Shinobin's pregnancy advanced rapidly. Too rapidly in Shada's opinion. Based on discussions he had with Shinobin and Vanestra; it appeared that Shinobin's vitality focused Path, Luca’s level 5 Physical Stat, and frequent exposure to healing magics had accelerated baby Luca’s development significantly.

  Luca was due any day now. Based on Shinobin's belly Luca was going to be a large and healthy boy. Being a healer and having a decent Physical Cultivation Stat meant pregnancy barely impeded her day to day activities.

  Shada could feel Luca's mind through their link. It was fascinating. He got to vicariously experience things from Lucas’s perspective. It turned out that Luca had a mostly undeveloped mind. He lacked the fully developed personality and memories that Shada had, but he was still part of the same person.

  Occasionally Shada would become disoriented as the distinction between him and Luca blurred. It mainly happened when Luca was restless and Shada distracted; this was when the barrier between the two halves of their mind became thin. When that happened Shada would experience two distinct streams of consciousness. One fully developed with a lifetime of memories, the other unformed and just experiencing things for the first time. It was a peculiar experience for both minds.

  It surprised Shada to learn that unborn babies dreamed. Their dreams lacked detail and consisted mainly of experiences in the womb, but more rarely Luca dreamed brief tiny dreams of being John.

  The preceding months had been peaceful. His father had sent Wyld Elf Shadows to protect them. They never entered the cottage, but followed them everywhere else. Their stealth was so complete that they moved unseen through crowds, and could remain invisible while directly in front of someone. However, they couldn't hide from Shada’s Essence Perception, which disturbed, the otherwise quiet stoic, Wyld Elves greatly. When off duty he heard that they masqueraded as various types of entertainers throughout the city. Shada had little opportunity to get to know them, due to how they hid themselves. He never left warded spaces now a days.

  Shinobin worked less with herbs during the evenings. Instead she took turns with Vanestra and Alexzandros to teach Shada. He became fluent in Wylderfolk Tongue, Eastern Imperial, and Sylvan Elvish.

  His development of the magic languages, Celestial and the Lingua Arcana,surprised his family. It turned out that most people couldn't really understand magic languages. They memorized spells, incantations, prayers, and enchantments without real understanding. They were just mimicking what they had been taught. It was as if the languages themselves resisted being learned. Only high level individuals could truly grasp them, but this made Shada an anomaly and his Traits were likely to blame. Personally he suspected that it was also his background in programming and IT. The languages were highly structured like programming languages, but had a more natural flow.

  The development of his magic languages led to a new Skill. Considered exceedingly rare, Shada picked up the Spellcrafting Skill quickly; much to everyone’s shock.

  The Spellcrafting Skill was not dissimilar to a personal editing tool for a programmer. It was much more intuitive, but it provided a host of feedback and corrections that allowed him to parse and modify spells much more easily.

  However, the Skill that made Shada happiest was Psychokinesis. It was a generalized form of kinetic manifestation and manipulation, also known as force conjuring and force manipulation.

  There were spells that mimicked it, and he had learned the Skill by studying the spells, but the Skill was more versatile. He was able to use it to turn pages, write, and even sketch. It took a lot of patience, but he had the time to get it done. He also used it to help Shinobin fetch things when no one was around. He enjoyed having 'hands' again even if the feedback wasn't really like touching at all.

  His lessons with his family taught him a lot about the System and its limits. It involved an odd amount of math. For the most part Stats and Skills had some basic leveling requirements and limits. Each level required around 100 hours of active use or the investment of around 10,000 Essence via the Cultivation Skill. These numbers varied greatly based on talent, insight, and many other factors. He was told to consider them only rough guidelines.

  The catch of course was that you could only invest so much Essence an hour via Cultivation. The other catch was base Essence regeneration was roughly only 100 Essence per hour, depending on various environmental factors, and one’s Magic and Spirit Stats.

  The cultivation/investment limit and regeneration limit were the two roadblocks to rapid development under the System. However, as Alexzandros said one evening: “There are many, many variables that affect those base numbers. What you do, how you do it, where you do it, the Essence you use, your Path, your Class, and your Profession all affect the base numbers. The math quickly becomes untenable for most.”

  Shada was lucky that his family helped supplement his development with Essence Crystals, which were essentially money to the locals.

  He couldn't do much while at the clinic with Shinobin, but he spent his nights and evenings practicing Skills or Cultivating his Magical and Spiritual Stats. In addition to Spellcrafting and Psychokinesis he developed his own version of Spirit Speech, which allowed him to communicate silently with those nearby.

  Shada had managed to improve his Spiritual and Magical Stats, but seemed unable to Cultivate his Physical or Social Stats. He left his Mental Stats alone for now to avoid issues for Luca’s developing mind. His level seemed to be based on his Stat average.

  While Shinobin slept, or Cultivated, Shada had worked to improve his Spirit and Magic Stats by 5 points each, which brought his level up to 7. This increased his Essence reserves to 100. The way Vanestra described it; a Stat of 10 doubled a person's natural abilities related to that Stat as each point represented roughly a 10% increase in ability.. Baby Luca was going to be roughly 50% stronger than most children, for example. Shada hoped Shinobin could cope with such a strong child, especially while nursing.

  Some of his Guide Skills improved from regular use. He used Map and Timekeeping fairly regularly, but thye leveled surprisingly slowly. They both increased by 6 points. Analyze had a hidden requirement in that it required one to use it on unique objects to level up. People were best, but they occasionally noticed the Skill use. This limited the Skill's growth speed. Loot and Inventory didn't have any real use for a spirit, so experienced little growth. He did use Inventory for practice supplies, but the Essence upkeep was barely worth it.

  Improving the Map Skill increased the detail and resolution of his mini map. Analyze provided slightly more detailed information upon leveling. Inventory became more efficient and finally Timekeeping gave new options like alarms or alerts. All were fairly minor utility functions in Shada's opinion.

  His Trait Skills had passive and active effects so leveled faster than most. Split Mind and Spirit Walking gained 6 points each. The primary benefits to leveling Split Mind and Spirit Walking came in the form of increased tether range. He could move further and spend longer times away from Shinobin. It allowed Shada to explore the grounds, around the cottage, and the nearby forest. The wards on Alexzandros’s tower prevented him from exploring it, unless Shinobin was with him. Even then his movements were restricted in the tower.

  The gardens were surprisingly extensive. There were a wild variety of medicinal plants, foods, and even a pond with what Shada thought of as dino chickens. He didn't know how Shinobin and Vanestra kept up with the gardens alone, but suspected magic.

  Polyglotism advanced steadily during the day, while exposed to the conversations at the clinic, and market squares. It leveled by 4 points, which improved his fluency significantly.

  Of the Trait Skills; Shapeshifting had made the least progress due to it only being useful when Shada inhabited the golem Root. He was able to add finer details and subtler colors with the 2 levels he managed to squeeze in.

  It was Essence Perception that increased the most. It was almost always on and when he focused he got increasing amounts of detail about the Essence he observed. It was invaluable for his General Skills development and Spells so gained 8 levels.

  He learned a multitude of minor Spells and practiced his Silent Spellcasting Skill diligently, which grew to level 5 and allowed for more complex spells. It had helped him develop Psychokinesis due to being able to observe the effects of a tiny Spell called Push. Like the Flash Spell he first learned with Vanestra, Push created a small burst of kinetic force. Learning to generate that force without the spell had been the key to learning Psychokinesis, which reached level 4, which improved how much and how deftly he could move things.

  The Spirit Speech Skill had developed naturally from interactions with Vanestra. It allowed him to talk with Shinobin throughout the day at the clinic. It had also leveled quickly and was currently level 7. She often seemed both horrified and intrigued by how the people of Earth practiced medicine when they talked. She used these conversations to teach him about Sierrallas’s medical approach. He couldn't practice healing though, so didn't develop new a Skills.

  Shada worked with Alexzandros on his Spellcrafting Skill. He helped his grandfather with his research and was able to provide minor insights and perspective for the old wizard. It was nothing groundbreaking, but was appreciated by Alexzandros nonetheless. Spellcrafting was only level 3 due to limited chances to actively use it. He did manage to create a few minor new spells by combining two minor spells and tweaking them. Like Flashbang, it was like a bright firecracker, but he thought it might be a useful distraction in the future. He also hadn't missed the prank applications.

  Like Essence Perception his Essence Control Skill benefited from nearly everything he did so had seen the most growth. It had recently reached level 8 and allowed more efficiency and precision.

  The interesting thing to Shada, about the Guide and the Skills it gave, involved the knowledge that came with both. There was constant feedback from the Guide, it helped him refine his Skills while also teaching him how to use them without Guide assistance. The Guide had a tier system for Skills and Stats. There were 5 tiers: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, and Sage. Master Tier Skills could actually be removed from one’s Skill List and practiced as a Manual Skill, without active Guide assistance. It was useful for when one needed to free up a Skill Slot. At Master level people could also grant their Skills to others. It was apparently a lucrative and coveted ability.

  For most people mastering a Skill took decades due to the lack of time to practice or the extra Essence to invest. Everyone used their Essence for work and play, which limited the Essence they could use on growth. It was what prevented most people from reaching far beyond their mortal limits and why Essence Crystals, commonly called crysts, acted as the gold standard for economics on Sierrallas.

  Of course, before the Guideless Day, you could accelerate the whole process at Shrines and Temples by paying Essence. Sadly, that wasn't currently an option and the increase was only 50% and less efficient as well.

  —

  Spellwork was fascinating for Shada. The ability to manifest real tangible effects, that could interact with the real world, made his new life an interesting experience. At first he could only create minor effects. He learned Flash to create minor bursts of light, Push to create small kinetic bursts of force, Snap to make a popping sound, Spark to light fires, and Flame to create small bursts of fire.

  These minor spells led to more complex things like his little Flashbang Spell, that combined Flash and Snap. Push and Snap could create, non-fiery, mini explosions; he called Firecrackers. He even created a poor man's Firedart by using Push to propel a Flame and Snap combo. All the effects were practically parlor tricks, but fun nonetheless.

  Creating light, sound, heat, and fire was interesting, but it was the spells like Breeze, Splash, Flare, Trickle, Dust, and Pebble that made Shada's mind buzz. The others were relatively easy to mimic with technology at least at first glance. However, Breeze didn't just move air, it created a flow of new air from seemingly nowhere. Splash created a small ball of water, Flare produced a tiny jet of fire, Trickle created a tiny stream of water, Dust created a small cloud of dust, and Pebble created a tiny rock. Other effects just seemed like energy conversion i.e. Essence into energy, but Essence into matter defied Shada’s understanding.

  Vanestra had explained how conjuring worked, but it had taken him a bit to really understand the explanation. It turned out his assumptions had been wrong. Based on what the mages of Sierrallas knew, and a hefty dose of theory; conjuring spells, which really included anything that created tangible effects, created a resonance to somewhere else, known as the Etheric Plane. This resonance created a bridge that then exchanged Essence for potential matter or energy.

  The knowledge of how the spells work improved Shada's speed and efficiency significantly. He practiced whenever he could at the cottage.

  Vanestra got so annoyed by his practice inside, one day, that she sent him outside to kill bugs in the garden, and water the plants. It turned out his Spark and Snap combo, Firecracker, was a useful, if tedious, way to kill bugs. His little Flashbang was good at chasing off small animals without really harming them. At one point he was buzzing around the grounds sending Firecrackers, Firedarts, and mini Flashbangs all around like some mad firefly. It amused him quite a bit.

  —

  Several months after John, now Luca and Shada, arrived on Sierrallas, Shinobin went into labor. Luca would be born very soon. Shada wondered what things would be like after the birth. When the time came he experienced the familiar, but surprising sensation, of his consciousness disappearing and being elsewhere once again.