So many skills

It has been a far more eventful day than they predicted. Claire was mentally tired. 

Her mana is completely spent out. 

She decided to meditate first before getting Zayne back. Today, the children are having dinner without them. 

This time, when she collected mana once more, it flowed far faster than before. The reversing of mana core's flow is even easier. 

' Am I becoming an expert ? ' she mused. 

That could not be. Practicing mana flow is like cultivation, it takes time. There are no leaps in skill. so, it could only be a skill.

Yes , there were many lights that entered her body when the turtle died. She has new skills. 

She looked around in the innerworld, looking for the magic circles of new skills. 

There were quite a few. 

As she thought, there's a mana skill - 'Mana regeneration', which doubles the mana regeneration by optimizing the mana flow. 

She looked at the rest. There's 'Multicast' , ' shaping ' , ' Synthesis ' and ' Throw ', belonging to magic, space, fusion and kinesis. 

' No wonder that turtle is considered the most troublesome beast to kill.' If it were spells like fireball, and stone arrow, then their effects could be blocked easily. Instead, what the turtle had were basic building block skills, which allowed for infinite combinations when they are used together. 

If she uses multicast with fire, earth, shaping and throwing, she could throw a thousand lava balls, a thousand spinning metal needles, or ten thousand ice cones. The more elements one has, the more powerful these skills are. 

Wait ! That's not the most useful thing. 

Right away, she could fly, and she can make someone else float along with her. As long as her mana is sufficient, she could figure out an infinite number of ways to use these skills. 

Even if she does not become a hunter, her future will be guaranteed with these skills. As soon as she restored her mana, she went to look at Zayne. 

He was still asleep. 

She raised him up, propping him against herself. She retrieved the sugar water she brought, fed to him drop by drop. She made dehydration cure soups, green one with sugar, red one with salt, and both were left here in their respective pots. 

The next day it dawned cloudy. 

After the children were dropped off at their respective schools, Claire returned home. 

The first thing she did when she returned was to check on Zayne. He was still unconscious. She fed him enough water to count as saline. It's only then that she returned to Caspian. 

She floated out of the slime dungeon, this time, using multicast to help her fly. Caspian was sitting on the other side of the island, using a sleeping bag as mat, and the blanket and fire crystal still around him. 

The slave collar laid in front of him, it seems there's something golden in his lap. 

When he heard footsteps, he turned around leisurely. He watched Claire from head to toe, then turned forward, exposing his back to her. 

If it were anyone else, Claire wouldn't have read much into it. Forgoing his future fame, right now, the boy is still a pirate. 

For a pirate to expose his back to someone, it only meant they give the other person the right to kill them. Or claiming one as their own. 

She relaxed looking at his back. Seems he will not try to kill her now. 

" Here's breakfast. " She said, handing over a bag. 

There's a plain baguette in there, along with some wild berries she picked in the forest. 

Caspian set the bag beside him, sat there motionlessly watching the egg. 

Is he Caspian Orca at all ? 

" What's your name ? " she asked, just to make conversation. 

" Caspian … Twentythree. " he answered. 

She was about to nod her head and introduce herself, but as she heard the second part of his introduction, Claire froze. 

In future, they heard of a pirate band called Reapers, who raised cloned children of. They invented a curse to make these children slaves. Eventually, a wild child broke down, killed their entire band of pirates, then vanished into thin air, never to be seen again. 

" You mean there were twenty two Caspians who looked exactly like you ? " Claire asked. 

Caspian shook his head. 

" There are thousand. " he answered after a second of thought. 

Despite expecting the worst answer, she did not expect such a number. Thousand hunters with the same strength as this Caspian ? … 

They could level a small base in just hours. They can pose a major threat to a big base. 

This information, combined with Caspian Orca, the pirate, and the Reapers, painted a gruesome picture. Someone is institutionally cloning children, with the whole purpose of enslaving them. 

Caspian might not be the only clone. 

As she thought about it, she remembered the news. 

Zayne had been kidnapped once in his career. He had been kidnapped for almost a month, before he appeared miraculously fine at a midway point in his career. 

He remembered nothing about his kidnapping. So, it was a minor news item. There's no harm done. Just before the news was dropped, one of the anchors was insisting it's Zayne who had done some illegal dungeon drugs, then was out of it for a month, now he's being an attention seeker. 

It would have turned into a witch hunt had it not been covered up by the news of major disasters. 

In her last life, Claire did not think much of it. Even after she was born, she thought she was but a leaf floating on the river of time, so she could not change these events at all. She just wants to lie down and eat. 

Now that she heard about these events…

" What are your plans ? " she asked. 

" I .. don't know. " Caspian answered, staring at the golden egg in his lap with all of his being. 

She did not want to say raid your base and bring back those other children. 

After all, this Caspian is alright, but one can never tell a good person from looks alone. On top of that, who can guarantee that the terrible criminal Caspian Orca is not one of these thousand children ? 

Just because she knows the world is going to end, there's no need to save it. Her first priority is herself. 

" Can you teleport ? " she asked, just to make sure. 

Caspian closed his eyes. He stayed silent like that. 

" I wonder, how are you chosen ? There are no skills in the world which allow evaluation of a player's potential. After all, we always say ' Where there is a will, there is a way. ' " Claire mused from beside him. 

" Mirror. " Caspian said all of a sudden. 

She looked at him in askance. 

However, Caspian's eyes are still closed. 

He spoke no other words. Mirror for what ? to show the most beautiful one ? to show the most powerful one ? to show the most evil one ? 

Or a mirror that shows your heart's most inner desire ? 

…

..

.

" Could you elaborate on that, please ? " Claire asked after some thought. 

Caspian opened his eyes, his deep blue eyes focused all on Claire. 

All of a sudden, he attacked her. 

She jumped back, creating distance between them, her dagger held with backhand grip at her chest level. 

At that time, a light glinted off her dagger. Her eyes were drawn to the light, and there it was, a gigantic water mirror, with her silhouette vaguely visible in it. The key part is not the silhouette, but what's inside it. Inside the silhouette, there's a perfect picture of her mana core, and the water elemental moon circling the mana core. 

Claire paused, then put down her dagger. 

The mirror dissipated. 

She understood the point Caspian was making. In the first place, the Reapers did not need to know all there is to know about the children they are enslaving. They only needed a rough estimate. 

The attack that Caspian used just now is called a mana slap - not a skill by itself . a mana user slaps another user's mana core with some mana very lightly. The mana gets reflected back, displaying the mana core of the person, and any elemental moons matching the original elemental mage. 

For Caspian, it's only water. 

For Zayne, it will only be fire. 

For herself, it's all twenty four of them. 

' hey ! Wait ! Identifying the newborns is not a problem. The base management would have gone for it with no effort spared if that was all that's needed. " Claire thought. 

" Indeed. The children are initiated at three. " Caspian answered. 

' What ?! That's a death sentence ! ' Claire was shocked. 

No living being is born with absolute balance in elements. Just because one has ten moons does not mean all ten are the same. The norm was that there are multiple elements a person could manipulate, but these elements are usually related to each other. Caspian could handle water, fog, sea water, dark water and ice. Such elements could directly be expressed by mages with no training, in their wild form. If a three year old with enough mana can bring forth fire and water, how long will it take before an accident occurs ? many of them must have died early. The remaining ones are obviously powerful.