Jacob sat down in a lotus position, hands on his knees, motioning for Elaria to join him. She copied him, and they looked briefly into each other’s eyes. It wasn’t a requirement to be sitting or meditating during the birthing ceremony, but being relaxed definitely made the process easier, according to those who had been through it before, which was everyone above the age of ten, obviously, although each person’s experience was somewhat unique. Elaria was curious about how it worked. She had heard about it before, of course, through her parents and others in the village. Especially those kids who turned ten and couldn’t stop boasting about the personal ability they’d received or which stat they’d decided to invest their bonus point into. Some of those arrogant brats ended up venturing into the wilderness and never returning, killed by roving monsters or even deadlier bandits. The way the ceremony worked was unknown, since the Chain was still an enigmatic mystery even to the most advanced and powerful of lifeforms, and despite billions of years of study, the deep secrets still eluded most.
However, there were libraries and archives full of different ways to spend your stats, train yourself, earn experience, select abilities with the most potential and utility. Regardless of what path you desired to tread in life, there was probably a book or treatise written somewhere with an explanation of how to get there the quickest, and how to do it most efficiently. In all honesty, when she’d heard that from the village chief, who often liked to regale the local children with stories of legendary adventurers and lords who went out to slay terrifying monsters and battle each other in earth-shaking displays of might, she’d thought it was quite boring. It was similar to those rpg games in her old world. She hadn’t personally been someone who enjoyed gaming, but she knew from reading and conversations with friends that there were professionals who loved to research the best ways to minmax their skills and stats to make the most of them.
Having that kind of intensely controlled path set out for her seemed like hell. She had always been a free spirit, who loved to do what she wanted, when she wanted, and not let herself be tied down to any one place or particular group of people. Perhaps she would leave the village when she turned ten, just like Jacob was about to. This new world was enormous, almost three times the size of Earth, she had discovered while reading a dusty old tome she found in her house called ‘Territories and Terrain of Teron.’ There would be plenty of new things to see and discover. Her mind had wandered, but immediately she snapped back to focus on the boy in front of her when bright motes of white light flickered into being around him, dancing merrily like sprites.
More and more lights gathered and began to merge together into one great mass, swirling rapidly like a blinding whirlpool, until Jacob was entirely consumed by the deluge. All of a sudden, a great pillar of white light shot from the sky, scattering the motes of light. Jacob was still in the lotus position, eyes closed, incredibly relaxed, the pillar of light centred on him. His eyes slowly opened, and Elaria could see him fiddling with something in front of him, most likely interacting with messages from the Chain. The connection between an individual and the Chain was an extremely personal thing, and one would almost never reveal their own status or abilities to another unless they had a close relationship or a high level of trust.
It was an interesting name, the Chain. Elaria wondered why the people of Teron named the system that gave them their power after a tool used to bind and imprison. It was sort of poetic, in a tragic way. Perhaps some inspired philosopher came up with it in a stroke of genius, to remind people that power was a prison of its own. Maybe there was a different reason. It was pointless to think about. After around ten minutes of muttering to himself and tapping the air in front of him, the huge pillar of light dissipated, scattering into the air as quickly as it had appeared, reflecting rainbow rays from the sunlight momentarily before finally fading. He smiled, truly excited for the first time since the death of his parents. It warmed her heart to know he was healing, if slowly.
“Would you like to see my status, little Elaria?” He asked, noticing her curious expression.
It was generally the custom of the people of Teron not to ask to see another’s status, since such an act was considered rude, but given their friendship, and the fact he had offered first, she couldn’t help herself. After all, the only time she’d really interacted with the Chain in any way or seen an ability was back when she’d been born and received her bloodline ability from Zel. At the time, she’d not really had any way to know if the bonuses it gave were powerful or strong compared to other abilities, and there was the warning not to reveal any information about her ability, lest it put her in danger. It said it was ‘Divine’ grade, that had to be pretty neat right? The personal ability one received during their birthing ceremony was not quite the same as a bloodline ability, but she would at least have some basis of comparison if she could have a peek at Jacob’s personal ability.
“Are you sure?” She asked, double checking just to be polite, even though she really just wanted to say yes immediately, “What if we become enemies in the future, and I use this information to ruthlessly slaughter you?”
Elaria expected him to retort in kind, but his reaction took her by surprise. Smiling warmly, a strange look in his piercing auburn eyes, he reached out a hand and cupped her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb. She blushed, caught off guard by the unexpected affection from the usually rough boy. “Even if the whole world turned against me, I have faith that you’d still stand by my side. After all, I’m your boss. That’s the agreement we made four years ago right in this very spot,” he said.
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“Does everyone become such a sweet talker after their birthing ceremony, or did you pick some kind of charm ability? If you did, I’ll beat you senseless,” she teased, struggling to reflect his tender words.
He suddenly became serious, and tapped on the air a few times, before turning around the screen which had appeared so she could read the text. “Do you really think I’d do something so lackadaisical? I’m serious about what I said. By the time you next see me, I’ll probably already be a legendary adventurer, whose name rings through the continent, bards singing songs about my deeds in taverns, ladies dreaming about being rescued from their dull life by the mighty hero Jacob.”
Elaria burst out laughing, doubling over and clutching her stomach when she caught a stitch. This was more like the carefree joker she knew. She read the text in front of her, interested to see what a status looked like for the first time, and to see what sort of destiny Jacob had begun to weave for himself.
[https://i.imgur.com/VGWVrcM.png]
Most of it was fairly simple to understand. Since he came from an ordinary family in a backwater village, it was unsurprising that Jacob didn’t possess a bloodline ability, though the one part which had surprised her was the fact that he already had been bestowed with a faith ability, and a seemingly strong one, at least by the standards of Teron. Almost everyone she knew only had common grade personal abilities, with a select few managing to obtain an uncommon ability, giving them the right to lord over their fellow peasants. As for the rare grade, it was rumoured that only the powerful and worthy would receive such a stroke of fortune. Faith abilities were typically obtained through worship and sacrificial offerings to a particular god or goddess, upon which they would bestow the pious with power. Unlike personal and bloodline abilities, faith abilities could increase in grade if one remained devoted or made great contributions to their chosen deity.
Elaria had never known Jacob or his family to be particularly religious or spiritual, so for him to have a faith ability at all, let alone one of such calibre, was a shock. Perhaps something had happened during the birthing ceremony and one of the myriad gods and goddesses had taken an interest in him. She wouldn’t poke too much, it might make him uncomfortable. Even then, his possession of a faith ability was not the most shocking revelation of all. His personal ability, Heart of Steel, was at the unusual grade! Elaria had heard about the different grades of abilities and items in another one of the village chief’s many tales. The unusual grade was the grade above rare, and in the entirety of Teron and it’s history, there had only been a handful of individuals possessing a personal ability of this level, each of them going on to become legendary or notorious figures, founding and toppling kingdoms and changing the landscape of the world. She tapped on the ability, opening a description.
Heart of Steel (Unusual)
Passive Ability
You have the heart of a warrior. Having been through hell, you’ve forged an unbreakable willpower and determination, and won’t let anything stand between you and achieving your goals. Even if you stand alone against an army of ten thousand, your unyielding spirit will never waver, and the tougher the odds, the more power you unleash in response.
Damage increases proportional to missing health
Status Resistance increases proportional to the number of enemies
+1 to Fortitude and Vitality
It was an extremely fitting ability for him, she had to say. He really had faced so much pain and torment at the hands of that detestable Sir Faust, and the harsh winter he’d spent alone clearly changed something deep inside the boy, even if he was mostly back to his usual self. Thanks to the ability, he had two extra stats at level 0, giving him a massive advantage over others of the same level. Not only that, but they were in the two stats which made him harder to kill, which was a huge relief for Elaria, since it meant she might worry about him dying just a little less. Only a little though, because knowing his personality he’d probably be getting into trouble all the damn time.
She looked over his stats briefly, noting that he’d put his bonus point into strength, which made sense given that his personal ability already beefed him up, so being able to take advantage of that and deal more physical damage was a smart choice. By the time she finished looking over his status, he’d grabbed a large pack from somewhere, and strapped it to his back, and hanging from his waist was a tattered scabbard holding a sword. Where he had managed to find it, she could only guess, but it seemed as if he truly had prepared for this moment.
“With these abilities of yours, my dear Jacob, if you don’t manage to become a bloody hero, then you quite possibly would be the most worthless person in the history of Teron,” she teased.
He let out a light chuckle, grinning, before pulling her into a tight hug. They held each other like that for a long time, the only sounds were the chirping of birds and rustling of small animals in the trees scavenging for a snack. Eventually he pulled away, and with a last longing look and a declaration, walked off in the direction of the main road, in search of his destiny.
“I’ll be waiting for you, little Elaria, don’t take too long or you’ll never be able to catch up.”