Godfather's System

As I stood up in front of the rocks, I had no intention of hiding my capabilities — especially since my physical limits didn't have anything particularly impressive. I was fit for a sixty-year-old, and Vitality increased my potential to a degree, but neither fact was unknown to them.

I lifted rock after rock, until I settled on one that was about eighty pounds, struggling to lift it as I repeated, but the endurance given to me by Vitality helped significantly to repeat the action. Occasionally, I glanced at them, but they were distracted by their little argument, too far away from me to hear.

Not that I needed to, as Toross' juvenile actions were rather obvious, while Falael reacted with increasing hostility.

Their lack of attention further confirmed that they didn't expect anything to happen. I was happy to play along with their assumption just in case — especially if I could undersell the effect.

"Now, start running," Falael commanded, once again weighted with charisma, and I did so. "Faster, push yourself," he added, and I did so, but other than quickened breathing, nothing happened. Exercise after exercise, and despite Vitality, I started to get exhausted.

They started to whisper occasionally when they looked at me. Unfortunately, this time, they had enough presence of mind not to talk whenever I got too close — or it was simply luck, deciding I had already caught enough of a break in this new world I had found myself in.

When they started to show signs of boredom, I decided to act. It was clear that if a Stat awakened, it would impact their further decision-making system. I was willing to believe that, with their laziness, they wouldn't have bothered to go through with the process if it wasn't really important.

So, while doing some kind of obstacle running, I came to a stop. "Some kind of writing appeared in my sight. It says something about Agility potential being awakened! What should I do?" I asked.

"Excellent, think hard about accepting," Falael shouted, once again supported by his charisma which he showed showing. The sudden passion in his tone surprised me, making me think that I had misread him … until I noticed Toross grumbling as he passed a pouch to him.

As if the situation wasn't humiliating enough…

"Good progress," Falael said as he stood up, although his face was still pasty enough to show that he hadn't quite got over his hangover. "Agility is a good building block for many fighting styles, maybe we could still make a warrior out of you," he explained.

"Oh, like a knight!" I gasped in fascination.

"Not a chance in the Abyss, not with your Vitality potential," Toross said. "I'm almost sure that you have some kind of hidden Ability that reduces the potency of your Vitality. It will be a waste to make you a front-line fighter. A ranged weapon would fit you very well, something like an archer maybe."

"But … I have never shot a bow before," I said, then paused, lowering my voice even more. "Though, I haven't used a sword either…"

"Don't worry about that," Toross said with a laugh, his grumbling about losing the bet already gone. "As a hero, you'll have your choice of the most amazing skills. Now that we have a good idea about what you are good at, we should move on to the next stage." Then, he turned to Falael. "What do you think, do you think it would be good to level up a bit before we arrive?"

"Could be," Falael said, noncommittal despite his mood, which had improved considerably after his victory — and from the intensity of his reaction, I was almost sure that the pouch wasn't filled with silver but something much considerably more valuable. "Still, we have to go through the other tests, just in case."

"We have already done them all," Toross said.

"Not the mental ones," Falael answered.

"Boring. And do you think he…"

"Maybe. And boring or not, we need to be complete," Falael said. "Or why would I bother to actually try and deal with such things," Toross grumbled and walked away, while Falael turned to me. "Do you know numbers? How to add, and subtract?"

"Yes," I said.

"Good, tell me, what's fifteen and twenty-two," he said.

I paused for a moment, surprised that he was asking me a question that wouldn't stumble even a primary-school child. But as I looked at him, he only waited patiently, like it was normal for me to wait for that long to answer that question.

It never hurt to underestimate, so I answered him. "T-thirty-seven," I muttered, but only after a pause.

"Is this the best you can do," he said with a dismissive sigh. "What kind of horrible world have you come from?"

"A very horrible one," I answered, despite knowing it wasn't a question.

"Clearly," he said and asked me several more questions, slightly harder, but not particularly so. I wondered if it was more about the world I found myself in, or the dismissive way he was seeing my home. The soldiers had shown no problem with math while gambling, but I wasn't sure whether they were a casual example of the world I had been summoned to. Maybe they were equivalent to college graduates.

Maybe he treated my world as a primitive place. It wouldn't surprise me too much, considering they didn't ask a question.

After a long math test — one that I failed by failing to add anything in three digits — he moved other things. He had shown several pictures, asking me about details of them after giving me a temporary glimpse. It was an obvious test of Perception, a stat I had awakened while they were busy with the after-effects of their drinking game.

I didn't tell them I had already awakened it. I might have acted differently if they were showing any kind of stress, but clearly awakening even one stat was above their expectations. Why bother to give them more if they were satisfied with what they already had?

"Nothing else," I said, and Falael folded another picture. "Sorry?"

He didn't even bother responding to my apology. It was a fake one, of course, but still, rude. He moved to another test, this time giving me a deck of cards, a fancier version of what he had given me earlier. "Try to memorize them."

Once again, I gave a middling performance, while he didn't stay engaged. I still tried to remember the full set, even applying some tricks I had used. To my surprise, a line of writing appeared in my view.

[Stat Potential Awakened: Memory

Accept / Reject]

I quietly accepted it, not giving any sign of irregularity. Interestingly, he didn't react to it, just like their lack of reaction when I faked receiving Agility, a great difference from their panic when I leveled up. With their great display, it seemed like it would stay a secret.

Hopefully.

"It looks like nothing else will awaken," Falael said after some more tests, unaware that he had given me another tool. Whether it would actually prove useful was a different question, but it was always better to have and not to need than the opposite. "Go and tell the servants to bring the cages," he said.

"Why don't you go, I'm not your servant," Toross answered, even more, bored than Falael, he was clearly a man of action. "And while you're gone I can give him a quick lesson on archery."

"What's the point of teaching him anything before he gets a skill, moron. Find a better excuse. It's acceptable if you want to stay until I have finished my tests," Falael answered, which turned out to be enough to trigger his movement — only after a frustrated grumble. Another detail of his relative simplicity.

Falael grumbled as Toross walked away, and we continued practicing. "By the way, do you have any idea why you were able to awaken Agility? You don't seem to be particularly fast or skilled," he asked between tests.

I felt like it was idle chatter to pass the time, considering it wasn't accompanied by that mental pressure to make me tell the truth. That didn't mean I wouldn't act safe, of course. A quick examination of possibilities later, I answered. "Juggling, probably," I said.

"Juggling?" he said, sounding slightly confused.

I reached to grab four stones — from one of the tests he used to test my mental abilities, by making me play a game similar to checkers — and started throwing them up. I was rusty when it came to juggling, but still, I was able to give a quick show. Enough to be convincing, if the boredom he displayed rather than suspicion was any indicator.

"Enough, let's continue," he said, this time showing me a different kind of test, which lasted about another half an hour, until Toross returned, along with a large group of servants, each carrying a medium-sized cage with monsters inside.

"Good, we can stop now," Falael called. "We have tested enough. It's time to level up, and show you the benefits of Stats." Then, he paused and gave a command, one that came with a strong sense of pressure. "Don't forget, don't assign any points, or accept anything without checking with me," he said.

Even as he gave that command, another suffocating wave accompanied his words, and a made show of trembling. "Y-yes," I stammered, but my attention was focused on getting used to the feeling of pressure, hoping to replicate it one day.

I was entirely unsurprised that none of their attempts looked remotely fitting to actually awaken Charisma.