“I once met a young woman during my travels across the Red Sands. Rather, she was introduced to me after I explained the nature of my research to a helpful local. Her Core Skill was practically impossible for her to advance, see. It was a ‘dud’ Core Skill, as some might crassly put it. She was given basic chores to feel useful, but primarily got by on the good will of her community. Her Skill? Oh, yes, of course. She had a variation of the Animal Husbandry Skill. Animal Husbandry [Walrus]. Poor girl had no idea what a walrus was. At the time, neither did I. I made it a point to look into the matter to sate my own curiosity. I eventually saw a specimen up close years later. Hear me, facilitating walrus husbandry seems like a truly grim prospect indeed.”

~Unknown

As was the case with our house, the architecture of Elbura reminded me of something out of medieval Europe. Thatched roofs topped every wooden building and made the village look like one big fire hazard. The same technological inconsistencies I noticed at our home were present in the village as well. The buildings had clear glass windows and their overall construction quality was a step above some of the images I’d seen of similar buildings during the occasional late night, online rabbit hole. It meant that our standard of living was consistent with the local average. The possibility had crossed my mind that my parents were just really into maintaining a rustic aesthetic in their home and I was glad to settle the matter.

I cautiously sniffed as we made our way to a large building at the center of the cluster, bracing myself to experience the rank miasma of a community without a sewerage system. I didn’t necessarily want to smell it, but I was stricken by the same morbid curiosity that drives a person to confirm a fart’s presence by wafting it in. I was almost disappointed when the air remained comparably fresh and untainted.

Might be that there’s not enough people here.

The streets were deserted. Calling them streets was generous, though, as it was just more compacted dirt. When I imagined a village, there was normally more hustling or bustling or whatever it was that made a village feel alive. The relative stillness made sense as I thought about it, though. It was the middle of the day and people were working the fields. Who could possibly have the free time to loiter around the village? I only wished I knew what we were doing there, not that I could do anything about it either way.

There was a lone exception to my observation. Leaning against the building we were approaching was a man with a thick, wooden club hanging from his belt. There was a roundness to his features and he had the nose of a middling brawler. I spotted more than one dark stain on his otherwise sun-bleached tunic. He stood up straighter as we got closer and moved to meet us before we got to the door. I didn’t miss the barely concealed flash of irritation on his expression.

Probably doesn’t have to deal with people most days.

“Good morning, Rual,” my father said plainly. My mother echoed the sentiment with the same curt politeness. Rual stood almost a head shorter than my father but didn’t crane his neck to meet the larger man’s gaze. Instead, he made a point of turning his head and smiled at my mother.

“Good morning, Tina. It is good to see you. Is this your little one?”

Oh fuck this guy.

There was some history there that I couldn’t even pretend to be able to untangle without more context. That didn’t spare him from the scathing first impression I knew I’d form of someone who snubbed my father. I felt Tina’s shoulders tense.

“Yes. This is Will. He just had his… so we are here to …”

Yeah, those were some context-specific words I had no hope of accurately deciphering on my first listen. Tina’s tone brokered no delay, however, and to her side I heard a deep growl rumble from Vigil’s chest. Rual’s smile dropped and his eyes flickered towards the massive dog. After a brief pause he sighed as if we weren’t worth the trouble.

“Go on in, then.”

We passed by him without further incident, but I did hear Rual mutter something under his breath. Curious, I looked at my father. His expression hadn’t changed. Tina moved me to her other arm so that she could lay a comforting hand against him. Unsurprisingly, she noticed something I didn’t. They shared a half smile and we stepped into the building. My father had to bend slightly to get through the doorway. It wasn’t a problem he had at our house, so it was probably constructed with his imposing height in mind. Vigil veered off instead of following us. He sat to wait outside, right by where Rual was initially standing. I mentally snickered.

Good boy.

***

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The building was a large communal space. Rows of simple wooden benches faced a slightly raised platform but it was otherwise sparsely furnished.

Some type of gathering or meeting spot, I guess.

Not including the entrance, there were four other doors, two on either side of the room. My parents wasted no time and moved to the furthermost door on our left where my father raised his hand to knock but paused before he made contact.

“It will all be okay, my love,” Tina said reassuringly. My father sighed deeply before he replied.

“And yet I can not help but worry for him.”

Two knocks resonated in the empty hall as my father rapped twice on the wooden door. Someone on the other side must have called out for us to enter, because we stepped inside almost immediately. I wasn’t paying attention at that point. The brief exchange my parents shared set off alarm bells in my head.

Something must be up. Am I in danger here? No. Probably not. Surely not. Fuck, I hope not.

I had no choice but to trust my parents were looking out for me. It wasn’t like I was in any condition to escape if they weren’t. What was I going to do? Crawl away? I literally lacked the coordination to do so, not that I hadn’t been trying. Was there some risk to unlocking a Core Skill I hadn’t considered? I didn’t have time to think it over.

The side room was an office of sorts. There was a sparsely filled shelf against the right hand wall and a large desk occupied the center of the room. Hunched behind it sat a man with salt and pepper hair writing something into a thick, leather bound ledger with careful strokes of a feather quill. With his free hand, he gestured for us to wait without taking his eyes off the page. It was only when the quill ran out of ink that he set it to one side and glanced up at us, revealing his neatly trimmed goatee and the tiredness around his eyes.

“Tina, wonderful to see you! I had almost forgotten I was expecting you. Was it young-” he paused for a thoughtful moment and lay a hand on the ledger as if to steady himself. “Will! Was it young Will’s … already?” His tone was friendly enough, but it still irked me.

Was this guy seriously also going to ignore my-

“Oh, nice to see you too, Tulos,” he added as an aside before returning his attention to Tina and me. All thoughts of annoyance were immediately replaced by overdue catharsis.

A NAME! FUCKING FINALLY! Tulos. Cool name, dad.

“Yes, we celebrated yesterday. Good to see you too, Hwan.” Tina took responsibility for the conversation on our part while Tulos simply gave a shallow nod in acknowledgement of the greeting.

Tulos was by no means boisterous, especially when compared to Tina. I wouldn’t have described him as timid though, which is what made his bearing since we got to the village all the more confusing. I once again thrashed at the metaphorical chains of my ignorance. Something was up and I wanted to know what.

From what I could gather through the chunks of missing vocabulary, what followed was a brief conversation between Tina and Hwan that mostly consisted of questions about my health and any notable changes over the last day. There was no alarm in their tones or sudden shifts in their demeanor, so I gathered that my experience must have been normal. Or, at least, it appeared that way to an outside observer.

If someone’s kid gets a skill like Weapons [Unarmed] would they wake up to see their baby endeavoring to assume a crane pose or something?

The silliness of the mental image made me laugh and a soft smile graced Hwan’s otherwise quite pointed expression. Baby giggles were a powerful thing. The laugh was also a way to work through some of my nervous energy. Thus far, nothing had happened that justified Tulos’ apparent concern and it was putting me increasingly on edge.

“Well, he certainly seems … enough. Now, shall we get him …?” Hwan asked Tina. He’d been polite enough to occasionally look at Tulos to give the appearance of including the man in their conversation. At that moment, though, all of his attention was on Tina. There was a beat of silence and I felt Tina hug me close before she answered.

“Yes, Hwan. No sense in … any longer than we need to.” Tina’s response had lost her usual upbeat tone.

Hwan nodded and fished a key from under his collar. It was dangling from the thin cord he wore around his neck which had, until then, escaped my notice. Tina began untangling one of my arms from the swaddle as we moved to stand opposite him. Wide-eyed, I watched as Hwan retrieved a small, ornamental chest from its place on the nearby shelf. Its design was modest except for the presence of an intricate, metal keyhole. Without hesitation or fanfare, Hwan inserted the key and I heard the lid pop open with a faint click.

Inside was a blue orb that looked like it was cut from crystal and polished smooth until it resembled glass. I could see something engraved along its equator but wasn’t able to make out the details. Hwan carefully removed the orb and promptly placed it into a small divot carved into his desk that prevented it from rolling onto the floor.

Clever. Also, is that a fuck mothering magical item? Cuz’ it looks like a fuck mothering magical item! Half-formed speculations buzzed through my head, bolstered by my memories of the night before. Was Hwan's treasure somehow connected to Spellscript?

There was no deeper ceremony and I didn’t have the strength to resist what happened next. Tina guided my arm and pushed my palm onto the orb. Nothing happened, but I felt a tension in the air. It was like every adult in the room was holding a single, collective breath. A light began to glow within the center of the orb.

Oh shit, is this doing what I think it’s going to-

The light pulsed and rose out of the orb before taking the form of a familiar blue screen. It didn’t look like mine, though, at least not as I knew it. It was facing Hwan, but thanks to its faint transparency I saw the letters on the other side. They were not from an alphabet I recognized. I could only hope that whatever Hwan was reading wasn’t somehow damning.

“Well? What does it say?” Tina asked and I heard her voice catch on the last word.

Hwan looked at the screen and then back to me a few times, an unreadable expression on his face. I heard the wood of the desk groan. Tulos was leaning forward on it, as if trying to see over the top of the System screen to read it properly. That’s when Hwan said a word. I hadn’t heard the word before - not in my new language - but I knew immediately what it meant. It was a word that resonated with something deep inside me.

“Perseverance.”