„I’m not really a six year old girl, I remember my past life“
Surprise. That was the emotion ruling Vo’Tann’s face, before she scooled her expression and asked in a neutral tone: „You remember your past life? So you want to say this is your second life? If that is true, why did you tell me, a complete stranger, something like that, if you haven’t told anyone else? I believe you are close to master Yoghurt, why didn’t you tell him?“
I could tell she was testing me, apart from her initial surprise, I wasn‘t able to see any kind of reaction from her. It was really unsettling. If she had been angry, there wouldn’t such a high tension. At that moment I knew, that she would only make her opinion after hearing my answer.
A little shaken I responded: „Yes, this is the second life I remember, I don‘t know if it truly is my second life, or if I already lived many more lives. The reason I told you and noone else is, that I didn’t want to tell anyone in the beginning. Telling you is necessary for us to successfully form a bond between student and master, my past life was longer than this life has been yet, so the majority of the random memories you will see, will be of my past life, so you would know sooner or later anyways, better to tell you beforehand than have you find it out yourself. It would do lasting damage to the trust between us.
The reason why I didn’t tell anyone until now is because the reason I was reincarnated is important and must be kept secret. Not because it is damaging to anything, but because it gave me insight on the inner workings of existence, something that shouldn’t be commonly known.“
She sighed and let her expression fall a bit, her face changed into a look of understanding.
„I understand, your reasons make sense. But before we can even try to form a bond we still have to talk about ourselves. I’d say we go with our original plan and talk over a game of chess.“
„Okay, let’s play!“ I exclaimed, slipping back into my childish persona. Just because I was mentally twentyfive, I didn’t have to behave like it. With a smile on my face I took the pawn in front of the king and made my first move, glad my master accepted my secret.
We played and talked a for the rest of the day and in that time I learned much about my new master. She had come to the temple after her parents death in a traffic accident when she was two years old and had become a padawan at ten, a knight at age seventeen and a master at twentysix, which meant she was a genius. No, more than a genius, she was a true prodigy. It was rare for a jedi to become a knight under the age of twenty and all the jedi, who became masters before thirty in the history of the order numbered less than three hundred.
A really small number, considering the length of the jedi orders existence.
Now master Vo’Tann was thirtynine years old and a very high ranking master in the order. She didn’t have a family, though she insisted, that all of the order was her family. Her specialties were the art of the lightsaber, she even was a weaponsmaster, and diplomacy, an uncommon combination, but I have always liked to say: to each their own.
Her chess skills were remarkable too, In the multiple rounds we played I couldn’t beat her once. I wasn’t really that good at chess, but at least I was a bit talented, I had learned to play chess at the age of five in my first life, though I didn’t have many people to play with back then, and I was better than even most of the jedi I played with since my second birth, but I didn’t even stand a snowballs chance in hell against my new master.
All in all you could say we got along very well and we would make our first bonding attempt the next morning.
When I meditated before sleep that night I wondered.
I had done my best so far, but how did I compare to the other champions? Was I strong compared to them or was I weak? In the jedi order I was regarded as a peerless genius, but what about people, who had the same advantages I had? If I followed my plan and achieved the power I had predicted, I should be almost impossible to beat, but what if the others had even better ideas than I had?
In short, I wanted to do what I didn’t do for the last four years, I was going visit the champion’s lobby.
I opened my eyes and spoke: „Full status“
Status Name Shira Drayen Age 6 / 25 Race Nekomata Gender Female Level 43 Experience 67% Alignment Jedi order, galacic republic, royal family of Dubrillion
Statistics Strength 36 Speed 64 Flexibility 87 Dexterity 85 Agility 58 Balance 99 Stamina 46 Vitality 40 Endurance 27 Intelligence 51 Wisdom 43 Charm 107 Luck 60 Unused points 86
Perks Perfect health +15 Vitality Increased talent
+Skill growth
+Experience gain
+Statistic growth
Increased memory-> photografic memory +5 Intelligence Force sensitive
+Skill: Force Manipulation
+Skill: Force connection
Luna's friend
+Affinity: Light
+Affinity: Water
+Skill growth: Arts
+Charm²
Bob's friend Rejoice, you befriended Existence itself Absolute hearing
+Increased hearing
+Frequency Identification
Highly intelligent +10 Intelligence Inherent Wisdom +15 Wisdom Reincarnated +Perks, mental statistics, affinities, skills of first life Champion's limit removal +limitless statistic growth
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Skills Language
German written
German spoken
English/Basic spoken
English written
Basic written
Japanese spoken
Japanese written
Latin spoken
Latin written
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
8%
1%
34%
53%
Meditation
Empty mind
Force connecion
Master lvl. 2
Master lvl.4
Force manipulation
Force telekinesis
Force enhancement
Force mind manipulation
Force sense
Force divination
Master lvl. 6
Master lvl. 4
Expert lvl. 9
Master lvl. 2
Apprentice lvl. 5
Champion's Soul transfer
Shira's room
Luna's house
Champion's lobby
perfect Acting master lvl. 4 Movement
Bipedal
Quadpedal
Master lvl. 4
Adept lvl.3
Sword mastery
Shii Cho
Makashi
Soresu
Ataru
Shien/Djem So
Niman
Juyo
Vaapad
Master lvl.1
Expert lvl. 7
Master lvl. 4
Master lvl. 6
Apprentice lvl. 3
Beginner lvl. 9
Beginner lvl. 2
Beginner lvl. 1
Hand to hand mastery Expert lvl. 5 Music
Violin
Piano
Singing
Guitar
Drum set
Expert lvl. 9
Master lvl. 1
Master lvl. 3
Apprentice lvl.4
Expert lvl. 1
I had improved the past four years, stats and skills that could rightfully be called superhuman, but many of the jedi were still much stronger and more skillful than me. I would place myself between padawan and knight in terms of strength.
The reason so many of my skills were on the master level and none of them on grandmaster or higher was the increasing improvement difficulty to level up skills. From beginner to master it was still doable, but to increase even one skill beyond master level would take an average person a lifetime.
Someone I would imagine a grandmaster would be for example Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in singing, or Jascha Heifetz as violinist. Maybe someone like Peter Dinklage in acting or Bruce Lee in martial arts (I didn’t know much about him in my former life, so I couldn’t acurately guess).
Improving a skills beyond grandmaster level is something I’d consider almost impossible for a mortal. The jedi order was an exception. By my estimate every jedi knight had the skill force connection at master level at least, the masters had to be at grandmaster, councilmembers and candidates to become one of them were probably beyond that, at least epic level, while those who achieved immortality, namely Yoda, Luke and Rey were those who reached the perfect level. In my opinon perfect force connection would make one become one with the force.
At least that’s what I suspected.
After reaching master level, increasing a skill went slowly. The only reason I had some of them in the higher master levels were either exceptional talent or brutal training. Mostly both.
I didn’t believe that those who were born in an unlucky situation or a body with low or average talent had a chance to be stronger than me. Of course hard work beats pure talent in nine of ten cases, but in cases like mine, were a talented individual works really hard, those with low talent have absolutely no chance to compare.
But who said, that other people weren’t even luckier than me? There was for example Ces, who was born as a dragon in his second life, the lifeform which was considered the most powerful by almost everone (if you exclude gods, but seriously it was highly unlikely that any of the champions would be allowed to have a life as a god, then they would no longer be a champion after all, because they would need their own champion to compete for the position as the aspect of time), who could guarantee that nobody had even more luck than him?
There was also the possibility of someone having the same or an even better idea how to become the strongest than me, though I doubted that. I always considered the force the ultimate supernatural ability, of course only if it was trained enough. It was telekinesis, body enhancement, mind manipulation, sixth sense and divination in one package, developing and using those abilities right would make one nearly invincible.
No magician, no martial artist, no chi practitioner probably not even a god would be able to even touch someone like Luke Skywalker (of course excluding everything above the rank „god“). It was my goal to surpass him in order to become unmatched in the ranks below royal gods, in order to win this tournament.
With this resolve I decided to visit the champion’s lobby and scan out my opponents.
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„Why are we here Shira-nee?“ came the voice of Ces from my right. I had decided to take him with me, I knew the extends of his power, I sparred with him once a week after all. He didn’t want to.
It seemed the big party were we met served to make Ces a little suspicious of the other champions, they had after all annoyed him for the whole duration of it. But today it would be different because…
„You have nothing to worry about little bro, they won’t try anything with you today. Your new form makes you just about average looking among the other champions besides, what would your little girlfriend think if she knew that her mighty dragon was afraid of a bunch of people weaker than him?“
„She isn’t my girlfriend and I’m not afraid!“ Ces exclaimed hotly.
He had gained a transformation skill at his fifth birthday and had taken the form of a cute elven boy with blue hair and eyes.
The day after his birthday he had gone down to the village near the mountain that served as the home of his family. There he had befriended some elven girl named Tyreesia. It was really fun to tease him about her, especially because a relationship between those two had potential and since both dragons and elves had everlasting youth he wouldn’t even have to watch her age and die.
„Then why don’t you want to assess your opponents strength?“
He looked at me annoyed and asked a counter question: „Why don’t you do it alone and tell me about it later?“
I smirked, took his arm and began to pull him through the hall.
„Reasons“
„Please don’t always answer questions with ‚reasons‘, just because you are too lazy to think of reasons in order to cover up that you did it on a whim, nee-chan“
I looked at him in disbelieve and said, feining innocence: „You would believe that I would do something like that? How can you say something like that about your big sister?“
He didn’t at all look impressed and returned in a flat voice: „Because that’s what you always do.“
„Oh, you aren’t wrong about that. Fiiiiine, I’ll tell you my reasons, first: four eyes see more than two, two people sense more than one, I always like to hear another opinion, second: you can keep all those annoying perverts who call themselves men away from me and third, most importantly“ here I paused and quickly jumped onto his back „I don’t have to walk and get to spend a little extra time with my little brother!!“
Without wasting any more time I transformed into a cat on top of his head. He just sighed and picked me up from his head and held me in his arms in order to pet me. He knew perfectly well that, if he didn’t do it, I would constantly tickle him with my tail.
Suddenly and rudely waking me from the trance of bliss his petting sent me into there was a low rumbling sound, before a huge, black rift opened up in the middle of the hall. Inside the rift was a creepy looking swirl in the colours brown, red and white.
The rumbling slowly became louder, until it sounded like the threatening growling of a huge predator. Some people began to scream and run away from it, but they weren’t fast enough. Before they reached more than a hundred meters, something utterly terrifying and grotesk emerged from the great casm. A creature of immeasurable power, something none of the people here could hope to match. Out came …
…Bob, dressed in red and white garments with a huge sack on his back, riding on a sleigh pulled by reindeers.
In a deep voice he rumbled: „HO HO HO, have all the little children been good this year?“
So this is where the legend of Santa Claus comes from. Should have guessed, the description of Santa fits Bob perfectly.
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Merry christmas to all of you, I have sent Bob out to deliver a virtual pancake to all my readers!
It may be a little early for some people west of my current location, but here it's past 00:00 am on the 24th of december, so deal with it.
IMPORTANT
I realized something a week ago: I have a huge plothole in my story. In chapter 7 I wrote, that Shira always carries an old IPod with headphones, but she can't use earphones made for humans, she is a Nekomata after all. Does anyone have an idea how to plug the hole without revealing Shira's transformation abilities?
NOT IMPORTANT
This chapter was the first time I had to struggle to come up with a title for the chapter. Is that bad?
None of the stories in my bookshelf have been updated in the last two days, am I the only one writing this week or is it just a coincidence?
Well whatever, I again wish you all a merry christmas and an awesome time with whomever you are spending this time with.
Bye
Edit: Sorry, my mistake, I just saw two new upates in my bookshelf. I guess I'm not the only one after all.