Lucas Bramas ReynoldRaceHumanLevel1Age5Health50Mana52Intelligence143Wisdom17Strength10Agility10Dexterity10Endurance10Ability slot 1Mastery of the ArcaneFire1Water1Air1Earth1Enchanting1Unallocated stats55

Staring at my stats in shock, I nervously look around to see if anyone's noticed. Luckily all the students are preoccupied with their own stats. I can see that Health and Mana are proportional to my age, but the Intelligence stat was incredible! I knew I was getting some benefit out of reading, but this much?! Happy with my Intelligence I quickly skimmed over the rest. Wisdom I didn't really know about, and the other stats seemed pretty average for my age. Then I noticed the 50 unallocated points. Damn, it had taken 5 years but I finally knew what Arcan had meant. It looked like I could assign the points into any stat, but I decided to hold back on that. No point using it until my end goal came into sight.

Seeing students begin to dismiss their status, I move to do the same. Quickly closing the status bar.

As the last student finishes reading the teacher smiles and calls us to attention.

“As you have all just seen, those Status reports represent you.” He began, “What some of you may have also noticed, are the 5 or 6 unallocated point you have. You receive 1 point a year, or 5 points for every level up. Please don't assign these points to anything yet, leave it until you've had a good think on what you want to specialise in.”

Everyone had as few as 5 unallocated points?! That reinforced my decision not to spend my points yet.

The children across the gymnasium nod their heads at the wise words. I have to stifle a laugh at how much they worship the man for revealing the status bar to them.

“Now, onto the remainder of today's lesson. You can all call me Coach Dorss and welcome students, to Physical Education!” The teacher's smile turned evil.

…...

Looking up at the 10 ft rope I inwardly cry. For all the technological advancements of this world, it was a cruel place. Being second in line to climb the rope I painfully watch as the kid before me struggles to make it even halfway. The Coach shouts at the kid the entire time.

“C'mon Alex! You get halfway or you drag your fat ass to the field to do laps!” He yelled.

I wondered how he got away with saying things like that. But my unasked question was answered as Alex made the halfway mark before falling off the rope in exhaustion. The man got results. As Alex fell I was shocked to see the coach rise of the floor and smoothly glide towards Alex, catching him by the waist and then gently lowering him to the floor.

Floating back down towards me the Coach laughed at my expression.

“Coach's the name, Flights the game!” He laughs.

Rolling my eyes at the cheesy line I approach Alex.

“What's your strength stat?” I ask.

“12.” He grumbled.  

Damn! His strength we more than mine and he could barely get halfway?!

“Lucas what's the holdup!” A call came from behind me. That man just didn't stop.

Pulling at the rope I ignore the pain building up in my arms and hurriedly drag myself up by 4 ft. The fast approach to the climb quickly took it's toll on me. Looking down my stomach spins in place. Even knowing that Coach would catch me I couldn't help but fear the drop. With my momentum gone I take a breather. A dull ache resonates from my arms, but I'm determined to at least match Alex.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Taking a firmer grip on the rope I pull with all my might, managing to raise myself another half foot. But my body seemed unable to continue. The dull ache had morphed to a constant throbbing in my arms, it took all I had not to shout out in pain. But it still wasn't good enough, not for me.

Willing myself to go higher I grip the rope tightly and strain my muscles. It's a stalemate. I'm too exhausted to raise myself any higher, but I refuse to let go and lose the few inches I'd just gained. But the pain continues to build within my muscles. Slowly, centimetre by centimetre I begin to lose ground on the rope.

NO!

A snapping sensation forms in my head and I feel something lift me from below. With the added boost I'm able to pull myself up the remainder of the rope before my strength gives out.

Looking down to see the source of help I'm shocked to see only air below me.

Climbed the ropeStrength+2Reward+15xp

Mastery of the Arcane: Air +4

Ringing the bell above me I slide down the rope, quickly reaching the bottom.

“Knew you had it in you son.” Coach says, slapping my back, “You could show my older classes a thing or two eh?”

…....

The car ride home is exhausting, Mum asks questions about my day and any friends I'd made. But I manage to put up with it and 10 minutes later we're home.

Rather than go inside I rush to the garden, eager to learn more about the Mastery of the Arcane ability. Living in a rural area our garden is more a forest, a small fenced off field leading to a large hillside of trees and shrubs.

Moving into the forest I find a secluded spot out of sight from the house.

Focusing on the snapping sensation I'd experienced on the rope I try to recreate it. I'm met with failure. Trying to instead will the air to raise a small rock off the floor, I feel as if I'm about to give myself a headache.

But it had seemed so simple on the rope!

Moving down my tries a notch I instead attempted to simply alter the wind currents around me.

The wind previously blowing my face ceases, and I scream in elation. I'd done it!

Mastery of the Arcane: Air +1

Finding the starting point to my experimenting, I continued altering the wind around me. Moving it to blow shrubs around, to swirl around my head. That was the key. Not to try to move an object, but to instead move the air. For hours I played with my new skill, the first magical thing I'd achieved. As time with the skill progressed so did my mastery over Air, and as more power became available to me I found new was to utilise it.

Months passed.

I continued to go to school but found that I was distancing myself from the other students. Whilst they wanted to have fun and games, I was dedicated to the advancement of my power. So whilst everyone made large groups of friends, I never branched out of my group with Freddie, Layla and Toby. But I found that to be fine, it made it easier to train.

Another interest I picked up was physical exercise. Climbing the rope had shown me that hard work resulted in stat gain, and who didn't want to be the best? Every day I would jog around the forest for an hour before school. When my agility and strength rose enough I began to wear weighted clothing, increasing it's weight as my stats grew.

The results were amazing.

Physical Education was a walk in the park at this point, I was easily twice as strong as the average student. Power control class also became easy. Whilst the rest of the class was studying what a power was and how to activate it, I was raising my skills in Air daily.

Unfortunately my obsession with Air caused me to neglect the other elements of my power. But I figured specialising was key.

Then 1 year after I'd begun my extra training, my Air element reached a power level of 100.