'Good morning, Ciara.' There was no response, so she was busy or sleeping. I did end up waking earlier than normal due to the time I was out last night before bed, so it makes sense.
Mama and Papa, however, were just starting their days. "Morning Mama, Papa. After some sleep and time to digest everything last night, I remembered something on one of the titles that confused me when I saw it the first time."
"And what would that be, dear?" Mama came and embraced me, and I felt assured that she would do her best to help me.
"It said something about giving me more evolution options? But I don't know what it meant by evolution. I understood the class options section of the title, but not this one." I was truly confused by the term. Nobody had ever mentioned it before now.
"Oh, well, that is concerning. The reason you haven't really heard about it is because evolution isn't a thing that really happens to humans, and we live in what is essentially the middle of human lands. And in the woods as well. Not many other races would ever feel the need to venture out here. But to answer the question, evolution is a process through the system where an individual changes what race they are, bringing various benefits, and sometimes deficits depending on the choice. As far as I understand, humans get faster natural stat gain than other races to make up for the lack of evolution. But if you can evolve, that means you get both benefits on top of each other. Though, I'm not sure why it's an option. There's no non-human blood in either of our families, so I don't know where any non-human traits may have cropped up in you. Your [Status] still lists your race as human right?" Mama was helpful as always, but that was a lot of new information.
"Yeah it does. I just looked last night, after all. The level I gained really improved a lot of my skills, but I didn't notice other changes from those." I looked back at everything that's happened since I got my {System}, and found one thing that may have been related. "Though a while back, I did get a title called 'First of a Kind'. Would that make me non-human, do you think?"
"That certainly sounds like it's saying you're not human anymore. But how would that happen, and when? And how could you be the first? This is all very confusing and not all that good for you in the future. If you evolve, people might find some issue with you, for one reason or another, or even accuse us of something strange, like harboring a beast of some kind, putting the town in danger. Nobody that we know, mind you. They were all here for my pregnancy, and know you're my child through and through. But some of the more, let's say 'human centric people in town might find issue with it. From what I understand, non-human races usually evolve at level ten the first time, so we have until you finish your apprenticeship, most likely. That'll allow you some time to build goodwill with the people of the town through your craft before they can discriminate against you after your change. It's a little worrying to be honest. It's probably going to be a struggle, but we'll always be here for you." Mama hugged me tight, making me feel safe.
"I love you Mama, thank you." I snuggled up to her, and stayed like that for a while.
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Morning passed as usual, with me gaining some more practice cooking and helping Mama with some chores, albeit with more hugging than usual. After that, it was time to get my payment for the commission, then go commission my own materials for the hammer. I learned from last time, making sure to have them handy when the weapon was assembled, to smooth out the process.
"Hey kid, how are you doing after last night? You just passed out on us right at the climax, and really worried us." Mr. Darius was there to check on me right as I came in the door. It was nice to know he worried about me, even though something like this has happened before.
"I'm alright. The {System} just put more info in my head than I could handle at one time. I woke up completely fine and had a short conversation about what happened with Mama, Papa, and Mother Irina. Everything was pretty well resolved after that, then we went to bed. On a side note, do you have what I made from the commission?"
"That was a bit abrupt but yeah, here you go." He handed me a small sack that weighed a good amount, probably around twice what I spent on gems and enchanting on the sword itself.
"Also, tiny detail that may come into play at some point, I'll evolve around the time I finish apprenticing, so don't freak out when that happens." I said that last bit and ducked back out the door, heading towards the gem store from before.
"Wait, what? What does that mean?" he seemed a bit startled and maybe a little upset I dropped that and left.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Either way, I was already on the way to grab gems for my new hammer. It needed an emerald for wind mana, a sapphire for water mana, and an amethyst for dark mana, all of which were less expensive than the citrine from before. Due to its use in light based enchanting, it was a very popular gem. On the contrary, the amethyst was probably the least expensive, because nobody really needed dark mana for any constant effects, besides to keep secrets. And if it got out you needed something like that, it would bring more attention than it'd help hide you from.
I would end up with a bit over the amount I had when I began making Ciara's sword, which meant I had managed a small profit overall. I wonder if Mother Irina payed more or less than agreed, due to our relationship. Or probably, she paid the exact amount they agreed on. That sounds the most like her.
I went back into the enchanting engraver's workshop and asked for the three to get the same engravings I had put on the other gems, which got a bit of a stare from the man working the counter. "Just so you know, forcing mana into an object that doesn't agree with the aspect can cause issues. I hope you aren't using all six of these gems for the same thing." His gruff old voice clearly had experienced this exact situation, but luckily I could truthfully tell him I wasn't gonna do that.
"The three from last time were for a different project. These three are for a new one. Beautiful work, by the way. They worked exactly how I'd hoped they'd work. If I ever need engravings like this done again, this will be my first choice." I tried to butter him up a little, and I guess my tiny physique worked to my benefit here.
"Well, I can't say I'm the very best in town, but thank you for the compliment little lass. I'll gladly take any work you see fit for my skills. Though I would like to see what you do with these three gems once they're ready." He resembled a kindly grandpa at this point, not that I really got to know mine. But he made an interesting proposition.
"If you take a tiny bit off of the price, and swear to never tell anyone that I made it, I'd gladly show you in a few days!" It would be nice to show off to someone who wasn't basically family. And he seemed trustworthy enough not to break a promise, as that would be very bad for business.
"Well, now you've got me interested, even more than I was before. I'll take you up on that offer. And I suppose I can drop a bit off the engraving price, should be worth it if it's so important to keep quiet. I look forward to seeing the finished product, now come back tomorrow and they should be ready for you. Have a good day lass." He waved me off, and headed to the back of the shop.
I expected to need his help a lot in the future, so it would be worth making a good impression, and maybe showing what I could do would give him reason to do bigger jobs for me, or even suggest things to me. But it was time to head back to the forge now, and see how Mr. Darius took the last bit of news I gave him before dipping out.
"Amara, what did you mean by what you said before you left?" He was waiting for me at the door, apparently a little worried. "Let's go in the back and have a little chat, young lady." By the way he addressed me, he was clearly not happy.
I lowered my head and followed him. "Yes sir."
We went to the back, where nobody could eavesdrop, and he glared at me.
"As far as I know, You're fully human, and always have been. I know both of your parents, and was around them every once in a while during her pregnancy. So what in the blazes do you mean 'I'll evolve around the time I finish apprenticing'? That's not a thing that happens, and I know it's you I'm talking about, but this is crazy, even above what you've done so far. How can someone born fully human evolve, and why would you even think it will happen to you?" He was pretty upset, and clearly confused.
"So, one of the titles I received last night told me it gave me special evolution options, and so after talking about it with Mama and Papa, it looks like at some point along the line, I'll become something other than human. I have another title from a while ago called "First of a Kind", and that kind of makes it sound like I'm something else now. I wanted to tell you now, so nothing crazy happened later on, but I also didn't want to have a long conversation about it so soon after talking with Mama and Papa, so I just dropped it and ran to buy some stuff for my new hammer. Sorry, I didn't think you'd be so upset about it." I gave him a small hug, and he seemed to calm down and lighten up a bit.
"Well, that's a lot to take in, but thank you for telling me, at the very least. So you're really not human anymore? While I want to say that makes sense, it really shouldn't given nobody I've heard of just suddenly stops becoming human at some point. Especially because of the benefit being human gives to growth speed. Being able to take that and add it to the benefits of evolution would create some sort of powerful monster. No offense, of course, Amara."
"None taken, it's pretty crazy to me too. But Mama and Papa said it's okay, and that everything should be fine, so I'm trusting them to tell me the truth. It's a while away anyways, so I'm not worried. I'll just do what I have been, and make things." Hopefully Mr. Darius would take his mind off it and relax.
"I suppose. Well, I guess that's everything I had to talk with you about, so I'll let you get to work on that special new hammer of yours. If it's anything like the sword you just made, It'll serve you for years to come. That strange mithryl you made is unbelievably sturdy and mana flows through it like a river. If you hadn't already said it was a large strain to make it, I'd ask that you convert all our ore into that type of mithryl." Mr. Darius headed back into the workshop to do his own thing, while I got started forging my new hammer.
'I'll be working on my hammer for a while, so I'll be too focused to respond. Have a good day with Mother Irina.'