ch 2 – Convenient System
Ding!
[‘Luciella the Heroslayer’ has taught you the expertise ‘Basic Swordsmanship’. Effect: Attune a sword to your soul. You can temporarily use skills from attuned swords or inversely create your own sword skills and record them in an attuned sword.]
In gaming terms, it meant that he was able to 'equip' swords.
"Excellent, you've become a real swordsman." Luciella's lips curled up as she observed Dann's sword. An almost invisible sheen wrapped his sword like a thin membrane.
[You received the skill: 'Basic Aura Blade'.
Requirement: sword
Effect: Aura is no longer limited to your body but also extends to your sword, providing durability and the ability to cut down the occult.
Arsenal potential:
+1 hitpoint/aura
+0.2 attack/aura
+0.5 defense/aura]
It was the fundamental prerequisite for a weapon to be effective in combat. It meant that the weapon and player shared the same pool of hitpoints. Blocking with a sword resulted in chip damage, but on the flipside it negated the invulnerability of occult influences like the opponent's aura.
[+5 favorability with ‘Luciella the Heroslayer’ (27/100)
+1 favorability with ‘Eplit’s Orphanage-School’ (3)]
Dann grinned. He cleared the condition to unlock the swordsman class, though he could only gain a class after the 12 year old coming-of-age ceremony. Maintaining a good relationship with a character with such a badass name was a nice bonus.
Sensing a presence, he suddenly dropped his sword and ran toward the entrance.
“Asdel~” Loreley walked in. The female adventurer wore a beaming smile as she spread her arms to receive his hug.
Indeed, Asdel was the new name she gave him.
[-1 favorability with Luciella (26/100)]
‘Fuck, why are you getting jealous?’ Asdel cursed before jumping into Loreley’s arms.
He deactivated soul mind. Losing 80% of his mental processing power made him sluggishly drunk and immune to cringe… which was powerful in its own way. The softness of Loreley's skin and her sweet fragrance made him helplessly euphoric, and he enjoyed them without restraint.
“Loreley, I missed you!” Asdel yelled in pure unfiltered joy as he clung to his adoptive mother like a koala.
Who could dislike such a display of affection? Certainly not Loreley! Even after spending so much time with Luciella, Asdel's love was still solely directed to her and no one else. At first, she intended to leave him in the orphanage, but ended up picking him after weaning because of his cute attachment. As a result, she grinned while performing high speed patting on Asdel's hair.
"I want to play with mom too." A boy barely older than Asdel sprung behind Loreley.
The bowl haircut boy trotted expectantly towards his own mother Luciella, only to receive a light pat instead of a hug like Asdel.
“You are a future priest, Luke. You don’t need to play with sticks,” Luciella said.
"Then play with me, bro." The pitiful boy ran to Asdel and pulled him down from Loreley's chest. He had to exert great effort to snatch him from Loreley, to the point of almost tearing Asdel’s pants down.
While they bickered, Loreley walked up to her friend nun, undaunted by her position as inquisitor. “Thank you so much for your time as always. I hope he didn't cause trouble.”
"Not at all, Asdel is an excellent disciple. His talent is great, miraculous even. Just now, he learned aura blade," Luciella said.
"Aura blade?!" Loreley exclaimed in disbelief. 'Where did that talented baby come from?' she wondered, slightly afraid that she kidnapped a royalty's baby.
"Perhaps it was the will of Allfather that brought him here." Luciella nodded.
Loreley exchanged pleasantries while other parents picked up their children. However, most students were orphans who remained here at all times.
Asdel blushed from the barrage of flatteries and acted as if he didn't hear any of it.
He took Luke aside and entertained him while the adults spoke. "Let's pick up herbs next time if you're bored. Do you know how much alchemists pay for these? You could buy half a bag of candy with a stalk of bellgrass."
"Hm… but I want to play with mom too." Luke pouted.
“Tch, what a shame. That beauty only knows how to beat kids.” Asdel shook his head and abandoned his forlorn friend.
They left the school, riding Loreley’s majestic griffin. All the kids were dying from jealousy, and he had to acknowledge that riding that beast felt awesome.
"Did you catch a lot of monsters today, Loreley?" Asdel was thankful for her care even though they had no blood ties. The least he could do was to ask how her day went.
"Of course, mom is the best. I stopped an invasion in the forest." She recounted her epic battle and pulled out a purse from her belt. It contained countless beads that emitted a soft light. Those were soul gems taken from slain enemies and there was an impressive amount.
Loreley was a D-rank adventurer, which was the end of the road for most people and was considered the rank of elites. Only a handful of monstrous people could break through to C-rank like Luciella.
They arrived at Loreley’s villa at the outskirts of the town and were surprised by her family.
""Happy birthday, Asdel!"" The young ones were loud and playful as they ambushed him in the garden.
On the other hand, the rest of the family gave him the stink eye for being an adopted child. How could Loreley spend so lavishly for a random brat? But they still came for the free food and drinks and no one wanted to miss out on Loreley’s parties.
A maid brought strawberry cakes, and one of them was a bit special, as eight candles stuck out from the top.
Asdel’s lips twitched at the sight of the fancy pastry as his after-school snack. Celebrating birthdays wasn’t even part of the local culture, but Loreley liked it after Asdel celebrated her birthday. He felt incredibly blessed that Loreley was rich as fuck and spoiled him rotten. At least, it lessened his heartache of losing his millionaire life on Earth.
He blew the eight candles and made a wish to the gods.
As he enjoyed his cake in the lush garden, an awkward notification popped up.
[Strawberry birthday cake buff
Expiration: 7 days
Effects: Increase energy recovery rate +5%.]
In Hekal, 80% of the population could only afford food made by alchemy and soul gems. Farmers and fertile land were actually luxuries, and food properly nurtured provided pay-to-win buffs that further widened the gap between the poor and the rich.
The children played in Loreley’s garden after the snacks. Although the adults spoke quietly, Asdel was able to pick up the harsh words of criticism directed at him.
“It’s not even his real birthday.” “The Skylander’s children don’t celebrate their birthday so why is an adopted brat an exception. Is she trying to provoke us?”
“That damned parasite only knows how to suck our blood.” Loreley’s brother was especially mad. He was salty ever since he lost his opportunity to be a griffin rider to Loreley. If only he was a D-rank adventurer too, he would get multiple wives, but instead he could only watch Loreley with his face green of jealousy.
Asdel picked up a training sword and headed towards a training dummy with a nefarious smile.
Every follower of the Congregation had to pay a big tax to Church, forcing them to pull their weight even if that meant risking their life as adventurers. Naturally, the Skylander family nurtured their own children into griffin riders.
His foster family used the limited number of griffins as a reason to deny Asdel from their family training facilities, but he wasn’t interested in becoming a rider anyway. Still, for his birthday, no one would complain about him hitting a few dummies.
’Hehe, I’m going to shut them up once and for all.’ He navigated his system interface with his thoughts and put ‘Basic Aura Blade’ into his ‘arsenal’. Without the Allfather’s blessing, his soul arsenal had only one slot instead of nine, but that was enough for now.
Asdel slowly lifted his sword and willed all his aura into the blade. The edge glowed, appearing heavier, sharper and deadlier. The training weapon shook, as if to cry that it couldn’t contain the child’s power. The head-turning anomaly stirred a wave of exclamation in the garden.
Not noticing the subtle changes in the air, the nasty uncle spat contemptuous comments. “Who are you trying to impress with that sword, foolish boy…”