Feeling a sharp sting on my cheek I shot up yelling, “Ow!”

“Oh welcome back my friend, why are you here,” Faron asked sitting next to me.

Taking a second to process what just happened, rubbing my cheek as I alternated looking at his hand and him.

“You fucking bitch, you slapped me,” I accused!

“Maybe, but everything was made for the good of the people,” Faron testified holding up his hands in mock surrender.

“WHAT PEOPLE!”

“Me,” He smiled like an ass.

“You bitch,” I grumbled, glaring at him.

“Ok ok, I’m not sorry, but why are you on the ground?”

“OH, THAT would be because Captain Asshole kicked my ass!”

“Let me guess you beat blondey during sparring,” Faron sighed.

“Yeah and rightfully so,” I yelled!

Running his hand through his hair he explained, “Blondey is a special one. Because his father is the captain he thinks he can do whatever he wants and no one will stop him. When someone does he throws a tantrum that the Captain fixes.

“My best advice to you is to try to stay away. If you have to spar him just don’t hit him he’s under the delusion he’s talented, God’s greatest gift sorta thing.”

“What do you mean by delusion,” I questioned eagerly trying to find out what was wrong with Asshole Jr.

“Well, you know how you get a class at level five.”

“I’ve heard it get mentioned before.”

“Well, it’s a common practice to hold off on getting that class right as you reach level five. Lots will stay at that level to learn more skills or get them to a higher level before they choose so they have better options. So even though he is only a little younger than me he’s still stuck at level five,” Faron explained.

“So basically what you’re saying is even though he’s only slightly younger he’s still much weaker because he refuses to admit that he doesn’t have the talent to get a better class even though he’s probably only putting in the same amount of work everyone else is making unable to make up for the difference,” I babbled out in one quick breath.

“Actually...yes,” Faron doubted.

“Stop sounding like that, I said before that I’m not dumb.”

“You say that but from what I know you do questionable things. AND you’re lying in the dirt,” He laughed.

“Touche, but anyway why the rude awakening?”

“Oh you know the usual checking up on a friend buuuut time for evening training,” Faron said smiling like a god damned hyena.

Glaring at him I got a practice sword, throwing him one.

“That’s the spirit,” He cheered, standing up into his stance.

“You’re a jerk,” I scoffed.

“All for your g r o w t h,” He said stretching carrying that stupid grin of his.

So our training commenced for the next few hours of nothing but Faron explaining how to block different strikes, me falling on my ass more than once, and him even explaining how to fix my stabs and slashes.

After lots of yelling and too many jokes, the moon rose into the sky before we stopped. As I was sitting down I heard that ol’ so sweet ding.

[-Through repeating action the skill [Basic Swordsmanship] is made plus one dexterity!]

[-Due to learning a common skill you gain 5% exp]

[-Congratulations you level up! Rewarded 2 stat points.]

Oh damn finally leveling up, almost level five.

“Why are you grinning like that?”

“What grin,” I beamed, grinning like an idiot.

Faron glared before smacking me with the blunt side of the sword.

“Ow,” I yelled, “Stop smacking me.”

“Stop being stupid!”

I put up my finger to retort but realized there was nothing to argue.

“Now why the grin?”

“Well, I just got my swordsmanship skill WITH a level up,” I boasted!

“Oh nice,” Faron smiled, “What are you gonna put those stats in?”

“That’s a good question,” I mused before sinking into thought.

Now strength, constitution, and dexterity are on the lower side but I don't really have a need for them with the path I’m going for. Hoping to get something mana-based in the future it would be better to focus on those stats since affinity is TOO DAMN HIGH. So that leaves attunement and control as my only options.

Rubbing my chin I thought deeply about the pros and cons of splitting the points or focusing on one. They both work but at the end of the day if I plan on weaving my mana to make things control would be better.

Putting both points into control I felt slightly different. Not powerful or even better with my mana, it felt more like a limb starting to wake up, being able to move it better.

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Smiling I yelled, “It’s all about that control baby!”

Sighing Faron smacked me again, “Stop being dumb.”

“Nah.”

With a big exhale Faron groaned, “Time for dinner.”

Following him in we made our way to the table already set with plenty of hot food. The smells of herbs and fresh bread filled the room.

Mr. Tann looked up acknowledging Faron but looked back down towards his book without giving me a glance.

No one exchanged any words or jokes. The weird atmosphere made the delicious food taste like slop. As fast as we started eating we finished, retreating to our rooms.

Setting Tiny down on his makeshift bed I laid down staring at the ceiling.

All of my skills are so low level right now, I need to maximize my time more. There are just too many of these skills I gotta work with. Maybe setting time slots for each skill would be a good start. Actually yeah I like that.

Shooting up I leaned against the wall and started to work through what skills should be trained when.

In the mornings my artisan skills will be trained by working with Mr. Tann. Then my swordsmanship skill can be worked on with Captain A-hole at noon and Faron during the evening. Now with my mana skills, those would be good to work on right now before I sleep. With this basic set up I should be relatively ok for the moment.

“Let's get started now,” I whispered, holding my hands out letting it flow out into a ball. I let the ball float a few inches above my hand as I stretched and shrunk it, letting it move in random directions and bringing it back home.

Then I started making shapes with it, stretching it out into a long thread. Bringing back and making it form something vaguely triangle-shaped. Putting it all together I formed a very vague-looking snake that “slithered” in the air.

Time passed just like this with my man reserves hitting empty pretty fast.

With the reserves empty, I laid down starting to meditate slowly. Getting into the motions of my breathing, becoming one with my surroundings letting the mana in the air, the wood of the bed, and every nook and cranny there was moving carefully over my body.

Feeling the gentle lights of the mana flow everywhere I absorbed it slowly letting it sink into me adding itself to the little mana ball just below my stomach. Time slowly passed before I fell asleep surrounded by lights.

Lounging over the castle wall I gazed across the fields of green with beast walking around enjoying themselves. In the distance, a city stood tall two to three stories tall. The buildings made of stone and marble intermixed as shadowy beings walked the streets. Smiling I turned with a flourish retreating deeper into the castle.

Walking beyond the archway I entered a straight hall wide enough for eight men to stand shoulder to shoulder and high enough for elephants to confidently strut through. Each side was lined with paintings covered in shadows and blurry bronze plates beneath them. Unable to see them clearly or even notice what was wrong I still walked down the entire hall.

Entering a room with a giant throne standing tall against the far wall, with carvings of different beasts in each part. Turning around looking back towards the hall I saw nothing but darkness and shadows slowly escaping into the throne room.

The shadows crawled up my legs and before I was completely covered I saw a bronze sign reading, “Hall of…”

Shooting up in cold sweat I grabbed my chest breathing heavily. Looking around I saw the same small room of Mr. Tann’s house, Tiny still coiled up in his bed, and the sun shining through the shudders.

Slowly calming myself down I exasperated, “Fucking dreams my guy.”

Tiny looked up confused if anything before coiling back up.

“Hey if I’m up you’re up,” I yelled, scooping him up into my hands letting him slither to his normal spot.

“Good boy,” I said, strutting out to the kitchen with undeserved confidence.

Walking out I saw Mr. Tann just sitting there as if waiting for me.

Under his watchful eyes, I slowly ate, worry nibbling at my mind.

Once I was finished he asked, “How much can you do with your mana?”

Thinking for a moment I responded, “That’s a little broad can you slim it down?”

Brows furrowing he asked again, “What can your mana do right now?”

“Well, I guess that works,” I smiled before explaining, “Well I can control it.” I conjured up a little gray ball that formed a few awkward shapes.

“I can even weave things with mana,” I said, splitting the ball into multiple threads and weaved them around creating another weak mana rope-like before.

“Enhancement is also a thing but you’ve seen that.”

Every time a new thing happened his eyes grew wider and wider.

Taking a deep breath before he stuttered, “So…you have a skill called mana weaving?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you know how you got that skill?”

“I just let my mana split and made them flow over and under like threads. Once it got to a point I liked I disconnected my mana but it made a rope and boom a skill,” I explained, flourishing my hands making another rope.

In shock, he asked, “So you...just learning about mana discovered this by YOURSELF!”

“Why yes I did,” I chuckled, “Aren’t I talented.”

He kicked my leg before continuing, “How did you learn to move your mana like this?”

“Well, I was stressed so I made a little flower crown and thought about it then decided to move my mana the same way so here we are.”

Pulling out that old book he always had Mr. Tann intensely read through it before saying, “That’s in a similar fashion to my ancestors.”

“Ancestors you say,” I smirked ready for a story, “Tell me more about them.”

With a heavy thud of the book falling onto the table, he started to explain, “Long long long ago my family was just some normal tailors but one day my ancestor discovered the mana weaving skill. He taught it to others and approved upon the art to the point we were considered masters.

“In the hay day many people reached level 50 in the skill and one genius that brought the family to the peak supposedly reached level 75. Sadly all things that go up must come down.

“One day my many greats grandfather made a mistake of being too good. There was a competition pitting crafter against crafter to see who could reach the highest quality. This competition was made as a test for the younger generation to prove themselves even the royals would take part.

“As you can guess this grandfather did so good he passed a few royals and bigger nobles. This caused jealousy so much in fact that they banded together to take out the roots of my family.

“A bunch of men broke into the main house of the manor, setting fire to it and killing whomever they saw. The son of the offending great grandfather was able to grab one book of the family technique and escape. Running for his life he traveled a few kingdoms before finally stopping and settling down as a normal tailor of a small village.

“That book he grabbed is the one I have now. There is only one problem though and it's the fact that it is only the technique to learn the skill, not how to get mana or control it. So it made this book practically useless not allowing anyone in the future generations to become a mana weaver. We couldn’t even learn how to do it from any of the schools because they are so secret you need to dish out more money than a commoner could ever afford.

“I spent so much of my life trying to gain these skills and rebuild my family's grand name. So please I’m begging you to teach me how to use mana,” His head hung low and his voice filled with sincerity.

Not letting him finish happily I yelled, “I can teach you whatever you wanna know.”

“I know I don’t have much but...WAIT WHAT,” His head rose and stared at me unsure of what he heard was right.

“Of course I’ll teach you, why should I keep it secret,” I smiled.

“But the skill is so precious even in the big cities some places still don’t have the ability to teach you.”

“You took me in without a hitch so just think of it as my rent,” I laughed, standing up and walking towards the door.

“Where are you going,” Mr. Tann frantically went to grab me as if I was taking his greatest treasure.

“I just have a score to settle with Captain A-hole,” I proclaimed, waving over my shoulder as I walked away.