Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos - Volume 1

Chapter 16. Cinderielle.

A woman with fiery red hair and beautiful orange-colored eyes was seen walking down the street. She was wearing a beautiful red dress, and her steps were light and cheery.

She was currently walking toward the school, and today was the initiation day. Usually, Sylvans and Humans waited until they were 18 to gain their first points of Experience and become Level 1.

This ceremony was meaningful because one would know if they were apt to become someone important.

Fortuna City, where the 18-year-old lived, had many prestigious schools. However, to enter the top-notch ones, one needed to be talented. Moreover, more often than not, Sylvans and Humans were separated.

Only public schools allowed for mixes to happen. But Sylvans attending that kind of place was strange because of the innate nobility of their race.

While Sylvans weren't as numerous as humans, they were innately stronger and had longer life spans.

The only limitation of their race was their predetermined paths to build themselves up. Each Sylvan was blessed and born with a unique talent. Of course, that didn't mean that they were locked in that path. However, success was almost always guaranteed if they did.

In the case of the red-haired woman, she knew that her talent would be something related to fire.

After all, while she still hasn't become a Level 1, she knew the name of her race. She was a Pyroaether Emberites, a very rare type of Sylvan that specialized in fire control.

The woman passed over a stall at the side and saw herself reflected in a transparent surface.

She had grown a lot since she was little. Now, she was tall, slender, and with a mature face. Even at 18, with traces of her young visage left, it was clear that she would become a striking woman once she reached her mid-twenties.

During these 18 years, she had learned a lot about her own race and the humans. While both races grew up and matured similarly, Sylvans were connected to trees by ancestry. Hence, their middle stages of life were longer thanks to some extra genes coming from those trees.

What was difficult for Sylvans was to have humanoid children. There was a way to sow seeds and make them grow into trees but to create Sylvan offspring, a Sylvan needed one of the two.

First, a human male that was compatible with them. This was not only extremely difficult to find, but also the chances of a Sylvan being born from sexual intercourse were slim and unreliable.

That's why most Sylvans didn't see humans as potential partners. Plus, as a Sylvan, having intercourse with humans was scientifically proven not to be that pleasant.

Her own family made of a human and a Sylvan was rare.

So, if not humans, which were Sylvans' options for mating and creating Sylvan offspring?

Plant creatures or other Sylvans.

While all Sylvans were female, very few were born with an organ to impregnate. It was so rare that only 1 in 100,000 was born this way.

With such a low birth rate for those, Sylvan's last option was flora.

Sylvan's pregnancy worked by fertilizing the seeds in their wombs with a plant's pollen or a compatible sperm. Depending on the species, there were cases of Sylvan planting their seeds in a tree or a flower and allowing them to grow.

However, not all plant beings were appropriate to mate with.

For example, wild trees without thoughts, regular flowers, bushes, etc., are like monkeys are to humans. They might be somewhat similar to humans, but seeing them as sexually attractive was not only frowned upon but also strange. The same happened to Sylvans looking at flora.