Another baseball-sized chunk of ice shot at him. He flinched back, but restricted, as he was, dodging was impossible, and it crashed into his shoulder, leaving what felt like an instant bruise.

Why hadn’t Danger Sense helped him? He was a sitting duck here, and Boreas had a reputation.

Something wasn’t right. There had to be a reason.

Tom struggled to imagine why the skill had failed him.

Boreas had even positioned himself so that Spark couldn’t reach him. With no positive outlook for his magic, he constructed his sensing domain. It clicked into place almost instantly, which was a far cry from his first attempt after getting the spell. Those extra levels were gold.

The outer layer of his sensing spell broke.

Another ice missile was coming at him.

His eyes and the layers of electricity both told the same story. It was heading straight for his head, and fast enough to do serious damage. Without thinking further, he flinched desperately to the side. The projectile grazed his temple. If it had struck full on, even with community fate working, he didn’t want to imagine the level of damage that would have occurred.

What was happening?

Where was his Danger Sense?

Was Boreas getting help from someone or something?

A hundred questions went through his brain at the same time. And his mind kept looping around to the fear that Boreas was acting as a convenient idiot for something else to manipulate. An entity that had the ability to block his Danger Sense.

And - was Boreas actually trying to kill him? Had he been that upset by the broken leg that he would seek this level of revenge?

That last attack, if Tom had been a normal child, could well have been lethal. Another was coming, and he instinctively prepared for the worst, then relaxed slightly when he recognised the trajectory it was on. This was aimed lower at his shin, and there was no way to avoid it because of how firmly his foot was stuck to the floor. He heard the crack from both the ball of ice and his shinbone.

He bit his tongue to hold in the scream. There was no way he was giving the sadistic bastard the satisfaction.

Once more, he attempted to throw himself to the side to break the ice sticking him to the ground. The attempt did nothing. He was stuck and vulnerable. The entire situation confused him. There was no way he should be in this position.

Namely, trapped, helpless, and at the mercy of someone who was only stronger because of his age.

It was galling, but maybe he could talk his way out. “Boreas I’m sorry… I.”

“Shut up.”

Another ball of ice was aimed at his privates and even pre-warned and dodging as fast as he could it smashed into his hip. “Please, Boreas, you don’t have to do this.”

“Boreas,” a female voice snapped furiously from behind Tom. “What on Existentia do you think you’re doing?”

The bully’s mouth dropped open in horror. “Mum, what are you doing here?”

“Doing here? I rushed back once I got the news about Arnali. What are you doing to this poor child?”

Tom could hear her approaching.

Boreas straightened. “He was mocking you. He called you a pretend adventurer. Said you were unnerved.”

“I did not,” Tom protested.

“Wait a moment. I know this child. This is the same one as last time. Do you spend all your time picking on him?” she asked suspiciously. “Targeting the weak is repulsive. It’s not acceptable. This place has raised you wrong. I should never have allowed you to be enrolled here.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Her hand landed firmly on his shoulder, and then the ice on his feet disappeared. There was an itchy sensation on his shin as it healed and the bruises where missiles had hit him vanished. “Are you okay, deary? Those were some nasty injuries. You’re very brave, not crying.”

“Don’t worry about him, mum. I told you what he was saying. He is a nasty foul-mouthed child.”

“I did not.”

“He doesn’t matter. The assassins killed Arnali.” His attempt at deflection and distraction was obvious.

“No, Boreas, I’m not letting this slide. This has gone too far.” She snapped her fingers in frustration. “It’s time you learned that there are consequences for behaving as poorly as you are.” She opened a fist and revealed a trait stone. A fancy one at that. “This is your first consequence. I was going to give you this. It isn’t amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not a bad trait, and, despite its flaws, is valuable. It would have given you a head start in your adventuring career, but, seeing you picking on this poor child, I can’t possibly reward you. How many times have you done this?”

“Hardly ever.”

“Dozens,” Tom lied instantly, aiming to get Boreas in as much trouble as possible. While Tom’s own exposure to him was more limited, others hadn’t been as fortunate. He had caused multiple people to need to see actual healers, not that the volunteers had been told the true reason why they were so hurt that the healing crystals were inadequate. Most of the people he picked on were too scared to dob him in.

“That many? You poor, poor boy.” He got hugged again. Boreas’ face darkened and promised retribution. Tom didn’t care. “No, you don’t deserve the trait stone. Instead of giving it to you, I’ll give it to this poor kid. It won’t make the bullying better, but it’ll help a little.”

“You can’t!” Boreas exclaimed.

“I very well can.”

Suddenly Tom found himself holding a trait stone.

“He’s five. He might end up as a crafter and waste the trait.”

“I’m going to be an adventurer,” Tom declared and then used spark to create a bolt of lightning that stretched almost a metre and a half. It was about a third of what he could do, but, if Maurice was as competent as he expected, she would recognise the skill that was behind the effort.

“Very impressive.” She cooed. “And am I right that you don’t have a not-parent?”

“Yes. I come from the community care.”

“It was an impulsive decision, but you’ll definitely get a benefit from the trait stone. You can have it. Use it now so it’s not taken from you.” She glared at Boreas as she said that.

It looked very fancy, but there were lots of traits that were better off going to people other than him. While he was pro-selfishness and personal development, the greater good was still important. “Um… What does it do?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Maurice said dismissively. “It boosts your perception, and thinking speeds when fighting things faster than you. At lower levels, it’s useful, but has terrible scaling into higher ranks.” She winked at him. “Unless, of course you can grow it with you to keep it relevant.”

Tom stared at the item he held in stunned disbelief. His gut was telling him that this hadn’t been engineered by Everlyn or Dimitri. Maurice was not the type to play a game like that, especially at the expense of her son.

This was pure chance. An opportunity there was no way he should have received. Not for the first time, he wondered what was baked into the community prayers. This would make the third material gift a random adult had given him in under a year and a half, and it wasn’t a reincarnator thing, because Kang had gained nothing comparable. The most likely explanation was that there was some sort of convoluted prayer in place that was abnormally benefitting him because of some weird reason, one probably related to the whole Heroes of Humanity thing.

“You shouldn’t look at it like that. It’s not that bad, dearie. You’ll get a lot of use out of it. Trust me, I’m a rank-ninety adventurer I know what I’m saying.”

“No. I didn’t. I love it.” Tom declared. “Are you sure it’s okay?” The moment she inclined her head slightly, he raised the stone straight to his forehead so she couldn’t change her mind. In a blink of an eye, the trait was absorbed and the fancy stone that had stored it crumbled away.

“This is a lesson to you, Boreas. You have to stop picking on people weaker than you. Now.” She blurred across the distance separating them and grabbed her son firmly by the arm. “I’m taking you both to Dim, and making sure you get disciplined appropriately. I won’t tolerate you behaving like this.”

Tom watched in shock as the adventurer and the two boys marched away, heading straight toward Dimitri’s office. Then he sank down to sit on the ground, with the only allowance being that he scooted over so his back was against the wall, so that anyone using the corridor wouldn’t have to walk over him.

That was… that was weird, and at the same time awesome. If the trait did what Maurice promised, the biggest impediment to him getting into the Divine Champion’s Trial was gone. It beggared belief, and he wondered whether DEUS had just burned some kind of divine intervention to give him this.

It felt wrong.

He did not feel like he deserved special consideration, but there was the issue of his missing memories, and the way Dimitri had treated him after speaking to Everlyn. There was something bigger happening here, and he couldn’t wait until he reached age ten in order to see his full status sheet and discover exactly what mysteries it was hiding.

It was possible the ability to pierce illusions, this rage curse and protection against mind attacks were not the only hidden things in his status.

As for Danger Sense, apparently, when it was stronger, its application was far more nuanced than he had imagined.