- Late night lessons

The first few months of following Muriel consisted of her imparting her knowledge of mysticism and rituals. It actually took quite a lot of effort for me to memorize even basic information as she only passed said knowledge orally.

Just my luck to be stuck in an island full of illiterate plebians!

My lampooning aside, she would periodically test me and would only be satisfied until my answer is perfect. Which was very challenging, as memorizing illogical sounding words is not my forte.

Seriously. Why don't the gods or mystical beings just combine all the language into one! This is so confusing!

So much time was spent on repeatedly forcing me to re-memorize words that I forget or mispronounced.

The whole experience turned to be torture as I had to learn several different languages like Hermes and ancient Freysec and so many others. At the end of almost every lesson, my brain was so stuffed I barely could keep awake. It was hell and I wasn't even given the chance to take a break or change jobs.

"Once you enter the world of mysticism, there will be no way out."

Initially I thought Muriel told me that phrase to scare me off but it was actually a hard rule for the village. Once you start, giving up or escaping will be met with heavy punishment, some even given the death penalty.

The only saving grace was that I was given plenty of free time during the day, which I admit I mostly spent asleep due to mental fatigue.

I was also titled as a 'night dweller', the island's term for someone involved in the more magical part of living, a title held with great reverence and respect by all villagers. The term 'beyonders' still exist in their language but the responsibilities Muriel's group took on for the islanders bestowed upon them a different title.

And thus, night dweller it is. Sounds like an anonymous groups of insomnia sufferers though... Or video gaming addicts... Hehehe...

Several times when chatting with the people here, they would inexplicably thank me for my sacrifice.

When I asked Muriel about it, she nonchalantly told me that lifting the curse off food and curing magical ailments was done by displacing the curse to the night dwellers.

Looking at Muriel, she doesn't seem to be suffering from any curses so I was hopeful it was just some kind of false superstition.

Just to be sure I asked her, "So... Muriel granny, you take the curses from the food into your body? You seem fine to me..."

I was smacked in the head as she replied, "Who you calling a granny you little tyke! I've told you countless times not to call me that!"

Her eyes twinkled as a little moisture glazed her pupils and she gave me a grandmotherly smile, "Guess how old I am?"

Since I was still in the body of a relatively young boy, I cheekily replied, "Why... You look no older than a hundred! I truly envy your youthful visage."

I can't believe she smacked me in the head again for that comment.

This is child abuse!

"Boy, I'm only twenty two this year..." her words were met with doubt from me.

Then I paused to think.

Eh. Evil lovecraftian universe. The chance that she is cursed with old age is not zero. I hope she is just lying to me... Else...

"Ahahah.. heh! Good one granny!"

Muriel did not refute my claim that she was joking. She looked at me and grinned.

Heh! She's such a joker!

***

My life became a long and monotonous hell, which consisted of memorizing so much mysticism and ritualistic words, most of which I think were useless.

Muriel argued that it was because I lacked spirituality to make use of it but she is obviously wrong as I am a sequence 9 beyonder. I think that makes me full of magic. Or something like that... Maybe?

Despite my athletic strength and endurance which surpassed many adults in the village, Muriel somehow believed that I was merely blessed with good genes. She argued that maybe I have ancestors who was someone in the giant pathway, or another pathway with strength enhancements. The most I would be is a half-beyonder.

And moreover, the fact that I am not slowly turning insane made her believe less in the chances of me being half-beyonder.

Her belief in my humanity and non-beyonder...ness.. was because I am somehow unable to activate my spirit vision despite multiple attempts.

She did mused about offering me a potion of sequence 9 but thought that even though the chance of me being a half-beyonder was slim, the small risk still exists. If true that I am a half-beyonder, consuming the wrong pathway potion and losing control was a certainty. And so, I was excluded from being a beyonder. The irony is not lost on me.

You don't want me to be a beyonder? Hah! Too late! I've fully digested my sequence 9 potion despite your feeble attempts!!

Apparently the potion recipes she offered did not offer strength type abilities. She refused to tell me which pathways they were as she decided that I would be a non-beyonder type 'night dweller'.

Because it was less tragic and miserable for some reason.

Meh.

Of course I did not tell her that I had fully digested my sequence 9 potion and was only missing the ingredients to promote to sequence 8. Just to be safe I kept that information to myself. The fact that my abilities are also mosty passive and honestly not too magical or mystical also made keeping it a secret much easier.

At the very least I found out that there are beyonders in the island, just that they were mostly inactive during daylight and so I seldom come into contact with them.

And thus my plan to sneak into the yearly trading trips to seek other beyonders in different lands were put on the shelf for now.

Anyways, the magic juju and multiple languages I was forced to memorize eventually allowed me to pass enough tests that Muriel deemed me ready. At leat ready enough to witness a ritualistic cleansing.

Finally! A chance to confirm if their superstitions are warranted.

In my lessons, I had learned that the plants growing in the island were usually imbued with several variants of curses. Two of the curses were the most common and the target of the cleansing I would witness.

The first was that it was cursed with twilight, causing whomever to consume it to grow older in appearance. They will also attract spirits and ghosts and if unprepared might even get posessed.

The second variant is that the plant is cursed with moonlight. Consuming it will turn the person horny basically. Certain braver segments of the population actually use a moonlight cursed fruit as an aphrodisiac!

There is a reason it is considered a curse and not a blessing however; too much of the curse accumulating in a person will cause that person's bodily fluids to turn poisonous. Even sweat might pose a danger to others so they usually avoid the sun and do not share bathrooms.

Other curses also exist but most rituals in the village tend to favour cleansing or 'vaccinating' plants of these two so called curses.

Curse of age might be beneficial because I look too young right now and curse of horny? Bah! This body hasn't even gone through puberty! It'll probably not affect me at all. This shit is easy mode...

I will soon regret those thoughts...

***

Muriel repeatedly told me that the first ritual I will witness would be a cleansing ritual but since in her mind I would not and never be a beyonder I will seldom participate directly. She would allow me to watch simply to increase my knowledge of mysticism and learn to respect the sacrifice of certain night dwellers.

The second ritual would be more important (for me) as I would be responsible for this new job. Apparently its a ritual to make a mystical fertilizer that strengthen plants to somehow resist the curse of twilight and moonlight. The side effects of such a ritual are much more subdued compared to the cleansing ritual.

I would have to learn how to create the fertilizer and also supervise the farmers on their use, making sure that they apply it correctly to their crops.

Watch out world! You will not be prepared for the ultimate... Farmer? Composter?

...

Man, being a night dweller is kinda lame...