A Sky Full of Tropes [Reincarnated Psychic Child LitRPG]

Aunt Rosemary recommends that I unlock Enhanced Mind (Text Editor) in order to edit the articles in my [Mental Encyclopedia] without me having to write it out on paper again. While I'm going to write them out on paper anyway, those notes will be sacrificed to the spawning platform. But I'd been sacrificing notebooks so regularly it became a habit that made me neglect to actually unlock a vital skill.

"Don't neglect your enhancements as a foundation. It's tempting to go for the flashy Invocations right away, especially when you have reached Elite at such an early age. But your mind and body can still be much more."

I don't argue. I should probably also get other Enhanced Mind skills as well. They unlock system functions, essentially. Or the system is very good at working with mind-based supernatural powers, really. It doesn't give you powers, but it does help you use them.

This is something I can work on while traveling, though, so I will cheerfully meditate somewhere else. I'm not the only one eager to get going again. While my party is happy for the upgrades, we don't want to waste the whole summer underground.

We make our way back up to the Great Oak to find my boat pleasantly where I left it, and unpleasantly infested with wasps. I have to vehemently dissuade Anise to not simply burn the hives up, please, because they're in the blasted flammable wooden boat and she can melt bronze with her brain.

"Mom," I say, putting a hand on her arm. "Please do not set my boat on fire."

Jade volunteers to take care of it to test out a new (non-fiery) skill, and nobody feels like arguing with her. They're Basic-rank animals and pose absolutely no threat to us Elites. Amethyst is with us, but Rowan's bodyguarding her and no tiny bugs are going to get through his force field. But it's a reminder that maybe I shouldn't just park my boat under a tree and hope for the best.

"Repel boarders! Avast!" the overenthusiastic [Apprentice Pirate] yells at the wasps.

Once Jade has dealt with our unwelcome guests, we settle in and take off. The Celestial Duck sails into the air and emerges from the canopy of the giant tree and into the surreal skies of the Crystalline Heavens.

The summer air is pleasant and mild, and the Great Orb being yellow almost lets me think for a moment that it's a sun if it weren't considerably dimmer and very obviously made of crystal. Earth's sky wasn't full of bright stars that were visible in the day, either. The skymotes currently shine in green, yellow, and orange, with one nearby one sticking out as violet.

Once we're in the open air, I bring out the my telescope and point it to the south, adjusting it until I can spot our destination in the distance. Our first stop is the Wisteria Garden, and the skymotes are mostly orange by the time we land outside.

"Is there still time for a run today?" Melody asks.

"Yeah, this dungeon is pretty open," I say. "It's not usually dangerous, either. Nothing stops you from just walking to whichever puzzle you want. The music puzzle is down the right hand path. Do you want company, or are you just planning on doing solo meditation?"

"If it's not dangerous, I'll try it myself first," Melody says.

"And I'm going to try that fishing puzzle again," Amethyst says.

They head in while the rest of us are getting camp set up at the usual camping area. This is Melody's gig, and I don't want to interfere with her experience gain, and we Elites won't get as much out of this Basic-rank dungeon anyway.

In any case, I'd like to meditate with this pair of scissors and jar of glue some more. Magic is exciting, but I'm going to really appreciate Enhanced Mind if I want to be good at Wizardry. Drawing the concepts of cutting and pasting into my mind eventually bears fruit.

Finally. You'd think the system would have come pre-installed with that. Oh well, it's installed now. I now have brain Notepad. Huzzah.

Returning my attention to my surroundings, a commotion I've been steadfastly ignoring finally warrants my attention. My party members have been playing pirate on my boat, goofing off and practicing skills in ways that would not be terribly safe if it were in the air. Three of them have classes that give bonuses for being around boats, and they're working hard at making up for lost time spent underground.

I wonder what the orcs know about the deeper layers. Maybe if I can earn their respect, they might help me to reach the core. I don't think I will be completing that quest this year, though. It can happily wait there as I gain progress toward being capable of completing it, along with Tiganna's challenge to complete a major quest or Deed in each domain.

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Amethyst brings back a big, shiny purple fish for dinner and starts cooking it up for us over the campfire.

Melody emerges from the Hedge Maze gates close to dark (not that even 'dark' is especially dark in summer), all smiles with her aura radiating satisfaction.

"Success, I take it?" I ask.

"You can see it in my aura?" Melody asks.

"We can see it on your face!" Anise puts in.

Melody laughs. "Yeah, it went well! Where's the next music puzzle?"

"The Hedge Maze," I say. "We'll be there tomorrow."

Amethyst finishes cooking the fish and distributes pieces to everyone. Split between us all, we don't get a large portion each even with as big (relative to a dwarf, at least) a fish as that was. It is, after all, just normal "big fish" size, and not gargantuan "big fish" size like the Splottfish, which are technically small whales.

We set off for the Hedge Maze before green the next morning, some of my party members grumbling about being up too early and others being obnoxiously bouncy and raring to go already. We make good time, largely thanks to no longer having speed penalties on my boat, and we set down outside the Hedge Maze while the skymotes are still green.

I leave Melody to go do her music puzzle and Amethyst to play around in the Basic-rank kiddie dungeon however she wants. She is an adult, has run this dungeon before, and does not need a babysitter. I have hard work to do. To that end, I lay on my back in the grass and stare up at the clouds and skymotes.

I open up my [Mental Library] where I have a copy of my notebook with notes on psychic powers. I need to get a new entry in [Mental Encyclopedia] set up for my latest skill, [Communication Analysis]. I want all my friends to be able to do this, too. The non-reincarnators will need to find another method if there isn't a reincarnator in the party, but Milo is definitely going to want this for his mercantile business, and all the dwarves will be able to talk to the orcs and goblins automatically.

While tossing a notebook full of rambling notes onto the spawning platform is sufficient for giving newspawns starting skills, Milo, Basalt, and the others that are already alive have needed to learn Clairvoyance the hard way, mostly through my instruction.

I send Basalt a telepathic message, [Hey, check out this first draft. Attachment: Communication Analysis.txt]

[You know, this is very cool, but if you can edit text in your brain, can't you do it while moving around and doing other stuff, too?]

[Yeeeess... But my body is 9 years old and I don't yet have enhancements to forego sleep. I was working on my notes on and off for the whole flight. Anyway, I just gave you instructions on how to get a universal translator, so you're welcome.]

[Man, this Clairvoyance stuff isn't as easy for me, but damn do I want to just have everyone I meet speak English.]

I wonder if that skill was so easy for me to unlock because of the memories of Alex from Earth. I/he spent many, many hours editing text and code, after all. It's like a reincarnated blacksmith picking up a hammer. I just didn't think of it, because I was needing to write new notebooks anyway and wasn't thinking about what mind magic should be able to do.

Ah well. At least I got it before I start having to do homework.

I get up and brush myself off. [Fine, I'll get up and come play, but I'll keep working on my essay on my brain computer. It needs at least another draft or two before I show it to Aunt Rosemary.]

Jade and Hemlock are sparring while balanced on the deck railings, falling from time to time and getting back up with excessive acrobatics. I really hope they're just doing this for practice and don't try this nonsense in a real fight. Though if they keep practicing their skills, they might manage.

I watch the way their auras flow around them to try to identify what skills they're using. I don't get far before Basalt interrupts me.

"You're looking at them now but you're still just staring," Basalt points out.

I split another mental fractal to analyze their auras and hop aboard the boat. "Hey guys! Do we need to start every morning with running laps atop the railing?"

"Do you have Enhanced Feet (Uncanny Balance) yet?" Jade asks.

"Uh..." I check. "No. I don't even have regular Athletics (Balance) yet."

"You can't neglect your Athletics! Wizards gotta be able to run and dodge too. I've been using the trapped hallway as a parkour course!"

"I think I will... not do that," I say.

I let Jade rope me (not literally) into some drills on the boat. In another life, I wasn't terribly athletic in part because I didn't have enough free time and had a largely sedentary job. Now I spend half my time trudging around swampy caves with a magic computer in my brain and no excuses.

There are so many skills that I forget half of them exist, and I'm sure there are many more possible skills that Corwen doesn't even have listed in its big book. Almost every Clairvoyance, Recollection, and Enhanced Soul skill I've unlocked wasn't mentioned in the book, since our last reincarnator died young and our founder, Liz the [Tempest Archmage], is still alive and skills only get added to the book when someone dies. I gather that our other founder, Ash the [Guardian Hearthkeeper], never delved into it very deeply.

I learned a few things just from trying to watch what Liz did when she visited a few years ago. She communicated with her whole crew telepathically, giving orders in heavy winds and rain without anyone having to say a word. So I try to do that myself, which Hemlock is still a little weirded out by. He doesn't say anything aloud, but [Empathy] can tell he's still coming to terms with everything.

Amethyst returns first, carrying a bucket of fish. "I completed the dungeon again, but Melody's still sitting there meditating at those bell flowers hard. I hope she gets whatever breakthrough she's hoping for. I brought lunch. Nice dungeon even gave me a bucket to carry it in."

Melody emerges not long after, looking somewhat miffed. "I haven't gotten it yet, but my stomach told me I need a break and I saw Amethyst come this way with a bucket of fish. I thought you were a brewer, not a cook or a fisher-dwarf."

Amethyst laughs. "You can't only ever do one thing in life. Fishing is relaxing and handy. And getting more [Cooking] levels will still help. Every level of a Crafting skill makes every other Crafting skill a little better, right? Fish!"

Amethyst passes out pieces of fish.

"I guess that's true," Melody says. "I feel like I have enough on my plate right now, though."

After clearing off our plates, Melody heads back for the dungeon gates, and Amethyst, Rowan, and I tag along.