“What is paradise, but, a garden, an orchard of trees and herbs, full of pleasure and nothing there but delights.”

William Lawson

“What a garden of delight,” Wanda exclaimed in wonder when she first saw our secret garden as we crested the summit of our island mountain. She looked down at the plant-filled cauldron caldera within, “A veritable garden of earthly delights.”

I shuddered in remembrance. The Garden of Earthly Delights was a painting by Hieronymus Bosch I made the error of attempting to copy for an art project decades ago when I attended school as a student rather than a teacher. The torture I inflicted on myself while attempting to copy it accurately and the accompanying trauma reverberated through time across one life and into the next to this very day. Why I chose something so complicated I could never quite remember. However, it did teach one indelible rule, KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Fortunately, when Wanda exclaimed elated that it was a Garden of delectable delights she was not referring to the triptych oil painting.

“How have you managed to collect such a wide variety of plants and grow them well, too? Your Grandfather must be quite the horticulturist despite his grumpiness.” She continued to quiz us as we made our way down into the cauldron. We traversed the first terrace, taking in the plethora of plants that lined each tier of the terraced garden.

“Mercurio brings us a plant each time he visits,” Aleera answered, deftly skirting the fact that this was not an old project of our Grandfather’s but a recent start-up of our own. While we weren’t going to insist on complete secrecy we still intended to withhold the range of our resources.

“I’m amazed that you have managed to get such a broad variety to grow so well together.” She wondered as we wandered from section to section, “Most plants need slightly different conditions to grow their best but here you have such an eclectic selection and they all seem to be growing fantastically well. There must be something magical about this mini-caldera. What did you call it again, a cauldron?”

“Yes, magical,” Aleera murmured, not revealing that the main magical ingredient involved with our growing was me and my mana. I was present, having been carried up by Aleera to meet with Des, Sinis, and Wanda who had arrived separately with a couple of bags of guano. Although I was present, Aleera was doing all the talking. This might have been my baby project but I was still the infant of the family so as always Aleera was my mouthpiece to outsiders.

“I wonder if my herbs would grow as well as everything else. You wouldn’t mind if I tried growing some up here, would you?” Wanda asked as we worked our way down to the next terrace.

“No, of course not,” Aleera replied. “The more diversity the better,” she said out loud, although I was sure that she was actually thinking something more along the lines of the greater the diversity the greater the profit.

“I’m surprised your grandfather has not sold some of this fruit at the market before.” She looked slightly puzzled.

“Well, he has always been a very private person,” Aleera replied, avoiding answering the quizzical statement. “Besides he hardly needed a lot for himself alone. It is only since all seven of us started living on the island that we have expanded it to such an extent,” she continued.

“Well, I look forward to seeing if you can get a decent vintage of wine from these grapes,” she smiled as we made our way through a new section of vines ready to be harvested. “I know how to make a few different beverages if you are interested in learning new recipes. It is all about drawing forth their essence, al kohl.”

“Of course, I’d be delighted to learn something new,” Aleera attempted to butter up our wizened old guest.

“And sell something new, no doubt too.” She replied raising an eyebrow. Flattery will get you everywhere but that did not mean that she was unaware of Aleera’s ulterior motives. I was a little dispirited as I had all sorts of ideas for various spirits, too. Plus the margins on alcohol were bound to be great. We needed more guano, water, and magic!

We had gradually worked our way around the terraced beds till we ended up at the pool that sat in the middle of the garden. The centre of the cauldron and its terraced walls now looked a little like the Incan ruins of Moray in Peru. With time and my newfound ability in understanding material manipulation, I was looking forward to making them look even more impressive. I planned on completely melding the stone together and fashioning fractals into the walls based on the seven tones in the scale. Or perhaps I could work my way up in a different manner. I could work from the lowest tone and then scale up as I worked around the 360 degrees to the highest frequency. I was sure it would look amazing but I didn’t need to decide now. There would be time for practice later and it was not something I would be doing in front of Wanda anyway.

“I would love to work here and help out beyond directing Des and Sinis to new guano deposits. I even have some skills that would be of value in the garden.” She demonstrated this by plucking an insect off a nearby bush as she said, “Find pest.”

Where it had come from, I had no idea but I was also hoping to find a few insects in particular so a swift kick had Aleera calling out for it.

“Could I have the insect?” she intervened in its death.

“Certainly, but why ever would you want it? My skill, Find pest, shows that it is detrimental to the plant it was on. I hope you are not planning on releasing it," she said, confused.

“No, no. My brother is fascinated by bugs. They keep him entertained for hours.” She made up an excuse on the spot.

“Well, it’s no skin off my nose what you choose to do with the little blighter. But I wouldn’t recommend letting him play with it within the cauldron as it will only escape and reproduce. Then we will have ten times the problem. It really is best to nip it in the bud now.” Wanda seemed unable to halt her flow of advice but happily handed off the insect.

I was building quite the collection of them in the house. I was hoping to find a red dye from one of them and or some version of silkworm but I hadn’t had any luck yet. Maybe it would be this one, but I doubted it. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained and as my sister said, the topic, idea, and research kept me busy for hours, much to her disgust on the matter.

“Well, we will leave you to it. But if we did get a bucket for any insects you found we would be interested in them, too.” Aleera added.

“That’s no problem, just make sure not to tip the bucket over if you don’t want me to be killing them straight off the leaf. I will start here in the centre and work my way out. You don’t need to worry about me. I will weed and collect any pests from the centre out. As well as give each plant the water and guano it requires to grow. Don’t you worry now. Leave it to old Wanda,” she said, practically ignoring Aleera in her focus to get started.

We stepped back to let her work and watched as she moved from plant to plant. Pulling the odd pest off and pausing in front of each to dole out guano and water in equal measures. We were unsure what other skills she was using or perhaps it was simply the skill that one acquired with experience. Either way, we left her to it. I knew we would have to return once she was gone if I wished to add any mana to speed their growth.

. . . .

“Hold it, hold it, hold it,” Grandfather firmly whispered as I held on.

I was currently straining to keep still as I held my body in a low stable stance. I had done very well for the first minute or two but Grandfather was pushing to see how long I could hold it for.

The yoga had gone very well, with me continuing to level up my balancing skill. However, Grandfather became bored if I didn’t try something new each week and add it to the routine we were creating. He had been most interested in the martial arts that I had described from my former life.

It had only ever been a passing interest, the odd taster session of Jujitsu, Judo, Karate, Aikido and Kendo. Like many things, I would pick them up, try them for a time, and then put them down. Pick them up again if friends were doing them for a season before moving on. I had never taken them seriously enough to call myself proficient but I remembered enough to do the odd kata or two and that is what I had taken to showing my grandfather.

I’m sure I looked fairly adorable with my miniature kicks, punches and lunges. However, despite my diminutive size and lack of strength, my speed made me a hazard to all shins and ankles around. For all that I still seemed to miss Grandfather or bounce off him if he allowed a strike to finally hit. It was worth it to finally hear the Ding and gain a new skill.

Martial Arts (Lv 1)

He seemed to be evaluating the katas as much as he was evaluating me attempting to perform them. He was able to correct both my actions and the katas themselves. Or perhaps I was just so poor at performing them that the katas themselves were actually fine. The only aspect of them that he truly objected to was the idea that you should shout with each punch, asking, “Why announce your presence? Just punch them and have done.”

He was still old school. A school of silent knocks it would appear.

“Okay. Stand up,” he finally answered my muscles silent screaming pleas for mercy. “Time to stretch those muscles before we finish for today.” Or maybe not. “Run your way through one of your Yoga routines. Take care to stretch out those legs.”

I was unsure about the necessity of stretching. At this age, everything seemed fairly limber. My muscles recovered by the next day provided I got a good night's sleep. The benefits of still being a growing lad and an obscene amount of vitality, for my age at least.

I finished my stretches before sitting down to meditate.

In fact, seeing as I was sitting still for a second there was no reason I couldn’t have a quick look at my status while I was at it. I turned on the mental music and considered my progress. It had not been so long since my last look but I felt happy with my progress. My main problem nowadays was so many skills but not enough time to level them all.

Some of my skills seemed to have hit some limits with a variety of Tier 1 skills getting stuck at Level 50, a couple of Tier 2 skills being stuck at Level 40, and all of my Tier 4 skills being stuck at Level 20. My Tier 3 and 5 skills somehow managed to break the Level 30 and perhaps Level 10 ceiling. But maybe they were just the exceptions that proved the rule.

“Grandfather, is there a reason my Tier 1 skills seem stuck at 50, my Tier 2 skills seem to be stuck at 40, my Tier 3 at 30 and my Tier 4 skills at level 20?” I asked as I opened my eyes to find him waiting and watching me.

“They are the meridians.” He calmly answered.

“The what?” I asked confused. This had not come up in conversation. Or if it had I had missed it concentrating on something else.

“The meridians, don’t worry about it. It will just take a little extra effort to continue levelling through them. They will come in time,” he answered. “The higher the tier of skill the lower the initial meridian, that’s all.”

“Oh,” I responded. Simple enough in hindsight. “But how do you push through to continue levelling the skills?” I added.

“Well, that’s simple enough.” He smiled.

“What?” I asked again.

“Just practise the skill while fighting or killing something,” he answered with a grin. “No-kill, no skill.” He tilted his head mockingly. How exactly was he expecting me to do that with, Time sense, Meditation and Swimming?

Level: 12

Name: Lord Kai

Experience: 174,950/ 819,200

Age: 2 year 3 months, 1 weeks, 4 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes

Health: 1450/1450 Stamina: 897/897 Mana: 1370/1370 Psi: 1370/1370

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted

Attribute: Celerity

Vitality: 145 +1

Endurance: 77 +2

Strength: 52 +1

Dexterity: 107 +1

Senses: 137 +1

Mind: 137 +1

Clarity: 117 +1

Magic: 137 +1

Charisma: 39 +1

Luck: 5

Free Points: 40

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 50) Listening (Lv 33 -> Lv35) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 30 -> Lv 33) Sneak (Lv24) Whistling (Lv 30->32) Singing (Lv 30->42)Drumming (Lv 25 -> 30) Running (Lv 45->46) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv30) Breath Control (Lv 35 -> Lv39) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 15) Draw (Lv30) Climb (Lv 31) Calligraphy (Lv10) Mathematics (Lv 15) Decoding (Lv 10) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 28) Trading (Lv 30) Sailing (Lv 15 -> 20) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 34->36) Stitching (Lv 34->36) Diving (Lv 25->27) Throw (Lv 15) Insight (Lv 3) Farming (Lv10 -> 15) Balance (Lv 10 -> Lv15) Cook (Lv 1 -> Lv2) Martial arts (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 38->40) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv 5) Knife Arts (Lv5) Rebec (Lv 14->16) Aulos (Lv 14->16) Cornu (Lv 10->14) Harp (Lv 10->13) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transplant (Lv5->10) Cartography (Lv 5 -> Lv 10)

Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 30) Expel Mana (Lv 37 -> 40) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Manipulation (Lv 30 -> 34) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 20) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv3)

Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv 16 –> 20) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 20)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 18)

Skill experience: 15200

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 5000

Trading experience: 5000

Popular experience: 1000