I breathed a sigh of relief when the airship control crystal was done. A full week of nonstop meditating here and growing the crystal. I'd let an enchanter grow the spell crystal but they can't rest their mind like I can and you can't just swap out enchanters.

I had found a better way to make the batteries, I discovered this when trying to make a battery of just one element type. Normally it won't work this way because of the MM force. It would force the crystal together so the cavities don't form. But if you introduce another element type like ice, the water mana would form around the ice mana that you can later flush out and leave a cavity behind. This does have one problem, however, the battery will suck up water mana, and eventually, the mana holding cavities would permanently fill with water mana and it can't be flushed.

For this case it's fine, I've made the battery so it's protected and isolated. To put mana in, it has to go through the spell crystal which would transform the mana into a dark spell. The mana is then stored in the sealed battery and can only be drawn out through the spell crystal. The shell of the control crystal is thickly made with wind mana. The orb looks like an eyeball, being covered in wind mana with a dark spell crystal peeking out a little.

Tusile had me rush the production as she wanted to use the Winamr to travel to Temple Island for the tournaments. We'll be reusing the hybrid spell crystal used for the Valymo to reduce the weight. I had wanted to wait until I had perfected the technology but politics always got its way. On the plus side, I got paid overtime and for the rush job.

I look over at my concept drawing. Over the last week, I figured out a method on how to automate this work. I'd need to create a box and layer a repelling crystalline seal over it so the chosen mana can't escape. A spell crystal can be used to introduce specific spell mana to copy a new spell crystal. The problem lies in sealing the spell crystal but since I'd need to introduce normal elemental mana to form the crystalline pathways. We can't just stop feeding mana into the spell crystal the pressure has to remain constant; we have to feed the mana through a mana filter.

The mana filter is a crystal with tubes meant only for one type of mana. It's complicated but by using the MM force we can attract the mana we need to layer the same mana type and opposite to accelerate the mana into the box like a railgun. The opposing mana would prevent the mana from escaping. This all worked in theory but still needs to be built to test this.

For the mana battery we do something similar with the filters but controlling the construction of the mana cavities will be very difficult and likely custom-made batteries will be the best for high capacity ones.

It is late at night when I finished so I walk home alone, enjoying the solitude. Memories of driving down a lonely road at night surfaced. Just me, the humming of the car and the road, peace, and serenity until some asshole comes along and tailgates you with their brights on. Pisses me off even into another life, fuck that guy.

I sigh and push the memory down.

"That life is gone now, I don't need those distractions," I mutter to myself. They've been coming to me slowly but now I'm wishing they won't. The technical stuff is good but the baggage is distracting. Maybe I could find a way to permanently seal those memories if I study my soul enough. Speaking of. Over the last three days, after the spell crystal was done I only needed my second mind briefly for some things but other than that it was free to study [Sense Soul].

Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 50!
Ting! Sense Soul has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Soul will now continue leveling past level 60!

5th Breakthrough: You've learned how to expand your aura of sense soul, letting you see farther.
6th Breakthrough: You've learned to move your area of soul sensing, Allowing you to scout ahead, and view remotely.

Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 27!
...
Ting! Sense Soul has obtained level 65!

Ting! Clear Mind has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Clear Mind will now continue leveling past level 40!

4th Breakthrough: You've maintained a clear mind through several days of going without sleep, this will help negate the mental effects of sleep deprivation.

Ting! Clear Mind has obtained level 15!
...
Ting! Clear Mind has obtained level 22!

I kinda cheated that breakthrough with [Twin Minds] but gains were gains and I wasn't going to complain.

I slept all through the next day and the day after I trained in the dojo, sparring as much as I could for I only have two more days to practice before the tournaments. I would have practiced a lot more but no, Tusile wanted her brand new toy to show off. When I wasn't sparring I was forced into stance practice.

"Your balance is still way off Aly! Even I can easily push you around" Chyzu says, moving my body into the proper positions. "You keep leaning forward or having your tails in odd positions, stop doing that!" It suddenly clicked as Chyzu says that.

"Umm, Chyzu, you do know my tails are longer and I have two of them right? That's going affect my stances..."

There was dead silence between us for a solid two minutes.

"Alright, then we'll need to figure out better ways for your stances, unfortunately, I'm not an expert so you'll need to ask Esofy and learn stance theory" they've been teaching me stances the wrong way for years, this just goes to show that not everything can fit into a "proper" methodology

The rest of the day was spent at Esofy's dojo while Tana tried to push me off balance tana seems a little shy around me. The goal was to find ideal stances for me to use.

"Your tails will allow you to assume normally unconventional stances, this is actually a good thing as you can lure your opponents in thinking that they can take advantage of what would normally be poor stances. You'll still need to practice this and you'll be pioneering your style of stances and it's going to take dedication. You being a mage, however, I don't think you'll want to spend too much effort into what a warrior would do" Esofy gave her opinion after the practice but now that I know the problem I won't struggle with stances as much.

On the day of the tournaments, my family boards the Winamr on her maiden flight.

"We get to fly!" "This is so cool!" The twins are having a blast running around the large airship, stars in their eyes. Looking at everything and inspecting all the sails and crew working. As they ran below deck I turn toward my parents.

"They are almost five years old. We should train their bond so they have a good evolution, it'll be great for their future if nothing else."

Mom and Dad looks at each other and thought for several minutes.

"Alright, there wasn't too much issue with all the kids you taught so as long as they are disciplined enough and behave it should be fine" Mom finally agrees.

"They are certainly a handful so we'll need your help in dealing with this Aly," Dad says.

Once all the passengers got onboard the airship takes off, first rowing out far enough and then the sails are deployed, and soon we felt air rush under the sails. The airship shook a little and lifts into the air

"We're flying! We're flying!" The twins are having the time of their lives, dancing around each other. I smile at the scene.

"Thank you for taking the time to make the airship control crystal. I know it was a selfish request but it's best for the village" Tusile gave an apologetic bow.

"The meetings at Temple Island are very important and a lot of deals are made where none would have been. The tournaments are only half the purpose, getting remote villages together allows for more trade and prosperity for everybody. This is a way to meet new people and bring all Runalymo together" Yukika adds.

"Although I don't like it I can understand, especially now after running my own shop" Dad crosses her arms with a frown. "Now that you are ten years old, Aly, you're going to meet a lot of people, both for the family shop, your dresses, and now for airships. Your day is going to be very busy"

I gave a defeated sigh. I knew that this would be the case one day. At least I can knock out two birds at the same time and make the family deals while taking tour flights with important people. "Before I do that I have something I need to do first," I say. I need to talk to Kayafe again. The Temple is built over a dungeon and I need to ask her about it.

"What is it?" Guklaro asks.

"In my last meeting with the Guardian she helped me train my [Mana Toxicity Tolerance] to over one hundred so I am immune to mana toxicity. This has let me be able to go to the top of the Temple, where the Mana Arc is. I was able to examine it and talk to Kayafe herself" The bomb I dropped has everyone's jaw hit the floor in disbelief "I wanted to ask her something but I only have a short window of time as it takes a ton of mana to do so"

As Yukika was about to ask something I head her off, already knowing what she'll ask. "She had to use her body as a catalyst to make the Mana Arc but her soul is still in there, unable to leave"

"What do you want to ask her?" Dad asks. The airship meets a little bit of turbulence that has everybody stumble a little.

"About the dungeon below the Temple"

"Dungeon what's that?" Yukika asks, looking confused.

"If it's below the Temple then the Priestesses should know about it, but how did you come to know of it, Alysara?" Tusile asks.

"The Guardian told me about it, but she only mentioned it and didn't exactly explain to me what is in it, although given the context it's supposed to be a monster-infested place good for training your levels."

Something tells me it's more than just that, it's not just a place designed to train but an actual dangerous place one should be wary of, this is coming from my past knowledge. The Guardian made it sound like some training grounds. And perhaps it is to the Guardian that's why I want to ask Kayafe about it.

"It's worth looking into at least," Guklaro says.

"I don't think it's safe, Aly, you are not going into it," Dad says.

"I won't, or at least I'll stand just past the entrance and just send out my fairies" I smile at Dad, knowing I pretty much defeated her argument.

"Fine but you'll have to have a fighter with you" Dad compromises.

"Esofy would be interested in the place as should Chyzu, your child will be plenty safe," Tusile says.

The airship lands at the docks. We are the first to the island so now we'll have to wait for the spectators to show up. In the meantime, I walk to the Temple with Dad in tow.

"I'll be studying the statue again, let me know when you're done"

I nod and walk up the stairs. Once at the Mana Arc again I establish a connection to Kayafe again.

"Hello" It felt as if Kayafe was asleep and I just woke her up. I can see her soul in the Arc now, the mind section of it becoming active.

"It's you again"

"I wanted to ask about the dungeon below this Temple, It has gone unused for a long time and knowledge of it is gone"

I felt a mental sigh from the old soul, Ironic that I think of her soul as old when mine is way older, maybe I should refer to her as a young soul? "It is supposed to be used to train powerful warriors, I'd gone through great lengths to make a deal with the dungeon core to make it a good training ground, weak monsters at the start and gets progressively harder"

"With the Guardian protecting us and probably with no monsters around at the time no one saw any use for it" I give an educated guess on the matter.

"Likely, but now you want to use it? My deal with the dungeon core should still be in effect and it's been having a free deal for I don't know how long."

"What did you promise it?" I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Part of what the Mana Arc does is funnel mana into the dungeon to help it grow, in return, we get assurance that the dungeon won't try to kill our people who enter it for training purposes. There are more details into it but we are on limited time aren't we?"

"Yes, So it's safe for me to continue up saving my stat points? My biggest worry was that I'd have to spend them to be safe" I say, relieved at the knowledge of the deal.

"Why save up your points? What level are you anyway?"

"I'm level ninety-one and my Bond is in the mid-two-hundreds. I'm saving my points so it doesn't make my skills too hard to level"

I sense a groan coming from Kayafe "It doesn't matter! It's always relative, what's a lot to you or what tests you are ultimately up to you, in the first place skills are often about efficiency not about raw stats, in many cases, raw stats won't help unless it's physical or based on power!" Kayafe rants.

I had to think about it for a second. The information that skills get harder to level based on stats are assumptions that my parents gave me, and they said that they attributed it to my skill level guide, nothing was concrete about it at all.

"So I can spend my points and it won't increase the difficulty of leveling the skill?" I wanted to make sure I understood what Kayafe said.

"It's relative. If you're stronger then the test levels will be based on your strength but it's fairly easy to come up with a challenging thing to test yourself."

"Test levels? It sounds similar to my theory of action and knowledge levels"

"Is that what you are calling it? Your theory? Please tell me the Runalymo didn't forget how to level skills" Kayafe sounds disappointed.

"It's been, like, ten thousand years, a lot can happen in that amount of time. Yes my theory based on achievement of action, like doing something repeatedly or for a long time or doing an extraordinary feat"

"Something really bad must have happened to cause a civilization to forget something so important, your theory is very similar to the description of the test levels. The test of repetition, the test of many, the test of first use, the test of endurance, and the test of mastery. While the test of Mastery could be done by doing something extraordinary it doesn't always mean so. Getting the general skill [Sense of Perfection] or [Critical Eye] will help you achieve these tests."

I see, so that's how we got [Perfectionist's Eye] I haven't felt it with my skills but the Guardian did say I can learn how to do the breakthroughs with racial skills.

"We might have gotten a racial skill that does what those general skills do, so it might not be entirely possible for us to get those"

"I've been wondering. How do you have a class at level ninety-one but a Bond over level two hundred? Even if you started young your bond shouldn't be over twice your class level" Kayafe asks

"Oh, yeah, I got my Bond to two hundred before my class a few months ago"

It took Kayafe a few moments to process that.

"A few months ago? You're only ten years old?!"