“Unfortunately, I will have to cut the lecture short. Yes, I realize many of you may feel I have wasted your time today. I do not care. Frankly, I have better things to do right now. Go home. If you must learn something today, then know that I will face no real consequences for this, such is my value. Make of that what you will.”

~Unknown

Time, as always, continued to pass. Before I knew it, I was part way through my fourth year as Will. Just Will, so far as I knew. I wasn’t even sure if I had a surname. Presumably I did, it had just never come up.

I rode on Vigil’s back as Tina and I followed the path to Elbura. He walked with such surety that I never once felt like I might fall, not that it stopped me from grabbing two fistfulls of fur to hold myself steady, just in case. Being small enough to ride a dog was one of the highlights of my second childhood and I still occasionally found myself pulling a big, dopey smile at the juvenile silliness of it all. Our destination was a play date with Bella and Jusep, making it doubly important I seize joy while I still could.

Lianda, Bella’s mom, ended up coming through for us. Costa apparently kicked up a fuss and tried to have me excluded from future socialization with the other two children, citing some nonsense about my temperament. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was doubling down on the issue because of pride or because he rocked a massive hate-boner for Tulos. Probably a bit of both, honestly.

Regardless, Lianda basically took a neutral stance and said that she wasn’t going to bar me or Jusep from seeing her daughter. Faced with the ultimatum, Costa and Amy had a change of heart. Once a week one family would host the other two children for a day so we could get the kind of interaction necessary for healthy development. I gathered that Tina and the other mothers were taking charge of the whole affair since Tulos, Costa, and Bella’s father - a mustachioed sheep shepherd named Figuelo - had barely gotten involved. It was probably for the best given the aforementioned tension among that side of the parental equation.

Entertaining the other two children was a regular source of exasperation for me, but the playdate wasn’t my focus that day. I had a very different goal in mind.

“Mom, can you tell me about Perseverance?” I’d been thinking about how to best approach the issue of the System with my parents for years. It seemed strange to me that neither Tina nor Tulos had tried to educate me about the seemingly innate magic of the world and my earlier attempts at subtly raising the issue were casually deflected. I was three years old and speaking in complete sentences. The time for subtlety was over. Besides, kids were curious and asked blunt questions all the time. There were viral videos built on the very premise.

Tina’s step faltered and she snapped her gaze around as if to check that one of the villagers working in the nearby fields hadn’t heard my question. I say nearby, but they were easily far enough away that Tina’s reaction bordered on paranoia. She was quick to collect herself and smile sweetly at me.

“We can talk about that-”

“But I want you to tell me now.” I knew it was rude to cut her off like that, but I wanted to come across as an annoyingly curious child so I had to sell it. I thought back to her conversation with Zetta all those years ago. I’d long forgotten most of it, but one thing stood out in my memory because of how often I obsessed over it. Tina lied about my Core Skill. I wanted to know why.

Sorry in advance, Tina.

“If you won’t tell me I can ask Aunt Lianda.” For some reason, Tina didn’t want people to know about Perseverance and I was not above abusing that information. I recalled the changes to my System windows over the last couple of years.

Perseverance Level 3/10

Current proficiency points: 300/300

You have gained sufficient recognized proficiency to advance to Perseverance Level 4.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

…

…

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Perseverance Level 6/10

Current proficiency points: 600/600

You have gained sufficient recognized proficiency to advance to Perseverance Level 7.

Perseverance Level 7/10

Current proficiency points: 121/700

My well of easy Proficiency Points dried up once I finished getting a handle on walking and the basics of verbal language. I hadn’t seen any books in the house, but I was hoping that eventually learning how to read and write would be another task challenging enough for a windfall. As Perseverance leveled up, I found myself having an easier time both starting and maintaining beneficial routines. It might have also been that my new brain lacked the chemical imbalances that made routines so difficult for me in my first life. Either way, I was still acquiring a handful of points here and there but the requirements to level up the Skill were growing steeper.

And I still have no idea what the fuck a Skill Augmentation is.

I needed to know more about the System. The shadow of the Unnamed Skill loomed over me and I felt like I’d barely taken any steps to get closer to it. That needed to change. The face of my fiancé came to mind. I knew it wasn’t right, I knew some of the details were missing, but I still cherished the memory. It was all I had left.

Tina’s eyes widened at my remark and I knew my childish ultimatum had hit its mark. She frowned and bent over to look me in the eye. Her eyes looked dangerous, so much so that I almost faltered then and there.

“Will, you can not ask Aunt Lianda or any other adults about Perseverance.” It was probably the sternest I’d heard her all my life. Vigil stopped walking so that Tina could give me her full attention, the traitor. I didn’t relent. I couldn’t.

“Why?” It felt like a checkmate moment. I was in position to trap Tina in an infinite loop of childish inquiry.

“Because…” She hesitated, trying to gauge how much she could safely say. For the most part, I’d been a well-behaved child content to take things at face value since I had the maturity to read social cues. I was changing the game. Tina had experience with pups, but I hoped a smart-mouthed three year old would catch her off guard. “Because I said so.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out she wasn’t confident with the answer and she was right to be apprehensive.

“Why?” I did my best to hit the specific, lilting tone kids used when they asked that question. You know the one. I had a younger cousin who could nail it, before. I’ll spare you the details, but we went back and forth close to ten times before Tina inevitably hit her breaking point and snapped at me to be quiet and do as she said. I doubt it was her proudest moment, and I wasn’t about to be judgemental because of it. I was quite literally pushing against boundaries and being a brat to get what I wanted. She probably had good reason to try and shield her son from what she perceived as a harsh truth. I’d have even wagered that she and Tulos planned to tell me when they believed I was old enough to handle it. I just couldn’t wait that long.

There was a pregnant pause. Tina’s frustration, worn clearly on her face, quickly gave way to regret as the reality of her outburst caught up to her. “Listen, Will, if I promise to tell you about Perseverance and … when we get home, will you promise to not tell Aunt Lianda about it?” She sounded defeated. I was tempted for a foolish second to come clean about everything and spare Tina from thinking that she’d made a parenting mistake. I didn’t. That would have been stupid… but I was tempted.

“What’s …?” I parroted the word back to her and quickly followed up the question, doing my best to appear innocent. “I will promise to not tell Aunt Lianda if you tell me that first.” The irony of vehemently turning down Manipulation (Social) during my Core Skill selection despite my current actions wasn’t lost on me. Thankfully, Tina gave me an answer.

You know that German word, ‘Schadenfreude'? It’s a word to describe the feeling of borderline sadistic pleasure one might feel in response to the bad fortunes of another. Complex, esoteric, and condensed into a word that, as demonstrated, doesn’t cleanly translate. The word Tina introduced me to was the same.

It was their word to describe what I had been referring to as The System. Loosely translated, it refers to ‘the path of life and the guide down the path’. Not exactly the smoothest mouthful, so I decided to just keep referring to it as The System to myself.

Given that The System referred to itself as such in my notifications, it was probably the closest way to describe itself in English based on my personal understanding of the concept. Maybe. Fuck, I don’t know.

It was a loose conjecture at best and I had no way of looking into it. It wasn’t a priority. I had a promise from Tina to get the explanation I so desperately craved. Advancement inched ever closer and I wanted to be ready for it. No doubt she was hoping I’d forget by the time we got back to the house, that some passing fancy would distract me from the conversation. She would be disappointed.

Now all I have to do is survive an afternoon enduring whatever nonsense game Jusep and Bella invent. The thought was a sobering one.