AN- Hello!! I had some free time in between my classes, so i finished this chapter earlier, but when i tried my way around the tables....oh god it gave me a headache. After 2 hours of tinkering around with my Macbook, which doesn't doesn't run the offline table editor, so i had to edit the code from the table forum (Thank you Admin), but still it was really hard. And when i posted this chapter, the table didn't show up, and i had to delete it. Awesome right? No....i had to copy the code again, fill the info there, and copy back to the original post...next time I'm gonna use Preview Post option before posting my chapters. Ah too much rambling, moving back to the chapter, it contains a little bit of info dump, and now I'm using 'she' for Ash/Aurora so don't get confused there. I did the calculations on top of my head for the table, so there might be inconsistencies in the future chapters. But i know you guys are awesome, and point me where i did wrong.
So please comment, cause i luv to read them. Enjoy~~
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Clumsily taking small steps on the wooden floor, the child was making its way to the bookshelf that held some thin books.
But no matter how much the toddler tried to extended its tiny hands, the books were out of reach.
Hearing the sound of someone opening the door, the child just stared at the newcomer who had a brilliant smile on her face.
“Oh my! Aurora you can already walk!!”
Yes, the child was Aurora. Looking back to her mother, she pointed at the books. In a small sweet voice, she said,
“Mom, books”
It had been almost a year since the arrival of Ash, now known as Aurora, in this fantasy like world, but not much progress was made on her part because she was just a child.
Besides the fact that she caused an uproar when she said her first words at the tiny age of 7 months.
----- Flashback-----
Aurora was carried by her mother in her arms as she moved around in their inn ‘The Tranquil Wind’.
‘What a fancy name for a small time inn’, was what Aurora thought when she heard the name the first time.
Her mother went behind the counter, while happily humming a tune for Aurora.
“Hey there Grace”, a man said as he made her way towards her mother.
“Errick! how are you doing?”
As Aurora shifted her gaze to the new guest, she saw something out of a fantasy novel. The man had pointed long ears, and held beautiful feminine facial features.
“I’m doing pretty well”, Errick looked down at the child staring back at him, and made a surprised face.
“Oh who’s this sweet little girl?”
“Hehe, my daughter; her name is Aurora”, her mother made a giggling noise, looking at the surprised face of Errick.
“By the way, where have you and Jane been? It has been over 2 years since we last saw each other”
Errick blushed a little bit, while rubbing the back of his head, “Well, we kinda got married, and I went with her back to the elven lands to visit my parents.”
Grace made a mischievous smile, “About time, you guys got married. So where is she now?”
“We came back here to settle down, as you know it’s the one of the towns where demi-humans can live peacefully with humans,” Errick made a depressed face, but soon became cheerful and embarrassingly continued,
“…Umm and we are expecting a baby soon, so she’s resting back at home after the long journey.”
Grace smiled at her friend, “Tell when she’s due, I’ll help her with the birth.”
“Definitely! She would also feel less nervous around you”, Errick said happily, but soon began looking around, “Where is Marcus? I don’t see him anywhere?”
Her mother laughed a bit, “He’s helping grandmother back in the kitchen.”
Errick hearing this couldn’t restrain himself anymore, and laughed loudly attracting the attention of the few people who were eating and drinking in the inn.
“Who the hell is making so much noise this early in the morning?”, Marcus came yelling out of the kitchen wearing an apron with a ladle in one hand.
Looking at him like this, Errick stopped for a second before he started to laugh even more loudly.
Marcus made a surprised face as he looked at his old friend, “Errick! Where have you been? And stop laughing or I’ll hit you.”
Errick wiped the a few tears near his eyes, “ Sorry, sorry, but looking at the self-proclaimed best adventurer, wearing an apron and holding a ladle instead of weapons…pffft”
In the middle of his speech, Errick started laughing again, but in response Marcus just hit him with the ladle from behind.
“So tell me, where have you been?”, Marcus asked again.
Telling the same thing again, Marcus and Errick started reminiscing their days of adventuring.
Aurora was intently listening to their stories. How they met each other, how they formed a party, how they were always making fun of each other.
‘So demi-humans don’t have a good relation with humans based on what I’m hearing,.. typical of human beings…’
Aurora started smiling, listening to their chit-chat, because she never had a friend in her previous life.
‘It must be nice to have a friend like this…..’, she stared deep in thought.
Looking at her daughter with a faraway look, Grace thought she was hungry.
“Oh, are you hungry Aurora?”, she said in a sweet tone, as she cradled Aurora in her arms.
The response she got was never expected.
“No mom”, Aurora spoke in a clear voice, not stuttering at all.
As her mother stopped the cradling, the whole inn went silent.
Realizing what she had just done, Aurora looked up to her mother who had her mouth hanging.
‘I royally fucked up’, Aurora thought as she had let guard slip and spoke only at the age of 7 months.
‘So much for laying low.’ The goddess had said to keep a low profile, but now she just had to announce the world that she could speak.
“Aurora…just spoke her first words…”, Grace slowly spoke taking in the information.
Looking at her daughter, who was sweating for some reason, she urged her to speak again,
“Aurora say ‘mommy’”
With no way out of the hole she had dug up herself, Aurora spoke softly while trying to look innocent,
“Mommy”
“Kyaa!! Our daughter is a genius!!!”
Overcome by the motherly love, Grace squeezed her daughter with much force that her petite stature couldn’t hold.
Marcus came running next to her wife, “Say ‘papa’ Aurora”
Resigning to her fate, she had to repeat like a parrot the requests made by everyone present in the inn. But still she kept her sentences short, not to arouse any more suspicion.
She got a sore throat after that, and made a vow not to show any more surprises like that.
------Flash Back end-------
Now she was in the same predicament, ignoring what her daughter was pointing at, Grace bowed a little while motioning to come to her.
Aurora was stumped on whether she should stay there and keep on pointing at the books, or walk to her mother.
But in the end she started walking forward albeit staggering when she saw the expectant look on her mother’s face.
As she got near her mother, Grace quickly pulled her up, showering Aurora’s face with kisses.
“I knew it! You are such a bundle of surprises”, she spoke happily.
‘Only if you knew…’ was what Aurora thinking, as she again pointed at her original goal, the book shelf, with her small arms.
“Books mom”
Looking to where her daughter was pointing at, Grace moved to the book shelf.
“Oh you want read, let’s see, this one will do”, she picked up a picture book obviously for kids.
Looking at the cover, Aurora scrunched her eyebrows a little bit.
‘Well the plan failed, I don’t want to tell them that I can already read by graces of the goddess.’ Brightly smiling, Aurora thrashed her arms around trying to seem cheerful.
Setting the oddly happy child onto her lap, Grace opened the book, and started reading the typical hero saves the princess story.
‘Ah please save me oh prince charming from this torture~~’ Aurora thought sarcastically, but she didn’t mind the company of her mother, in fact she was grateful that the goddess has blessed her with such a caring and loving family.
After some time, when Grace saw daughter faintly snoring, she closed the book, and let the child sleep in the crib. While she herself went downstairs to spread the news of her daughter taking her first steps.
…….
‘Damn I’m sleeping way too much’
Aurora thought as she slowly rubbed her eyes trying to fight the sleepiness.
‘The plan had failed before but today I shall retrieve the treasure of knowledge’
With a renewed vigor, Aurora climbed out of the crib with ease. Looking around with keen eyes, she spotted a chair by the wall a few steps away from the book shelf.
Walking to the chair, she pushed it with strength unfitting a child. As she positioned the chair right beneath the book shelf, she slowly climbed on the chair.
Looking through the books, there was one she that piqued her interest, ‘The history of Alius’.
Pulling out the thick book from the shelf, she easily placed it on the chair, and began to read it.
……
After an uninterrupted half an hour session of quick read, Aurora put back the book, and chair onto their original places.
She had only skimmed through most of the important stuff in the book, but she had more or less grasped the history of this world ‘Alius’
‘Hmm to summarize, along with the humans, this world has fantasy races like elves, dwarves, demons, and other demi-humans…….and dragons...hehehe’ she laughed creepily at the thought of owning a dragon as a pet.
Shaking her head of unnecessary thoughts, Aurora began to think again, ‘As expected there is magic’ as she looked up to the crystal hanging near the wall which they used to light the room.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
‘Most of the land, and sea is not ventured due to unknown dangers, and also because of dangerous magic beasts’, she let out a sigh. ‘This is really a fantasy world’
‘We live at the edge of the human kingdom which is at the center of the main land. To the south-west is the elven lands which are near our small town Bellsvere. To south-east there are forests, and mountains, and most of the demi-humans live there. To the North east, there are more deserts, and volcanos, perfect place for demons and dragons to live. And to the North, and North west, you can only see the vast ocean.’
Aurora stopped her train of thoughts, and made a serious face, ‘The gods, and goddess’s huh’
Aurora didn’t just trust someone for their words on their first meeting, but somehow she knew that Umbra was speaking the truth. But when she had read about the Gods of this world, there was no mentioning of Umbra’s name anywhere no matter how much she read.
‘The book only mentions 4 gods, and 2 goddess’s…..the god of light Lugh
the god of Darkness Descrey, the god of land Rheas, the goddess of life Ophilia,
the god of deception Loki, and finally the goddess of love and pleasure Aphrodite’
She pondered for a bit as to why Umbra was not revealed, ‘Is it because she had been trapped in the void for 1000 years that people had forgotten about her, or was all the proof of her existence erased from the books by the other gods?’
‘I’ll have to read more books, especially ones dealing with history much better than this one, which are not likely available in this small town.’
As her belly made a rumbling sound, the gate opened simultaneously, and standing there was Grace holding a bowl.
“Looks like I got here at the right time”, she looked at the blushing child in front of her.
She slowly fed her the soup, and after finishing it, she asked Aurora, “Do you want to sleep now?”
Nodding her head slowly, while swinging back and forth due to sleepiness, Aurora was put into her crib.
……
The next few days were uneventful, just the usual weird family antics.
It was in the evening when her mother came inside the room with a happy smile.
“Aurora let’s go downstairs, you got someone waiting for you.”
‘Ah now I think, I’ve been hearing this ruckus for quite a while from downstairs’, adding two and two together, Aurora tried to guess,
‘I think it’s my birthday today, not sure of the proper date though’
Opening the door that connects their home to their modest inn, Grace led her by covering her eyes in her arms,
“Happy Birthday Aurora!!”, she heard, as she opened her eyes to see the regular inn visitors, and her family.
They had prepared some festive food, not like Aurora could eat that, but just for the celebration.
Everyone was dirking merrily, when Aurora noticed her family members coming close together. They all had gifts in their hands.
Marcus brought out a wooden small dagger excitedly, “Here Aurora, with this you’ll become the next best adventurer just like your father.”
“Self-proclaimed that is….”, Errick added as he came unnoticed.
“What! You got a problem! Oh Jane you came!”, Marcus, and Grace looked at the newly arrived couple.
Aurora looked up to see a beautiful emerald eyed, black haired woman in her mid 20’s carrying a child.
“Why wouldn’t I come to see my sweet Aurora on her birthday?”
Jane was a gentle woman from what Aurora could tell from her previous meetings, but she didn’t get the chance to meet her after Jane’s delivery.
Looking down towards the cute upturned eyes showing curiosity on what Jane was holding, she sat on her knees to Aurora’s eye level.
Looking inside the bundle of fur, Aurora could see a girl around 6 months in age, with same droopy emerald eyes as Jane, looking back at her. The child had got dominant genes from her human mother as her hair was black, except for the pointy ears that she got from Errick.
“Happy birthday Aurora”, Jane said with a smile,
“Thank you Miss Jane”, Aurora nodded still looking at the child.
Watching the scene, Jane giggled a little. “Aurora? will you be a good sister to little Nova here? And call me just Aunt Jane, I’m not that old”, she said teasingly.
Nodding furiously, Aurora started playing with the child who kept on chasing after Aurora’s hand as she moved them near her face.
‘I never had the chance to play with someone because of my scary looks, maybe now I’ll be able to …’
“But still Aurora’s a genius to start talking at such a young age”, Errick said to Aurora’s family as they watched the children play.
Marcus enthusiastically said, “I can’t wait to see her status on the awakening ceremony.”
“Hold your horses’ young’un, she still has four years before she can get her status activated”, grandfather Hume intervened before Marcus could hyperventilate from the excitement.
Straining her ears Aurora picked up the useful information.
‘Umbra also said something about ‘Status’ now that I recall.’
Moving to her grandfather, Aurora pulled on his loose fit pants, “Status?” she questioned while tilting her head.
‘Forget Leo, I think I should get the best actor...I mean actress award’
With her acting skills at top notch, Hume could only smile, “Yes, Status plate is something that shows the information about your different aspects, like level, mana, and much more. And your status window will be activated when you turn five with other children in a ceremony at a temple, because mana slowly accommodates in your body till the age of 5.”
Marcus rudely cutting off showed, “Watch this, your father was a C-rank adventurer, ‘Show Status to Aurora’”
As he said those words, a blue screen appeared out of nowhere in front of Aurora’s surprised face.
[/tr]]
Status WindowName:Marcus WalkerLevel:43Class:WarriorRace:HumanGender:MaleTitlesNone-Unused Skill Points:--Health:1050/ 1050Health Regen:0.1 / SecMana:-Mana Regen:- / SecStamina:260 / 260Stamina Regen:0.31 / Sec-Strenght:60Agility:30Vitality:105Luck:5Intelligence:18Wisdom:15Endurance:55-Physical Resistance %3-Elemental Resistances %Fire:1Water:3Wind:1Earth:5Light:0Darkness:0
‘Hmm Just like Umbra said…this is totally a rip off, not that I’m complaining. It’ll be easier to track my growth with this.’
“See see, isn’t papa amazing??”, Marcus excitedly looked at her daughter’s face for her praise.
But before he could get any, Hume gave a sharp slap on the back of his head, “You idiot! How would a child know about stats?”
Rubbing his head, he mumbled something in his mouth while moving back with teary eyes.
As the moon shone dimly in the sky, the people said their goodbyes as they started departing back to their houses; the party was over.
Picking up the star of the night, Grace went to her room, as Aurora started dozing off.
Kissing on her forehead as she laid Aurora down into her crib, Grace smiled and left the room. But as she closed the door, Aurora opened her eyes, and said in a low voice,
“Show Status”
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A Cliffhanger!!!! This is unacceptable!! i know right. So i'll try to get the next chapter out asap. Ciao~~~