บท 4: Way.
If you think that I was trained right away, you are very naïve. There was a lot of shouting, crying, sweating and blood (no). I can understand parents. When a one year old son (though fauns are a year or two ahead of humans in development) asks for training in the hard stuff of hunting... In my defense, I had no idea how strong the Grimms were, nor how strong my parents were. No, I certainly nailed them (puppy-dog stare aces were used, so what? All means are good in battle) and my father and mother agreed to train me, but with conditions.
One, no strength training until I was five, at five my body would have developed to the age of a six or seven-year-old human. This is the age at which some hunter families begin training their children. But that doesn't mean there won't be physical training. I will be pumped up with flexibility and coordination.
Secondly, I would be actively learning the sciences. I was all for that. Who knew that they would decide to teach me everything from history to making weapons for hunters.
And three, I would help take care of my sister. No, I would have taken care of my sister anyway, but my parents decided to play it safe.
Well, now I'm a pretty good dancer. What did you think? Dancing develops just about every muscle, flexibility, fluidity, coordination, that sort of thing. You know, I had never danced before (ehhh) and I really liked it, especially the break... I almost broke my neck, but:
Dance (passive).
Level: 23
You've learned to dance with full dedication and one goal in mind - to one day dance on the graves of your enemies... Well, you've learned to dance, but you don't have any enemies yet...
Permanent gain:
To coordination: +8%
To speed: +5%
To Strength: +3%
Attention! The higher the skill level, the greater the bonuses.
Yes, the System is a very cheating thing. If I do something with full dedication, or what I do I really like, the skill will appear faster, and it will also pump up faster. If something appears in the system, I will never forget it. Never.
I liked the story too. Remnant has it, on the one hand, rich, but on the other... It's not there at all. I thought my father said it was known about how the Grimms wiped out every race on the planet about ten times? Well, that's what's known for sure. How many civilisations there have been in the past is unknown. There's something philosophical about that, because Grimms are materialised negative emotions. Probably. Perhaps it's just a belief. What is known for sure is that Grimms are attracted by negativity - sadness, envy, anger, fear. Grimms used to be believed to be evil spirits possessed by animals who were tortured. Nowadays, they're not. That's because Grimms don't have souls.
There you go. It turned out that Remnant was a techno-magical world. I was shocked. I had thought for over a year that Remnant was a techno-magical world evolving with another source of energy - ashes. And here's how it turned out. The inhabitants of Remnant have long known that there is a soul. The power of the soul is Aura, the only thing that has kept the inhabitants of this planet alive and allowed them to fight against the Grimms in the past (now there are also ash weapons against the Grimms). Aura is in all living things. Okay, not all of them. Grimms don't have it. Anyway, an aura multiplies a living being's abilities. It's like a superhero action movie. A man becomes faster, stronger... A badass.
At first I mistook the aura for chi or ki, well, life energy. Which was true. What's the magic, you ask? Well, the magic is in the "essence" ( with ) or as it is also called "Manifestation".
Every human being or faun has his / her ability, his / her incarnation of the soul in the material world - essence. That's where the magic is. They come in all shapes and sizes. Super speed, superpowers, gravity control, pyromancy, electromancy, control of plants and metal. There was even a necromancer in ancient times.
And here I wondered: then why all intelligent life on Remnant was so often exterminated by Grimms? After all, they don't have souls, and hence humans are stronger?
"It's not that simple." - My mother replied to me and smiled.
There are only two ways of revealing an aura. The first is the most ancient. It's quite simple. Be in a deadly situation. Then there is a chance that you will reveal your aura. In ancient times, people without aura would simply go out to a Grimm with a sword. If you survived, you're now a hunter. No? Well, it happens all the time.
I was beginning to think that the second way was a bit of a tricky one, when I was told:
"An aura can be revealed by another aura user.
Initially, my intuition point was the only thing that didn't go up in flames. I was in complete awe... Anyway, I learned zen, yes. I quickly pulled myself together and asked (shouted out), is it then only hunters that have their aura revealed? I just couldn't get it out of my head. And even more I couldn't wrap my head around the answer, after which my eye twitched for another hour. Do you know what my mother told me?
"Art, you see, revealing an aura is a great mystery. Auras are revealed only by those one trusts unconditionally. And it's only practiced in hunter families. There are, of course, special schools where situations are specially trained and created to reveal one's aura. But those schools are very hard to get into."
For myself, I have reduced the answer to two words - spiritual virginity. It's hard to lose and easy to lose, yes...
There I go again. Anyway, I started out on Remnant and drank to the repose (of my brain), ahem. There are five continents and four kingdoms on Remnant. Our kingdom, Vale, is on the central mainland, to the west is a kingdom called Vakuo, to the north mainland is Atlas, and to the east is Mistral. Each kingdom is ruled by its own "council".
Ahh, you ask, why kingdoms if there is no king? I don't bloody know. I'm guessing, of course, that it's because of the great war sixty-seven years ago. Perhaps there were kings before the war, and the title 'kingdom' was given in memory of those times.
The great war. Yeah. Sixty-seven years ago there was a war, and guess who against whom? What, against the Grimms? No, no, no, no. Against each other. All four kingdoms went to war against each other. There was a lot of bloodshed, but eventually they signed an armistice pact, and now there is "unity through diversity" between the kingdoms, meaning that even though they are all different, both culturally and technologically, they are still one. The peace between the kingdoms was signed on the island of Vital, in honour of which every two years the different kingdoms hold a "Festival of Vital", where they parade, dance and have fighting tournaments... Yeah, fighting tournaments for world peace. Ehhh.
I'd like to point out that I got a new quest and skill after learning the story:
Quest:
4. history is written by the victors.
History is written by the victors, in Remnant's case history is written by the Grimms. Find out who or what they are, where they came from and... Can you kill them with fire (if not, run away).
Performance Condition:
Find out 100% of the story (progress 1%)
Reward for success:
Experience.
Title: "Messiah of History".
Title: "I'll decipher that poneglyph!".
&O(%SH*%$I@&A%)
Consequences of failure:
You will not know the history of this world.
Possible death.
Possible destruction of the world.
Title: "Historical Failure".
The saddest part isn't that I can't reject these quests (I just get put in front of the fact that there's a new quest, ehhh), but that I'm already getting used to their descriptions and rewards...
Oh yeah, there's also a new skill as well:
Bookworm (passive).
Level: 26
You're a small and inexperienced worm, but even a small worm with time and effort can spread its wings and become a noble book dragon...
Book reading speed +17%
Book Reading Acquisition +13%
Chance of learning a hidden skill by reading a book +0.2%.
Ehhh, tomatoes, who writes these descriptions for me?
But in this unholy world, even a saint like me (you can't praise yourself - no one will (and won't regret it)) has his happiness...
And a thorn in my side. And I'm not talking about Akasha.
Now that was a shame! Fool! Hm.
I got a sister. And I kept my word to my parents. A year after I gave birth, my mother went back to work as a hunter, she went back to my father's team, and she left her sister and the house to me.
Yes, she didn't want to leave, but she couldn't have it any other way. Contract. All hunters sign a twenty-year contract when they graduate from the academy. Twenty years you have to work as a hunter, the contract is only terminated in case of death or serious injury. It's the same with my father. Because of this, they rarely come home and are constantly away on missions.
You may ask, "Why didn't they put us in kindergarten?" Three ha. It's a fucked up world out there. We wouldn't have been accepted into kindergarten. The faun children ruin the reputation of kindergartens (we're all beasts and no better than Grimms), so faun children aren't admitted to kindergarten. I'm going to change the world, I just need to be powerful enough...
Back to my sister. My sister's name is Alice. Alice Blood. I happen to be a model big brother and teacher to her. I'm talented. Even the system pointed that out:
The title: "Talented Teacher."
With your mastery of speech and changing intonation, you teach other creatures with ease. Pistils and stamens have never been so interesting!
Give you +5% bonus to other creatures' learning speed.
You must teach 9 more creatures to evolve to the title 'Teacher from God'.
To evolve to Devil's Master, you must seduce 10 more female students.
Well, she had her own way of celebrating. Okay, let's not talk about tomatoes. Ugh.
Sister looks just like her mother, golden hair, same eyes, except she doesn't have a tail. She doesn't have ears either. She's luckier than me, she's got a hidden animal trait - claws. She's not distinguishable from a normal human, except for the small gold circle around her eyes, which is pigmentation. It's the same as her father's, only a different colour. But you can discount that on the make-up.
About the hidden trait - only 5% of fauns are born with it, and it looks different on everyone, some with claws extended, some with fangs. Speaking of fauns, each faun has only one of the three features - a tail, ears/horns or a hidden trait. There's also the occasional fur or scales in random places, but that's a mutation.
Ah yes, I never found out what kind of miracle beast I am, or should I say a mix of who I am. My father is a red panda, but my mother... My mother was an orphan, once there was a fire in an orphanage and fleeing the fire she awakened her aura. After that, she was taken to a school for hunters, Signal, where she later met her father.
I don't know of any animals with golden hair except lions, but lions don't have such light hair and fluffy tails, so even I am at a loss as to what type of faun she is...
So there you go. Why is my sister my happiness and a pain in the ass? It doesn't get so lonely in the house now when the parents are out hunting. Sister is a hyperactive mini-motor. And she's caught on to the idea of "being like a big brother", I never understood what she meant by that, but I sympathise with her already. Being me is bad...
I taught her what I knew myself, crossing out unnecessary information. In the meantime, I've been studying myself. Well, first of all, I just can't understand how this hyperactivity can coexist with such assiduity, it just doesn't make sense. Number two, she's a genius. She learns a lot faster than I do, and that's considering how old I am... Anyway, considering my knowledge from that life, yeah.
- Hey, Art! Let's go for a swim, it's 7:00! Leave your book alone! You've got such a cute little sister! - Alice flew into the room and started pulling me off the chair by the arm.
- Ehhh, coming now ... Let me finish the paragraph. - With a heavy sigh I answered as I flipped a page.
- ART! I know how long it takes, first one paragraph, then to the end of the page and then you finish the whole book! GET UP AND LET'S GO! - My sister yelled right into my ear, deafening my poor ear.
- That's it! That's it! Calm down, I'm coming! - Okay, hold your ears to your head. Oopsie-daisy.
I get up from the chair and walk to the bathroom with my head down. That's it - cover and hit. Heh-heh-heh.
- Art! Art, y-you're sorry, if you want to finish your book, then sit down and read it! - She said to me, stammering.
- Sister, I'll do anything for you..." I walked up to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked her seriously in the eyes. - Books are no problem!
- Art! - she hugged me and started whimpering. - Thank you! *whimper, whimper*
Congratulations.
The puppeteer skill (passive) has reached level 17!
Puppeteer (passive).
Level: 17
"All life is a play and I'm an actor in it."
Your skills are the envy of liars and mimes, everyone in the world wants to know who's hiding under the mask of a joker - maybe an Angel, maybe...
There's a +17% chance of success with any acting-related actions.
Chances of others believing your deception +17%.
Chances of confusing enemies with your actions +0.1%.
Oops, may have overdone it. But it's a useful skill, ah, who am I lying to, even a manly man like me needs a kaii boost sometimes.
- All right, all right, calm down," I began to stroke her head. - I thought you said something about a bath and seven o'clock?
- А? Oh! Right, come on, let's go, the water's going to be turned off for the night! - And I'm off to the bathroom.
On the way out, I throw Study at her:
Level: 6.
Name: Alice Blood.
Race: Faun.
Age: 3 years and 6 months.
Title: Active Growth, Solar Genius.
Health: 100
Stamina: 100
Mana: Blocked.
Power: 8
Vitality: 15
Speed: 10
Coordination: 13
Intelligence: 21
Wisdom: 25
Spirit: 13
"Active Growth" lowers the growth of all physical characteristics by 75% and increases the growth of mental characteristics by 45% up to five years in fauns, up to seven years in humans and the growth of mental characteristics +27% (was once in town with parents and threw a study on a child). I have that title too. Ah yes, you get a slot for the second title at level five.
"Solar Genius". Too bad I can't learn other people's titles yet, but it's not that difficult here. Her title and amount of intelligence with wisdom sort of indicates her genius, but solar? Probably points to her eyes and hair the colour of gold. Well, and over-activity, yes.
What else is worth noting? Well, probably three things:
The first is the location of our house. On the one hand, I should have found out about it earlier, but on the other... I can now see Grimms in every shadow outside the window (I've seen them in pictures). Our house is on the border with the Emerald Forest - the place is slightly more than fully inhabited by Grimms. It is also home to a community of fauns.
There was a time in Earth's history when the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) could visit the home of the Negro race at any time and kill them. Something similar is going on here, only without the killing. Beatings, robberies and rapes. Law enforcement doesn't care about fauns, so most fauns live in places like this. I'd call it a village. Everyone knows each other and helps each other out, but they try not to go out too much. Everyone, without exception, farms and that's how they live.
The second is my last two skills I managed to acquire and develop:
Technician (passive).
Level: 3
Hello, what's going on here? Is your modem not giving you maximum speed? Let's paint it red and you'll be fine.
+3% to all tech-related skills.
+3% to the learning rate of all technology-related information.
+0.2% to the probability of learning the breakdown of unfamiliar machinery.
Constructor (passive).
Level: 7
Yeah, I'm a genius! I spoon and fork together. I'll call you Spoon!
+7% to any technique-related skill development rate.
+7% to the speed of learning any technique-related information.
+0.3% to the probability of creating a death machine.
Useful skills, especially I will need them in the future. Every hunter must build his own weapons. That's what my father told me. No, you don't have to; there are families with hereditary weapons, and there are special places where you can order your own weapons and armour. The thing is, everyone knows themselves better than anyone else. I already have ideas in my head about my future partner...
And third, in exactly one month I will be five years old, which means that my aura will be awakened and my training will begin. It's about time. I'm guessing it's going to be a hell of a workout, but am I a man or not?
- Art! Didn't you say you were coming?! - I heard a shout from the bathroom.
- Sorry, I was thinking," I walked into the bathroom and added in a sneering voice, "and what, you can't take a bath without your big brother?
- Artorias, you fool! - Alice shouted and threw a metal soap dish at my forehead.
Yes, Art, you are a fool.
Ah, the female solida-artness.
- Eh, I was just kidding," I said, rubbing the bump on my forehead.
- Hmm, brother, you can't mess with a girl's delicate heart like that!
- All right, all right, I'm sorry, tender maiden heart! - I said in my most tragic voice.
- A girl's heart will forgive you if you rub my back! - Smiling, Alice added.
- Yes, Mistress. - I replied, and we laughed together.
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