Months passed.
[Observe Lvl. 7 → Lvl. 8]
My father returned from the capital two months later. He was uninjured, though he did not want to talk about his meeting with the King.
Soon after Armond returned from the capital, Merrick was allowed to roam free around the house. Unlike me, he was born healthy, and his mobility was not hampered by a frail body. After undergoing a few tests, I determined that Merrick was a normal child who was not an adult reincarnated into the body of an infant.
There was something special about Merrick Feldrast: he was one of the main characters of [Ferrum Online].
There were four “backgrounds” you could choose when you made a character. If you chose the Noble background when creating your character, you would play as the youngest son or daughter of the Feldrast family.
In the novelization of [Ferrum Online] released eight years after its launch, the Noble character was given the name “Merrick Feldrast.” He - along with the Outlander, Merchant, and Farmer - went on a world-spanning adventure that took them to all three continents of Ferrum and took three novels to complete. I heard some of my friends talk about the novels a few times, so I knew how Merrick’s story ended. After a harrowing battle, Merrick Feldrast slew his brother with a blade blessed by Nyx herself and became the new Count of Northwind.
If I could manage to prevent him from becoming my enemy, I knew that Merrick Feldrast would become a great ally in the coming years. His birth, ultimately, was uneventful, and nothing significant happened for several more years.
Soon after my seventh birthday, Miriam underwent the Ceremony of Observation. Though the Observer noted that she had prodigious [Willpower] and above average [Intelligence] for her age, she did not have a Talent. About 50% of commoners and 25% of nobles were born without a Talent. Miriam put on a brave face, and Armond demanded the Observer check again. Almost as an afterthought, the Observer mentioned that Miriam’s healing potential was still at 100.
When she didn’t think anyone could hear her, Miriam cried herself to sleep.
I lived at Feldrast Manor without incident for the next few years. In this time period, I learned basic sorcery and transmutation magic using the books in the library, mastered my use of Hellfire, and wrote down my plans to save the world.
Spring, 625 CA
It was almost my tenth birthday. I had grown significantly and gained much more freedom of movement, but the frailty of my body was still a problem.
I walked alone through the forest near Sableton, leaning on a cane and panting in exertion. I wasn’t injured anywhere, but I needed to use a cane if I was going to remain standing for more than ten minutes. The little outpost I had built in the woods was less than 200 meters away from Feldrast Manor, but it felt like I was running a marathon whenever I made the trip.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As I walked, I thought of the Ceremony of Observation that I would be soon undertaking. The results of the Ceremony would certainly be non-standard, but I had spent the past few years subtly hinting that I was not a normal child. I had allowed my speech patterns to slowly shift back to their natural state, and I had graduated from Ferrum’s version of “high school” when I was just seven years old.
I passed a slow-moving creek as I walked. I looked at my reflection and was deeply unsettled at what I saw. Every time I looked into the mirror, the person looking back at me more closely resembled the man who destroyed the minds of thousands of innocent soldiers and killed his own sister in cold blood.
[Observe, Lvl. 7]
Name: Thale Feldrast
Class: Priest
Level: 5
HP: 13 (5+4d8-12)
MP: 214 (14+4+16+180)
Fortitude: 4
Strength: 3
Agility: 4
Intelligence: 18
Willpower: 15
Talents: [Hellfire], [Observe]
Healing Potential: 100
My physical stats were still lousy, but my MP was certainly impressive. During my significant experimentation with Hellfire, transmutation magic, and elemental magic, I had exhausted my mana every few days. Among the players of [Ferrum Online], this was called mana training. Any person on Ferrum could get their mana reserve into the triple digits if they were to undergo Mana Training for a year. This was why just about every noble in [Ferrum Online] had between 100 and 120 MP.
I knew my MP would reach 100, but I was surprised that I had broken 200. Usually, Mana Training started to have diminishing returns once you reached 80 MP. I had nearly reached 250 MP without utilizing any other more complicated and expensive methods. I suspected that this was due to my early start. I had started experimenting with Hellfire before I was a year old, so I probably benefited from the neuroplasticity of my infant brain.
When I used [Observe] on myself, the result of my mana training was quantified far to the right of my MP score. The bonus was listed at +180, which would be added in addition to the mana bonus I received from any [Class] levels. Though 180 mana wasn’t enough to cast late-game spells, it represented an early advantage that would help me later.
On the side of the road was a small wooden sign which had a message written on its side in a clumsy child’s handwriting. “Upon order of Thale Feldrast, this area is off limits!”
ᛟᚬᛢᚫ ᛢᚭᚡᛔ ᛟᚰ ᛀᛣᚩ ᚤᛛᚩᚡᚭᛕᚮᚯ (fuljand befaln av Thale Feldrast)
ᛀᛝᚮ ᛣᚭᛩᛕ ᛝᚸ ᛢᚤ ᚩᛝᚪᛝᚯᚮ (detta omrad vara bort grans)
When I had set that sign up more than a year ago, I had hoped that it would prevent any commoners from accidentally finding my hideout. I knew that the commoners of Sableton wouldn’t do anything to catch the ire of a noble, even one that was nine years old.
All the sign did, ultimately, was cause Nina Koravin to start showing up at my hideout. She would frequently sit around and try to talk to me while I was doing research into transmutation magic. It was particularly annoying, though I wasn’t completely unsympathetic.
The rules of propriety cut both nobles and commoners alike. Nina and I were “high nobles,” meaning we were within the line of succession of a landed title. It would be improper for either of us to hang out socially with children of a lower social class. There were only nine high nobles in Sableton. In a very real way, Nina was the only kid my own age that I was allowed to hang out with. It was no wonder why the original Thale ended up marrying her. She must have been his only friend.
I arrived at my hideout with another book under my arm. As expected, Nina Koravin was waiting for me with her back to the hideout and her head pointed down at the pages of one of my books.