Novels2Search
The Third Threnody
Chapter 7 - The Leap

Chapter 7 - The Leap

In the present day

There was a low hum coming out of Renata's room that would make anyone curious as to it's origin due to the fact that it was in the dead of winter and little to no humming bugs would be around. The true reason for this incessant buzzing was Renata's magic, she had been practicing during all of her alone time and the results were starting to pour in. Renata was two years and a few months old now, on the cusp of toddlerhood for most but she would perhaps be the oldest toddler to ever exist. Renata's most important advantage in this world was that she had just under three hundred years of experience and most of it was in a world that was truly brimming with advanced and complicated magic, the world of Zagon. 

It didn't take Renata long to find out that the magic she currently possesed and the magic of that VRMMORPG had uncanny likenesses. Even though there were differences they were both based upon the same principles and this made our little chandelier glow in joy, literally. Although it was a rough start she was just about to make her first breakthough, her first level one hundred skill.

Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.99}

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The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation

It has been sitting at level ninety nine for a few days now but she felt that she was about to make the breakthrough soon. It had taken such a long period of time because of her inability to replenish her mana using the normal basic techniques of meditation and potion drinking that most mages in the world of Zagon used. The former seemed not to work as it had always been seen as more of an addition to the game to make it more fun rather than an actual reality of how the magic functioned and the latter was impossible due to Renata's total lack of potions, ingredients and the lack of knowledge to process and use them. Although she had a very good idea of alchemy she was totally unsure as to whether or not the flora of this world would be even close to that which she is used to working with. The statistic wisdom seemed to regenerate her mana slowly depending on how high she raised the statistic. Each point regenerated one mana every hour, this was a terribly slow method of mana regeneration as her mana pool had almost reached a capacity of three hundred, meaning that her current wisdom of eleven made her regenerate her mana almost once a day. When she slept though she would always fully replenish her mana pool. Understandbly if she awoke prior to when her body would naturally wake her up she would have a mana pool that was less than fully replenished and the degree to which it would be emptied seemed to be directly proportional to the amount of sleep she missed out on.

All of this had left her with only a few options, none of which were currently usable. 'If only I could cast two spells simultaneously I would be able to use *Spell Tapping* and I wouldn't have any of these mana issues at all, I could be so much further ahead if only I didn't run out of mana so quickly.' Renata had been focusing intently on her *Mana Mastery* with the single intention of casting two spells in concert.

Known only to a few in Zagon *Spell Tapping* was an extremely high leveled magical formula that required you to be casting an external spell already just to do anything. The spell worked by highjacking a spell to force it to chew through the latent energy in the world and send the purified result back to the caster of the *Spell Tapping*. Depending on the path of magic one treaded there were several ways to achieve infinite or almost infinite mana, some used portal like magic to summon it from other dimensions, some used blood magic to refine life energy and the list goes on. Out of all the methods spell tapping was perhaps the most difficult, least known and above all the most reliable. 

In Zagon Renata's magic revolved around casting multiple spells simultaneously to create powerful, unique and adaptive results. If there was one word to describe it, it would be elementalist. Although Renata's magic has long since surpassed the realm of mere elements it still held the same concept of fusing magic together while fighting to create an astounding amount of possible combinations.

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Two little feet could be heard slowly pit patting through the house followed by creaking floorboards. This was the noise of someone who was going very slow and trying to be quiet but was failing miserably. Renata's face shot towards her bedroom door and a chilling sensation crept up her spine. 'oh no, please no, not again' Renata thought to herself as she cancelled her current flow of mana and got into a fetal position at the back of her bed with her back facing the wall and eyes glued on the door handle as it slowly turned. The tension in the air was clearly visible as time began to slow down and as the door opened Renata closed her eyes and let out a pitiful squeak that you would assume came from a dieing kitten.

"Umpf! Ahhhhh! Ouch ouch ouch... ahahahaha stop tickling no fair!" It would seem a fiery red haired huntress had successfully ambushed and tackled a cowering white haired light fixture of some variety and she went in for the kill. "Joan not there! It tickles! Nooooo Joan!" Her pleas were ignored by the predator who was truly ruthless, taking every advantage and using them to full effect, a massive smirk could be seen on both of their faces until Joan relented and released Renata. Renata was pouting while facing away from her older sister, hers eyes slightly red from tears of her most recent abuse.

"Aww Ren come on, don't be like that, it was fun." Joan pleaded but Renata only pouted louder and stuck her chin up in the opposite direction of Joan. "Well if you're acting like that I guess I'll have to tickle you until you beg for mercy... let's see, I think I'll start... Here!" Joan pounced once more on Renata and resumed her assault on the poor girl.

This ordeal lasted for almost half an hour before Renata struggled free of Joans grasp and ran for the door and then outside, the notion of freedom pushing each of her feet infront of the other at a pace not akin to the average two year old. Renata glanced back to see the ravenous fiend chasing her and catching up, fear rose and she let out a loud scream as she further quickened her speed.

"Bang! Umpf!" Renata while in her terrifed state had ran directly into a tree trunk that she knew very well, it was one of a pair actually and the pair belonged to Jeral, his legs were not the softest things to crash into and this was not the first time she had experienced the feeling. Joan had grinded to a halt when she saw Jeral and she quickly assumed the pose of the innocent child, hands joined and head tilted with a soft smile on her face. For one so guilty she looked so innocent. It didn't take Jeral long to piece together the situation and the new trembling attachment that had a tight full body grasp on his leg gave him the last clue he needed to understand everything.

"Joan, have you been scaring Renata again?" Jeral said in an exhausted tone to Joan, he was tired of all of the fuss the two would create. "No mister Jeral, we were only playing." Joan said in a very mischievous way while stealing glances at Renata. Jeral glanced down to his still shaking daughter and shook his head while speaking "now you two, play fair okay, I don't want to see any of this fighting." Jeral pried his daughter loose and returned walking home and as he walked passed Joan she looked up at him with puppy eyes and impishly said "I promise you won't see us fighting anymore mr. Jeral." Joan then proceeded to resume her chase and a face of pure betrayal was plastered on Renata's face. Renata heard her father's voice as the distance between them increased rapidly "Joan bring her back before dark or I'll send Anna after you both!". A shiver went down Joans spine, she would be back with Renata before dark, this was certain in her mind.

After a full afternoon of exhausting play both Joan and Renata split up after Joan left Renata back at her home. Renata's body was bruised, scraped and above all, wet. Joan had "cleaned" her and herself just before they got back in the water trough at the village stable. Her wet feet slapped against the cold wood floorboards and her wet white hair was stuck to her face. Jeral shook his head before getting a towel and drying her off, partially poofing her hair up in the process, she looked akin to a human - cottonball hybrid right now and it only served to make jeral smile as he led her to the table where they ate their dinner. Jeral had managed to kill a dire boar while on partol today and had brought back some of the gamey meat to eat with his daughter, after giving a large amount to Ferald and Ves to cook up too. It was served with boiled potatoes and butter. The similarity in the food produce of this world and her last always astonished Renata but she was thankful she wouldn't have to go without her favourite foods from times past. 

As they were eating together Renata thought about trying to get some information about this world from her dad, on many occassions she had pondered on many facts about this world like what types of magic there are, how high leveled most people are, what monsters are common and especially what monsters are near her. The list of questions was endless and like a normal child she was ready to voice all of them. "Dad, what is our village called?" "Gehna" he responded. "Are there other villages near here?" she asked, "Well... There is Varrok and Nurma, I guess they're pretty close by, they are both bigger than our village though. Barrok is where most people go though, but that's a city, it has huge walls and everything. I'll bring you there when you're older, it really is a sight to see." 'Good, good, a close by city would be nice to have, I'll be able to use it well I think, especially once I get the hang of enchanting in this world. The only enchanted item I've seen was in uncle Feralds home, a sword he hangs of his fire. I would wager I could make lots of money with what I know. Best not get too ahead of myself though, still so much to ask.' 

Stolen novel; please report.

"I heard some of adults talking about mana and stuff, what does all that mean dad?" An eyebrow was raised on her fathers forehead as he didn't expect her to ask something like that, but to him it fell well within the realm of normal things to hear about, it wasn't uncommon for travelling merchants to try selling potions or magic trinkets like fire lighters in the village square. "Well mana is something almost everyone has, it's inside of you like blood but instead of being red and coming out when you get a cut mana can't be seen. Unless you use magic that is, your mother dabbled in some basic spells before she uh... she was good too you know! Damn I miss her..." 'Mom could use magic? well I suppose that's understandable, I haven't seen much but even a few people in this village seem to be able to use magic even if it is for very basic things like starting fires and so on. Dad is such an idiot, he always does this, he says something about mom then suddenly goes all melancholy on me and drags me into this sadness too.' Renata got down off her chair and walked over to her father, putting a hand on his lap before she was picked up and embraced. She closed her eyes and hugged him back. 'I suppose it is nice to be held, I'll forgive you this once dad.'

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After being carried back to her room and after a few minutes rolling around in a depressed fashion on her bed she looked up at the ceiling and then closed her eyes to focus on her mana channels. Her current project was to force her mana to not only form into one palm but instead to make it form into two balls with one in each hand. This was far easier said than done and was akin to doing a waltz with one half of your body and a samba with the other. For a child this would be totally impossible as the level of concentration required was huge but Renata was no ordinary child and had the magical experience of a battle hardend three hundred year old sage. The action was not hard for Renata but instead it was rather the fact that she had to carve new pathways and logic into her mana for her to be able to use her previously perfected magic in this new body. It finally happend after more than a year of trials and practice she made the breakthrough and like a burst dam her mana was formed into two brilliant balls of mana, one in each hand.

Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.100}

Mana Mastery {Journeyman lvl.1}

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The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation.

The ability to cast two spells in a perfect harmony

You have gained 5 intelligence points!

You have gained 5 wisdom points!

Renata punched her fist into the air, she was absolutely taken by a wave of joy as she saw the result and read the notifications. She got up and began jumping in joy, she had spent so much effort in getting this that it felt like she was on top of the world and unknown to her what she had just accomplished was something only very old and very experienced mages were able to do. Not to say she wasn't old and experienced, she merely didn't look it in the slightest. If a mage were to see this they would likely either consider her a monster and kill her or a god and bow to her, this was a feat that was very rarely accomplished amoung mages in this world. With her goal finished and her celebrations over she fell back onto her bed before closing her eyes and promptly falling asleep.

When Renata awoke her mind felt clearer than ever, which she attributed to her new statistical gains she had aquired after reaching the next tier of her *Mana Mastery* skill. 'I haven't checked my status page in quite a while, I think I best do that, I've forgotten how far I've progressed.' Opening ones status page was easy, all they had to do was say *Status* while thinking about wanting to open it and it would but for Renata it was even easier, due to her body modifications she could merely do the latter half of the deal and her status would now open and display for her, so she did. 'Status.'

TITLE : N/A NAME Renata LEVEL 1 RACE Human SUBRACE Demon HEALTH 110/110 MANA 300/340 ----------------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE 24 STRENGTH 2 WISDOM 16 AGILITY 2 DEXTERITY 3 CONSTITUTION 2 CHARISMA 5 ENDURANCE 3 ----------------------------------------------------- MAGICAL AFFINITY FIRE 0% WATER 0% EARTH 0% AIR 5% LIGHT 5% DARK 0% ORDER 0% CHAOS 15% ----------------------------------------------------- STATUS EFFECTS

Curse of the Split Soul : Born with a soul torn, allowing for multiple primary magical affinities. The mother of a child born with a torn soul will always die during the birth of the child.

Greater Blessing of Kaw'Keth : The God of chaos has blessed this one with a great boon, the soul of this one has been fused with Kaw'Keth's energy.

Renata was pleasantly suprised when she saw her current status. During the last year she had watched her stats as they grew and had come to several conclusions about their respective natures. It would seem that the physical statistics of strength, agility, constitution and endurance grew over time and it seemed that when she would be physically matured at around 14-20 they would reach ten in each statistic respectively. The mental statistics seemed to only grow when they were practised, inteligence grew when she learnt concepts and was able to fully replicate them whereas wisdom grew when she used her creativity or understood the underlying aspects of a certain thing. Dexterity seemed to be directly related to your perceptiveness and could be raised by completing actions that require exact motion. Finally charisma seemed totally random and had a tendancy to not only go up but also down, depending on how bad of a hair day you were having.

Raising statistics seemed to take time and hard work for the most part but Renata was abusing the fact she understood far more than someone with just her age and statistics should know. This had sent her intelligence and wisdom values flying much higher than all her other statistics, of which she had little control over anyway.

'Now it's just a simple task to copy over my old spell into this world, it would be so much easier if I wasn't so used to all the little helping hands that Zagon gave mages but I suppose I'll manage.' Renata closed her eyes and began the fairly simple process of filling in the gaps in her old spell and attaching the spell to a normal ball of mana in her hand. It only took a few failed attempts before she felt the old sensation of mana pouring it's way from the spell back to herself. Creating a spell in a day would be impossible under normal conditions but Renata did not have the need to make a new spell, rather she only had to slightly adapt an old one and for an experienced spell creater like Renata this was childs play. When she opened her eyes a flurry of messages were neatly displayed for her.

Spell Tap {Apprentice lvl.1}

Spell Tap is an extremely complex spell that has three separate basic functions and one optional function. The first of the three basic functions of this spell is to connect with an active spell and infuse it with an unstable amount of energy with the purpose of rending the surrounding passive world energy, making said world energy become active. Next the spell will abosrb and purify the world energy into refined mana that is attuned to the caster of this spell.

Finally the the last function of this spell is to send the finished mana product back to the caster and channel it into the caster's mana pool. If the spell detects any outsite interferance or experiences a surge in mana the optional function will trigger cancelling the spell before the third function can harm the caster.

(Current Max Distance is equal to 100cm)

Congratulations! For your first time creating a new spell of the 7th tier you have been awarded with access to the system vault and have been allowed to recieve items that amount to a total value that is equal to or less than 1280 System Points!

You have gained 25 intelligence points!

You have gained 25 wisdom points!

 Renata's face grew a giant grin as she thought of all the possibilities this "system vault" could have. While her mind was still burning through all of the various things this could allow her to obtain she felt a strong sensation wash over her body and she passed out, when she opened her eyes she was in what could only be described as an enternally streching series of displays, sacks, libraries and much more.