Another year came and went, I got one more level when I learned to walk. Once again I beat the milestone by nearly 9 months.
*Level up. Elven baby level 5. You gain 1 Animus.*
*Learning Languages has leveled up, level 5.*
That extra animus was really nice, it nearly doubled my mana regeneration, which in turn let me identify more. Unfortunately Learning Languages now reduced my mana regen by 5 and Elven Heritage reduced it by 2. Thus most of my gains were lost by my passive skills eating at my mana regeneration.
I remained undaunted by the tyranny of my passive skills and continued to identify constantly. It really was the only thing to do most of the time anyways.
*Identify has leveled up, level 3.*
I had finally succeeded just before I was turning 2. Now the skill cost 3 mana! I would never be able to get it high enough to see mom and dad’s level at this rate. This was a cruel cruel world!
My second birthday came and went, this time I got a single small gift. A cute little doll. She had pointy elven ears and wore a simple dress. I immediately named her. “Princess Cleo.” My parents gave me strange looks, but I ignored them, she was my doll after all. It occurred to me, especially when I played with blocks or my doll that I had utterly regressed to the baby I was.
My thoughts were still in english and I could grasp concepts well past my age, but I acted like, was treated like, and felt like a child. I guess a baby's brain comes with the mentality to suit it.
----------------------
One night several months later, I heard shouting from outside. “Kill the men, we only need women and children!” I heard a gruff voice shout out.
My mom appeared beside me in a moment and my dad jumped the table going straight for his weapon rack. I had never seen either of them move so fast. It was positively superhuman. Mom grabbed me and carried me toward her shop. “Mama?” I asked.
“It's alright, we’ll be alright.” She cooed.
I saw my dad as we moved, putting on his gear at an insane pace. He didn’t touch his armor, but his belt and sheathed sword was around his waist and his bow slung over his shoulder before mom and I turned the corner.
I heard screams and fighting from outside and I began to cry. I kept my sobbing as quiet as possible, but I just couldn’t stop myself.
Mom jumped up onto her counter with me in one hand. I just couldn’t square this physicality with my loving caring mother. She dropped back down and I figured out what she was going for. A crossbow was hidden in the corner along with several potions loaded onto 3 different bandoliers. She put me down on the floor while she geared up. Like dad it was quick.
She was about to pick me back up when the door to the shop burst open. Instead of grabbing me she raised her readied crossbow. I couldn’t see past the counter, but the next moment she shot the bolt and I heard it thunk against something. “Fuck.” My mother swore.
Then a moment later I heard steel hitting steel, but my mother was standing right next to me. She began to work on reloading her crossbow sparing only a fleeting glance down at me. I stood using the counter’s shelves as support.
That was when I saw it, a small very sharp knife designed for herbalism work. I reached my tiny hand out to the blade and probably only because of my mighty strength of 2 could lift it. I hid it behind my back not wanting mom to see that I had armed myself.
“Shalia go! Take Alea and go!” My dad yelled between huffs for air.
Mom looked at him then down to me. “Honey.” She said sadly. “Go to the side door…”
I nodded then began to walk slowly in that direction. Meanwhile mom looked back at our attacker and aimed her crossbow once more waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger.
When I got past the counter I saw the rest of the shop in tatters as two combatants dueled with each other. One was a human man and the other my father. The man was wearing studded leather armor and had a shield and sword. All the items looked to have similar makes which made me think he was military of some kind.
My father on the other hand wielded just a short curved elven sword. He swung and parried, but it appeared the human was stronger than him. I didn’t know if that equated into a higher level, but dad was definitely not winning.
Then mom found what she had been waiting for and loosed her bolt. It struck the human dead center mass causing him to fall backward right in front of me. He smashed his head on shelving on his way down and seemed temporarily dazed.
Dad slumped against the counter and mom began to look around for me. I looked at the crumbled man. He was alive, and if my guess was right only suffered a minor concussion. He would be back up any second, yet neither of my parents were making a move to finish him.
I took the knife in both my hands and took an unsteady step toward him. His eyes moved toward me but were still unfocused. I knew my pitiful strength wouldn’t be enough to hurt him, but if I aimed just right there was still a way. I brought the knife up as high as I could then I jumped up and with all my weight plunged the dagger directly into his eye.
The man gasped as the knife pierced deep into him. The knife entered at the bottom of his right eye but was angled upwards to hopefully penetrate into his frontal lobe. It was a one and a million strike that had to go at just the perfect angle to allow me to hit something truly vital.
The man spasmed as the knife entered all the way to the hilt. Then I heard a voice in my head.
*Your party defeated a level 168 warrior, level 153 warrior, level 122 laborer, and level 84 human.*
I took in one deep breath before falling backward off the dead man.
*You have earned the achievement ‘One in a Million’. You gain 10 Agility.*
*You have earned the achievement ‘Titan’s Fall’. You gain a permanent 10% bonus to each of Agility, Strength, and Vitality.*
*Level up. Elven baby level 6. You gain 1 Vitality.*
*Level up. Elven baby level 7. You gain 1 Agility.*
*Level up. Elven baby level 8. You gain 1 Animus.*
*Level up. Elven baby level 9. You gain 1 Magic.*
*Level up. Elven baby level 10. You gain 1 Manipulation.*
*Your class Elven baby has reached its maximum level, excess experience will be applied to its class evolution when it is unlocked.”
*Elven Heritage has leveled up several levels, level 10.*
*Learning Languages has leveled up, level 6.*
My mom ran around the counter and gave me a shocked look seeing what I had done. “Alea…” She sounded bewildered.
However there was no time to talk. Three more human men entered the shop. The one on the right had a spear, shield, and armor like the dead man, the one on the left had a staff and wore a robe, and finally the center man had a huge scar over his right eye and black plate armor I could see mana just oozing off of. My dad shakily stepped forward as if to stop them somehow. “Killed poor Jimmy I see.” The center man said without emotion in his voice. He shrugged. “Kill them all.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The man on his right took one step forward before the man on his left spoke up. “Wait my lord. The baby is something special, it might be exactly what you're looking for.”
The center man’s eyebrow rose. “Oh? What is so special?”
“The baby is level 10 and their elven heritage skill is level 10. A start like that might be the perfect find.” The man on the left said.
Mom dropped her crossbow and lowered down scooping me up into her arms.
The lord had a hideous smile come over his face. “Well that certainly is exactly what we are looking for.” He stepped forward ignoring my father pointing a sword at him. “I will make this offer exactly once. I will cease my attack on your village if you bring your child and come with me peacefully.”
“No! Run now!” My dad yelled as leaped forward to strike the lord. Then the lord’s arm flashed and my father had been bisected from his left shoulder across his body diagonally to his right side. I burst into tears immediately.
Mother dropped to her knees and nearly dropped me in the process. I couldn’t see her through my watery eyes. “I’ll even be fair and ignore that man’s attack.” The lord said, still perfectly calm.
“We’ll go…” The words fell out of my mother’s mouth more than having been spoken.
“Fantastic. Cal, issue the organized retreat. Daniel please see the lady and her child to the carriage.” With that the lord turned and left.
Daniel took the bandoliers from my mother. She didn’t fight back. When my tears finally calmed I saw my mother’s eyes, dead. The same look I had seen when I had to deliver the worst news to an unexpecting family.
Daniel grabbed mom roughly and yanked her up to her feet. He forced her forward through the broken door. I saw the devastation then, a few buildings in the town were on fire, there were bodies in the streets. A child a bit older than me was screaming at the body of what I assumed was his father.
True to the lord’s word it did appear the human army was retreating. There were still pockets of fighting as elves threw themselves at the far superior enemy but it was clear the raid was done. Our house was on the edge of town and when Daniel forced mom to turn away I saw a group of women and children surrounded by men.
One man was going through the crowd placing metal collars on the necks of the captured elves. When he locked them into place they would shrink down to be tight against the elf’s neck. He didn’t bother doing so to the youngest children.
“Collar.” Daniel demanded of one of the men.
The soldier saluted and handed him a collar. “Magister.” He said as confirmation.
Daniel put the collar around mom’s neck. “We’ll be moving directly to the lord’s carriage. Cal is in charge of the retreat. Do not allow your men to kill or gather anymore slaves. Unless you are attacked of course.” He sneered.
“Yes, sir!” The soldier saluted again.
Daniel pushed mom toward the forest and she began to walk in the direction. A few minutes of walking through the forest we exited onto the road that rounded the village. There was a carriage waiting for us with the door open. A dozen men on horseback flanked it clearly waiting to escort it soon.
Daniel stepped up to the carriage. “After you.” He said coldly.
My mother paused for only a moment before following his command. Inside the carriage was the lord. He gave my mother and I a predatory look before smiling seemingly genuinely. “Welcome. It was so good you made the right choice, I would have hated finding someone to raise your child. So much easier to have the mother do it.” He made it sound like he was doing us a favor.
Daniel got into the carriage sitting beside us. “She was quite compliant.” He said.
“Oh? Well all the better.” The lord said. “Please begin preparations for a command crest on both immediately, it wouldn’t do for us to have come so far only to be left with naught.”
Daniel bowed his head. “Of course my lord.” He began to pull something out from beneath the seat as the carriage jolted into motion.
“I would like to take this time to explain what will happen next and to introduce myself, I am Duke Gabriel Halcroft, though I tend to just use my family name.” Halcroft began but he tilted his head questioningly. “Assuming you are in fact listening.”
Mother started, clearly she had not really been listening. “Yes…” She glanced from me to the lord to Daniel before adding. “My lord.”
“A smart one.” He smiled.
“You can kill me at any time… I know I am just… a convenience.” Mother said solemnly.
“Quite.” The lord gave a single hard laugh. “You and your daughter-” He paused. “I am right, that is your daughter, correct?”
“Yes, my lord.” Mother replied. “I am Shalia Rothana and this is my daughter Alea.”
“Well, you and your daughter are going to become servants to my house. Your daughter will be trained to become our house’s immortal healer, and you will do everything you can to help the process along. You will each be marked with a command crest. It will disable you form harming yourself or anyone within my family, and you will be forced to follow my orders. Despite the sound of that I will be treating you as guests as long as you remain appropriately… compliant. This is a considerable expense I assure you. Grade A monster cores are required for the crest, that might inform you how serious I am about this matter.” Halcroft explained.
“I am ready, my lord.” Daniel spoke up, he had a multi-colored orbs that exuded mana in his hand and a strange looking stick in his other. “Where would you like the crest?” He asked Halcroft.
“Somewhere it can be hidden.” He replied.
Daniel bowed his head. “If you would expose your thigh.” He said to my mother.
She looked down at me breathing in and out slowly. “I know I have no power here…” She began before trailing off.
Halcroft rolled his eyes. “I assure you fair treatment you will not be forced into any sort of work except that of healing and helping raise your daughter to be our family’s prized healer. I simply cannot take the risk that either of you kill yourselves or attempt to kill anyone in my family.”
Mother did not seem convinced of that. Yet she bowed her head to Halcroft then raised her dress to expose her upper thigh just below her hip.
“This will be quite excruciating.” Daniel said.
Mother just nodded then Daniel began to work. When the screams started I began to cry as well. That did not stop me from seeing some of the ritual though, it was just through blurry eyes. He started by drawing something on her which etched its way into skin. Once he began the stick began to move all its own. It moved faster and faster as it drew a pattern. It was like a magical tattoo yet there was no blood. Once finished the crest was a somewhat stylized version of what I assumed was the Halcroft family crest.
He then took the core that hummed with magic. It was clearly far more powerful than the ones father hunted for. Daniel held it to mom’s skin as the stick stopped and dropped lifelessly to the seat. Magic raw and powerful poured from the core into the rune etched onto my mother’s body.
That seemed to be the most painful part as her screaming only increased. A moment later she nearly collapsed in on herself as the pain seemed to finally stop. She was breathing hard in and out. Daniel was preparing another core while he channeled magic into the tattoo stick.
This was the first time I had seen someone channel magic into an item. Instead of the oddly simultaneously colorless and somehow visible waves that gravitate from magic items. Mana erupted from Daniel, this wasn’t colorless though, it was equal parts, browns and whites. It flowed out of his body about an inch from him before cascading back into the stick.
Halcroft had a slight smile as he examined the mark on my mother. He reached across, touching the collar around her neck. “You may now remove your mana suppression collar.” Mom raised her weary hands to release the collar, letting it drop to the floor.
“Now the child.” Daniel said after a minute or so.
“Before you do, I have something that will… hopefully help.” She motioned to her pouch with a wary question on her brow. I knew it contained some of her potions.
Halcroft let out a laugh. “You can not possibly harm me or yourself anymore, it would be idiotic of me to waste a grade A core on a person then kill them.”
Mom opened her pouch and took out a small vial. “This is a pain suppressant. I doubted you would have let me take it before…” She said venom was still biting her exhausted voice. Then she tipped the vial into her mouth and took a sip. “It is harmless.”
Halcroft looked at her for a long beat before nodding. “You may give her a single drop, no more.”
“This… will help, Alea.” She said before moving the vial toward my face.
I sniffled. “Yes mama.” I said and opened my mouth. She tipped the vial slowly and a single drop fell into my mouth. She then moved me so that my thigh was easy to access for Daniel.
He moved the stick to my thigh and I braced for the pain. However, nothing came. Considering how painful it had been for my mother I was surprised that whatever she gave me worked so effectively. I could still feel the stick drawing on me, but I didn’t feel any pain at all.
Daniel raised another core to my thigh and colorless mana poured from it into me. This time I felt pain. It was bad, and I began to cry, but I didn’t think it was nearly as bad as what mother had experienced. For mom it appeared nearly shock-inducing. Still my pain tolerance wasn’t stellar as a baby.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, now we can put all this unpleasantness behind us.” Halcroft said happily. “Afterall I expect you both to be in my family’s employ for generations.”
Alea Rothana
Age: 2
Mana: 24/24
Mana Regeneration per day: 34 (-18)
Strength: 2 (+0)
Agility: 13 (+1)
Vitality: 4 (+0)
Animus: 3
Magic: 2
Manipulation: 2
Elven Baby: Level 10
Main Skills:
Learning Language (level 6): -6 mana regen/day
Elven Heritage (level 10): -12 mana regen/day
Identify (level 3)