Chapter 14: Favorite Season

Months had passed, and the moon had waxed many times. The season changed, and I already celebrated my ninth birthday two months ago. This was already the end of this year's harvest season in the month of Scorpio. People go rustle and busy for them to prevent themselves from feeling chilled in the upcoming winter.

For some reason, autumn is my favorite season of the year. Maybe because it is when I was born. The orange hue of the leaves attached to the trees is really nostalgic in my eyes. The first time my mom carried me outside the mansion was in the middle of autumn.

The orange leaves fell one by one from our front yard maple trees. A yellow to red hue covered the pathway from the gate to the front door of the mansion. Wooden boxes were attached to the trees around the mansion's perimeter for its syrupy sap to rest in.

"998, 999, and 1000."

I am currently fulfilling my swing quota for the day. After completing our monthly monster hunting and leveling, we continued to train our bodies and sword for the rest of the month.

My sister, Louise, had been practicing her sword vigorously since I leveled up more after our first leveling. Now, she slew more monsters than I did and gained more experience and level. 

She already surpassed me in terms of level, but just by one, even though I gained more experience from my blessings. Her swordsmanship rose in proficiency as she learned more sword techniques. She can already have a decent fight with Mother at her strength of 5 percent.

On the other hand, I increased the levels of my magic skills and learned more magic spells. I also trained my sword and body, but not as frequently as my sister. There's no way I could defeat a sword genius in pure swordsmanship. 

We went into the forest once a month to fight monsters to level up and gain combat experience. We dove deeper every time we entered and challenged the forest.

My sister and I got bored with slimes and goblins and want to fight stronger monsters. Our parents discussed and gave us permission to dive deeper into the forest.

The deeper we went, the stronger the monsters we encountered. We encountered some F-ranked monsters along the way, the same rank as slimes and goblins.

Mist Pumpkins that releases alluring sweet fog that attracts their prey. They were a foot tall pumpkin that had a face like a pumpkin lantern for Halloween. During autumn, Mist Pumpkins reach their full orange color and become more aggressive, attacking more frequently.

But we were resistant to mental attacks, so we countered and killed it easily. Its flesh during the autumn was delicious and rich in Vitamin A for good eyesight. That's why there were so many hunting requests for it in the fall.

Horned Rabbits were white-furred hares that had high agility and specialized in surprise attacks. It had a sharp horn on its forehead to stab their targets like a spear.

Horned Rabbits were in high demand due to their high-quality raw materials. Its fur was void of impurities and so fluffy that it was often used as garments for nobility. Its meat was so juicy and tender. High-class restaurants often serve dishes for their meat.

Due to the quality of the materials, we only had to use a sword instead of magic. Using magic causes damage to their materials, like burns that ruin the quality. Slicing it cleanly with a sword is the best way to preserve its quality.

After hunting last month, we looted many Mist Pumpkins and Horned Rabbits, and we had Horned Rabbit Stew with Mist Pumpkin for dinner. I had my Inventory to prevent the materials from spoiling, and I had it for dinner for more than a week.

We also encountered some Skeletons of the Undead race as we went further. Those Skeletons were from the remains of the adventures that challenged the Great Forest of Darkness.

As time went on, the skeletal remains of the adventurers who died in the forest absorbed mana from the air. The air in the forest was contaminated by miasma, which made the remains evolve into an Undead.

The corpses gained a new kind of life and rose from the dead. They did not regain their memories when they were alive, but instead, they acted based on instinct.

The Skeletons were weak and only used weapons when they died. Of course, me and my sister did not even break a sweat killing Skeletons. The only things that could be looted from the Skeletons were their magic crystals and their weapons.

The monster hunting and leveling we did these past months gained us experience and made us reach Level 50. Now, we can fight E-ranked monsters and even stand a decent chance against weak D-ranked monsters based on our stats and skills.

After I fulfilled my quota for today, I walked away and approached a wooden bench nearby. I took a seat on it and wiped off my sweat with a towel. I want to see my current status and a translucent rectangular panel in front of me.

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Name: Raphael Raevender

Race: Human

Title: Reincarnator, Heir of the Raevender Viscounty

Condition: Normal

LV: 82

MP: 1856+371

STR: 2368+474

DEF: 1584+319

MAG: 2352+470

MDEF: 1568+314

AGI: 1920+384

Ultra Skill: Ultimate Art, Monarch of the Night

Unique Skill: Parallel Profile, Plunder, Skill Synthesis, Computerized Mind

Extra Skill: Inventory, Regeneration, Limiter

Racial Skill: None

Skill: Item Enchant, Weapon Enchantment, Appraisal, Magic Sense, Thought Acceleration, Parallel Thinking, Martial Art: 5, Sword Art: 6, Close Quarter Combat: 4, Detection, Danger Detection, Weakness Finder, Concealment, Keen Smell, Mist Create, Spear Art: 2, Club Art: 1

Magic Skill: [Elemental Magic: Lightning Magic: 6, Light Magic: 5, Fire Magic: 5, Water Magic: 4, Wind Magic: 4, Earth Magic: 3, Dark Magic: 3, Compound Magic: 4] [Non-Elemental Magic: Space-Time Magic: 7, Pure Magic: 6, Force Magic: 5, Illusion Magic: 3]

Resistance: Pain Resistance, Impact Resistance, Asphyxiation Resistance, Exhaustion Resistance, Magic Resistance, Mental Attack Resistance, Visual Effect Resistance, Blast Resistance, Physical Attack Resistance

Blessing: God's Vessel, God's Eye, God's Veil

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I am at Level 82 and if I include the additional stats, all my stats have reached a thousand mark. I also acquired some skills from the monsters I slew during my training in the forest.

Mist Create was a skill that I plundered from the Mist Pumpkins. It is an ability to create mist around the user's area. You can adjust the thickness of the mist to the point that it causes zero visibility to others. It can be used to blind your enemies or as a smokescreen to escape.

Horned Rabbits gave me the Spear Art skill. My mother gave some of her unused weapons to me. It includes a rare-grade platinum-bladed spear looted from a dungeon. Since I had the weapon, I had to learn how to use it.

One of the weapons given to me was a mace. It was a unique-grade weapon looted from the same dungeon as the spear. The handle was made of mithrill while its six edges were made of orichalcum.

I finally accepted the unnecessary Club Art skill of the goblin just to use this weapon. Increasing my reservoir of offensive and defensive abilities helps me increase my chances of winning against an enemy.

The levels of my magic skills increased a bit, and I've learned a few stronger magic spells. I also improved my way of using the sword, and now I can have a decent fight with a knight with the same stats.

My agility has already reached two thousand units, and I finally unlocked the Parallel Thinking and acquired my second and third minds. My thinking process was exponentially increased by having additional two minds.

My second mind feels like I have a second brain. I can move my hands freely, as if they had their own lives. It's like looking left and right at the same time, although I cannot really look at both sides at the same time.

My music compositions also expanded their area, and I released some pieces of moderate difficulty like Clair de Lune (Moonlight) by Debussy. I also made The Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss Jr. as Waltz No. 1 entitled "The Beautiful Blue Sky Waltz".

I haven't heard any news about my self-proclaimed compositions yet. I didn't really know if it became popular in Astley Kingdom but I heard from Mary that it was often played in the theaters and some music establishments in the city.

Upon seeing the falling leaves in the mansion, I feel like I want to compose, although I pretend, Vivaldi's `The Four Seasons´ as my first four violin concertos. I will release my violin concertos in their corresponding seasons next year, with Spring as the first.

My family sometimes watches me compose. I pretended to have no idea what I would compose and randomly pressed the keys until I got the melody of what I wanted to compose.

I sometimes intentionally pressed the wrong note to make them think that I hadn't perfected it yet. But it was all according to plan. Because of that, I was tasked with composing the music pieces to perform at my sister's social debut in the future.

I have an impending violin piece to publish this month. It was Paganini's Caprice No. 24 that became my first violin work named Capricious. I would get suspected if I released a violin concerto without having a violin piece prior.

While I am thinking about music, my sister, who just finished her training for the day, comes running to me. As she stopped in front of me, some drops of her sweat landed on my skin.

Along with the afternoon breeze, my nostrils smelled her sweaty scent. She used fragrant perfume beforehand, but that was not her own real scent. For me, the real scent of a person was not in the perfume used but in the person's own body odor, like sweat, that was enhanced by fragrant substances.

"Looks like you're done, too. I'm hungry, so go and make me some 'spaghetti' like the other day."

"Spaghetti again? It's heavy in the stomach, you know."

"So what? I just like it... Specially if it's made by you..."

Sister folded her arms and ordered me to cook her spaghetti. She said she liked it, then averted her eyes and murmured something that didn't reach my ears. Well, if she said she liked it, she liked it.

After the autumn harvest, we had a huge stock of wheat flour from the taxes. Bread, cookies, and pancakes were the only uses of flour so far. And I got bored with eating the same carbs every single day.

So I had a brilliant idea to consume our flour stock without getting bored. And that was the creation of pasta. Well, I just surfed the internet for instructions on how to make your own spaghetti from scratch and recreate it in this world.

I can also recreate other flour products like pizza and cake. But I have to recreate them with moderation to avoid being suspected. That's why I have to do it with the pasta dishes first and leave the rest for later.

"Fine. Can you ask Mother to assist me again?"

"Yeah, so get your butt up and go to the kitchen."

I stood up from the bench and went to the kitchen. Sister blasted away to find mother and informed her that I would be making spaghetti today. My parents and the servants also took a liking to my spaghetti.

But before that, I first took a bath to get rid of the sweat and dirt clinging to my body. Then I immediately went to the kitchen to avoid being scolded by my sister.