Chapter 55 — Toren the Scholar

  “We’re ready, Warnel,” Emina called over to her husband after stitching the last of the tendon ends Falma had been holding together for her.

  Using [Control Blood] to hold the surgery site open and blood-free and [Mana Sensing] to watch the work while lying facedown on the table, Toren easily ‘saw’ Warnel look up from where he was practicing his [Mend Material] Ability on zoot tendons that had been kept for making cordage.

  “Can you do it?” Emina probed him as he took her spot by his knee, Falma also stepping back to make room. Both girls were looking rather queasy. Falma moreso than her older sister.

  Laiya had already done her part together with her younger sister, each using their [Knifework] and [Cutting] Skills to make one of the cuts to form the ‘X’ that allowed the skin to be peeled back and expose the workings of the back of his lamed knee. The job of finding and pulling together each severed tendon end had been forced onto Falma, thanks to the younger sister’s smaller hands.

  “Like you said, with the correct mindfulness, it should work,” Warnel affirmed, his face a mask of professional determination, even if he, too, was queasy at the sight of the ongoing surgery.

  Emina had not wanted to waste any time getting started on fixing Toren's leg, wanting to limit as much as possible the chances of them getting attacked while he was injured.

  There was some debate about whether he should eat something or drink a mana replenishment potion before the surgery, but Emina was of the opinion that Warnel’s task would be easier the less mana present in Toren's body.

  Rejoining living tendon proved much more difficult, and the man was sweating and looking strained by the time success came. Warnel wasn’t the only one to make a gain from the effort.

  Emina’s foresight proved important. His mana remaining in the tendons had resisted Warnel’s [Mend Material] Ability. The divided focus required to keep mana out of the tendons while maintaining sufficient density in the nearby tissue for [Control Blood] to hold back both the skin and the bleeding required enough concentration and control from him to give another rapid raise in the skill.

  After directing blood over the joining, Toren healed it with [Burning Blood] as best he could, before having Emina remove the stitching and closing up the cuts to heal the rest.

  “Is it done?” Falma asked.

  “For now, looks like,” Emina answered and looked to Toren for confirmation.

  Toren nodded and gingerly slid off the table to land on his good leg, easing himself onto the nearest chair. Whether the tendons were fine or not now, he didn’t want to test for a while just yet. “You have my thanks.”

  “That’s one crisis averted,” the older woman declared. “I’ll get you some lunch while Laiya and Falma get to processing the foragings. Once the ones quickest to lose potency are taken care of, we’ll want to get started on dinner.”

  “Really, Mom? Talking dinner, after that?” Falma groaned, but Laiya quietly grabbed a shallow basket and took up the seat next to him.

  “I’ll get back to clearing the grasses and ferns,” Warnel volunteered and, on the way out, collected the sheathed sword left by the door.

  That was one way to train the sword, Toren chuckled to himself. The materials could probably be used to make more baskets or hats or such, too. There might be some useful training they could do on the felled tree if he felt healed enough later.

  For now Toren just wanted to sit and think, and he had a lot to think about while sorting the mushrooms, herbs, and roots for processing and polishing off two bowls of mana-rich vegetable-filled broth. Even if he’d failed to bring back any of the meat he had hunted, the outing wasn’t without gains. Finding a method to puppet his body when injury prevented normal movement was something he’d had as high on his priority list.

  He also needed to address the significant weakness he had just discovered in his concept of [Burning Blood]’s healing process. He was fairly sure he could have grown the tendons until they reached, but without a way to remove the excess length afterward… that would have surely caused problems. But that seemed to ignore the whole ‘burning’ property of [Burning Blood], surely there was a way to push the Ability to burn away improperly healed tissue. Solving that might be more important for his next advancement than faster bone healing.

  As far as Emina and Falma’s alchemy efforts went, the potions they were making should be plenty strong for tier 1. Maybe too strong. He had left a flask of his blood as a potion intensifier for them to experiment with.

  On his first day in Farharbor, he had learned how surprisingly strong his blood’s mana density was when pressing his bloody thumb to the claim contract had caused the paper to smolder. Kesta had been wide-eyed when she said that usually only happened with tier-2 signers.

  Toren was fairly sure the passive effect of the [Burning Blood] Ability had forced his blood to already undergo elemental and mana-imbuement. The excruciating burning pain throughout his arteries upon selecting the Ability certainly made sense in that light.

  Mana-imbuement was the primary feature of tier-2, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen in tier-1. At higher rarities, Professions and Abilities that enhanced sight often imbued the eyes. Likewise for hearing and the ears. As a bow-user, Toren had expected something like that for himself eventually. Blood, though, was different. It flowed through all of the body, not one specialized location.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  There was little wonder such an Ability would be viridian-rarity.

  As the work dragged on, Toren decided to help Emina and the girls’ [Religion] Skills along. After a few questions to gauge the gaps in their knowledge, he started with the basics about the origin of the World Spirit and Skills.

  “As written in the scriptures provided by Zhihan, Chronicler of History, the World Spirit is a piece of the Dreaming Tortoise’s soul split off to make the World Magic that accumulates the skill, knowledge, and experiences of all intelligences residing in the void tortoise’s domain. That knowledge is distilled and codified into our Mana Cores, otherwise known as our Skill Core and at adulthood as a Profession Core, then shared with the akashic library at the heart of the magic.

  “The Dreaming Tortoise, Ryahnevr, is using our shared knowledge to further his understanding of universal truth. By striving to grow, improve upon the truths of others, and find our own unique truths, we earn our worth and Ryahnevr’s gratitude.”

  “But if we live on a tortoise, why is the world round and made of dirt and rock? Why are there volcanoes?” Falma asked. Laiya and their mother smiled at the question.

  Toren also smiled. “That is because, as the great tortoise drifts through the primal chaos and the cosmos of many realms, guided by its dreams, the great phoenix and moon goddesses harvest and collect cosmic debris from what the tortoise passes on its journey, breaking them down into elements used to form the ground we stand on and now the floating continents that traverse the skies and cast shadows on the land. That is how the floating land of the ice lich, Fovesh, which brings winter and the floating islands that the dragons and higher-tier races inhabit came to be.

  “Of course, the natural question that leads to is: but if we live within a void tortoise’s divine domain traveling the primal chaos, why are there stars in the sky?”

  That question got three nods as expected. It reminded Toren of all the times he had taught the same lesson to the younger orphans.

  “You see,” he continued, “the constellations represent the contracts the void tortoise has made with other ascended gods to bring their influence to this world that he has created. Each star of a celestial deity’s constellation represents one of the truths the deity embodies, and the arrangement of the truths represents the domains under their purview.

  “Take Coethus, for example. The star at the top of his constellation is Truth itself and is part of his Oaths domain. His constellation has three parts representing the domains of Oaths, Honor, and Strength, forming a crowned knight with a shield.

  “While still celestial bodies, the moons are a bit different as the manifestations of their divine domains are physically present within the Dreaming Tortoise’s divine domain. The sun is the elder phoenix Horevi and, just as the moons, has entered into a contract with Ryahnevr to nurture the Garden of Life growing around the great turtle’s shell. The celestial deities, together with Horevi, the moons, and the dark gods, they all serve the purpose of making the truths of this world more complete.

  “That is also the reason this world is full of mana and why Ryahnevr allows rifts to form within his divine domain. Truths create mana, and the strong concentration of mana and sentient life in this world both creates rift-worlds on its own and also draws drifting pocket worlds, further enriching the garden that the great turtle is cultivating to fuel its continued growth as a celestial being...”

  By the time he trailed off, Falma and Laiya just blinked, staring at him like he was a strange creature that had arrived in their house unannounced.

  “Goodness, Toren… you teach just like the [Priests],” Emina chuckled.

  Toren also laughed. He was sure the [Holy Sisters] of the orphanage would both laugh and cry to hear that. To think, thanks to the World Spirit’s blessing of Skills, even he, with an Intelligence of 8, could share knowledge as if he were as wise as a [Scholar].

  ~~~

  Name: Toren of Theravos

  Race: Human

  Age: 20

  Profession 1: Level 7 Burningblood Berserker (3200/14000)

  Mana: 12/112

  Strength: 16

  Constitution: 14

  Dexterity: 14

  Agility: 12

  Wisdom: 12

  Intellect: 8

  Will Power: 18

  Perception 15

  Appearance: 8

  Charisma: 8

  Luck: 10

  Attribute Upgrade Points: 6

  Traits:

  Sacrificial Guardian

  Abilities:

  Burning Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Mid

  Control Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low

  Flurry of Blows (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low

  Ability Upgrade Points: 6

  Profession Skills:

  Severe Wound Recovery 5

  Combat Awareness 6

  Focus Rage 4

  Berserker Weapon Arts 1

  Pain Tolerance 6

  Physical Conditioning 6

  Intimidate 4

  Skills:

  Danger Sensing 3

  Stealth 18

  Mana Sensing 14

  Wilderness Harvesting 12

  Theravos Language 11

  Religion 10

  Meditation 5

  Bone Strengthening 3

  Divided Focus 4 → 5

  Hunting 20

  Archery 19

  Running 13

  Wound Binding 8

  Arithmetic 4