The road within the town was manageable there but the road outside the confines of civilization was far worse. There were bumps on the road that forced Eliza to tumble and wake up from her beauty naps after hitting her head on the window. Perhaps that was for the better, as she’d sleep better during the night.

If nothing of interest happened, they’d get to their destination after two nights.

“Why can’t you teach me?” asked Eliza, staring at her mother who now looked like an older version of her, “I clearly have affinity for Ice Magic like you and you’re clearly quite powerful.”

“Did you read past the third chapter?” asked Evelyn, her eyes closed and arms crossed.

She was adorned in a comfortable blue dress that reached her ankles and had sleeves that extended to her upper arm. White tulle gloves covered her hands, for it was improper for a noble lady to not don it and there was a hat floppy, black hat with a white band atop her head.

Eliza, on the other hand, was wearing a maximalist pink dress with frills at both the sleeves and the end of the skirt. There was no stigma against a child not wearing gloves or a hat and that saved Eliza from being even more of a clone of her mother.

“No, there wasn’t much practical information there. It’d have been a waste of time,” said Eliza and quieted down.

It had to be something to do with the System if she was referring to the Compendium.

“That’s understandable. You don’t know all of the System yet. I could teach you magic but it’d be far easier if you learned it from someone with the Mentor Class,” said Evelyn and raised a finger. Over it hovered a clear icicle the size of another finger, spinning around as it did so, “It’s the difference between me explaining the concept to you and me using your body to engrave what I’m trying to teach into your muscle memory. I’d tell you that you need to eject the Mana from your fingers and then mold it into a shape but a Mentor would teach you how to do it.”

“But-” started Eliza and stopped. She referred to Fabian by his name inside her head and that was a bad habit that would bite her in the end. She internally made a note to state his title alongside his name and proceeded, her voice calmer now, “Sir Fabian did it.”

“Because he had the Mentor Class,” said Evelyn, easily debilitating her argument, “You have to teach basic concepts to dozens of students for several months to achieve it, and sadly, I did not have the time nor patience. Your father, on the other hand, has gained it recently but your body isn’t mature yet and unfit to practice fencing.”

Fencing…

The very concept of working her body made Eliza shudder.

She didn’t mind the pain and she didn’t mind it if it was a mental chore, but pushing her body wasn’t for her. While overworking her Mana Circuits was painful, it required no effort on her part. In fact, it let her laze around while she was babied by Iris.

“Oh, he’s a Scholar,” mumbled Eliza and nodded her head slowly.

Why didn’t she make the connection before?

“But I still want you to teach me Magic,” added Eliza, intent on that.

Ever since she turned one, Eliza hadn’t interacted with her mother much. She was either on a trip or collapsed from exhaustion when she was at the mansion and they only met during dinner. It felt like she didn’t know the first thing about her, even when she could feel her mother’s emotions.

“It’ll be hard,” said Evelyn and another bump in the road made Eliza fly up an inch from her seat and collapse back onto it, making her groan.

“I’m fine with it being hard,” said Eliza.

“It’ll take a long time,” added Evelyn.

“We have time,” Eliza said. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms, making her best impression of a brat.

How did she even have the impression despite never seeing one?

There were too many questions that needed answering and she had to meet one of the so-called Prophets again. They seemed to have answers but their answers roused more questions than they answered, making Eliza doubt her decision ever so slightly.

First, she needed her freedom.

“Not that kind,” said Evelyn and softly giggled, which was rare. She often had a small smile or a grin on occasions, but Eliza had rarely seen her laugh or giggle at all, “The months kind. Learning magic isn’t easy. I’d dare say it’s harder than learning how to properly wield a weapon.”

“Well, learning a language should’ve been difficult as well. I did it just fine!” remarked Eliza and exclaimed, “Hmph.”

“Come here,” said Evelyn and pulled her into a hug, now both of them sitting in the back rather than on opposite sides. Quietly, Evelyn kept her daughter close to her chest and rested her head over Eliza’s.

The tranquillity from Evelyn flooded into Eliza, added atop her own calmness, magnifying the effect twofold.

Hugging was relaxing.

“It’s been a while,” said Evelyn and after a long pause, she added, “I should’ve spent more time with you.”

“Then take me on your trips. It’ll be fun,” offered Eliza.

That was a good excuse to see more of the world.

“That’s not feasible,” said Evelyn, her vocabulary still that of a noble.

Eliza expected a conversation between mother and child to be more informal but it seemed that her mother only had a single vocabulary, contrary to her father who swore like a sailor.

Not that Eliza had ever seen or read of a sailor —she simply knew it.

“I could teach you something interesting, though. Something that could keep us connected,” said Evelyn and ran her hand through Eliza’s hair which made her eyelids a tiny bit heavier, “Have you integrated your Visions yet?”

Eliza shook her head and a slight frown replaced her comfortable smile from moments prior.

“That’s only reasonable. Don’t be upset,” said Evelyn and pinched her cheek, letting out yet another soft giggle, “It’ll make all the other eight-year-olds cry.”

“Is it that amazing to have an Integrated Skill?” asked Eliza, her eyes wide, genuine surprise in her tone.

Integration required 5 Skills and Eliza only had 4 at the moment —Telescopic Vision was too hard and by the time she woke up, Fabian… no, Sir Fabian had returned to the Academy.

“Obviously. I only have three of them,” said Evelyn and Eliza realized something.

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That’s when Eliza realized something.

She didn’t know how old her parents were.

“Mom,” said Eliza, trying to bring a bit of informality into the conversation, “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five,” she said and Eliza’s eyebrow rose.

She was young.

“How old is father?” asked Eliza.

“Thirty-four,” she answered.

There was a 9-year difference between their ages, which seemed surprisingly small to Eliza. Perhaps it was the fact that she assumed her father was far older than he was.

“But he has so much beard,” mumbled Eliza.

“That’s just his preference,” said Evelyn and ran her hands over Eliza’s head again. She let out a deep sigh and then in a slightly cheerier tone, she continued, “So what about integrating your first Skill? This one’s somewhat easier than Microscopic Vision.”

“You’ve learned them?” she asked.

Ultimate Vision did sound like something that would be a staple due to how useful it was.

“I could never grasp Microscopic Vision so I learned another during one of my visits to Slareine,” said Evelyn and sunk back to her seat.

“Where the Elves live?” asked Eliza, her drowsiness now completely gone, “You’ve been there?”

Eliza had only heard them from Iris’s stories but the very prospect of immortals interested her. The ravages of time did not affect them and they could live on forever unless they were killed, making it possible for even the first Elf to still be alive.

“It took three months to sail there,” said Eliza and let out a snort, “We had to almost make a full circle across the world because the ocean that connects Slareine and Vanaris is known for its sea monsters.”

“Sea monsters?” asked Eliza, brows slightly furrowed.

“Yes, sea monsters. Iris didn’t tell you about them, did she?” asked Evelyn, a cheeky grin on her face.

“No,” mumbled Eliza.

With how many stories Iris told her, Eliza would expect at least one of them to include one with a sea monster if they existed at all.

“Because she doesn’t know about them,” explained Evelyn and looked outside.

It was getting dark and their pace was slowing.

“Only a few Nobles have the privilege of leaving the continent and no Peasant can afford it unless we’re waging war. It’s understandable that Iris wouldn’t know anything beyond the continent,” said Evelyn and lifted Eliza from her lap to place her opposite to herself.

Eliza had assumed that her mother was on trips within the kingdom or even the empire, but never to other continents.

It never dawned on her.

“Use your Soul Vision and look hard,” said Evelyn and for a moment, Eliza felt a bit of vanity from her mother.

It was a blessing.

Anytime Eliza tried to use her own emotions to use Qi, the logical side of her said no. The very first time she tried it, it resulted in a horrifying failure that caused her to go for weeks with a phantom pain that she couldn’t put her finger on.

It was worse than the soreness she felt from overcharging her Mana Circuits.

Eliza fed her mother’s vanity and anything she could gather from elsewhere —the agitation from the horses that dragged the carriage and the slight boredom of the coachman— to her Soul, generating Qi to cover her eyes in.

She lost her vision, replaced by the vision of a red flame dancing in front of her eyes.

It was clearly her mother’s.

Evelyn placed a palm behind Eliza’s head and pulled her closer until both of their foreheads touched. It was easy to draw the conclusion. There were only so many places on the human body that was as hard as it while also being close enough to the nose for Eliza to hear each breath perfectly.

The flame that was Evelyn’s Soul blazed and some of the hazy, red substance that was generated from it floated up until it was right in front of Eliza’s eyes. It hovered there for a bit and finally, it moved and this time, it did so with far more intensity and knocked her head away from her mother’s.

Eliza growled and opened her eyes, the back of her head having hit the carriage, resulting in a loud thud.

“That hurt,” grumbled Eliza, rubbing the back of her head.

“Oh, your Willpower stat is higher than mine,” said Evelyn and gestured for Eliza to come closer, to which Eliza begrudgingly obliged.

Evelyn placed her hand against Eliza’s head and it started to grow colder by the second until it felt like ice.

It didn’t feel like a human’s hand anymore.

“That’s rather unexpected but you are your father’s daughter,” said Evelyn and let out a short chuckle, followed by a deep sigh, “Can you do what I did just now? Direct the Qi into my head and let it remain there.”

Was the Willpower amount hereditary?

Did her father have infinite Willpower as well?

She let go of Eliza for her to take her seat opposite to her and disappointment came from her mother.

Eliza greedily slurped up the foreign emotion and fed it to her Soul. From within her body, Eliza directed the Qi rising from her Soul into her head.

Their foreheads were touching once again.

The Qi moved at her beck and call as if she was moving it around with a phantom hand. It made the process of directing it into her mother’s head easy but there was a slight resistance before it finally left her forehead.

Was it a success?

“I think I did it,” said Eliza and that earned a nod from her mother, putting a smirk on her face.

“Close your eyes now. Try to reach out to the Qi that you left inside my head. Try to tug on it,” said Evelyn and Eliza obliged.

She closed her eyes and as if she had Soul Vision, Eliza could see the mark she left inside her mother’s head.

Eliza reached out with her metaphorical phantom hand, only to fail. It felt as if there was an invisible wall between her and her mother, making it impossible to push any further.

She knew that to be her flesh, currently invisible as she could only see the red haze and nothing else, not even her mother’s Soul.

“I can’t,” grumbled Eliza and opened her eyes.

“Because you’re trying to pull it back by force,” said Evelyn and shook her head, “That’s the wrong approach. You’ll never wrestle another Soul into submission like that. That Qi you left behind is a fragment of your Soul so it’s you, and you’re it. Move it like you’re moving a part of your body. Can you do that?”

Eliza’s pride wouldn’t allow her to say no to a challenge like that.

She closed her eyes and tried to move the Qi.

It didn’t.

Regardless of how much she willed them to move, without the crutch of an invisible hand, it was impossible.

She groaned in contempt and tried to clench her fists, only to realize that the haze moved.

That’s when she realized that the Qi left within her mother wasn’t something to be moved by a hand, but the hand itself. More accurately, it was like an extra limb. Hand, leg, tendril —it didn’t matter.

She could control it.

“I can do it,” said Eliza and scoffed.

That was a success.

“Now, imagine that fragment is an eye. Imagine that you can see through it,” directed her mother and Eliza obliged once again.

After the realization that the Qi was a part of her, Eliza could easily imagine that.

In the very next moment, Eliza found herself staring at her own body from slightly above. As if… she was looking through her mother’s eyes.

She huffed and her own eyes opened, only to be assaulted by a sensory overload due to two pairs of eyes overlapping. It gave her a slight migraine but she managed to cut off the connection, or rather, stop treating the Qi as her eyes.

It eased the pain but the aftereffects remained.

Linked Vision

Rarity: Rare

Type: Active

Mastery: 1%

Origin: Red

Description: You are able to see through the eyes of others by using residual Qi as a medium. The amount of visions that can be kept up at any one time is dependent on mastery.

“You can see through my eyes now,” remarked Evelyn and gave her a smile, “You can even Appraise me through the vision and catch my attention now.”

“But… you can’t see through my eyes,” said Eliza, the glory of learning her fifth Skill somewhat dulled.

“I can,” said Evelyn and tapped her temples, “If you play it smart, you can get past Mental Immunity.”

“You did?” asked Eliza, her brows furrowed.

She got a confident nod from her mother.

What help was Mental Immunity if it didn’t even do what it said?

That’s when another screen replaced the description of Linked Vision.

System Notification

Integrating [Mana Vision], [Soul Vision], [Telescopic Vision], [Night Vision] and [Linked Vision]…

Integration Complete…

You have gained [Ultimate Vision]!

Whether she’d learned Linked Vision or Microscopic Vision didn’t change the fact that she’d get Ultimate Vision, it seemed.

That meant that there could be any number of variations of Ultimate Vision depending on which 5 Vision Skills were integrated.

Ultimate Vision

Rarity: Rare

Type: Active

Mastery: 5%

Origin: Red, Blue, Green

Description: The strain and cost of all Integrated Skills has been halved. It is now possible to combine all Integrated Skills to use at once. All Integrated Skills will share a single mastery percentage.

Red was for Soul and Linked Vision, Blue was for Mana Vision, and Green was for Night Vision and Telescopic Vision.

It seemed that all the origins of the Skills were applied to the Integrated version.

What was their purpose in the first place?