Chapter 63   - Decisiveness

Kai was left awkwardly standing there, alone. He was 90% sure Virya was having fun at his expense, but the other 10% worried him. Sometimes she went into long explanations, then, out of the blue, she decided it was time to end it abruptly. He could not figure her out.

I’m sure it was a joke. My vow wasn’t even that restrictive.

What was done was done. No point losing his mind over it. He was sure Virya would have told him if it was something truly dangerous. His reasoning calmed him down, but he couldn’t get rid of a small amount of apprehension in the back of his head.

Walking off the pavilion, Kai headed to Dora’s garden on the southern side of the estate. At least he had one normal teacher, more or less.

Following a familiar hummed tune, he went inside her laboratory. Juggling between two cauldrons and writing down in her notebook, Dora waved at him. “I’m almost done, dear.”

Her hands moved with incredible speed and precision, but it was nothing compared to the sight that welcomed him when he activated his Mana Sense. A small army of thin strands of mana seemed to dance around her.

Kai sat on a spare chair to wait for her to finish whatever she was brewing. She always said ‘almost done’. It could mean half a minute or half an hour.

He never got bored watching her work. It almost seemed as if she was moving following the rhythm of her tune. Using her mana with such finesse, he got a headache just imagining doing the same. He often wondered how high her skills and race must be. That was one of the few questions Dora refused to answer. He had not dared ask Elijah or Virya, their reply would be the same with the added risk of more unpleasant consequences for being so rude.

It felt unfair they knew everything about his status and he got almost nothing of theirs. After thinking about it for some time, it started to sound more reasonable. Not only for the difference in their standing, but for the importance of the info their statuses carry. Knowing his race and skills would be of limited help. In a few months to a year, it was going to be dated information. He was in a phase of rapid growth, they were not. Their statuses would reveal much more compromising information that wouldn’t turn useless after a short time.

About a week after he came back, Kai had tried to peek at Dora with Mana Sense and Inspect—he reasoned she wouldn’t be too upset if she discovered him. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to notice his skills, but it was useless, nonetheless. Not only was her mana network too complicated for him to make any sense, but it also looked weird. As if someone had scrambled it and added more lines on top. He recalled something similar had happened when he tried to Inspect the Fortuna, only that had been a ship and not a person.

The only thing he was sure of was that she had reached Yellow or higher. That density of mana couldn’t be faked.

The next step was to try Elijah. The result was as disappointing, but the stupid butler did notice him. He did not look too pleased. The glance he had thrown at him made him fear for the first time that he would get more than a bruise. Instead of feigning ignorance, Kai used Acting to show all his frustration at not being able to pull one over him.

Mana Sense and Acting deserved to stay up there with his top skills. Especially after he had used the lv50 threshold to specialize in improvisation. His quick thinking worked stroking Elijah’s ego and quenching his irritation. He had not gotten away unscathed during that training, but he could still stand on his feet.

Knowing that tempting fate again would be stupid, Kai asked Dora that same day.

“Little, rascal.” She put her hands at her sides and gave him a scolding look.

Kai smiled innocently. “I was just curious… How do you hide your mana network?”

It wasn’t a lie and blaming his thirst for knowledge was the best way to stroke Dora's heartstrings.

Her frown dissipated. “Well, I guess I can’t blame you for not knowing, but you should be more careful. Not many have skills to recognize when someone is inspecting them, but all those who do are usually best left alone.” She punctuated with a meaningful look.

“As for hiding your grade and profession, it’s actually very easy. Just a simple internal mana manipulation technique. There are thousands of different variations.” Dora disappeared into her house and reappeared less than 30 seconds later with a booklet and offered it to him. It was titled ‘How to Keep Snoopers Away – 5 simple exercises for your kids' with a colorful cover depicting a smiling kid with glowing mana threads around him.

“Try these and tell me how it goes. It shouldn’t be hard for you. With a little practice, it will become as easy as breathing.”

His big mouth had earned him another set of exercises. The theory was simple. Artificially change your mana channels in a way to mask your grade without compromising your mana flow. There was a whole field of study called ‘Human mana veins theory.’ His lack of knowledge wasn’t a problem as long as he followed the instructions in the book to the letter.

It was something else he would have to look into in the future. He would have liked to know why he had to modify the channel below his sternum instead of the smaller one an inch below. If he understood the underlying theory, he could then modify it to suit his needs. He doubted he was going to find a similar book in the Archipelago. Even in the Republic mainland, it was probably not something anyone could get their hands on.

The techniques shown in the booklet were only meant for children without a profession. Two for the Orange grade and three for Yellow. That had been a very humbling discovery, but it made sense. Most kids had no need to learn something like this, those who did were not going to be ordinary children.

The mystery of why she had this book lying around was soon dispelled when he noticed the name written on the front cover. The calligraphy was so strange and faded, he had mistaken it for a doodle at first. The style made it hard to read but it was only a word: ‘Elijah’.

Right then Dora finally finished brewing, bringing Kai back to the present.

“Here, it is! I tried a new recipe.” The alchemist proudly showed him a glass beaker full of a pale greenish sludge.

Kai gulped.

Can’t wait to taste it.

Having long learned his lesson, he accepted the suspicious potion and downed it in one go. The best he could do was avoid tasting or smelling it. Dora observed him carefully with eyes wide open.

“Is something supposed to happen?” He asked.

“No, no, dear… absolutely nothing…”

“Then why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Ehm… I’m looking at how the mana properties of the potion interact with your channels.”

“Okay…”

After a couple minutes with nothing strange happening, Dora stopped staring at him weirdly.

Apart from a sour aftertaste in his mouth, it seemed he was safe for today. “By the way, what was the other potion you were brewing?”

Dora’s movements stiffened. “Nothing important.”

Gosh, she is such a bad liar.

Moving towards the alchemy bench to see for himself, Kai noticed the second cauldron was empty. There was a glass vial containing a clear liquid beside it.

This didn’t look like one of her experimental recipes. “What is it, aunty?” Kai carefully picked up the vial to take a closer look. His Mana Sense confirmed it was a high red-tier potion.

Dora wouldn’t meet his gaze, making his suspicion grow. Taking off the cork, Kai took a whiff and immediately gagged at the rotten smell. It might not have the revolting appearance of the potion he drank, but it smelled much worse.

“It was just a precaution for a very unlikely event,” Dora mumbled.

Tapping his foot on the wooden boards of the floor, Kai put together the pieces of the puzzle. “Is it a purging potion? Was this supposed to make me vomit if something ‘very unlikely’ happened?”

“Maybe…”

“You could have warned me beforehand.”

“I didn’t want to make you worry for nothing, there was only a very small chance of an adverse reaction.”

Kai had long made peace with being used as a human test subject. He would not have survived Elijah’s training without them. He wasn’t sure what that potion had been, but the bruise on his forearm already felt better.

Well, at least she took precautions for the worst-case scenario, so I was in no real danger…

“Aunty, what do you know about blessings?” Since Dora felt guilty, he might as well take advantage to get some clearer answers.

“Not much, they are quite rare. Why?”

“I received one while I was in Greenside.”

Dora stopped fidgeting and put on her goggles, looking at him from different angles. “Does Lady Virya know?”

“Yes.”

“Then it shouldn’t be a problem. She is very knowledgeable on the subject.”

“She was very vague on the details. Could you perhaps tell me what you know? And also, what happens in case I break the vow I made.”

Dora froze for a moment, looking at him right in the eyes. No smile on her face. “What was the vow?”

“To honor a spirit with my actions.” Kai hesitatingly said.

“Oh, that. Yeah, it should be fine.” Dora broke the tension with a laugh. Taking the vial still in his hand, she started to clean up her alchemy equipment. “You know, Kai, for a moment you had me worried.”

“So, what happens if I break the vow?”

“Depends on the god that bestowed it, or spirit in your case. Usually, they just take the blessing back. It’s not pleasant from what I’ve heard, but not very dangerous either. There are some darker gods who enact more nasty retributions. But a local spirit shouldn’t have the power to do anything like that. They don’t get anything out of punishing you, only spend more energy. Unless you make it particularly angry, there is nothing to worry about.”

The weight on Kai’s mind was lifted. Couldn’t Virya just tell him this instead of being so vague?

“Does the blessing just increase my Favor?”

“It depends. I told you, I’m not an expert on this. Come on now, Kai, we have much to do today,” Dora said, going for the door.

Well, I think your guilt is worth more than that.

“I don’t feel so good, aunty.”

She turned to look at him and Kai started massaging his stomach as if he had cramps. “I think I’d rather stay inside today. Didn’t you tell me you would start teaching me runes soon?”

The alchemist hesitated by the door. “I told you that yesterday…”

Making use of Acting, Kai gave her his best pleading look.

“I guess we can start today.”

I might be a human subject, but at least I’m a paid one.

Twenty minutes later they were sitting at the table in the kitchen. A pile of blank papers and a heavy leather-bound book stood in front of Kai. He dreamily looked at the arcane symbols on the cover. If he was alone, he might have started caressing it.

Kai could hardly hide his excitement. Finally, they started to study some magic. It had been little more than a year since he first came to the estate in search of a magic teacher. In the beginning, the problem was his limited skill slots and low stats. After reaching Orange, he had to get used to the new grade. Then he went back to Greenside and now he had been back for more than a month.

He was sure Dora was right in telling him he had to shore up his foundations and not rush ahead, but he was tired of waiting. He didn’t know much about runes, but he knew they were used to make magic items. Every mage should learn at least the basics—according to his teachers.

His fingers tapped impatiently on the table. He wanted to open the book and learn its secrets, but Dora was keeping her hand on the cover.

“Be patient, dear. What do you know of runes?”

“That they can be used to create magical effects? Can we cast a spell now?”

“Yeah, I think we’ll need to start from something simpler…”

Opening one of the first pages of the book, Dora showed him a rune made of three swirling patterns. “Here this is an ice rune. Perfect to keep food fresh for longer.”

“How does it work?” Kai leaned closer to the page till he was inches away from the paper.

“Well, you need to be able to draw it first.”

Kai looked at the complicated swirling patterns. “How precise do I need to be exactly?”

“It needs to be a perfectly identical copy.”

Without letting himself get discouraged, Kai grabbed a pencil and started scribbling. In the first hour, there was a noticeable improvement, after that things slowed down. No matter how slow and meticulous he was, he didn’t feel like he was getting any closer. He had already filled pages upon pages with squiggling attempts.

“Is this even possible?” Kai complained after failing for the thousandth time.

Dora smiled. “Well, I was waiting for you to ask that. I didn’t think you would persist for so long. To complete a rune, it’s important to know its proportion. Look here.” She showed him a piece of paper with a perfectly drawn ice rune sectioned by several lines.

Please spirits, tell me this is not going to become a geometry lesson.

After a lengthy explanation, Kai couldn’t help but admit that Dora might have a point. He had been so eager to learn that he had not stopped to think about how to better tackle the problem.

For the rest of the day, he focused on completing each section of the rune on a pencil grid before trying to tackle the whole again. He proudly looked at the result. It was perfect. Well, almost. Dora soon pointed out some minor flaws.

Kai’s head hung low. A notification pinged him in the corner of his eyes, making his mood do a one-eighty.

No way. I got the skill.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Drawing (lv1) – With dextrous hands and a creative mind, there are no limits to what you can make on paper.

Kai grumbled. Why couldn’t anything be easy? Probably because then everyone would do it, a random thought answered.

Not helping, stupid brain.

“Don’t worry, Kai. You made very good progress.”

“It’s not that. I got the Drawing skill.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!”

“Yeah, but I was hoping it was runes skill.”

“Orange skills are not so easy to get, dear. Anyway, Drawing will help you gain Runes earlier.”

“Mhmm…” Kai summoned his skills.

Running (lv77>80)

Swimming (lv75>79)

Meditation (lv66>68)

Awareness (lv55>57)

Herbology (lv57>61)

Acting (lv48>52)

Processing – Plants (lv38>41)

Sneak (lv11>20)

Swordmanship (lv1>17)

Mana Sense (lv42>44)

Mana Manipulation (lv12>15)

Alchemy (lv9>11)

Inspect (lv8>12)

Empower (lv1>4)

No number of skill slots would ever be enough. He already had to sacrifice Keen Ears and Reading to get Swordsmanship and Empower. Running and Swimming were proceeding well, but still far from evolving.

If he wanted to have lofty goals, he couldn’t hesitate with every minor choice.

*Ding*

Do you wish to discard Sneak (lv20)? Be aware this choice is irreversible.

Guess, this is inevitable. Not many chances to use it at the estate. I can always pick it up again later.

Kai sent the mental command. A wave of nausea and vertigo immediately hit him. He leaned on the table waiting for it to end.

No pain no gain.

*Ding*

Congratulations! You have learned Drawing (lv1) – With dextrous hands and a creative mind, there are no limits to what you can make on paper.