Chương 38: Chapter 37: Family Planning

Bren's questions became sharper once Ren described the attack in more detail. That brought back a lot of memories he really didn't like, but still forced himself to recall. Ren had already found there were increasingly fewer lines he wasn't willing to cross when it came to the safety of his family. He still remembered the fear, fire, and death of those early loops clearly enough that his body shuddered while he tried to explain them.

Elna held him closer, and Bren stopped interrupting except when Ren's words failed badly enough that he needed help finding the meaning. His parents took in the news that the village had already known what was coming and still failed badly. That people had prepared, fought back, and it still had not been enough. But after the initial shock, Bren was already thinking aloud about how to convince Hadrik to act. The village had already died once with no preparation, and later it had died again despite having some.

Bren knew what that meant well enough. So Hadrik had to start moving people, and quickly. But getting Hadrik to act was only the first step. The village would still need help from outside if it was going to survive an attack that had already overwhelmed it in other loops. Bren leaned back and considered the problem before looking toward Ren.

"If Hadrik believes us, there are really only two places he can turn. The knights, or adventurers." Ren looked up at him.

"Knights?"

"The knights would be the safer choice, but they would need to be convinced that the threat is real. Proof would help, and tribute might be enough if proof is not." Ren understood that much, but the other option meant nothing to him yet.

"Adven-turers?"

"People who take work for coin," Bren explained.

"They're good for small urgent work. Or when you don't mind 'when' something gets done. But hiring enough of them for something like this on a short notice would cost a great deal. Even then, there is no guarantee the right people would be available when we need them." That made the choice much clearer. An organized raid left too little room to depend on whoever happened to be willing and close enough to take the work. Especially when they already knew how badly the later waves could go.

"Knights are our best option," Bren said. His expression tightened as he moved on to the next problem.

"The city is seven days by horse. Six if someone rides hard. How much time do we have, exactly?"

"Three. Weeks. Maybe?" But even as he answered, Ren felt Elna's arms shift around him while he worked through the distance. That was only the journey there. Whoever went would still have to convince the knights to come, and then the return trip had to be made before the goblins arrived. Even if everything went perfectly, nearly two weeks would disappear before help reached the village. Ren looked down at his hands and counted against the time they had left.

Three weeks gave them enough room to make the attempt, but not enough to waste days deciding whether they should. His stomach tightened as he looked back up at Bren.

"Have to." Bren nodded.

"We do." The conversation eased after that, with Bren set on speaking to Hadrik and the rest of the plan hanging on whatever came from that meeting. Elna kept Ren close while Tessa stayed beside them, and for a few moments the room settled around the decision they had made. Ren used the pause to turn to the other thing his parents might be able to explain now.

"System." Bren looked at him, and Ren touched his chest before gesturing toward the training toys nearby.

"Skills. Train." Tessa brightened immediately at the change of topic.

"He has lots of them!" Ren nodded and started explaining as best he could, working through the words he knew while Tessa filled in the parts she had already seen for herself. He told them about training, skills, and the way repeated effort made those skills improve, and his parents listened with growing surprise as the pieces came together. Tessa looked delighted by the whole thing, like she was the one responsible for everything. Cheeky!

"And Little Yara is teaching him magic," she announced. Elna looked down at Ren.

"She is?" Tessa pointed toward the wand and patterned wooden ball nearby.

"That's what the toys are for. She made them for training!" Ren nodded.

"Master." Bren looked from him to the toys.

"She took you on as a student?"

"Yes." Elna's surprise gave way to a warm smile as she looked down at him.

"Our little spark has a talent for magic, then." That finally gave Ren the opening he had wanted for months. He looked back to Bren.

"System," he said.

"Skills. Stats. How work?" Bren rubbed his jaw and looked at him for a moment, clearly deciding how much could be explained without turning the answer into an entire lesson.

"That is a large question. Everything the Grand System gives us comes through clever focused effort. Everything we do can be improved through training, stats and skills alike. And the System is as stingy as it is mysterious." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"There are many parts of it that only unlock after reaching specific milestones, or overcoming great challenges," injected Elna.

"And because of that… we only really can ever know so much. Those who reach higher levels tend to be rather stingy with their knowledge. Knowing rarely helps, too. Can't make use of something you have yet to unlock." Ren settled his attention on him. That already sounded frustratingly familiar. Bren continued.

"... But there is one thing everybody can make use of, if they are so willing. Skills and stats form Triads. There are exactly three stats or skills focused on any kind of improvement. Unlocking all three allows them to feed off one another, greatly speeding up improvement." Ren leaned forward slightly.

"Triad?"

"Yes. They cover different parts of the same thing, and together are greater than a sum of its parts."

"That rule alone tells you what you're still missing, always. And… Triads form their own Triads. But how far that synergy reaches is anybody's guess," Elna supplied. That caught Ren's attention immediately. He had spent months watching skills rise beside one another, sometimes from the same activity, without knowing the System itself connected them.

"And System… unlocks more?"

"After milestones," Bren said. Ren frowned.

"Level?"

"Levels are part of it, but… The System does not tell you every requirement beforehand. I'm sorry to say, even we only know so much," Bren rubbed his jaw again, a bit embarrassed. Of course it did not. Why ruin the surprise? It was hard to be angry, however. Not at something that literally enabled his five month old baby self to walk, talk, and sling magic around. …Though Ren still worked on that last part. Elna smiled faintly at Ren's expression.

"People usually learn the unlocks by reaching them, or from someone who already has." That was less satisfying than a complete rulebook, but it was still more than Ren had known five minutes ago, so he kept asking. The questions moved from the System into the village itself. Bren and Elna explained who handled different responsibilities, what happened when danger threatened, and what could realistically be done if an attack was expected. As they talked, Ren kept recognizing pieces from the loops.

The shelters were places he had already seen crowded with frightened villagers, the supplies matched preparations he remembered, and some of the people they named were already tied to memories of the attacks. The more his parents explained, the more those old fragments settled into place. [Skill Level Increased: Memory Lv. 6 -> Lv. 7] Ren shivered as the message appeared, and Elna's hand immediately settled against his back.

"Cold?" He shook his head while the notification faded. Bren and Elna had filled in some of the gaps Ren still had about the village, but once the conversation turned back toward preparing for an attack, most of what they described was already familiar from the previous loops. Ren had seen those preparations before, and he knew where they had led. There was still more he wanted to ask, but the attack mattered more, so when the conversation began to slow, his attention returned to Bren.

His father sat forward again, the earlier helplessness gone from his posture.

"I need to be more useful when this starts too." Elna looked at him.

"You already are."

"Not enough. I need combat training." Ren understood that answer too well. Bren glanced toward the door while he considered what he could do.

"I will talk to Hadrik. Or Tovin. One of them can teach me to handle a weapon properly." Tessa looked up at him.

"A sword?"

"If they think I should use one." Ren shifted against Elna and turned back to the rest of the plan. Most importantly… They still needed Hadrik, and they still needed proof. Ren searched his memories for anything useful he might have overheard. Tracks, missing things, movement beyond the village. The memories were vague, but perhaps enough to give the adults somewhere to start.

"Proof," Ren said.

"Maybe… know." Bren focused on him.

"Know what?" Ren frowned, forcing the scraps into something usable.

"Talks. Before. Heard."

"About where to find goblins?"

"Maybe." Elna adjusted him in her arms.

"You remember where?" Ren shook his head.

"Pieces." He did remember tracks, and what he overheard about where Hadrik found goblin scouts before. Bren nodded slowly.

"Pieces may be enough." Ren hoped so. Even if they found somewhere worth searching, the next problem was getting the warning to the city in time. Six days by horse if the rider pushed hard, then however long it took to convince the knights, followed by the return journey. Three weeks was not much room. Worse, Ren already knew what happened once the goblins realized the village was preparing. The attack came sooner. His stomach tightened as he tried to fit the pieces together.

They needed proof quickly, but finding it carelessly could cost them the very time they were trying to save. Bren, Elna, and Ren kept working through what each of them knew, narrowing down what could be done without drawing attention. Still… The current plan remained the best chance they had. [Skill Level Increased: Planning Lv. 11 -> Lv. 12] Ren blinked at the message before a second one followed. [Level Increased: Lv. 4 -> Lv. 5] [Unspent Stat Points: 1] For a moment, the conversation slipped from his attention.

The level-up left him with another point to spend, so he opened his Status again and lingered over the attributes. The last time he had assigned points, he had half expected the System to make further natural gains harder. It would have made a certain kind of sense if artificially pushing an attribute upward raised the threshold for earning the next increase through effort. Except nothing he had trained since then had felt any more difficult. That gave him one less reason to hold the point back.

His body was no longer the only obvious bottleneck. His physical stats could still improve through use, and now that he could actually move around and train properly, Ren had more ways to push them without relying entirely on free points. His attention drifted toward the mental and magical attributes instead. Knowledge was tempting. Very tempting.

More Knowledge meant faster mana recovery, which meant more attempts with the wand, more work with the patterned ball, more tests with Appraisal, and less time spent waiting for his resources to crawl back to full. Under normal circumstances, that might have won immediately. But Ren had Little Yara now, with proper exercises and two training tools that were already forcing him to use Mana Sense and Mana Manipulation in ways he had never managed alone.

If things continued like this, the magic-related gains would come on their own too. But Concentration was different, and Ren stared at the number for a moment longer. It was one thing that helped literally everywhere. He could spend Focus on holding Mana Sense while trying to move mana, keeping a pattern in mind while following it, or training through distractions. Planning benefited too whenever he had to keep several moving pieces in his head without losing one. And improving it deliberately was miserable.

Focusing harder on focusing without letting the effort itself pull attention away from whatever he was supposed to be doing had proven awkward at the best of times. Ren made the choice. [Concentration +1] [Concentration: 8] [Focus: 21/24] The number changed, and Ren let the Status fade. With Hadrik, the proof, and the ride to the city all depending on other people, Ren was left with the one part of the plan he could push forward himself. His mouth curled into a small grin. It was time for some training!