Chapter 262

Cross Pollination

I was busy, for the past few hours I had been deep in the throes of husbandry. Is that the correct word?

“Okay, good,” Zero my nurse and assistant throughout this process was helping me as I was already shewing away perfectly good mouse nesting materials as I helped an entirely new species of life, give birth for the very first time.

Merging power words like poetry flow into and through each other.

My mouth is somehow dry, a testament to how much of a smile I have had on my face this entire time as I began helping new species of life merge and meld together.

System Flash!

There was the annoying message of the system letting me know what I already knew. That finally after all this time, close to an hour’s investment of time, something miraculous has happened.

Better still, I saw all of this coming and then on a whim I tried to make the impossible possible. And then to my surprise it happened.

“Okay, now prolix,” I state emphatically, knowing that the hard part, the actual merging is over. But I still need both parties to continue with this beautiful merger.

I’m of course multi-tasking.

I now have three streams of Dual Quintessence Healing energies flowing in between all participants of this little challenge. The mother, though that is really a lacking term in this case. The father, again also a lacking term as both are engaged in this merging process, even now. Then there is the baby, who yeah, we can go with a baby as a valid noun for this process.

At the same time as I am using my Dual Quintessence Healing, my newest trait from my recently evolved Quintessence Ethereal Healer class. I am also using my Bloodline’s Arcane Geomancy to help components of both parents’ genetic code merge into one unified and perfect child of the two.

“Prolix!” I state a bit more emphatically, as I see both adults in this process, or primary contributors of this process push out as hard as they can, only to relax in unison. Then at my urging, they push out more and more magical words.

Riffle.

The baby, is alive and well, already moving, as I see components of both parents in the baby.

“You are so beautiful, look at you.” I say, as I reach out my hands and lovingly catch the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my life.

“Just one more Prolix, and we should be good!” I state, but hold up my free left hand that even now has glowing words and letters flowing off of it, a sign of the excess prolix truly working in this process.

Still, I can’t stop smiling.

“Alright, and last Prolix!” I state, and then with that the flow of words that bound the baby like an unedited umbilical cord snaps off. The moment the cord breaks off, I see instant relief take both the parents.

With my hands, I gently clean off the beautiful creature before me.

For a moment I want to take the baby away, and love it and worship it forever.

But then I pause myself, realizing that would be bad.

Boundaries Cass, boundaries. Stealing the offspring of parents is wrong, I think to myself as I give one more wave of Dual Quintessence Healing to the offspring. Then proudly I lift up the child and offer it to the parents.

Parents who begin to gently riffle their pages against the child.

Phew.

At this moment I let out a long sigh. Going so far as to wipe the glittery sweat from my head. Or at least I try to, this was way too wild and unsanitary. Is unsanitary the right word? Maybe unabridged? I don’t know. This is all too new, all too amazing.

All I do know at this time is that I had a dream, I fulfilled it, and this was amazing.

Only now that I have the clarity am I amble to close my third eye, which in turn allows me to open up my senses to the rest of the world around me.

Not that it should come as any surprise, but Mallory is there outside my office room just staring in at me with slack jawed amazement.

“Hey! Mallory!” I exclaim, my voice still excited from everything that went through surprisingly better than I hoped.

Mallory just stares at me for a moment.

Finally, after a long moment, Mallory regains her composure and then gestures to my face.

“You’ve got aspect rolling down your face.” Mallory states.

Hearing that, I focus and I can actually see that she is correct. Swipe once, down to ‘pect. Swipe twice and down to just a really runny t. Then one last scrub and the last part of the excess words are gone. Now it is just the odd consonant and vowel everywhere. On my hands, my clothes, everything is covered with the afterbirth of letters and learning.

“Did you see it, I’m a grand author. That’s the term, right?” I ask, trying to come up with the words to describe what I just did.

“I don’t really know. To be clear, what exactly did you do?” Mallory asks, a note of concern in her voice as she takes in the state of my office.

For a moment I wonder why, but then want to agree with her that giving birth should be done in a sterile hospital. But then again, these were magical flying books. Of course, they should be made in an office with a growing library, right?

“So, good question. Are you looking for a play by play, or the general overview?” I ask.

Once again Mallory pauses, and then I can almost see the moment she is about to answer truthfully, but then pulls back as she decides to go for a seemingly more benign answer.

“Let’s go with the overview first.”

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Hearing that I nod, as I figured this would be what she wanted at first. Go with the end result, though I am 90% certain that she will ask me to go deeper into this once she finds out what I did. Still she is the boss, so giving her the quick thirty thousand foot view would likely be what she would need to see where we are.

“So,” I begin, but just as that happens the baby, the master creation of this whole ordeal stretched out its binding and flexed its cute little pages. The moment it did, my Blind Eidetic Speed Reading skill kicked in, letting me see and read the entirely new skill book and understand its contents.

New Skill Gained: Danger-Disaster Foresight-Sense has reached level 1. Divine Danger-Disaster Foresight-Sense is a Perception X8, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill.

It worked, not only is it a new skill, but I can instantly see its impact. First, it’s bonuses are a complete meshing of the times seven bonus of the parent skills Disaster Foresight, and Danger Sense.

Second this new skill is really powerful, as I can already see pitfalls that might come from using this. Most importantly, the second system message.

For a moment I almost pause the release of the notifications, as I know this is related to a quest I just completed. I try to use my will to prevent the quest notifications form surging forth, but I am ultimately stopped by the sheer weight of the World First Notification that seems to be too much for me to resist at the moment. Though knowing I might be able to hide or stop these annoying World First Notifications, I am more determined than ever to figure out a way to prevent such annoyances in the future.

Unfortunately, the future is not this moment right here.

Hidden Quest Completed: Learning By Fusing: You managed to be the first person to both learn to fuse two different skills together to create an entirely new and stronger version of both skills, but then you learned that skill. Rewards: Experience, Fused Skill (already learned), Skill Fusion Husbandry, Title, World First Notification.

Experience Gained:

500,000 / 250,000 / 250,000

Ding.

Level Up.

Divinely Akashic Qi Master has increased by 8 levels to 335.

Quintessence Ethereal Simulacrums Master has increased by 7 levels to 367.

Quintessence Ethereal Healer has increased by 11 levels to 496.

New Skill Gained: Skill Fusion Husbandry has reached level 1. Skill Fusion Husbandry is a Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Personality, Sociability, Attractiveness, Perception X2, Intelligence X2, and Willpower X3 based skill.

Title Gained: Skill Fusion Expert Skill Fusion Expert (Unique Title): Noted as being the developer of Skill Fusion techniques and the only person capable of successfully fusing two skills together in a way that only enhanced the final skill, without any complications. Effect: +50% bonus to all Skill Fusion related skills.

World First Notification: Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight has learned the first fused skill.

Honestly, I was not a fan of the world first notification, particularly as it all but forced me to level up right now.

That said, getting early recognition from the system for the skill that I kind of already created was nice. Skill Fusion Husbandry did sound like an interesting skill to have. Also having a unique title was pretty cool, especially as it all but ensured that others might not want to kill me. At least I hoped it made me somewhat more valuable.

“Stop that!” Mallory hissed.

“Stop what?” I asked.

“Stop doing whatever you’re doing. Can’t you not create Red Flags that will draw in all types of attention before tomorrow?” Mallory hissed.

“Okay, I’m done now.” I say, holding up my hands in a placating gesture.

Mallory who suddenly looks really tired and stressed out just stares at me.

“Here,” I say gesturing to her and quickly sending out a stream of golden refreshing Qi and Healing mana to her.

“No, wait!” Mallory protests at first, but the moment the waves of energy hit her, she instantly relaxes as I make sure to focus the healing energies right to her most tensely packed stress points. “You need to calm down girl, you’ve got knots for days.”

She doesn’t, and in fact most of her knotted muscles are gone within a couple of seconds. After which time, I change the stream from golden Qi to silver spiritual Qi and let her body just relax a bit more.

“Yeah, well, it’s kind of hard to relax around here given everything that is going on.” Mallory noted.

“I bet, getting pre-wedding day jitters?” I ask somewhat jokingly.

“No, well maybe. I just think it will be too much, you know.” Mallory noted.

“Oh I know, though I think my part will be smooth for tomorrow.” I admit.

“Your parts.” She notes, hissing like a snake at the end to emphasize the plural part of the word.

“Yeah, I’ve got this. Besides you could say this was a successful test run for what is going to happen tomorrow.” I state, gesturing to the newly birth fused skill book that is absolutely perfect, if I do say so myself.

“Right, there will be a birth tomorrow too.” Mallory said begrudgingly.

“Two, don’t forget the Kujos,” I remind Mallory.

“Right, because what we need are more murder pups running around drooling stone clearing acid everywhere.” Mallory states.

“I know right, they are all going to be so cute.”

Hearing me, Mallory just stares at me for a moment before shaking her head.

“Sometimes, I really wonder how the world appears before your eyes. Or however you perceive this world.”

“Oh, most of the time it is pretty. Then if it isn’t pretty, then I just focus on the parts that aren’t as vibrant and try to find out how to make them more vibrant.” I admit.

“Okay,” was all Mallory said for a moment. Then as if remembering that she was here for a specific purpose, she went on.

“So, back to the overview of what you did here?” Mallory asked.

“Right, I fused two skills together, focusing on mixing the parts that I thought would naturally compliment each other, while getting rid of the extra components.” I stated.

“Okay, and what skills did you fuse together?” Mallory asked.

“I fused Danger Sense with Disaster Foresight to create, Danger-Disaster Foresight-Sense.” I admit.

“Uh-huh. And I take it the new skill worked?” Mallory asked.

“Oh yes, phenomenally so.”

“And what did you learn?”

“Well, for starters, I realized that it was likely good that I started with these two skills versus some of the other more violent combinations that could have been created.” I admit.

“Oh, well that’s good. Already showing some foresight there. I take it this means you will not be creating any more fused skills?” Mallory said, a note of hope in her voice.

“Oh, no. I will, but I’ll wait until after the wedding is over. I see that it might have been too much too fast.” I state, not wanting to lie as lying to Mallory would only make her angrier when she found out some of my other skills that I had in mind.

“Well, I guess I should thank you for waiting until after the wedding at least.”

“You’re welcome.”

With that Mallory just shakes her head.

Then she pauses, “so to be clear you are done with this for the day?”

“Yes, nothing more until Sunday at the earliest.” I confirm.

Mallory looks like she wants to argue, but then stops herself and takes the partial win.

“So, now that you are done, are you ready to see the great work that Penelope did on your outfits for the wedding?” Mallory asked.

Hearing that, I exhale, realizing that this was likely my last fun moment of the day.

“Is it already fitting time?” I ask, a slight tone of annoyance filling my voice.

“Yes, we did it at this time especially for you, as you still have your midterms to teach later today.” Mallory sated.

At that I ponder about using that class time to try and practice my newly acquired Skill Fusion Husbandry skill.

Then almost as if reading my mind, Mallory chides me.

“No more skill fusions until Sunday, you promised.” Mallory stated.

“I didn’t promise,” I state noting that I just said my skill told me it would be a bad idea to create another skill fusion before that point.

Hearing my words, Mallory paused and hands on her hips just glared at me.

“Fine, I promise, no more Skill Fusions until Sunday.” I state, and at that, there is an almost physical weight that goes on my soul. I almost feel like I am in a straight jacket that is partially binding my full capabilities until a later point in time.

I have to say that this sensation of being restricted by my own promises feels dirty.

Mallory apparently seeing my promise and realizing its effects on me just nods and then smiles.

“Thanks,” Mallory says, and like that I feel a bit of the stress on her shoulders begin to release as we continue to make our way.

Only once we are out of the faculty building and away from my aviary of flying books does Mallory ask the question that was clearly on her mind.

Or at least she was about to, but then she would get to a point where she would open her mouth to talk, but then pause as if not quite knowing what to ask.

“Just ask it already,” I reply seeing the way she was floundering. I was also pretty sure that I knew what she wanted to know.

“Can you explain to me the thought process that got you to the point where you thought, hey let me try to fuse these two skills together?” Mallory asked.

“Good question. Actually, I wish I could take full credit for that idea, but sadly I just took the guidance the world was giving me and ran with it.” I answer honestly.

“The world told you to fuse skills together?” Mallory asked, disbelief clearly present on her face.

“I mean basically, it all began with a comment by Mickey that made me reevaluate the world around me.”

“Mickey who?”

“Mickey Eight-Toes…” I begin but am immediately cut off.

“Mickey the drunken hobo eight-toes and red nosed thief trainer? The one who is so bad that no one can learn anything from him?” Mallory quipped.

“I mean, I learned from him, why I am where I am today.” I admit.

“You realize he looks like he bathes in mildew, and sewer rot, right?” Mallory asks.

“He does?” I ask, not recognizing any of those features on his clothing or aura.

“Oh yeah, I forget you have this different view. I think it was a curse he apparently picked up, he stole the wrong thing from the wrong person and they cursed him to always look like, well a hobo.”

“Hmm,” I say never even noticing that part about him. Though I guess now that I think back on it, he has always had that odd purple magical tint to him. I am momentarily wondering if I should ask if he wants it removed. I feel kind of bad, never even knowing that it might be something he didn’t want to permeate him.

“Well anyways, what exactly did the ho… did Mickey say in his introduction to thievery skill classes that made you think, hey I wonder if skills can breed?” Mallory asked.

At that I just paused and smiled.

“I had just given him back his class of students, after getting them to calm down and try to learn from him. That’s when I asked him, why he taught?”

“What did he say to that.”

“He said, he always loved teaching kids, especially orphaned kids from different countries all looking to survive. For once they get there and truly take a moment to learn that’s when true learning happens. The whole cross-pollination of ideas.” I admitted.

“Cross-pollination of ideas? That was what made you think, let me breed skill books together?”

“Yeah pretty much,” I admitted.

And like that, we made our way back to the rehearsal area in relative quiet contemplation. I didn’t even bother letting Mallory know I could Teleport us directly, as she clearly needed a moment to think.