Important

So, this is the first part of Transient Battleground that I previously posted about, I am more than happy to post its first chapter.

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Story

Authors: @DjennyFloro - No editor yet

Chapter 1 - Personae (Xinxin)

Xinxin was walking along the main street of the Market District, enjoying the fresh air after staying home for the whole day before, when her eyes met with someone she didn't expect to meet. Green emerald hair, green eyes with slit pupils, and a slightly tan complexion, the man who was walking on the other side of the street had a persona.
She had been considering taking a persona for a long time, but she wasn't sure which would suit her, and help her work the best. She wasn't even sure what job she wanted to have in the future. She had yet to find the one job that she felt like doing for a life.

Crossing the street, she went a few shops away, and looked at the personae displayed on a very sober vitrine. With a persona, a person's complexion as well as hair and eyes color would change. The man earlier had an beast-type persona, it grants features akin to that of the beast that you have chosen, such as his slit eyes, and greater agility and dexterity. Depending on the type of beast, it also accrue spiritual power or spiritual strength.
Looking just near the elves exposed in the vitrine, were the werewolves. Werewolves persona granted incredible natural healing due to having lots of spiritual strength. Spiritual strength made the mana, which was the essence of magic, circulate the body and enhance one's body, while spiritual power would make it permeate through the skin from the aura when needed.

Xinxin would hesitate to be a power type through because people with more spiritual power had a second vessel system just under the skin carrying the energy drained through the skin, so the ritual surgery to apply the persona would be more painful in the days following the surgery as this system would suddenly grow stronger. Everyone had this system, but it could well be said to be an embryo than a real system for most people.
At her school, a few of the girls had picked the erudite persona already. This kind of persona was the spiritual strength type, and focused the energy in the brain area. They wanted to be scientists, and the accrued intellect made them choose it despite the bigger and bald cranium, and somewhat more skinny appearance.

She didn't need it to through, for her family had a long history of males erudite and females elves, so she wasn't lacking in the intellect and beauty domain. Her spiritual power was also very strong, as it really had been generations that these persona were adopted. Same for her spiritual strength, she was almost on par with people who had low-tier persona while having none at the moment.
As her eyes went on through dwarfs without stopping, she looked at the mixed persona. The celestial-cat had some interesting specificity. It was as refined and elegant as a celestial, and had the capacities of a cat to see in the dark. It was the mix of two low-tiers persona, so the boost in spiritual strength and force was low.

But since that persona was mix of power and strength, she wouldn't be overly pale like a power-based person, or too tan like a strength-based person. The price was much cheaper than that of high-tiered persona, but its versatility, combined to her natural disposition made her certain that she could use it to drastically improve herself without paying a hefty price in pain and suffering after.

Entering the shop, she asked the clerk why the price was cheap and got answered that this persona was too mixed and, despite being from two high-tiers persona, it had become average in the magical domain. The senses were as good as a full-cat and a full-celestial one, but that was its only strong point, and unfortunately, physical enhancement weren't what people seeking mixed persona wanted.

Also, it had been there for a very long time, so the price became cheaper as the essence came close to the date where they would begin to dissipate. For now, it was still at its peak, but it wouldn't be so in the next month. But it didn't prevent Xinxin from feeling special about that persona, somewhat, she felt that it was the one she wanted despite others being even better.

“Can you stock it, please?” she asked. “I want to ask my parents to buy it for me.” She said with conviction. The shopkeeper seemed more than glad to indulge in her request, but Xinxin didn't care about how he seemed to think that he was scamming her. He gave her his phone number, and the identification of the persona, then she bowed deeply and went back home.

Her father was exceptionally present, so she asked if they could talk about her first persona. He hesitated for a moment, but he nodded positively and they went to the study. Xinxin said that she wanted the celestial-cat persona she saw despite how weak it really called out to her. Her father looked at the sheet she gave him, and was lost in thought for a moment, but after some time, he finally looked at her, and agreed.

Her father called the shop to confirm that he would purchase the persona later in the afternoon, and after hanging up, he looked at Xinxin, and ruffling her hairs, he said that she had grown way too quickly, then left the study with her, to go back to her mother's courtyard so to discuss the household's daily affairs with her mother.

Xinxin was excited at the idea of having her first persona, but she didn't rush back to her courtyard. She walked slowly, with regular steps as she went through the courts of her elder siblings. She didn't want to be scolded for loosing her poise as her mother was very strict about behavior.

Even through Xinxin didn't like the erudite persona for herself, she was the daughter of an erudite and a high elf. Her father's head features never came to her as disturbing, and she loved him very much. he was kindhearted, and always thinking of the family's good.

He was faithful to his wife, her mother, unlike many men of his standing who had lovers whom they visited very often. And he adopted two orphans, one of which would become his heir, the other that he treated no differently than her and whom she considered her sister.

Frequently, a breach would appear, and pouring from it, creatures would come out of it. Battlers of all venues of the empire would die en mass all through the country and year, and the number of orphans had skyrocketed.
The emperor to lessen the suffering, and unable to support financially enough institution to take care of those orphans decreed that depending on one's income, adopting children was a social obligation. In the same decree, he allowed the passing of blood essence through a magical ritual, to continue one's lineage through an adopted children. Those who find their own heir lacking, and those unable to have children, quickly took on that decree.
Her father only had the obligation of supporting one orphan, but he took several of them, as he couldn't bear the sight of them in the orphanage. Out of the six siblings, she was the only blood child he had, but walking on the household, and looking at him, you would never be able to make a difference between the five of them.

As she went through her own courtyard, two servants paid her their respect, and said that her mother had just come, to deliver a new dress. Xinxin frowned. Her mother, on the other end, had that quirk most women with strong elfin persona lineage had. She was often disdaining and thought very highly of herself, and while she didn't mistreat them, she certainly never acted with her siblings as if they were her own.

That said, her mother spared no efforts or expanse to educate her to the highest standards of manners. So in this society judging you on your social skills, Xinxin had not once felt that she was out of place. As she walked around the streets behind her father, she was not disturbed by the gazes of boys of her age, nor by the attitude of the people around them who were fretting about seeing a noble. She had learned to handle nervousness well.
At the shop, her father had reviewed the persona, and brought it home. After going to the hospital for the formalities or registration, and taking an appointment to have it applied, he came back home and asked her about the hair and eye color she wanted.

It was very important, for she wouldn't be able to change later. She decided for a bright violet for both to have an unified look, and she looked at the result with the simulator, she was very satisfied with the result. She noted that she would look slightly older, in her twenties, and that she would be a bit taller too.
As they defined the appearance she would have later, it came to very precise details such as her hair-length. Even through her mother would be against it, her father had no objection to her request to have short hairs, since it was still mid-neck long, and not short everywhere.

All the details being decided, her father sent the form to the hospital. A doctor reviewed it immediately, and approved the operation. Xinxin's father choose his day off, three days later, to make sure that he was with her on the day of her operation. She felt a bit nervous, but her father's big hand on her head quickly reassured her.

PS:

I am actively seeking your returns on that post, please tell me what you think about it, I'm always carving for more feedback.

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