A few days later, I found myself sparring with Noah. Or more accurately, getting my ass handed to me by Noah. Even my [Far Reach] trump card didn't phase him, despite Freya swearing that she hadn't warned him beforehand. I guess this was the difference between someone physically specialised compared to a mage who just happened to have a weapon proficiency. Not that the effort was wasted for either of us.

Dexterity increased by 1

Skill [Minor Slow] advanced to level 5

Not a huge amount compared to my bout with Freya, but this was definitely into 'I stood no hope' territory, with the accompanying levelling penalty. As for the reason Noah was being so cooperative, apparently Freya had forced him into learning chess and he'd managed to gain two points of intelligence from it. He had an important skill that consumed mana, so the boost to his mana pool was very valuable to him.

Cluma was watching from the side with rapt attention while clutching her toy daggers, and for possibly the first time in her life was silent and still. Camus was standing behind her, looking unhappy. I got the distinct impression he was against this, but had been emotionally blackmailed into it by Cluma. It was amazing how manipulative a small child could be.

Noah had Cluma attack me next. She didn't have a weapon skill yet, but she was fast. If she only had the one dagger, it would have been bearable, my weapon skill compensating for her speed. With two, it was physically impossible to block both, and I was forced to dodge. Throwing spells into the mix would have let me overcome her, but my mana wouldn't last and was already largely spent on Noah. Instead, I attempted a trick Freya had suggested; watching Cluma with [Mana Sense], watching how the flow changed momentarily before her muscles flexed and using the extra info to boost my reactions. It failed horribly, letting Cluma get a good blow in on my side. It turned out that trying to integrate a whole new sense into a fighting style for the very first time while in the middle of combat didn't work too well, plus my [Mana Sense] was less detailed than Freya's [Mana Perception] and probably wasn't up to the task, anyway.

"I won!"

I climbed back up for a rematch. This time I didn't try to react based on the mana and just observed it, while doing my best to dodge and parry. While I could force the fight into a stalemate, I knew my stamina would drain faster than Cluma's. Before it dipped too far, I lined up a [Far Reach] and swept Cluma's legs out from under her. She may have seen me use it in games, but never with a weapon, so I was able to catch her by surprise. It probably wouldn't work a second time, but at least I would win one point.

"Cheat!"

"You can dodge me when I do that in tag though."

Cluma stood back up and came at me again, but this time was different. She wasn't faster, but her swings were more efficient with less wasted movement, and the blows far more accurate. I was immediately forced onto the defensive, using [Far Step] to dodge. A blow with [Far Reach] was evaded, and my mana was too low for any other spells. The match was ended seconds later when I failed to parry a stab and she caught me full in the chest. I gave a little moan from my position on the ground.

"You just bought the skill, didn't you?"

"Mmm! My win!"

ding

Endurance increased by 1

Skill [Mana Sense] advanced to level 10

Skill [Far Reach] advanced to level 8

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] advanced to level 5

I got a nice crop of skill gains at least. Also, [Mana Sense] hit ten. Did that mean I could buy [Mana Perception]?

Skills available for purchase:

1 point: [Basic Cooking] [Basic Tailoring] [Foraging] [Basic Farming] [Enlarged Stamina Pool] [Basic Smithing] [Weapon Proficiency: Dagger]

Nope, nothing new in there. I must need a rank two mage class for [Mana Perception]. I would still have needed another soul point for it, anyway.

I withdrew to the sidelines while Cluma sparred with Noah. Camus was watching on in silence. I wasn't sure what to say to him, if anything at all, but settled on, "Be proud of her."

"I am. I'm also frightened for her."

Fair enough. I wanted to meditate to recover my pools, but I couldn't do that and watch at the same time. Watching this sparring was educational all on its own, so I kept my eyes and [Mana Sense] fixed on it. What I wanted next was a list of all the rank one skills I could learn, to find out if I was missing anything useful. In particular, there was the whole covert category I never knew existed. Was there anything in there I could get?

Noah suddenly wasn't there. I didn't see him vanish or disappear; I had been looking straight at him, glanced at Cluma for a moment, and when I went to look back, I couldn't find him. What did he just do? Was that high-speed movement? Teleportation? Invisibility? I looked around with [Mana Sense] and there was... something. There was a disturbance, but however hard I tried, I couldn't locate it. Cluma was looking around, equally confused, then she stopped and closed her eyes. I saw her ears twitch before she struck out to the side. She didn't hit anything and Noah suddenly popped into existence, a wooden dagger pressed against Cluma's throat.

"You were close. You did well to use other senses, but remember that I know the weaknesses of my own skills and will be trying to compensate. In that case, I deliberately stepped on a twig that wasn't quite in my path to mislead you as to my trajectory."

Good advice, but a bit advanced for a four-year-old, in my opinion. But whatever skill that was had been awesome, and I wanted it, even if just for the coolness value. Given Cluma's hearing and my [Mana Sense] I doubted it would be completely effective on anyone or anything with decent non-visual senses, but it would be great for showing off. Which reminded me, I still hadn't managed to replicate Kari's dancing flames either, or whatever my equivalent would be given my attuned affinities. I still had much to do.

Noah seemed to be trying to push Cluma to the point of exhaustion, which sounded like a futile plan to me. I should probably have warned him, but it was more fun to watch realisation slowly dawn on him that Cluma was going to be able to keep this up forever. In the end, he was the one who gave up first.

"Sheesh, how much stamina does she have?"

"No idea. I've never seen her run out."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Noah was looking at Camus with some combination of pity and respect. "That must be... tiring."

"You have no idea..."

I grinned. Cluma herself was still running around the field excitedly.

"Well, she's learnt her dagger skill. She can level it by sparring, but there're no other skills to learn without changing classes."

"It's a skill for self defence only. She's not going to be taking a combat class."

ding

For your efforts to uncover the secrets of combat, [Researcher] awards 2 soul points.

Noah furrowed his brows but refrained from saying anything, ending our training session for the day. Over the next few days, I had time to ask more questions, discovering that yes, delving was indeed a dangerous occupation. It had a ten to twenty percent casualty rate for delvers in their first year. It declined steeply after that, but even veterans could run into an unexpected bad situation and no-one ever set foot into a dungeon arrogantly. Or at least, not for long.

Another week later, the guard shift of Freya and Noah ended, and their replacements arrived. These weren't here for a two-week shift, but indefinitely. They were ex-delvers who had quit after the rest of their party were killed, and the guild master had suggested they retire here to a nice peaceful village where they wouldn't see painful reminders of the dungeon.

Angus, Human, Scout (2/22)

Warren, Human, Warrior (?/?)

Angus was broken. Warren called it survivors' guilt; Angus blamed himself, the team's scout, for failing to notice an ambush. Given his level, he obviously had little experience as either a scout or a [Scout], so a team relying on him completely would have been foolhardy. The team captain was convinced that on the floor of the dungeon they were delving, they could beat anything even if they did run into an ambush, and had proceeded incautiously. He was wrong, and only the two fastest sprinters in the team had escaped, running away as the dying screams of their friends echoed around them. Warren blamed the captain and viewed Angus as just as much of a victim as the other two party members, their healer and offensive mage.

I remembered the words of Clana last year; 'spare a thought for the feelings of those you'd leave behind'. I'd assumed she was talking about my friends and family outside. I'd never even thought about members of a delving party who might have survived.

For obvious reasons, Warren was loath to talk about delving as an occupation, or even share his advice on skills and titles. He bought the farming skill and carved out a small field for himself. I didn't even try to ask Angus; I wasn't that insensitive. Having just switched class and bought its new available skills, he didn't have the soul points remaining to buy a craft skill, nor could he level his scout class or carry out class related feats to earn more. He was stuck, and spent his days just sitting around and looking like a zombie. Camus was a regular visitor, saying little but always being there. I had more than enough clues now to guess at his backstory. For a brainwashed utopia, this place really had some messed up stuff going on.

Spring turned into summer, and my fifth birthday came around. It was time for my next promised visit to Dawnhold, but with the visit of Freya and Noah, my reasons for wanting to go had dried up. Another visit to the library would have been nice, but it was in his house. Screw that.

Cluma started carrying her toy daggers with her everywhere, but fortunately didn't try turning games of tag into any sort of murder-fest. She did insist on regular sparring with me though, which only ever lasted until my mana ran out. Given the short duration of my buffs, that wasn't very long at all. There was no denying that in a straight up fight she'd beat me, even if I started with full pools. Highly annoying, given that she was younger than me and that I had a supposedly unbalanced set of traits and title. At least she gave consolatory hugs after each of my losses. She would always be a hugger. I'd bet my poorly made staff she had a trait for it, even.

[Meditation] hit level ten, and unlike [Mana Sense] this did give new skills.

[Enhanced Mana Recovery] - You naturally regenerate mana faster than others. Rate increases with level. (Rank 2)

[Enhanced Stamina Recovery] - You naturally regenerate stamina faster than others. Rate increases with level. (Rank 2)

Kari had informed me that the effect was ten percent per level and was multiplicative with [Meditation], which made these skills very valuable. I immediately bought the skill for mana recovery. Stamina would have to wait, given the cost.

Time continued to pass without anything of interest happening. [Researcher] kicked in again, and I had no more rank two skills I wanted to buy before switching class, so I bought [Basic Smithing] and [Enlarged Stamina Pool]. That let me spend some time in the forge helping out Remous, which in turn led to Dad getting grumpy and asking why I never wanted to help him out. Sorry Dad, but even if delvers and dungeons weren't a thing, I still wouldn't want to be a farmer. I enjoyed crafting more.

Now that my [Basic Carpentry] was higher level, I took the time to complete my earlier experiment, carving more sticks of wood the exact same thickness as my earlier ones, then snapping them all in turn. My freshly made sticks were all tougher to break than the originals. I couldn't completely rule out that the older sticks had weakened over time, but the balance of evidence was pointing to [Basic Carpentry] having effects that were not grounded in physics. A theory that gained even more evidence when I asked Dad to carve a few sticks, which turned out to be tougher again. It was unsurprising that people never considered doing things without skills then; someone who learnt how to carve wood the hard way would always produce inferior products to someone with the skill.

Eventually, my seventh birthday came and went, and the season rolled into winter. I was sitting on the cusp of full-blown mage-hood, but hadn't quite managed the final level; levelling had slowed significantly with the peaceful village life over the past couple of years. I still had three more skills to go for [Skilled], but I had three more at nine so I wasn't far off. In the worst case, I could just sit at level ten for a bit before taking my next class; fantasising about a higher rank version of [Mana Finesse] going over the normal level cap and bringing spell costs down to zero had convinced me I wanted the title.

Name: Peter

Species: Human

Class: Apprentice Mage (Level 9)

Soul Points: 4

Health: 16/16

Stamina: 22/22

Mana: 39.60/39.60

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Endurance: 11

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 14

Skills: [Inspection 10] [Mana Sense 10] [Meditation 10] [Enlarged Mana Pool 8] [Mana Control 8] [Minor Strength 10] [Far Step 10] [Minor Speed 10] [Mana Finesse 9] [Privacy 3] [Appraisal 6] [Minor Dexterity 9] [Minor Endurance 8] [Minor Intelligence 8] [Minor Wisdom 7] [Minor Charisma 8] [Far Reach 10] [Minor Slow 9] [Weapon Proficiency: Staff 7] [Basic Carpentry 6] [Enhanced Mana Recovery 4] [Basic Smithing 4] [Enlarged Stamina Pool 4]

Traits: [Abnormal Soul] [Early Bloomer] [Researcher] [Xenophilia]

Titles: [Jack of All Trades]

Cluma's seventh birthday was coming up, and I had been tasked with keeping her occupied while Camus and Clana cooked up a surprise party. Literally, in Clana's case; she had advanced her class to [Expert Cook] and her cooking had suddenly got... esoteric. Cluma was still every bit as hyperactive now as she had been as a toddler, albeit a touch better behaved and lower volumed, so the job promised to be tiring. I'd made it a challenge to myself to earn her the [Jack of All Trades] title, and the next skills on my list were [Inspection] and [Foraging], so today we'd visit the forest. It was rare for the weather to be good enough to get the opportunity in winter, so it would be an interesting day out. In a slight nod to the season, I did at least grab my staff; despite a lack of anything to bash with it, it made for a good walking aid on muddy ground.

Village life was simple, but still enjoyable. I had no current complaints about my life in this new world, and even the mysterious brainwashing had been pushed to the back of my mind over the past couple of years. Perhaps I was living in denial to some extent by closing myself off in the village and never returning to Dawnhold, but I could justify it to myself as keeping my promise to Mum to not do anything dangerous until coming of age. I looked forward to yet another peaceful day, however exhausting, with Clana's cooking waiting for me on my return.