Last night's ordeal left a deep impression on me. I hold a very deep belief that children are our future!
In my last life even though I lived in a pretty small apartment and didn't have many things, that was more of a choice than anything else.
I unfortunately worked very long hours at my job and sometimes a few weeks would go by before I would get a day off.
But I actually made a decent salary for being a young bachelor. Since I didn't have time to volunteer like I wanted,I made sure to donate to all the local organizations and facilities that helped give children better opportunities for their future.
Schools, shelters, community centers, if children went there to play or educate themself I made sure to help send as many donations as I could. Even more so to the places that didn't already receive a lot of outside funding.
That's why the moment I entered the city I threw caution to the wind and jumped to help the orphaned trio.
Even at the city lord's castle when I was being accused of things I didn't do, the moment I heard there were children that needed help and I had the power to do so I immediately agreed.
When I stepped back into my inn this morning the light of dawn could be seen peeking over the horizon, off in the distance.
As soon as I got into my room I threw myself on my bed and entered meditation. My mind was completely exhausted after everything that happened and I was no longer in the mood to continue on with my experiments.
I really need to give myself a once over and see what all my abilities can do so that I would have more insurance for myself in the future.
“My life is only valuable to myself and no one else, I can only rely on me in dangerous situations!”
Several thing's stuck out to me last night. I first tried to use brute force to break the crystallized energy everyone was wrapped in and immediately realized that was a stupid waste of magick.
I made a motion and pulled out one of my few gains from last night.
Name: Mana Essence Crystal
Rank: C-
Use: embed, consume, equip, ingredient
HP: 0 MP: +21,810
Str: 0 Def: 0 Vit: 0
Agi: 0 Dex: 0 Min: 2181
Wis: 613 Cha: 0 Luc: 0
Abilities: [Absorb Mana] [Generate Mana] [Territory]
Skills: [Mana Manipulation up]
Description: Concentrated mana in its purest form will eventually crystallize. Although still small as long as its crystal body is not destroyed it will continue to produce mana. It will absorb the mana in its territory in cycles waiting for the mana to become abundant to insure the environment stays rich in mana. What will it become as it grows?
Purity: 100%
The moment I pulled it out I had to return it for in the split second the amount of mana concentrated in my room alone was suffocating! From the connecting rooms I could hear sudden movement and a few screams sounding off throughout the inn.
The mana capacity for this Crystal is nearly 20x my own!
“I honestly can't image the size of Lady Rose’s mana pool for her to be pumping out so much power that even after filtering out the elemental affinities mixed in something like this was still made.”
The first mana crystal I refined was when she had been hysterical nearly destroying that part of her castle. It was much smaller than this one, being the size of my pinky finger, whereas now it was about the width and length of my indeed finger.
When I approached the children I realized the mana cocoon they were in gave off a similar feel to the crystal I refined.
When I pulled it out and used [Analyze] on it, I immediately checked for any useful skills or abilities.
[Absorb Mana]
Although lacking an ego it's instinct drives it to grow stronger! All mana within its [Territory] is subject to absorption.
Warning!
Purity may drop depending on quality of mana absorbed!
[Generate Mana]
Being a [Source] of mana it cannot help but manipulate and synthesize the ever present [Lesser Energies] in its [Territory] to produce Mana.
Warning!
Quality and Type of mana produced is a direct reflection of Crystal purity and the quality of the [Lesser Energies] in its [Territory]
[Territory]
All energies with its sphere of dominance are subject to its control! Only those with strength and resolve may freely wield mana!
Radius of current [Territory] 250 meters
[Mana Manipulation]
Wisdom is the way of experience, knowledge, and principle! Through these, your understanding of mana will only ever increase. The more you learn about mana, the more you'll know you know nothing all the same.
I have to say I was shocked by its abilities and skills! Control, manipulation, absorption!! Those were all the things I needed in that moment.
I grabbed onto the smaller crystal that it was at the time and willed it to absorb the cocoon like mana around the children.
It took a moment to get a feel for what I needed to do, but I could feel a kind of pull between the crystal and the cocoons..
After a minute threads of mana no bigger in width than thin hair started uncoiling from the cocoons and found their way to the Essence crystal.
I quickly noticed that the process was going slow, after investigating why I realized that although it can absorb mana, it had to do almost an act of digestion. Meaning it could only absorb and hold so much at a time.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I quickly threw this slow as a snail idea out the window and just directly refined the mana it drew out of the cocoon for it.
When I did it this way, a process that would have taken a few hours and definitely hurt more than helped, was easily finished in a few minutes.
It was an unfortunate thing that I couldn't sit and absorb all the mana these two grandparents expended in an attempt to preserve their precious grandchildren, but time was of the essence.
After absorbing and refining about 2% of the total mana between the two cocoons the amount of mana I could manipulate with the crystal increased by a lot.
What use to be thin hair sized mana became mana threads as thick as straw.
I learned from my earlier greed and instead of trying to grow the mana crystal I just used it's [Mana Manipulation] skill to rip holes into the cocoons large enough for me to slip my own mana in.
After large enough holes were torn into it, the mana began to dissipate on its own. I really did want to leave the crystal out to absorb the copious amount of mana filling the room, but I remember it's territory description.
I wasn't sure how it would affect the mana in the children's body or even the emaciated elders sitting before me.
After storing it away I quickly asked the Viscountess who had already moved closer to me with the steward, to protect both their minds with her aura and to do the same to everyone else when I gave the word.
Along with the [Pestilence Essence Orb] I pulled out the [Despair Essence Orb]. I hurriedly wrapped it in my aura trying to prevent its own aura from causing more harm than good.
My ability [Essentia] had allowed my to see the cloud of terror assembling around both children, clearly an effect of the spiritual damage they had received from being possessed.
Refining miasma into one orb and fear into the other I was putting everything I had into the process to insure success.
What I concluded later was that Steward Ronaldo in an act of desperation must have eaten my essence orb of vitality.
It wouldn't be unusual for someone in his profession to have the [Appraisal] skill. I couldn't help but notice how during all this his aura kept getting stronger with time. I was curious to know if he gained the skill after consumption or had the Essence of the orb assimilated with the skills he already had.
Whatever the case I was very thankful for his actions. Throughout the entire process everyone was getting healed, once I had put the [Despair Essence Orb] away, i tried to start focusing on removing the miasma from the elders but I couldn't even get my magick past their auras.
Thankful as I was finishing with the children they both gave two great coughs and a large amount of refined black blood and miasma was expelled from their bodies at once.
Their once pale complexion once again started to regain its lavish dark color. And while still emaciated, two elixer appeared before them, the liquid left the bottles of their own accord and entered the elders. I couldn't help but suck in a breath of air deeply! “Powerful!” was definitely a word that could describe these two.
I quickly refined their portion of miasma and blood into the [Pestilence Essence orb] and took the two very tiny [Soul Essence orbs] out, we were betting everything on these. I quickly split my attention and gave them a once over.
Name: Soul Essence Orb
Rank: F
Use: embed, consume, equip, ingredient
HP: 100 MP: 100
Str: 10 Def: 10 Vit: 10
Agi: 10 Dex: 10 Min: 10
Wis: 10 Cha: 10 Luc: 10
Abilities: [Strengthen Soul]
Skills:
Description: After rigorously refining the souls of the fallen an essence orb with a purity rate is created. The use of the orb is strongly connected to the quality of the orb.
Purity: 100%
[Strengthen Soul]
Some wounds aren't physical but can cause much greater damage. Deepen the foundation of your soul, carve out it's dormant potential, transcend tribulation!
Warning!
Those with strong foundations and powerful souls may be completely unaffected.
I gave a small grin at that. Although this was the lowest quality orb and as nobles the their bloodline should be no less than C Rank, their souls were both very clear for me to see!
Damaged! And the parts still intact were tainted with dark spots in some places. They would definitely live but they would become husks of what they could have been. Their growth stunted and they would be plagued with phantoms from the trauma they've incurred.
The peaceful glow my orbs of soul essence gave off along with the information about their skill was very reassuring. Placing orbs in the mouths of both children who were finally laying on the ground, had their bodies begin to glow and I could see a change in the quality of their souls immediately!
First the tainted spots evaporated in moments. Then their souls actual started to shrink in on itself but I could tell from the way they were pulsing like heartbeats, they were getting stronger!
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn the pulsing of their souls stabilized and the light of their newly healed souls were bright! Much brighter than they had been before.
Nathaniel, the young boy, started to glow much brighter and his short cropped hair grew about ten inches longer, the hair on his body including his tail had become dark navy blue instead of the black that it was.
Renè, the older sister, also noticeably glowed brighter herself but while her bob cut black hair grew a few inches, the color did not change. What did change however was that suddenly the tail that had laid still next to her split itself in two!
I was both appalled and amazed! Was this the “carving out dormant power” the skill was speaking of?
I'm not sure if you can call this a bloodline awakening, a pseudo-evolution, maybe a quasi-variant? We would have to see the full effects after they wake up, although it could be possible that we won't see any results for a few years since their both still young.
After seeing that I had put everything away and nodded in satisfaction Viscountess Rose gave me a suspicious look. Apparently she wasn't happy with the sudden changes to her children.
All I could do was put my hands up and tell her it was all experimental. Under her breath I heard her curse the local temples for not producing any priests or clergymen of quality.
I could understand her frustrations, it would have been easy for a Bishop to [Exorcise], [Cleanse], and [Purify] the children, making it so she wouldn't have had to have waited so long and watch their health get worse.
As we spoke more and I started to get a bit more understanding of their situation, the system hit me with my second quest...