Chapter 38: Last Days – Part 2

Chapter 38: Last Days – Part 2

Training my soul manipulation is very tiring, it's very similar to trying to cast two spells at once. Another thing I need a sub-process for. If only there was something similar to [Mana Control] to aid me.

I focus my soul out of my body, open my eyes, try to maintain soul there, repeat. I feel like I'm getting a cramp inside my brain.

We leave early for the university so I can send my thesis to Mathias.

"This is amazing, Mr. Ryder!" Mathias gushes while flipping through the pages of my thesis.

"In exchange for my thesis I want a 'Scholar' title," I say.

Mathias stops and looks at me, his gaze is now serious.

"We don't give the title to just about anyone. You understand that this title grants you the privilege to access any restricted library of the empire, correct?"

"Correct, I'm not looking for anything specific from the restricted area," I lie, "I'm mostly looking for accessing a wide breadth of knowledge in general. I have my slave, Lina, collect any sort of historical account, I'm planning on compiling it all in more comprehensive encyclopedias."

"Hm, a rather noble effort," he taps his desk repeatedly.

"It's one of the reasons I want to travel the world," I say and smile.

"Very well, I believe you will manage it. For the title you will have to defend your thesis in front of the university's council, understood?" He asks.

"Yes, can you schedule one soon? By next day of Fo I have to leave Rabanara so I want to defend it before that. I'm sorry for the hurry but it took me a while to finish this thesis."

"I think it can be arranged, a number of professors are interested in your work with [Golemancy] so I will deliver it to them posthaste!" Mathias shakes my papers with enthusiasm.

"Thank you for that," I say and bow lightly.

"It's the least I could do to someone blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge."

Last Mana Cost class, we have one last discussion about the skill. Professor Vareto starts to say a speech but his voice is so soporific that I have to focus on examining my spells to stay awake.

I discover that the speed in which the weapon forms in [Vine Weapon] can be greatly increased if I modify the way it is formed. The spell folds vines on top of one another and "ages" them, if I put my hand on a bucket of mineral [Conjured Water] and cast [Vine Weapon], the aging basically petrifies the vines, making them brittle, but strong enough that they can be used as projectiles.

If I can cast both spells at the same time I can create javelins in 2-5 seconds depending on concentration. I could teach this to Lina and it would be much more practical than pulling out javelins from her [Item Box].

During break Toroo waves her hand to us to catch our attention, "Everyone, I have some news," she says, barely containing her excitement, "I'm pregnant!"

"That's amazing!" Alissa says and grabs Toroo's hand, who nods repeatedly. Toroo's large eyes are squished by her raised cheeks due to her wide smile.

"Congratulations, joy and honor for the couple," Gimbo says.

Lina's Trivia: couples wait 3 to 5 years before their first child so they can properly "get used" to each other, since people marry easily this is a necessary tradition to prevent bad marriages. Once the couple lasts that long and they have their first child the couple is said to be "honorable" due to having fulfilled their duty of continuing the wishes of the God of Creation.

We repeat Gimbo's congratulations and Toroo takes them with pride, her feathery "ears" on top of her head seem to increase in size. Hatara looks at Garanae mischievously, his posture straightens and he shifts uncomfortably.

She's merely playing with him, nobility live longer so they wait even longer than commoners to have children. I wonder how menopause is affected by the increased longevity of Levels.

"Say, Mr. Ryder," Gimbo turns to me as the girls fawn over Toroo, even Lina is joining them. "Since Lina's training is coming to an end I wish to speak with you."

"Oh, sure, please do tell me how she behaved," I say and send a quick glance towards Lina, her face seems cramped.

I get up and put my chair beside Gimbo, the lack of Lina and Alissa's hands makes mine feel oddly cold.

"I don't really have any complaints, I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity of teaching her," Gimbo says.

I lift my eyebrows in surprise and say, "I should be the one thank you for agreeing to teach her, a slave."

"Nonsense,-" he closes his eyes and shakes his head lightly- "useless dwarven pride getting in the way of letting the Spark turn into Fire."

Lina's Trivia: the Spark turns into Fire when Creation "spreads like wildfire".

"Still, I must thank you, her enchanting knowledge has been a great help and will continue to do so," I lower my head to him.

"And I must thank you for bringing her to me, it has been a long time since I have someone as dedicated as her," he lowers his head to me. "She managed to even charm my wife, or maybe it was the opposite. No matter, when you can, bring her to visit us, we would love to see her again," he says and smiles warmly at Lina.

"I will, I have a few friends in this town so I will come back one day."

"Make sure you don't take too long, I'm already 100 years old, I might last one decade but two would be pushing it," he says and chuckles faintly.

Well damn, that's some genetics.

"That would be too long indeed. We plan on sightseeing, shouldn't spend too long in any single place."

"I know your kind," he sends me a glance, "wanderlust has a way of making us drift from our path. It took me 5 years to cross Avgi while it should have taken only a few months."

"So you used to like adventuring?"

"More like I used to enjoy fattening up eating delicacies from every town we visited. It's a wonder me and my wife aren't fat."

I chuckle lightly, but this is a true concern, if we go to Faium I might get fat from all the chocolate.

"Of all places you should go to Conchononoi," he continues, "they have a very sweet tea with a soft taste, it's rather energizing. They call it 'filía', it has a novel way of drinking it too."

"How is it prepared?"

"You mash dry leaves of their herb and add hot water, you drink from the mush that forms with a special straw with small holes that keeps the larger chunks away. My recommendation is to drink the cold version with Tonsel."

That sounds too similar to something I know. Could it be? Chocolate is not the only thing that was copied from Earth?

"Sounds like a good place to visit."

"Make sure you visit the The Fissure or Auri Yorei, seeing the flood and feeling the town rise above the water is quite an interesting feeling. Oh, and spend at least one night sleeping in the open at the grasslands of Elaria, the air over there is more refreshing than anywhere else," his eyes seem less tired as he speaks with excitement.

"In the open? I thought dwarves preferred to sleep in small and cozy places with a rock roof above their heads."

He chuckles once and rolls his eyes, "If one thing we dwarves know about is that ventilation and freshness of air is essential for soft and supple skin."

I guess that dwarves aren't oily cave-dwellers.

Tomorrow is [Space Magic] final test so I use Hana to test my [Gravity Crush] to keep her in place. It works rather well since I can fake a short chant and attack at the same time.

After appeasing Hana I have Alissa give me some scratch marks. She's syncing the sinking of her nails on my flesh with the moment I orgasm, bringing me to new heights thought not possible.

"How are your parents, Alissa? You think they will like me?" I ask, basking in post-coitus clarity with Alissa in my arms.

"They will," she says and kisses my naked chest, "Dad will play it tough a little just to see how you react, he doesn't like cowards. Mom will act cold and slowly warm up, she's not the most trusting or friendly, dealing with the other clans too much made her like that."

"I guess we will be fine, then."

"We will, if Dad goes too far I will scratch his face," she pouts cutely.

I chuckle lightly, "How does your dad look like?"

"Dad is big and muscular and he loves his long red beard. He barely looks like other werefoxes, we aren't really a tall people."

"Well you can say I'm getting used to dealing with people bigger than me."

"That's a given since there's no other humans shorter than you," Roxanne says and I reach over to pinch her naked butt. She evades my attack by jumping out of bed, she stands and readjusts her glasses, "Not this time, aha-AH!"

Aoi bites her butt and giggles.

"Traitor!"

Aoi gives her a lick on the bite mark and Roxanne shivers. "Her tongue is so slippery," she says.

Alissa turns to me and raises her eyebrows at me repeatedly, I start to sweat cold.

"Say Aoi, you wanted to learn what a kiss is like?" Alissa asks.

"Kweh? Yess, please."

"Come over here and I will show you," she extends her arms and Aoi scurries to the bed. "Bigger, please," she asks and Aoi turns into medium dog size.

"See, do it like this," Alissa pulls Hana closes and shoves her tongue inside Hana's mouth. Their tongues seek each other, twisting and rubbing, their lips don't touch so Aoi can see the movements.

Since we already finished our tests we go home. Lina is with Hana at the hunter's guild sparring; Roxanne comes back from selling some of her potions; Ciel is at the temple showing off her [Holy-, I mean, training her [Judgment].

I recruit Alissa and keep messing with her skill points, trying to find where in the soul is the skill stored.

"What do you feel?" I ask as Alissa casts [Telekinesis] on a cup of tea.

"We, do, not, feel," Ted says.

"Right, what do you sense, can you sense the mana inside Alissa?"

"We, feel, a, dis-tur-bance, a, for-ce," Suzy says.

"Can you copy it?"

They tilt their heads in sync.

"Not, sure," Ted says.

I see the differences in the soul when I add or remove skills, but I can't feel the entire extent. It seems skills are something that stretches for a good part of the soul.

Ted lifts one of his fluffy arms in the direction of an empty tea cup. I feel a wild burst of mana come out of his arm, the tea cup shakes and explodes in hundreds of little pieces. Ted falls over face-down, his body limp.

The clay golem summons immediately start to move again and sweep the dust.

"Oh shit, Ted, you okay?" I ask.

Alissa quickly grabs Ted and checks all over his body for damage.

I put on [Spirit Magic] and cast [Soul Touch]. I feel his soul is "gooey", it's constantly shivering and moving, something wrong happened inside him.

The spell acts like a [Regeneration] for the soul and slowly puts his soul back in piece, returning it to it's "structured" form.

Roxanne comes down and peeks over the room. "Did something happen?" She asks.

"Kweh! Ex-plode!"

"Gih."

"Ted tried to cast a spell and it seems to have failed spectacularly," I say.

"Oh no!" Roxanne yells and rushes over to the little teddy bear.

Ted recovers lucidity and starts to move again. He escapes from Alissa's arms and looks over his handiwork.

"I, fai-led, my, task," he says and bows, "for-give-ness, ne-ces-sa-ry."

"It's fine," I say and Ted straightens, Alissa snatches him and she and Roxanne ask him if he's really okay. "I think I gave them too much mana. I copied Hana and Alissa's mana organ but they are an adult's organ, the golems are like newborns with their mana control."

"They should have the soul of an elemental so maybe they can cast [Earth Magic] spells correctly?" Alissa asks.

"Elementals manipulate the elementas, they don't really cast spells the same way we do," Roxanne says.

"[Earth Wall] should be close enough," I say.

We move outside and I show the spell to the golems. This time we let Suzy cast.

She only manages to raise a flimsy wall, but at least she didn't turn her soul to mush.

"Maybe the bodies of the elemental also influence on their spellcasting," Roxanne says.

"Makes sense, we know the storm elementals' bodies are valuable due to the mana they hold, kind of like a mana crystal for staffs," I say.

"So elementals are essentially just huge, sentient, mana crystals?" Alissa asks.

"Cor-rect, as-sump-tion," Suzy says.

"So, does Gecynd shit crystals?" Roxanne asks with a chuckle.

"Gihih," Gify chirps a muffled laugh, his claws cover his mouth.

"If it creates an elemental then she more like births them," I say.

"That sounds horrible," Alissa says.

"And painful," Roxanne says.

Gify stares at where our tree in the front yard should be and I get a shiver, hopefully Gecynd didn't hear that.

We teach the golems [Earth Bullet], [Earth Wall], and [Dust Storm]. They learn how to cast easily but have extreme difficulty in controlling the spell.

Roxanne starts training them in [Mana Control] alongside Aoi while I focus on [Soul Manipulation].

During bath I require massage on my bruised member. I grab Lina by the waist and lower her on me, slowly we grind on each other. She deserves some rewards for succeeding with [Double Strike] so Ciel massages her from behind. Her mouth is occupied by either of us so by the end of it she's out of breath and melting on my arms with a silly smile on her face.

At night Hana shows us her progress with [Illusion Magic], she can create 3 arms and attack at the same time, with this even Toga has difficulty winning against her. To survive you either full dodge or take the risk and try to parry, trying to parry all attacks at the same time is basically impossible.

"Wolfy, can you start to show me [Water Spirit]?" Roxanne asks.

I look at Ciel and she nods.

"Sure."

I sit down and hug her tight, she nuzzles her face on my neck and my nose is filled with her lavender perfume plus some faint sweet perfume from a high elven skin cream.

I put my points into [Water Magic] and call the spirit. A ball of water forms on my palm, it changes into the face of a little mermaid. Ink appears from the ball of water and takes the color of unnaturally white skin, a black fish body, and black algae hair. Her face might be cute but certainly resembles Roxanne, even her shell-covered breasts are the same size, if Roxanne was half a meter tall. A trident made out of coral grows from her hand.

Once completely summoned, the mermaid "swims" in the air, giggling.

Ciel's [Holy Spirit] stops walking and face plants as she loses concentration and I see the "hugging eyes" show themselves.

"Why does yours continues moving when you don't pay attention while mine stops?" Ciel says and pouts.

"I heard something that [Summoning Magic] alters the soul, a part of it turns similar to the summon's soul," I say, "could be the same principle."

"Then give me a point in [Summoning Magic]," Ciel says and I obey. She casts [Summon Small Bird] and sways while sitting, nearly falling over Lina on her lap.

"How did... how did you get used to this?" Ciel asks, trying to hold her dinner in.

"You just do, you have to force yourself."

"His 'Willpower' is slightly higher than yours," Alissa says.

Ciel nods and gathers her resolve.

A while later I have to wake up Roxanne. I almost suspect she used the excuse of training to fall asleep in my arms, since tonight is Lina and Ciel's day she must be trying to score some out of her time.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons.

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Oracle Maximillian Hübner.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord SenilePenile.

Lord Hope.

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Noble Salty Panda.