Breaking the {Stone Blood} would've cost me one hundred and ninety million MP. That's nineteen years of tithes for the elder fairies to bless the whole Fulgen Forest. And trust me, that forest is Magical, capital M. The elves livelihood depend on that blessing, that's why they were so desperate to revive Alloralla.
One hundred and ninety million MP was cheap.
But now that the whole nine adventurers sacrificed themselves, the upgraded {Unique} curse doesn't even tell me how much it costs to break. Compare that to the {Greater Feeblemind}, which will cost around ten to fifteen billion MP - it's only {Very Rare} - to erode if one calculates how many MP went into eroding it by almost six percent. The rarity is different and the Magic Attribute of the curse bestower might be different also, so the comparison is a bit off but I have a hunch that Bundeus added his own power to the complete curse.
And that's why I am still in {Water Elemental} form even after five months from that fateful day. For five months, I've been living as a puddle of water. I don't have to eat, drink, or sleep which can be considered either good or bad, depending on your point of view.
I spent this time in a house in the middle of Windemere, where I could put the most creatures under my {Mana Wellspring}. Lorna and Nenandil moved in with me and while making the dream about being Lorna's bathwater is fun in real life, not being able to do much more than just splash around was an exercise in temperance. I was almost going nuts.
I had some respite in {Suppress Curse} because I could become flesh for an hour a day. Less than an hour because I couldn't risk getting caught with my literal pants down and become stone. I made an hourglass that counted one hour with markings every ten-ish minutes. I turned back to {Water Elemental} at the fifty-minute mark to avoid any trouble. That was too little time to spend with Lorna.
"That's not too bad," Nenandil said and admonished me for the umpteenth time. "Their trap was very well-made and they deftly goaded you. It is your fault to go all 'Death Princess' on them."
She had a point. They were prepared for all my abilities, including my murdering proclivity. They didn't have any information on the traits I picked up as Lakerta, and that was what allowed me to survive. They didn't know I could assume the form of a water elemental.
"I like the idea of relaxing massage baths," Lorna giggled.
I groaned but a notification flashed.
> Your Greater Feeblemind (very rare) was broken. It was downgraded to:
>
> Major Feeblemind (very rare): Your Mental Attributes' cap is your racial average plus ten.
Five months and billions of MP and SP burned to accumulate MP to erode this curse and I rose the cap on my mental Attributes by eleven. Just eleven. I waste no time and assign the {Invulnerable Stone Flesh} as the next one to be eroded. Now I just have to wait.
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"Don't make that face, Lakerta. It's fine. Bundeus thinks you are dead, we are together, you are alive," Lorna said.
I look at the kind face of my wife, my Queen, my lover, and fail to hide the pang of pain that washes over me. So much time lost. So much left unspoken. She is healthy but not even rebuilding her body piece by piece would restore her youth. I take her wrinkled hand in my watery ones and gaze down those caramel eyes that hold so much depth.
"I love you, Lorna. I'm sorry my antics landed us in this kind of predicament yet again."
She shook her head and wiped one tear, "No. It's fine. Those adventurers came here to die, now that we know their plan. They could've caused great damage just to root you out. We're together, living a tranquil and calm life. It's for the best. This old heart can't deal with too much excitement."
She yawned, "I think I'm going to take a nap. Come stay with me. I'll sleep easier if you are nearby."
I escorted her to the bedroom and tucked her in. She fell asleep with a content smile. I coil my tail and rest on it. Nenandil flew and dove inside my chest, floating in the middle. We didn't talk. There was no need. Here we were, two immortal beings cornered by the ghost of another's mortality.
My wish was to give Lorna a new body, a new life as one of the silk-folk. Their living silk strands worked just like cells. They didn't bleed but ate food, drank water, even excreted what their bodies didn't need. All of them were capable of weaving silk but the majority only could do so to repair their bodies. They bred like any other living creature but couldn't interbreed with other species. They could have sex but no offspring would ever come from such encounters. They were also impossible to maim. So long a silk-person remained alive and had access to food to weave more silk, they would sew and - literally - knit their bodies back to perfection.
But I had to respect her wish. Lorna had a fulfilling life and accomplished much. I could only cherish these few years I had with her.
Without anything better to do, I stood vigil over the sleeping form of my beloved wife. Not even MP or SP was available for use, all of it passively funneled into eroding my latest curse. The {Mana Wellspring} I had active also doubled then used all the excess MP regeneration from everyone in a seven to nine kilometers around me.
But I could see it would progress at a snail's pace. It would probably take years to break that one, even with a full enchanted set of jewelry made to enhance my MP and SP regeneration. Our sedated daily lives continued.
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During this time, I didn't sit idle. With an improved range, the {Matriarch} Perk is now covered thirty kilometers. That was enough to reach most of Windemere. The Exp I earned from the tithing was nothing to scoff at. While before the increased range I earned one and a half trillion Exp a year, now it jumped to more than once every eight months - I still couldn't get my head around these sixteen-month years. I still needed a bit less than nine trillion for the next level. Or seventy-eight for the next rank-up.
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With all this free time, I trained some weapon Skills. I had a training dummy in the basement and several wooden weapons. I trained the Skill from scratch and raised them to my cap, Apprentice twenty-four. Once I had nine ready to go, they would go into a Skill fusion. The resulting Skill would be at the Master sixty-four level as half the Skill Points was lost in the fusion.
> You are fusing the Skills: Talwar, Longsword, Arming Sword, Claymore, Scimitar, Greatsword, Panzersteche, Sabre, and Katana <----- I had to cheat to get the ninth Skill.
>
> (...)
>
> Skill Fusion Completed.
>
> You gained the Skill: Long Blade Expertise (very rare): You gain 4% damage and 3% accuracy per rank with all kinds of long blades.
>
> Your Skill rank is Master 64.
>
> You gained the Perk: Master Long Blades Expertise (very rare): Your attacks with long blades deal an extra 3 to 18 damage. Add half your Dexterity to Strength when parrying with a long blade.
Then I trained some other assorted weapon Skills and fused with this one and two I had for some time already, {Short Blade Expertise} and {One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise}.
> You are fusing the Skills: Hand Axe, Great Axe, Quarterstaff, One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise, Short Blade Expertise, Long Blade Expertise, Kite Shield, Cestus, and Sweeping <---- Slipped a cleaning Skill in there. #Tehepero.
>
> (...)
>
> Skill Fusion Completed.
>
> You gained the Skill: Blade Sage (ultra-rare): You gain 6% damage and 4% accuracy per rank with all kinds of bladed weapons, from daggers to two-handed swords.
>
> Your Skill rank is Grandmaster 90.
>
> You reached the maximum rank possible with Skill Fusion.
>
> You gained the Perk: Master Blade Sage (ultra-rare): Your attacks with bladed deal an extra 2 to 16 base damage. Add your Dexterity to Strength for offense and defense.
>
> You gained the Perk: Grandmaster Blade Sage (ultra-rare): You gain the following benefits when wielding bladed weapons: Attacks deal an extra 4 to 32 base damage. You cannot be disarmed while you are conscious unless the enemy's Skill rank is greater than yours. Your critical multiplier with bladed weapons is five. Add your Dexterity to Strength for offense and defense.
I lost some points there, it should be ninety-five but that was not an issue. Ninety was good enough.
The quality of this Skill was superb. I had to train a lot with several types of bladed weapons - which didn't include axes or spears or polearms - to grow into the Skill ranks I obtained. {Blade Sage} was a superclass of most of the weapon Skills I used to create it. I couldn't train {Elven Dagger} anymore. If I wielded Alloralla's favored weapons, the System would consider it a use of {Blade Sage}, for example. The same with all the swords, daggers, rapiers, and similar weapons.
But I could recover the sacrificial Skills that were added just for the points. I worked with more fusions, and regained the {One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise}, this time at a greater rank.
> (...)
>
> Skill Fusion Completed.
>
> You gained the Skill: One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise (very rare): You are an expert with all kinds of one-handed blunt weapons. You gain 4% damage and 3% accuracy per rank.
>
> Your Skill rank is Master 64.
>
> You gained the Perk: Master One-Handed Bludegoning Expertise (very rare): Your attacks with one-handed blunt weapons deal an extra 2 to 12 damage. Your attacks cause the enemy to gain stacks of the {Staggered} debuff, lowering their attack speed and defensive Skill ranks.
With a competent spymaster running interference and a secluded kingdom that loathed Bundeus' faith, Princess Lakerta the lamia was considered dead. We even crafted and enchanted a statue of myself to put in the palace. The enchantments would make the statue nigh-invulnerable and would fool almost any scrying attempt to distinguish if it was really me. I had to use the tentacle armored bear's core to pull it off but it was well worth it.
I hoped to have lured my enemies into a false sense of victory. I needed time. The erosion progress was a joke. About three percent per year. That meant three decades before erosion would break the curse on its own. It also meant that the cost to break this curse was something between six to nine hundred billion MP. And I was spending a lot of time using {Master Meditation}:
> Meditation (rare) Master 60. After a few minutes of concentration, (...) you enter a deep state of healing. In this state, all your resources recover at double the normal rate and (...)
One hundred and ninety million MP was cheap.
We got visitors from time to time. Only our innermost circle of friends and family. Eric, Kazuyran, Devan, and Talia. Eric sought Lorna's advice to unravel the pickles of rulership, Kazuyran came by to tell me everything was fine and I should just keep doing what I was doing.
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Two very fulfilling and calm decades went by in our secluded life in Windemere's capital.
The sun now stayed out for one hour and five minutes, showing that Galbarar was growing stronger in the Sun domain. But all things had to come to an end. Lorna's decrepitude phase started as the System slowly withdrew her Attribute and resource bonuses.
I'd carved a square hole in the roof of the attic and replaced it with glass. This way we could stargaze whenever we wanted. I made sure Lorna was comfortable and she grabbed my hand.
"Don't be sad, Rosie," she spoke softly. "We had a happy ending for our story."
A water elemental can't cry. I had no answers for her. But I had one question.
"Are you happy, Lorna?"
"Yes. You stole all my regrets!" She laughed. Her chortles were like daggers puncturing my heart. "I feel sorry for you. Know that you were loved and you did great good to the world, Rosewise. Apricot. Alloralla. Lakerta. You truly deserve the title of a {Hero}. Or {Heroine}."
A water elemental can't choke either. "I have both."
"I don't need to tell you about your achievements. Or count how many times you saved me. Come here. Lift your curse and sit with me. I want to feel the warmth of your skin."
I placed the hourglass on the table and turned it, lifting my curse and becoming flesh. Lorna grinned and slapped my breasts. When I frowned at her, she grinned, "So you have something to remember me."
A lamia can cry, choke, and look undignified. As I rested my head on her lap, that's exactly what I did. Lorna rubbed my bald head. I'd forgotten to take out the ridiculously high-leveled disguise kit. One hundred and eight, If I'm not mistaken.
"Rosie, can you promise me two things?" Lorna asked after a long while of silence.
"Yes, Lorna. Anything."
"When I die, don't talk to my ghost. Just send me on my way."
I froze for a moment. Why would she ask that? I wasn't even sure there was an afterlife in this world. She answered the unspoken question.
"If you offer me a new life after I die, I think I'll accept it. I can't. I'm not strong like you, Rosie. I can't see people I love die. It was hard already with your parents."
I cried a bit more on her lap, staining the blanket with snot. "Do you think I'm strong? I can't see people I love die. It's hard every single time."
I saw Marion with dead eyes and a throwing ax lodged on her back. Rosalinda petrified kneeling in supplication. My brother Timmy frozen during the harsh winter. The regret in Sundamar's ghost for enslaving the fairies.
"I just can't and won't forget. It's a burden I have to carry," I confessed. "But don't worry. I'll purify you once you're gone."
"Then my second wish," she said with a hoarse voice. "I want you to find another lover in this life or the next. Don't forget me but keep your heart open."
I didn't answer. Absorbed by my pain, I couldn't tell her I'd fall in love again. Nenandil called to me.
"Lakerta, it's time. You have to assume your {Water Elemental} form."
Begrudgingly, I did. The hourglass was past the fifty-five minutes mark.
I looked at Lorna's peaceful sleeping face. Adjusting the blanket, I didn't fail to notice she was not breathing. Desperate, I looked around. I was so absorbed by my own grief that I missed her departure. I had to fight the panic, the urge to do something, to bring her back. That was not what she wanted.
After kissing her forehead, I spent the rest of the night there, watching her "sleep".
"Goodbye, my Queen."