Haywood didn’t pull out a notebook, instead summoning an illusory book using a skill. An equally illusory pen appeared just above the notebook and wrote the words ‘find the most potent attention skills and spells, Jem is in dire need.’

Jem wanted to protest, but Nessa was already talking again. “So what are our best options for dealing with the mark? Does anyone have ideas?”

“Can’t I just get the main class version? When I unlock a slot for it I mean?” asked Jem.

“That would be an option,” said Nessa. “But we don’t want our only recourse to be the class, because you may not unlock it.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Ah, grandad would you like to explain to your grandson?” said Nessa, her voice syrupy.

“Well Jem you see your starter class determines the rank of classes you’re subsequently allowed to take. To take a class you need to already have a class within one rank of it. So with an S* rank starting class you need to meet the requirements for at least the S rank equivalent,” said Haywood. “But why shoot for the bare minimum I think you should try to get the S*S version of the class.”

“Ahh right so I’m well and truly fucked aren’t I?”

Aoife swatted him on the back of the head. “Don’t be defeatist. There’s lots of stuff to try and we’ll still try for the class.”

Jem rubbed the back of his head. “Can’t we just cut it off or something.”

“Put it on the bottom of the list. As the last resort,” said Nessa.

Haywood wrote down: ‘Consider cutting off Jem’s arm.”

“I meant just the mark. Don’t cut off my arm.”

Haywood added the words (Just the mark(to begin with.))

“What if we try to burn it off with magic?” asked Karim.

“Doesn’t work,” said Aoife. “According to our records someone with the mark tried that before. Most of the magic got nullified but what did touch the mark made it charge faster.”

Jem crossed his arms. “What if we do the opposite. Can we starve it out? Or drain it?”

“Don’t know.”

The illusory pen moved, noting down everything said and Haywood looked up. “We can add that to the research pile, I’m sure the library has more on the mark. They show up every few centuries.”

“How would I go about trying to unlock the class?” asked Jem. “What actually goes into helping you unlock classes?”

“Don’t worry about that now. Mum or Grandad can go over it with you some other time. But that actually brings us onto the next thing we need to talk about.” Nessa scratched at the base of one of her antlers. “You have huge gaps in your knowledge. Things even five year olds would know. Grandad does the library have books that would go over those kinds of things?”

“I’m sure it does. I can get some for Jem to look through while i investigate the best attention skills. Do we want ones specifically for attention or do we want to go down the general mental route?”

“I have [Meditation], [Clear of Mind] and [Mind Over Matter] already if that helps?”

“I’ll keep those in mind when I look for options,” said Haywood. “Jem you should also give me a full list of your skills first as well. And we should also think about your bloodline trial, If we take you to level 19 you’ll be in the lowest bracket for it, but with your stat gain you will much more powerful than the average person doing it.”

Jem raised his hand. “What’s a bloodline trial?”

Nessa shook her head. “Not now. If we stop to answer all of Jem’s questions we’ll never get through this.”

“I think my questions are pretty reasonable.”

“Okay, here’s how we’re going to do this. We’re going to think of all the things that we can think of that we need to get covered for Jem to start university and grandad is going to write it down. Alright. Everyone say the things that come to mind.”

“Kol control skill.”

“Attentiion skill.”

“Appropriate clothes.”

“A cover story.”

“A nice mattress.”

“A place to stay.”

“Alcan”

“General knowledge”

“Levels”

This went on for a minute or so before it petered out. It started with the big things but soon the bottom of the barrel was being dredged and the suggestions were things like: hobbies and a can do attitude. Though he was fairly sure Aoife said that last one as a joke.

Nessa grabbed the list from Haywood.

“I should be able to leave this with you and grandad, right mum?”

“Yes that should be fine.”

“That means we just need to talk about the main thing. Jem’s cover story and how we’re going to make him look Alcan.”

“What about your skill Nessa can’t that make the changes?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“No, that just does small things and internal stuff. Hey Jem you don’t want any changes like that right? No extra organs? No… different organs?”

“I don’t think so? Should I?”

“Ahh good, you aren’t trans then.” Nessa groaned. “No wait, that’s not what I meant. I just meant that like 1 in 20 people are, and that you come from a dead world. I just meant, I could imagine things would be difficult for a person if they were in a place like that. For me it was easy.”

“No Nessa, don’t worry. I’m not. Though you should know not every single person who is trans would wan–”

“Yes, yes. I know.” Nessa waved him off. “It was a silly thing to say. But no my skill won’t work if we want to change Jem’s horns or his legs. What are our other options?”

“We could commission a persistent cast spellstone but–”

“It would be expensive, and traceable. Yes my love.” Nessa leaned in and gave Karim a kiss on the cheek.

“We may be able to get him something with his bloodline ritual?”

Seeing that the conversation was going to move on without him Jem let his thoughts drift. It really was that old bastards fault. But unfortunately Jem also knew that had he known all the facts he still might have gone with the same things. Though begrudgingly maybe not [Expert Skill Descriptions].

“... Jem”

“Huh, what?” Jem looked up.

Haywood underlined attention skill.

“No that’s not even fair, I’m not even in this conversation ughhh.”

“We were just saying that you’ll need to start attending official functions, like the ball next week.”

“Ah okay.”

“What we were saying was how are your dancing skills?”

“I’m pretty good. Well er, I think. I won’t know any of the dances so I’ll need to learn them? And I don’t really know for sure that it’s going to be easy. It’s just well, I arrived in this world and I was taken by some absolutely barbaric people and they cast a ritual on me that stole my feet.”

Nessa shook her head. “Don’t emulate grandad, Jem, it’s a mistake. We’ll need to get you dancing lessons. And some etiquette lessons.”

Jem groaned. “You know how crazy that is right, we’re in a world with magic and you spend all the time being prim and proper.”

“Yeah right,” Karim said, rolling his eyes. “This family is so very prim and proper.”

“Sweetie this is why your dad made me the empress after we got married. Jem it’s fine for us to act like this in private, and to an extent while we’re in the castle around those who are likely to see us frequently, there’s nothing wrong with having friends. But in formal settings it’s very important.

“No one. Very few. Most people don’t like playing politics, but the game is what keeps things civil. There are all sorts of people who want to test their strength and fight but might doesn’t make right. The ability to lead doesn’t come from the speed you can swing your sword. Playing by the rules of etiquette means people are more likely to play by the rules in other ways too.

“We dont want the person who can’t sit through a boring meal without starting a fight to rule a territory, because what if they decide the trade dispute is taking too long to resolve, and they decide to iron out the kinks themself. Playing by the rules keeps people safe. It also means that when people try to fight they keep it on the social battle ground rather than resolving it with fists.

“You’re getting an etiquette instructor.”

“Oh my god that sounds so boring. But wait. Yeah I was wondering. Nessa is in charge? But Aoife and Haywood aren’t past rulers or anything.”

Karim grinned. “I wondered when he was going to ask. The truth is Jem. Never ever ever trust your partner. They’ll say they love you and then bam. Before you know it your parents are giving them the crown because they’re technically one of their children now.” Karim just shook his head. “An empire stolen from my clutches.”

Haywood guffawed. “The outrage it caused was hilarious. Talking of your parents though Karim is there any news on how their level 500 quest is going?”

“Not heard anything in a few months but it was promising the last–”

“Please can we stay on topic?” said Nessa, her turning voice teasing. “Some of us do have an empire to run you know.”

“Okay well I think we’ve covered most of the things we needed to talk about, there’s just one other major thing. Jem is going to start at the university and I’d rather he does that sooner rather than later. Does anyone have input on what sort of cover story he should have?”

“This might be a silly question,” said Jem, “but why do I actually want to go to the university?”

“That isn’t a silly question,” said Nessa. “Ordinarily, with your class, I would say you don’t need it but there’s a few reasons. You’ll need more experience with high society. Ideally we want to get you [The Black Spot(S)] and your experiences and knowledge play into the classes you unlock, it won’t be as simple as just attending classes and getting the unlock but it helps move us in that direction. The other reason is you said you wanted to learn magic, that’s the best place to do it.”

Haywood leaned in. “Of course that assumes he has enough Kol to cast spells.”

Nessa clicked her fingers. “Of course. I have our cover story. Grandad, as some merchant was invited to teach economics at the university. But one condition for him teaching there was that his great grandson was allowed to come too. His parents died a few years ago, but he got an A rank magic class, so you want him to train at the school.”

“I don’t look that young,” said Jem.”

“I don’t want to teach at a university.”

“Tough, you got Jem in this mess, you can help him out of it and Jem you absolutely do,” said Nessa. “Karim sweetie do you think you could train with Jem to unlock a Kol manipulation class skill.”

Jem gulped. The last thing he wanted was to train with Karim again. It’s his eyes. He looks like he wants to eat me.

“Hey Jem. Quick question. Whats you’re system presence right now?”

“984.”

“Hey Aoife, can you come with us? Jem’s going to need healing.”

Oh no.