A Sky Full of Tropes [Reincarnated Psychic Child LitRPG]

There's a cave roughly shaped like a small amphitheater not far from Hebron. I keep my [Ghostly Watcher] following the orcs as they meet up with an orc woman adorned with carved bones.

Right, I don't even need to be told that this is the [Primordial Child]'s mom. My Heroic mom is here, so it's only fair that her Heroic mom gets to be here.

There's every opportunity for each of us to betray the other. That would be tiresome. Hopefully, Brenig is willing to play along with the idea of us not simply killing each other. If not, well, while I can cancel quests, I don't think the orcs are stupid enough to need a quest if they believe their shiny crystal godling wants me dead.

"So you are here," says the [Ritualistic Boneshaper]. My skills translate it literally but also attach the concepts of 'tradition' and 'formality' that imply that this is how orcs say hi only when they're feeling like proving they're better than someone else.

I have to admire just how much the system is willing to facilitate for me just to avoid learning languages. Everyone just inexplicably speaks perfect English in my mind. I know that's not entirely because of my own powers. Somebody just clearly believed very strongly in the "translator microbes" trope. I won't complain.

"We are here to oversee this contest between the [Resonant Child] of Corwen and the [Primordial Child] of Brenig," says the [Ritualistic Boneshaper]. "Today, we shall see who is the best Elite Novice Invoker in the Brazen Halls! What… what is that stuff?"

My mom could have been trash-talking the orcs about how awesome I am. Instead, she is making popcorn and passing it out to everyone.

"It is a food we call 'popcorn'," I explain. "It is traditionally eaten while watching an event."

Undeterred by the partial language barrier, she is also well on her way to cheating at communication with Language (Drunken Slur), or at least she would be if she could convince any of the orcs to join her. I don't think she brought enough booze for them.

The orcs are curious enough to try the popcorn, but she didn't bring nearly enough, having packed for a dungeon run and not an impromptu kiddie magic contest.

The [Ritualistic Boneshaper] goes on, "These children will compete at [Imbue Item] by enchanting three simple objects. First, they will imbue a stone with the concept of light, and we shall measure how bright and how long the light lasts. The one whose light is dimmer may choose the next task, and they will have until their light goes out to complete that task."

The two of us pick up pebbles from the ground and pour Inspiration into them. Mine winds up being clearly brighter, and I'm pretty sure it's because I remember sunlight. Has this girl even seen the sky, or has she lived her whole life underground?

"The [Resonant Child]'s light is brighter," says the [Ritualistic Boneshaper]. "Let us see whether he has staying power or whether he burns out quickly. Rest and meditate, and when you are ready, you may begin your next task. [Primordial Child], what do you wish the task to be?"

"Let's make it bones!" the orc girl says excitedly.

"Wise choice, daughter."

The orc mom lays out a pair of bones, and while my [Anatomy] skill isn't quite up to identifying them out of context (and indeed, I have yet to actually unlock the [Anatomy] skill), [Psychometry] recognizes the essence in them as belonging to a Basic-rank giant cave newt.

"You've drained your Inspiration meters to dry lighting those stones," the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] continues. "Now see how quickly you can imbue these bones with the concept of decay. The world is a dangerous place and will not always wait for you to rest."

I spin up my Inspiration regeneration with [Fantastic Inspiration] running in mental fractals and watching the flow of energy around me for [Mystic Inspiration]. I'm hampered by not being able to see the sky for [Celestial Inspiration], but there's no help for that. Let's see if it's enough.

Once my Inspiration meter has replenished a bit, I grab one of the monster bones and focus upon thoughts of rot. The orc girl follows my example after a few more moments. I can't help but sneak a peek to see how much essence she's putting into the item, and I'm pretty sure my raw output is higher even though her conceptual strength is better.

Unfortunately, my light burns out first, forcing me to stop and set the bone aside and wait for the girl to finish. At the point I stop, my bone has at least twice as much essence as hers. However, by the time her glowstone finally dies, she has surpassed me by a good bit. Orc mom proudly proclaims her daughter the winner.

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"[Resonant Child], what do you wish the next task to be?" the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] says.

I pull out a pair of tin ingots and place them on the ground. "I propose we imbue these with durability and see which of them comes out the toughest."

The orc mom nods. "Very well."

We're allowed to replenish our Inspiration meters to full at this point, so I take a break to drink a bottle of tea and eat a sandwich. (Hearthkeeper Garnet did not grow up in an era of sandwiches, but found them charming when we reincarnated Americans introduced them to her.)

When we're both ready, we each take our ingots and begin. I pour every bit of Inspiration I have into the metal to infuse it with the aspect of durability, and when we're both done, the orc mom calls upon the human mom to assist in testing it.

"I am certain that a [Sorcerous Aethernaut] has means of causing significant damage," the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] says.

Anise obligingly melts both ingots into puddles almost instantly. "Oops, didn't realize tin melts easier than copper."

I sigh and translate for her. "Well. Thank you for pointing out our flaw in trying to make something durable but forgetting to make it so someone can't just melt it. Which I suppose is just as well as we did want to actually use these ingots."

There's laughter at this point, and the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] declares this round a tie as Anise starts trying to scoop the molten tin back into ingots with her incredibly heat resistant bare hands.

Once the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] can contain her laughter over my mom's overkill of the hapless bars of metal, she composes herself and says, "You have both conducted yourselves admirably under unexpected circumstances. Who is the best Novice Invoker remains an open question, but one that will not be decided today. I have tested your ability to act under pressure. Now I wish to see your ability to plan and build. To that end, I propose we return to this location in one month's time, each of you bringing the best examples of your craft that you can create in that time to demonstrate your ability to use it."

I nod. "Good idea. I do need to make a better caduceus." I indicate my makeshift snake rod. "I was in a rush when I saw you coming."

"The staff of Hermes is a powerful symbol," the [Ritualistic Boneshaper] says.

"What do you know of Hermes?" I ask.

"Our legends tell of a messenger from the Heavens, bearing a winged staff with two snakes and wearing winged shoes upon his feet. We have many such legends, passed down to us from our earliest days when the Age of the Green Fox was young and ancient souls guided our youth. We have not forgotten its symbolism. You seek commerce rather than conquest."

"True," I say. "I won't shy away from fighting monsters, but it's much more interesting to talk to people."

"Your party could have killed my daughter before any of them even knew you were there, but you did not. When the [Mystic Guardian] visited and claimed the humans and dwarves wished peace, we did not believe her. We have never had peace with Topsiders. Our few interactions with them in history have only ended with the deaths of many of our brethren. When you conquered Hebron and began spawning dwarves, we watched, believing that you were preparing for war."

The [Visceral Guardian] chuckles and interjects, "It would have been glorious."

"I know not where this path will take us," continues the [Ritualistic Boneshaper]. "But perhaps it will lead to my daughter walking the Heavens. I look forward to seeing what may come."

No one has received any quests except the one the girl got in the Tinpot Palace. It seems whatever Brenig's thoughts are about this, it's content to let things play their course without trying to interfere. Safe. And if I could keep a ghost following them at all times, I just might be nosy enough to do so. Alas, I cannot. I dismissed him before the contest, needing the Inspiration, and am too drained to feel like summoning him again to tail them home. In any case, no one's auras read as deceptive, and I don't think they're bothering to use skills to mask their emotions.

We part ways amicably, agreeing to meet back here at the end of August and promising to bring more popcorn next time.

"Are you going to work on crafting for the next month?" Melody asks once we're coming in to Hebron again.

"Nope," I say. "We're going to use this bronze to make some upgrades, then I want to run some dungeons and get some skill levels. I know some good places for your music quest, and we can see Bucky."

"It's still kind of creepy that you can just see people's quests like that," Hemlock says.

I shrug. "You don't have access to Clairvoyance, but if you push your Enhanced Senses enough, you can get it to pretty creepy levels, too. I'm not some aunt tittering over gossip. We're dealing with life or death situations on a regular basis."

We deliver the ingots to Copper, who is somewhat dismayed by the appearance of the two that Anise melted, but assures us it'll be fine. It's late, though, so we're all due for a good night's sleep. It has been an interesting day.

Come morning, while Copper gets to work on producing bronze, I start in with putting my [Stoneworking] to use in carving a mold for my next caduceus. Hammering copper art is fun, but a mold is better for consistency and backups and the caduceus is a pretty complicated symbol.

I'll still glue on some duck feathers later (once I get some more) but I'm making wings as part of the staff, and by "staff" I mean technically this is a symbol of a staff but I'm making it smaller and lighter this time as it's not like I'm planning on hitting anything with it. It will work just as well as a wand.

I make a few wands from both copper and bronze to test their properties. My [Copper Affinity] may work slightly better with pure copper, and [Electric Current] is a fair bit better with the pure copper. However, I notice that the bronze is stronger with the aspects of communication and connection, so it may work better as a caduceus.

Thinking about that a bit, I try making the core shaft of the wand copper with a plain wand mold, then place the blank wand into the caduceus mold and pour bronze to add the snakes and wings. The bronze is hot enough to melt the shaft again and I don't fully retain the pure core, but it still has better conductivity so I think I'm on the right track. I try again, this time imbuing the pure copper wand with concepts of durability and fire resistance as well.

These won't be the final projects I'm going to show off to the orcs. I will doubtless be making multiple additional versions after some field testing and tweaking blueprints. But I'm satisfied with the day's work.