Chương 12: Chapter 11

That summer we got four more trading caravans passing through and six groups of adventurers. The trading caravans were mostly smaller operations, and I managed to glean that the pass through the Horndale Mountains where we were situated had no tolls. The alternatives were a sea route, with the associated shipping costs, and a far more travelled pass further to the south. That pass was an easier and safer trip, but had a sizable toll which ate into the profit of smaller traders. I learned all this by eavesdropping.

Baby spy extraordinaire! Then there were the adventurers who came through our small outpost for a variety of reasons. Well, more like three reasons. A couple of teams had been working on requests for the Ajinport Government to deal with Rifts that the local Warden had identified. Unlike the first such encounter, these Rifts hadn't broken open, spilling out the monsters within. No putrefying, spider-bitten mortals dying on the outpost table this time. That didn't mean they were safe. Not even close.

At least one adventurer died dealing with them from what I could tell. The other teams came for non-Rift requests. One was our very own delivery, and my mother held my hand as I watched the adventurers unload crates of foodstuff and barrels of what I guessed were alcohol. The other three teams were on tasks for things that could only be found in the Horndale Peaks.

Rare herbs that grew on the snowy peaks seemed a semi-popular one, with the final team hunting the Storm Eagles that apparently nested high up in the mountains. I didn't find out how successful they were as that team never came by the outpost again. Either they died or succeeded and returned to Ajinport directly. Throughout the seasons–life continued. I worked hard on my Paths, driving them forward, and another year passed. Slowly but surely, the locals began to visit the outpost more frequently.

That didn't mean often, since just once in a season was more than they'd previously come by. I finally got to meet Martin, a quiet man, far shorter than his wife Griselda. He was built like a square brick and if he'd had a beard I might have mistaken him for a tall dwarf.

I learned he was a blacksmith who liked to mine his own ore, and through careful eavesdropping, which I continued to work on even with my Path completed, that he and his wife lived up here in these lonely mountains to avoid the stigma Griselda received for being a half-orc. As for Magatha, I only saw her twice. Each time she came, it seemed more for trade than anything else. Though her two visits were still two more than Hurin, who I only knew still lived from listening to other visitors talk.

The man was a hermit in the truest of senses. Finally, there were the Millers. George and Kaylee were our most frequent visitors. When I was two and a half they started bringing along their daughter, Henrietta, who was four. Apparently, she was normally cared for by Kaylee's mother who rounded out their four-person household. And another season passed. More traders came through our quiet outpost. Two new families joined our community, one of them setting up shop directly across from the outpost.

The other was a new Warden and his family who took over from Teppei. The new Warden, Thomas, had two boys, Jonathan and Timothy, who were eight and ten respectively. They were, from the information I gathered, learning the Warden trade from their father. Their mother, Felicity, was a baker by trade and my mother regularly bartered with her for warm fluffy bread to replace the flatbread we often ate with meals. Life was good. And another season passed.

Winter was once more in full retreat, the flowers beginning to bloom, and the sound of birdsong filled the air as they screamed that it was time to mate. I tried to focus on the beauty of their voices and not the reason for it. I was now three years old, by my own count, and my Paths had progressed accordingly. In the almost two years that had passed I had completed another four Paths. Crawling was done, along with Walking, Hiding, and Sneaking. The latter two had provided an interesting message upon completion.

Apparently either Path could be used to unlock the Path of Stealth, which I already had. There was a question there of how I had already unlocked it, but since it was unlocked, both Paths had instead given large bonuses to my Path of Stealth progression. That improvement had gotten my Path of Stealth to the next tier and my reward had been another Skill Seed, this time for a Lesser Grade Stealth Skill.

That should've been cause for celebration, but my Muffled Steps Skill was progressing at a glacial pace to match the frozen peaks of the Horndale above us. My limitation, it seemed, was my Aether. Whether it was the Stat itself or the line on my Status that said my aether core had a grade of Minor, I didn't know. But either way, even when I was far enough away from Cornelius to use my Skill, I couldn't maintain it for long.

I'd managed to go from five minutes to six, though I suspected that was more due to the improvement of my Muffled Steps Skill than my aether. Adding another Skill to the mix was pointless when I lacked the aether to progress my current one. So, I took the physical object option, receiving a small dark marble. The substance felt like… nothing. I literally couldn't describe it in words. Was it slick? Yes. Was it oily? Also yes. Was it solid? It certainly felt so. It was like… holding compressed air… only it wasn't.

I had long since given up on trying to define it. The Skill Seed was hidden behind a loose wooden board in the wall, along with a few other little things I had gathered over the last couple of years. I was definitely not a young kleptomaniac! More like a scavenger of lost shiny things that I hoped might have some value. Also, it felt good to have a secret nook.

With four free Path Slots available, and still no sign of an opportunity to work on developing my Aether Stat, I had doubled down on working on my physicality. Path of Running replaced Crawling, then Balance, had replaced Walking. Finally, Hiding and Sneaking were replaced with Coordination and Body Strengthening. Between them, I was finally starting to feel the difference in my body's performance.

Every morning I would wake up early and do variations of push ups, sit ups, planks, and whatever other bodyweight exercises I could concoct while trying to keep it a secret from my family. I would finish up with running around the outside of the outpost in circles, much to my mother's chagrin. Hard to blame her really. Ankle deep snow on her was more like thigh deep snow on me, and she seemed convinced I was trying to freeze to death.

She'd given up trying to stop me though as the snows receded, instead taking her breakfast out the back of the outpost, rugged up and counting each lap I did out loud for me. Sometimes Cornelius would join her, oscillating between a distrustful gaze and rueful amusement, like the old codger still couldn't decide if I was demonspawn or just a very weird kid with way too much energy. My answer? Why not both?! After my morning exercise, it would be time for my lessons. Mostly on reading and writing.

My grasp of Helenian was good, perhaps even excellent if my mother was to be believed, which she wasn't. Loving, beautiful, kind, caring, and most of all, biased. That was how I would describe her. So, trusting her opinions on my performance was thrown out the third story window and splattered like a broken egg on the stones below. I was her beautiful, baby boy, even if I was no longer a baby, and I could do almost no wrong.

Apparently pushing Henrietta Miller over after she snatched my toy horse was a step too far. Though Cornelius seemed to side with me on that one. The old codger apparently didn't mind if I wanted to scrap, he just took issue with my dedication to my Paths. Which to me made him the weird one! Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Reading and writing Helenian weren't going quite as fast as understanding the language had, though perhaps I was being too hard on myself.

Either way, as I hadn't grabbed those Paths despite their offer, I was getting no bonuses for them. Yet. I did consider that I might take them later though they almost certainly gave Mental Stats and I was already doing more than well on that front. Sometimes Henrietta joined us for lessons. Though she seemed to be behind me in her vocabulary, she was close enough on the reading and writing for it not to matter.

That made me suspect her grandmother was teaching her, which begged the question why she needed to come to my lessons at all. The answer? Socialisation. There were only four kids in our spread out community, and I was the only one of comparable age. Which meant I was frequently exposed to the somewhat annoying girl. She was just so bossy! I didn't care if she was a year or so older physically, she was decades behind me mentally! Probably! Hormones and a developing brain were doing weird things to me.

Besides, since I had finished my Paths of Sneaking and Hiding, there really wasn't a good reason to be around her. Honestly, I preferred the company of my mother anyway. But, she had her own tasks to work on, and more and more often I found Henrietta being foisted on me, sometimes with her grandmother to watch over us. Sometimes not. Apparently locking us in the outpost was safe enough that we didn't need constant oversight. After lunch, I would return to my own activities, once more trying to progress my Paths.

I would be lying if I didn't say it was growing harder and harder to muster the willpower to focus on them. The morose thoughts that I would never gain more magic than I possessed now had started to plague my thoughts and dreams. Every time I looked at my Status and saw the Aether Core - Minor entry, I wondered what it meant for my future. I had, so far, refrained from asking pointed questions about the Status, Paths, and everything else.

But my paranoia was slowly folding beneath the weight of my curiosity and fear of not achieving my goals. I knew that if something didn't change, I would start asking questions. Questions that could eventually lead to Cornelius demanding answers. I just had to ask myself, was it worth the risk? The voice in the back of my head said it was. For today, I ignored it. Tomorrow though? Who knew.

Once evening started to approach, Henrietta would normally vanish, her father showing up to escort her and his mother-in-law home. Each night, before dinner, I would attempt to advance my Path of Stealth. Most nights I failed. Cornelius had grown wise to my antics and would almost always catch me before I managed to steal or replace something in his office. Little did he know that my ploy was working perfectly. By making the timing consistent, his wariness had grown lax at other times of the day.

At least once a week I would make a separate attempt. They were almost always successful. During dinner I would listen to my mother and grandfather talk. Sometimes they would tell me stories afterwards, but they were meant for three year olds which rarely captured my interest. They were mostly filled with simple warnings like 'Don't wander into the forest on your own'. Like I needed to be told that!

Afterwards I would often vanish off to my room, exercising my tired body once more before getting wiped down with a warm rag before bed. Over the last two years only a few things had changed, but I was three now, and perhaps that was old enough to start asking questions without inciting the Spanish Inquisition from Cornelius. As I lay in bed, running my small fingers over the slick Skill Seed that I kept hidden in my wall, I decided tomorrow was the day. Tomorrow, I would start asking some questions.

Carefully tucking my treasure back into the hidden stash in my wall, I brought up my Status.

Name - Sebastian Skills (1/3) Class - Locked Muffled Steps (Minor) - 12 Basic Attributes Body Features Strength - 116 Aether Core - Minor Stamina - 125 Aether Channels - Weak Coordination - 129 Mental - 152 Affinity (1/1) Aether - 100 Shadow (Strong) - 100 Advanced Attributes (1/2) Completed Paths Talented - 141 Path of Basic Numeracy X Path of Linguistics - English X Paths (10/10) Path of Endurance X Path of Exceptionalism I (70/100) Path of Willpower X Path of Running VII (2369/2500) Path of Eavesdropping X Path of Balance VI (728/1000) Path of Linguistics - Helenian X Path of Body Strengthening VI (513/1000) Path of Crawling X Path of Coordination V (365/500) Path of Sneaking X Path of Stealth IV (737/1000) Path of Hiding X Path of Deception VIII (2932/5000) Path of Walking X Path of Climbing IX (8188/10000) Path of the Completionist II (108/200) Path of Soulstealing (0/10) I had come far.

I had much, much further to go, and tomorrow was a new day.