Chapter 36

Rydel fidgeted on his seat under his parent’s attentive gaze from the other side of the table.

“I want to talk to you about something.” Rydel gathered his courage and resolved himself.

“Are you worried about something, little firefly?” Thalia asked with concern.

“Well, not exactly. It’s more about something that I’ve been hiding, I think that it’s time for me to be honest.” Rydel said with determination.

“You don’t have to tell us anything that you aren’t comfortable with. We are your parents, we’ll support you whatever it is.” Edyrm said with a smile.

“I’m not a forest elf anymore.”

Silence reigned for a little bit, while Edyrm and Thalia looked at each other.

“We already knew.” Thalia sighed.

“You did?” Rydel was surprised.

“You haven’t exactly been covert about it either. We weren’t sure, but we discussed your changes, and more importantly, your wings gave you away. We concluded that you weren’t a part of our race anymore.” Edyrm said.

“Are you disappointed? Be honest about it.”

“We want the best for you.” Thalia said.

“You haven’t responded.”

“It’s complicated. We do want the best for you, this change in your race is probably a great boon when it comes to your fighting ability. We forest elves aren’t specifically well known for being great warriors.” Thalia said.

“However…?” Rydel insisted.

“Nothing it’s thicker than blood, you are part of our family and will always be. However, judging by your characteristics, you aren’t part of the known races of elves. You are the First of your kind, at least in the Afrein Peninsula.” Thalia said.

“You’ll eventually have kids and would have to start a new clan. We assume that the forests won’t be well suited for you, which means that you’ll eventually leave us.” Edyrm said with a hint of sadness.

“I’m too young for that. I won’t have kids anytime soon.”

“We are sure of that, but we have long lives. We are a hundred years old and already have you. What’s a century in the long lifespan of elves? Barely a fifth if we remain as mortals.” Thalia said.

“I want to explore the world, what’s the difference? I’d have left anyway.” Rydel said.

“The responsibility. You have a great heart, you’ll want the best for your descendants.” Thalia said.

“What if I told you that I don’t want any children?”

Edyrm and Thalia weirdly looked at him like he was an alien.

“Why wouldn’t you want kids? Don’t you know how important is for us to leave progeny? Don’t say such nonsense.” Edyrm said.

Leaving descendants in elven culture wasn’t a joke. Because of the low fertility rates, if an elf didn’t find a partner by the time they were about 50, the Elders in the village would find a suitable partner for them.

There wasn’t the possibility of not getting a partner. If an elf doesn't have anyone compatible with them in their village, they’ll be forced to go to others to find one.

However, this was the case in extreme cases. Elves were passionate about finding the love of their life, the missing piece of their being.

That also meant that harems were frowned upon, if they had the love of their life in front of them, why would they search for more partners? That was selfish, taking time and dedication from their true partner only to satiate their lust.

Children were the culmination of said love, to give birth to a child that inherited aspects of both parents. Not just for the continuity of their species, but someone that represented their feelings of eternal love.

Of course, Rydel didn’t exactly think like this. In his past life he outright refused to have any kids, but living in an elven culture for such a long time had influenced him.

He had reached a compromise in his mind. He’ll eventually have kids, but only when he has done everything that he wants and found the perfect companion for it.

“It isn’t something important for me right now. I love the Elphyra’s Clan, I won’t abandon it for anything in the world.” Rydel said with conviction.

“We aren’t worried about your loyalty.” Edyrm denied it. “We know how much you care about the other clanmates. It’s just complicated.”

“We do want you to know that we aren’t ashamed of you or anything. You will always carry the mark of the forest wherever your path takes you. We are just saddened because of your possible departure.” Thalia squeezed Edyrm’s hand.

“I know, mom, I know.” Rydel said dispiritedly, and immediately changed the topic. “What do you think that I should do in the immediate future?”

“That depends on your exact race, we haven’t talked about that yet.” Edyrm responded.

Rydel explained to them what he has experienced so far and how he became an astral elf.

“I think that the key to your race is your passive, space dwelling.” Edyrm said. “You can probably raise your base stats by absorbing energy in space, maybe even purify your bloodline a little bit.”

“Good, how were you saying that I can go to space?” Rydel deadpanned.

“I can try to propel you with my winds.” Edyrm seriously said.

“I can draw a bridge to the sky if you want.” Thalia added sagaciously.

“Yeah, right, we can also see if Donut can fly us to space.” Rydel rolled his eyes.

“That isn’t a bad idea at all!” Edyrm said.

“Good luck with that, she’s due to have her second calf soon.” Thalia said.

“Wait, is cheesecake the father?” Rydel said.

“Of course. Hey, don’t look at me like that, they don’t have more members of their species, they somehow have to reproduce.” Thalia shrugged.

“Who is going to take care of the future herd then?” Rydel asked.

“Your father. He has always liked taking care of animals. Isn’t it true darling?” Thalia gazed at his husband, quickly adding. “I refuse to live without strawberry milkshakes from now on.”

“Of course my love.” Edyrm's smile was stiff.

Rydel followed with their antics for a while, this had reduced the tension of the previous conversation.

In the end, his parents weren’t very happy knowing that he had mutated. But only because of their fear of being alone in the future, he could relate to that sentiment. However, he has his own path to follow.

***

Rydel had agreed with Shael to have their date two weeks from now. This gave him the necessary time to focus on his Daodrop. He had been at the doors for quite some time, he only needed the last push.

He waited until midnight. He gathered every insight inside his mind, every moment that he had experienced related to the moon.

He thought about the times that he had used his Moonlight Transformation, along with his Gate of Lunacy and his Moonlight Mending, how he willed the moon for both power and healing.

He made an Ascended die due to the eruption of his lunacy. Weaker beasts didn’t have any other options before succumbing to their own power.

He thought about the night inside The Trial, where he sacrificed his vital essence to roll the last rock upon the mountain, achieving levels of power that he was barely able to unleash nowadays.

All the times that he had used his healing to survive for another day.

He even had a miniature moon in his soul space that granted him the energy to use his abilities during the day.

Even one of his class skills, which should have been related to stars, thanks to his affinity with the moon had slightly mutated. Thus was his theory of how The four phases of the Moon ability came to be.

Every important step of his journey was made under the attentive gaze of the Moon.

Rydel let the moonlight trickle into every corner of his being. His silver hair shone with a white light, his pathways were suffused with said energy to the brim.

Rydel activated his divine senses, carefully observing how the moonlight interacted with his surroundings. The faint shadows that it produced, the illumination that provided.

His understanding was rising with each passing moment. The energy gathered in his room like a cyclone, and he was inside the eye of the tornado.

A spherical mark appeared on his forehead, its light dazzled the room. It had complex patterns of lines inside, it rippled with power and deep truths.

His iris disappeared. A Moon was placed on his left eye, and the figure of a fiend was placed on his right eye. This red fiend was hunched, his hands morphed into claws and two bat wings emerged from his back.

Moonlight rushed into the mark, while Rydel's understanding kept rising.

This continued for two hours until the process started slowing down. The mark disappeared and Rydel came back to normal.

He opened his eyes and looked above him. He ignored the ceiling, his gaze locked to the Moon.

“So that’s how it is…” Rydel murmured.

Thick tendrils of moonlight danced next to him. 

Suddenly, he felt an overload as his divine senses were deployed involuntary. Every sensation gained a new whole dimension. His eyes trembled as new tones of colors were suddenly reflected on his mind, the common objects in his room were now aliens.

His mind detected what he'd feel with his sense of touch, moments before touching an object. He could feel the weight and temperature of everything that was near him.

His sense of smell registered items that were previously in the room. The scent from a dish that he brought two days ago was clear on his mind.

Previous frequencies that were unknown to him, made their way into Rydel's ear. 

He checked his status.

Name: Rydel Elphyra

Age: 15 years

Race: Astral Elf

Class: Starborn (Level 13)

Daodrops: Dao of the Moonlight (Late)

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

Vitality: 59

Strength: 30

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 36

Perception: 206

Spirit: 364

AP: 0

The boost from his Daodrop had quadrupled, his stats reaching new heights. This wasn’t the only benefit either.

He had achieved his second superior trait, this time tied to his perception. His great attributes of his spirit was probably the cause of this, as it helped him understand and perceive the natural world that surrounded him.

Thanks to this, his foundation in the spiritual side was almost perfect. Rydel hoped that he'd gain a superior trait in his physical attributes. Alas, he was too far behind with that.

His spiritual energy had become thicker and more complex. He’d be able to do more advanced things while consuming less of it. He’d need to figure out more abilities.

Also, he tried his Moonlight Transformation. His aspect remained the same as always, but he felt stronger and faster, the time to transform had reduced to one minute too.

Rydel was very satisfied overall, he had made great leaps on his Dao this night, he still had a long way to reach the peak of the Daodrop though. He hasn’t forgotten about trying to form another Daodrop that complements his Dao of the Moonlight.

However, he still didn’t have any clue how to proceed from there. He knew after talking to Galather, that after the Daodrop had reached the peak, he had various options.

One of them was to advance his Dao as it was, gaining more insights until he transformed it into a Daostream. He could also comprehend two different Daos that were similar enough, to fuse both and achieve comprehension in a more complex Dao.

This wasn’t limited to two Daos either, in theory, he could fuse every Dao in existence together. Not that he had enough lifespan nor was he bored enough to try something as crazy as that.

There were innumerable Daos that could complement his Dao of Moonlight. The easiest one would be one related to the Dao of the Stars, it wouldn’t be difficult to comprehend thanks to his class.

He could also elevate his Dao of Moonlight to the Dao of the Moon, or to the Dao of Light. There were many options, and none of them were wrong, only some of them fitted him better than others.

In the end, he needed to find his own path like always. The Dao was tied to his spirituality, if it didn’t resonate with him, he’d sooner or later get stuck in one of the innumerable bottlenecks in the path of cultivation.

For now, Rydel rested until the rise of dawn, he’d practice killing beasts in the forest. He couldn’t immediately use the ether to level up, to not risk straining his foundation. This didn’t mean that he couldn’t stock up in ether in preparation.

Rydel stretched and picked up Naveena on the journey to the forest.