“Come on, Keyla… You don’t want to be late for your own awakening, do you?” Elliot groggily murmured to his sister as he shook her awake. All she did was groan and throw a pillow at him, the soft projectile bouncing off his face. “Leave me alone… We still have an hour before it begins.” “You said that thirty minutes ago, sister.” She groaned and armed herself with another pillow, Elliot valiantly taking the second, fluffy attack. Even as her groans of annoyance echoed around the room, he smiled, looking down at his sister.

They’d grown a bit distant after he turned into a strict child who never left his home, but he still had grown to care for the girl. She had grown quite a lot since he’d come to this world, but to him, she was still just a 14-year-old child. In this world, though, that meant her moment of awakening would come soon. She’d be a complete adult when that happened, which was terrifying for him to come to terms with at his age.

In his past life, his old man had not wanted him to leave the mountains until he turned twenty-one! And even when he begged and pleaded to travel, the old man only allowed him one trip to fight in a tournament. Look where that had gotten him… He smiled as he reminisced about the old days. Fighting with the old man was insightful, but it was nowhere near as fun as barely losing to Keyla. The girl had turned more violent in her attacks, and by proxy, so had he.

The violent demon in his nightmares was right in front of him, struggling to ignore him enough that she’d fall asleep again. He sighed, knowing what he had to do. “I guess that means you don’t need your swor-” Her hands were fast as lightning, grabbing onto the back of his collar before he even made a move to get up. “Touch the sword and die.” Her eyes were full of venom as she said so, but he couldn’t help but grin at the death threat.

She was up, after all.

He went in to help her, earning a disgruntled groan. “I love you too, sister. Can we get going, now?” She gave him another glare but finally gave in, picking herself up from the bed without his assistance. As she got ready, Elliot stared at the sword she’d been given for her awakening, a glistening blade just longer than a shortsword. She’d had it for a couple of days now, but Elliot couldn’t help but still feel drunk at the sight of it. It was high quality, that was for sure. His sister had never let him touch it, though…

As he stared, he hadn’t noticed his sister come up from behind, wrapping her arms around her little brother. “Poor Elliot. Won’t get his real sword for two whole years…” She snaked one of her arms all the way through his flowing, black hair, running her nails across the scalp occasionally as she did so. Her eyes were glazed over as this happened, and her actions became just a tad more deliberate. Elliot didn’t mind, relaxing as he felt the warm skinship. He’d never had a sister in his old life, so he just assumed this was one of the weird things they did. Slowly, Keyla got close, her hands tightening around him just a bit too tight.

He stopped her as her face got close to his ears, though. The last time he let her get that far, he had to call for help to pry her away. “Sister… your awakening ceremony.” “Ah…” Her eyes regained their shine, and she shoved him away in disdain, hurrying out of the room with the excuse to fix herself. He sighed, today would be another rocky day for the two. Family really did have a lot of infighting, didn’t it? At least he could tell she cared for him, in her own sisterly way. He checked his status screen, completing yet another quest.

Name: Elliot Dresmr

Level: 1

Occupation: none

Class: None

Strength: 58

Vitality: 14

Dexterity: 24 (+12)

Agility: 15 (+7)

Intelligence: 63

Wisdom: 14

Charm: 28 (+14)

Luck: 2

Skills: Strength of a Tyrant (Passive), Cunning of a snake (passive) Talent of the Insane (passive) Pk Memory- AA “Elliot Dresmr” (passive, concealed) Swordlust (passive)(active)

Unused stat points: 0

Quest: Wake your sister up for her awakening, this is a big day for her! Watch out for her devilish maw, however… The girl can bite… in more ways than one. You’ll receive one free stat point as a reward.

…

You have completed a quest. You have gained a stat point!

Nice. Without hesitation, Elliot put the point into agility. It had been almost two weeks without a single quest, and he’d been forced to watch as his passive for the skill “swordlust” filed to give him an extra point in agility because of an uneven number. As soon as he saw the number in the parenthesis go to (+8) he sighed in relief.

1 status point have been used on ‘dexterity.’ Because of your skill “Talent of the insane” 1 status point has been added at random.

+1 luck

Oh? He had expected it to fall under the completely useless charm status again, but for the first time since he’d arrived in this world, the point had fallen under ‘luck’. It had been the one point that had remained stagnant for him all these years, both because the skill ‘talent of the insane’ never chose it, and he felt like he had more important things to focus on. It had never affected him in his life, so he never really thought about it.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Elliot! Hurry up! We have twenty minutes!” His mother’s voice echoed across the house. He realized just how long he’d been standing there. “Coming!” He burst out of his sister’s room with an agility that he had never felt in his past life, grabbing the side of the door frame with his light body to spin just enough that he almost felt like he was flying. He jumped down the stairs with a soft thud, sprinting toward the entrance, arms outstretched with a wobbly smile on his face.

Spending points was just so goddamn addicting. Just before his mother opened her mouth to shout again, he skidded in front of her view. “I’m here,” He said, trying to contain his earlier excitement. The boost he’d gotten from two agility points felt amazing. Maybe he’d keep status points in stock for a while… see how much of a rush that’d give him. …Though he knew he didn’t have the willpower for that. Sometimes it’d take weeks, once even a month before he attained a new quest. Each one involved and important event, or something significant in his life.

His life had been pretty dull the past year. He paid no mind to it, though. Progress wasn’t just designated by the numbers on the screen, after all. As they got into the carriage, he couldn’t help but stare at his two family members in front of him. Both had fiery red hair, and looked like a copy of the other. His hair might have been different, and his eyes were round and soft compared to their harsh, beautiful eyes, but he could see himself in them. Specifically, the parts of himself he wished were manlier.

After a while, Keyla noticed his gaze and turned away, probably still mad about earlier. He let out a small sigh, which his mother noticed, giving him a smile and a pinch on his cheek. “You little rascal, how did you turn out so cute. Your father was the definition of a meathead, how you turned out to look like this baffles me.” She was right, He’d never met his father, but he wished he’d developed some of the man’s masculine sides. Despite constantly training with the sword, his arms were soft and malleable, while his face could be called pretty at best, and downright adorable at worst. He had at least wanted to look manlier by cutting off his hair, but when he asked his mother for permission a year ago he noticed her and Keyla visibly pale at the thought.

He had been given no other choice but to keep it. Compared to his past life, his current self would most definitely grow up to look like a lazy, good-for-nothing. At least, that’s what his old man had called the people in the city. Speaking of which, this was quite a memorable moment. He looked out at the town, seeing it for the first time in years. Sure, he had the memories of Elliot to remind him of the outside world, but seeing it unfold before him was something completely different. Something spectacular. He hadn’t been in his best condition the first time he’d been summoned here, but now that he felt comfortable calling this place home?

He watched as two small children laughed as they both struggled to reach for a juggling ball, only for them to accidentally kick it and have it roll forward again, much to their squealing amusement. He watched a burly man grab a crate of apples from a four-legged creature that looked suspiciously like a panda on steroids, putting them aside his shop stand to sell for later. All these people had been living their lives while he trained, and he had no idea how they had led them.

Today he could consider himself to be both 19 and 12 years old. He’d lived in isolation for 17 years in his past life, and two years in this one. It was a completely unforeseen change in his life, but it wasn’t too bad. The feeling of swinging a sword gave him such a sense of comfort that he rarely felt like he needed the attention of others. Even when he did, he always had his sister or his mother to annoy. Though, it would have been fun to talk to these people.

He laughed, wistfully. His eyes sparkled as he continued to watch people live lives he’d never get to see. His mother noticed. “What’s so funny, boy? I don’t recall your sister’s awakening to be amusing.” He kept the smile on his face, his usual fear for his mother replaced with that of overwhelming love. “Nothing, mother… I was just looking at the people who live here. I felt a bit sad knowing I haven’t taken the chance to talk to them.”

“What?” Maribelle raised an eyebrow at his answer, “You’ve met plenty of these people.” Ah, yes… Elliot just waved it off. “Nothing, nevermind. It was just a passing thought.” She looked at him weirdly before shrugging, continuing the peaceful silence. Elliot smiled and continued looking out the window, acting unaware at the intense stare Keyla had given him. It would only bother her if he looked back, he knew so from experience. As such, the carriage continued until we had reached the church, five minutes before the awakening ceremony.

Elliot jumped off the carriage with grace, fixing his clothes. He had worn a light, sleeveless black shirt and a pair of white shorts, focusing on freedom over anything else. His mother and Keyla had also worn something similiar, adding to the idea that they were family. The church had been full of people, and as we walked to the front he couldn’t help but notice eyes on them.

People from all over the town had to wait until their child had become 14 to awaken, but the set time was always at a specific annual date. He hadn't paid attention to what date it was, all he knew was that this was that day. Some children in the area had to wait almost half a year after they’d turn 14, so today was certainly a day to be excited for. Keyla had been born almost a week before the ceremony, however, so she was one of the lucky few to get a class the moment it became available.

“Is that the sword princess?” “That must be her, who else has that kind of flaming hair?” “Then that must be the new sword princess, haha. She looks just like her mother.” “Hah, you’re right about that.” The whispers around them only grew stronger as more and more people caught on as to whom was walking down the hall. Keyla seemed to take the attention rather badly, scowling as she overheard the people.

He wanted to laugh but couldn’t, seeing his sister in such a vulnerable was quite rare. The feeling of happiness was quickly cut down as he suddenly got his own barrage of voices. “Aye, if that’s the new sword princess, then who is the new kid?” “Ah! That’s the sword princess’ son! People say that he shut himself inside the house and never came out.” “He looks… a bit soft for a son of the sword princess, don’t you agree?” He ducked his head low, they were really aiming for his sore spots, huh? “They must spoil him because of his looks, the kid looks like he could stop a killer if he asked nicely.”

He almost tripped up at the last part. Gah, what did they know!? He’d spent so much time practicing the sword, he even did some static strength training at one point to try to develop his muscles. Nothing worked! He kept a smile on his face, but couldn’t help but narrow his eyes a bit, looking ever so slightly malicious. While he meant nothing of it, he had no idea the charm stat worked both to persuade and intimidate. “Gah, why did it suddenly turn cold?” “What do you mean? Nothing has changed… Ugh, wait. you’re right… Let’s sit down.”

Slowly, the whispers around them died down, and Elliot and his family made it to the front seats without trouble. The scene suddenly became silent as a gigantic old man clad in all white stood in front of them, behind a massive podium. “I thank you all for coming, today is a big day for many of you.” He looked at everyone in the room, staying just a tad longer on Keyla and a few other candidates. He cleared his throat as he looked at everyone, eyes resolute. “We will begin the awakening ceremony… At once.”