Lotus Year 58
A few more years have passed I guess, time becomes something hard to notice when it's all you have. Just like a rich person doesn't care about money, or a loved one doesn't value their loved ones, time is all I have, and I can barely notice it.
My lake was now almost 2 km in diameter, and a depth of over 500 meters, my roots were growing all over the place making the deep waters of the lake look like a large maze of roots.
My leaves dominated the surface of the lake, and large amounts of algae and marine life dominated the interior of the lake fish, slugs, insects, frogs, and amphibians lived in the lake, competing for resources and just living their lives.
In particular I had my eye on a large fish that looked like a carp, this fish could be called a coward, but she is the oldest fish in my lake, if I counted correctly, she must be on average about 30 years old, She kept hiding among my roots and only came out to eat, then hid again.
This made her a barely visible figure in the lake, but this keeped her alive. Those who are not seen are not remembered, and this fish did not want to be remembered. So she spent all her life hiding and being someone who runs away from problems and doesn't deal with dangerous situations.
Because of this, now she was the largest fish in the lake, reaching an impressive 1 meter in length and 70 cm in width. She also had skills that I didn't even know fish could have, one of his skills was being able to change the color of her scales, like a chameleon, so when she stood still she blended into the environment and escaped predators.
Another of her abilities was her ability to perceive danger, this fish has the power to sense when something bad is going to happen to her, and it allows her to escape long before it actually happens, as if she have a crystal ball to the the future or something.
The biggest example of this was when I had the idea of cutting off her head with a water blade, and long before I even created the water blade she had already run away and hid at the bottom of the lake.
I just had the intention of killing her and she already feel something, some people say that cowards have a special place in hell, but this fish shows that sometimes cowardice is the best possible survival tactic.
I decided to adopt her as my friend, we both thought a lot about ways to stay alive, no matter the methods, so I gave her the name Uchiki and a blessing.
Accordingly she became a large fish that had a small lotus flower mark on her forehead. She also gained the ability to manipulate water, and could use this to her advantage, using the water manipulation ability to give a small boost to her speed, and create a large amount of bubbles that she used to escape.
Some would say it's sad that your only friend is a fish that has no conscience, but at least I'm not alone.
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Lotus Year 60
In the middle of the forest there was a large lake, right after the rain several puddles of water of various sizes formed around the lake, a thick fog that seemed to come from nowhere surrounded the entire place, making vision difficult for anyone who tried to venture into the region.
In the middle of the fog, several small whispers that didn't make sense came out of random places without seeming to have any purpose, and the closer you get to the lake, the louder these whispers became.
My pond continues to grow, and in the last few years I've been training all my less used skills, [Pond Whisper] was something I barely used in my life, but it still had its ultlity.
The ability caused small, meaningless whispers to emanate from small water sources close to me, the further away the more MP was needed, but if used near the lake I could create several ethereal whispers that seemed to come from nowhere.
I also tried using [Purified Wellspring] but to my disappointment the skill was very expensive. By using large amounts of water and a lot of MP I could create a kind of glowing water that could recover my MP.
It seems very useful, but I needed to spend a lot of MP to create small amounts of this special water, in the long run I think it would be worth it for me to convert all the water in the lake into this magical water, that way I would have an emergency supply of MP, but the The main problem is that I don't like the idea of attracting too much attention.
I am a flower growing in the middle of a lake, at night my leaves and flowers begin to glow with a magical light that is anything but "ordinary". But during the day I still had an appearance that could be overlooked by anyone who saw me. My elementals can disappear in seconds if they mix with the waters of the lake, and my mud crustaceans can mix with the earth.
The rest of the lake's life is nothing magical and special, maybe Uchiki is quite magical, but the rest has nothing that catches your attention.
I'm afraid of being discovered by bad people like those humans, unlike Green who can run and hide, I'm deeply rooted in this lake, so if someone tries to kill me I have no choice but to fight back or hide at the bottom of the lake .
That's why I don't want to attract attention, I prefer to be remembered as a beautiful lake rather than a magical and special lake.
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Lotus Year 64
Sometimes I think about Green, how long has it been? 40 years? He must be old by now, where is he going? Has he been successful in life? Is he safe and secure? Maybe he became a great hunter, maybe he found someone special, got married and had children. But I have no way of knowing, and sometimes that worries me.
Was the world kind to him? Green had so many difficulties when he was little that I can't tell if fate just wanted to see him suffer.
There is luck in this world, it is something tangible and I know it, the lucky status is a great proof. So Green's luck was so bad that he ended up in that miserable situation? Or was it simply fate's way of making him pay for a better future?
I don't know, sometimes I wish I could know.
In the last few years I have been using my skills and I have discovered several things about them. Firstly, my mana manipulation skill is more useful than expected, when trying to use my water manipulation, I discovered that as time passed I needed less and less mana to produce a magical phenomenon, and each day my control over the aqua was more refined.
The skill wasn't very good at the first levels, but as it rose, its usefulness began to blossom like a rose.
My skill of creating mirrored illusions also had its uses, and the main one was to confuse enemies. Mirror illusions could be activated anywhere near me, so I could place a mirror illusion behind my enemy, in front of them, or far away from them if necessary.
The illusions would then perfectly copy all of the target's actions and gestures, but are not capable of interacting with the physical world or emitting sounds.
This was useful to scare away large animals such as bears and tigers, by creating a mirror image of them that followed them all the time, these animals ended up thinking that the illusion was another animal, so they tried to get close, but the illusions moved away in the same way.
The most interesting thing about these illusions was that these illusions had 2 modes, one in which they would exactly copy the target's actions, and another in which I could manipulate the illusion's actions.
So to scare someone, I just needed to create an illusion of the target and make the illusion run towards the target, this sent most of the more dangerous animals away.
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My storm calling skill was also pretty cool, if I used high amounts of MP, a heavy rain would happen in the next few days. The skill was not instantaneous, so when using it I needed to wait for the rain to reach me, and the less MP the weaker the rain was and the longer it took to arrive.
Another skill I used a lot in the meantime was my skill to create spike traps, I spread them across the bottom of the lake and some on my shield leaves and every now and then an unlucky fish or animal would get caught in the traps.
These traps are quite vicious, they are basically bear traps made of roots, with a small, beautiful and fragrant flower that dangles in the middle, and as soon as a victim of considerable size bites into the flower, the trap activates, instantly killing any small creature, and seriously injuring larger creatures like wild boars and birds.
The only downside to the traps was that I didn't gain XP for the kill, and they took a long time to grow, but other than that they were very powerful and deadly, if something managed to escape their hold it would have to deal with a horrible wound that could possibly it would infect soon.
I also used other skills to make the plants near the lake grow, create jewelry that was currently a bit useless for me, the skill to create several poisonous thorns around my main body, and I created some shields on top of the lake in the region that my main body was located.
Because of this I achieved some skill levels, and I think I have some interesting fusions here.
Skills
[Roots Whiplash] - Lv 4
Create roots capable of purifying water and absorbing nutrients.
[Celestial Absorption] - Lv MAX
Absorb the magical power of celestial bodies through the process of photosynthesis, generating MP and SP.
[Undine's Embrace] - Lv 3
Use Mp to summon water-type elementals, the result of the summoning will depend on the sacrifice offered and the level of the host.
[Earthward Caller] - Lv 2
Use a catalyst and an Mp sacrifice to summon an Earthward that will follow your orders at the cost of SP.
[Lotus Blessing] - Lv 1
Bestow a blessing upon an allie that ncreased luck and fortune.
[Purified Wellspring] - Lv 1
Use MP and Sp to add magical properties to large amounts of water near you.
[Lily Pad Shield] - Lv 5
Create Lily Pads that can serve as resistant shields, Lily Pads cannot generate energy.
[Solar Beam] - Lv 1
Use a flower to generate a concentrated beam of energy capable of causing massive damage, the solar beam must be charged and its strength is limited by the intensity of sunlight.
[Poison Point] - Lv MAX
Use your Sp to create poisonous spikes.
[Serenity Blossom] - Lv 8
Use MP and SP to create flowers capable of emitting a hormone that calms and tranquilizes anyone who feels it.
[Thorn Trap] - Lv MAX
Use Sp and MP to create root traps that activate on contact.
[Aquatic Allies] - Lv 6
Use Mp to summon a variety of aquatic creatures that can serve as your allies.
[Mist Veil] - Lv MAX
Conjures a veil of mist to obscure the vision of invaders.
[Lotus Light] - Lv MAX
Use Mp to create a small light source in lotus flowers.
[Water Echo] - Lv MAX
Use Mp to create small sounds at any nearby water sources.
[Floral Flourish] - Lv MAX
Makes plants around you grow faster.
[Pond's Reflection] - Lv 7
Use Mp to reflect any image, as long you have viewed it before.
[Kelp Keep] - Lv MAX
Use Sp to create small amounts of highly nutritious algae.
[Stormcaller] - Lv 2
Use large amounts of Mp to generate rain of intensity equivalent to the value offered.
[Enchanting] - Lv 1
Use large amounts of MP to add a random effect to an item.
[Illusory Reflection] - Lv 5
Use MP to create and maintain a mirror image of your target. The mirror image cannot cause physical damage.
[Mana Manipulation] - Lv 6
Makes your mana control more refined
[Blossom Rest] - Lv 1
Enter a state of hibernation after suffering large amounts of damage. While in this state, the host is immune to all status effects and gradually heals from injuries.
'I think [Thorn Trap] and [Poison Point] are the most adept skills for each other in this situation, creating poisonous traps is an additional guarantee that the target will be killed.'
Notice
Do you want to fuse the skills [Thorn Trap] and [Poison Point]?
'Yes!'
Notice
The skills [Thorn Trap] and [Poison Point] had fused in the skill [Toxic Bramble]
Skill
[Toxic Bramble] - Lv 1
Create a small thorn trap that, if activated, will trap its victim with vines of poisonous thorns.
'Acceptable. For the next one I will fuse [Mist Veil] and [Water Echo].'
Notice
Do you want to fuse the skills [Mist Veil] and [Water Echo].?
'Yes!'
Notice
The skills [Mist Veil] and [Water Echo] had fused in the skill [Whispering Mist]
Skill
[Whispering Mist] - Lv 1
Conjures a misty veil that not only obscures vision of the target, but also imitates sounds that have already been heard by you.
The new abilities seem to be interesting, so to test everything I conjure a dense fog that soon obscures everything around the lake, then I start thinking about the noises Green made when he was here, and I can hear his words coming out of the fog.
Words without meaning or any connection, in addition to containing a strange and somewhat guttural echo effect, as if it were a hoarse whisper, but they are still the same noises that Green made.
'What if I...'
Testing my new skill, I start to think of words that I can speak, and soon a very melodious but at the same time strager voice begins to echo through the fog.
"Hello? Hello? Hello?... Hello?"
An echo began to resonate through the fog, that was my voice, or at least a version of it, i can't remerber how my voice sound's like. I spent a lot of MP to create this fog and even more MP to keep it active, but it's still pretty cool to be able to talk again.