before night fell. ording to the Giants maps of the endless ice, they might just manage it, but not if they stopped to ughter the pack currently tracking him. The Arctic Wolves could track him for miles on end but would hopefully lose interest if they disappeared into the sky and out of their reach. He felt that he had crossed a simr amount to Kai¡¯s flight although it was difficult to judge when he was only responsible for one leg of the trip. Either way, it was time for a spot of food and possibly a swap if Kai had recovered enough mana to maintain his flight. ¡°Kai?¡± He asked out loud after hanging the pendant by its chain on the protruding rock of the tor and stepping back. The entrance to the spatial vault expanded, revealing the softly lit interior of Kai¡¯s spatial vault. ¡°Yes?¡± The child responded before stepping out into the blinding white light of the arctic wastnd. His ck shadow, Nyx, slipped out after him, wings ring to feel the arctic wind no longer bothered by the cold. Then the portal closed, and Kai retrieved the pendant from the crag. ¡°It¡¯s time for a bite to eat and a swap if you have recovered enough mana. Even if you haven¡¯t enough mana for a full hour¡¯s flight, a switch would still be good to lose our shadows.¡± I exined. ¡°Shadows?¡± Kai questioned. ¡°The wolves.¡± I pointed out their presence on thest ridge in the distance, where they had halted their pursuit with him reaching the tor, climbing, and stopping. They seemed happy to bide their time, wait him out and wear him down. Nyx hissed as he noticed the silent sentinels on the horizon watching us from afar. ¡°Yes, I have enough for a flight,¡± Kai answered. ¡°Food then?¡± I moved on to the next matter of importance: my stomach. ¡°What are you in the mood for?¡± Kai questioned. ¡°A bit of bear curry would go down well.¡± I knew some gifts the giants had given Kai were a wide variety of dishes sealed in stone pots stacked on the shelves in the spatial vault. Already cooked, sealed in airtight stone pots, and kept cool by the ice giant¡¯s core, they wouldst for a long time and only needed reheating to make the meals edible once more. ¡°Bear curry it is.¡± Kai grinned, producing a pot from thin air. ¡°You picked a nice spot.¡± He added,menting on the view. The pot soon self-heated from the stone glyph carved into it. Such straightforward glyph carvings were simple steps for stone wizards to add to the stone pots they had fashioned for us. We soon ate well and regained some of the energy I had expended on the run. ¡°Your turn next,¡± I told Kai once he had made our meal''s evidence disappear into thin air. ¡°They seem to have found their courage and are moving closer,¡± Imented on the arctic wolves slinking ever closer to the tor we had temporarily rested upon. ¡°It''s my turn,¡± he agreed, opening the portal to his spatial vault before me. I¡¯ll see how far I can get. Maybe I will see Drangavik before running out of mana.¡± He added. ¡°Just remember to stay low andnd before they see us. We want to enter the town on foot rather than fly in. We will be strange enough travellers as it is.¡± I reminded him of the n to pass through the towns on our way south without creating too much trouble. ¡°I remember.¡± Kai nodded as I stepped into his spatial vault. We would have to see if remembering made any difference to his actions. I remained ever hopeful, but if ourst couple of weeks were anything to go by, we might need to flee more than ice giants before our journey home was over. Chapter 241: Tall Tales Chapter 241: Tall Tales ¡°Every tall tale was rooted in truth.¡± Kerri Maniscalo My mana did notst the hour, but it didst long enough for me to see the town of Drangavik appear on the horizon. It was the first northern town of the Kingdom of Tramontana, which meant there would be humans. The giants had been surprisingly amodating in epting our arrival and departure. Namir was unsure that humans would be as weing of his presence so far north of Ostro. On the other hand, he felt they would be perfectly enamoured with me to the point of keeping me should we tarry too long. The town was nestled on the banks of a river that cut westward through the icy wastnd. The hint of trees growing on the tundra was far in the distance beyond it. They had clearly located themselves on the banks of the river for trade, as we could see a boat working its way downstream and entering the town with a mix of human and giant structures. Nyx and I touched down just behind the ridgeline, out of sight of the town, to prepare for our arrival. Since our unexpected arrival on the endless ice, she had grown dramatically in strength and size. Whether this was due to her diet of beast cores, her new immunity to the cold, or some sort of osmosis where the giant''s size affected her growth, I knew not, but she was rapidly approaching her adult size. Regardless, she could now apany me on my one-hour flight, though she struggled to keep up and was perfectly happy to hitch a ride on my back, the first-ever human rider. ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± I said, opening the portal behind the ridgeline. We were out of sight but at the top of the ridge and would have a good view of where we hade from and where we were going with a short step up to the top. Namir emerged, pulling out a single-man sledge piled with furs and a small selection of the trade goods I had squirrelled away. ¡°I guess I¡¯m expected to pull this.¡± He asked rhetorically as he pulled it out. I had not spent all my time regaining my mana sitting still. I had also sung sledge into existence, teasing out the growth from the four trees to form a set of runners and a basic frame. ¡°It would look pretty strange if I was the one pulling it. I thought you wanted me to keep my head down. Besides, it is downhill from the ridge, toward the town from here.¡± The sledge wasrger than my frame could reasonably pull, although I could probably have made a decent attempt at shifting it even if I could not pull it very far.¡°Yes, of course I am.¡± He nodded before adding, ¡°But I did not want you to feel left out, so I made you your own.¡± Namir grinned as he produced a much smaller and less well-fashioned version of the one he was pulling. Nyx, sensing his amusement, pounced on the freshly made form of transport, circling and stretching before settling down contentedly on top of it. That was the problem with leaving Namir unattended in a spatial vault full of everything he could have possibly needed. The devil makes work for idle hands and he had to have started immediately on seeing the one I had grown for him. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have,¡± I said sardonically. ¡°Nonsense. We can¡¯t have you miss out on the experience after all,¡± he continued, unashamed. Now that we had some time to think it through, our new story was that we werepleting a circumnavigation for the gods. The story had the benefit of being true and neatly exined what a beastkin and human were doing so far from their home kingdoms alone and unapanied. ¡°Well, let''s get you hitched up and start moving if we hope to reach the town before they close the gates for the night.¡± Namir held up the harness and rope for me. Nyx, unaffected, settled in to enjoy thest leg of our journey. . . . An hour or twoter, we were finally approaching the gates of Drangavik. Namir had slowed his pace to amodate mine. Full of mana, I was tempted to fly, but a more urate update on they of thend was a necessity before I began making any waves. Dragging the sledge behind me might help sell our story, but it was exhausting, and I couldn¡¯t help but notice Namir¡¯s enjoyment of my struggle when everything else usually came so quickly to me. ¡°Hail the gate,¡± Namir shouted the two men standing watch on the wall above the northern gate. They stood silently for a moment before one disappeared out of sight. The enormous wooden gates slowly creaked open, revealing two giants standing behind them. Hidden behind the gates, they would have surprised anyone unaware or who had failed to sense them. Unsurprised, we continued to plod onward and inward when we found our way barred. ¡°Who goes there?¡± The lone guard still on the wall above challenged our entrance. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Two tired pilgrims on their circumnavigation,¡± Namir answered up for the pair of us. ¡°Pilgrims? What are your names, and where do youe from?¡± He continued to question. ¡°Namir, Kai and from the giant vige of Thorpe,¡± Namir responded. ¡°And your creature?¡± The second questioned, having returned to the top of the wall and having noticed Nyx soundly asleep on my small sledge being dragged behind me. ¡°A dragonling,¡± Namir answered thest question. ¡°A dragonling? I¡¯ve never seen one before. I didn¡¯t think that they did too well in the cold.¡± The second continued, intrigued. ¡°She seems to have adapted well enough,¡± Namir casuallymented, not mentioning the wealth of elixirs and cores she had devoured. Or her refusal to leave our inner clothes on our first arrival. ¡°You headed a little too far north if you ended up in the endless ice. This is the northern border of Tramontana.¡± The first of the guards interjected back into the conversation. While the two giants holding their gates stared down intimidatingly at us. ¡°The gods will recognise ourmitment to the circumnavigation of thepass kingdoms,¡± Namir replied bluntly. Religious reasons were alwaysplicated to argue against, and the guards didn¡¯t even try. ¡°A pair of lunatics.¡± The first guard whispered to the second, falsely assuming we couldn¡¯t overhear him. Before he continued louder, ¡°You have money for your stay?¡± ¡°We have money enough for a night and goods to trade on the morrow,¡± Namir added seemingly oblivious to theirments. We were ying a part I reminded myself. I did not need to get attached to my answers or attempt to defend them. At least two pilgrims on their circumnavigation made more sense than two sailors shipwrecked north of the sea of storms. The first option was far more usible than the other. It also exined our small party. If we had money to stay the night and goods to trade, the soldiers saw little reason to stop us from entering. ¡°Enter and keep the peace in thepass.¡± The first guard finally allowed us to enter. ¡°Where is the town tavern?¡± Namir asked as we entered Drangavik''s gates the giants stepping aside to let us in. ¡°Straight down the road, the town centre, you can¡¯t miss it.¡± One of the giants replied from above in a deep voice, felt as much as heard as he closed his gate with a thump. ¡°You passed through Thorpe?¡± the other asked in a loud attempt to be quiet, pushing his gate closed with another thud. ¡°Any news? I have family living there.¡± I looked at Namir. We had plenty of news about Thorpe. The question was how much we wanted to share: our arrival, the exodus, the flight, the fight, and the Ice Giants'' death. ¡°They have had a busy month,¡± Namir calmlymented. ¡°Zatnar,¡± his voice boomed above our heads. ¡°Watch the gate and wait for relief. I¡¯ll walk them into the Ice¡¯s End.¡± He turned to apany us as we made our way down the central road. Our sledges dragged behind us on the snow, which was quickly turning to slush and mud as we entered the town. ¡°Fine, but you¡¯ll owe me a pint, Zadrog.¡± The other giant¡¯s voice boomed back. ¡°Here, let me help you with that,¡± Zadrog said. He reached down to pick up my sledge with one hand, leaving me to hastily untie the harness before being hauled up into the sky. Namir¡¯s sledge, being a littlerger, he pulled it along with his other hand after Namir handed him the harness. ¡°So what¡¯s the news?¡± . . . ¡°Thorpe felled an Ice Giant,¡± Zadrog whispered in amazement. However, his whisper still reverberated through Ice¡¯s End¡ªthe conversation in the tavern hushed briefly before resuming with an undercurrent of worry. The Tavern had a strange mixture of giant and human-sized furniture, with raised human seats so that we could sit alongside giants or at least be closer in height. It was predominantly filled with humans, but each giant there had to consume five humans or more worth of food and ale. After introducing us to our host, Ulf, and helping us get our rooms, he bought us drinks, though mine was more water than ale, and sat down with us. ¡°Yes.¡± Namir had been vague on our part in the process. Telling the tale as if heard third, not seen first hand or actively participated in. ¡°Incredible.¡± Zadrog downed his barrel of a beer. It was physically impossible to outdrink a giant, so there was no thought of apetition. ¡°Worrying that one wandered so far south but wonderful that they managed to stop it before it could endanger Drangavik. How long do you n on staying?¡± He moved on from the topic. ¡°We just n on selling some of our hunting and procuring a few more supplies for our journey south, so it will take no more than a day or two.¡± Namir thought it through out loud. Amazingly, I kept my head down and let the adults talk it through without me. Listening to their conversation, I enjoyed looking around at the mix of people around us. Mainly humans and giants I had spotted an actual dwarf and was attempting to decipher the runes carved into his metal armour subtly. It helped that I could look without using my eyes. I had already catalogued the stone glyphs carved throughout the tavern but they had not added anything new to the knowledge Volur had gifted me during our time in the Thorpe. The Dwarf though had armour I was itching to look at closer. No waves, I wouldn¡¯t pry but it kept my attention as Namir and Zadrog continued to discuss the best route south. ¡°There is always the river. If you want to make the best speed,¡± Zadrog advised. ¡°It will take you to the coast, then a boat could take you further south around the range of mountains that form the southern border of Tramontana.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not catch another boat if possible,¡± Namir replied. ¡°If you are not going to the coast, you would have to travel east to the centre of Tramontana before taking the pass south, but that would add months to your journey. Pilgrims generally pass down the river, then along the coast.¡± ¡°I might run along it, but I''m trying to avoid travelling by water unless I absolutely have to.¡± Namir was not quite ready to get back in a boat just yet. ¡°I¡¯d take the boat if I could, but I¡¯d sink most vessels. You and your ward would at least float well enough. He¡¯s young to be making the trip.¡± ¡°He was inspired by a visit to our town from a Bishop aspiring to be a Cardinal,¡± Namir added a little bit more truth to our history. ¡°Kai, what do you think of travelling by boat?¡± Zadrog asked. ¡°I¡¯m happy with whatever Namir chooses.¡± I shrugged. We nned on flying once we were out of sight of Drangavik; it wouldn¡¯t matter much in the end. ¡°Your sledges will be of little use much further south.¡± He imed. ¡°This may no longer truly be Ice¡¯s End,¡± He said, referring both to the Tavern¡¯s name and the end of the Endless Ice, ¡°The ice stretches over the southern horizon but not much further than that.¡± ¡°Did it used to end here?¡± I asked interested. ¡°When it was built?¡± He paused, thinking back, ¡°Yes, sure, the river used to mark the end of the ice. Actual trees used to reach the river, but time and the effort to keep warm have pushed the trees back a little further south each year, and the ice seems to be following them south.¡± I wondered about global freezing, but no one else seemed to be worried about the slowly encroaching ice. ¡°So we should follow the river,¡± Namir asked resignedly. ¡°Well, that is what most pilgrims do. Why not check in with the Church of the Lodestar before or after you visit the market tomorrow?¡± Zadrog seemed happy with finally convincing Namir to consider the easier route. . . . As we sat there contemting our future journey, I was not the only one keeping a surreptitious eye out on others. Nyx, too, had her share of admirers. Chapter 242: A cautionary tale Chapter 242: A cautionary tale ¡°I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It¡¯s bound to disappoint you.¡± Jodi Picoult Unknown¡¯s POV He watched as the foolish pilgrims parked themselves alongside one of the giant guards. This town was a dump, with no work that did not involve, actually working. After running from some heat a few towns south, he had ended up here, catching a convoy of merchants out of town. He had kept hoping it would get better and that there would be more opportunities in the next town north. But they just kept getting worse. There was nothing worth stealing that wouldn¡¯t weigh him down when he fled. He needed something small and portable to turn his fortunes around. Something worth the risk and effort. Something that could pay off the heat if it was still running hot when he got back to his old stomping grounds. He had first noticed the pilgrims when his highly levelled skill Seeker pinged as they entered the tavern Ice¡¯s End. He was not sure exactly what was worth stealing but the strong sense he was feeling when they entered proved that they were carrying something of worth. That was until he saw the dragonling apanying the young man. Now, that was something of worth. He had never seen one this far north. They did not like the cold, so to see one north of the mountains that cut thepass kingdoms apart from east to west in the Kingdom of Tramontana was a shock and finally something worth stealing. The question was how. Animals were not his forte but he had a couple of skills that might help out. It was not difficult to listen to their conversation with Eavesdrop. Just two pilgrims on their way south, probably along the river out of town, then down along the coast. He did not do anything as obvious as turning to look at them simply continued to drink quietly in his corner and order another drink or two as they talked of Ice Giants and some small vige called Thorpe. The only problem was the beastkin warrior apanying the young man and the short time they were nning on spending in the Drangavik. It looked like they might even try to leave tomorrow afternoon if they were able to sell their sledges and possibly buy a boat. Although it sounded like the beastkin would be happy to run alongside the river without one, the human beast was too short-sighted to see the benefits of travelling by boat and afraid of a bit of water. If he were going to hit them, it would have to be tonight. And luckily, they were staying in the Ice¡¯s End. He had already scoped out each and every room of the inn. Lockpicking left every door in this tiny town and open doorway to him; there were no magical locks to keep him out. He had only ever taken a tenth of any guest''s purse. No need to be greedy and cause a chase when he had nowhere left to run. The number of new faces in Drangavik was few, and unless he could escape with something worthwhile, it was simply not worth the risk.He watched as they headed upstairs, following in Ulf¡¯s wake as he happily carried their sledges for them. The only benefit to a giant innkeeper¡¯s tavern was that each room was ptial inparison to most human inns. There would be plenty of room for their sledges within and time during the night for him to pick his way through them. He stayed still as they went and waited, watching for the tavern to wind down for the evening. Paying up for the evening, he made a point of leaving, but activating his skills Stealth, Silence, Scentless, he returned to his seat to wait for everybody to leave and for the guests to leave. It was not precisely invisibility, but thebination worked well enough in the crowded tavern. People simply forgot about him and ignored his presence. The skills slowly drew from his stamina and mana. He had never had enough to be a mage, but he had invested enough to power the skills, and sitting still, they drew so little he could keep them active for ages. Eventually, his patience was rewarded as the Beastkin strode down the steps and told Ulf he was going to walk the town but to keep an eye out for hispanion, not that he should need it as he should be sleeping upstairs and would not need anything till breakfast. Just like a cat marking his territory, he thought silently to himself. Still, this was perfect; the beastkin was the onlyplication to this theft. His Danger Sense told him he was not worth risking engaging directly with him. Not that he ever faced up to a fight. It was always better to stab someone in the back; safer, too. Worryingly, the beastkin paused in the doorway, but he left after a second nce across the room. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. It was time to move. It was time to wait. He waited. He gave the beastkin a minute or two to leave, ensuring he had not forgotten something and would not return immediately. Then it was time to move. Slowly and carefully, he drifted through the nearly empty bar. No one in this town knew or had seen him employ his skills. They suspected nothing. He was just another convoy guard waiting for a convoy to head back south. Reaching the steps, Silence helped to mute the creaks the steps would have made as he ascended them. Creeping along the corridor, it took him only moments to find the new arrivals room, Seeker triggering as he reached the room at the end. He paused momentarily before the door but listening, and eavesdropping gave him nothing. The boy and dragonling must be asleep after their long march south. He would be taking a boat when he left tonight if he could repurpose one from the docks along the bank without too much difficulty. If not, it would be a bit of a walk, but he always had his bag prepped and ready to go. Secure in the silence and darkness under the door, he started on the lock. Lockpicking made it take only a moment before he was carefully easing open the door. The Silence kept the hinges from protesting at the incredibly slow and microscopic movement as he inched the door open and slipped in through the gap. Darksight revealed the empty room in front of him. Empty? The dragonling was nowhere to be seen, and where had the other pilgrim disappeared to? Their bags were gone. Had he somehow got the wrong room? But his Seeker skill still insisted the items actually worth something in this tiny, terrible town were hidden somewhere in this room and that they had not been there before the arrival of the two pilgrims. Where were the treasures hidden? Nervously, he inched his way around the pitch-ck room. He could see perfectly well but solely in shades of grey. The empty sack that he had pulled from beneath his cloak hung hollow in his hand as he padded around the room, using Seekerrather than Darksight to try to pinpoint the treasures that he knew were somehow hiding in this empty room. It was a matter of professional pride now. He knew they were hidden here somewhere. He couldn¡¯t leave with nothing and he had already taken the risk. Then he noticed it. The doorway to the privy was ck. Even with the shades of grey highlighting everything he had somehow failed to notice that the doorway to the room¡¯s privy was pitch ck just like the room had been before he had activated Darksight. Did the boy have magic? Were they hidden out of sight in the privy? Perhaps the boy was as dangerous as his warriorpanion. But that was unlikely. If he were . . . well, he would have more than onepanion. He had not even bothered to test his Danger Sense on the boy barely older than a child. He was too close now he just needed to go a little further to reach the rewards he deserved and the solution to his exile from civilisation. Cautiously, he reached out a hand to test the ck doorway before him. Danger Sense did not trigger, and he gently touched a finger against the darkness, risking only a single digit on a single finger. He quickly pulled it back, relieved to see and feel it unharmed. This was clearly some sort of veil spell meant to hide travellers, and it helped to make sense of how the two pilgrims had survived their travels if they had ess to intermediate spells such as this one. It also meant that the treasures he could sense through the veil might be worth as much as the dragonling. Grinning, he put his best foot forward and stepped into the veil. Only to jerk back as his Danger Sense red when the veil disappeared to reveal an empty privy. He turned to sprint out of the room, sensing he had been discovered, and stumbled over his body, only just realising it was missing something. He looked down and gave a muffled scream as the pain hit him. He had lost his leg below the knee. His lifeblood rushed out through the sudden amputation. Leaving a trail across the room, he hopped to a chair; sitting, he ripped off his belt and cinched it around his thigh. How could it all have gone wrong so quickly? He cursed. Rapidly realising that no pilgrim¡¯s treasure was worth his life. Moreover, beyond the pain and shock, he realised that with the disappearance of the veil, his Seeker skill showed nothing of worth hidden within the room. His only chance was to make it to the Church of the Lodestar before he was discovered and hopefully have his leg healed. Wincing and ring his skills, he hopped to the door and hoped he would make it there without passing out. He could not be found if he hoped to avoid being imprisoned, and even then, there would be some awkward questions to be answered. Closing the door on that death trap, he made his way down the stairs as quickly as his single leg would allow him, teeth clenched in pain, his skin cold and mmy. Stealth, Silence, Scentless worked as hard as he could push them, but they could do nothing for the drips of blood he was leaving in his wake. As he left the tavern unnoticed, he wrapped his scarf around his stump to stop leaving a trail behind him as he wed along the side of the street to the church on the corner. . . . Kai¡¯s POV ¡°Well, that just happened,¡± I said as I emerged from my spatial vault, leg in hand and Nyx in tow. We watched from the window as the thief hobbled down the street to the Lodestar Church on the corner. It looked like he might survive, albeit missing a leg. ¡°Namir is never going to believe that wasn¡¯t my fault. I might as well put it on ice and wait for him to return,¡± I muttered, returning to my spatial vault, where I disassembled and repurposed our sledges. After all, I had promised not to leave the room while he scouted the town. ¡°Nyx, stop that!¡± I ordered, halting her licking up the blood the thief had left behind. Her bloody footprints followed me into the privy where I had ced my portal once more, but this time, I made sure to shut the door behind us. I wondered what Namir would think when he returned. Probably nothing good, but there wasn¡¯t anything I could do about that other than wait. Chapter 243: Cat Got Your Tongue Chapter 243: Cat Got Your Tongue ¡°The phrase, ¡®Cat Got Your Tongue¡¯ is used to describe when someone is at a loss of words or being unusually quiet.¡± Inte Namir¡¯s POV The town did not take a long time to traverse. There seemed to be nothing unexpected, and he enjoyed scouting out where they would be walking on the morrow: the church, the market, and the departure dock that ran out of the town on the western side. As much as he would have liked to have avoided the river entirely, it simply made too much sense for them to be taking it, and if they did not, they would only draw more attention. Havingpleted his circuit of the town, he returned to the Ice¡¯s End, the no longer appropriately named tavern, when his hackles rose. He could smell blood. The trail ended outside the tavern but started and led back inside. Dashing forward he flew up the stairs following the sent of the blood back to their shared room. Why had he been foolish enough to think Kai would not still draw trouble toward himself simply through existing, even if he was ensconced in his own spatial vault and locked in his own room? If the boy had precipitated this . . . he clenched his jaws in frustration. Kai was increasingly capable of looking after himself. However, he was looking forward to returning to his family unharmed so that the rest of his family and advisors could take over looking out for him. It was exhausting doing it on his own, and the short break he had taken was already proving disastrous. Opening the door, he was confronted with a slowly drying pool of blood in the middle of the room. At least he could tell from the scent that it was not Kai¡¯s or Nyx¡¯s. He followed the trail back to the privy door. Carefully opening it and calling out. ¡°Kai?¡± An opening to the child¡¯s spatial vault swiftly opened: ¡°It¡¯s not my vault.¡± These were the first words that emerged from the open doorway as I saw the child with his hands up and a sheepish grin standing above his most recent. ¡°Hrious.¡± I deadpanned back.¡°No, seriously, it wasn¡¯t my fault.¡± He repeated a little more seriously. ¡°We never even left the vault before he arrived.¡± ¡°I never said it was. Now, what happened?¡± I asked, a little exasperated. I had only been gone a short while. ¡°I think the man came to rob us,¡± Kai exined as Namir stepped through into the spatial vault. ¡°Rob us?¡± We had nothing of visible worth. Well, Kai had a lot now, but none of it was visible when we arrived in the town. ¡°Well, he arrived, picked the lock, then made his way in the darkness to the privy where I had left the entrance to the vault open.¡± Kai exined, ¡°That is hardly normal behaviour, is it?¡± ¡°And then?¡± That was hardly the whole story. ¡°Well, when he tried to enter the vault, I closed the door, and it may or may not have cut off his lower leg,¡± Kai continued. ¡°His leg?¡± I raised my eyebrow. ¡°It¡¯s not like I knew that was going to happen.¡± Kai defended his action. ¡°I thought it might trap his foot, not slice the thing clean off when the aperture closedpletely.¡± ¡°Your vault sliced straight through his leg and bone.¡± I quizzed. The skill was alreadypletely ridiculous with its versatility and size. Now it even hadbat applications, too! ¡°Yes, it''s just here,¡± Kai revealed a man¡¯s left leg still partially dressed in shoe socks and half a trouser leg, although the trouser leg did not stay up without the belt to keep it up. ¡°It has stopped bleeding now.¡± ¡°And what were you nning on doing with that?¡± It was a little bit morbid the way in which he was waving it around. ¡°I was hardly going to let Nyx eat the thing, so I put it on ice.¡± He answered, referring to the ice core hidden in the basement, which was keeping the meat from their hunts frozen. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Why on earth would you put it on ice?¡± I asked, a little worried about his answer. ¡°Well, I thought we might want to reattach it.¡± He said as if that made everything make sense. ¡°Why on earth would you reattach it? The man is a thief! You don¡¯t even know where the man hopped off to.¡± I objected on several levels. ¡°That wouldn¡¯t be too hard for you to work out, but you needn''t bother. We watched him hop to the Church of the Lodestar. I doubt he is going to go much further than that tonight. And even if he gets the most basic first aid and healing there, they or rather, he is hardly likely to have the funds to pay for more. He¡¯ll need his leg back as they are not going to regrow him another one.¡± Kai exined as if it was obvious. How was I going to get through to him? ¡°Firstly, he does not deserve his leg back. Secondly, what does that have to do with putting his leg on ice?¡± He still hadn¡¯t answered the ice question, and it was annoying me. There were so many different reasons not to reattach it, not least the level of scrutiny it would put us under if people were to be aware of it. ¡°Keeping the flesh cold helps to prevent it from deteriorating. It gives me longer to reattach it, although we probably want to get going now, as the longer we leave it, the harder the healing will be.¡± He exined as if that made it all make sense. ¡°Why Kai? Why?¡± I asked. ¡°I feel a little guilty; I mean, I didn¡¯t mean to take his leg off and cripple the man.¡± ¡°Altruism is the prerogative of the powerful. For the powerless, it will mean a knife in the back. We still have a long way to go. Let¡¯s not create too manyplications.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t take long to reattach; the cut was very clean,¡± Kai answered back. ¡°And I did wait for you to return as requested.¡± ¡°If we do this, we leave tomorrow,¡± I demanded, flexing my ws. A night awake was not a struggle for me with my stats. Changing the subject, I asked, ¡°How¡¯s the boating along?¡± ¡°Nearly finished.¡± Kai stepped to the side to disy a 16-foot two-man prospector canoe. The wood had been salvaged and repurposed from the sledges to form the frame, while he had been growing more from the trees to fill in the sides. ¡°I just have the paddles left to do.¡± He said proudly. Watching him work the wood flowing beneath his fingers into the form he desired was truly magic. I thought for a moment, ¡°Finish the paddles first. Then we can look for your one-legged thief. If this causes too much of a fuss, we might need to leave tonight.¡± ¡°What about the market?¡± Kai whined at missing out on a profit. ¡°We have plenty to make it to the next town at our travel speed. It was more for appearances than purpose.¡± We might need to miss out on stopping too often if this was going to happen in each town we visited. . . . Kai¡¯s POV The paddles were done and we were packed up again, ready to go. I had waited for Namir to return but grew guilty as I waited. A missing leg might not be the death of a man further south with a family to support him, but somehow, I suspected that was not the case here. A missing leg meant that he would most likely soon be dead one way or the other. I was supposed to do some sort of good deed for Fortuna in the towns we visited on our circumnavigation. This could be the deed of the day counterbncing the fact that I had removed it in the first ce. Namir was not happy. But I would feel a lot better once I had reattached the leg he was carrying for me. Still, we quietly left our empty room and made our way to the church. The thief¡¯s tracks wereid out clearly in the snow at the edge of the road, giant hopping strides that went all the way to the church¡¯s door. From the outside looking in, it was rather funny, although I doubted the man felt that way. A knock at the door and a short waitter, we had an Acolyte opening it up. ¡°What now!?¡± He asked, frustrated at theteness of our arrival or the repeated knocks. ¡°We have something one of your petitioners might be missing,¡± Namir said, holding up the leg. The acolyte, speechless, let us enter. The cat had gotten his tongue in addition to another man¡¯s leg. Leading us deeper into the church, he politely knocked on a side room¡¯s door before entering and gesturing for us to follow. ¡°Quiet, Cami; Jor is asleep now.¡± The priestmented without turning to take us in. ¡°What did the supplicants want?¡± The body of the thiefy on the b in front of us. Is wound healed, although the leg was still amputated. Exhaustion and pain had etched lines across his face that were still visible even as he slept. Cami, still speechless, waited for us to introduce ourselves. ¡°We came to return something your petitioner lost while looking through our room,¡± Namir answered for the pair of us stepping forward, still holding the leg. ¡°He lost . . .¡± The priest turned and stopped speaking as he beheld the lower leg of the thief, Jor. ¡°His leg?¡± he questioned, confused. However, who else¡¯s leg might it have been given the circumstances? ¡°His leg,¡± Namir confirmed tiredly. ¡°And just how . . .¡± the priest owlishly blinked. ¡°He put it where it didn¡¯t belong and lost it in the process.¡± He avoided exining the specifics as he handed it over. ¡°And why are you returning it?¡± He looked down at the leg in his hands. ¡°We arepleting our circumnavigation, and mypanion,¡± he gestured to me, ¡°Felt it was the least we could do. He seems to believe it can be reattached.¡± ¡°It was a remarkably clean cut.¡± The priest examined the end of the severed appendage. ¡°It¡¯s not impossible.¡± ¡°Then we will leave the leg in your capable hands.¡± Namir turned as if to leave, but the Priest objected. ¡°Come now,e now. Cami, er . . . food for our guests while I work. We so rarely get pilgrims. How could we let you leave without the most basic of wees and some provisions for your onward journey? Do you n on leaving soon?¡± ¡°Tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Then stay the night. I¡¯m sure Jor will wish to thank you when he wakes for the return of his leg at the least.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need; we have a room at Ice¡¯s End.¡± ¡°Well, at least stay while I work and Cami gets the provisions.¡± The priest focused on reattaching the leg of the unconscious Jor, and Namir and I found ourselves waiting for the provisions while he chatted away. ¡°We so rarely get true pilgrims. Most simply cut the corners, counting it done if they have visited all eight of the kingdoms. I hear some nobles simply make a circuit of the centralpass road as if that were a trial and im to have circumnavigated the kingdoms.¡± He nattered away as he worked. The leg must have been numb through some skill or numbing agents as Jor did not awaken as he reattached the leg. ¡°Are you travelling to petition one of the eight in particr?¡± ¡°Not one of the eight, no,¡± Namir answered. ¡°And you?¡± he asked me directly. Up until now, I had stood in Namir¡¯s shadow, although I was quietly watching the priest work and following his magic and skills as they stitched up veins, arteries, muscles, and skin. The man was a master at his craft. I felt a calm pressure to answer honestly. ¡°Not one of the eight, no,¡± I repeated Namir¡¯s answer word for word as I contemted the pressure. ¡°Then another,¡± he asked, still focused on his work. ¡°Not many believe in those beyond the cardinal and ordinal. But I hear nowadays that thepass is being divided even further than 16, even as far as up to 360 different bearings. Who are we to say we know all of the aspects of the divine.¡± Pulling the pair as if out of my bag in front of me when, in reality, I had carefully plucked them out of my spatial vault, I offered them up, ¡°I have some statues.¡± Chapter 244: Lost Gods Chapter 244: Lost Gods ¡°Land of lost gods and godlike men.¡± Lord Byron I¡¯de here to heal someone, not talk about the gods. Although I guess I was happy to sit back and let the priest patch up the thief who had tried to steal from us. His unconscious body was the only audience for the priest¡¯s words, as he had sent Cami to get us some provisions for the road. It seemed rude to decline and would only draw further notice, so we would ept them withoutint. ¡°Remarkable statues,¡± hemented, turning them over in his hands after healing the thief with the returned leg. Where did you find them?¡± he asked, intrigued and clearly interested in the statues'' providence. ¡°I made them,¡± I answered honestly and a little proudly. The images and inspiration had been divine, but the copies I made were all mine¡ªeach a work of art as I replicated the original sculptures. ¡°Then you have truly been blessed by the gods to have such tremendous talent at such a tender age.¡± He looked up from my masterpieces to reassess me. ¡°Have you considered working for the church?¡± There it was. The offer to co-opt my skills for those with a higher level of personal power or power through the organisation they belonged to. It was a benign enough question, but how he reacted to my refusal would be the true test of his character. ¡°No, thank you. A Bishop and Archbishop have offered the privilege before, but I am happy with the bearing I¡¯m on.¡± I answered as politely as possible, remembering and referencing both Bishop Bailie and Archbishop Grigori''s offers. It never hurts to mention your friends, especially if they are powerful. Even if they were a long, long way away, or maybe not, Archbishop Grigori might have passed through this town not too long ago. ¡°We are just passing through,¡± Namir added, his guttural growl an implicit intimidation to take our answer as it stood.¡°An Archbishop?¡± the priest questioned, sounding excited. ¡°Why, Archbishop Grigori passed through on his own circumnavigation not too long ago! No doubt by now he has returned home to be raised as Cardinal, quite the excitement for this year.¡± He gently probed or was merely genuinely excited by a northerner gaining one of the coveted seats on the Council of Cardinals in the Central Compass. I nodded in nomitment as I took in the information. This would be good for Wester Ponente and the expansion of our business to the centralpass, as our contract with the Lodestar Church for the purple dye they used to dye their robes was through him. It could only bode well for the Wester Isles if this were true. ¡°Yes, well.¡± The priest moved on from our silence, returning his focus to the statues he was still holding. ¡°I have the perfect ce for these if you want to look. Would you like to see my room of lost gods?¡± He asked before he returned the statues to my hands. ¡°Lost gods?¡± I asked, a little confused as I considered the statues in my hands. This had never been mentioned in all the lessons Bishop Bailie had given. ¡°The Lodestar Church venerates the eight. After all, there are four cardinal and four ordinal directions, eight noble races, and eight human kingdoms. It makes sense to keep it simple. There are even eight stats for most people, and the Church of the Lodestar splits the gods by their domains based on the races, inherent strengths and stats.¡± ¡°What about the Nobel Nine?¡± I asked because that is how humans rified the difference betweenmoners and nobles. ¡°Precisely, there are more things in heaven and earth, young man, than can be described by the simple number eight. Life, religion, theplexities of thepass kingdoms and the secrets of magic cannot always be so easily confined.¡± The impassioned priest was inspired in his monologue.¡± He was leading us out of the room in which the thiefy. ¡°What about . . .¡± I started to ask. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him. He is not going anywhere anytime soon. When he awakens in the morning, he and I will discuss his life choices.¡± He waved away my concern. ¡°What about the guards?¡± I couldn¡¯t imagine our Bishop intervening in our own mildly medieval judicial process quite so cavalierly. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Do you n on pressing charges?¡± He asked, surprised. ¡°No,¡± I answered honestly, if a little reluctantly. We did not have time forplications if we would be moving on so soon. This was alreadyplicated enough, thank you very much. ¡°Then this will be simpler for all involved, and I can hopefully inspire him to make the most of his good fortune and follow a different bearing in the future. What is a priest if not a guide to choose the better path under the light of the lodestar?¡± He asked depreciatingly. ¡°And if you can¡¯t?¡± Namir was neither pleased by our visit of mercy nor the fact that the man would potentially escape the consequences of his actions. As he asked, we walked past an open room, and I recognised the rune-covered stone standing like a silent sentinel in the centre of the room. Archbishop Grigori had indeed passed through here already, and the stone plinth marked his passage. ¡°Then I will know that I have tried,¡± he answered, unaware that he had momentarily lost my interest. ¡°Much like you now know, you did not let a man bleed to death.¡± He shrugged as if that settled the matter. Then he opened the door to show us a room with a multitude of iconography not connected with the leading eight Gods of the Lodestar church. ¡°These are gods?¡± I asked, surprised. ¡°Gods, spirits, godlings, heroes, it is a somewhat entric hobby of mine to document the history of thend before our arrival. The Lodestar Church does not proselytise it, but neither is it heretical, merely historical.¡± He chuckled at his little joke before continuing, ¡°Simr shrines can be found still on the edges of the Compass Kingdom, where the light of the Lodestar was thest to fall.¡± ¡°So many,¡± I mumbled as I walked around the room, examining the variety of iconography in both subject style and form. ¡°Who is to say more don¡¯t exist, or rather didn¡¯t exist?¡± he asked. Though your pieces are exquisite, I would be happy to give them a safe and sheltered spot here if you would leave me a copy,¡± he exined as he gestured to empty spots along the far wall. They were but stone, and I would be able to make recements soon. Fortuna had asked me to do this, but the opportunity''s manner and method differed from what I had anticipated. ¡°It would be my pleasure,¡± I answered with a little bow before cing the two statues in the alcove he had offered me to ce them in. ¡°Ah, Cami has returned.¡± He gestured to the returning Acolyte carrying a bundle of provisions for their journey. ¡°You didn¡¯t need to raid therder so much for us.¡± I grinned at therge parcels he was carrying. ¡°We have plenty, and it will not be missed.¡± The priest raised his hands in false protest at the idea of it being returned. ¡°Then we are grateful for your generosity. Come on, Kai.¡± Namir interjected, pulling me away. ¡°There¡¯s a few hours left of the night to rest in.¡± he said as we left the clergy and the church. . . . Ultimately, we left Ice¡¯s End Tavern as the sun rose after a fitful night¡¯s sleep. Heading quietly from the town''s water gates. Our visit had been moreplicated than either of us had expected, and we were keen to get back on the road. Reaching the river, I slipped our homegrown boat into the water before taking the spotter position at the front. I might have more skills out on the water, but Namir still had the muscle, and the river was easily travelled here. Wide and open, it would be no challenge for him, and we just had to stick to it enough to round the hills before we could resume our flight west once we were out of sight of the town. ¡°I know that your policy on the Western Isles is to rehabilitate and reintegrate people into new homes and their new lives, but you cannot save everyone, especially as we are miles away from home and effectively travelling on our own. Mercy is the privilege of the safe and secure to dispense with, and we are neither safe nor secure.¡± ¡°I know that we cannot save everyone or even a tenth of each town, but can''t we improve the life of at least one? After all, it makes a difference for that one.¡± . . . As Kai and Namir left the Drangavik, slipping silently along the watery road heading west to the coast in the early morning light, another was wakening elsewhere. ¡°Wee back to the world, Jor.¡± The priest said out loud as he saw the thief stirring. ¡°My leg!¡± Jor shouted, sitting straight up in shock only to realise it was still there. Gasping in relief, he said, ¡°Thank you, thank you, thank you.¡± He babbled in gratitude to the man he assumed had given him a miraculous healing beyond hisprehension and the paltry payment he had made on his desperate arrival. ¡°While your thanks are wee, the proper recipient should be the two travellers who returned the leg to me once you had passed out from the initial healing. I would not have been able to reattach or regrow it if it had not been returned.¡± ¡°They returned it?¡± He asked, confused. ¡°Whoever or wherever it was that you lost your lower leg. It was found in the Ice¡¯s End Tavern and returned here, and only its swift return allowed me to reattach it. You were fortunate to fall foul of such kind marks.¡± ¡°I . . .¡± He hesitated as the removal and return of his leg had thrown him off his game. Before continuing, he said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean.¡± He bluffed poorly, having already expressed his surprise at the fact that his leg had been returned. The priest, though, was not going to allow his dissembling. ¡°I am not a fool. I am fully aware that a man does not suddenly lose a leg near midnight unless he is cing it in ces he should not be,¡± he said, reaching the end of his patience after a long night monitoring his patient and dealing with unexpected guests. ¡°Now, fortune favours all fools equally, but I would consider my fate changed by the fortune you receivedst night. Take your time and reassess which direction you wish to travel in the light of the Lodestar. You have been given a gift,¡± He said, knocking the reattached foot, ¡°and it would be a shame to waste it.¡± They sat in contemtive silence for a moment before Jor asked sheepishly, ¡°Who were they?¡± ¡°They answered the names of Namir and Kai, but I suspect you already knew that.¡± He paused, ¡°But if you are asking who they truly were, I know no more than you do, but I can show you something they left behind other than the leg.¡± He gave his arm to help the freshly healed man regain his feet underneath him as he shifted off the bed, following him to the room he had so recently shown the two guests. ¡°Lost gods?¡± he asked, confused, as he walked with the priest through the church. ¡°What did they have to do with them?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but they did leave something to mark their passing, ¡°he pointed out the two statues left behind. ¡°Mortal messenger or divine demigod, who knows? Still, I would thank the pair who did not leave you by the side of the road to live out your life as a beggar. Give thanks and reflect on your luck.¡± The priest left the thief alone to contemte his life and his future in the room of lost gods. A tiny sliver of faith made its way up to the heavens as a former thief thanked whoever was responsible for his change in fortune. That he was still standing on his own two feet was miracle enough for him to believe and set a new bearing for his life. Chapter 245: Boating Chapter 245: Boating ¡°Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.¡± Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A Milne Our arrangement on the boat was swiftly switched. I made a far better steersman, and Namir, ufortable as he was on the water, still made a far better oarsman. We took our ease after an eventful night as we headed downriver toward the coast. We only needed the asional paddle to push us along or out of the way of approaching rocks. For the most part, the river ran deep and cold, filled with fresh ice water from the ins of Endless Ice. It might be far away, but this winding route was the easiest route to the coast. We had only nned to slip out of sight of Drangavik before stowing away our canoe and returning to the air. Still, it was such a smooth ride that we had passed long out of sight of Dragnavik before we pulled alongside the bank and disembarked. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t ask us to stop sooner,¡± Imented to Namir. ¡°What with your aversion to water and all.¡± I grinned. He shrugged, before exining, ¡°I have an aversion to drowning. With the water here, I could walk out of it at worst or simply run across.¡± He added, reminding me of the first time I had seen him face off against Arawn and race across the top of ourke to our inner ind. My smile slipped as I remembered home. As thrilling as our adventures had been, I missed my family and the familiarity and security of our home under the mountain. Sensing my disquiet, Namir reassured me, ¡°We will be home sooner than you think. I¡¯m happy to run if you want to work on your projects.¡± Work worked better than most things at distracting me from our location and I was still enjoying the wonder of my new skill, the spatial vault. ¡°Thank you for the offer, but I¡¯m enjoying the scenery,¡± I replied. I had been enjoying the river, and if we were not attempting to return home as swiftly as possible, I would have been happy to float down the river to the coast for the rest of the day. It was pretty rxing and a fun change of pace. Any change can often be as good as a break. Flying along the river would be a lot swifter, but I would still be able to see the scenery and get a feel for Tramontana, or at least this part of it. Our stay in Drangavik had been far too short for my tastes.¡°Very well,¡± Namir shrugged. ¡°Just remember I¡¯ll be a step away at all times but only able to help if you let me out before you need the help.¡± He reminded me that although I would be carrying him and he would be avable to help whenever I needed it, he would not actually be able to help unless I had opened the spatial vault to let him out. ¡°What are you going to work on?¡± I asked as I opened the vault, and we stowed away the canoe together. Namir no longer carried the load alone, as with the huge increase in the size of my vessel, my stats were now disying their worth with every extra pound of muscle I put on. ¡°I thought I might do a little bit of reading.¡± He answered, pointing out his corner of the spatial vault. He had collected a few items along our journey, along with a book or two. ¡°I don¡¯t usually have the opportunity to do so while travelling, and the only reason I picked up these books was because I knew that you would be able to keep them dry and protected. I might as well make the most of my free time.¡± He selected one off from his shelf and settled down to read. ¡°I¡¯ll be keeping an ear out, so just call if you need me.¡± He continued before burying himself in his book. Unoffended by my casual dismissal, I left the vault and closed it until all that remained of the opening was the ruined entrance anchored on my gifted ne. This was the true treasure of the north that I had received from Varvara. The ability to move the vault without sealing itpletely was essential in keeping Namir aware of our surroundings and in keepingmunication between the two of us open. With everything squared away, I was ready to take flight once more. ¡°Remember to keep low.¡± Namir¡¯s voice emerged from the ne just before I leapt into the sky. ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten,¡± I quickly answered. Although it was tempting to fly higher, keeping low should keep us out of sight of anyone we might encounter and prevent us from bing a tempting target for any flying beasts scanning the skies. Abination of air step and flight soon had me speeding through the sky along the river''s course. The Ice fields shed past as we sped to the west. The next town along the river was a couple of days away by boat, but at the speed we were going, we hoped to make it by lunchtime. It helped that we had left at first light. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Curving through the sky I followed the river that had carved its way through thendscape westward. I watched as arctic hares, wolves, and bears yed out their lives below me, spotting some new animals in my flight: Ermine, Snowshoe rabbits and Artic fox, but each one was only a momentary sh on my senses before we had swiftly soared above them. The rabbits and hares flinched and ran frightened as our shadow sped overhead. Even the wolves and foxes paused or turned to watch our departure with only the bears continuing unaffected by our passing other than a passing nce as they noticed our presence. Time sped by along with thendscape when disaster nearly struck. I was nearing the end of my mana and about to ask Namir to switch. Throughout my time hunting with the northern giants, I had grown better and better at having my senses fully deployed and running, and it was this practice that saved me from the sudden strike from above. ¡°Namir!¡± was all I had time to shout as a wild white Gryfalcon dove down from above. Switching from flight to Air step allowed me to stop suddenly and dodge back as it passed through the space I would have upied, its cruel ws outstretched for where it had nned to hit me in my back. The apex predator red its wings to pull out of the dive and turn back to attack me, standing still in the air as I watched it scream past and begin its turn. Unwilling to face it in the air, I dove for the ground as itpleted its turn, using airstep to push downward as fast as I could. I threw myself downward. The reason for the rabbits and hares flinching clear as day seeing as we must have crossed into its hunting territory. Diving to the ground, I kept my lead andnded before it was dived on me again. The giant bird was undeterred by my escape and still keen to im the meat on my bones. I missed the friendly Gyrfalcon from the Thorpe, Stamfar. This one was an uncontrolled menace. ¡°Heads up!¡± I shouted, and an entrance to my spatial vault shed open above my head as I held the ne upward in my palm. The gyrfalcon disappeared into the space with a scream before crashing into the stone gstones that paved it with a crunch. In its disorientated and bruised state, the cat that had been waiting for it quickly dispatched it. ¡°Proper nning and preparation prevent piss poor performance.¡± Namir smiled as I reorientated the vault¡¯s entrance and joined him inside. We had thought through a couple of scenarios and how best to respond to them. This had been a nearly wless execution, apart from the initial sudden surprise appearance of the threat. We had a few suggestions for the reverse of our travelling partnership, where I could surprise our attackers from within the vault while Namir faced off against them or defended us as we fled. I exhaled in relief at the manoeuver''s sess. Sure, I could have attempted to defeat the beast on my own, but surprised as I was, there was no harm in using my ally to defeat our foe. The adrenaline left my body a little shaken after the short violent encounter. That had been close. ¡°Nevertheless, I think I would like to stretch my legs a little for the next leg,¡± he said as he took me in and headed out. ¡°How much further?¡± he asked as he passed me, patting me on the shoulder in respect for the wless execution of our agreed-upon n for dealing with airborne threats. ¡°Should be there soon enough,¡± I nodded in thanks as I consulted my mental map of how far we had travelled andpared it to the copy the giants had given us my mind. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to it then,¡± Namir said from outside as he left me with the corpse of my attacker. I copsed the entrance and started processing the gyrfalcon. We would not be eating it. Birds of prey tended to taste foul, their internal organs toxic. Even in this world and with mana, they were unappetising. That did not mean that they could not be harvested for resources though. While we would not be eating its meat, we could still store it and use it as bait for other beasts, and their fine feathers were worth a pretty penny, but that was not all that I was after. It was no surprise that a bird of this size held a core within its chest and it was this that I was after. Cutting into its chest, I opened the ribs to reveal the core nestled behind the sternum or, instead, what was called the keel or carina of the bird. The prominent keel was the secret behind its power. Able to anchor therger muscles, it provided the gyrfalcon with greater power for its flight. The scintiting core joined the collection that glowed with inner lights created by the mana they absorbed over their lifetimes. Not long after I had finished processing the beast, my name was called from outside. ¡°Kai, we have aplication. Come outside in three.¡± Namir called into the vault. I waited for three before expanding the exit giving Namir time to ce it away from his body. I emerged to a new set of scenery. Drangasfjord stood on the horizon, but I quickly noticed what Namir had. A group of humans aboard a boat on the river were making their way to the town, too, and worse, they were between us and the city. ¡°I can make it to Drangasfjord for lunch if I cut across,¡± he pointed out the way the river looped and wound its way into the town. ¡°But we have a choice to make. Either I head into the city alone, cutting straight across, or you apany me on the run there. Alternatively, we get the boat out to follow on behind them. Regardless, we cannot go any further without being seen by the people on the barge, if not the town.¡± ¡°Pro and cons?¡± I asked. ¡°Hmm, pro¡¯s to keeping you hidden away. Let me think . . .¡± he paused as if thinking before continuing sarcastically. ¡°Well, for starters, we might just make it through the town without people attempting to rob us. Then, there is a possibility that, for once, giant beasts and monsters will not attack us or the town we live in. Not to mention the sheer social disruption you can cause simply by existing.¡± ¡°That is a little bit of an exaggeration,¡± I defended. ¡°Maybe, but not by much.¡± He contended. ¡°Cons?¡± ¡°If you appear once in town, they will ask where you came from, for starters. Sudden appearances rarely mean or end well for either party. Secondly, if your godly patron expects you to continue to leave statues in your wake, she will hardly be happy with you if you avoid handing them out. I have no desire to add a god to my list of enemies.¡± Considering the cons, despite Namir¡¯s wish for a quiet transition through the town, the answer was obvious, ¡°So, boat or foot?¡± I asked. ¡°Seeing as we left Drangavik by boat, we should probably arrive on it at Drangasfjord.¡± He admitted. ¡°Boat it is, then,¡± I said as I pulled the canoe out of my vault and slid it into the river. ¡°We should still get there in time for dinner,¡± I added, seeing as Namir seemed to think it was a shame he would not get there for lunch. Chapter 246: New in Town Chapter 246: New in Town ¡°Folks around these parts freeze to death all the time.¡± ¡°Especially the stupid ones.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nature¡¯s way of thinning out the herd if you ask me.¡± New in Town, Film It did not take us long to catch up to the group ahead of us, as their boat,den with goods from Drangavik and beyond, was significantly slower than our smaller, lighter canoe. Nyx enjoyed sitting on the prow and ring her wings in the wind, with the cold no longer affecting her. As we caught up, they raised a hand or nodded in greeting, but we were closing in on the gate into the town, so we were both soon busy negotiating our entrance, and they had no chance to interrogate us, focused as they were on the entrance guards. ¡°That¡¯ll be five silver for your entrance fee.¡± The guard said as the group pulled into the guard station. A chain across the river stopped them from sailing straight by, not that they would have been able to outrun the guards should they have chased after themden as their boat was with goods. ¡°Five? Come on, it''s just one barge.¡± We overheard the merchant arguing. ¡°And five men,¡± the guard countered, counting the group out as if he had forgotten. It¡¯s one each, as usual. Walls don¡¯t defend themselves.¡±¡°I wouldn¡¯t need five to ride the river if you kept the beasts down along it and outside your walls.¡± He argued. ¡°Take that up with the mayor. I enforce the rules not make them. Now, are you going to hand over five silver, or am I going to keep the chain where it is and start to search your barge for contraband as well?¡± He questioned while unswerving in his demand. The barge was now pressed against the chain and was blocking the river as we grew ever closer to the town¡¯s river entrance. ¡°Fine.¡± He exhaled as he pped five silver pieces into the guard''s hand, and then lowered the chain to let the barge through. Seeing the process, Namir tossed two silver pieces across to the guard as we followed through in the barge¡¯s wake, only to be surprised by half a silver pieceing back to us. ¡°Only half for the child.¡± The guard answered his double take of confusion, either at the fact that there was an honest river guard or the fact that I was only counted as half. I had not felt any inspection or been questioned. ¡°How could you tell?¡± I asked as we passed by. ¡°A skill,¡± he shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re not going to argue you¡¯re a man, are you?¡± He chuckled as if expecting me to bristle at having my manhood challenged in front of others. ¡°My nephews are forever trying to get hired on for jobs above their age or level.¡± ¡°No.¡± I wasn¡¯t offended; I was merely intrigued by whatever skill he had that had somehow bypassed my own privacy skills to reveal anything about me. ¡°What¡¯s the skill?¡± ¡°True toll, you don¡¯t have to worry that I¡¯m inspecting every entrant to Drangasfjord.¡± He seemed remarkably open and trusting for a guard, something Namir seemed to pick up on. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Not much trouble on the route?¡± Namir quizzed. ¡°Only beasts who stick to hitting travellers rather than the town. No, the true bandits around these parts live within the walls.¡± He advised a little caution as we passed on by into the town true. ¡°Thanks for the honest advice.¡± Namir flicked the half silver back in rpense, and it promptly disappeared into his pocket with a flick of his hand. An honest guard but still only a man, not a saint. ¡°If you¡¯re staying the night, try the River Inn just past the dock. You can¡¯t miss it and say Sedjorn sent you.¡± These were hisst words before he raised the chain once more and turned to watch the river and guard the approach. I did not fail to notice the gate that could be dropped across the river and the need to watch the approach. Beasts might prey more on travellers than the town but that was not to say that they had never hit it at all. It did not take us long to reach the dock and even less time to reach the River Inn after we had tied up our boat and paid a docking fee to ensure that it would be there when we returned. It was not at all hard to find, as it could be opposite the dock. ¡°Sedjorn sent us,¡± Namir exined as he asked for a room for the night for the pair of us. ¡°And?¡± The innkeeper said shaking his head in exasperation. ¡°We can look elsewhere if there is no room,¡± Namir answered confused by the exasperation. ¡°No, no,¡± the innkeeper said, waving away the suggestion. ¡°It¡¯s Sedjorn, not you. He seems to think that if he rmends my inn above others to everyone whoes in along the river, this will somehow endear me to the idea of him courting my daughter. Most river traffic visits here with or without him saying anything. I mean did you see another Inn on your way in?¡± He asked, proving his own point, to himself. ¡°Now a room for the night that I can do. Will you be staying long?¡± ¡°Just passing through,¡± Namir answered for the pair of us. ¡°Then that¡¯ll be two silver for the night.¡± He said, holding out his hand. ¡°And lunch?¡± Namir asked as he handed over two silvers for us. ¡°Five coppers each for the stew; anything else you want, you can ask, Asta.¡± He pointed out the tall buxom blonde serving the busy tables. ¡°My daughter.¡± He cautioned as Namir handed over another ten coppers. ¡°Right this way travellers.¡± Happy to have received our coin he led us to our seats near the fire, ¡°Asta will be over in a moment. Enjoy the meal when it arrives.¡± . . . It was not long before the meal was delivered with a smile from Asta, who paused toment, ¡°Not often we see a beastkin so far north.¡± ¡°Just passing through.¡± Namir¡¯sment did not dissuade the young woman from her curiosity. ¡°And you?¡± she asked me directly. Seeing she wouldn¡¯t be leaving without at least the smallest answer, I added, ¡°We¡¯re on a circumnavigation.¡± Seeing as this was the most straightforward and possibly honest answer. At the same time, Namir answered gruffly, ¡°My grandson.¡± Tucking into the stew to avoid further conversation and gesturing for me to do the same. Unafraid of the silence broken only by our spoons of stew, she continued excitedly. ¡°Then you will have to visit our Lodestar Church. I¡¯d be happy to show you the way. Seeing as it wasn¡¯t working, Namir stopped eating to answer hastily, ¡°No need to trouble yourself.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no trouble at all. We are winding up for the evening meals, and my brothers tend to serve the inn when the ale starts flowing, Fadio insists.¡± Seeing as we would not be leaving the Inn without an escort. We gave up attempting to and nodded. Asta swept back into the kitchen behind the bar and we could hear her informing her father of our circumnavigation and that she would be showing us to the church of the Lodestar after we finished our meal. ¡°Kai, a short visit, leave a statue, then back to the Inn.¡± Namir reminded me of the n. ¡°Yes, Dad.¡± I grumped. . . . We finished our food quickly, as we were both hungry. I suspected that Namir was hoping that we could slip out ahead of Asta, but she was ready to leave when we were. ¡°It¡¯s this way.¡± She smiled as we set out. ¡°So what is it like circling civilisation?¡± She asked as soon as we set out. ¡°Cold,¡± I answered. While Namir answered, ¡°Wet.¡± ¡°Yes, here, but what have you seen elsewhere?¡± she asked, her enthusiasm undamaged by our short answers. Not wanting to lie or lead her astray and hoping to dampen her enthusiasm a little, I gave a little more detail: ¡°The Endless Ice was freezing, cold, and the white went on without end. But it wasn¡¯t empty; all sorts of beasts were waiting to make a meal out of me.¡± Judging by the continuing questions, this did not dissuade her. ¡°People always tell me that if the beasts don¡¯t get you, the ice will. And wet?¡± She asked for more details on Namir¡¯s answer. ¡°We were trapped in a storm on the sea; it did not end well. When we were not drenched from the rain, we spent our time struggling not to sink into the sea.¡± ¡°That sounds amazing.¡± She was still fascinated by our trip. ¡°It was terrifying.¡± But it did not matter what I said; she was still interested. Luckily, we had arrived at the Lodestar Church; the town was not too big, so we were able to say goodbye. ¡°Here we are.¡± Namir pointed out, dismissing her as he turned to enter the church. For once, he was leading the way to faith rather than running away from it. ¡°Thank you,¡± I told her as she stopped at the bottom of the building''s steps. Together, we entered and left her outside. Chapter 247: Balancing the scales Chapter 247: Bncing the scales ¡°Life is a series of sudden disappearances, leave-takings without the proper goodbyes.¡± Kelly Link ¡°Wee in the light of the lodestar.¡± A voice intoned as we entered a blue light shining down on the entrance we had passed through. But looking up, we realised it was just a trick of the light with a stained ss blue window ced to catch and colour the light over the entrance. The actual shard was hidden further into the church, as was tradition. Still, the window was a delight to behold. A scene depicting the light of the lodestar pushing out the darkness to the edges of thepass kingdoms and the depths of the lodestone. ¡°Forgive me the theatrics. I seldom get to make new first impressions, and the light lends itself to them so well. Now, how can I help you?¡± the priest asked. He was clearly interested in the two new faces in his town and possibly his congregation. Namir was always going to draw attention this far north. We had only seen humans, giants, and a half-dwarf north of the mountain range that separated Tramontana from the other kingdoms. ¡°We are just passing through on our circumnavigation and hoped to spend some time in the light before we moved on to our next destination,¡± Namir answered for the pair of us. As always, he hoped for a swift passage through Drangasfjord, preferably withoutplications. ¡°Of course, of course, this way,¡± he said as he led us deeper into the building. It was not particrly big, but that was not surprising considering the town''s size and the distance from the centre of the Compass Kingdoms. We did not really need a guide, but he, like Asta, seemed starved for novelpany and continued to apany us. ¡°Where did youst stop?¡± he asked as he led us to the altar where the Lodestar rested. ¡°Drangavik,¡± Namir answered shortly, not borating further. But that did not deter him, ¡°How is Father Gothi?¡± he kept questioning.We paused, confused for a second, and I realised we had never actually learned the name of the priest we had met in Drangavik, so short had been our conversation and passing. ¡°He was well when we met. He even showed us his room of lost gods,¡± I answered for the two of us after Namir let the question linger either from confusion or by design. Even though I avoided the reason for our conversation, the thief with the missing leg, this still gained me a re from Namir as the priest turned to answer me. Unaware of Namir¡¯s re, the priest continued, ¡°I spent a year training with him as an acolyte. He was always fascinated with the past before the church''s spread of the lodestar¡¯s light. I confess I am not as enamoured with trying to tease out the truth of past events. But I do not begrudge him in his interests. Here, on the edge of the endless ice, life can be a little of a whiteout. Anything that adds a little colour to the day or your faith is wee to break up the monotony. I like to fish myself but I even have an alcove here in respect of the tradition he is building.¡± He pointed out a small alcove to the right of the vestibule holding the Shard of the Lodestar where he had led us. ¡°A few of us in the north who trained under him have done the same. Though some to keep him fromining when he visits or avoid rebuke through our correspondence. Warm and weing to his congregation he may be, but he can also be a force of nature to those he has trained and has expectations of.¡± He gave himself a little shake as if relieving unpleasant past memories. After thest re I received, I kept silent, and Namir let the quiet lengthen until our host noticed and filled it with words of departure as he realised we wished to be left alone. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you two to it,¡± he said as he excused himself. ¡°Call if you need anything at all.¡± He nodded in eptance of our silence; his duties were covered, and he left us to it. Once he had left earshot, Namir was sinct in his instructions: ¡°Touch the Lodestar, ce the statues, and then let¡¯s be on our way.¡± After ourst visit to a town, he hesitated to leave me alone or to my own devices for too long. Nodding my head in agreement, I ced my hand on the lodestar, watching it brighten in acknowledgement of my presence but not the catastrophic re I had once caused by my escaping mana now that my mana was held within by the cores I had formed. I grinned at the memory and moved on to remove my hand when I heard a voice. ¡°Well done, Kai.¡± I was not surprised by the sudden voice within my mind. Fortuna had praised me. However, I was confused by the content, and my silent question was instantly answered. ¡°Thanks to you, I have another new believer,¡± she replied. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°The thief?¡± I asked, surprised. But I guess any near-death experience can cause a man to reassess their life choices. ¡°Yes, Jor.¡± She chuckled, amused at my mental tone. ¡°Another?¡± I questioned, surprised by the plurality of her answer. ¡°Did you think you left such little an impression?¡± she asked quizzically.I knew I had made an impression but had doubted that it would generate much faith for Fortuna. ¡°The giants respect and are grateful for your defence of their Thorpe and honour your memory with remembrance. Varvara even made you your own, an ice-covered, half-frozen child with winged feet opening a portal with a stone-capped, metal-runed, elven wooden staff from which destruction reigns forth on top of the corpse of an ice giant. It really is quite striking even if she has taken a few artistic liberties with its production.¡± Sheughed, her voice spinning golden lights and threads through my mind as I contemted the image she had created in my mind of the statue. My mind froze, shocked at the image and that Varvara would do such a thing. I was no hero. I had gotten lucky with my defeat of the titan and thought everyone had known that but were simply grateful for my sess. As my mind unstuck from the shock of the revtions, she continued, ¡°Your statue and mine there have started to give me some small measure of faith. They know they were lucky, and their faith follows that knowledge. But let us move swiftly on.¡± She cut herself off. ¡°The Lodestar and its light allows for a cheapermunication cost, but our time is not unlimited. Honestly, it helps that with your skills, we can speak mind to mind.¡± ¡°Thank you for thepliments and information, but what do you wish to impart? I was confused about what she might wish to say and a little worried about what I might be asked to do next. ¡°I am following our agreement toplete a circumnavigation in your service.¡± I defended my actions so far. ¡°Can a goddess not reward her champion for services rendered, especially when you go above and beyond expectations?¡± She asked, amused by my caution. But continued regardless of my unspoken answer. Her voice and attitude changed, bing more formal, ¡°In rpense for your service thus far, I thought I would help you make the most of your circumnavigation and bnce the scales between us.¡± Bnced in whose favour I wondered while I projected within my head the question, ¡°What and how?¡± ¡°Take your earring, open it and touch your splinter of the Lodestar to the shard of the Lodestar seated on the Altar, and I will show you.¡± Shemanded without exactly answering the question of what or how it would be that she would rpense with me. ¡°Come now, Kai, our time is fleeting despite the speed at which we are conversing.¡± She chided; her words made me realise that despite pausing as I removed my hand from the lodestar, it was still touching. Had time been flowing normally, Namir would have already intervened or questioned what exactly I was spending so long thinking about, with the conversation happening silently in my head. As requested, I removed the earring, opened it, and ced it against the Lodestar. Only now noticing my deviation from his instructions, Namir asked out loud, ¡°Kai?¡± as he questioned what exactly I was doing. With the splinter touching the shard once more, time seemed to freeze as Fortuna spoke to me directly again. ¡°You see,¡± Fortuna continued, now that I was following her instructions. ¡°Archbishop Grigori was doing oh so much more than merely circumnavigating thepass kingdoms in preparation for being raised to cardinal and gaining an understanding of the regions of the Compass Kingdoms. He was also building something or rather a route between the Lodestar Shards.¡± ¡°A route?¡± I asked internally, confused, but I was beginning to suspect what the answer might be. ¡°Channels between the Compass Points marked by the runed-stone menhir¡¯s he ced, such as the one on your ind, as well as the Shards of the Lodestar in the churches he visited. They have been ced on ley lines rising from the depths of the Lodestone to help power the metaphysical channels.¡± She exined. ¡°I can go home directly?¡± I asked quickly. Excited by the possibility of a swift return. ¡°Unfortunately, not. You can only take a channel when you have already travelled to the exiting locus already. Each intersection on the horizon¡¯s edge must be logged within the splinter in your ring before you can travel between them.¡± She dowsed my enthusiasm with reality.I sighed internally. There would be no swift return home for me; I could only instantly return the way I had already travelled, which helped me not at all. ¡°But I have already been there; this splinter was taken from the shard on the isle,¡± I argued. ¡°Surely that should be enough.¡± I was not quite ready to give up on the possibility. ¡°In the future, it would, but Archbishop Grigori did not create the circumference channels for instant travelling until the circumnavigation wasplete, and even then, the exit points must be logged in your Splinter for you to be able to use them.¡± She described the key to utilising this new form of travel. ¡°Now, enough arguing with reality. Let me demonstrate.¡± ¡°Focus and follow my thoughts.¡± Using Astral Projection, I sent my mind up into the stratosphere, following Fortuna, only to have her pause and point down. Used to having seen her show me the threads of fortune and fate in glimmering gold, I was surprised to see three points of iridescent blue marking thendscape below me. The locations were obvious by their positioning: Drangasfjord, Drangavik and Thorpe. ¡°Three? I thought I had to log their locations.¡± I asked, disappointed. It was an impressive ability, but not the one that I wanted. ¡°Your splinter has visited these three since thepletion of thepass channels. It remembers them,¡± she replied, rebuking my greediness. ¡°So I can go backwards but not forwards,¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. You could go back to Drangavik or even translocate to Thorpe with the locations marked by your splinter, but not forwards,¡± she answered. ¡°I thought you should know.¡± ¡°How?¡± I asked. ¡°Throw your soul towards the light of the lodestar that you wish to exit from, supply the mana, and the light of the lodestar contained within the splinter will do the rest.¡± She outlined what I needed to do and demonstrated. Fascinated, I found myself copying the motions and applying the mana. In Drangasfjord¡¯s church of the Lodestar, heart racing, Namir''s eyes red in disbelief, frustration, and swiftly rising anger. He found himself quietly cursing the elven tutor who had introduced him to his current student and the empty space that had once upied his ever-increasingly infuriating Lord, Kai Silversea. Before biting his tongue less, he cursed the name of the goddess he believed was responsible for his current disappearance. Chapter 248: Abra Kadabra Chapter 248: Abra Kadabra ¡°The famous ¡®Abra Kadabra¡¯ originates from Aramaic, which was spoken in biblical times, and means: I will create with my words.¡± Mor M. Cohen Lurching, I steadied myself on the shard of the Lodestar in front of me. It felt off. A little lower and a little smaller. I opened my eyes in astonishment and found myself standing in the sealed altar room of Drangavik, where we had been only but yesterday. As my senses rolled out, temporarily suspended by my translocation, a wave of relief rushed through me that no one had seen my arrival, followed by a wave of dread. Namir was going to be pissed at my sudden disappearance. Chuckling to myself, I took a deep breath as the true magic of the moment hit me, ¡°Abra Kadabra.¡± I joked, taking my hands off the stone and gesturing, forgetting for a second that someone was still listening in on my thoughts. ¡°You''re not a god, Kai.¡± She rebuked. ¡°Even we no longer create with our words now that the world is written in stone.¡± Instantly understanding the sub-context and historical references behind my thoughts. Archbishop Grigori was far more ambitious than I realised. This would change the Compass continent forever. Were the Kings and Queens of the Compass Kingdoms aware of what he had achieved? Defending the Thorpe from the Ice Giant would just have required a distress call, and warriors could have emerged from within the settlement to defend it, at least in theory. Obviously, there were a few practicalities to be aplished first, such as sufficient warriors having circumnavigated thepass kingdoms on pilgrimages to log the locations of the intersectional exits within their own splinters of the Lodestar. Unless . . . I paused, thinking if a single individual could carry more than themselves through the light of the lodestar. How did that even work exactly? They said that science beyondprehension was indistinguishable from magic. Was this magic? Science? Or something else? It did not fall under my understanding of mana or any of the other magics of the noble races, but humans or at least Archbishop Grigori had somehow managed it. Worried, I wondered, was this also a prelude to war? Did the Church n on conquering the kingdoms? A secret army of pdins would wreak havoc if unsuspected attacks could beunched from within the capitals themselves. He had so many new questions, and that was while he was ignoring his notifications of another new skill he had gained. He would have time to process thatter.Interrupting his musing, her voice spoke into his mind, ¡°Time to return before your guardian rends Drangsfjord¡¯s Shard into splinters in frustration and destroys your exit.¡± Fortuna awoke him from his daydreaming with the knowledge of what might happen if he dyed too long. It was time to depart before his arrival here was discovered or his departure from Drangsfjord¡¯s was noted. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Touching the Shard of the Lodestar once more, he threw his mind out of his body. Looking down from on high, he located the light of the lodestar to the west in Drangsfjord. He threw his spirit and then felt his body pulled as the splinter somehow recognised and fulfilled his wish, bringing his mortal vessel along to follow his soul into the reality he had left only minutes ago. ¡°Later, Kai,¡± Herst words echoed in my mind as Fortuna said farewell. He returned to a room unchanged but with a tiny difference. He was now having to face off against a mildly enraged catkin warrior who was clearly restraining himself from grabbing him despite his flexing ws and outreached arms. He was still holding his position. ¡°What did you do?¡±he demanded, whispering harshly as his ward and Lord returned. Careful of creating toorge a scene should the priest return to see what all the fuss was about if he screamed at his young charge. ¡°Abra Kadabra,¡± I whispered back. But he did not get the joke. No, he did not look pleased at all. Distracting myself from the situation, for a second, I looked at my notifications. Ding! Teleportation (Lv1) Yes! A new skill. Perhaps that was a good enough excuse. ¡°New skill.¡± I continued in a whisper, as if that solved all of my problems and answered all his questions. The system rewarded my action with a skill that represented the reality of my achievement. I wondered how far it would take me and whether or not I might need it to escape my enraged guardian. ¡°New skill?¡± He questioned suspiciously, clearly still not happy with my temporary translocation. ¡°Teleportation?¡± I half asked as if that might be enough to absolve me from his displeasure. ¡°You have a teleportation skill?¡± His face had gone nk, having finally gained control of his features. They had been so hard to read once upon a time when we had first met, but now . . . nope, they were back to being hard to read. His emotions were hidden once more behind a nk face. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered a little more confidently. ¡°And just how did you get a teleportation skill when standing still next to the Lodestar?¡± He was aware that any such skill would have required near-instantaneous movement over distance for the system to recognise it. ¡°Where exactly did you disappear to?¡± ¡°Drangavik,¡± I answered a little less confidently. With the Shards of the Lodestar, I could leave him miles behind, and I sensed that he was less than thrilled with that fact. ¡°I just . . . ¡° he threw his hands in the air and departed the church. He left so quickly that we did not even see the priest who had weed us only minutes ago. Scampering after him, I caught up just as he exited to find Asta still awaiting our return. ¡°Are you forgetting something?¡± He asked as I reached his side. ¡°No?¡± I was a little anxious about answering his questions. ¡°The statues.¡± He reminded me. ¡°Ah, yes. I¡¯ll just be a minute.¡± I rushed back to unceremoniously deposit two statues within the alcove the priest had indicated before rushing back out to find Asta¡¯s offers of help being equally brusquely rebuffed. ¡°Thank you for the offer, but we will be fine returning to the inn.¡± Those were the words I heard as I exited for the second time. ¡°Well, if you''re tired . . .¡± She paused, uncertain of what to say in the face of his silent staring. ¡°Thank you for offering, ¡° I mediated. ¡°But we are truly tired.¡± I attempted to moderate his blunt refusal. This left us awkwardly returning to the inn together but apart each one of us in their own little worlds as we contemted the changes of the day. Asta had seen some excitement in new faces, but they had turned cold when pressed. Namir had both lost and found his ward and charge within a single room, no less. And I had taken the first step towards a bright new future for the Wester Isles. There would be so much I could achieve with this once I returned home. Chapter 249: Accidental Adventure Chapter 249: idental Adventure ¡°You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.¡± Abraham Lincoln We walked back to the inn in stony silence. I was a little sheepish now that I had considered how far I had travelled; what if I had been unable to make it back? Then there was Asta, who was a little crushed by the cold shoulder she was receiving from Namir. And Namir? I was unsure what he was thinking or feeling, but his intimidating presence did not invite continued conversations. We entered the inn only to nearly bump into Sedjorn just as he was leaving and, judging by the look on his face, looking for Asta. ¡°There you are. Your father said you had gone to the temple. Want to take a walk.¡± He offered. ¡°Not tonight,¡± Asta murmured as she pushed into the inn. Slipping past her suitor, her whole demeanour changed as her face lit up when she started to work the crowd on the way back to the bar. Which face was correct: the sadness we had sensed on the way back or the current cheerful personality bubbling around the tables, picking up sses as she went? It was impossible to tell, but it was not our problem either way. We were just passing through. ¡°Kai, room,¡± Namirmanded as we watched her work the crowd. We headed straight for the stairs to return to our room. Poor Sedjorn was left at the doorway, unsure of whether to actually leave the inn or return and attempt to find a seat when the room was so full and busy. Even when the door finally closed to our room, Namir still silently stalked through it, gesturing ahead into the small cubby attached to it. Understanding without words, I opened up the entrance to my spatial vault in the tiny privy that came with the room. It was a superficialyer of deception, but it would prevent anyone who barged into the room from seeing the portal. I stepped in ahead of him before Namir followed me into the privy and the portal, closing the door behind him as we went. Once we had entered, he ordered, ¡°Close the portal.¡± I closed the entrance, hiding us from the world. ¡°What happened ?¡± He finally asked. ¡°Fortuna said hello and even thanked me for spreading her faith and rewarding me with a new skill.¡± I summarised the conversation we had during that moment of frozen time.¡°So . . . teleportation?¡± I rified to a hiss of air as he inhaled through his teeth. ¡®Yes.¡± I haven¡¯t tried it yet, but it sounds powerful.¡± I was excited by my new acquisition. ¡°It is indeed,¡± Namir confirmed. ¡°Neither is it easy to get. The only way I have heard of it being gained is as follows. Run, Sprint, Dash, sh Step, Blink, Teleportation. Congrattions, another Tier 6 Skill.¡± ¡°Tier 6,¡± I grinned, quickly checking my status to see it engrained there. Working with gods was vexing in many different ways, but the rewards were worth it. ¡°So, how does it work?¡± He asked, apprehensive of the chaos I might be able to cause when I could instantly disappear from his sight. ¡°When I touch the shards of the Lodestar, I can use their power to travel back to the Shards I have already logged in my own splinter,¡± I exined. ¡°Is that the only way you can use it?¡± He asked. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t tested it on my own yet.¡± I pointed out. ¡°But I¡¯m sure I can use it for more than just that.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s wait till we are on the road again. Rather than have you appearing down in themon room and causing chaos.¡± He said, scratching behind his ears with his ws as if vexed by a particrly bothersome itch. ¡°We move on tomorrow. Feed Nyx and get some sleep.¡± ¡°Nyx?¡± I called out as I opened the stone door to the ice chamber where the Ice Giant core rested and pulled out some meat. I expected her to leap down from her own sleeping area within the vault, only to be left waiting. ¡°Nyx?¡± I called out, confused. She always attacked her food voraciously seeming to inhale her food until she was unable to cram any more in. It was unlikely for her to leave me waiting even for a moment. The main problem had always been keeping her out of the store room. Hence, the carefully bnced stone door and stone locks keep her out. ¡°Cursed ws.¡± Namir¡¯s expletive caught me by surprise. ¡°She¡¯s escaped!¡± Nyx had been kept in the vault in an attempt to avoidplications. It seemed she had somehow escaped. Was it when we arrived back? Or had it been earlier? Had the teleportation somehow released her from my vault? These were the thoughts that ran through my head as we dashed down the stairs and back into themon room. I was ring all my sensory skills, hoping to pick up any trace of her. I was picking up all sorts of interesting information but none of it was pertinent to where on earth she had disappeared off to. Namir hailed the innkeeper, ¡°We seem to have misced our pet, you wouldn¡¯t have happened to have seen her?¡± He quickly asked. ¡°A pet? You didn¡¯t mention any pets, and I didn¡¯t see one either.¡± He answered annoyed we had one or unconvinced that she existed. ¡°No one has been up to your rooms. If that is what you are implying.¡± ¡°She is usually no problem. Stays tucked away in our bags or rooms when we are passing through towns and has never caused a problem before on our circumnavigation.¡± ¡°Exactly what kind of pet are we talking about?¡± He asked, concerned that we might actually be telling the truth. ¡°She is ck, about this big.¡± He gestured an approximation of her increasing size. ¡°Silver speckles, wing span around this much.¡± He put his arms out. ¡°Your pet is a hunting bird?¡± He questioned sceptical once more ¡°Not exactly a bird.¡± Namir hedged. Leading the Innkeeper to the worst conclusion, ¡°A beast? You brought a beast into my inn!¡± He whispered harshly. ¡°She¡¯s a dragonling.¡± I interrupted cutting to the heart of the matter. ¡°Not a beast a noblepanion,¡± I argued. ¡°Ja! And it¡¯s escaped?¡± The innkeeper was not taking this well. ¡°We don¡¯t know. We just know she wasn¡¯t there when we got back from the church. She could have escaped or been taken. A thief tried to take something from our rooms in Drangavik.¡± ¡°No one thieves in the River Run,¡± He objected fiercely, ¡°Asta,¡± He called her back to the bar and our harshly whispered conversation. ¡°Check the kitchens. Our guests have lost their . . . pet.¡± He avoided exining precisely what she was looking for. ¡°What am I looking for?¡± She asked, confused. ¡°You¡¯ll know it if you see it.¡± He answered abruptly. ¡°Now go.¡± ¡°She answers to Nyx,¡± I added before she passed through the door and she nodded her head in acknowledgement. ¡°If she¡¯s still here, we will find her.¡± The innkeeper dered. ¡°But if she isn¡¯t, then you will want to find her before she catches the eye of the local lord. The man is particrly partial to novelty, and if he finds her, he won¡¯t want to let her go.¡± Namir nodded in acknowledgement before swiftly leaving with me in his wake. ¡°I¡¯ll circle south. You circle north and remember to try to keep it calm and not cause any more chaos, Kai.¡± With those parting words, he skipped across the flowing river in a single step to search the south of the town while I tackled the north. . . . A brisk walkter, I covered all the local streets north of the River Run, working my way back and forth to the river and then tracing another arc further afield. With my sensory skills running at full strength, I had uncovered and mapped the sewage system below me, the interiors of people¡¯s houses, and noted what those people were up to. But I had yet toe across Nyx. I was beginning to get worried. ¡°No luck?¡± I shouted across the river to Namir as we met once more on our arcs. It had not happened often, but we were searching in simr methods and avoiding running or flying and the attention it would draw to us. ¡°No,¡± Namir answered. ¡°And I find theck of tracks suspicious. We find her, and we go.¡± Namir finally voiced what we had been worrying about. ¡°I¡¯m nearly at the noble¡¯s house.¡± Over my travels, I had gotten to know the town and knew I would be soon passing by. ¡°Leave it tillst.¡± Namir cautioned, ¡°Let¡¯s clear the rest of the town first.¡± Neither of us wanted to cross that bridge until we had to. An hourter, we had to. . . . ¡°Yes, I saw the beast.¡± These were the words I needed to hear, but what followed were not the words that I wanted ¡°Where?¡± I asked. ¡°Here, it descended down onto my stall. Remarkably clever, that dragonling. It waited patiently for me to feed it. Never seen one before, mind you, but I¡¯ve heard of them. I didn¡¯t think that they could travel this far north without being looked after and kept warm.¡± ¡°It was,¡± I answered his rhetorical question acerbically. ¡°What happened next?¡± ¡°Well, after the initial scare, I fed it some fish, seeing as it had waited so patiently. But the guards had seen it, and no one was iming it as theirs, so they took it to Lord Njord.¡± He shrugged, unaffected by the oue. Chapter 250: The Grass is always Greener Chapter 250: The Grass is always Greener ¡°The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.¡± James Oppenheim ¡°Lord Njord?¡± I asked, concerned. Bypassing, waiting for Namir, and quickly questioning our first lead. Who in the depths of the Lodestone Labyrinth was Lord Njord? It was a stupid name anyway. The stallkeeper, recognising my frustration, chose to rephrase and borate. ¡°Jarl Njord . . .¡± He paused as if I should know who that was. Confused, he continued, ¡°He is in charge of the Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol.¡± As if that would enlighten us when we were passing through and had not seen the point of learning the politicalndscape when we would be beyond it in a day or two. ¡°Where does he live?¡± I asked, worried about what we might find ourselves wrapped up in and focused on retrieving mypanion. How the heck Nyx had escaped my own personal spatial vault was beyond me. ¡°He is staying in the GryFalcon¡¯s Ledge. Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol are just his towns. Usually, he resides in Castle Dranga, but he is collecting taxes this time of the year and touring his towns in the process.¡± He correctly interpreted what I was genuinely asking: Where was Lord Njord right now? ¡°Where¡¯s the Lodge?¡± Namir demanded, driving quickly to the definitive answer we needed. Wherever the Lord was, Nyx was most likely to be there as well. ¡°Up there,¡± he pointed to the cliff that sheltered the town on the river''s other side from the Endless Ice''s bitter winds. There, on the cliff face with a wonderful view of the town, rested a sprawling building wedged halfway up the cliff; it seemed to stretch along the cliff partly carved into the cave or ledge it had been constructed upon.¡°Wonderful.¡± Namir sarcastically stated. ¡°Come on, Kai, let¡¯s retrieve your wayward pet.¡± He said as he strode for one of the bridges crossing the river, muttering, ¡°Preferably without any bloodshed.¡± under his breath as he walked away. Startled and surprised, ¡°It¡¯s yours?¡± The stallkeeper called after us as we headed over. ¡°You really should keep better care of your pets . . . or at least give them a cor!¡± He shouted as an addendum as if it could somehow relieve some of the guilt he might have felt if the merchant had such a soul. ¡°So . . .¡± I started catching up with Namir. ¡°How do we go about getting Nyx back?¡± Were we going to steal Nyx back in broad daylight? Or n a midnight robbery? Would we assault the lodge? It might be a little difficult to escape, with it in full view of the entire town and isted as it was, with a single winding cliff road making its way up to it. ¡°We ask.¡± He said, cuffing the back of my head and curbing my increasingly wild thoughts. ¡°At least at first.¡± He added, rubbing his head as he too considered our options. . . . The walk across Drangasfjord and up the road carved into the cliff¡¯s side gave us plenty of time to talk and discuss options. But without knowing what we would find, we didn¡¯t know what to expect and couldn¡¯t exactly n for it. The first step though would be either finding Nyx or gaining an audience with the Lord Njord. Something that might be considerably harder than usual, seeing as we were two unknown pilgrims travelling across hisnd. We had little leverage and knew it. Later than we would have liked, but sooner than it felt like we were arriving at the Gyrfalcons¡¯ Ledge, the lodge open the more affluent of the town. It would take some silver and maybe even a little gold to open these doors for us. The intricately carved ice oak doors were the first signs of the different quality of ss or quantity of money its guests held. The doorman was the second, I felt underdressed for the asion. ¡°How may we help you at the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge today?¡± The man who had been loitering in the lee of the building¡¯s porch. He had not been there long as I had sensed him stepping out from the warm interior as we approached. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°A room for two tired travellers,¡± Namir stated simply. ¡°I¡¯m afraid we have no room avable for two pilgrims.¡± The doorman answered, ¡°You will have to look elsewhere, even if you could pay, which I . . . ¡± He started to add before he was interrupted. ¡°I repeat, a room for my Lord, price will not be a problem.¡± Namir countered, shing his own silver to sell the story and passing a piece to the unctuous ggard. Personally, I would have given him a kick. ¡°If you will wait just a moment,¡± He swiftly switched his tune, ¡°I will see if arrangements can be made.¡± He darted indoors in an attempt to gain favour he had already lost. ¡°Lord?¡± I hissed as I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I thought we were but two humble pilgrims passing through,¡± Imented on the previous story he had concocted for the Drangavik and Dranagsjford priests in the churches we had visited. ¡°Whatever works, he would not let us through the door otherwise.¡± He shrugged, unconcerned. ¡°We will be moving on soon enough, it shouldn¡¯t matter. Besides, it''s not a lie, Little Lord of the Wester Isles. I could have added that you were a potential Acolyte of the Lodestar Church being petitioned by the new Cardinal of the Church on your circumnavigation, but I thought that might be going a little too far.¡± He finished the conversation, and our senses picked up the man¡¯s quick approach, which meant I bit my tongue rather than continue the argument. The door was opened by the doorman¡¯s hand, but a new and unexpected face stepped outside to greet us. ¡°My young lord, it¡¯s a pleasure to wee you to our humble establishment on Gyrfalcon¡¯s bluff, the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. If you should need anything, anything at all, do not hesitate to call on me, Xenodochus Tavernier. It¡¯s a delight to see a new civilised face so far north out here on the frontier.¡± He gave a gentle nod in deference to me even if he also took in Namir looming over the pair of us. Our innkeeper or lodge owner was not a northerner. Firstly, he was shorter than most of the Nordic warriors living in Tramontana. Secondly, no wiry tangle reached his chest adorning his face but a carefully trimmed beard. Finally, despite the chill he had stepped out into, he wore no fur but a blue robe reminiscent of those you would find back home in the Principality of Ponente. Startled but pleasantly surprised, we were swiftly invited in with a significantly warmer wee than we had first received. We soon found ourselves ensconced within a cosy little private side room attached to the main room that made up the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge¡¯s taproom, eating a carefully prepared meal that would cost more than our previous lodging had for a single meal. Xenodochus had failed to mention the price before it was served, simply assuming that we could pay, despite our clothing, based solely on my nobility and my heritage, which he assumed correctly was from Ponente. ¡°It¡¯s simply a delight to entertain a citizen of a more civilised clime.¡± Xenodochus was back, regaling us with tales of his own travels before bing the proud owner of the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. ¡°But that is enough about me, what of yourselves?¡± He asked excitedly. Buss, the Compass Kingdoms¡¯ universalnguage, meant we could be understood wherever we went, but it reminded me of home to hear the familiar ent I associated it with. ¡°My Lord is on his circumnavigation.¡± Namir interposed. ¡°There is nothing much to add beyond the cost in coin, time taken and distance covered.¡± ¡°A circumnavigation is costly indeed in both time and coin. But where did you say you hailed from?¡± He questioned. ¡°We sailed from the Azimuth Archipgo; my family has a small estate there. Truly, I was inspired by former Bishop, now Cardinal Grigori¡¯s own circumnavigation and visit.¡± I attempted to exin what we were doing so far north. ¡°Tired now, at least we are homeward bound now and on thest quadrant.¡± Truthful enough to be sure. ¡°Tired? Let me show you to your rooms so you can retire.¡± Taking the hint, he led us out of our room, across the main room to the stairs that led up to the rooms. The way the inn was syed along the cliff¡¯s ledge meant it was difficult to sense precisely what was happening in it as parts were out of reach and carved into the cliff behind us. The metal runes and stone glyphs carved or embedded in the walls and corridors did not help either, as distracting as they were to my senses. Xenodochus took great pleasure in proudly pointing out the stone glyphs that gently lit therge corridor carved from the cliff we were traversing within the lodge. Exining that we would have runed lights within our own rooms as well as runed heaters. He seemed to be expecting praise for the inclusions of civilisation so far north. Our abilities and resistances made such amenities irrelevant and we were used to roughing it. But I was happy to express our pleasure at the decadence. Indeed I should see about including some of the runes and glyphs I saw embellishing the walls within my own spatial vault that was continuing to grow into something more than a simple temporary shelter. As Xenodochus unlocked our room at the end of a long corridor, he mentioned, ¡°If you should have a second wind, we have another noble guest you might enjoy interacting withter over dinner in the main room. The local lord of the region, Jarl Njord. He controls the three towns: Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol. I dare say he would invite you to stay at Trelleborg Drangar if you have time to diverge from your circumnavigation. It would be an honour to introduce you if you would like a personal introduction.¡± He offered, keen to ingratiate himself for either favour, coin or simply the conversation. It was difficult to tell as he seemed to enjoy talking as much as listening. As I mulled over his words as if in contemtion, he showed us the rooms of our suite. I had my own room as well as a sitting room, water closet and an armsman¡¯s boxroom. ¡°It would be my pleasure,¡± I answered, happy to see that we might finally be making progress on regaining Nyx. The food was fantastic, but that was not why we had arrived at Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. ¡°I¡¯ll send word when he returns should he be interested in making your acquaintance.¡± Were his final words as he handed over our key and closed the door behind himself. Before copsing on the fine quilt covering my lordly bed, I waited until he was out of earshot. ¡°Well, this is an upgrade.¡± I grinned at the improvements in our amodation; even if I was still anxious about Nyx''s fate, it was difficult not to appreciate the luxury. ¡°Did you sense Nyx?¡± questioned Namir still focused on our main problem. ¡°No.¡± My mood soured as I was reminded of my failure. ¡°The way the Lodge stretches out along the cliff makes it hard to sense it all I exined. ¡°Then we will have to wait for a dinner invitation,¡± Namir answered. Chapter 251: A Dinner Invitation ¡°A dinner invitation, once epted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes ce, your executor must attend.¡± Ward McAllister I had no ns on dying, but I was looking forward to finally meeting the local lord Jarl Njord, if only because I would hopefully reunite with Nyx. Our dinner invitation arrived less than an hourter; Xenodochus seemed to derive great pleasure in delivering it to us and promising us a fine feast, all at the expense of the local lord Jarl Njord, who had invited us for the evening repast. I assumed he did not get a lot of excitement if he was this excited about entertaining us or nned on overcharging significantly for the event. Aware that some formality was required, I spent the hour we had waited for the invitation and the following hour before the dinner began attempting to turn some of the giants'' gifts and the profits of my trading into a suitable gift for Jarl Njord. Xendochus had at least helped by informing us that the Jarl was interested in anything that glittered. Gold was not prevalent in the Drangar Valley of Tramontana. Without a war to profit from, his resources were limited to what they could delve from the Lodestone Labyrinth, the North being notoriously difficult to cultivate resources from covered in ice as it was. With such simple stiptions, I fashioned one statue representing Lady Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck. Thedy stood gracefully, one foot slightly in front of the other. Her flowing robes were gilded in gold, and the crown ofurel leaves was equally gilded and shone upon her head. The carved cornucopia she held overflowed with genuine, if small, gems and more gilded gold. I used a carved ice wyrm beast core as the orb of stormy weather above a turbulent sea. As usual, the statue''s base was covered in games of chance, dice, cards, races, and wealth above death and destruction caused by weather, disaster or war. She could bring kings to ruin or beggars to wealth, depending on how fate fell. It would make a fantastic gift for the local lord and fulfil my promise to spread such statues throughout the Compass kingdoms, but I did not stop there. Seeing as I had time, I started another. The second statue felt wrong to gild in gold as entirely as I had covered the statue of Lady Fortuna, but I did highlight the runes, glyphs, sigils, enchantments, and other arcane symbols in gilded gold. I even used a slim stick of Elendil tree plucked from my vault as his staff and blue sapphire to represent the shard of the lodestar that crowned it. They were two masterpieces worthy of royalty and well worth the return of Nyx that I hoped to be able to bargain with their exchange. Havingpleted the pair, I ced them within my spatial vault to pull them forth at the appropriate moment. I was a lord; spatial shenanigans were to be expected, not hidden as we had when we pretended to bemoners. We would simply be showing off our wealth, a double-edged sword that could open doors or be coveted by our host. When it was finally time for dinner, we dressed as best we could and walked along the long corridors that made up the Gryfalcon¡¯s Ledge. Xenodochus led the way to another private dining area further past themon entrance room, where a feast wasid out, and Jarl Njord sat waiting. As we entered, he introduced us, ¡°May I present . . . ¡± He paused for dramatic effect, ¡°Lord Silversea of the Wester Isles, Azimuth Archipgo, Principality of Ponente and his guardian Namir Jl, Wandering Warrior from the Kingdom of Ostro.¡± He beamed as he presented us as if to a royal court rather than a seated local lord. I winced a little at the length of the introduction; we were no longer travelling incognito, at least not in Drangasfjord. However, he was not finished and turned to introduce our hosts for the evening. ¡°Receiving them is his Lord, Jarl Njord, Chief of Drangar Valley, Magistrate of Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskoll, Warchieftan among the Tribes of Tramontana, his wife, Fru Ingar til Drangar and their sons NJordson, Ingritte and Jor.¡±The entire family rose to greet us like little giants. It was a little intimidating, but his verbose introduction was somewhat ruined by our host, a giant Nordic viking of a man shouting, ¡°Ja, Ja,¡± as he waved the words away, gesturing for us and his family to sit down swiftly, ¡°Let us eat.¡± He said his actions, suiting his words as he sat down and tucked into the feast without waiting for us. His sons sat swiftly to join him lest the food disappear before they got to it while his daughter waited for her mother¡¯s response. Pausing before sitting and gesturing us to join them, Fru Ingar was simrly striking in size but a little quieter inparison. She smiled at her husband and family¡¯s enthusiasm for the food andmented, ¡°One cannot think well or talk well if one has not eaten well. Don¡¯t mind him.¡± She waved away any offence her husband might have invertedly caused with his actions. ¡°He is a gentle giant at heart if a little hungry at the moment.¡± She frowned in exasperation at her sons copying what she considered less than lordly habits while Ingritte and her calmly sat to join them at a more demure pace. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Ja, Ja, join us.¡± Jarl Njord repeated, and we joined them, recognising that we would be getting nowhere anytime soon without eating at least the first course of the feast and that if we did not start soon, there might not be a first course to feast on. Even Xenodochus retired to give us some privacy; his presence was not required once the drinks had been poured, the table served, and the guests were silently tucking into their food, famished. . . . I was soon replete, but our host seemed happy to continue. He was also delighted to talk now that he had some food inside himself. ¡°Wee, wee to my humble holdings of Dragnar Valley.¡± His voice boomed around the room, more fitting for a battlefield than at a dining table. ¡°I would have weed you sooner had I been aware of your arrival.¡± He inclined his head to acknowledge my status as a lord but also critiqued my unannounced appearance in his domain. ¡°Thank you for the warm wee,¡± I answered diplomatically. It had been decided that we should attempt to get a feel for our host before bringing up the rather delicate issue of the theft of my dragonling. The fact that Nyx was now immune to the cold made her significantly more valuable in the north, where she could now thrivepared to before when she would have had to be kept inside simply to survive. She could even be used as breeding stock to create a northern strain of the noble pets. ¡°Xenodochus tells us that you are circumnavigating thepass kingdoms.¡± Fru Ingar interjected. ¡°That is very brave of you to do so young and to do so separate from the church.¡± She sounded either impressed with my audacity or concerned by my stupidity. ¡°Most groups travelling the well-worn path tend to do so inrger groups than two and are a little older.¡± She hedged, leaving our impression of her words up to our interpretation. ¡°To bepletely honest, it was not entirely nned or at least not properly,¡± I admitted. ¡°I always knew I wanted to travel and circumnavigate thepass. I had even been invited to do so by the church. But yes, our current travels and their timing were not entirely by choice.¡± I answered. Jarl Njord, on the other hand, seemed enthused about our trip: ¡°They seem to be doing swimmingly. It¡¯s wonderful to bepleting the circumnavigation so young. I wish I had the opportunity before I had to take up the mantle of Jarl. After all, it¡¯s unlikely I will have the opportunity to do so now, and it cannot but help his experience gains with the distance he is travelling and the new sights that he is seeing.¡± ¡°Well, if there is anything we can do to help.¡± Fru Ingar offered while curbing her husband¡¯s enthusiasm for the trip lest he send one of their three sons on one of their own. A couple of whom seemed intrigued by the possibility or envious of the fact that I had been allowed toplete one so young despite the less-than-optimal circumstances. ¡°While it was not nned, I am attempting to make the most of our journey and would offer some gifts in the hopes of forging good rtionships between the Principality of Ponente and the Tribes of Tramontana, specifically Drangar Valley and the Wester Isles of the Azimuth Archipgo,¡± I said as I produced the two statues for the ruling couple handing one to each parent in turn. Fru Ingar looked ttered to be included in the gift-giving, and Jarl Njord seemed struck silent by the gold-covered statue he held in his hands. Fru Ingar covered for his temporarypse, ¡°A fine gift of friendship, Lord Silversea, we will treasure them.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Jarl Njord rejoined the conversation, reluctantly, setting the statue down on the table. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can forge a strong friendship between our fiefs despite the distance.¡± He promised enamoured by the gold gilded statue. His firstborn, NJordson, sat at his father¡¯s right hand, turned the statue in front of him and asked, ¡°Who are they? Or rather, who do they represent?¡± intrigued. ¡°I don¡¯t recognise them or their domains from the eight.¡± He addedparing them to the eight cardinal and ordinal gods celebrated by the church of the Lodestar. ¡°Lost gods,¡± Namir answered his question. Despite joining us at the table like the Jarl¡¯s sons, he had refrained frommenting until now, leaving the conversation to the nobles of equal standing. This was a level of etiquette I had been taught but had never practiced or even noticed until now. ¡°Lost gods?¡± Jor questioned now that the floor had been opened up for them to talk. ¡°There are more bearings a man can take than the simple eight. Are gods to be limited to only eight?¡± I questioned, causing Jor no small measure of confusion. Amused by man''s nature to simplify reality to easily grasped concepts when it was so much moreplex than that. ¡°And these?¡± Ingritte asked in turn, having waited for both sons to speak before her despite being older than Jor, the thirdborn. ¡°Luck, magic, fate.¡± I shrugged. Time will tell.¡± I was not entirely sure of all the answers myself. I knew who the female statue represented, but the male had never officially been named or defined; only demanded. ¡°Pious as well as pretty.¡± Shemented, tripping me up, I felt a flush of heat rush to my neck. ¡°One tries, but ultimately, it is often up to fortune or fate, and I can take no credit for that.¡± I was reluctant to ept or acknowledge her jibe. Jarl Njord coughed, retaking control of the conversation. ¡°Yes, fine gifts of friendship. Would you have anything of us in return?¡± he asked, moving on to the cost of reciprocation. Receiving gifts could swiftly be more expensive than he could afford if we chose to keep giving or did not acknowledge theck of strings attached to our presentation. ¡°Actually, there is one service you might be able to perform for us,¡± I answered carefully. ¡°It is not so much a gift as a service. We, or rather I, seem to have misced mypanion in your town today. I¡¯m sure she will return suitably soon upon her own. But if she does not or if there is a way that you could help us look for her, I would be eternally grateful.¡± I finally answered and arrived at the reason why we had arranged this whole meeting. ¡°You¡¯ve lost yourpanion. Of course, we will help you to reunite. Who are they?¡± Jarl Njord insisted. ¡°Not someone, something.¡± I cautioned carefully as I approached the delicate nature of the theft that had been made against us today. The family paused to consider what precisely I was asking for. ¡°Something?¡± Fru Ingar asked worriedly. ¡°Yes, Nyx, my dragonling, escaped today from our temporary amodation, and she disappeared somewhere in Drangasfjord.¡± ¡°A dragonling?¡± Fru Ingar asked again, her worries confirmed. It appeared I had found the culprit, even if the rest of the family was unaware of the crime. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 247: Balancing the scales ¡°Life is a series of sudden disappearances, leave-takings without the proper goodbyes.¡± Kelly Link ¡°Welcome in the light of the lodestar.¡± A voice intoned as we entered a blue light shining down on the entrance we had passed through. But looking up, we realised it was just a trick of the light with a stained glass blue window placed to catch and colour the light over the entrance. The actual shard was hidden further into the church, as was tradition. Still, the window was a delight to behold. A scene depicting the light of the lodestar pushing out the darkness to the edges of the compass kingdoms and the depths of the lodestone. ¡°Forgive me the theatrics. I seldom get to make new first impressions, and the light lends itself to them so well. Now, how can I help you?¡± the priest asked. He was clearly interested in the two new faces in his town and possibly his congregation. Namir was always going to draw attention this far north. We had only seen humans, giants, and a half-dwarf north of the mountain range that separated Tramontana from the other kingdoms. ¡°We are just passing through on our circumnavigation and hoped to spend some time in the light before we moved on to our next destination,¡± Namir answered for the pair of us. As always, he hoped for a swift passage through Drangasfjord, preferably without complications. ¡°Of course, of course, this way,¡± he said as he led us deeper into the building. It was not particularly big, but that was not surprising considering the town''s size and the distance from the centre of the Compass Kingdoms. We did not really need a guide, but he, like Asta, seemed starved for novel company and continued to accompany us. ¡°Where did you last stop?¡± he asked as he led us to the altar where the Lodestar rested. ¡°Drangavik,¡± Namir answered shortly, not elaborating further. But that did not deter him, ¡°How is Father Gothi?¡± he kept questioning. We paused, confused for a second, and I realised we had never actually learned the name of the priest we had met in Drangavik, so short had been our conversation and passing. ¡°He was well when we met. He even showed us his room of lost gods,¡± I answered for the two of us after Namir let the question linger either from confusion or by design. Even though I avoided the reason for our conversation, the thief with the missing leg, this still gained me a glare from Namir as the priest turned to answer me. Unaware of Namir¡¯s glare, the priest continued, ¡°I spent a year training with him as an acolyte. He was always fascinated with the past before the church''s spread of the lodestar¡¯s light. I confess I am not as enamoured with trying to tease out the truth of past events. But I do not begrudge him in his interests. Here, on the edge of the endless ice, life can be a little of a whiteout. Anything that adds a little colour to the day or your faith is welcome to break up the monotony. I like to fish myself but I even have an alcove here in respect of the tradition he is building.¡± He pointed out a small alcove to the right of the vestibule holding the Shard of the Lodestar where he had led us. ¡°A few of us in the north who trained under him have done the same. Though some to keep him from complaining when he visits or avoid rebuke through our correspondence. Warm and welcoming to his congregation he may be, but he can also be a force of nature to those he has trained and has expectations of.¡± He gave himself a little shake as if relieving unpleasant past memories. After the last glare I received, I kept silent, and Namir let the quiet lengthen until our host noticed and filled it with words of departure as he realised we wished to be left alone. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you two to it,¡± he said as he excused himself. ¡°Call if you need anything at all.¡± He nodded in acceptance of our silence; his duties were covered, and he left us to it. Once he had left earshot, Namir was succinct in his instructions: ¡°Touch the Lodestar, place the statues, and then let¡¯s be on our way.¡± After our last visit to a town, he hesitated to leave me alone or to my own devices for too long. Nodding my head in agreement, I placed my hand on the lodestar, watching it brighten in acknowledgement of my presence but not the catastrophic flare I had once caused by my escaping mana now that my mana was held within by the cores I had formed. I grinned at the memory and moved on to remove my hand when I heard a voice. ¡°Well done, Kai.¡± I was not surprised by the sudden voice within my mind. Fortuna had praised me. However, I was confused by the content, and my silent question was instantly answered. ¡°Thanks to you, I have another new believer,¡± she replied. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°The thief?¡± I asked, surprised. But I guess any near-death experience can cause a man to reassess their life choices. ¡°Yes, Jor.¡± She chuckled, amused at my mental tone. ¡°Another?¡± I questioned, surprised by the plurality of her answer. ¡°Did you think you left such little an impression?¡± she asked quizzically. I knew I had made an impression but had doubted that it would generate much faith for Fortuna. ¡°The giants respect and are grateful for your defence of their Thorpe and honour your memory with remembrance. Varvara even made you your own, an ice-covered, half-frozen child with winged feet opening a portal with a stone-capped, metal-runed, elven wooden staff from which destruction reigns forth on top of the corpse of an ice giant. It really is quite striking even if she has taken a few artistic liberties with its production.¡± She laughed, her voice spinning golden lights and threads through my mind as I contemplated the image she had created in my mind of the statue. My mind froze, shocked at the image and that Varvara would do such a thing. I was no hero. I had gotten lucky with my defeat of the titan and thought everyone had known that but were simply grateful for my success. As my mind unstuck from the shock of the revelations, she continued, ¡°Your statue and mine there have started to give me some small measure of faith. They know they were lucky, and their faith follows that knowledge. But let us move swiftly on.¡± She cut herself off. ¡°The Lodestar and its light allows for a cheaper communication cost, but our time is not unlimited. Honestly, it helps that with your skills, we can speak mind to mind.¡± ¡°Thank you for the compliments and information, but what do you wish to impart? I was confused about what she might wish to say and a little worried about what I might be asked to do next. ¡°I am following our agreement to complete a circumnavigation in your service.¡± I defended my actions so far. ¡°Can a goddess not reward her champion for services rendered, especially when you go above and beyond expectations?¡± She asked, amused by my caution. But continued regardless of my unspoken answer. Her voice and attitude changed, becoming more formal, ¡°In recompense for your service thus far, I thought I would help you make the most of your circumnavigation and balance the scales between us.¡± Balanced in whose favour I wondered while I projected within my head the question, ¡°What and how?¡± ¡°Take your earring, open it and touch your splinter of the Lodestar to the shard of the Lodestar seated on the Altar, and I will show you.¡± She commanded without exactly answering the question of what or how it would be that she would recompense with me. ¡°Come now, Kai, our time is fleeting despite the speed at which we are conversing.¡± She chided; her words made me realise that despite pausing as I removed my hand from the lodestar, it was still touching. Had time been flowing normally, Namir would have already intervened or questioned what exactly I was spending so long thinking about, with the conversation happening silently in my head. As requested, I removed the earring, opened it, and placed it against the Lodestar. Only now noticing my deviation from his instructions, Namir asked out loud, ¡°Kai?¡± as he questioned what exactly I was doing. With the splinter touching the shard once more, time seemed to freeze as Fortuna spoke to me directly again. ¡°You see,¡± Fortuna continued, now that I was following her instructions. ¡°Archbishop Grigori was doing oh so much more than merely circumnavigating the compass kingdoms in preparation for being raised to cardinal and gaining an understanding of the regions of the Compass Kingdoms. He was also building something or rather a route between the Lodestar Shards.¡± ¡°A route?¡± I asked internally, confused, but I was beginning to suspect what the answer might be. ¡°Channels between the Compass Points marked by the runed-stone menhir¡¯s he placed, such as the one on your island, as well as the Shards of the Lodestar in the churches he visited. They have been placed on ley lines rising from the depths of the Lodestone to help power the metaphysical channels.¡± She explained. ¡°I can go home directly?¡± I asked quickly. Excited by the possibility of a swift return. ¡°Unfortunately, not. You can only take a channel when you have already travelled to the exiting locus already. Each intersection on the horizon¡¯s edge must be logged within the splinter in your ring before you can travel between them.¡± She dowsed my enthusiasm with reality. I sighed internally. There would be no swift return home for me; I could only instantly return the way I had already travelled, which helped me not at all. ¡°But I have already been there; this splinter was taken from the shard on the isle,¡± I argued. ¡°Surely that should be enough.¡± I was not quite ready to give up on the possibility. ¡°In the future, it would, but Archbishop Grigori did not create the circumference channels for instant travelling until the circumnavigation was complete, and even then, the exit points must be logged in your Splinter for you to be able to use them.¡± She described the key to utilising this new form of travel. ¡°Now, enough arguing with reality. Let me demonstrate.¡± ¡°Focus and follow my thoughts.¡± Using Astral Projection, I sent my mind up into the stratosphere, following Fortuna, only to have her pause and point down. Used to having seen her show me the threads of fortune and fate in glimmering gold, I was surprised to see three points of iridescent blue marking the landscape below me. The locations were obvious by their positioning: Drangasfjord, Drangavik and Thorpe. ¡°Three? I thought I had to log their locations.¡± I asked, disappointed. It was an impressive ability, but not the one that I wanted. ¡°Your splinter has visited these three since the completion of the compass channels. It remembers them,¡± she replied, rebuking my greediness. ¡°So I can go backwards but not forwards,¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. You could go back to Drangavik or even translocate to Thorpe with the locations marked by your splinter, but not forwards,¡± she answered. ¡°I thought you should know.¡± ¡°How?¡± I asked. ¡°Throw your soul towards the light of the lodestar that you wish to exit from, supply the mana, and the light of the lodestar contained within the splinter will do the rest.¡± She outlined what I needed to do and demonstrated. Fascinated, I found myself copying the motions and applying the mana. In Drangasfjord¡¯s church of the Lodestar, heart racing, Namir''s eyes flared in disbelief, frustration, and swiftly rising anger. He found himself quietly cursing the elven tutor who had introduced him to his current student and the empty space that had once occupied his ever-increasingly infuriating Lord, Kai Silversea. Before biting his tongue less, he cursed the name of the goddess he believed was responsible for his current disappearance. Chapter 248: Abra Kadabra ¡°The famous ¡®Abra Kadabra¡¯ originates from Aramaic, which was spoken in biblical times, and means: I will create with my words.¡± Mor M. Cohen Lurching, I steadied myself on the shard of the Lodestar in front of me. It felt off. A little lower and a little smaller. I opened my eyes in astonishment and found myself standing in the sealed altar room of Drangavik, where we had been only but yesterday. As my senses rolled out, temporarily suspended by my translocation, a wave of relief rushed through me that no one had seen my arrival, followed by a wave of dread. Namir was going to be pissed at my sudden disappearance. Chuckling to myself, I took a deep breath as the true magic of the moment hit me, ¡°Abra Kadabra.¡± I joked, taking my hands off the stone and gesturing, forgetting for a second that someone was still listening in on my thoughts. ¡°You''re not a god, Kai.¡± She rebuked. ¡°Even we no longer create with our words now that the world is written in stone.¡± Instantly understanding the sub-context and historical references behind my thoughts. Archbishop Grigori was far more ambitious than I realised. This would change the Compass continent forever. Were the Kings and Queens of the Compass Kingdoms aware of what he had achieved? Defending the Thorpe from the Ice Giant would just have required a distress call, and warriors could have emerged from within the settlement to defend it, at least in theory. Obviously, there were a few practicalities to be accomplished first, such as sufficient warriors having circumnavigated the compass kingdoms on pilgrimages to log the locations of the intersectional exits within their own splinters of the Lodestar. Unless . . . I paused, thinking if a single individual could carry more than themselves through the light of the lodestar. How did that even work exactly? They said that science beyond comprehension was indistinguishable from magic. Was this magic? Science? Or something else? It did not fall under my understanding of mana or any of the other magics of the noble races, but humans or at least Archbishop Grigori had somehow managed it. Worried, I wondered, was this also a prelude to war? Did the Church plan on conquering the kingdoms? A secret army of paladins would wreak havoc if unsuspected attacks could be launched from within the capitals themselves. He had so many new questions, and that was while he was ignoring his notifications of another new skill he had gained. He would have time to process that later. Interrupting his musing, her voice spoke into his mind, ¡°Time to return before your guardian rends Drangsfjord¡¯s Shard into splinters in frustration and destroys your exit.¡± Fortuna awoke him from his daydreaming with the knowledge of what might happen if he delayed too long. It was time to depart before his arrival here was discovered or his departure from Drangsfjord¡¯s was noted. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Touching the Shard of the Lodestar once more, he threw his mind out of his body. Looking down from on high, he located the light of the lodestar to the west in Drangsfjord. He threw his spirit and then felt his body pulled as the splinter somehow recognised and fulfilled his wish, bringing his mortal vessel along to follow his soul into the reality he had left only minutes ago. ¡°Later, Kai,¡± Her last words echoed in my mind as Fortuna said farewell. He returned to a room unchanged but with a tiny difference. He was now having to face off against a mildly enraged catkin warrior who was clearly restraining himself from grabbing him despite his flexing claws and outreached arms. He was still holding his position. ¡°What did you do?¡± he demanded, whispering harshly as his ward and Lord returned. Careful of creating too large a scene should the priest return to see what all the fuss was about if he screamed at his young charge. ¡°Abra Kadabra,¡± I whispered back. But he did not get the joke. No, he did not look pleased at all. Distracting myself from the situation, for a second, I looked at my notifications. Ding! Teleportation (Lv1) Yes! A new skill. Perhaps that was a good enough excuse. ¡°New skill.¡± I continued in a whisper, as if that solved all of my problems and answered all his questions. The system rewarded my action with a skill that represented the reality of my achievement. I wondered how far it would take me and whether or not I might need it to escape my enraged guardian. ¡°New skill?¡± He questioned suspiciously, clearly still not happy with my temporary translocation. ¡°Teleportation?¡± I half asked as if that might be enough to absolve me from his displeasure. ¡°You have a teleportation skill?¡± His face had gone blank, having finally gained control of his features. They had been so hard to read once upon a time when we had first met, but now . . . nope, they were back to being hard to read. His emotions were hidden once more behind a blank face. ¡°Yes,¡± I answered a little more confidently. ¡°And just how did you get a teleportation skill when standing still next to the Lodestar?¡± He was aware that any such skill would have required near-instantaneous movement over distance for the system to recognise it. ¡°Where exactly did you disappear to?¡± ¡°Drangavik,¡± I answered a little less confidently. With the Shards of the Lodestar, I could leave him miles behind, and I sensed that he was less than thrilled with that fact. ¡°I just . . . ¡° he threw his hands in the air and departed the church. He left so quickly that we did not even see the priest who had welcomed us only minutes ago. Scampering after him, I caught up just as he exited to find Asta still awaiting our return. ¡°Are you forgetting something?¡± He asked as I reached his side. ¡°No?¡± I was a little anxious about answering his questions. ¡°The statues.¡± He reminded me. ¡°Ah, yes. I¡¯ll just be a minute.¡± I rushed back to unceremoniously deposit two statues within the alcove the priest had indicated before rushing back out to find Asta¡¯s offers of help being equally brusquely rebuffed. ¡°Thank you for the offer, but we will be fine returning to the inn.¡± Those were the words I heard as I exited for the second time. ¡°Well, if you''re tired . . .¡± She paused, uncertain of what to say in the face of his silent staring. ¡°Thank you for offering, ¡° I mediated. ¡°But we are truly tired.¡± I attempted to moderate his blunt refusal. This left us awkwardly returning to the inn together but apart each one of us in their own little worlds as we contemplated the changes of the day. Asta had seen some excitement in new faces, but they had turned cold when pressed. Namir had both lost and found his ward and charge within a single room, no less. And I had taken the first step towards a bright new future for the Wester Isles. There would be so much I could achieve with this once I returned home. Chapter 249: Accidental Adventure ¡°You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.¡± Abraham Lincoln We walked back to the inn in stony silence. I was a little sheepish now that I had considered how far I had travelled; what if I had been unable to make it back? Then there was Asta, who was a little crushed by the cold shoulder she was receiving from Namir. And Namir? I was unsure what he was thinking or feeling, but his intimidating presence did not invite continued conversations. We entered the inn only to nearly bump into Sedjorn just as he was leaving and, judging by the look on his face, looking for Asta. ¡°There you are. Your father said you had gone to the temple. Want to take a walk.¡± He offered. ¡°Not tonight,¡± Asta murmured as she pushed into the inn. Slipping past her suitor, her whole demeanour changed as her face lit up when she started to work the crowd on the way back to the bar. Which face was correct: the sadness we had sensed on the way back or the current cheerful personality bubbling around the tables, picking up glasses as she went? It was impossible to tell, but it was not our problem either way. We were just passing through. ¡°Kai, room,¡± Namir commanded as we watched her work the crowd. We headed straight for the stairs to return to our room. Poor Sedjorn was left at the doorway, unsure of whether to actually leave the inn or return and attempt to find a seat when the room was so full and busy. Even when the door finally closed to our room, Namir still silently stalked through it, gesturing ahead into the small cubby attached to it. Understanding without words, I opened up the entrance to my spatial vault in the tiny privy that came with the room. It was a superficial layer of deception, but it would prevent anyone who barged into the room from seeing the portal. I stepped in ahead of him before Namir followed me into the privy and the portal, closing the door behind him as we went. Once we had entered, he ordered, ¡°Close the portal.¡± I closed the entrance, hiding us from the world. ¡°What happened ?¡± He finally asked. ¡°Fortuna said hello and even thanked me for spreading her faith and rewarding me with a new skill.¡± I summarised the conversation we had during that moment of frozen time. ¡°So . . . teleportation?¡± I clarified to a hiss of air as he inhaled through his teeth. ¡®Yes.¡± I haven¡¯t tried it yet, but it sounds powerful.¡± I was excited by my new acquisition. ¡°It is indeed,¡± Namir confirmed. ¡°Neither is it easy to get. The only way I have heard of it being gained is as follows. Run, Sprint, Dash, Flash Step, Blink, Teleportation. Congratulations, another Tier 6 Skill.¡± ¡°Tier 6,¡± I grinned, quickly checking my status to see it engrained there. Working with gods was vexing in many different ways, but the rewards were worth it. ¡°So, how does it work?¡± He asked, apprehensive of the chaos I might be able to cause when I could instantly disappear from his sight. ¡°When I touch the shards of the Lodestar, I can use their power to travel back to the Shards I have already logged in my own splinter,¡± I explained. ¡°Is that the only way you can use it?¡± He asked. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t tested it on my own yet.¡± I pointed out. ¡°But I¡¯m sure I can use it for more than just that.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s wait till we are on the road again. Rather than have you appearing down in the common room and causing chaos.¡± He said, scratching behind his ears with his claws as if vexed by a particularly bothersome itch. ¡°We move on tomorrow. Feed Nyx and get some sleep.¡± ¡°Nyx?¡± I called out as I opened the stone door to the ice chamber where the Ice Giant core rested and pulled out some meat. I expected her to leap down from her own sleeping area within the vault, only to be left waiting. ¡°Nyx?¡± I called out, confused. She always attacked her food voraciously seeming to inhale her food until she was unable to cram any more in. It was unlikely for her to leave me waiting even for a moment. The main problem had always been keeping her out of the store room. Hence, the carefully balanced stone door and stone locks keep her out. ¡°Cursed claws.¡± Namir¡¯s expletive caught me by surprise. ¡°She¡¯s escaped!¡± Nyx had been kept in the vault in an attempt to avoid complications. It seemed she had somehow escaped. Was it when we arrived back? Or had it been earlier? Had the teleportation somehow released her from my vault? These were the thoughts that ran through my head as we dashed down the stairs and back into the common room. I was flaring all my sensory skills, hoping to pick up any trace of her. I was picking up all sorts of interesting information but none of it was pertinent to where on earth she had disappeared off to. Namir hailed the innkeeper, ¡°We seem to have misplaced our pet, you wouldn¡¯t have happened to have seen her?¡± He quickly asked. ¡°A pet? You didn¡¯t mention any pets, and I didn¡¯t see one either.¡± He answered annoyed we had one or unconvinced that she existed. ¡°No one has been up to your rooms. If that is what you are implying.¡± ¡°She is usually no problem. Stays tucked away in our bags or rooms when we are passing through towns and has never caused a problem before on our circumnavigation.¡± ¡°Exactly what kind of pet are we talking about?¡± He asked, concerned that we might actually be telling the truth. ¡°She is black, about this big.¡± He gestured an approximation of her increasing size. ¡°Silver speckles, wing span around this much.¡± He put his arms out. ¡°Your pet is a hunting bird?¡± He questioned sceptical once more ¡°Not exactly a bird.¡± Namir hedged. Leading the Innkeeper to the worst conclusion, ¡°A beast? You brought a beast into my inn!¡± He whispered harshly. ¡°She¡¯s a dragonling.¡± I interrupted cutting to the heart of the matter. ¡°Not a beast a noble companion,¡± I argued. ¡°Javla! And it¡¯s escaped?¡± The innkeeper was not taking this well. ¡°We don¡¯t know. We just know she wasn¡¯t there when we got back from the church. She could have escaped or been taken. A thief tried to take something from our rooms in Drangavik.¡± ¡°No one thieves in the River Run,¡± He objected fiercely, ¡°Asta,¡± He called her back to the bar and our harshly whispered conversation. ¡°Check the kitchens. Our guests have lost their . . . pet.¡± He avoided explaining precisely what she was looking for. ¡°What am I looking for?¡± She asked, confused. ¡°You¡¯ll know it if you see it.¡± He answered abruptly. ¡°Now go.¡± ¡°She answers to Nyx,¡± I added before she passed through the door and she nodded her head in acknowledgement. ¡°If she¡¯s still here, we will find her.¡± The innkeeper declared. ¡°But if she isn¡¯t, then you will want to find her before she catches the eye of the local lord. The man is particularly partial to novelty, and if he finds her, he won¡¯t want to let her go.¡± Namir nodded in acknowledgement before swiftly leaving with me in his wake. ¡°I¡¯ll circle south. You circle north and remember to try to keep it calm and not cause any more chaos, Kai.¡± With those parting words, he skipped across the flowing river in a single step to search the south of the town while I tackled the north. . . . A brisk walk later, I covered all the local streets north of the River Run, working my way back and forth to the river and then tracing another arc further afield. With my sensory skills running at full strength, I had uncovered and mapped the sewage system below me, the interiors of people¡¯s houses, and noted what those people were up to. But I had yet to come across Nyx. I was beginning to get worried. ¡°No luck?¡± I shouted across the river to Namir as we met once more on our arcs. It had not happened often, but we were searching in similar methods and avoiding running or flying and the attention it would draw to us. ¡°No,¡± Namir answered. ¡°And I find the lack of tracks suspicious. We find her, and we go.¡± Namir finally voiced what we had been worrying about. ¡°I¡¯m nearly at the noble¡¯s house.¡± Over my travels, I had gotten to know the town and knew I would be soon passing by. ¡°Leave it till last.¡± Namir cautioned, ¡°Let¡¯s clear the rest of the town first.¡± Neither of us wanted to cross that bridge until we had to. An hour later, we had to. . . . ¡°Yes, I saw the beast.¡± These were the words I needed to hear, but what followed were not the words that I wanted ¡°Where?¡± I asked. ¡°Here, it descended down onto my stall. Remarkably clever, that dragonling. It waited patiently for me to feed it. Never seen one before, mind you, but I¡¯ve heard of them. I didn¡¯t think that they could travel this far north without being looked after and kept warm.¡± ¡°It was,¡± I answered his rhetorical question acerbically. ¡°What happened next?¡± ¡°Well, after the initial scare, I fed it some fish, seeing as it had waited so patiently. But the guards had seen it, and no one was claiming it as theirs, so they took it to Lord Njord.¡± He shrugged, unaffected by the outcome. Chapter 250: The Grass is always Greener ¡°The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.¡± James Oppenheim ¡°Lord Njord?¡± I asked, concerned. Bypassing, waiting for Namir, and quickly questioning our first lead. Who in the depths of the Lodestone Labyrinth was Lord Njord? It was a stupid name anyway. The stallkeeper, recognising my frustration, chose to rephrase and elaborate. ¡°Jarl Njord . . .¡± He paused as if I should know who that was. Confused, he continued, ¡°He is in charge of the Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol.¡± As if that would enlighten us when we were passing through and had not seen the point of learning the political landscape when we would be beyond it in a day or two. ¡°Where does he live?¡± I asked, worried about what we might find ourselves wrapped up in and focused on retrieving my companion. How the heck Nyx had escaped my own personal spatial vault was beyond me. ¡°He is staying in the GryFalcon¡¯s Ledge. Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol are just his towns. Usually, he resides in Castle Dranga, but he is collecting taxes this time of the year and touring his towns in the process.¡± He correctly interpreted what I was genuinely asking: Where was Lord Njord right now? ¡°Where¡¯s the Lodge?¡± Namir demanded, driving quickly to the definitive answer we needed. Wherever the Lord was, Nyx was most likely to be there as well. ¡°Up there,¡± he pointed to the cliff that sheltered the town on the river''s other side from the Endless Ice''s bitter winds. There, on the cliff face with a wonderful view of the town, rested a sprawling building wedged halfway up the cliff; it seemed to stretch along the cliff partly carved into the cave or ledge it had been constructed upon. ¡°Wonderful.¡± Namir sarcastically stated. ¡°Come on, Kai, let¡¯s retrieve your wayward pet.¡± He said as he strode for one of the bridges crossing the river, muttering, ¡°Preferably without any bloodshed.¡± under his breath as he walked away. Startled and surprised, ¡°It¡¯s yours?¡± The stallkeeper called after us as we headed over. ¡°You really should keep better care of your pets . . . or at least give them a collar!¡± He shouted as an addendum as if it could somehow relieve some of the guilt he might have felt if the merchant had such a soul. ¡°So . . .¡± I started catching up with Namir. ¡°How do we go about getting Nyx back?¡± Were we going to steal Nyx back in broad daylight? Or plan a midnight robbery? Would we assault the lodge? It might be a little difficult to escape, with it in full view of the entire town and isolated as it was, with a single winding cliff road making its way up to it. ¡°We ask.¡± He said, cuffing the back of my head and curbing my increasingly wild thoughts. ¡°At least at first.¡± He added, rubbing his head as he too considered our options. . . . The walk across Drangasfjord and up the road carved into the cliff¡¯s side gave us plenty of time to talk and discuss options. But without knowing what we would find, we didn¡¯t know what to expect and couldn¡¯t exactly plan for it. The first step though would be either finding Nyx or gaining an audience with the Lord Njord. Something that might be considerably harder than usual, seeing as we were two unknown pilgrims travelling across his land. We had little leverage and knew it. Later than we would have liked, but sooner than it felt like we were arriving at the Gyrfalcons¡¯ Ledge, the lodge open the more affluent of the town. It would take some silver and maybe even a little gold to open these doors for us. The intricately carved ice oak doors were the first signs of the different quality of class or quantity of money its guests held. The doorman was the second, I felt underdressed for the occasion. ¡°How may we help you at the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge today?¡± The man who had been loitering in the lee of the building¡¯s porch. He had not been there long as I had sensed him stepping out from the warm interior as we approached. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°A room for two tired travellers,¡± Namir stated simply. ¡°I¡¯m afraid we have no room available for two pilgrims.¡± The doorman answered, ¡°You will have to look elsewhere, even if you could pay, which I . . . ¡± He started to add before he was interrupted. ¡°I repeat, a room for my Lord, price will not be a problem.¡± Namir countered, flashing his own silver to sell the story and passing a piece to the unctuous blaggard. Personally, I would have given him a kick. ¡°If you will wait just a moment,¡± He swiftly switched his tune, ¡°I will see if arrangements can be made.¡± He darted indoors in an attempt to gain favour he had already lost. ¡°Lord?¡± I hissed as I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I thought we were but two humble pilgrims passing through,¡± I commented on the previous story he had concocted for the Drangavik and Dranagsjford priests in the churches we had visited. ¡°Whatever works, he would not let us through the door otherwise.¡± He shrugged, unconcerned. ¡°We will be moving on soon enough, it shouldn¡¯t matter. Besides, it''s not a lie, Little Lord of the Wester Isles. I could have added that you were a potential Acolyte of the Lodestar Church being petitioned by the new Cardinal of the Church on your circumnavigation, but I thought that might be going a little too far.¡± He finished the conversation, and our senses picked up the man¡¯s quick approach, which meant I bit my tongue rather than continue the argument. The door was opened by the doorman¡¯s hand, but a new and unexpected face stepped outside to greet us. ¡°My young lord, it¡¯s a pleasure to welcome you to our humble establishment on Gyrfalcon¡¯s bluff, the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. If you should need anything, anything at all, do not hesitate to call on me, Xenodochus Tavernier. It¡¯s a delight to see a new civilised face so far north out here on the frontier.¡± He gave a gentle nod in deference to me even if he also took in Namir looming over the pair of us. Our innkeeper or lodge owner was not a northerner. Firstly, he was shorter than most of the Nordic warriors living in Tramontana. Secondly, no wiry tangle reached his chest adorning his face but a carefully trimmed beard. Finally, despite the chill he had stepped out into, he wore no fur but a blue robe reminiscent of those you would find back home in the Principality of Ponente. Startled but pleasantly surprised, we were swiftly invited in with a significantly warmer welcome than we had first received. We soon found ourselves ensconced within a cosy little private side room attached to the main room that made up the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge¡¯s taproom, eating a carefully prepared meal that would cost more than our previous lodging had for a single meal. Xenodochus had failed to mention the price before it was served, simply assuming that we could pay, despite our clothing, based solely on my nobility and my heritage, which he assumed correctly was from Ponente. ¡°It¡¯s simply a delight to entertain a citizen of a more civilised clime.¡± Xenodochus was back, regaling us with tales of his own travels before becoming the proud owner of the Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. ¡°But that is enough about me, what of yourselves?¡± He asked excitedly. Bussola, the Compass Kingdoms¡¯ universal language, meant we could be understood wherever we went, but it reminded me of home to hear the familiar accent I associated it with. ¡°My Lord is on his circumnavigation.¡± Namir interposed. ¡°There is nothing much to add beyond the cost in coin, time taken and distance covered.¡± ¡°A circumnavigation is costly indeed in both time and coin. But where did you say you hailed from?¡± He questioned. ¡°We sailed from the Azimuth Archipelago; my family has a small estate there. Truly, I was inspired by former Bishop, now Cardinal Grigori¡¯s own circumnavigation and visit.¡± I attempted to explain what we were doing so far north. ¡°Tired now, at least we are homeward bound now and on the last quadrant.¡± Truthful enough to be sure. ¡°Tired? Let me show you to your rooms so you can retire.¡± Taking the hint, he led us out of our room, across the main room to the stairs that led up to the rooms. The way the inn was splayed along the cliff¡¯s ledge meant it was difficult to sense precisely what was happening in it as parts were out of reach and carved into the cliff behind us. The metal runes and stone glyphs carved or embedded in the walls and corridors did not help either, as distracting as they were to my senses. Xenodochus took great pleasure in proudly pointing out the stone glyphs that gently lit the large corridor carved from the cliff we were traversing within the lodge. Explaining that we would have runed lights within our own rooms as well as runed heaters. He seemed to be expecting praise for the inclusions of civilisation so far north. Our abilities and resistances made such amenities irrelevant and we were used to roughing it. But I was happy to express our pleasure at the decadence. Indeed I should see about including some of the runes and glyphs I saw embellishing the walls within my own spatial vault that was continuing to grow into something more than a simple temporary shelter. As Xenodochus unlocked our room at the end of a long corridor, he mentioned, ¡°If you should have a second wind, we have another noble guest you might enjoy interacting with later over dinner in the main room. The local lord of the region, Jarl Njord. He controls the three towns: Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskol. I dare say he would invite you to stay at Trelleborg Drangar if you have time to diverge from your circumnavigation. It would be an honour to introduce you if you would like a personal introduction.¡± He offered, keen to ingratiate himself for either favour, coin or simply the conversation. It was difficult to tell as he seemed to enjoy talking as much as listening. As I mulled over his words as if in contemplation, he showed us the rooms of our suite. I had my own room as well as a sitting room, water closet and an armsman¡¯s boxroom. ¡°It would be my pleasure,¡± I answered, happy to see that we might finally be making progress on regaining Nyx. The food was fantastic, but that was not why we had arrived at Gyrfalcon¡¯s Ledge. ¡°I¡¯ll send word when he returns should he be interested in making your acquaintance.¡± Were his final words as he handed over our key and closed the door behind himself. Before collapsing on the fine quilt covering my lordly bed, I waited until he was out of earshot. ¡°Well, this is an upgrade.¡± I grinned at the improvements in our accommodation; even if I was still anxious about Nyx''s fate, it was difficult not to appreciate the luxury. ¡°Did you sense Nyx?¡± questioned Namir still focused on our main problem. ¡°No.¡± My mood soured as I was reminded of my failure. ¡°The way the Lodge stretches out along the cliff makes it hard to sense it all I explained. ¡°Then we will have to wait for a dinner invitation,¡± Namir answered. Chapter 251: A Dinner Invitation ¡°A dinner invitation, once epted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes ce, your executor must attend.¡± Ward McAllister I had no ns on dying, but I was looking forward to finally meeting the local lord Jarl Njord, if only because I would hopefully reunite with Nyx. Our dinner invitation arrived less than an hourter; Xenodochus seemed to derive great pleasure in delivering it to us and promising us a fine feast, all at the expense of the local lord Jarl Njord, who had invited us for the evening repast. I assumed he did not get a lot of excitement if he was this excited about entertaining us or nned on overcharging significantly for the event. Aware that some formality was required, I spent the hour we had waited for the invitation and the following hour before the dinner began attempting to turn some of the giants'' gifts and the profits of my trading into a suitable gift for Jarl Njord. Xendochus had at least helped by informing us that the Jarl was interested in anything that glittered. Gold was not prevalent in the Drangar Valley of Tramontana. Without a war to profit from, his resources were limited to what they could delve from the Lodestone Labyrinth, the North being notoriously difficult to cultivate resources from covered in ice as it was. With such simple stiptions, I fashioned one statue representing Lady Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck. Thedy stood gracefully, one foot slightly in front of the other. Her flowing robes were gilded in gold, and the crown ofurel leaves was equally gilded and shone upon her head. The carved cornucopia she held overflowed with genuine, if small, gems and more gilded gold. I used a carved ice wyrm beast core as the orb of stormy weather above a turbulent sea. As usual, the statue''s base was covered in games of chance, dice, cards, races, and wealth above death and destruction caused by weather, disaster or war. She could bring kings to ruin or beggars to wealth, depending on how fate fell. It would make a fantastic gift for the local lord and fulfil my promise to spread such statues throughout the Compass kingdoms, but I did not stop there. Seeing as I had time, I started another. The second statue felt wrong to gild in gold as entirely as I had covered the statue of Lady Fortuna, but I did highlight the runes, glyphs, sigils, enchantments, and other arcane symbols in gilded gold. I even used a slim stick of Elendil tree plucked from my vault as his staff and blue sapphire to represent the shard of the lodestar that crowned it. They were two masterpieces worthy of royalty and well worth the return of Nyx that I hoped to be able to bargain with their exchange. Havingpleted the pair, I ced them within my spatial vault to pull them forth at the appropriate moment. I was a lord; spatial shenanigans were to be expected, not hidden as we had when we pretended to bemoners. We would simply be showing off our wealth, a double-edged sword that could open doors or be coveted by our host. When it was finally time for dinner, we dressed as best we could and walked along the long corridors that made up the Gryfalcon¡¯s Ledge. Xenodochus led the way to another private dining area further past themon entrance room, where a feast wasid out, and Jarl Njord sat waiting. As we entered, he introduced us, ¡°May I present . . . ¡± He paused for dramatic effect, ¡°Lord Silversea of the Wester Isles, Azimuth Archipgo, Principality of Ponente and his guardian Namir Jl, Wandering Warrior from the Kingdom of Ostro.¡± He beamed as he presented us as if to a royal court rather than a seated local lord. I winced a little at the length of the introduction; we were no longer travelling incognito, at least not in Drangasfjord. However, he was not finished and turned to introduce our hosts for the evening. ¡°Receiving them is his Lord, Jarl Njord, Chief of Drangar Valley, Magistrate of Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskoll, Warchieftan among the Tribes of Tramontana, his wife, Fru Ingar til Drangar and their sons NJordson, Ingritte and Jor.¡±The entire family rose to greet us like little giants. It was a little intimidating, but his verbose introduction was somewhat ruined by our host, a giant Nordic viking of a man shouting, ¡°Ja, Ja,¡± as he waved the words away, gesturing for us and his family to sit down swiftly, ¡°Let us eat.¡± He said his actions, suiting his words as he sat down and tucked into the feast without waiting for us. His sons sat swiftly to join him lest the food disappear before they got to it while his daughter waited for her mother¡¯s response. Pausing before sitting and gesturing us to join them, Fru Ingar was simrly striking in size but a little quieter inparison. She smiled at her husband and family¡¯s enthusiasm for the food andmented, ¡°One cannot think well or talk well if one has not eaten well. Don¡¯t mind him.¡± She waved away any offence her husband might have invertedly caused with his actions. ¡°He is a gentle giant at heart if a little hungry at the moment.¡± She frowned in exasperation at her sons copying what she considered less than lordly habits while Ingritte and her calmly sat to join them at a more demure pace. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Ja, Ja, join us.¡± Jarl Njord repeated, and we joined them, recognising that we would be getting nowhere anytime soon without eating at least the first course of the feast and that if we did not start soon, there might not be a first course to feast on. Even Xenodochus retired to give us some privacy; his presence was not required once the drinks had been poured, the table served, and the guests were silently tucking into their food, famished. . . . I was soon replete, but our host seemed happy to continue. He was also delighted to talk now that he had some food inside himself. ¡°Wee, wee to my humble holdings of Dragnar Valley.¡± His voice boomed around the room, more fitting for a battlefield than at a dining table. ¡°I would have weed you sooner had I been aware of your arrival.¡± He inclined his head to acknowledge my status as a lord but also critiqued my unannounced appearance in his domain. ¡°Thank you for the warm wee,¡± I answered diplomatically. It had been decided that we should attempt to get a feel for our host before bringing up the rather delicate issue of the theft of my dragonling. The fact that Nyx was now immune to the cold made her significantly more valuable in the north, where she could now thrivepared to before when she would have had to be kept inside simply to survive. She could even be used as breeding stock to create a northern strain of the noble pets. ¡°Xenodochus tells us that you are circumnavigating thepass kingdoms.¡± Fru Ingar interjected. ¡°That is very brave of you to do so young and to do so separate from the church.¡± She sounded either impressed with my audacity or concerned by my stupidity. ¡°Most groups travelling the well-worn path tend to do so inrger groups than two and are a little older.¡± She hedged, leaving our impression of her words up to our interpretation. ¡°To bepletely honest, it was not entirely nned or at least not properly,¡± I admitted. ¡°I always knew I wanted to travel and circumnavigate thepass. I had even been invited to do so by the church. But yes, our current travels and their timing were not entirely by choice.¡± I answered. Jarl Njord, on the other hand, seemed enthused about our trip: ¡°They seem to be doing swimmingly. It¡¯s wonderful to bepleting the circumnavigation so young. I wish I had the opportunity before I had to take up the mantle of Jarl. After all, it¡¯s unlikely I will have the opportunity to do so now, and it cannot but help his experience gains with the distance he is travelling and the new sights that he is seeing.¡± ¡°Well, if there is anything we can do to help.¡± Fru Ingar offered while curbing her husband¡¯s enthusiasm for the trip lest he send one of their three sons on one of their own. A couple of whom seemed intrigued by the possibility or envious of the fact that I had been allowed toplete one so young despite the less-than-optimal circumstances. ¡°While it was not nned, I am attempting to make the most of our journey and would offer some gifts in the hopes of forging good rtionships between the Principality of Ponente and the Tribes of Tramontana, specifically Drangar Valley and the Wester Isles of the Azimuth Archipgo,¡± I said as I produced the two statues for the ruling couple handing one to each parent in turn. Fru Ingar looked ttered to be included in the gift-giving, and Jarl Njord seemed struck silent by the gold-covered statue he held in his hands. Fru Ingar covered for his temporarypse, ¡°A fine gift of friendship, Lord Silversea, we will treasure them.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Jarl Njord rejoined the conversation, reluctantly, setting the statue down on the table. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can forge a strong friendship between our fiefs despite the distance.¡± He promised enamoured by the gold gilded statue. His firstborn, NJordson, sat at his father¡¯s right hand, turned the statue in front of him and asked, ¡°Who are they? Or rather, who do they represent?¡± intrigued. ¡°I don¡¯t recognise them or their domains from the eight.¡± He addedparing them to the eight cardinal and ordinal gods celebrated by the church of the Lodestar. ¡°Lost gods,¡± Namir answered his question. Despite joining us at the table like the Jarl¡¯s sons, he had refrained frommenting until now, leaving the conversation to the nobles of equal standing. This was a level of etiquette I had been taught but had never practiced or even noticed until now. ¡°Lost gods?¡± Jor questioned now that the floor had been opened up for them to talk. ¡°There are more bearings a man can take than the simple eight. Are gods to be limited to only eight?¡± I questioned, causing Jor no small measure of confusion. Amused by man''s nature to simplify reality to easily grasped concepts when it was so much moreplex than that. ¡°And these?¡± Ingritte asked in turn, having waited for both sons to speak before her despite being older than Jor, the thirdborn. ¡°Luck, magic, fate.¡± I shrugged. Time will tell.¡± I was not entirely sure of all the answers myself. I knew who the female statue represented, but the male had never officially been named or defined; only demanded. ¡°Pious as well as pretty.¡± Shemented, tripping me up, I felt a flush of heat rush to my neck. ¡°One tries, but ultimately, it is often up to fortune or fate, and I can take no credit for that.¡± I was reluctant to ept or acknowledge her jibe. Jarl Njord coughed, retaking control of the conversation. ¡°Yes, fine gifts of friendship. Would you have anything of us in return?¡± he asked, moving on to the cost of reciprocation. Receiving gifts could swiftly be more expensive than he could afford if we chose to keep giving or did not acknowledge theck of strings attached to our presentation. ¡°Actually, there is one service you might be able to perform for us,¡± I answered carefully. ¡°It is not so much a gift as a service. We, or rather I, seem to have misced mypanion in your town today. I¡¯m sure she will return suitably soon upon her own. But if she does not or if there is a way that you could help us look for her, I would be eternally grateful.¡± I finally answered and arrived at the reason why we had arranged this whole meeting. ¡°You¡¯ve lost yourpanion. Of course, we will help you to reunite. Who are they?¡± Jarl Njord insisted. ¡°Not someone, something.¡± I cautioned carefully as I approached the delicate nature of the theft that had been made against us today. The family paused to consider what precisely I was asking for. ¡°Something?¡± Fru Ingar asked worriedly. ¡°Yes, Nyx, my dragonling, escaped today from our temporary amodation, and she disappeared somewhere in Drangasfjord.¡± ¡°A dragonling?¡± Fru Ingar asked again, her worries confirmed. It appeared I had found the culprit, even if the rest of the family was unaware of the crime. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 252: Forgive and forget ¡°After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one¡¯s own relations.¡± Oscar Wilde ¡°That will not be a problem.¡± Jarl Njord answered, waving away any worry, unaware of exactly what I suspected to be true. ¡°Dragonlings are rare indeed in the north, and most likely, it has simply found somewhere warm to shelter from the cold. It will not take long for you to find the beast at all. Once I make an announcement, I¡¯m sure it will be found by the end of the day.¡± He promised, probably happy, that the return request for the two gilded statues he had received was so simple compared to their worth. ¡°That will not be necessary,¡± Fru Ingar confessed, interrupting him. ¡°I apologise, husband, Lord Silversea.¡± She turned to both of us in turn. ¡°But . . . Nyx was it? Is only just next door.¡± She explained. ¡°Next door?¡± Jarl Njord asked, clearly confused by his wife¡¯s confession. I waited eagerly to hear her reasoning. ¡°She was to be a gift.¡± She explained apologetically. Namir and I let the drama play out without interrupting. I was not keen to intrude if we could Nyx return without any complications. ¡°A gift?¡± he demanded, a little cross at unwittingly being put in this awkward situation by his wife¡¯s actions. ¡°How and for whom?¡± he quizzed, doing significantly better at getting to the bottom of this than we would have been able to do. ¡°Yes, the dragonling was discovered in the market earlier this morning. Remarkably, she seemed comfortable in the cold, and without a collar or any obvious owner in sight, she was brought to me. I was going to present her as a surprise gift to Njordson.¡± She explained her actions to her husband before hurriedly apologising to me once more. ¡°The theft was completely unintentional, and we will be happy to return your companion.¡± She continued to Njordson¡¯s disappointment. It was difficult to be told that you were gaining something and then, in the next sentence, hear that you were losing it. Namir and I hesitated to intervene as it looked like we might just be getting Nyx without a fight after all. ¡°How do we even know that Nyx is theirs?¡± he argued weakly. ¡°Maybe he had already known what it was he would be getting for his birthday. I doubted the successful capture of Nyx had gone down without any witnesses. Furthermore, in a town this small, the rumour mill was probably running full tilt with our arrival and the arrival of a small beastie. I was almost a little surprised we had not had a visit by the guards questioning our import of a dangerous beast into the town. But it looked like they were letting the nobles hash out this complication without having to get themselves involved. I was not sure whether this represented their wisdom or their cowardice. ¡°Fru Ingar, return their pet,¡± Jarl Njord commanded. It only took a little ringing of the bell, and minutes later, two hulking servants were carrying in a large wrought iron cage, the cage clearly weighting far more than Nyx, who was curled up inside it. ¡°She has not been mistreated at all.¡± Ingar insisted. ¡°She is simply tired and digesting her meal. I must admit I am amazed at how much meat a beast of her size can put away.¡± She explained the reason behind Nyx¡¯s stupor. But I was not going to wait for her to wake up to reassure myself of her status, so I gave her a short whistle to wake up. Slowly stirring, her eye lazily opened to survey her situation, and upon noticing my presence, her other eye snapped open. Stretching, she pressed against the bars and then, in a move that shocked us all, plinked into existence on the other side of the bars. To a shocked gasp of surprise from all the humans watching, she leapt to the top of the table and sauntered across it before sitting down in my lap. ¡°Remarkable.¡± Jarl Njord whispered. His embarrassment at the situation his wife had put him into disappeared in his sudden interest in the beast now sitting in my lap. Fru Ingar was likewise equally shocked, but this had left her speechless. Their children refrained from comment, but I could see Njordsons¡¯ envious eyes watching with disappointment that he would not receive the said gift that had curled up in my lap to go to sleep. With my senses, I heard Namir¡¯s whispered comment: ¡°Well, that would explain it.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. It would appear that Nyx, in accompanying me to Drangavik and back under the guidance of Lady Fortuna, had returned with more than a couple of instantaneous teleportation miles. No. Somehow, she had returned with the ability to teleport just like her master. I had not given a moment''s thought to the spatial vault that had accompanied me on my trip along with my clothes; otherwise, I would have arrived and or returned naked to the Church of the Lodestar. She seemed to have not taken any time to start testing her new skill and had obviously teleported out of my spatial vault as we returned home through the town. The most impressive part of this was to escape was to do so without us noticing. However, I had to admit that I had been a little lost in self-introspection on my return to the tavern. I would have to be careful. At this rate, the beast would have as many skills as me. She was gobbling them all up at an alarming rate. It was also fascinating to see what I might soon be capable of. She had transported less than a foot to escape the bars, so perhaps that was the limit for one skill level. Hopefully, I will be able to push it further with practice. I stroked the warm scales under my fingers as I witnessed the ice forming on my trousers where she lay down. It had taken me a while to get my ice aura under control. But the ability, along with my resistance to it, meant that it was not uncomfortable but rather confusing to the senses to feel something warm that was giving off cold¡ªa weird combination of two opposites felt simultaneously. ¡°The cold doesn¡¯t bother you.¡± Fru Ingar noted the ice melting from the cage''s bars now that it was no longer being magically produced and maintained by the beast it once contained. ¡°We spent some time living with the giants of Tramontana, adapting to the cold. It no longer overly bothers us.¡± Namir answered for the pair of us as I continued to pet Nyx. She was either exhausted by her excursion or playing it up, hoping I would not scold her for her escape. ¡°Well, I think that the beast''s immediate beeline to Lord Silversea ¡®s lap removes any doubts about his ownership of the beast.¡± Jarl Njord pointed out Njordson¡¯s disappointment. But it had been a weak argument to start off with, and I doubted he truly believed it himself. But was simply unwilling to part with such an animal without at least a token attempt to retain it for himself. ¡°I hope you will forgive the unknowing capture of your companion. But without a collar or an owner in sight, I¡¯m sure you can understand the accident.¡± Fru Ingar redirected the blame for the incident to the accident of inappropriately controlled beasts. ¡°She comes and goes as she pleases, but I will endeavour to keep a closer eye on her as we travel south,¡± I stated. It would be increasingly difficult to do so if she was now capable of teleporting out of my spatial vault as we travelled. It had been hard to keep track of her when on the island. The cold in the north had helped to keep her close, but with immunity to the cold¡¯s grasp, her ability to fly and now her ability to escape the spatial vault I had been keeping her contained in. It would be a losing battle. ¡°I will buy a collar for her straight away,¡± I answered the indirect criticism of my beast-taming skills. There was bound to be some way to add a tracker to it through either the giant''s glyphs, dwarven runes, elvish enchantments or human sigils. It would just take a little time to work it out. ¡°Perhaps we could help you there.¡± Fru Ingar offered, keen to move past this little understanding and offer a gift of their own. We would be honoured to offer you a fine IceWyrm leather collar adorned with topaz.¡± She rang the bell once more, and after a whispered conversation with the servant, who appeared, he soon entered again with a black hardwood box, which she handed to Jarl Njord, who, after a quick look inside, turned to me. ¡° A small gift in honour of the friendship between Drangar Valley and Wester Isles.¡± He offered the box across the table. Inside was a white ice wyrm leather collar perfectly sized to fit Nyx¡¯s neck, and a yellow topaz gemstone was centred in the middle. ¡°The topaz is a gemstone of strength.¡± Jarl Njord added, cracking his knuckles as he flexed his hands, drawing attention to his own bejewelled fingers and the rings he wore. ¡°A wonderful gift, thank you, Jarl Njord.¡± I nodded with respect to his gift and the return of my dragonling. I was grateful that we had managed to smooth out the situation amicably. I did not want to spend our journey running away from the rulers of this part of the compass. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± He answered magnanimously once more now that the situation''s awkwardness had passed. ¡°I hope that all is forgiven and we can enjoy the rest of this fine food.¡± At this point, Xenodochus entered with the deserts. ¡°Of course.¡± I answered before adding, ¡°On a full stomach, it is easy to forgive most things.¡± I quipped. . . . The rest of the meal went without incident, and we were soon retiring to our rooms. Despite the bonds of friendship we had forged, there was little trading that could take place between our two domains. At least not yet. In time, perhaps with a growing network of lodestar locations I could teleport to, I could personally transport a significant amount with my spatial vault. However, it would be a logistics network limited by the bottleneck of my presence for every transaction. So other than promises of fair trade without tax for our cross-country trade, I had not attempted to secure anything else. That alone, though, might prove worth my weight in gold should I attempt to make the trades. Already, I was thinking about what I could transport between the three locations I now had logged. Thorpe, Drangavik, Drangasfjord could be the beginning of my burgeoning merchant empire and would have been had I not been so focused on making my way home. I was both fascinated by and dreading what my family, in particular my sister, would be getting up to on Wester Island without my guidance and control. My little kingdom had been growing beautifully, and I did not want it to continue doing so without my guidance, less it grows in weird and wonderful ways. ¡°Rest well, Kai. We have a long way to go tomorrow.¡± Namir commanded from within my spatial vault. Nyx and Namir had claimed one of my corner Elendil trees to sleep in. I, on the other hand, made the most of the four-poster beds provided by the best hospitality the Gryfalcon¡¯s Ledge could offer. With a soft sigh of contentment, I slipped between the cool covers and slid into sleep. It had been a long day with a lot of revelations. . . . The soft click of a key in a lock snapped my eyes open, and I watched in wonder and alarm as the fireplace¡¯s facade slid open.