Mila
“Okay, as your teacher, I feel I should explain a few things.” Nana Xara let her cry for a few minutes, but then the woman spoke again, directly into her mind, causing Mila’s sadness to again change to rage at the complete and utter invasion of privacy.
“First, I’m speaking to you now through our bond as master and apprentice. I can do the same with Diana and the bond allows me to sense everything you do. From now on, when you’re not crying, I will listen to you whenever you ask me not to watch. And, once you reach F rank and gain the capability, I’ll teach you how to block me from watching completely.
“Second, I’m sorry for not telling you about what Aalam had planned.” Nana Xara’s voice sounded serious and Mila only now registered how incongruous that was with how cheerful she generally seemed. “I knew you might not accept it, but, given your goals, both stated and otherwise, this seemed like the best option.”
“And how is me being forced to gather lust charged souls for the rest of my life a good option?” Even over telepathy, Mila’s voice still sounded like she was growling.
“First, stop being hyperbolic.” Mila could almost imagine the old woman giving her a stern look, one without a smile trying to come out from underneath. “Lust charged souls are not hard to make, especially once you get a charm skill at F rank and can affect dead souls directly. They also don’t have to be sentient, except for during advancements. Find a pair of the local equivalent of rabbits mating, kill them before they understand what is going on, and you’ll have enough food for both you and Aalam for over a week.
“The requirement for Aalam not getting his own souls will also only be until D rank, at which point neither of you will need souls for food anyway.
“Second, the term soul is too loaded in your world. It’s the magic equivalent of a body and it’s not required for reincarnation. In fact, eating souls makes reincarnation happen faster, so you’re actually doing the person a favor.
“Third, and most important, I never said this was a good option, Mila, just that it was better than the alternatives.”
Nana Xara projected an image of herself over the link and it looked like she was standing before Mila in the forest, a stern expression on her face.
“I keep stressing how your boyfriend isn’t sane, and I think you get the magical aspects of that, but I don’t think you’ve grasped just how incongruous some of his actions have been.
“Why, when his legs were crushed by that Rollie-Pollie in the second challenge, was his instinctive action not to panic but to act like the lead from an action movie? He’s not like you. He didn’t receive training since he was four. And I’ve seen his sister’s reactions. The first time she got hurt she nearly fell apart.
“Why, in the first challenge, did he have so much disregard for the lives of his fellow humans? Back on Earth, he dedicated his life to helping people. He was the type of person to immediately stop and help if someone dropped their bag of groceries. And he couldn’t understand why someone would try to profit off the life saving medicines he created because, in his worldview, that just didn’t make sense.
“Finally, why did he partner up with you? Despite some of his actions on paper, he quite obviously doesn’t have romantic feelings for you anymore and, at the beginning, I do very much think he wanted you dead.”
Nana Xara’s projection sat on the forest floor and looked up at Mila on her rock. “I think he still believes he’s dreaming. And he doesn’t want to wake up.
“He already killed himself once when his uniqueness hadn’t fully activated, and, when he realizes he’s not dreaming, I’m afraid he might do so again.”
Nana Xara paused for a second. “His backup options if you don’t help at this point, I’m almost positive, involve crossing a line he won’t be able to come back from. His powerset doesn’t allow for anything else. And, in that case, when he finally does realize he’s not dreaming, he will most likely end his own life.”
Mila’s emotions changed multiple times over the next several seconds. From sadness, to anger toward Nana Xara, to anger toward Aalam, then to anger toward herself. Instead of handling those emotions maturely, however, she lashed out. “So you’re holding his life and death over my head?”
The expression of Nana Xara’s projection changed from a sad concerned look to one of anger as she stood up again. “You do not get to play that card with me, little girl. I took you and Diana as apprentices, and you both care about that boy more than your own wellbeing, so I’m doing my best to keep him alive. But I’m dead, and what I can do is limited.
“You can get angry with me about not telling you things. I deserve that. But you do not get to turn your sadness and anger about the boy you like not liking you back toward me.
“An apprentice of mine does not get to act like such a hypocrite.”
“A hypocrite.” Mila almost started laughing. “Like a disembodied soul telling me eating souls is no big deal?”
“No.” Nana Xara’s projection continued to glare at her. “Like a girl getting upset the boy she likes doesn’t like her back and has been nice to her only to fulfill a business contract, when she did the exact same thing to him first, only with actual malicious intent, creating his lack of desire in the first place.
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“Those same emotions you’re feeling right now. He felt them after you ran away. And his emotions were justified. Yours are not.”
Nana Xara’s projection took a few steps back and they both paused for a few seconds.
“I’m sorry.” Nana Xara’s projection took a deep breath. “That last part was a bit too far. Your emotions are justified. Also, you have a good point about souls. I haven’t been explaining well.
“I was A rank when my body died and specialized in the Soul stat, yet even I wouldn’t have been able to keep the fires of my Mental Forge from going out without the System’s help. I always say I died, but I’m technically alive. I’m a living soul, like the soul in a lich’s phylactery or an alchemist trapped in a suit of armor, but I’m housed in a small mental world created by the System instead of a physical object.
“The souls you would be eating would have their Mental Forges extinguished. On a fundamental level, they are completely different, truly dead.”
Mila stayed quiet for a few minutes, getting her emotions under control, and Nana Xara let her. Then Mila said, “I’m sorry as well. You’re right in that most of my anger was redirected. Though I’m still mad at you about lying.”
“As you should be.” Nana Xara’s projection smiled at her, but her tone of voice stayed serious. “I took away your choice and control over your own destiny, and, while I did so for your own future power as a master should, afraid your emotions might get in the way and cause you to do something you might regret, I manipulated you nonetheless.”
Mila thought it over for a bit. Nana Xara was quite obviously not a good person, and it was likely she was holding back other information, but, while she was Mila’s extremely distant ancestor, she wasn’t Mila’s grandmother. She was her teacher.
Nana Xara had no responsibility to make her happy, only to lead her to become more powerful, and she was doing that well.
Mila thought about what race she would have chosen for herself, going over the list of monsters Aalam had looked at, and she realized there had only been a half dozen types which could pass for human, all of which had disturbing feeding habits, from having to drink blood to needing to eat the livers of the living. After actually thinking about it, Succubus was the least disturbing, and it fit her build the best as well.
“Is there some advantage to human form?”
“In general, yes.” Nana Xara smiled proudly at her. “You can walk around cities, trade, form business alliances, et cetera. Your skills also stay the same as if you were a cultivator race rather than a monster, allowing you to more easily control cultivator servants. And, most important, even while being a monster, your talent for cultivation will be no less than that of a cultivator with a race of the same grade.
“The main difference between cultivators and monsters is that monsters can take the natural primal energy of the universe and use it to gain power, leveling up naturally over time, while cultivators need to get that type of energy in a different form for their own advancement, either through killing, specialized processed materials, or natural treasures. Meanwhile, cultivators have a huge advantage when it comes to controlling energy and advancing in Laws, at least on average, allowing them to surpass their natural limits much more easily than monsters, so, at higher ranks, cultivators are much more common.
“The succubus/incubus line of monsters is famous for straddling the line between cultivators and monsters, gaining levels from ambient primal energy much slower than most monsters, but having a talent for energy control and an affinity with Laws roughly the same as cultivator races of equivalent grade. So, for someone aiming to reach the very peak of power, it is a very good choice.
“There is another benefit to human form, however, that only someone like you can make use of.
“The System tends to treat cultivator races as those to be nurtured and monsters as those to be hunted for parts, giving far more benefits to the former. You, with your first uniqueness combined with the class line you’re going for, would normally be able to trick the System into thinking you were a human once you reach D rank, but with your second uniqueness and your Law Eggs of Bonds and Severing, you should be able to do so at F rank instead, and in a way that won’t lead to gods wanting to kill you.
“Given how talented you are, and that you’ll also then be able to trick the System into treating Aalam as your familiar, the benefits you’ll be able to receive are immense.”
Mila took a deep breath and activated her Law Egg of Calm to help ameliorate the effects of her emotions further. Had she received that explanation beforehand, there is no way she would have chosen another race unless she’d also known about what Aalam was planning, but that was kind of the point.
Emotions were bad for operational efficiency and they could make things unpredictable.
“Okay.” Mila closed her eyes, took another deep breath, and then opened them again. “Two questions before I start looking for a settlement and some mating rodents. First, what is Aalam going for in his build that requires him to not get his own food?”
“My final sage class, the Fabled grade Virtuous Sage, which I gained when I reached A rank, only he’s going for it at D rank. It requires one to have never once given in to the sin they’re most inclined toward, and, having a new life as an Incubus, he is now most inclined to the sin of lust.
“It’s a quite powerful class, improving the soul of the cultivator to the point they can safely gain another class and, unlike me at the time, he knows how to advance it properly without getting stuck.”
Mila looked at Nana Xara incredulously. “As an A rank, you’d managed to never commit one of the seven sins? I’m changing what I said. I have so many more questions.
“What sin are humans inclined toward?”
The projection of Nana Xara’s smile grew wider. “On average, greed, but that wasn’t what I was personally inclined to. As a genius and eventual A rank talent, my inclination was toward pride. Yet, at the young age of 137,263, I’d always been humble, so I was able to get one of the best sage line classes and eventually become a powerhouse.”
“How could you stay humble for over a hundred millennia? You’re such an arrogant ass.”
The projection of Nana Xara started laughing. “Do you think you’re talented, Mila?”
“No.” Mila shook her head, still trying to wrap her mind around Nana Xara being humble, despite over ten thousand decades of life.
“And you’re wrong about that.” Nana Xara smiled at her. “But you’re comparing yourself against someone who’s even more of a genius. I had three such people during my rise to power and I didn’t become an arrogant ass until all of them died.”
There were so many more questions Mila wanted to ask, but Nana Xara raised her hand, her expression losing its joviality. “Some other time, Mila. Those stories involve deaths of people I was close to, and I don’t want to talk about them right now.”
Mila had read Nana Xara’s biography while in the tutorial, but it had been short, with barely any details in general, and almost nothing about her early life beyond the fact she’d been part of an apocalypse style integration, so Mila didn’t actually have any good guesses as to who Nana Xara could be referring to, but she decided not to pry—mostly because the woman wasn’t going to tell her anything if she did.
“My original second question then. What is the origin of the System and its purpose?”
Nana Xara laughed. “Sorry, I’m not allowed to tell you. But, if you analyze how it operates, it’s not that hard to figure out.”