Chapter 5

Before coming to the banquet hall, Nick was brought to the dressing room by Maria, he was quickly changed into a new tuxedo, it was dark blue for a one-year-old child. In Nick's opinion, it was absurd, why dress a child in such an expensive thing? But even he understood that it was supposed to show the status of family. But considering how father spoke about that necromancer, Nick did not think that they needed to prove anything. After all, if this necromancer could defeat father, he would definitely try to do it and not hide like a rat.

Arriving in the banquet hall in Maria's arms, Nick began to look at many new persons, now he could even understand what people were talking about, but for his own cover he used only the most basic words. The first thing he noticed in the banquet hall was that no one had a weapon, not even the members of his clan, which in his opinion was a very stupid decision. Nick tried to start controlling his mana and was again able to make sure that the formation was working. Nick did not fully understand the main reason for calling such a large number of people. After all, they could just as easily arrange a holiday only for themselves. Coming closer to his father and mother, Nick saw a strange man completely dressed in a white cassock. It was a fucking priest, Nick did not like the way this man looked at him at all. Hatred was read in his eyes, or maybe strong envy. Nick did not care.

Why is this bastard looking at me like that? What does he even want from me? He looks like someone who was caught trying to do something indecent and now everyone knows about it. What definition does his class fall under? I need to know! In theory, holy magic is not applicable against me, but I'm sure these bastards have did something to maintain their advantage against people.

Nick continued to insult the priest in his head, but he didn't show that he noticed how the priest was looking at him. The main thing for Nick was not to stand out. Walking straight up to his father and mother. Varion took a spoon and tapped his glass to draw everyone's attention to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first birthday of my son Dylan Ghostblade, I have high hopes for him as the future of the Ghostblade clan. We are all gathered here to celebrate this wonderful day, Hooray!"

Thanks to my father for the short and clear speech, very convenient. Most of the guests also didn't give a damn about all this, but do they really come here just to come? Unreasonable nobles, oh, when will I grow up and give these assholes a fair trial.

As soon as Varion made the announcement, all the people returned to their business. Nick simply lay in Maria's arms and chose what food he wanted by pointing his finger and saying "yum, yum," for him it was really convenient and today's food felt even tastier than usual. Soon Liam approached Nick in Firel's arms. They began to communicate with their eyes, Nick said that he was fine and pointed at the priest, then clenched his fist and hit him on the knee, saying as if he was a bastard. Liam turned his gaze to the priest and saw a nice kind guy, but Liam was not deceived, any priest at a meeting of the highest nobility must be a bastard. Of course, the reincarnators admitted the possibility that the church in this world is positive and benevolent, but both did not believe in it. It was impossible to become at the top of the state without the power to crush every dissenter. Actually, after their nice conversation, a young girl approached them, With long blonde hair filled in a large braid, she looked very beautiful and Nick almost could not take his eyes off her, her charisma was much stronger than his mother's.

"Hello young lords, I am Lita Lifewarden, the Great Mage of Life. Lady Firel, it is a pleasure to meet you at this celebration, I see your son is completely like you. He will become a wonderful water mage."

The girl looked to be a little over 20 years old, but considering her life magic, Nick realized that she was an old lady with a good body. Nick, of course, as well as his dear friend, did not react to this in any way, or at least tried to do so. The charisma that this woman had was incredible and they had to put in a lot of effort to suppress their reaction. Seeing their reaction, Lita simply smiled and continued talking to Firel as if she had not noticed anything.

"I am also glad to meet you at this celebration, Lady Lita." After exchanging pleasantries, they began a more relaxed conversation.

"Lady Firel, when do you plan to teach Liam magic? My son Jake recently had a son, Maks, and we're not exactly sure when we'll teach him magic, could you give us some advice?"

"Hmm, we will train Liam as soon as he can talk, it is important to teach magic from an early age to increase his affinity with water. Both me and Theurge were trained that way. And as a result, we are one of the strongest water mages." Felicia answered Lita.

"That's true, but your magic can't be called elementary. You specialize in controlling different waters, like your famous holy weapon magic. I know that this technique is difficult to use, after all, manipulating holy water will never be easy. But you're right, and our two disciplines are quite similar to each other, since life mages specialize in healing and controlling plants. In fact, we have already started teaching Max some easy life magic spells, and he is doing great at it. But of course I am waiting for your advice. I hope you'll send us some letters and come visit with Theurge and Liam. We'll have more time to talk." He woman looked around, looking for someone, and when her gaze stopped on that same priest, she decided to say goodbye.

"It was nice chatting with you, A little, but I have to go. Our children more likely will study in the same class at the Royal Academy, I think they will have a great relationship." Lita said with a sweet smile and left.

Nick began to be wary of this woman. First of all, he was afraid of her extraordinary charisma, for this was still strange for him, Nick was not used to it at all and could not resist it in any way. Throughout the entire conversation he had to hold back and not stare at her as if she were the most beautiful girl in the world. The conversation itself and the way Lita was acting seemed strange to him too, but he couldn't quite figure out why. The only thing he could figure out was that she thought he was will get along her grandson, Nick didn't know what she wanted to say this.

His intuition told him that this woman somehow knew that they were special. But how exactly she understood this was unclear. She was a Great Mage of Life, his stats were very weak, as were Liam's stats, so she could hardly estimate their life potential, unless her life magic saw deeper than just life energy. Maybe she could sense the souls of other people. For Nick, this was a very likely explanation.

The party continued and people approached Firel a couple more times, the evil priest glanced at them briefly, but did not dare to approach. Nick would have been happy to stain his clothes. Anyway, the event ended on a beautiful note, namely, a performance by a very famous bard. While people were whispering among themselves, he was able to hear that the bard's name was Richard, he was born into a family of merchants and through pure skill in playing various instruments, he was able to earn himself fame as the main rising star of the Holy Kingdom's music industry. People around him quietly said that he had an epic bard class. Nick was interested in this, if a level 300 Necromancer [Special] could destroy a small city, then what could a bard with an epic class do?

Not far from him, a handsome young man of average build with black hair came out on stage, giving everyone a wide smile. He was wearing an elegant black suit with a white shirt, when the audience could appreciate him, the screen behind him parted to the surprised murmur of those present, there was a magnificent looking piano.

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"Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Durrell, I have taken on the role of performing the music that young Mr. Dylan will definitely like. Today I will be performing a sonata on the piano. I am sure everyone will enjoy my story about a brave hero."

The bard came and sat down near the piano, he was in no hurry, slowly lifting the lid of the piano, Richard smiled at the audience again, without a second's hesitation he began to play. And the way he played, drew everyone into the story he created, the music itself gave away all his emotions and desires, and the perfect performance and his own writing of such works made him a genius. All the skills he possessed worked for the sake of one moment: to give the listener and himself new experiences and impressions. His sonata told of a brave hero who, despite everything, was able to overcome all difficulties. The music conveyed his experience to everyone who listened to it. People could unmistakably understand the whole story of [Hero of Geran], this man was an unremarkable boy, but in the battle with the orcs he was able to reveal his potential, after this clash he went to his goal, fought formidable enemies, conquered beautiful ladies, experienced unimaginable situations, was the owner of his own luck. And after all the hardships he had to endure, he reached the very last one. It was a great evil dragon, he wanted to destroy his entire kingdom because of the princess the hero was in love with. But the hero did not give up and in the battle with the evil dragon, he fought for 7 days and 7 nights. He fought until his bones stopped regenerating, he fought until his stamina completely dropped, he fought until he lost the last drop of life force. He fought until he almost completely burned his soul. Thanks to his endless willpower, [the Hero of Gerana] was able to defeat the [Evil Dragon].

Being on the verge of death, in the arms of his beloved, he remembered his entire life and did not regret anything. The Hero of Gerana would be glad to live his life again and not change anything in it. As the hero whispered his last words to his beloved, "Live, my love," his body was enveloped in golden power, and the [Holy Goddess] herself resurrected him for his heroism. The Hero of Gerana vowed to continue to cleanse evil and filth in the name of light and justice. Through his vow, he became an [Archangel], and together with his beloved, they entered heaven, where they lived happily ever after.

Nick's thoughts were spinning in a crazy typhoon, it was the most soulful thing he had ever heard, this playing can only be compared to divine providence. The emotions he experienced could not pass immediately, his playing on the instrument conveyed the meaning of the notes, in each part of the melody there were genuine emotions: fear, triumph, joy, happiness, determination, sadness, relief. Nick seemed to have experienced a second life told by someone else. The bard played this melody for about 20 minutes, but everyone who heard it froze in place, in the illusion of history. After thinking about what happened, Nick realized that this could be called a mental attack and it was catastrophic by his standards. Looking at his father, he saw that even he could not resist the music. And now the strongest classer Nick had ever seen was a bard?!

What's the point? How can a bard be the strongest person? I find myself believing it, this bard needed quite a bit of time to prepare. And against any combat classer one on one he would be useless. But with this guy you could defeat armies. Ahahahaha, and his playing on the instrument does not fall under magic or martial arts. This is something special, his playing could not be blocked by the formation and even he looks tired, and extremely satisfied.

After his stellar performance, Richard bowed to the audience and everyone, without exception, began to applaud. People were still in their thoughts and feelings, trying to separate them from their real ones.

"Thank you for listening to my performance, I hope I did not leave anyone disappointed. I also thank the House of the Ghost Blade for inviting me today and allow me to present Dylan with my personal gift from the bottom of my heart. It is a music box that contains a part of my power." The bard walked up to Dylan and handed him the the box in his hands. Looking at it, Nick didn't see anything special, but later he was going to study it properly. Richard paused, looking at Dylan carefully, he didn't say anything, After a pause, he said goodbye to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, until we meet again!"

The bard was taken backstage, and now Dylan could take a closer look at the neat wooden box with a carved image of the bard holding a violin. Nick was very impressed with this man. At first, when he picked up the box, it did not seem particularly beautiful to him, but upon closer inspection, there were such detailed patterns on it that it was mesmerizing to the eye. He could not wait to listen to it himself.

As the event drew to a close, he was given more useless gifts. He saw nothing particularly meaningful and decided he could look at them tomorrow. He wondered how he could implement something similar to bardic magic. If Nick had to explain what he thought of bardic magic, he would say that the bard put pure emotion into his music and thus was able to convey the effect of the story. It was impressive, but Nick did not know all the limitations of the bard. So he stopped wondering and went to bed.

***

The next morning Nick got up and started looking at the presents that were now lying around his room. There he saw a bunch of useless toys and a few meaningful presents. The special presents were good. From Liam he got a bracelet that his family wears and without thinking he put it on. Among other things he saw a couple of books that he didn't need considering his age and the fact that he couldn't read. He also saw a bracelet that was supposed to be a gift from his parents, the metal bracelet looked ordinary, touching it he found its roughness pleasant, more like powdered, unpolished, gray steel. But this bracelet was for an adult hand, without thinking he fastened it on his leg and watched as the bracelet shrank and stayed on his leg. Taking it off again and putting it on his arm, the bracelet now fit like a glove. Although his hands were still very small. There were a lot of other things there, but he didn't understand their purpose at all, so he left them lying there. After that, Nick went to have breakfast with his family, where they tried to explain to him what these things were for. The pendant was needed to breathe underwater for a while and create a water barrier, while the bracelet made him invisible and hid smells for a while. They needed to be regularly charged with mana after use, which he, of course, could not do. Finally, in the morning, he was able to get to his tree, the formation was disabled and now he dedicated himself to practicing mana sensing and mana control. Nick could already surround his core with mana for about 10 minutes. And this is still not enough to somehow speed up the restoration of mana. But this is all he needs for meditation at his tree.

***

A year and a half passed, all the time he was too stubborn in his training. His stats grew just incredible, he also received an improvement in the quality of the meditation skill, received two new skills: minor poison resistance [Common], minor psychic resistance [Common]. Although he did not notice any health problems, he still took the skill. He developed a small mental resistance due to training with the bard's box. But the most important thing he got was a +3 level in the race.

Name: Dylan Ghostblade (Nick Miller) 2.5 years

Race: Evolved Human [Rare] Lvl 5

Class: Blocked

Class: Blocked

Health 170 HP 0.17 HP/hour

Mana 130 MP 0.08 MP/hour

Endurance 150 ST 1.5 ST/hour

Statistics:

Strength 13

Dexterity 13

Stamina 15

Vitality 17

Constitution 16

Intelligence 45

Wisdom 34

Mental Control 39

Willpower 47

Perception 25

Charisma 10

Mana output 10

Mana 13

Mana Regeneration 8

Luck 15

45 free attribute points

Titles: Otherworldly Reincarnator [Legendary+]

Racial Skills:

Quick Learning [Uncommon]

Low adaptability of characteristics [Common]

Minor Adaptation [Common]

Lesser Mana Core [Common]

Skills:

Meditation [Uncommon] Lvl 105

Lesser Mana sense [Common] Lvl 25

Language Proficiency (Ramiast) [Common] Lvl 33

Minor Manipulation of Mana [Common] Lvl 28

Low Mental Resistance [Common] Lvl 11

Low Poison Resistance [Common] Lvl 4

Possible skills:

Is hidden

Now Nick could maintain the meditation in an active state for three hours. To do this, you need to completely surround your mana core with world mana and try to let your will influence it so that the recovery process goes faster. Such a simple manipulation increased his mana recovery tenfold. That is, he restored about 0.8 mana per hour. Which was still not much, but it reduced the recovery time of his mana reserve from 67 days to 6 days and 7 hours in active meditation. Nick still did not understand where all the mana needed to power the formation in the mansion came from. After all, it must have been a colossal amount of mana and even a thousand people like him would not be enough to fill it for at least an hour. This only said what kind of monsters the mages were in this world, or how good the technological progress was. This told Nick only one thing: he still had a very long way to go to become at least an ordinary mage.