Chapter Text
It has been five years and nine months since Jaydin was born into this world. It was around June twenty-second. Today his parents were hurrying to get him prepared for the events of that day.
“Be good for papa, okay Luc?” Arween said as she dusted off his clothes.
“Okay mama.” Luc replied obediently.
Today was the day for the appraisal ceremony. Arwen had already told Luc to do good more than twenty times over the past few days because of the importance.
Arwen stayed at home because wanted to stay and watch Nova. The ceremony only happened twice a year during the solstices. It became a law for all children five-ish to get tested. This can either be the easiest or hardest way to rank up given the fact that with a strong talent you were almost guaranteed to rank up but it was rare to get a strong talent. A good talent could get you many jobs such as: Knight, commander, chief, and even the sought out hero role.
As he and Aloy were walking to the center of town to the church, where the ceremony was taking place, they encountered Rose and Hugo.
I’m so thankful she doesn’t have a spear in her hand.
This ceremony was for every child in the village from serf to noble. The only reason Luc and Rose didn’t do theirs in December was because they had missed it sleeping in.
After a short chat they continue to the town. As the rural area turned urban Luc noticed the village had developed quite a bit since he had been there last. The streets were cleaner and the town square had more developed shops.
They have some time to kill, since the church opens its doors at seven thirty and the ceremony only starts at eight. Hugo decided to get both Rose and Luc a candy from a shop. Aloy tried to pay him for Luc’s treat but Hugo declined it. By the time they made it back the church was crowded with people, if Luc had to guess there were nearly one hundred people there. Luc noticed some of the people had clean clothes which had never seen a day of hard work.
The difference between us serfs and commoners is that obvious, damn. But why are we all appraised together?
“Commoners can work in the fields and hunt with us, but most don’t.” His father explained, probably noticing his expression.
When it turned seven-thirty some clergymen came outside and opened the double doors for everyone to enter. Above everything there was a barrel vault. This room was made of limestone with two colonnades on either side of the nave with rows of chairs for the people. At the crossing stood an elderly clergyman, who was the bishop of this church. It was slightly smaller than the church Luc went to when he was on earth. When he looked closer the columns were statues which he assumed were of the gods.
That one has grain at her feet and wheat in her hand and a breast poking out of her toga so I think she’s the goddess of harvest and fertility. This one is holding a sword while protecting a child with arrows in his back, must be the god of war or peace.
Luc continued to guess the other gods before he scowled at the god in the center. Luc didn’t dislike Remi, he just was annoyed by how the statue looked. The statue had a young woman of about his mother’s age with angel wings and a hood. Her arms were out holding what looked to be a light. Her cloak left little to the imagination of what her body looked like with it only covering her privates, part of her chest, and the back of her head.
Why is everyone naked?
They were put into the rows of seats, most children sat on the floors in the gap between the columns and the walls, with the higher ranks being towards the front.
“Thank you all for coming today.” The head clergymen said to the crowd. The commoners started by standing up and bowing and the serfs followed.
“Everyone has an equal opportunity at a powerful talent. This is because the gods who bestow us with power see us all equally…” As the clergymen continued he could hear people hoping for their child to have a strong talent.
As of today the village was roughly ten years old. The first three years the village’s harvest was low but coincidentally after Luc was born the village started to have better harvests which allowed more children to be born. Luc has suspected Remi had some part in this. Because of these coincidental circumstances in addition to most people coming here being young people who were born the year before until two years after Luc was born were considered a part of the first baby boom.
“...Sarah, the first female saint to be recognized by the king, was a commoner. Elric the great was the first hero we had ever had and he was born a serf.” The clergyman continued. This caused many whispers among the people.
Among all the children in the room Luc was the only kid who wasn’t playing with each other, but instead was listening to the words writing the important stuff down. Luc had remembered when he was picking his classes most had a social class associated with them like how summoner was either a serf or a slave.
This is why higher ranking classes are stuck to lower ranks. After a while they’ll rank up anyway.
“When I call your name you walk up and you place your hand on the crystal ball and your stats will appear over here.” The clergyman said, pointing towards the two-hundred cm tall panel that was behind him.
Lame, the ball won’t change colors or anything. Wait…NO! My stats are going to be revealed…I’m screwed.
Soon the ceremony began and the clergymen said reading from a parchment, “ Diionar, son of Iglesia come up here”
The chief led the boy towards the crystal ball. When they got close to the ball the clergymen said a prayer and then waved for the kid to touch the ball.
Hold on…this is like my stats. It’s just a carbon copy.
“ Your talent is Diplomat.” The clergyman said
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Diionar
Hp: C
Mp: C
Attack: D
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Intelligence: B
Luck: C
Talent: Diplomat
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Yes!” The village chief had tears well in his eyes as he held his boy in his arms.
Is this joy because of the talent? A diplomat is pretty important, but it could also be the fact he has a talent in general?
Before the stats went away Luc wrote them down in his journal. The next person to come up was a commoner whose father also brought him up. The same text appeared for Diionar but it was bronze instead of silver and the clergymen said he had no talent which made the father slump, but he didn’t protest.
The appraisal ceremony continued with most children having C rank or below stats. Those who got appraised could choose to leave or stay, which is why the area was freeing up.
Luc was brought out of his day dream by the loud sound of a cheer from a kid and his father after the clergymen said the talent.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Vortex
Hp: C
Mp: A
Attack: D
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Intelligence: B
Luck: C
Talent: Mage
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This is the first time I have seen an “A” rank, and this text is in gold instead of silver. Is it the better the talent the better the stats?
After thinking about it he wrote down the stats and his hypothesis.
It hadn’t been long since it was time for the serfs to get their talents. Most were talentless but one notable one had gotten the paladin talent and the clergymen told them and their parents to stay afterwards.
Ugh…why is this taking so longggg. But it is good because I get to survey a lot of people.
As the ceremony continued Luc wrote down the small differences to prepare Nova when she would do this in three years.
To Luc’s dismay and his thanks he and Rose were the last to be called out of all the children.
“Rose, daughter of Hugo.” When the girl’s name was called she stood up and ran to the clergymen so fast her father didn’t even have time to thank him. After apologizing for his daughter she put her hand on the crystal ball. The ball lit up so bright it made the clergymen stumble back.
“T-t-this c-can’t be.” The elder clergymen said.
“What is her talent, father?” Hugo asked. Like many serfs he couldn’t read, but unlike many serfs he could read his name, his wife’s name, and his children’s name.
“The talent of Rose, daughter of Hugo is Polearm saintess!”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Rose
Hp: S
Mp: C
Attack:S
Endurance: S
Agility: S
Intelligence: S
Luck: B
Talent: Polearm Saintess
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“What?”
“Is she really a polearm saintess?”
The people remaining began gossiping and talking about Rose and her talents but they were silenced by the girl in question.
“What? No, I don’t want this talent. I wanna be a swordsman.” The girl said un-amused not understanding how powerful her talent is.
Aloy and Hugo were both petrified at the chutzpah of Rose making Luc the only one-hundred perfect calm person in the room at the moment, mostly because he was taking notes especially because her text was blue instead of gold. The only time he’d ever seen blue text before was whenever he leveled up.
“Excuse me, child?”
“Yes?”
“Polearm saints are way stronger than swordsmen.”
“They are?”
“Yes.”
“Rose.” Luc said calmly.
“Luc?” The girl asked, confused.
“When was the last time you used a sword?”
“Uhh, I don’t remember.” It makes sense she has a good talent, if I were to assume I’m as strong as a normal adult villager if not as strong as one of the weaker hunter members. And yet she beats me every. Single. Freaking. Time.
It’s been about three years since they’ve been playing together and even though they’ve done it for a few hours, it has been enough for him to get to spear mastery level three. Also it had been enough for her to snap twenty spears, it had gotten such a problem he had to start making the spears out of wood with hand so as to not have his parents ask where he was getting the spears from.
After her appraisal he looked at what he had written down.
1 polearm saintess (Rose)
1 mage (Vortex)
1 paladin (serf)
1 diplomat (Chief's son)
25 talentless
Based on this information sixteen out of one hundred people have talents which makes people with talents in the minority. And among those with talents half have a rare talent but that doesn’t make sense. I can just assume fifteen percent of people are born with a talent and among those few individuals there is a half chance you get a basic talent like diplomat or a half chance of getting a legendary talent like the paladin or a mythic skill like polearm saintess.
“Luc, son of Aloy.” The clergymen said.
At least this is a natural time for them to learn about my skill.
During the past five years and ten months Luc had many close calls where his parents would have seen him materialize something from thin air. One reason he was trying to keep it so secret was because he had no answer to how he knew what his class was, so he didn’t risk it.
Aloy had led Luc towards the crystal. Before Luc even could touch it the crystal started glowing and when he finally did touch it the ball glowed even brighter than when Rose touched it.
When the light was gone the clergyman was sweating and breathing quickly, “W-What?”
“Father, what did he get?” Aloy asked, seeming happy.
“Um…Your boy is talentless?” The clergyman said, as confused as Aloy.
Aloy’s shoulders slumped and he looked down like many fathers had before him, but he didn’t argue.
He had seen Luc and Rose spar more times than he could count and each time he wasn’t one hundred percent losing to her like a normal child would. He also saw the way his son handled the spear and it was even better than him and equal to Rose in spear handling, which would make them great for bull hunting when they were older.
I made my papa sad…at least I can stay in the shadows a little longer I guess. But why are the gods slacking again because what the freak is this?!
Luc looked at his results blank faced and unimpressed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Luc
Hp: N/A
MP: N/A
Attack: N/A
Endurance: N/A
Agility: N/A
Intelligence: N/A
Luck: N/A
Talent:åΘΔΓψ-¥𐱄
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why do my stats say “N/A” and my talent is garbled up Greek letters with a few random things at the end?
Like Rose’s stats, his were blue but everything was illegible to the clergyman so he declared Luc was talentless. The few people that could read were murmuring about the events and how “pitiful” his stats were.
Aloy hearing these murmurs covered his son’s ears not wanting his son to feel bad.
“Aloy.”
“Yes father?”
“Still take care of your son. He may be talentless but even without a talent he could be an amazing member of the family and our village like you. He could even be the person to buy you out of serfdom, so don’t give up on him.” The clergyman said to Aloy as he rested a hand upon the other man’s shoulder. As the other clergyman was finished noting Luc’s stats they disappeared.
Even though the ceremony felt like forever it’s still before noon.
Luc had assumed this because he had also been vigilant to hear the noon bell but he hadn’t heard it yet. When they exited the church they met back up with Hugo and Rose. Hugo had noticed his friend was way less excited then when he entered and tried to cheer him up but Aloy was unresponsive.
They are definitely going to talk to Rose because of her stats and her talent especially with how much of a fuss they gave for it.
Even though Luc didn’t really care, he was still a little jealous about Rose getting all that attention and him saddening his father. Because Luc had been quiet and was staring into the distance on their way home Aloy had assumed his son was heartbroken. A few minutes later Rose and Hugo split off to go home and shortly afterwards he grabbed his son’s shoulder and made him face him.
“Huh?” Luc said, confused.
“I will raise you with all my might and all the love I can muster. We should tell mama what happened or else she’ll be worried so let’s hurry back!” Aloy said firmly.
When Luc looked up he had a wide grin on his face and said, “Yeah, let’s tell mama.” Luc had been staring blankly not because of depression or anything but because he was analyzing the new information he had gathered. Aloy patted his head before they started to jog home.
When they made it home and told Arwen she had said, patting his head and pulling him into a deep embrace, “Oh, I’m sorry dear. Everything will be okay.”
Seeing this Nova came over and Luc picked her up so she could pat his head like she had seen her parents do, “E’ting w’l be ‘kay bwotha.”
He had then put her down and told her he was going to take a nap but she didn’t want to let go so she went to the nursery with him and fell asleep beside him. Before he took his nap he wanted to go over what he learned.
Alright so I can assume what happened was a mistake because everything for me was filler text. This means two things; they hadn’t started working on that yet or they forgot about the appraisal ceremony when I turn five. I do feel bad for making them worried though. I guess more time I have to hide my powers but nothing much is changing.
Luc then flipped back to his pages where he made his hypothesis’:
Long title mode and the other modes-
Hypothesis 1: Me and every other human is in long title mode
Hypothesis 2:I am the only one in long title mode and everyone else is in any of the other modes.
Luc then crossed out his first hypothesis because it had been proven that nobody else was in long title mode.
Within the next half hour he had mostly finished analyzing everything that happened during the ceremony and concluded the ranking was their peak because it made no sense a child was stronger than an adult, but yet again he was an anomaly, and also they were all about five so the stats shouldn’t have varied by that much. Conclusion two, everyone was born level 1 like him and the stats were either how much they get from leveling up or their max from leveling up.
Because of this he concluded he was the only one in “I Don’t Know What to Call This Difficulty so Theseus Create a Name Please” Mode so all his stats being N/A made perfect sense. Because he was in this mode and his stats were like that he concluded the crystal went on growth rate plus potential and since it was a thousand times harder for him to level with infinite potential it broke the machine or the gods simply didn’t put the assets in besides the bare minimum.
When four pm came around he was woken up by a very annoyed Rose. When they did play they had to cut it short because his parents had to do something. She tried to protest it but she still had to go home, and they walked her home. Arwen was the first to come back and Aloy came back an hour later.
“What happened?!” Arwen exclaimed looking at her husband, whom had bruises all over his body. On his face he had several swollen purple spots where it looked like he had been struck.
“Nothing.” He said quickly before sitting down for dinner quietly.
A few days later what happened came out, not because of him, he continued saying that nothing had happened. Rose had said that Hugo and Aloy had a fight when coming over, Rose had been confused why her dad and “uncle” were fighting.
This fight happened the same day as the appraisal ceremony so I’m assuming it’s because of me, it seems me being talentless is more trouble than what I assumed it would be.
Because of this Luc started praying several times everyday for the gods to get off their ass and help him. He would do so with his journal in hand looking into the sky, but unfortunately a message hadn’t come yet. Before he was reincarnated, Luc had lost his lucky stone which a girl had given him. But when he told his father, he said it was lost and gave up on searching for it pretty soon. Luc continued pestering him everyday and this annoyed him enough for his father to find it. Now Luc was intending on doing the same thing until the gods responded. It didn’t even matter to him if they would do anything, as long as they told him something.
“Are you ready Luc?” Arwen asked.
“Yes mama.” Luc replied obediently. There wasn’t much for him to have prepared for.
“Stop your sulking and get ready!” Arwen scolded as she dragged Aloy out of the bedroom then grabbed then handed Nova over to Luc. They were going to Rose’s house for dinner.
It’s been a while since I came over there hasn’t it?
As they were leaving Arwen grabbed a basket with ingredients in it and held it in her arms. When they arrived twenty minutes later they were greeted by a woman with medium length red hair and crimson eyes like Rose.
“Hey Lilith, sorry about Aloy.” Arwen said, hugging the woman. After setting Nova down he was preparing to walk in when he was pounced on by a red blur.
“Hello to you too Rose.” Luc managed to squeak out while trying to break her grip.
“Hey Luc, come with me!.” Rose said, grabbing his hand and dragging him.
Similar to his house they had an earthen floor, an inner space with a fireplace, and two rooms.
Do all serfs get the same homes?
“Get out, the guests are here.” Lilith yelled, pulling Hugo from their bedroom. Hugo had similar injuries to Aloy in the same areas. Lilith and Arwen started on dinner while the two men sulked in their respective corners.
Rose had taken Luc to look at her little brother who was a year younger than Nova. Like his mother and sister he had striking red hair.
Looking at this kid is easing the tension in the room for me.
The kid was looking around at the new people and babbling with that childlike wonder everyone used to have. Dinner didn’t take long as it wasn’t much; bread, vegetable soup with a few chunks of meat in it.
Since this house was small like his and everyone was gathered around the fireplace everyone was close together, but it had a charm to it.
“Ahem, do you have anything to say Hugo?” Lilith said.
“Sorry.” Hugo said.
“Sorry.”Aloy said
Hugo went into the bedroom then came out with a bottle of presumably wine. “ The chief had come over with this. He had told the lord about Rose and she might live in the capital because of her talent.” Hugo said shifting uncomfortably, “But it’s just some wine, you know how those nobles are about talents and stuff.”
“It’s not because of the talent. I’m happy for you guys, but Rose will become a noble and so by extension you guys.” Aloy started.
“Yeah? Why did you say you’d break off your relationship with our family then?!” Hugo yelled, which made Lilith punch him and tell him to not yell around the kids.
“Well if we keep associating with you then you guys might lose your chance at nobility.” Aloy finished, making sure to keep his voice low. As it turned out the bruises were from Lilith breaking up the fight.
I guess I was wrong.
In this world serfs could only marry serfs, commoners could only marry commoners, and nobles could only marry nobles. Because she had a very good talent chances are she would be a knight or even the hero which would make her a noble. Because it was such a high chance the chief would have to tell the lord in person.
“Did you four join the village at the same time?” Luc asked which made the adults look at him.
“Yeah?” Lilith said slightly confused, ”We came together from another village. We have been close since we were young like you and Rose.” She continued telling him how they were born serfs and played together as children. As serfs they had always been poor but their life was good. About ten years ago a message told their village a new frontier village would be formed and anyone who contributed properly would have their assigned plot of land given to them indefinitely.
“We had got together to talk about it like we are doing now.” Arwen murmured, probably having feelings of nostalgia. Serfs couldn’t own their land but in cases of the land they worked on being seized was rare but the oldest child was usually the one to take over, problem is they all had older siblings. The taxes for serfs eight-tenths of their harvest regardless how many people worked on the land. Because their land size didn’t increase the amount of food produced was fixed and because of this when a family had children and if they survived and grew up, food would become scarce which is one of the main reasons they decided to leave.
“When we arrived there wasn’t anything here.” Hugo said tiredly. This is the reason their houses were so similar. They started with the sunken room, fireplace and bedroom then as their families grew so did their home.
“ We…went through a lot…” Aloy said, trailing off and closing his eyes. The topic of the past seemed to have succeeded in mending the families bond because of their shared hardship, and was effective on the relationship between the two men.
Luc soon became lulled by the snoring of Rose, who had been bored by adults talking too much, and Nova and he went to sleep as well.