Rydel and Shael went where the Ascended were reunited. Rydel and an attention-seeking Naveena stood behind Galather. The latter was already much better, he was still tired, but he wasn’t as pale anymore. Naveena felt grumpy after being ignored by the flirting of Rydel. She now demanded to be the center of attention and once again, Rydel couldn’t do anything but spoil her a little bit to seek her forgiveness. Grand Elder Pyria moved in front of the Clan, and everyone kept silent. Next to her, Rex stood with ethereal hind legs, they stood out as they were a dark green instead of the black of the rest of his fur. Pyria had a cold and serious expression that didn’t betray any feelings that she might be experiencing inside. “We have won.” The statement wasn’t received with any joy. The Elphyra Clan was mourning the loss of clanmates in the recent conflict. “Folmar, Ulatris, Biafyndar, Carra, Tannatar, Xyrrie… Those are just some of the names of the brave elves that had returned to the embrace of Mother Earth. A total of 15 warriors and 4 civils had left us to embark on their final journey.” Pyria paused. “We have enacted our revenge. We have once more proven that none should go against us.” “Revenge is bittersweet, we have accomplished our mission, yet we have only been recompensated with more grief. We need to remember that we need this type of anchor to not lose ourselves in a path of endless conflict. We aren’t bloodthirsty beasts in the search of blood. We are the proud sons of the forest. Never forget that.” There weren’t any prayers, nor minutes of silence. The corpses were already burned by the golden fire and their souls were in good hands. Grand Elder Pyria stood to the side to let Lady Allyna say the next announcement. “After figuring out and breaking the formations that protected the spatial rings of the enemy Ascended, we have discovered some things. Half of the life stones will be given to the Elphyra Clan, as well as a copy of any scroll with techniques and information.” Lady Allyna said. “The important thing is this.” She showed a bracelet, above it, there was a crystal ball filled with blue liquid. A red arrow was pointing to the west inside. “After questioning the captain of the ship, he told us that this is an artifact called ‘Sea’s Hope’, the arrow always points to their home island.” Lady Allyna let this information sink in them for a bit. “This is an incredible opportunity for us. However, we need a crew to explore this route, it’s a chance for those that have stagnated and need a last push to breakthrough. As this was looted in your territory, the Imperial Family will give 2 slots for E-Grades of the Elphyra’s Clan, the best will have to demonstrate that they are worthy of this opportunity.” Allyna said. “We already extended this invitation to Lady Pyria and Lord Galather, they refused it in exchange for 2 additional slots, for a total of 4 warriors of the Elphyra’s Clan. We don’t know when exactly the expedition will begin, as I have to discuss it with the rest of the Imperial Family but expect a period of 5 years of preparation.” With this, Lady Allyna terminated her speech and returned to do other tasks. They’d still be traveling together for safety procedures. Besides, Lady Allyna and Shael would rest in the village for a couple of weeks. Murmurs rose in the surroundings. Some elves were still absentmindedly staring at nothing, others were having fervent discussions in whispers. Rydel looked at Rex for a moment before deciding to join the expedition. He’d do it for himself, he wanted to know how humanity in this world was. He was satisfied with being an elf, but he still had his last embers as a human in his heart. Although his first impression wasn’t very good, it was also true that it was a segmented group with a clear purpose and religious fanaticism. For now, his schedule was to use the experience that he received by helping in killing the Serpent, to finally break through his Daodrop to the late stage and prepare for his date with Shael. He also wanted to have a talk with his parents about his race. Rydel was a bit ashamed that the first to know the news wasn’t them but Shael. He hoped that they wouldn’t mind. *** Rydel returned to the village along with the rest of the Elphyra’s Clan. It was almost deserted with the exception of a few elves that remained to defend their territory. Rydel told his parents that he wanted to have a conversation with them, but first, he went to his room to prepare to level up. The experience was stored inside his soul space. Its aspect was like normal spiritual energy, except that instead of green it has a white color. Although it was in a cloud shape too, it was static. Spiritual energy instead was like an ever-moving haze. Due to this, experience was commonly named Ether, the most basic energy of the world. Due to Rydel’s previous gaming experience, he had translated the term to experience in his head, it wasn’t until recently that he asked around the specifics that he got the real term. He was a bit embarrassed about that. He transferred the ether to his pathways, he circulated the energy with his cultivation method. The quantity of ether was mind-boggling, it was also very gentle to use. To Rydel, who was used to pain and suffering this was like a walk in the park. Little by little, he transformed the gaseous energy of his pathways into liquid, he used every last mote of ether until his pathways had completely liquified. The next and final step would be to solidify them. Rydel felt an indescribable sense of power permeating his very being. Rydel closed and opened his fist. “This is the feeling of freedom…” He wouldn’t be able to continue for a time though, his foundations were a little shaky after such a great boost. Rydel checked his status. Name: Rydel Elphyra Age: 15 years Race: Astral Elf Class: Starborn (Level 13) Daodrops: Dao of the Moonlight (Middle) Traits: Moontouched, Perfected Being (F), Superior Protosoul. Vitality: 59 Strength: 30 Dexterity: 30 Endurance: 36 Perception: 170 Spirit: 267 AP: 0 Rydel didn’t have time to inspect his status when he saw that his spirit had reached the tipping point of 200. “Oh shi-.” His consciousness expanded, he saw every corner of his room with his eyes closed. Then, his consciousness retracted at a fast pace inside his body. Rydel felt incredibly uncomfortable, it was like he was separated from the world. He didn’t feel any connection to the spiritual energy around him nor did he feel the connection with the Moon. Every mote of his consciousness was sucked into his soul space. Rydel felt grateful that he had already done this process. The extra energy that wasn’t used to create the soul space was redirected to form a better foundation for his protosoul. Inside his soul space, in front of the white pebble, an orange pebble has rapidly been formed by his retracted consciousness. In no time at all, it had tripled the size of the white pebble. Its shape was spherical with little blemishes decorating its surface. Every once in a while, a flare of energy was ejected from the pebble before going back to his soul. Rydel was confused, something about his soul was an anomaly. First, he created his soul space beforehand, and after talking with Naveena he discovered that it was definitely not common. It could be attributed to his race, maybe astral elves developed their soul space early to have the best possible soul. Alas, they didn’t know about any astral elves, so it was just speculation on their part. What Rydel did know was that protosouls normally were in the shape of the person, a miniature version of themselves. What he got was another pebble. He also got the trait of Superior Protosoul, which meant that his divine senses would be much better for each point worth of spirit. At the very least a fifty percent better, this was the importance of the foundation. If his soul wasn’t without impurities, nor without his soul space, he’d have wasted energy on the process and his consciousness would have been smaller. Rydel felt happy with the results. He returned his awareness to the real world and was surprised. With his protosoul, he was finally able to affect the physical world with his spiritual energy. He made a tendril to move the chair in his room around. He played a little bit with glee until he realized that he was behaving like a child. He put the chair down. It was a milestone that he’d been waiting literal years for. What truly shocked him were his divine senses. It was now retracted, so he only saw a meter around him, but the sight was bizarre. He now had an aura that acted as his seventh sense. He could perceive everything in this meter around him. From the dust suspended in the air to the cracks in the floor. Of course, if he didn’t focus on what he wanted to know, it was like normal people seeing the periphery of their visual field. It was there, and they could look at it, but they couldn’t see it. Normally it would be rude to extend the divine senses at maximum capacity, as they could unknowingly stumble upon a person’s private moment but Rydel’s was beyond care. He expanded his divine senses in a flash and discovered with amazement that the radius was 267 meters. He wasn’t able to appreciate the views as Thalia immediately noticed what he was doing, she forced his divine senses back into his body with her spirit and gave him a spiritual swat in reproach. ‘Congratulations.’ She didn’t forget to send him this message. Rydel was incredulous, as a rule of thumb, for every two points of spirit it equated to a meter of radius in the divine senses. He had doubled that. He knew that he had good foundations, but still. This would be extremely useful in the future. Not only because better divine senses were great to scout and prevent ambushes, but that was also just one part of it. The soul was the connection between the person and the Dao. It was of paramount importance to have a soul as strong as possible. That’s why many people always made sure to distribute their remaining attribute points to the spirit, and also why resources that catered towards this attribute were so rare and looked for. Also, his endurance was previously too on the limit. He was forced to ask his parents about anything that raised it a little, so he could level up. It was a difficult request, as this type of resource was strange even in a place like the Leoheim Forest. The majority of plants that grew here were used to create support pills, like healing ones or those that increased the regeneration of the spiritual energy. However, they managed to scrap a little bit, and Rydel could increase his endurance by a total of 10 points. Rydel stood up and went to the dining room to at last have the conversation that he was postponing with his parents. He truly hated the idea to disappoint them, Rydel found it difficult sometimes to open up to them because of this. However, he knew that what he encountered was great and nothing to be ashamed of. Only Naveena was in the dining room for the moment. His mother was in the backyard, with her friends Dessielle and Mylaela. His father had left for a moment to reassure his squadron, that they hadn't lost any members, but he needed to be there. ‘What, nervous about confessing that you are tired of fighting, you want to become a dancer?’ Naveena teased him. ‘It wouldn’t be bad, girls like men that know how to move.’ Rydel said with satisfaction. ‘I’m surprised at how focused men are on getting girls.’ ‘You wouldn’t understand, women are so complicated that we don’t stand a chance. It’s only with persistence that we can meet success.’ Rydel said wisely. Naveena rolled her eyes. ‘Also more commonly known as hormonal teenagers.’ ‘Cough, well, more or less.’ It was at this moment that his father returned home, they were forced to break the connection and act as if nothing had happened. After a couple of minutes, Thalia’s friends returned home too. It was time to reveal some secrets about him.