Ting! Your Bond skill, Beauty Explosion, has evolved into Prismatic Explosion!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Beauty Empowerment, has evolved into Beauty Enrichment!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Intensify Beauty, has evolved into Empassion Beauty!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Beauty’s Blessing, has evolved into Beauty’s Boon!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Serene Moment, has evolved into Timeless Beauty!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Blessing of Wholeness, has evolved into State of Wholeness!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Beauty Nova, has evolved into Star Nova!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Immaculate Translocation, has evolved into Graceful Translocation!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Sanctuary of Wholeness, has evolved into Domain of Wholeness!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Sanctuary of Passion, has evolved into Domain of Graceful Flames!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Sanctuary of Stillness, has evolved into Timeless Domain!
Ting! Your Bond skill, Serene Sanctuary, has evolved into Domain of Serene Winter!

Prismatic Explosion:
(Beauty)
Augment a Skill or spell with unstable mana to make it explode in a powerful blast.

Beauty Enrichment:
(Beauty)
Augment a Skill or Spell by adding mana for more power.

Empassion Beauty:
(Beauty)
Augment a Skill or Spell by intensifying its mana for more power.

Beauty’s Boon:
(Beauty) (Blessing)
Bless a person, monster, or thing with beauty. Slows aging, removes deformities, cures genetic diseases, and slowly gifts one’s ideal beautiful features. Lasts for one hour per level.

Timeless Beauty:
(Beauty) (Time)
Slows time or speeds it up to a great degree.

State of Wholeness:
(Beauty) (Restoration)
Restores a person, monster, or thing to a state of wholeness and can use mana to rebuild missing parts. Furthermore, keeps the affected in a state of wholeness by preventing minor damage for one minute per ten levels.

Star Nova:
(Beauty) (Illusion)
Casts an explosion like that of an erupting star centered on you; you are immune to any damage caused by this Skill.

Graceful Translocation:
(Beauty)(Teleportation)
Teleport Anyone or anything anywhere within one kilometer per ten levels

Domain of Wholeness:
(Beauty) (Restoration)
Slowly heal and prevent minor damage to everyone within a diameter of one meter per level.

Domain of Graceful Flames:
(Beauty) (Illusion)
Conjures an area of one meter per ten levels of beautifully dancing flames that burn only your enemies.

Timeless Domain:
(Beauty) (Time)
Slows or speeds up everything in a one meter per ten levels area.

Domain of Serene Winter
(Beauty) (Winter)
Conjures an area of one meter per ten levels of beautifully dancing snowfall that freezes only your enemies.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 1152-1255!

That’s all the Bond Skills that I can improve for now. I am sure I can further improve a few of these for more levels, and I already have a few ideas for some of the domain Skills.

I can now easily switch between skills after five minutes of effort; still not battle-capable switching yet, but I am getting there. Furthermore, most of my previous versions of Skills have pretty much become innate to my Bond. This means that I can use the Skills without them being Skills now, but those are the weaker versions, so it’s not too helpful unless I don’t have their stronger version equipt.

Now that I can use [Blessing of Purity] freely, I can safely say I have the cleanest house in the Nexus; there’s not a speck of dust to be found!

I can now teleport anywhere in the Nexus, too; no more flying needed. I am definitely keeping that permanently equipped!

[Timeless Beauty] is another one that seems really useful; by speeding myself up a lot, I can get a whole day’s work done in a single hour! Or I can do a lot more research in a single day which would have helped a lot when researching Inscriptions for Urolon’s dumb test.

[Beauty’s Boon] is really interesting. It directly says that it even fixes genetic diseases and deformities, something that Wholeness doesn’t do. Slowing aging seems great too, and I assume it’s aging, not physical maturity. It even can change one’s appearance into what they view as ideal beauty, but I wonder if it doesn’t have to do that. I feel like any cosmetic surgery should be done with permission, even if it’s what someone would want. It lasts for fifty days at my current level, so it’s set and forget, but it never states how long the cosmetic surgery takes nor how much it slows aging, so I guess I have to figure that out myself. 

I wonder if I’ll get to a point where I can stop aging entirely or even de-age people. But if we are talking about future prospects, I should start a cosmetic alteration business alongside my tailoring one. I am sure tons of people will want blemishes removed and be more beautiful.

My Wholeness healing Skills just got massive improvements. It’s not just healing anymore but now a damage-resisting Skill! I am sure there are things I can’t prevent damage, like damage on the Soul, Anima, and things like that, but maybe in time, those will be included. Furthermore, I can now restore objects even if they have missing pieces! Before, I could only fix objects if I had all the pieces.

I feel like my Bond is catching up to [Manipulate Magic] now. Still not in combat but definitely in utility. Other than evolving my Bond Skills for the past week, I’ve also been doing normal Bond training, and we did some combat training in the dungeon for a few days. I’ve been keeping up with Esofy’s training too, and attended with my real body a few times. It’s different, and I didn’t account for several things, but now I know what it’s like, and I can emulate that with my clones.

Unfortunately, I can’t just train forever, the world keeps moving, and now it’s time to go back to the Lunaleyan lands. 

I’ve been thinking about Klaman’s offer for a while, and I think I’ve settled on an acceptable compromise. Take the Empress offer for only a limited time. This will deepen our relationship with the Lunaleyans; I can build a semi-permanent residential spot for Runalymo that can be a potential evacuation destination if things go very wrong in the Nexus. Once I am strong enough that I am sure I can take on any threats to the Nexus, then I abdicate the throne and live peacefully.

In short, it’s a temporary solution for a temporary problem with the added benefit of building close relations to allies and further prosperous trade with them. I can think of it as a CEO taking over a failing business to get it back on its feet in exchange for benefits or whatever.

That said, I have little experience in ruling and will need all the help I can get. I do have resources, though. I have Tusile, Guklaro, and the other Elders. Lanya might give me advice for the right price, and Kayafe may have some good insight. I am not without teachers and advisors.

The Entylamo is being stocked as well as three other new ships similar in build and function to the Entylamo. We figured four ships loaded with goods will bring in far more profit and can complete the trade routes in a shorter time, so we don’t have to spend an entire week there.

Of course, those ships were built by Kayafe and me.

“I am eager to see the Lunaley,” Kayafe says, her tail wagging in excitement. “I wonder what they are like and what cultures they have made for themselves”

In Kayafe’s time, her people didn’t really have their own culture, so she must be excited to see how the Lunaley have branched off.

“Are there other Islands around?” She asks.

“The Lunaley is the closest, but I haven’t checked if there are any further out. To be honest, I have my time occupied enough as it is. Getting roped up with trade relations for more islands out there will take up too much of my focus away from more important things, like getting stronger for when Safyr leaves.”

“Then just locating them is enough. The Elders will have enough international relations practice with the Lunaley in a few years that you can trust them to handle the rest if there is anyone else out there,” Kayafe says.

She’s right; I don’t have to shoulder this burden again, simply finding them and reporting to the Elders is enough.

In any case, we are ready to set out once again in a few hours; I hope there isn’t another visitor while we are away.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

 

Oathbound Lin arrives back at the Palace, his mission done. The guards open the door for him, and a rush of mana and an assortment of other presences sweeps past him as he enters. The doors thud behind him, closing to prevent the mana from becoming a danger to the rest of the city.

There are a few towers meant to vent the mana into the sky where it can safely flow along the leylines, but it’s still too dangerous for the citizens living nearby.

“Brother Lin, the Emperor has another mission for you,” Oathbound Squire Eric says.

“Thank you, Brother Eric” Lin replies

They are all brothers in arms, and the Emperor encourages this bond. The Oathbound Knights are more than just an order of royal Knights; they are a brotherhood, a tight-knit group willing to die for each other.

Another one? I haven't even reported back to him yet; this must be important.

He can imagine what it’s about, though. Alysara and Kayafe. The Emperor had shown him the paintings of his old companions and told him his story, but why did he choose him specifically for this mission? Why when he was already on a mission?

The answer must be in the one that has enhanced [Sense Mana]. The Emperor must want something from Alysara and needs to know if she is capable; this is the only reason why he would wait for him to come back instead of sending another Oathbound.

He enters the throne room. The Emperor stands in the center, not sitting on the throne. The throne itself is actually very uncomfortable, and it’s that way by design. The Emperor doesn’t want rulership to be a luxury but a burden so that he never falls into complacency.

“Lin, welcome back” The Emperor greets Lin with a fatherly embrace. “I know it is unfair to send you out so soon after your return and to rob you of your well-deserved rest, but only you are fit for this mission.”

“I am ready to serve for a hundred years straight if need be, Emperor; no need to worry about me.”

“You make me proud, Lin. Your mission is a diplomatic one. Find Alysara and request her services to see what the dwarves are up to. However, to avoid poisoning future relations, we need to be sure Alysara is capable enough to avoid the Dwarven retaliations. This will, of course, require you to test her abilities. If you find her lacking, then just try to form good relations with the Runalymo.”

As the head of counter-intelligence, he has a mind mage Class and one dedicated to foiling perceptive abilities, even if he isn’t particularly skilled in such perceptive abilities. He can track, block, retaliate with spells, and more, so he is perfect for the Job.

He would prefer if Ryan came with him since he is the foremost expert in perceptive abilities, but sending more than one Oathbound is the same as sending an army as a diplomatic entourage. Basically, it’d turn into a show of force rather than an attempt to establish diplomatic relations.

However, one could argue even one Oathbound is a show of force since even one is worth an army, if not more so.

“Also,” The Emperor adds, his voice growing heavier. “Be careful of the dragon, Safyr. It’s been ten thousand years, but back when I was traveling with my companions she was known as the Sapphire Tyrant, one of the three most powerful dragons in the world. She sunk a large partition of the continent, slew three Spirit Gods, hundreds of Elementals, and more. She is stronger than me and it would take me and the full force of the Oathbound Knights at their peak to even hope to match her. We think the Runalymo live in the Nexus that she now calls her territory, but it’s best to confirm if that assumption is right. If not, then you’ll need to look for them.”

Lin can already feel the stress building up. He suspected a dragon but not one of the most powerful ones.

Most, if not all, kingdoms out there keep records of world messages, and the older the kingdom the more records they have. When the Emperor overthrew the barbarian kings, he kept their records which date reliably back fifteen thousand years and as far as nineteen thousand years, but those records are more sparse.

This is why they know what Safyr has done; they must have combed through the records to learn all they can about the dragon.

Needless to say, Lin cannot afford to bring the wrath of a powerful dragon upon the empire, especially in their weakened state.

“Is there any advice you can give me on how to approach the Nexus?” Lin asks. If it is Safyr’s territory, then he can’t just barge in.

“Wait at the edge of it and let your presence be known, just like you learned when you were a squire.”

Every Oathbound is trained in how to approach legendary beings; in hindsight, Lin shouldn’t have needed to ask.

“Calm down, Lin” The Emperor adopts a softer tone and places a hand on his shoulder. “Safyr has been dormant for a long time; she’s not looking for fights anymore. Trust in your training, and you’ll do well. You are strong enough that it would take too much effort to chase you away if you aren’t looking to challenge her but weak enough that she wouldn’t see you as a threat.”

Strong enough to be an inconvenience but weak enough not to do anything about it, that is the ideal way to engage in diplomacy with legendary beings, that or just be strong enough they aren’t a threat.

“Thank you, your Majesty.”

“If you feel the need, then rest for a few days; I don’t think Alysara is going anywhere.”

“Thank you, but I am ready to set out today,” Lin says, steeling his nerves.

The Emperor didn’t say, but this is a time-sensitive mission if he feels like he needs to hire services from someone outside of the Empire. Whatever the Dwarves are doing has him worried, and every day can be the difference between life and death for tens of thousands. 

“I am proud to count you among Oathbound, Lin,” The Emperor says, patting his shoulder.

“What about Kayafe? Do you have a message for her?”

“Tell her that I’d like to see her again, when she’s ready.”

“Understood!” Lin salutes. He Leaves the throne room and up to a balcony where he can fly off. He lifts himself with his mind, parting the air in front of him to reduce wind and drag. He spots the current of mana drifting toward the Leviathan Sea and follows it; it will eventually lead him to the Nexus.