Chapter 116

Becoming A Progenitor

Impatient.

If I had to sum up all my boiling emotions into one word, it would have to be impatience. I was going too slowly, Mallory was going too slowly, the whole world was going too slowly. I needed to go faster, my daughter, my beloved daughter was here, or soon to be.

Bestowing a name: You have opted to bestow your biological daughter (Jackie Cruise) with your last name, Spiritlight. Since this is the first child you have had enter the world, and the first child you have bestowed your last name to, your daughter has an 80% chance of gaining your full Legendary Bloodline awoken in them at the start of character creation. Should the bloodline not fully manifest, then the Royal variant of your bloodline would take hold over her body. Would you like to see the result?

At that question, I paused, realizing that the world was seemingly both mocking me and not at the same time. I mean 80% percent is high, four out of five chances would succeed. But to force someone to have a third eye, not just a third eye, but to be physically blind except for use of the third eye, that was cruel. Would Jackie really want that? To be forced to have Angel’s Sight active unless she wanted to be seen as a three eyed freak. Me, I am stuck with it, but for her, that well, that is likely cruel. Not that the Royal bloodline version was any better, all but forcing her down a path of magic. Oh, and of course there is the fact that Jackie would have a harder time with mechanical components due to most corroding away from her. On the bright side, that would likely make being held captive that much harder as she would essentially corrode the basic mechanical locks, but still, who would want that type of life?

But what’s done is done. She saw what I went through, she saw what I have, hopefully. Now it is just a matter of seeing what fate had in store for her.

Finally, after moments, or rather long seconds of internal debating, I opted for the only answer I could. Mentally, I selected yes.

Roll: 78 of 100.

Seventy-eight, that is good right? A high roll at the very least. But what does it mean? Is that a pass? A fail? So many questions. Then the system rolled out the next lines as if trying to slow roll me.

Critical success.

Target rolled above the intended 20, thus they succeeded in fully awakening your bloodline. Congratulations, your bloodline now has two Legendary wielders of the blood awakened.

Then with that, I got a new system to pop up within my mind.

Bloodline Progenitor Function: You have managed to awaken and spread your bloodline of the Esoteric Arcanist Elven lineage. As the progenitor, you will be allowed to see the status of your family lines, and track for any new deviations to your blood’s purity.

Bloodline Progenitor Page: Esoteric Arcanist Elves Current Members: (You) Cassiopeia Spiritlight: Full Blooded Legendary Esoteric Arcanist Elf (Upgradable)

Daughter: Jackie (Cruise) – Gwendolyn Spiritlight: Full Blooded Legendary Esoteric Arcanist Elf (Maxed out). Age: 36.

*Note: Biological children are the only ones who can avoid having to be younger than their biological parents who are already in the game world.

That was interesting, sort of gives me a weird methuselah vibe. There is also the fact that I now have a daughter in the game who will be older than me by over two decades. Kind of odd, but that is a great thing about this world, as they do try to make it a family-oriented affair.

I guess this is part, the part of the Progenitor Page, is a bit of the metagame that I can expect at higher levels. This system might make it easier to track the potential offspring of myself and my children. It would also denote who had the bloodline awoken in them, and to what level.

Just when I thought major bombshells like that were done for the day, and I could once again focus on finishing up my last few tasks here in the tower, I was met with another pressing system message.

Congratulations: Your lineage of the Esoteric Arcanist Elves has been continued by your child: Robert Cruise, would you like for them to take on your last name of Spiritlight?

“Always chasing after your sister.” I find myself muttering. It is clearly apparent that they were both likely encouraged to join the game world to get my unique bloodline activated within them. I want to chastise Robert, but then realize that if I chastised him, then I would have to also chastise Jackie as well. Clearly, they didn’t put as much time into this as I did, but then again starting off with a Legendary bloodline would mean they wouldn’t need to try so hard, thus they wouldn’t need as many advantages as I took.

I also hope that Robert’s external problems won’t follow him into this world, that or if they do, then they will be easily handled. Still, despite everything, I can’t help but realize that supporting him, with my name at least, is something that I will likely need to do.

Taking a deep sigh, I mentally select yes. Once again, I feel that I am bestowing my power and my blessing onto Robert as I am now giving him my last name.

Bestowing a name: You have opted to bestow your biological son (Robert Cruise Jr.) with your last name, Spiritlight. Since this is the second child you have had enter the world, and the second child you bestowed your last name to, your son has a 60% chance of gaining your full Legendary Bloodline awoken in them at the start of character creation. Should the bloodline not fully manifest, then the Royal variant of your bloodline would take hold over his body. Would you like to see the result?

That is a huge drop off, 80% for Jackie and then only 60% for Rob, but that is still pretty good odds of being something great. For a moment I wonder if just opening my progenitor page will show me the results, or if that will somehow lower the odds of his success. I don’t think magic is for Robert, as I don’t believe he has the temperament for it, that said, the skills that he would have access to from our bloodline would make him invaluable almost anywhere. But still, I can’t help but hope he both succeeds and doesn’t. I don’t think Rob has the patience to use his mind to examine the world through Angel’s Sight. I also realize that I have all but cursed my offspring to be unable to read, should they awaken Angel’s Sight above the fifth level, as that would mean even their third eye would be blind, just like mine is, had I thought about it, Blind Eidetic Speed Reading would have been an invaluable skill to make part of my lineage. Still, they should be able to read with their third eye, though that might be mostly concerning for people at first.

At this point, I once again am reminded at how much this world seemingly hates me. Now, I realize it is even worse, as not only am I an obvious freak, but so are my kids.

Finally, unable to take it, I mentally select yes. Then just like last time I see the effect of Robert’s roll.

Roll: 75 of 100.

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Just like all things, Robert comes up just a little short of his twin sister.

Critical success.

Target rolled above the intended 40, thus they succeeded in fully awakening your bloodline. Congratulations, your bloodline now has three Legendary wielders of the blood awakened.

Bloodline Progenitor Function (Updated): You have a newly awakened member of your bloodline, would you like to see the changes to your bloodline?

Of course, with this new change, I was more than ready to see the changes that were made.

Bloodline Progenitor Page: Esoteric Arcanist Elves Current Members: (You) Cassiopeia Spiritlight: Full Blooded Legendary Esoteric Arcanist Elf (Upgradable)

Daughter: Jackie (Cruise) – Gwendolyn Spiritlight: Full Blooded Legendary Esoteric Arcanist Elf (Maxed out). Age: 36.

Son: Robert Cruise Jr. – Trenton Spiritlight: Full Blooded Legendary Esoteric Arcanist Elf (Maxed out). Age: 36.

Seeing the addition, I couldn’t help but comment on the fact that they both look like twins with this, especially with their odd choice of ages. I almost thought they were trying to mock me by choosing an age that was nearly three times my own current age.

It takes me a moment, before I realize that the whole intention of opening up the bloodline and choosing the age of 36, was so that they could have children that automatically start off at the age of 18, or consent in this world.

The weird part of this is, that I expected it from Jackie, I mean a few of my conversations with Mallory were exactly about this very subject. Mallory had a cherished granddaughter who I knew was helping Jackie and my grandchildren currently. That one I fully supported and endorsed. So, seeing the fact that Jackie did this willingly is no real concern, as I both approve of the relationship and fully endorse it. Whereas I can’t help but feel both put out by Rob’s antics and think of myself as a hypocrite for wanting to chastise Rob for doing the same thing that his sister was doing. I want to say that the reason is because I knew about it, but neither Jackie nor Rob told me about this. The only reason I was aware of Jackie was because of my many conversations with Mallory.

I guess in a way this was why I was given this progenitor tab, so I could track and see these changes.

“Everything okay?” Mallory asks, her voice pulling me out of the seemingly endless spiral I was in.

“Yeah, just thinking.” I said, still feeling somewhat guilty over not trusting Rob to do the right thing, and possibly trading away my bloodline and hard work to pay for gambling debts he no doubt accrued in the real world. Then I even chastise myself for that thought, as that is not entirely fair. In the seven years that I have been away, he could have cleaned up his life and found the purpose I always hoped for him. The purpose he seemed to loose when his dead beat of a father left him with nothing more than his name to remember him by.

“About your daughter?”

“Children actually.”

“Ch, children?”

“Surprise its twins, apparently.” I say, putting on a mock satire of excitement.

“Twins? As in two?”

“That is what twins means, yes.”

“But, how? Why?” Mallory asks.

“Well, when you have an egg and it splits apart at the time of inception…” I begin but am quickly shaken by Mallory.

“That is not what I meant, and you know it.” Mallory begins, but then I see the pulse of her mana quickly burning itself out.

Zzt.

Then seeing her mana quickly burn internally, I realize that her flight is going to be cancelled here shortly, as her wings begin to phase out of reality.

Not even thinking about it, I reach out and Telekinetically grab Mallory, just before she begins to plummet completely to the ground.

“Ahh!” Mallory begins, and kicks her feet, realizing that her class spell is coming to an end, not quite realizing that I already have her securely in place.

With that Mallory pauses her flailing for a second, then turns to me in disbelief. “Wait, you are saying you could have done this all along?”

I blink, trying to understand what she means. It takes a second, as I realize that I was thinking about my kids and trying to imagine how long it would be before I started having grandchildren, I was guessing not too long with how old my kids chose to be.

“What? Oh, holding you up, yeah. Not like this is the first time I have used Telekinesis to grab you and keep you from falling.” I add.

“It is the first time you used it to keep me from falling while in midflight.”

I pause and think about her statement, but then realize she is right.

“Yeah, this is the first time you didn’t get to a ledge before your internal energy ran out.” I say nodding my head and agreeing with her assessment.

“You were just okay with having me fly up after you, and then making it so we rested every five minutes?”

“Every five and a third minutes.”

“What?”

“Technically you can fly for three hundred and twenty seconds at full mana. Thus, five and a third minutes.” I state.

“You counted how long I could fly?”

“Had to, didn’t want you doing the princess drop, like you just did.”

“The princess drop?”

“You know, like you just did. You fall then cry out, ‘save me, my hero,’ like you were a princess from a story.” I state.

“So that would make you the hero, in this little story of yours?” Mallory asks.

“Clearly.” I state, then put my fists on my hips and do a super pose with my head to the right staring off in the distance.

“My hero, does that mean I have to give you a kiss now, or after we land.” Mallory says, clearly teasing me.

“Ugh, I am way too young for you.” I state, then take off, making sure to carry her with my Telekinetic grip.

“So, you aren’t saying no. You are just saying that I need to wait for you?” She asks teasingly.

Hearing that, I just shake my head, not wanting to play her game. I am too flustered with so many things going on. I have a lot of things that I want to do. I want to create a permanent cure to the Blight, at least for the great tree Yggdraspirit. I am close, at least I think I am close to coming up with a cure, a sort of self-perpetuating antibody that would fight the Blight, while not being truly poisonous to the tree itself. The only problem is that I would need time to experiment.

While I likely have bought some time with my constant stopping and cleansing each branch we land on of the Blight, I can’t help but feel that this was not enough. Also, it is clear that I am getting a lot of random quests suddenly to go to the main game world, which should ruin my progress here, making it so that once I get to floor 200, that will be it, I will be on my last floor and after I leave, I will only be able to get to floor 250, but there will only be an exploration bonus for reaching that floor.

At that thought I pause, trying to understand why I haven’t gotten the floor exploration bonuses thus far. I mean floor fifty, I get, as that was clearly discovered by others. But floors 100 and 150 I should have gotten a bonus for discovering first, right?

Then I remember something, both times I was with Mallory.

Looking back to Mallory who is being held in my Telekinetic grip, I decide to ask.

“Mallory, did you get an exploration bonus for discovering floors 100 and 150?” I ask, trying to keep my bubbling emotions from my words.

“Of course I did, didn’t you?” Mallory asked.

Hearing that, I grit my teeth and suddenly curse myself for being short. I bet that is it, in the impromptu elevator going past floors 100 and 150 I remember having been seated while we hurdled upwards. Mallory of course was standing at her full height, and thus likely got the discovery bonus for reaching the floor first.

“No, I didn’t.” I responded back trying not to grit my teeth but finding it nearly impossible not to at the moment. I went and found a secret tunnel and Mallory reaped the rewards for discovering the floors first. Granted, I was second and got my Master’s degree and first Doctorate degree from the actions, but still I am curious as to what I could have gotten as a reward for being the first to discover those capstone floors.

This time I made a vow to reach floor 200 first, to get the floor exploration bonus. Wondering how much of a difference getting to the floor first would make, I decided to ask.

“Did you level from discovering the floors?” I ask.

“Yeah. Sure did both times…” Mallory states.

Then just like that a wave of jealousy rolls through me, until I realize the words, she said next.

“Honestly, when I am with you, I level up so often from just doing things and exploring that I didn’t know such things were possible. I mean since I have met you, I have gained over seven levels, something that I thought was impossible to accomplish anymore.” Mallory stated.

Hearing that, and the joy she had in her words, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of the fire within me die down.

“Seven levels?” I ask.

“Yes, one and some change from you just curing me of the Blight. Then different levels from all these different quests that you somehow complete in miraculous ways. Honestly, after all this success, I don’t think I could ever go back to monster grinding again. At my level I would look at slaying monsters for months, and still not come close to this level of success. Also, with the fact that my guild is now a maxed-out recycling guild, and thus neutral to creatures and monsters that would normally find us repulsive. As such our ventures into herbalism, and horticultural research has increased astronomically. Honestly, you are amazing, and I can’t wait to see what you do next.” Mallory states.

“I’m detecting a but, in that comment.” I say, trying to see if Mallory is in fact hiding something.

Hearing that, Mallory lets out a slight smile, and then states.

“No buts, I am just trying to make sure to wrap you up into my guild before someone else gets their grubby little mitts on you.” Mallory states.

Hearing that, I can’t help but think that I really appreciate everything that Mallory has also done for me as well. I mean she carried me through twenty floors, literally carried my passed out body through twenty floors. Then she made it so I never had to worry about threats while completing quests. Granted she apparently also got the same quest completions, but still I was only able to act as I did thanks to her. Also, with her guild taking away my trash, I am still going to get tons of experience. With that, I stop myself. Just above me, if I flap my wings once more, I know I will reach floor 200 of the Arcanarus tower and not only complete my personal quest, but also get the discovery bonus. A discovery bonus that would likely mean a level and a half for me. The same level and a half exploration bonus would also be applied to Mallory, who has a lot harder time gaining levels than I do.

Stopping myself from flying up, I lift Mallory with my Telekinetic grip and hurl her above me.

“Wait, what?” Mallory shouts as she hurls past me.

Then as she gets up, I see the golden hue of level up energy filling her and spreading out like golden glitter into the air around her.

Seeing that she got the exploration bonus experience for being the first to access the two hundredth floor of the tower, I smiled to myself. Then flapping my wings, I fly up the last few feet and get the message that I had been striving for as well.

Hidden Quest Completed: First Acanarus Tower Climber (IV): You have earned your goal of getting a Surgical Doctoral degree from Arcanarus University…