A few minutes later, I stood before my assembled family and friends and prepared to lie to them. It wasn’t a good feeling, but Grandpa and I agreed it was necessary. With his [Status Shield] Skill, I would be hiding my [Suzerain] class for years, if not decades or centuries, so it behooved me to start early to get used to it.

We hemmed and hawed about what Class to present for me, but in the end we dismissed [Eldritch Warmaster]. It may have been an S ranked Class, but it wouldn’t explain the breadth of things I’d eventually be able to do with [Suzerain]. After deliberating with him for the better part of fifteen minutes while everyone else milled about waiting for us to come back from our “bathroom trip,” we settled on [Starlord].

[Starlord] was an elven exclusive S ranked Class and I would have been happy to get it, but I knew I had even more room to grow with my actual Class. [Starlords] exemplified everything all the elven races were good at, from magic to martial combat to crafting. It was the total package for an elf and I almost felt bad faking it. However, it did explain why my stats were so high. [Starlords] got thirty stats per level, just like [Suzerain], despite the rarity disparity. I had no idea what the extra S’s [Suzerain] had meant, but I didn’t have time to think about that then.

Before walking out, I activated [Status Shield] to hide my real Class and marveled at the flexibility of it. I found that I could change whatever I wanted about my [Status]. Level? Yup. Stats? Of course. But the most important thing for me was the ability to change my Class. Without my grandfather’s help? I don’t know what I would have done. If my parents even knew about my Class they’d be in danger. It’s not that they weren’t capable, they are, but I didn’t want to cause them any problems if I could avoid it.

“Thanks for waiting, everyone.” I blushed. “Grandpa and I were discussing some of the logistics for my Class, him being the expert and all.” Mom, Dad, their former party members, and Momo all leaned in. “It is my great pleasure to present to all of you… my [Status]!”

With a dramatic flourish, I sent a simplified copy of my [Status Shield] to my assembled family and friends.

[Name: Arthur Bajbub Neilson

Class: Starlord - Legendary Rank S

Level: 24

HP: 230

Mana: 529

Stamina: 344

Stats:

Might: 13

Agility: 101

Toughness: 65

Charm: 75

Wits: 115

Perception: 91

Arcane: 199

Divine: 199

Active Skills - Mastery:

Rapid Strike - 70%

Dual Chop - 64%

Backstab - 94%

Mana Slide - 20%

Arcane Armor - 63%

Magic Missile - 97%

Elemental Bolt - 48%

Lockpicking - 79%

Trap Finding - 95%

Trap Disarming - 91%

Arcane Sight - 74%

Wingbind - 75%

Synthesis - 94%

Sunny Side Up - 100% - No Evolution Available

Passive Skills:

Essence Reading (Analyze Evolution)

Evasion

Linguist

Light Armor Training

Medium Armor Training

Small Blade Training

Bow Training

Code Cracking

Spelunking

Cartography

Herbalism

Ritual Magic]

“I’m a [Starlord]!”

“Yes!” Mom cheered and pumped her fist, releasing fireworks from her raised fist in excitement with [Pyrotechnics].

A screen appeared in the bottom corner of my vision and I had to stop myself from groaning when I saw what it said.

Really? Now I have to tell Grandpa about this one too…

[Pyrotechnics Skill Acquired with Skill Dominance]

[Active Skills - Mastery

Skill Dominance - 6%]

Dad walked over and clapped me on the shoulder, knocking me out of my own head. “I’m proud of you, Arthur. Another S ranked Class in the family can only mean the Ironwind clan is on the rise again.” He beamed at me.

Despite my momentary confusion, something he said confused me. “What do you mean another S ranked Class in the family? Grandpa might have one, but he’s not part of the Ironwind clan.”

Dad froze in place, totally unable to move, as Mom walked up behind and put a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, Neil dear, why don’t you tell Arthur about them?”

Dad shook his head to clear the metaphorical icicles. “You know the rules, I can’t tell him unless… I misspoke, that’s all.” He put on a forced smile. “Forget what I said, OK? You’re amazing and we should celebrate!”

Damnit Dad… now I have to ask directly. I just hope there’s not a System penalty for it.

“Dad, who is Mom talking about?” I quirked an eyebrow at him when he started to squirm.

He ran his fingers through his hair the same way I find myself doing when I’m trying to figure out a good lie. “You see, the thing is–”

Mom cut him off. “You’re not going to lie to our only son on his System Day, are you Neil?” The way she said his name sent shivers up my spine, and based on the way he reacted, Dad had the same thing happen.

He sighed. “I guess everyone else here knows, so it shouldn’t hurt,” he muttered under his breath, “much.”

Arlo and Megara quickly averted their gaze before striking up a conversation with Momo, who was glaring holes into Dad. She wasn’t ever fond of him, but she was usually civil, so that was new.

Dad set his fingers on the hilts of his daggers and immediately looked calmer, though I wasn’t sure if it was a [Skill] or just him feeling more relaxed by their comforting presence. “You know I was married once before your mother, correct?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I nodded. “Yeah, her name was Maddie, right?” Dad had told me about her when I was a kid. I’d asked about how he was before marrying Mom.

Grief washed over Dad’s face for a moment before Mom took his hand and rubbed a thumb over his knuckles. “It’s OK, we both loved her.”

That was enough to get Dad going again. “Our dear Matilda. She and I were married before we even left the Clan seat, an arranged marriage, you see.” He chuckled. “We were childhood friends and lovers, so we never complained. You see, the Ironwind Clan understands that to reject other races is to allow ourselves to grow stagnant, so every few generations, they encourage their children to look outside pure dwarves for spouses.”

“I mean, that kind of makes some sense. Gran and Gramps never even mentioned my heritage the one time I met them. They didn’t seem to care for Mom, but I figured that was because she was a caster, not because she was an elf.” I nodded before frowning. “Hold on, how does this tie into whoever it is you were talking about?” I glared at him. “Don’t gaslight me, give it to me straight.”

He sighed as he fingered his dagger with the hand Mom wasn’t holding. “Maddie and I weren’t just married, we had a daughter named Anya.” His eyes sparkled. “She’s perfect, or at least I thought so until Maddie died.” He closed his eyes as tears started to fall. “At first she was fine, but when Maddie’s best friend started to make her interests clear as she supported me in my grief, she was furious.”

Mom took over when Dad broke down, pulling him in to her ample bosom and stroking his hair. “Maddie was my best friend and our group’s [Paladin]. When she died, your father and I took solace in each other’s arms and, one thing led to another, we eventually fell in love a few years later. Anya didn’t take it well. She refused to acknowledge your father’s wishes or our marriage and, when we stopped adventuring and moved to Wyrm’s Rest, she cut off all ties with us.”

Dad turned his head to address me with puffy red eyes. “She lives in the capital of Verdant, Grenwood, as a retainer for the king. I haven’t seen her in over thirty years, but she still sends me letters every few years or so. Per her request, the Clan asked that I not tell you about Anya unless you asked directly and they used a System enforced oath to make sure I complied.”

I was stunned into silence for a moment before I recovered. “I have a half-sister?” I balled up my hands to really let loose on Dad before stopping myself.

He didn’t want to keep her from me, he couldn’t tell me without the System taking its due.

“Does she know about me?” I half-whispered.

He pulled himself free of Mom and walked over to hug me. “She does, but…”

“She wants nothing to do with me, does she?” A hard knot formed in my gut.

I finally got a sibling, only to be told they don’t even want to meet me. Typical. This is just like when Dad finally agreed I could have a pet and the [Frost Tiger] he got me ran away before I could even name her.

“She does not.” He sighed. “She was just eighteen when we retired and she was adamant about wanting nothing to do with, and I’m quoting her here, ‘any spawn’ your mother and I might have.”

Now that lit a fire inside me. “She said what now?” Unbidden, [Skill Dominance] appeared in the corner of my vision and I started seeing fractions over everyone in the area’s heads.

What the hell? Why did that happen? What are those numbers?

My eyes lit up when I looked over the numbers again. None of the denominators were under fifty while the numerators were in the single digits for everyone but Mom and Dad. Mom and Grandpa had the largest denominators by far, with Grandpa’s at an astonishing seven hundred and thirty to Mom’s five hundred and five.

Those must be the [Skills] they have and the number of them I know. I guess [Skill Dominance] has an active mode to go with the passive it’s shown so far. I wonder how common that kind of thing is?

“… and there’s nothing more to say about it.” Mom sighed.

I shook my head. “What was that? I was distracted by the bullshit of my so-called sister’s attitude from afar.” Saved it, I think.

She frowned. “I was just saying you can’t really blame her for how she feels. She lost her mother and your philandering father found another woman less than a decade later.”

Dad put a hand against his chest in mock outrage. “Oof, that was way more direct and far ruder than last time. As far as my philandering goes–” He stopped when Mom’s glare cut through him like a knife. “It’s a thing of the past. System note it.” A gold light lit up over his head for a moment before fading into nothing.

“Good.” Mom patted Dad’s head before turning to me. “Like I said, this idiot was at fault so don’t blame Anya.”

“All I can promise is to keep an open mind if I ever meet her.” I answered obliquely. I had no intention of going easy on Anya, but I wouldn’t go after her about Dad without talking to her first.

With a small smile, Dad shrugged. “I can’t ask for anything more.”

***

The rest of the party went well, but I had trouble focusing on it. Grandpa noticed and, as soon as he was able, he pulled me aside. Once we had some privacy, I explained what I’d discovered and his eyes lit up.

“That [Skill] continues to impress, both the active and passive parts of it. Being able to copy any [Skill] you can see is unheard of outside of Blue Mimics, and those are S-Ranked monsters even full S-Ranked parties avoid. To be honest, in a lot of situations, the active ability will be far more useful. I’m willing to bet, as your mastery increases, that you’ll be able to see what skills you share with someone, or even search a crowd for a particular [Skill]. Imagine, once you learn [Assassinate] you’d be able to spot people with the [Skill].” He whistled quietly in appreciation. “Bodyguard jobs and manhunts will be a cinch for you and they pay well, so keep them in mind as you go up the ranks in the Adventurers Guild.”

“I hadn’t even thought about what it would be able to do at higher mastery levels, it’s pretty amazing as is.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “It’s a bit overwhelming. What am I going to do with all the [Skills] it helps me learn?”

“Versatility is second only to raw power in how useful it is. Why don’t you try out [Pyrotechnics]? It’s not super useful except as a distraction, but kids and adults alike enjoy fireworks on holidays and it’s essential for those.” He waved for me to go on.

“I guess it can’t hurt.” I raised my hand over my head and focused on [Pyrotechnics]. To my surprise, a window appeared in front of me instead of fireworks going off over my head.

[Would you like to slot in Pyrotechnics to one of your open slots?

Filled Slots: 0/5]

“Huh, that’s interesting.” I stared at the window for a few moments and Grandpa coughed to get my attention.

“What’s interesting?”

I gave him permission to view the window with a thought. “It seems there’s more to this [Skill] than we thought.”

The old man grinned. “If you weren’t leaving in the morning for your big trip, I’d like to spend a few weeks testing this out with you, but I guess we don’t have that luxury.” He rubbed his slightly pointy chin. “Why don’t you just look at the [Skill Details] for [Skill Dominance]?”

I stared at him with a blank look. “The what?”

“Are you being serious? Did your mother not tell you how your [Status] worked?” His jaw hung open. “This is basic stuff.”

“Nope, that was Dad’s department after they had a duel to decide who got to train me on what.” I shook my head. “I’m guessing he forgot some stuff?”

“You could say that.” Grandpa rubbed his temples. “Just think of the [Skill] and then ask the System for a description. It’ll tell you all you need to know.”

“Seems easy enough, I’ll give it a shot.” With a thought, a screen appeared in front of me.

[Skill Dominance is the only Skill of the Suzerain Class. Its active mode allows the user to see the number of Skills everyone without Status Shield active has as well as how many Skills the Suzerain has in common with them. At 25% Mastery, the Suzerain will be able to pick a Skill they have and look for people who have it in the vicinity. Later Mastery abilities are currently hidden.

The passive mode for Skill Dominance documents any Skill the Suzerain observes. Then, it allows the Suzerain to access a certain number of those observed Skills by slotting them in. Once a Skill evolves at 100% Mastery and the Suzerain gains their unique evolution of it, the Evolved Skill will be accessible at all times. The number of accessible slots for the Suzerain at this time is five. Slotting a Skill in can be done at any time, but changing Skills in already active slots can only be done at dawn or dusk. Skills learned through Skill Scrolls or training do not require slots to use.]

Dominus bless me, that’s a hell of a description. [Skill Dominance] is a bit less busted than I thought, but it’s still insane! I mean, I guess it’s good I won’t have thousands of Skills to think of using at all times. I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to deal with the kind of decision paralysis that might lead to.

“It looks like I have a certain number of Skills I can use at any given time that I didn’t learn the old fashioned way.” When I tried to give him permission to view the window, the System resisted me for a moment, but I bypassed it with a pulse of will. If I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anyone.

He read through it quickly before beaming at me. “Oh, this is going to be fun. I know what we’re doing tonight!” He went to drag me away, but stopped mid step. “We should go back to the party first, we don’t want everyone to worry about you.”

That night, I watched Grandpa and Mom fight a ten minute mock mage duel. Mom didn’t take much convincing, it was obvious she wanted to blow off a bit of steam. I knew why he did it and we weren’t disappointed when we went over the results before bed.

[Skill Dominance] captured every single Skill or Spell they used, despite them not using full power. However, we found one strange thing, even if they were using [Evolved Skills], I only got the basic version of the [Skill]. In the end, that made sense, [Skill Evolution] was unique for everyone. Very few people ended up with the same [Evolved Skill] as someone else since it all depended on the intent behind their use of the basic [Skill].

Before I went to bed, I pulled up my list of available [Dominated Skills].

[Dominated Skills - Slots Available 5/5

Active & Passive Skills:

N/A

Active Skills:

Air Step - Allows the user to walk on air

Corona - Creates a ring of intense heat around the caster, damaging and deterring enemies.

Fireball - Launches a large ball of fire that explodes on impact, dealing significant fire damage.

Gust - A small burst of wind that pushes objects or extinguishes flames.

Gust of Wind - A powerful gust of wind that pushes back enemies.

Haste - Grants an ally increased movement and attack speed.

Healing Light - Creates a warm light with a minor healing effect.

Mold Earth - Shapes a small amount of earth, useful for digging or creating minor cover.

Obscuring Mist - Creates a thick fog that hinders vision in an area.

Photosynthetic Burst - Rapidly grows plants in an area, creating difficult terrain or entanglement.

Pyrotechnics - Produce a minor firework.

Solar Deflection - Encases the caster in a momentary shimmering barrier that deflects non-magical attacks.

Solar Flare - Launches a small burst of fire that explodes on impact.

Spark - Creates a small spark that can ignite tinder or deal minor fire damage.

Spike Field - Creates sharp stones that erupt from the ground, damaging creatures that step on them.

Sun Armor - Grants the caster a tough, heat-resistant magical armor.

Sunbeam - Creates a dazzling beam of sunlight that can blind or deal minor radiant damage.

Sunburst - Creates a blinding explosion of light and radiant energy, dealing damage and potentially blinding enemies.

Searing Light - Bathes an object or creature in intense heat, causing minor burning.

Searing Wind - A scorching wind blasts the area, dealing fire damage and pushing enemies back.

Sun Jump - A short-range teleport usable only in sunlight.

Sunlance - A powerful beam of sunlight blasts a target, dealing significant radiant damage.

Passive Skills:

Photosynthesis - Absorb sunlight to replenish Health, Mana, and Stamina.]

I slotted [Photosynthesis], [Haste], and [Air Step] before going to bed. As I drifted off to sleep, I mentally adjusted the [Dominated Skills] list to not display the description for each [Skill] every time I called it up. If I’d seen it in use, I didn’t exactly need to have the description shoved in my face every time I pulled up the list.

Those [Skills] should make leaving the mountain a lot easier tomorrow. With the [Cloud Carpet], [Air Step] was basically a necessity. It wouldn’t do to fall off my new gift and get hurt before I can even fight any monsters. [Photosynthesis] will let me travel longer, replenishing my Mana from using the [Cloud Carpet] and [Haste] is just a good thing to have in case all else fails.