In the orb space.
Noelani, was on the gigantic cloud that had swelled up from all her trades, was looking at a cluster of orbs she was approaching.
She squinted her eyes as though she was scrutinizing the cluster.
“That should be it; I finally arrived,” Noelani said happily.
She stopped her moving cloud and looked at other nearby clusters.
The next moment, she started directing her cloud in a particular direction. Soon, she positioned herself to be between 3 clusters.
Each of these orb groupings represents an island in the real world.
If one were to examine these 3, one would notice a striking difference between them and most other islands.
The disparity is that these three are much more huddled together, meaning that the people on these three islands have joined their orbs together or set up their domes near each other.
Noelani commanded a tentacle-like arm to extend out of her cloud and to one of the three clusters around her.
***
“Jacob! Look, that massive cloud is extending towards us!” Someone yelled out in the orb space.
The man named Jacob noticed a part of the cloud was extending towards him and the other members of his island, even before his mate pointed it out.
“It’s fine; there should not be an issue. We are in the orb space after all.”
Jacob tried to calm everyone.
A while earlier.
Jacob and his fellow islanders noticed the strand of light coming from the clouds and connecting to their innate orbs; they became worried at first.
The purification dome was their lifeline to survive, and their situation would become precarious without it.
Thankfully, however, the light strands didn’t seem to be something terrible.
He and the others investigated the orbs but found no fundamental changes except for the imaginary clouds coming from their orbs in the orb space.
They began to experiment with them and quickly found their use; they allowed someone to transfer mana, or the clouds themselves, to another person.
Unfortunately, this trading feature was not that useful for them.
In the end, they all have set up their innate orbs beside or near one another, and if they wanted to exchange energy, they would trade using the mana stones.
However, if they had this earlier, then it would have been helpful. Because, during the moving of orbs, they had to shut them off and lose all the energy in them, but if they had this feature, they could have sent the mana between each other instead of losing the fuel completely.
Soon, Noelani’s cloud extension reached the group.
“Hello everyone! My name is Noelani. Can I know which of you is Jacob?”
Her voice came from the tentacle-like arm.
There was a short moment of silence until Jacob spoke out.
“My name is Jacob, but how do you know of me?” He was perplexed about how Noelani knew him.
“I have a special talent that provides me with hints. I have used these hints to keep my island safe and strengthen its members.” Noelani replied.
“I know you possess a useful talent that I am in desperate need of, am I not wrong?”
She asked Jacob.
“Do you? Then you should know what the talent is.” Someone in the crowd said.
Noelani nodded.
“If I’m not wrong, it’s a talent skill that lets you produce universal mana. In fact, calling it a cultivation talent is more accurate. “
Everyone was amazed at Noelani’s knowledge and her supposed talent. Of course, they all knew how valuable information was, especially when everyone first awoke and didn’t know what was going on.
“Your right, but what do you want?” Jacob asked. He liked to be straightforward and didn’t like beating around the bush.
“Simple, I want to buy a copy.”
Noelani mentally smiled. If her camp members heard of this, they would be shocked.
That’s correct; it is possible to produce a copy of one’s talent.
The way to do so is to insert the mana, of the talent skill, into the individual’s innate orb.
There are several limitations to this.
One of the limits; the talent skill’s level can’t exceed the innate orb’s level.
This means she can’t produce a copy of her talent, yin yang birth since it has reached level-5.
That’s cause her talent skill can improve much faster than ordinary talents since the level also improves by the speed of the dark spawn’s corruption.
The corruption of the dark spawn is also accelerated by the dark miasma, which is why her talent has significantly leveled up after turning both Fabian and Adam into dark spawns.
After she was chosen to go back in time, Noelani guessed that the level-up speed of her talent was why she was chosen.
However, even though her talent has its strong points, she knew it does not compare to Jacob’s talent in terms of usefulness early on.
Jacob’s talent, and similar talents, are classified under the cultivation type. This is because the general kind of mana helps improve the strength of the individual.
Other than improving physical strength, it also helps with using higher-level skills. For example, take the time she used the level-2 wood control skill.
The mana produced by the skill put a strain on herself, she didn’t show it, but the higher level of mana caused her a lot of pain.
If you want to use a skill, it is best to keep it the same as your level; otherwise, the mana it produces could harm you.
Noelani has only strengthened her body with level-1 mana stones, and thus, she is still level-1 at the moment.
But having a cultivation skill can change all of that. Not only can you use skills of varying types and strengthen yourself without the need for mana stones, but in addition, the skill will keep improving passively and reach higher levels on its own.
This means that your strength will keep improving, and you will be able to keep up with your leveled-up skills.
“You want to get a copy of my fire cultivation skill?”
Jacob asked; his cultivation talent belonged to the fire element. Even though he could use skills of other types, the other fire skills got a boost in strength.
“Yes, from my hints, I know you have already produced multiple copies and distributed some to your friends. I want a copy but not without giving a fair price. Would you like a fire attacking skill? Or some other fire-type skill?”
Noelani was right; Jacob discovered that he could use the mana from his talent for anything, so he started charging his innate orb instead of utilizing a mana stone; he quickly found the ability to produce the talent skill orb.
Unfortunately, he could only produce a certain amount of skill orbs, so he had to ration the skill orbs.
But hearing that Noelani had a fire attacking skill, he was immediately interested.
Noelani knew exactly what Jacob wanted. After all, the future Jacob himself told her what he wanted the most at this time.
After all, individuals with a cultivation skill have the highest survival chance out of anyone.
The main reason is that their level of strength is constantly growing. Take the last tribulation as an example; Jacob was already level-2 and dealt with the dark elementals that spawned.
He, of course, got a helping hand from his island mates, but it does not diminish his contribution. Otherwise, there would have been more casualties without him.
Currently, Noelani plans to keep trading with Jacob and the surrounding islands to strengthen herself and the other members of her camp.
But that’s not all.
She will keep expanding the reaches of her island and eventually encompassing multiple islands before the dark miasma recovers.
At that moment, she will monopolize all trades in the surrounding islands; anyone that wants to buy or sell something would have to be through her.
She has the confidence to convince others. After all, once people learn that she could trade more than just energy and illusory clouds, but she also can trade things like food and skill orbs, most will give up on establishing their trade connections and trade with her.
