The Reincarnation of Alysara. Chapter 9: Essences

AN: been doing house renovations since my house has a lot of water damage. Basically, we have to replace all the siding, and some structural support needed fixing. I will try to get more chapters done next month since the work is about 70% done.

AN2: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google Docs here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19UqVcjpP471ow8LEvRDEiX3BEAxfgRAWOSwG3Oy9sps/edit?usp=sharing

__________________________________________________________________________

I wake up and notice Mom and Dad staring at me. It’s hard to see their expression since I still don’t know how to differentiate mana in living beings like I can do in objects, but I can tell that something must have changed. Mom and Dad are talking in hushed voices, but I can’t tell if it’s good or bad.

“Mom͞árá?” I get up and grab the railing of my crib.

“You evolved, right?” Dad asks, trying to sound positive and hopeful, however, there's a hint of trepidation.

“It wasn’t cursed, was it?” Mom, however, sounds more worried.

“No curse, Myrou blessed!” I give my answer with a smile.

Both my parents sigh in relief, then as my words sink in, their tails start wagging excitedly. 

“A blessed evolution? Is that even possible?!” Mom says to dad.

“There are no recorded instances; she might be the first.”

“Bath time?” I ask, realizing that they were just about to get me for evening bath. Both Mom and Dad suddenly realize what they were about to do.

“Of course, Little Aly.” Dad says, picking me up.

“What Evolution do?” I ask as we leave the house.

“It strengthens or changes our racial abilities,” Dad answers.

“Racial abilities?” I tilt my head.

“Just think about it, and the system will answer,”

Oh, yeah, I meant to do that but got distracted by Mom and Dad. I focus on my race and this time the information floats into my mind successfully.

Race: Myrou Blessed Runalymo
Race Trait 1: Mana Generation

Having selected for increased mana generation, this race has heightened mana generation rate by 170% of the base amount.

What is the base amount? I ask and try to summon the information.

Extremely High

No numbers… is it because I don’t know an exact amount? But how do I know what the race trait is and does? And how do I know my people selected for this trait? Is it like memory passed through generations? I don’t understand this; it breaks the rules!

Race Trait 2: Water Sight

Having recently lived in an archipelago, this race has adapted the ability to see clearly underwater.

Again, what’s with the extra information? I should ask.

“Mom͞árá, how system work? Only know my knowing? Why race system know more?”

“Little Aly, you are SO smart!” Dad says, crushing me with a hug.

“Guh!” I squirm as I try to breathe.

“Let her breathe,” Mom giggles. “The history of our race is in our blood, Aly. Yes, the system knows only what we know, but we are our body too, so if our body knows something, that means you do too.”

So I was right about generational knowledge… I return my focus to learning about my racial abilities.

Race Trait 3: Nutritional Milk

Having suffered through near extinction by starvation, this race has turned to whatever it could in dark times by relying on the milk produced by their mothers. This race’s milk is very nutritional, providing a creature with all their nutritional needs for 1 meal.

At least we didn’t adapt to eating feces like Koalas… Wait what are Koalas?

An image of a furry creature flashes in my mind. Another memory? Still, I feel like I might have dodged something bad with how evolution could have gone. 

Race Trait 4: Heightened Senses

An old trait that has been honed and kept through the eons, and although this has not served the Runalymo as it has their parent species, this race still has very acute hearing, smell, and sight.

Everything sounds and smells normal to me… in any case, this seems like the oldest trait so far.

Race Trait 5: Mana Sustenance

Having adapted to a low-food environment and constant starvation, this race now passively consumes mana to sustain bodily needs. This consumes Mana, and the rate of consumption increases the longer and the more that needs to be sustained.

So the third trait is vestigial? Why do we need two traits to survive? I suppose that eventually we would run out of mana and starve. We have food now, but now that I think of it, we only eat in the morning or at special events. Perhaps we don’t produce much food and have to rely on both of our sustenance traits?

Race Trait 6: Runalymo’s Cleanliness

The recent incessant desire for cleanliness and care of appearance grants this race a +50% to beauty essence after bathing and grooming. The more care taken the higher the bonus stacks up to 250%

How recent is recent? And is this why everyone bathes three times a day? It also mentions beauty essence, which as I’ve learned, is a type of mana, but how does that affect us? I guess I need to figure out how to see essence mana, so that’s all the more reason to study mana as much as I can.

Race Trait 7: Perfectionist’s Eye

Following the tenets of Myrou, this race has taken great care to perfect their arts and crafts. This skill makes it so flaws are easily spotted and never overlooked. Additionally, the more creativity essence a member of this race has, the faster they’ll learn and master their arts and crafts.

So this trait is crafting focused, I guess that explains why everything is expertly made and decorated. That part about creativity essence… I feel like it’s a function of the trait and not the essence. The system describing these traits explain what they do, not how they work.

Race Trait 8: Nexus Adaptation

Having inhabited a Nexus for a long time, this race has adapted to the hostile environment of a Nexus. As a result, this race is more resistant to heat, extreme temperature change, mana storms, and mana toxicity.

Resistance to mana toxicity? We have innate resistance and still get mana toxicity to the point of developing a Skill for it? So the Phantom Runlymo evolution option would have replaced this trait, good thing I didn’t pick it. We are also resistant to heat and other things, just how resistant? Fire season was hot but not unbearably so, while Ice season was freakishly cold. The Ice storms were deadly, even with mana storm resistance? How did we even adapt to the Nexus in the first place without dying out?!

Race Trait 9: Inspirational Greatness

Recent dedication to the arts and crafts have made the Runalymo more creative, granting them a +250% to creativity essence.

Another craft-centric trait… but this has strong synergy with the seventh trait: [Perfectionist’s Eye]

Race Trait 10: Myrou’s Children

As dedicated and fervent followers of goddess Myrou, the Runalymo can more easily channel her essences of beauty and creativity by +250%.

What does this even mean?

“Mom͞árá, what channel essence mean?” I ask.

“It means that you will be better at using Spells and Skills of that essence type,” Dad answers. “but you are too young for those, so don’t worry about it.”

“But I want to cast spells like you…” I pout. I know they won’t relent and won't teach me, so I guess I’ll have to learn on my own.

As we arrive at the baths, I get a lot of attention. Heads turn as people mention “Vex́a.” Knowing that “ve” is hair, I can guess something happened to my hair during my evolution.

“Vex́a?” I ask my parents, looking up at them and pointing to my head.

Mom thinks for a bit, then holds the tips of my hair. “Vex́a,” and puts a hand on my head, “Vex́y.”

Ah, I see now. The tips of my hair are a different color. Question is, what color? I really wanna know, but to do that, I’ll have to open my eyes and be in a ton of pain; so I guess I’ll never know.

We settle down in the baths after applying the bathing oil and soak as Mom and Dad talk to the others. However, my pleasant bath is interrupted when a strange feeling washes over me, it feels like information is being telepathically imprinted into my mind. Judging from everyone else's twitching ears, they felt the same thing.

Focusing on this information, it rises to the surface of my mind just like any other system information.

A great entity, Ice Elemental, was slain by Erandur the dragon.

Why am I being notified of this? This doesn’t make any sense! Did I miss some major event happening right above our heads?! I look up at Mom and tilt my head.

“It’ll happen about once a decade.” Mom explains calmly. “When something gets super strong and dies, the shock of that reaches the entire world.”

So, it means that when a Great Being, or “Entity” as it was called, dies, everyone gets a notification. Is it like you get so powerful that you leave an impression on the system itself? And once someone that powerful dies, the effect of that powerful being suddenly going away ripples out? It mentions who the slayer is, so maybe there’s more to it. Is the power transferred instead? It doesn’t seem like my parents know the full explanation, or maybe they were dumbing it down for me. In any case, this means that there are no unsung heroes, or any way to falsify a kill that I know of.

Today I learned that the system is far more complicated than I first thought. There are exceptions to the rules that I thought it followed.

The next day, as I am in the bedroom alone, I set my efforts on trying to figure out essences.

Where do I even begin? I muse. I need some point of reference, but what is that reference? I got the breakthrough to differentiate elemental mana once I knew what earth mana was; then I found differences between earth mana and other elements. So, I need to start with an essence I already know, and that’s the problem, I don’t know any.

So I need to find an essence before I can do anything else. The most obvious starting point is beauty and creativity essence since they were mentioned in my race traits, but I have no clue how to identify them; if only I can isolate one of them…

I need to be able to cast spells. I nod to myself. Despite the obstacles preventing me from another breakthrough, I’m not feeling frustrated. Instead, I am actually quite excited! I know the path to progress now, but how I get there is the puzzle, and I want to solve it! I can’t brute force my way to progress, so I have to think outside the box, which is the fun part.

I can’t go out and find essences because I’d have no way of knowing what essence it is or even know if there’s a mix of several, so I need a controlled environment where I know which is which. The only way to achieve that is by casting spells.

Myrou said she gave me a ‘gift of beauty’ and that it will ‘help me survive’ so it’s not illogical to assume that I have an affinity for beauty essence spells outside of my racial trait. Unless the evolution option was the blessing, but seeing as how I could have easily chosen something else, I doubt that it was.

So, how do I cast spells? I am going off the assumption that I have an affinity for beauty spells, but I just have to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. I stretch out my arm and try to gather beauty mana in front of me...

Nothing.

Of course, this isn’t going to work. I feel a little dejected, but this is just the first attempt, so I shrug off the feeling and put a hand on my chin in thought.

 Alright, let’s review what mana is, so I am not poking around blindly. I don’t really know what mana is, but I do know we produce it. This was one of the first things I found out once I started looking at people; they give off mana that seems to come from nowhere. The more mana surrounding us means less leakage, causing us to be poisoned by our own mana, Mana Toxicity. I come to this conclusion, and as a result, I gain a new level in mana toxicity tolerance!

Mana Toxicity Tolerance has obtained level 7!

Naturally, if someone is releasing mana, it must mean there’s a reason; so if that is prevented, it would cause problems.

At least I got something out of this review. If only levels in [Sense Mana Elements] were that easy… In any case, I was trying to use the mana around me, but mana comes from within me, so I probably should try drawing from it.

Again, I stick out my hand, and this time, I try to use the beauty essence mana within me, pushing it out through my arm and into a sphere in front of my hand.

With amazement, I watch as mana that appears to be a strange form of light element slowly gathers in front of me.

Pure beauty essence? I muse. It’s currently Light Season, so there’s plenty of light element around. And while the ball of mana I made is very close to it, I feel a strong connection to it. It feels as if it is more than mere light elemental mana.

I need another form of essence to compare it with, but the only other form I know is creativity essence. Which is boosted within my body—let’s take a look.

I focus [Sense Mana Elements] inward, looking at the mana within me. There’s definitely a swirling of different mana, traces of all elements, but they are quickly expelled. There are two concentrations of mana lingering in my body: a mass of light element and another of lightning element. Beauty is an essence of the Light element, which must mean that the lightning element must be creativity essence!

Suddenly, as if a veil has been lifted from my [Sense Mana Elements], colors bloom within me.

Sense Mana Elements (Adept) has Ascended to Sense Mana Essence (Major)!

Sense Mana Essence has reached levels 27-30!

Sense Mana Essence has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling to level 50.

4ᵗʰ Breakthrough: You have learned how to see mana essences, letting you see the many types of essences.

* 

High Priest Vimeno stands over the crumbling Statue of X́árá, a frown on his face. The Arch Priestess had been ecstatic that it is no longer exuding that terrifying aura. She thinks it had decayed naturally, but even after a year, he isn’t convinced.

“Myrou, please give me a sign,” he prays.

Perhaps he should consult the Guardian? But only the Arch Priestess is allowed to do that among the priesthood, and she considers the matter solved.

Just then, a mote of light sparks to life on a piece of crumbled statue. He almost dismisses it as it is the height of Light season, and these light phenomena are common at this time, but then he notices something strange about the stone, there’s an indent as if something had been encased in the statue.

Kneeling down to better examine the piece, he turns it over in his hand, noticing the indents of a chain. 

Myrou answered my prayers! 

“I swear I will begin work on a new dedication, Myrou! One grand enough to make you proud!” Vimeno offers a word of thanks before searching the rubble for more pieces, but soon sees another mote of light right where another indented piece is. Following Myrou’s guidance, Vimeno quickly gathers all the pieces molded by the item.

It was an amulet of a many-faceted gem. Intricate goldwork framed the gem with six stylized wings. The tips of the wings touch a ring… no, a halo as depicted in paintings of X́árá.

“The lost amulet of X́árá…” Vimeno mutters. It can’t be anything else; the paintings show her wearing the amulet. “But who could have taken it?”

I could have been anyone, but the most suspect are among the high priest and the Arch Priestess. In fact, her assurance that the statue had decayed naturally is most suspicious, yet why would she take it? She hated the statue and wanted it gone. She complained about it every week so it doesn’t make sense. She might have destroyed the state, but she knows better, as the Guardian advised not to.

The statue was cursed, at least that’s what they all thought, but maybe it was the Amulet of X́árá that was cursed all along, not the statue. 

He doesn’t know enough about it and the curses. Worse, he can’t tell his peers as, at this time, they are all suspects; so, the only other option is for him to consult the Guardian. There is no other option; he needs to know all he can.

* 

As Vimeno passes through the yard, he notices Papuyo tending to the trees, a pile of leaves already raked into a pile.

“Got caught doing mischief again?” Vimeno asks.

“I just wanted to see what the Dungeon entrance was like,” Papuyo complains.

“You have a bad habit of being in places you shouldn’t be, Papuyo. I understand the curiosity of youth, but there will be a time when you will be allowed in those places. Just be patient, and when you become a High priestess, you can go anywhere you want. Focus on your studies and dedications until then, okay?”

“Okaaay,” Papuyo says with a drawn-out sigh.

Vimeno moves on, stepping outside the Temple grounds and onto the stone pathway that will take him to the guardian. But then he stops, and slowly turns around to the young girl.

Surely she wasn’t the one who took the amulet, but she is known for mischief, and she wouldn’t know the dangers… It’s best to rule her out of the suspect list. 

Walking back to Papuyo, he looks around. Everyone is probably walking toward the baths by now, but she is being punished and can’t join until the work is done.

He examines her closely, noticing the gold chains of a necklace.

“Papuyo!” Vimeno calls her with an air of authority.

She straightens her back, her ears and tail stiffening as if shocked.

“I don’t recall you having a necklace before. When did you make it, and why is it beneath your robes?”

“I-I, uh, it is a dedication to Myrou… B-but I, uh, I’m kind of ashamed by my shoddy work…” Papuyo stammers, her eyes darting around and avoiding his gaze.

“Show me.” Vimeno commands. “Dedications are supposed to be displayed with pride as they are a testament to the mastery of your skills,” he knows she isn’t a jeweler, so he knows she is lying, but rather than press that, he opts for a more positive reason.

It can’t be the lost amulet of X́árá, it can’t be. He tells himself over and over again.

“I, uh, I…” Papuyo stammers, clearly trying to think of a reason not to.

“Did you steal it? Why hide it?” Vimeno says, carefully watching Papuyo’s reaction to the accusation. 

Papuyo freezes, her mouth opening and closing, her face paling.

Please, Myrou, let it not be her. Vimeno silently prays. As he grabs the chain around her neck and pulls it out of her robe. A faceted emerald framed with six wing holding a halo dangles in front of his eyes, the amulet of X́árá.

Before he can even say anything, a ghostly image of X́árá appears, six radiant wings of light and a glowing halo grace his vision before the world turns to white.