Chương 4: Edge of the World

Elna carried Ren outside because Tessa would not stop staring at him. But she gave them a much kinder reason.

"Fresh air," she said, tying Ren's cap beneath his chin with fingers that smelled of flour and soap.

"You have been shut indoors too long." Ren accepted the excuse. He had indeed been shut indoors too long. He yearned for the unknown! His entire known universe consisted of crib beams, bedposts, Elna's shoulder, Bren's beard, Tessa's suspicious face, one excellent wool rabbit, and a blue charm that had recently become more interesting than every ceiling in existence. Mana Sense had changed his world. Which currently just meant his room. … But it did not make Mana useful.

The charm still felt cool at the edge of awareness. His own mana still sat warm and sealed beneath his skin. He could sense both when he grew quiet enough, but sensing did not move anything. He had spent two days trying. Breath did nothing. Clenching did nothing. Staring did nothing except make his eyes water. Trying to push the warm stillness toward his hand gave him a headache and a damp fist. Mana Sense sensed. That was all. Really! … Ren didn't know what the heck he expected.

So when Elna lifted him and carried him toward the door, Ren did not fight the humiliation of transport. He needed more objects, more angles, more tests. A crib was a poor laboratory unless the research concerned despair. Tessa followed them downstairs with her wooden horse tucked under one arm.

"You said I could come," she said.

"I said you could come if you stopped trying to teach him to answer rude questions."

"They were not rude."

"Tessa."

"Not rude!" Ren looked at the rabbit in memory and wished it strength. Elna opened the door. Cold air struck Ren's face, and the world opened up before him. For a moment he forgot magic. The village spread around him in a broad curve of mud, thatch, smoke, fences, paths, and moving people. Light flashed off puddles. Chickens scattered from a doorstep. A cart wheel creaked near the lane. Farther off, a hammer struck iron.

Wet earth, manure, woodsmoke, baking bread, and crushed grass layered together until his nose surrendered all hope of order. The village was huge. Then Elna shifted him higher on her hip, and Ren remembered he was the size of luggage. He opened Status before the world could drown him.

[Status] Name: Ren Marric Level: 2 HP: 25/25 Stamina: 22/22 Mana: 34/34 Unspent Stat Points: 1 Stats: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Vitality 3, Intelligence 8, Willpower 5 Skills: Discipline, Observation, Listening, Memory, Calculate, Athletics, Language, Expression, Interpretation, Mana Sense Ren stared at the new line. Unspent Stat Points: 1 Ah. So that's what the level up did.

It had been sitting there since the level increase, apparently waiting for him to stop being distracted by reincarnation, fever, family, language, suspicion, and the discovery that he possessed a sealed jar of invisible power. One point. One choice. Strength might help him move. Dexterity might help him point, crawl, and stop humiliating himself with failed hand placement. Vitality might help him survive the constant betrayal of having organs designed by infancy.

Intelligence was tempting in the way every dangerous idea was tempting. Willpower had carried him through panic, pain, and helplessness. Mana was not listed as a stat. That was annoying. He did not spend the point. Because… There was no point! A point spent blindly was not an experiment, and he would still be a baby after.

"Look at you," Elna murmured.

"Thinking hard already." Accurate. Unhelpfully cute. The Status remained in front of him, clear and compact. Too compact. He wanted the details hidden behind it: progress, skill levels, maybe anything explaining why the System considered him worthy of one point and no manual. Full, he thought. The window changed. [Status: Full] Name: Ren Marric Level: 2 [161. 6/200 EXP] Unspent Stat Points: 1 Resources HP: 25/25 Stamina: 22/22 Mana: 34/34 Stats Strength: 2 Dexterity: 4 Vitality: 3 Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 5 Skills Discipline Lv. 5 Observation Lv. 4 Listening Lv. 4 Memory Lv. 3 Calculate Lv. 3 Athletics Lv. 5 Language Lv. 7 Expression Lv. 6 Interpretation Lv. 3 Mana Sense Lv. 1 Ren blinked. Normal and Full. Of course. The System had not hidden the shelf. It had waited for him to ask the cupboard to open wider.

Full gave levels, categories of meaning, and enough space for future complications. Normal gave the short version. If he could control which one appeared, then Status was not only a report. It responded to intent. … He had the feeling this might not be the end of it either. Other commands might respond to intent too. Elna bounced him once, and the window vanished.

"Too much fresh air?" she asked. Not enough. Elna stepped into the yard. The Marric house stood behind them with its thatched roof, smoke hole, patched shutters, and the familiar doorway that had been the edge of Ren's world until that morning. From outside, the house looked smaller. That offended him. He had suffered greatly inside that structure. It should have looked more impressive. Tessa walked beside Elna and tried to pretend she was not watching Ren watch everything. Ren gave her nothing.

The mud path ran from the house to the well, then split between cottages and the wider lane. The well had a moss-dark rim and a hanging charm made of blue thread and pierced tin disks. A woman with thick gray sleeves drew water while a boy chased a chicken in circles around her skirt. Ren focused on the well. Observation gave shape. Stone, rope, bucket, wet rim, charm. Mana Sense gave almost nothing. The well itself felt ordinary. The blue-thread charm held a faint coolness, weaker than the charm above his crib.

Ren tried to push his mana toward his eyes. Nothing moved. He tried to push it toward the well. Nothing moved. He tried a different angle. Not move. Know. He held the well in sight and pressed the question toward it with every tool he had. Observation to keep it clear. Memory to pin the details. Discipline to narrow the world. Mana Sense to feel for the thin coolness in the charm. What are you? The System answered. [Skill Unlocked: Appraisal] [Village Well] Ren nearly inhaled his own tongue.

Elna shifted him sharply.

"Careful, love." He had gone rigid. He softened at once, allowed his head to wobble, and opened his mouth. Drool came late but arrived in service. Tessa noticed. Of course Tessa noticed. Her eyes narrowed.

"You did a window." Elna laughed.

"He did a what?"

"A window face!" Ren stared at the chicken. The chicken scratched mud with all the innocence Ren lacked. Tessa leaned closer.

"You saw one, didn't you?" Ren stuffed two fingers into his mouth. Misdirection by saliva had limits, but he was committed to the doctrine. Elna walked on, greeting neighbors. Every greeting ruined Ren's angle, but he forgave her because the village kept producing targets. A cottage with red thread tied above the door. [Home] Useless, but correct. Like with everything System, he probably needed to level it up to get anything more. Ren shrugged. As a baby he had all the time in the world! He continued on.

A cart with one cracked wheel. [Handcart] Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. A stone trough. [Water Trough] A bundle of dried herbs hanging from a porch beam. [Dried Bitterleaf] Ren paused on that label. Bitterleaf. The smell from Mara's satchel. The herb that had invaded his nose and destroyed dignity. Appraisal knew names he did not. Not many details. No uses. No quality. No safety warning.

The skill was a child pointing at objects and saying the noun, which made it almost exactly his current level of speech. Still useful. Deeply useful. He looked at Tessa's wooden horse. [Wooden Horse] He looked at the rabbit memory and wondered whether Appraisal could target things not present. No label appeared. Fair. He looked at Elna's sleeve. [Wool Sleeve] At Elna's face. Nothing. Ren froze inside. No label on people, or not at level one, or not without a different intent. Ren did not know.

They reached the green, which was not green enough to deserve the name. It was a broad, muddy common with stubborn grass, scattered stones, and a trough where two goats stood arguing with existence. The main lane bent beyond it. Shops clustered there: a baker, a smithy, a narrow charm seller with colored glass in the window, and a timber yard stacked with cut wood. The world had systems before the System touched it. Paths, trades, wells, food, tools, charms, people who knew where to stand and what to carry.

Ren had spent his old life walking through cities without memorizing their bones. Now he studied one muddy village like a general trapped in a baby sack. The baker's door opened, and warm bread smell rolled over him. Ren turned his head so fast his cap string pulled against his chin. [Bakery] The label appeared over the doorway. He stared harder. No recipe. No owner. No inventory. Appraisal did not care about his hunger. A hammer rang from the smithy.

[Smithy] A wooden sign shaped like a boot hung over another door. [Cobbler] The charm seller's window glittered. [Charm Shop] Ren stared. He knew he had to practice the skill. But the lack of improvement was beginning to grate on him! He looked into the shop. Colored glass, bone disks, tin suns, blue beads, red thread, black cord. His crib charm had felt cool. The well charm had felt faintly cool. The shop window held several small cool pricks at the edge of Mana Sense, scattered among dead glass and metal.

Not all charms carried the same presence then. Or not all objects called charms were equal. Ren wanted to touch them. He wanted to Appraise each one, compare the labels, test whether Mana Sense matched Appraisal detail, and find out whether his own mana could interact with any of them. Unfortunately, he had no money, no hands, and no socially acceptable way to demand a research appointment. He made a frustrated sound. Elna bounced him gently.

"Yes, yes. Very exciting." Tessa followed his gaze to the window.

"Mama, he likes the shiny shop."

"You like the shiny shop too."

"I have good taste!" Ren respected the defense. Elna smiled.

"We are not buying charms today." Tragedy. A goat near the trough bleated with the voice of a creature opposed to joy. [Goat] Ren Appraised it by accident. He waited for more. Nothing. The goat chewed and stared back with rectangular contempt. [Skill Level Increased: Appraisal Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2] The message appeared as Elna turned them away from the shops. Ren held very still. Level two already. He checked the warm stillness beneath his skin and found it shallower than before. Ah. So Appraisal was not free after all!

The cost was small, but repeated use had made it visible. That made Appraisal a tool with a price, not a toy. Useful, but no longer something to throw at every chicken, bucket, and fence post until the System grew tired of him. Not that he had any intention of stopping! Elna walked farther, not far by adult standards, but far enough that the houses thinned and the lane widened. A low stone stood near a turn in the road, half sunk in grass, carved with a sun mark worn soft by weather.

Red thread wrapped its middle, faded nearly brown. Ren stared. [Boundary Stone] Boundary. The word landed with more force than the label deserved. Elna slowed.

"Edge of the village," she said, more to Tessa than to him.

"We're not going past here today."

"Why not?!" Tessa whined.

"Because I am carrying your brother, and you are wearing shoes that collect mud like treasure." Tessa looked down at her shoes.

"They are good at it!" The road continued beyond the stone. Ren could see only a strip of it before the bend took it away. More mud, more ruts, more hedges, more sky. Ordinary. And utterly unreachable. The edge of the world had moved. Yesterday it had been the shutter. Before that, the crib rail. Now it was a stone with red thread and an old sun mark, and beyond it the world kept going without asking whether Ren had neck control. He considered Appraising the stone again, then stopped.

From his experiments before it was clear System didn't like repeated use too much. He had to keep pushing boundaries somehow. He turned Mana Sense toward it instead. A coolness lingered there, weaker than the crib charm, steadier than the well charm. Old, perhaps. Or larger. Or only easier to sense because he was learning the texture. He wanted Full Status again. The window opened. [Status: Full] Name: Ren Marric Level: 2 [165. 8/200 EXP] Unspent Stat Points: 1 Resources HP: 25/25 Stamina: 18/22 Mana: 24/34 Stats Strength: 2 Dexterity: 4 Vitality: 3 Intelligence: 8 Willpower: 5 Skills Discipline Lv. 5 Observation Lv. 4 Listening Lv. 4 Memory Lv. 3 Calculate Lv. 3 Athletics Lv. 5 Language Lv. 7 Expression Lv. 6 Interpretation Lv. 3 Mana Sense Lv. 1 Appraisal Lv. 2 There it was. Appraisal, placed cleanly among the skills. Mana, no longer full. Stamina, lower too.

The System had the manners of a clerk and the timing of a cat, but at least the numbers answered when asked properly. Ten Mana gone. For learning a few names. Ren did not regret it, not at all. The unspent point still waited. He left it be. A point unspent was potential. A point spent badly was history. The window closed. Elna turned back toward the green.

"Home now." Ren wanted to object. His body agreed with Elna. His head had grown heavy. His eyes burned from wind and effort. The village, which had first arrived huge and bright, began to smear at the edges. On the way back, he resisted Appraising every fence post and bucket they passed. This restraint lasted until a chicken fluffed itself near Tessa's shoe and pecked the mud with violent purpose. [Angry Chicken] Ren blinked. Accurate. He almost laughed. The sound came out as a hiccup. Tessa pointed.

"He likes that one."

"No one likes that one," Elna said.

"That one bites." Ren checked his mana again by feel, not Status. The shallow place deepened by the smallest amount. Right. Even accurate chickens cost mana. By the time they reached the Marric house, both Stamina and Mana had fallen low enough that the world moved in soft jerks. Elna brought him inside, untied his cap, and kissed the flattened line it left beneath his chin.

"There. Fresh air survived." Barely. Tessa leaned over him as Elna settled him into the crib.

"Did you see the whole village?" No. He had seen a handful of lanes, several shops, one boundary stone, two useful charms, one hostile chicken, and the appalling scale of everything he could not reach. He slapped the blanket once anyway. Tessa's face lit.

"I knew it." Elna shook her head.

"Let him sleep."

"I am letting him."

"You are hovering."

"I am hovering quietly!" Ren closed his eyes before they could involve him in legal interpretation. He did not sleep at once. The blue charm hung above him, cool at the edge of Mana Sense. He wanted to Appraise it again. He had Appraisal Lv. 2 now. It might tell him more. He hesitated. Mana was not full. Stamina was low. His head already felt packed with wet wool. One more test, then. [Blue Warding Charm] Ren opened his eyes. Warding. Hardly a big change, either Appraisal Lv.

2 had sharpened the label, or his intent had. The object above his crib was not decoration. It did something, or had been made to do something, or was believed to do something by people who tied red thread around stones and hung blue charms over wells. He turned his attention inward. His mana remained warm, sealed, and thinner than before. He tried to move it toward the charm. Nothing. He tried to ask Appraisal for more. No. He stopped himself.

That would cost again, and the first answer had already given him the new piece. Warding was enough for now. He tried Full Status again, then Normal, then Full. Both obeyed. Status was a door that opened when addressed correctly. Appraisal was a question that spent mana to answer. Mana Sense was not a door and not a question. It was a sense, and senses did not move the world. They informed the creature moving through it. Ren lay under the charm and sorted the morning. Status had modes.

He had one unspent stat point. Appraisal could name objects, sometimes better than his own vocabulary. Appraisal cost Mana. Mana Sense could feel some charms. Appraisal and Mana Sense overlapped, but not perfectly. The village was larger than the house, and the world beyond the boundary stone was larger than the village. His body was still terrible. That last point required no System confirmation. Sleep pulled at him, heavy and rude. Ren fought it. That was the adult answer. More waking time meant more practice.

More practice meant more progress. More progress meant a better chance of becoming something other than a helpless milk-powered hostage to furniture. His body punished the theory at once. The charm blurred. His thoughts stuck together. Mana Sense thinned until the cool presence above him felt less like a sense and more like a memory of one. He considered Appraising the bedpost and failed before the question finished forming. He forced his eyes open. Heroic. Pointless. When he woke, the room had shifted.

The light had changed. His chin was damp, one leg had escaped the blanket, and his body felt less like a sack of warm sand with opinions. Status. [Status] Name: Ren Marric Level: 2 HP: 25/25 Stamina: 20/22 Mana: 27/34 Unspent Stat Points: 1 Ren stared. Before sleep, Stamina had been much lower. Mana had risen too. He had not trained. He had not eaten enough to explain all of it. He had simply lost consciousness against his will and returned with more usable body and more mana than before. Sleep restored resources.

Obvious, said the old mind. Important, said the new body. Infuriating, said Ren. He checked Full Status, confirmed the unspent point still waited, and left it alone. Spending a stat point because he was tired would be the numerical version of crying. No. He needed rules first. So he tested sleep. That sounded simple until he tried to do it on purpose. Old-life advice surfaced in pieces. Clear the mind. Slow the breath. Relax the jaw. Release the shoulders. Keep a steady routine. Avoid bright light.

Do not think about work. Ren had no bright screens, almost no jaw authority, and shoulders that had only recently started accepting suggestions. His routine belonged to Elna, milk, laundry, Tessa, weather, and the violent scheduling instincts of infancy. Still, he tried. He loosened his fists when they clenched. He stopped chasing every sound from downstairs. He let the charm click without turning it into a research emergency. He breathed softly instead of grandly.

He reviewed the village once, in order, then refused to rebuild the map a second time. That last part nearly failed. Memory kept offering pieces. Well, baker, charm shop, boundary stone, angry chicken, muddy lane, Tessa's face when he slapped the blanket. Each detail arrived bright and ready. Adult advice said not to think. Ren's skills said thinking was how he survived. Compromise, then. One review. Slowly. Then let the pieces settle. Warmth. Still hands. Soft breath. One review. Let go.

Sleep came faster this time. When he woke again, Stamina had climbed higher than stubborn wakefulness had managed. Mana had recovered too, not fully, but clearly enough that the pattern could not be ignored. He repeated the method through the day whenever his body dragged him toward rest. He could not command sleep perfectly. He was still an infant, and infants treated consciousness as a shared household resource. But he could make the fall cleaner. He could stop wasting the edge of it.

He could wake with more of himself available. [Skill Unlocked: Sleeping] Ren stared at the message in offended silence. Of all possible skills, the System had chosen to dignify unconscious surrender. He practiced, slept, trained again, fell asleep with the tight balance of focusing on sleep and not focusing too hard to not accidentally prevent falling asleep, he saw another message. [Skill Level Increased: Sleeping Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2] The insult deepened.

Then he checked Status after the next nap and saw Stamina nearly full and Mana climbing with it. Fine. If the System wanted to reward strategic unconsciousness, Ren would become the most disciplined sleeper in the crib. Before sleep took him again, he fixed one decision in place. Do not spend the point. Not until he understood the cost. Not until he understood growth. Not until he understood what kind of person he needed to become to survive being Ren Marric. Or to become a sky splitting Archmage extraordinaire!

The blue charm clicked once above him. [Skill Level Increased: Memory Lv. 3 -> Lv. 4] Ren accepted that as fair. He had a village to remember now, and sleep had become part of remembering it. Sleep took him under the edge of the world.