Chapter 104: Bond Upgrades

It is significantly harder to compress the normal density of mana into solid mana than to uncompress liquid mana into solid mana, which is why it was faster and easier to make the airship: I was drawing mana from the Mana Arc for that. Now I'm forming solid mana from the air, which burns through my mana reserves a lot faster. Still, I expected this, which is why the water tower will take a week to make.

In the meantime, I hunt large Domrs around the village and send out a clone with a large storage crystal to collect the materials. I study magic frameworks, train with Tana, play with my sisters and work on my Bond, not just with my real body but with all of my clones too.

It's not enough to just use my Bond; I have to incorporate it into my every movement. I need to act and speak in a manner with one of the forms of beauty, whether it is elegant, graceful, or – in theory, although I’m not actually going to try it until I’m completely out of other ideas – seductive, and what is better than doing it with one body? Multiple bodies and minds! I've more than doubled the rate at which my Bond is leveling up.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 389-393!

A month's effort is equal to just five levels, but this isn't something easily measured, with which I can just study my way to level five hundred. I can, however, try to evolve my Bond skills, which usually adds two to three levels; it has been a long time since I last evolved a Bond skill, and it seems to be a requirement to getting a good Bond Class evolution, so I should use this month to try and evolve most if not all of my Bond skills. I have the knowledge and capabilities to do so now, so I just need to put it into practice to make my Bond better; and who knows, maybe I'll get more insight into what the Bond actually is.

First on the list! [Beauty Empowerment] originally evolved from [Beauty Enhancement] and gained the ability to empower my Bond spells instead of just empowering my body; it was a simple expansion on what the skill could do. So how else can I expand its capabilities or change it for the better?

Hmm, this is harder than I thought. The skill will change based on how I use it, but first, I need to think of how to use it. It empowers my spells by adding more mana to them; it works wonderfully for skill-spells that have a maximum limit of mana that can normally be used. I suppose I could change it to also make the spell explode, but I already have an ability that does that, same with increasing the intensity of the spell. No matter how I think about it, this skill doesn't need to evolve right now; any potential evolutions are already filled.

On to [Fairy Strike]. It evolved from [Beauty Beam] when I constantly used [Shape Beauty] to shape the skill-spell into the shape of a fairy. It functions as a packet of deadly mana that damages enemies, much like how x-rays will damage and kill cells instead of burning like a laser. There are many paths for me to evolve this skill; giving it more intelligence, changing how it damages enemies or using different identities of beauty mana. I think I’ll try that last idea, I haven't experimented with the different identities as much as I probably should.

Next is [Channel Beauty]. I got this by constantly channeling beauty spells, even though I wasn't using my Bond. I haven't really done anything with this yet, and I'm not sure what I can do to make it better.

[Grace Of Wholeness] is next on the list, my healing spell. It's been around for almost my whole life, but it's not true healing; it's more returning something to a whole state. It is slow and cannot cure poisons or diseases, but it can repair inanimate objects provided all the pieces are there. I can regenerate living matter but cannot regenerate non-living matter. Overall it's a good skill to have; it just needs to be more powerful; I wonder what will happen If I use [Beauty Empowerment] or [Channel Beauty] with it? Will using other skills help it evolve?

[Evolve Beauty] evolved from [Shape Beauty] when I discovered different beauty identities. It has the ability to shift beauty essence to any of its identities. I don't need to evolve this skill right now, as it already evolved and will count toward my next Class evolution.

[Impart Instructions] is another old one. Using it to give better orders or even impart intelligence will be very valuable. Seeing as how Tana somehow augmented his Bond with vitality spells, perhaps I can augment this to give a pseudo mind? It would be dipping into soul spells, but it should make me much more powerful. On the flip-side, however, evolving the skill that way will open up my evolutions to the cursed influence of [Astral Projection] and, since it's a skill good for summoning, the main focus for my Class, summoning fairies and clones, will be corrupted due to my feat of restoring the minds of my people. Unfortunately, I can't risk evolving this skill to give a mind, a will, or any better intelligence. So the only other avenue is to expand its current capabilities, namely giving more complex instructions.

[Imbue Beauty]... is pretty much obsolete now. It was good for tailoring and music, but my current level of [Mana Manipulation] is just better. I can either drop it and hope for something better or try to evolve it to be useful, perhaps [Imbue Spell]? Make it so I can enchant something with a spell or skill-spell?

[Create Familiar] evolved from [Summon Familiar], and it pretty much just gained slightly better intelligence. Unfortunately, [Astral Projection] will corrupt future evolutions if I am not careful with this skill too. I should just leave it alone and not risk it.

[Echoes of Reality] evolved from [Dreams of Reality] and is my primary illusion ability. It's very useful; the only thing missing is making the illusions tangible, but I may have the ability to do just that now, especially since I can study the tangible clones that my Diadem can make.

And now we arrive at my most useful Bond skill, [Create Twin]. Evolved from [Summon Clone], it gained slightly better autonomous ability; unfortunately, I can't risk increasing its intelligence, but I can make it better by making it tangible like the Diadem clones, so I am not completely screwed on this skill.

And that's all ten Bond skills that I need to improve on; unfortunately, I can't afford to evolve some of them, which will result in a weaker Class evolution, but at least I will have a Class evolution that won't turn me into a cursed being. I'd rather take what I can get than lose everything on a gamble.

Let's start with what I most desperately need to improve on, [Grace of Wholeness]. I simply need it to be more effective; I don't need it to do anything crazy, just a straight-up power increase; I can try to make it cure diseases and poisons later.

There was a ton of materials broken during the cursed being’s attack; if I could have just restored them, we wouldn't have needed to spend so much money buying more construction materials.

I weave a small dress of mana, not even taking the time to decorate it; then I rip it to shreds. I continue ripping it until it's reduced to confetti. I begin channeling [Grace of Wholeness] with [Channel Beauty], finding that my channeling speed is faster. I channel five thousand mana, ten thousand, fifteen thousand, and still, it shows no signs of reaching its stability limit. At twenty-five thousand mana, the spell in my hands starts humming, my previous limit. It isn't until almost twenty-nine thousand mana, forty percent more than my normal limit, that the stability limit of the spell is reached.

I cast the spell onto the shredded dress, watching the spell carefully with my [Sense Magic]. The pieces of the dress start reconnecting and melding back into the seamless dress it was. I used way more mana than I needed; after mending the dress, the extra mana bursts forth, a wave of mana washing over me and restoring any damage in the vicinity around me.

I did not evolve the skill yet; it will take repeated uses. If I used this spell on the piles of ruined planks and other things, we could perhaps begin to sell those and make the restorations of other villages progress faster; also, the added competition will lower prices of construction materials. The only problem is that each piece I mend will have to be gathered and matched before it can be made new again.

The cleaned-up wreckage of this village has already been turned into mulch, but the abandoned villages still have materials that I can fix; they've already been picked clean of anything usable, so all that is left is the unwanted stuff.

A plus is that now we will have materials to build the water tower, so I don't have to spend a week building it. I should talk to Guklaro before I continue my work.

Walking over to the village hall, I see Guklaro talking to Tusile, who is taking a day off from teaching the priestesses.

"Alysara, I was just telling Tusile about your plans for a village sewer system," Guklaro says, noticing me enter the reception.

"It's a great idea," Tusile says. "We have explored the city sewer somewhat, but I never thought we could make something like that with the way our villages are built above water."

"Thanks, and I have another idea, one that will help build the water tower, thus making the sewers faster to build and pay off the village debt." I say, "I was just training with my Bond and figured out how to restore broken things. We can go to the abandoned villages and restore the wreckage for usable construction material."

"Don't you think you're doing too much for us? I appreciate the offer, but you don't have to take everything onto your shoulders." Tusile says, sounding a little worried.

"It's fine; I need something to restore to help evolve my Bond skill anyway. I am only offering to do this to train my abilities and, while at it, do some good." I reassure her.

Tusile thinks about it for a minute before answering. "Very well, but only do enough until we have enough material for the water tower and until you get your skill evolution. Your priority should be the sewer system; for now, try not to get too distracted but other projects."

"Finish the work for today; tomorrow, we'll go to one of the abandoned villages," Guklaro decides.

I nod and leave to continue working on the mana pipes. Meanwhile, with my real body, I am playing a Bond game with Tana. I form several rings of beauty mana, instilling them with enough intensity to make them visible. I command the rings to spread out with different distances, each one getting progressively farther. I don't use [Mana Manipulation]; instead, I use my Bond to control the mana.

"The goal is to shoot through the rings, start at the closest, and only when you hit the ring can you try one father out. The first one to hit the farthest wins." I lay down the rules, and we get started.

Instead of launching out a bolt of mana, I focus on working with beauty, not entirely the mana but more the concept; I need to trust in my connection to the essence. While I'm meditating, Tana has already scored the first two rings.

I raise my arm and launch the first bolt, not aiming. I miss. It was close, but just like letting the essence guide my movements to make me more elegant in my everyday life, I need to let my Bond guide me in this. I readjust, and I make my first score on my second try while Tana gets his third.

I aim at the second ring and miss; I readjust and miss again, and again. I take a deep breath and center myself, and readjust, finally hitting the second ring. Tana scores his fourth ring and moves onto the fifth ring, halfway to the last.

As I meditate further on my Bond, a flicker of memory enters my mind. A story about space wizards and the saying "use the force" distracts me. I shake my head and push the memory out of my mind; the memory intrusions have been getting more frequent and, honestly, quite annoying. I am my own person now: this is my life and I don't need all the baggage of ‘past me’ as a distraction.

Tana makes his fifth score as I refocus from my distraction and shoot another bolt, missing. I make my next shot, but that may have been a fluke. I move onto the next ring and get it on my first try, but the fourth ring takes me five tries as Tana moves onto the seventh ring.

Perhaps I am trying too hard? The distraction broke me out of my focus, and I had an easier time; perhaps I just need to turn off my brain and just go with it?

I score within three tries for the next two rings while Tana gets a lucky shot on his eighth ring. I slow my breathing and aim for the next ring, scoring after another miss as Tana moves onto the tenth ring. I miss five times, each time getting close to the ring, and on the sixth try, I move directly onto the ninth ring, but as I repeat my third try on it, Tana completes the tenth ring.

"I... win?" Tana says, surprise on his face. He clearly didn't expect to win.

"Congratulations, it seems like I need to work on my aim," I say, smiling at him. He blushes and looks away.

"M-M-Maybe we can, uh, try dancing?" Tana fidgets, "I-It's just to help my footwork." he adds, more to convince himself than me.

"Of course!" I say.