He woke up from his daze to find his ball just as he left it. Seth sat under a tree by the roadside, where there was nice ambient noise and the shade allowed him to be free of the sun's scorching rays. Seth was tanned, like most of his village, a golden brown that allowed his blue eyes to stand out even more.
Seth looked down toward the sanding item he was using, then at his own hands. He was evil.
He found such a fact hard to believe. Seth would accept many titles, reincarnated, coward, and maybe greedy, but he never was a Thief. His morals were questionable, but he wasn’t evil.
Seth stared at the setting sun as he questioned who he was and what he wanted to be. He eventually guessed it didn’t matter anymore; his class was already predestined so he may as well do the best he could with it.
Since his death, Seth found not much to shock him. Pain was almost laughable and if anyone tried to scare Seth he would just stare at them like it was a joke and to him it truly was.
He stood up, and the tree branches grew closer to the juvenile Seth's face. It was time for him to play catch with his father and so Seth went to find him.
Seth wandered through the dirt roads and Seth thought about maybe changing his class. Yet Seth’s life goal didn’t agree with that idea. He needed to be as talented as possible because immortality wasn’t for the weak.
Seth found his father inside their house and once Seth had shown him the ball the two left the house and entered their backyard.
Seth’s mind was too active to escape his father’s eyes and eventually, his father asked what it was that made him so thoughtful. Seth’s average face, outside of his eye colour, changed from an expression of thinking to normal and Seth played it off as if it were normal.
He didn’t want to tell his own father, and so this became the first of many secrets. The ball exchanged hands many more times and the two discussed what they were going to buy for Mother’s Day that year.
They schemed a gift, and the duo eventually were called in for dinner. The sun lay low, and Seth ate a meal with his family on his lovely wooden table.
Discussion was made and the topic came from what Seth was looking at. Oak decided to talk about his best creations and that evening the usually humble man turned into a braggard of the highest tier. He talked of his skill, which was called Artistic Sense.
Since Seth had nearly completed his basic education, he was already well-versed in the subject. Each person gained 2 skill slots on their awakening and had a chance to awaken an inherent skill.
These skills usually meant the person was especially talented or they were just lucky, either way it was a boon his father had enjoyed the rewards since the moment he awakened. He was one of the lucky few.
Seth hoped his Thief class gave him an excellent inherent skill: it would allow him to better gather experience to level up, and Seth believed from fables that if one levelled up enough godhood could be achieved.
Ignoring his father’s rambles, Seth remembered his history lessons on levelling. His mother was his teacher for the first years of Seth’s life and so inside his bedroom, they both lay on Seth’s bed with his mother holding open a history book.
With a small Seth on her lap, she explained the details of the levelling system.
“When the Gods left they gave humanity one last gift and you Seth shall get it just as I have. The system is no doubt their greatest kindness as it allows all to focus on levelling to the higher tiers. Before this humanity had to suffer under the clutches of the ranked beasts before they were locked away in God’s Second gift.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
These, Seth, are why people love the Gods as much as they do. For we have much to thank them for and...”
Back to reality, Seth was being spoken to, “Oi son, you better not be ignoring me.”
Seth snapped back, “Me? Never.”
Seth’s father called his son’s bluff, “What did I ask then?”
Seth had to end his history lesson early and without anything better to do, Seth quickly ran upstairs away from his father’s annoying eyes. Before he reached the top of the stairs his mother shouted up to him,
“You better not be thinking of letting me do all the washing up, Seth come down here right this instant!”
Knowing his mother’s rare but fiery rage; Seth decided peace was a better outcome. Luckily for him, his mother's rage settled his father down from his unusually proud mood and the father and son had to somewhat end their argument for the night.
They gave each other bitter glares but, by the time the washing up had ended, the family decided to call a truce and they all went to bed as a united family.
The next day came, and Seth struggled again to get out of his bed. Straw beds were uncomfortable if you compared them to their modern equivalents but since Seth could hardly remember those days, he found the straw to be as comfortable as a soothing cloud.
Albeit one that spiked you occasionally.
Eventually, Seth had to get his lazy ass up as he heard his mother's shout coming from outside his window.
“5 minutes remaining!”
Seth knew what that meant and so he quickly got out of bed. If that timer ran out his mother would enter his room with a wooden spoon and would only leave once it had broken. It was one of the only things Seth hated about his new life, it was practically child abuse!
Seth soothed his mind with nice words, `She only meant well, and you are lazy, so chill and this stupid sock better, ah there we go`. Once Seth was dressed he decided to forgo going through his house and jumped from his second-story window.
To clarify, Seth was terrified of heights, but since this was not an uncommon activity since he had once done it to escape a spoon-wielding mother, eventually his fear decreased until he could do it with relative ease.
Now in his backyard, he walked around to the stables and found his mother trotting around on her horse. Seth waved her over and whilst doing so he himself walked over to his horse that was residing in the stables.
Since Seth's family was fairly rich he had been doing horse riding since he turned 4 and his mother was a great teacher so Seth had learned quite a lot in his time riding.
He came up to his horse and gave him a small snack before he hopped on. He then steered his steed over to his
mother and initiated a light jog over to her.
Once over his mother had to say a few words about his jog over,
“What on God’s name is that posture young man? You need to be relaxed; a relaxed rider means a relaxed horse so straighten it up a bit.”
Seth decided to actually try for a moment and so he quickly got the right posture down and the pair had a short jog around the field. Eventually though, the pain coming up through Seth's arse made him shift on the saddle and the excess force on his feet made the horse steer in the wrong direction.
Seth quickly used his hip to steer it back, but his mother caught his error.
“Seth I know you are in pain. Horse riding is not a comfortable sport but as long as your posture is good and once your rhythm is perfect then you will feel the pain turn into relaxation.”
Seth wanted to argue back but decided to calm himself. He had noticed since his enlightenment that he was more moody, but Seth couldn’t decide if it was just hormones.
Either way, he calmed himself. Arguing was almost always pointless and his mother was likely in the right, so Seth sucked it up and tried again.
Failure was the best teacher, but his mother was a contender for that position. She always told Seth where he went wrong if he did not already know, and it always seemed like she had the answer to everything.
She was a reserve Cavalryman and so knew a lot about horse-riding and knew a lot about the military in Historia, the kingdom they lived in. She was levelling up and evolved once whilst she was in training and given a choice of her skill on her graduation.
As far as the kingdom was concerned she was the most important person to live in Chippie.
Seth ended his little daydream by continuing his lesson and by nightfall the duo had returned their horses and left them to a general Worker who took care of their horses for them.
His mother had a few words about their training session that day.
“Seth you worked hard today, more than any other and just want to say that it showed. You clearly figured out how to jog near-perfectly and your posture in general has seen a transformation. I’m proud of you Seth, as a Cavalryman and a Mother.”
It was moments like these that Seth wanted to cry. He wanted to feel proud, to feel happy at his accomplishments. Yet, he couldn’t. He felt like an imposter who had stolen their son from them; the praise seemed hollow as if it wasn’t directed towards him. Seth could only fake a smile and hug his mother, her soft clothes luckily made Seth relaxed enough so he could present a real smile when they parted.
Dinner was called and today his Father had cooked. Seth wondered if they even had a kitchen left.
He nearly laughed at his own joke. He felt calm, happy, yet fear never seemed to go away. That shadow followed him wherever he went.