For the next several weeks we were left more or less alone, except that every night we would have an awkward dinner with the Halcrofts. Mother began teaching me Haka and it was actually going really well. I seemed to be picking up this language much faster than Ysarese. I also gained three more levels in Learning Languages and another level in Learning.
We began to speak Haka almost all the time near the end of the second month of our time in the Halcroft manor. Around that time is when I believe I had finally identified everyone in the manor and I gained a level in Identify. That skill was crazy hard to level.
Mother had several clothes made for her filling out her closet in mostly gowns and dresses appropriate for a princess. I continued to use Penelope’s hand-me-downs with only one exception, a gray blue dress specifically meant for special events.
Throughout the months Penelope and I would often play together. Some days we would be outside in the flower fields, others it would be playing with her dolls, and still others we would play hide and seek around the manor. It was somewhat odd, but when I was around her I felt I truly regressed to the child I was. I don’t know if it was my mind clinging onto the only good thing to come from this absolute mess, or if it was some instinct.
True to Halcroft’s words we were treated like princesses. Outside of mother being forced to give up any strategic information and an explicit command for us to never leave or attempt to communicate with anyone outside the manor and the direct surrounding area he gave us no more orders. I knew he could do much worse to us, so that was something to be thankful for. Not that it even remotely outweighed the horrible things he had done to my family.
It was decided that a live-in tutor would be hired to teach both Penelope and I at the same time. He arrived the week after I turned 3, about 3 months into our imprisonment in the manor.
The human was somewhat younger than I expected, maybe his late 20’s or early 30’s. He had shaggy black hair and a well-kempt beard. His gray eyes really stood out from his honey complexion and dark hair. Otherwise he tended to wear robes, so I was never entirely sure of his physique.
He met us on the first day we were to be tutored in the library. Both our mothers and Halcroft were there. After introductions and pleasantries Halcroft got to business. “Alea, Scholar Mathis will be helping you assign your stats and skills to ensure you the optimum class when you unlock. You must take any stats or skills he tells you just as if it was an order from me. Do you understand?” Halcroft said in Haka.
I sat there for several long seconds deep in thought taking apart and translating the sentences. Speaking Haka had quickly become as easy as speaking Ysarese, but understanding it was taking longer. I slowly nodded. “Yes sir.” I confirmed.
Halcroft gave his usual smile, always seeming so happy, however it never felt even remotely real. “Wonderful! I trust you have everything well in hand, Mathis?”
The scholar nodded slowly. “Of course my lord.”
“Good, then I take my leave.” Taele and Mathis bowed as Halcroft left, but my mother didn’t.
My mother and Taele took seats nearby to watch our first session with Mathis, each finding a book to keep themselves busy with.
“Alright, I think we should start by assigning all stats and skills. Lord Halcroft has already updated me with where you each are. Penelope, you have nothing to assign right now unless you recently leveled or unlocked any new skills. Did you?” Mathis asked.
Penelope shook her head a little as she spoke. “No, nothing new.”
“As for you Alea, we have quite a bit to assign. First I’d like you to bring all of your stats up to 10. Do you understand?” He asked patiently.
I nodded. “Yes sir.” I said as I began to do what he asked. Each time I assigned points the now all too familiar little warm glow pervaded my body. I hated that I was getting positive reinforcement for following Halcroft’s orders, even if it was small.
I assigned 8 points to strength and it rose from 2 to 10. That was when I noticed it and I couldn’t believe I had been so dumb! The bonus that I had gained from one of the achievements when I killed the man that assaulted my family increased from 0 to 1. For some idiotic reason I had assumed the 10% bonus was a one time thing, that I had gotten unlucky and just got a single agility out of it due to timing. I pulled the two Achievements up in the system.
*One In a Million
Method: Successfully perform a specific intentional action for the first time that could only happen one in a million times with the circumstances at the time.
Bonus: You gain 10 permanent Agility.*
*Titan’s Fall
Method: In the heat of battle with your life on the line, kill a creature that intends to harm you who is at least 100 times your total level.
Bonus: Your Strength, Agility, and Vitality are all increased by 10% permanently.
Notice: Only one multiplier can be applied to each stat, if two or more are applied only the highest will be used.
New Skill: Your combat classes gain access to the skill Titan Slayer.*
I attempted to find out what the Titan Slayer skill did, but I couldn’t learn more about it. I guess I needed a combat class in order to even know what the skill did. However, Titan’s Fall very clearly wasn’t a one time bonus, instead all of my physical stats will always be 10% higher. That was outright crazy. A permanent boost like that could make me an insanely powerful fighter for my level. If I dedicated myself to physicality I would always be punching 10% above my weight.
Of course I wasn’t going to be allowed to dedicate myself to physical classes. I was going to be a healer whether I liked it or not. If Halcroft knew I had this bonus he might change his mind, but I really didn’t want to be used as someone else’s weapon. He may very well put a sword in my hand then give me orders to kill his enemies. That was a far worse fate than being an enslaved healer.
I decided I would tell no one, not even my mother about my achievements. I just had to hope no one could see my stats directly with an Identify variant skill. Additionally, I needed Halcroft to never specifically order me to tell him my exact stats.
I realized I was taking too long to assign stats and quickly began to work on doing what Mathis asked. I assigned 6 physical stats to Vitality, leaving me with 6 physical stats leftover. Then assigned 8 mental stats to Magic, and 5 mental stats and 3 free stats to Manipulation, leaving me with no remaining mental stats and 17 free stats.
All my stats were now at least 10, before the bonus from Titan’s Fall of course. “All stats 10 now.” I said in broken Haka.
Mathis took a moment to think. “Let’s see you had 60 stats to assign from getting Elven juvenile to level 20, plus the 6 base stats and the 10 stats from Elven baby. So you should still have 16 or so free stats sitting around. Assign your remaining stats equally between Vitality, Magic, Animus, and Manipulation. That should give you the best possible start, and having those stats will jumpstart getting all your skills maxed before you are 12.”
His math would have been right except he didn’t know about One In a Million, I was able to avoid spending stats on Agility because of that. That meant I had 23 stats to assign, not 16. With his instructions 6 had to go to Vitality, so I assigned those there. I put 5 in each of my mental stats leaving me with 2 more stats. The way he worded his order I would be able to assign them to either Magic, Animus, or Manipulation. It wasn’t much of a choice, but it was the first real choice I was going to make in the system.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I glanced at the descriptions of Magic and Manipulation.
*Magic: Increases your mana pool and the power of all magical skills, has no effect on physical skills. Bigger booms, larger torrents, higher voltage, etc. This also increases the maximum potency of enchanted items you can create. Increases to your Magic allow you to overcome magic resistance granted by Animus and Vitality to allow your magic to directly affect a person’s body. Each point increases your mana pool by 5.*
*Manipulation: Increases your ability to manipulate magic and skills allowing you to create more elaborate and precise effects. Allows you to cast spells faster and more accurately. As your Magic stat grows your Manipulation must grow with it or your magical skills will be impossible to control. Additionally this allows you to identify and understand enchantments as well as creating more complex effects and layering effects. Each point increases your mana pool by 2.*
Ok, that was interesting, Magic and Manipulation were kind of connected to each other. Without one, the other got out of control. That led to the obvious question of how much Manipulation do you need to keep your Magic under control? A good question to eventually ask Mathis, but not right now.
Magic was what allowed you to punch through magic resistance to directly affect someone’s body. It was definitely the most offensive of the three mental stats. It was somewhat strange to me that Vitality also apparently aided in magic resistance. I decided to check that stat as well.
*Vitality: This is how tough a person is. It makes them harder to damage with all forms of physical and magical attacks. They resist disease and poison, increase regeneration speed, increase blood production, and are generally harder to damage. Additionally Vitality increases your ability to perceive with your senses. Perception effects are not always active, but will activate when needed and can be consciously suppressed. Eyesight becomes sharper, smell and taste more vivid, touch more precise, and hearing more sensitive. Vitality also adds to your ability to resist magical effects directly affecting your body which is primarily granted through Animus. Finally vitality extends a person’s remaining lifespan after puberty, the amount of time they can stay alert between sleeping, and reduces how much sleep they need to feel fully rested. Each point grants 1 mana regeneration per day and increases your mana pool by 1.*
Holy crap! That was one strange stat. It did a bit of everything, primarily it was a defensive stat. But it also affected your senses, and gave you mana regeneration and mana pool, and increased your lifespan. Wow, I had to imagine most of these effects were minor like the mana granted. I just didn’t even know where to begin dissecting this crazy stat.
I put Vitality aside for now and decided that I would assign 1 point to Animus and 1 to Manipulation. Keeping control of my magic was more important to me than doing more magic. Much more importantly, every point to Animus meant it was less likely someone could conjure a fireball into my lungs. As I understood it, explosions inside your body were not conducive to health. Animus and Vitality went right to the top of my list of important stats.
*Learning has leveled up, level 4.*
I guess just reviewing the stats was the last push I needed for a level in Learning. I was certainly not complaining. I had a ton to learn about this world, and I would absolutely take the magical aid.
“All points used.” I said with a happy giggle. I was feeling at the top of the world considering how high my stats were and the fact that I was becoming more powerful.
“Good. Alea you won’t be gaining any new stats for the foreseeable future, but just for you both to know it is always good especially when you are young to assign your stats with care and do so quickly. The higher your stats the easier it is to level your classes and skills, which in turn grant you more stats.” Mathis explained. Penelope seemed a bit lost, but I understood what he was saying. This was a positive feedback loop, the effect would lessen as you level and gain more stats because each individual stat would make less of a difference, but feedback loops are very powerful.
It occurred to me that was why Halcroft was willing to do what he did to find someone like me. I had a perfect start, full levels in my species, high level Elven Heritage skill, and an empty slate. He could take control of my positive feedback loop while it was at its strongest, and my high Elven Heritage skill meant my experience penalty for being unaging wouldn’t slow me down as much. I really was the perfect person to set up to be a family’s immortal property. Yikes, that was a disgusting thought…
“We will be discussing the system much more when you are older and closer to unlocking your other classes.” Mathis continued.
I raised my hand before I could even stop myself. Years of being a good student had ingrained the behavior into me. I may have been a little bit of a teacher’s pet. Mathis gave me a discerning look before he smiled softly. “Do you have a question Alea?”
I nodded furiously and he just motioned toward me. “When do we unlock?” I asked.
“The next time your species class upgrades will be somewhat random between the ages of 12 and 13 but usually close to your 12th birthday. That is when both of your Elven Juvenile classes will become Elven Adolescent classes. At that point you will be allowed to take your first class.”
His explanation thoroughly answered my question but it raised another. If Penelope was Taele and Isaac’s daughter why did she also have the Elven species class and not the combination class Taele talked about earlier? I had noticed that her ears were far more elven-like than her brother’s. Maybe what skill you gained was random or based on a genetic or epigenetic trait. I was confident I knew much more about those sciences than Mathis, and asking might be a tad beyond the pale for a 3 year old so I let the question go for now.
“Good, now our lesson plan for the next several months. We will be focused on reading, writing, and edicate. Young noble ladies like yourselves need those skills first and foremost.” He glanced over to our mothers. Taele gave a nod, but my mother seemed nonchalant.
A beat went by as he decided if the reaction was good or not, then he clapped softly. “Alright let’s begin with the alphabet!” He said enthusiastically.
-----------------
A few hours went by as we switched from topic to topic. He clearly knew that a young mind couldn’t concentrate on learning the same thing for too long. I suspected that he might even have a teaching oriented class of some kind. Both Penelope and I seemed to be absorbing the lessons quite well and I was surprised that we both stayed on task. Definitely had to be a skill involved.
Finally our first tutoring session ended. I jumped down from the seat and was surprised to find that it was incredibly easy to do. I moved my body a bit more and found that my movements were much better coordinated and far smoother. I took some tentative steps and walking was indeed quite a bit easier.
This must be due to my enhanced stats. I had noticed some small effect from my Agility raising before, but this was different. I no longer felt like I was constantly off-balance. That my movements just couldn’t be coordinated. That was confusing, wasn’t Agility the stat that had to do with coordination? Why did raising my other stats help so much? I took a glance at Agility.
*Agility: How fast and refined a person’s movements are. This includes things like: Fine motor skills, catching or throwing objects, aiming, dancing, etc. A person with high agility will have an easier time hitting a target exactly where they want, carving a statue, decorating a cake, etc. Additionally, it increases the speed at which one can move. This applies to all forms of action, running, walking, talking, fighting, carving, etc. Agility requires vitality to control it effectively otherwise your perception won’t be able to keep up with your movements. Usually you need at least half the vitality as agility to follow your own movements, having less than that will handicap you making you slower than you were before.*
Oh… ooooh! My Agility had been 14 while my Vitality had only been 4. It wasn’t that my movements were uncoordinated because I was young, or at least not only for that reason. It was because my perception of my own movements wasn’t able to keep up. Now that my Vitality was 17 and my Agility was lower I could control my movements. The stats had to be in balance for the advantages to happen. It was a similar trade-off to Magic and Manipulation.
I decided to just finish off looking at the stats with Strength, I didn’t want another mistake like the one I had just made to crop up without me knowing.
*Strength: How strong a person is, additionally how much strain their muscles can handle without rupturing. Strength converts to speed at a lower rate than Agility does. Strength directly counters the defensive benefits of Vitality. Additionally empowers physical skills.*
Well that was surely a straightforward stat. Unlike all the others it did exactly what I expected. It just makes you stronger. Good to know I wouldn’t screw something else up with this stat.
Alea Rothana
Age: 3
Unspent Stat Points: none
Mana: 156/156
Mana Regeneration per day: 177 (-65)
Strength: 10 (+1)
Agility: 13 (+1)
Vitality: 16 (+1)
Animus: 16
Magic: 15
Manipulation: 16
Elven Juvenile: Level 20
Main Skills:
Learning (level 4): -12 mana regen/day
Elven Heritage (level 20): -23 mana regen/day
Identify (level 4)
Class Skills:
Learning Language (level 10): -10 mana regen/day
Medicine (level 20): -20 mana regen/day
First Aid (level 1)
Meditation (level 1)