God F*cking Damn it! Why can't I get this thing to fire lightning?
You see, I've been learning how to use my lightning esper ability from mother for two months now, and all my training has been for naught.
IT. DOESN'T. WORK! Damn it!
Heck, according to mother, Narukami the lightning kagune was supposed to make it far easier than the traditional methods. Which is reaching the seventh rank in Xing Martial Arts, the rank of Shinchuk. Otherwise known as 'Elasticity'. But forget that, I can't even master the first level of martial arts powered by Chi, Shinbo.
Perhaps I should explain it a little more in detail. You see, There are ten levels of Xing Martial Arts, divided broadly into three categories:
The first, Shinbo, is taught to every single citizen of Xing as mandatory training. Every kid knows at least the third level by the age of ten, most reaches four or five around adulthood, and a rare few common people reaches the sixth level later on in life.
The second, Shinchuk, is held a secret by the 72 most powerful clans as judged by the emperor. Only the 72 clans are granted the scrolls on how to unlock the seventh to ninth ranks of Xing Martial Arts. It is only after mastering the seventh rank that esper abilities are taught, for safety reasons mostly. Learning Shinchuk or esper abilities by stealing it from the 72 clans is an instant death sentence, with the only exception being the rare cases of 'Gemstones' who awakens their esper abilities by themselves since childhood.
The last and third, Shinsok, is granted only to the Imperial Clan by the War God. It is the hardest to master, but it does enable you to do lots of impossible stuffs, like running on air or going faster than the speed of sound. Most of the Imperial clan could only master it in their fifties and sixties, but mastering Shinsok grants half-immortality, so they never gives up. Mother, the genius and favored niece of the current Emperor, mastered it by the time she was an adult at twenty, having mastered Shinbo by the time she was six, Shinchuk by the time she was eleven.
Each level is twice as hard as the last, if not more. I heard mother saying that Shinsok was the hardest thing in her life to master, taking her nine long years... which is still incredible if you think about it.
And then there's Alkahestry, which is the study of the 'Dragon's Blood' that flows through Terra and every life form on it. Masters of Alkahestry can control the flows of nature, bending it to their will. Alkahestry can be mastered by anyone, and it makes a martial art practitioner stronger beyond his level, since he can sense his opponents' attacks through the Dragon's Blood to some extent.
In fact, the Ten Master Clans, the ten most powerful of the 72 major clans after the Imperial Clan, all requires their bodyguards to master Alkahestry. And to the members of the Ten Master Clans and the Imperial Clan, the more advanced Alkahestry is taught to augment their esper abilities.
Which is what Mother tried to do with me. While Little-Me 'learned' normal Alchemy from Father for more than a year before my fifth birthday, Mother devoted herself to finding a way to teach me how to use my esper ability without learning Shinchuk first, modifying the typical Alkahestry training for me, despite the iron laws against it.
Not that it matters. Mother has the favor of the Emperor, so even if the ambassadors to Amestris do find out what she's doing, they won't dare to report it to the authorities.
But... I have been training two months with Mother after the Führer's visit, and it hasn't beared fruit yet. And I'm supposed to be a genius at everything! I'll admit I have never went through anything like Mother's special training like now, but I understand the concepts! Why can't I use lightning? Even with Narukami to conduct it? Must I be emotionally unstable to use it?
At the same time, I've been training with Father to master his Flame Alchemy. That's also easier said then done. I think I might have mention this before, but flame alchemy is not just converting the surrounding air to oxygen and other flammable gases and providing the ignition spark. No, that will only blow yourself up.
Rather, flame alchemy is all about precision... after taking in account the wind pressure, the wind direction, the wind speed, the humidity and too many external factors. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, why can't it be as easy as it looked on screen for Führer- I mean Colonel- Mustang? He just snaps his finger and voila! Envy's eyeballs are burning up!
Grrr, that's even harder! Heating up water from ten meters away with flame alchemy? Not possible at the moment. For now, all I can create is a large, and sadly brief, burst of flame about two meters away from me.
And Father could engulf an entire city in Flames. That thought always saddens me, after I asked Father what the extent of his flame alchemy is. Supposedly he used to use it regularly when he was deployed on the front line against the witches as a young, promising State Alchemist...
I'll admit, my esper ability is beyond me for now, but I can probably master cooking fire if I devote myself entirely to it day and night... the only problem is I'm also overseeing the construction of the new headquarters for my up and coming Anderson Corporation, overseeing the renovations of the old office building facing the Xing Embassy for the Meyer Trading Company, and busy reviewing the reports I'm receiving on the current state of the Brentwood fortress.
In short, I have too much stuff going on and not enough hands. Damn it!
At least I had the government papers on the fast track, since I'm technically cooperating with the Führer himself. Hehehe that saved me lots of bribes.
Then there's that meeting with the merchant clan, the Xavier clan, representatives from Xing... they didn't exactly like that I'm using the Imperial Clan's name for my company. Their clan also supposedly had the exclusive right to trade with other nations granted by the emperor himself... Pfft, that changed the second they saw mother... a 180 degree change in attitude, to my amusement. Kukukukukukuku, do you understand now you fools? If mother asks great-uncle, I'm sure he would revoke the Xavier clan's exclusive right in a heartbeat!
In the end, it was agreed that since my Meyer Trading Company is based in Amestris, it would count as an Amestrisian company... which means nobody is stepping on anybody's turf yet.
Of course, I have plans to take over the lucrative spice and silk trade that the Xavier clan monopolizes at the moment... soon. Meyer Trading Company needs to find its footing first.
One rare, rare piece of good news I have received recently is that the Führer has passed the Patent System Bill with his full support, and with father listed as the head consultant... that just meant I'm the head consultant when they need advice on how to set up the Patent Office networks... which also adds to my work.
Quite the full schedule don't you think? I wake up at six in the morning, gets dressed and lectures on how indecent I looked while sleeping by Varete, eats breakfast at seven. Rehearse etiquette with Varete for two hours after breakfast, a ten minute break, then practice lame alchemy with father looking on for another two hours. Then lunch, where I briefly practices my cooking alchemy. I don't even have time to practice it like I used to anymore! Of course, the Führer's orders were already readied and boxed since two days after he left, not that I told anyone yet.
Hehehe, I plan on inviting him to the opening ceremony on the reconstruction of the new Brentwood Laboratory and handing his bio-weapons to him then. That should cement his support for my efforts until then.
After the thirty minute lunch, I'm officially open for business as Pray the consultant, the overseer on two construction sites, and the manager of the inspectors sent to the abandoned Brentwood Fortress. Gods, all the paperwork I have to read through. I would hire a secretary, but half of the documents must never be read by the wrong eyes... I'm cutting through some gray territories to keep the construction costs down.
Every other day I would personally inspect the two construction sites. That just meant I temporally become their on-site 3D printer for construction materials they need... but that also keeps the cost down, so I'm willing.
I close 'office' at dinner, with exception being some urgent documents, then it's time to practice Alkahestry with mother until just before bed at eleven. On that note, I resolved to investigate more into the esper stuff when I have the chance. If my memory serves me right, Alkahestry is not the correct key to unlock my esper powers, that's the Power Curriculum's job. But that doesn't exist here, I've checked in with mother on that...
Oh, and don't forget the thirty minute etiquette review with Varete while I shower, going over how I behaved unlike a lady should before going to bed. And she remembers every single instances where I mess up, having followed me around throughout the day.
Still, quite full day isn't it? There's no breaks either, on weekends. The concept of two days off during the weekend doesn't exist here... you just keep working to keep living.
But it will be all worth it, I repeat it to myself like a mantra, it will be worth it, it will be worth it, it will be worth it!
It doesn't matter what I will have to go through. I have resolved myself to conquer the world. And if I can do that, Melinda will be by my side again. It did occur to me that perhaps Melinda would be reincarnated as a man since I'm a female now... now that certainly would be interesting...
Renovation for the Meyer Trading Company finished a month before my sixth birthday... and a month later than the Anderson Corporation's HQ. Even though it's supposed to be faster than building a new office building since its just renovations, mother had specific demands on its style... she called it Feng Shui, but it just complicated things. Why must that part of the office be on the South side? I don't know, but we had to redo it completely... Damn it!
Building and renovation are only the first steps, of course. The actual setting up of the inner workings of the company took the whole next month. Good thing I don't have to scout for investors, being my own investor. It's a family business.
For Meyer Trading Company, I'm using her to introduce my new cuisines to this world, and to set up a fast-food chain if I can get the supply line worked out. Surprisingly working with the suppliers is harder than setting up shop, and I'm nowhere near enough suppliers to go full-scale yet. It would probably be half a year to a full year before I can get enough suppliers to cover my base.
For now, I'm selling high-end desserts to rich customers through the company, with the exotic spices imported from Xing. I have a tentative partnership with the Xavier clan on that for now, but it looks like it will have to be done this way for a few years.
Catering to events is our specialty, and there's plenty of them here in Capital City. Business... is still in the red. I foresee making our first profit in five years, if luck would have us. Hygiene product are not on market at the moment, and they won't be until my planned factory thirty minutes away from the Capital city is all built and up and running... more hassle to deal with, later. I'm switching my inspectors from exploring the abandoned Brentwood Fortress to scouting a good, cheap plot of land for me to build it on. Hopefully next to a village of immigrants, I can always use cheap labor.
On the Anderson Corporation's side, it's basically going to be my research arm. The main HQ in the capital is to ensure I have access to resources when I need it, since the capital city is a great center of trade, unlike Brentwood. That being said, only the employees responsible for buying and delivering my materials will be stationed here, along with the administrative staff. The rest of them, which I plan to recruit as researchers, will be working with me in the Brentwood Laboratory when it's functional.
Judging from the inspectors' reports, the right wing that ends at the river is in no condition to be sleeping in, but the left wing is mostly still intact, just need some basic repairs.
Reconstructing the abandoned fortress into my new Brentwood Laboratory will likely take more than a year, though I plan to speed it up with my alchemy, if I get the chance.
But you know what's the absolutely worst thing about all this? I have no time to play with Vio.
In the end, I was forced to leave Vio with her sisters, at Aunt Julia's place. I'll miss you my fluffy... On that note, Vio hasn't been aging like her sisters, for some reason. It's like she stopped growing halfway, but I have no time to find out why...
Finally, it's the morning of my sixth birthday, and I have scheduled the opening ceremony on the reconstruction of Brentwood Laboratory to be today kukukukukuku... you think you can get away with not celebrating my sixth birthday people? You can't be more wrong... and I've even invited the Führer himself to attend it, under the excuse of handing him the bio-weapon alchemy formations he ordered months ago.
Mother's handling the opening speeches and stuff really, since I asked her to. Speeches and presentations were always my weakness back in my last life, I prefer to let my results speak for themselves rather than presenting what might be the result.
Kukuku... it's time!
"And now, to conclude our opening ceremony, the Anderson Corporation would like to officially complete our first and most generous contract to date. Pray?"
"Coming!" I lugged the three boxes behind me onto the stage. Seriously I should have taken a few minutes to build a cart, but it slipped my mind. Grrr why didn't I think of that? "Sir! Your order of three caches of weaponized alchemy formations and instruction manuals!!" I present my results of not much sweat and labor to the Führer, who looks a bit surprised.
"Three boxes? If I recall correctly, I only ordered three alchemy formations, surely that doesn't need three boxes to fit in?"
"Hehehe, sir, I've devised a complete new approach to alchemy formations!" Mwauahahahahaha be awed by my greatest creation! I'd taken the time off for a day to improve the alchemy formations... by tons. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you devote yourself completely to it for a whole day.
"Would you like to tell us about it Pray?" Oh my god, this guy totally just read my mind! It's perfect!
"Yes! Ahem, allow me to demonstrate," I open the top box and take out one of the stacked paper that has my alchemy formation inscribed on it, much to everyone else' confusion.
No, not confusion about why I took it out... they're confused about what I took out...
"Hehehe.... behold! The revolutionary stacked alchemy formation! Invented by yours truly. I took the idea of using the runes themselves to form the circle and lines and based a new idea on it. You see, there is no reason for alchemy circles to be completely one dimensional, is there?"
"Not... completely one dimensional?" Father looks confused... well I guess that wasn't the best choice of words, but didn't I mention I'm not the best at presentation?
"Yes! I found that if you use the center of power of smaller alchemy formations as one of the focal points on the larger formations, you can greatly increase the power of the overall formation! Applying this stacking carefully five times means this alchemy circle is the equivalent of ten formations its size or the equivalent of a large scale alchemy formation! And! Everyone knows that a competent alchemist can control many alchemy formations at once, but nobody can control more than five at a time, no matter how simple they might be individually. I circumnavigated that problem here because the smaller formations count as a single part of the larger formation, so this technique can be potentially used infinite times!" Patented of course. The first patent to be approved, in fact!
"This means..." I paused for the dramatic effect, hehehehehehhehehe, the Führer looks very interested right now, "We can create alchemy formations to produce more complex results in one go, lower the strain on the mind, and draw out more power for little to no extra effort!" Hmm, almost entirely true. There's still the issue of energy leak that occurs between the smaller alchemy circle and the larger alchemy circle, but I expect to fix that in the future. The efficiency is still not as high as I would like it to be.
"Hahahaha, you have truly outdone yourself this time, Miss Pray!" The Führer looks very happy now, probably thinking about the battlefield application of my technique...
"Thank you sir! I have this technique already patented! Anderson Corporation has already compiled a list of the most common weaponized alchemy circles ready to be improved on!" In reality I had already thought up how to improve them in my head, they just need to be written down.
"Is that so? Well then, I look forward to our future partnership together, Pray." Woohoo! I just secured the financial future of my company! Hehehe, I'll use this funding to recruit more people and hasten my plans for a fast food chain on the Meyer Trading Company's side...
"Gladly, sir! I have the next contract already written up for you to sign!"
"Hahaha, I thought you might have. Give it to Riza before we leave and I will have it approved in a few days." He chuckles to himself, "My, won't the boys on the front-line be surprised!"
"I'm sure they will, sir, but... I have more improvements planned in development Kuukukukukuu... Sadly enough we're low on research and development funding at the moment, so it's going really, really slowly..."
"Are you suggesting that Amestris finance your company? That can certainly be arranged..."
"I was thinking you could become our second stockholder, sir!" The first being myself, of course. Or the Anderson family, but I do the books now, so what's the difference?
"Stockholder? I afraid I don't know that word, Pray."
I couldn't help but let a grin spread out on my face. This is just so Perfect~~
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The opening ceremony on the reconstruction of my Brentwood Laboratory closes around then, and I sat down with Führer Mustang to discuss the terms of investment in greater details. Specifically, he wants to hear more about the stock system I'm proposing.
Honestly, these people have some rudimentary ideas about the stock system, but nobody bothered to take it the full way. It has to be done, if the economy wants to survive after the war ends... and it very well might.
I don't know how strong the Witch of the South's armies are, but surely they can't be that strong if we're holding them off just fine with the current level of alchemy technology we have now, right? I hope so, at least. That means we have a significant edge on them now in terms of power thanks to my improvements.
Alchemy... has lots of flaws that needs to be fixed yet. It's too young, the newest power on the block from what I read. I also had a thought when I was doing the first round of improvement on the alchemy circles... why can't we overlay many pages of them and increase the power output that way? Why not... fold the circles? There's no restriction that says we can't have a 3D alchemy formation is there? There's so many ways to improve on it that I don't think I'll be done in just a few years!
Back to the present, I takes out the prepared paperwork on the stock exchange. It's a bill really, his aides just need to reword a few sentences here and there really, and it's ready to be integrated into the system.
A good thing about being an reincarnated person in technologically backward world is that I can 'help' advance it... and thus write the laws myself. Or suggest them, at the very least, but really what's the difference?
We discussed my ideas for overhauling the current economic system until dinner that day.
Later on, Father takes me to meet his old Master, Mr. Steiner.
"Xix! It's good to see you again! Get in here!!" Mr. Steiner answers the door and welcomes us into his house, "And who are you, little girl?"
"I'm Pray, the genius!" There's no shame in saying a fact hehehe...
"Ahahaha, what a lively daughter you have there Xix. And you must be Lady Silvia!" Mr. Steiner shakes mother's hand as she walks in.
"Just Silvia is fine, it's an honor to meet Xix's teacher at last.”
"The honor is all mine. Please, just call me Maes, or old man, whichever you like!"
"Well, why don't we all sit down and make ourselves comfortable?" He leads us to what looks like the dining table. He got quite the cozy, neatly arranged house.
"So, what is this 'supervisor' business you wrote about in your letter, Xix?" Mr. Steiner begins the conversation.
"Err, I think it's better if I let my daughter explain that. Pray?" Father smiles at me when he says that.
"Oh? So, what does our self-proclaimed genius have to do with a retired old alchemist like me?"
"I'm building my own laboratory! But the Führer insists that I must have your supervision to handle the more dangerous materials! I was hoping you could assist me in my experiments!" I look at him expectantly.
"Dear, I'm retired, even if Roy himself comes to my doorsteps I wouldn't come out of retirement!"
"Now now, there's no reason to decide so fast, Maes, let's hear her out first"
"Gracia, sometimes it's best to leave it to the youngsters is it not?"
Mrs. Steiner ignores her husband and talks directly to me, "So, why do you want this foolish man's help? I'm sure your father could help you can't he?"
"Daddy's too busy! I need someone who can stay at this facility with me when it's built. And!" I pull out a copy of the alchemical formation I showed the Führer earlier, "I need someone to help me improve this!" I pass the paper to Maes, who suddenly looks very interested.
"My god, I have never seen an formation like this... Are you sure it works Pray?" Hehehe, he sounds excited already.
"Yup! I've tested a hundred times already! Roy formed a contract with me to mass produce other formations based on the same technique!" He will, it's just a matter of time hehehe.
"I see... so you already got Roy hooked?" He chuckles to himself, "Well, that's certainly surprising. Hmmm... Would you just look at this! I'd never thought an alchemical formation could work like this! Oh if only I had this back then..." Whoa this old man sure got energetic as he inspects my work. He certainly looks like an excited child...
"Maes! What has gotten into you? Acting so childish in front of guests" Mrs. Steiner gives him a light slap to the back of his head.
"Sorry Gracia, it's just that this technique can turn the whole tide of the war!" He turns to talk to me again, "Pray, how many times can this be applied on a single formation?"
"If done carefully enough, infinite."
"Infinite!" He looks shocked at that.
"Well there's the issue of energy leak that occurs. If that is not addressed and we stack too many times, the formation will blow itself up. So, interested in working with me yet?"
He considered my proposal for a minute before asking, "Pray, if you don't mind me asking, do you have more of these ideas?"
"Of course!" Pfft, what is he thinking? I have prepared everything! Why do you think I worked my ass for the last few months? "Here, I wrote down some of my ideas in here." I hands him my 'Research Notes II". For now, it's more of just brainstorming, but that can be fixed.
"Hohoho, just reading your notes make me feel 50 years younger!" He exclaims as he reads through the section on the possibility of three dimensional alchemical formations. Kukuku, keep up the praises!
"What?" What? He looks the same to me from a moment before!
"Very well! I'm in." Phew, that was quick!
"Maes! You are in no condition to be running a lab like a twenty years old!" Mrs. Steiner interrupts us.
"Nonsense! I haven't felt this energetic in decades! Just think of what I- I mean we- can accomplish with this!" He waves my notebook around in the air, "It will revolutionize the whole field!!!"
"Mrs. Steiner, if I may?" I speaks up.
"Yes?"
"I may have a solution to your husband's problem... here." I lean over the table and flips the pages until I find what I'm looking for, "This is an idea I had a while ago. I can build an exoskeleton to help Mr. Steiner walk easier."
"Exoskeleton?" This time it's Mother who speaks up, "Pray what do you mean by that? I won't let you do something that desecrates someone's remains!"
Ugh, that's right, Xing culture practically worships their ancestors. Violating the grave is probably a big no-no to them, and to Mother.
"Of course not! It's not what it sounds like!" I protests, this isn't the way it's supposed to go! "It's a set of supports strapped to a body that can make you move faster!"
How else are humans supposed to get stronger in a world without mana or chi like Earth? Exoskeleton became an integral part of our society back there since it gives everyone augmented strengths. I never knew why those old sport community peoples always opposed it.
"Hmm..." Please, calm down Mother!
"Anyways, I can heal him too if that's needed."
"Heal?" Mrs. Steiner looks startled, "You?"
"Yes?" Huh? What's the problem now?
"..." I don't like the look your giving me Mrs. Steiner... it feels like your trying to stare into my soul...
"Are you... Pray, are you the girl blessed by the four Ancient Gods a year ago?"
Ancient Gods? Is she referring to Primordial Gods? I guess there are different terms...
"Yeah, why?"
"And you can use healing, despite being an alchemist?"
"Yes?" I've only tested my Song of Ulosis once so far, like all the new skills I got that day, but it works just fine for me... Strange thing, the lyrics for it just came into my head, like I'd known them all along...
"........."
Uh oh, why is everybody looking at me like that? Is it because I never revealed I could heal to them before? Stop! This is creeping me out!
"Pray..." Father breaks the uncomfortable silence, "Alchemist can't use the healings of the Church of Freya."
Oh, good to know. Funny how you never bothered to mention this before Father...
"Ummm... I was blessed by her?"
"Must be." Mr. Steiner mutters to himself, "Gracia, you're thinking of taking her in aren't you?"
Take what in? Me? What?
"... Yes. Yes, I am." Whaaaaaaaaaat? Tell me! "Fine, you can go play researcher Maes"
Mr. Steiner looks like a smiling idiot at that.
"BUT!" Mrs. Steiner turns to look directly at me again. Yikes... that's the same way Mother looks at me when we train... "You will have to come over everyday to study with me!"
"Study... with you?"
"Pray, Gracia is a retired Cardinal of the Church of Freya, she could teach you how to use the divine powers. Not to mention, she's also a spirit medium. I'm sure someone like you can probably master both."
"A Priestess?" I'm going to be a priestess? What the hell? I was thinking of changing the world through my companies, and by extension Amestris, first, then conquer it... What does being a priestess got to do with me?
"Yes! With your blessing, you can probably be the next Pope even!" Pope? This is all moving too fast! Slow down!
"You can spend half of the day at your laboratory, but the other half you will spend here learning healing prayers from me. What do you say?"
Hmm... I can see some value in that. Song of Ulosis, as I found out that time, is great but also very mana consuming... very, as in half of my total mana. I didn't really have a target that time, but it caused the sapling in the corner of the yard to burst into a fully grown, three story tall tree... I'm sure the maids are still wondering who caused that.
Still, I need some healing spells, or prayers as she call them, that consumes less mana. I guess there's no harm, I can let Mr. Steiner take over the experiments after I set them up beforehand anyways.
"Sure! I want to learn more healing spells!"
"Spells? We aren't magicians, Pray. The healing granted through the Goddess by our prayers is a divine power, not magic."
What?! That's not what my status showed me when I tried it...
"Wait, what prayer do you already know?"
"Um..." Should I reveal it? It did say it's a rarely granted skill in the description...
"Song of Ulosis" I decided to just come clean with her.
She gives a little gasp, while everyone else looks on with confusion clear as day on their face. "S-s-song of Ulosis? That's an Archbishop level prayer!"
It is? Sweet, does that make me an Archbishop?
"Pray, would you like to join the Church of Freya? We'll take care of everything, you just have to say 'yes'." I guess not.
Hmm, how about Hell No? I'm here to change and conquer the world! Why would a genius like myself tie herself down to a mere church?
"Sorry, but I want to learn more about the world first."
"Is that so? Very well, but know that the offer stands. Now then, you can start coming over tomorrow."
What?! Tomorrow? The facility here won't be done for another four months! Even if I speed it up with my alchemy it's still around three months!
"But... the laboratory won't be done by a long shot, where would I live?"
"Not a problem, you'll live with us, dear. I'm sure that would be fine wouldn't it, Xix?" Huh, interesting. Looks like Mrs. Steiner is another woman who has power over poor Father.
"Yes! I mean no! She's just six today, Mrs. Steiner, with all due respect. Isn't she too young to be living away from home?"
"Nonsense, if she's building that lab to work in, she's already prepared to live in there. Living in my house would be much better wouldn't it?"
"Um..." Father looks unsure at that.
It's true, I had planned to move out as soon as my laboratory is complete, and it does have my master suite on the top floors...
"In that case, I'll be moving here too." Mother announce her decision. Oh wait, she can't do that! I need someone who can manage the Meyer Trading Company for me!
"Mother! But who will manage the company if not you?"
"Pray, we're recruiting people anyways, I'll just find someone to manage it." Bu-bu-but, that's not the plan!
"Ok Mommy..."
"Don't look so disappointed dear, your Father liked it here just fine, didn't you Xix?"
Father nods vigorously.
"And besides, you'll have companions! You won't be my only student..."
More people? "Who?"
"You'll find out later. It's getting late, why don't you three just spend the night with us here? You can use the guest room upstairs on the left."
Mrs. Steiner offers and Mother graciously accepts. Well, I guess that seals the deal. We're staying here for the night then.
At least I got what I came here for. Now, there's next to no restriction in my lab! Mwuahahahahahahahaa, that's one thing I love about this world. There's no human right movements! That means I can use convicts to experiment on... probably. Kukuukukukukukuku, oh how I wanted to use them back on old Earth! If only those pesky scientific communities didn't keep foiling my attempts!
Father leads us up to the guest room. Apparently it is the same one he used to live in when he trained under Mr. Steiner years ago. Not too big, but sufferable for the night.
That night, I had the weirdest dreams to date. Several too, if you can believe it...
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Everything in the world is bounded by the laws of physics. This has been known since the dawn of time.
But magic is an exception. Mana comes not from the physical realm, but the spiritual realm. Some calls it the Spiritual World, the Spirit Dimension or what nots. The more correct name is the Lugos Plane, the dimension of mana and spirits, the sixth and seventh dimension of the world.
Mana particles are from the Lugos Plane, and every single organism on Terra has an innate connection to it deep within them. The stronger the connection, the more mana particles they can naturally pull from Lugos and into their bodies. Despite all this, mana can only be perceived by those with inner talents to manipulate mana. In other words, one can have all the mana in the world, but never once know it. And at first, nobody knew what to do with mana, so they ignored it.
But there were some people, who played with it, experimented with it. And they found that mana, in the correct formations, can be used to cause changes in reality, to overwrite what's there and replace it with something they desire.
They called these phenomenons they can create through mana "magic", and themselves, "magicians".
But this is all in the past, in a time long forgotten. Ignorance and distrust of magic grew in those who cannot see it, those ignorant fools who feared their own shadows, and many who had the talent, but was taught to fear it. With disuse, the ability to manipulate mana faded through the generations, until only few survivors remained intact. Mistakes, accidents, famines, and catastrophes were blamed on those they saw as outcasts: the magicians. And so the discrimination against those with magic started.
And in their attempt to find excuses to justify their discrimination against the magicians, they lied to themselves that there were higher beings who gave them the directives to discriminate, that it wasn't their fault. These ideologies, the deep beliefs, gave birth to their 'Gods'.
Little did they know, it was their collective minds that subconsciously guided the mana within them to form their Gods; a massive conglomerate of will and mana from the believers that gained a will of its own. Influenced by the will of its believers, the most powerful of the wills, the 'Gods' believed themselves to be what its followers believed it to be, and to discriminate against the magicians. And so the endless cycle started.
Meanwhile, the magicians refined their crafts, build their own nations, started a different civilization over the thousands of years. They gained enough strength to reject the rest of humanity in it's face, to reverse the discrimination. But the common people, the believer in divine entities, did not simply watch as the magicians grew powerful. They beseeched their Gods to grant them power to fight back against, and their Gods delivered. And so the discrimination of magicians resumed.
One way their Gods delivered was through prayers, chants. The supplicants would pray to their Gods, who takes their follower's mana and manipulate it for them. They are, after all, beings of pure will; imposing their will on mana to manipulate it is as natural as breathing is to them. The supplicants named themselves the 'Priests' and 'Priestesses' of their Gods, believing that the magic their Gods performed in their place are divine powers, divine miracles, different from the magic and mana.
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Those are for the believers of the collective wills with enough followers to form a will strong enough to grant thousands, if not millions, of 'divine miracles' at once. But there are also collective wills that didn't have enough followers, not strong enough to manipulate millions of streams of mana at once like their stronger cousins can. In accordance to the human mythology, they named themselves "Spirits".
In time, the people who had neither the innate talent to manipulate their mana, nor the favor of a God who would do it for them, found an alternative to praying for divine miracles, which are to certain extents dependent on how favorable they are in the eyes of their Gods. These people found that they can bind themselves to Spirits who has high affinities with them, to allow the spirits to dwell within their body. With the binding came a stronger connection to its host, and the 'wills' became strong enough to influence certain aspects of nature using their host's mana. These spirit contractors called themselves "Warlocks" or "Mediums". They did not need to offer prayers, but their close connections to the spirits allowed them to mentally use mana through the spirits.
In simpler terms, priests have a distant connection to their Gods, but their Gods are stronger beings of will. Meanwhile, warlocks have a far more intimate connection to their spirits, but their spirits are far weaker than the 'Gods'.
But humans are sly creatures. Some without the natural talent, without the favor of their Gods, and without enough affinity with spirits to form a contract, instead befriended the magicians, and learned the lore of the magicians. They discovered after long observations that, even without the innate talents, they too can use magic if they just copy the formations their 'friends' subconsciously use and allow their mana to flow through it. Unlike the natural magicians, these people were more easily accepted into the human society.
Why? It is because these new types of magicians are not shrouded in the same mystery as the natural magicians they learned from. Their power is visible, formulaic, able to be understood by everyone, unlike the eerily natural way to manipulate mana. In time, these new magicians took the name 'magicians' solely for themselves, and branded their predecessors with derogatory names.
"Witches & Wizards", the traitors called the natural magicians, "Sorcerers & Sorceresses", "Servants of the Devil", among other names.
And so the new magicians became part of human society, and the old magicians became known sinners who sold their souls to the Devil, according to the prevailing ideology at the time.
It was at the start of the current age that the new magicians rose up in rank, and rejected their mentors. Their betrayal has not been forgotten. The natural magicians took upon themselves the name they were branded with, witches, and fought back.
Thus the great war between the witches and the various powers of humanity began. And the humans were losing in terms of power, despite their numerical advantages.
That's when the humans compiled their knowledge on the world, and found a new power. One that does not relies on mana, but instead directly changes the physical world.
They called it 'Alchemy', the new power to deconstruct and reconstruct the world to the extent of their understanding.
And so the balance of power was regained, and the war continued.
This is how the world of Terra came into being. Civilizations rise, and civilizations fall. A God may become powerful in one era, and forgotten in the next, fading down to the level of a spirit. But mankind never stops advancing, always reaching out for more powers, and it never will stop.
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The people of Terra have always had the concept of 'mana' and 'magic'.
But the 'Chi' that the people of Xing use is... new. Different. Before the first contact with the people of Xing, 'Chi', or the innate power of the human body, slept dormant within the citizens of Terra. And it still does, because only the Martial Art Priests of Xing knew how to awaken that innate power through a specific set of training routines. But why? Why hasn't the people of Terra awakened to that power even after thousands of years?
That's because the Empire of Xing, the Western Continent itself, is not from Terra. No, Xing came from a world known as "Bairong", or White Dragon in the language of Xing. (Chinese)
And Bairong was a dying world.
Its people never knew, save the most powerful few, but their world was dying. Their sun has reached its natural end stage, ready to expand and swallow up everything around it, including the planet of Bairong.
Only three men knew what was about to happen.
The first was a Sage, living in the misty mountains. He was self-taught, reaching sagehood more than a thousand years ago. In his youth, he traveled the world, learning its beauties, and he took the path of Karma. Karma is the cause and effect of all things, and those with enough enlightenment in it, or understanding of it, can use it to predict the future of almost anything. But he has long since hidden himself in his hard-to-reach mountain home, studying the heavens. That's how he noticed the abnormalities happening in the sun, and he foretold the end of all things.
The second was the Emperor of Xing. Some called him the 'Immortal Emperor', a monster, a god, and many names in secret. None of that matters to him. He rules Bairong with an iron hand, and has done so for more than ten thousand years. His name was Xing, after which he named his empire, and conquered the entire world over a thousand years. But he knew the end was coming not because his subordinates informed him, or by his own power. No, he knew, because the man behind him told him.
That man is the third and last person who knew the fate of the world. He has lived longer than the other two, far longer, since long before the founding of the empire of Xing. He had many disciples studying the different paths of enlightenment under him, and first among his disciples was the Immortal Emperor. The Immortal Emperor alone was given permission to leave his mountain and do as he will in the world. The man was, and still is, known simply as the 'War God', a powerful man who has long since abandoned his original name and embraced his title. Like the Sage, the War God was practiced in the path of Karma, and he too knew that the end was coming.
But unlike the Sage, the War God had millions of years to perfect his understanding in other paths of enlightenment, even if they are not his main path of enlightenment. Among the paths he mastered was the path of 'Time & Space'.
The War God knew of the existence of other worlds. After all, he had visited many of them with his powers, leaving countless legacies behind him. But he also knew that even he, the most powerful man on Bairong, could not drag an entire planet with him into another world.
So he did the best he could, and took the main continent on which his disciple's empire resided through time and space, into a young world he knew as 'Terra'.
Thus Xing became known as the Western Continent on that world.
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Terra has had many ages, the current one being the ninth. In it's first age, the people had yet to master the power of mana. Instead, they relied on technology, much like old Earth. But there was one crucial difference in it's later years... the development of augmented abilities.
In other words, esper abilities.
The people of the Academic City were the first to pioneer this power. The Academic City was a city for students, for research, the technological frontier of the world then. And at first, they were the dominating power in the world.
Through drugs, body stimulation, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and other methods, the researchers working for academic city managed to guide their experiment subjects into developing their own Personal Reality. They called the process 'Power Curriculum' and offered the students in the city a chance to undergo it when they first enter the walled city.
These new experimental subjects gained the power to replace the reality around them with their personal reality, to wrap reality to their will. Some could create fire out of nothing, some could control lightning, some could control light waves. It was Academic City's greatest achievement.
But they could not keep it to themselves. Academic City was, after all, the city of students, students from all over the globe. Try as they did, some espers returned to their countries, where they were kidnapped by state researchers to find out how Academic City had managed to produce esper powers.
But that went against the agenda of Academic City. They wanted to monopolize the power, and so they launched a wave of attacks with their allies on the esper research centers in major countries, after failing to negotiate.
It was the war that ended the age. The researchers of the academic city managed to modify the esper abilities until it was hereditary, fearing that the war would destroy their power curriculum facilities. They were not wrong.
The other countries fought back with conventional weapons, strategic weapons, even biological weapons. Meanwhile, the Academic City built it's own army of powerful level 5 espers.
Though the esper army was outnumbered a million to one, they were literally the most powerful beings in the world then. And the clash between the allied armies and the espers nearly drove mankind to extinction.
But humans are tenacious, and they survived in small numbers, starting anew. The technologies were lost, it's resources exhausted, and most fertile farmlands turned into wastelands. The world fell back to a more primitive age, where they lived in villages at best, with their former cities in smoldering ruins.
Soon, some of the more curious generations would eventually discover the mana within them, and begin the second age of the world.
And yet, the weakened esper bloodlines survived. And they have lasted through the next seven ages. When Xing descended into this world, the espers were the first to make contact with the people of Xing. To their surprise, and delight, the people of Xing excelled in mastering the flow of all things. While esper abilities and magic have never gotten along, chi-mastery and esper abilities complimented each other.
The lightning esper ability that is now the trademark of the Royal Meyer family enabled it's practitioners to enhance their senses, to react faster, and to enhance the cutting force of their weapons or even hands. The flame esper abilities enabled the martial art practitioner with it to strike harder, become unpredictable, like the wavering flame. The water esper abilities enable the user to become more fluid, to redirect and parry attacks, to dance on the battlefield untouched.
The esper communities on the main continent made a decision: They would migrate to Xing together, save a few that chose to remain on the main continent. And they were welcomed into the Xing empire, some even marrying into royal bloodlines. The two people mingled, intermarried, until they were no longer separate peoples thousands of years later. They are now simply known as the people of Xing, martial arts masters and powerful espers. A force even the enemies of the rest of humanity, the Witches, dare not go against.
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The main continent has always been plagued by a certain type of monster. They looks no different from a regular human, lives no different from a normal human, until they start feeding. On human flesh.
Yes, those monsters were man-eaters, or ghouls, as they are commonly referred to. When the prey on humans, they temporarily revert to their true appearances; when they hunt down their preys, their predatory organs, the kagunes, come out. Some ghouls can manifest extra limbs behind them, some could form a sword to cut with, some could even shoot parts of their kagune. The most ferocious ones could even devour its comrades and steal their kagunes as well.
But when they're not feeding, they could blend seamlessly into the human society, even surviving on human food for years before having to satisfy it's primal urges for human flesh. Try as they did, the world powers could not exterminate the hidden ghouls, because they looks no different from ordinary people.
But everything changed when the people of Xing came into this world. The people of Xing were masters of 'Chi', the inner power of the human body. As such, they could identify a ghoul with the slightest touch, or even just in close proximity if skilled enough.
In return, ghouls especially loved the flesh of the people of Xing. They were more tasty, more... full of power. Eating one citizen of Xing was the equivalent of eating twenty ordinary humans. And they attacked the people of Xing who wondered outside their empire, to see the new world they have arrived in.
The problem got so out of hand that the Immortal Emperor himself took notice, and he decided to end the matter once and for all.
The Immortal Emperor sent out his most powerful army units into other nations to exterminate the ghouls. And they did, with brutal precision. The ghouls retreated to their homeland beyond the Eastern sea, on the island that will later become known as the 'Isle of Sword Saints'.
There was just one problem. The other world power of Terra did not take kindly to an army of Xing warriors marching through their land, especially not the Holy Britannian Empire, who had conquered much of the world then. Try as they did, they could not catch up to the fast moving elite Xing forces. After all, the Xing forces were the elite of the elites, chosen by the Immortal Emperor himself.
So rather than trying to catch the elite Xing forces hunting down ghouls, they simply waited and waited until the army completed its mission and returned to Xing. That's when Britannia marched on the Xing Empire, hoping to conquer it in their greed and ignorance, thinking that the clash with the ghouls must have weakened the empire of Xing greatly.
They were brutally crushed. The Immortal Emperor had the choice to completely wipe out Britannia and other nations, but he spared them. Not out of the kindness of his heart, but simply because they were beneath his notice. To him, the mortals were like ants that he could slaughter anytime he chooses. And he was on the cusp of the next tier of enlightenment anyways, so the Immortal Emperor decided to simply make a barrier between them.
From the eastern border of Xing to halfway to the capital of Britannia further to the East, the Immortal Emperor demonstrated his devastating power to the world.
The main path of enlightenment that the Immortal Emperor took was one of the hardest to master, because of the bloodshed it requires. It was known as the path of 'Destruction'.
The Immortal Emperor razed the western region of Britannia, once a lush forest region, to the ground, leaving nothing behind. Not the forest, not the mountain, nor the river or lakes that once flowed there. All that was left after that day was a wasteland of ashes, a barren desert between the two great empires.
And the emperor declared to the world, his voice resonating through the globe,"Listen well, people of Terra. I am the Immortal Emperor of Xing. I have no interest in the mundane matters of this world, but know this. If you ever dare to march on my empire again, I will show no mercy."
Afterward, the Immortal Emperor left the mundane affairs of ruling the empire to his descendants, and retreated back to the War God's mountain, to cultivate in privacy for the next enlightenment, leaving behind a policy of isolationism in the empire that still persists to this day.
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What. the. f*ck. just happened? I thought to myself as I wake up startled, That was the most realistic dream I've ever seen...
Wait, I remember it? How? I always forget what I dreamed about at night...
And all those details... it feels like a documentary you might see on some actual history channel instead of a dream. It was like a... memory.
Yes, a memory. Like someone inserted their memory of the past into my head as I slept.
...or some bastard...
I turn around, and the bed underneath me melts away, leaving me gasping on the floor.
"Just trying to help, dear." Uuuuuugh damn it! I know that voice behind me!
"What are you doing here, Kruphix?" I yell as I turn around to face him. What is he doing in my mind?
Wait, mind? I take a quick look around, just in time to see another me do the same.
Aah, I'm in my inner mind. We thought at the same time, our thoughts broadcasting out into the darkness in sync.
Yup, there's no other possibility, especially now that I'm face to face with the other me I copied months ago. Failed attempt to copy Little-Me, if you'd recall. To be more specific, I copied the Little-Me right at the instance right before she merged completely with me. A second after I finished making the copy, she fully merged and became another copy of me.
Then there's the third presence in here, him.
"Yes, me. And before you ask, I thought it would be better for you to know the world you will be conquering first."
"Why now? You could have showed me before I came to this world! That would have cleared up so many questions!"
"Because I can," He shrugs his shoulders. He's currently in his Ascathon form, sadly... "And because I just happened to feel like it."
"So..." Let's see, there's some more relevant information I need to confirm first.
"So...?"
"My training with Mother to use lightning esper ability is useless?"
"Not entirely. Alkahestry can eventually allow you to use it."
"Eventually?"
"Give it a decade or two."
"Screw that, isn't there any other way to learn how to use it?"
"Of course there is, and you know it."
"I do? What the hell are you saying?!"
"Think about the dream on the first age of Terra I just showed you."
"The first age? You mean... the old facilities? But that was ages ago!"
"Some relics from that age survived, you know. They were quite good at making things last longer." He chuckles to himself for no reason, "And don't expect any help from me about finding them. I've been too helpful so far, you have to do the rest yourself."
"Screw you! Wait... what are you?"
"What do you mean?" He puts on an innocent face.
"You showed me yourself! The Gods of this world are made from the collective minds and mana of it's believers! What does that make you? Ascathon doesn't have his own church!"
"Silly girl, I told you before didn't I? I am the One True God, and none other."
"Even if I believe you, that still doesn't explain who the other Primordial Gods are!" Heck, I glimpsed during that dream of the first age that the four of them were worshiped back then too!
"Toys I made up; I was a little bored." Toys? He's saying the other Gods are just... toys to him? Unbelievable.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. I've done what I came here to do, so long!" And just like that, he's gone from my inner mind.
Sonofabiatch, you can't just throw all these memories into my head and just waltz away! Damn, I have a slight headache from that forced... insertion of memories, let's just call it that.
*Sigh* I guess it's time to actually wake up, I can feel Mother stirring next to me anyways. It is nice to sleep on the same bed with them sometimes, it feels... warm, comfy, safe.
I make my way out of the inner mind, which is much easier than getting into it, normally.
But before I can get up from the bed, the door slams open and somebody slams into me.
Two somebodies, to be exact.
""Pray!"" The two perpetrators shrinks in unison.
"MEOW!" I open my eyes just in time to see Vio leaps for my face. Oh no you don't! You won't be scratching my precious face again!
"Vio! Anne! Jill!" I grins as I sit up, holding my Vio in my arms, "What are you guys doing here?"
"We came to see Grandma!" Anne answers, as Mr. Snuggie on sitting on her laps.
"And Grandpa!" Jill quickly adds, as Mr. Fluffy walks over and regally sits on Father's face.
"Wha-?" Father wakes up with a shout before he suffocates.
"Xix, shut up. You too, Anne and Jill." Mother mutters as she falls back to sleep.
"Still sleeping Silvs? My, someone sure has gotten lazy over the years... Hehehe" I hear someone chuckles from the doorway.
"Julie?!" Mother shot out of the bed instantly, before grabbing the three of us and taking us out of the room. Or the six of us, if you count the cats along with us.
Then she went downstairs with Aunt Julia, presumably to have a nice long chat with her. Aunt Julia was too busy to come to my opening ceremony for the reconstruction yesterday. But this totally makes up for it!
"Anne! Jill! Haven't seen you in months!" I turn around from watching Mother and Aunt Julia descend the stairs and hugs the two of them. What did they say they are doing here for?
"I know!" "Mother always say you're too busy to play with us... " Jill looks a little down.
"Sorry, I was really busy!" Well, that was certainly true... "But we can play all day today!"
"Oh no you don't" Mrs. Steiner's voice rings out behind me. Damn it woman, can't you see we're having a happy reunion here? Don't be so cruel!
""Grandma!"" Anne and Jill yells as they run over to hug Mrs. Steiner. Or their grandmother, I guess. How could they forget me so quickly?!
"Now then, you three can play together after today's lesson, OK?"
""OK!""
"And Pray, you will stay a bit longer. They're just learning how to be spirit mediums, but you will also have to learn how to use divine powers."
"Noooooooo, my playtime! Meanie!!!" Oops, that wasn't meant to be spoken out loud... Oh well!
"Breakfast's ready!" Mr. Steiner shouts out from the kitchen.
"I want more playtime!" I protests as Mrs. Steiner herds us downstairs for breakfast, dragging the half-asleep father by his ear.
It was a pretty good breakfast: A bowl of oatmeal with goat milk to drink.
Not as good as my version, but passable for now. Hmm, I should write some cookbooks... Yes! That will be the next merchandise of the Meyer Trading Company!
After breakfast is over, father leaves for the mansion, with Mother in tow. Apparently he has "too many documents to go over and not enough time in a day".
Mother promises to return by lunch with my luggage, and all the stuffs in my room that I specifies.
Then the three of us, Anne, Jill, and I, sits down with Mrs. Steiner in the living room floor as she begins the lesson.
"Now then, how do you three know each other?" Guess her curiosity is more important than the lesson. Grr, I want to get the lesson over with so I can do more alchemical experiments! And I actually have more than three hundred alchemical formations to improve per the Führer's newest order.
"We're best friends!", "We trained together!", "They're sisters." I says as I point to our cats milling around the house.
"I see, I thought so. So, what did you train together in?"
"Xing Martial Arts" I replies quickly before Anne and Jill says something else entirely.
"Xing Martial Arts! I heard they never teaches outsiders?" She looks at me with an arched eyebrow like I would know the answer.
I guess I do know the answer, "The iron laws doesn't apply to Mother."
"Ah, I see." She simply replies, as if that short explanation is enough. If I don't know any better, she's planning to ask Mother in greater details when she comes back here.
"So, all three of you can use it?"
""Yes!"", "No"
Anne knots her forehead together as if in concentration, "Mommy says Pray has a seal on her!", 'Yeah!" Jill chips in.
Traitors! Traitors you two!
"Is that so? Well then, let's begin today's lesson on spirits." *Gasp* How dare you dismiss that last piece of information just like that! You bi- Old hag! I resolves to call her that in my mind.
She then went over a story about how the spirits are essences within all things that have existed since the dawn of time...
All wrong damn it! GRRRRRRRRRR I really wanted to correct her, except I don't have any proof for one. And for another, I don't want to go through the hassle of explaining how I came to know what I now know.
Hmm, they're concept of how the spirits came to be is probably what the spirits think themselves, if the information provided by the bastard is anything to go by.
We continued to spend the rest of the morning learning about Mrs. Steiner's misconception on what the spirits are.
Anne and Jill seems totally captivated when she showed a little demonstration of her wind spirit, generating a cool breeze throughout the house.
I hear Mr. Steiner sneezes behind us at the dinner table. He better hadn't got any of that nasty stuff on my precious notebook!
By the time Mother returns, we had already finish 'learning' about how the spirits came into being and switched over to how to form a contract with one.
I'll admit, the contract-forming part is very interesting to me. It seems to be meditation, waiting for the correct spirit to show up in your mind, then forming the contract through a mental agreement with specific words. Mrs. Steiner seems surprised and delighted when I told her I had triple affinities. I guess she assumed I had taken an affinity test before.
Also, apparently lightning affinity is not often seen around here, though not enough to be called 'rare'.
Anne and Jill have different affinities, much to my surprise. They're twins... but they both have different double affinities.
Anne has Fire and Earth affinities, while Jill has Water and Fire affinities.
We spent that afternoon meditating in Brentwood. And by that I mean the actual woods, not the town. She takes us on a little forest trail behind her house, to a little quiet meadow, where we're told to sit and meditate.
The first spirit to come to me is a lightning spirit, a heavy presence that came into my mind... but not into my inner mind. Huh, I guess the outer mind is like a reception room??
I tries the words Mrs. Steiner taught us to offer the spirit a contract.
"Hmmph, I don't know how you summoned me here little girl, but if you think a great spirit like me is going to form a contract with you, you can stop daydreaming now." He says as he leaves.
Or try to. Oh no you don't! Hehehe, there's a benefit to having another copy of myself in my inner mind.
The other me drags the 'great spirit' into our inner mind. That was quite easy, much easier than influencing little-me years ago.
Now then, "Kukukukukukukuku, welcome to my inner mind little spirit." Other-me welcomes the spirit with a flourish, changing the surrounding into a floating city in the sky.
"Wha-what is this place? Let me out!"
"Oh no, nononononono, this is my inner mind. Only those I let in or out can do so, but here, I am God!" Mwuahahaha I'll show him the consequences of speaking so arrogantly to me before! "And you are my little b**** here! Mwuahahahahahhahahahah!"
"You're a damn lunatic if you think this little mind trick can force me int- #$%$^&&*^%&^*" I stuff his mouth with smelly socks before proceeding to brainwash the unfortunate spirit.
I think I can, anyways. I've never had any presence in my inner mind except the bastard, and he's beyond my control. Other than him, there's only the copied me, and we're the same person, just separate, so we also think in sync.
But I'm very experienced in influencing people... not to mention my inner mind is my world, I can probably do anything to him here hehehehehe.
Yup, I think of a submissive and loyal him as I reach out and taps his forehead. His demeanor changes in an instance.
"Master! Please allow this one to serve you!" He shouts as he kneels on the ground before me!
"Kukuku, good. I accept, now stand up!" He leaps up, and I get a notification window.
NotificationCongratulations! You have just formed your first spirit contract!
As a result of this, you have gained the skill: Impose. For having imposed your will upon a spirit, you have created this unique skill! Beyond the level of hypnosis or mental suggestions, you can directly impose you will onto a weaker object in your mind at current level!
You have gained the skill: Spirit Taming! Skipping the spirit contract, spirits become voluntarily willing to bound themselves to you, despite their normally flighty nature. A contract is not even required with this skill, but it might be a good idea to do so anyways.
You have gained class: Warlock! As one who intends to use spirits combatively, you have gained the class 'Warlock' and its benefits!
You have gained the skill: Spiritual Sense! For becoming a warlock, you can now sense nearby spiritual presences as a sense of pressure in the air around you, or by touching the skin of another spirit medium.
Get out of my face you stupid notification! I have to sort out this spirit first!
"What is your name, my servant?"
"Please call me whatever you like, Master!"
"Don't give me that sh*t, just tell me what people called you before."
"Yes my lady! I was called Raijin, the God of Lightning and Thunder two ages ago!"
"Good, you'll keep that name then. Now then Raijin, about your first mission..."
"I'm ready anytime my lady! Just tell me what to do!"
"... go back to the spirit plane,"
"What?! I mean, Yes! My lady!" He looks so sad it's funny at that... Hehe.
"Don't be stupid. Go back and call more of your brethren to me. I want one of each element at least."
"At once!" I let him out of my inner mind and into my body. Huh, he went through my inner connection to the Lugos plane to reach the spirit realm. I guess that's because he's my bounded spirit now.
I spent the rest of my time um... 'taming' spirits. They're quite easy to brainwash, to be honest, and practicing my 'Impose' and 'Spirit Taming' skill over and over again levels it up pretty quickly. I do demand a formal contract of absolute obedience from then, since I'm not sure if the 'Spirit Taming' skill is enough to make them permanently loyal, especially if I let them out of my inner mind.
I finished brainwashing my three-hundredth spirit, a spirit of 'Howling Earth' as he calls himself, by then Mrs. Steiner calls for us to stop and head in for dinner. Ugh, I'm pretty tired for the busy afternoon... and I just realized we didn't get any playtime yet today! Damn her!
"Coming!" I yells as I run back to the house with Anne and Jill in tow.
Dinner is pretty good, beef stew with hard baked bread loaves.
"Now then, give me your hands, girls." Huh? She wants our hands? Oh, she mean just extend it... okay?
"Not a bad spirit, a little weak but you can improve it through training." Mrs. Steiner says after holding Anne's hand for second.
Oh sh*t, she's testing how many spirits we have? Ah, she has that 'Spiritual Sense' skill too! Uh oh, how am I going to explain the fifteen hundred spirits I have locked up in me? I tamed three hundred from each main elements. I've found that there are spirits of sub-elements, but for now I need just the ones of the big five elements.
Now then, back to the issue at the present, she's checking Jill's spirits now. I, or the other me, start grabbing the spirits milling around my body into inner mind. Gotta grab all of them saves three!
"Hmmm, its ok Jill, some people takes years to find the right spirit for them. I'm sure you'll find yours in no time."
"Ok Grandma!" Oh uh, that was too fast, I'm not done yet!
Ugh, f*ck it, let her be amazed at the thirty spirits left. She takes hold of my hand and I feel... 'something' probing me, sensing the spirits floating around in my body.
*Gasp* "My goddess! This many spirits on the first day?!" She looks downright shocked to her core.
"Told you I'm a genius!" Hehehe, I am a genius after all! You can't seriously have expected any less, right? And you don't even know the true number of spirits I have!
After she gets over her shock, she gives us a brief lecture on how to cooperate with the spirits. Pfft, like I need that. I have absolutely control over my spirits mwuahhahahahahahahhahaa!
That night, the other me in my inner mind tried an experiment as I sleep. If I can impose my will onto spirits... can I get them to combine? Maybe I can form stronger spirits that way?
It was both a success and a failure. My 'Impose' rank and level is high enough to force the lesser spirits of the same elements to become one, but not spirits of different elements... Hmm I guess I'll try that part later, when my skill's rank is higher.
Finally, in the dead of the night, I received the another notification after merging most of my spirits. Raijin thinks he's about back to his former strength as a God now, but he's still bounded to me hehehehehehehhehehe...
NotificationCongratulations! For having mastered such strong spirits within you, you have gained the stat: Spirit Pressure! Your spirits, and by extension you, are now strong enough to exert a heavy pressure to other spirits!
+1,500 Spirit Pressure!
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Author's Note: I Apologize to every reader following or just reading this story... I realized too late now that the two history chapters probably should have been slowly explained in a more natural way to blend it into the story, so I reorganized them into this chapter. I hope it fits better this way, and that you don't mind the reorganization of the recent chapters. Still got lots to learn I guess :P
I'm not ignoring the suggestion for a time skip, don't worry! It's just not the right time for it yet.
The awesome new PR is Delor, everyone! (This is the PR'd version!)