While Reginald continued his unprovoked life story, Shan and I competed in rounds of combat. It was seriously fun. And maybe a tad dangerous.

Now that he was no longer trying to kill me, Shan ceased his Tumble Slam attacks —which I had unlocked, but saw no reason to attempt— and switched to a more defensive approach of fighting. Even without his slam attacks, he got my health down pretty low a few times, but now that I could combo Rust Dagger into his chest and neck, I was making quick work of him.

So I decided to try something else.

I mean, come on, the guy was a walking punching bag, at least I could show him the respect of throwing a few punches. As it turned out, he wasn’t entirely immune to my blunt damaging fists, but if I wanted to defeat him using fists alone, I would need to hit him about a thousand times. I didn’t have the stamina or endurance for that and it actually ended up dealing more damage to me once my fists started bleeding than it did to him.

Halfway through our third bout, I gained a Stat in Magic and noticed my XP increased by 10. Which meant that Stat increases rewarded 10XP, which was useful to know, but it also meant that if I defeated Shan one more time, I would be level three…

The problem was, I hadn’t increased my Mind since taking the Child Prodigy class at level one. If I kept levelling my stat increases were only going to get rarer. Having six skills was great, but it was already getting difficult to choose which skills to have active. I needed more.

“Reginald, sorry to interrupt,” I said, while he was monologuing about his first great romance with a gnome from the hills county. “But, you wouldn’t happen to know how I can improve my Mind stat, would you?”

“Well, what did you last read?”

“Read?” I asked. “You mean books? I haven’t read any since I got here.”

“Well, that’s the place to start,” he chuckled. “I have a few books over there. You can borrow one. As long as you promise to bring it back.”

“Really?”

He looked surprised at my reaction. “Well, of course, boy. Hasn’t anyone ever given you a book to read before?”

“No. I told you. You’re the first person who didn’t try to kill me on sight.”

“I thought you were joking when you said that,” Reginald scratched his belly in what might have been a thoughtful pose. Although, any pose can look thoughtful when you’re dressed in a wizard’s robe. “Perhaps, you should be the one telling me your life story?”

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“Sure, I can do that,” I said. “It won’t take long since I have no idea who I am.”

I tried to laugh, but it sounded too forced.

“I woke up in some kind of blank space and met AIAI or the All-Mother, whatever you want to call her. She said I had to pick a race, a name, and a class. I’m sure you know the drill?”

“A name, a race, and a class?” Reginald asked. “Well, yes. I suppose she did ask me that, but she was just confirming my own name and race. Yes. That’s right. She wanted me to pick my Class. But that was when I attained my first level up when I was eight years old.”

“You didn’t level up until you were eight years old?”

“Well, yes. I was rather ahead for my age actually.”

“Huh. Anyway,” I continued. “I couldn’t remember my name or anything about me, so she set my name as NULL and spawned me in the woods with no clothes and no stats whatsoever. I got lucky and squashed a bug, leveled up, chose a class and I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on ever since. I made a friend, beat a monster, traveled with some folk for a while, then fell into this dirty hole of yours, I mean this wonderful cave— lair and that’s it really.”

“That is a very peculiar tale,” said Reginald. “If I were a superstitious man, I’d say you were an omen of something to come if ever I’d heard of one. There’s not been tales of folk like you since the Earthians and the war. You ought to keep quiet with talk like that. If you tell the wrong person, they’ll hang you as a heretic.”

“But it’s the truth.”

“All the more reason you should keep your mouth shut,” said Reginald. “Do you think I live in this cave for the view? There’s dangerous people out there. Idiots and Zealots. And the one thing neither an Idiot or a Zealot can’t stand to hear is the truth.”

“So you want me to lie to people?”

“That’s it. Lie to everyone. Tell them what they want to hear. Save the truth for those who can be trusted. Do you understand?” For the first time, Reginald seemed truly serious.

“I understand,” I said. “It just seems… bad.”

“Aye,” he said. “It is a little bad, but it’s a bad world, boy. So, listen my apprentice, I give you permission to be a little bad. You can be bad as long as you promise to make up for it by being good. Will you make that promise to your mentor?”

“I promise, mentor.” I grinned.

Stat Increase: Mind +1.

You were gifted knowledge by a wise hermit.

LEVEL UP AVAILABLE.

Yes!

LEVEL UP +1.

NULL, Human, Level Three.

New Perks Available.

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