The party had lasted into the night, though Lindle’s memories of it had rapidly blurred the later it had gotten after Madam Holly broke out the mead.

Lindle couldn’t really imagine his own mother challenging him to a drinking game, but apparently, Madam Holly’s sons and daughter were used to it, with him and a big chunk of other guests being dragged into it. When Lindle had looked to his own mother for help she had simply checked that Chip was able to heal him if he got sick and then joined in herself.

His shocked look had been met with a shrug and a declaration that she had been responsible as a mother for nearly 15 years, and now that her child had grown up she was free to celebrate herself. She had also whispered to him that she had already prepared a large stock of hangover cure in advance, anticipating that she’d make a good number of sales tomorrow.

Of course, the alcohol’s potency was scaled to everyone’s respective levels and tiers to keep things fair. He had never been one for drinking, but between his size and alchemically tested constitution, he had pushed his 3 points of Constitution further than was considered possible. He remembered lasting longer than Dorothea, Humphrey, and some of Madam Holly’s sons to some very loud and raucous cheers.

Things had gotten hazy after that, but apparently, he had bowed out a little before Rosato did and promptly passed out. He had learned that in the end it had come down to his mother and Madam Holly, with the elder winning by a shockingly small margin to her own delight.

Lindle wasn’t sure how he should feel about the fond way his mother recounted the rest of the night running rampant with the elder as she made him breakfast and a hangover cure, the idea of Madam Holly and his mom becoming friends sent a shiver down his spine.

The looks on various people’s faces who had shown up later to purchase hangover cures, proving his mom’s prediction right, did not reassure him either.

He had resettled into his routine of training with Nothing, with some added additions. Madam Holly showed up to his house a few days after the ceremony, where she had a friendly conversation with his mom and then dragged him out to the training grounds. He had assumed he would finish his training with [Flow] on his own, but she had fully burst out laughing in his face when he said so, telling him that they would be doing this every few days for the next month. No one she had decided to train ever got away with just a single off-the-cuff lesson. Even when Lindle had learned it well enough for the Technique to appear in his status screen, she had moved on to teaching him just the Technique to more… practical training.

With a non-combat class he would have practically no direct combat-oriented skills to defend himself with, so in places like the academy dungeon, being able to activate [Flow] in time could be a matter of life or death for him. Lindle had to get very used to her ambushing him and being able to activate the Technique in time, even outside of practice when he was just out of the house, using the slowed perception of time to move out of the way or block, or else he receive a sharp flick to the nose.

It wasn’t all bad though, time at the training ground meant he got to see Humphrey more often when the beastman practiced his archery Techniques, their interactions since were mostly relaxed conversations or quiet companionship during rest periods, as well as Humphrey venting about some of the adventuring parties he had taken guide jobs for. He didn’t have the greatest opinion of Soarians, especially with a massive group coming in the future for the raid. Considering he was friends with the party that was responsible for that, he had mixed feelings about that, simply telling him that Rosato’s group was pleasant and not much more than that.

When Thalia showed up at the training ground with her grandmother, it was a pleasant surprise that turned to dread fast when Madam Holly told him she was there to practice healing as she helped him learn the ins and outs of [Hunter Gather]. After a bit of experimenting, they learned that they could make the feat activate if she took a magic object he could use as crafting material, a Windsworn Elk antler, and told Lindle that he could have it if he managed to get past her and grab it, essentially treating it as a prize and her as the ‘guardian’.

Once the qualifications of the feat were met, Lindle felt he could activate the buff. Doing so had been an extremely strange experience, for both her and him. Lindle felt his awareness of her rise, meanwhile, she had told him that she felt her ability to focus on him had somehow weakened. The big thing however was that Lindle felt a large surge of power in his Str stat, more than twice that of what he felt when he drank a strength-boosting potion, and she said she had felt her’s drop a slight amount.

Lindle had opened his status to try and see if the system would share the specifics of the buffs now that it was active.

[Resourceful Hunter]

Levels the playing field slightly between the user and the protector. The user steals some of the protector's primary ability and focus.

Of course, even with the buff active, Lindle didn’t manage to get past Madam Holly and snag the antler, but after Thalia healed him, she had her granddaughter take her place to try and guard the antler from him. Lindle had activated his stat and felt his Int stat, to much a lesser degree, gain more power. Thalia had then transformed into a Dire Wolf and once she had transformed, he felt the Int buff fade and be replaced by a surge in his Str stat again.

That time Lindle had gotten much closer to grabbing the antler, but Thalia still had levels and he didn’t, without any potions to help even with the buff he got pinned by a giant wolf and gave up. Thalia had said after that her Int and then Str stats had felt weakened while also reporting that it had been hard to focus on how exactly to take Lindle down.

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One more test with Humphrey and an increase in his Dex stat later, they had determined that the feat had essentially let Lindle temporarily drain a portion of whatever the highest stat was of whoever his feat designated as the ‘protector’ of the item he wanted. It didn’t seem to be a big enough percentage to beat any of them, but Madam Holly had told him that against monsters and with a group backing him up it was a powerful ability.

Even with all the combat practice Lindle was getting now, he didn’t slack for a minute on crafting. He had spent hours shaping clay, making mock versions of monsters, weapons, tools, simple statues, anything he could. He probably was singlehandedly fueling the clay market in in Glacerhine.

He had tried to get rid of his early attempts, but his mom had taken to collecting them with Nothing’s, proudly displaying them in the house and some of her clients. It was both embarrassing and yet gratifying, so he couldn’t tell her to stop. According to both of them it was important to keep reminders of where you started in your craft. He did wonder what some of the people who didn’t know about Artificer like Madam Holly or Thalia thought he was doing making so many sculptures when he was apparently going to be an alchemist, but there was nothing wrong with a sudden artistic passion, even so close to his first level.

Practice with his Ethos sense had gone steadily, being able to sense the different types of Ethos hidden in his increasing stockpile of fabled items. Searching for the idea he wanted and holding the Ethos representing firmly in his mind had taken weeks of practice, but Nothing was a patient teacher and eventually, he had told Lindle he was ready. Not a moment too soon as well, because his birthday was right around the corner.

The night before the clock ticked over into the 18th of Niopont, Lindle, Nothing, and his mom all waited in anticipation. Their house was likely one of the only ones in Glacerhine still with its lights on. Before night fell the day had been filled with friends and acquaintances stopping by and wishing him well. Even Madam Holly had been uncharacteristically serious, the moment only lasted for a few moments though before she warned him to not select the wrong class by mistake.

For what may be the last time at level 0, Lindle opened his status sheet.

Name

Lindle Kyte

Class

None

Level

0

Health Points (HP)

120/120

Aura Points (AP)

120/120

Mana Points (MP)

40/40

Strength (Str): 5

Dexterity (Dex): 3

Constitution (Con):4

Intelligence (Int): 5

Charisma (Cha):3

Resilience (Res): 4

Traits

Bloodlines

Feats

[Human Blood]

[Apprentice Alchemist]

[Giant Blood]

[Alchemical Bomber]

[Ethos Attuned]

[Hunter Gatherer]

Skills

None

Techniques learned

Tier 1

-[Trek]

-[Throw]

-[Power Strike]

Tier 2

-[Flow]

Spells learned

Tier 1

-[Produce Ember]

-[Ice Slick]

-[Banish water]

Tier 2

-[Levitate]

After 3 months, it had both changed very little and changed very much. Even just a single point in Charisma represented a lot more than the expansion in his capabilities and 5 more points of Mana, and though he would have preferred giant’s blood not to be there to halve it, the bloodline trait no longer was going to define him, and the first step on that path was going to start now.

As his birthday arrived, he felt the system call out to him, a ping of attention far stronger than any he got for stat increase or feat. He went to open his class selection page, grinning to hide the spike of anxiety that suddenly, somehow, for whatever reason despite the fact that he had checked almost every day Artificer would be gone.

But there it was, clear as the moon on a cloudless day.

Class Selection (Now Available)

(Only the 3 rarest classes that you qualify for are available for selection).

- Artificer

- Giant Champion

- Jotun Shaman

Taking a deep breath and fighting off a million intrusive thoughts telling him he was about to mess up his future via misclick, Lindle slowly raised a finger and selected Artificer, and suddenly everything changed.