Chapter 02: Ways

Weeks flew by, and my days remained the same: boring, repetitive, and forgettable. Well, aside from the occasional messages from the Spell like this one:

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Words I (100/100)]

[+1 Cognition.]

[The Way of Words II (100/1000) is now accessible.]

The glittering texts of the Spell greeted my sight, followed by a narration of their meaning. I blinked twice and stared suspiciously, wondering if doubling my Cognition would make me twice as smart.

This line of thought led nowhere. Thankfully, it wasn’t merely the words that I had begun to figure out.

The mystical power still eluded me, but I was only a little boy. It was natural that magic was largely beyond my grasp. Imagine the atrocities a thoughtless baby would wreak just because their milk was not at the right temperature.

Still, I hoped Way of Meditation could help me with it. I wasn’t entirely convinced, but seeing my mother meditate as part of her morning ritual was a great incentive to keep my hopes up.

I had been trying since I gained the Way, yet barely seemed to have gotten the hang of it. It didn’t help that Meditation was exceedingly more difficult than Words, nor that the progress counted differently. Whereas the Way of Words measured the number of words I learned, the Way of Meditation likely measured the hours I spent meditating. It seemed to count only the time I spent in a completely thoughtless state. Being passed out or asleep didn’t count.

On another note, my mum wasn’t a healer. Probably not a mage, either. She was still paranoid about my health and cast the light spell on me three or four times a day. She did the same for other babies occasionally, when their mothers brought them to the house with colds or other minor ailments. I supposed that made her a healer, but nothing revolutionary. Just the other day, she sent a man with a broken arm away, since healing broken bones was beyond her abilities.

She was some kind of magic crafter, and her work wasn’t limited to smithing metals into tools and weapons. She worked with leather, cotton, and wood as well. I had even seen her fix light constructs—blobs of magical devices that emitted warm light when triggered. Villagers came to her for repairs on those and many other tools.

She would scribble a peculiar symmetrical geometrical pattern with runes on them with a sharp pen, check their utility, and hand them back. When the villagers pressed her to accept coins for her effort, she always refused, telling them the little repair didn’t warrant payment.

After rubbing some smelly oil all over me, she had left me in the open for sunbathing, as I watched her carry huge chunks of stone from one corner of the yard to another.

Sheesh! That stone was enough to squish any normal person to a bloody pulp, but she moved as if she was taking a stroll in the park. She didn’t even break a sweat. Her figure didn’t suggest any inhuman build either, though she did cut a tall, lean figure with long auburn hair bound in a braid. I watched her carrying stones and gathering them near our house—which she was rebuilding. Single-handedly.

Every time she passed after dropping a small boulder, she checked on me, a smile playing on her lips.

My mother worked like a machine. She was relentless once she started, which was every morning. I didn’t think we were so poor that she had to put in half her waking hours doing heavy work, but I couldn’t be sure—like most things.

The uncertainty of my life was killing me, but all I could do was not make things extra hard for her. Slowly and unwittingly, mum had become my earliest inspiration, rooting deep into my memory. Watching her work so tirelessly motivated me to do the same.

I wanted to learn the language as soon as I could, to learn new things, to understand her better, and to understand the world. Since she took care of all of my needs, I devoted half my waking hours to meditation.

At first, it had been largely draining, but one day, I felt rejuvenated after a meditation session. And it wasn’t simply because I completed the first tier of the Way.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Meditation I (10/10)]

[Attribute Gained: Focus (Elementary).]

[+1 Focus.]

[+1 Cognition.]

[The Way of Meditation II (10/25) is now accessible.]

So completing the Way could grant new attributes, too. Now, with two mind-based attributes, my mind wasn’t as feeble. Hopefully, they would help me make more of my time. Focus should make it easier to concentrate. Like, I wouldn’t be distracted by hunger or my bowel movements, right?

My progress in meditation skyrocketed from there. At first, I had barely gained a point every two or three days. Now, it was quite the opposite.

With nothing else to tire myself with, I clocked about fifteen unfamiliar words and a couple of points in meditation each day from then on.

My hard work bore fruit. Within the next week, I completed the Way of Meditation II. The rewards didn’t disappoint me at all.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Meditation II (25/25)]

[+1 Focus.]

[+1 Cognition.]

[The Way of Meditation III (25/50) is now accessible.]

The improvement was staggering, and I wasn’t slowing down at all. But there were still more things I could try.

Days passed as they should. It was still autumn, the weather lovely, save for the occasional ashen dust storms when we had to spend entire weeks confined within the bounds of our house.

My mother had stopped casting the golden light on me after I learned to crawl. I guessed her paranoia had eased as I grew fast and strong. Still, she made sure to give me the rejuvenation light once or twice every week. Those spells had helped me in more ways than she probably realised.

Visualising the golden energy threading its way into my body had led me to the Way of Meditation, but it didn’t end there. After sensing the familiar energy hundreds of times, I received another Way.

[A new Way is accessible: Essence Sense I (1/10).]

That wasn’t all.

[A new Way is accessible: Motor Skills (1/100).]

This had been a long time coming. Crawling was still difficult. I had bumped my head on the ground more times than I could remember. Oftentimes, it hurt like a bitch… and I cried like one too, wailing at the top of my lungs, even though I did everything to muffle my cries. Some things just weren’t in my control.

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Mum usually bolted from whatever she was doing to heal me. Unfortunately, she decided crawling was too much of a strenuous job for a barely 105-day-old infant. She wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to finish the Way of Motor Skills. The little practice she allowed would barely get me through it in about a year.

Thankfully, she relented whenever I made a pouting face. I was glad to learn she wasn’t impervious to cute baby faces. I only got to practise for about an hour, and that too under her direct supervision. Her cheers and encouragement for my feeble attempts were a pleasant addition, however.

Winter came with a sudden blizzard and snow. It was an atrocity, of far less competency than the ash storms, but the terrible cold, the chilly wind, and the measly six hours of sunlight made it just as detestable and confining as the ashen storms.

Thankfully, snowstorms were rarer and hardly ever longer than a couple of days.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Motor Skills (100/100)]

[Attribute Gained: Alacrity (Elementary).]

[+1 Alacrity.]

Finally, an attribute to cast aside the frailty of my fragile form! I cheered. Sadly, Motor Skills seemed to end there, though I didn’t have to be disappointed as more Ways were waiting for me to unlock.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Meditation III (50/50)]

[+2 Focus.]

[+1 Cognition.]

[The Way of Meditation IV (50/100) is now accessible.]

[A new Way is accessible: Balance I (1/100).]

[A new Way is accessible: Mobility I (1/100).]

...

[Congratulations! You have completed the Way of Meditation IV (100/100)]

[+3 Focus.]

[+1 Cognition.]

[The Way of Meditation V (100/250) is now accessible.]

[A new Way is accessible: Perseverance I (1/5).]

Great, more physical-based Ways. I was going to be buff in no time. Magically speaking, it would take months—years even—but I was too moved to care.

****

“Can you say it again, Pumpkin?” Mum asked, lifting me up with her hands under my arms.

“Mama,” I obliged.

She pulled me close, kissing my cheeks, a twinkle of tears in her eyes. It was difficult for me to comprehend the kind of joy my mere existence brought her, and I likely wouldn’t be able to understand it for a long time.

It had taken me longer to speak my first words than it had to do most things. I guessed it was mostly because I was a silent child. My vocal cords and voice probably hadn’t developed enough. Who knew not crying at every little discomfort would come back to bite me like this?

My mother had been worried sick for a couple of months, since all the other infants my age were babbling incoherent sounds. She had even brought me to a local healer a few weeks ago.

“Mama,” I called again and pointed towards the bookshelf. It was story time, and I’d even miss my meditation session for it.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” she whispered into my ear. “I have some errands to run.” My expression fell, but she knew how to coddle me. “I promise to read you one at bedtime. One you haven’t heard yet, about the First Knight.”

I beamed. She asked if I wanted to come with her, but I declined, shaking my head.

Just after she left, I jumped to my feet and dragged a stool over to the bookshelf. I couldn’t read, but some books had beautiful pictures in them. I enjoyed them as much as the tales bound within the pages. Although, I couldn’t deny that a tiny part of me hoped to gain a Way—perhaps something related to reading—out of it.

Not all the books had pictures in them. In fact, only a few did. The rest were large leather-bound volumes. Who knew what kind of gospel they held? Mum rarely read those, as she barely had any spare time.

After a few minutes of scuffling around, I found a picture book. Well, it was more like an encyclopaedia of rare plants and exotic animals. But to my infant mind, all that mattered was that it had pretty pictures. The book was thick, and the number printed on its cover suggested it was the third volume in the series. I searched for its predecessors but couldn’t find them.

Well, it wasn’t like I could read...

A thought crossed my mind, and I immediately summoned my full profile, turning my attention to the tiny wheel mark on my palm.

[Profile]

Arylin Arcis O’Ryon

Path: U/A

Honours: U/A

Attributes:

* Cognition (Elementary): +9

* Focus (Elementary): +13

* Alacrity (Elementary): +2

* Body Coordination (Elementary): +1

Gift:

[Fractal Soul]

Ways:

In progress:

Meditation VI (479/500) | Essence Sense III (35/50) | Balance II (294/1000) | Mobility (75/100) | Swimming (2/100) | Perseverance I (2/5) | Words III (2593/10000)

Completed:

Meditation V (250/250) | Balance I (100/100) | Words II (1000/1000) | Motor Skills (100/100)

My [Profile] looked a little more impressive since the first time it revealed itself. Meditation remained my most accomplished Way, while I had found some success in Essence Sense.

I had failed to complete most of the physical Ways. Mobility required movement, and Mum wasn’t keen on letting me practice. Swimming was completely under her supervision, and I was glad for that. As a baby, I had limited freedom. Balance was the only one I had succeeded in, and it helped me gain Body Coordination (Elementary).

Yeahhh! No more (less) falling on my head from now on.

I had pushed Meditation and Essence Sense the farthest because I could do both while confined to my cradle and the house.

More attributes helped, but I was still very much within mortal limits. Engaging in Essence Sense for extended periods inflicted piercing pain on my mind, and only Meditation could save me from the headaches.

Right now, my focus wasn’t on my growth. What mattered was the fact that I could read profile texts. Why? The Spell had narrated them so many times that my mind had memorised them, but even before that I could still somehow interpret them.

What intrigued me was the possibility of learning to read from this. Grabbing a notebook and a pen, I sat down on the floor and started scribbling all the unique letters from the profile. I counted thirty-three of them.

Then I went back to the thick volume and wrote down the missing letters. There were nine more, but thankfully, most of those seemed to be rarely used.

Next, I began noting down words that only used the thirty-three known letters from the encyclopaedia. I pronounced them aloud, or at least tried, hoping they’d be among the 2593 words I already knew. The total wasn’t that large, despite being enough to understand most of what my mother or other people uttered on a daily basis.

The results were depressing. Out of the couple dozen words I noted down, I barely recognised a fraction. While I could make guesses for the rest, they’d just be that—guesses. Simply asking Mum to teach me would be so much easier…

Learning the numbers was easier. It ran on a decimal system, which I picked up from the page numbers in the book. Oh, I remember what a decimal system is…

Clicking my tongue, I trudged along the path of literacy. It was a dark, depressing road full of guesswork, but I persevered.

Here’s what I managed to learn about a certain plant:

So?egir Grass: A highly — grass, grows on —. It does not demand (require?) earth to grow, — water grows like —

Hardly readable. But I didn’t give up easily. After all, I had all the encouragement I needed.

[A new Way is accessible: Education I (1/100)]

“Great!” I jumped to my feet in triumph. “Thank you, Spell… I’ve been waiting to hear your voice all week…”

I had likely been scribbling for over an hour, prompting the Spell to grant me this new Way. Most Ways were time-based, so it was reasonable to make the conjecture.