Chapter 14 14: Favorite Season
?Months had passed and the moon waxed many times. The season changed and I already celebrated my ninth birthday two months ago. This time was already the end of this year's harvest season in the month of Scorpio. People go rustle and busy for them to prevent themselves feeling chill in the upcoming winter.
For some reason, autumn is my favorite season of the year. Maybe because it is when I was born. The orange hue of the leaves attached on the trees really nostalgic in my eyes. The first time my mom carried me outside the mansion was in the middle of autumn.
The orange leaves one by one fell from our front yard maple trees. Yellow to red hue covered the pathway from the gate to the front door of the mansion. Wooden boxes attached to the trees around the mansion's perimeter for its syrupy sap to hold.
"998, 999, and 1000."
I am currently fulfilling my swing quota for the day. After completing our monthly monster hunting and levelling, we continued to train our bodies and sword for the rest of the month.
My sister, Louise, had been practicing her sword vigorously since I levelled up more after our first levelling. Now, she slew more monsters than I did and gained more experience and level.
She already surpassed me in terms of level even though I gained more experience from my blessings. Her swordsmanship rose its proficiency and learned more sword techniques. She can already have a decent fight with mother at her five percent strength.
On the other hand, I increased the levels of my magic skills and learned more magic spells. I also trained my sword and body but not as frequent as my sister.
We went into the forest once a month to fight monsters to level up and gained combat experience. We dove deeper for every time we entered and challenged the forest.
Me and sister got bored with slimes and goblins and want to fight stronger monsters. Our parents discussed and gave us permission to dive deeper the forest.
The deeper we went the stronger the monsters we encounter. We encountered some F-ranked monsters same rank as slimes and goblins along the way.
Mist Pumpkins that releases alluring sweet fog that attracts its prey. They were a foot tall pumpkin that had a face like a pumpkin lantern in Halloween. During autumn, Mist Pumpkins reached their full orange color and becomes more aggressive and attacks more frequently.
But we were resistant to mental attacks so we countered and kill it easily. Its body during autumn were delicious and rich in Vitamin A for good eyesight. That's why there were so many hunting requests for it at fall.
Horned Rabbits were white furred hare that had high agility and specialize in surprise attacks. It had a sharp horn on its forehead to stab their targets like a spear.
Horned Rabbits were in high demand due to their high quality raw materials. Its fur was void of impurities and fluffy that often used as garments for nobility. Its meat was so juicy and tender. High-class restaurants often serve dishes for its meat.
Due to the quality of the materials, we only had to use sword instead of magic. Using magic causes damage to their materials like burnt that ruined the quality. Slicing it cleanly with a sword is the best way to preserve their quality.
After hunting last month, we had looted many Mist Pumpkins and Horned Rabbits and we had Horned Rabbit Stew with Mist Pumpkin as dinner. I had my Inventory to prevent the materials from spoiling and had it for dinner for more than a week.
We also encountered some Skeletons of the Undead race as we went further. Those Skeletons were from the remains of the adventures that challenged the Great Forest of Darkness.
As time goes by, the skeletal remains of the adventures who died in the forest absorbed mana from the air. The air in the forest were contaminated by miasma and it made the remains evolve into an Undead.
The corpses gained a new kind of life and rose back from the dead. They did not regain their memories when they were alive but instead, they acted based on instinct.
The Skeletons were weak and only uses the weapons when they died. Of course, me and my sister did not even make a sweat killing Skeletons. The only things that can to looted from the Skeletons were their magic crystals and their weapons.
The monsters hunting and levelling these past months gained us experience and made us to enter Level 50. Now, we can fight E-ranked monsters and even stand a decent fight against weak D-ranked monsters based on our stats and skills.
After I fulfill my today's quota, I walked away and approached a wooden bench nearby. I took a sit on it and wiped off my sweat with a towel. I want to see my current status and a translucent rectangular panel in front of me.
_____________________
Name: Raphael Raevender
Race: Human
Title: Reincarnator, Heir of the Raevender Viscounty
Condition: Normal
LV: 52
MP: 1160+232
STR: 1480+296
DEF: 990+198
MAG: 1470+294
MDEF: 980+196 f𝔯ℯe𝓌ℯ𝐛𝒏𝐨ѵel.c𝚘𝐦
AGI: 1200+240
Ultra Skill: Ultimate Art, Monarch of the Night
Unique Skill: Parallel Profile, Plunder, Skill Synthesis, Computerized Mind
Extra Skill: Inventory, Regeneration, Limiter
Racial Skill: None
Skill: Item Enchant, Weapon Enchantment, Appraisal, Magic Sense, Thought Acceleration, Parallel Thinking, Martial Art: 5, Sword Art: 6, Close Quarter Combat: 4, Detection, Danger Detection, Weakness Finder, Concealment, Mist Create, Spear Art: 2, Club Art: 1
Magic Skill: [Elemental Magic: Lightning Magic: 6, Light Magic: 5, Fire Magic: 5, Water Magic: 4, Wind Magic: 4, Earth Magic: 3, Dark Magic: 3, Compound Magic: 4] [Non-Elemental Magic: Space-Time Magic: 7, Pure Magic: 6, Force Magic: 5, Illusion Magic: 3]
Resistance: Pain Resistance, Impact Resistance, Asphyxiation Resistance, Exhaustion Resistance, Magic Resistance, Mental Attack Resistance, Visual Effect Resistance, Blast Resistance, Physical Attack Resistance
Blessing: God's Vessel, God's Eye, God's Veil
_____________________
I am at level 52 and if I include the additional stats, all my stats had reached a thousand mark. I also acquired some skills from the monsters I slew during my training in the forest.
Mist Create was a skill that I plundered from the Mist Pumpkins. It is an ability to create mist around the user's area. You can adjust the thickness of the mist to the point that it causes zero visibility to others. It can to used to blind your enemies or a smokescreen to escape.
Horned Rabbits gave me the Spear Art skill. I mother gave some of her unused weapons to me. It includes a Rare grade platinum-bladed spear looted from a dungeon. Since I had the weapon, I had to learn how to use it.
Including the weapons given to me was a mace. It was a Unique grade weapon looted from the same dungeon as the spear. The handle was made of mithrill while its six edges was orichalcum.
I finally accepted the unnecessary Club Art skill of the goblin just to use this weapon. Increasing my reservoir of offensive and defensive abilities helps me to increase my chances of winning against an enemy.
The levels of my magic skills increased a bit and I've learned a few stronger magic spells. I also improved my way of the sword and now I can have a decent fight with a knight with the same stats.
My agility already reached a thousand units and I finally unlocked the Parallel Thinking and acquired my second mind. My thinking process exponentially increased by having two minds.
My second mind feels like I had a second brain. I can move my both hands freely as if they had their own life. Its like looking left and right at the same, although I cannot really look at both sides at the same time.
My music compositions also increased its area and I released some moderate difficulty pieces like Clair de Lune (Moonlight) by Debussy. I also made The Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss Jr. as my Waltz No. 1 entitled "The Beautiful Blue Sky Waltz".
I haven't heard any news about my self-proclaimed compositions yet. I didn't really know if it become popular in Astley Kingdom but I heard from Mary that it was often played in the theaters and some music establishments in the city.
Upon seeing the falling leaves in the mansion, I feel like a want to compose, although pretended, Vivaldi's `The Four Seasons′ as my first four Violin Concertos. I will release my Violin Concertos on their corresponding seasons next year with Spring as the first.
When I compose, my family sometimes watches me composing. I pretended to had no idea of what I will compose and randomly pressed the keys until it get the melody of what I want to compose.
I sometimes intentionally pressed the wrong note to make them think that I didn't perfected it yet. But it was all according to the plan. Because of that, I was tasked to compose the music pieces to perform for my sister's social debut in the future.
I have an impending violin piece to publish this month. It was Paganini's Caprice No. 24 as my first violin work named Capricious. I would get suspected if I release a Violin Concerto without having a violin piece prior.
While I am thinking about music, my sister, who just finished her today's training, came running to me. As she stopped in front of me, some drops of her sweat landed on my skin.
Along with the afternoon breeze, my nostrils smelled her sweaty scent. She used fragrant perfume beforehand but that was not her own real scent. For me, the real scent of a person was not on the perfume used, but the person's own body odor like sweat that was enhanced by fragrant substances.
"Looks like you're done, too. I'm hungry, so go and make me some 'spaghetti' like the other day."
"Spaghetti again? It's heavy in the stomach, you know."
"So what? I just like it... Special if it's made by you..."
Sister folded her arms and ordered me to cook her spaghetti. She said she liked it then averted her eyes and murmur something that didn't reached my ears. Well, if she said liked it, she liked it.
After the autumn harvest, we had a huge stock of wheat flour from the taxes. Bread, cookies, and pancakes were the only uses of flour so far. And I got bored repeatedly eating the same carbs every single day.
So I had a brilliant idea to consume our flour stock without getting bored. And that was the creation of pasta. Well, I just surfed on the internet of how to make your own spaghetti from scratch and recreate it in this world.
I can also recreate other flour products like pizza and cake. But I have to recreate them with moderation to avoid being suspected. That's why I have to do it with the pasta dishes first and leave the rest for the future.
"Fine. Can you asked mother to assist me again?"
"Yeah, so get butt up and go to the kitchen."
I stood up from the bench and went to the kitchen. Sister blasted away to find mother and informed her that I will be making spaghetti today. My parents and the servants also took a liking to my spaghetti.
But before that, I first took a bath to get rid of the sweat and dirt clinging to my body. Then I immediately went to the kitchen to avoid being scolded by my sister.