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Chapter 8: The Quality of the 【Full Might】 Skill

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There are three rankings in the life of the average Knora; the First is at age 5, the second is at age 11 and the third is when your generation’s next in line for Matriarch is determined; the Royalty compete to be next in line and the rest compete to be the spouses of the Matriarch. The generation’s next in line for Matriarch is normally determined when the youngest of the reigning Matriarch’s 5 children is 50 years old. That is to say every Matriarch is expected to give birth to at least 5 daughters.

If the Matriarch fails to produce a sufficient number of daughters then all the daughters of the Matriarch’s matriarchal siblings join the contest. That is to say the Matriarch’s sisters and brothers from the same mother put forward their daughters as possible next Matriarch candidates. No matter what qualities the candidates may possess the ranking contest is essentially a test to assess the quality of the 【Full Might】 skill. For the Knora race you are defined by your 【Full Might】 skill.

The Knora have a long history of wars who’s outcome was determined by the 【Full Might】 skill; the number of those with Super-Strength, Super-Durability, Super-Dexterity or Super-Regeneration in your army usually represented elites of the fighting force. The Supers in one’s army invariably became the centrepieces of each of the formations. Tribal Matriarchs would use sons to cement relationships and alliances and a son with a Super-Attribute was all the more perfect for this role.

Unfortunately even with the tribes gone that practice prevails and regrettably for me that is my future unless I become independent. The higher I rank at the contest the less likely my mother will be willing to give me to someone outside of her own bloodline. Waiting for Ovis to ascend to Vnora Clan Matriarch was a good plan and as long as mother is alive she gets to decide until Ovis ascends to Vnora Clan Matriarch.

But it’s too risky!

What if the current Vnora Clan Matriarch is alive when mother dies?

I may be considered timid but the current Vnora Clan Matriarch cannot afford to ignore the quality of my 【Full Might】 skill. I may end up being given to one of the granddaughters of the current Vnora Clan Matriarch. While I hold no personal enmity for the green furred girls I would at least like to have a say in who’s consort I become. Males may not give birth but in this twisted Knora race males provide most of the milk for the babies.

Apparently the males providing the bulk of the milk allows the female to recover from having to provide the nutrients for a rapidly developing giant baby in their wombs. I’ve made peace with the fact that in the Knora a male is only a male in name only and for the most part look like females. And to be honest I don’t find the other humanoid races appealing; I must have become fully Knora while I wasn’t paying attention. My Vnora genes have overridden all of those human preferences.

I want someone with fur damn-it and I won’t apologize for it!

That being said I should get to decide who.

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I’m grateful to Ovis for always looking ahead; because it leaves me with less worry.

After that practice session we were approached be the other Supers and the Adepts; wanting to know how we gained such power. At first I thought it best to keep it a secret in order to maintain our advantage, but Ovis rubbished that idea and called it narrow minded; she was right. Ovis made me understand that we faced a grim future in this world and there was a real and constant threat of a demon attack. I finally understood that we weren’t some cliché protagonists favoured by God in a fantasy novel; we’re in a horror story.

There is no doubt in Ovis’s mind that the Demons will come; it would be too convenient if they somehow gave up on attacking the Orro Federation. What is obvious about the Demons is that they will only back down when forced to do so by a power greater than their own. The Demons did not enslave the humanoids of Orro; they slaughter some 4 billion people. They never once accepted the endless pleas for mercy and the only mercy they showed was a quick and horrid death.

And so we formed a training group with all the Supers and the Adepts; not just those there on that day but anyone who wanted to learn the methods of our success. In total we numbered 157; 54 Supers and the 103 Adepts. Mother decided to send in people to organize us and record the methods outlined for future use at the school. I grinned from ear to ear when everyone learned the terrible truth; the horrified looks on their faces when they learned of the training regiment was priceless.

They all realised that Ovis is a thoughtful Fiend; and they had signed over their lives to her.

At least they got to choose; no one ever asked me if I wanted to be trained by that super strong monster.

With mother providing ample amounts of Mana potions shit got real really fast, and the acute torture of our bodies began.

Shiiittt!

Did they think power comes easy?

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Later-on Ovis told me that the other reason for agreeing to train with the other local Supers and the Adepts is that it give an opportunity to choose out future spouses.

It finally hit me that the people in our training group are being given an extraordinary advantage by virtue of being associated with us. Being supplied Mana potions for training could be considered extravagant, and it was likely part of mother’s strategy to create an elite Guard for Ovis. Proof of this is that over the next few days I began hearing that other talented Supers and the Adepts were being brought over from all over Knora Island to join our training group.

It was therefore likely that the spouses for Ovis would be 4 of the Supers and the Adepts training with us. Learning our【Psionic Boost】, self healing and pushing the bodies to the very limits would make them stronger than all the other competitors. They are getting a head start on all the other competitors. That meant that those who we chose to include in any additional training could very likely end up as our spouses. This was certainly better than rolling the dice with the ranking contests.

Because we had classes to teach the training group gathered from before sunrise to lunchtime and in the afternoon training we’d invite those we think we have a good enough affinity with to consider them potential spouses.

Of course there’s no guarantees but Ovis could certainly give the best opportunity of giving the ones she liked an advantage.

As for I already know that I will be limited to an Ollo; one of mother’s grandchildren or great grandchildren.

I got the verdict directly from the Matriarch; mother.

In truth I expected as much, and this is a favourable result; it means I will remain within the protection of the royal family and my status will be protected. However the problem is that I’ve kind of taken a liking to Ebba; one of the green females. She used to be a factory worker in Wales and a former Royal Navy Officer in the previous life. The complication being that her parents are Vnora farmers and do not possess sufficient social status for her to take in a royal male as a consort.

In this Knora race where the female is the head of the family it would be impossible for the royal family to accept losing me to a woman of such low birth. The only other option is for one of my nieces or grandnieces to take in both me and Ebba. Unfortunately all the royals seem to be aiming for Ovis. The only other option is Osprid but the red haired girl isn’t interested in me or Ovis; I think she might have been a man unlike Ebba who was a woman, and so Osprid may have a female as a priority.

Osprid would be perfect since she’s both a super and a royal; though not nearly high enough in the royal family to satisfy mother’s demands. Besides I think Osprid has her own plans so I’m gonna leave her be.

Anyway I may have made my interest in Ebba too obvious.

Well; what do you expect? I’m still a child.

There’s got to be a lazy high status royal amongst the over a hundred Vnora born into the royal family.

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On the subject of spouses I was kind of curious so I asked mother how women had sex with each other.

The answer I got was mother poking the back of my head with her tail.

That’s when it hit me; they use the tail for sex.

This is fucken outrageous!

The tip of the tail of a Knora is about the size of Knora male penis.

This is fucked up!

The tip of the tail of Knora is hairless and is about as sensitive as a finger which allows the Knora to reach for things, hold and control objects with the tail. Most of the guards have a weapon attached to the tail so it’s also used in that way. However I had no idea that it was the primary method by which females had sex with each other. I had known that our tails were not an extension of the spine but a separate limb that is more like an armoured arm.

While on the subject of sex mother told us that when we reached puberty we would each get assigned a royal courtesan to properly teach us how to give pleasure to our spouses. Apparently it would be a failure if we don’t keep our mates properly interested in copulation. I hadn’t thought there would be that much pressure to perform but mother promptly told me that as a male I would have to be particularly good at giving pleasure with my tail in order to keep the females interested.

I was concerned about what would happen if the assigned courtesan got pregnant but mother laughed as said that royal courtesans are professional and properly trained. Royal courtesans are chosen for their level of attractiveness and not the quality of their 【Full Might】 skill, so if by chance they got impregnated by a Royal male they would have to leave the profession to properly care for the royal child. Having a child who has a much higher status is not ideal but it guarantees a life of leisure.

So if I understand mother correctly my royal courtesan may want to get pregnant by me if I’m a high ranker at the ranking contest but doing so would cost her a lucrative and pleasurable profession. Being skilled lovers and earning a lot more than the average Knora the royal courtesan is able to retire at around 70 years old to start her own family. Because of the shortage of males the courtesan profession is exclusively female. Males who secretly become courtesans receive harsh punishment for it; a male has to know his place in Knora society.

Talk about twisted.

Haaa!

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With the Ranking Contest fast approaching Ovis and I have increased the tempo of our training.

We still train with the super group in the mornings but they still lack sufficient stamina to keep up so to make sure we match their pace Ovis and I wear enchanted weighted training armour; one of the benefits of being royal. Using enchanted weighted training armour means that we are always moving with heavy loads so we aren’t able to run or swim faster than the rest of the training group. So from the beginning of the training group we’ve had this handicap on our ability to show off.

The benefit of using the enchanted weighted training armour is that we gain more muscle mass from the training. Normally the rather expensive enchanted weighted training armour isn’t allocated to those less than 7 years old because children aren’t normally strong enough to handle its effects but mother made an exception for Ovis and me since we’ve had the 【Full Might】 skill much longer than the average 7 year old. I noticed an improvement in my stamina thanks to the armour.

From afternoon till midnight Ovis has us train in 【Full Might】 skill management. The 【Full Might】 skill is normally used in 7 minute bursts, but Ovis and I have concluded that it’s very restrictive, so we are trying to limit the 【Full Might】 skill time to under a minute; 25 to 30 seconds being preferable. The logic being that short bursts of the 【Full Might】 skill do far less damage to the body and the natural Knora regeneration would be sufficient to heal the damage with healing making it faster.

Consulting with the adults and instructors we realized the Knora had mostly been focused on extending the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill. As someone with Super-Durability I can naturally use the 【Full Might】 skill about 40% longer than those with Super-Strength and Super-Dexterity. However those with Super-Regeneration can use the 【Full Might】 skill about 5 times longer than those with Super-Strength and Super-Dexterity.

Apparently Super-Regeneration explains why the focus has been on extending the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill. Ovis and I explained that shortening the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill would have the same effect as extending it, but the experts rebuffed that shortening the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill would require extraordinary control over the body; particularly the Mana flowing from the Mana Core to the second heart. That meant years of meditative training to get to a state where you could focus without meditation.

It was clear why most Knora would be reticent to commit to years of meditative training but the new crop of Vnora with memories of their genetic fathers would have an incentive to mastering the focus resulting from years of meditative training; access to the magical knowledge while conscious. For the new Vnora it was a no brainer; they’d happily commit to the years of meditative training because it would mean access to magical knowledge that they could then immediately apply.

The progress on shortening the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill has been slow and I wanted to give up on it for a while but Ovis says that developing the methods to shorten the duration of the 【Full Might】 skill will probably be the most important contribution we ever make to the Knora race. It would extend the Knora magical stamina and in doing so multiply the battle prowess of the Knora warriors by several fold; and in doing so save innumerable Knora lives.

So giving up is not an option!

What we do now is not for some fringe benefit.

No we have far loftier goals in mind.

Our work henceforth has greater meaning than selfish whims.

This work we do, we do for all Knora.

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