I stood in my favourite patch of scrubland, swinging my staff around. I'd probably have to find a new patch soon; I was getting a bit tall for the bushes around here to hide me anymore. Although maybe being seen wouldn't actually be all that embarrassing now; my form with the staff had improved noticeably after my pair of skill level ups, little extra bits of knowledge seeping into my brain about how to swing and how best to balance myself.

"Oh? Do you have a weapon proficiency skill too? Most mages wouldn't bother with that until rank two, if ever."

Huh? Who? I spun around to find Freya, of all people, watching me. Why was she here? The whole party went back to Dawnhold a couple of days ago!

"Nice look of surprise you have there. Given the monster attack on this village, Lord Reid requested that the delvers' guild provide guards. Me and Noah are here for the next two weeks. I hope we can get along."

Her tone of voice saying 'I hope we can get along' made it sound as bad as 'I hope I get to dissect you'. Scary. Hopefully, she was brainwashed... "Say 'the sky is green'. Those exact words."

"Huh? It isn't, though, it's blue."

Phew, I was safe, and now I had a pair of delvers to pile questions onto. "Correct answer. Looks like we'll get along just fine."

"Whu? What's that all about?"

"Hey, I'm not even five years old yet," I answered with a small amount of smugness. "Don't go expecting me to make sense." I was going to miss being able to explain little bits of weirdness away by pointing out that I was only a little kid.

She stared at me in confusion. "Yup, you're an abnormal one alright. Care to spill your secrets? How did you level up so fast?"

"A couple of lucky traits. One for intelligence that let me start helping out around the place early, and another that boosts skill gain at low levels, which in turn boosted my class level. Don't get too jealous; they won't be so overpowered once I pass rank one."

"Aww, is that all? I had hoped for some juicy speed levelling gossip."

"Well, I don't mind sharing what I know if you don't mind answering a few of my questions. Can't guarantee I know anything you don't, though."

"Sure, why not? It's not like I'm going anywhere for a couple of weeks. I have time."

Before I jumped straight in with delver questions, there was something else she said that I wanted clarifying. "Lord Reid sent you? Why? I thought the mana field had been cleared."

"Umm... I don't want to scare you, but Lord Reid was concerned it might have been a deliberate attack on the village. Said something about the monsters attacking 'him', without specifying who 'he' was. Seems a bit silly sending us to protect someone without telling us who we're supposed to protect, but I think he just wants us to ensure the safety of the village in general. It's not as if monsters discriminate."

Well, that was pretty terrifying. I couldn't rule out there being other secrets in this village, but I think there's a pretty good chance that 'he' was me. Which would imply that Lord Reid wanted to protect me, which was nice, and that the world itself was trying to kill me, which was less so. Fortunately, it only threw slimes at us. If next time it's dragons, we're going to be in trouble.

"Then thanks for protecting our village; we don't have any fighters here. To give you the levelling tips that I know of, novelty and meaning are important. When practising a skill, the usage needs to have some meaning, so carving a gift for a person I treasure is far more helpful at levelling my carpentry than carving a detailed model only to destroy it afterwards. That's in addition to difficulty; there's no point trying and failing to carve something that's far beyond my skill, nor creating something that takes ten seconds and no effort. For novelty, it's more helpful to carve a range of different objects than to repeat the same one over and over."

"I can't help but notice that you're talking like you do actually do carving on a regular basis. Don't tell me you have a carpentry skill too?"

"Yup, I made this staff myself. It's not as good as the one my dad made for me, but it's plenty good enough for practice."

"That's too many soul points. You should have fourteen. [Inspection] and [Appraisal] is seven already, [Basic Carpentry] and your weapon proficiency make eleven. You must have [Mana Sense] in order to have got your mage class. That only leaves you with enough for a single spell, not to mention missing [Mana Finesse]. You're spreading yourself too thin. You're sacrificing your abilities as a mage."

When she put it like that, I could see just how much of a cheat [Curious] was. Richard said as much during my first birthday check up. Now I had [Researcher] and [Jack of All Trades], and was seriously broken.

"I have another trait that gives extra soul points. I have the important mage support skills too."

"You... Bah, I was hoping you'd have tips I could copy, but it turns out you just lucked out in the trait department. Although the novelty tip is useful, I'll admit. Maybe clearing the same floors of the same dungeon day in and day out is the reason I'm progressing so slowly. Maybe I can talk Xander into rotating our home base once in a while..."

Stolen novel; please report.

"You can have a mock battle with me if you want. I bet I can use a few strategies you've not seen before. That will probably help us both."

"Not sure I want to help you grow even faster... But sure, why not?"

Awesome. Sparring partner: get!

In our first round, two swings was all it took her to knock me over; her skill and physical stats were significantly greater than mine. In which case... I stood back up, took my stance and activated [Minor Speed] and every body spell simultaneously. My sudden increase in speed and strength took her by surprise, but I still failed in landing a clean strike. I managed to just about hang on until the spells expired, at which point I got knocked clean over again, but honestly I wouldn't have lasted much longer even if my spells hadn't ended.

"So, you're attuned to body affinity. Nice, but you're not going to surpass me with rank one spells."

I stood up again and took my distance. Freya kept an eye on me, obviously not underestimating me and curious as to what I'd try this time. I attempted my signature move, using [Far Reach] to project my staff to the back of her knees. She didn't see it coming at all and buckled as her legs were knocked out from under her. I [Far Step]'d in before she could react and held my staff over her head.

"Not just body, I'm afraid."

ding

Wisdom increased by 1

Skill [Mana Finesse] advanced to level 6

Skill [Far Step] advanced to level 9

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] advanced to level 4

Wow, nice harvest from a single sparring match...

"What the hell was that? Did you just teleport your staff?"

I grinned. Never mind slimes, my little trick successfully caught out a full-blown delver. "[Far Reach]. You can't put much strength behind blows without breaking the spell, but if you catch someone unaware in a soft target like the back of the knees, it's plenty to leave them open for the next hit."

She pulled herself back to her feet. "If I hadn't just got a skill up from that, I'd be annoyed. I should have had [Mana Perception] active. Still, body and space. What an odd combination. Never heard of anyone trying that before."

"Nor me. The library had no information on a complex affinity formed from body and space."

"Yeah, space affinity mages would normally just go straight for [Spatial High Mage] to pick up [Teleport]. Half the logistics of all civilization are based on that one spell, so any mage that learns it can earn shedloads. If you were in an academy rather than a village with no educational facilities, your tutors would be pushing you along that route too."

"There are magic academies? Mostly I've been taught by Kari, one of our village mages, and she's far more interested in doing things for the sake of learning than for actual practicality."

That was a good point, actually. I wonder if Kari had [Curious] or [Researcher]? They would certainly fit her personality, and she did seem to have quite a pile of skills. Although she had completed a rank two class already, so she would have a lot of points anyway...

"Yeah. It's more efficient to teach kids in batches rather than one on one, after all. In Dawnhold, it's more like a general school that sometimes offers magic lessons than a dedicated school for magic."

"Then another pair of questions; what are the categories of skills, and are there any titles you know how to get?"

"First one is easy: Magic, combat, covert, crafts, enhancement and general. Surprised you don't already know that. The second one is valuable information. What're you offering for it?"

I'm sure she'd share everything she knows with me if I told her about my title and traits, never mind soul magic, but I didn't want to do that. "Umm, I'd offer to make you a staff, but it would be so much worse than your current one that there doesn't seem any point. Oh, how about a chess set?"

"What's a chess set?"

"A board game. Good for boosting intelligence. Even Kari got a point from it, and she's already completed a rank two mage class. I'll teach you how to play."

"Oh? That does sound interesting. Fair enough, I know of three titles you can get at rank one. [Victorious Underdog] for solo killing a monster of level ten or higher, [Skilled] for getting five skills to level ten per class you've taken, and the more common [Jack of All Trades] for unlocking twenty-five rank one skills, including at least one of each category. All three of them need to be done before taking a rank two class."

[Victorious Underdog] was out of reach because I wouldn't find a monster of that level before I took [Body Mage], but [Skilled] sounded possible. I only had one maxed out so far, but I had a few more at nine, and spells levelled quickly enough that I'd probably reach it even if I don't try. "That's good info, thanks. What effect does [Skilled] have?"

"Oh, so you really do already have [Jack of All Trades] then. Impressive. And for that bit of info, I'll let you know [Skilled] increases the max level of your skills by two."

Just as I was trying to process her first sentence, she dropped a second bombshell. Skills could grow beyond level ten? Interesting... That was well worth getting then. And how did she know I had [Jack of All Trades]? Oh, I asked about categories in the same sentence as titles, and she knew I have lots of skills, including from most of the categories. I hadn't shown her anything from covert. Maybe that was [Privacy]? In any case, if I didn't already have it, it would have easily been within my reach, so I should have asked about the effect the same time as [Skilled]. Not asking implied I already knew. Touché.

We continued our sparring for a bit, during which I failed to land even a single clean blow now that I'd revealed my trump card, before heading back to the village to hand over my chess set. It wouldn't be a great loss; my [Basic Carpentry] had levelled a couple of times since I made it, so I could do a better job at making a new one now. I should also introduce her to Kari at some point; I'm sure the two would find plenty to talk about. Actually... Speaking of introducing one to another...

"There's another talented kid in this village who would quite like to learn how to handle daggers. Would Noah be interested in a bit of teaching? She's a catkin like him, a little younger than me, not particularly gifted in mental stats but physical stats that leave me in the dust even with my reinforcement magic."

"Noah is a bit... professional. He won't accept distractions while on the job. It'll be difficult to convince him, but it won't hurt to ask."

"Peter!"

Oh, speak of the devil... When was the last time I actually managed to walk into my front door without being tackled? My mana was too low after our sparring for reinforcement magic. Even [Far Step] would be a strain. Magical options exhausted, I ducked. That caught Cluma by complete surprise, and she went flying over my head.

"You dodged again!"

How did she land on her feet even after that dive? And people call me a cheat... She stood up, and I let her hug me this time now that she wasn't quite so ballistic.

"Cluma, meet Freya, Freya, meet Cluma, the catkin I was just talking about. And if he wants compensation, I can spar with him for a bit. Sparring with new people can help levelling, after all."

"She is certainly... energetic."

"Energetic!" agreed Cluma, releasing me and zooming back down the street.

I spent the evening teaching Freya chess. I managed to win, although at the rate she was learning, the next game would be a struggle. Pesky intelligence stat.