Chapter 105: Solidifying Illusions

Ting! Your Bond skill, Grace of Wholeness, has evolved into Blessing of Wholeness!

Blessing of Wholeness: Spend up to 100 mana to restore someone or something.(Beauty) (Restoration)

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 394-397!

Considering I can simply channel the skill, I can still spend more than the mana limit, the only difference is the amount of time needed to cast. I can cast the skill by itself almost instantly, while I need to take a lot of time to channel it. Still, mid-battle healing with it will be a lot more effective now. What's more is that it is a burst of healing rather than the continuous flow that it was before, which is another great thing about this evolution.

It took me the better part of a day of restoring materials before finally evolving [Grace of Wholeness]. My efforts are rewarded with more than a skill upgrade though, the town now has plenty of materials to make the water tower and can even sell some or use it for a different project.

"I finally got it!" I call out, "We can leave now!" Even I am getting tired of using the same skill all of the time and this island is too far for me to use clones back home so I couldn't even do other things that I want to do.

"Congratulations!" my helpers reply. They have been gathering and matching pieces of the wreckage for me to fix.

Riding the boat back home I consider what to do with [Imbue Beauty]: make it better or replace it? I can probably use it to imbue an item with one of my other Bond skills, which would be very useful... but I can already make Bond crystals, the Bond version of spell crystals, so even in that regard it's obsolete. I can think of what I should replace it with while I am working on my other Bond skills.

My planned evolution paths for both [Create Twin] and [Echoes of Reality] are the same, so I might as well work on both of them. Making both of the skills more tangible is absolutely vital. For my clones it gives them more utility, being able to interact with things. For my illusions, it will allow me to make walls and barriers to defend myself, more convincing illusions, and perhaps even summon illusory warriors to help me. If I can turn my illusions into a more summon-based thing that will make me a lot more powerful and flesh out my build more.

Returning home I summon my clones, trying to mimic the way my Diadem makes its clones. It's really just an illusion with a ‘skin’, there is not much else inside. That is not good enough for me, though, I can do better. I will not just copy a better spell, I can improve it further. First I form the 'skin' of the clone, just like the Diadem does, but I add my own mana signature leakage to it. It helped me obtain my clone skill and I hope that now it can improve it. Next, I add more beauty mana inside the clone, denser than the 'mana skin', more like muscles and even bone. I add organs; lungs, heart, liver, every organ. Lastly, I add hair and fur, not just an image of it but actually weaving the hair in a manner similar to mana weaving cloth, adding my mana signature to it all the while.

It takes me several minutes and seventy thousand mana, most of my capacity, to fully create the clone, but the result looks like me even to my perception. The only thing that gives it away as a fake is that it is entirely made out of beauty mana, with my mana signature mixed in.

With [Mana Manipulation] I make the heart beat and the lungs take in air. I take control of it with one of my minds and have it go about its tasks while I meet up with Tana. With my first clone done I let my mana regenerate before making another, refining my technique, then I make a third, and finally a fourth before finally being rewarded for my efforts.

Ting! Your Bond skill, Create Twin, has evolved into Duplicate Self!

Duplicate Self: For 50,000 mana create a near-identical, tangible, and semi-autonomous illusion of yourself.(Beauty) (Summoning) (Illusion)

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 398-402!

Fifty thousand mana is really expensive, but still cheaper than making it by hand, which suggests that my techniques can be improved? Or is it just the magic of the skill? Either way, the improvement is welcome and better than what my Diadem can make, although my Diadem can make cheaper versions. Maybe I should try to see if I can use my skill to make simple clones?

I focus on my skill, trying to summon a previous version of the skill; however, no matter how hard I try I just can’t do it. I am stuck with these extremely expensive clones. On one hand, I really only need to summon them once and keep them active, but on the other, if they are destroyed in battle I am not getting them back quickly or in significant numbers. That means I can't use disposable clones like I did in the dungeon, although fortunately they will be harder to destroy due to the quantity and density of the mana.

Now, onto my next Bond skill. This too will massively increase how much mana is used on a skill that is already moderately expensive for me, but maybe I can give it some variance? I need it to keep its minor illusion ability while giving me the option for tangible illusions.

I focus on the area in front of me while using [Echoes of Reality] to craft a simple model of the village with tiny people inside. I keep the people as simple illusions while making the buildings denser to copy the almost skin-like properties of my clones. I can't make it too hard, otherwise it'll be too expensive, not to mention it won't quite be an 'illusion' at that point.

I test the strength of the illusion, pushing against the building; there is some give but it holds. It may not be as solid as I want it, but it should be convincing enough for now and should give more variety to my defenses. It will be mana expensive, but summoning a wall to block attacks will be an option now.

While I work on improving my illusions another mind is making pipes for the sewer project. A third mind is playing a Bond game with the twins, helping train their Bond; while my true mind with my body is training with Tana. My fifth mind is helping Mom and Dad in the shop.

By the end of the day I manage to evolve my illusions.

Ting! Your Bond skill, Echoes of Reality, has evolved into Figment of Reality!

Figment of Reality: You can create tangible or intangible illusions capable of producing sounds. The mana cost increases with how solid the illusion is.(Beauty) (Illusion)

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 403-406!

Finally! Now I can try to obtain a barrier skill to replace [Imbue Beauty]. However, one thing I have noticed is that more advanced skills are harder to get. I had to defeat several strong opponents to get [Channel Beauty], which is really more of a caster thing than a Bond thing. Beauty, being based on the light element, is strong in matters of illusions, lasers, and producing light, but weak in more physical things like barriers and launching projectiles. However, illusions can make something physical, as my Duplicates can attest to, which means that it's not outside the realm of possibility, only that it is advanced illusions.

Now, let's work on upgrading [Imbue Beauty]. I really need it to stand out, even if I am eventually going to replace it, so how can I use it in a useful way? I pretty much lost my disposable clones with my Duplicate upgrade so maybe I should focus on how to replace that role? A Bond crystal won't work, but perhaps I can 'imprint' an illusion onto something... or perhaps make an object that projects an illusion around it, like Myrou’s statues?

I create a pebble-sized beauty crystal, then I half-cast [Fairy Strike] with the intent of imbuing it into the crystal with [Imbue Beauty]. It should work, as the fairy is just a spell and thus is made of mana, beauty mana specifically. It takes several minutes of focus as I slowly cram the mana into the tiny crystal.

Now what? I ask myself. What did this accomplish?

I throw the crystal but nothing happens when it bounces off the wall. It is, by all means, just a mana crystal with a spell crammed inside, which isn’t what I want. Perhaps I should think about it differently. I make another pebble-sized beauty crystal and focus on casting Fairy strike, only this time as I channel the cast and, as the mana builds up in front of me, I imbue the mana onto the crystal, using [Evolve Beauty] to shape the mana into wings.

The wings grow from the crystal and I use [Impart Instructions] to make the wing flap, resulting in the crystal hovering in the air in front of me after a few seconds, with its rather incongruous-looking wings flapping. The fairies themselves are mere mana constructs and therefore weightless, so it is interesting that the wings are able to lift a physical object, since there’s no way they are producing enough lift to do so by physical means.

Intriguing, but ultimately useless, but if it can do that then perhaps it can do more. If I use it on myself...

I don't even wait to finish the thought. I start channeling [Create Familiar], this time imbuing the mana onto my back in the form of large, beautiful fairy wings. I even toss in [Evolve Beauty] to create a mosaic of different beauty identities, and I create a link to them to help me mentally control them.

Once I have large enough wings I command them to flap and lift me up in the air. It is very unsteady but I am now floating! I shift my weight and command my wings to move me forward, after which I start moving about as fast as I normally walk.

I feel giddy with excitement at my success, but it's imperfect. I have to mentally command my wings and I can probably make them better in some ways, but hopefully an actual flying skill will make them function like extra limbs.

I fly out over the water and circle the village, flying faster as I feel more comfortable with my current capabilities. I am still scared of flying too high but as long as I am above water I won't be hurt too much if I fall for some reason. Regardless of my apprehension of flying high, it is a thrill to be flying at all!

Relishing in the moment I do a backflip, twist in the air, and barrel roll, laughing in excitement. After doing several more tricks I decide to fly a little higher, then a little bit more, then before I know it I am high above the houses. If I could properly see the village from this point of view it would probably be wonderful, with the sun setting and everyone going to the Lojyo.

I fly down and land in front of my house, dismissing my wings and nearly jumping at a sudden notification.

Ting! Your Bond skill, Imbue Beauty, has evolved into Adorn Wings!

Adorn Wings: You can sprout large fairy wings to fly, at the cost of 8000 mana.(Beauty) (Illusion)

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 407-410!

Pricey but affordable, still not something I want to use willy-nilly. I can use it nine times before I am out of mana, or only once if I am not wearing my Kyhosa. I wonder if I can make my clone fly too, or if that will cost me more? Or less, since the clones weigh a lot less than my real body does.

As I ponder ways to explore my new skill, I walk to the Lojyo to join in the partying.