A full hour had passed before RJ and Tatterhood returned from the Spirit Garden, granted it was more like a day from their perspective.
A small vortex appeared in RJ's room with RJ himself being unceremoniously launched out of it and sent flopping onto the bed. A small groan escaped from his lips as he laid there. Tatterhood walked out of the vortex a bit later, dressed in her "Tatiana" form.
"You feeling okay, min venn?", Tatterhood asked.
"Physically, yes", RJ mumbled from his covered face, "mentally, a little burnt out".
"Well you did ask me not to hold back, while you were trying to learn a bunch of new magic skills".
"Fair", he grumbled.
While in the Spirit Garden, RJ had come to two important conclusions.
First, that the skills in his skill tree did not require the use of points to learn. By making use of a combination of his current skills and by practicing them without the game's aid, he could have that skill registered.
Being a child of pop culture, he recalled a certain elemental manipulating cartoon show and tried to mimic those abilities with his skills.
Making use of [Earth Shape], [Sculpt] and [Masonry] he managed to perform and earn the [Stone Fist] and [Rock Shot] skills....granted he had to practice doing so a hundred plus times until the system finally registered the two skills.
The first was a simple matter of coating his fists in a layer of stone and earth to form gauntlets. When he did so, RJ was informed that he had mastered about the first step of the skill. Invigorated by this information, he did it a dozen more times until it was finally registered.
[Rock Shot] was a similar endeavor, but he had to somehow throw a rock without touching it. It took a while, but he managed to do so after figuratively and somewhat literally slamming his head against a wall a couple times. Incidentally, he learned [Rock Wall] and [Pillar] in the pursuit of [Rock Shot].
Second, Tatterhood hits like a truck.
After RJ had mastered a bunch of random Geomancy skills, he asked Tatterhood to spar with him just to see how much he could put to use what he had learned. This turned out to be a very, very bad idea.
What followed could only be described with the term, "a symphony of ass whopping, in G major".
Even when RJ made use of his newly acquired skills like [Rock Shield] and [Rock Armor]in tandem with his [Celestial Bronze Bagua Mirror-Prototype], he was not prepared for Tatterhood's pure brute strength.
On the plus side, he did learn [Earth Swim] after being literally planted into the ground a few times.
"Now then", Tatterhood began as she sat by RJ, "Any idea which of the storied you want to go after"?
"Probably the one closest to us, the one by the Pier".
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[Note: The following dialogue is technically in Spanish, but has been partially translated for convience].
Meanwhile, at the aforementioned Pier.
"Los hijo de puta! I'm dead?!", he wailed as he stared at the skeletal face staring back at him.
Staring into a mirror was a human skeleton with blue flames for eyes, dressed in a black mariachi outfit complete with a Panama style hat and a guitar slinged on his back.
To make sure he wasn't going insane, he poked and prodded at his exposed bones and eye sockets. During his self-examination, he ended up knocking loose his head.
"Ay!", he exclaimed as he caught his loose skull.
"I guess that explains how I managed to make it out of the bottom of the bay...and swim back here... Ay dios mios, I know I don't have a brain now, but I at least should have realized it when I got to shore at least", he muttered as he reattached his skull, "at least I'm not nak-wait...why is no one freaking out"?
"Look mommy! A mirror maze"!
"Que? Gya"!
The ghostly skeleton was so enamored with his own thoughts that he failed to notice a child running towards the mirror he was staring at. It was only when the aforementioned physically ran through him that he snapped back to reality.
"Ayyy, that was weird", he complained, "so it appears soy un fantasma...mierda".
As he mentally processed being some type of undead, he sat on a nearby bench and rested his head in his palms.
"Now what do I do? Why am I back? ... Who's Reya"?
{Play}
"Que?! Quien dijo que?!", he exclaimed as he tried to find the source of the voice.
{Take those feelings to your strings and play}, the voice said again.
"My strings?", he replied while grabbing the guitar resting on his back. The guitar he was holding was a matching black color to his suit with silver strings. It looked surprisingly immaculate for something exposed to several miles of seawater.
"But I can't even-".
{You can. Now...play}.
"I...okay", he said as he shifted his position to hold the guitar better. Surprisingly, he did so with the natural grace of a professional.
"Huh...alright, let's try this", he said as he began to play the guitar, filling the air with a sweet yet sad tone. After a few notes, he didn't know why, but he felt compelled to sing.
"I don't know when I am...".
"I don't know how I died...".
"I don't even know my own name...".
"But the one thing I remember is you..."
He didn't know where these words came from, but it felt right for the moment. While he didn't know if anyone could hear him, he didn't seem to care. All he wanted to do right now...was sing.
"I may not recall...a mother, father, sister or brother...but for whatever reason, I still remember you...".
If only he was aware, of the effect his song had on people around him right now.