Chapter 3: The Talk

Rainer swallowed heavily as he stood before the door to his grandfather’s private study. Earlier today, he had been so excited to enter this place. Now, he was shaking, trembling, and sweating, hardly able to knock on the door.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

It sounded oddly loud in his ears.

“Come in Rainer”

I opened the door, closed it behind me, and nervously walked inside. Grandfather was sitting behind his desk, father beside him, and they were smiling kindly at me.

“Come sit, Rainer. Me and your Father would like to ask you some questions.” I nodded as I walked up to the desk and climbed onto the chair. His calm words and smile slightly calmed me.

“Now Rainer, I don’t think we have ever told you about Abilities.” Grandfather began,” Abilities are inherent traits that some people are born with that give them an advantage in certain things. Have you seen your Abilities on your Status?” he asked kindly. The way he explained it, and them asking me if I had ever even seen my abilities, calmed me. This wasn’t an inquisition, and I wasn’t in trouble. As far as they were concerned, I was simply a two-year-old and they wanted to know what my abilities were so they could better help me.

“Yes grandfather, I have read them.” I answered.

“Good. Now your abilities are your most secret and sacred thing. Even more than your level, your attributes, your skills and your affinities, your Abilities are the most important thing that you must never tell anyone. I have activated enchanted objects to stop anyone who may be trying to spy on us from hearing, seeing, or scrying this conversation. So just this once I would like you to read out your Abilities for us. After this, you are never to speak about them, and if you do need to do so tell me first and I can activate these items again.”

“Okay grandfather. My first Ability is Attribute Affinity – Tier Four”

“Okay, go on, tell us everything you read in its description.”

And then Rainer read to them word for word what his ability description was. Even though they were trying to hide it, Rainer could see their excitement. He wouldn’t exactly say they were shocked, as they had likely been expecting him to have a high Tiered Ability, they were clearly very excited by me having a Tier 4 Ability.

He knew that trying to hide this ability would have been impossible and trying to show it as a Tier 3 ability wouldn’t work as it was too strong. The real test would be his next Ability.

“Okay Rainer, what other Abilities do you have?”

“High Skill Affinity – Tier Four. High chance for increased affinity for all skills”. This was the only viable plan I had come up with. Hiding my affinities wouldn’t work, and I didn’t know what the effect of telling them I had a Tier 5 ability would be. Now was the moment of truth? Would they believe me? I had no idea how an Ability like mine but in Tier 4 would sound, so I had guessed as best as I could.

“Now Rainer, there’s no need to lie. Don’t be afraid, tell us what your ability really is.”

I gaped as I stared at my grandfather. No hesitation, no waiting, nothing. He immediately knew I was lying. How? Was it a skill? An item? What did I do now?

“I… Ah…” I mumbled, unsure what to do. I could feel tears start flowing through my eyes. My mind may be that of a grown man, but my body was still two years old, and the anxiety and fear had made me start to cry. Soon I was bawling.

“Of Rainer, don’t cry!” my father said as he stood and walked around the desk, before picking me up and hugging me close to his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

“SHH, SHH” he softly crooned as I sobbed into his shoulder. It had been a while since I had last cried, and it felt like my body was betraying me. I didn’t want to cry, I didn’t feel like I needed to, but my body wasn’t listening. Slowly, I got my sobs under control, and my father urged me:

“Rainer, sweety, I don’t know why you’re so afraid of telling us what your Ability is, but there is no need. It’s only your grandfather and me here, no one else. We just want to help you”. At that moment, all of my reasons for not telling them everything seemed very weak. They were my family; I was the firstborn they were proud of, and they loved me. I would need their help to train anyways, and suddenly hiding it from them seemed foolish.

“It’s called M-Max Skill A-Affinity- Tier F-F-Five” I stuttered, still lightly hiccupping on my words because of my tears and snot. My head was still buried in my father’s shoulder, so I couldn’t see their reactions, but I felt his hand, which had been gently rubbing circles on my back, slightly stop when he heard me say it was Tier Five, before it resumed its movement.

“There, there” he said softly as he continued rubbing my back. “Why don’t you tell us its description, and then any other Abilities you have.” And then I told them everything. It felt good to get it all off my chest, like I had been carrying this weight all this time, afraid they would discover it and do something to me. By the time I was done I only had one secret left – My reincarnation. I still hoped that didn’t come up. How would they react if they learned I wasn’t truly their son, that I had replaced him and I was a fake? I was terrified, and hoped with everything I had that the conversation didn’t go there.

“Thank you for telling us everything, Rainer” grandfather began once I was finished. While I had been talking, my father had sat down in my chair and placed me on his lap, so now I was facing grandfather and was almost at eye level with him.

“Now, for context I should probably tell you a bit about Abilities. The chances for an ability change depending on the species, so what I say will be true mainly for humans, although most other sapient species in our kingdom are very similar. On average, one out of three people has a Tier 1 ability, and they are all generally similar to the two that you have, providing a small increase to an attribute. About one in a thousand has a Tier 2 Ability, one in 100,000 thousand has a Tier 3 ability, and Tier 4 Abilities are very rare. I don’t know the exact number, but in our kingdom of over ten million, there are four known individuals with a Tier 4 Ability, and perhaps another two or three which are hidden. Tier 5 Abilities are regarded as more of a myth, and in all of my travels I have never heard someone even mention having heard of a Tier 5 Ability.”

“There are three ways to get an Ability. The first is to be born with one. Of the abilities you are born with, some are from family traits. Your own Skilled Tamer Ability is identical to the one your father has, and to the one his father had, and his father, and so on. The other Abilities you receive on birth seem random, and although many Scholars have attempted to study this, none have ever found rhyme or reason to this, although it is generally accepted that having parents with powerful Abilities increases the chance of the children having powerful Abilities. The other way is to buy an ability. In your Status, you have likely noticed that you have a line describing your System Points. These points can be used to exchange for an Ability directly from the system. You gain one System Point for every level you achieve, and also one for every ten years you live. Sometimes the System also awards them for System Achievements, and sometimes also for more simple achievements. Ruling a lot of people generally makes the system frequently reward you with Points, which is part of what keeps the nobility and Royal Family in power. Tier one abilities generally cost between 10-30 points depending on what you are trying to get, and Tier two Abilities cost between 50 – 150 Points. I don’t know how much tier 3 Abilities cost, and definitely not Tier four and five ones. The last, and most unlikely way to get an Ability is to be directly rewarded one from the system. This way is extremely rare though, and not much is known about it. “

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I nodded as I absorbed all the information, not missing anything. My grandfather truly was a treasure trove of knowledge. I wondered where he learned all of it? Was some of it written in the books that surrounded us?

“Anyway, now that you know all of this, you should realize how special your situation is. I don’t have any Abilities, and I am currently saving to get a Tier 2 one that can help me.”

My father than spoke from behind me.

“I was born with two Abilities. One is the skilled tamer which you also have, and the other is Large Warrior, a Tier 3 Ability that gives me +1 Constitution, Strength, and free attribute point per level. I have also recently bought a Tier 2 Ability that gives me +20% to Strength.”

“Now, you’ve had a very tiring day, so you should go up to sleep, and remember, never talk with anyone about your Abilities. Even your mother. It is best not to worry her with such things”, grandfather said.

I nodded, and after wishing them a good night I headed upstairs, still in a daze from everything that had happened. I lay in my bed and covered myself with the blankets. This day had been a rollercoaster of emotions, pain, and training. All in all, I think it had gone relatively well, but the training I had done felt like it had been a long, long time ago. I opened my status to see everything again.

Name: Rainer Argold

Race: Human

Level: 1(Locked)

Health: 67/67

Stamina: 71/71

Mana: 73/73

H.Regeneration: 1.4/hour

S.Regeneration: 71/hour

M.Regeneration: 36/hour

Attributes:

Constitution: 3

Endurance: 3

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 4

Agility: 3

Dexterity: 4

Wisdom: 3

Charisma: 4

Luck: 3

Abilities:

Max Skill Affinity(Tier 5): Always have 100% skill affinity for all skills

Attribute Affinity(Tier 4): Increased affinity to attributes. Increased ability to gain attributes from training. Can directly gain resource pool and regeneration from training.

Charismatic(Tier 2): +1 Charisma, +5 Charisma(Locked), +10% skill experience to Social Skills

Skilled Tamer(Tier 2): +10% skill experience to Taming skill, minimum 75% Affinity to Taming Skill

Increased Strength(Tier 1): +1 Strength, + 3 Strength (Locked)

Increased dexterity(Tier 1): +1 Dexterity, +3 Dexterity (Locked)

Skills(skill level, percent to next level, affinity):

Meditation(24,30%,100%), Inspect(6,25%,100%), Acting(8,15%,100%), Unarmed(4,56%,100%), Unarmored(3,54%,100%), Gambling(2,9%,100%), Reading(7,45%,100%), Writing(4,97%,100%), Taming(1,0%,100%), Animal Care(1,23%,100%), Axes(4,24%,100%), Trade(3,12%,100%), Negotiate(1,56%,100%), Light Magic(3,85%,100%), Barter(2,23%,100%), Double cast(1, 2%,100%)

Achievements:

System Points: 1

Revives: 2

I had made incredible achievements today, and especially seeing another Tier 3 skill in my status was very nice. Although I noticed that my light magic skill had started leveling slower. Likely, leveling the skill was harder the more of a gap there was between the spell I was using and the skill’s level. The progress I had made with Axes was frankly astonishing, and showed the incredible advantage of hands on teaching from an Adept.

I was determined to continue with my training, and hoped that my father and grandfather would help push me forwards.

***

Larry watched his son leave the room, reminded again by how young he was when he had to strain to reach the doors handle. He truly acted much older than he was. Larry turned to Victor, his father-in-law.

“Well?”

“Incredible. If I had half his potential…” the man trailed off, leaving the second part unsaid. Indeed, Larry himself could only imagine how powerful he could have become if he had those same abilities.

“Yes, it’s almost enough to make me envy my own son. I think his Attribute Affinity Ability must be why he is growing so fast, although it still feels like he is too grown up. He acts so mature, it’s hard to remember he is only two years old.”

“Yes, I agree. I believe it may also be his Max Skill Affinity. There are many actions in the world that don’t have a System Skill. If his ability also gives him 100% affinity to these “hidden” skills, that could also explain his maturity. Perhaps he has a hidden “Maturing” skill that he is leveling extremely quickly.”

“In any case, it’s time to truly pull all stops in his training. I think you’ll agree with me that he is ready. Mentally, at least, I am sure he will handle whatever we throw at him. I’ll start handling the logistics of having my more skilled men pass through here for a while to teach him. I’ll keep it to those that are sworn to the House. You should start thinking about how to have him silently learn under the crafters of the surrounding villages. The number of Professions he can have if we do this right… he’ll be an absolute terror when he grows up.”

“Yes, it also seems like his Abilities are forcing him into a gradual growth, without rushing. According to what he told us about his Attribute Affinity, he will forever be forced to wait a couple of months in each level in order to maximize his potential. This also means we can’t allow him to fight actual monsters after he unlocks, or he’ll quickly level without getting all the attributes he could have otherwise got.”

“Yes. While that would make training his combat skills more difficult, it shouldn’t be too hard to simulate him the other ways. He seems to take pain and fatigue in stride.”

“Aye. He’s got amazing willpower, even without considering his age. I still can’t believe we are talking about a two-year-old like this.”

“Yes, well, I’ve got some letters to write. You can leave, and call Trent back in while you do so. You should also start working on getting me more grandsons – it seems you and Helina have good luck together.”

“Aye, Good Night” Larry said as he got up and started walking to his room. Maybe there was something about what Victor had said… and besides, spending so much time with Rainer today had made him wish he had another son.