"Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it."

Yo Yo Ma

I found myself being rather nostalgic this month. Remembering all the things I used to have and might be forever out of my reach here. No TV for starters althouth that might not be a bad thing. Less time spent procrastinating!

Hardly any books here. Although I am rectifying that with my mental library.

What I'm really missing though, is my music. There was never a day without some form of music. From Renaissance to Romantic, Big Band to Brass Band, Punk to Pop. I would always be listening to something. If not listening and humming along then I would be playing.

So after playing around in my mind until I had a mental model of a piano. More a set of keys than an actual working model. Looking inside the lid I have strings and hammers to hit them with but no actual memory of the action parts within that it is more of magical construct than a practical one. I wonder if they've invented the piano or harpsichord here.

Either way after an hour of piano practice I now have a new discovery.

My mind fortress has been useful to level up skills that I had already gained from real world practice. However this last two months, I have discovered it can also be used to gain them in the first place. Especially if I already used to be able to do them in my previous life.

This is how I am going to maintain the same sort of speed of growth as those first few easy levels. When in reality I'm so much further along the exponential curve. Especially whilst maintaining the pretence that I am more or less a normal baby if somewhat advanced.

These last two months, I have added several new skills, through the use of my mind fortress. This does mean that my skill list is getting a little unwieldy. Will have to look at a way to tidy that up on my status wall somehow.

Each skill has still required an hour to get the initial level in but after that I am able to replicate the process in the other rooms. My favourite replication is the little automatic piano's I have created playing in each room! At this rate I will have to have a little mini orchestra playing sometime soon.

Anyway focusing on my music in my mind fortress and practicing some of the skills I used to have in my earlier life I have managed to acheive a lot. The Tier 1 musical skills that I have added to Humming (Lv10) are, Whistling (Lv 10) Singing (Lv 10) and Drumming (Lv 10) for a total of 4000 experience points. I've had many jobs over my lifetime one of which was a music teacher for a couple of years, so easy to recall and rebuild these skills.

At Tier 2 I have gained Piano (Lv 10), Violin (Lv 10), Trombone (Lv 10), Saxophone (Lv 10) for a total of 8000 experience points. These were a little harder to acheive never being a particularly good Violinist or Saxophone player. But the great about this system is that once you have acheived something once it helps remember it for you. Still takes hard work and focus to level up but you don't lose your progress while switching between the different instruments.

I am the music man!

What can you play?

As much as I can remember. This has also been fantastic for my origin experience as my imaginary fingers have been able to recall far more tunes once I get the first couple of notes down. Helping to level up recall, memorisation and composition at the same time.

. . .

Meanwhile in the real world, life moves on slowly. Particularly because it is becoming increasingly obvious that we are in a pre industrial society here by the lake. Lake Town? Still haven't cracked the language although beginning to understand different words for different things.

My mother still weaves and sings. Father still sails, fishes and half drowns me on the weekends. My Nemesis is still responsible for keeping me safe and catching me before I can escape anywhere.

But I have a new weapon in my arsenal now.

I can walk and I'm only a quick step away from running. In my old world babies would generally start crawling around 4 months and walking around 6 months at the earliest. The fact that I managed it at 1 month and 4 months shows I'm ahead of the curve but hopefully not too exceptionally so.

Still it means that I can move a lot faster and . . .

Doh . . .

I've been caught again.

I may have wriggled out of the womb, escaped the swaddling, broken out of the box but I am still regularly defeated by the door. Sadly standing at just over half a meter in height. I struggle to reach the latch on the exit.

I seem to be growing slowly?

In height at least.

My stats are still improving as I grow and I'm hoping I won't become a dwarf. I believe it has something to do with the trait I received when my vitality reached 100 and my health hit 1000.

Health reached 1000 before age 1 awarded the trait Long Lived.

It was a bit of a shock.

The only time the system has spoken to me other than the inital Sychronisation and any time I try to allocate my free points.

It still says.

Status locked for 156 months

Still moving on it seems that reaching a 100 in a stat before turning 1 is a milestone worth reaching for. Mind should get there soon enough and doubt I would be able to get there for any of the physical stats but it might be possible for Senses or Magic.

Good news as I have hit Level 3 on my false status it gives me twice as long to pretend to be a level 3 in comparison to when I was a Level 2. Unless there are some unforseen circumstances. So far though our routine continues and no one seems to be judging my level and stats or reallocating them.

I've added an extra stat or two to my false status in line with my humming and swimming skills levelling. But still need to find another baby to play with in order to compare our strength, speed etc.

Name: Kai

Level: 3 Experience: (100/800)

Health: 220/220 Stamina: 147/147 Mana: 110/110

Vitality: 22

Endurances:11

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 11

Senses: 11

Mind: 11

Clarity: 11

Magic: 11

Free Points: 20

Skills: Humming (Lv 4) Swimming (Lv 2)

Skill experience: 200

Still happy to say that all that mental musical practice of mine has paid off in experience gain earning enough to finally reach Level 9!

Yes!

10 Free Points, can't use them yet but that should cover up to 20 points being added anwhere across my false status provided it's divided between two stats if it is added to my physical ones.

Only 102,400 required to read Level 10.

I did squish another 90 ants over the last two months. But it was more to round out my experience back to 100 again than for the experience. My mother and sister dislike me doing it and promptly stop and scold me for it whenever it happens.

However I promptly messed up my nice round number of how much experience I had with a new discovery.

Crafting experience!

They have a drop spindle here. I doubt they thought I could do anything with it simply giving it to me in an attempt give me something to do rather than trying to escape all the time.

Which I will still be attempting. It might be time for another tantrum if I can't get out on my own at this rate.

Anyway I had been watching them with the washing, carding of the wool as well as the spinning so know how to use it. When I had a go with it myself I discovered if you can produce a metre of thread. It was worth another 10 experience but this time Crafting experience.

So I am back to having a random 10 experience added on to my total experience. I find it particularly frustrating but at least it isn't a single digit like I had to suffer with the ants and their initial value.

Maybe like the Elves in the shoemaker story I could creep out of bed and make some more. Unfortunately my hopes at becoming an Ninja baby are progressing slowly as I don't yet have the climbing skills required to get around the house quietly.

My high stamina still gives me plenty of awake time each day and night. But I spend my daytimes pretending to nap and working in my mind fortress, while I spend my night's when they are asleep working on my mana skills.

True Status

Level: 9

Name: Kai

Experience: 14,610/ 102,400

Age: 4 month 2 week 4 days 12 hr 10 min

Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 433/433 Mana: 300/300

Trait: Long lived

Vitality: 100

Endurance: 15

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 15

Senses: 36

Mind: 93

Clarity: 27

Magic: 30

Free Points: 10

Skills: Time sense (LV 14) Listening (LV 13) Meditation (LV 13) Sense Mana (LV 13) Swimming (LV 13) Eavesdrop (LV 13) Memorisation (LV 13) Echolocation (LV 13) Recall (Lv13) Composition (Lv 13) Mind fortress (Lv 13) Expel Mana (Lv 12) Absorb Mana (Lv 12) Mana Drain (Lv 1) Pain tolerance (Lv 1) Humming (Lv 10) Sneak (Lv 5) Whistling (Lv 10) Singing (Lv 10) and Drumming (Lv 10) Piano (Lv 10), Violin (Lv 10), Trombone (Lv 10), Saxophone (Lv 10)

Skill experience: 22,200

Origin experience: 12,000

Combat experience: 90

Crafting experience: 10

I am the music man

I come from down your way

And I can play

What can you play?

I play piano Pia-pia-pia-no

Pia-no pia-no

Pia-pia-pia-no

Pia-pia-no . . .