[Year 8 Month 6: Continued]

  [1 Blessed have died]

  Huh, probably one of the people I blessed a few years ago.

  One of the nicest things about settling down was that the number of Blessings I gave out increased dramatically. While most of the adults requested a blessing within a day or two of my arrival, it had taken a bit longer for parents to wrangle their kids long enough to do the same, but eventually, pretty much everyone had received one.

  [You have 453 Blessed]

  [+45.3% Mana Regeneration and Resistance]

  I had gained 299 Blessed, and by the end of the week, I would probably have just over 300 more when the final stragglers came by.

  Pleased by the bonus to my mana regen and resistance, I was pretty satisfied with the number. I kinda wish I had been dropped off in a bigger town, or had a bit longer to grant blessings before the cathedral was converted into a nest, but alas.

  Some of the adults had expressed a little unhappiness with the bonuses I have, as the protection from evil spirits and magic was a little more esoteric and less useful for a rural town, but anything was still appreciated, and it wasn’t like I charged anything for my blessings. If I ever need money, though!

  Interestingly enough, I was like a local celebrity to the kids here. I imagine that there wasn’t a ton to do here, though, so anything newish was going to be rather novel.

  There were only a handful of kids, so far I have counted a total of 8, but only one really stands out to me in any capacity.

  When one of the kids was receiving their blessing, I noticed something off; her ears were pointy, and her eyes were a little off. At first, I hadn’t noticed them as my way of seeing made it harder to tell when things were covered, and her hair mostly had hidden them, but after closer observation, it was pretty obvious she wasn’t human.

  Unlike the stories back on Earth, she actually had some pretty big differences, mostly being the bone structures around the eyes and legs. While she wasn’t ugly, it still gave me an uneasy feeling. Reminds me of the uncanny valley, just close enough to resemble a human but distant enough to freak me out.

  I doubted the woman holding her hand was actually her mother. I am not completely sure how genetics work in this world, but the woman was firmly human, so unless the dad was elven and the little girl was half elf, I don’t think that would work. I am pretty sure she is fully elven.

  Once the little elf had left, it was mostly the same boring procession, adult human, adult human, is that a halfling? Nope, adult human.

  After everyone else had left, Inra had approached my hill, and I watched curiously as he did some prayer thing with his hands, and he bowed his head slightly. I hadn’t noticed any of the priests doing that at the cathedral, but what do I know?

  I heard the older man say a quick thanks, and as he was turned away, I had a thought, Well. I probably won’t be leaving anytime soon, so I might as well.

  Before I could psych myself out, I activated the telepathic side of my skill [Ambient Mind] and did my best to project warm and appreciative feelings to Inra as words felt too complex to send.

  He froze, having clearly received some of the emotion. Looking at me, I could see a glimmer of curiosity and surprise in his eyes. Waiting a few more seconds, he turned and walked back down the hill, eventually leaving my sight.

  Hey, you can’t just do that. I have 8 years of silence just to be ignored? That’s not fair!

  It was the next day when Inra spoke to me. “I assume it was you whom I felt last night?” He said this while pulling a scroll out of a pocket.

  I didn’t respond, curious to see what he was doing.

  Seemingly not expecting a response, he just huffed for a moment and unfurled the paper.

  As he did so, I could feel the brush of a skill pass over me, mana having been released from the scroll in a surprisingly large wave.

  [Detect Spirit]

  I watched as the mana traveled back into the scroll, and from the way Inra’s eyes passed over it, had words written into its paper.

  Having read its contents, Inra dropped it, letting it fall to the ground. Curiously, I watched as the mana woven into its fibers dissipated, seemingly spent.

  Now that’s interesting. Single-use skills can be in scrolls? That reminds me of some of the games I played on Earth.

  Inra walked up to me, pressing his hand against the cold, hard surface. “So you are in there. I may be old, but I am not senile just yet.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Throwing subtlety aside, I sent across a wave of curiosity directed toward the scroll, more specifically, on why he had it.

  Turning his head to look at the fallen skill scroll, or I guess it was now just a piece of paper. “Ah, that? The village keeps a few; you would be surprised at how much relief it gives the villagers when we confirm there is nothing strange afoot.” He mumbled quietly to himself, “Jerold and his superstitions.”

  Straightening slightly, he continued, “Considering that you are a Blessing Stone, I assume you have no ill intent?” I signaled no. He sighed with relief, “Good, good. I thought as much.”

  A villager called out to Inra, drawing his attention for a moment, “Ah, others call. I will let the villagers know that we have a minor spirit in the Blessing Stone, and with some assurances, everyone will be rather accepting. Oh, and spirit? Welcome to Gorn.”

  With that, Inra left to attend to whatever issues the small village had.

  How curious.

  [Year 8 Month 9: 3 Months have passed]

  [+3 Blessed]

  [You have 456 Blessed]

  I can attest that the villagers were surprisingly accepting of me. I wouldn’t like the idea of a ‘spirit’, however friendly, living nearby, but these people seemed to be much more accepting of them than I expected.

  Over the past few months, I had learned a good bit about other spirits, and it turned out we were rather common, objects that held sentimental value, left out in mana-dense environments, or occasionally just by chance could be inhabited by such spirits.

  I don’t mean to toot my own horn or anything, though, but I think I am a little rarer, considering I am an ‘actual’ Blessing Stone, so rather than being something like a [Fragment of Sentiments] I was a fully ‘living’ being, able to grow and learn.

  Those who got along best with me weren't the adults, but the children, who had seemingly decided that my hill was, in fact, the best place to play, and despite the adults’ endless attempts to stop them, I was a good climbing toy.

  The little elven girl had also taken a liking to me, having gone out of her way to bring little trinkets and the occasional flower that had survived through the winter up to this point. She seemed to struggle making friends with the other children, who treated her somewhat like an outsider. I guess that makes her not so different from me in that regard.

  Inra had come back every couple of weeks to converse. I know that he has a lot of people to talk to, but it seems like he misses his kids. According to him, pretty much everyone in his family was either dead or gone off on their own adventures, leaving him behind.

  I guess it’s natural that I took a silent therapist kind of role in the community, as people didn’t necessarily see me as a fully sentient being, which made them feel more comfortable talking, kinda like a one-sided confessionary thing. It had become such a norm that the village stone worker had even set up a small stone bench, which sat right next to me.

  It was a good way to learn a lot; most of it was just gossip, but every once in a while, I would learn something new.

  Some of the parents had voiced their concern for the world their children were growing up in. They talked about how the Vexus were always a possibility, and while there were Chosen like Galdric to fend them off, there was always a risk of death when on the edge of civilization like this little village was.

  It was during one of these rants that I learned exactly what these “Chosen” were; they were essentially the gods' blessings to the world. Interestingly enough, they didn’t choose a handful of individuals like those in Isekai stories on Earth did, but spread power amongst a large group of children every twenty or so years. These kids would be trained by their local governments to fight monsters and the Vexus.

  The part that really stood out to me about the whole “divine power” thing was that if a Chosen had died, it would empower the others. I wonder what would happen if only one Chosen were to be left? I imagine it would leave behind a powerful super soldier.

  I actually managed to ask Inra about this, trust me, it took a while to convey my question with just feelings properly, it basically became a game of hot-cold. When Inra did understand, he just nodded his head with a tired look, “You would be surprised at how often that occurs. Most of the Vexus waves end with what the system calls an [Invasion Boss], and all Chosen are required to kill it. Rarely do any Chosen survive.”

  So it's mutually assured destruction?

  I noticed this topic had Inra looking pale, and I moved away from it. At first, I wondered why until I remembered a little tidbit.

  Galdric is a chosen.

  [Year 9 Month 6: ~1 year has passed]

  In the past year, there have been some developments. For one, the children had decided that my name was to be “Gol.” I found it better than “Blessing Stone” or “Blessing Spirit,” so I just rolled with it, not like the kids would listen to anything else anyway.

  I also decided to try out my [Blessing of Warding] on some nearby pebbles and trinkets the children left out. It had resulted in me gaining a new skill [Totem of Protection (A)].

  Having been inspired when I remembered using it to evolve my [Ambient Detect] to [Ambient Mind] a couple of years ago, I was curious if I could imbue physical objects with it, kind of like the scroll.

  [Totem of Protection] would let me create little cubes that were made out of the same material I was; they had the interesting effect of granting a slight health bonus, and would make it harder for hostile entities to notice the person inside their range.

  Unlike my blessings, these totems were limited. When I tried to make more than six, the system sent me a notification saying my level limited me, and as I increased in level, I would gain more ‘totem slots.’

  Having been curious about their effect when multiple were stacked, I recruited one of the children nearby to play with them. As I watched, I could see the mana they emitted interact with the surroundings. The health bonus portion of the ability was actually really simple. I watched as mana was essentially imbued into the people around them, reinforcing their tissues. The ‘evading’ part of it was a bit tricker, as it seemed to interact with the world around it, influencing people’s minds to ignore whatever was in its field if the people inside considered them hostile.

  By themselves, it didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the stealth side, but when combined, it had an interesting ‘quirk’ of basically vanishing anything inside of its range.

  This ‘quirk’ led to several children using them to evade their parents or caretakers, meaning I had to find a way to turn off the totems, leaving several children to the mercy of angry guardians.

  Eventually, word seemed to have gotten out about my new ability, and every once in a while, someone would come by requesting to use one. Most of the time, it was because a loved one had become sick, and these totems seemed to help heal people.

  I also figured out how to hide these underground. More accurately, create them underground and leave them there, as I didn’t have a way to actually bury anything myself.

  I had made sure to put them in range of myself and the little stone bench; you never know when someone needs healing. I just made sure the anti-detection effect was off when one of the kids was around. Those little buggers would probably dig up the ground to find the totems.