After scanning through four of his tabs, Adam now had access to four different combat roles: tank, healer, leader, and damage. With a second of contemplation, he decided that with the one Discipline skill he had unlocked he was not yet capable of determining if that category was damage or control, so there were still some options left. Figuring his perusal of the next tab would clear the situation up, Adam jumped right in.
Having spent some time actually contemplating the idea of which combat role Chores would fill, he was shocked to find it filled none of them. Chores had more skills unlocked than anything but Protection, yet not one of them was a combat skill. On second glance, one of them was applicable in combat, but that wasn’t its main purpose.
Multitask: With great challenge comes great skill. Mother’s have been rising to the occasion since life began, and the skill that has kept life growing more than any other is Multitask. Extra hands would be nice but impractical, so Mother’s know how to get the most out of what they have. Need to balance a baby, feed a child, clean a table, and cook all at the same time? Multitask! Now with even more tasks!
Allows Mothers to truly do and think about multiple things at once. Grants Ambidexterity. Warning: Can lead to overlapping thoughts focused on the same thing!
He would be lying if he said the warning didn’t concern him a little even if he didn’t understand it. Multitask was still a phenomenal skill, perhaps the greatest skill he’d yet seen in his class, warning or no. Its combat uses were obvious, from dual wielding to fighting multiple targets at once. It would even help with using Mother Knows Best to heal or lead. And outside of combat it could be just as useful. More than anything else he had seen yet, he wanted Multitask, but he would still wait to choose his first skill until he had seen everything he had currently unlocked.
The next two skills made far more sense for Chores, despite Multitask fitting in as well as it did.
Negotiation: A Mother needs to know how to negotiate with everyone if she’s ever going to get anything done. Negotiate for prices on food, neighbors to watch the kids, and children to eat their vegetables. Anything is possible with Negotiation, even getting two year olds to take a nap. Afterall, barter, bribery, persuasion, and intimidation are all forms of negotiation. And if all else fails, try begging, its covered too.
Declare your intent and fight for it with words.
Organization: To a Mother, nothing is as important as Organization. How else can they get everything done as fast as they do? Organization is how Mothers achieve the efficiency necessary to manage a family, house, and a spouse all at once. Toys, schedules, children, clothes, nothing is immune to Organization.
A place for everything, and everything in its place. Or everyone. Everywhere. Everyday.
Organization in particular seemed to be the epitome of chores to Adam. He remembered, less fondly than he would like to, having to clean up after his fellow orphans when he was still with the gang. It wasn’t something that had come naturally to him, and took constant work and vigilance. An absolutely necessary skill for anything involving children, as he knew.
Negotiation also fit the Chores section as well he realized after some thought. The flavor text for both skills was quite nostalgic for him. He’d used everything he could think of to get some of the orphan kids to do the things he’d needed them to do when they lived on the street, including barter, bribery, persuasion, intimidation, even begging. Having a skill to boost the effectiveness of those tactics would be phenomenal.
Shaking his head, he tried to dismiss the allure of reliving those happier times with the duke’s kids. He wouldn’t be happy with them because he wasn’t choosing to be there. Even if he did generally like kids. This slavery thing is hard, he thought to himself.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Looking back over Negotiation and Organization, he could better see how Multitask fit. Combining the Chores name, the content of the category, and the class bonuses to cooking, cleaning, and tailoring, he thought he had a pretty good idea what sort of skills he would find behind the rest of the locks. While he was disappointed that Chores wasn’t a combat based role, he was still interested in what it had to offer.
He moved to the last skill, unsurprised to find it was another utility skill. The surprise was what it did.
Hearth Call: A Mother’s place may not always be the home, but it is definitely where she wants to hurry back to. When the Hearth Calls a Mother home, this is the fastest way to get there.
Instantly return home. Long cast time, long cool down.
The skill called to him like a beacon, a lighthouse in the dark. Home.
No hesitation, no regret, no waiting.
Spend 1 skill point to acquire:
Hearth Call
Yes, or No?
“Yes,” he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martin was beginning to grow concerned. The mindscape compressed time quite a bit, but Adam had been under longer than he’d ever seen someone stay inside. Admittedly, the boy had at least stopped crying about fifteen minutes ago, so presumably he was working through his status at the moment. That could take a fair chunk of time for a new Apprentice.
Still, they were nearly out of time for the night. It was entirely possible for him to throw the kid onto the cart if he was in his mindscape when they needed to leave and it wouldn’t disturb him. That was the downside of the mindscape for Apprentices, there was nearly no way to tell what was happening on the outside. Severe pain was the only thing that could bring someone back, but by the time most Apprentices felt enough pain to shake them out of the mindscape they were already dead.
Hoping that the kid would be back out soon, Martin motioned over one of the nearby guards and asked him to grab some grub for the two of them. Adam was in danger of missing breakfast, but there was no way Martin was missing out. He’d save the hardtack biscuits for the boy, they were a little rough on his teeth in his advancing age. Not that he’d admit to that excuse.
A few minutes later, Martin nearly dropped his sausage when Adam leapt to his feet with no warning. Even more surprising than the abrupt change in position, was the brilliant smile on the boy’s face. A smile that abruptly fell, dragging his expression into the depths of depression along with it.
The man wasn’t even sure Adam knew he was there when he said, “Damn. No home. I guess I really have lost everything.” The boy buried his face in his hands for a moment, but Martin didn’t hear any more weeping.
He quietly stood up, waiting for Adam to get over his difficulties. When the boy dropped his hands and met his eyes questioningly, the pain he saw was a mirror to his own from long ago, back when he had first been enslaved. Martin might not know exactly what Adam had tried to do when he jumped up, but the man understood the emotions behind it. He put a hand on Adam’s shoulder and said, “Now you know. Be patient and strong, and you can get out the other side alive.” They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, seeing the pain and the strength. A simple nod, and they broke apart.
Martin handed the Apprentice his breakfast. “Eat quick, we leave in ten. Tell me the details on the cart.” He left the kid to his food, and went inside to grab his stuff.
He felt every one of his advancing years at that moment. Too many cart rides, too many fights, and too much pain. He remembered the ones that he had tried to help over the years that didn’t make it, and he knew that Adam was nothing like them. The boy had the strength to make it through the upcoming years. He saw a lot of himself in the new Apprentice.
It wouldn’t be easy. It certainly wouldn’t be fun. But Adam had what it took to make it, as long as he was patient and strong like he told him to be. It was advice that had served him well when it had been given to him long ago, in much the same way. He was proud to still be alive to pass that same advice to another survivor.