No, that’s just her working persona.
She hides her proper self in a shell, from the way she was keeping her past bottled up. She has a cute and goofy side, after all. I can’t go with the book cover, here. Hmm, I’m more used to singing cheerful songs anyways. Also, considering the theme, a Christmas song might be better, although that would confuse Tasianna. Wait, maybe I should ask her if there are any winter-based Peolyncian holidays and celebrations, first? Maybe there’s a Christmas equivalent in this world.
“Hestia!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
While I was deep in thought, planning my first ever idol performance, somebody suddenly tugged on my tail, surprising me to the point I made a loud yelp. Noticing no hostile intents, I turned my head around with slight annoyance, neither baring my fangs or claws.
Looking at the woman who pulled my tail, I could only think how childish it was of her as she tried to suppress her laughter. “You really love teasing me, right, Saori?”
Gleefully wearing a smirk, my wolf friend giggled as she answered, "Hie, sorry, you were so concentrated on your drawing that I was unable to draw your attention. I just wanted to tell you Tasianna and I were about to go outside the cave and we wanted to know if you wanted to come with us.”
“Outside? Brrr, I have to wear this bear fur here, as if I want to go somewhere colder,” I replied with a grimace, showing off the giant pelt from the [Rock-Skin Horned Grizzly] I was using to cover my shivering body. “I know I don’t like caves because of [The Light] but this one is small enough that it doesn’t matter. I can still see the entrance.”
“Oh, wonderful. I do miss your New Yorker accent, but I believe your current one is much better. More refined and less crude, just as I wanted it to be.” Saori grinned, looking proud like a parent or older sister who managed to raise her little sister up correctly.
“Stop teasing me, it’s because of Tasianna. She didn’t know many colloquialisms or abbreviations,” I sighed in exasperation.
Before I began speaking Common tongue well, my accent and way of speaking was pretty crude. Imitated from the people on the streets and students from other schools I met at a bubble tea place. However, as I continued learning this Peolyncian language from Tasianna in addition to us three mostly speaking telepathically, I’d slowly been losing my old accent while getting influenced by Tasianna’s.
Learning a new language really depended on from whom you learned it, as you will inevitably copy your teacher's accent. While that may have an effect, what influenced it the most was when you speak with others. Take it from me, I learned my usual accent when I started mingling with people outside of my parent’s friendship circle, causing me to drop the accent I learned from my etiquette teacher.
Unfortunately, after speaking with the lizardmen and Tasianna, I’d accepted that my accent would change since the pronunciations of Common words were far different. I couldn’t pronounce certain words correctly and Tasianna would chastise me if I tried to speak as I usually did.
It was sad more of my past self was disappearing, but so was life, right? This was my new life, after all. Besides, urgh, Tasianna might be extremely loyal to me, but if it came to her duties, she could be pretty stubborn. I felt PTSD from how Tasianna was teaching me. It was almost as if my old etiquette teacher stood before me! Brrr!
“So, what are you doing?” Saori asked.
“Oh, this? Well, fulfilling my promise to you, of course!” I answered.
Yesterday, after I cried for the first time in nearly a decade, I made a promise to Saori to show her my first idol performance. Not some half-ass one or the one during my “Idol concert strategy,” but a full-fledged and properly prepared idol performance I would be proud of.
Maybe, I was putting a bit too much pressure on myself, but I ought to do so. I cried; I broke that oath I made in my past life. Sure, it was healthy. I was finally expressing my feelings properly, instead of bottling them up. I did feel better, I felt liberated that I was able to just let everything out, even if it did last a whole day until I fell asleep with puffy eyes.
However, it still meant I broke a pretty personal promise. If I didn’t want that oath to go to waste, I had to put my all into the concert’s planning. I had to finally act like a proper artist, not some wannabe dreamer. The song, choreography, outfit, special effects, etc. There were quite a lot of things that I needed to do for prep.
“Hmm, are you writing a song? That is English, correct?” Saori asked as she looked at the words on the ground.
Having no paper was pretty inconvenient but thankfully I was strong enough to just scratch everything into the ground. All that handiwork training I had until now had really benefited me, making me get used to using my strength in my dragonewt form.
"Yeah, I'm still figuring out the theme so I'm just playing around with words. I wanted to try writing it in Common tongue but speaking and writing are completely different, especially when certain words have different meanings," I answered.
“True. Metaphors and similes are used quite often in songs, I believe? Figures of speech may be easy for fluent speakers, but we have merely started,” Saori agreed to my statement.
Flowery or poetic speech iwas a staple in songs as the best songwriters could intertwine words to form a story or image. Of course, there were simple ones with the sole role of just making you happy and fluffy inside, but I wanted to make meaningful songs in the future. Call it a lyricist's pride.
"Well, I am glad you are being strong, however, do remember that we still have over a month left for you to work on it. Ask us if you need help. Do not overexert yourself and keep everything to yourself," Saori lectured me.
“I know, I won’t. I want it to be perfect but collapsing on the day that I would perform would not only be embarrassing but dreadful for me. I promise I’ll take it easy,” I answered, making Saori nod in contentment. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Saori, speaking of helping out! An outfit! We need new clothes now!”
Grabbing Saori, I shook her like crazy causing her to let out “huhs" like mad, "Hestia, let go, please! I am already working on yours, Tasianna's, and mine. They require time!"
“Oh, Tasianna needs one? Oh right, her elven form doesn’t have any clothes!” I snapped my fingers, remembering that mana dresses do not grow with the user.
Agreeing that we had to get new clothes, I called out for Tasianna who promptly rushed over to us in a panic. “Lady Hestia! Is there anything that you need?”
Explaining to her how we three needed new clothes, I got Tasianna to agree to stop her plan to go out today, which made Saori a bit mad at me. I had to persuade her she could use me as a dress-up doll as much as she wanted so she would stop looking at me as if I was an irresponsible teen.
I knew we ought to scout our position but delaying it by a day wouldn’t be the end of the world. When I scouted using my [Detection Sensor] this morning, I honestly didn’t sense that many monsters. Even if I did find something, they weren’t something I would consider a threat. There was no need to rush with how defensive of a position a cave could be.
“Hmm, are you sure you want me to do this now, or when you reached level ten in [Humanize]. I believe you will grow again, right?” Saori asked as she did my measurements.
“I mean sure, but I don’t want to waste any of my SP on leveling it up when it’ll level over time… although, I would love to have my 15-year-old body back,” I stated with a pout. “I have a total of 5600 SP now but… you know, we aren’t in the Belzac forest anymore. Who knows when I’ll get a new level.”
“Oh, speaking of level and SP, Lady Hestia, what will you evolve into?” Tasianna remind me as she helped Saori measure me.
After that little rampage I had, I gained enough experience to reach the final level of rank C. I could finally evolve into a rank B, the same rank as those three wyverns, if I wanted to.
“I don’t know yet.” I shrugged. “The thing is, I haven’t actually looked through my list of evolutions yet. I actually was planning to use my remaining SP to learn some new skills to get a wider range of evolutions, but I’ve been preoccupied with planning the idol performance for you two.”
“Mhmm, this will take a while so why not look it over? Both the evolution and skill list will take a while for you to look through. It would give us something to talk about,” Saori suggested.
Well, she’s right. Ok, might as well get this over with. Girls? Let’s get to it.
Evolution
[Young Black-Wrath Dragon]
[Young Angel Dragon]
[Young Lava Dragon]
[Young Magma Dragon]
[Young Volcano Dragon]
[Young Thunder Dragon]
[Young Mana Dragon]
[Young Arcane Corrupter Dragon]
[Young Noxious Blight Dragon]
[Young Dreadflame Dragon]
[Young Hellblade Dragon]
Huh, more options than I thought.
‘Oh holy moly, so we have a choice of becoming something like a leader for a group of lava and magma dragons,’ Manager Mind commented.
‘Yeah sure, but look at Dreadflame and Hellblade. I guess we should have anticipated an evolved version of [Young Spark Inferno Dragon],’ parallel mind #2 remarked with interest, clapping like crazy. ‘Dreadflame seems to make our already powerful fire magic even stronger, while Hellblade would improve our body. I do hope we won’t lose one of them upon evolving. That would be a scam.’
‘Ehhh?! Come on, girls. Look at that [Young Noxious Blight Dragon]. I want to already veto that option!’ #3 shouted. "Its description is frightening, and I get the feeling we will be hunted down if we took it! Besides, ewwwww, sludge!”
‘Am I the only one who is interested in [Young Thunder Dragon]? It’s quite low-key compared to the others, but the descriptions sounds rad,’ #4 stated.
Sure, but that’s not our endgame, right, girls? Come on, let’s go to the skill shop.
As impressive as these dragons sounded, I was actually a bit more interested in expanding my horizons here. If you looked at my current skill set, you would notice I had quite a few skills which improved my fire attacks or were related somehow to it.
My unique skill [Spark Fire Dragon] by itself was already an amplifier while also granting me quite a lot of dragon abilities with the element fire as a focus, especially [Spark Claws] and [Spark Fangs] which were the only abilities I had for close combat. Then again, I was a mage, so this was enough for now.
On the other hand, my other elements lacked firepower due to having no amplifying-like skills. One of the reasons why I wanted [Venerated Saintess] from my follower milestone was to make my light spells hit harder. I didn’t want to be a one-trick pony here, something that I painfully learned from the garm matriarch.
Thankfully, I’d been able to broaden my fighting ability by getting [Toxic Secretion] and [Poison Creation] which enabled me to produce and use different assortments of toxins. I also had [Trap Creation] which gave me the ability to make bombs.
I wasn’t a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none juet yet. I was still very skewed towards magic, while my defenses and melee-combat were pretty lacking, compared to the wyverns I meant. If the female snow wyvern had fought me with the intent to kill, she probably could overwhelm me with her frozen wings and such. She wouldn’t need her breath or magic, presumably.
As such, my B rank evolution had to either cover these flaws up, or I had to commit fully into a glass cannon build. Considering how strong those wyverns were, I had to make sure I chose the correct one. Whenever we meet again, I had to be ready and strong enough to fend them off. Well, I only had to worry about it if Saori or Tasianna couldn’t keep up with me.
Not to mention, there was also the [Battle Frenzy] problem. The leviathan mentioned I could learn to control it from Kargryxmor, right? Meeting with him was even more important now that I saw what would happen if I left it unsolved. Maybe there was a band-aid skill until I could? I was still planning on meeting with Aurena, first, after all.
With my many objectives established, I sent my parallel minds back into the battlefield of the skill shop. There were hundreds of skills in there that would make you just dizzy if you looked at it. However, I couldn’t take all of them, since I had limited SP.
Some were too expensive due to lacking affinity, for example [Water Magic] and [Dark Magic]. Even then, I didn’t want to buy them, just to not use them. I already had a ton of skills and abilities, having more wouldn’t help me exactly. In fact, too many options could become a detriment. I had to choose something and become a master with it. A sound foundation would lead to success, after all, not millions of shaky pillars.
With a proper idea of what I was searching for, I could pin down specific skills to make it easier on myself. Randomly looking around would prove futile, after all. Without any keywords, you could imagine it like trying to search for a niche video on YouTube, frustrating yourself ‘cause you no matter how much you tried, you couldn’t remember that funny or awesome video you watched two days ago, or something.
I better do something, too. How about this category: Display skills that protect you from mental status effects like [Battle Frenzy]
Skill List
Sort by: Mental protection skills
[Mental Corruption Resistance] [Mind Protection]
… Is this all?
‘Original Mind, you have to understand that we already got a few when we last had a skill buying session. Remember [Mental Stability] and [Mental Warfare]?’ #2 said. 'We found a few skills that might interest you. Want to look them over?'
Feeling a bit irritated from the lack of choice, I simply agreed to my parallel mind’s suggestion and sorted through the skills they found. Considering my goal was to increase our evolution choices, I had to make sure I chose the beneficial ones with my limited SP reserve.
There was also the fact I could try leveling a few skills up and hope to merge them into others to create an entirely new skill or even a superior version. That was the case when my [Enhanced Fangs] and [Enhanced Claws] transformed into [Draconic Fangs] and [Draconic Claws], respectively.
As I was mulling in my thoughts, I thought it would be useful to get some outside opinions. As efficient as my parallel minds were, they were still me at the end of the day.
Having explained both my evolutions and also my current plan to improve my skill set to my two companions, I awaited their responses. The first to speak was Tasianna.
“Hmm, Lady Hestia, I believe you still remember the concept of ‘Custom Spells,’ correct?”
“Urgh, yes. Speaking of custom spells, I really have to get my own spell to finally work. That was so embarrassing when it fizzled out.” I frowned at that memory.
My only custom spell currently was [Imperial Hellfire], a spell I somehow created during my battle with the garms. Sadly, I couldn’t even call it a spell, really. It was a disappointment. I thought I had everything prepared but when it just failed on me during my fight with Asterios, the Boltreaver Wyvern, I could only describe that experience as a blow to my pride. It was humiliating.
“I agree, you still haven’t mastered writing and reading yet. I wouldn’t call you a novice, my lady, far from it, in fact. However, custom spells are meant to be harder to create,” Tasianna began her explanation. “There are two types of spell concepts — System and custom spells. The former comes from the Divine System and are spells the System helps you cast, while the latter is the traditional method before the Divine System was created. People created spells through hard work.”
“You explained that to me already. To cast a custom spell, most of the hard work has to be done by the mage. That means I’m responsible for creating the Invocation, Incantation, and Activation,” I answered. “Not only must I be able to imagine the process, but I also have to make the incantation and magic circle on my own. That’s why I’ve been learning Common tongue from you. I needed to know how to pronounce the words correctly while also knowing the vocabulary to fill the runes for my magic circle.”
However, that didn’t mean they were unaffected by the System. Custom spells were still improved by your Intelligence and Wisdom stats, in addition to any other skills like [Magic Power Enhancement]. Think of it like so: you had to cast the spell without the System’s aid but anything that helped your System spells would also affect your custom spells.
At my current state, I was able to imagine how my [Imperial Hellfire] was supposed to work and I’d already translated my incantation into Common tongue. The only thing that was left was my magic circle. If I only was able to read and write back then, maybe I would have been able to scare those wyverns away.
“Exactly. Which brings me back to my point,” Tasianna raised one finger as she explained her thoughts. “The System is a wonderful gift from the gods, but you shouldn’t restrict your strength to it alone. Elves, masters of the arcane, have long understood they had to adapt their ancient arts and wisdom with the System to grow even stronger. Even without the full support of the System, I believe you can develop your own power.”
“During my first two months in this world, you mentioned something very intriguing to me, Hestia,” Saori added. “‘Stats aren’t everything,’ instead, focus on improving your skills, and I believe you meant both definitions. Level up your skills as they will help you in combat while also remembering that you must master them, also.”
Placing a hand on my chin, I thought over what they said, “So, you guys are suggesting I focus on quality instead of quantity? Hmm, if that is so then it would be better for me to search for superior versions of my current skill sets, or maybe level my current ones up.”
“Come now, depending on if Tasianna’s memory of Peolynca’s map is correct, we might not have to endanger ourselves for very long anymore. You have time to think it through, Hestia, something I would personally endorse, too," Saori remarked. "As we are a team, I also would like to suggest that we choose our SP investments depending on our team's needs. We should complement each other, after all."
“Oh, that is a wonderful idea, Miss Saori! I haven’t spent my SP yet, so it has been accumulating ever since we fought those Panguanas,” Tasianna stated. “Now that I have the body of a wind elf, I should experiment a bit with it. My lack of wings is infuriating. I feel as if a part of me is lost.”
“Hmm? Didn’t you say that wind elves are the mortal children of Zephira and one of her subordinate gods? I thought that you would be more excited about it.” I titled my head.
According to Tasianna, Zephira, the Goddess of Winds, once took up the hand of a mortal high elf and granted him godhood, all so she could make him into her husband. Now called by his divine name ‘“Krunal,” he acts as the God of Weather and Harvest while also being the ancestral father of the wind elves.
“I’m afraid I must betray your expectations, Lady Hestia. The wind elves, although having an incredible affinity for wind magic, are merely like any other elves, so this body doesn’t grant me as many advantages as you might believe,” Tasianna shot my idea down. “As my real identity is that of a fairy, a Faefolk, my current body also doesn’t have any flesh or blood. I am purely made of mana and still possess the same weakness as my fairy body, despite having lost my ability to fly."
Wow, she seems pretty down about that fact.
“But Tasianna, was not your goal for buying [Elvenize] being able to serve Hestia some of your tea?” Saori remarked.
“You… You are absolutely correct, Miss Saori! I must make tea! I CAN FINALLY MAKE TEA AND SERVE IT TO THE BOTH OF YOU! Only the finest tea for my Mistress and Miss Saori!” Tasianna jumped on her feet and went back to our campfire, getting ready to brew a warm tea. “I must find a tea making skill. There must be one in the skill shop! A divine tea to please Princess Hestia’s regal tongue! Depth Goddess, Goddess Zephira, thank you!”
…
“… She seems pretty excited now,” Saori said.
I gave a chuckle while making a wry smile, “Well, she’s happy and we get a warm tea to keep us warm for it, so who cares?”
Saori shrugged and then suddenly produced a black mana string, prompting me to ask her where she got it.
“Oh, this? Well, while you and Tasianna were talking about what skills you wanted to buy, I looked over my own skill shop and managed to find [Elemental Mana Weaving Lv. 1].”
No, that’s just her working persona.
She hides her proper self in a shell, from the way she was keeping her past bottled up. She has a cute and goofy side, after all. I can’t go with the book cover, here. Hmm, I’m more used to singing cheerful songs anyways. Also, considering the theme, a Christmas song might be better, although that would confuse Tasianna. Wait, maybe I should ask her if there are any winter-based Peolyncian holidays and celebrations, first? Maybe there’s a Christmas equivalent in this world.
“Hestia!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
While I was deep in thought, planning my first ever idol performance, somebody suddenly tugged on my tail, surprising me to the point I made a loud yelp. Noticing no hostile intents, I turned my head around with slight annoyance, neither baring my fangs or claws.
Looking at the woman who pulled my tail, I could only think how childish it was of her as she tried to suppress her laughter. “You really love teasing me, right, Saori?”
Gleefully wearing a smirk, my wolf friend giggled as she answered, "Hie, sorry, you were so concentrated on your drawing that I was unable to draw your attention. I just wanted to tell you Tasianna and I were about to go outside the cave and we wanted to know if you wanted to come with us.”
“Outside? Brrr, I have to wear this bear fur here, as if I want to go somewhere colder,” I replied with a grimace, showing off the giant pelt from the [Rock-Skin Horned Grizzly] I was using to cover my shivering body. “I know I don’t like caves because of [The Light] but this one is small enough that it doesn’t matter. I can still see the entrance.”
“Oh, wonderful. I do miss your New Yorker accent, but I believe your current one is much better. More refined and less crude, just as I wanted it to be.” Saori grinned, looking proud like a parent or older sister who managed to raise her little sister up correctly.
“Stop teasing me, it’s because of Tasianna. She didn’t know many colloquialisms or abbreviations,” I sighed in exasperation.
Before I began speaking Common tongue well, my accent and way of speaking was pretty crude. Imitated from the people on the streets and students from other schools I met at a bubble tea place. However, as I continued learning this Peolyncian language from Tasianna in addition to us three mostly speaking telepathically, I’d slowly been losing my old accent while getting influenced by Tasianna’s.
Learning a new language really depended on from whom you learned it, as you will inevitably copy your teacher's accent. While that may have an effect, what influenced it the most was when you speak with others. Take it from me, I learned my usual accent when I started mingling with people outside of my parent’s friendship circle, causing me to drop the accent I learned from my etiquette teacher.
Unfortunately, after speaking with the lizardmen and Tasianna, I’d accepted that my accent would change since the pronunciations of Common words were far different. I couldn’t pronounce certain words correctly and Tasianna would chastise me if I tried to speak as I usually did.
It was sad more of my past self was disappearing, but so was life, right? This was my new life, after all. Besides, urgh, Tasianna might be extremely loyal to me, but if it came to her duties, she could be pretty stubborn. I felt PTSD from how Tasianna was teaching me. It was almost as if my old etiquette teacher stood before me! Brrr!
“So, what are you doing?” Saori asked.
“Oh, this? Well, fulfilling my promise to you, of course!” I answered.
Yesterday, after I cried for the first time in nearly a decade, I made a promise to Saori to show her my first idol performance. Not some half-ass one or the one during my “Idol concert strategy,” but a full-fledged and properly prepared idol performance I would be proud of.
Maybe, I was putting a bit too much pressure on myself, but I ought to do so. I cried; I broke that oath I made in my past life. Sure, it was healthy. I was finally expressing my feelings properly, instead of bottling them up. I did feel better, I felt liberated that I was able to just let everything out, even if it did last a whole day until I fell asleep with puffy eyes.
However, it still meant I broke a pretty personal promise. If I didn’t want that oath to go to waste, I had to put my all into the concert’s planning. I had to finally act like a proper artist, not some wannabe dreamer. The song, choreography, outfit, special effects, etc. There were quite a lot of things that I needed to do for prep.
“Hmm, are you writing a song? That is English, correct?” Saori asked as she looked at the words on the ground.
Having no paper was pretty inconvenient but thankfully I was strong enough to just scratch everything into the ground. All that handiwork training I had until now had really benefited me, making me get used to using my strength in my dragonewt form.
"Yeah, I'm still figuring out the theme so I'm just playing around with words. I wanted to try writing it in Common tongue but speaking and writing are completely different, especially when certain words have different meanings," I answered.
“True. Metaphors and similes are used quite often in songs, I believe? Figures of speech may be easy for fluent speakers, but we have merely started,” Saori agreed to my statement.
Flowery or poetic speech iwas a staple in songs as the best songwriters could intertwine words to form a story or image. Of course, there were simple ones with the sole role of just making you happy and fluffy inside, but I wanted to make meaningful songs in the future. Call it a lyricist's pride.
"Well, I am glad you are being strong, however, do remember that we still have over a month left for you to work on it. Ask us if you need help. Do not overexert yourself and keep everything to yourself," Saori lectured me.
“I know, I won’t. I want it to be perfect but collapsing on the day that I would perform would not only be embarrassing but dreadful for me. I promise I’ll take it easy,” I answered, making Saori nod in contentment. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Saori, speaking of helping out! An outfit! We need new clothes now!”
Grabbing Saori, I shook her like crazy causing her to let out “huhs" like mad, "Hestia, let go, please! I am already working on yours, Tasianna's, and mine. They require time!"
“Oh, Tasianna needs one? Oh right, her elven form doesn’t have any clothes!” I snapped my fingers, remembering that mana dresses do not grow with the user.
Agreeing that we had to get new clothes, I called out for Tasianna who promptly rushed over to us in a panic. “Lady Hestia! Is there anything that you need?”
Explaining to her how we three needed new clothes, I got Tasianna to agree to stop her plan to go out today, which made Saori a bit mad at me. I had to persuade her she could use me as a dress-up doll as much as she wanted so she would stop looking at me as if I was an irresponsible teen.
I knew we ought to scout our position but delaying it by a day wouldn’t be the end of the world. When I scouted using my [Detection Sensor] this morning, I honestly didn’t sense that many monsters. Even if I did find something, they weren’t something I would consider a threat. There was no need to rush with how defensive of a position a cave could be.
“Hmm, are you sure you want me to do this now, or when you reached level ten in [Humanize]. I believe you will grow again, right?” Saori asked as she did my measurements.
“I mean sure, but I don’t want to waste any of my SP on leveling it up when it’ll level over time… although, I would love to have my 15-year-old body back,” I stated with a pout. “I have a total of 5600 SP now but… you know, we aren’t in the Belzac forest anymore. Who knows when I’ll get a new level.”
“Oh, speaking of level and SP, Lady Hestia, what will you evolve into?” Tasianna remind me as she helped Saori measure me.
After that little rampage I had, I gained enough experience to reach the final level of rank C. I could finally evolve into a rank B, the same rank as those three wyverns, if I wanted to.
“I don’t know yet.” I shrugged. “The thing is, I haven’t actually looked through my list of evolutions yet. I actually was planning to use my remaining SP to learn some new skills to get a wider range of evolutions, but I’ve been preoccupied with planning the idol performance for you two.”
“Mhmm, this will take a while so why not look it over? Both the evolution and skill list will take a while for you to look through. It would give us something to talk about,” Saori suggested.
Well, she’s right. Ok, might as well get this over with. Girls? Let’s get to it.
Evolution
[Young Black-Wrath Dragon]
[Young Angel Dragon]
[Young Lava Dragon]
[Young Magma Dragon]
[Young Volcano Dragon]
[Young Thunder Dragon]
[Young Mana Dragon]
[Young Arcane Corrupter Dragon]
[Young Noxious Blight Dragon]
[Young Dreadflame Dragon]
[Young Hellblade Dragon]
Huh, more options than I thought.
‘Oh holy moly, so we have a choice of becoming something like a leader for a group of lava and magma dragons,’ Manager Mind commented.
‘Yeah sure, but look at Dreadflame and Hellblade. I guess we should have anticipated an evolved version of [Young Spark Inferno Dragon],’ parallel mind #2 remarked with interest, clapping like crazy. ‘Dreadflame seems to make our already powerful fire magic even stronger, while Hellblade would improve our body. I do hope we won’t lose one of them upon evolving. That would be a scam.’
‘Ehhh?! Come on, girls. Look at that [Young Noxious Blight Dragon]. I want to already veto that option!’ #3 shouted. "Its description is frightening, and I get the feeling we will be hunted down if we took it! Besides, ewwwww, sludge!”
‘Am I the only one who is interested in [Young Thunder Dragon]? It’s quite low-key compared to the others, but the descriptions sounds rad,’ #4 stated.
Sure, but that’s not our endgame, right, girls? Come on, let’s go to the skill shop.
As impressive as these dragons sounded, I was actually a bit more interested in expanding my horizons here. If you looked at my current skill set, you would notice I had quite a few skills which improved my fire attacks or were related somehow to it.
My unique skill [Spark Fire Dragon] by itself was already an amplifier while also granting me quite a lot of dragon abilities with the element fire as a focus, especially [Spark Claws] and [Spark Fangs] which were the only abilities I had for close combat. Then again, I was a mage, so this was enough for now.
On the other hand, my other elements lacked firepower due to having no amplifying-like skills. One of the reasons why I wanted [Venerated Saintess] from my follower milestone was to make my light spells hit harder. I didn’t want to be a one-trick pony here, something that I painfully learned from the garm matriarch.
Thankfully, I’d been able to broaden my fighting ability by getting [Toxic Secretion] and [Poison Creation] which enabled me to produce and use different assortments of toxins. I also had [Trap Creation] which gave me the ability to make bombs.
I wasn’t a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none juet yet. I was still very skewed towards magic, while my defenses and melee-combat were pretty lacking, compared to the wyverns I meant. If the female snow wyvern had fought me with the intent to kill, she probably could overwhelm me with her frozen wings and such. She wouldn’t need her breath or magic, presumably.
As such, my B rank evolution had to either cover these flaws up, or I had to commit fully into a glass cannon build. Considering how strong those wyverns were, I had to make sure I chose the correct one. Whenever we meet again, I had to be ready and strong enough to fend them off. Well, I only had to worry about it if Saori or Tasianna couldn’t keep up with me.
Not to mention, there was also the [Battle Frenzy] problem. The leviathan mentioned I could learn to control it from Kargryxmor, right? Meeting with him was even more important now that I saw what would happen if I left it unsolved. Maybe there was a band-aid skill until I could? I was still planning on meeting with Aurena, first, after all.
With my many objectives established, I sent my parallel minds back into the battlefield of the skill shop. There were hundreds of skills in there that would make you just dizzy if you looked at it. However, I couldn’t take all of them, since I had limited SP.
Some were too expensive due to lacking affinity, for example [Water Magic] and [Dark Magic]. Even then, I didn’t want to buy them, just to not use them. I already had a ton of skills and abilities, having more wouldn’t help me exactly. In fact, too many options could become a detriment. I had to choose something and become a master with it. A sound foundation would lead to success, after all, not millions of shaky pillars.
With a proper idea of what I was searching for, I could pin down specific skills to make it easier on myself. Randomly looking around would prove futile, after all. Without any keywords, you could imagine it like trying to search for a niche video on YouTube, frustrating yourself ‘cause you no matter how much you tried, you couldn’t remember that funny or awesome video you watched two days ago, or something.
I better do something, too. How about this category: Display skills that protect you from mental status effects like [Battle Frenzy]
Skill List
Sort by: Mental protection skills
[Mental Corruption Resistance] [Mind Protection]
… Is this all?
‘Original Mind, you have to understand that we already got a few when we last had a skill buying session. Remember [Mental Stability] and [Mental Warfare]?’ #2 said. 'We found a few skills that might interest you. Want to look them over?'
Feeling a bit irritated from the lack of choice, I simply agreed to my parallel mind’s suggestion and sorted through the skills they found. Considering my goal was to increase our evolution choices, I had to make sure I chose the beneficial ones with my limited SP reserve.
There was also the fact I could try leveling a few skills up and hope to merge them into others to create an entirely new skill or even a superior version. That was the case when my [Enhanced Fangs] and [Enhanced Claws] transformed into [Draconic Fangs] and [Draconic Claws], respectively.
As I was mulling in my thoughts, I thought it would be useful to get some outside opinions. As efficient as my parallel minds were, they were still me at the end of the day.
Having explained both my evolutions and also my current plan to improve my skill set to my two companions, I awaited their responses. The first to speak was Tasianna.
“Hmm, Lady Hestia, I believe you still remember the concept of ‘Custom Spells,’ correct?”
“Urgh, yes. Speaking of custom spells, I really have to get my own spell to finally work. That was so embarrassing when it fizzled out.” I frowned at that memory.
My only custom spell currently was [Imperial Hellfire], a spell I somehow created during my battle with the garms. Sadly, I couldn’t even call it a spell, really. It was a disappointment. I thought I had everything prepared but when it just failed on me during my fight with Asterios, the Boltreaver Wyvern, I could only describe that experience as a blow to my pride. It was humiliating.
“I agree, you still haven’t mastered writing and reading yet. I wouldn’t call you a novice, my lady, far from it, in fact. However, custom spells are meant to be harder to create,” Tasianna began her explanation. “There are two types of spell concepts — System and custom spells. The former comes from the Divine System and are spells the System helps you cast, while the latter is the traditional method before the Divine System was created. People created spells through hard work.”
“You explained that to me already. To cast a custom spell, most of the hard work has to be done by the mage. That means I’m responsible for creating the Invocation, Incantation, and Activation,” I answered. “Not only must I be able to imagine the process, but I also have to make the incantation and magic circle on my own. That’s why I’ve been learning Common tongue from you. I needed to know how to pronounce the words correctly while also knowing the vocabulary to fill the runes for my magic circle.”
However, that didn’t mean they were unaffected by the System. Custom spells were still improved by your Intelligence and Wisdom stats, in addition to any other skills like [Magic Power Enhancement]. Think of it like so: you had to cast the spell without the System’s aid but anything that helped your System spells would also affect your custom spells.
At my current state, I was able to imagine how my [Imperial Hellfire] was supposed to work and I’d already translated my incantation into Common tongue. The only thing that was left was my magic circle. If I only was able to read and write back then, maybe I would have been able to scare those wyverns away.
“Exactly. Which brings me back to my point,” Tasianna raised one finger as she explained her thoughts. “The System is a wonderful gift from the gods, but you shouldn’t restrict your strength to it alone. Elves, masters of the arcane, have long understood they had to adapt their ancient arts and wisdom with the System to grow even stronger. Even without the full support of the System, I believe you can develop your own power.”
“During my first two months in this world, you mentioned something very intriguing to me, Hestia,” Saori added. “‘Stats aren’t everything,’ instead, focus on improving your skills, and I believe you meant both definitions. Level up your skills as they will help you in combat while also remembering that you must master them, also.”
Placing a hand on my chin, I thought over what they said, “So, you guys are suggesting I focus on quality instead of quantity? Hmm, if that is so then it would be better for me to search for superior versions of my current skill sets, or maybe level my current ones up.”
“Come now, depending on if Tasianna’s memory of Peolynca’s map is correct, we might not have to endanger ourselves for very long anymore. You have time to think it through, Hestia, something I would personally endorse, too," Saori remarked. "As we are a team, I also would like to suggest that we choose our SP investments depending on our team's needs. We should complement each other, after all."
“Oh, that is a wonderful idea, Miss Saori! I haven’t spent my SP yet, so it has been accumulating ever since we fought those Panguanas,” Tasianna stated. “Now that I have the body of a wind elf, I should experiment a bit with it. My lack of wings is infuriating. I feel as if a part of me is lost.”
“Hmm? Didn’t you say that wind elves are the mortal children of Zephira and one of her subordinate gods? I thought that you would be more excited about it.” I titled my head.
According to Tasianna, Zephira, the Goddess of Winds, once took up the hand of a mortal high elf and granted him godhood, all so she could make him into her husband. Now called by his divine name ‘“Krunal,” he acts as the God of Weather and Harvest while also being the ancestral father of the wind elves.
“I’m afraid I must betray your expectations, Lady Hestia. The wind elves, although having an incredible affinity for wind magic, are merely like any other elves, so this body doesn’t grant me as many advantages as you might believe,” Tasianna shot my idea down. “As my real identity is that of a fairy, a Faefolk, my current body also doesn’t have any flesh or blood. I am purely made of mana and still possess the same weakness as my fairy body, despite having lost my ability to fly."
Wow, she seems pretty down about that fact.
“But Tasianna, was not your goal for buying [Elvenize] being able to serve Hestia some of your tea?” Saori remarked.
“You… You are absolutely correct, Miss Saori! I must make tea! I CAN FINALLY MAKE TEA AND SERVE IT TO THE BOTH OF YOU! Only the finest tea for my Mistress and Miss Saori!” Tasianna jumped on her feet and went back to our campfire, getting ready to brew a warm tea. “I must find a tea making skill. There must be one in the skill shop! A divine tea to please Princess Hestia’s regal tongue! Depth Goddess, Goddess Zephira, thank you!”
…
“… She seems pretty excited now,” Saori said.
I gave a chuckle while making a wry smile, “Well, she’s happy and we get a warm tea to keep us warm for it, so who cares?”
Saori shrugged and then suddenly produced a black mana string, prompting me to ask her where she got it.
“Oh, this? Well, while you and Tasianna were talking about what skills you wanted to buy, I looked over my own skill shop and managed to find [Elemental Mana Weaving Lv. 1].”
