I’ve been forced to take a role of leadership, and I hated it.
Mermaid society was primitive. Without fire and durable materials, we were very limited in our choices of clothing and tools. It also valued the ability to protect the pod (or school for the other side) and bring in food. Meat, if possible. That led to a warrior society where levels meant strength.
As the highest-level fish-mermaid in the reef, Medaya was elevated to the position of guard captain and queen’s advisor. The position had no formal name so it just meant she was in charge of organizing our warriors from both tribes. That move pacified the fish-mermaids that thought of themselves as “victorious” from the Heralds’ war game. Medaya was the third mermaid in the chain of command beneath me and mom, and the sixth most prominent creature in the reef once you added Nenandil and the Heralds to the list.
I had to swallow my desire to take revenge for the ambush and make peace with Medaya. Be the bigger person and all that shit. I bit my lower lip and approached her.
“Medaya, could you help me?” I approached her one day and asked.
“Princess,” She bowed. “Would you swim with me? We can talk while we do some chores.”
It seemed paradoxical at the first glance, but I found that Medaya developed a deep respect for me. The reasons were three, I’d survived her backstab, defeated her with a single blow, and spared her. That same warrior-hunter-gatherer primitive culture made the other mermaids doubt my abilities. They thought that I defeated Medaya with a stroke of luck. The mermaid, however, knew what happened. She had the messages and was wise enough to understand no Luck score could’ve caused that.
“My pleasure, Medaya,” I smiled.
She still had to hunt for food. I had some ideas on how to change that. It would take time, though.
“What troubles you, my princess?”
I didn’t try to correct her or make her not use formal speech. Maybe later once we bonded more and my annoyance at my mother’s treatment vanished over time.
“We need to unite the two tribes. Mend the rift. Put aside our grudges. And I need ideas on how to bridge that gap. Seize their hearts and convince them to cast away our old ways.”
“You order them to do so, and punish those that don’t,” She said with a burst of boisterous laughter. “But wait! That’s how we did things before, so I don’t think it would help us ‘cast our old ways,’” I could almost see the air - water - quotes.
Smartass. I didn’t answer.
“What level are you now? I don’t have {Appraise} but I’ve been told they can’t read it.”
“Eighty.”
“Ranked up?”
“No. I have a few billion Exp to give out as quest rewards.”
“Princess power?”
“Sort of.”
“How does it work?”
“Like this. {Medaya, Allow your princess to mend your fins. This is a quest.}” I paid 4.2 million Exp to {Royal Order}.”
Medaya’s tail was like a red fire goby. Her dorsal and anal fins were close to the body, giving her an arrow-like look. But they were frayed from combat. It didn’t hinder her ability to swim but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
She froze on the spot. “Is this real? You can issue QUESTS? I thought only the Heralds could do that! What are you?”
“Your {Princess}. Now, come on. Hand over that mermaid ass.”
She chucked. I used my [Spirit Surgeon] abilities to restore her fins to a pristine state. Once I finished, Medaya gasped.
“I just gained one hundred and twenty-seven thousand Exp for finishing a Quest!?! My fins,” she sniffled and grasped my hands. Once she had a good hold, she pulled me into a hug, “I'm so happy I didn’t kill you.”
I pushed her away. “Nice way to remind me why I don’t like you,” I mumbled. “Medaya, you know how you can show your gratitude.”
She took some distance and then lowered herself prone. “I pledge my eternal loyalty to Queen Eathelin and you, Your Highness. You proved to have the power, wisdom, and kindness to help us. I’ll help you win the hearts of the mermaids.”
I smiled. “Your oath has been heard and accepted, Medaya. Now, what do the mermaids want?”
She met our eyes. “Food, shelter, and men,” Medaya’s eyes glimmered then she squirmed and confessed with a sultry voice, “By the Kraken’s tentacles, It’s been so long since I last…”
Yeah. Tentacles. I raised a hand. “Say no more.”
----------------------------------------
I was floating on the warm side of the bank, with a thousand mermaids assembled before me. Mom and Medaya were behind me along the squid and sea dragon-serpent. I knew what I had to say and I was not ashamed of paraphrasing the great men of my (former) world.
“The feud between the Heralds is over. The siblings behind me have settled their dispute and made their peace with each other. From today on, no mermaid shall fight another mermaid. It doesn’t matter the shape of our fins or the color of our skin.
“Today we forge a nation. Our gods blessed us with a Queen, wise among us, one that knows the needs and dreams of the reef. But a nation is nothing without its people. You, sisters. We bled on this reef for food. We grew suspicious of each other. No more! Today we put the past aside.”
Medaya swam forward. “Hear our Princess, my sisters! I witnessed her strength, her power, and her kindness. I hold no doubt that she will bring us into a new age of prosperity and happiness. My heart holds nothing but respect and admiration for my Queen and Princess! She told me of her dreams of our future, and I saw a reef where no mermaid shall starve anymore.
“Believe if not in our Princess, if not in me, in the wisdom of our Lord Heralds! If they could put their millennia of differences aside, how can’t you? I pledged before her and now I pledge before all of you. Queen Eathelin and Princess Arista have my loyalty until the day I die. Their wish is my wish. Their dreams are my dreams.”
She glanced at me and I nodded. Medaya withdrew to the back row and I took the stage again. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all mermaids are created equal.’
“I know what you need, sisters. Shelter from the monsters in the depths that crawl up to devour us. Food so we no longer starve or steal from each other. And men to replenish our population. I promise you to deliver all of these to you!
“Mermaids! Even though the Sun was stolen from us by a foolish deity and many of our sisters have fallen, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight for our food, we shall fight for our mutual safety, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the water, we shall defend our reef, we shall never surrender.”
"This is my pledge to you. Stand by my side. Remember your pain, your loss, but use it not as fuel for more pain and grief, but as a burning ember that will never allow that to happen again. {Unite as one nation, mermaids!}," I finished imbuing it with {Royal Order} to make it a quest. The mermaids’ gaze unfocused for a while and I saw my available Exp plummet to zero.
> Divine Negotiator active.
>
> Charisma check successful. You shifted the mermaids’ opinion by six steps.
>
> You gained 12 points of [Diplomat] Proficiency.
Leveling up [Diplomat] was the easiest so far. I guess that with [Musician] it would be just a matter of singing some coral to health.
I couldn't help but feel I was cheating. The anger in the assembled mermaids was slowly switching to hope and sadness. Longing for their dead sisters but with a strong will to survive.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us. Those of you that have injured fins or limbs, come forward. Allow me to show you."
One of the dolphin-mermaids, with a beautiful spotted pattern across her tail but a big dent in her tail fin came forward. "I won't be goaded by your false words, princess," she basically spat at my title. I raised a hand.
“What's your name, sister?"
"I'm called Custenya," she replied with a hateful glare. It was as if I was a traitor.
“Sister. Come closer so I can heal your fin. I already healed Medaya’s when I took her pledge. Would you show a heart as big as hers and put our differences aside?”
“Heal me, and I’ll pledge myself to you,” she challenged and almost slapped me as she shoved her tail in my face. I let the faux pas slip and touched it. Pouring my SP into her flesh, I regrew what was missing in a dozen or so minutes.
The other mermaids watched with their mouths open. “There you go. Now, your oath.”
Custenya swallowed her pride. “I’ll do as you say, Arista. But I won’t swear myself to you before you prove your worth. Your words are nice and sweet like sugar kelp.”
I expected skepticism from the fish-mermaids but the trauma of the month of relentless raiding left deep emotional scars on the dolphin-mermaids. They still think Nenandil betrayed them and that keeping my mother alive wasn’t worth giving out the food she did.
I had a long path ahead of me. “I won’t force any of you, sisters. You’d do well to remember who ended the fighting. Who convinced the Heralds to stop their games.”
Yeah, I said games. I could taste the two demigods’ anger at my words but it would do well to show them who held the cards. My {God-Slayer} Perk, that’s who.
The other mermaids soon followed Custenya and I healed them until my SP bottomed out. Exhausted, I promised to heal the others over the next few days.
----------------------------------------
I reached my "room" after the longest day in Arista’s life. Mermaids had little in the way of worldly possessions but we did have a few. Tools that didn’t rust, weapons with or without rust, odds and bits from the surface. Our crafting materials were coral, bone, and fish leather. But without a proper curing process, the leather eventually decomposed away. That's why surface items that withstood the harshness of the saltwater were prized, like my bracer.
I called it a room but it was just a corner of the reef where Mother and I kept our things. Spare spears, some broken blades, and interesting trinkets like an etched porcelain teapot. Maybe the mermaids could use a proper home underwater. I'll think of that later. Now, I just want to take a very long nap. Maybe one whole hour, what a luxury.
I spent the next two weeks talking. Talking, persuading, discoursing, cajoling, bonding. Both tribes of mermaids were brought into a sort of truce for the time being. The threat of not getting free surface food from Nenandil went a long way toward achieving that goal. Speaking of the fairy, I barely saw her. She was running around, working as a liaison between the mermaids and helping us put our new Realm in order.
I didn't want to choose my rank-up evolutions. Instead, I spent my time talking the mermaids into putting a century of racial grudges behind and teaching mom on how to be a proper Queen. Mom's professions were [Sentry] and [Trapper]. I'd love for her to take a social profession but now it was too late. But [Sentry] seems a nice one. I decided to pick [Sentry] in my next life. What I needed now was to find a solution to our food situation. The kelp farms would take months to start to produce food again. I took an object from my item box and pulled its stats again.
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> Kerberos-Anglerfish Illicium [3 in inventory]
>
> Estimated value: 2 kingmetal coins
>
> This luminescent organ will glow if supplied with magic energy.
That should do it. The glowing esca and attached tendril were ridiculously rare. If I dug a sufficiently-sized Magic Core, I could enchant it to become a magical battery and energy generator. Then use the affinity of the organ to generate light at a ridiculously cheap cost. Even so, I didn't expect it to be able to glow on its own unless I cranked up the MP generator enchantment to the limit.
I'll need to cast a mold with gold to join the two...
I'm underwater. That's not going to happen.
I needed a workspace on the surface. The nearest island was several hundred kilometers from here. The sandbank did surface during extremely low tides on nights with no moons but I couldn't put anything heavy on top. The solution was to make my own island.
I swam around the reef, trying to find a suitable spot. A pod of dolphins swam around and played. As I went, I sang at the reef, spending the MP I had on growing and healing the coral. I did that every day whenever possible. This time, I had a surprise.
> You gained 12 points of [Musician] Proficiency.
>
> Two abilities are available.
>
> You unlocked an ultra-rare Class.
It’s been some time since I got a new Class halfway into a life. This one required a hundred points of [Musician] Proficiency. How people would meet that requirement at level one was anyone’s guess but I think the whole “Path” mechanic was to allow someone to “reroll” their Class choices.
> [Spell-Singer] (ultra-rare). Spell Singers use songs to weave their magic instead of incantations and gestures.
>
> You gain:
>
> +1 to Magic at every level.
>
> +1 to Charisma and Mind, every even level.
>
> +1 to Dexterity, Willpower, and Soul every odd level.
>
> Nothing, then +1 to Strength, Endurance, and Luck at every level, alternating.
>
> 3 (+4) HP per level.
>
> 11 (+4) MP per level.
>
> 7 (+2) SP per level.
>
> 1 Perk every 2 levels.
>
> You’ll gain the Perk: Spell-Song (rare, situational): You can cast spells you know with song. The spell ends if the song ends.
There it goes, the pesky "Situational" marker on the Perks. Eighty-five Attributes in twenty levels was an amazing progression before the patch. Now they were as useful as the bonus from enchantments. You wore them but they would go away at the end of the “day”. These situational Perks won't contribute to my long-term growth as they would vanish (along with the Attributes) once I died. The cherry on top was that they granted no Skill Points.
The bugged class I got was a legacy one that didn't get patched or even offered. It didn't have Perks, a clear sign it was intended for something else. I think Wyxnos created the System this world used from something else and didn’t start from a clean base. There were too many glitches and bugs.
Because of all that, I didn't pick that class for my second Path. It would be just a toy, a novelty for playing in this life that would not carry over into the next. This patch curbed my growth by half among other maladies. Not having a super-powerful Class meant I gained twice as much Exp. That could help foster my growth, not some nerfed-out Class. My main gripe was that I wouldn’t carry over the Attributes and Perks from the classes anymore. Because of that, I’d stick with the bugged Class that gave me Skill Points.
I found the perfect spot on the eastern side of the sandbank. It was a place with a bit of turbulence between the hot and cold currents. The terrain was somewhat flat.
I dropped rubble, rocks, and boulders in a pile. The water depth was about twenty meters here so I needed a lot of material to break the surface and go above the tides. I also needed to make a beach or the water would take away my topsoil so it had to be a gentle raising cone. I cheated a bit by creating hollow honeycomb pockets inside the rock as I shaped it. Filled with water, it would hold the pressure above it very well. Maybe I could add a submerged cave with a large hall underneath. That would both save space and work as a shelter or storage of sorts. I also sang the coral to grow strong and tall to work as a breakwater barrier around the island.
----------------------------------------
Most dolphin-mermaids were elated one of them had become Queen but went berserk when she announced they were merging with the other tribe. There was so much bad blood between the two tribes, so much death that at first sight, it seemed impossible a consensus could be reached.
Queen Eathelin was in front of the two dozen dolphin survivors, a small but vocal group among the one-tenth of the mermaids that were alive when Arista was born. She tried to convince them to put down their animosity but things weren’t going very well.
"Hear me, Nerin. The fight is over. The Heralds stopped their feud and made peace. Now it is not the time to hold onto old grudges!"
"Yeah, nice try, Your Majesty!" Nerin shouted. "The fishes killed my sisters, and I'm going to avenge them even if it kills me!"
The other dolphin mermaids voiced their agreement in a less disrespectful way.
"Nerin. There's so much to gain by working together. No more raids. Both tribes, no, there are no more tribes, both races of mermaids in our realm will help each other. And know what? Since they kidnapped me and stole Lady Nenandil's food, they will be in charge of hunting and foraging for a few months. And we need to replenish our numbers. The dolphin-mermaids will get first pick on the men we are going to bring here!”
Without the right Perk and Profession abilities, the System stayed mum about Eathelin’s efforts.
“I don’t agree with that Eathelin. The only thing keeping my spear from killing some fishes is the respect I have for you,” Nerin said. “Otherwise, I’d be stabbing them instead of wasting words with you.”
As Arista told her, Eathelin had to be firm. What did she say again? ‘Those who stand can never be more than those who kneel.’
“I’m the Queen now, Nerin. You’d do well to remember that. We are building a realm where no mermaid will starve or suffer. There’s a place for you, for all of you. Don’t squander it. You’ve seen how hard Arista is working for everyone’s sake. If you ruin my daughter’s achievement, I don’t know what I’ll do. But I guarantee you won’t like it.”
Nerin flipped her tail to put some distance between them. But she didn’t abandon her goals, only postponed them. “I’ll wait and see what she’s building, Eathelin. Then I’ll make my decision.”
“Fair enough. We lost enough sisters, Nerin. This is the time to heal and rebuild. Do not revive old grudges.”
Nerin didn’t answer. She met Eathelin’s eyes and frowned. Then she gathered her pod and swam away.
----------------------------------------
The construction work on the base took two weeks. I melded rocks together, shaped them, and tested the resilience. At the same time, I grew coral around the island. In another two weeks, I had the beginning of an atoll around the outcrop of rocks being relentlessly bashed by the waves.
Another month of hard work revealed dry land the size of fifteen football fields surrounded by a quiet and roughly oval lagoon. The atoll protecting the island from the open ocean sat three kilometers away from the island shores, blocking all but the smallest boats from crossing over.
The coral was so high it sometimes got exposed during low tides. I thought it would die but Nature was wiser than that. The coral started to shield itself with some sort of mucus, an event probably triggered by the low pressure. When it came above-air, the polyps retracted into the skeleton and “hoped” the mucus shielded them from drying. The tips still died and broke off when the low tide coincided with a hot or rainy day as the freshwater relentlessly washed away the mucus.
My despair at seeing the dead coral after one particularly rainy day was replaced by a fuzzy warm feeling when some mermaids arrived. My frown became a smile when I realized I wasn't alone. Several mermaids also had Perks and Skills related to reef-tending. They carefully trimmed the dead skeleton without hurting the living coral underneath and molded it to remain below the low tide line. Guided by my seniors, we made some holes underneath so the mermaids and oceanic critters could swim inside the barrier. Playful fish schools, crabs, and urchins quickly made the inside of the lagoon a merry, colorful, and lively place.
I created a huge stone shovel inspired by a pelican beak to transport sand from the bank to the island beaches. Transformed into an orca, I held it in my mouth and scooped the sand, sending the filled pouch to storage. Then I’d swim to the island and dump the sand over the beach.
The island was hollow underneath the water but solid on top. I layered a bed of gravel under the first layer of bedrock so it could become a water bed later as it soaked in fresh rainwater. My hope was that it would be enough to nurture the trees and eventually create a stream. Maybe later I could call the elder fairies to bless the island with a freshwater feature.
Under the ocean level, several small vents exchanged water with the outside to keep a large chamber underneath oxygenated. A large tunnel connected this chamber to the lagoon’s floor. The two demigods and water-breathing mermaids (not only the fish tribe. Some dolphin-mermaids bought the Perk) moved in, claiming the cavern and chamber for themselves.
The other dolphin-mermaids that couldn’t stay underwater indefinitely moved into the lagoon. They helped with the coral and settled the sand with their abilities. The [Dark Farmers] prepared the seabed to plant kelp in the places we marked for them. My next step after this was to enchant the anglerfish illicium and I wanted the farms close to one another so they could take advantage of the light.
It was time to collect the dividends of our goodwill.
----------------------------------------
This time, I let mom do the speaking. The Heralds came out of the cavern and everyone gathered in the open lagoon.
“Sisters. My daughter promised you shelter. Here you have it. A lagoon, protected by a mighty wall of coral and a secluded cave where our water-breathing sisters can live safely inside along with the Heralds.
“Some of you blame the deaths of our sisters on me. That I should've died in their place. That was a fallacious argument. For the sake of the future, we are now leaving the past behind. That doesn’t mean we forgot it. No! We will remember it and teach this lesson to our daughters so they don’t repeat the same mistakes.
“There are people that didn’t deserve to die but died anyway. There are people some believe should’ve died that lived. The world isn’t fair. What we can do is honor the memory of the fallen and live our lives to the best of our ability.
“We’ll have plenty of fish and kelp to feed ourselves. The island will offer surface fruit once it is fully developed. But today we start a new chapter on our journey. Today there are no more dolphin or fish tribes. Today there’s only the Thessalonike country and their subjects.”
Some mermaids protested, Nerin among them. It seemed mom wasn’t able to convince her even after all our efforts. Before I could think of something to do,. Leviathan dashed forward and hissed, a stream of hot bubbles rising fast from his mouth.
“Ungrateful wenches!” The demigod bellowed. “Today you have a choice to make. Live here under the rule of our chosen Queen, or exile from this reef. Should you appear anywhere near here, you’ll be eaten.”
Most dissidents were cowed by the open threat. Most.
Nerin swam up. “Is this it? First you conspire to slaughter us, now you take our homes from us? I was born in this reef and I’ll die in this reef! If you want to eat me, sea snake, come and get some!”
Leviathan opened his mouth. I used {Shadow Warp} and raised a {Wall of Force} as I appeared underneath Nerin.
“Nerin!” I swam up and faced her. “Let go of your hatred! Can’t you see? What happened was a tragedy, but this is one too!”
“My sisters died!” She protested. “I can’t let go! They want...”
“No. They want you to be happy and live your life. Trust me, I know many ghosts.”
But there was none around. I had two in my item box, bound to the cloth figurines. The auctioneer and Sumsar, the Auvani slaver mage. I brought the former out. I unraveled the tiny cloth doll and released the ghost. Then I materialized him.
“This is the ghost of an evil man, one that sold people to the wealthy nobles. Ask him if he wants vengeance!”
“Vengeance is pointless,” the auctioneer said. “It would do me no good. I’m waiting for the princess to fulfill her promise and make me alive again. Nothing else matters.”
I created another doll and bound the ghost to it. Nerin was pale.
“You… you can bring the dead back to life?” She asked, hopeful.
“Yes, I can. But I need their ghosts, Nerin. And it only works one hour after death. Our sisters are long gone. And I was healing in the abyss, unable to act.”
Nerin drew a dagger. “Show me. Honeyed words won’t work. Kill Medaya and bring her back.”
”NO!” I quickly disarmed her and sent the weapon to my item box. “You are the one that’s dead inside, Nerin! I’d like nothing more than to stab the ones responsible for this whole mess. But all of us here killed mermaids. Even me. Who’s to judge the others?
“We need to put the past behind us.” The mermaid tried to swim away. I grabbed Nerin’s wrist. “You’re not running away.”
“I can’t! I suffered too much!” She whined.
“Everyone suffered! I took a million HP hit to my back! My mother was tortured for a month, held hostage. Everyone suffered. Everyone starved. Let go of your anger. It only leads to the dark side. Look at me. Look in my eyes, Nerin. I promise you that so long I, Arista breathe, no mermaid will ever suffer again. Here,” I offered her dagger back. “If you need to stab anyone in the heart, stab me.”
And it’s brainwashing O’clock. I turned on [Diplomat} and {Divine Negotiator}
“Nobody is going to die or get exiled, Nerin. Or starve. Or forced to fight in some stupid game. You know me, sister. Stay with me. Be the change you want to see in the reef. I promise you I’ll take care of you.”
> Contested Charisma check (…) ←-- Fuck you, System. That should be illegal.
“I’ll give it a try, Arista.”
----------------------------------------
Five months after I started this project, the top island was almost ready. It had sandy beaches all around but the center was rocky and barren. There was no topsoil. It was all rock and crushed temples of Bundeus (not all of them, I kept the pretty ones like the glowing cathedral). I literally built it out of the ruins of my enemy. The God of Butts would help me even further.
After storing my wetsuit, I transformed my tail into legs and walked over the rocks. I took the gigantic balls of deific-blood-infused topsoil I scraped from the site of our final battle, now a beautiful lake in another continent, and spread them over the rocks. Using a staff, I drew runes on the dirt to create an enchantment over the whole island. It would activate and nurture the soil with Bundeus' blood.
> Enchantment
>
> Healing Water
>
> Elven Spellsong
>
> Tree-Shaper
>
> Green Thumb
>
> Spell-Singer
>
> Meditation
There were thousands of grass and tree seeds that got rolled up with the soil during our fight. It was a virgin forest, after all. I sang them all to sprout. It was like those time-lapse nature shots. The blades of grass and saplings came alive all over the island, nurtured by my SP and MP. I had to slow down after the first few minutes and keep it at a sustained pace, where I spent as much MP and SP as I regenerated. Bundeus' blood was consumed by the enchantment to fertilize the soil.
I was in a trance. The phrase, "my spirit was lifted", felt hollow before this.
When I came back to my senses, I was haggard and naked. Exhausted didn't describe my state. I saw Nenandil and several mermaids that had the perks to transform their tails into legs around me, all of them tossing magic my way.
> You gained 10 points of [Musician] Proficiency.
>
> Three abilities are available.
"What a way to commit suicide, princess!"
The fairy was pissed for some reason. I later learned that the mermaids kept pestering her for food while I was singing. And I wasn't the invincible juggernaut I was before.
I looked around and found myself in a lush meadow. There weren't insects or birds, but the grass, flowers, and trees all were almost glowing from all the life they exhaled.
"What happened?" I asked, dazed and confused. I was so exhausted I felt like sleeping for ten hours (Although I only needed twenty minutes each day). I could barely keep my eyes open. I had to remind myself I was a normal person with a lot of abilities. I no longer had the ridiculously high Attributes I had in my previous lives.
"You spent a whole WEEK singing to trees, that's what happened," she screeched in my ear, then mellowed out her tone. "Good job by the way. Aunt Daphne would be proud."
I laughed, fell on my back, bruised my skin on the grass, and fainted.