From the dawn of time I came. Moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to find sense in my life, when many times I'm forced to fight to the last. A few know I am among you. Now you do too.

  Totally butchered that one. I was worried about triggering a flag that will cause others like me to come and do a deathmatch tournament. I felt the urge to start singing "Princes of the Universe". But to these natives, it might as well be a declaration of war. Nah. No song this time.

  She took me in her arms, "Would you tell me? Stories of the First Priestess?"

  I squeaked.

  I spent the rest of the day telling her about my daily life with the ancient Auvani. I even created illusions of how they looked like. My reincarnation perks made the memories of my past lives here in Yznarian, as the elves call this world, crystal clear no matter how long ago they were made.

  Solana and I exchanged magic spells and lessons every day after that. She got over her worries regarding me. With me and Nenandil helping the ships glide over the ocean, we were making good time according to the captain.

  During the second week, our spirits were uncrushable high, everyone was having a jolly time! When suddenly the ocean was all like "Suprise!" and a huge massive storm brewed out of nowhere!

  I looked at the dark clouds and said, "We might need to buckle our pants. Or they might fall down!"

  "You don't wear pants, silly!" Nenandil shot back.

  Giggling with the fairy, I made whooshing sounds with my mouth. "And the ocean was like 'PSYCH'!"

  We found our way to the poop deck - we men of the sea can say poop with a straight face - and found the captain looking at the lead ship growing closer by the minute.

  "Damn. Meadow Swift can't sail so close to us!" Captain Gunther of the Amber Witch cursed. "What is Frederikssen thinking?"

  I checked the boats. All the sailors had the dark vision perk. It was limited in range and didn't entirely replace the light, however. Oh, yes! Light.

  "Captain, I can sense monsters in a kilometer around us. I'm going to throw a light spell up to let us navigate this storm. And maybe tow the boats. Nenandil, stay here. You might need to relay a message for me."

  "Aye aye, skipper!" She saluted and flew to the railing.

  The erratic winds were pushing the sails to and fro. They were already half-folded but removing the sails would leave the ships without any steering power.

  I bundled twenty thousand SP and tossed it up and ahead. The spell was set to increase the light level slowly over two minutes before glowing like daylight. I moved to the bow of the ship and looked around. The spell did its job and moved with the ships. The miniature sun caught on the raindrops and created a circular rainbow as if Lisa Frank had drawn some angels.

  I pondered my options. Fighting the weather was a terrible idea as I would have to pour millions of MP. The volume I'd need to affect was too much. Maybe some specialized Perk could make these costs manageable but I wasn't going to gamble.

  I could tow the ships. I could become a large shark. Not a huge one as my {Large Animal Forms} was limited to creatures with about three or four meters. It was more of a volume limitation than a long one. I had four meters of tail and was still considered medium. A powerful shark or large dolphin might be what we need.

  "Captain, I need you to dock the two ships together. I'm going to transform into a big fish and tow the boats."

  "That's a terrible idea, Your Highness," Captain Gunther replied. "In calm waters you get scratches. In a storm like this? The girls will bang each other until they break. And steering will be a pain. We need to point the bow to the waves to cut them. Getting hit by a wave sideways in a storm is how ships capsize."

  My mind wandered. Hum, girls banging each other until they break. So delicious. The captain broke me out of my wet dream with a harrumph. His face told me he would harbor no arguments.

  "We'll get lost," I tried to defend my stance with a retort.

  He shook his head, still as serious as the father of your prom date when he learns she got pregnant, "I'm sure Your Highness can find the Meadow once the storm passed."

  "That I can. I'm going to do something I should've done already."

  I ran back to my cabin after checking with the Kin in the cargo deck. They were scared but fine. I cut a branch from my sapling. Rummaging through my ridiculously large item box trash heap, I find a vase. After a goading the branch to grow roots in the new pot with {Nature Magic} and {Treesinger}, I made sure I could teleport from one tree to the other before I took the new tree with me to the Meadow. This little tree would increase my teleport range more than tenfold.

  The siblings were climbing up to the main deck when I climbed out of a shadow. "Hey, I brought this tree. This way I can find you in the storm even if we get separated."

  On the deck of the Meadow, Solana taunted me, "Why don't you make the ship fly already?"

  I sneered back. "I needed two dozen first-rank mages feeding me their MP. Only you is not enough."

  Maybe making an airship wasn't a bad idea. Ten seconds after the thought passed through my mind I came to the conclusion that if I ever make an airship, a dragon will appear during the maiden voyage to bring it down.

  I placed the pot on Sir Hector's hand. "This tree is the lifeline between the ships. The storm may separate us. Keep it safe. I'll move back and forth regularly to check on you. Stay safe."

  "I'll do my best, Your Highness," the resurrected knight vowed solemnly.

  We placed the tree in Solana's cabin and I shifted to the Etruscan shrew to teleport. The requirement of fitting inside the trunk demanded the thinnest creature possible.

  I felt I should be doing something more but I stayed on the background as a good passenger and let the professional sailors do their job of navigating the treacherous waters. I stayed with the Kin, hugging little Talia and comforting everyone.

  I learned some folk songs from their secluded homeland in the heart of the Zaemisan Empire. I had to visit them. I had to visit a lot of places. Tour the world. Stay away from trouble. Dragons, demons, gods.

  Between one batch of songs and the next, I used {Tree Stride} to move between ships and check how the others were faring. My light spell was working as a lighthouse of sorts, giving the Meadow Swift a way to follow the Amber Witch.

  Just sitting and comforting the kin while the storm raged and our destination was out of my control felt strange. I wasn't trapped without choice but submission as with Apricot or trapped like Alloralla. I was on the sidelines of my own choice. But I found that I didn't like this lack of control over my fate. Or the lack of the illusion of control. The kin around me was powerless to fight against the storm and they knew it. What about me? Did I have the power to change fate or was it an illusion? Was I just being swayed by it?

  The storm would rage for two days. I forced myself to stay put and spend my time with the kin. Not fighting back. When it ended, I prepared to send another summoned messenger bird to Lorna. This one would have the upgrade of a reply. Would I get one? My heart pounded as if I were on the front porch of my prom date, waiting for her to come outside, dreading to meet her father. Including sexual expectations. Nenandil and I also wrote letters to her mother Doris, Sariandi, and Neep the brownie. Finally, I drafted a short missive for Kazuyran, telling him to meet me in Windemere.

  I went to the deck to summon the birds and sent them flying. Three flew back west, toward Pekothas, while the ones for the dark elf [Assassin] and Lorna streaked away toward Auvanini.

  The birds would fly to a location where I believed the person was. If they were not found there, the summon would then search for the person. Killing the summon would make the letter vanish, lost wherever it was stored.

  Captain Gunther called me from the poop deck.

  "What is it?" I asked. as I slithered up the stairs.

  "Your Highness, those birds, what are they?" He had airs of both suspicion and amazement around him.

  I smiled, "Oh. Those are messenger birds. I can send letters to people I know."

  "And may I ask where the last two that flew east were going to?"

  "You may. They are going to Windemere."

  He held his breath. "Do you know what this means?"

  I tilted my head, "That I can keep in touch with my friends?"

  The captain bellowed a hearty chortle, "That too, Your Highness. But the birds can also serve as a guide. If we can follow them, we can go straight to our destination. You can even send one to Frederiksen and find his ship anytime if we get separated."

  That didn't happen during the storm thanks to my light spell. But he had a good point, didn't he?

  I covered my mouth with a hand to hide my surprise, "Oh!"

  Q: Is this a VR story?

  

  Q: Do you have all 100 lives planned?

  

  Q: What are the humanoid types? Is a lamia / centaur humanoid? Why did Wyxnos restrict MC's range of available races?

  

  

  
• Type I humanoids are proto-humanoids that are barely sentient. Goblins, Kobolds, troglodytes. They are usually small in size and - most important - evolve with each Rank Up.


  
• Type II humanoids are those that start stronger than Type I but can still evolve. Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, etc.


  
• Type III are humans and the civilized species: Elves, gnomes, dwarves, halflings (Eleons are a kind of halfling), the beast-kin.


  
• Type IV humanoids are the animal/monster hybrids. lamia, centaur, mermaids, were-kin, minotaurs, scylla, harpies, lesser fairies (brownies, pixies, spriggans, dryads, etc), and some others. Despite having monstrous origins, THEY DON'T EVOLVE during a rank-up.


  
• Type V humanoids are the ones too strong and once again, evolving. Demons, draconians, and others.