A Sky Full of Tropes [Reincarnated Psychic Child LitRPG]

"Hebron, can you give me quests?" I ask as I dump out my extra pumpkin seeds and cursed corncob into the core room to be absorbed.

[I'm afraid not,] Hebron replies. [Core owners aren't allowed to generate quests for themselves, otherwise they would simply give themselves quests to do things they were already going to do.]

"I figured as much," I say. "Can you give Pinion quests?"

[Yes.]

"Could I have someone else take control and have them give me quests?"

[Yes.]

"Hmm…"

Figuring out how to best exploit the Game is a tricky business, as the aether cores don't exactly come right out and tell you all their Rules. Regardless, I think I ought to turn control over to Basalt before I leave. It's not urgent enough to bother interrupting his work, so I meet him in the common area over dinner.

"Basalt, I want you to take control of the core," I say.

"You sure about this?" Basalt asks.

"I'm going to be very busy with school next year and won't be able to jaunt over all the time. Also, you're one of the most responsible, put-together folks I know, probably more so than me. I trust you'll do a good job of it and keep the hold progressing."

Basalt nods. "I'll do my best. I would have thought you'd have given control to Pinion, like you're sending Trundle to Gleam."

"Trundle made Epic rank and knows what he's doing," I say. "Pinion made Basic rank and died from electrocuting himself."

"Right. That."

"Bringing him back was an experiment to see if I could do it, and he was one of my most recent lives so he was easy to find. I have confidence that he'll go far if given the chance, but you're the 'father of the dwarves' here."

"How far are we taking this?" Basalt asks. "Even a small village will need several hundred people. That might take a while. A city? A kingdom? An empire? The more people we get, the more potential conflict between them there might be. Things are working out right now because we're still small and everyone's working together. I can be a dad, but I'm no king or politician."

"I trust you can figure things out," I say. "Probably better than I could."

"You dealt with the situation in Gleam pretty well."

I make a face. "I dealt with the situation in Gleam by manipulating the cores. Everyone there but the Big Bad was too intent upon their quest log to question what the cores wanted."

"And then you let the 'Big Bad' halfling go," Basalt says. "Not that you had much choice, once she reached the Blackwall Inn and claimed hospitality there."

"I didn't really want to kill her that badly," I say. "I still have the teacup and can track her if I wind up nearby again, but… I don't know. I couldn't help but see a kindred spirit, even if she was being a villain."

Basalt chuckles. "It is what it is."

When we finish eating, we head for the core area. Past the elephant carvings and into the room with plaques of every living member of Hebron, then down the stairs to the basement where the plaques of the dead members adorn the walls. The small crystal orb shines red hovering above its pedestal as we approach.

"So what do I do?" Basalt asks.

"Touch the core," I say.

"That's all?"

Basalt reaches out a finger and presses it against the crystalline sphere.

I select 'cede'.

"There you go," I say with a grin.

"That was easy," Basalt says.

"That was the easy part, you mean. Finding and reaching a core is the hard part. You didn't have to check every inch of ceiling like Rowan and I did."

We transfered control quietly, in the night, but that's not good enough for certain members of the Hearth. I think people just like any excuse to celebrate something, and Basalt is well-liked.

"Congratulations, Lord Basalt!" Copper says. "Or is another title more appropriate? Jarl? King?"

"I'm a handyman, not a king," Basalt protests. "I just want to build the best hold I can."

"That already puts you well ahead of every king I've ever heard about," Copper says.

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"Bah. And in any case, Hebron's a vassal to Corwen. At most, I'd be a baron or duke or something. If you think that deserves headwear of some sort, I would prefer a the sort that would also protect my noggin from monsters and falling rocks."

Copper sets forth to make an incredibly fancy helmet for Basalt, and has me cut the gems for it. We still have plenty of extra stones from the Living Stone Caverns, and Basalt can't complain if they're giving him useful bonuses and not just being shiny. I suggest including an ankh in the design, because there's no reason why it shouldn't be able to be used as a healing focus as well.

"Be aware that the more it's used, the more essence it will accumulate," Aunt Rosemary says helpfully, never one to miss the chance for a tutorial. "Even low-ranking objects that are used for great Deeds can rank up and become more powerful."

Basalt reluctantly accepts a coronation ceremony upon finding out that we got a shipment of beer in from Nefern.

"Let's just keep it to just us and not send out invitations to half the domain, okay?" Basalt says. "We don't have that much beer."

Every night, I keep a ghost active to work on writing, and I craft by day. For the Invocation contest, I decide to make a charm necklace like I've seen Invokers like the [Hush Warlock] and some of the goblins wearing.

I start off with a copper chain, taking instruction from our resident [Dwarven Metalworker] on it. Making chain is tedious, but my [Copper Affinity] helps, and it makes the most sense to use copper as the base to take advantage of it. My [Mass Production] kicks in after the first few links and I get into a groove and make way more chain than necessary. I make sure to use [Imbue Item] on every single link to infuse it with the concepts of connection and durability.

Copper (the dwarf) doesn't know how to make a spring clasp, but I'm not worried about it. Copper (the metal) is easy enough to manipulate that I shouldn't have a problem swapping charms.

I affix some connectors onto the ends of the Gleaming Griffin feather along with a matching Hush Griffin feather. I don't have any silencing Invocations yet but they could be useful. I'm sure Aunt Rosemary has some advice. I know there's Invocations that use feathers, too.

"Ah, a good choice," Aunt Rosemary says when I show her my work. "Feathers are a popular choice for Invokers of every sort. Invocation (Feather Light) allows you to make objects lighter, letting you move faster and carry more as well as assisting with lifting and moving objects. You won't get the full strength of these Epic-rank feathers until you rank up more, but they will serve you well for many years, particularly since they both contain additional useful aspects."

Aunt Rosemary takes me to the giant centipede pit.

"For additional motivation, practice [Feather Light] while jumping over the pit," Aunt Rosemary says cheerfully. "The centipedes are friendly, but you still don't want to fall."

I groan. "I hate that you have a point. Fine…"

I also pull out the sticky spider claw in case I miss the jump. I take a deep breath and steel myself before making the attempt. I channel the concept of lightness though the feathers, and jump.

I don't quite make the jump. I catch the lip of the pit with the curved claw-like dagger and slam into the wall hard enough that if I were still at Basic rank, that might have knocked the breath out of me.

I glance down at the pit full of writhing, friendly centipedes as long as my arm, holding onto the hilt for dear life. I reach up and grab the edge of the pit with my left hand and slowly manage to pull myself up, continuing to channel energy into the feathers in hopes of lightening myself even a little.

"I clearly need more jumping practice," I grumble, sitting heavily onto the floor next to the pit.

"Did you unlock any skills?" Aunt Rosemary asks.

"No," I say.

"Not yet, you mean. Try again."

I sigh heavily. "Yes, Aunt Rosemary."

I practice jumping over the pit until I manage to unlock both skills, along with a level in [Jumping] for my trouble.

They're not flashy skills and the effect isn't very strong at level 1, but they're definitely something I'm happy to have. I do hope that further leveling will not require centipede-related motivation.

I head back to the workshop the next morning to make some symbols to hang from my chain necklace. I start off with a caduceus, because I'm going to need a translator available at all times, front and center. I need a smaller one than my wands, though, because they're a bit much to dangle around my neck. At least I got a good feel for how they work in practice and confidently make a three-centimeter-long caduceus out of bronze.

Although the caduceus can be used for [Symbol of Healing], possibly due to its extensive confusion as a medical symbol, I also add an ankh for a stronger life resonance. I have plenty of room and no reason not to.

I also make a bronze sun symbol to help with my [Sunbeam] skill. I can cast it with just the Gleaming Griffin feather, but it will be better to have a dedicated symbol for it as well. I'll take every cost reduction I can get for a skill I want to use to light up dark rooms.

I hold up the chain to let the symbols dangle and examine my handiwork. Feathers, a sun, an ankh, and a caduceus will make sure I always have my favorite spells available. The only thing I might add would be something for [Illusory Mask], and I don't think I want to include that right now. I could still probably use it to briefly look like a griffin in an emergency. Or maybe an Ancient Egyptian.

"Are you ready for the big day?" Anise asks.

"I'm not even sure what day it is anymore," I say. "When did you get back?"

"Just now," Anise says. "Flying with goblins has been fun. Milo's here too. Wants to take the opportunity to try to sell things to orcs, I guess. And we brought popcorn!"

"Of course you did," I say with a chuckle.

"Show me what you made!"

I show off my new necklace, and she holds it up to take a closer look.

"Very pretty," Anise says. "Are those feathers from the griffins? Nice. What's that spiky circle thing supposed to be? That's a new one on me."

"It's called a sun," I say. "You can think of it as a huge fire in the sky from the time before the Crystalline Heavens. Watch, I can do this with it."

Before turning control over to Basalt, I'd had Hebron make the tiny adjustment to add fake 'windows' near the ceiling, basically just gaps for me to practice my skill with, barely deep enough to not be able to see the back and imagine that sunlight might be able to stream through them. Magic is based on concepts more than physical logic, though, and being able to imagine something is more important than it making sense.

We're far beneath the ground and the sun has long since burned out, but I can still imagine what it looks like when sunlight streams in through a window and illuminates a room. The resonance with the bronze sun and the golden feather is strong, and it's enough to flood the room in a warm, full light.

"Whoa, that's cool!" Anise says.

"Let's see how long it lasts this time," I say with a chuckle. "That just took… all my Inspiration."

"It'll still be useful for exploring once you level it up more," Anise says. "I bet that orc kid can't do that, though!"

"We should probably make sure ahead of time that there's someplace I can cast it at the contest location or it's not going to be impressing anyone."