An Unbound Soul

We arrived back home from Richard's clinic, everyone in deep in thought, myself included. I had never heard of [Abnormal Soul], but I was hardly an expert. Besides, at rank four things got a little... fluid. Two people with a trait of the same name could receive slightly different effects, or someone could acquire a unique trait that had never been seen before. I had to admit that the name was a little off-putting, so I could see why Peter didn't want to admit to it. Even now, he hadn't given the full description, paraphrasing its effects instead. I wanted to ask, but a person's traits are deeply personal. If he wishes to share in the future, then I will listen. If not, I will respect his choice.

I couldn't help but smile at how much that kid has corrupted me. Respecting the choice of someone who has only just hit one year old? I knew I wasn't cut out for being a parent. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that Peter wasn't cut out for being a baby, either.

"Can you expwain a bith abouth shthathush and wevewsh, and how tho geth shwiwwsh? Ath the momenth ith thewwsh me I have nothing avaiwabwe tho purchashe."

As ever, it took a second to mentally insert all the missing consonants into his sentence. Status, levels and how to get skills, is it? I had wondered why he'd never asked about that before, despite being so interested in monsters and dungeons. Probably because he didn't want to admit knowing his own status. He must have had access to it for at least the past couple of seasons, as soon as his language skills picked up. I know from personal experience that people who can't read can hear System messages aurally.

"That's a pretty big subject. Let's see, where shall we start? Top to bottom, I guess. Name and species don't need any explanation, so class is the first, and it's a big one. Classes are ranked from one to five, with the number of possible classes increasing at each rank. Everyone starts at rank one with one of three classes: [Commoner], [Noble] or [Nomad]. The maximum level of a class is ten for rank one, and it doubles with each rank. Once you hit max level, you're able to switch to a new class assuming you've met its requirements. For example, I have the rank two class [Farmer], for which the requirement was simply to have the [Basic Farming] skill. Once I reach level twenty, I'll want to change class to [Expert Farmer], which requires me to have the [Advanced Farming] skill. A class affects the skills you can obtain, as well as the direction of your growth. So as a [Farmer] my farming related skills level more easily and levelling gives me bonus endurance. Classes should be chosen carefully since once you've picked one, it can't be changed until you hit your level cap. Changing class loses you the bonuses to skill gain, but you keep any stats you have gained and skills unlocked in the shop remain unlocked forever. For example, if I decided to switch class to [Cook] it would become harder to level my farming related skills, but I would still be able to buy any farming skills I'd already unlocked from the shop, and my endurance wouldn't drop.

"Next up are soul points. The main method of acquiring them is by levelling, and you will always get one per level regardless of your class. You can gain additional points by performing impressive feats related to your class. I'm not aware of anything a [Commoner] can do, but as a [Farmer] growing a particularly impressive vegetable or getting a really high yield from a field might grant me an extra one. There are other less common ways to get them, such as your [Curiosity]. Soul points are the required currency to acquire new skills, which I'll get to later.

"Health and stamina are self explanatory. It should go without saying that letting health hit zero results in death. Stamina hitting zero will result in unconsciousness."

"I wnow thath aww thoo weww."

"Hah, yes. What was your current endurance? Three? At that sort of level, the stamina drain of simply being awake will outstrip your regeneration. Don't worry; you'll grow up quickly enough. Anyway, some skills will consume stamina to operate. For that matter, there are some skills that will drain your health, but I hope you never start to tread that path. Mana is much the same as stamina, except that it is used for magical skills while stamina is consumed by physical skills. Again, running out will leave you unconscious. Health and stamina are based on your endurance, and mana on your intelligence. The linked stats don't just control your cap, but also your regeneration rate. With high enough endurance you can sprint forever, never running out of breath.

"So next up are stats. I think the physical ones are self explanatory. For the mental ones, intelligence deals with memory and planning while wisdom deals with intuition, reaction and snap judgements. Charisma is your ability to converse, teach and interact. High charisma is important for always being able to think up great puns at short notice."

"Which is why your jokes are always so bad."

Ouch, low blow Lucy. Low blow. Now Peter is grinning at me, and here I was being all serious and fatherly for once.

"A normal target is to have at least ten in all stats before adulthood, which I doubt you'll have a problem with. To a point, stats increase through usage and training. Beyond that they can be increased by levelling higher ranked classes.

"Next up are skills, another big topic. Like classes, each skill has a rank from one to five. A rank one skill costs two soul points and the price doubles or more for each rank, jumping to five, ten, twenty-five, then fifty. Skills also have levels, but the max is level ten regardless of rank. Now, I know that what you're most interested in is why you can't buy any skills, and that's a simple matter of not having the required experience. You can't buy [Basic Farming] without ever having planted a seed before. You need to put some effort of your own in to acquire a rank one skill, regardless of what that skill may be. Higher rank skills have their own acquisition requirements, typically of having a lower rank skill at level ten along with an appropriate class. For example, you've just seen Richard using [Analysis]. That's a rank three skill that can be obtained once the rank two [Appraisal] reaches level ten, and in turn [Appraisal] requires the rank one [Inspection] at level ten. Getting [Inspection] requires learning the names of many varieties of plants, animals, materials and so on, and learning how to recognise them. [Inspection] would actually be a pretty good target for your first skill, since it has no physical requirements. Normally you want to think very carefully about which skills you want as soul points are a limited resource, but with your [Curiosity] you can afford to splash out on a few rank ones to taste the waters. You level skills simply by using them. Difficult but manageable uses are best; using your skill in a way that poses no challenge or that has no chance to succeed counts for very little towards levels.

"Traits describe you as a person. Are you shy and reserved or outgoing and extrovert? Curious or habitual? Over your first year of life, the System picks up on the biggest things that make you 'you', and grants bonuses for them. Everyone has at least one, and most have two. Three isn't that uncommon, but having four like you do is a bit of an outlier. And of course, as you've just seen traits are also divided into ranks one to five with higher ranks giving larger effects. Losing or gaining traits after your first year is rare but not impossible, usually triggered by major life events that have so much of an impact that they result in major changes to your personality.

"Titles have a lot of similarities to traits, but they represent what you have done rather than what you are. Think along the lines of class achievements granting soul points, but on a larger scale. Doing something large enough for the System to grant a title is rare. I certainly don't have any, and if there's anyone in the village who does, they haven't advertised it. If you do manage to get one, then they grant their own bonuses similar to traits. One major difference is that while there are no negative traits, there are negative titles.

"And there you have it. That's a brief description of your status. Any questions?"

Phew, I hope not. That's already more talking than I've done in days.

"How do I wearn magic shwiwwsh?"

And my hopes are mercilessly dashed. But I can't help with that one, anyway.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about magic. I believe there's a rank one skill that you need to sense mana before you can start learning any sort of control, but I have no idea how to get it. Richard can use healing magic, so we'd be better off asking him."

Lucy was looking wistful. I remember her telling me how she'd been enamoured by some magical class back when she was younger, back before we'd first met. "There is a skill called [Mana Sense] that's the first step, but you do need to speak to a proper mage. Richard isn't the only one; there are a few earth magic users around here too. Very useful for tilling fields. How about we invite Kari over for dinner one evening?"

"That's a good idea. It's been a while since we last had a get together with Kari. But there's still a couple of hours of daylight left. If you're interested in learning [Inspection] I can give you a tour of our fields right now. With everything you've been doing with your mum, you can't be far off. It probably just needs a bit of variety."

"Yesh, thanwsh dad!"

The hours of daylight are long in the summer, giving plenty of time to teach Peter the various crops we grow here and the animals we've domesticated. The village primarily grows sugar beet to sell, but we also have fields of other vegetables and plants for our own consumption. There's a large field each of potatoes, oats and wheat, and smaller fields of beans, peas, carrots, leafy veg and more. There's even an apple orchard, albeit a small one, because there's a limit as to how much we can protect from the cold winters. Peter soaked up all of our crops without comment, but showed a lot of surprise to our animals. I suppose he'd never seen them before, but that was equally true of our crops. I suppose there's a far bigger difference between a hexauyo and a rainbow beast than there is between two plants, which are all just green and leafy.

After browsing our fields, there was still enough time to head out to some uncultivated land and teach the names of the wild plants and herbs that grow around here. [Inspection] is a handy skill for anyone foraging; there are some poisonous mushrooms around here that look almost identical to some very tasty ones. Close enough that I wouldn't want to rely on my own knowledge to tell them apart. I didn't try to include them in today's lesson because it would be dangerous to Peter if he got it wrong. This trip was actually kinda fun, but eventually time ran out.

"I think it's about time to head back. Was that enough to get your skill? If not, we'll need a trip into the forest some other day."

"No, I haven'th had any nothificathionsh."

"Ah, I forgot to mention, but you don't get notifications when new skills become available. You have to check the store periodically."

Peter went quiet for a bit, focusing on a point in thin air. Hmm? That's strange, what's he looking at? He should be hearing the System aurally, not looking at anything.

"Yesh, I have ith!"

"Well done, I'm proud of you. But if you don't mind me asking, can you read?"

His eyes opened wide in surprise.

"No..."

Oh, so he can't then. The System interface is personalised for everyone, so maybe there's still a visual component of some sort for him. Dunno why he looked so shocked at the question, though; even if it was a silly one from his point of view, there's no reason to look so panicked over it. "It's okay, I wouldn't expect you to. No need to look so panicked over it. Anyway, let's head home."

His expression changed to one of confusion. Why? Did he think he should be able to read? This child of ours is weird. Despite being so intelligent, so many little thing seems to throw him. I chalked it up to the mismatch between his mental stats and life experiences, and carried him back home.

"Mission successful. Our little boy has learnt his first skill."