Green Will experience, or energy, is what's left in the body after consciousness fades. For example, bugs don’t have much consciousness to begin with, so most of their experience is “green experience.” The undead glow green because the only Will they have left is to keep fighting, their minds long gone. All that remains is the will to persist. Either the other types of Will they had in life faded away completely or degraded into green general experience, having lost their purpose. Theresa's future sight is an exception, as her eyes appear green due to a combination of Skill energy (yellow) and Will energy (blue). Skill and Might experience are generated within the body through specific actions taken to defeat opponents or by consuming foods that promote those attributes—meat protein for muscles and fish for brain health. Green experience energy, however, can be absorbed directly from enemies since it lacks a predefined purpose.

  Knowledge is power, and over time, I’ve had no choice but to fill in the gaps regarding how magic works in this world. The inhabitants, including wizards and William Black, lack an understanding of science, which prevents them from grasping the underlying mechanics of their reality. Some of these concepts are so basic that it’s akin to putting two and two together to get four. They don’t even understand how Will Energy adapts to its user’s desires and intended functions. In months, I’ve discovered more than they have in centuries. Granted, I have the perspective of a game to guide me and a few hints along the way.

  With the little free time I have, I now train at the borders of the Darkwoods and Barrow Fields. I can’t allow myself to be seen by villagers with my shirt off while I train, so this location is ideal. The last thing I need is for the other children to call attention to me, branding me as “Stripes” or “Blue Boy.” Here, my mother keeps watch while I train, so I have little to fear from Balverines and monsters. Even with only a regular steel axe, she could easily dispatch them.

  Remembering that she once wielded a much better weapon, I asked her what happened to her legendary axe. She replied, “Oh, the guild took that back.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, they made me do a treasure hunt with a bunch of keys to earn the right to use it. Once I retired from active questing, they took it back.”

  “Ah, so the guild owns all the weapons in the silver chests all over Albion?”

  “Yes, they do, and they’re mainly for new heroes,” Scarlett added.

  “Damn... So I have to get a better weapon for you too,” I said, realizing that normal people can’t find those keys without a guild seal. Bye-bye, Murren Greataxe!

  Since any weapons in those chests belong to the guild as tests for young heroes and must eventually be returned, they pose little use to me in the long term. Only weapons from stores, demon doors, quests, and those I craft will be truly useful. Crafting will have to wait since I don’t have a way to learn it yet, but once I do, it’s going to be great. I’ll ensure my weapons are incapable of being used by others first because I’d hate to have them stolen and killed by my own weapon.

  Every day, I do 100 fast push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 fast squats, followed by sprinting back and forth along the border. If possible, I try to do this several times a day. I wear heavy weights for my pink muscle training—a feat normally impossible for someone my age, but magic makes anything possible. Being nine years old actually puts me at the ideal age for training this muscle, as I can still develop new muscle fibers without the Will bonus. Since I also benefit from the bonus, my gains will be drastic. After two weeks of this hellish, Spartan-like training, I’m beginning to see results. I can feel myself nearing the threshold for the first physique rank. It’s taking longer than I’d like because I’m focusing on quality over quantity, aiming to build superior, less bulky muscle. Better products always take longer to create!

  Meditating while focusing on building my physique as usual, I felt something click. It was an enlightened feeling, a twitch within my body—a moment of clarity in both mind and body. Then, a surge of what felt like power flowed through me. I had grown stronger over the past few weeks just from the workouts, but this was something else. Getting up from my seated position, I grabbed a nearby rock buried in the ground, about the size of my head. When I yanked it, the small boulder exploded from the soil to reveal it was actually three times bigger. It’s like how icebergs are always larger beneath the water.

  I held the stone aloft with some difficulty, but I managed it. Giving it a squeeze with all my strength, nothing happened, but I could hear the sound of the stone straining. I couldn’t break it yet, but my strength was getting close, and with another rank in physique, it should be possible. Not that I would have time to train for another rank before Jack arrives, as we only have a few months left. Once we leave for the void in a few days, we’ll have more time, but I won’t have the space to train my physique this way.

  My focus will be on gaining general and Will experience from now until it’s time to leave for the void. The goal is to gain the ability to use light magic before we arrive there. Once we’re inside, I’ll manipulate or remove the light that makes us visible so that the monstrosities there cannot see us. Worst-case scenario, I can use light to create a barrier or harness enough of it to keep the darkness-bound creatures at bay. As much as I hate it, I’ll have to improvise, as time is growing very tight. Even with the time difference in travel, I won’t know the best course of action until I’m there. Theresa claims her sight doesn’t work well in the void, so she isn’t certain what we’ll do.

  Wanting more experience than bugs provide, I got Scarlett to take us to the Greatwood Cullis Gate. Theresa now has an ebony wood bow thanks to our mother. She invested in getting her the bow because Theresa had no good way to protect herself in close combat. I didn’t get anything because I already have the Dollmaster's mace. Brom acquired some pieces of plate and chainmail armor, as well as a banded iron wooden tower shield. His weapon remains one of his wood axes because he’s used to swinging them. Switching to a new, heavier axe would make it awkward to wield, and the unfamiliarity could cost him his life. An axe is still a deadly weapon, so it should suffice for now. Even if he freezes up in combat, his muscle memory should carry him through.

  Seeing a group of bandits down the hill, I prepared a few time blades between them and our group. Since only two were close together and could possibly see us, Theresa shot one in the head with her bow. The arrow went right into his eye, and he fell over dead. His comrade, enraged, charged up the hill toward us. Preparing for the worst, I readied my mace as my parents prepared their weapons too. My worries were misplaced, however, as the bandit ran straight into an invisible time blade, cutting himself in half.

  The man simply fell apart while tumbling into pieces, blood spraying everywhere. Feces flung from his severed intestines, and urine gushed from his ruptured bladder. I gagged at the sight, horrifying as it was. Though not right in front of me, the image was close enough, and the smell of carnage made me retch. That was right before the vomiting began, accompanied by the immense guilt of what I’d just done. I had killed that man. He was going to kill that trader down the hill, but he had never done anything to me, and yet I’d taken his life. I killed another human being!

  I tried to hold it in, but I wretched again into the brush. I hoped the plants appreciated the added fertilizer, as they were now covered in it.

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  Theresa patted my back. “It’s okay, brother. You’ll feel better later.”

  Those were not the words I wanted or expected to hear from a child. Theresa was arguably no longer a child, though; she had killed that other bandit without batting an eye.

  My mother nodded in approval at our kills while my father turned pale as a sheet. To his credit, he didn’t lose his lunch as I had.

  When it was Brom’s turn, he struggled much more to defeat his enemy. It was a battle of brute strength and equipment against his foe. The bandit couldn’t compete with the difference in weaponry, and eventually, my father gained the upper hand, planting an axe into the man’s chest. He panted and heaved for air, and I could tell he was almost as disturbed by killing someone else as I was. Again, he didn’t throw up, and I realized maybe I didn’t give him enough credit.

  “We’ll make a hero out of you yet, Dad!” I claimed, slapping Brom’s backplate. The sound reverberated and snapped him out of his thousand-mile stare.

  “I can’t let my little ones do all the work, can I?” Brom exclaimed proudly, trying to mask his initial vulnerability.

  Theresa and Scarlett chuckled lightly, and I smiled back.

  Together, we spent the whole day hunting down all the bandits and wasps we could find.

  Heading back through Greatwood towards the Cullis gate, I stopped by a small ruin where there was a chest containing a Willmaster's Elixir. I would give Theresa a Willmaster Elixir of her own eventually, but not right now. One of us needed to be the powerhouse that faced off against Jack. Otherwise, even with teamwork, he could focus on and kill one of us at a time. If one person was strong enough to hold his attention, then the others could help from the sidelines.

  I needed more power, so I gulped down the Elixir and meditated to absorb its full potency. The Elixir was still very effective and boosted my overall Will pool by about a third of its previous size. When I opened my eyes, I noticed my mother had a cringe on her face.

  "What?" I asked.

  "It's nothing. It's just that you drank that Elixir."

  "So?" I pressed.

  "People normally don't drink potions because they taste terrible. Maybe in an emergency situation they would, due to the increased potency..." Scarlet rambled.

  I double-facepalmed and dragged my hands down my face. "Of course they don’t."

  I hadn't considered using potions like poultices by applying them to my skin. Absorbing a potion by pouring it over myself is handy but also wasteful. Why are the inhabitants of this world so oblivious? They’d waste the benefits of a legendary potion just because they dislike the taste. For real?

  "Let's just go home..." I began to say, but then I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.

  "That can't be what it looks like," I exclaimed as I rushed towards the sight.

  "Wait! Arn!" Brom and Scarlet shouted, but I ignored them.

  Rushing to the top of a small green hill, I was surprised that my eyes hadn’t deceived me. It was a very human-looking little fairy creature, known in Fable as a "Nymph." To be more precise, this Nymph was of the water kind and had the most human appearance. Normally, they are extremely hostile to humans, but I was not worried about this one attacking me. Currently, this water Nymph had her leg caught in a bear trap and was lying on the ground, weeping lightly. She had lost a fair bit of blood and had been separated from water for who knows how long. For a water Nymph, it doesn’t take long before that becomes fatal.

  She looked like a small, cute blue girl. Well, technically a small naked one, but she was smooth where certain features would normally be, so not really.

  "Please..." the creature mumbled, her voice barely audible.

  "A NYMPH!" my mother shouted, rushing towards the creature while readying her axe.

  "STOP!!!" I demanded.

  Scarlet didn’t listen or was too enraged to hear me. So, I used my time barrier, which easily blocked her axe. Surprised that her axe had stopped and the creature still breathed, she turned to me.

  "Let me kill it! That thing is EVIL!" Scarlet demanded.

  "NO!" My response took Scarlet by surprise.

  "You don't unde—"

  "YOU'RE WRONG!" I interrupted.

  As Scarlet stood aghast and at a loss for words, I continued, "I've seen EVIL, and I know when I see it. From what I've observed so far, I doubt that thing is evil. It's most likely just misunderstood. With humans infringing upon and polluting its home, it thinks we are the enemy."

  "They kidnap children and most likely eat them!" Scarlet added angrily.

  "Even when they do capture a human, they don’t kill them but turn them into a hobbe, which is as close as we can become to being a Nymph. I won't kill something just based on hearsay or someone else's limited knowledge. Especially when the information I have leads me to believe otherwise. Also, evil is when someone or something is indifferent to the existence of sentient beings, torturing or killing mercilessly. From most beings' perspectives, humans who only care for their own kind appear quite evil."

  "Boy, you..."

  "Don't give a damn about your opinion!" My eyes glowed bright blue, as did my Will lines, and my voice suddenly sounded ancient. "I've been fighting evil longer than any mortal can imagine. I held a title given only to angels. So don’t question me when I say I see the truth." I cut Scarlet off. She thought, as the adult, parent, and former hero, that she was in charge, but part of me spoke out in a way she had no idea how to deal with.

  In this state, I gave Scarlet my coldest and most serious look. "Just so you know, I'm running this show. If you have a problem with that, we can fight it out, but I promise I won't pull any punches. You most likely will die because of your ego."

  It was only after Scarlet let out a sigh that I realized my eyes were brightly glowing with Will Energy.

  "...," Scarlet sighed again while walking away.

  Turning to the dying water Nymph, I asked, "So, child of the river, how did you end up like this?"

  "Please, I'll give you gold if you set me free!" the creature cried.

  "How do I know you won't try to kill me later or kidnap other children after I let you go? Also, I do not need gold. So what can you offer me to gain my trust?"

  She faintly lifted her hand towards me, and to my surprise, I sensed a strange bond on the cusp of forming. If I accepted this, I could tell she would be bound to me for life and would die if she betrayed me. So it's a familiar contract? To think such a thing existed in this world without my knowing.

  I hadn't expected anything resembling game-like mechanics to exist here. Previously, just in case, I'd tried to activate or summon the menu screen/inventory. I even asked Scarlet about it, and she had no idea what I was talking about, insisting such a thing didn't exist.

  Thinking about the familiar contract, I initially thought it never appeared in the game, but then I remembered the dogs from Fable 2 and 3. The heroes of this world wasted their familiar contracts on DOGS!!! Did they not realize that a familiar would always be loyal to them regardless of species?

  "Yes," I exclaimed, and as I did so, a glowing blue drop of water hovered out of Naia, and after a burning sensation, so did a glowing red drop of blood from my finger. The two combined, disappearing in a golden flash of light, and then a notification briefly popped up saying the pact was complete. Before I could say anything else, the screen was gone, and an itching or stinging sensation began. It wasn’t painful, just annoying, like having a grain of sand in your eye. I heard a voice in my head scream, "Don't just stand there, human boy! Get this thing off me!!!"

  Realizing the bear trap was still on Naia's leg, I went over and released the trap. My mother was holding her axe at the ready the whole time.

  "So, we can speak through our minds?" I asked Naia.

  "That's obvious, adolescent human," Naia grumbled.

  I rolled my eyes at Naia. "Please, I know your child-like appearance isn’t just a trap. You were born of Will and a body of water."

  Who or what creates Nymphs, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the world itself. It could be nature, but whatever is doing it stops before Fable 2. Trolls always seemed to be born from some kind of ambient Will energy combined with any natural material or element. This energy could possibly stem from the destruction of the old kingdom. Trolls were later made almost extinct but would always spawn more eventually. Fewer will spawn in the future than there are currently in the world. The reason for this decrease is clearly human activity. Most Nymphs are born from water and trees, so with modern technologies destroying the forest, polluting waters, and poisoning the soil, fewer magical creatures are created.

  "How old are you, Naia?" I demanded, startling my new familiar by already knowing her name.

  "Five years old," Naia conceded.

  "F-five?" Scarlet coughed, probably just realizing she was going to kill an innocent little girl.

  "Mother, would you mind healing her?" I asked, pointing out the nasty gash on Naia's leg.

  "Oh, right!"

  A flash of white light later, and Naia looked a lot better.

  I took a seat on a nearby rock while looking towards Naia and said, "So, Naia, tell me why your kind hates humans so much?"

  Turns out normal people can't even find the damn keys without having a guild seal. Bye-bye Murren Greataxe!

  I killed that man. He was going to kill that trader down the hill but he'd never done anything to me and yet I'd killed him. I killed another human being!

  I hadn't thought of being able to use potions like a poultice by applying them to my skin. Being able to absorb a potion by pouring it over myself is handy but also a waste. Why are the inhabitants of this world so stupid? You'd waste the benefits of a legendary potion because you don't like the taste? For real?

  So its a familiar contract? To think such a thing existed in this world without my knowing.

  The heroes of this world wasted their one familiar contracts on DOGS!!! Did they not realize the familiar would always be loyal to them regardless of species?