"What's the skill you use to manipulate the air?" I ask Kestrel.

"Sorcery (Airheaded)," Kestrel replies. "Your Intelligence is probably too high to make good use of it. You're always thinking about stuff."

I sigh heavily. "Right... and while fire can be impressive, I don't think I can do Sorcery [Pyromania], either. Your wand does ice attacks?"

"Yep!" Kestrel says. "Just a frost wand. The gnome had one too. Standard blueprint. Wand the spare? If you're learning Wizardry, you can copy the pattern and swap out sigils to make whatever sort of wand you want, not just ice."

She pulls Carter's wand out of her bag and passes it over to me. The dead gnome's essence clings heavily to the sigils, and I inspect it with [Psychometry] for practice and curiosity.

"Hmm," I say. "Carter whatever-it-was Flux Tiganna owned this wand for at least a decade and used it pretty much constantly during that time. He also liked to hurt his underlings with it, and killed a number of people with it. At least a dozen, but I can't pin it down closer than that. It was made in… Zenith, I think?"

Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Psychometry, Trace Connection)

"Man, that's a cool skill," Kestrel says. "Pity Tiganna's law enforcement is entirely based on quests. On the other hand, that's the only reason no one's trying to arrest us. Be a little more discreet if you do this sort of thing in more civilized skymotes. Or don't. I never bother. I just leave when I get thrown out. There's plenty more motes in the sky that don't care how many things you blew up elsewhere."

The wand is etched with thin, tiny sigils carved with machine-like precision, with sigil ink (or similar) injected in the grooves. The complexity of a magic item ultimately depends on how small you can draw sigils, and an elemental attack wand like this has a very straightforward effect running in a straight line down the shaft, with what I assume are control sigils carved into the handle.

"Flux still wants me to explore it," I say. "And Tiganna challenged me to go to each domain and do something there."

"Ah, I love those sorts of quests," Kestrel says.

Belladonna shows up again gives me and Rowan a ride over to their ship in her pilfered flying kayak to give me a chance to talk to Uncle Falcon on the way back to Tempest. Anise and Kestrel won't have any problem keeping us going straight there, and no one is pursuing us.

"How did you defeat Bee Tresco? Congratulations on reaching Epic from it, by the way."

"Actually, Falcon went Epic first," says Belladonna.

"I played a perfect solo of the Symphony of Glory," Uncle Falcon says. "That requires manipulating 120 aural illusions simultaneously, each of them playing a distinct pattern."

"We were losing," Tosko admits. "My potions had worn off because she was so evasive we couldn't pin her down. She killed Wonder with a blasted revolver."

"So we killed her and took her stuff," Belladonna says. "Once Falcon played that song, our stamina and health were quickly restored and we were able to overpower her with the buffs."

"I'd never gotten the song right before," Uncle Falcon says. "That quest had been on my log for many years."

"How does that even work?" I wonder. "What skill is that?"

"Sorcery (Ambience). That's how you can play disembodied instruments, but you need some enhancements to be able to control more than one of them at once. My Enhanced Breath (Multi-Playing) skill had been capped for some time. And Incantation (Song of Power) is what makes those illusory instruments give buffs. You thinking about learning to be a Bard? That put you at Elite, didn't it?"

"Yeah, I just reached Elite," I say. "We burned down their floj factory and destroyed two of their boats. I already unlocked Wizardry (Vehicle Control) by flying through a closing garage door."

"Quite dramatic!" Uncle Falcon exclaims, patting me on the back a little too hard. "You'll have to tell me the details and I'll write a verse about it."

"I think I will have to actually learn Common to really appreciate your music, Uncle Falcon. My auto-translator just gives me a headache when it tries to rhyme. It feels like the meaning isn't quite correct for forcing a translation."

"Didn't Aunt Rosemary try to get you to learn Common?"

I shrug. "I was being stubborn and no force in the Crystalline Heavens will make me do something I don't want to do. Anyway, I'm sure it will be fantastic. How many verses have we inspired lately?" I chuckle.

"Several," Uncle Falcon says. "And I'll need to add one just for Wonder, too. Once we've made repairs and hired on a few crew members, we'll need to deliver his body and belongings back to his Hearth in Hush, and talk to his niece, Dazzle."

"What's Hush like?" I ask.

"It's covered in a thick fog that dampens sound. You can't really hear anything more than about ten meters away, so no one can hear you scream. Good practice for [Ambience], since you have to push through the effect. Lots of creepy dungeons. There are some good Epic ones there that we should now able be to do, so we'll probably stay there and do dungeon runs until swarm season if nothing else comes up."

We arrive back in Amroth to celebration. Princess Amroth called for cake, and so there is cake. Everyone wants to talk to me and I spend most of the evening using [Ghost Eyes] to examine everyone's aura to guess the names, classes, emotions, and jobs of a bunch of random people I've met once or twice who remember me more than I remember them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Naming, Aura Sight, Aspect Analysis, Empathy, Witness), Enhanced Soul (Ghost Eyes)

I don't even have anything I want to do with all the information I'm gathering, but it's comforting to know that if anyone here intends harm to me, they're better at hiding it than I'm capable of detecting.

"You planning to head back to Corwen now?" Kestrel asks.

I nod. "I have to. Corwen won't let me see my class options unless I'm in the core room."

"Huh, okay. I suppose we'll be parting ways now for the moment. I'll head out with the Daring Edgewalkers for a bit and run a few dungeons in Hush, so I'll still be in the skymote for a little while longer."

Milo ambushes me to regale me about all the great trade deals he has secured now that everyone loves Grubwick. I listen politely, and while his growing agricultural base is fascinating, I really just want to sleep.

We get a suite at the Adventurers' Guild for the night. It's weird sleeping in a room with a ceiling on a bed that isn't moving after spending so much time traveling and sleeping on a boat open to the sky. I can't shake the feeling of moving, and it's with gratitude that I'm back in my boat in the morning (after an inescapable round of grandma hugs).

The Celestial Duck is unescorted now, and it's back down to me, Rowan, Anise, Basalt, and Jade. Colt is also coming along, but no further than Nefern. When we stop there to drop him off, his uncle is there to meet us.

"Colt!" Badger Nefern scolds before the kid has even gotten onto the skydock. "What do you think you're doing, running off without telling anyone? I hope you had fun on your adventure, because you are grounded."

"But Uncle Badger, I made Elite!" Colt protests. "I'm now a [Hardy Child]!"

"Congratulations," Badger says flatly. "That just means you have no excuse but to study harder."

Colt sighs and deflates, dejectedly following his uncle down the stairs.

There's work to be done in Hebron, but right now we're heading straight for Corwen. In the rain, because of course it's raining again.

The Celestial Duck lands in the village green, crushing a soccer ball.

You have returned safely home after an adventure. Skills increased: Mechanics (Piloting), Survival (Sense of Direction), Enhanced Feet (Fast Travel), Enhanced Soul (Aether Sailing), Wizardry (Vehicle Control)

Thank you, Corwen. I deactivate my boat and head into the Hearth, immediately making my way down to the core room without even stopping for something to eat.

[Hello, Drake!] Corwen greets me in my mind.

"Hello, Corwen," I reply aloud. "Any chance I could see my class options now? Everyone else already got to pick theirs and I'm feeling a little left out."

[Of course.]

For reaching a new rank, you may choose a class.

Spiritual Child Primary skills: Clairvoyance (all), Enhanced Soul (all) Greatly increases experience gained while in tune with the conceptual energy of spirits, both your own and those of others.

Lucid Child Primary skills: Clairvoyance (all), Discipline (all) Greatly increases experience gained while focused, calm, and aware of both yourself and the world around you.

Resonant Child Primary skills: Clairvoyance (all), Crafting (all) Greatly increases experience gained while in tune with the conceptual energy in items you are designing, building, or using.

Those are some interesting class options, and I consider each one obligatorily even though I already know which one my soul sings for. While I don't entirely regret taking [Psychic Child], I'm not sure how much further down that path I want to be funneled. I want to fly, more than anything.

I pull out a notebook and write down the descriptions so long as I have them available. None of them are mentioned in Corwen's book of classes, unsurprisingly, since we haven't had many reincarnators and the few we had didn't focus on psychic skills.

I don't need to consider my choice for long.

Class change: Psychic Child → Resonant Child

My aura ripples for a moment, and something barely perceptible settles around it. I peer closer at the class I just received, like a translucent focusing field around my aura. It's an object, sort of, just one that exists only on the metaphysical level. As I watch, I notice how it seems to amplify the conceptual energy I'm generating just from watching it, like light distorted through glass.

"It's beautiful," I say quietly.

Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Aether Sense), Enhanced Soul (Mystic Inspiration)

I stay watching it for a few minutes long before unfolding my legs and climbing back up to the ground floor.

"You didn't even dry off first," Aunt Magnolia scolds me as I continue to drip water through the hearth.

"Sorry," I say. "But I'm going right back out to the guest house and it's still raining, so I'm about to get soaked again."

Aunt Magnolia scoffs. "Fine, but you'd best dry off and get a proper meal in you and not just hang out with your friends."

I manage to slip out of the Hearth before getting roped into learning household cleaning magic or something. My party members are all waiting for me at the inn along with bowls of hot soup and fresh bread.

Anise asks, "What did you get? What did you get?"

"[Resonant Child]," I say. "It's a good time to be getting back into crafting. I have so many things I want to make."

"Why did Corwen make you come all the way back here, anyway?" Jade wonders.

I shrug. "Cores do what they want."

"Here's to crafting," Basalt says, raising a cup of cider. "This adventure was fun, but I don't think I can do the adventuring thing full-time like some of them."

"You just need to carve a statue of yourself," I say.

"Eventually," Basalt says. "I've got several more dwarves I want to spawn first. If anything happens to me in the meantime, you'll just need to carve another Basalt yourself."

"We should be safe enough in Tempest, at least," Jade says.

"We'll need to be careful if we visit Flux again, though," Rowan says. "Somebody might be annoyed at us for some reason."

"The greater the challenge, the greater the reward," Anise says.

"What class did you pick, Mom?" I ask.

"[Sorcerous Aethernaut]," Anise says. "I didn't feel like going down the charismatic revolutionary route with [Friendly Firebrand], and [Joyful Sorcerer] would be doubling down on Sorcery and just adding Thaumaturgy to the mix. I wanted to branch out a bit more and figured I would probably be regularly flying from now on."

"At least she didn't get offered [Hot Mom]," Basalt says. "Turned down jazz hands magic. I'm going to turn down jazz hands, too. I haven't even memorized the names of all the types of magic there are yet."

"What does a [Dwarven Dad] do, anyway?" Anise asks.

"The same thing a mom does, just dadlier," Basalt replies.

"'Dadlier' is not a word," Rowan says. "My new class is [Apprentice Bodyguard] and I will continue to make sure nothing kills Drake the next time he does something insane."

"What about you, Jade?" Basalt asks.

"I am now an [Apprentice Pirate]," Jade says with a proud grin.

"Congratulations," I say. "We did steal a boat and dig up buried treasure."

"Here's to more boat-related adventures," Jade raises her cup of apple juice.

"Here's to us!" Anise exclaims, sloshing cider everywhere.

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