My parent's voices cut across my dream of leveling up, waking me up.
I blinked and made a noise as hunger began to gnaw at me.
Mom hugged me and attached me to herself, singing a song to me and cradling me in her arms.
The words seemed like gibberish to me for a split second, but then something inside me clicked. The lullaby mom was singing wasn't translated by the Soul-Song at all... because it was an Alanian song, one immediately recognized by Kopusha!
The song was a story, revealed to me stanza by stanza.
The Sons and Daughters of Alania rose up against the gods and built a mighty, prosperous Empire of great Citadels connected by skyship lanes and gateways between worlds. Through the abyss-gate Alanian Archmages brought back our fallen heroes, to march upon the vile enemies from the world of Andross. We thought the war won, but the enemy Archwizards had pulled the stars down from the sky and bathed our great cities in death. As centuries pass by, we, the Skyisle Sentinels, remember our legacy, a time when we stood as Gods and reached for the cosmos beyond. We are last. We are the keepers of the hearth, the last outpost, the last light that must never dim - Skyisle. Descend into the white city and reclaim your legacy when the curse-effulgence ends, children of Alania. Let your Soul-Song guide you home to... Tricameron.”
“Holy crap!” I blinked tears out of my eyes.
The song had struck a chord in the part of my soul that belonged to the Alanian Acolyte. Mom's pronunciation was a tiniest bit off, but otherwise the song was perfect. It was a chorus carried through centuries of darkness. There was something innately familiar about each stanza because the Alanian songs were designed to resonate across the soul connecting the singer and the listener with the power of the nearest Astral Engine.
I mulled the words.
The curse-effulgence which lasts centuries. Was the song talking about radiation from the fallout?
I felt a sense of inner peace settle over me, thanks to power drawn from the arcane obelisk via the Soul-Song. The Alanian Magocracy has fallen long ago, but its Astral Engines were still semi-functioning somewhere nearby, likely buried beneath the earth and a mountain of rubble, rearranged by the cataclysmic destruction of the Tricameron Citadel.
I wondered if mom even knew what she was singing about. She clearly wasn't a properly raised Alanian Sentinel nor even an Acolyte like Kopusha, because if she knew anything then she would not be making Vows to the local gods.
How many millennia has it been since the Magocracy? Was Tricameron less radioactive now? Could I reach it and reclaim the arcane soul-powered artifacts of the Magocracy? The centuries of darkness had clearly wiped away nearly all knowledge of the truth and wisdom from the local populace.
Such unfortunate things happened in history quite often. The ancient Greeks of Earth, for example, invented the aeolipile aka the Hero's engine, a bladeless radial steam turbine. Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer who lived in 1st century BC, described how aeolipile demonstrated physical properties of weather and laws of nature. The aeolipile steam engine was one of many genius, technological breakthroughs which were lost with the decay and fall of the Roman Empire. In fact, it took humanity over 1,800 years to remake the steam engine, thanks to a British inventor Thomas Newcomen.
Could I make a magitek steam engine for Skyisle, uplift the locals enough so that they would not be cowering in a cave from a dragon?
It was a lofty plan to look forward to. I didn't know anywhere enough about magic to start making artifacts.
“What are we going to do about our son's level, Cass?” My father asked when mom finished singing the lullaby.
“I don’t know. The Equality Overseer might find out eventually… he might try to take Dante away from us.” There was bitterness in my mom’s voice as she whispered the words back to dad.
“I’ll have to speak to the Elders. The Crafters Guild might be able to help us. We have rights! The Equality Order is relatively new in terms of...”
My parents continued to express their concerns about my questionable stats and what options they had in terms of dealing with the official church of Skyisle which was apparently "Equality" and not Ishira. It seemed that after the fall of the Magocracy the local gods started to squabble with each other for power. From their conversation I surmised that Skyisle now had two or more gods competing for the rights to consume the skills of the populace.
[Stats] I ordered mentally.
Name:
Dante Alan Skyisle
Age:
0 years old [since birth]
Species & Subtype:
Male - human - newborn
Affinity:
Astral Phantom
Spark of the Morningstar [+ 3 skill channels] [+ Soul-Song skill]
Dryad [+Chrysalis skill]
Level:
7
Experience:
0/3200
Health:
7/7
Stamina:
7/7
Mana:
7/7
Mana regen:
7 m/hr
Strength:
0
Agility:
0
Dexterity:
0
Vitality:
0 [+3]
Charisma:
0
Magic:
0 [+3]
Foresight:
15
Intelligence:
87 [+89]
Wisdom:
0
Soul:
2
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Skills:
[Soul-Song LV 0] [ON]
[Raising Spell efficiency by 0.1%]
[Providing detailed Soul-Stats]
[Translating the Soul-Song's Language]
Known Song-Spells:
[Tamus-Anima] [Sectus-Anima] [Conjugo-Anima] [Identify]
[Infoscope LV 20]
[Chrysalis LV 7] [PAUSED]
[Sectus-Tether LV 7]
[Modify LV 10] [ON] [Info-Tether LV 10] [ON] [NeuroVista LV 10] Investiture points: 35 points
Not too shabby. Chrysalis and Sectus-Tether rose on its own to level 7 while the spells above my level didn't go up. It appeared that with each level up my body or soul became better accommodated for spells that were hanging on it.
Chrysalis was an incredibly useful spell, but it also slowed down my mental processes which wasn't acceptable since I needed my mind at full capacity to do spell creation/modification research.
I formed an Infoscope and launched Neurovista to keep an eye on the conversation of my parents.
For some reason the Infoscope didn't crash inside of my parents house now, so I was able to observe its interiors.
The insides of my new home reminded me of a Hobbiton dwelling from Tolkien’s fantasy series. A lot of the doors and windows were round or had round edges. The roof of the living room had a curve to it and was supported by old, thick wooden beams.
The building had to be a few hundred years old as far as I could tell. Dad lit up the large fireplace in the living room. It provided plentiful warmth to the house, casting a lovely orange glow.
It paid to have a carpenter for a father and an agromancer for a mother. The furniture was clearly hand-made and well maintained by dad, while plants of all sorts were strewn atop of many shelves in clay pots.
Staring at the homely, crackling fire instantly made me at home.
An old magic wand was hanging on a wall featuring a blue crystal with a deep, dark crack in the gem. The Infoscope identified it as
[ Agromancy Wand LV 24. Fractured Core. ]
If I had to guess about its origins, it likely belonged to one of my grandparents from my mother's side.
An old dark, skull-mask was hanging over the fireplace with a wooden shield beneath it.
The Infoscope defined the skull as a:
[ Hokush Tree-shaman mask. LV 24. Inactive.]
and the shield as a
[ Moonwood Ward-Shield. LV 24. Inactive.]
These artifacts were 4 levels above that of my mother. There were hollows within the mask and the shield, likely where mana crystals once sat. I wondered if that was the reason why she didn't put them on to magnify her plant-controlling powers. Everything she was wearing now was LV 20 or below. I noted that the locals didn't have the skills to make batteries that would function in LV 24 artifacts.
If the previous generation of Skyisle inhabitants used artifacts of LV 24 and the current was stuck in 20, it meant that the Level cap was getting worse. It was an incredibly concerning development. Either the local gods were eating people's levels too or something else was going on in Skyisle.
The fact that I almost died during childbirth was a worrisome reminder, so I dispersed the 35 points across the board while keeping track of how the changes affected me.
Name:
Dante Alan Skyisle
Age:
0 years old [since birth]
Species & Subtype:
Male - human - newborn
Affinity:
Astral Phantom
Spark of the Morningstar [+ 3 skill channels] [+ Soul-Song skill]
Dryad [+Chrysalis skill]
Level:
7
Experience:
0/3200
Health:
7/7
Stamina:
7/7
Mana:
7/7
Mana regen:
7 m/hr
Strength:
5
Agility:
4
Dexterity:
4
Vitality:
7 [+3]
Charisma:
2
Magic:
5 [+3]
Foresight:
15
Intelligence:
87 [+89]
Wisdom:
4
Soul:
6
Skills:
[Soul-Song LV 0] [ON]
[Raising Spell efficiency by 0.1%]
[Providing detailed Soul-Stats]
[Translating the Soul-Song's Language]
Known Song-Spells:
[Tamus-Anima] [Sectus-Anima] [Conjugo-Anima] [Identify]
[Tamus-Anima] [Sectus-Anima] [Conjugo-Anima] [Identify] [Tamus-Anima] [Sectus-Anima] [Conjugo-Anima] [Identify]
[Infoscope LV 20]
[Chrysalis LV 7] [PAUSED]
[Sectus-Tether LV 7]
[Modify LV 10] [ON] [Info-Tether LV 10] [ON] [NeuroVista LV 10]
The change wasn't immediate, but there was definitely something happening inside me as the Soul-Song began to slowly modify my body making me different in all sorts of unexpected ways. I kept track of the minute changes with Infoscope and NeuroVista hoping to determine what exactly changed what and how over time.
After being fed I was relocated back into the crib where I was faced with my twin sister.
Destiny stared me with cold, glacier-blue eyes, her expression grim. She was suspiciously quiet for a baby and the way she stared at me without blinking was rather unnerving.
I fired the Infoscope at her.
Destiny Alana Skyisle - female - newborn human - LV 0
Seriously? I could have sworn you were level 3, sister.
Either I was going insane, or Destiny lost 3 levels when she was born, or... something else suspicious was going on here.
I wasn't going to be impeded for long by something that defied explanation. I pushed the Infoscope through her forehead, identifying the level of her cells. I went deeper and deeper. Epidermis, dermis, hypodermis...
Beneath hypodermis, things finally got... interesting.
Delta Alana Skyisle - female - newborn human - LV 4
I went backwards a few layers of cells.
Destiny Alana Skyisle - female - newborn human - LV 0
Then I moved forward.
Delta Alana Skyisle - female - newborn human - LV 4
How? What? Delta?!
I rapidly flashed the Infoscope across my twin sister. Her body was level 4, only the inside, but not on the outside!
I mentally scratched my noggin in bewilderment and examined the magical tether between us. It was still there, deep in the Astral but it was weak now, barely there as we were further away from each other. I focused the Infoscope on the tether, tracking the currents of mana. As far as I could tell, there was no mana, nor experience transfer happening between us.
This meant that Destiny... err Delta was leveling up on her own!
She had somehow readjusted her entire exterior to display level 0. It was a perfect defense against magical scanning that didn't go very deep. The midwife's arcane Evaluation Eye wasn't anywhere as mobile as my Infoscope, it was a physical, large object and could not be pushed inside of a person like my spell. That's why it failed to detect Destiny's level!
Destiny's blue eyes continued to stare at me. She looked like she was judging me.
"You have to be smarter than you look, sis," I mentally declared, staring back at her. "Why Delta? How did you manage to rename yourself and separate your inside and outside as different levels?"
No reply came, obviously. Not sure what I expected.
"Are you judging me? Did I do something wrong?" I thought. Making coherent speech was still beyond my mouth, but I tried anyway, producing all sorts of baby sounds.
After a few minutes, she blinked. The blink was very slow.
I waved my hand in front of her face. Nothing. Her angry-looking eyes didn't even track the movement of my fingers.
I waved my hand again, closer this time. No response.
I realized that she wasn't staring at me.
She was staring PAST me, into some distant elsewhere.
Whatever she was looking at, it bothered her immensely.