Sorrow of Learning
Sorrow of Learning
Evelyn had long since known that the information in this world was heavily restricted, and knowledge itself was one of the most well-guarded secrets for most major families and organizations.
And that wasn't just true for cultivation techniques and secrets, but also general knowledge that would allow one to forge ahead and select a path for themselves with clarity of mind.
For example, simply finding out how much experience a grade nine or ten cultivation technique would be able to provide in a day was almost impossibly difficult without getting one's hands on a grade nine or ten cultivation technique themselves, or being on good terms with someone who met those conditions.
At first, Evelyn didn't understand why this was the case. After all, this world had an extremely rich history, as just the academy itself was tens of thousands of years old if not more. Plus, not to mention pen and paper, there were even crystals that could directly store memory!
In terms of the ability to pass on information, even if it wasn't as convenient as the internet of her past world, it was still uniquely superior in its own way.
Only after coming in contact with Aurora did she discover the root cause of the issue - the thrones.
Her teacher didn't explain it to her in too much detail, but Evelyn was still able to understand that, aside from the ancient academy, most would only pass on knowledge to their own descendants, and that was because no one wanted to be targeted by the Temple of Shinra.
According to them, only their Lord had the right to decide who should and shouldn't be able to gain strength, and every other means was deemed unfair and evil.
The Temple's influence in the old world had been the lowest of all continents in this world, but they still weren't a force to be trifled with. If someone dared to insult their dignity, wouldn't one wave of their Lord's hand make their entire family disappear in an instant?
This hadn't always been the case, but happened some time before Aurora was born. According to her, things changed once the Lord of Bones had power that exceeded that of the Blue Throne, and there was no longer any need for him to act with restraint.
This was also one of the reasons that the old headmistress lived in such fear and terror of the thrones - she knew they were openly disobeying the Lord of Bones, and it was only a matter of time before he came knocking at their door.
But even with their lower level of influence in the old world, new records of information were rarely made out of fear, and with slow but sure loss of old records, natural or otherwise, the situation became as it was now.
Therefore, the information provided by her system was usually far beyond the level of what the people in this world had.
'Primordial' was a word that made Evelyn pause, for the sole reason that it was the highest category of abilities that she knew of. Her 'Calamity' skill was a 'primordial ability'.
Not counting the mortal beasts, the highest grade of living beings that this world knew of would have to be those 'spirit beasts', but after hearing the prompt, Evelyn suddenly couldn't help but question it in her mind.
Above those with spirit physique, there were still the 'thrones'. So wouldn't it make sense if there was a 'primordial beast' that was superior to even the 'spirit beasts'?
The ridiculous strength and strange abilities that the mermaid showed so far only affirmed Evelyn's belief, and she soon became certain of her guess.
Before, Evelyn had thought that although she acted like a child, the mermaid should probably still be an ancient creature. Perhaps her intelligence was just lower, and her mind couldn't develop well due to living in such a closed environment.
However, now that Evelyn knew that the half-fish girl was a primordial beast, there was no way to tell her real age at all. Since the growth rate of a primordial creature's strength was unknown to her, she might as well be an actual baby.
"But… what do I do with her?"
Although she had managed to drag her soul here, that was only because the other party was foolish and naïve, and hadn't resisted her at all when she was being dragged in.
Killing her here was impossible, and she couldn't keep her here indefinitely either.
The mermaid looked at her pitifully for a while, and seeing her face remain indifferent, she started crying once again, as if she knew she would be bullied again.
—Obtained one drop of [Primordial Naiad's Tears]
—Water Affinity increased by one percent!
—Current affinity with water is 83%…
—Obtained one drop of [Primordial Naiad's Tears]
—Water Affinity increased by one percent!
—Current affinity with water is 84%…
Evelyn gulped as she suddenly had a preposterous idea. 'I-If this is an actual baby… can't I just… train her?'
She wasn't thinking so without a good reason. Evelyn still remembered how easily she had been able to form an impression on Vivian all those years ago, and she had now become the only person to have had her ability unlocked in the 'normal' way outside of her family.
At that time, Vivian may have been young, but her mind should still have been far more developed than this mermaid. After all, she was already able to talk and communicate well, even though she sometimes stumbled with her words.
Evelyn knew she didn't have much time to think about it, so she quickly made up her mind. Even if it wasn't guaranteed to work out, it was better than just biding her time without a plan, hoping to be rescued.
After all, given the fact that Aurora hadn't yet arrived meant that something must have gone wrong, and Evelyn couldn't help but feel a little anxious in her heart.
—Obtained one drop of [Primordial Naiad's Tears]
—Water Affinity increased by one percent!
—Current affinity with water is 85%…
The pink-haired girl quickly floated in front of the mermaid, and looking at her suddenly timid expression, Evelyn gave her a gentle smile. "Looks like we got off on the wrong foot…"
Looking awkwardly at the swaying fish tail of the primordial 'beast', the pink-haired girl coughed. "… Let's start over. My name is Evelyn, and today, I shall be teaching you how to talk!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Although Evelyn's understanding of the soul wasn't poor by any means, she had no way to manipulate the passage of time in her soul space to be faster or slower than normal.
Every minute that she spent 'training' the mermaid was another minute that Aurora was facing the unknown, and another minute where anything could go wrong.
Maybe the primordial beast had a 'parent' who could come looking for her if she went missing for too long. Maybe the translucent creatures in the lake would figure out that something wasn't quite right, and decide to attack her.
Or maybe something could go wrong on Aurora's side, and by the time she got back, the situation would already be unsalvageable.
None of those were scenarios Evelyn wanted to face, so instead of taking chances, she directly enveloped the primordial 'beast' with her soul power the entire time she was 'teaching' her.
Obviously, the 'teaching' part was simply meant as a distraction, and the real trick was to directly increase her favorability through the contact of their souls.
The idea had come to her from the fact that after the accident which linked their souls, Bree's favorability had directly hit 'max', far exceeding anything that could be realistically achieved with anyone else in her mind.
After experiencing the previous event in which they once more used the soul link to cooperate and dissolve the threat of the chaos bone spear, Evelyn now had a little more understanding of the concept, and felt like it should be possible to use this method to drastically increase one's favorability without spending too much time.
Of course, Evelyn understood that while having the primordial ability 'Calamity' increased her odds greatly, the actual reason behind increasing the ability still depended on a lot of factors.
If their two souls were naturally averse to each other, for example, not only would her favorability not increase, it might just drop instead.
Her spirit power had already drained, and she had no way of using the probe skill to determine how much favorability the mermaid had for her at any point, and she could only go by the feel of it.
The mermaid didn't seem to be aware of her tricks, and while she was still paying attention to her teachings at first, she gradually started avoiding her and running away.
Of course, Evelyn couldn't have that, and instantly appeared in front of the poor child whenever she tried to escape, and resumed her lesson.
The primordial beast could only cry in sorrow.
—Obtained one drop of [Primordial Naiad's Tears]
—Water Affinity increased by one percent!
—Current affinity with water is 86%…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━