36 - The Suggestion Whisper
Back in a round room a lone white figure continues to analyse a set of blue screens. Time passes differently in the realms.
"The world's will is starting to accept the souls… The sync rate skyrocketed after the sprout ritual, that was unexpected but an excellent development! Finally good results. I was starting to think the entire investment was a lost cause."
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I'm confident that I'm starting to influence Lucy's mind. The instances of her asking exactly what I'm thinking is repeating too often to be a mere coincidence. I even made some tests and the time she is most influenceable is when she is completely exhausted from physical training.
Which is why I'm doing this now that we are at the end of our daily running: You are incredible Lucy. You can do anything you want. Lucy you are amazing! You are incredible. You can do anything you want. You are amazing! You are incredible… Breath and repeat.
I'm gonna try and solve the sole problem my dear host has. I'm not sure I'll be successful but trying to improve her self esteem is a great idea if I may say so. Also it costs nothing for me to try it. Maybe I can actually help her you know?
Today is the fourth day of operation "Improve Lucy's self esteem", I did not notice any significant improvement yet, but it is too early to give up. Not a single situation where her low self esteem would have impacted arose for me to notice something.
I'll keep with the operation anyways. It's not like I was occupied with anything else, and if this really works I may have my 'protagonist' already. She has the potential. My plan is to keep implanting these thoughts deep within her mind, enough times that she will actually believe them. It's not like this is a lie or anything.
For almost two hours starting from the end of running training I'm constantly saying this for her.
"You are incredible. You can do anything you want. Lucy you are amazing! " Or similar variations.
She no longer passes out within the 6 hours of running, but the training did not get any 'easier'. Jade kept increasing the speed and added weight for those that could already finish the 6 hours without much trouble. Always making the training harder, not once we left the running without feeling dead tired.
Sleepy beauty managed to surprise me. She missed a couple of training sessions in the beginning, but it has already been a few days straight that she managed to wake up early without trouble. She is also pretty amazing, her resilience and her improvement rate are astonishing. She is by far the best out of the 5.
I'm not entirely sure if she will manage to surpass Lucy anytime soon, especially counting that she missed days of training that Lucyra did not. But she will definitely get close fast. I'm sure she will catch up in no time. Her ability is incredible. She would be a good fit for "Mila's team" if not for her bad habit of sleeping too much.
The torment session ended for today, finally. We only stopped running when we got home. This is the perfect time for me to influence Lucy, according to my own tests and theory.
Jade usually left home as soon as we finished the training. No one knows where she goes, where she stays, where she sleeps. If she sleeps here and leaves early then comes back to training us or just straight out sleeps outside… Maybe she doesn't sleep at all? She is a total mystery for us.
Today she did not leave nor gave us time to rest after the physical training.
"Yes Yes, good training, don't you think so? The last of you finally finished coloring your personal Seontto yesterday. Meaning we will start with the real lessons right now!"
She commanded us to the training room, all of us dead tired from the training but she did not give a single thought about letting us rest. Not to blame her, none of us would pass out of exhaustion or something similar, we were past this point, as long as the training kept similar of course. But the important thing is, we could manage mana training right now. It was not physically taxing, nor it needed much movement. We could actually rest our bodies while training mana.
We all sat perfectly divided in the room, during the past 10 days or so all 8 of us were training together, we had already defined each one's 'spot' by now. By together I mean using this room at the same time, we did not really help each other with the simple task of coloring the stone.
Bria, Maya and Lucy had already finished the coloring for quite a few days, they used the time to keep training circulation and mana storage. All waiting for the slower ones to finish with their own stone. Ever since we joined teams Lucy was no longer the last one. The title of "the last" one now belonged to Annalee and Penny.
Melvin, the sleeping beauty was not exactly good at mana related training as she was with physical training. The one that exceeded expectations in this specific training was Dinorah. A very quiet small girl. About the same size as Jade. She usually did not draw attention for anything, always in the middle. Not really good, not really bad at anything. Lately, however, she's doing great, especially so with this afternoon session.
Just like Melvin in the running sessions, Dinorah eclipsed the others in talent for mana control. Neither were as good as Lucy, Maya or Bria, but they were still quite amazing taking in consideration the others. Especially the other 3 which had only average talent in every aspect.
"Get your colored Seontto, now instead of channeling mana in, you will..." Jade followed with a long tiring explanation of how we were now supposed to create a miniature cycle system using the stone as a pseudo-core, learn how that circulation worked and then slowly try to replicate that using our own core. Not the twin cores, but our own.
Of course it presented its own risks. We would use the colored Seontto as a simulation of our own core, which is why we needed to color it with our mana, to be as close linked to us as possible. To be as close as the 'real' deal as possible.
This process was supposed to take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months to master. The external simulation was not dangerous but the internal one was, which is why the simulation existed in the first place.
Apparently space magic was a simple thing, every Efalem was capable of using it as long as they were capable of recreating this circuit using the internal core. Once successful the space magic would manifest itself and we would naturally be able to use it.
Jade explained how to go about creating the circuit and how to understand it, then left us alone. She really was weird, the new tutor did seem to care for us, but at the same time she always left us alone when we 'needed' her help. Like right now, she just said it could be dangerous, explained the danger but left. I don't actually understand her reasons.
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Maybe to increase independence? Or to improve our abilities to talk between ourselves? We really sucked at that. Perhaps to encourage some other ability that I'm not aware of? I'm not sure I'll ever get an answer to that.
During the next few days I kept up with the operation "Improve Lucy's self esteem" while she was tired, but tried not to interfere much during the creation of the external mana circuit. I only whispered a few encouraging phrases here and there while she was concentrated.
Eventually I noticed that it would not interfere in her concentration and started doing it more often, at all times. Then I got a glimpse of a new discovery, there were times that my suggestions were even stronger, but I still need more samples to pinpoint what are the perfect circumstances.
I decided to call my new superpower "the suggestion whisper" cool name right?
…
That's the best I can do, I suck at naming alright?
After about 10 days of me trying to use The Suggestion Whisper, I'm starting to feel something changing deep within Lucy. She is more fearless, more talkative, less apologetic, more confident in everything she is doing. I would say my inner operation was a complete success, I'll keep on it for a bit more just to be sure.
*
Another 11 days passed, three whole weeks of Lucy's self-esteem operation, she was improving at an amazing rate and everything was great. She was not as far on the training as her monster sisters, but she was far ahead of the other five. Even if she was not doing as great as Briana and Mayara she was still happy with her improvement and all. Eager to catch up to them, but happy nonetheless.
Maya and Briana had already finished their external construction and were trying, and not really surprisingly, succeeding, at recreating the internal circuit. I could not really tell how far the lazy ones were with their training, but I would guess about halfway with the external creation, with the exception of Dinorah. She was a bit closer to us, but not as far as Lucy.
Lucyra finished hers yesterday and today she will start the internal concept. Which would be the most dangerous part of the training. Well, nothing to worry about, she is always careful with this sort of training, always keeping her promise to Mila.
Training session went well, Lucy had an incredible improvement for the day.
My use of suggestion whisper continued, after so many days doing this I stopped paying attention to the actual words I was saying. I was just sending good vibes on the automatic now, and I was doing it quite more often than when I started.
I was finally able to notice when suggestions were at their strongest. There were times when Lucy's and my thoughts and wills would match closely with one another, at that point she was more susceptible for suggestions or my power took stronger effect. The point is, I could more easily influence her. I think these sync times were even more effective than tiredness.
For example, if we both saw a yellow flower and both thought "oh, that's beautiful", this single instance of synchronization was able to open a kind of path for me to suggest something, and my suggestions made for a few minutes after this moment would be more easily accepted by her.
I expect great things from Lucy, especially now that her problem is being solved by me.
*
Mayara was able to fully understand the concept yesterday, she is now able to use space storage. Obviously she still needs time and her full concentration to store the simplest and smallest of things, but still, she is now capable of storing random stuff in a separated space only she can access. How cool is that?
Today morning when she told Jade about her success, our teacher was truly impressed. Apparently she was extremely fast, it was not a record speed but incredibly fast and an amazing achievement nonetheless.
Every time Jade is a bit excited with something or remotely happy, she just starts talking, a monologue like usual. Today, because of the good news from Maya's accomplishments, she gave us an entire lecture about how amazing space magic was and how Mother is incredible for allowing us to use it.
She let out that our ancestors could not use this type of magic at all, not even the most Master Ancient Old Magnificent Wizard of magic Elf could. This trait is only available to Efalem because it was Mother that invented it. Mother is truly amazing.
"Elf… Elfs are completely useless when it comes to magic, really. They live so long yet are so weak and useless. Everything they do is weirdly hard... We really should express our gratitude for Mother's benevolence in creating us. What would our society be if she did not take us in?"
I clearly noticed this before, but Elfs were definitely looked down by the entire race of Efalem. There are several traits in which Mother has improved us, and truly, she did a great job. If everything I heard is true, then one cannot diminish her deeds. She basically created an entire new species and keeps on improving this species at every opportunity.
Briana said she is close, very close, to completing her full internal circuit but still missing a little. She may as well get it done today or tomorrow at the latest. She is as impressive as Maya if you ask me. Two days is nothing when you look at the entire training.
I can't wait for Lucy to master it as well, get rid of her pocket-belt and use real magic. Real and amazing magic. Lucy shares this feeling. YES! Another sync window AND she is tired.
Your talent is amazing! Your mana control is incredible. You can do anything you want. You are amazing! You are incredible Lucy. You have an incredible talent. You can go further. You can do everything.……….
I can't miss this opportunity you know. It's not like it happens too often and this is the time where my suggestions are the strongest! Maybe we sync this much once a day at best, but to sync while she is tired, that rarely happens. I really need to take the chance to help her go to even greater heights.
We finish running and head back home for further training. At this point in time all girls are able to run the entire 6 hours, at the absurdly fast pace that Jade is setting and also holding extra weight.
Maya and Bria are holding the most extra weight, Lucy is right behind them, followed by Sleepy Beauty Melvin who no longer oversleeps, then the others. We are also running uphills more often. "One shall not have an easy day". I believe that's Jade's motto.
Briana did not finish her circuit today. She looked a little disappointed that another day would pass without her new exciting space magic. But could do little to change that. If too much training was done in a single day, with no rest in between, the effectiveness would go down considerably.
The next day was the same for the physical training, I'm getting tired of running by this point. Not funny. No new activities… Only running. Ok that the running itself is not precisely the same, there is always something harder to do. Carry weights, go up a hill, run faster, sprint until someone gives up… but still, that's still running. Do they not get tired of this? I want to see new exciting stuff… specially magic. Space magic would be great.
Briana succeeded right in the first hour of mana training today, then she started to play around trying to actually use the space magic. With both her sisters being able to use new magic, Lucy started to feel a bit impatient and anxious. I can feel her original personality trying to get her down again. BUT I"LL NOT LET YOU!
Activate super power "The suggestion whisper!" at full force!
Let's go Lucy! You are amazing! Don't let that bring you down! Train harder and improve yourself! You have the potential to achieve the same heights as them! Don't give up Lucy!.....
Lucy heard me. I was successfully able to block all her bad thoughts about herself. Don't worry Lucy, I'll protect you. I'm most impressed with myself, I'm amazing right? I need to take advantage of my unique power and help her be my special Protagonist!
My dear host was training even harder now. She really has the potential to be a hero. She just needed a bit of help. Help that I'm now able to offer. Go Lucy! Go! Let's give you a bit more of super self esteem dosage to help you!
Go Lucy! You can do it! You can do it! I know you can! You are amazing! Train harder and improve yourself! You can do it! You have the potential to achieve the same heights as anyone! You can be a hero! Don't give up Lucy! You can do anything you want. You have an incredible talent.....
...
I kept going.
…
...
I should have not. I overused my one single power.
I'm sorry Lucy.
...
I'm sorry.
...
Sorry.