The next day began quietly, with Caleb’s parents waking up before their kids and letting Caleb and Alice sleep for a little while longer. When Caleb woke up, his parents were ready with breakfast as well as plenty of hugs from Lucille and tussling of hair from Harry. Not many words were said as they ate, but I felt the sense of calm security in Caleb’s soul as he shared the morning with his family.
As the four of them enjoyed their breakfast, Alice having joined when she finally got up, there was a knock on the door. Four sharp wraps against the door made everyone at the table pause, a slice of toasted herb bread halfway to Harry’s mouth. He looked around at his family before pushing himself away from the table and going to answer the door.
When he opened it, he revealed a tall man with a lean, athletic build, who was somewhere in his late thirties. His long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail that ran down to his shoulder blades and the edge of a large scar, running across his chest, poked out through the neck of his tunic.
Harry looked surprised to see him and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the man in question.
“Good morning, Harry.” He said, his voice was smooth and of a higher pitch than one might assume. He continued.
“I know it’s still quite early and you seem to be in the middle of your morning meal but I need to speak with your son about what happened last night.”
Harry’s surprise turned to something colder as his eyes narrowed.
“You mean how Jack and his little pet orcs beat on my boy?” he asked, undisguised anger leaking into his voice.
The unnamed man solemnly nodded his head.
“I had a chat with Bob last night after Cynthia dragged him to me and told me about what happened. I just want to talk to Caleb to get the full story before I make any decisions.” As he finishes what he was saying he turns his head and speaks to Caleb, who’s still sitting at the table. “There’s also the matter of the request you made to my daughter.”
Harry turned back to look at Caleb with a confused look. Caleb, who HAD omitted that little detail in last night’s heart to heart, now refused to make eye contact and shuffled nervously in his seat. The man saw this and began explaining to Harry.
“Apparently, last night, your son asked my daughter to train him how to fight. She said he seemed eager to learn. Cynthia is definitely strong for her age but she’s got a long way to go before I let her take responsibility for training someone else.”
Caleb’s head drooped a little as the man spoke.
“However, if you would allow it, I am more than capable of watching over his training. At least to get him to the point where he can properly defend himself.”
That got everyone’s attention. Caleb looked to his dad with hopeful eyes as Harry scrunched his brow in thought. Finally, he looked over to Caleb, puppy dog eyes and all, and sighed before facing the man and giving him a brief but solid nod. The man returned the gesture and then eyed Harry questioningly.
After a moment of confusion, Harry’s face flashed with realization and stepped aside, letting the man into the house.
&&&&&&&&&&
The yet unnamed man was all business, briefly greeting Lucille and Alice and once again apologizing for his intrusion before turning his attention to Caleb. He asked only a few questions: ‘How long has the bullying been happening?’, ‘How often did they beat on him?’, ‘Was it always as a group or did they act individually?’, and a few others.
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Caleb answered honestly, albeit with some trepidation even after the man promised that the boys wouldn’t even think of touching him again.
After asking his questions, the man moved as if to leave the family to finish their meal but stopped just before the door. He turned once more to Caleb.
“The training will be neither quick nor easy, but if you really wish to learn how to fight come to my house in three days. For now, I must go and speak to the other boys and their families. I will see all of you at worship.”
With that, he opened the door and left. The family got back to quietly eating their breakfast and I. . . didn’t really have much to do. I had my projects, some things I was still working on in the background, and ideas I wanted to experiment with. But when you have 24 hours a day to work, said work just disappears before you realize it.
I haven’t had much time to think about this because I’d been busy setting up the interface and getting used to my abilities, but it turns out I had drastically overestimated how much of a time crunch I was on. Most of the basic setup and features were done and ready, just waiting for Caleb to get to level 1 to activate. This is made even simpler, as it turns out I can create automatic triggers for my system, so I don’t have to micromanage everything.
As of right now, Caleb is sitting at 28 XP, which means it will be weeks if not months before he makes it to the next level. Now while I could wait and let him accrue XP from the Farmhand Quest. . . I’m bored, so no.
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You have earned an Achievement!
Achievement: Survivor
Description: You have survived a potentially life or death scenario! Let’s hope that’s the last one!
Reward: 50XP
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Caleb coughed and sputtered when he read the notification that appeared before his eyes. He waved off the surprise and concern of the family, swallowing his food and showing that he was fine before they slowly continued with their meal.
50 XP was definitely a large reward, but I didn’t think it would provoke such a strong reaction.
On top of my own boredom, I did have other reasons for giving Caleb the Achievement. First and foremost, while I am no longer under as much pressure to design and implement a brand new system, Caleb is far from being able to live a long and healthy life. Life as a peasant in a seemingly medieval society is not a safe one, especially in a world of magic and monsters.
Caleb needs to power up if I want to guarantee his safety and health, and the most direct way to do that is to level up. To that end, the Achievement cuts out weeks of waiting. I decided not to go for a full 100 because I felt it would have felt unnatural and I wanted to maintain the illusion that I wasn’t just making all this up as I go along.
The other reason I gave him an Achievement is that I was beginning to feel that the Mission and Quest system was a bit too rigid. I was only able to reward him for things I told him to do beforehand. Achievements give me more flexibility and let me reward him for doing things without my input. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do for now.
After a little while longer, the family finished eating and went about their day as usual. Caleb and Harry went out to the fields and tended to the animals while Lucille looked after Alice, teaching her how to sew and mend clothes.
When the boys returned, they noticed some kind of commotion happening in the village center. What looked like most of the village was crowded around a makeshift wooden dais, with the man from that morning standing next to the kneeling trio of bullies.
The crowd murmured curiously, but no one seemed surprised at what was happening and, from what I can tell, it was well known that the boys were trouble.
The man from earlier was on the side of the dais talking to a woman wearing thick, dark gray robes and a necklace of beads, looking almost like a priest or a monk of some kind. They traded words and then the woman spotted Harry and Caleb, pointing their arrival out to the man. The man looked over and nodded to the pair before turning to address the crowd. The murmuring of the crowd subsided as the man drew their attention and a hush fell over the square.
“My people,” he began, “I stand before you today to inform you of the brutalization and assault of one of our own, by our own.”
He paused and gestured to the three kneeling boys, their heads hanging and looks of frustration and anger on their faces. But no guilt.
“These three have admitted to the abuse of Caleb, son of Harry, and several other children in our fair village.” His eyes roamed the crowd, landing in particular on two other boys who looked down and away in shame. The man grimaced at their reaction, but continued.
“It is my duty as Chief to ensure that actions and behaviors such as those of these boys, Jack Zacson, Bob Volson, and Ray Ingerson, are punished rightfully for the good of my people.”
Wait a second, he’s the chief of the village? Not just a guard? Well, now I have even more questions!
“Sister Willah will now declare and carry out the boys’ punishment.” The apparent chief stepped down off the dais to make room for the thick robed woman to take his place.
Sister Willah held a large book bound in red leather with a golden sword on the cover. She opened it and began to read out several passages about order and the punishments of various crimes with very flowery and poetic language that gave me a headache. A very impressive feat given my new form’s mental abilities.
In the end, she declared that each boy shall receive 10 lashes, which sounds like a lot - and it is - but they apparently had a much longer list of crimes than I thought on top of the bullying. And they did kill Caleb. In fact, they would have received more lashes, but the book called for reduced punishments for the young.
The whole event was surreal to watch from beginning to end. And I did watch. There was no juvie or complicated and sophisticated legal system here, no courts or juries of one’s peers. There was a judge. And there was an executioner. Maybe out in the wider world, in large cities or towns, there was a greater bureaucracy, but that was not here.
Sister Willah finished her sermon - that’s what it was, really - and pulled out a long, thin stick of wood. It whistled through the air and cracked against their backs. They cried out with each lash as blood dripped from their wounds.
When all was said and done, a couple of the village guards escorted them out of the square and the crowd dispersed to continue on with their day. A sense of dark satisfaction settled in Caleb’s soul after seeing the whimpering bullies and their suffering. Only to be replaced by dread when the leader of the bullies, Jack, looked over his shoulder to meet Caleb’s gaze with a look of deep murderous rage.
Caleb shivered and let himself be guided away by his father back to the house.