“Count Argold! Countess Argold! The Late Count Argold! Heir Argold” The usher announced us as we entered the hall. It was the night of celebration for the duke’s son reaching majority, and I had arrived with my family at the Bloyde estate. The celebration was taking place in their large grounds, and it was quite a lively affair. There were many servants walking around with various delicacies, musicians were playing music, and many well-dressed nobles were mingling and laughing in groups. My grandfather immediately peeled off to talk with a few of his acquaintances, while my mother and father started going around and greeting the other guests and our allies. My father pointed me over to a place a bit to the side, where a group of children closer to my age were talking.

I took a moment to center myself before walking towards them. This would be my first introduction to noble society, and apart from the children, many of the older nobles would be watching me to learn more of the Argold heir. I had debated with my grandfather and father a bit about what I should show and portray myself as. Showing off all of my talents was of course not going to happen, as that would likely lead to me being targeted by all of the kingdom as a future threat. But I also wouldn’t want to be seen as too weak or stupid as that would hurt our house. Instead, it had been decided that I would use my larger size to portray the image of a physically talented, slightly arrogant and brash, but not very smart child. My Acting would be working overtime, but using it while under the scrutiny of so many people was bound to at least make it level quickly. For those who wouldn’t be fooled by my acting, they will hopefully simply believe me to be smarter and more physically talented than I look, and nothing of my talent for magic should come to light. To help sell this persona, I had a well-made short sword, embedded with expensive gems on the hilt, sheathed on my belt. As I approached the group of kids, I saw one of them who was clearly the center of attention, ruling over their small gaggle. He was around my size, with black hair slicked to the side in a fashionable haircut, a slightly pointy nose, and a lofty gaze as he looked at those surrounding him, as if they were all beneath him. This boy was even more arrogant than I was Acting. He was Cogno Bloyde, Duke Bloyde’s seven-year-old son. He was the Duke’s second son, and between him and the heir was a ten-year-old daughter.

As I approached, they noticed me and all the children moved away, leaving me a straight path to him.

“Cogno Bloyde, well met.” I said with a slight tilt of my head downwards, “I am Rainer Argold, heir of Count Larry Argold”. My father would have to bow when meeting his father in a formal setting, but among children our age, only a small sign of respect was necessary. I was also the heir, while he was only a second son, which meant our social standing wasn’t that far off.

“Well met Rainer. You’re quite a big fellow, aren’t you only four years old? A brute like your father I guess.”

I drew myself up and puffed my chest, with a slight sneer on my face, and said “My father is a great warrior, and I’ll be just like him when I grow up.” I moved my hand towards my sword as I looked at him and then at the others, letting them know I was willing to back up my claims.

“Settle down, settle down” Cogno said and raised both hands peacefully. “I didn’t mean anything bad, there is nothing wrong with being a warrior” he continued while smiling at me. “In any case, I was about to show a magic spell that I learned. Want to watch it?”

“Magic? I guess, let’s see.”

Cogno grinned as everyone turned to look at him, and I took the moment to Inspect him.

Name: Cogno Bloyde

Race: Human

Level: 7

Health: 150/150

Stamina: 90/90

Mana: 150/150

H.Regeneration: 2.08 /hour

S.Regeneration: 90/hour

M.Regeneration: 70/hour

Attributes:

Constitution: 10

Endurance: 9

Intelligence: 10

Strength: 9

Agility: 8

Dexterity: 7

Wisdom: 14

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Charisma: 17

Luck: 20

I couldn’t view his skills, which was surprising, as it meant that he had an item that partly blocked Inspections. While items that allowed their user to Inspect others weren’t that rare among powerful and wealthy people like Dukes and their children, items that blocked inspection were much rarer and harder to find. I myself was wearing one, as were my father and grandfather, but this was very much out of the norm. I was naturally wearing one to hide my vast assortment of skills, as my Resist Inspect was still very low leveled. I could only raise it by having my grandfather use his Inspection items on me, and those had a limited amount of uses a day. My father and grandfather were using them to make it less strange that I was using one, although they would have likely worn one anyways. It would still paint me in a suspicious light, but there was nothing we could do.

For the duke to get one for his son, it meant he may be hiding something. Or perhaps they were just hoping that people would speculate about his skills, and he had nothing special. Most inspection Items were likely unable to see even his attributes behind whatever item he was wearing, but my own skill had surpassed those, and I was able to see his resource pools and attributes. Those at least allowed me to gleam a couple of things about him. He likely had a Tier 2 Ability increasing his luck, as there was no other reason it would be that high, and he also had too many attributes for a level seven child. His level was also quite high for someone his age, which meant either raising a lot of skills, or he had been taken to kill monsters. He had also placed most of his attributes in charisma and wisdom, with some in intelligence and a bit in physical ones. This was about as expected from a young noble with Magical skills.

The discrepancy between his intelligence and constitution to his mana and health likely meant that he had rings like mine, that increased his health and mana by 50. They were likely bought from the same place as mine had been, as there was a famous Adept Tier 2 Enchanter in the capital city who made rings like these. My grandfather had gotten mine through a proxy, so those who were following his purchases wouldn’t realize I had talent in magic, as these rings were famously bought for young nobles. In order to fit the image we were trying to sell, my grandfather had bought me a similar stamina and health ring through more public channels which I was also wearing now.

In this world, in terms of enchanted items, it was possible to wear six rings, two arm bracelets, a neckpiece, two earrings, and a headpiece. I wasn’t close yet to that limit and knew that my grandfather planned to gift me some items once I Unlocked, focusing mainly on mana regeneration, as it was the most important for my training.

I focused my mind on Cogno as he started casting a spell. It took him three seconds, and when he finished, to my surprise, he summoned a Vineling. I shouldn’t be surprised, since it was one of the most common summoning spells, but still, seeing someone else use it was amusing. I absentmindedly Inspected him again to check how much mana it had taken him, and saw that he was down only 60 mana, compared to the 75 it should normally cost. I wondered if this was some special skill, an item, or an Ability. I also Inspected the Vineling to see how strong it was. The original spell summoned a level 6 Vineling, and every level in earth magic added 1% to the strength of earth spells, so seeing how strong the Vineling was would indicate how high his skill level was, assuming he had no items or abilities boosting it. If he had just cast a different earth spell, comparing its strength to what it was supposed to be would have been much more difficult.

The Vineling was level 7, and comparing it’s attributes with my memories of casting the spell as my earth magic leveled, I estimated his skill level to be around 20, perhaps a bit less. While this may seem low compared to me, since I had already become a Journeyman of Earth Magic, I had access to an Adept instructor, though he may also have that, trained likely much more than he did and in much harsher conditions, and definitely had a higher affinity than he did. Even if he started with 100% affinity, at Journeyman he would probably have less than 80% affinity while I still had 100%. Truly, the more I advanced in my skill the more my Max Skill Affinity Ability shined.

Still, the Vineling and his magic was impressive for his age, and I made sure to ooh and aah with the other kids while staying appropriately arrogant and sure of my superior physical might. The night passed like that, with us children showing off to each other while Cogno played the little ruler. There were a couple of children who were sons of counts and who also hung with me and Cogno. The other’s, children of barons and knights, mostly stayed quiet while their social betters talked. I eventually showed off with my sword a bit, though I made sure to not show my full skill.

After a couple of hours, a small arena was formed, and some of the men in attendance sparred there. Sparring in such a situation wasn’t befitting of a high ranking noble, so those that sparred were mainly Knights who were showing of their skills, and the children of the higher-ranking nobles which were old enough to spar but young enough for it to not be frowned upon.

It was entertaining and with such a wild collection of nobles, there were some very proficient fighters present. While no Master or people who had reached Tier 2 stepped on the stage, there were a couple of Adepts who showed off. There was also a time in which they allowed slightly younger people to show their skill, and the Duke’s heir made a reasonable showing of himself, sparring with those around his age and beating most of them quite easily. I assumed he was at least a Journeyman with the sword, although naturally Inspect returned nothing when used on him. He was both higher leveled than me and likely and had an even better item protecting him than his brother Cogno.

Eventually the day ended, and we made our way back to our estate. On the way my grandfather and father asked me a bit about what I had done and who I had talked with, and I shared with them my findings on the cost of Cogno’s spell and his skill level. They also shared with me and with each other some of what they had learned and gleamed from the other nobles, new alliances and feuds that seemed to have come up. Eventually we reached the estate and headed off to sleep. Tomorrow my mother would head back to our home, grandfather and I would stay in the city for another month for my training and for him to run his businesses, and father would be taking some of our retainers with him to a Dungeon a day’s walk from here to delve for a couple of weeks.

It would be a busy month for me, with both my grandfather and Vesper eager to train me, but I was looking forward to it. Although these days of rest had been a nice break, not training and casting spells all day had been a strange feeling, and despite all the new skills I had learned, I felt like I was stuck and wasn’t advancing. I looked forward to getting back to training and advancing myself.