Several years passed before I finally gained the Magic Manipulation skill. Even my ability to see magic had skilled up before I could even control it! What’s with this sudden jump in difficulty! Isn’t suddenly fighting the mid boss during the tutorial a little much!?
I mean, I learned the Magic Perception skill at 2… and I couldn’t unlock Magic Manipulation until 5!? It wasn’t even me trying to do too many other things, I just skilled up some of my other skills I had until the dreaded level 4 cap and didn’t even try to get any new skills! Well, I did learn to read properly now and ended up reading most of the books in the Den save a few that Sain has on the top shelf.
He’s always going on about it not being time yet, even mother has let me into the kitchen to help cook! Well… I just helped her cut vegetables… she peels the skin… and I chop them into small pieces with a… blunt… knife. Wait… I’M STILL BEING TREATED LIKE A KID! If I had a table I could flip right now, I would flip it into orbit!
No, no, things have definitely changed over the years. There’s no more kiddy doors, I’m allowed to go in and out of the house as long as I stay within the village. Though it did take mom a few years to get over the knife incident. Because of that I’ve had to neglect my stabbing resistance since I couldn’t heal myself without her or Luke.
The last thing I need is Mother panicking like that, I can still recall her tear stained face that day. She kept stuttering as she tried to cast healing magic over and over again, even after the wound was completely healed. Afterwards, she tried to kill me herself by suffocating me with her superhuman hug of straggling. Never again… being smothered between two fat lumps of meat unable to breath… Big breasts are scary!
Calming my nerves I decide it’s time to check my progress I use inspect on myself:
**Name: Kael
**Occupation: Child
**Level 1
**Race: Human
**HP: 35/35
**MP: 40/40
**SP: 70/70
**Strength: 12
**Dexterity: 14
**Agility: 16
**Magic: 10
**Vitality: 20
**Luck: 0
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Skills: Inspect Level 7
Stealth Level 4
Hide Level 4
Throwing Skill: Level 4
Blunt Skill: Level 4
Staff Skill: Level 4
Knife Skill: Level 4
Tumble: Level 4
Fire Magic: Level 1
Water Magic: Level 1
_____________________
Special Skills: Search
______________________
Passive Skills: Pain Resistance Level 4
Physical Resistance Level 3
Blunt Resistance: Level 2
Stabbing Resistance: Level 1
Enhanced Breathing: Level 3
SP Recovery: Level 4
Calm Mind: Level 1
Escape Artist: Level 4
Night Vision: Level 4
Magic Perception: Level 2
Magic Manipulation: Level 1
MP Recovery: Level 2
___________________________
Magic: Cure Light Wounds
Ignition
Cleanse
___________________________
My stats have reached a decent number, on average I’m stronger than my mother and most average adult villagers at my age. I’m pretty sure I can take on an average adult without any issues right now. I do wonder though… How far can my stats go? There’s always the possibility that our village doesn’t get stronger due to lack of fighting and leveling up.
Is there a soft cap put level for stats, also the fact that I haven’t leveled up once my entire life leaves question. Does your stats go up when one levels up also? Or is there something like skill points… or maybe the reason I can’t go beyond level 4 for several skills associated with my low level. There’s too many mysteries that have yet to be answered about this game’s skilling up system.
That reminds me… Reila seems to not be as attached to me lately, she even at one point occasionally beat me with her fists when she was unhappy! Thankfully the phase seemed to stop last year. Most of my vitality ups were from her! She always throws my routine into utter chaos! At least it was a bundle deal, and I got some blunt and pain resistance so it wasn’t all that bad. But still I just get swept up by her pace every single time she comes by!
Lately though, I rarely ever see her by ourselves anymore. Ah yes, there was that development also. After I started being allowed to leave the house, I started to see some of the other children in the area. They even ended up making a small little group and that included Reila…who in turn took it upon herself to drag me along with her. Saying something about reading too much, and not moving my body around enough.
Seriously though, I move my body around plenty! Every morning I still do my morning routine before sunrise and help mother until midday. At that point, I just want to relax and read some of the books on magic my mother had stashed away from when she was learning magic. Currently I’m reading a book about beginner fire magic, and I use the word book…loosely. It’s just a bunch of notes and incoherent words! Have they not heard of writing drafts first before publishing! Maybe the concept of the great god known as an Editor hasn’t been thought up of yet, it’s definitely a good thing to have an editor check first before publishing but I guess that’s a luxury here.
(Boy) “Hey Weakling, get lost this is our hideout!”
My thought process is suddenly halted by a boy’s screeching, this voice sounds like Klaude’s bratty tone. He probably brought along the rest of his gang to play pretend. Moving my eyes from my book for a bit I see a small group of children. Yep, that’s them all right. Of course after Klaude speaks, his little brother Dalton has to chime in.
(Dalton) “You heard the Big bro you Tome Gnome! Go crawl into hole in the ground like the ground dweller you are!”
(Small Boy) “Yea! Yea! Get out of here Tome Gnome!”
The chubby boy Rufus continues to eat his bird leg… that is definitely not a turkey leg… or is it? Maybe there are monster turkeys here? Otherwise… how the heck did it get so damn big! This isn’t some Theme Park! I heard people tell me they were Emu legs… I doubt they’ve seen an Emu, it’s more of a blunt weapon than a snack! Speaking of which, I should try to skill up my blunt skill later.
While I was lost in thought the chubby kid finishes his Dino-bird leg and ends up throwing it at me for no reason. Since my resistances are high I don’t even bother dodging and let it just bounce off my head and continue reading. If there’s one thing about that kid, he cleans his plate never wasting food. Brat’s their age are usually picky about food, also what’s with that Tome Gnome thing? Wasn’t it supposed to be a bookworm?
(Klaude) “How many times do I have to say call me Leader!”
Glancing away from my book, I see Klaude kick his little brother. Quite the brat that one… This is why I can’t handle children; they are just so unreasonable. It’s almost like things like logic or rules of society don’t apply to them. Sadly they will take some time to grow up into respectable adults such as myself.
Sometimes I really wish there was a button I could press on a kid and have them become an adult, an Adultifying button. Then there wouldn’t be all these moments where they just buzz around like bugs and just leave me alone. Can’t you just go and just play whatever you brats are playing somewhere else?
(Dalton) “I’m sorry Big Br-Leader!”
… I never did get the whole respecting the big brother to the point of stupidity thing. Can’t he think for himself a little instead of hanging on his brother’s coat tails? Then again several of the brats around here have ended up joining Klaude’s little gang. I guess it’s safer for the brats to stay together instead of having them run amok everywhere in the Village. Who knows what kind of trouble they would get into outside.
Then again, in a larger group it’s safer than them wandering around without an Adult. Even if there are people who keep the peace and protect the gates into the village there’s always openings in security. Not everyone is like Mother, I swear she’d be able to keep watch over the entire planet while cooking breakfast.
Wouldn’t it be nice to get an exotic skill like that? I swear everyone around me seems to have some kinda special skill… Mother has the Mother’s Intuition, Reila has her super ultra strength, and Sain has his sleeping with his eyes open.
(Rufus) “Yea Leader that’s a great idea!”
I wonder… how much does paper cost in this world? If it’s cheap maybe I can reorganize the… magic “books” into something that makes sense? That! That there is brilliant! I’m so god da… Nope nope nope! Barely dodged that one! Don’t you have something better to do! It’s been years! Go I don’t know… do Angel things! Why don’t you go work out or something, something like a hundred pushups and a hundred sit ups or something. Maybe go fly in circles!
(Klaude) “See! He’s too scared to even cry! I told you he’s a wimpy tome gnome!”
Wait what? Cry? Blinking my eyes a bit I look around and see on the ground in front of me the Dino leg. Yes, I’ve decided it must be a dinosaur leg, since aren’t they supposed to be related to birds and lizards? Now… how did it get there?
(Dalton) “Bro… I mean Leader, what… we should go. What if the grown ups come and see us?”
Sniff, I’m sorry Dalton for thinking you were an idiot, you’re a good kid! Exactly go, go somewhere else far far away from me. Preferably for the next 10, no 100 years. Just never show up and bug me again. I have much more important things to worry about, like skill ups… skill ups… and most importantly, skill ups.
(Klaude) “Stop being such a sissy Dalton! All you all need to do is just follow me, I’m the leader!”
Seriously… this kid needs to get a clue, shouldn’t it be an Adult’s job to teach him properly? Well too bad I’m a 6 year old brat! There’s plenty of other people who can do a better job teaching him what’s right and wrong. Definitely not because it would take away from my skill up time… speaking of which this dino leg bone would be a blunt weapon right? Since it’s just sitting there all on it’s lonesome it’s fine to take right?
(Rufus) “Leader, aren’t we going to play with Reila today?”
Oh god no, I’m out! Strategic retreat time, even if she isn’t as attached as when we were younger. I’d rather not have her relapse, I’d die! Just imagining how much stronger that girl could have gotten over the years is utterly terrifying!
Quickly procuring my loot, I retreat to another area of the village using hide and stealth. Sadly the Hide skill isn’t all powerful and can make you hide in plain sight! There’s no night lights in this world so I have to stay in an area that has sunlight, and candles aren’t something I can just constantly use. If only I was born in a rich family, I could have tutors and I can use them to get skill ups. Maybe I could even have a lantern to read, and using hide and stealth would actually work! And the best part?
Parents wouldn’t pay attention to me! It would be a skill up festival all year around! Just imagining all the different skills I could have at max level made me drool a little. It would be the life.
Nodding my head in approval I notice a familiar face in front of me…crap how’d she find me? Why have you failed me again Hide! Aren’t you supposed to save my hide!? This is betrayal! No wait… what if it’s a skill… Reila’s Intuition? Oh god please no! Anything but that!
(Reila) “What cha doing? You always look like ya thinking about something.”
“Nothing, I’m just reading mother’s book on magic”
Reila’s face puffs up after hearing my reply and looks… upset? What did I do? I’m just minding my own business reading a book? Why are you looking at me like I just ate the last cookie!?
(Reila) “Do ya even know what it says? Why don’t cha come play with everyone instead of reading that smelly old moldy book?”
Children… can’t even understand something as great as the smell of a good book. The distinct smell of paper mixed in with ink, aged through time. Within it containing the wisdom passed down from another generation to the current generation. Taking in a deep breath in my nostrils I decided to correct Reila.
“This book does not smell moldy, it smells like… like… skill ups!”
Reila stares at me blankly after my reply, it must have been such a world shattering revelation for her.
(Reila) “Shoe…kill rups?”
See? It must have been too much for her to take in, she looks like her brain overloaded. She must be too young to understand the greatness of skill ups.
**Title Acquired: Skill Up Obsessed**
…I… Yea… I got nothing… There’s so much I want to say about this title, but I feel like the battle’s already lost before it even started. Mind over matter. If you don’t mind it don’t matter! That’s right, don’t give them the satisfaction of a reaction. When you don’t know how to answer just ignore the question.
(Reila) “Weirdo…oh Auntie told me to find and bring ya home.”
Before I could even muster a reply she just nonchalantly grabs my hand and drags me away. Don’t I have any say in this!? What happened to freedom of speech and the pursuit of skill ups? I refuse to give in to her, if she wants to bring me back she’ll have to drag me back!
“I don’t wanna! Try and make me if you can! You’ll never take me in alive Copper!”
Smiling smugly I hold my ground with my book, no matter how much her strength resembles a prehistoric cave woman she wouldn’t be able to drag me back if I’m not willing! Especially with the sky being so… wait how am I seeing the…
Unable to hold back my shame of being dragged away like some kind of prize, I cover my face with my book and act like I’m sleeping. I can’t think of any other way to salvage what little pride I have left. With so many people interrupting me today at least it can’t get any worse then this…I hope.
The Writings of the Meandering Otaku 