[A/N: About the harem part, I'm on the edge. The story could go either way. When I have a harem in mind, I picture MC being like an emperor, main wife Chu Yin, and concubines gained through arranged marriage to build connections and such. Be it between empires with Ur tier talents and so on... but again, I want to know your thoughts. I'm on edge, and I have a lot of time to think about this before something happens. So yeah, share your thoughts.
By the way, MC and Chu Yin are soul mates. I just realized I never planned to explain this... but yeah, if MC didn't spend himself locked away, he would have run into Chu Yin at some point. Yes, even in a timeline where MC ex never cheated, they would have broken up due to reasons... also, I need help coming up with a talent tier above UR. I was thinking UUR, but that doesn't feel right. Maybe MR, standing for mutliversal rare? But again, that talent would pop up soon... lol, I'm spoiling my own story.]
Seth began experimentally playing the instrument, plucking various strings. At first, his playing seemed somewhat random and directionless as he familiarized himself with it. But his mind functioned like a supercomputer, so after he had hit every single string at least once, his enhanced brain instantly calculated and put together countless different ways to play the strings in various combinations to produce entirely different sounds and melodies.
"So tell me, can you turn around?
I need someone to tear me down
Oh, tell me, can you turn around?
But either way
Hold me while you wait
I wish that I were good enough
If only I could wake you up
My love, my love, my love, my love
Won't you stay a while?"
The power of Seth's words, carried by such a wonderfully rich and emotional voice, made everyone listening feel genuinely sad in ways they hadn't expected. Some people in the crowd began picturing themselves standing helplessly before their former loved ones as they lay dying on their bed, forced to say a final goodbye. They imagined holding them close while waiting for death to inevitably take them away forever.
Others vividly pictured themselves desperately reaching out to their ex-partner who had just left them, wishing to be held securely in their arms one more time. They wanted to wait for the pain to heal before finally saying goodbye and moving on with their lives.
"Tell me more, tell me something I don't know
Did we come close to having it all?
If you're gonna waste my time
Let's waste it right
And hold me while you wait
I wish that I was good enough
If only I could wake you up
My love, my love, my love, my love
Won't you stay a while?
I wish you cared a little more
I wish you'd told me this before
My love, my love, my love, my love
Won't you stay a while?
This is you, this is me, this is all we need
Is it true? My faith is shaken, but I still believe
This is you, this is me, this is all we need
So won't you stay a while?" Seth sang, his voice carrying the plea perfectly.
Many people in the gathered crowd began openly crying, tears streaming down their faces. The song's lyrics and emotion hit devastatingly close to home for most of them.
Some cried while remembering their loved ones who had never told them they were suffering from a terminal illness, and they had only found out when it was already far too late to do anything.
Some cried while remembering painful moments when they desperately wanted to be someone important—wanted to be good enough, strong enough, worthy enough—but they simply weren't and could never measure up.
By the time Seth finally finished performing the emotional song, he wore a slight smirk on his face, clearly satisfied as he observed how profoundly sad the atmosphere had become. The whole crowd stood there in various states of tears, completely lost in their own painful memories, which now had this haunting music playing in the background of their recollections.
"I originally wanted to play 'Someone You Loved' instead," Seth said casually while standing up and preparing to walk off the stage.
After his own heart and soul had been brutally crushed long ago by betrayal, music had become his primary way of healing and processing those emotions. To this very day, he still couldn't listen to the song "Someone You Loved" without feeling that same sharp pain return. That was the true power of music—its ability to permanently connect itself to memories and emotions.
"W-wait! Please wait!" Alara cried out desperately, her voice cracking with emotion.
Seth paused and turned to look at her, only to stop completely when he saw that she was standing there openly in tears, her face wet and her eyes red.
"That was the most beautiful and moving song I have ever heard in my entire life," Alara said with complete sincerity. "Please, I'm begging you to teach me everything you know. Bless me with your vast magical musical wisdom."
She looked at him with pleading, desperate eyes. Seth's face involuntarily twisted into a visible look of disgust at the request. If a beautiful woman was constantly around him, singing emotional songs together, there was a legitimately high likelihood that something inappropriate could happen between them.
And Seth absolutely refused to even put himself in such a potentially compromising position. Sure, he would say nothing like that would happen. But Seth knew cheating could just happen in the moment. Why would he open the door for such an opportunity to happen?
"Please, train me! I promise I'm a very quick learner," she continued pleading, her voice growing more desperate. "Just give me the chance, and I promise I shall not disappoint you or waste your time."
To emphasize her absolute sincerity, she suddenly fell to her knees directly before Seth, then slammed her forehead against the hard floor in a gesture of complete submission and respect.
"..." Seth remained silent for a long moment, using his enhanced sight to examine her talent information.
Her talent was called Sky Song—a musical talent focused entirely on using songs and sound as both art and weapon. He frowned thoughtfully as he considered the implications. What would actually happen if he helped her break through the natural limit of musical ability? Would her talent evolve into something greater and more powerful? Or would her talent remain permanently capped at its current level without her obtaining some kind of rare outside resources specifically designed to upgrade talents?
{Name: [Alara Moonshine]
Race: [Dark Elf]
Talent: [Sky Song (B Tier)
Title: [Best Singer Of the Moon Light Empire]
Tier: 8 Tier (23.283/25,000,000,000 XP)
Combat Power: 200,000 (+25% with Gear)
"Fine, I'll do it," Seth finally said with a resigned sigh. "Training sessions will start tomorrow morning at that building over there. Be fully clothed, and no funny business"
He pointed directly towards the treehouse that served as his temporary home in this city. Alara nodded quickly and enthusiastically, her eyes shining bright with genuine excitement at the incredible opportunity being presented to her.
Music was her entire life and purpose, and to suddenly discover such a vast, completely new world of musical possibilities that she'd never even imagined existed was absolutely thrilling.
Seth left her kneeling there and went on with the rest of his day, continuing to explore various parts of the city and observe elven culture. But he quickly grew bored with the extremely limited amount of entertainment options available to occupy his time. He was used to watching anime, reading manga, playing video games, and engaging with all sorts of modern technology. Not living amongst what felt like the Stone Age in comparison.
So after only a few hours, he returned home early and decided he needed to find something else productive he could do to kill time during these remaining months.
***
The next day arrived, and Alara appeared at his door precisely as soon as morning light broke. Seth invited her inside, then gave her his smartphone and carefully showed her how to navigate the interface and play the music files he had downloaded before leaving Earth. Alara, of course, instantly fell completely in love with the hundreds of different songs he had stored in his music library.
She wasted absolutely no time, immediately going through the entire catalog of songs one by one. She listened intently to each one, trying her absolute best to understand every song's meaning, structure, and emotional delivery so she could learn from them.
Seth, on the other hand, simply focused his time and energy on training his eyes to push them beyond their current capabilities. This was actually a relatively straightforward task in concept.
He simply needed to continuously push his eyes past their natural limit to force them to level up through stress and adaptation. For example, he could focus intensely on trying to see and grasp a vast amount of knowledge at the same time, a task that would push both his visual processing and his mind to their absolute limits.
***
{Name: [Evelin Moonlight]
Race: [Sun Moon Elf]
Talent: [Sun Moon Monarch (SSS Tier)
Title: [The Blessed Child Of the Moon], [Hope of the Sun Moon Empire], [The Blessing Child Of The Sun], [Blessed By The Ancestor]
Tier: 2 Tier (1/10,000,000 XP)
Combat Power: 540,000 (+100% Gear/+100% Within Moon Light Empire/+100% Under Moon and Sun/ ??? WIth Sun and Moon Power)
***
"I now have a base combat power of 4.32 million when all my buffs are calculated together," Evelin said aloud to herself while carefully stepping out of the mystical pool of purified water, her body dripping. "I should theoretically be able to more than double my combat power when I properly channel the combined power of both the sun and moon simultaneously."
She was undeniably powerful now, having achieved a level of strength that most elves could only dream of. But this still wasn't her absolute limit since she could continue training diligently to further increase her combat power over time.