We roll the wrecked skyboat over so it's right side up again and get to work on straightening the sails out before we try to repair the masts, but I quickly conclude that we're probably just going to need to replace them. The sails themselves aren't badly damaged, but the ropes are a mess and the masts were snapped like twigs. Magic might be able to knit wood back together, but we're going to need to untangle everything before we can even try.

And I am making absolutely no progress on Sorcery. Yes, sometimes skills unlock almost immediately and sometimes they don't. I didn't really expect anything right now. But still. Oh well. I will eventually find some Sorcery that works for me. In the meantime, I can continue to marvel that my mom can do magic just by wanting to while I still need to use a focus item.

I test the sigil work by trying to activate them with a touch of my vis. The mystic markings flicker to life for a moment, but the boat won't lift into the air. I don't think there's anything more I can do about this today. While we might be able to repair the physical structure, any exposed sigils have been badly scraped and will need to be repainted, and I don't have enough sigil ink on hand for that at the moment.

"Do you know where my Uncle Hawk might be at the moment?" I ask Badger Nefern.

"Haven't seen Hawk Corwen since the Brew Festival," Badger says. "I believe he mentioned something about climbing the Black Mountain with his party."

I groan. "And I'm guessing it would be unwise for anyone short of Epic rank to try to follow them? Alright. We'll just head back to Corwen then. Hebron was attacked by a Heroic-rank monster swarm. We were able to repel it and Aunt Rosemary reached Epic rank, but I'll need to report the incident to my Aunt Savannah at least if my uncles aren't readily reachable."

"What should we do with the boat in the meantime?" Badger asks.

"Retrieve the aether sails, at least," I say. "That's the only part that's irreplaceable, since there isn't a source of aether silk in Tempest Domain. I'll be back with some more sigil ink."

"You know, you used to pretend to be an ordinary kid," Anise says. "Poorly, but you pretended."

I shrug. "I'm Elite-rank now and don't see a good reason to do so, especially among people who already know me. Anyway, since the Secret Garden is right there and I'm not going to be getting any further progress done on this tonight, I'm going to step inside and electrocute a few low level monsters to blow off some steam."

We set off from Nefern on July 3rd and head back to Corwen on foot, and I start making mental notes on materials we're going to need. Amethyst comes along with us, having had a nice discussion on the topic of yeast back at Nefern that she sees the need to regale us about. Anise shares her enthusiasm about alcohol, but is more interested in drinking it than making it.

"There's nobody else in Tempest who produces wine at the moment," Amethyst says. "It's an untapped market, and we've got magic grapes. The Neferns told me the closest winemakers are over in Gleam, so if I want any wine-specific yeasts, I'll need to pay them a visit."

"I haven't been to Gleam before," I say. "We can check it out once I've got a working boat again. Failing all else, you can use my family's other boats to get there."

"I don't know how you can stand reincarnating as a baby," Amethyst says. "I know there's benefits to it but it just never struck me as worthwhile. I'd rather get started right away and never be at a point where no one wanted to serve me booze, and just be a longer-lived race to compensate for not getting the head start to rank up."

"It's definitely awkward sometimes," I admit. "It's kind of why I spent a lot of time as a toddler making friends with goblins instead. They were the same size as me and didn't treat me like a kid."

"And now you're spawning dwarves instead," Amethyst says.

"Which has been great," I say, grinning at her. "But as much as I'd like to keep at it, I think I need to take advantage of my child class and school opportunities."

"You really want to go to school?" Amethyst asks. "I don't know that I'd want to have to spend that much time around barbarian children, but if the experience is worth it and you can put up with them…"

"I was thinking of partially shutting out my adult consciousness for it," I say. "And having my ghost stay in Hebron so I can keep working on and coordinating things there. I should be able to keep him active continuously by the time winter term starts. If I can be in two places at once, I see no reason why I shouldn't take advantage of that."

Amethyst frowns thoughtfully. "Huh. I suppose that's one way of dealing with it. Still, doesn't it get awkward dealing with your family?"

I shrug. "Sometimes. I'm not their first reincarnator and they expect me to be a responsible adult. I'm not quite sure whether I appreciate not being treated as a child or whether it just sucks all the joy out of being a kid."

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My mom puts in helpfully, "If you weren't a reincarnator, you'd be stuck at home with your sister and cousins."

"Good point."

Since we're having to take the long way across the fields and hills anyway, we take Amethyst on a quick tour of the low level puzzle dungeons along the way. Stopping to run the Wisteria Garden on the 4th and Hedge Maze on the 5th is well worth the slight additional time added to the trip. The Wisteria Garden is right next to the bridge across the River Lear, so we have to go by that way anyway, and the Hedge Maze has a great camping area. I'm not going to let wannabe baby sky pirates stop me from enjoying summer.

While Amethyst runs the puzzles, I have my [Ghostly Watcher] follow along and practice at gathering information remotely. I'm going to need to learn the variant Basalt used to repair the traps if I want to actually do anything more than watch and communicate with telepathy, but I'm still taking in whatever opportunity I have to squeeze in some practice and dungeons are better for experience than just having a ghost watch kittens. (Yes, I practiced with having a ghost watch kittens before. No, I didn't get any levels from it.)

We arrive at the gates of Corwen Village on the 6th, and a familiar middle-aged woman welcomes us at the gates. Not a trace of gray mars her dark braids, and not a spot of color marks her dark robes.

Name: Savannah Corwen Tempest Tiganna Race: Human | Gender: Female | Rank: Epic | Tier: Master | Class: Celestial Druid Disposition: Friendly | Mood: Serene

We catch her up on recent events over dinner in the Hearth. She doesn't say much and with her enhanced hearing, I'm quite sure that she must have overheard Colt and Poppy stealing my boat from 40 kilometers away.

"I will pay a visit to Hebron," Aunt Savannah says. "As an Epic Druid, I may be able to gain some information from investigating the salamander dungeon."

"Thank you," I say. "Will Corwen will be alright while you're gone?"

"Uncle Winter can watch over the village in my absence, but I will not be gone long. I will head out tonight. With my level of [Fast Travel], I will be in Nefern before dark."

I need a good deal more sigil ink in order to repair my boat, and the Spooky Grove near Corwen is still the best place around to do that. Anise bids us good luck and while she accompanies us to the gates, she stays outside to keep her Heroic butt from leeching all our experience.

We cut through brambles blocking the path to reach the decrepit Sleeping Raven Inn.

The Basic-rank giant spiders on the main floor are barely worth fighting at Elite, but Amethyst is grateful for the chance at some relatively safe combat practice. Rowan and I just make sure that she doesn't wind up having to fight several of them at once.

"Alright, I think that's enough spiders for me for now," Amethyst finally says, panting and leaning on her ichor-stained spear. "Stamina meter is dipping dangerously low and I need a break."

"Feel up to climbing a few stairs first?" I say. "There's an ally I'd like to introduce you to, and she enjoys making visitors do riddles exchange for magic tips."

"Sure."

We return to the common room of the inn and I pull cobwebs away from the door to the stairs, and we head up the creaking steps into a dead artist's atelier. The ghost hovers invisible waiting for us to approach, but Amethyst and I both have Clairvoyance and can see her aura just fine.

Name: Asphodel Treharris Tempest Tiganna Race: Human | Gender: Female | Rank: Heroic | Tier: Ancient | Class: Mournful Necromancer Disposition: Friendly | Mood: Bored

The window that pops up in my third eye when I glance at her aura still displays only her reincarnated name rather than the name she used back on Earth. I'm also far less terrified than I was the first time I saw her.

"You've brought another reincarnator," Estelle whispers, fading into view and examining Amethyst.

"Ahh!" Amethyst jumps. "A ghost!"

"Sorry, I forgot to mention my neighbor was a ghost," I say.

Estelle chuckles lightly. "Fear not. I will bring no harm to you. I am Corwen's vassal as well."

Amethyst calms down after a moment. "In hindsight, I was wondering what sort of person would live in a place like this. But this makes much more sense, I suppose."

"I'm going to see if I can solo the boss in the basement," I say. "Have fun."

Leaving the hapless newspawn dwarf in the ghost's tender care, I head back downstairs, into the kitchen, and down into the cellar. Like the other spider monsters in the Spooky Grove, the Elite boss just sits at the far end of the room and waits for me to approach, two Basic-rank spiders standing at either side of it.

A couple blasts of lightning from my rod and they're down almost disappointingly fast. I need some new dungeons. I've badly outgrown this one. Not, mind you, that it isn't gratifying to see a boss I'd previously struggled with at Basic go down so quickly. It's gratifying to see how far I've come already. But Elite is just the first step on a very long journey. My rank progression meter is still sitting at "< 5%" after killing the boss, and I have no doubt that it will be there for a while.

When I get back upstairs, I find them arguing about languages. Apparently Amethyst finds the very existence of French to be mildly offensive, because of course she does, and the fact that Estelle uses French for her Incantations is even worse apparently. I sigh.

"Did you get any skill levels yet?" I interrupt. "You do not need to learn French. I certainly haven't. Not even when she claimed I could discover the meaning of life if I read her poetry in the original French."

Amethyst snickers. "She gave me a multi-lingual riddle then got annoyed when I had to use the auto-translator. Look, I don't actually speak Common, English, or Goblin, and I definitely do not speak French."

Estelle sighs. "Very well. I do not demand that you learn French. You did, however, also miss the other puzzles in the room in the process of getting annoyed at that one. Some of them only involve the paintings and sculptures, not the poetry at all."

"Oh, fine, I'll give it another shot, but I'd better get a skill out of this."

"Clearly not Discipline (Patience) at this rate," Estelle mutters.

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