Chapter 23: Improvements

I felt mom's heavily gravid belly. It has several months now, almost a year. Mom's been pregnant for longer than I would originally thought she would be. The gestation period may be longer for the Runalymo.

I can clearly see the mana of the twins now. Even at an early stage, their bond has been developed, Both seem to have a water bond.

I am almost six years old now. My training at the mages dojo has increased my bond level by thirty-one It is now at ninety-nine. Much faster than my previous years, it helps to have a teacher show me effective ways to level my bond. Sparring also helped tremendously in leveling my bond. Mom was very against the idea but I kinda went behind her back and did it anyway, it was kinda like play fighting; If play fighting had done with potentially lethal superpowers. In any case, the other students were going easy on me. While I did have a higher bond level they had a class so ultimately I was weaker than them. I was also forbidden from wearing my Kyhosa as "It adds an unfair advantage"

Chyzu has praised me for what she says "Unworldly bond growth" and "Most genius at Bond she's ever seen", It is kinda strange to see me leveling almost three times faster than the other students, I can't even deny that and they are attempting the same things as me! For once I have no explanation as to why I am leveling faster than anyone else.

My charm also went up a few levels. I may want to try and evolve the skill into [Acting] but I am very focused on other things right now and evolving skills is apparently very hard to do. In most cases, it's easier to just dump the skill and start over. If others are to be believed, some breakthroughs make it harder to evolve as it's not quite applicable to the higher tier, and broader, skill.

But [Acting] is apparently very useful as it also covers [Trading] and a number of other useful skills. Kinda like how my [Sense Mana] covers, element sense, essence sense, storm sense, and in some ways spirit sense. And all of those covers a wide array of specialized skills too. So it's good to get skills that are at the top of their pyramid, like my [Musician] skill.

Any better and it'll fall into class skills. Skills like [True sight] or [True Sense] that covers all sight-based skills. Artistry could cover both [Acting] and [Musician]. The best of the best class skills are apparently very rare and I think it may require you having the top of the general tier skill. My theory is that it evolves the skill and moves it to your class. The class is grown from the skill, or absorbs the skill and empowers it with its own magic. This should be the normal way to get class skills based on the ones you already have. But I kinda skipped a step. I grew the skill when my class was still locked. A combination of desire and action and knowledge was probably needed to do that.

It's not a perfect explanation. I didn't have the desire nor knowledge to do any [Astral Projection] yet I still got the skill, it was based totally on action, unless my past life had some knowledge on it, that may explain things. For [True Sight], well, I think it was something about perceiving my soul from the outside? I'm really not sure how I qualified for it but I got it at the same time as astral projection.

As for my [Musician] skill, it is now at level thirty-five! I had to promise mom that I'd play at the Lojyo before she'll get me another instrument. Mom's been saying that I am good enough for months now but I really don't want to play in front of so many people, I'm not good with crowds after all. Showing something at the Lojyo is a sign of being good at something. Not quite at a mastery level, though, that is for Myrou dedication project, which is still shown off to everybody.

I finished the song I was working on, My [Perfectionists Eye] has no complaints about it! I was able to get both my Musician and first breakthrough to level ten out of ten with it! This means my song counts as an 'extraordinary' action! Well, I am using my bond and third breakthrough so it better! It also has set a bar for the action required. I guess making a flawless song would do that though.

As for my magical items, I now have three, my minor magic Item, Hair Ornament of Duality. A memento of my Uncle and Aunt. Then there's my newest one, I had Dad appraise it for me.

Eye Wraps of Mana Sensing (Minor) (Heirloom)This Heirloom has been with Alysara for several breakthroughs and dozens of levels of her Sense Mana skill. It has been with her for several years and even when she maxed her sense mana level with ten breakthroughs.

When worn grants the Sense Mana skill: 60/60 with her first five breakthroughs.

Amazing right?! But kinda useless for me. My hope is I can get it stronger if I continue to level and get more breakthroughs in Sense Mana.

Then there's My Kyhosa. It apparently got better after the superstorm.

Alysara's Kyhosa (Major) (Unique) (Set): This set: Amulet, left bracelet, right bracelet, is made from Nexus gems and Myrou gold blessed by Myrou herself and filled to the brim with beauty and creativity essence, was given as a Kyhosa to Alysara, during her Kyholo.

When worn, Enhances Beauty and Creativity, and Elemental magic by 220%, and boosts Intelligence and wisdom by 25%Tethered, Battery (10,000).

That was what it was before the upgrade.

Alysara's Kyhosa of Storm Warding (Grand) (Artifact) (Set): This artifact set: Amulet, left bracelet, right bracelet, is made from Nexus gems and Myrou gold blessed by Myrou herself and filled to the brim with beauty and creativity essence, was given as a Kyhosa to Alysara during her Kyholo. This set has absorbed three nexus mana cores and helped its wearer defend her people from a devastating storm through the usage of her manipulate mana skill.

When worn, Enhances Beauty and Creativity, and Elemental magic by 500%, and boosts Intelligence, Wisdom, and Mana by 25%. Grants the Skill: Manipulate Mana 10/10, Aura of Calm Mana 1/10Tethered, Battery (50,000).

More than double the Bonus! Also apparently skill levels are copied from the user that's why Mana manipulation is ten out of ten, that's because the base of my skill is at the level. It didn't incorporate any breakthroughs though. It also gained another skill but since I don't have it it's just a one out of ten.

Tier bonuses are apparently, on average, double the previous. Major tier has a bonus of two hundred fifty so Grand has an average of five hundred. I shudder to think what other races have. Can you imagine someone with heroic tier class, race and magic items? What kind of devastation are they capable of?

Also with that twenty-five percent bonus to stats and five hundred to Beauty magic I can now summon over eighty fairies, an actual swarm now, too bad my mana doesn't allow for that and I'd have to tap into the large reserves of my Kyhosa.

The training of the future storm warden, which I am now convinced was a name taken from my Kyhosa; which may have also influence or been influenced by my possible evolution. One that I can't take because of the cursed skill corruption, still a bit bitter about that. I mean, c'mon! It was a Heroic Race, Heroic! That sweet, sweet one thousand percent bonus! The jump from two hundred percent to one thousand and possibly more would have been a dream come true!

Anyway! The training has come rather far. We are now working on the fourth breakthrough for them, so far half has gotten it. In just one year they made more progress than I did, but I guess it helps when you're being taught. Apparently, it's normal to gain up to five levels just for being taught, which we now concluded are knowledge levels. Me being able to bring everyone up to knowledge five is a huge boon and helps everything go way faster than normal. They really couldn't ask for someone better to teach [Sense Mana].

The bad storms had ended and now we get normal weather, which essentially translates to me being the weather girl. No one really cares for ice storm now, it just snows so work barely changes for those who work inside. The same can be said for any mana storm now. Everything has returned to normal, well, mostly. A lot of villages that were wiped out specialized in certain products, products that are now in extremely low supply.

Add in that people won't resettle those villages in fear of another superstorm has really made the Elders put way more effort in storm warden recruitment and training. Once people can be protected will the villages be resettled. People are even moving out of the mid islands as those are seen as too dangerous.

"When will they be born?" I ask Mom.

"In a couple of months" Mom replied.

"They have the same bond as you"

"You can even tell that?"

I smiled. "Bonds, classes, race, and skills all make up your mana signature. I can't tell what they are unless I have some frame of reference, though. I might be able to tell if two people have the same race but won't know that race unless I am told or have it too."

"That's like a better Inspection skill... Wait, you said skills too right?" Mom asked, getting a little pale.

"Yes, It's as you suspect, I know you wanted to surprise me. Sorry" I said, my ears drooping a little. "But! It did surprise me when you first took it!" I tried to cheer mom up, it kinda worked too.

Mom smiled, "There's really no getting past you but you still can't do the same for magic items?"

"That's a higher tier Breakthrough" I explained. "I should be close but I don't want to expand my skill just yet, getting that 'extraordinary' level will be tough and I don't know if I can do it before my next race evolution."

"I see. Speaking of, shouldn't you have a really good one? Or are you not at the next evolution point yet?"

"I have one, got it when I was five. I've been working on improving my choices and yeah, the superstorm event gave me a heroic tier but it got corrupted by the cursed skill, the guardian warned me to not take anything corrupted."

"Heroic!? That's too bad, but knowing you, you'll get there someday!" Mom cheered me on. "I became a Nurturer Runalymo after being pregnant with you," Mom said reminiscently.

There's a lot of dairy products sold and we don't have cows, or any livestock for that matter, not any that i know of anyway. Naturally, that meant the milk is sourced from us. Kinda expected it with [Nutritional Milk]. Nurturers like Mom are the main suppliers but most Runalymo naturally produce milk even when not pregnant. Not exactly something I'm looking forward to when I'm older.

Still, it's not too often we drink raw milk, it's mostly processed into other things like cheese or used as a cooking ingredient. We even have ice cream! It's rare but a local ice mage nurturer sells some.

"I was hoping you'd follow my footsteps and become a nurturer too, it's a rather prestigious position to take, but, well, I can see that's not for you. You are meant for something greater! You may even become the greatest Kheshamo!"

Nurturers are technically more highly regarded than Kheshamos, but that also doesn't mean one can't be both. Chyzu is both, being a water mage means she doesn't lose any bonuses, in fact, her particular race still gives bonuses to water magic.

I roll my eyes at mom. I still am unsure of what I want to do. I want to get a good evolution but then what? Work on my skills. Get my Sense Mana higher, get my Bond higher, but that's not all there is to life. What will I do for a living? What will I do to earn money? I just don't know. Are these questions really something a six-year-old should be asking?

I got up. "I'm going to go play with the other kids'' I tell mom. Thankfully their idolization greatly lessened after a few months. Sure they treat me respectfully but not as a celebrity anymore.

Walking out I wave to a few passers-by. "Laeso!"

"La! Little Aly," The tall woman said, giving a casual greeting. Her height betraying her real gender.

"Alysara!" Tanafyam called out to me, waving his arms. It's hard to imagine him as the shy kid from a year ago. Hanging out with me really helps others see past his differences and accept him.

Now Tana is known as one of the best athletic kids, he's even been recommended to join one of the Kheshamo sports. Running, throwing, warrior, mage. That last one I don't think he'd do extremely well in. Esofy has even come to try and recruit him, I guess she wants a prodigy to try and one-up Chyzu. Alright! I admit I might be good at my bond, happy? But it's not like I am a genius at it, just a little better, I mean, I learned it in one day, I taught others in one day, it's not that far off.

"What do you want to do?" I ask Tana. Walking to the playground with him. I was still a little hung up on what kind of life I want to lead.

"Hmm? Play Netball, or maybe tag? What do you want to do?"

"Not like that," I said, a little annoyed. "What do you want to become? What do you want to do for a living?"

"Hmm, Esofy showed me some really cool sword moves! I guess I want to become someone cool like her!"

"You want to join the Kheshamo?" I asked for clarification.

"Not really, I just want to become someone awesome. The way Esofy swung the sword and said 'The sword is not a tool, it is your partner' was just the coolest thing ever!" Tana tried to mimic Esofy's voice with stars in his eyes.

I'm glad he found someone else to idolize but he really is boyish, I guess his looks weren't just a fluke.

I played games with the other kids and tried to forget my worries.

But they gnawed at the back of my mind. Always circulating between different lives. Kheshamo, Musician, Jeweler, Diver, and even one I wished that would never come up, Nurturer. I squashed that voice but it kept crawling back ever more annoying than before. I blame Moms talk earlier about that one.

The next day I trained in the mage's dojo. After the superstorm incident no one had a problem with me wearing my Kyhosa so I wear it freely now, it also really helped me train my bond.

I was summoning fairies but I suddenly had a thought. Why make them with instructions when I can make them with a will or more like an identity? They are masses of essence and essence is mana given an identity so why not summon one with a slightly altered essence. It'll have to retain its beauty identity but maybe it can have more? What's there to lose in trying?

Instead of summoning a simple fairy with attack patterns, I tried impressing a desire into it. I thought about what desire and came to a 'helpful' one.

{support} it had to retain its beauty so I used [Beauty Beam] as a base and used [Shape Beauty]

Ting! You have developed a new Bond skill! Summon Familiar!

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 100!Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 101!Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 102!