Vol. 2 Ch. 25: Kind Warning (Draft)

Author's Note:

Recurring Characters:

Peter: The protagonist of this novel.

Mariah: Peter's mother. You can find her picture in Art collection.

Lidia: One of Mariah's friend, whom Matteo (Mariah's younger brother) used to have a crush on. She had been explored in the chapter "Dream and the past" in you're interested in her appearance when she was young.

Tessa: Lidia and Matteo's second child. We just met her in the last chapter.

Mira: Lidia and Matteo's first child. Tessa grumbled about how she got to learn dance while she had to stand guard at the entrance in the last chapter.

Elena: Mariah and Matteo's mother. She first appeared in the chapter "Dream and the past".
Gregor: Mariah and Matteo's father. He first appeared in the chapter "Dream and the past". He's a former adventurer.

Recap:

“Still not used to seeing my daughter all grown up and a mother now.” He said. “One day, you just decided to depart on an adventure over an argument, leaving only a single letter behind…and now, here you stand—same but different—along with a child of yours.”

…End of Author Note...

...

Mariah lowered herself to the floor, sitting beside him, and cupped his palms into her hands, looking into his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling softly before leaning forward to rest her head into his lap. “I don’t remember it, but I’m still sorry for what happened.”

Gregor reached over and gently caressed her head. “It’s alright,” he mumbled. “It’s all in the past now. Time is the best healer. Whatever grievances we had for each other were all resolved.”

“Besides,” he said, raising her chin. “Your choice for a husband was excellent. I’m embarrassed to admit that I wouldn’t have found a better partner for you. May he rest in peace in Avaris’ domain.”

“What a tragedy it is,” he sighed. “You can’t even grieve him properly due to your memory loss. He was a good man, Mariah. Truly saddens my heart….it really does, but such is life.”

“…lost count of how many close ones have departed to the goddess’ domain in all these years,” his lips pressed into a thin line. “…each time feels like the first one.”

Peter and Mariah listened peacefully as he talked.

Gregor took a deep breath. “But it gets better, and life returns to normal again after a while. I want you to know that we’re here for you when you need to grieve.”

Mariah nodded. “I know, Dad.”

“Fret not,” he said, “I’m very hopeful for tomorrow. You’ll have your memories back soon. There’s surely someone at the cathedral who can cure your ailment. We’ve some coins saved. It should be enough, otherwise I can ask my friends for a loan.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Mariah shook her head. “We’ve a large number of coins too.”

Peter jumped from his bed and walked to the side, picked up the coin pouch and handed it to Mariah quietly before returning to his seat to observe.

“Look,” Mariah said, opening the pouch and showing it to her father.

Gregor nodded. “That’s twice the number than what we’ve saved. It’d do.”

Mariah smiled, finally standing up and sitting down on her bed, facing Gregor. She casually put the pouch to the side.

“Now that we’ve caught up with each other,” he said, “I should speak about the real reason I decided to visit you in private.”

“What is it?” Mariah asked, her head tilting a bit.

“I’m pretty sure that Peter has an identification skill,” He said, his gaze drifting to him before returning to her. “He used it on me in the morning when we first met.”

Mariah and Peter shared a look. Peter nodded.

“Yes, he does,” she said, her chest tightening a bit. “Will it be a problem? Is he in trouble?”

“It shouldn’t be if he’s careful with it,” Gregor shook his head. “It’s not that rare of a skill, but he can’t be using it without any reason.”

“Most skilled people either have a skill to detect when an identification skill was used on them, or they know techniques to do it by themselves without the skill.” He said. “They may not be able to stop him from reading their status, but they’ll know when he does it.”

He turned to look at Peter. “Make sure to only use it during a confrontation. Statuses are very private things, and reading them without permission can anger even the calmest of people.”

“I’ll be careful,” Peter nodded politely.

Gregor smiled before standing up. “Very well then. Both of you rest now.”

Mariah stood up and followed him as he moved across the room and closed the door once he left.

…

Peter spared the sleeping form of his mother a glance before returning his focus to the IDE.

During the journey to the city, after defeating the bandits, he looked at the healing skills that used mana as fuel and, after careful consideration, decided that it would be better to create an area of effect skill that could expand Undying Vitality rather than make a new healing skill.

To create an aura-based area of effect skill, he needed to learn a few things. His very first obstacle was—how to expand the effect of his skill beyond his mortal body.

Undying Vitality could easily use Peter’s mana to heal him, but it would need to use ambient mana to heal others successfully. Peter already had a skill that could prove to be the solution: Mana Manipulation.

Peter could use it to establish control over ambient mana to create links between him and the individuals he wanted to heal. Mana was quite a versatile element. Each mana molecule was not only capable of transforming into a different element or energy, but could also store information similar to radio waves.

This ability plays a vital role in defining the difference between ambient mana and a being’s mana. Peter’s mana contained his soul signature inside it, which allows his skills to also use his mana as a communication pathway.

Peter needed an uninterrupted flow of information from his healing targets to successfully heal them. There was always the brute force method of achieving this by taking all the ambient mana in his vicinity under his control, but that’s far from ideal. It would consume a lot of his resources.

Peter decided to rely on data structures to better utilise his resources. He decided to use both linear and non-linear data structures for his skill design. He would be the server, and all the targets would be the clients. Ambient mana would be threaded into the links that transmit healing and information between his skill and the clients.

The second obstacle was—how to heal the targets?

For instance, to heal physical wounds on himself, Undying Vitality didn’t directly work on the wound, but instead constantly filled his health points, which could be invested without abandonment to heal the wound as fast as possible, depending on the requirement.

Things became complicated when the injury or ailment was not aimed at the physical body. Health Points can’t be used to heal mental or soul damage. To heal them, he needed to create separate modules that directly interacted with these domains.

This posed a significant problem in the development of an area of effect skill. As Peter had learned from experience and a lot of reading while making Undying Vitality, direct interaction with the domains could often be tricky and cause more harm than good if not done properly.

To find a solution to this problem, he decided to look into the system library for soul or mind healing skills and see how they dealt with this issue. After some exploration, he found the solution.

From what it appeared to him, the soul was the true being. Mind and body were its two different reflections. Thus, if the physical body had self-healing abilities, the soul and mind would also have them.

Peter decided to target those self-healing abilities and had the skill enhance them temporarily to strengthen the healing process.

…

“Need a hand with anything?” Peter asked, his tone light and polite as he stepped into the diner. He looked freshly cleaned, his short brown hair still a bit damp from a long-overdue bath, his first with real soap in quite some time.

“Ah, Peter!” Elena turned around with a warm smile. “Thanks for offering.” She tapped a finger to her chin, thinking for a moment.

“You can help by taking orders—if you can prove you’ve got a good memory,” she said with a teasing glint in her eyes as she scanned the almost-full diner.

Peter gave a confident nod. “I can do that. I’m good with numbers too.”

“Well…” Elena hesitated, offering an apologetic smile. “I’m not ready to trust you with the reception desk just yet.”

“Fair enough,” Peter nodded again, an understanding look on his face.

Elena rattled off a string of instructions, from menu codes and table numbers to special requests, and diner etiquette, all in one breath. When she asked him to repeat it back, Peter didn’t miss a beat. Word for word, he recited everything, even the part about the customer at table four always wanting her tea with extra honey.

Impressed, Elena grinned. “Alright, you’ve earned your shot. Good luck!”

Peter gave a quick nod and headed toward the tables, weaving through the narrow gaps between chairs with ease, his eyes already scanning for raised hands or curious glances. He moved smoothly from table to table, taking down orders with a polite smile.

Unknown to everyone, whenever someone gave him an order, he noted it down on a .md file on his IDE. It was probably the most useless use of his skill that he did so far, as it was a very costly skill, but it was fun to see surprised expressions on the customers’ faces at how quickly he memorised their requests.

Before long, he returned to the counter and recited everything to Elena. She gave an approved nod. “You’re smarter than Mariah at your age.”

Peter smiled faintly, then turned around, scanning the room out of habit. Most of the customers were settled, chatting over drinks or waiting for their food. Nothing urgent. No raised hands or waving arms.

That’s when he noticed her—Tessa, standing beside a table in the far corner. Her brows were slightly furrowed, and her face twisted with annoyance. A large, slouched man, probably in his mid-50s, was draped over the table in front of her, his head wobbling with drunkenness.

Peter made his way over, his footsteps quiet against the wooden floor. “Hey, need any help?” he asked, slowing down beside her.

Tessa glanced at him before shaking her head. “No, it’s fine. Colin does it often,” she said, her tone mixed with worry. She reached forward and shook Colin’s shoulder. “Get up, Colin. It’s already morning. If you don’t want breakfast, then go home now.”

Peter looked at the man, who gave her a mumbling complaint. He reeked of ale and appeared to be ready to take a nap. He exchanged a glance with Tessa.

She shrugged, the corner of her mouth twitching like she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or sigh.

“Let’s just leave him for now,” she said, admitting defeat. “It’s fine as long as he isn’t disturbing anyone. Most of them know him already after all.”

They left the man be and returned to the front just in time to see Mariah, Gregor and Mira standing near the door.

“We’ll be back by lunch hopefully,” Mariah said to Peter before giving Elena a quick wave.

Gregor nodded to Tessa as they passed. “Don’t cause any trouble, alright?”

“Of course,” she replied with a smile.

“Somehow I doubt that, Tess,” Gregor said, shaking his head.

Tessa watched them go, arms to the side. Her eyes lingered on Mira, who was now a few steps ahead of the others, humming something as they stepped out into the sunlit street.

As the door swung closed behind the trio, Tessa turned to Peter with a refreshing smile.

“Hey…once we’re done here, want to visit a nearby bakery? Their fresh honey rolls are really good.”

“Didn’t he just warned you not to get into any kind of trouble,” Peter raised an eyebrow.

“Who’s causing trouble? We’re just going to treat ourselves and be back before anyone finds out about it.”

“You’re going to go, whether I tag along or not, isn’t it?” Peter asked.

“Yup.”

“Fine then. I’ll tag along.”

…

(Outside Rosefall's wall)

“What’s this commotion about?” The guard asked, pushing the people aside. “Maintain the line rather than making a circle!”

He couldn’t, but feel wronged. Why the drama happens only when it’s his turn to guard?

After a bit more shoving aside, he was finally able to lay his eyes on the reason for the upheaval so early in the morning. A group of people, all looking tired and spend from something more than just long travel, moving along a large caravan. His gaze wandered over their group, stopping when he found a couple of men held captive alongside them.

“Stop!” he yelled, getting their attention. “Identify yourself and stay where you are.”

…End of Chapter…
An art post coming soon in relation to this chapter.