Once Leigh had the proper tools in hand, things took off at a full clip, project after project poured through her forge. As her skeptical apprentice, I was required to be there for all of it. Watching, learning, and trying to grasp whatever system information I could manage from the displays in front of me. To her credit, Leigh was incredibly creative with the kind of things she wanted to make in the forge. We shaped bits of armor, shoulder pads and gauntlets, tiny blades to medium-sized swords, and horseshoes, so many horseshoes. Eventually, Leigh ran out of ore and stock left behind by her father and started melting down other projects to rework them and wring out as much experience from the metal before it was unusable.

I admire her dedication, but I genuinely wish I didn’t have to work through the heat alongside her. My thin body seemed to produce buckets of sweat every day, while Leigh, despite being twice my size (in total volume, not height), was only noticeably damp at worst. Several times I would beg for a break from the fires, just to walk to the nearby stream and wash up. I’ll be the first to admit my breaks probably took longer than they strictly had to, but it was always disheartening to come back and see Leigh toiling away as if nothing happened. Her drive seems almost inexhaustible.

“Vinny!” Leigh screamed through the forge, her new nickname for me grating on my ears slightly, still, it stung less than my full name. “Can you come here please?” Her harsh command was suddenly undercut by the sweetest voice I knew. With a sigh, I hauled myself off the bucket I’d co opted as a stool. My muscles groaned in protest as I stood stiff and shuffled over towards her.

“Yeah? What’s up?” I asked as gently as I could, trying to hide the very brutal discomfort my body had built up. I had to wonder if Leigh had some innate vitality bonus, or if one of her skills was providing some kind of passive stamina increase.

“I just finished the rough shaping on these, and I want to fit them before I start any polishing or trying out my new skill” She explained as I walked over. She held in her hand a pair of riveted bracers. They weren’t fully metal, and thus not rigid enough to constrict my hands or weigh me down in any meaningful way. Yet at the same time, the plates of steel attached to the sturdy leather arm guards helped protect a mage’s most valuable asset. My hands.

It was an incredibly heartfelt gift, more so when I considered Leigh was taking time out of her class prep to make something for me. Yes, there was a chance it was using her skills anyway and killed two birds with one stone, but my fondness for her lent a certain sentimental outlook all the same.

I slid the arm guards over my wrists. Somehow it was both too tight and too loose. The metal rivets in the plates had them set too close together, and it constrained against my wrists. At the same time, however, there was too much leather for my small arms and it bunched awkwardly in a few different places.

“Turn your hands over for me?” Leigh instructed, flipping my hands and inspecting a few different spots. As her hands touched mine, I could feel the heat in my cheeks meld with the heat of the forge. She stuck her tongue about a half inch out of her mouth, pondering very carefully while making deft marks along the armor with a bit of charcoal.

Just as quickly as she had given them to me, the bracers were stripped from my arms. “I’ll get these fixed up in the next pass” She mumbled, dropping them on her workbench and meticulously removing individual rivets. I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do to help at that point, so I slowly wandered back to the house. Leigh had spent weeks at this, and there were still more than three months before her system unlock day. I thought by this point I’d probably learned everything I could until she got a higher class.

With nothing else better to do between training sessions with dad, I put my full focus into practicing what I’d already learned. I tinkered on minor projects of my own, borrowing Leigh’s tools frequently, and even began sparring matches with Dad after we carved a few training swords. He had to hold back tremendously, and could still beat me with one arm behind his back and both his eyes closed, but I felt I was making progress.

The more I practiced, the more the knowledge began to engrain itself into me, and the more I built up muscle memory. Eventually, I was satisfied that I’d long since qualified for the skills I was after, and sat down with mom early in the morning to go over my plans.

“Mom, can you do another override for me? I want to fill out some more of my skill slots.” I explained, taking a seat in the main room shortly after dad left on patrol. Leigh had left before anyone else to get an early start at the workshop. These days it felt like she was only home to sleep.

“Yeah, of course, sugar, let me just wash up and we can go over it right now” Mom smiled, taking a linen towel from the cupboard and walking over to the washbasin. When she finally made her way over and sat down to join me, I could feel an anxious energy building in my veins. Nervous excitement. Neia closed her eyes, and softly focused on me. I felt the pressure of the system override wash over me in a familiar fashion.

“Okay Vincent, you’ve got most of your slots left, and a lot of skills you’ve qualified for. Do you want me to read them all to you or did you have something in mind you already wanted?” She softly asked me.

Thankfully, I did already have a few ideas in mind for what I wanted to pick up. I explained the general Ideas I had to mom. “Can you read over any skills that fit into those categories for me? There should be several, but if not I need to keep training harder.”

She paused for a tense moment, the silence deafening before she began to read out options to me.

“Okay, so you didn’t have [Evasion] sweetie-pie, but I see one in here called [Combat Footwork]. It says ‘increases speed and agility in combat. Assists with dodging and maneuvering.’ That seems a bit more general than [Evasion] specifically, is that one you want?”

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I had to think about it for a moment, but the more I considered the individual uses between the two skills, the more I saw applications of a general skill that a more specific one wouldn’t meet.

“Sure mom, that’d be great. What about the other combat skills I asked about?” I answered.

“Well, you can get [Keen Senses] for sure, I saw that one earlier, I’ll check on the others now.” Neia said, dropping back into her gentle silence. I knew my training with dad should get me some kind of weapon skills, as general as possible if I’m lucky, and studying with mom should result in some kind of mental fortitude buff. I just wouldn’t know the specific skill names unless I consulted a system expert, and even then it was only the most likely choices.

“Okay, yeah, I see [Weapon Proficiency] and [Concentration]. The first one improves familiarity and skill with different weapons and doesn’t say anything about weapon type. Concentration is just a passive focus increase. Yes or no?”

I nodded my consent and we moved on to crafting skills. I qualified handily for the [Tool Proficiency] skill Leigh had told me about, though I was surprised to see [Mana Crafting], since I hadn’t heard of that skill except for a few rare classes in my previous life. Once I picked those two out, I was down to a single open slot and resigned myself to letting mom pick that one out again.

“Oh! I actually had something in mind for that.” she chirped up when I told her about it. “I know you struggle to get along with the other kids your age, and while you might have a good reason for some of them, a young man needs friends, right? Well, how can I expect my boy to do something like that when he has below-average charisma stats?” Neia explained, painting a picture of her thought process. “Simple! You need a charisma-boosting skill. So I want you to take [Charm], but I know the last skill I picked out bothered you a little bit, so I don’t want to choose it unless you say it’s okay” She added at the end, pouting a bit more than I could handle.

I had been a bit upset when mom first chose [Cutie Patootie] as a skill, but I hadn’t realized how much my reaction had bothered her. I had been upset with mom when she claimed one of my class skill slots rather forcefully. It underlined an issue that first reared its head when she read my memories of my past life. She didn’t ask before doing things.

“Yeah mom, that sounds really nice” I said, smiling a bit wider than I would have normally, trying to placate the situation.

“I wasn’t angry with you or anything like that” I sighed, watching as Neia lifted her shoulders faintly. “I just felt a little ignored is all?” I suggested, unsure how to word my complaint. “Just with the skill, and when you read my memories, everything seemed so decided before I even knew about it.” I explained, keeping my tone as cordial as I could manage.

“Part of me is glad you did it, it took a heavy decision off my shoulders, but it wasn’t your decision to make. I know I’m young in my body, but you’ve seen well enough to know…” I trailed off, picking my gaze up from the floor to look in mom’s eyes.

She was crying softly, barely holding herself back.

I got up and walked over to her, gently wrapping her in a hug.

“I’m sorry” She sobbed faintly. “When you were born you didn’t cry, at all, I was so worried, and I wasn’t sleeping, I tried everything I could” mom began rambling. “I was just so worried about you.”

I held onto her softly and let her cry. I knew her intentions had been good, so I never blamed her fully, but I wasn’t expecting her to blame herself so harshly. We stayed there in silence for a while, letting her gather her composure as we poured our hearts out.

Then mom took the time to write out my new status for me, all my skill slots finally full, and a gentle countdown until my system unlock day.

Name: Vincent Stesk Strength: 10 Classes: Half-Elf Child lvl 1 Hp: 20 Vitality: 10 Mp: 60 Agility: 10 Active Class: Half-Elf Child Intelligence: 50 Charisma: 5 Willpower: 100

General Skills: Class Skills: Half-Elf Child Mana Sight - lvl 5 Weapon Proficiency - lvl 1 Obsessive Mind - lvl 1 Mana Forming - lvl 5 Tool Proficiency - lvl 1 Energetic Soul - lvl 1 Mana Command - lvl 5 Mana Crafting - lvl 1 Inquisitive Spirit - lvl 1 Combat Footwork - lvl 1 Concentration - lvl 1 Rapid Acquisition - lvl 1 Keen Senses - lvl 1 Charm - lvl 1 Cutie Patootie - lvl 1