Chapter 7: Growth During the Crying Year
"Not to be rude, but I don't think that I've actually heard your name. What is it?" asked Will as they walked towards the town.
"Oops. I've grown used to your face and name over the year I watched over your health. I forgot that you don't really know who I am."
The little spirit stopped moving and hovered a few feet in front of Will. She then gave Will a wide smile and outstretched her tiny hand. "My name is Rina, a water spirit. Nice to meet you."
Will gave her his index finger and smiled in return. "William Rainn, former first prince of the Maraire Kingdom. You can call me Will."
"Okay Will!"
Rina grabbed his finger with both of her hands and shook it enthusiatically before saying, "You should check your status. I need to make sure that you gained an extra skill."
Will nodded and took out his phone.
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[ William Rainn ]
Health (F) Mana (E) Stamina (F)
{One who is Followed by Rain (F)} {Flowing Water Sword Style (F)} {Impenetrable Mind (A)} {Basic Swordsmanship (F)} {Spirit Contractor (F)} {Spiritualization (F)}
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"I have gained two new skills it seems," said Will calmly. " {Spirit Contractor} and {Spiritualization}"
"S-Spiritualization?" said Rina in surprise. "What does that skill do?"
"I don't know," said Will in an indifferent tone of voice. "Let me check."
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[ Skills ]
{Spiritualization (F)}
You feel as though you have ascended what you were before. You body is changing but it isn't noticeable yet. Your potential for growth has increased. The amount of mana you can hold has increased.
Mastery (0%)
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Will raised his eyebrows. "The skill is something about my body changing and growing? The only clear thing is that my mana was increased due to it."
"Is that so."
Will nodded. "Now that I look at my stats again, my mana stat did grow from F to E. I can't complain."
"Did anything else change?" asked Rina in a curious voice.
"Probably not." said Will as he swiped his screen to view his other skills. "I didn't really use any skills except for {One Who is Followed by Rain} which is usually always active- Ah... It changed."
Will gave a curious glance at his skill, {One Who is Followed by Rain}, especially at his skill mastery which had grown at an explosive rate.
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[ Skills ]
{One Who is Followed by Rain (F)}
Depending on the strength of your emotions, you will able to uncontrollably effect the weather by a small amount.
Mastery (91%)
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Rina gave a Will a curious poke on the forehead. "What changed? Did you get a new skill? Did an old skill evolve?"
"Well..." Will gave his phone a look before responding. "My skill {One Who is Followed by Rain}'s mastery seems to have increased by 55 percent. Do you have an idea why?"
Rina tilted her head. "If the skill has to do with the rain then its probably because the rain cried for an entire year while you were sick."
"Non stop?"
"The rain wasn't that heavy but yes. Non stop."
"Ah. That explains it."
Will gave his phone another glance before putting it away. From the day he was born, all the way to the day he was executed, the skill had only risen by 36 percent. The slow growth of this skill over his entire 18 years of living was what caused others to scorn him for being untalented and accused of being a bastard child. However, in one year, the skill had grown way more than twice that number. Will couldn't help but wonder what his skill would become and how it would grow once it became an E ranked skill.
"Ah, look!" said Rina excitedly pointing at something in the distance, "I think I see the town!"
Will strained his eyes in the direction that Rina pointed and also saw some semblance of a building far away. Just as the two of them were starting to run towards the town, Will froze and glanced down at his clothes. Although they were dirty, torn, and roughed up, they still looked undoubtedly noble. He would most likely be asked questions at the front gate. Will's hand also uncontrollably went towards his hair and started playing with it. Gray was not a very common hair color either. Anyone could make the connection between gray hair and the infamous prince of Maraire.
"What are you doing Will?"
"Wait a moment Rina. Let me look for some coins first- got it."
After shuffling around his pockets, Will took out a bag of coins. "Take these coins and go buy some normal clothes."
"Why?" Asked Rina while tilting her head.
"Because my clothes are generally ones that you would see on a noble."
"But you are a noble aren't you? You are a prince."
"Yes but I was executed. I shouldn't be alive."
"Ohh. I see, I see," said Rina while nodding her head. "I shall go get you some clothes then."
"Oh and get me some dye," said Will. "My hair color is very unique. I might get recognized."
"I promise that I won't fail you!" said Rina as she reached out to grab the coin bag. However, when Will stopped supporting the weight of the bag, Rina was unable to stay afloat and slowly fell to the ground.
Silence filled the air as Will watched Rina on the floor while Rina blankly stared at the bag of coins. After a few seconds, Rina tried her best to haul the bag of coins off of the ground but failed to even lift the bag after several minutes. She let go of the bag of coins and stared at Will with a teary face.
Looking at Rina's cute face tear up, Will couldn't help but let out a small smile. "It's ok Rina. Let's go find flowers and make a temporary dye ourselves."
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A/N: changed numerical values of Hp, Mp, and Sp into Letters for convenience sake. Skills will be mentioned in {} now.
I don't know if you guys remember the sea goddess's previous name but it has been changed to Aqua.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone