Chapter 239

Tell Me, Without Actually Telling Me

“You don’t think you did anything wrong?” Jhonny asked, a note of incredulity to his voice.

We are still just free floating aimlessly, letting the thrill of adrenaline get washed from our bodies as the cultivators are about to call it a night, while Penelope the lone Mage swears, she is going to take a quick nap before classes begin.

In a way, I am happy that she isn’t planning on skipping class, despite not getting any sleep.

Fortunately for me, I have Zero who is out of his tattoo state and watching us, but otherwise not interfering with our conversation.

“No,” I reply honestly.

“You literally have a spell called Don’t Do That, and you think you didn’t do anything wrong?” Jhonny asks, trying to be the voice of reason here.

Oh my little cricket of a conscience, how much you have to learn about arguing with a woman.

“First, you are wrong in that the spell is called Don’t Do That Again, as I clearly already did it once. And second you are wrong in that I don’t feel guilty at all. I saved all of us, and my ship.” I say the last part while gently stroking the helm.

“All right, I have to ask. So don’t actually tell me what you did. But can you at least tell me roughly what happened?” Penelope asks, her tone calm as she is clearly trying to be the good cop here.

Sigh.

With that I take a deep breathe, and then try to explain what happened. Namely how at that time I was not allowed to Teleport with all of us. Basically, I could have Teleported myself easily, or I could have likely Teleported Jhonny, Penelope, Maranda, and myself, while leaving behind my ship due to overly dense Spatial Magic resistant tree bark.

Tree bark that was far denser than anything in this zone should be, or any other zone I have ever been in for that matter.

As such, it was clear now that I have time to think about it, that there was likely some major plot or storyline that we were supposed to interact with on floor 298. Likely after I crashed the Prankenstein on her maiden voyage, and after we were all gathered by some form of Anti-Teleportation array.

Thus, my need to come up with an alternate form of traveling that could bypass the current limitations that were placed on me in a way that ensured all of our safety.

After thinking about it for a second, I then decided to answer truthfully, but also vaguely enough that everyone here does not have their classes and levels reset to zero.

“Okay, to put it succinctly, the world cheated. They tried to force an impossible situation, that could not be avoided to make us lose the fast travel device that I had spent two weeks creating, an event that would have likely ended with one or more of your deaths.” I say pointing to the three of them.

“The world cheated? That’s what you are going with?” Jhonny asked.

“Yeah, when the world says I can’t use a Teleportation spell, even if I had to modify a new version of the spell right on the spot, all due to some likely forced plot device, that is cheating.” I reply.

Jhonny holds up a finger as if he is going to argue with me about my interpretation of the world cheating.

“Okay, let’s say for a second that the world did cheat. What did you do?”

“I mean, isn’t it obvious?” I begin.

With that everyone just looks at me, apparently everyone is ready to have their classes reset just to hear the truth. I can tell that the world means this as there are pale golden cords of fate that are binding themselves tightly to the three people who wanted nothing more than to help me celebrate a momentous occasion. Seeing their fates actively being threatened, I decide to once again answer as vaguely as possible.

“Well, the world already cheated. So, I cheated right back, but my cheating was apparently better, so now it is all butt-hurt.” I reply.

And with that, the dirty golden strands of fate that had bound the three passengers a moment ago, relaxed slightly.

Silence.

There is a deep silence that fills the ship for a moment.

Finally, Maranda is the first to start laughing. She starts with a light chuckle at first, but then soon goes into a full-on belly laugh with her chest heaving. Seeing her, Penelope looks stunned for a moment, before she too starts to giggle.

Jhonny is the last to crack, as he clearly is trying to keep a solemn expression, before he too begins laughing, after seeing his two companions also laughing.

“Just so we are clear, I mean it, every word.” I state, feeling that they might be laughing at my response, thinking that I was joking.

“Oh, I know, trust me I know,” Penelope says, through her own giggling fits.

Maranda barely able to stand comes over and pats me on the back.

“Had it been anyone else, I would have thought they were lying or at least embellishing. Based on the way the system is seeming to threaten you through us, proves that you can back up what you are saying. That or the system at least believes you can.” Maranda says, then pulling her hand away she begins to look on in amazement at the now bright golden dust that is on her hand.

Golden dust that is actually ephemeral energy from when my wings actually manifest into the real world.

Looking at the dust, Maranda pauses, and then still staring at her hand asks, “is this medicinal?”

At that, I just stare at her, before answering truthfully.

“I honestly don’t know?” I respond.

“You are a Healer right?” Maranda asks, still staring at her hand.

“Yeah?” I respond, knowing that she is in my Qi classes, meaning she might not have seen me actually heal, but Ethereal Healer is still my primary class, as such I still consider that to be my main designation. With my other classes just being ways to either be a better healer, or to help me survive as a healer.

“Good,” Maranda says, before taking her glowing hand and all but shoving it down her mouth as she tries to apparently eat the residual dust from her hand.

“Oh, this is so good!” Maranda says, as she no longer is able to stick more of her hand inside her mouth, and instead has now resorted to licking her hand. Which I find it odd that only now do I notice that she has a slightly cat like tongue within her mouth. A tongue that is now pulling off the highly concentrated energy and pulling it into her body.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

For my part, I can only stare on in complete befuddlement, at least for a moment. Then I watch the effect that the apparently overly pure energy of my ephemeral wing dust enters her body and begins to sink like a rock through her body, before all but clogging off her meridians.

The entire thing is just crazy.

“God bless,” I shout as I move forward and begin instantly trying to both pull out the rest of the ephemeral energy that is still trying to settle into her body. While simultaneously trying to circulate the rest of the energy in her body, in order to keep her alive.

“What are you two? Putting everything into your mouth?” I chastise, while helping Maranda with the cultivation process.

Maranda is one of those coreless cultivators, at least she was a coreless cultivator at first. But with this process, I began helping direct her energy.

In a way, I felt like I was a temporary stave for how to avoid the otherwise dangerous side effects of anaphylaxis. With guided help, and forcefully moving her energy through her body in a quick and efficient manner, I noticed a few things.

First, her meridians were bad.

In a way, I almost felt like I was a beautician, commenting on the fragility of her hair particles and the seeming lack of care she provided the meridians.

Yes, these meridians were likely better than almost anyone could expect before my school. As a student, and one of the students who was doing moderately well, I assumed her meridians were better than this.

“Gah, your meridians are all noodley, flowing wildly and without any clear intention.” I state, as I actively begin forcing parts of her meridians to move into faster paths, while burning away the oxbows, or extra links that are seemingly pointless.

Part of me, focuses on those extra parts and focuses on dissolving them, a process that is as simple as hitting them with high intensity Qi waves.

I realize that this could likely be an attack power, but for the moment I am using it in such a refined method that it is the equivalent of surgery. The same type of surgery one would perform to remove a tumor, or skin growth that was unnecessary.

New Skill Gained: Meridian Manipulation has reached level 1. Meridian Manipulation is a Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower X3 based skill.

Well, at least I got a cool skill from this whole process. Apparently, the skill seems to encompass both forcing the new meridian pathways to be created, along with my precision snipping and removal or in this case recycling of old meridian parts.

Honestly, that skill alone made this entire ordeal worthwhile.

Especially as I was pretty sure that Maranda would survive.

Worse, with this level of energy, despite my having to siphon off over half of the residual energy, I was able to actually make Maranda stronger.

As I easily managed to form the basis for a cultivation core within her body, one that would be capable of handling larger amounts of energy.

New Quest Completed: Cultivator Core Creation: You managed to help one of your students overcome a surge of energy and even managed to help them form a Tier I cultivation core. Results: Experience, Skill (already obtained), New World Feature.

Yes, the quest all but proved that my part in saving my stupid student’s life was over.

Experience Gained:

25,000 / 12,500 / 12,500

Ding.

Level up.

Akashic Qi Master has increased by one level to level 312.

Ethereal Healer increased by one level to level 465.

New World Feature Added: Guided Cultivation Breakthrough Guided Cultivation Breakthrough: This feature allows you to assist people with the process of breaking through the different layers of cultivation.

That was it, a total of four levels, one per class and two for my primary class over the evening.

I assume that this quest might be an attempt by the system to apologize for height discrimination against me, by giving Maranda the biased bonus for being the first to reach floor 300 by a mere quarter of a second at most before I did.

Gasp.

Maranda, who had been relatively still for most of the operation suddenly sprung to life with her child like exuberance that made her so captivating to interact with.

“Oh wow, that was so cool. For a second I thought it was just a bad trip, but then I felt it.” Maranda said, placing her hand over the part where her Qi core resides, just above her belly button, and close to her center of balance.

“That, that was so cool.” Maranda shouted, scrambling to her feet and then running over to Jhonny, the other student on the ship who also had a core. “I thought you were just joking about her control, but I felt it. You were so right, she not only took control to save me, but then she cleared up my wavy meridians.”

At that, I just turn to Jhonny and try to lock gazes with him.

“Did you conspire with Maranda to get me to help her increase her core?” I ask, suddenly wondering if my benevolence is being taken advantage of. I’m pretty sure it is, but I have to ask.

“What? No!” Jhonny hissed, almost seeming to be insulted by the comment. “I just spoke about how you were the best at controlling energy and could likely control it better than anyone else could, even within their own bodies.”

Maranda nods excitedly. “And you were right. Her control was amazing, and for a moment I thought I was going to die, again. But then she saved me, twice in one night!”

Hearing her, I can’t help but wince slightly, as she was not mistaken. While I do feel slightly responsible for the first near death, that second one was all on her.

“Wait, what in the world possessed you to not just touch, but to consume the ethereal energy on your fingers?” Penelope asked.

At that, I too have to wonder the same thing, as up until that point I had a slightly different impression of Maranda. Yes, she was bubbly and fun, but definitely not crazy.

With that question, Maranda who had been still riding a Qi induced high, suddenly paused as she looked momentarily confused.

“I, honestly, I don’t know.” Maranda stammered for a moment before providing a response.

“One second, I was just there, my adrenaline was pumping because we survived the impossible and I saw a miracle happen before my eyes. Then the next thing I know, my hands were tingling due to Pixie Dust, and next thing I know Dr. Spiritlight is performing life saving… surgery? I don’t know.” Maranda stated, clearly confused about what to call the procedure I did to help her create a cultivation core and to keep her from having her body melt due to excessive exposure to energy.

“You did ask if the compound was medicinal,” Jhonny noted.

“I did?” Maranda asks, then stares at her hand, as if she was trying to see any lingering traces of the ephemeral energy. Of course, I wouldn’t have left any of the excess energy reside on her body.

“Wait, why? Mallory seemed fine when she touched my wings and had her own hand coated with ephemeral energy.” I state, trying to go off the only other person who I know for a fact touched my wings. Well touched the area where my wings traveled through, as they weren’t physical objects, not truly.

“Uh, you do realize that Mallory is like level one thousand plus,” Maranda states.

“She is also the only other Mythical level bloodline holder.” Penelope stated.

“Oh, that is likely it, as I just got a notification that I have now begun the process of awakening my Royal Bloodline.” Maranda noted.

“Wow, that sucks.” I state.

With that all three people nearby just nod their heads in agreement. At that I realize that all three of these people have begun the process of awakening their Royal Bloodlines thanks to different events related to me.

I’m beginning to wonder if I am somehow cursed? Or maybe there is more to the bloodline flaw, Children of a Magical Destiny. One that I can almost feel getting more and more powerful with each advancement I achieve due to my bloodline evolutions.

Then a second and likely worse thought fills my mind.

“Poor Mallory,” is all I can say to reflect my new thought.

“Poor Mallory?” Jhonny asks.

“Yeah, she is going to have a new student join her Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Bloodline Acceptance classes.” I state.

“They are Bloodline Understanding and…” Jhonny begins, but then trails off. “You know, I think the names change each week.”

“Yeah, what happens when you keep swapping instructors. I guess it is official that we should just keep Mallory there.” I state.

“Isn’t she already the main teacher?” Penelope asks.

Hearing her, I feel a giant smile come to my face as I lunge forward and peck Penelope on the cheek.

“Oh, I knew you were my favorite for a reason.” I state, nearly tackling her.

Penelope for her part just hugs me, mostly out of a want to maintain her balance.

After a second, she lets go and then reaches up with her hand to touch the now slightly glowing section of her face. A section where the barest traces of highly concentrated mana fill her cheek.

Seeing the magical kiss mark on her face would likely have been enough. But there was a bit more, as I only realize afterwards that Penelope had ephemeral wing energy on her hand. For her part, she seemed fine with being exposed to the ephemeral wing energy at first.

At this, I think there was likely less problems with the residual wing dust, so long as it wasn’t ingested that is.

At least that was the thought, until I saw the way her touching the magical kiss outline on her face, with the wing energy seemed to have a multiplying effect on the two compounds.

Sizzle.

There was a near instantaneous chemical reaction as the mostly mana rich kiss saliva interacted with the highly potent ephemeral wing dust, creating a reaction that now chose to be instantly absorbed by Penelope’s body.

“Uh, oh.” I say, seeing the energy instantly dissolve into Penelope’s skin and directly into her bloodstream.

Penelope for her part begins to collapse.

I of course grab her and begin dropping her gently to the deck of the ship.

“What’s happening?” Jhonny and Maranda ask almost in unison. At that they both pause to stare at each other and shout “jinx.”

“Personal jinx.”

“Double personal…”

“Stop flirting and let me focus!” I state, as I realize what is happening. Though I feel even more odd strands of golden fate going out, suddenly binding Maranda and Jhonny thanks to my comment.

Both pause their joking, but this time they just stare longingly into each others eyes. At this, I remember one of my new flaws, something about Cassiopeia’s Curse? No wait, it was Cassiopeia’s Foresight, where I could see the future but was unable to do anything about it.

Right now, I felt that I had played more than a little part in this joining of Jhonny and Maranda, but I’m not going to split hairs about my matchmaking abilities. Instead, I am going to focus on what is happening to Penelope right now.

“What? What is happening?” Penelope asks, as she suddenly doubles over in pain.

“Don’t worry, just relax. I’ve got this.” I state.

“Oh Gods, it is bad when she won’t even tell you.” Jhonny states, so not being helpful at letting me calm down Penelope.

“It’s okay, these are very natural processes that you are experiencing right now.” I state, trying to calm Penelope down as I will definitely need her help for this next part. “In fact, everyone who goes through a bloodline transformation will experience this very event.”

“Wait, a Bloodline evolution? Now?” Penelope asks, her voice suddenly concerned as she tries to push herself up from the deck.

“Yes, now calm down, and I’ll try to make it not hurt that much.” I say.

“It’ll hurt?”

“Really, the worst you have to worry about are the noted physical alterations. Everything else will be fine.”

“Wait, am I going to get a third eye too?”

“Not if I can help it.” I state, clearly picking up on her words and trust me I would not wish this upon anyone else.

“No, wait, can you try to get me one? If you can?” Penelope asks.

“Wait? You want a third eye?” I ask.

“Yes, very much so!” Penelope states, excitement filling her words, as I can tell she actually means it.

“Are you sure you aren’t suffering from Pixie Dust exposure?” I ask.

But before I can get an answer, the system lets me know it is time to get to work.

New Quest Identified: Tailoring A New Royal Bloodline Into Existence: Help Penelope Tailor awaken her dormant bloodline markers and help her achieve her true potential as a Royal Bloodline holder…

I see what they did there with that new quest, well played…