Earthchild

Chapter 158: Journey To Enlightenment

Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter. Hectic day.

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"Good luck today,” Caen told Guinevere.

“Thanks!” she said, pulling on her boots in the shared parlor.

It was about 6 in the morning, and she and the others were leaving for the Citadel's assessment dome at the center of the city, where the entrance exams were held. They were accompanying Guinevere for moral support.

Caen would not be following them to the dome lest...

Chapter 157: Fire-resistant

[You should see the Citadel up close,] Zeris said, coming to stand beside him.

The air all around Caen grew agitated, and a not-quite-loud chime sounded from the top of one of the taller buildings here. Chimes chorused from many other buildings in the distance as well, and the world seemed to be briefly drained of color. Caen’s mind suddenly felt more alert, and he was filled with a striking awareness of the time.

[That’s the evening bell,] Guinevere explained, leaning her bac...

Chapter 156: Seafront

Nimue scoffed. “That’s so rude of you, Guin-Guin.”

“Sorry! I love you,” Guinevere said. “But I want to gossip with my friends.”

Nimue waved a hand, chuckling. “Sure, sure.”

[What happened?] Zeris asked.

[I kicked her and Hakohnzo off my group chat,] Gwen sent. [So, you, Caen. What do you mean you got a scholarship?]

He shrugged. [I performed very well in the trials and was awarded a Patronage slot.]

[Holy shit! You’re actually Herb Mask!...

Chapter 155: Citadel-bound

As soon as Chasma had finished feeding, Caen had reshaped the fragment into a sleeve on his right arm. Chasma shone with the colors of Parthran bioluminescence, conveying feelings of contentment to Caen through their bond.

Caen walked into his dark room. The Seventh Guile was sitting by the door, tails swaying behind him.

Caen's old armor set hung on a stand in the corner. He’d grown much too big for it. He was taller, broader, and still growing. He’d bought roomier clothing m...

Chapter 154: Last Night In Drenlin

The time construct in the corner of Caen’s vision put the time at about 6 in the evening. Caen had woken up nearly two hours ago and had decided to do some training before his clone returned. 

Right now, his willpower was enduring quite some strain as he sat on his meditation cushion with ten candles arranged in an arc before him. Passionfire burnt merrily on all ten wicks, yet the candles were shrinking a bit more slowly than they should have been.

He was Mimicking Orissa�...

Chapter 153: Very Lifelike

Author's Note: I'm sorry for the late chapter. My sibling's house was broken into by like 4am. They're okay, but their gadgets were stolen. I've been there with them and the police all morning. Just getting home now. Utterly horrified.

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The first problem was that the clone had functionally died shortly after Caen reverted his soul structure. Caen knew that whenever a shadeling was killed, its clone continued to live on. 

The second p...

Chapter 152: Iterating

Caen was keenly aware of the unresponsive clone. Just as The Seventh Guile had described it, this clone felt like an active extension of Caen. And he could… return it to himself.

Caen pulled. And the clone vanished, flowing back into him.

The well within him was restored.

He could feel more fear and trepidation from the shadeling’s soul off to the side.

“I am losing confidence in our oaths, Ar’Caen Ereshta’al,” The Seventh Guile said. “Are you al...

Chapter 151: Shadows Given Life

It only took a few moments to shape Chasma into a huge sphere within which forty-odd shadeling corpses were tightly packed together. Caen had paired Chasma’s spirit receptor with Body-enhancement.

Sormot and the mercenaries wore amused looks as Caen bid them goodbye and began rolling his fragment away.

Caen could not move through Drenlin, hauling a gigantic black ball, without getting in serious trouble with the city patrol. He’d need a permit for luggage this large. So he dec...

Chapter 150: Two Conditions

Caen used Soul-sense for the next seven hours in every way he knew how to.

He furled and unfurled his existence at different intensities. He Mimicked Chasma’s affinities and abilities. He formed bridges between Chasma, The Seventh Guile, and himself. He split his existence into several portions. He communicated to Sh’kteiro’s soul, then Hshnol’s, then The Seventh Guile’s.

The so-called mark became apparent to the shadeling’s senses without any rhyme or reason. Sometime...

Chapter 149: Trigger

“I am layering anti-divination spells on you,” Sh’kteiro said, concern clear in his voice.

Caen still felt disconcerted. The broader the parameters of an anti-divination spell, the less effective it was. The Seventh Guile had said that he could not sense the mark right now, and Caen didn’t even know what caused the mark to become apparent in the first place.

His mind was spinning with all the revelations he’d just heard. “Months ago, how often did you notice this mark ...

Chapter 148: The Seventh Guile That Twists Itself

“Oaths, oaths, oaths. Is it truly necessary to swear yet another?” Bimpthki asked, after Caen proposed a second contract.

Everyone in the room watched the blue-skinned man quietly, even his companion, Povida.

He made another sound of irritation. “Very well! Let’s do what we must.”

Hshnol constructed another agreement, and all the parties found it amenable.

“It’s safe,” Caen sent to the shadeling through their connection, even as he said it voca...

Chapter 147: Besides Extraction

Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter today. Made some last-minute adjustments and that took longer than expected.

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For all Caen knew, the Summoners might already be sending more summoned creatures to their location.

The contract required Caen to get rid of the shadeling’s current pursuers in exchange for information. And as long as summoned creatures kept attacking this shadeling here, Caen would be ‘bound’ to put an end to tho...

Chapter 146: Weird Fire Bloodline

Caen bid Chasma to cover his head entirely.

Even with his maximally heightened processing speed, Caen could not track the movements of the largest spider summon. Before he could blink, it was in front of him. 

As was Sormot, thankfully. 

She barreled into the creature, smacking it aside with her bident, as Caen belatedly leaped backwards, heart thudding in his chest. He split his mind four ways.

A beam of Planar light from Sh’kteiro shoved back the giant sh...

Chapter 145: Lifeblood of Darkness's Light

“Very Interesting,” Sormot, the Percipient Body-enhancer, said with a rhotic trill, leaning over the shadeling, whose neck was trapped between the prongs of her bident.

The fox-like creature was as tall as a two-tailed shadeling—about six feet—and nothing like the looming monstrosity Caen had seen earlier. Its only tail was significantly larger than that of any two-tails. That by itself was enough to clue Caen in on how unusual this creature was. 

Furthermore, two-tai...

Chapter 144: Ready To Communicate

Uncle Teiro was waiting for them at the Drenlin airdocks. 

There was a drizzle as dark clouds rumbled overhead. The construct in the corner of Caen’s vision marked the time to be 10 at night. All holding umbrellas, they made their way across the grassy field, hauling their bags.

Caen had been keeping track of all the cords of connection stretching out from him. Few vanished when he moved out of range, or appeared when he came into range. 

As Caen walked, he notic...

Chapter 143: Threading Souls Together

The fine spray of saltwater danced in the early morning air as their boat sped off towards the offshore terminal. Caen sat downwind, watching the retreating island. The biennial celebrations weren’t over yet. This would be the first time he hadn’t stayed till the end.

His grandparents, his parents, his aunties, Orissa, Hshnol, Vai, and Zeris all sat in the boat with him. There were two tagalongs as well—a roughly bearded man and a woman with spikes in her hair.

When Vensha h...

Chapter 142: Two Sons

“I agree with Orissa,” Vensha said, arms folded. “The rest of you should stay here till the end of the celebrations. Maybe even longer.”

They had all congregated in his grandparents’ apartment on the first stratum of the island.

“You can’t seriously expect us to wait behind, twiddling our thumbs, while you go into potential danger with both Zeris and Caen,” Grena replied. 

“You’ll have to do that anyway!” Orissa said with a hand on her forehead. �...

Chapter 141: Windup

Caen sat at the table in Zeris's room, scanning his spirit. He’d been at this for a few hours now. Locating his fourth bloodline always took some time and effort. 

It was slippery and extremely given to concealment, but he eventually found the bloodline. It presented to his mind’s eye as a squirming mass of intertwined darkened strips with the consistency of ink. It possessed, surprisingly enough, far more ‘harmony’ than any of his other bloodlines. He wasn’t entirely sur...

Chapter 140: Award Ceremony

Caen sat in the grand arena among other members of the Faithful Descent faction. The loud cheers of the surrounding spectators were deafening. Multitudes of people chanted different things.

Caen’s entire vision was nearly blotted out by the numerous cords of connection linking him to everyone within the range of his senses. Coupled with the nigh constant grazing of spirit tendrils, as well as the overload of sensations and nonsensical impressions, it was all just frankly ridiculous.&n...

Chapter 139: Cords

The rise of his Contract affinity had brought some significant improvements to Mimicry.

Not only could Caen sense a harmony in his soul, he could also sense a keen disharmony; a lasting impression of incongruity that he couldn’t ignore. And that concerned him.

He inspected each of the cords connecting him to the people and objects in the room. He could glean vague and nearly nonsensical impressions from them. The cord linking him to his bag of holding gave off the impression of ...

Chapter 138: Binder

Gahairis smiled as she watched Ar’Caen carefully word his request. 

Parthra, she knew, was an excellent judge of character. And from what little she’d seen of this boy, he was respectful and very diligent. Very much like that stubborn descendant of hers.

“Youths these days are quite unimaginative,” Fenendis said with a chuckle. “Just higher education, as well as funding for your studies, academic projects, and advancement? Boy, are you sure?”

“Yes, Grand E...

Chapter 137: Their Decision

“Magister Fermien Aialda sat me down and lectured me on the conceptual elements of the Ardor bloodline. He explained to me that it was not limited to Fire magic and that it concerned the intentions, desires, and passions of people, myself included.

“On several occasions, this bloodline has helped me create a bridge between myself and others in order to align with their intentions and desires. I have even impassioned the Fire spells of others before.”

At this, some eyebrows r...

Chapter 136: Distracting And Technically True

Without Mimicking its spirit receptor, Caen sent an impression to Chasma. He’d practiced this with the fragment earlier. It peeled away from his face, just as he took off the remains of his helmet.

Grand Elder Fenendis seemed disappointed, but he squinted at Caen as though trying to decide if he knew him or not. But there were no looks of recognition in any of the other elders. 

Except one.

Grand Elder Qobesh gasped. “Tet’s tits!” the man declared, eyes widening...

Chapter 135: Grand Elders

Dolo sat on the edge of her seat, watching the projection on the glass panel with bated breath as Herb Mask walked slowly towards the exit point. Many Returned near him moved away from his path.

The cooling wards rendered this viewing booth uncomfortably cold, but she couldn’t spare the attention to adjust it.

Medi was screaming in glee and shoving Ayula, who still wore shock plainly on his face. Ayula’s jaw had dropped and continued to hang open from the moment Herb Mask had ...

Chapter 134: Many Questions

Author's Note: I am so sorry for the terrible delay. I had a family emergency that came up hours ago, and I've been occupied ever since. No need to be alarmed. Everything is fine now. Here's today's chapter.

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Two nights before the fourth trial, Caen sat in his room with Zeris and Aunt Vensha. He sat cross-legged on his bed, a portion of his mind was performing some Dream-guarding exercises he’d found in the restricted section of the library, while another was...

Chapter 133: Perimeter

Cutting a straight path to the edge of the arena was much harder than Caen had hoped. 

The walls were very durable, but then, at times, mid-combat, the labyrinth would rearrange itself to such a point that his orientation was thrown off. He kept a timer in the corner of his vision to keep track of the labyrinth’s thirty-second changes. That was only a portion of his troubles, though.

Monsters dove down from the sky or charged at him from the labyrinth. Returned, for the mos...

Chapter 132: It's Just A Kinesis Spell

“You should be worrying about fixing your fluctuation,” Stormsong rumbled.

“I’m more worried about making it to the end of the trial, if I’m being honest,” Caen replied.

“Walls are nothing to a storm,” the sword said.

Caen braced himself. His mana reserves were much less than he’d have preferred. And his eyes were not fully functional. In fact, he’d barely repaired some of the damage done to his left eye, and his vision through ...

Chapter 131: Dense Crystal Wall

Caen immediately paired Stormsong’s Mimicked enchantments with Dream-guarding. He sped up his processing and split his mind four ways, assigning them to different tasks just as a hail of crystal shards crashed into his legs painfully.

He darted left but was immediately blown to the side by a fireball. The sound of distant rumblings caused tremors to run through the ground beneath him.

“He’ll lose to the enchantments any second!” one of Caen’s assailants declared. “And ...

Chapter 130: Zone Of Her Mercy

Since he couldn’t cast Divination spells at the moment and could no longer see what was on the other side of the dome, Caen kept enough distance between himself and its ever-retreating edge. Between his helmet and the fragment covering his head, his vision was severely restricted.

He navigated the tricky terrain and struck down whatever monsters darted out at him. The looming statue above spurred him on. 

The dome’s shrinking speed kept increasing, and the labyrinth behin...

Chapter 129: A Tool In Its Hand

Caen leaped to the left as an Earth practician caused the ground beneath him to become spongy.

The geas would not allow Caen to flee from a fight. He could resist the magical compulsion easily enough, but he did not want to lose any of the progress he’d made in strengthening the compatibility between him and the awakened sword. This was the last card he had up his sleeve. He couldn’t see himself winning without it.

“Stormsong, how are we looking on the synergy front?”<...