An Unborn Hero

"What the heck sort of eldritch language do they speak here?!" complained the [Hero], or rather, μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈.

In reality, the local language wasn't at all some eldritch abomination that would drive listeners mad. It simply didn't use the Roman alphabet. The system had done its best to render things into English, but the [Hero] still had no ears, and saw sounds as colours. The Roman alphabet was not anywhere close to sufficient, and things had just kinda... glitched.

Perhaps it would correct itself in time, or perhaps it wouldn't and the [Hero] would learn the hard way one more reason why receiving memories early wasn't a great idea.

Meanwhile, Kellela was feeling rather silly. Yes, she trusted Hayedalf's scry ward, but she hadn't had anywhere near enough time to learn [Sense Soul] and so was, to her own senses, talking to herself. There was no response whatsoever. No answering voice, no strange breezes, no signs at all other than the guard's scry ward, which insisted something was still using skills to view the guard in the room. But the priest had said her passenger could hear and was intelligent, so she pushed through and continued with her lesson.

She thought it a pity the priest wasn't there, but he'd been of the opinion that after trapping the soul, even temporarily, it would be too wary of him to leave the safety of her body while he was present. Kellela couldn't argue; she didn't have the skill herself, but she knew enough about it to know full well how utterly vulnerable someone was while using [Astral Projection]. Yes, soul-devouring monsters weren't exactly commonplace in the middle of the kingdom's capital, and skills that could attack souls were rare, but if anyone did have one, it was effectively instant death.

Kellela kept it up for a couple of hours, counting to a hundred a couple more times, pointing at furniture and items and naming them, taking a walk around the garden and pointing out plants and flowers, collecting up objects of specific colours and giving them a single label.

Oddly, the words for the colours manifested largely as clouds of the relevant colour. Yes, they were surrounded by more complex patterns, but they were always predominantly the colour they described.

But despite the hero's interest, [Astral Projection] came with a time limit. Eventually, she needed to retreat to her embryo.

ding

For devoting time to staring at spoken language, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 19.

For pushing your soul to its limits to extend your loving mother-daughter bonding moment, [Robust] advances to level 9 and [Astral Projection] to level 13.

"I've probably learnt more about the local language today than I have since getting [Sense Sound]," she thought, "but I'm still crippled by my inability to talk. I need to do something about that."

Once the hero retreated to recover, the guard noted the scry ward stopped pinging. "It's gone away," he informed Kellela.

"Phew," she said, flopping back down into her chair. "How long was that? Must have been two hours, at least. But the priest estimated its level of [Astral Projection] to be in the low novice range, at ten to fifteen. It shouldn't be able to stay out so long at that level."

"Don't ask me," shrugged the guard. "I have no idea what limits that skill has."

"I didn't ask you; I was making a statement. Even at level fifteen, it should have been able to stay out for less than an hour. I suppose it could be some sort of species bonus, or an achievement. If it's spending that long outside, it probably has [Astral Explorer I] by now, but that wouldn't explain it on its own."

Despite correctly deducing [Astral Explorer I], she failed to consider [Hardened Soul]. It was such a niche sub-skill that, despite hearing about it in passing, its existence had never been at the forefront of her mind.

"Putting that aside, 'Mystery'? Really? What sort of name is that?"

"It seemed appropriate," replied Kellela.

"Well, yes. It's appropriate. I'll give you that. It's not really a name, though. More of a description."

"It's just something to call it instead of 'it'. It's not like the system will let me actually give it an official name. Not unless I'm considered its parent somehow."

"Or registered guardian, which is very possible if it's some sort of symbiont."

"Oh... Well, we can always visit a temple for a name change, in that case."

The guard sniggered. There was still some fear of the unknown left, but mostly things had shifted towards the surreal. For as long as no-one appeared to be in any actual danger, he could see the humour of the situation. However, his needling of Kellela was interrupted by the door. Not the doorbell, but by it opening. Someone who had a key.

"Hey dear," called Kellela, making the correct assumption. "How did it go?"

"Better than expected, actually," replied Hayedalf, entering the room. "Apparently there was some lower noble desperate to acquire property in the capital, and he'd left a standing deposit to snap up the first suitable place that came onto the market."

"Well, that's... convenient. Suspiciously so," she replied.

"That's what I thought, too, but it all seems to be above board. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make enough storage rings to pack away all our belongings by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!"

"I did say desperate, right? He paid in advance. Ten percent over the asking price, too."

"Wait, wait, wait! You can't just turn up and casually tell me we're moving out of the capital tomorrow."

"Is there anything you particularly want to wait around for?"

"Uh... No, but that's not the point."

"I know it's a rush, but it's not like we have anything to stay here for, and I'm sure you want your freedom back. We've already got the money. Get a good rest tonight while I pack up, and tomorrow afternoon we'll take the teleport link to Karn's Rest."

"Karn's Rest? Not Karn's Vigil?"

Hayedalf frowned uncomfortably. "Sorry, but because the teleport point in Karn's Vigil is so central to any response to an invasion from the demonic forest, it's considered too sensitive to let you near. We'll have to take a stagecoach to the border. Or I suppose we could stay in Karn's Rest."

"Nah. I want out of cities, and you can always travel without me if you need to visit the capital in the future." Kellela sighed before standing back up. "Come on then," she said to the guard. "You can help me pack."

"Huh?" he complained. "I'm fairly sure that's not in my job description."

"And I'm sure you're as bored with babysitting detail as I am of being babysat. The sooner you're rid of us, the sooner you can get back to hunting real criminals."

"Fine. Just don't ask me to touch your under-things."

The freshly named Mystery pondered her communications issues as she rested in her embryo. Her body lacked any sort of autonomous movement, which was an issue that would solve itself in time, but everyone was obviously aware of her right now. In soul form, she could do nothing whatsoever other than observe.

"No, that's not true," she realised. "I can move around. Even if that priest was the only one able to see me clearly, the guards seem to have a pretty good idea. I could do something like moving up for yes and down for no. If only I knew what I was saying yes and no to."

She cast [Magical Girl Transformation] a few more times while she pondered, on the basis that she had nothing better to do, but failed to get any levels for it. Either rare skills were harder to level, or there was a limit to the levels she could get by mindlessly spamming it without the spell having any effect.

"A telepathy skill that sends 'meaning' directly without needing words would be best, since it would bypass the language problem. Even if I had a skill for making sound, I have no idea what the language sounds like, since I can only see it. Besides, there's no guarantee I could make sounds complex enough for speech. Making light would be slightly better, as long as it gave me sufficient fidelity to replicate the patterns I see, but then whoever I'm speaking to would need to understand them, rather than relying on their ears. We'd probably just get the same problem in reverse. The last option is some sort of telekinesis, to let me write. That wouldn't require any extra skills on the part of whoever I'm trying to talk to, but there would still be the language barrier. Which of those would be easiest to get?"

A light spell was traditionally the first spell any aspiring mage would learn, and Mystery was more than capable of casting it, if only she had someone to teach her the activation phrase. It was only a single word—appropriately enough 'light'—but was spoken in a language that had died out thousands of years previously.

It was a spell she'd even seen Kellela cast, although Kellela hadn't bothered voicing the activation phrase and Mystery hadn't had [Sense Sound] back then, anyway. All she'd seen was that Kellela had held up a hand and light had appeared. She spent some time trying to replicate it, but had no success. A spell couldn't be recreated unless the original was forgotten and erased, and spells not only for simple balls of light but also for 'speaking' in colour already existed.

"Light seems to be a bust, and I've tried telepathy before. Hmm... Maybe it's a range problem?"

Activating [Astral Projection], Mystery flew straight upwards, making her way to Kellela's brain.

"Hello? Can you hear me now? Hello?!"

She kept thinking as loudly as possible for some time, but once again, the attempt was a bust. [Telepathy] was actually a real skill, but this time, her error was the focus on Kellela's brain, despite the fact that telepathy was not based in biology. She should have been trying to interact with Kellela's soul. If only she had someone to tell her that, she'd likely have been successful.

Popping back outdoors, she saw Kellela busily packing clothes into a suitcase. Ornaments and paintings that had previously decorated the room had vanished.

"Huh? Going on a holiday? Then why remove the paintings?" she asked herself.

The guard spoke again, waving a hand in Kellela's direction, and she switched from working in silence to saying something each time she picked up an item of clothing. Mystery did her best to watch the sounds while simultaneously attempting to move things around with her mind, or make any sort of noise. Alas, both attempts failed.

"Am I really going to be stuck for this entire pregnancy with no way to communicate?" she complained, conveniently ignoring the fact that most unborn children were well known for their inability to communicate, a state of affairs that continued for some amount of time after birth, too.

And then everything changed. Kellela looked in Mystery's approximate direction and held out a hand. Her lips moved, and a complex pattern of colour surrounded her.

A ball of light appeared in her hand.

She closed her hand, extinguishing the light, then repeated the stunt a few more times before returning to her packing.

Mystery floated there, stunned. "Mum just... deliberately showed me magic? Why? That was the light spell she'd used before, but it had some sort of magic words? Was that why I couldn't do it? But I can't speak them... But I can cast [Magical Girl Transformation] by thinking the magic words. Then can I cast that light spell by thinking of that colour pattern?"

Mystery shut off [Soul's Eye] to better concentrate on the pattern Kellela had shown her, and thus missed the flicker of light forming in front of her.

ding

By putting in your own effort and learning from a talented teacher, you have unlocked the [Light] skill.

Achievement unlocked: [First Spell]

Back in the ministry of records, the newest light to be installed on the Recorder of Merit did not start to flash. After all, Mystery had a name now, and there was nothing strange about a human in the noble district casting a spell for the first time. Yes, her name was unusual, but as impressive as the Recorder was, it hardly had a list of 'normal' names to check against. Thus, the casting passed completely without notice.

Well, almost completely.

Hayedalf opened the door to his bedroom, eyes opening wide at the tiny light bobbing around behind Kellela. Dimmer than a candle, Kellela and her domesticated guard hadn't noticed it, being too busy emptying a wardrobe and facing the wrong way.

"Oi! You two! Look behind you!"

μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈ (Human)

Age: -9 months

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (19/60)

>> Sense Vitality (U)

>> Sense Soul (R)

>> Sense Mana (U)

>> Sense Light (C)

>> Sense Sound (C)

- Astral Projection (U) (13/30)

>> Sure Navigation (U)

>> Uncontainable (U)

- Robust (C) (9/30)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

>> Secured Mana (U)

- Stealth (C) (3/20)

>> Camouflage Vitality (R)

- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (3/10)

- Light (C) (1/10)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer II (R)

- First Skill (C)

- Novice (C)

- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)

- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)

- Astral Explorer I (R)

- First Spell (C)