When I woke up the room hadn’t changed much. Dad was still here, but now he was sleeping on a simple cot. I assume the village head brough it out. Seeing him sleep on it made me feel bad. With my new awareness it dawned on me how much older he looked. His face had many wrinkles and he had a slight limp when he walked.
I knew he is older than other kid’s dad, but I could understand how much older he is now. And that means I know that he is closer to dying. What a first thought. I can really think and notice things now and the first thing I do is think about how soon dad is going to die.
That just means I can spend more time with him now. I know that it’s going to end one day, but for now I’ll just have to make him happy. Nothing else I can do.
I know that cot is uncomfortable. I also know he probably didn’t sleep very much. To busy worrying about me. If I wake him up he’ll just worry about me the whole time and won’t go back to sleep. At least if I leave him, he can get some sleep.
Looking out the window I can see the first hints of the morning light. That means I have some time before the village head comes in to check on me. This whole self-awareness deal is different.
I like it and all, but before everything was fairly simple. Now my head is clear and I can think clearly. That mean my mind is overflowing with thoughts. That comes with both the good and bad thoughts.
Enough of those sad thoughts. Speaking of new thoughts, what was that from yesterday? What is a lottery?
I know it’s where a bunch of people buy tickets and the winner of the drawing gets most of the money everybody paid for the tickets. Most people lose and the real winners are whoever set up and is running the lottery. There has never been a lottery in Tulip. Where did I see that?
Then the memories start to flow back. They don’t come rushing at me. More like a piece of frayed cloth. I pulled one thread and found a few more threads in the form of questions. With every memory I gently pull out I can see more and more of the tapestry of my past.
Well, this just got even weirder. Turns out I have memories of living somewhere far from Tulip. Memories of other people, places, and things. I also vaguely remember dying.
Does that me I died and reincarnated into this body? Did something go wrong and that’s why my mind was broken before? Was that even my past life? Did I somehow get someone’s memories? Was it an accident? Was it on purpose?
This is just going to give me a headache if I keep asking myself these questions. Let’s just go with the assumption that those memories are from my past life. I still have them due to luck. If I find something that might indicate otherwise I’ll think about it. For now though let’s go with the happier option.
Now I’m not sure how upset I should probably feel after dying, but I don’t feel to upset at the moment. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t recent, maybe because I’m still a bit broken.
The only thing that matters right now is that I have more memories and can finally think straight. I don’t think I’ll tell dad yet. He might think that I went crazy and am still mentally broken. Maybe in the future when I understand it more myself I can tell him.
For now, I just need to take it slow. Once dad wakes up we can have some breakfast and head home.
I wonder if the people escorting the focus are still here. Hopefully nothing happened to the focus. I don’t know how expensive it is, but I do know I can never afford to pay for one.
I was milling through my memories for a few more minutes when the door to the room slowly opened. The village head looked through the doorway. He looked to be a similar age to dad. Had plenty of wrinkles, but had a natural smile on his face. I only remember seeing him upset a few times. He had short brown hair and was wearing plain brown clothes.
“Good morning Glim. It’s good to see you awake. I hope you are feeling better.”
The noise woke dad but he was still half awake when the village head walked in and was followed by two people. The mage from yesterday and one of the soldiers. The mage looked to be in his twenties or maybe early thirties. He was wearing a simple pair of pants and red shirt. Even though they are simple clothes they were clearly of a much higher quality.
The soldier that followed behind him wore some dark leather armor. It had a few scratches and marks on it, but otherwise looked quite sturdy. He had his right hand resting on his sword at his hip as he walked. He and the mage both looked a bit stiff. Their bored faces from yesterday were gone. Instead, they looked a bit on edge or upset.
Well, this can’t be good.
“I am feeling better. Like I can finally think right, finally see and understand. It’s.. nice.”
“That’s great! I’m happy everything worked out for you. Now I know you might be a bit tired, but these people have some questions for you. Please answer them to the best of your ability.”
With that the village head took a few steps back and the mage took his place.
“I want you to tell me what you did. I have watched thousands of people use this exact focus and none of them have ever reacted anything like you did.”
Welp. That’s kinda what I was expecting.
“I don’t know. I remember walking into the tent. Then I sat down, put my hand on the focus, and then brought up my status. Then I talked with dad for second. Then I just thought about using all my points evenly. Then all I remember is a lot of pain. After that I woke up here.”
This didn’t seem to be what the mage wanted to hear. He started to tap his foot and mumbling to himself. This went on for a few moments until dad spoke up.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but is there something wrong?”
The mage looked over to dad and let out a sigh.
“Yes. There is verry much a problem. If this was caused because the focus got damaged, I’m screwed. It is my job to watch over the focus. I spent hours checking for any damage to the focus yesterday. These things cost hundreds of gold.”
“What was that healing nonsense I heard about? The focus only lets you see your status and allocate your free points. Nothing else.”
Once the mage spoke dad replied.
“Glim was born with a broken mind. He couldn’t do anything for himself. I couldn’t find anything wrong with him. I even traveled with him to better healers and they told me nothing was wrong with Glim.”
“I asked a lot of people and read a lot of books trying to find anything that would help. Then a found an account of a similar case. The healer recorded a kid with a similar case to Glim who was healed from spending all their free points evenly when they reached fifteen. They think that the kid’s body and mind were never truly connected. By using points in all stats even they would all grow the same amount and connect like they were supposed to.”
The mage went back to mumbling and tapping his foot.
This could be bad. If they though I broke it I’m screwed. I know he said he would be in trouble, but I imagine I would be as well. There is no way I can pay hundreds of gold. I don’t even have any money!
“Have you tried having anyone use the focus?”
“No. I wanted to make sure you didn’t die first. If I let someone use it and they got killed I would be in even more trouble. One village idiot dying due to an accident won’t mean anything, but if I let someone else use it and it killed then then that’s my problem.”
Wow. I don’t mean anything to this guy. I could have died and he probably wouldn’t have cared at all.
“I feel fine. What are you going to do now?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“You are going to come with me and use the focus again.”
That doesn’t sound too bad. Nothing should happen this time.
“You just said that it could have killed him! Now you want him to use to again!?”
Dad jumped up and yelled at the mage. The mage looked pissed at that.
“Now look here, I don’t care what you think. He can either come willing or he can be dragged. If anything happens I’ll just say you attacked me and it was self-defense. Besides, you just said you used it to heal him. That means there should be no problem using it again.”
Dad was biting his tongue, but he was shaking from anger.
“It alright. I’ll go use the focus. It’ll be fine dad.”
“Good. Let’s get going.”
I spoke up to try and diffuse the situation. The mage just accepted it and started to walk out the door. Dad calmed down a bit but was still angry.
My boots were on the floor next to the bed. Once I put them on I got up. I almost fell over from pushing off the bed to hard. Thankfully dad caught me.
“You need to be careful. When you add points to your stats you need to get adjusted to your new strength.”
After a minute I was jerkily walking down the hall to the front door. Once outside I could see the tent next to the house. I made it over without falling and one of the soldiers held the flap open for me. I gave them a polite smile and a thank you. When I got into the tent I heard one of the guards speak.
“Only one person at a time.”
“What do you mean!? I went with him last time.”
“I don’t care. Only the kid.”
Apparently the soldier stopped dad.
“I’ll be fine dad. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“I’ll be right here.”
I could tell he isn’t happy about it. I just hope the soldiers don’t get pissed off. The mage made it clear that he didn’t care about our lives.
The tent was the same as last time. Table in the center with the focus on it. The mage behind it in a chair and a stool in front. This time the mage wasn’t looking bored. He was watching my every move like a hawk. I can’t tell, but he might even be using some spell to inspect me.
I walked over and sat down on the stool. I took a breath and put my hand on the focus.
“Status”
Name: Glim
Level:5
Health:35 Mana:25 Stamina:80
Vitality:7
Endurance:6
Strength:5
Perception:5
Dexterity:5
Mind:6
Magic:5
Spirit:6
Stat points:0
Skills: Mathematics Lv 10
Well all the number went up by four. The health, mana, and stamina jumped a good bit. That was probably from the increase in stats though. I don’t see anything weird.
When I looked from the floating screen in front of me, I saw the mage staring at the focus. His eyes had a slight glow to them. His eyes kept bouncing back and forth from the focus to me. I’m not sure what he’s looking for so I just stayed still.
After a couple minutes of silently holding my hand of the focus I spoke up.
“Is everything alright?”
“I can’t see anything wrong. Everything looks to be working right. I’m not high enough level to see everything going on though.”
Well that’s helpful.
“Do I need to hold hold on to the focus anymore?”
“No. If by this point nothing has happened it probably won’t.”
When I take my hand off the focus the window disappears.
“Is there anything else you need of me?”
The mage doesn’t even look at me before waving at me. I take that as my permission to leave. My legs are still a bit shaky, but I make it out the tent just fine. Dad is waiting for me.
“How did it go? Is everything alright?”
“Everything is fine dad. Nothing went wrong. I used the focus and pulled up my status. The mage said everything looked fine.”
Dad visibly relaxed. The village was standing next to dad looked concerned.
“Did he say if it okay for the rest of the village to use the focus? After you used it yesterday, he didn’t let anyone near it. Over half the village still needs to use the focus.”
“He didn’t say. He just waived me out.”
The village head nodded to me then went over to tent and asked if he could go inside to see the mage.
“Well that doesn’t concern us. Let’s go home.”
Dad makes a good point.
I’m still a little wobblily on my feet so we walk a little slow. The House is only a few minutes away so it won’t take too long. A though comes to me as we are walking.
“Dad, if the focus is damaged will I have to pay for it? I don’t even have any money and he said hundreds of gold. He said he find anything wrong, but also said he couldn’t see al of it.”
“Well, if he can’t see anything none of the runes are damaged enough to be visible. The mages assigned to these traveling focuses are at least level twenty enchanters. At that level they can see runes and make simple enchantments, but the focuses are on an entirely different level of complexity. He will probably take it bake to have inspected by a higher level enchanter. That means if it has problems, it would be to precise for a normal person to cause. So I think we will be fine. They know we don’t have that coin so they won’t even try and get it from us. Not even worth the effort.”
Well that’s nice to know at least. It sounds like the chances of anything falling me are slim to none.
When I was looking at my stats I did see something I thought was weird.
“Dad, why is mathematics my only skill? I didn’t really think about before, but is it normal to only have one skill?”
Dad lets out a sigh. “No. It’s not typical of a kid your age. People gain skills by doing something enough. It’s variable though. Some people can gain a skill after only a few attempts, some take hundreds of attempts. This is generally thought of as skill affinity. With your low stats I didn’t think any manual skills would be feasible or safe. We tried a few things, but when we checked your stats with the focus you only gained the mathematics skill. So, I had you focus on that the get enough experience to level up. You don’t remember?”
I guess that makes sense. Not everyone is good at everything. But why did I get the math skill? I could barely do simple multiplication. I did have two points in the mind stat. Did that have anything to do with it?
“Kinda? I remember seeing Mathematics on my status last time, but not talking to you about it. Memories are kinda hazy the farther back.”
That is until I go back far enough that I wasn’t in Tulip anymore. Those memories are fairly clear. Strange.
“Well now that you’re better we can take it slow and hopefully they will come back. If not, I can tell you what you don’t remember again.”
I find it a little weird. I mean if someone was mentally disabled then touched a glass ball, said “I’m healed!”, and started to act different I would question it. Dad seems to be taking it in stride though. He’s been smiling the whole time.
On the other hand, I know he really loves me. I can’t imagine how hard it was to raise me. If I was in his spot, I would just be happy and accept it as well. This world does have literal magic as well. My last life I don’t remember having anything like that. It could make it easier for people to accept wild things.
When we get back to the house my mind is back on the whole magic thing. Even before I was healed, I thought it was cool and mysterious. With the rest of my memories I am only more amazed and curious.
This is magic! Could I become a mage too? Being able to bend the elements to my wish and heal mortal wounds with a wave of my hand. The stories of my past life had plenty of material for my brain to run wild with.
“Could I become a mage?”
Dad stops and looks at me.
“I don’t know. Remember what I just said about skill affinities? That applies to the skills for magic as well. Most people just can’t get the basic skills needed to get started becoming a mage. Even I don’t really have the best affinity with magic. I can do some simple stuff, but my skills never advanced very fast no matter how much or how hard I practiced.”
So magic is still uncommon in this world. There’s still a chance I can do it though! I won’t know until I try.
“What skills do you need to become a mage?”
“Well the first skill is always Sense Mana. If you can’t see your mana you can’t do anything with it. After that is Mana Manipulation.”
That makes logical sense. The skills are pretty self explanatory.
“Can you tell me how to get the Sense mana skill?”
“I can tell you how I did it, but I want you to understand that most people aren’t meant to be mages. I wanted to be an amazing mage before. When I gained the Sense mana skill I poured all my free stats into the Mind, Mana, and Spirit stats. Even then I never made much progress. It took me a long time to come to terms that I would never be a true mage.”
“Because I poured all my stats into mage related stats I screwed myself. When I started leveling my physical skills I was always behind stat wise for my level. I was never good at either and it made it impossible to be recognized. So, if you don’t get the skill I don’t want you to feel down or do the same thing I did.”
“Alright dad. I won’t force anything.”
“That’s good. Getting the skill isn’t particularly hard, but not really easy either.”
Well that’s confusing.
“Trying to sense mana is like trying to explain how to tell a blind man to see. How can you explain a whole new sense to someone? The most commonly used method is meditation. You sit still and try and ignore all of your senses. Then you can find a new one.”
So I need to sit still and meditate like some monk? While I can’t say I wasn’t expecting something like this it just sounds like it’s going to be really boring. How will I even know I get the skill if I don’t have a focus to use?
“How will I know I got the skill if I don’t have a focus to check with?”
“That’s something you have as a disadvantage. In larger towns and big cities there are permeant focuses. The citizens can go and check their status when they need to. This village is too small though. When you can sense your mana it’s safe to assume you have the skill.”
Damn. That’s going to suck. It’s not going to stop me from trying, but not knowing what level my skills are at or using my free stat points except for once a year is going to make is slow going if I do get the skill.
“If I get the skills will you teach me the spells you know?”
“Absolutely. I only know a few healing spells though so I can’t teach you too much.”
I’m ecstatic that I can learn magic. I wanted to try and meditate right away but dad convinced me not to. First, he tempted me with breakfast. Then he convinced me to wait until I have full control over my body again.
He said it shouldn’t take more than a day or two. Apparently this happens to everyone. Most kids have way more point to spend than I do. When they hit fifteen some of them put all of them into a few stats.
I you went from having three points of strength to thirty you just got ten times the strength you used to have. Just standing up for those people can take a day or two. I only had a few points to spend and I spread them all out. That made it easier on me.
Once I get some food in me I start off with some light stretches. After that I go outside to walk about. Dad is worried about me, but after a few minutes of persuading him, he lets me go. I just plan on walking around the house. I would walk back towards the village heads house and the rest of Tulip, but I don’t want to get near the mage. Better safe than sorry.