An Unborn Hero

In the ministry of records of the kingdom of Flinel, a [Junior Scribe] monitored the Recorder of Merit. Anyone earning an achievement of legendary or higher rarity was announced via a world message, but a Flinellian king from long ago had seen the value of recording lower-level achievements, and had commissioned the creation of this Artefact. It recorded achievements of any rarity, along with the name of the earner and their relative location to the Recorder, as long as the achievement was earned within the borders of the kingdom.

Some people wondered what the value of recording even common achievements was, but such people hadn't needed to deal with such issues as baronies falsifying their populations to cheat on their taxes. Everyone earned the common achievement [First Skill], for example, so a simple count of the number of times it occurred within the borders of a barony was a straightforward and accurate way of measuring birth rate.

It also had policing benefits. Should [Murderer I] crop up, for example, the relevant guard commander would soon find a neat little note on their desk, upon which was written a name they might want to investigate. Should that be followed by [Murderer II] or, goddess forbid, [Murderer III], the same guard commander was likely to find a squad of royal guards muscling in on their turf, taking care of the problem before it escalated.

Despite the myriad uses, most people didn't even know about it, and the palace wanted to keep it that way. The more tools at their disposal that enemies both within the kingdom and without were unaware of, the better their position. Alas, that meant the job of monitoring the thing lacked prestige. Nor did it require any real effort; over the years, the Artefact had been tweaked to alert on anything of interest, so the monitoring position had been reduced practically to that of a messenger boy, serving only to alert someone higher up the chain whenever a light blinked.

The [Junior Scribe] sat reading the message log regardless, simply for the humour value of some of the achievements. What exactly must one do to earn [Village Idiot], for example? Whatever it was, someone by the name of Karl a few days' journey west had managed it. Alas, his pondering was spoilt by a light flashing at him. Only the green one, so low priority. No need to rush anywhere; he'd just transcribe the indicated achievement into the logbook and hand it off at the end of his shift.

The flagged message was someone earning an uncommon achievement; [Early Bloomer I]. Not anything bad, then; the kingdom simply liked to keep an eye on such promising people, lest talent be wasted. If the achievement had been earned by the child of a poor farmer out in the sticks, for example, they might find themselves receiving an unsolicited scholarship offer for a decent boarding school. A higher ranked version of the achievement could result in an invitation to the capital's royal academy, or even a noble adoption.

Dipping his quill in some ink, he brought it to the logbook, only to spot a problem; the recorded name was blank. That... hadn't happened before. Was the Recorder on the fritz? It was an Artefact, though, so it shouldn't break down. Had someone deliberately not named their child? But there had been no [First Skill] notifications without a name, and what sort of person would earn an uncommon skill before even getting [Crawling]? That left a more disturbing option; was someone experimenting with ways of hiding achievements from the Recorder?

Another glance at the message revealed the coordinates were practically zero. The culprit was right here, in the royal capital!

Deciding that this warranted a higher priority than the green light normally signified, the scribe carefully pushed away the logbook and started writing on a smaller piece of paper.

Meanwhile, the oblivious subject of the message was still engaged in her efforts to level her pair of skills, and was indeed lacking the [First Skill] achievement, which, despite the name, only triggered on the first common skill. Thus far, she'd only picked up uncommons.

ding

Through repeated use, [Astral Projection] advances to level 4.

She rested back in her morula, recovering from the weird strain dislocating her soul placed on her.

"Each time I do that, I end up feeling weak and lethargic for ages afterwards... It can't be doing me any good. But from here, I still can't see anything."

[Sense Vitality] and [Sense Soul] did indeed still show little more than uniform glows from the inside, although [Sense Mana] was starting to show at least a little movement, if not any actual structure. The problem was largely one of scale; the hero was currently very small, so her immediate surroundings really were highly homogenous.

"Since I could get sub-skills for [Soul's Eye], maybe I can for [Astral Projection] too. Something to stop this degradation? If there's supposed to be a link, maybe I can consciously try to support it? Or is that not possible, since the skill specifically says that levels will help me stay outside for longer? Would be odd for regular levels and sub-skills to do the same thing. Really could have done with an instruction manual..."

Believing it worth a try anyway, after her next recovery, she moved only a small distance before staring at her old position with her [Soul's Eye]. There... was something there. A tiny spot of a different shade of red to her [Sense Vitality]. And was that a thin line connecting that spot to... her? She shifted around a bit, pushing against the strange resistance that came from moving around someone else's body, and the thin silvery line followed.

ding

For viewing the connection between body and soul, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 8.

The line snapped into clearer focus, the dot of red it was connected to standing out a little more obviously against the blinding background.

"Right, so I can see the connection. Now, how do I stop it degrading?"

The next few cycles of projecting and recovery were spent trying to feel out the link, or manipulate it in any way. And, eventually, the system rewarded her efforts.

ding

Through repeated injury, you have unlocked the [Robust] skill.

Achievement unlocked: [First Skill].

Robust (Common)

Whether you're particularly clumsy or are employed in a dangerous job, repeated cycles of injury and healing have granted you this common skill. As its level increases, you become more resistant to injury and heal more quickly.

First Skill (Common)

Congratulations on earning your first skill! May it be followed by many more.

"Uh... That wasn't my first skill; it was my third! What a silly achievement. And the skill itself isn't at all what I wanted, either, but perhaps it'll do the same job?"

It did indeed increase the time she could spend outside of her 'body', albeit not by much. It was only a minimum level common skill, after all. But that would change with levelling, so she continued her efforts to grind her skills.

ding

Through repeated use, [Astral Projection] advances to level 5.

You have taken repeated damage to your soul, upgrading [Robust] with [Hardened Soul]. Level cap of [Robust] increased by 10.

For experiencing a new aspect of injury, [Robust] advances to level 2.

"Hardened soul? What the heck is that? Can I view details of sub-skills?"

Hardened Soul (Rare)

Damaging a soul is difficult, and isn't something that would happen by accident. One does not simply trip over a stone and smear globs of ectoplasm over the floor. Thankfully, whatever sort of enemies you have made that keep attacking you in this way will find their efforts hindered by this sub-skill. [Robust] now has a greater effect when defending your soul and you recover from injuries to your soul even more quickly.

"Oh, awesome. Then what about my others?"

Sense Vitality (Uncommon)

All living things can be identified through their innate vitality, and this sub-skill will permit you to perceive it. Be warned that skills for masking vitality are widespread, while undead and constructs lack it completely.

Sense Soul (Rare)

All higher, sapient lifeforms possess souls, buried and protected within shells of flesh and bone, wood and metal, or even pure mana. This rare sub-skill will let you perceive these souls, and rarer still are those with the skills to hide from your newfound vision.

Sense Mana (Uncommon)

Mana permeates all things. It may strengthen or weaken. Freeze or burn. Create or destroy. A thousand components and a million subtleties. This sub-skill will let you see a fraction of them, perceiving mana density and movement, but you have a long way to go if you wish to observe every facet of this fundamental building block of magic.

"Pity; [Sense Mana] is actually kinda weak. Oh well, nothing some grinding can't fix. And with [Hardened Soul], I can grind even harder!"

The time she could spend spectating indeed increased further, although she still couldn't move more than a couple of yards from her 'body' without the link stretching uncomfortably. It was fairly obvious that trying to go further risked it snapping, and the little hero had no intention of finding out what the result of that would be. Nothing good, certainly. Instead, she settled into a steady schedule of skill grinding, watching with interest the group of blobs around the blob that was her mother. None of the blobs seemed to be moving very much. Was she at her workplace, perhaps? But she was supposed to be a mage, and the hero really couldn't imagine a mage working an office job.

ding

Through repeated use, [Astral Projection] advances to level 6.

Through repeated injury, [Robust] advances to level 3.

For your efforts to spy on restricted areas, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 9.

Unnamed Human

Age: -9 months

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (9/40)

>> Sense Vitality (U)

>> Sense Soul (R)

>> Sense Mana (U)

- Astral Projection (U) (6/10)

- Robust (C) (3/20)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer I (U)

- First Skill (C)

"Right, that should do it," said the [Master Enchanter], putting down his tools and stepping back from the Recorder of Merit. "The new notification light will blink whenever a notification is missing information for any of the three columns."

"And will remain off at other times, presumably?" asked the kingdom's [Chief Scribe], who was supervising the upgrade.

"Yes, of course. Would be a bit silly if it blinked both when it did and didn't detect something."

"Well, yes, that was my assumption. It's just that it's blinking right now."

The [Master Enchanter] sighed and turned back to the Artefact he'd only just finished fiddling with. The things had their capital letters for a reason, and he wouldn't dare touch them if not for the way he knew for a fact there was no-one else in the kingdom as good as him.

It turned out that his assumption about making some sort of mistake had itself been mistaken, though.

"Uh, apparently someone with no name just got [First Skill]."

The [Chief Scribe] looked over the shoulder of the enchanter, checking the display himself. The coordinates were exactly zero.

"Right, now we know someone is playing silly buggers. For the coordinates to be precisely zero, the person earning the achievement would need to be inside this building, and I'm damn sure anyone in this building legitimately has at least one skill."

"Well, I checked it over as best as I could, and as far as I can tell, it's working perfectly."

The [Chief Scribe] sighed. "Best I seek an audience with the palace, then."