Chapter 44

Naveena stood in front of the formation. It was large, with a big circle in the middle filled with a large pile of meteor chunks. Smaller circles surrounded the structure, each of the various resources that Naveena had taken out before inside of them.

Complex transmutation diagrams, along with carefully placed spiritual glyphs completed the image.

‘Ryd, place yourself on the other side of the formation. Place your hands on that circle and inject it with your attuned energy.’ Neena indicated a particular circle that stood among the others, as it shone with a silver radiance.

They coordinated themselves, Naveena concentrated on the creation of the artifact while Rydel was in charge of providing the necessary energy.

The materials elevated in the air as Naveena weaved her tails with precision, like a conductor with her baton.

The mass of meteors was grouped in a sphere, and the precious materials rotated around them like an asteroid surrounding a moon. They emitted a beam aimed at the sphere, and with each rotation, their size reduced a bit.

Naveena weaved her tails with increasing dexterity to make sure that nothing went wrong, staring at each individual piece, checking every process twice on her mind.

The moon was like a puzzle being solved, each passing second making it more complete. After a few more rotations, the materials became dust as they integrated themselves into the moon artifact.

The Moon was still too big and uneven, this part was the most critical of the process.

‘Put your whole energy reserves, the more the better.’ Naveena vibrated through her spiritual message.

Rydel’s spirit attribute was really high, helping her in the formation had barely put a dent in his reserves, he opened the gates of his soul space increasing the output.

Naveena bit her paw and imprinted the Moon with her vital essence. The energy from Rydel entered through a part of the formation that converted it to Naveena’s signature.

The moon reduced its size, from being as tall as Rydel, to half of it. The artifact kept minimizing, and the uneven parts disappeared, becoming unblemished.

The artifact rippled with a blast of power for the final time, before floating in front of Naveena. She appreciated its form before taking it with her paws.

‘Finally! You don’t know how much I've been waiting to get my own Moon Artifact.’ Naveena said with enthusiasm.

Her forehead touched the moon, and the artifact fused with her crown-shaped white fur before disappearing, one of the three jewels changed to a silver color.

It was a surprise for Rydel. His version of ‘Lunar Apotheosis’ was an inferior one, made for the companions of the Lunar Fox Clan. Not that it was bad, just that it was generalized for any kind of being, not like hers that was made with the constitution of a Lunar Fox in mind.

He was lucky as the cultivation method harmonized with an unknown part of him, making that his own Moon Artifact entered his soul space. However, Naveena’s version was able to fuse with her with little fanfare.

‘Rydel, I need you to turn around and close your senses.’ Naveena suddenly said in a serious tone.

Their bond had been formed and strengthened for years, Rydel trusted her words without any questions.

A pulse of energy was emitted before restless movements were heard behind him. He grew curious but didn’t turn around as promised.

Suddenly, a pair of hands covered his eyes.

“Who am I?” A sweet and melodious voice whispered in his ears. “Do you need a hint?”

“…Naveena?”

“Well, it’s not like there are many more people here.”

Rydel turned in time to see a cute pout from a girl no more than sixteen years old.

She wasn’t too small if compared with an average elvenoid, although Rydel towered about a head and a half above her. She wore a white tunic decorated by eight moons rotating around a bigger one, with long sleeves that hide her hands. Her long ears were like those of a fox, and three fluffy tails peeked from behind her.

Her face radiated innocence, even as her eyes spoke of future mischief.

“Weren’t you supposed to get your elvenoid form only after reaching the D-grade?”

“Yes, in the D-grade I will be able to change between forms without any costs. Right now, I can use my ability to force the change.” Naveena proudly said.

“That’s impressive! If you could disguise yourself a little, you could even walk in the street as you are right now.” Rydel nodded.

“Do you mean like this?” She took out a ring from her spatial necklace and put it on.

Immediately, her ears and tails disappeared, and she grew a little more than half a head taller. Her pointy ears peeked through her wavy silver hair.

“This ring allows me to slightly modify my body.” Naveena smugly replied.

Rydel was awestruck, if someone told him right now that she isn’t an elf, he wouldn’t believe it.

“How much time can you maintain your transformation?”

“Hm, I don’t know as my regeneration is now powered by the moon artifact.” Naveena put a finger on her chin in thought. “The cost of maintenance is just a little higher than my regular regeneration of spiritual energy, so maybe I can keep the ability for a week.”

“We just need to think about a backstory for you, so you can keep me company.”

Both of them discussed the intricacies of her disguise for a while until Naveena returned to her normal form. Rydel couldn’t just say that he found her in the Cemetery and her fox companion decided to leave him. It’d be a little suspicious.

Rydel looked inwards for a moment to see how his cultivation session had turned out.

His own moon artifact wasn’t a pebble anymore. Well, it still would be considered a pebble, just that a slightly larger one.

What was surprising was that it wasn’t inert anymore, it was orbiting in an elliptic path. The orange pebble wasn’t anywhere near the orbit of his moon artifact, but it was affected too.

It was shaking as if trying to move on its own, but it seemed that it was lacking something to follow its counterpart.

Rydel admired both forms, before exiting and rushing near the meteors again.

“We still have time, don’t interrupt me.” Rydel said before sitting down.

Tendrils formed from his spirit, absorbing the spatial energy from the meteor once more.

He channeled the murky energy to his soul space, this time he sent a sliver of his protosoul into that link. The moon artifact was thrice as big as the orange pebble that symbolized his protosoul.

The murky energy hesitantly surrounded the orange pebble, before enveloping it like a cocoon, making the protosoul the nucleus of it.

More and more energy made its way to the cocoon, turning it more corporeal with each second. Flares of energy were constantly ejected from it.

The cocoon grew until matching the moon artifact. The shake stopped. The orange protosoul orbited into its own elliptic path. Both pebbles didn’t intersect, they twirled at the same speed in opposite directions.

Rydel admired the spectacle, imprinting its truth on his mind. Previous memories flashed through his mind in rapid succession.

From his race change, through Shael recently burning him, to the orbits of the two satellites.

A new spherical mark manifested in Rydel’s forehead in the real world. Its intricate lines wouldn’t interact with any of the lines in the mark of the Dao of Moonlight if both overlapped. However, those new lines were much more complex, with Dao Glyphs inscribed on top of them, radiating new magnitudes of truths.

Rydel let his body be washed by the insights, before returning to the real world.

‘Congratulations! You formed your second Daodrop in almost a record time!’

Rydel smiled at her, before checking his status.

Name: Rydel Elphyra

Age: 15 years

Race: Astral Elf

Class: Starborn (Level 15)

Daodrops: Dao of the Moonlight (Late), Dao of the Sun (Early)

Traits: Moontouched, Perfected Being (F), Superior Protosoul, Superior Senses

Vitality: 65

Strength: 88

Dexterity: 58

Endurance: 61

Perception: 223

Spirit: 390

AP: 0

[Dao of Sun (Early): Strength +50, +10%; Dexterity +25, +5%]

His entire body is fired up. This bonus from the Dao was something completely different, even though both were Daodrops.

This had to be related to having comprehended the Dao of the Sun directly, instead of the Dao of the Sunlight. His class, race, and even his soul had helped him to skip an entire level.

This was both great news and bad news.

Great news because he had finally found the way for his body to not lag behind his spirit in terms of attributes. Also, he didn’t need to worry about managing his spiritual reserves during daylight. He now had a new method of attack that complements him very well.

The bad news was that he had formed a Daodrop of the Sun. It only contained a part of the insights from the true Daostream of the Sun, and it’d be much more difficult to raise it to that level, as it was a very profound Dao.

Before, he had the possibility of upgrading his Daodrop of the Moonlight by fusing it with another Daodrop that shared a similar system. The end result wouldn’t have been the Dao of the Moon, but it’d be a Daostream, nonetheless.

Daodrops had a weight on the spirituality of a person, they couldn’t just be learned without a care in the world. Not only was there a limit, which depended on the person, but it was also more difficult with each new one, as the weight that you carried was bigger.

That’s why it’s very important to choose your future path wisely. Unfortunately, luck was often an important factor in it.

His Dao of the Moonlight couldn’t stay like this, as it wouldn’t synchronize very well with his Dao of the Sun, causing imbalances because of the difference in grades.

For now, he would have to learn to use them separately. However, you couldn’t Ascend with your Dao being a mess, the process was demanding on the body and any shaky foundation would crumble.

Rydel would need to first elevate his Dao of the Moonlight to the Dao of the Moon, probably by evolving it into a Daostream first. And then, having his new Dao of the Sun reach the same stage.

Rydel wryly smiled at his bad luck. He wasn’t expecting his race and class to suddenly boost his own natural talents. Not that he was complaining, it would make him stronger in the long term.

However, getting a Daostream as a mortal was extremely difficult, it was the reason that his mother still has yet to get hers even after becoming an Ascended.

Rydel would have a thorny path ahead of him.