I winced as the paddle came down hard on my backside, biting my lip so I wouldn't cry out and nearly drew blood. The wounds healed instantaneously just like before, leaving only the memory of the pain. My mother then stripped me of my beautiful, and now too small, clothes and placed me back beside the basket of uncut vegetables.

I was ordered to trim and cut the entire basket of Lamot roots before she retreated to her workshop to do the alterations to my clothes. I plucked one of the roots from the basket, feeling indignant at my treatment.

At least I now had some time to myself, so I decided to investigate my information further. I hadn't dismissed the daily notification to expand my information when it appeared this morning, so I mentally summoned the window to the forefront of my vision.

Would you like to View Your Information?

This message will replay once per day until you have come of age and can call upon the information yourself. This cannot be disabled, only closed temporarily.

View or Close

I mentally chose the 'view' option, and upon doing so I found that there were a few new options available to me. This was most likely due to the fact I had reached more than 65% of my childhood growth. The most important change I found was in the organization of information, and the glorious discovery of Tabs.

The 'tabs' worked similarly to the 'expand' options I had been given up to this point, as well as the system I had attempted to implement before. But now, I could mentally look at and preview all my information without having to stumble into the right screen.

As I kept my hands busy peeling the Lamot roots, I decided to preview the aspect that seemed to keep expanding. My attributes. It was something I needed to understand more, I mentally opened their tab and requested all of the parameters to expand fully. However, before I could review them I got a new notification.

You are now able to set Notifications for Attributes

Would you like to set notifications for your attributes?

Yes or No

Note: You can set notifications for specific Attributes or specific milestones reached

Interesting. I selected 'yes' and began to read through the options. It looked like I was able to set up how I was notified of changes to my attributes. I quickly set it to only receive notifications when a few specific attributes changed or were updated. I was already pretty overwhelmed with notifications. Though they were translucent, even when layered, they still tended to block my view. The fewer I had to deal with the better.

Attributes

Physical 4

Constitution 2: Strength 1- Endurance 1

Dexterity 2: Agility 1 - Perception 1

Mental 2

Wit 2: Cunning 1 - Rhetoric 1

Wisdom 0: Intelligence 0 - Sense 0

Spiritual 2

Chakra 0: Dantian 0 - Prana 0

Soul 2: Will 2 - Psionic 0

New Soul Tip: When you come of age your attributes will stop automatically growing.

Huh, that was interesting. It looked like attributes were funneled into one of three main categories: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual. Under those main three were two subcategories, and each of those 6 subcategories had two of their own subcategories, making a total of 12 attributes. I also noticed that the number beside each subcategory added up to the number beside the category above it.

Strength was 2 Endurance was 1. 2 + 1 = 3 and the number beside Constitution was 3. That meant that attributes that went up on a micro level would affect the attributes on a macro level too. At least that was my assumption. I needed to understand what this information meant and how it actually affected me.

Seeing the number and names pulled at a faint memory, there were games I played where the character had screens of information like this. I remembered that as the character got stronger the numbers would go up, I could also vaguely remember a 'health' bar that would go down if they got injured or sick, and if it emptied the character died. I shook my head, that was ridiculous, this wasn't some silly game. I drew my attention back to my attributes and decided to start with what I assumed would be the easiest to understand. Strength.

Inquiry Accepted

Strength Attribute

The Strength Attribute increases your overall ability to carry/ deal with more weight.

Example Conversions:

1 point of Strength adds a max carry weight of 10

1 point of strength adds 1 point of melee damage

Strength also will unlock additional functions and is required to acquire certain skills, traits, and powers.

Sister Attributes: Endurance

You may not raise Strength higher than 3 times that of the Endurance stat. Doing so will result in a 10% percent penalty to your Endurance Attribute for each point over this limit.

New Soul tip: Please be aware, temporary buffs lasting no longer than 1 hour and equipment are not affected by Sister Rule. You only feel these effects if one stat is 10 times higher than its Sister Stat.

That was a lot of information. I had been hoping that 'strength' would be fairly simple and straightforward and an easy place to start. As I read back over the information some of the terms were eerily familiar, the mention of 'stats', 'points', and 'skills' stirred the memories from earlier. I felt a growing suspicion, accompanied by a slowly building feeling of dread. I held my breath as I made an inquiry about 'health'.

Inquiry Accepted

Health Stat: 5/5

New Soul Tip: Health is subjective and based on several environmental factors that are calculated into a numerical value.

I felt somewhat relieved by the tip, however, I was still extremely annoyed at the whole thing. The world I now inhabited ran on a game-like system, just like the one from my faded memories. From what I could recall that meant there would always be something more powerful than me, and I could easily be killed at any time.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. If I died would I go back to the world I came from? Would I get all of my memories back? Would all of this, be it a dream or reality, end? Part of me felt pained at the idea, despite my rough beginnings, I had started to enjoy life here. I had grown attached to my mother Urana, Sha'ree was sweet and adorable, and I didn't want anything to happen to my brothers.

But part of me wanted to return to the person who kept appearing in my dreams at night. I knew they were important to me. They were my lover, my mate. But their name, their face, and the time we shared together. I couldn't remember any of it. I felt my eyes burn as tears began to well in them, but I stemmed the flow and fought the tide of emotions, pushing them back down. There was so much I didn't know or understand, and there was no guarantee that if I died I would go back to my old life.

For all I knew, everything I was could very well disintegrate to nothing, not even my faded memories left to say I ever existed. A cold shudder ran through me and I banished the thought from my mind. I focused on my work, intently following the knife as I peeled away the vines from the Lamot roots in my hand.

After I had peeled, chopped, and placed it to the side I took a deep breath. I decided to go over my different attributes one at a time, spreading them out over the next day or so. Too much information at once would only overload me and make it harder to absorb it all. I also still had a number of traits to cover as well...

I figured I might as well pull up the list of traits to get an idea of what I was dealing with, before diving in. I selected the 'traits' tab.

Traits List: 10

Not-of-Age [Expand]

Trifecta Soul [Expand]

Breeder of the Swarm [Locked]

Natural Weapons (Lesser) [Locked]

Desolate Forager [Expand]

Scavenger [Expand]

Forgotten Lineage [Locked]

Flesh [Expand]

Mesomorphic [Expand]

Hide (Light) [Expand]

New Soul Tip: When you come of age all locked traits and powers will be available.

New Soul Tip: When you come of age the 'Not of Age Trait' will be removed and Unique and Mythonic Traits/Powers will be granted.

This was interesting, right now I felt that my 'traits' provided a better source of exploration than my 'attributes'. I could take my time looking through my Attributes and gaining a better understanding of them. I could also intersperse that by reviewing my Traits, while there were ten I only had access to seven of them, so it was already less information to deal with than the Attributes. I decided to put my Traits aside for now, and moved on to another category, 'Powers'. This one should be simpler as it only had two listed.

Powers: 2

Call Mother [Ability][Expand]

The Meek's Stealth [Technique][Expand]

New Soul Tip: Once you come of age current powers will be lost.

My curiosity perked at the second power listed, and with a not-insubstantial amount of excitement, I expanded it.

The Meek's Stealth

Qi Cost: 1

Qi Maintenance: 1 per minute

Type: 'Not of Age' Technique

You can hide in places/ spaces normally thought impossible. You are less likely to be found by predators so long as you remain in hiding and are using this technique.

New Soul Tip: As you come of age more features will become available.

I felt a stream of information flooding my mind. I suddenly knew how to traverse an area and not leave a single trace I was there, how to avoid being caught when I moved about, how to figure out if a predator was still nearby or if it was safe, how to cover myself and squeeze into spaces smaller than I was.

This must have been what mother meant when she talked about the differences between us and the Godless. I knew for certain that my rate of survival in dangerous situations was far higher than it had been just moments ago. I decided that I would inspect every power I gained from now on, if all of them provided this same instantaneous knowledge and skill sets, they would be invaluable in helping me survive in this world.

'And who knows,' I thought to myself, 'they might even help me better understand what's going on with these memories and my past life,' I did feel a strong temptation to ask my mother about these things, but something deep inside me like some sort of instinct told me that doing so would be a serious mistake. I thought back to our conversation the other day, where she had asked if I was some other creature in disguise, what did she call them? A Vatrak. . .

It suddenly hit me that the 'new soul tip' under 'the meek's stealth' was not the same as the one in my 'powers' tab. I realized that must have meant that this power wouldn't disappear when I 'came of age', there must have been more to the power as I got older. I looked up and realized it was about midday and all of the Lamot roots were now peeled. It looked like mother was still fiddling with my clothes in the workshop, and as I didn't have anything else to do I decided now was as good a time as any to look over my Traits.