I looked at Jin with my real personality. The personality that has caused countless people to view me as cold and indifference.
The kids aren't here, as they were inside the house.
Currently, Jin and I were at the new location that we wanted to build a storage house on. About 2 minutes of walking away from the house- as a precaution for emergency usage.
Now, there's only I and Jin here. That's why Jin gathered his courage to ask me this question. And I just can't find it in myself to lie to him.
"I am Jenna Loveheart. Just, not the Jenna that you know of any more." I answered Jin, truthfully. After all, I am Jenna Loveheart, as this body was only meant to be my vessel. Her soul wasn't really real. I notice this when I had made contact with the Life Elemental Mana.
Her soul, the former Jenna's, was artificially made to live and move this body until it was ready for me. Only, when Jin saved her that day, her fate as an Artificial Soul changed into something else. Something that had earned her right to live a bit longer. The former Jenna, the soul, now has reincarnated into a life that I had chosen for her. How she will live it, will be her choice.
Jin's eyes widen as he looked at me.
".. Why... why are you so sad?" He asked, hesitated and worried at the same time. There's this curiosity tone within the worriedness and wariness of his voice.
"Why do you think I am sad?" I asked back, not wanting him to ask questions like that. This boy... so perceptive, alright. He asked where it hurts the most.
"..." Jin didn't answer. Whatever it was that was in his mind, he didn't answer it back. He only walks closer to me and places his hand over my cheeks, softly. There was no hesitation in his touches. In fact, there's this small amount of familiarity.
I looked at Jin's face and notice that he's searching for something within my expression. There's now a hesitation and awkwardness within his touches as he traces his thumbs slowly underneath my eyes.
This touch movement...
I stepped back away from Jin as I eyed him with a new wary.
Jin looked at his hand with a blank expression on his face. "Sorry, Jenna... I... For some reason, for the past three weeks, there's this familiarity feeling coming from you that wasn't on you before. And I... don't..." Jin looked so lost as he tried to explain to me how he could differentiate the current Jenna and the previous Jenna to me.
.... Familiarity?
But... Jin and Jenna aren't that close at all.
No, in fact, Jin's not even close to his own sister. Sure, he looks after her but there's this 'wall' separating them whenever they interact.
"Familiarity? Jin, you...." As I was about to ask him a couple of questions that had been bugging me lately when I feel the presences of a group of ... humans coming near here.
I jerked toward that direction that I feel the presences from, causing Jin to jerk too, in surprised.
"Jenna?" He asked with both a worried tone and a bit of curiosity.
"There's someone coming here. 47 people? And seven other presences that should be from a large kind of animal," I said to Jin with a tense expression on my face.
Jin's personality flipped from a hesitating boy to the leader of the group in a split second. He took my hand and drag me toward our house.
His intention was of protection and security, causing my memory to flashed by for a split second.
We barge into the house with no warning whatsoever, causing the kids to all jerked up in fear and surprised.
Ah- this was bad. I forgot to set up an alert system for them!
"Everyone, go inside the secret room right now!" Jin yelled as he pulled me toward the kitchen before letting my hand go.
I didn't need Jin to say anything else as I gathered the cooking pot, the sack of Balint Milk, the Salt Milk, the large back-sh.e.l.ls from the Kroka and all the things inside the kitchen using the levitation spells.
The kids all rushed toward their rooms to grab them each a blanket and their water sack before going to the secret room that I and Jin had made underground.
There might not be a bas.e.m.e.nt in this house, but there was an underground secret s.p.a.ce about 50 meters away from here. Deeper than a bas.e.m.e.nt could be.
All the kids vanished through the door going downstairs to the underground secret s.p.a.ce first before I send them the things that I had been levitating.
Jin took my hand again but I stopped him with my real personality and a shake of my head.
"Jenna! Now's not the time for that!" Jin hissed angrily as he tried to protect me.
Still, I shake my head at him. "No, Jin. We don't know if they are hostile or not yet. If they aren't hostile, then this is a good thing for us. I know that currently, you are panicking, so your judgment might not be very good." I said to him as I looked straight into his eyes with a calmness that caused him to breathe out loud in surprise.
Jin paused and blinks. "Right. Right. I need to calm down," Jin breathes in and out a couple of times to get his panicking attack down.
"Okay, I'm calm. How far are they away from here?" Jin asked with his leaders.h.i.+p personality s.h.i.+ning through.
"About 5 hours away from here. Toward the East." I answered.
"5 hours, ah. That's enough time," Jin said as he looks at me with a deep look.
A couple of silent seconds went by with none of us talking.
"Jenna, are you holding back?" Jin asked, with a look in his eyes that said he knew exactly what he was talking about.
I nodded. Not bothering to lie to him.
"How strong are you?" He asked with no fear in his eyes or aura at all. Only curiosity and a glint in his eyes that said he already had an idea.
"Strong enough to take care of whoever it was that's coming," I said calmly.
Jin blinks in surprised before he nodded.
"Okay, if you say so. So, what should we do for the next 4 or so hours?" He asked as he looks around the place. The kitchen was bare of anything but there were signs of life here.
"For now, makes some barricade first. I will see what I can do about those people," I said to Jin without hiding my real personality. The innocent personality of Jenna Loveheart was nowhere to be found.
Jin smirked at the thought of making barricades as he left. That smirked on his face might look a bit too mischievous for my liking. Oddly enough, Jin doesn't find my real personality to be cold.
... Really? People from Magis Millions World often told me that I am cold-hearted. Even my twelve Spirit Beasts all agree to that. Not only that, but even my twelve former students also said that I am very cold toward them. Well, those students of mine had long ago left the world of Magis Millions World behind to catch other timelines and dimension but their words were still in my mind. After all, in all of my life, I had only taken in 12 Students.
The only two people who hasn't called me cold was Kainen and 'that' man. That man that made me and Kainen his Holy Mother and Holy Father. Even though we aren't blood-related at all. Ah- wait a minute. There is another man who wouldn't call me cold-hearted. The Master that established the Gates that caused Magis Millions World to be called so; Li Youran. That man who had waited for his Eternal Mate for long before Megie was even born. That man is very scary. Just a flicker of that man's figure and it was enough to cause countless stars to vanished. That man's realm is a realm that Megie would never go for.
Oh, wait. There was one other man who has never called me cold before. That's only because he fears that I will beat him up if he would call me that.
And now, Jin was added to that list.
... Who are you, Jin, really?
Shaking my head internal to get those thoughts out, I started to fly up. Within a couple of seconds, I was already more than 250 meters above the ground.
I take a look at the surrounding area and an idea pop up in my head. Since Jin was making barricades for the house and our surround, then I should make a formation. Just a mere barricade wasn't enough to stop a group of determined criminals if they are criminal.
Well, this was just my experiences speaking. It might not be so in this world.
Hmm, the spiritual qi and mana in this area weren't that pure. So, I could only create a level 1 to 3 formation.
A level 1 protection formation was enough.
I started to inscribed the mana into a tangled form and will them into a formation. Six bases, 18 routes, 12 poles, 3 triangles, and one main core. One dead door and one Live door. The essence of this formation was Snow Blossom in the Middle of Summer. Cold, chilly, and very deadly. This formation is not a Slaughter Formation, but it could also be used as one. After all, the best defense was the best offense.
Anyone with ill intent wouldn't be able to come near here without having their soul and spirit going to h.e.l.l-raising pain. Well, it ain't my problem if they are the bad guys.
Three minutes later, a large cherry blossom tree suddenly appeared from nowhere and start blooming white and pink cherry flower. The aura from the tree was totally normal and yet, oddly enough, no one feels like they can no near it.
It looks so eerily beautiful that it could shake anyone's soul!
However, soon enough, that beautiful cherry blossom vanished and in its place was just an ordinary looking maple three.
I nodded. Good, the illusion spells do work.
Three more hours left before they got here? Good. That's enough time to gather some more resources for the kids.
I teleported from my spot to another location away from Bulea Village. Teleportation takes a bit of mana but that's okay. By the times that I want to come back, my mana would have already fully regenerated.
The current location that I was on was in the middle of a large mountain peak. Surrounding me was oddly looking trees that have odd and chaotic energy coming out.
I had been wanting to come here for a while now. Ever since I noticed that the Red Dragon wasn't a Magic Beast.
These trees were called Dragonewts Trees. Why? Because these trees could only to grow with dragon's chaotic energies. That's right. This location was where the Red Dragon that set the village on fire came from. The dragon was long gone but this place still has its aura, making it possible for these trees to continue growing.
The Red Dragon that had set Bulea Village on fires wasn't a Magical Beast. It was a dragon, yes. But it wasn't the kind of Dragon that have Wisdom in their bloodline. It was more of a beast and monsters than a Magical Beast. Magic Beast has intelligent and wisdom, that- I know knew. However, beast and monster rarely have intelligent.
This Red Dragon wasn't one of the rare dragon beasts that gain Wisdom.
It was no wonder why too.
That was why the trees in these regions are very good materials for beginner mage and warrior usages.
For what?
For weapons, of course.
These kinds of wood can be made into a lot of variety of weapons; even magic weapons and enchanted weapons since they are and will be sensitive toward magic even after a long time.
Hmm. This location was one fine location. There's even an earthen vein below.
Let's see... Oh? Star Metal? Purified Star Metal? I see. That Red Dragon has purified it when he was living here.
Even though this spot of Star Metal was only about a couple miles deep, in terms of rareness and age, it should be about 5 thousand years old. Interesting. To think that I would found this little spot of metal. Must be the World's Conscious' doing.
Hmmm... Well... this was one big pile of Star Metal.
What am I going to do with it?
... Ah. That's right. I need an Interspatial Ring. I could use these metal to make a ring for me.
Deciding what I need now and wants, I didn't hesitate as I used earth magic to push away the soil above the star metal underground. Within a couple of seconds, a large pile of soil was placed next to a large hole. Above the air, in midair, was a large 15 meters wide and 25 meters in height of irregular shapes object.
It looks weightless but even I could feel the strains over my mind and body right now.
This body wasn't strong enough yet. I will need to go find some herbs to cleanse this body of its impurity.
I put the pile of metal down and take a couple of deep breathe feel with pure mana.
It didn't take long for my mana to regenerate themselves.
Afterward, I just have to process a little bit of the Star Metal and turned it into a ring using Inscription Array and Magic Formation Circles.
I don't have anything else that could help me process the metal like a weaponsmith or a blacksmith, right now, but that doesn't mean that I don't have my own method.
I might not have been a craftsman in the profession but I have my own experiences with crafting whatever I want and find interesting. I am not Kainen who was a prodigy in weapon refinement but I do have enough experiences to be call one as such. I might never be able to reach High Highness and Kainen's level but it was pretty close with the amounts of experiences that I have.
Making weapons, armors, tools, and anything that I want or need using Spiritual Array has always been easy for me. As I am not a proper weapons refiner, I don't need to use fancy methods. Just a Spiritual Array or Inscription Array along with a couple Magic Formation Circles was enough for the object that I wanted to make.
However, right now, this body was too weak. I cannot use Spiritual Power yet. So, I can only compromise with using Inscription Array instead.
It was a pretty low-level inscription since I don't have all the materials required for it and have to use only mana. But, this should still work pretty well for this low-grade of Star Metal.
I could really use some Soul Flames, Alchemy Flames, Heaven Flames, or Spiritual flames right now but since there's none here, then all that I could do was use the last option.
A large golden red and blue array formation spurt out in the air, surrounding the large pile of Stars Metal.
Soon enough, the temperature in the surrounding started to climbs. The air started to hiss as fogs and mist started to emerge. Mana from the surrounding started to surge toward the formation, causing it to glows brightly.
Within 10 minutes total, a small portion of the Stars Metal has already turned into a small silver-color ring.
The ring looks very simple but elegant with a simple design of a nine-petal flower engraved on it.
I bit my middle finger and drop one drop of blood into the ring.
It s.h.i.+nes brightly blue for a split second before it calms down back to the normal looking ring.
Hmmm. The size of the inters.p.a.ce inside the ring was about two thousand five hundred and twenty-five square meter. That's plenty of s.p.a.ce for now.
I put rest of the Star Metal inside the ring as I took another look around my surrounding.
Hmm. How many of these Dragonewts Trees should I take with me?
Oh? There's actually a tree that has mature enough to seeded out? The seeds from Dragonewts trees was very precious in certain circ.u.mstances, you know.
Although I don't need it, I could use the seeds to plant another kind of Dragonewts Trees.
And yes, the Dragonewts Seeds does not mature out to be Dragonewts trees. Trees grown from the Dragonewts seeds are called Deconic Trees.
In terms of strength, it wasn't as strong as its mother, the Dragonewts Trees, but in term of usefulness, it far exceeded it. Not only that, it's lighters in weight and smells far milder. Back in Magis Millions World, I often planted the Deconic Trees in my backyard as natural forestry for my tame animals. However, here, I have no need for it yet.
I collected all the mature seeds from the only Dragonewts Tree that has it and put them in my inters.p.a.ce ring.
Next, I started to used wind magic to saw off all the trees within a certain distance from me.
In the end, there was about 5000 Dragonewts trees and 3336 normal, ironwood, trees that I had cut down.
I also place those inside my inters.p.a.ce ring.
All of this has only taken me 20 minutes.
Hmm. Is there anything else? I send a wave of mana force into the surrounding. Oh? 46 miles from here? That direction is toward the mountain range? North? Isn't that the Forbidden Town.
Ah, that's right.
That up north was the border of another Kingdom. Was it the Skymorite Kingdom? Or was it the Serenity Kingdom?
I don't know. In Jenna Loveheart's memory, there was no definite answer. She only knows that between the border of Ernos Kingdom, this kingdom, and the northern border, was the Forbidden Town. Or an Independent kingdom of its own; in a way.
I am curious about that town but right now, I have no times for it. Maybe I could come back later?
I ignored that finding and let my senses went elsewhere.
Oh? A forest of fruits trees?
Hmmm... That location... A field of Mana Prairie? Interesting.
Let me check it out.
Within a couple of seconds, the field in front of me changed. Unlike before, where all I could see was the stumps of those trees that I'd cut, now all that I could see was a sea of flowers.
Magical Flowers.
No. This is a field of Medicinal Magic Flowers...
Misty Flower. One of the Categorized Herbs for medicines and potions under heaven. It only has two petals on each flower but these flowers were a grade Two Herbal plant. Grade two flower plants tend to have catalyst property. It could calm, neutralize, and enhance the whole recipes. To think that there was actually a large field full of them here.
Sigh. Just what does the World's Conscious want to do? Or... does this world even have its own conscious yet?
Oh, Jenna, this life of ours was going to be so easy if our luck was already this heavenly-defying.
I don't know if I should be glad or suspicious that everything so far was this easy.
Or was this a vacation?
What kind of vocation was this? A vacation without Kainen? No, this wasn't a vocation.
Anyway, the Misty Flowers.
Some of the Misty Flowers has already mature enough to seed out of their own while others were only mature enough to be called mature. Some were still in their first growing stages.
Misty Flowers herbs was a grade 2 herbs. It needs at least two years to grow from a sapling into a mature herb. And then, it needs another two years to form each petal on its flower. Once it reached 6 years minimum, the herb will be mature. However, it would then need an additional 4 years to mature each petal that it has. In total, that would be 10 years. It would take a whole 10 years for these herbal plants to fully mature, not to mention for it to seed out. Truly, it would take 20 years for one Misty Flower plants to fully grow and seeded.
Well, whatever. There's no use thinking too much. Since I am here, I might as well.
I lift up my hand and let my earth and wind magic ran their courses.
Hundreds of Misty Flowers herbs was uprooted one at a times, constantly and safely. No root was damage during this process because I have my magic surrounded each root.
While the petal of the Misty Flowers was good for alchemy, the root itself was very effective when used as an ingredient in Mana Inscription and Magic Enchantment. No one knew this though; since they couldn't get the formula or the design to work right.
In alchemy, there are two ways on how to craft potions, pills, elixirs, serum, scrolls, flasks, poison, and other things that are essential for anyone. First was through learning the formula of already established recipes. The second was through an Alchemy Design, which you researched from the beginning with or without a recipe. Alchemy Design was more or less similar to a blueprint. Using the magical makeup of the herbs itself to create new potions was what an Alchemy Designs is.
If you have a house blueprint, then you can choose the materials that you like to build it. In Alchemy, with an Alchemy Design, the low-level herb can be turned into mid to high-level herb, which in turn caused the output of the potion or otherwise to be higher than it was originally possible.
For me, who was known as the Creator of Alchemy Design, such a thing was even easier than breathing. I might not be His Highness [----------] but I am a Grandmaster in Alchemy for a reason. Hmm? Weird, I can't say His Highness name out loud. Ah--- It seems like I don't have the privilege for it. Well- so be it. I don't have much interaction with that man anyway.
To make an Alchemy Design, you need to used Spirit Energy mixed with one of the Nine Prime Elemental Mana. Which was something that I can't do right now- So, I could only follow the recipes for any potions that I wanted to make.
Taking all of the matured Misty Flower herbs, I put them in my ring for now. I will have to make them a Herbal Chest, a chest that would seal off outsider influences so the herbs will always stay fresh and dried. To make a herbal chest, I will have to use magic woods like the Dragonewts trees or something similar.
This, I have no problem with. For now, let's returned.
Within a split second, I vanished from the field of misty flowers, leaving behind nothing but the flowers themselves. What? I didn't take every Misty Flowers herb with me, okay?
I don't need to nor do I want to. This is common courtesy for and toward herbal plants.
When I appeared next to the newly built wooden house with teleportation, Jin was still making more defense. Even though he had already surrounded the whole area with wooden barricades; wood spikes, fences, walls, and traps.
Not even a fly was going to be able to come near since each barricade have magic spell infused in it. I can make out the spell for Fireball and Earth Spike on those wooden barricades on first glance. There were also other more... painful magic spells on those wooden barricades.
Well, Jin's pretty s.a.d.i.s.t when needed to be.
I leave Jin to what he wants.
For now, let's see if I could make some more fabrics for the winter.
The incoming people? I'm not really worried about them. They all feel weak.