Fear Resistance Level 3

Toby woke up breathing hard and soaked in sweat. He always hated that dream; it’s been so long since the last one. Not surprised though, as today makes it 10 years exactly since that day. Climbing off his bed roll Toby did his best to conceal a hiss. The burning coming from the mark on his shoulder was as bad as he remembered it being on that day. But he needed to ignore it, he didn’t want to wake any of the other kids.

Today was not supposed to start this way. He was legally a man, 15 years old and leaving the orphanage. Instead of celebrating he is packing up his bed roll and grabbing his only set of spare clothes. How could he have wet the bed? Yes, he wet the bed every time he had that dream, but he was only eight the last time. It’s just not fair. He quickly made his way to the washroom to get cleaned up and changed as best he could with a bar of hard soap and a pail of water. It wasn’t bathing day at the orphanage, so he was stuck using the itchy laundering soap, but he was in a hurry. Still naked he looked down at his left shoulder to inspect his mark. It still burned but nothing looked to have changed. Everyone else thought it was a birth mark, but Toby knew better. It looked exactly like an outline of a hand. Peeling his eyes away he almost swore he saw a faint light coming from the mark, but looking back there was nothing. Waiting no longer Toby grabbed his shirt.

The plain grey, thin cotton clothes clearly marked him as an orphan. New clothes were a must as soon as he had more than one or two coppers. Toby wasn't upset, he knew the town had done their best to help those orphaned ten years ago. There were just so many, and the local Lord didn't care about one small town, he couldn't. Lord Dritis protected his people. The Lord had led the defense and later was the spearhead to drive back all the monsters. According to the stories Lord Dritis was a great Hero who had spent nearly every moment of the last ten years fighting to rescue the Barony from certain destruction. Coudal the Baron's capital was going to take years to recover. The Dritis Barony was on the eastern border of the Empire. It was a newer Barony only founded about 200 years ago on the edge of the Untamed Lands and Toby knew the only reason his small town of Koerin had survived the invasion was because they were located west of Coudal and only saw a small force.

Freshly changed Toby took a moment to look at the small, polished piece of metal that served as a mirror, and he was surprised to see the bright purple eyes looking back at him. Shaking himself, he looked away from his reflection to get his brain working again. This just had to be another change from back then.

Returning to the water to work on the bed roll, Toby let his mind drift back to that day.

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Market day with his mom was always his favorite day of the week, but today was better. It was his birthday and now that he was five, he was an official member of the town. The two of them were a little late getting to the market that morning. Their first stop being the church to register Toby with the class stone. Dad went to the class stone, but he had to go back to work at the wall. Everyone registered at five years old to allow them to get access to their status screen. Then from the ages of five and until they received their class at fifteen all children were able to earn experience for completing quests. The quests were always simple, like completing chores or doing their studies, but it was important to help motivate the future class holders of the Empire. Unfortunately, if a normal quest rewarded 100 experience points non classed individuals were only ever given 10 experience points or 10%.

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Status

Name: Tobias Guardson

Race: Human

Age: 5

Class: None expand

Level: 0

Experience (XP): 0/100

Health: 30/30

Mana: Locked

Attributes:

Strength: 3

Agility: 3

Endurance: 3

Perception: 3

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 3

Luck: 5

Skills: None

Toby was excited because today was the day he got to start going to school with all the other kids and was going to be able to help outside the house. Big kids got to do all the fun stuff.

Just as his mom had started to haggle with one of the food vendors Toby spotted a blue and white wolf pup at the entrance to the alley right in front of them. With a quick look towards his mom Toby ran for the alley for a chance to pet the puppy. Following him into the alley and almost to the little guy, Toby saw it. A night lizard.

He could faintly hear the screaming from behind him.

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“You had the dream again, didn’t you?”

Toby startled from his thoughts turned to find Miss Vicky. No sooner than Toby had turned Miss Vicky was taking the bed roll from him. “Miss Vicky I can clean up my own mess. You don’t need to do that.” A flush of embarrassment showing on his cheeks. Vicky was a young widower, not even 30 years old. Pretty with blond hair and golden eyes the mayor's daughter had made saving and protecting the orphans of the town her job.

“Nonsense. Today is a special day. It’s not every day a boy becomes a man.” Ignoring the obvious blush, Miss Vicky began to vigorously scrub the bed roll but just as she got started, she stopped. Adopting a much more serious tone. “Tobias, are you ready for today? Don’t just start nodding your head either. And stop looking so surprised, I know all of my kids, I don't need high perception to see you instantly agree just to make me feel better. Everything will happen quickly this morning and you need to be ready. After you go to the church and get your class you will need to make decisions on what you will do next. There will be people that will want to make the decision for you, but just remember that the decision is yours. If it is too much come back here, and I will do my best to help you. And Tobias, you are no longer one of the orphans. You will need to start calling me Director Victoria.”

Toby adopted a wry smile “I am ready, Miss Vicky.”

"Tobias, you will show me proper respect." With false severity she was unable to hide a smile of her own. "I can't believe that I actually believe you are ready. None of your peers ever did as much for the orphanage as you have. We are going to miss you." There was a small pause as neither wanted to acknowledge the tear slowly running down Vicky's cheek. "Uh umm, you should go down to the kitchen and get a meal in you. You won't want to still be here when the little ones wake up. They won't let you leave."

"Miss Vicky," Toby paused unsure of what to say, "Thank you, for everything."