LESSONS FOR A LIFETIME.

***On Planet Gieă. In the Outskirts of the Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans', On the slope of a hill that hosts a small house.

 Despite his physical exhaustion, Navi still had to pull up the now dead and bloody body of Troy all the way back up the hill.

He does the task with a hand on Troy's ankle while taking slow heavy steps back up to his house.

 Greeting another dead body(Dianes') by the entrance, Navi puts his blade back into the sheath on his back as he pull the other body and Troy's through the door while keeping one hand on each person's ankle as he pulls a messy trail of blood and dirt alongside the bodies.

 Looking inside his illuminated house, Navi sees a bloody disaster. Blood splatter everywhere, bodies everywhere and battle scars everywhere.

A ruined bathroom door, blood on the floor, wrecked furnitures, a very ugly and bloody stab in the wall that's just above the head of the slumped down dead body.

 Blood spills were across all fighting areas then some others and adding two extra bloody bodies to the mix does not make the situation any much better.

With these visuals filling his mind, Navi drops the legs of the corpses he is pulling before walking up to the last invader.. who is still alive.

 Pulling out his sword once more, Navi calmly walks past a bit of furnitures as he moves to the bleeding and seemingly unconscious half-dwarf and then,..

*STAB!*.

*PUING!###*.

"Aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!.".

 Another brutal stab of the tip of his sword through her second ankle snaps the half-dwarf out of her pretence of still being 'unconscious' as a bloody scream tears through her lungs.

The half-dwarf's body trembles as she groans and looks up.

 Breathing heavily, she looks up at Navi with hatred and fear. Her gaze just like she is staring a devil in bloody white suit though her back remains on the cold floor as she's smart enough to avoid moving as much as she could.

The half-dwarf's body tenses up as she fights the urge to escape which would only bring her much more pain. Looking around, the veins in the half-dwarf's eyes and the intensity of her glare is completely ignored by Navi who starts to speak.

 "You know,.. I'm pretty tired right now and even though I want to do nothing but sleep I would have to clean up this place first..

"When I'm through with everything,.. I might not even get any sleep at all.", Navi calmly explains as he sits on the floor with his back against a nearby wall.

His sword's blade remains standing straight in Melisa's ankle as it executes the job of pinning her to the surface of the floor beneath.

 "..*PANT*.*HUFF*..You.. are evil! *HUFF*.", Melisa looks at Navi with intense reddened eyes and trembling lips as she spits those vengeful words with a tone as hateful as she can manage despite the pains coming from her completely destroyed ankle or now,.. ankles.

 *CHUCKLE*,.. Navi chuckles lightly at her words before smacking his lips open as he continues speaking without even looking at Melisa or acknowledging her pained struggles.

 "You know.. my mom was actually a very playful mother to me but, she is playful only for ninety-percent of times. With the remaining ten percent, she did not nurture her child but instead she nurtured 'Navïælét -Vęr- Firųs'..

 "She gave me a lifetime of lessons in just twelve years and one of the most important things she taught me is 'Either don't try at all or make sure you succeed.'", Navi says calmly before taking in a deep breath as he looks forward.

He then let's out the warm breath with a nod as if finally truly understanding the true depths behind his mother's words.

Finally looking at the half-dwarf, Navi slowly stands back hope before saying..

 "I hope you take this lesson with you as you journey to you next life."

...

...

***In the vast territory of one of the arms of the Imperials -The Coastal Clan- at the shores of the vast river between the imperial Grounds and Coastal Clan's territory.

 Princess Seflim can currently be seen sitting in her meditation spaces in a lotus position. With eyes closed, the princess stealthily cultivates her bloodline while familiarising herself with her main mana-veins and their thousands of branches.

 Each of her breaths are steady and deep and with each accumulating breath, she feels the impact of her Swordsbattle-maiden tri-pathways(Swords-woman, Warrior, Mage).

Her Mage pathways makes very her sensitive to mana both within her surroundings and within herself. Because of this, Seflim can control much more mana than a non-mage and much more better.

 Her warrior's pathways strengthens her body and mind, Forging her into a fluid weapon of strength, endurance, agility and destruction!. Because of her Warrior pathway, some of the milder benefits of her bloodline that has to do with strength and toughness is manifesting earlier and better than usual.

 Her Swords-woman's pathway is directly affecting her bearings and attitude on a minor scale. Discipline on a different level, sharpness on a different level and reaction speed on a different limit.

Her control of mana when she's with a sword to channel becomes much more natural and her mastery over every aspect of her sword is slowly increasing at a new pace thus giving her a mild obsession with the weapon and its arts.

 Soon, she would get a sword that perfectly fits her style. A sword that would be her first companion till she breaks through to the next hierachy though for now, that is in a foggy future.

 For the past two weeks, Princess Seflim has been doing nothing but cultivating and stabilisation. A break through is important but truly stabilising the breakthrough is even more important.

 As a Beginner rank(Rank One), Seflim is learning fast on how important and difficult stabilisation can be for a Cultivator. The stabilisation process is a boring yet important process that can go on for months or probably even years for less talented people.

For someone as talented as Seflim is, someone with an abundant of resources, guidance as well as a top tier cultivation technique.. Stabilisation of the first rank(Rank One) should only take her three months at most though this does not make it any less troublesome.

 "True Imperial Princess Seflim, your presence is demanded by her Elegance Counsel Tamara.", A familiar voice comes from Seflim's gemed cocktail ring with due respect to her title in its tone.

 Seflim's closed eyes slowly opens to show its beautiful blue shade as she rubs her ring's side before getting up and directly walking through a portion of the walls.

Passing through the wall, the princess moves directly into a hallway that's looks micro compared to the one she's used to.

 As expected, Nanny Nora is calmly waiting for Seflim's presence outside with both of her palms tucked into each other and placed in front of her waist.

 "This way your faithfulness.", Nanny Nora points the way while Seflim gives a small and slightly detached nods before following behind her. They go through the short hallway then up the double flight of steps that leads to a luxurious open sitting room.

 Her mother, Imperial Consort Tamara is elegantly sitting on a throne-like club chair at the corner of the open sitting-room. Eight open scrolls and three heavy books are floating in front of Tamara.. by her side of a servant who's holding up a tray that contains a jade kettle and cup.

 "You called mother.", Seflim casually yet respectfully greets as she steps forward to the chair closest to the mana fire-space in the open room space.

 ".", Tamara takes a short second off staring at her floating scrolls before nodding at Seflim with a golden quill suddenly appearing in her hands.

Turning her gaze away from her daughter, a blank scroll pops in the air and with a speedy swipe of Tamara's quill over it, the blank scroll gets covered in elegantly written symbols and words before the scroll disappears into air once more.

 Thousands of calculation are running through Tamara's head as she deals with reports, encryptions, study, cultivation and her growing businesses all while keeping a eye on her daughter as they are already two weeks deep into the journey of finding her Seflim's shadow.

 Walking towards a chair, Seflim halts her steps for a moment and watches as her mother deal with things at a speed she cannot even try to follow.

After a second pause, Seflim soon continues walking as she takes her seat at another corner of the room with the fire-space at her side.

Seflim sits quietly and stops herself from sighing in pleasure while feeling nourishing waves upon waves of pure energies invade her body. The energies are produced by the burning white flames of the fire-space instead of heat.

 Feeling refreshed, Seflim closes her eyes for a moment as she leans back in comfort though she is soon forced to open her eyes once more as her mother starts talking.

 "You have been busy with cultivation so you might not know this but last week, we made a move to shorten the journey drastically. Its highly unlikely your shadow is beneath the ocean so we paid the price and took the risk of using a jump portal to get to the other side of the vast and dangerous river and well,.. we have arrived.

 "We are safe. Months of journey gets covered in a week and the fact that your shadow isn't pointing back to the Ocean shows that we made the right choice.", Tamara explains while Seflim nods calmly in understanding.

 "We have exited the other side of the jump Tunnel and although the lands are your fathers' to rule, we are still no longer in the Imperial Ground territory. We are now in the Lands of the Coastal Clan and since your shadow points somewhere within their territory then we would be here for a while. Probably months and hopefully,.. weeks.", Tamara says with a sarcastic smile hanging lazily on her lips.

 "Is this enemy territory?.", Seflim asks with raised brows without much worry in her tone or bearing as she is confident in the safety her surname brings, atleast for now.

 "In the type of game we are in, there's no such thing as a permanent enemy or friend but right now with the Coastal Clan we.. can't be sure. We are sure that they are absolutely not on our side but we can't be sure that they are not on any other side either. Right now we can just view them as being their own person.", Tamara explains as she leans back into her chair in slight mental exhaustion.

The new level of maturity and calculations in her tone compared to few years ago shows a wild growth in her political and cultivation maturity.

 "Then why worry when we can just pass through then make an elegant exit?.", Seflim asks with a raised brow.

 "I'm not worried about entry and exit, I'm worried about the mark we would have to leave as we pass through..

"With the game we play, It would be more than a little hilarious if the very talented and possible heiress 'True Imperial Princess Andruv -ö- Niel Seflim' passes through without making an impression or statement.", Tamara says while creating a sucking sound between her teeth at the end of her statement. She seems to not like the consequences of her own words.

 "Are this the expectation set on me or are you going with guess-works?.", True Imperial Princess Seflim asks her mother while taking a silent breath as she considers the implications behind her mother's words.

 "These are expectations from the vast population of cultivators. Like it all not, information about you precedes your presence and there is very little we can do about it. Invitations and greetings has poured-in in thousands and although we must reject a vast majority, our presence is required in a select few as we make our journey through.

"The show we put on is barely important to true powerhouses but it may mean the world to smaller powerhouses who have to also put stakes in the inevitable paths to the throne..

"These smaller powerhouses have less to lose but this also means they can lose it faster. Another thing to care about is their opinions and stance which can snowball into something.. *SUCKS* scary.", Her Imperial Elegance, Tamara explains calmly.

 "We are arriving in one of these select few place in just a couple hours so I'm about to give you a debrief.".

...

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AUTHORS NOTE: REMEMBER -RANK ONE IS CALLED THE *BEGINER RANKS*. ¥RANK 2 TO THREE ARE CALLED THE *INTERMIDIATE RANKS*. ¥ RANK FOUR TO SIX ARE CALLED *HIGH RANKS*. RANK SEVEN TO NINE ARE CALLED *SAINT RANKS*. RANK TEN IS CALLED THE *ZENITH RANK* OR THE *FORBIDDEN RANK*.

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MAP:= PLEASE NO OTHER COMMENT SHOULD BE MADE ON THIS PARAGRAPH. CLICK ON THE ONLY COMMENT HERE TO SEE THE MOST BASIC MAP OF CONTINENT 'ECLISPE OF THE OCEANS'.

IT TOOK A LOT OF EFFORT DRAWING THIS OUT SO PLEASE DON'T THROW SHADE ON IT. IT'S NOT THE BEST DRAWING BUT IT WOULD DO FOR NOW.

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