"Let me sleep in," I groan, pulling my blanket over my head.

"Oh no, you don't," Mom's annoyed voice pierces my fabric shield. Through Sense Mana, I watch the outline of my mother, reach down and grab my blanket. I could try stopping her, but it would mean the destruction of my blanket. "It's time you get up," Mother forcefully rips the covering off me.

On reflex, I curl up, bracing myself for the cold air of fall to wash over me, but it never comes. My room is chilly, but for some reason, it's not to the point that I can't bear it. Why aren't I cold?

For a moment, I'm confused, but I quickly realize what's going on. It was my Endurance; it was no longer a measly 17 but a robust 50. Only two days ago, I gained access to my status page and distributed most of my status points, and I was still getting used to the perks that came with that.

My Endurance had almost tripled, so it stands I'd be more resistant to the cold. Too bad it didn't help me resist Mother's frosty glare.

Mom stood over me, her arms crossed in front of her chest, glowering down at me. "You should've been out of the house hours ago," she scolds. "What will people think if you sleep in all the time? Who would want an apprentice like that?"

"A vampire," I sassily whisper.

"A what?" Mother leans in, eyes narrowing menacingly. She didn't hear what I said but somehow knew I was talking back to her. "Honestly, Aaliyah," she shakes her head disappointingly. "You're ten now; you'll be an adult in a few years. I can't keep coming in here every morning to ensure you're awake."

"But you're so good at it," I pout and use Charm to make a cute face.

Mom smiles lovingly at me, and for a brief second, I think my skill worked, only to have Mother flick me in the forehead. "That won't work," she shakes her hand as if it's injured. "I see you put some of your points into Endurance," she notes with a sour face.

"Sorry," I apologize, and it's sincere. I would've tried to dodge if I knew Mother would hurt her finger flicking me.

"It's fine," Mother blows on her hurt digit. "It's up to you how you distribute your points; I just hope you didn't distribute them all simultaneously as we warned you not to."

"Don't worry, Mom, I didn't," I reassure her. I still had 86 points saved up; that's almost nine levels worth of status points—plenty left to distribute once I find an apprenticeship. Speaking of which, why did I have to go looking so soon? Can't I get at least a week off to get used to my new stats?

"Can't I have one more day to relax; I mean, get used to my stats?" I hurridly correct myself. But judging by the look Mom gives me, she isn't buying what I'm selling. "Come on; I bet hardly anyone in the village even knows I turned ten two days ago," I whine.

That actually gets a chuckle out of Mom. "Sweety, most of the village saw you running for three hours straight the other day. The whole village knows our 'little rabbit unlocked her status page."

"Must you use that silly nickname?" I frown. "After all, you say I'm an adult now."

"I said you're almost an adult," Mother takes great joy in correcting me. "And if you want me to treat you like an adult, act like it and get up on your own," she pats my leg, urging me up.

Damn, Mom's good. She easily flipped my words back on me.

"Why do you want me to get a job so bad?" I ask Mom as I swing my legs over the side of my bed.

Mother sighs like she does when she thinks I'm asking her the wrong question. "I don't want you to find a job; I want you to find something you're interested in. Not a job somebody picked out for you like my parents tried to do with me, but something that makes you happy."

"Your father was lucky because he loved doing what his dad did. And I'm thrilled Richard found something to be passionate about as well. Of course, I want the same for you, but unless you want to become a seamstress like me, you must go out and experience the world."

"I wouldn't call Spotted Creek Village the world," I deadpan, earning another small chuckle from Mother.

She reaches up and brushes my hair out of my face. "Start with our village first. Then, if you can't find something that interests you here, we'll discuss other options. Is that okay with you?"

"I suppose that's fair," I stand up and shake out my limbs. "Though I'm still going to do my morning workout routine."

"That's fine, as long as you talk to at least three people by the end of the day," Mom holds up three fingers. "I'll ask around and find out if you don't," she threatens.

"Deal," I hold out my hand as if we're making a business agreement, but Mom just pulls me into a hug.

Our embrace doesn't last long, and soon Mom excuses herself from my room so I can get ready.

I do my routine that has me brushing out my hair and tying it up. Then I brush my teeth with a medieval toothbrush made of a wooden handle and thick hair for bristles. There's no toothpaste, but I make up for it by brushing longer and twice a day. I've heard of few adults who have ever had teeth problems, meaning stats must help fill in the gap left behind by toothpaste.

I quickly wipe my body down using a rag and the small pail of water I keep in my room. If there's one thing I absolutely hate about this world, it is its lack of plumbing, specifically a shower. I rarely get to take a bath, so I'm stuck wiping myself down multiple times a day.

After cleaning myself, I throw on one of my pairs of trousers. Then I bind my budding chest with the garment Mother made for me and throw on a comfortable shirt. Lastly, I grab my raincoat. It could start raining any day now, and even with my new tolerance for the cold, I didn't want to risk getting caught up in the rain.

Leaving my room, I say goodbye to Mom, sitting in her chair sewing, and walk out the front door.

I don't go too far from our house before I start stretching. My routine consists of a lot of simple stretching techniques I remember from P.E. class back on Earth. But I've added a few new exercises to my list since yesterday.

Leaning over and placing my hands on the ground, I kick off with my feet, so I'm standing on my hands. I couldn't do this before distributing my status points, but now I could act like an anime protagonist with my increased physical stats. Counting off, I do five sets of ten upside-down pushups before hopping back onto my feet.

Next, I do a standing backflip just because I can. After that, I fool around for a few more minutes, enjoying my supercharged abilities, but all good things must end. I still need to do my laps and talk to people in the village.

So, I quit clowning around and got to running.

Running was my favorite pastime. It was invigorating, gave me time to think, and with it having its own skill related to it, I know if I'm improving. Like now, while doing laps around the village, I think of who I want to visit first.

Roughly 70% of the village worked in the fields, so it was a given I would need to visit them, but there were still quite a few people who had other jobs.

And though it was probably useless, I knew the first person I needed to visit.

Finishing my morning laps, I stop in front of Anastasia's house, our village's clinic. As far as I know, she's the only other person in the village with any magical skills, and there were some questions I was hoping she could answer.

I've been waiting for the right time to talk to her about magic. If I visited her any other time, it would raise questions, but practically every child went to meet with her once they unlocked their status page, so I was in the clear.

Standing in front of her house, I notice how nice it is. It's easily three times the size of ours, and to my knowledge, Anastasia lives alone. Unlike every other house, Anastasia's had brick walls and slate roofing instead of thatch like the rest of us. It just went to show how much the village valued her.

I've heard Mom complain about Anastasia and how arrogant she is for her skill level multiple times over the years, especially the few times Dad injured himself working and had to see her. But a weak healer was still a healer. Most villages our size only had a few emergency tonics, but our village is much safer with Anastasia here.

Mom said she could only cure relatively minor injuries, but that didn't matter to me so long as she could tell me about magic. Her personality mattered even less to me. I had to work retail in my past life, so I knew how to deal with unreasonable people. I'll just have to turn up my Charm.

Smirking, I open the door to Anastasia's house, as it was the village's clinic and always open during the day in case of an emergency.

Much like our house, I walk into a large room, only this one isn't a kitchen and is lined with chairs. There were two doors leading to the rest of Anastasia's house. One had a sign that said 'private' on it, which probably led to the part of the building she lived in, while the other door had a sign that said 'in use.' That must be the room she sees patients in.

Since the sign said 'in use,' she must be seeing somebody now, so I sit and wait. Luckily for me, I don't have to wait long before the door is opened, and one of the elderly members of the village, who I didn't know the name of, walks through the door.

"Thank you, Lady Anastasia," the old man tries to bow to her but can't do much more than lower his head. "My back always acts up before the first rain."

"It was nothing," Anastasia waves off the old man before holding her hand out. "My payment?"

"Of course," the old man fishes three bronze coins out of his pocket and places them in Anastasia's outstretched hand.

As soon as the coins are in her hand, Anastasia loses all interest in her patient and turns her attention to me. "Are you sick?" She looks me up and down with a scowl, leaving the old man to exit alone.

Confronted with blatant hostility, I put on my best customer service smile and lie my ass off. "Sorry for taking up your time; I'm not injured. I recently turned ten and came to talk to big sister about magic, as you're the best (only) mage in the village." I keep Charm activated while I butter Anastasia up with a starry-eyed look as if I were meeting my hero.

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Slowly, Anastasia's look of disdain starts to slip, and she smirks at me. "Only the most talented, like myself, can use magic. In fact, only one in five hundred has the potential to sense mana. Do you think you are one of them?"

If she raises her nose any higher, it will pierce her roof. But, of course, I don't say that; instead, I nod and continue to lay on useless platitudes. "Wow! No wonder you're the most important person in the village. My parents even told me you saved my life as a baby!"

"I am blessed with great talent, but no matter how blessed I am, I can't teach you if you have no skill in sensing mana," she warns me.

"That's okay; I just want to be able to throw fireballs at goblins," I tell her in an overly childish voice.

Anastasia scoffs, "Children and their fire spells. There's more to magic than simple destruction spells."

Great, I got her talking. Now let's see if I can extract any hints from her. "Okay, like what? How do people cast magic?"

"I suppose I can give a respectful child like yourself some information for free. If only every child that comes to bug me is the same in the future. Listen carefully," she gestures for me to sit still in my seat, which was hard because I was practically shaking with excitement.

"There are multiple ways a person who can sense mana can use magic, but the most common you are no doubt familiar with is chanting, using an incantation. Words hold power, and reciting an incantation correctly with the right pitch, can bend mana to your whim."

"Next," Anastasia smiles at me and holds up her hands, where I see she's wearing a fancy pair of leather gloves. "A person can channel their mana into a magic item made with runic magic. The effects they produce are always the same but usually cost less mana than reciting a similar spell and are much easier to use. Like my gloves that convert my mana into healing energy."

Anastasia sounds proud of herself, but it takes much of my willpower not to frown. By her admission, she isn't even casting any magic; she's just the battery! Hell, I could probably do that! No wonder Mom says she charges too much for what she does.

"Sister, can I see your magic gloves?" I innocently smile, but it doesn't work.

"Are you crazy?" She pulls her hands back as if I was going to try tearing them off her hands. "Did you think I would hand over something so valuable to a complete amateur?"

"I'm so sorry," I quickly apologize and hang my head, but mostly I do it to avoid Anastasia seeing my annoyed expression. I mean, come on, lady, what would I do with them? Throw them in a fire? Run off with them? We live in the same small village.

"I suppose you didn't know what you were asking," she says after hearing my fake apology.

Damn, I was losing her; I could tell she was moments away from asking me to leave. If that were the case, I might as well try to ask her at least one more question. "So you need a spell or an item to cast magic? What about conjuring stuff from your mind; is that possible?"

Thankfully, my question turned Anastasia's focus away from her gloves, but her answer wasn't what I wanted to hear. "You're talking about casting spells with nothing but Mana Manipulation. It is possible, but the techniques have been lost to time. Some talented mages can do simple things with it, but the skill is primarily used to boost the casting of the other two forms of magic and empower skill-based magic effects."

Okay, so no help there.

Anastasia once again grins at me. "You're quite studious, aren't you? If you find you can sense mana, come back, and I'll teach you."

"Really?" I'm honestly surprised by her offer.

"Yes, though getting a pair of gloves like mine will cost you five large silver coins. And I charge five large bronze coins a day for lessons."

I'm rendered speechless by how shameless Anastasia is. Even if the gloves were that expensive, charging five large bronze coins daily for lessons was highway robbery.

When Mom taught me math, she explained how money worked. Everything was denoted through coins, starting with iron, and when as follows:

10 Iron Coins = 1 Large Iron Coin

10 Large Iron Coins = 1 Bronze coin

10 Bronze coins = 1 Large Bronze Coin

10 Large Bronze Coins = 1 Silver coin

And it kept going for silver and gold. A few iron coins could get you a loaf of bread and were primarily what villagers used to buy essential goods. A single bronze coin could get you a lot, so asking for fifty of them a day to teach me how to use magic items was absurd!

It's clear she never had any real intention of teaching me, and now that I know the extent of her skills, I no longer particularly want to learn from her, but I suppose I should at least ask what she could teach me.

"So if I can sense mana and get my parents to pay you, what will I learn?" It isn't easy to blatantly act like a child. I know my family can't afford her prices, and she knows I can't, but I need to act like I'm ignorant of both to continue the conversation.

"If you become my student," she puts a lot of emphasis on the if. "Then I can guarantee you will acquire four skills," she says proudly.

"Really!?" I acted excited but felt I already knew which skills she was talking about. "Which four skills?"

"The first, you'll need to unlock on your own, but I can help you level it up quickly. The skill is called Sense Mana, and every mage needs it to control mana. I've gotten mine to level 37, so I can help anyone talented enough to at least get it to level 20," she openly brags, and I have to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing.

I had already gotten Sense Mana to level 42; were my other skills already higher than hers? "Wow," I pretend to be impressed.

"I don't like to brag," Anastasia brings her hand up to her chest and poses as if she were a noble, confirming the opposite of what she said. "But I can also guarantee each student would learn Expel Mana, Meditation, and Chanting," she proclaims.

I already had three of those four skills, and based on the name, it was easy to guess what Chanting did.

"Cool; does that mean you can chant spells too?" I gently prod, hoping for any piece of information.

"I know a few," Anastasia proudly grins down at me. "But they're secret spells, and I'll only teach them to my apprentices."

Even if she knew some spells, part of me wanted to call her out on her ridiculous pricing, but I would be stupid to antagonize the only person in the village who knew even a semblance of healing magic. So, I grit my teeth and stand up.

With a forced smile, I bow and thank Anastasia for her time, even though she didn't deserve it. I told her I'd talk to my parents about the money and try to sense mana, but anyone could see she wasn't expecting me to return.

"Well, that sucked," I grumble once I'm sure the door to the clinic is fully closed behind me. Getting some information about magic was nice, but Anastasia completely ruined it for me with her greed.

I'll acknowledge she had the information I needed, but I would need to explain why my skills were already so high even if I somehow got the money. I still hadn't even told my parents about my magic talent, let alone somebody else.

Being able to use magic was a big deal in this world. If I could already sense mana better than a woman in her thirties like Anatasia, I could only imagine what forces I would bring down on myself and my family if that information got out.

The only thing I could do was continue practicing by myself. Maybe when I was a bit older, I could fake discovering mana and talk to Anastasia again and work out a deal, but for now, I wasn't going to ask her to teach me.

Due to my disappointing first meeting, I take my time walking to my next destination.

Moving north through the village, I eventually come upon the fields at the back of the village. There were roughly fifteen acres of tilled land. I knew little about farming, but I'm guessing they recently planted whatever crop they hoped to harvest in the springtime.

I was curious what that is, though. We had almost a month of rain ahead of us, followed by four months of snow. Can anything survive that much punishment?

"Look out for the crops, Markus; a rabbit appeared," a voice says behind me.

"Don't worry, Ezekiel, she doesn't look hungry," a second person replies to the first.

I wonder if I can gain skills from murdering a couple of farmers, I darkly think as I turn around with yet another forced smile. I would skip talking to the two if Mother hadn't threatened that she'd ask around if I did so.

"Afternoon Markus. Hello Ezekiel," I greet the two men. I didn't know the names of many of the villagers, but I knew these two. Both were the highest leveled farmers in the village and were in charge of overseeing the fields.

They loved heckling me while I ran and were two of the first to start calling me 'little rabbit.' They never said anything overtly mean, but they were quite rude whenever we interacted.

"Finally making your rounds now that you turned ten? Markus smirkingly asks me.

"I'm surprised she even came to see us," Ezikial nudges his partner.

"Just looking," I flatly tell the two. "What did you guys plant?" I turned to look at the fields as I didn't want to look at the two men.

"Hear that, Markus? Finally, someone in their family has some appreciation for what we do," Ezikial preens.

What the hell does he mean by that? "Just curious about the crops, I assure you." I try not to roll my eyes.

"We're planting wortel," Markus finally answers my question.

That makes sense; wortel are the long green carrots Mother always puts in our stews. They grow underground, but I wasn't aware they could survive under the snow.

"Yep, we planted them yesterday," Ezikial adds.

He meant they supervised the planting. I understood the importance of having somebody in charge, especially when I was sure some skills benefited a group. However, that didn't give Markus and Ezikial the right to look down on everybody else. And what was that about my family?

"Want to learn a few skills?" Markus chortles. "You can pick up some fast levels if you come work under us, unlike your mother or brother."

"Yeah, and we won't even chase you out of the fields as we do the other rabbits," Ezikial jokes, and both men barrel over in laughter.

"What do you have against my family?" Finally, I can no longer hide my feelings and snap at the laughing duo.

"What, do we have something against her family?" Markus exaggeratedly asks Ezikial.

"No, who can have a problem with the perfect couple?" Ezikial spits venomously.

"What has my family ever done to you two?" I ball my hands into a fist angrily.

The two men look at each other and scoff in unison. Markus then turns to me with a sneer. "Your entire family thinks it's too good for farming," he wildly proclaims.

"That's right," Ezikial mirrors Markus. "When your mother and father moved here, who did you think offered them jobs? It was one thing for your father to turn us down, being a woodsman and all, but your mom was a spoiled merchant's daughter and couldn't do anything. She should've begged us to teach her the ropes, but instead, she took up tailoring because she was too good for us."

"Your brother did the same thing," Markus adds. "We took the time to explain how important we are to the village, and what does he do?"

"He ditches us halfway through the season for another apprenticeship," Ezikial finishes for Markus.

"And now you, with all your running around," Markus spits near my feet. "It's been days, and you're only coming to see us now. You have the same amount of respect the rest of your family has. The two of us are the most important people in the village; thanks to us, you and your family have food to eat every night. You should be so lucky to work under us."

"I'll consider it," I turn around and walk away before I break and strike the cackling duo with my fists.

"You'll be back," I hear Ezikial shout after me. "And when you do, we'll let you shovel the manure," he cackles.

Screw those guys, I fume. Why was everyone I met today a greedy charlatan or a couple of annoying ass farmers?

Even if I can't convince a single other person to let me be their apprentice, I'll never work under Markus or Ezikial.

But where did I go next? I don't think Mom will count dumb and dumber as two people, so I still need to hit up at least one other person today. But after my last two stops, I don't think I could take another lousy encounter. It was only my first day looking for an apprenticeship, and I was already over it.

Without any other ideas, I aimlessly wander around the village. I considered reaching out to Granny Gellar, but I wasn't that interested in baking either. What do I do?

"Hey, Aaliyah," Brother's voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

I don't know what drew me to this part of the village, but I was next to the stables at the moment, and Brother was here with his mentor Salus.

Richard called out to me from an exposed beam on the village's only barn. It was the only place the village had to store its livestock during winter, and it looked like Richard and Salus were in the middle of patching it up.

"Hey," I lazily wave back. Usually, I'd be happier to see Brother, but I couldn't muster the energy.

Brother gives me a concerned look, but he was in the middle of swapping out some planks and couldn't get down until he finished. He'd get angry at me if I left without telling him what was wrong, so I wait nearby for him to finish what he was doing.

In the meantime, I watch the various domesticated animals in their pens.

The biggest animals were the bivol. They were shorter, stockier bison-like creatures with coats of black fur. They were the village's beasts of burden. The farmers used them to plow the fields and push the carts, and on rare occasions, they were led around the village to tamper the ground. Most considered them the all-around most helpful animal to have. Although they did have one drawback, bivols were notoriously slow. They could pull a full cart all day and still not get that far.

Running around the feet of the bivol were tiny velociraptors called kips. Not the kind portrayed in movies, mind you, but the ones actually discovered by paleontologists. The key difference is that they weren't the size of people, with the biggest being turkey-sized. They were scavengers in the wild, had feathers like chickens, and lay decently sized eggs. It took them longer than chickens back on Earth, but they produced a decent amount of eggs, to the point it was worth raising them.

The pens were built primarily to house the bivol and kips, but a third animal was present. There were two horse-like creatures with horns. It would've been funny if they were called unicorns, but they weren't. Instead, they were called jelens, and their horns were a mix between rams horns and a deer's. Both were the village headman's property and weren't used for labor.

"Rough day?" Richard asks me after walking over to me.

"You can say that," I sigh. "Hello, Mr. Sallus," I greet Brother's mentor, who walks up and joins us. "I don't suppose you're looking for another apprentice?" I jokingly ask.

"Sorry, but I have my hands full with your brother," Salus politely turns me down.

"Well, I tried. If my mom asks you, can you tell her I talked to you?" I half-heartedly smile at Salus.

"That bad, huh?" Brother gives me a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, it hasn't been fun," I tell him. "But with Salus, that makes three people I've visited. So I think I'll call it early and go back home. Maybe I'll help Mom with dinner."

"What happened?" Brother urges me to tell him, but I shake my head.

"I'll tell you at dinner; see you when you stop by." To Brother's displeasure, I don't answer any of his questions before walking off.

The rest of my day has me feeling like I'm underwater. And I don't start feeling better again until dinnertime with the family.

"What has you down, Sweetie?" Dad asks, concerned, seeing me play with my soup.

"She had a bad day," Richard answers for me.

"That explains why she was so quiet while helping me with dinner," Mom frows. "You came home earlier than I thought you would; what happened?"

The problem with a loving family is that they won't let you brood in silence. I know none of them will leave me alone until I tell them, so I take my time and explain my run-in with Ansitasia, Markus, and Ezikial to the three of them.

"I really hate that lady. Where does she get off saying her time is that valuable? Everyone knows she spends most of her day doing nothing!" Mom lightly slams her hands against the table.

"I had no idea Markus and Ezikial thought that way about us," Dad growls in annoyance. "If either of them ever touches you or speaks to you like that again, let me know, and I'll bury them in the woods."

"Thanks for the offer, but I wouldn't want you poisoning the forest," I joke, trying to lighten the mood around the table. "Besides, they're jerks, but they've never done anything warranting that. I just never want to work for them."

"And you don't have to," Mother reaches over and pats my arm. "I'm sorry you had such a bad day, but you can't let this stop you."

"I know, I'm just moping," I admit. "I don't want to go back out tomorrow."

It's then Dad gets a huge smile on his face. 'If that's the case, why don't you go out with me tomorrow? I can show you the forest; you've never been outside the village after all."

"That's, actually sounds like a great idea," I smile. I've always been curious about the wider world, and spending time with Dad sounds fun. Although, "Am I going to have to get up early?" I hesitantly ask.

"Before the sun even rises," Dad confirms my suspicions.

"Fine," I groan. "But you're going to have to make sure I'm up," I point at him. Dad laughs, but I'm being serious.

The rest of the night is much better than my day, and I end up in bed with a smile on my face. Even though I couldn't stay up late practicing my mana skills because I had to get up early, spending time with my dad was worth it.

I don't dump my mana as I want it full for tomorrow, but I do pull up my status page before I go to sleep.

LV: 37 Experience: 7,999/43,318

Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 659/666 Mana: 342/500

Vitality: 100

Endurance: 50

Strength: 50

Dexterity: 50

Senses: 50

Mind: 50

Magic: 50

Clarity: 50

Status Points: 96

Skills: Sense Mana (LV42), Acting (LV25), Meditation (LV40), Expel mana (LV23), Charm (LV32), Running (LV27), Cleaning (LV12), Mathematics (LV26), Writing (LV12), Mana Manipulation (LV5), Wood Carving (LV6), Drawing (LV3)

Over the last two days, multiple skills have leveled thanks to my increased stats. With more mana and energy to draw from, I could fool around with my skills longer than ever.

The bonus stat points helped me so much; I even gained an unexpected level.

Thanks to my family and seeing my improving status page, I fall asleep, with the pain of the earlier feeling like a thing of the past.