“What can you tell me about titles?” I ask Safyr.

“Titles always grant a large bonus of some kind, usually equalling the bonus you’d get from the legendary tier; however, some can be weaker. Many also grant some kind of innate ability, such as mine, that can summon allies to my aid. You can have multiple titles but can only benefit from one at a time, although getting more than one is very rare.”

“Alysara has a bonus that scales with her skills’ levels; I have a static but much larger bonus. I assume this is normal?” Kayafe says, inquiring about the nature of the title bonus.

“It is,” Safyr confirms, “Although a scaling bonus will often be weaker when first obtained.”

“What is the highest title bonus that you know of?” I ask. “You said equivalent to legendary tier is normal, so on average, around five thousand?”

“The highest static bonus I’ve seen was around nine thousand; the highest scaling is twelve thousand.”

“That’s well into the fable tier equivalent, but I suppose very few have a title that strong. How many have you met with that high of a bonus?” I ask.

“Three,” Safyr answers. “And of those three, they are old and very powerful; I consider them my equals. You saw one of them when he came to help with the cursed being a few years ago.”

That one, huh. Safyr likely has a title bonus somewhere around ten thousand too. ‘Guardian of the East Nexus’ probably scales with how many years she’s been protecting this place, so maybe around what Kayafe has.

“You’ll be losing one of your titles, right?” Kayafe asks.

If Safyr leaves, she won’t be considered the Guardian of the East Nexus anymore. I still can’t believe she’ll be leaving, and once she does, we’ll be left vulnerable.

“Yes, but I have another to fall back on,” Safyr says.

“Safyr, what are the chances that we’ll be attacked by a force that Kayafe and the Mana Arc may struggle with, and how soon would you expect it?” I ask.

Safyr is silent for several minutes, thinking.

“Depends,” She finally answers. “A lot of information can be gained from the world messages about Kayafe being freed so soon after I slew those things; they may draw a conclusion that we are in the same place, a place revealed by my title. They may look back in their records and see your own accomplishments on top of the ones you two will soon make and see value in this place.”

So the cat’s already out of the bag. However, they don’t know about the Lunaleyan island; by keeping that place secret, we can secure a safe fallback location if we are ever forced out of the Nexus.

“Won’t people just assume it’s a coincidence?” Kayafe asks. “What is there that shows that we are related other than the timing? Also, no one will know you plan to leave; they’d be crazy to invade when there’s a dragon here.”

“While it can happen, and has happened before, that world messages appear from two different locations, that is very rare; common sense will assume that they are connected or at least suspected to be connected. Furthermore, it’s something innate to the ‘guardian’ in the title, just like how your ‘saintess’ title comes from altruism,” Safyr answers. “A guardian needs someone or someplace to protect, but why would a dragon be protecting a Nexus unless there’s something there worth protecting; the nature of the Nexus itself isn’t enough for dragons. But, yes, you are right; only the most powerful beings will be brave enough to challenge a dragon.”

Safyr’s implication is enough to convince her that being a dragon actually makes it more dangerous since anything willing to challenge a dragon will surely be too much for Kayafe and the Mana Arc.

“If everyone knows there’s ‘something worth protecting here,’ then why haven’t many people already tried to get it?” Kayafe asks.

“Because no one knew what it was, it could mean a lot to me but nothing to them; why take the risk?” Safyr answers. “But now they know, or they think they do. The Mana Arc, Alysara’s knowledge, and now you. If they have records of your time, they will know you have mastered [Manipulate Mana] and seek that knowledge. They probably don’t, but Alysara will get that soon anyway and possibly cure her cursed skill, another very valuable thing to know and one that may produce a world message.”

“So what you're saying is that us enhancing our skills and me curing my cursed skill just makes things worse.” I feel like there’s a pit in my stomach.

I really want to purify my cursed skill, but there’s a risk it may alert the world. Enhancing [Mana Manipulation] is also a risk, but what can I do? I can’t just not cleanse my cursed skills, and enhancing [Manipulate Mana] is too good to pass up because I need to get stronger in case the gods want to chop my soul up for resources.

“Yes,” Safyr replies. “But I would encourage you to do so anyway, because peaceful trade is always an option” Safyr looks at each of us in turn. “Many legendary beings aren’t stupid — they know that if they try to force you to give them what they want, you won’t out of spite. Therefore, many will seek you out with the intent of trade or favors; this is a good chance for you to gain powerful materials, training, and knowledge to strengthen yourselves.”

“They won’t try to take the Mana Arc?” I ask.

“Why bother? They know you made it, so they can learn how to make one for themselves,” Safyr replies.

Her arguments are sound; there’s more to gain coming in peace than trying to enslave and conquer, but what if they don’t have anything of value or are unwilling to part with anything? Kidnaping, extortion, and other non-violent but aggressive and manipulative means are still an option. Mind control, memory reading, and who knows what else to get what they want without us knowing or being unable to fight back without immediately alerting Safyr. Then we need to consider that some may not want us to divulge this information to anyone else and may try to silence us, either by killing us, putting us under a geas, or other things like that. Not everyone will come to us with good intentions, and Safyr’s presence is the only deterrent.

I voice my concerns and my plans to use the Lunaleyan island as a place of refuge should the worse happen.

“Caution and the foresight needed to identify solutions to problems are valuable traits,” Safyr comments, but Kayafe has a different argument.

“Do you want to be an Empress? There can be other options, such as us getting stronger. There’s a dungeon, and we can train in there; we can try to craft a fleet of airships just like the Entylamo. I can make one in a few hours if I wanted; the only thing I lack is the materials to make the reactor. Once you purify your skill, you will be able to do the same. Plus, if we get legendary tier materials from legendary beings seeking our knowledge, we can craft many powerful items for us to help defend against dubious beings. You don’t have to do this.”

“No, I don’t want to be an empress, but we’ve both sacrificed too much for it all to be destroyed by some greedy people and monsters,” I say. 

I can’t let the sacrifice of my Kyhosa be for nothing! If I can’t protect my people, my family, and my home, then I’d lose everything. Some may think that I’ve done enough, but it just means I have more to lose; that’s why I have to do this.

“At least wait,” Kayafe says. “It’s only been a day, and this is an important decision. You may change your mind for a better option.”

“Alysara is right, though,” Safyr says. “The people here aren't warriors, but the Lunaleyans are. By ruling them, you will gain more power, and as long as you rule them justly, they will remain loyal to you, but you’ll also need the power to convince them that they can’t reverse the relationship.”

“All I’m saying is to wait and think it over,” Kayafe sighs. “I understand that you are worried, Alysara, but we’ve got time; Safyr will still be here for a few more years, and even when she leaves, no one will know she’s gone, so realistically we have decades to prepare”

“That only assumes no one notices my absence,” Safyr counters. “But, regardless, Kayafe’s right that you have some time, and hasty action is poorly thought out. With that said, I have something to give you, Alysara, for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my promise.” Safyr reaches forward, and her hand disappears as if going inside something before pulling out a gem made of pure beauty mana that almost feels alive.

“Spirits are just like elementals, but born weak; most lack intelligence, but the few that gain intelligence often grow in power and surpass common elementals. This is the heart of one such great spirit, who was once known as the Goddess of Beauty and Blood. She was a cruel and vain being who saw beauty in battle, destruction, and death, rather than creation, cleanliness, and creativity that Myrou finds beautiful.”

Heart of Brimora
(Legendary) (Archaic)
The heart of the Goddess of Beauty and Blood, a once feared war goddess known throughout the realm and beyond.
Vastly improves the potency and control of beauty spells

I take the heart offered to me, almost in disbelief. This is such a powerful material, and I didn’t expect Safyr to part with something like this.

Why does she even have this in the first place?! What use does she have for it? Well, that answer is simple, she can use it to trade, but this also suggests that Safyr is capable of slaying beings known as gods.

I suppose this is the kind of thing I can expect to receive as payment for my knowledge. Perhaps I might be able to make a warship, one that will help defend the Nexus in the event something bad happens. If I get more materials like this, it’s certainly a possibility.

Perhaps I don’t need to be an empress forever, maybe just as long as needed until we can be sure the Nexus is secure, but until that time, having a fallback location is necessary. Perhaps Kayafe is right that I need to think this through more carefully. Perhaps we don’t need warriors; we need vessels strong enough to take out any threat.

With Kayafe’s experience and my knowledge, we can make a warship capable of fighting off anyone or anything.

“Thank you, Safyr.”

“Hmm,” Safyr hums before laying down. “If you have any further questions, ask Yrania.”

With Safyr no longer in the mood to answer our questions, we fly home.

“Alysara,” Kayafe says as we fly over the sea, “We should spend some time in the dungeon. You are ridiculously low leveled, which only feeds your paranoia because you feel powerless in the face of legendary beings. Once you gain more confidence in your abilities and power, you won’t feel the same way you do now. By limiting your class so much for the sake of your Bond, you are handicapping yourself; this is why I encouraged you to take a caster Class.”

“It’s too late for that now,” I reply. “Besides, once I evolve my race and purify my skill, I will gain the power to punch way up; I have an enemy that I want to pay back when I have the opportunity.”

I still need to find a ritual spell that will protect my mind, but once that is done, the Mind Eater is going down!

“Besides,” I continue, “Once [Manipulate Mana] is in my race, I will effectively have a caster Class.”

“You still need the supportive skills for caster skills, Alysara. But are you one hundred percent sure you won’t turn into a cursed being?” 

“I’m as sure as I can be,” I reply. “Even if I’m wrong, with my soul, it will reform even if destroyed, so if I do turn, warn Safyr; it takes several hours to evolve, so you should have time.”

If the skill even has one mote of miasma left after the cleansing process, I won’t take the risk.

After the Lojyo, I lay down, ready for the long evolution process, and access my legendary points. I take a deep breath to prepare myself as Kayafe watches over me, and will the point to cleanse the miasma from [Manipulate Mana]. I watch as the experience making up the point moves to the skill’s magic framework and begins to neutralize the miasma until it’s all gone; there’s even some experience left over, but that begins to fade as the magic framework repairs itself to look like a normal framework. It worked! The skill is fully cleansed!

However, I’m not taking the chance that the miasma will come back.

“The miasma is entirely gone; there was even some experience leftover,” I report.

Either this is not worthy of a world notification, or I have to move the skill into a proper Class or Race framework to complete the purification process.

Kayafe nods, and I check my evolution options, the final test; if the evolution options involving [Manipulate Mana] still say (Cursed), I won’t take the risk.

I ignore the options based on souls, ectoplasm, and [Astral Projection], since they are still corrupted.

Five-Tailed Mana Saintess Runalymo.
(Heroic) (Artifact)
You are the Saintess of Mana and Magic; you have seen farther than most and seen secrets only a few have ever peered into. You have made powerful items, ones that spawn life, ones that hold knowledge, and even one of the most powerful items the realm has seen yet. You have proven your mastery of mana, and with that, your control over it has been ingrained in your blood.

Note: Skills may be merged or replaced.
Note: As the progenitor of an heirloom race, the merged skill will continue to level and achieve breakthroughs normally. Take your race to ever greater heights, or burn to ashes trying.

It’s cleansed! This is a slightly improved version of the previous corrupted one; the other options also have slightly improved versions too, but they aren’t heroic and artifact tier. Besides, this one blatantly says it will incorporate [Manipulate Mana] and the whole point of all this is to make sure the skill stays purified.

What’s not to like about this evolution? It’s partially crafting-based, sense based, and should keep my skill cleansed. I select the evolution and fall unconscious as the evolution process starts.

Ting! The Saintess of Mana and Magic, Alysara, the Runalymo, has discovered how to cleanse cursed Skills!

The message is the first thing I see when I wake up. Kayafe is in the experimentation room looking over my inscription notes; she must have done her own thing when the notification appeared since that is confirmation that my skill is indeed cleansed.

It feels like a huge weight has been lifted from me. All this time, I’ve been worried about curing my Skill, and I’ve finally done it! I can cleanse [Astral Projection] now too, but I’ll have to put it in a Class; Scholar of Many Minds would be a good fit for it since it’s for my clones.

Five-Tailed Mana Saintess Runalymo.
(Heroic) (Artifact)
Race Trait 1: Mana Generation
Having traded the now unneeded physical boosting trait of their parent species, the Runalymo have instead gained a 1400% heightened mana generation rate and a 60% boost to their mana capacity.
Race Trait 2: Sense Magic (903/980)
This skill has been evolved by the Saintess of Mana and Magic, Alysara, the progenitor of the Five-Tailed Runalymo. This race is not limited by sensing just mana; they can sense magic too and have great control over their perceptive pressure, vectors, and eyes. Born from the best, this race is gifted with the ability to see what mana and magic really is.
Race Trait 3: Manipulate Mana (550/550)
This race is a master of controlling and manipulating mana, being far more gifted than even masters of this skill can hope to achieve. They can create super-solid mana, cast devastating spells, and make items that few can even hope to copy.
Race Trait 4: Mana Senses
An evolved trait that has been honed and kept through the eons, this race still has very acute hearing, smell, and sight. Through a decade of exposure, the moment a member of this race has their third tail manifest; they gain the ability to smell and hear mana and, as such, can hunt and track by mana. This race can now adjust their mana senses to remove background noise and smells to focus on the mana they want to.
Race Trait 5: Mana Glutton
Having adapted to constant starvation and environments lacking in food supplies, this race now passively consumes mana to sustain bodily needs. Additionally, they can draw in mana from their environment to sustain themselves and have increased mana metabolism, completely eliminating their need for food and water while greatly extending the time this race can survive without air.
Race Trait 6: Runalymo’s Tails
This race is now the most beautiful, and its connection to the essence has increased the amount they can store in their bodies by 1300%. In addition, they can naturally channel it to use beauty spells. Their strength in wielding this mana is boosted by 300%, and they are born with two tails. Once their third tail manifests at the age of 5, their bonus is increased to 500% and 800% when their fourth tail manifests at the age of 10. At the age of 15, this race will gain their fifth tail, granting them an increase to their beauty spells strength to 1200%.
Race Trait 7: Inventive Perfection
This race can easily spot flaws and may never overlook them. Memories are forgotten only at will. They are masters of finding and solving mysteries, puzzles, inventions, mechanics, circuitry, and other curiosities. Additionally, the more creativity essence a member of this race has stored, the faster they'll learn and master their arts and crafts. The more wisdom essence they have stored, the better they'll solve problems, finding more efficient and effective solutions.
Race Trait 8: Nexus Immunity (140/140)
Adapting to the hostile environment of a nexus, even if the vast majority of the ambient mana is being siphoned, has made this race resistant to extreme temperatures and immune to mana toxicity. They can resist mana given off by great beings, recover faster from mana toxicity, resist mana storms, push against highly dense mana, convert mana toxicity into vitality, slightly resist spells, prevent toxicity from specific elements, store vastly more mana in their body, and resist extreme mana densities and liquid mana. Due to their adaptation to extreme environments, this race receives a 50% bonus to their endurance.
Race Trait 9: Inspirational Greatness
Dedication to the arts, crafts, study, and invention have made this Runalymo more creative and intelligent, granting them a +1300% to creativity and wisdom essences. +45% wisdom, +60% Intelligence
Race Trait 10: Alysara's Children
This Race is tied to ‘Beauty’, granting a 1400% boost to mana intensity and control when manipulating beauty essence.

There are some big changes and some small ones. Nutritional Milk has been replaced, so I guess I no longer qualify for a nurturer race, but it seems like I only lose the supernatural qualities; natural evolution will have to do the rest. This may also give my children the opportunity to regain that trait, but why when we no longer need to eat?

Everything with numbers has been massively improved. My mana regen is through the roof, relatively speaking, but everything else has minor upgrades. 

One thing that wasn’t stated is the increase in my ability to hear and smell mana, it’s so… rich now, so clear, and now I can get rid of the dull background noise from a dozen different types of mana. It’s nothing I can describe other than ‘pleasant’ or ‘unpleasant’; how do I describe a smell to someone who has never smelled anything like dark mana? Dark mana smells and sounds like dark mana.

I get up to start my day, stumbling slightly since I am not used to my extra tails. Once I enhance [Manipulate Mana], I’ll be ready for the dungeon.