The Weight of Legacy

From a rational point of view, Malwine knew she wouldn’t be getting every single thing she wanted in life—she hadn’t in her past life, and this one would be no different. Even then, most goals seemed possible. With cultivation being a factor, even most time constraints sounded optional to her, not that she would be risking anything important based on her current assumptions.

But faced with that which the last trial she’d done had given her, here it was—perhaps the first thing in her new life that had Malwine truly freezing up. She wasn’t sure if she could manage this at all.

Obit

This obit contains the details of one Katrina Skrībanin. Accrue [Toll] to contribute towards the cost of resurrection by grasping this obit.

Died: The Cold of 5786

Progress: 641 out of 10,726,000.

This obit will become unusable if its subject is not restored by: The Cold of 5836

Malwine had never quite been a fan of any math beyond estimating birth years and degrees of relationship, though she had no issue with it when allowed to calculate visually—something [Write Anywhere] worked nicely for.

Still, it stood to reason she might face difficulties, and every time Malwine revisited her conclusions, she once again hesitated on the accuracy of her calculations.

If she wanted to bring her grandmother back, she had exactly 35 years to work with. Perhaps slightly less, if her assumption that it might tip over on the month before then was right. Given the system's tendency to round down, she still wasn't sure if this timeframe in which people were resurrectable was exactly 50 of this world's years, though that'd line up closely with the number [Once and Forever] had given her for OBeryl.

In time, she’d come to notice her [Toll] had leaned towards emptying out within a day regardless of what she did, and the slow increase to its total value hadn’t made a difference. Accrued [Toll] seemed to drop almost by a percentage of itself than a linear value, though Malwine hadn’t quite managed to figure out the details.

Her interest in understanding whatever hypothetical formulas may lay behind that was close to non-existent, but it didn’t take much effort to make some confident guesses—namely, that if she sank into [Meditation] relentlessly, she could restore it to zero at least once a day, or two if she did little else for the rest of the day.

That, however, wasn’t anywhere near sustainable for her.

The first problem, of course, was how long it took. The entirety of her days would be disrupted if she tried to constantly keep her [Toll] down to dump even more mana into the obit—and she had her attempts to confirm this.

At least her attempts had gotten [Meditation] to its elusive 26th level.

If Malwine’s calculations were right, trying to fill this obit up on her own would take between 153 and 229 years, given some serious simplification of the numbers—that was time she didn’t have, even if she were willing to set everything aside to constantly accrue [Toll] then meditate.

Assuming her theories about [Toll]’s decay were up, however… If I had my real [Toll], I could do it in like 3 years. At least that was what Malwine came back with, after some additional calculations. If she actually had her real attributes, it could have been little over 2 years and a half, less than 4 years at most.

Again, that would be with near-absolute dedication to the task, but it was little enough time that she could have comfortably split the effort through the thirty-plus years the obit had left in it.

For all Malwine had learned to live with weakened attributes—it had been the only way in which she’d ever lived in this life, after all—the reminder of something that would have been significantly easier were she not cursed stung.

The attributes she got from Katrina had been wonderful, even if it caught Malwine a bit off-guard to see how Strength had been topped off so precisely at 5k.

It was almost enough to tempt her to try trials again, but between her OBeryl trial practically glitching out and {Legacy} going off the rails for Katrina’s trial, she wouldn’t be touching trials until she either figured out what was causing the strangeness, or she got distracted enough to soldier on regardless, whichever happened first.

Malwine kept the panels with the trial notes tucked in a mental corner for future review, if or when the time came.

[Integrity]

999 / 1018

[Toll]

47 / 4658

Strength

5000 (-99%)

Speed

2338 (-99%)

Endurance

5564 (-99%)

Dexterity

2313 (-99%)

Stamina

5468 (-99%)

Resilience

2313 (-99%)

Perception

4626 (-99%)

Charisma

2313 (-99%)

Adaptability

4626 (-99%)

Luck

2313 (-99%)

Circulation

4626 (-99%)

Presence

2313 (-99%)

...

[Integrity]

999 / 1018

[Toll]

47 / 78

Strength

50

Speed

23

Endurance

55

Dexterity

23

Stamina

54

Resilience

23

Perception

46

Charisma

23

Adaptability

46

Luck

23

Circulation

46

Presence

23

That right side’s looking a little sad, Malwine complained.

As for the increase to her attribute, she had a working theory—it was the Class. Trying to seek its details got her an error message, perhaps due to its unorthodox ‘forging’, but the Class was the only explanation, given how only those three specific attributes had been affected. Their new color when she viewed their true values only made her more certain they were being boosted specifically.

As for her Acclimation and Control, she just had no clue. The milestones she’d reached clearly mattered in some way, but neither the system nor {Legacy} had deigned to elaborate.

The urge to complain to herself—more than usual, at least—was strong. It felt unfair, that she got the obit yet stood little to no chance at successfully resurrecting her grandmother.

Given [The Things We Do For Family]’s description, there had to be a normal way to obtain obits, so perhaps she could get someone to help her with this. The main issue there would be figuring out what excuse to use for having the obit.

Blame Mom? I’m sure blaming Beryl won’t become a habit or anything.

Speaking of her new Skill and its suspiciously fast-and-loose description, it had stilled at level 1. There, admittedly, weren’t that many things for Malwine to do in her room to ‘restore or sustain an antecedent’, but the Skill seemed eager to use the subjectivity of its eligibility requirements to do literally nothing most of the time.

The instinctive grasp it provided barely mattered when, apparently, nothing was eligible, even with her now-doubled Perception. Any plans Malwine could have formed for exploiting the Skill to speed up her progress with the obit were dead in the water right off the bat.

Thirty years is technically a long time. Malwine tried to reassure herself time and time again, but truth was, the time limit irked her. As far as she knew, she didn’t need to rush to figure out what to do about the curse, or even to stay alive. She’d rather solve her problems one way or the other sooner than later, but there wasn’t a ticking clock attached to any of that.

Katrina’s resurrection wouldn’t be a possibility forever, however. And that was getting to her. Funny as it was, coming from a world where no one had magical boxes they could fill with mana to bring their dead relatives back. Still, the idea of wasting the chance, of not making this happen, felt like sacrilege.

The question of whether her grandmother was worth resurrecting in the first place was one to avoid, one she wouldn’t get the answer to until she perhaps met her. Even then, had Malwine known more about Katrina, she would not have been able to determine that just like that. She wasn’t sure if she could ever decide, in good consciousness, whether someone she knew nothing about deserved life or not—it didn’t sound like something anyone could ever be fit to decide.

Malwine didn't see herself being the type of person who would get lost in the moral quandary of whether the act of killing itself was justified, let alone whether a complete stranger deserved to be or stay dead. This was some type of cultivation world, even if not closely so, and what little she saw from the scene before what had to have been Katrina's death as it happened, she doubted she'd go through life without facing a situation in which she’d have to defend herself.

Knowing death here wasn't immediately permanent also eased the weight there, even if Malwine wouldn't ever be willing to die herself just because resurrection was possible.

A part of her also wondered if that nonchalance stemmed from something deeper, older—from the widow. Most of those memories remained fractured, perhaps forever, but with some things, she could just tell, even while unable to recall what backed that certainty.

The widow hadn't expected a second life, and though Malwine and her past life alike would have insisted she'd been perfectly capable of measured responses, certain things were set in stone for her—what she'd assumed was her only life, was to be guarded zealously.

She'd taken that first ending in relative stride, but for the widow, 101, 102, 103 years and counting had never been enough. She'd been satisfied with her life so far, but she'd never be satisfied with life itself, would never intentionally give it up no matter how fulfilled it was.

And should anything—or anyone—be a threat to that, well.

Threats could be removed.

Especially if [Unpacifiable] would detect them…

Malwine almost flinched at the certainty there, mostly because something told her it wasn't conjecture, or even just a stance the widow had held.

She shook her head. There was no need to get lost in it. Still, it was good to be honest to herself—to acknowledge she was willing to kill if it came to that, just as her grandmother once had.

Better to accept that now than to have an internal debate if or when she actually faced such a situation.

Aside from struggling with the obit and her usual tangents, Malwine had spent perhaps more time than reasonable trying to blindly fire off [Remote Reading] towards where she thought the library could be located. She had, admittedly, just been assuming her new family would have one, but given the general size and fanciness of this estate—at least from what Malwine had seen of it so far—it would be pretty bizarre for them not to.

Not to mention, all those children’s books Bernie dumped on us.

In fact, Adelheid sat in a shadowed corner, reading one at the moment… though Malwine might not have been the best of role models, given how the particular manual Adelheid was reading was likely intended for children older than 3…

Malwine was proud of her little aunt nonetheless.

“Get any Skills yet?”

Adelheid looked up from her book and frowned. “No.”

What about those Tokens of yours, though…?

Her aunt got back to her book before she could ask, and Malwine figured she’d just let her be. Learning to read was important. She’d been briefly tempted to see if Skills could be passed on, or at the very least, whether [The Plurilingual Psyche] would enable her to help Adelheid on the endeavor, but Malwine quickly concluded that was probably a highly suspicious Skill to have on her part.

Maybe telling the 3-year-old about it wouldn’t be the greatest of ideas, even if said 3-year-old clearly had secrets of her own.

And on the topic of highly suspicious things…!

Katrina Skrībanin's possession of {Ore} is proven.

You may inherit Ore III from Katrina Skrībanin. Would you like to make this Affinity your own?

You have inherited Ore III from Katrina Skrībanin.

Ore III

The veins of truth run everywhere, even where they go unseen.

This Affinity may be increased to Ore IV by reaching Acclimation and Control milestones—or automatically for the next generation—to evolve its core effect.

If you turn this Affinity into a Root, you may use Ore-aligned mana as Mana Source regardless of origin.

As with all things—especially those that didn’t necessarily warrant excessive caution—Malwine had hesitated to take it. There only appeared to be a limit to how many of her Affinities could become Roots, but she didn’t think anything would stop her from just stockpiling others. The extra ones would simply do little to nothing for her.

Still, she knew Affinities could be detected—[Nosy Old Lady] and its named served as annoying reminder of the fact that she very much could see those of others, even if it lacked a convenient system prompt to tell her just what the Affinities were.

Since getting [The Things We Do For Family], there had been a small suspicion growing in the back of her mind—that she could somehow use both Skills in tandem to make up for her own ignorance. Then again, both Skills relied on Perception, and [Nosy Old Lady] checked against Presence.

She’d momentarily wondered whether Adelheid just had a ridiculous Presence, somehow—the girl still relied on “more” to describe its value—but soon enough decided that if that was the case, maybe Malwine should just take her time making sense of her aunt’s Affinities.

She wasn’t sure whether her ego could survive being outdone by an actual toddler.

But given Malwine’s priorities, using [Mana Reclaimer] had very much paid off. While she knew it was possible to increase an Affinity's tier—and she’d only ever managed that by forcing the system to even out the values from [Mana Reclaimer]—the fact that her new {Ore} was at tier three, likely meant Katrina had been at two.

And OBeryl sure hadn’t had {Ore}—Malwine suspected normal people wouldn’t have been so stingy as to not plant a Root. Especially seeing as OBeryl had planted {Foresight}, despite the clear advice from Teach. Then again, maybe she did that before meeting Teach? I only know what Teach said in response to me, but not what she’d have said in response to OBeryl.

In short, this left Malwine with a possibility—that {Ore} came from Katrina’s father, the one [Once and Forever] deemed her ineligible to inherit from. Or to leave an inheritance behind, I guess.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Malwine’s eyes narrowed—this level of bullshitting might be quite up her alley, judging by how things had gone so far.

At times, it almost felt like the more outlandish her attempts were, the likelier they were to give her results.

Not necessarily good results, but that hardly mattered.

[The Things We Do For Family]

May your fondness for dragging the past back from the brink be as timeless as the legacy that fuels it. When done with the intent to restore, sustain, or directly learn from an antecedent, bypass restrictions to system-controlled actions. Said actions must be feasible for you, individually, to begin with, before restrictions were applied. Eligibility is subjective. You gain an instinctive grasp of how to best apply the Skill to an eligible situation, the effectiveness of which is determined by Perception.

Trait: None

Aspect: None

Bypass restrictions to system-controlled actions.

And, beyond that, using [Once and Forever] was certainly feasible for Malwine.

On a hunch, she tried Beryl.

(❗) Error: Target living.

So much for a hunch…

Malwine went for Katrina’s father.

(❗) Error: Target outside scope—

(❗) Error: Target living(verification needed?)—

(❗) Error: Target disallowed by—

Holy fu—by the waves—by whatever anymore!, Malwine responded in kind, leaning forward with a groan as a headache build up like thundering inside her skull.

It passed, the notification long gone by the time Malwine could confidently raise her head back up.

Beyond the errors, the message had been clear enough. So Katrina’s father is alive? Maybe? As in, shouldn’t the system know the answer to that?

Maybe that had been why it told Malwine he was ineligible, not alive or too recently deceased, not reverse-disinherited like her own miscreant of a gene donor was soon to be the moment she found him.

Malwine wasn’t anywhere near ready to unpack what someone’s status as alive being indeterminable by the system would imply, so as she moved on to update her family tree, she decided not to touch that.

Unknown (Rīsan?) + Unknown - - - Someone with {Ore}?₁ + Beryl Skrībanin₂

\ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . /

Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin †

|

Beryl Rīsanin

₁Isn't dead???

₂Might have died around The Fields of 5750

---

Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Katrina Skrībanin (—The Cold of 5786)

1. Beryl

2. Thekla

3. Anselm (The Fog of 5769—)

4. Kristoffer

5. Alaric

Children born to Kristian Rīsan + Bernadette ‡ (The Forgetting of 5769—)

1. Adelheid (The Forgetting of 5798—)

With her questionable decisions of the day already handled, Malwine stared at {Ore}, then stared at it some more. Was what Katrina had done in the trial absolutely awesome? Yes.

Could Malwine just take the Affinity and get something like that done?

No. Absolutely not.

Acknowledging that did little to suppress that gnawing desire to plant it into a Root anyway. It was some sort of physical magic, no doubt—something {Legacy}, for all its often nonsensical wonders, wasn’t.

There had to be Skills in play, no doubt, but {Legacy} had already influenced her latest Skill. The fact that both [Once and Forever] and [Nosy Old Lady] had been granted to her as Skills to begin with also had her certain it had been a perfect fit. {Legacy} didn’t belong as anything other than .

As , it would be something corrupt; as , lacking in nuance; and as , barely lip service.

It was something Malwine had truly neither considered nor understood until now.

So where would {Ore} fit, if she were to place it somewhere? felt compatible, and yet… Malwine knew what she wanted her Class to be. Yes, the whole astral projection idea was dumb. Considerably so.

But if forging Classes was going to take previous Skills into account, her Class was shaping up to be something related to being safe, of the stability of her—tiny—place in this world.

And while she loved the idea of using {Ore}, this wasn’t something she could choose right now. Even if she got a third Skill, she still wouldn’t be confident in such a decision.

Malwine clutched her blanket—she kind of envied Adelheid’s fancy one. What was the other thing she got from the harvestable, that bracelet?

Frustrating as it was, given her vague impression that the object’s description had been relevant, Malwine’s attention at the time had been on the Trait Creation Token.

She shook her head. It sucked, but there was little point in languishing in the consequences of her terrible episodic memory.

Her only regret was not finding the library to wrap up her day of half-successes with something tangible.