He was the third son of a second son, a child of the offshoot of what was already a generationally disgraced noble branch. Lysander had a name and a family history, but no title.
Eighteen. No talent for magic. He'd have no chance to have the special doors opened for himself that his siblings had been granted, beyond what a questionable noble lineage would give him; he’d have to open them for himself through hard work. That was the state Lysander found himself in.
But it didn’t matter; the world was vast, and he refused to be nothing within its endless possibilities.
His breeding did keep him from getting snubbed by other nobles altogether and usually gave him a little leeway with officials. It was enough; it was more than most people had going for them. He should be grateful, and he was, but he was also ambitious beyond his born station.
Arden was full of monsters, magic, and lost treasures—some rumored to be beyond mortal imagination. The limits of the continents were hardly known, and maps were only semi-reliable at best, becoming more and more suspect the further they expanded away from whatever small kingdom or hamlet they were drafted within.
To put it simply, this period in history known as the Fifth Era was an age of opportunity and mystery. Something within Lysander told him that he needed to seize as much of it as he could.
The blue, semi-opaque status screen was drawn out in front of him, displaying the swordsman's skills and stats from where he sat on the hard mattress beneath him.
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Lysander Borncrest
Body: N/A
Mind: N/A
Soul: N/A
Attributes:
Brawn: 1 (+1) (50/100) (Novice)
Dexterity: 1 (+1) (30/100) (Novice)
Endurance: 1 (+1) (80/100) (Novice)
Magic Potency: 1 (-1) (0/100) (Novice)
Magic Control: 1 (-1) (0/100) (Novice)
Magic Efficiency: 1 (-1) (0/100) (Novice)
Proficiencies
Appraisal: 1 (70/100) (Novice)
Archery (No Style): 1 (50/100) (Novice)
Bookkeeping: 1 (80/100) (Novice)
Butchering: 1 (50/100) (Novice)
One-Handed (No Style): 1 (100/100) (Novice)
Shield (No Style): 1 (10/100) (Novice)
Spear (No Style): 1 (50/100) (Novice)
Born Traits
Bodybound: As with most beings, you have latent magic within your bones and blood. Unlike those who would seek to wield mana, however, your body has mutated to naturally cannibalize its mana to strengthen itself. Your Brawn, Dexterity, and Endurance all increase by one level. However, your Magic Efficiency, Magic Control, and Magic Potency are all reduced by one level; additionally, any gains to these magical skills will instead be transferred to their physical counterparts.
Titles
n/a
Skills
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His eyes lingered on the [bodybound] trait.
A born trait was essentially something that everyone had, but every born trait was ultimately different.
Lysander figured his trait wasn’t the worst one in the world.
Of course, he’d essentially never be able to be a mage; he literally had zero free magic in his body. His weird mutation meant that his muscles and constitution ate up any mana his soulcore produced before he could even think about shaping it into a spell or curse.
That said, having his physical attributes boosted by one each was a pretty massive deal from a certain point of view.
The average person achieved a score of one in every single physical attribute trait upon reaching maturity. Everybody’s one point was different, depending on race and gender, sure, but, ultimately, a baseline of one point in any attribute meant you were about as strong, fast, or sturdy as a single, average person.
A two, though? A two meant that you were twice as good in any trait as the average. Usually it took a long time to progress to that point, and most commoners never made it to having a two in any stats at all—let alone a three.
But thanks to his born trait, Lysander had become twice as strong, dexterous, and durable as others his age without any extra work. All the while, his actual scores in the physical attributes remained as ones, though he had a plus one next to them on his character sheet.
Add to all of that the fact that it was actually pretty common to have no magical talent—though others born with zeros in the magical attributes could, unlike himself, in theory hone them—and he considered himself at least somewhat fortunate. Even if his body's ability to boost itself by draining his mana likely meant that he would have possessed magical talent had he not developed [bodybound] as his born trait—something seemingly forever lost to him now.
He'd, of course, trained himself as well. He’d even gotten his hands on a few monster cores to further progress his attributes, but those were expensive for a third son of a noble family that already found itself on the brink of social ruin.
His family could provide for his lodging and even his training with weapons whenever he was at their estate, but he wasn’t exactly given vast amounts of spending money to waste away.
He was essentially the spare’s spare. With two brothers and a sorcery-born sister ahead of him in the succession.
Not having a steady supply of monster cores had been a major impediment for him. Monster cores were the easiest, albeit most expensive, method of increasing one’s attributes.
At the core of every living creature’s heart, there was a soulcore. These cores could be harvested and used to increase the power of one’s attributes, though it was incredibly taboo to harvest a sapient person’s core for various reasons.
Additionally, people tended to bottleneck once they’d trained themselves to the limit of their current attribute score. The only guaranteed way to break through to the next attribute level was to fill up your attribute progression points with either effort or the energy of monster cores of your same level; you’d then use the energy of a monster core of the next highest level than yourself to make a breakthrough.
It was a dangerous process to do all of this, however. A person’s body would struggle to absorb the energy of a core that was a level higher than their own attribute. To try to absorb the power of such a core before you’d maxed out the tier progression of your current attribute score was essentially suicide. Even then, after you had properly prepared, it remained very taxing on one’s constitution.
Still, power was power, and people craved it, fought for it, and sometimes even clawed it from one another’s hands. Even bronze-tier monster cores were highly sought after, as they could also be used in the crafting of armor and weapons or the raising of basic infantry troops. Silver cores were available for sale from time to time, but anything higher than silver level was all but nonexistent on the open market.
Of course, Lysander did have an advantage over others when it came to his attributes, even despite his lack of access to cores. His effective physical scores were a level higher than they actually were, meaning that he really had the physical capabilities of someone with an apprentice-level body.
However, Lysander’s actual points in brawn, dexterity, and endurance were still technically level one, making them novice ranks. Which meant he could still absorb and gain benefits from bronze monster cores, despite, in theory, being much more equipped to deal with novice-level monsters than the usual person who would want to do so. The way that [bodybound] worked also had other potential benefits, but Lysander had been unable to confirm those advantages as of yet.
Lysander closed his status screen with a pointed look as a knock came from the room’s door.
"It’s unlocked," he said, rising to his feet.
He’d sat for only a short while to gather his thoughts and remind himself of his goals as he'd browsed his character sheet.
A soft and kind-looking aide greeted Lysander with a bow of her scarlet-haired head. "The master will see you now, young sir."
Lysander gave the woman a soft smile before nodding his head. "Thank you. Will you lead the way, miss?"
It’d been many hours since he’d entered the Merchants' Guild of Archport and requested an audience with the master of the organization. His noble sigil had afforded him the privilege of a guest room to wait in, even despite the fact that he’d already procured lodging for himself at a local inn. He also hadn’t been asked too many questions, but he knew his breeding wouldn’t get him much further than that.
He was finally going to be able to start reaching for his goals, provided he managed to make this meeting go his way.