Vi pulled up the blue screen with a wave of her hand. It was blank except for a countdown timer
0 days, 0 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds
She looked up at her dad who was savoring one of the leftover dumplings. Around them remnants of the party littered the house, but all Vi had eyes for was the gifts and her system.
“Less than a minute left to go,”
He took another bite of the dumpling, chewing, and turning to face her. “Alright kid, just let me know if you have any questions,” he said, with a hand over his mouth.
“I’m not a kid anymore, my system is basically unlocked.”
“Nah, you’re still a kid as long as you’re living under this roof,” her dad sprayed
Vi leaned away and grabbed a dumpling. Part of her wanted to throw it at her dad, but she just ate it instead.
Dad swallowed “check your system,” and reached for another
“By Yang’s light!”
“I know right. These dumpling’s Vethyr made are fantastic, you better snatch that kid up before someone snatches him up.”
Vi punched her dad “No, my system just unlocked.”
Dad frowned “What? You weren’t talking about the dumplings?”
Vi rolled her eyes and turned to the blue screen only she could see.
Class: Child of Acridea
Level: 5
- Perception: 4
- Power: 7
- Spirit: 6
- Vitality: 5
Free Attribute points: 5
Skills [0/8]
“What does it say?” Dad asked, putting down the dumpling
“Level five child of Acridea”
Dad nodded, smiling. He tousled her hair a little bit and sat back in his chair “Not bad, not bad at all.”
“What should I do with all my attribute points?”
Dad shrugged “They’re your points, but if I were you I’d at least wait until you classup to assign them. It wouldn’t be a total waste to put your points in power, even if you don’t manage to become a warrior, but you might wish you’d saved them.”
Vi nodded, but it was tempting, the idea that she could just assign some points and be stronger and faster. She assigned one point.
Dad raised an eyebrow
“What about skills?” she asked “It doesn’t tell me anything, just says zero out of eight.”
Dad nodded “That’s normal, just think about assigning skills, but first,” he reached into a pocket, taking out a small box “My present.”
Vi took it with shaking hands, looking at her father in shock. He nodded and she turned to the dark lacquered box in her hands. Gently she prized it open revealing a small grey pill nestled within a plush golden fabric, her jaw hit the floor.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“It was made from the core of an armorhide wurm.”
Part of her wanted to roll her eyes at her dad’s overprotectiveness, but she couldn’t suppress the smile. She bet she looked like Riley with her idiotic grins. Clicking the box shut and setting it on the table she hugged her dad.
“Do you want to take it and then classup? Or classup then take it? I doesn’t really matter which one you choose.”
Vi swallowed the pill, Dad squeezed her hand, and she thought about classing up.
When his daughter closed her eyes Gaius let go of her hand, putting it on her lap. He’d done all he could for her, now it was all up to her, whether she would get a warrior class or not. A smile tugged at his lips, not that he really doubted her. While Vith was in the space between. He got to work on the dishes, tidying up the house, and eventually tending to the small chores that needed to be done. What was taking her so long?
Vi’s gaze flicked between the two replicas in front of her, one of them wore shiny plates and a sword at their side; the other was in light armor, leaning on stone rod, and had hair that clinked softly with beads. The others hers that she hadn’t chosen were starting another round of monster mash, and the mage looked like she wanted to get in on the action.
The warrior crossed her arms "You trained until your bones ached for this. For me. And now you want to throw that away?
The mage looked at the warrior, pained, as if she wanted to say something, but she turned back to Vi and nodded, and Vi chose.
She opened her eyes, Dad was sweeping. He never swept.
“Warrior?” he asked
She hesitated and shook her head, her dad grimaced.
“Whadya get?”
“Earth mage” she broke into a smile and her dad seemed to grow younger before her eyes, like ten years of wrinkles and anxiety had been sloughed off in a single moment. He was grinning like an idiot, like Riley.
“That’s great news! You can join the temple and…” He trailed off, seeming to come back to the present. “Vith, I’m really happy for you. I know it’s something you’ve always wanted. As I’ve said before Erdae likes you.”
“Dad, I’m still going to take the trials. I’m still going to become a ranger.”
Dad blinked “But- but the temple, and- and.”
“I can still become a ranger, and you said it yourself, I’m ready.”
The hope in dad’s eyes seemed to flicker and die. He let out a long sigh “I guess I shouldn’t have got my hopes up, but just think about it, please. This could be your chance to raise your station in life. Your children could grow up in the inner city, away from everything down here. They could read books and train everyday of their lives, instead of having to eke out a life in the middle city or risk falling to the lower one.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll think about it. Maybe in the future.”
‘Right, right. Well let’s go over skills now. What did you unlock?”
Focusing on her skills Vi almost stumbled from the size of the list. It was almost everything she’d ever done.
“You should be able to sort the list, at least separate the magical ones from the mundane.”
Her vision shifted, projecting only the non-mundane skills
Armored Hide I: your skin thickens, becoming difficult to pierce of slash.
Catapult I: launches a rock with great force.
Mold Earth I: shapes a small area of earth into a desired form.
Vi stared at the skills in shock, she was a mage an she only had three magic skills, what was this! She assigned all of them with a bitter taste in her mouth. Had she made the wrong choice? “You should be happy, I got the skill armored hide from the pill.”
Dad wiped his brow, even though the wrinkles had come back as quickly as they had left he seemed a least a little satisfied that he’d done something to protect her. “Show me.”
Closing her eyes she concentrated on the skill, concentrated on her skin turning to armor. She almost reeled as she felt something inside respond. Her mana was slow, almost stagnant, but it began to flow. She almost gasped, it felt like she was encased in stone and her mana dropped precipitously. She let the skill go and opened her eyes. Her dad was beaming at her.
“Okay, assign the rest of your skills and come get some dinner, remember to practice. Jeren and I are taking you kids out for some practice in a couple days,” Dad said, walking into the kitchen “Oh yeah! Remember to get inspect too!”
***
The next day Vi spent most of her time in the courtyard practicing her new skills. Inspect was easy, you simply tried to [inspect] something, and the skill would activate. Walked around inspecting the tree, grass, rocks, but most of what it told her she already knew. Catapult could throw rocks, there really wasn't much more to it. Mold earth was surprisingly intuitive, if mana intensive. She created a small sculpture of herself out of dirt. The grass hadn't moved, and the figure looked more like a porcupine that her.
After smoothing the earth back down she opened her status
Class: Elemental Mage - Earth
Level: 8
- Perception: 4
- Power: 8
- Spirit: 6
- Vitality: 5
Free Attribute points: 7
Skills:
- Armored Hide I
- Barter I
- Catapult I
- Inspect I
- Mold Earth I
- Sword Form - Earth I
- Taunt I
- Tracking I
Looking it over she put two points into vitality, one into perception, and the rest into spirit. And waited for her mana to recharge. She could feel the increasingly familiar pool of power that swirled within her. Part of her wondered how she'd never noticed it before, and if she could do more than activate skills with it.
