NOVEL NEXT Chapter 100: Building a baseline
“Nothing works without details. They are everything, the baseline of quality.”
Dieter Rams
“Welcome, Kai. I am so excited to have you here with us today.” She smiled delightedly, happy to have finally gotten hold of me once she knew what I was and what I was capable of. Grandfather was carefully watching from a distance to ensure there wasn’t a repeat of going overboard when it came to the tuition of children.
“First things first, I would like to form a baseline of you and your stats. It may take the majority of today, but I promise after the initial assessments I will give you a lesson in Spellcraft as a reward. I know that is what you are really after.” She paused to let me absorb the program for today. “Now we have already done this with Aleera so she will be able to take you through everything and give an example for each one.” She gestured towards Aleera who led us to the first task. Aleera had never mentioned this part of her training only focusing on telling me about the skills that she had been learning.
“Despite your stats and your potential, obviously your body is still that of a child.” She turned to aim her voice at Grandfather who could with his stats clearly still hear us even though he was watching from a distance. “One that is still growing so we need to limit the assessments to the resistance your body can provide rather than applying external pressures. We don’t want to damage your vessel before you have even begun to use it now, do we?” she said pointedly as we walked to the starting line. Aleera had apparently filled her into the manner in which we had previously been trained by him. “Historically some individuals may have been trained from the age of 5 in such barbaric methods, but it breaks as many heroes as it makes and is not suitable training for the scions of nobility. Commoners maybe but the nobility is not willing to risk it with their own children and for good reason.”
What then followed was a series of physical assessments. Each one was modelled by Aleera while Lady Acacia would then write down each result to mark her progress since her first assessment. The same was done for me to form a baseline with the addition of questioning which skills I was utilizing and what level they were at.
First, she tested how fast could I run followed by how long I could run. Once the test was over, we then sat discussing which skills I was using and what level they were at. She was impressed by the fact that I had two skills both Running (Lv 51) and Sprint (Lv 1). However, she was most impressed by the fact that I had managed to get the first through its first meridian. I neglected to mention that I had achieved that after my first drop of the Elvish Elixir. She seemed unconvinced questioning how I had achieved the breakthrough. "Are you sure you don't know how it happened? Most times you progress through the meridian by using it in a different way, coming to a new understanding of how to use the skill or using it in a life and death situation. Surely you remember something of the sort happening?" I pretended I could not recall anything of the sort.
After the first tests though she also wanted to know what my influencing stats were. Having already heard that I had nearly a complete cascade she was less shocked by the numbers but still delighted to hear they were so high. “The current system theory is that children receive the most natural growth of their stats because their vessel is still growing. The theory is further supported by the experimentation on the levels of monsters which appear to continue to improve their stats even without killing others in line with the size of their growth. It is possible that with your system being visible from birth you are experiencing a similarly monstrous growth based on your vessel's increase in size.”
“My Vitality is 146, Endurance: 116, Strength: 71, Dexterity: 130, Senses: 145.” I briefly outlined my growing stats. Proud of my progress in my physical stats after they had been so anaemic for so long. Vitality and senses being the exceptions to the rule.
“A very impressive physical foundation, Kai. We will be able to shore up your strength with a few more oaths of allegiance.” She said writing this down. “If we chose your cousins carefully we should easily get 30 more points into strength with 6 more oaths. I believe the Silverstone and Silverkin families would be the best bets.” She outlined my next steps.
“Is it safe to write this information down?” I asked warily watching as she filled a notebook with my information. It seemed strange to see her writing this all down when Grandfather had been so adamant that all of this was best-kept secret and hidden from anyone other than family. Even then it was not to be talked about on a weekly basis or how often it was that Lady Acacia intended to write all of this down.
“Quite safe. I am writing in Elvish for a start which I doubt anyone here can speak let alone read and even then I am writing it in my own personal code.” She considered my question then dismissed it.
“Your own personal code?” I asked for clarification.
“Yes, most mages develop their own shorthand or code to keep their work from prying eyes. This is no different. In fact, creating your own code can give and progress a few skills of your own. Furthermore, my personal records are either kept on me or kept locked away. Your secrets are safe with me.” She reassured. I thought English, Spanish, Japanese or German or an amalgamation of all four should be suitable enough if I was to take up the same practice. It might also finally level up my somewhat stagnant linguistic skills.
“How do I compare to other scions of the houses of Ponente?” I asked curiously, “If that does not break your oaths of confidentiality.”
“That puts you on par with most 15 to 20-year-old nobles in terms of purely physical stats. Most nobles have at least one cascade either physical or mental completed. However, they would still be far stronger, quicker and more durable than you simply due to the size of their vessel. Not that you should not be proud of achieving in the first 3 years of your life the same progress that it takes them 10 to 15 years to achieve.” She praised and cautioned at the same time.
“How about Aleera?” I asked intrigued enough to ask despite her suddenly looming over my shoulder clearly interested in the answer as well.
Directing her answer to Aleera, “You are in line with where I would expect most nobles children to be at your age without oaths. The oaths of allegiance will be enough to provide you with a cascade of your own. You might be a step behind but we have till the end of the year to catch up and sufficient space in your oaths to do so. This was why I rushed so hard to make it here as soon as possible. If I had arrived after you turned 11 it would have been too late to achieve the perks and that would have been a barrier impossible to surmount.” She explained to her before turning back to me.
“However, you must be honest Kai. Even with those stats, those skill levels alone are not enough to achieve these times, especially with legs as short as yours. What else are you hiding? Are those your only running skills? Or are your perks specific to speed?”
I thought for a moment before answering, “It's probably my perks, not my skills.”
“And those are?” she raised a pen to note them down.
“For Vitality I have Long-Lived, Endurance: Durability, Dexterity: Celerity, and for my Senses: Super Senses.” I briefly considered lying about their names but couldn’t guess what the alternatives would be. Knowledge was power and I did not have enough to attempt to fabricate fictional perks.
She inhaled, “Kai . . . those aren’t perks they’re traits.” She turned to the two of us, “You do understand the difference?” She corrected me and questioned us both at the same time before turning back to focus on me. I saw Aleera start to smile behind her back once she was focusing on me alone again, enjoying both my teacher’s frustration and my comeuppance.
“What’s the difference?” I pleaded ignorance while ignoring my sister’s taunting.
“Elvish, Dwarf, Pixie and Beastkin.” She muttered emphasising the Pixie as if that, in particular, was impossible. “The only physical trait you have left to gain is the Giant’s trait of strength.” She spoke to herself before refocusing on us.
“The difference is that traits can be passed onto your children whereas perks cannot.” She explained. “And that is just for starters! A trait is a natural part of each race whereas a perk is only but a small part of the whole trait. For example long-lived is my natural trait, it means I will live a far longer than most races while being healthy and healing quickly. Whereas normally a human who managed to achieve the perk for vitality would have something half as strong. Something along the lines of healthy, hardy, steadfast etc. They may be similar but not the same and,” she repeated, “not as strong!” She explained exasperatedly. “Perks do not create problems, traits can and do. Elves have had to create elixirs to allow our children to grow up at an acceptable rate. Giants may be strong but the cost is to their stamina they spend a lot of time sleeping to recover it until they are able to invest enough in their endurance. Dwarves are durable to the extent that they invest a lot into strength to facilitate their movement long before they are ever allowed to wear their heavy armour. As for Pixie’s they may be able to flit from here to there faster than we can see but they move so quickly they burn out far quicker than the rest of us unless they invest heavily in vitality.”
She seemed exhausted by her diatribe.
“Now hopefully your cascade will balance you out but I cannot do my job properly if you keep hiding things from me.” She reprimanded. “You are like a Dwarfish puzzle box. Beneath every puzzle, there is another even more precious layer.” She sighed. “Visible status, high stats, nigh on full cascade and now full-on traits! We haven’t even got to the rest of your skills.”
She paused, “Look, I cannot protect you or warn you about potential problems if you are not honest about your abilities.” She rubbed her temples with her fingers as if massaging away a developing headache. “We will have to at least choose a more appropriately named perk for each of those attributes in case you are ever forced to reveal them to future tutors or schools.”
“Warning number 1 you will be the most eligible bachelor this century or the most efficiently assassinated husband if the court ever finds out the depths of your system stats and your traits. It might be best if you travel for a little bit incognito while you grow up. Or settle on an elvish courtship of a decade or two before . . .” she paused considering her audience. “Alternatively, I might not be requesting any more elixir for the next decade or two as keeping you pre-pubescent might really be for the best. You are practically a new species and with only one of your kind you are already endangered to the point of being on the edge of extinction.” She mused extrapolating off into the far distant future.
I had no plans of getting hitched anytime in a long, long, long time, and travelling the world sounded fun. But before I ever did that I wanted to get my little kingdom up and running. Making it somewhere safe and a little bit more modern than the town currently was. It would be a hidden kingdom to come back to. As my mother said there was no rush to completely grow up.
“I presume that the other half of your Royal Cascade are also traits as opposed to perks.” She queried.
“Yes?” I answered succinctly, somewhat cautious of revealing the rest of them.
“Well, what are they then.” She said somewhat impatiently.
“Mind: Fast learner, Clarity: Quick-witted, Magic: Source of Mana, I don’t have one for Charisma yet,” I added.
“Source of Mana?” she questioned, “That isn’t a noble races trait at all. A dwarfish puzzle doll indeed. I suppose you will never need a familiar although that in itself would be another interesting experiment. I wonder . . .” she paused in contemplation. “Still with the traits of each race it would open their doors to you if you claimed heritage with them due to your traits. They would probably assume you some sort of half-blood although that too could bring its own problems. Far too soon for now, as I have far too much to teach you but later perhaps. Food for thought and a lure for future tutors maybe.”
“Grandfather said it was a familiar’s trait? Is that true?” I asked before giving up and asking the question I really wanted to ask, “Can you get me a dragon?”
“A dragon? You are ambitious. I won’t say yes and I won’t say no. I do have some connections but they are highly prized creatures, uncommon enough in our Kingdom that even nobles would have difficulty buying one, although there are plenty of alternatives to consider. Enough discussion for now otherwise we will never complete your baseline.” She ended the conversation.
We quickly returned to the testing now that I had caught my breath working out how high I could jump, how quick I could climb, how quick I could swim, how deep I could dive, and how long I could hold my breath underwater. All the basic medieval skills of survival in a world with monsters and magic. This Included, how well I could use my knives. Aleera with twice or nearly three times my height, weight and length of reach still outmanoeuvred me despite the strength of my stats. One day I vowed. One day once my vessel had grown with the elixir’s help. Although why I was taking it so personally that my older sister, a ten-year-old girl, could beat me I was not quite sure. Possibly the pleasure she took in winning. Let it go, old man, let it go.
Lady Acacia also had a large selection of child-sized weaponry I was asked to swing around. There was a sword, spear, axe even a mini mace. All of them were child-sized and far lighter than their actual adult versions. She even had mini archery set along with child-sized throwing knives. Unfortunately, I did not pick up the skills when I picked up the weapons but even as a catalyst it took a little longer than that. I wondered how long it would take for me to pick up the skills and how long it would take for Lady Acacia to come to the same conclusion as my Grandfather that I was a catalyst. A bridge to cross on another day.
What followed next were tests in arithmetic, reading and writing all easily passed, without too much trouble at all. Although the speed and ease with which I completed them raised some more eyebrows. It was not a coincidence that when I became unbalanced it was brain over brawn that caused my imbalance. We had a short break for lunch before we were back to it again. Lady Acacia wanted a demonstration of each skill I had that had yet to have been demonstrated through the testing. This meant that my remaining skills had a work out too. We also apparently had to catalogue both their names and their levels.
Some were quick and easy to demonstrate such as Meditation (LV50). Others such as Time Sense (LV50) involved discussing how I had acquired it and why. With Time sense I simply said that I had spent a lot of my early months aware but with little else to do I had spent my time counting the seconds, minutes and hours going by. With my skill Listening (LV40) she was already raising an eyebrow even before I got to my more dubious skill of Eavesdrop before they both shot up when I explained the end of that skill tree Echolocation (LV35). Although again I argued that I had been very bored as an infant aware but unable yet to talk or initially even move independently.
“I wonder what secrets you were overhearing.” She said before going on to explain that the condition for gaining the skill was having the prerequisite Listening Skill and then using it to overhear others without their knowledge while they discussed that which they did not want others to overhear. I did not inform her that I had been within the womb at the time and was unaware of exactly what I was listening to and therefore unaware of the secrets despite apparently overhearing them.
Some skills such as Knots (LV40) and Stitching (LV40) clearly came from my parents but we discussed how they had been learned with the intention of raising my dexterity. While my high level in Sailing (LV35) was explained as my father’s passion.
Likewise, my skills with weapons as well as the skills I needed to avoid them were attributed to my somewhat homicidal grandfather. Dodge (L33) Quick reflexes (LV41) Knife (LV33) Throw (LV15) Balance (LV20) Martial Arts (LV4) Knife Arts (LV7) Sneak (LV31) Stealth (LV20) Pain Tolerance (LV20) Poison Tolerance (LV1). You might not approve of his methods but they were occasionally effective. I didn’t mention my night-time escapades and lumped those skills in with what I said my Grandfather had taught me. I’m sure that his eyebrows were raised from wherever he was watching us but he didn’t interrupt or correct me when I attributed the skills to his training.
There were several areas of my lower skills that she found interesting. First off were my musical abilities illustrated by my tier 1 skills of Humming (LV34) Whistling (LV33) Singing (LV43) Drumming (LV31) and tier 2 skills of Rebec (LV17) Aulos (LV17) Cornu (LV15) Harp (LV14) showed that I was musically gifted even hiding the otherworldly instruments of Piano (LV20) Violin (LV20) Trombone (LV20) Saxophone (LV20). Especially when I included Memorisation (LV23) Composition (LV23) Recall (LV23) as part of my musical skills. I proved my skills by demonstrating my ability to memorise, recall and then compose new tunes that she would play me.
“This is a fine foundation for your presentation when it is your turn. Most female nobles learn an instrument to showcase their skills but it is not novel for a male heir to also demonstrate that there is more to him than merely military skills. We can work well with this. Particularly if we work hardest on the skills that would complement your sister’s performance. That would be a fine way to support your sister as well as give you a practice go before you do your own presentation.”
Secondly, my set of skills in senses, Sight (LV15) Scent (LV15) Detect (LV15) Taste (LV15). “It is almost as if you were training to become a ranger. I suppose the Beastkin trait helps with the skills and it is said that a child’s tongue tastes more than an adult's but they simply lack the knowledge to differentiate the tastes. A proper application in the courts of Ponente will be to differentiate the vintages by their region and year. I have a selection of course but we will have to order some more.” It sounded like becoming a sommelier was merely part and parcel of being a noble. I couldn’t say that I would object to the practice but guessed that I would be expected to do this by scent more than taste seeing as I was still drastically underage at the moment. For a moment I wondered whether alcohol counted as poison and whether those would also be on the syllabus at a later date.
Thirdly my growing skills supporting wealth creation, Trading (LV33) Acting (LV25) Appeal (LV7) Farming (LV20) Cook (LV3) Transplant (LV12) Haggling (LV6) Bargain (LV11) Lady Acacia continued to group my skills based not necessarily off which stat they would support but some other method of cataloguing. It made me consider how I would or could group my skills based on more than just their tier. By the job they supported or a particular area. “I have been discussing some of these skills with your sister although I have yet to make it up to this garden of yours. While all of these skills would be essential as a trader or merchant. As a noble, you will be a manager of men you need skills that will help you do that, manage men and wealth. Your income must be passive and consistent rather than active and dependent on your time and energy. You must learn the lesson that you pay in copper and sell in silver.
“How would you propose we do that?” I asked aware of the principles but not the medieval methods of achieving a passive income.
“Same way the rest of Ponente Nobles do it, rent. They own the land and rent the rest of it out,” she said.
“Everyone on Wester is a freeman with a free holding. Our family may own the rest of the island but they have no need of the land or desire to rent it from us.”
“Then bring more people to the island. The two boys Des and Sinis are ex-slaves if I am not mistaken judging by their tattoos. They live here with you but I am sure they would be willing to pay some of their wages for a home of their own. The rent itself does not need to be extortionate merely monthly. Wealth begets wealth and there are many unfortunates who would be only too happy to be able to buy their own freedom and ecstatic to be able to rent their own domicile.”
“You would have us buy slaves?” Aleera asked appalled.
“No, Elves also look down on the existence of slavery. I would have you free slaves and offer them a home for suitable monthly remuneration.” She smiled. “With a new noble house forming out here it is only a matter of time before others are interested in what you have to offer and come calling. Mercurio is simply the first merchant to take advantage of your generous tithes.” She answered.
“How much do other nobles insist on for their tithes?” I asked.
“It can be anywhere from a tenth to a half of all their profits. Many merchants’ vessels and their company is owned in part or whole by the noble they serve. How Mercurio managed to buy out his noble patron and his vessel at the same time is the subject of much discussion within certain circles. People even suspect some form of skulduggery or foul play. When they realise that you had a part to play in it they will also be interested in either finding a way out from under their thumbs or stopping any other merchants from making the jump. Either way, you should consider expanding.” She explained the politics of the wider situation.
We sat in silence contemplating what would be a rather significant change to the demographic of the island and how on earth we would go about it. But after a brief respite allowing us to think things through it was back to forming my baseline.
I was quietly proud of my artistic skills never having had the time or ability before. I had leaned heavily on my skills to create the magnificent maps I was so proud of, system shenanigans at their finest. Draw (LV35) Calligraphy (LV20) Cartography (LV15). “Fine skills to have but you must not limit yourself to places, Kai. You already have the basic skills to look towards drawing people as well as places. I have some paints packed away so the skills of Paint, Portraits, even Architecture are only a small step away.” She outlined some of the other artistic skill trees.
There were also a few surprises hidden in my skills list even after omitting all of my otherworldly languages such as English (LV15) Spanish (LV15) Japanese (LV15) German (LV10) French (LV7) Linguistics (LV16) Translation (LV16) Decoding (LV10). But I either glossed over them, omitted them or included them in other sections I felt I could get away with. Lie (LV12) Misdirection (LV9) Order (LV6) and Deception (LV4) were a little dubious by nature and therefore a little harder to explain.
She was pleased to see that I had picked up so many of the skills that she had already taught Aleera. Ambidextrous (LV5) Glide (Lv5) Poise (Lv5) Grace (LV5) Charm (Lv5) Composure (Lv 5) Silent Step (Lv3) Deft touch (Lv3) Posture (Lv3) Dance (Lv3). “That will save us plenty of time. Although you will have to continue to level them up. In fact, your main problem is actually the number and variety of skills you have at your disposal you simply don’t have the time to level them all up but we will discuss the solution to that later and you have plenty more to learn before then.”
Then we arrived at my more magical skills. Sense Mana (LV41) The level at least I likewise blamed on my baby boredom. She seemed to decide that the skill itself was one more example of my highly unusual nature and further evidence that I was despite my parents' protests possibly not entirely human. “Elves too have a strong connection to mana, all are born with the stat and we learn the skill early. Perhaps more evidence pointing towards elvish heritage your parents are unaware of.”
Perhaps grandfather was still omitting things in his knowledge of our former family the Silverwoods from the Kingdom of Maestro. In time I could inquire about the 100 noble houses of Ponente and then after that the other noble families from Maestro and Libeccio. But it would be a while before I could risk asking so direct a question.
The final magical skills I explained as the fact that I like to try out new things, an innocent child's desire to experiment. Expel Mana (LV44) Mana Manipulation (LV38) Absorb Mana (LV30) Boil (LV21) Gale (LV29) Ignite (LV16) Freeze (LV11) Melt (LV11) Material Manipulation (Lv 21) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Stone shaping (Lv 5) where all evidence of how I had attempted to use my mana without tuition. How I had gained a rudimentary understanding of how magic could be used but it was all self-taught and possibly inaccurate despite the fact that it functioned perfectly well.
We explained each skill and its use, boil for our salt production, gale for our sailing. Even how it had taken me both expel, ignite and melt to finally create my geomancy skill of Stone Shaping. She seemed genuinely delighted to discover I was responsible for the patterns in stone we used to decorate our growing palace. We also explained mana and material manipulation but beyond forming my very basic flight suit we didn’t give an actual demonstration. I was exhausted after demonstrating each skill and explaining how I ended up with them. I had retained a few secrets but I had told the majority of my secrets sold on the promise of magic.
She did not seem quite so tired after cataloguing all that I was capable of, “That is a lot to consider. But looking at it objectively you have a wide spread of abilities yet at the same time you leave plenty of gaps that I can fill and plenty of areas for consolidation.”
“Now I suppose you would like to see some magic, yes?”
My exhaustion forgotten I focused on what I really wanted to learn.